Shopping Blog

The Google+ platform provides a fresh canvas for building and strengthening your digital brand, tying into all the marketing you already do with Google. From launching a new product using Google+ pages to engaging with your community of enthusiasts over Hangouts, join our Learn with Google webinar this Thursday for a look at ways your company can build its brand using social. Sign up on our webinar page to attend: Building a Digital Brand with Google+ (Thurs, Dec 6, 10am PT / 1pm ET).

After the Hangout, we’ll host a live Q&A with members of the Google+ team to answer questions about building a brand with Google+. RSVP on the Google+ Event page and add your questions as comments on that page.

With more than 100 monthly million active Google+ users, the time is right to focus on building your digital brand presence via the platform. Google+ has seen a wealth of brands engaging with users in creative, interactive ways. In fact, brands created more than 1 million Google+ pages in just a few months. For instance:

• H&M: The retail clothing company, with more than 2 million Google+ followers, uses tailored content, images and video to bring its fashions and lifestyle to life on the platform. They’ve also utilized Ripples to identify their trendsetters and saw a 22% clickthrough rate boost after implementing social extensions in AdWords.

• Cadbury: The chocolate maker has reached a following of nearly 3 million users with a combination of creative posts, Hangouts on Air and even the launch of their Dairy Milk Bubbly bar. They’ve also installed the Google+ badge on the company’s web homepage, making it easy as chocolate to follow the brand.

Like the ideas here? Log on Thursday to learn more about how to create, capture and sustain demand for your brand using Google+. And if you’re going to miss this while you’re at SMX Social in Las Vegas next week, check back at the webinars page later for a recording of the webinar.

Posted by Becky Bowman, Google+ Marketing Team

(cross-posted on the DoubleClick Advertiser Blog)

There has been explosive growth in ad technology over the last 20 years. From each of our perspectives -- whether you are an agency, an advertiser, publisher or a technology provider -- we can all still see unprecedented opportunities as the digital world continues to grow and diversify.

We believe that as an industry, we’re on a common digital journey and that the next wave of innovation in ad tech will come from us all working better together.


However, like all great opportunities, there are challenges and questions, such as:

• How do we unlock the next $50 billion of opportunity for digital advertising?
• How do we deliver those immersive, interactive experiences to today’s empowered consumer demands?
• What do we, as part of the ad tech ecosystem, need to build to create even more value for our clients and consumers?

On June 5th we’re hosting DoubleClick Insights to start exploring some answers to these questions. Senior leaders from top agencies, advertisers and publishers will help lead the conversation -- and you’re invited to join via the live stream! Register here.

The agenda will include topics such as:

Adapting to the Empowered Consumer:
Neal Mohan, Vice President, Display Advertising at Google will be joined by David Kenny, Chairman & CEO, The Weather Channel Companies, and James Pitaro, Co-President, Disney Interactive Media Group, to discuss how technology is being used to deliver new content and advertising experiences to consumers.

If We Build It, Will They (Consumers) Come?
Terry Kawaja, CEO and Co-Founder, Luma Partners (and creator of the now legendary LUMAscape chart) will lead a conversation about the ad tech ecosystem, and what it needs to do next to add value for agencies, publishers, marketers – and ultimately consumers. Terry will be joined onstage by:

• Omar Tawokol, Chief Executive Officer, BlueKai
• Greg Stuart, Global CEO of Mobile Marketing Association
• Kurt Unkel, President, VivaKi
• Shishir Mehrota, Vice President of Product Management, YouTube

Outside the Box: Technology = Creative Friend or Foe?
Technology is supposed to make the life of a marketer easier. For our final conversation, we’re going to focus on the question of: Is this technology exploring resulting in better marketing? Or, is it just resulting in mediocre creative and complexity for both consumers and marketers? Karim Temsamani, Vice President - New Products and Solutions, Google moderates the conversation with leaders from creative agencies, iconic brands and publishers including:

• Brad Ruffkess, Global Connection, Coca-Cola
• Mike Lowenstern, Managing Director of Digital Advertising, R/GA
• Peter Minnium, Head of Digital Brand Initiatives, IAB
• John Caldwell, Chief Digital Officer, National Geographic

The live stream will start on June 5, 2012, at 9:00 am PDT, and you’ll be able to watch from your computer, tablet, or mobile device. To learn more about our highlighted speakers go to the Speakers page on our site.

Please register for this virtual event by visiting the DoubleClick Insights Live Stream page.

DoubleClick Insights
Tuesday, June 5th 2012
9:00am - 1:00pm PST
Set event reminder today

Following us on Google+ or Twitter (@DoubleClick and @DoubleClick_pub)? Use the #dclkinsights tag as you're watching the event to ask questions or share comments during the event.

Posted by Stephen Kliff and Scott Brown, DoubleClick Marketing

When deciding to sell your company, timing is everything.

Three top executives, who all recently sold their respective companies, shared their stories at the 2011 FN CEO Summit in Miami on Friday. Tina Aldatz, Founder and President of Foot Petals, who recently sold to R.G. Barry Corp., Sam Edelman, President of the Sam Edelman Division at Brown Shoe Co. and Jim Tarica, Co-President of Footwear for LF USA covered topics ranging from reasons for the sale, to finding the right partner and adjusting to the change of reporting to someone else.

Edelman discussed that for him and his wife Libby, it was important to have a succession plan in place. "I wanted to see the brand have a real future," he said. "When I was introduced to Brown Shoe it was the perfect match at the time."

Meanwhile Aldatz said it was important for her to find a partner that allowed for her to still be heavily involved in the business. "My objective was not just to sell, but to create a strategic partnership, I wanted to do something that would leave a legacy," she said, adding that after 10 years in business it has been a rocky transition at times. "I'm a very dominant personality and there is a whole language barrier when it comes to working with a corporation, but it's exciting because I'm learning."

And Tarica said that while the deal was four years in the making, the timing finally felt right when LF discussed the option to keep all of their employees and asked both Tarica and his brother Larry Tarica to stay on board for another 10 years. "[The company] made it very clear they wanted Larry and I [involved]," he said. "We gave him our vision of where the company was going and he agreed."

Karen Goodman, Managing Director at Financo Inc. also weighed in on the M & A activity within the industry and the importance of timing. "You have to be emotionally ready," she said.


Posted by Footwear News, The Editorial Staff

Emerging celeb designer Nicole Richie said she decided to enter the fashion world when she knew she could give it her all - and it's clear she's doing just that.

At the FN CEO Summit second night’s address, Richie, who designs House of Harlow 1960 and Winter Kate, described her customer as "a woman who wants to have fun with fashion and wears everything with ease and comfort."

Between working and being a mom, Richie said she has to find styles that can work for all day wear, although she loves high heels. "Comfort is the number one factor for me—I have great shoes that I don't ever wear."

Comparing her role as designer to her former experience singing, acting, or working on TV, she said it's been challenging in ways she hadn't expected. "In those other areas you can just be an artist but when it comes to design, you're forced to know everything from shipping to linesheets to pricing."

As for top trends, Richie declined to list of-the-moment styles, opting for a style mantra that says "It's important to know your body and what looks good on you."

Richie highlighted the importance of press in growing a young brand, but said she hasn't yet tackled a strong push with stylists and celebrities. Instead, she has focused her efforts on connecting directly with consumers on Twitter, Facebook and at Personal Appearances, which she feels are the best opportunity to have face time with her customers. "PAs are great and I see them as my chance to see what [the customers] are drawn to, what they want me to do and get feedback."

Richie confirmed she does all her own tweeting to her two million plus followers. "I love talking to people directly to keep them in the loop and get their feedback." Although she started off tweeting about her business to share the process and get feedback, Richie said she can't resist the occasional cheesy ‘knock knock’ joke or personal post. "For me, it's very important to know my customer and connect with them directly. I love that," Richie said.

Posted by Footwear News, The Footwear Editorial Staff

Getting TV viewers to buy something they can’t readily touch, taste or smell isn’t easy. And when you’re selling, say, footwear or perfume, the challenge is even more daunting.

But HSN has found a formula that works.

Mindy Grossman, its CEO, earlier today told a crowd of footwear and executives at the 2011 FN CEO Summit in Miami that consumers will splurge if retailers create experiences that go well beyond just selling product.

Merchants must deliver the “joy and excitement of new product everyday,” she said.

One simple way to do that, she suggested, is by creating experiences that come to life for the potential buyer.

For instance, when legendary crooner Rod Stewart was set to release a new album last fall, the giant TV retailer partnered with his record label to present a live on-air concert. The end result? More than 30,000 CDs were sold in an hour.

It proved, Grossman said, the music business wasn’t dead; it just needed fresh thinking. It also gave HSN a 20 percent spike in new customers.

“We need to create appointments to view,” she said.

HSN will take a similar approach next month when it debuts new music from Randy Travis.

Posted by Footwear News, The Editorial Staff

Three of the industry’s rising design stars and one celebrity footwear newcomer opened up about their growing businesses at the 2011 FN CEO Summit during a special panel this afternoon.

Nicholas Kirkwood, Jerome Rousseau, Alejandro Ingelmo and Yeardley Smith (the voice of Lisa Simpson from the “Simpson” series) talked about everything from their first big break in the business to the things that frustrate them most about the industry, including knockoffs.

It’s clear these four are determined to take their brands to the next level.

Ingelmo, who is nominated for a CFDA award this year, talked about opening his first store in New York last year, and how that has helped his brand become instantly more recognizable. Similarly, Kirkwood is debuting a London boutique, his first location, next month, and has plans for retail in New York, Asia and the Middle East.

Rousseau, who lives in Los Angeles, sounded off on the power of celebrity. “Early on, I got in with two young stars, Kristen Stewart and January Jones, and that really helped me at the beginning,” Rousseau said.

And Smith weighed in on leaping from Hollywood to footwear.

“I like to do things that people tell me I can’t do,” Smith said, of her new footwear venture, Marchez Vous YS. “I started acting at 17, and people told me I wouldn’t make it. Well here I am [all these years later].”

Posted by Footwear News, The Editorial Staff

We invite you to take a few minutes tomorrow and hear mobile insights, strategies and best practices from mobile search specialists. Today at 1:00 pm EST, Google’s Anjali Vaidya, Mobile Account Manager, and Bon Mercado, Senior Mobile Account Manager, will speak to 1000+ members of the American Marketing Association in a webinar; please join us.

Since marketers tend to combine their mobile and desktop campaigns in order to drive additional traffic, many marketing efforts are not yet optimized for the mobile platform. Today, Bon and Anjali will share tactics and tools for setting up mobile specific campaigns to maximize traffic and conversions. Major topics of the webinar will include the mobile search landscape and how to optimize mobile campaign structure. Specifically, Anjali and Bon will discuss keyword selection, ad creative and click to call options, mobile landing pages, and analytics and reporting.

To register, click here. Dial in for a the latest and greatest mobile strategies from Google’s Mobile Search Ads Team!

Posted by, Anjali Vaidya, Mobile Account Manager at Google

(Cross-posted on the Google Mobile Blog)

Looking to reach out to your customers on mobile? Join us for our live streamed discussion on February 10th, 1:05pm EST with Mary Meeker, Partner at Kleiner Perkins, Google’s Dennis Woodside, SVP of Americas Operations, and Jason Spero, Head of Americas Mobile Advertising on the future of mobile and mobile marketing. To learn more about the event and live stream, please visit the Google Mobile Ads blog.


Posted by Suzanne Mumford, Google Mobile Ads Marketing Team

If your company runs an ecommerce website, you’re probably taking a well deserved break with the end of the holiday rush. But as we move into a new year, it’s also a great time to start thinking about how to give your customers an even better online shopping experience.

We’re also looking forward to an exciting 2011 and to kick things off, we’re heading to New York next week to be part of the National Retail Federation's BIG Show. Visit us at Booth #3239 from January 10-13 where you’ll be able to speak with the Google Commerce Search and Google Product Search teams, and learn how our commerce offerings can help bring visitors to your site, optimize their experience, and convert them into loyal customers.

On Monday, join our afternoon session where we discuss ‘In Stock Nearby: The Next Step in Shopping’. Paul Lee, Senior Product Manager, will set out how to serve today’s cross-channel shopper, regardless of platform or location.

On Tuesday morning, don’t miss our session on ‘Search Insights’, where Nitin Magintini, Group Product Manager on Google Commerce Search, will explain how increasingly sophisticated online shoppers are driving innovations in search.

We’re looking forward to a ‘big’ few days and hope to see you in New York next week.

Posted by Derek Niddery, Google Commerce Team

Last week, YouTube and SEMPO hosted a social marketing panel, "How to run a successful social campaign," for SEMPO's San Francisco and Los Angeles working groups. The panel featured speakers from YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Athena East, and highlighted the unique products available to marketers, and best practices for executing measurable, impactful social advertising strategies.

Derek Gordon of Yield Software was there, and shared what he learned in his Mediapost Search Insider column.

Cross-posted from Agency Ad Solutions Blog

Posted by Heidi Spector, Google Retail Team

Google will be at NRF 2010 [Monday and Tuesday] next week in New York City. For those of you who are attending, we would love to meet you! Hold a spot in your conference agenda for the following session on Tuesday to hear about Google tools that will allow you to put your best foot forward online.

Session: Helping Shoppers Find You

Description: Shoppers are increasingly turning to Internet services like Google to find, map, and get directions to retail locations. As a retailer, you have access to a variety of tools from Google to make sure your listings are complete and accurate and to leverage Google Maps in your online store locator. In this session, you’ll hear how leading retailers have successfully used these tools to establish a strong, accurate online presence.

Date: Tuesday, 1/12/2010
Time: 11:30am -12:00pm
Location: EXPO Hall, 3D04

In addition to this speaking session, we’ll have a booth in the Expo Hall (Booth #365) where we’ll be giving demos of tools such as Local Business Center (to maintain accurate store information on Google) and our Google Maps APIs (that can power your online store locator).

Drop by if you have any questions or just to say “hi”. See you there.

Posted by Andrew Change, Marketing Manager

If you or your company will be attending next week's Shop.org Annual Summit, we would love to see you there! Google will be speaking at the following sessions, and we encourage you to join us and continue our dialogue on this blog forum there.

1. Online to Store Roundtable: Ways to Successfully Quantify Online Media Investment on In-Store Sales
Tuesday 9/22/09, 4:15 - 4:45 PM PT (Table #3 in Islander F)
Moderated by: Michael Feldman, Manager of Strategic Initiatives at Google, and Jeff Haddox, Direct Marketing Analyst at Pier 1 Imports

As consumers increasingly go online to research and shop, helping to grow online-influenced retail sales, the majority of sales today continue to come from brick-and-mortar stores. Our roundtable discussion highlights the critical need for multi-channel retailers to quantify the impact of online media investment on in-store sales. We will review a Google case study with Pier 1 Imports, who successfully ran geographically-targeted test and control experiments and saw a 300% return on their online investment; we will share best practices and recommendations on how retailers can attribute their online presence to in-store bottom line.

2. Growing Pains: Is Profitable Global eCommerce Expansion a Myth or Reality
Wednesday 9/23/09, 3:00 PM PT (Track #3 in Islander H)
Moderated by: Jim Okamura, Senior Partner at J.C. Williams Group

Chris O'Neill, our Retail Director at Google, will be giving an introduction to this session led by Jim Okamura from the J.C. Williams Group. Chris will offer his perspectives on global expansion and digital media and share some of our experiences from working globally. Chris will also highlight specific product innovations that will be relevant as businesses move towards globalization in a relatively "flat world." Full description of the rest of the session can be found here.

Posted by Julia Tang, the Google Retail Team