Club, Spa, Resort, and Healthcare Marketing

Spotting the Creators of Peer Influence

(Article from adage.com – Josh Bernoff… He is actually assuming that of these billions of impressions and posts, all of them have value. I think the ad world is consumed with social media right now… While I love social networking/online communities, etc… I do think too much is being made of some of the dribble these networks carry…  Just spend a little time reading my college age daughter’s – or her friends -  Facebook entries, and you will gain a more pragmatic perspective… Maybe if there was an “Are you SURE? ” button right after the “Submit” button, perhaps 80% of the garbage might never litter the Internet… bc)

Everyone knows people make impressions on each other — it’s called word of mouth. The question marketers always asked us was: just how many impressions? And who is responsible for the mass of those impressions?

Now we know. People make over 500 billion impressions on each other about products and services every year. And a small group of mass influencers are responsible for 80% of those impressions. This is the beginning of what we call Peer Influence Analysis.

Here’s how it works. Start by counting every instance in which a person influences another person online about a product or service. (We model this from Forrester’s 10,000 person survey, which asks how frequently they post, in what places, how many followers they have, and what products and services they post about.)

This influence comes in two types.

First, there is influence from people posting within social networks: Facebook, Twitter, MySpace and so on. We call these instances influence impressions. Based on our surveys, we estimate people in the U.S. create 256 billion influence impression on each other in social networks every year. (Has anyone ever measured this number before?) Of these influence impressions, 62% come from Facebook.

Second, there is influence created by posts: blog posts, blog comments, discussion forum posts, and ratings and reviews. We call these influence posts. We estimate that people in the U.S. create 1.64 billion influence posts every year. If around 150 people view each of these posts (a conservative estimate, based on our research), that’s another 250 billion-plus impressions. Blog posts and blog comments account for about 40% of these posts.

Add the impressions from both social networks and posts together and you get the 500 billion impressions.

Once you start analyzing this huge pool of influence, you can draw some very interesting conclusions. Here are a few.

* People’s influence on each other rivals online advertising. For comparison, for a 12-month period ending September 30 last year, Nielsen Online estimates advertisers created 1.974 trillion online advertising impressions, compared to the 500 billion impressions people make on each other about products and services. So people’s online impressions on each other about products and services are about one-fourth of the online advertising impression. And peer impressions are more credible than advertising, since they come from friends. Take those numbers into your next budget meeting!

* A minority of people generate 80% of the impressions. Take a look at the graphic. About 6.2% of the online adults generate 80% of the influence impressions. Around 13.8% of the online adults generate 80% of the influence posts. We call these two groups Mass Connectors and Mass Mavens (if you’ve read “The Tipping Point” you know where we got the names.). If you’re a marketer, you probably want to know who these people are (demographics, where they share, that kind of thing) — once we’ve identified them, we can find that all out through the survey.

* You can do peer influencer analysis for any type of product or service. For example, mass influencers in consumer electronics are far more concentrated, somewhat more affluent and quite a bit more male than the general mass influencers. If you want to build a word-of-mouth strategy, you have to start with the information on mass influencers in your market.

It’s time to start analyzing peer influence with the same discipline we apply to media. And it’s time word-of-mouth got a budget that reflects the amount of influence people have, and who has it.

via Spotting the Creators of Peer Influence – Advertising Age – DigitalNext.

Cardlytics’ New Ad Medium: Online Bank Statements

Imagine signing in to your online-banking account and finding promotions linked to your transactions. Underneath a transaction for a restaurant, there’s an offer from that eatery for $10 cash back when you spend a minimum of $20. And underneath a purchase at an apparel chain, a rival offers 15% cash back for shopping at its store or website.

It may seem intrusive, but Cardlytics, the company behind the program, claims that advertisers, consumers and financial institutions are fast embracing this new advertising model. So far, major marketers such as McDonald’s, Macy’s and Staples have signed on with Cardlytics, while half a dozen financial institutions have implemented the service and are touting it as a rewards program for their customers.

via Cardlytics’ New Ad Medium: Online Bank Statements – Advertising Age – News.

Bolinas Journal – The Price for Building a Home in This Town – $300,000 Water Meter

Dwaileebe would like to build a house for his family on land he owns in this bucolic town just 20 miles north of San Francisco. But he cannot hook up to the water main that runs right past his property unless he has a water meter. And a water meter, in Bolinas, could cost more than $300,000.

That is the minimum bid for a meter being auctioned off through Friday. The auction is the unlikely result of a water meter moratorium imposed by antidevelopment forces here in 1971.
For most of the last 39 years, “the only way a water meter came free was when a house burnt down, or fell off a cliff,” said Barbara Rothwell, a longtime Bolinas resident.The meter moratorium has survived, even through protracted litigation, with the support of residents who like this isolated town the way it is.

The meter being auctioned belonged to a lot in the center of town that came on the market last year. The civic-minded community rushed to buy the property and maintain it as a park, with $1.5 million donated by a billionaire venture capitalist. That freed up the meter, which is being sold by the park authority. The meter — and with it the chance to build a house — can be transferred to almost any lot in town, which makes it so valuable: a plumbing fixture as holy grail. Sealed bids for the meter are being accepted until Friday. When a water meter was auctioned in 2005, a stonemason paid $310,000. This meter could bring far more.

As long as the moratorium remains, “they’ll just get more and more valuable,” said James Kirkham, who has been spending time in Bolinas since the 1950s. Mr. Kirkham thinks the water meter may be undervalued.

Bolinas Journal – The Price for Building a Home in This Town – $300,000 Water Meter – NYTimes.com.

iPad: Hotel hype or help?

(I have to say, I think this is one of the best applications/uses for the new iPad; the other being real estate! Can you imagine having jogging/running courses around your hotel ready to share with your guests – or having the concierge have the ability to share the screen with a guest, showing the location, menu, prices, photo of restaurants and other attractions!  Great opportunities – probably better than just for consumers…  bc)

More than a week after its release, the techno-pundits and early adopters are mixed in their reactions to the iPad, Apple’s slick touch-screen tablet computer. Within the hotel sector, consultants and operators believe the gadget will serve a practical purpose.

Ask Charles Yap, and he will tell you it’s the buzz and the utility that makes the iPad interesting.

As director of global brand communications for InterContinental Hotels Group, Yap is aware of both the buzz surrounding Apple’s newest gizmo as well as the capabilities of its intuitive interface.

“It’s something that’s fun. It’s something that the world has been waiting for,” he said. “It’s making the concierge more personable.”

That’s according to initial results he’s seen at four IHG properties throughout the world, at which the concierge teams are test-driving the iPad for a possible broad-scale rollout.

It’s certainly going well so far, Yap said. The use of the device has sparked interest among guests, who are approaching the concierge in greater droves to see the iPad in action as they ask for dinner recommendations, view maps and turn-by-turn directions, or watch proprietary videos highlighting hotel amenities and area attractions.

The concierges, in turn, aren’t chained behind their desks. The iPad’s portable nature (it measures 9.56 inches high, 7.47 inches wide and 0.5 inches deep and weighs 1.5 pounds) allows them to easily walk around the lobby floor while still being able to access the information they need with the touch and swipe of a finger.

And unlike the implementation of other technologies, which can take weeks or months of staff training, the iPad was in the hands of the concierges as soon as Yap returned from an Atlanta Apple store on the day of its release.

via Hotel News Now | Hotels News – Article.

St. Joe kicks off large Panhandle mixed development

The St. Joe Co. today announced the VentureCrossings Enterprise Centre at West Bay, a 1,000-acre mixed development of office, retail, hotel and industrial to be built near the Northwest Florida Beaches International Airport opening in May.

The development is the first in the 75,000-acre West Bay Sector Plan near the airport, the company announced.

The new airport is the first international airport built in the United States in the last 15 years, replacing the existing Panama City – Bay County International Airport. St. Joe donated 4,000 acres within its West Bay Sector Plan for the construction of the new airport.

VentureCrossings includes approximately 100 acres designated for retail, office and hotel uses, about 300 acres for light industrial uses, and about 600 acres for manufacturing, distribution and logistics companies.

via St. Joe kicks off large Panhandle mixed development | jacksonville.com.

WCI golf portfolio up for sale

Bonita Springs, FL-based WCI Communities has put a portfolio of seven golf courses up for sale including Scepter Golf Club and Club Renaissance, two 18’s and two 27-hole layouts, Falcon Watch and Sandpiper. The facilities are located in and around Sun City Center in South Florida and within five miles of each other. The asking price is $13,725,000.

via Bowden’s Beat.

Cottages being fast-tracked to beat the HST

(project in British Columbia… bc)

The developer of the new resort development The Cottages at Cultus Lake is giving potential new buyers a chance to beat the HST deadline this summer.

Jon Van Geel of Cultus Country Investments told the Progress they’ve brought in 100 extra construction workers to fast-track the immediate construction of 20 to 30 additional cottages on spec.

Those who pre-register now to buy a cottage before July 1 will save about $44,000, for example, on one of the top-end properties, priced at $629,900.

“We found out in late November that recreational real estate would not qualify for the harmonized sales tax rebate,” said Van Geel. “We thought we’d speed up the building effort to beat the deadline.”

More than 90 units were snapped up on a pre-sale basis for phase one in October 2007, but none were sold in 2008 when the economy was tanking. The focus was on building that year.

Then another 35 cottages were pre-sold last year on the 45-acre site near Lindell Beach.

For the first time they’re building cottage units on spec, which does pose some risk for the developers.

Van Geel said there is simply no comparable cottage development anywhere else on the Lower Mainland.

As of July 1, the new HST, which combines PST and GST, will impact new resort properties.

via BCLocalNews.com – Cottages being fast-tracked to beat the HST.

Goldman Seeks Leave to Foreclose on Sawgrass Resort

Goldman Sachs Mortgage Co., the lender to the owners of Florida’s Sawgrass Marriott Resort, asked a bankruptcy court for permission to take over and sell the company’s assets.

Goldman yesterday asked U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Paul M. Glenn in Jacksonville, Florida, to lift the automatic stay, a part of the bankruptcy code that shields a company from creditors’ efforts to collect on its assets. Goldman Sachs Mortgage is a division of Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Goldman, owed about $193 million, claims the company no longer has a stake in the property and can’t restructure its debts.

“The resort property that is the subject of this bankruptcy is worth less than the amount of the debt, and there is clearly no equity in the property,” lawyers for the lender said in court papers.

RQB Resort LP, which filed bankruptcy March 1 to stop a prior foreclosure action by Goldman, owns the 65-acre resort in Ponte Vedra Beach that is home to the TPC Sawgrass golf club where the U.S. PGA Tour’s Players Championship is held, court papers show. Affiliate RQB Development also sought protection.

via Goldman Seeks Leave to Foreclose on Sawgrass Resort (Update2) – BusinessWeek.

Margaritaville gets nod for $100M resort

The city of Hollywood, Fla., said it would give the first shot at a $100 million beach resort development project to Margaritaville Enterprises.

The Miami Herald reported Thursday that it came down to a choice between the themes of “Cheeseburger In Paradise,” and “Somewhere Over the Rainbow,” the themes proposed, respectively, by Margaritaville and Planet Hollywood

.

It was also billed as a choice between songwriter Jimmy Buffet and Planet Hollywood investors Sylvester Stallone and Bruce Willis, but Mayor Peter Bober said it was a more practical decision than choosing favorites.

“This is very valuable land. It belongs to the public. Every year this land remains vacant becomes money the city loses,” Bober said.

Margaritaville has 90 days to negotiate concrete deals with the city or the city could choose to start the selection process over again or offer to negotiate with Planet Hollywood, the newspaper said.

via Margaritaville gets nod for $100M resort – UPI.com.

Tapatio resort files for bankruptcy

In anticipation of new ownership, bankruptcy petitions were filed Tuesday by the Tapatio Springs Resort and Conference Center and a related firm, the Kendall County Development Co.

“It was a planned move,” Michael Shalit, partner in the two Boerne-area businesses and a nearby utility that’s also part of the pending deal, said of the Chapter 11 filings in U.S. Bankruptcy Court in San Antonio.

Shalit declined to name the buyers or terms of the sale. But he predicted the sale would reinvigorate the struggling resort that was put on the market more than a year ago for $22 million.

The initial inability to attract buyers led to it being listed for foreclosure last month to satisfy an unpaid $15 million loan, but the auction slated for March 2 was canceled.

“We’re very happy with the transaction and the new buyers are planning on making major improvements to the entire facility,” Shalit said Wednesday.

Shalit said he’s part of the new ownership group, but his current partners, Jack Parker and his son Jay, are not.

Shalit said that besides the resort, which includes a 112-room hotel, conference center, 27-hole golf course and clubhouse, the deal includes the development firm, which owns more than 1,000 acres surrounding the resort, and the Kendall County Utility Co., which provides water service to the resort and about 300 upscale homes nearby.

via Tapatio resort files for bankruptcy.