ID Society, an award-winning interactive design and marketing agency, today announces the launch of www.nauticajeansco.com. The site, designed to introduce the new “N-Series” jeans online, features compelling video shot in green screen, creating a truly experiential feel that immerses consumers in the cool, hip spirit of the brand.

The unique green screen technology offers consumers a three dimensional view of Nautica Jeans Co.’s entire line of denim, shirts, tees, tops and outer wear based on the look they are going for — very casual, kinda casual or dressy casual.Once an item is selected, the Style Advisor is introduced by offering hypothetical social situations, from a night out in the city, to a weekend get-away to an afternoon at the ballpark. As visitors scroll down they are then offered “The Look” - advice about the appropriate combination of shoes, shirts or tees, pants or shorts to wear for that specific occasion. Additionally, the site offers a zoom-in feature where users are given a more detailed view of the “N-Series” jeans and suggested item pairings.

“The interactive platform engages consumers by involving them in the process of selecting different styles and products based on occasions relevant to their lifestyle,” said Jonathan Webb, Creative Director - President, ID Society. “Developed entirely in Flash, the site also incorporates high-quality creative and sound appealing to tastemakers and brand enthusiasts alike.”

The site was developed to attract and engage trendy males 21+ who are now economically empowered and looking for hip, contemporary styles. While it is not an e-commerce site, nauticajeansco.com does offer consumers a link to Macys.com for those looking to purchase apparel.

“This site raises the bar for other apparel brands,” said Lisa Urrea, Manager, Interactive and Retail, Nautica Jeans Co.”It’s relevant to our core audience, successfully conveys the brand image and is the ideal complement to our offline marketing initiatives for the “N-Series”.

ID Society is proud to announce the launch of IDS Broadcast and the enhancement of its word-of-mouth marketing (WOM) services.

IDS Broadcast will be a new division that will offer a full range of end-to-end video services including conceptual development, motion design, post production and editing. With this new Broadcast division, IDS will be one of the first companies to provide green screen video to the internet in the high-profile apparel category. The specialist design firm, Gaucho Design, will be an integrated partner within this new Broadcast division. Gaucho Design brings an array of services and expertise from directing to motion design, from commercials to music videos, from title sequencing to photography.

While ID Society has been developing viral campaigns since 2000, it recognizes the increasing importance of WOM as an added value to the marketing needs of its clients. To further strengthen its capabilities in this type of viral marketing, ID Society has hired a WOM director and will continue to expand its staff with new WOM experts. The team will work with clients to integrate WOM into their overall marketing plans, find key brand influencers, encourage them to communicate relevant brand messaging, and then monitor and measure the impact on the client’s brand.

ID Society, an award-winning interactive design and marketing agency, today announced the launch of www.zymesllc.com, the new Web site for Zymes LLC. Based in New Jersey, Zymes LLC is a recognized leader in the bioscience industry committed to finding new technologies for enhancing the delivery of water-insoluble drugs, nutrients and cosmetics and developing products that bring the benefits of essential coenzyme Q10 (CoQ10) to individuals and the medical community alike.

“Zymes is already a recognized brand in the industry for its patented process for manufacturing CoQ10,” said Jonathan Webb, President and Chief Creative Officer at ID Society. “Our goal is to develop and design a strategically-driven interactive marketing program that offers relevant content and creative vision to attract new customers and further strengthen their reputation as a rising leader in the industry.”

The new Web site is designed to engage strategic pharmaceutical, nutraceutical and cosmeceutical partners while demystifying scientific information for consumers. The site provides visitors with comprehensive information about CoQ10 , the company’s Ubisol-Aqua(TM) solubilization technology their increasing arsenal of exciting, cutting-edge technologies and products, background on its three divisions - skincare, nutraceuticals and pharmaceuticals - as well as ongoing research, news and company history.

“From the beginning, ID Society has had a thorough understanding of our company and our mission. As a result they were able to effectively communicate our business goals online,” said Randi Fain, MD, FCCP, Co-founder, Executive Vice President or Benjamin D. Mamola, Co-founder, Executive Vice President, Zymes LLC. “Moving forward, ID Society will be the lead and go to team for Zymes online strategic direction and positioning.”

Spirits importer and marketer Kobrand Corporation and ID Society, an award-winning strategic, interactive design and marketing agency, announced today the launch of www/alize.com. The site enables Alizé, one of the nation’s leading liqueur brands, to deepen brand affinity by connecting each of its liqueur flavor’s unique personality - Original, Sexy, Exotic & Cool - with that of its customers.

The site is visually appealing and blends unique design with key brand messaging, vibrant coloring and sophisticated Flash animation, bringing each Alizé flavor to life. Sexy, elegant images entice the stylish and trendsetting consumer to incorporate the brand into their life and lifestyle: whether it’s a night out with friends, a romantic evening, relaxing on your own, or a girl’s night out.

The site reinforces its sophisticated appeal in its core urban markets, while re-introducing the refreshing taste, moderate alcohol content and exceptional versatility of the brand to the urban market. The site also introduces trendsetting radio and television personality Wendy Williams as the new brand spokesperson for Alizé.

“The site’s creative elements highlight the energy and uniqueness of the brand,” said Jonathan Webb, President and Chief Creative Officer, ID Society. “We’ve also incorporated a strong platform for brand messaging and relationship marketing for their core audience, urban women of legal drinking age.”

The dynamic online experience allows visitors to view the full compliment of Alizé liqueurs which includes Alizé Gold Passion (Original), Red Passion (Sexy), Wild Passion (Exotic) and Bleu (Cool).

“After twenty years in the U.S. market, it was time to re-engage consumers and remind them of the sensational tastes and aromas that have made Alizé one of the hottest specialty products on the market today,” said Michelle Murray, Alizé Brand Director, Kobrand Corporation. “ID Society’s strategic and creative insight has enabled us to cultivate new ways to engage and retain a broader audience, cultivate relationships and leverage key influencers, including our multifaceted marketing relationship with media-powerhouse Wendy Williams.”

To further engage consumers and bring them closer to the brand, the site offers drink recipes as well as listings of local events, adding an important experiential element to the marketing mix. A Join Us section enables Alizé to collect data about their customers and build an online community.

For those less familiar with the brand, there is a section educating consumers on the original Alizé, differentiating Alizé’s premium line of French cognac-based liqueurs from other brands in the category.

Dianna Dilworth
DM News web site
September 7th, 2006

Cookie maker Walkers Shortbread revamped its Web site with the help of interactive design and marketing agency ID Society, in an effort to target U.S. consumers.

ID Society, New York, whose other clients include L’Oreal, Hills Bros. and Hard Candy, redesigned the retailer’s e-commerce site at www.walkersus.com to introduce the brand to online food shoppers in the United States.

The redesign blends the firm’s historic Scottish look with a modern feel. Its design includes the shortbread’s tartan plaid packaging with a more current and clean white background and modern font.

Products sold on the site include the flagship shortbread, cookies, oatcakes, cheeses, snack packs, meringues and gift tins.

Customers can sign up to receive e-mail communications from the brand in order to strengthen that relationship.

View the original article.

Adams Beverage Group interviews Jon Winsell about alcoholic beverage advertising online

The quality of web marketing in the beverage alcohol business ranges from non-existent, to curious, to awful, to compelling. But even as the quality varies, web marketing is increasingly becoming an integral part of the over-all marketing scheme for most brands. ID Society is a leading strategic, interactive design and marketing agency which implements strategic, online marketing programs designed to acquire, engage, and retain customers. The group currently handles such Diageo brands as Baileys, Capt. Morgan, Crown Royal and Johnnie Walker, and has worked with Chivas Regal and Martell, among others. According to their own site "(W)e strengthen the bond between the products we produce and the people who use them. Each Web site we create acts as a flash-point of connectivity, forging links between businesses and customers, person to person. Relationships remain at the heart of everything we do, but it’s our mastery of technology that adds innovation. Our relationship-focused programs enable us to remain ahead of emerging information channels, applying the best technology to meet the overarching goal." To get some insight on the web marketing world, we spoke with Jon Winsell, Director of Strategic Services for ID Society.

Question #1
Adams Beverage Group (ABG): Web marketing continues to grow at a rapid rate, with more sophisticated sites offering consumers a greater connection with brands. But how can you gauge success in the beverage alcohol business, where direct sales from a supplier aren’t allowed?

Jon Winsell: Since we can’t measure success in an ecommerce, total sales manner, we have to define different metrics based on the consumer’s value. What you’re asking is: What is the net worth of a customer? From the brand team’s perspective, you have to start with an understanding of who your best customers are and how much they spend on the brand. We need to assess how often they buy the product and for how many years. For example, a loyal fan may buy 4 bottles of Brand X per year for 5 years. If this is a $40 product, a single customer (or email address!) is worth $800. The Holy Grail, in digital strategy, is getting new customers into your loyalty program. A loyalty program will identify your best consumers and keep them close to the brand. Building an online database of 25,000 consumers, for example, will yield a $20 million asset.

Question #2
ABG: What are the keys to building a site that complements the retail side?

Winsell: Given the three-tier system, our hands are often tied from the producers’ ability to support retail. They cannot show any preference to any retailer, making even a simple zip-code based "Retail Finder" quite an exercise. Nonetheless, I believe that many sites can improve their approach to content creation and distribution from the retailers’ perspective. Providing tasting notes, shelf-talkers, ratings, and downloadable PDFs can give retailers more of the tools they need to promote certain brands.

Question #3
ABG: Why do you believe that many sites in the beverage alcohol industry are missing their target audience?

Winsell: Clearly it’s a big challenge to get the right message to the right people at the right time. Brands that miss their target audience may be too firmly entrenched in their internal perception of who the consumer is, versus who is really drinking the product.

But the real problem comes from not fully appreciating the wisdom and successes of truly targeted marketing. Before you can create a message directed to your target, you need to know who that target is. It’s more about psychographics than demographics, more about consumer behavior than income level. Let’s face it, many brands attract more than one audience and those audiences can be quite diverse. 1800 Tequila has a strong urban market presence in Detroit and Oakland that is quite different from the Ultimate Margarita Makeover party targeted to suburban housewives.

By segmenting your communication planning and delivering the right message to the right audience at the right time, you can build a truly effective messaging strategy that will deliver success.

Question #4
ABG: How does creating a site for Ciroc vodka, a niche product, differ from working on, say, the 1800 tequila site, which is a major brand already?

Winsell: It’s still all about awareness and acquisition. Sometimes brands that are seemingly pre-defined present challenges in creating the right message for the right audience. With Ciroc, we identified key influencers to "spread the word" that this is an excellent product. We targeted bartenders and created information pieces that told Ciroc’s story directly to them.

Differentiating itself from a crowded and growing marketplace is also a challenge for 1800 Tequila. From the consumer’s perspective, what is the real difference between Jose Cuervo and 1800 Tequila? Telling the 1800 Tequila, 100% Blue Agave authentic story does separate 1800 from JC and Patron. It’s real. It’s attainable with no pretense. We wanted that message to come through clearly on the new Web site in both messaging and imagery. Even the Macromedia Flash preloader tells the 100% Agave story.

Question #5
ABG: What’s the hardest thing to achieve for a beverage alcohol client on the Web?

Winsell: It’s difficult to sustain traffic over time. You need to build engaging content and most brands are quite focused on the heritage and folklore, story-telling phase. Once consumers read that, they’re done. How do you keep them coming back? The key is to leverage all offline marketing activities (POS, in-store tastings, events, celebrities) online. Turn your activities and promotions into online campaigns. Drive consumers to the site through contests, sweepstakes, and by simply ensuring a ubiquitous URL on all packaging. Relevant and engaging content give consumers a reason to return.

Question #6
ABG: Are you incorporating the growing trend in customer-created content to any of your client sites?

Winsell: Customer-generated content is a double-edged sword (as the Chevy Tahoe team discovered). Giving the consumer a "voice" and allowing them to express themselves means giving up control of your brand messaging. Guess what? That "control" was an illusion to begin with. How consumers perceive your brand has always been in the consumers’ hands-not the brand’s marketing team. So, you need to recognize that before you decide to give them the means to facilitate that expression.

Crown Royal enjoys truly adoring fans that love the purple bag. We created an online forum that allowed consumers to upload pictures that expressed their love for the bag. Some of the images were hilarious, from a Crown Royal purple bag sweater for a cat, to a woman’s bikini top. Sure, you have to weed out some of the risqué pictures, but overall, this was a great exercise in allowing Crown Royal fans to express their attraction to the brand.

Question #7
ABG: What’s the next big thing for website marketing and design?

Winsell: I believe that we’ve only scratched the surface in creating engaging, interesting and relevant Web sites that acknowledge and reward the consumer relationship. At ID Society, we strive for new ways to express the brand’s value on more of an experiential platform-not just a corporate brochure, but a site that informs consumers of events and plants seeds for increasing and diversifying
product usage. We want our consumers to experience the brand through the site, and walk away feeling rewarded and special. Isn’t that all anyone wants?

See the article online

By Jessica Dye
Appearing in EContent
Digital Content Strategies & Resources
September 2006 Issue

If you’re reading EContent, no one needs to tell you what an important medium the internet has become for delivering content and reaching consumers across the world. But, according to a June 2006 study conducted on behalf of the Online Publishers Association (OPA) by the Center for Media Design at Ball State University, advertising dollars aren’t keeping up with skyrocketing consumer web demand.

The OPA study followed 350 Americans through their daily routines, logging, every 15 seconds, which media they were using and how they were using them. While television remains the dominant at-home medium, the web is now number one among all demographics in the workplace, where it reaches 54.6% of consumers. Despite the fact that only 8% of all 2005 advertising dollars were spent on web advertising, the internet accounts for 17% of all media consumption—behind only TV and radio, and beating out all forms of print media. Additionally, the web is the only medium that ranked in the top two for consumption both at home and in the workplace.

Not only are people logging on in record numbers, but the connected consumer is also proving to be a worthwhile investment. The OPA study compared spending patterns of people whose primary form of media was the internet and those who primarily watched TV or read the newspaper, and it found that internet users spent almost $4,000 more per year on retail purchases than TV users did, and almost $600 more per year on entertainment and recreation.

The study also delves into what makes the internet such a powerful medium for advertisers—its interactivity and ability to combine with other media and extend their reach. If a company runs a TV or print ad that directs consumers to a website for more information or extra features, the OPA reports that those consumers are likely to log on and visit the site, extending their familiarity with the brand and expanding the time in which advertisers can reach them.

And the study found just how much further traditional advertising would go when paired with the web: TV’s reach increased by an average of 20%, and print media’s reach increased a dramatic 40%.

Advertisers are slowly tuning in to the possibilities of the web, but ghosts of the dot-com past are making them hesitant to invest in the internet the way that they invest in television or print ad campaigns—and probably will for some time, according to Adam Berkowitz, CEO of ID Society, Inc., an internet marketing and web design agency. "Although the internet has revived itself, and the reallocation of marketing dollars to online advertising has been on the rise, these budgets will not overcome traditional media," he predicts.

Another obstacle to increased internet ad revenue is the lack of a consistently profitable business model. Pay-per-click advertising has resulted in the loss of hundreds of millions of dollars for advertisers, pop-up ads irritate more than they educate—so what’s a company looking to throw their hat into the internet arena to do? Berkowitz predicts that savvy marketers will look for new ways to cash in on constantly connected customers. "An initiative in the early stages of use today with a lot of upside opportunity for marketers is Flash video capabilities on wireless devices," he says. "The key is for advertisers to use and evolve the dynamic properties of the internet to attract customers, and develop relationships with them in an engaging and compelling manner to keep them coming back and spreading the word to their peers." No matter when advertisers decide to tune in to the multimedia appeal of the internet, the OPA makes one thing clear: There will be an audience waiting for them.

Jupiter Research claims that 75% of consumers are card-carrying members of one loyalty program or another.

by Jon Winsell,
ID Society Strategy Director
Appearing in Convenience Store Decisions
July 2006

It seems like you can’t buy anything now without bumping into an offer to join some type of consumer loyalty club. Retailers have long adopted loyalty programs as a method of getting more sales out of their customers. Whether they "live" offline or online, loyalty programs can and do work when properly executed. Simply issuing a card, offering some incentive and sitting back to wait for the sales to ring up is not going to deliver good results. You need to design your program with defined success in mind.

For example, loyalty programs come in many flavors, from the frequent-flyer/buyer/diner/shopper to deep luxury product programs. Jupiter Research claims that 75% of consumers are card-carrying members of one program or another. And not all programs are created equally. The key to success is not in simply "having" a program, but structuring that program to collect usable data. Success is in the execution of slicing the data collected, and using it to build repeat sales. It’s not the data itself, but the trends and actionable insight that will spell success.

Loyalty programs also vary in purpose. Most loyalty programs are structured for retention through rewards or other forms of consumer appreciation. Retention programs have a direct ROI, especially those focused on decreasing defection rates. Clearly, it’s easier and more cost effective to keep existing customers than to recruit new ones; however, a recent Harvard Business Review study claims that reducing the defection rate by only 5% can double your profits.

Why a Loyalty Program?
Do it for the data. Loyalty programs are designed to retain customers and draw them closer to the brand so that they will buy more, more frequently. Although such programs can certainly work and be successful offline, the real cost savings and expandability comes from a strong digital strategy. Your POS system can collect data that can be used to create direct mail campaigns, but by adding an online component, you have instantly accessible data that can be easily segmented as the foundation for a strong relationship marketing strategy.

A digital strategy can allow you to define who your most loyal customers are and create a campaign with messaging and incentives designed specifically for the high value customers. If 20% of your customers are giving you 80% of your sales, find a special way to communicate and reward those customers. Use them as your true ambassadors to spread the word to their friends. Now your online retention strategy also assists in customer acquisition, and sales will spiral upward.

By starting small and adopting a religious fervor for testing, your loyalty program can demonstrate strong ROI while providing high value consumers with the emotional quotient of feeling special - something that all consumers want.

Jon Winsell is director of the strategy team at ID Society, an interactive marketing and design agency whose clients include Diageo, L’Oreal and ABC Family Network. It specializes in developing strategic online marketing programs that build loyalty and relationships while extending brands to new audiences. Winsell has more than 20 years of experience leading companies to increased brand awareness, deeper customer loyalty and higher profitability.

Read the article online

Mekeisha Madden Toby
Detroit News
Friday, June 30, 2006

In high school, it was always weird to see two girls who had hated each other suddenly become friends.

Well, pull out the zit cream, because NBC and independent Internet video portal YouTube (youtube.com) are those catty girls from your teens, and now they love each other to a sickening degree.

Back in the winter, NBC was all up in YouTube’s face, taking the-little-Web-site-that-could to task for offering downloads of the "Saturday Night Live" short, "Lazy Sunday" for free. The peacock people even went as far as issuing cease-and-desist threats.

So imagine everyone’s surprise when NBC announced this week that it will be partnering with YouTube, a site known for showing hilariously remixed movie trailers, strange clips and homemade flicks.

NBC is getting its own channel on YouTube, but for now, is using it to preview promos for its 2006-07 TV season. In July, NBC is creating episodes of its hit comedy "The Office" for NBC.com . An added bonus feature will allow Web crawlers to create their own "Office" episodes, with a YouTube tie-in.

"The audience NBC is trying to attract is not interested in promotional videos. They’re already putting the wrong things up there," says David Cherry, Director of Production & Multimedia for ID Society, a leading interactive marketing agency out of New York City.

Cherry says NBC wised up and realized that YouTube could give them the Gen X male viewers it desired. That includes the 5 million YouTube users who downloaded "Lazy Sunday."

"Sure there are some funny shorts and films on YouTube, but the best material is from the movies real people make, like that short that one kid did about his MySpace page," he says. "If NBC does this ‘Office’ thing right, it will attract a lot of young people, especially young guys, who want to make movies to share with their friends."

Rob Owen
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Friday, June 30, 2006

Nobody’s watching the sitcom "Nobody’s Watching" on TV, but a portion of the failed pilot has been seen more than 289,000 times since it was posted online two weeks ago at YouTube.com, one of the Internet’s most popular free clip sites.

Created by "Scrubs" executive producers Bill Lawrence, Neil Goldman and Garrett Donovan, "Nobody’s Watching" was under consideration for The WB’s prime-time schedule in May 2005. The network passed, and the project seemed dead until someone posted the pilot online (Lawrence said he suspects he knows but doesn’t want to ask).

Now NBC Entertainment president Kevin Reilly wants to meet with Lawrence when he gets back from vacation to discuss the possibility of reviving the series. NBC Studios produced "Nobody’s Watching" for The WB, and in the past they would have ordered YouTube to remove the posting, but in this case they have not, possibly because the network announced a deal with YouTube this week to make promos of its fall series available on the site.

"Nobody’s Watching" follows two twentysomething guys from Ohio, who, sick of lame sitcoms on TV (they name check "Yes Dear" and "According to Jim"), get invited by The WB to make their own sitcom. An untrustworthy network executive is more interested in the reality show about them trying to make a sitcom than he is in the sitcom itself.

Lawrence was pleased "Nobody’s Watching" got a chance to find an online audience, and he’s bullish on its prospects for a future life on TV. He was surprised when The WB didn’t pick the sitcom up last year (especially after the network flew him to New York to announce the show at the May upfronts), because it was a favorite of young WB executives.

"I’ve made other pilots in recent years that were no one’s favorite shows," Lawrence admitted. "Those were horrible, and I’m crossing my fingers no one ever puts those on YouTube."

Lest you think TV shows online are a flash in the pan, this is just the latest example of television migrating to the Internet. Lawrence thinks allowing a show to be seen online will provide networks with more useful feedback than the classic pilot-testing process that involves focus groups.

"It’s such an archaic form of testing to put 20 people in a room in the Valley and ask leading questions [that allow network executives] to justify their hunches," Lawrence said, noting that the comments from YouTube viewers were far more insightful. Network execs worried viewers wouldn’t understand the show’s concept and asked the focus group, "Do you think this could be confusing?" to which they responded, "I suppose it could." Lawrence said no one at YouTube had such concerns.

"What’s fascinating to me is what a better form of testing it is to release something on the Internet if you’re doing a young [skewing] show," Lawrence said. "There was stuff I’d never noticed that, as I read these reviews, there was a through-line of things that bothered people that no one mentioned in testing. If we do get to make this again, we’ll change things [based on that feedback]."

David Cherry, Director of Production and Multimedia at New York interactive marketing agency ID Society, noted that YouTube is a completely unmoderated forum; with focus groups, members are pre-selected.

"When you have people sitting in a room, they’re unlikely to give you completely honest feedback, whereas on the Internet, anything goes," Cherry said.

There are downsides to online screenings (people on the Internet can claim to be whatever age and gender they want), but Cherry said NBC’s deal with YouTube gives the network a foothold with a popular online site, much the way ABC was the first to stake out iTunes.

Cherry said NBC executives saw the success of the "Saturday Night Live’s" "Lazy Sunday" download, and after a ton of online grumbling for forcing YouTube to remove the video clip, the network has decided to embrace the potential young audience the site can deliver.

"The demo for YouTube is sub-24-year-olds," Cherry said, "and that’s the demo that’s disappearing from television broadcast channels."