October, 2009

Leadership — No Comments
31
Oct 09

Two-Way Advertising

Recently, FirstBank (in Colorado) launched an innovative ad campaign. The bank features their small business customers in their advertising by placing their business cards in kiosks. FirstBank taps into a new trend called two-way advertising. More and more, advertising is less about “me too,” and more about “us” (i.e. brand and consumer).

FirstBank illustrates its dedication to customers success by giving them their own advertising space. More and more, it’s about promoting your community and figuring out how to help others. It is through this goodwill that brands are cultivating larger audiences.

Leadership — No Comments
30
Oct 09

Everyone’s a Publisher: Why Aren’t You?

As SEO Becomes More of a Digital Asset, Content Strategy is Going to be an Industry Standard

A couple of days ago, I stumbled across Doctor David’s Blog. David writes about issues related to his field while posting personal pictures. Thinking of David’s blog, I began to think, with the influx of accessible self-publishing tools, anyone is a publisher. From doctors, to pet enthusiasts, to mechanics–there are publishers for nearly everything. As blogging becomes more and more pervasive, what does that mean for marketers?

Content Strategy: The Future of Marketing

The need for digital content writing skills are becoming increasingly important for marketers. In the quest for search referrals, brands are placing more and more emphasis on key words. To enhance SEO efforts, it’s very important to have fresh content that is consistently updated.

Unlike the infant stages of the web, a digital presence is more than a billboard-like ad. It’s about creating interesting, updated content that gives your audience a reason to return. It’s about sparking new conversations and adding to the discussion about issues facing your industry.

Content strategy is becoming evermore necessary for brands. Therefore, marketers are playing the role of publisher more and more. Before launching a branded blog or creating a newsletter, do your research. What is the market audience looking for?

Consider Seth Godin. Several years ago, marketers and brand managers were looking for an innovative, interesting and thought-provoking perspective. It was at this time that Seth Godin was about to launch from obscurity to blogging fame.

Or you might want to start your own blog to familiarize yourself with the responsibility of maintaining an online property. By knowing the ins and outs of content marketing, you can better serve your clients.

In the quest for search referrals, it’s becoming increasingly important to generate fresh, relevant and interesting website content. As marketers, there will likely be a time when you are faced with writing a blog post or giving content strategy advice to a client. Put your best foot forward by getting in the game now. It is an industry skill that is going to increase in value exponentially over the coming years. Why not take the time now and invest.

Leadership — No Comments
29
Oct 09

How Subtle Design Changes Can Make a Sustainable Impact

Taking a lesson from Time.com’s Digg Success and Examining How You Can Make and Impact

To my surprise there are an incredible amount of WordPress plugins that incorporate social network widgets (or APIs). Everything form Digg to Twitter to Facebook to Tumblr–WordPress seems to have a widget plugin. Considering adding a widget to apointb, I searched for best-in-class uses of widgets to see if it is appropriate.

Interestingly, when TIME.com incorporated, “Time.com on Digg,” into its website, traffic from Digg to Time increased by 164% and Time stories on the Digg homepage increased by 55% monthly.

The deeper issue here is visibility. The more visible and accessible you make a feature, the more likely your audience is to use it. Case-in-point, Time.com simply added a Digg widget–making the social network more accessible to its audience–and their Digg traffic skyrocketed.

To determine which feature to emphasize on your site, first consider the purpose of your website. If you manage an e-commerce site, your priorities are much different than a news site. Through subtle design changes, you can make a real impact. For Time, it was as easy as embedding a Digg widget.

E-commerce
How have you differentiated your “shop” or “checkout” button?
What is the first thing your customer sees when they land on your site?
How many steps are in your check process? Can any be eliminated or combined?

Non-Profits
Does your donate button pop-out?
How many faces do you have have on your site?
What is your mission and is it on your homepage?

News Sites
What social networks do you want to be a part of?
How is that social network emphasized on your site?

At the end of the day, it’s about taking an introspective look at your company, jotting down your priorities, then figuring out how to solve them. As the web has become more and more user-friendly, it’s easier for non-tech savvy business owners to create sustainable impact. It doesn’t take a genius to embed a widget, nor is it difficult to change the color of a “donate” button.

Marketing — No Comments
28
Oct 09

Personifying your Audience

Think about some of the most iconic cartoon characters of all time: Mickey Mouse, Donald Duck, Roadrunner, etc. What do they all have in common? The cartoonists personified animals and even inanimate objects (think Spongebob) to make fun characters children grow up with.

All of us have a favorite cartoon character we loved as a kid. We could identify with them. Our parents bought us the stuffed animals, countless plastic toys and video games. We have an emotional connection to these characters.

Marketers can use the same principles that connected us with our favorite cartoons to better understand their target audience. Consider an organic soap company that wanted to target socially conscious Gen Yers. You could personify your demographic and psychographic by calling her Lili. Then you have to do some character-building. You can start macro with, where does she shop? What are her favorite brands? Is she single? And you can even project what she’s going to do: After she graduates, does she want to get married and have children or focus on her career? You can even get granular with it: does she ever wear high heels? Does she want a job wear she can wear jeans?

Think introspectively. As you consider how to define your audience character, what qualities define you? Are you laid back and enjoy wearing flip-flops in the office or are you a traditionalist and wear a suit?

Personifying your audience can help you build an emotional bond that will guide your marketing and branding efforts. Because you stop thinking about your audience as white, female, 17-32 and start having a relationship with them. Just as you know your father doesn’t like sweaters for Christmas, you will learn intuitively what your audiences likes and dislikes.

Leadership — 1 Comment
27
Oct 09

The Power of the Human Jumbotron: A Lesson In Crowdsourcing

When has the crowd been more exciting than the game? No, it’s not the wave, nor is it the “war paint” covering bare-chested men. It’s crowdsourcing: when everyone works collectively towards a single objective. Below there is a video of a soccer game where the power of the crowd created more compelling entertainment than the game itself:

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Crowdsourcing has never been more apparent and pervasive than in the online world. Wikipedia is often the most cited example of crowdsourcing–as it has met extreme success since its inception in 2001. It has tapped into the collective knowledge of the world to create a comprehensive and awe-inspiring assortment of content.

To understand how more brands can incorporate crowdsourcing into their business model consider the following key characteristics that lead to successful crowdsourcing initiatives:

Set an objective — Before throwing in tons of money and time in to your project, what are you trying to create; who is going to get you there; and who is going to benefit? In Wikipedia’s case: create an online encyclopedia; those experts specialized in specific areas of study; all those with web access seeking more information knowledge in one site.

Rally the troops — When you tell 100 people you want to create a human jumbotron, they can get excited about it because 1) it’s unique and 2) it’s tangible. With two words, you can inspire and lay out a clearly defined objective.

Plan — A human jumbotron does not get up and running overnight. It takes time, training and planning to make a vision a reality. Consider Wikipedia, they have a solid foundation for which individuals can build an rich resource for information.

Work as a team — The human jumbotron exemplifies how no one person is of greater value than another. It is through the collective efforts of everyone that the human jumbotron was successful. If even one person was of greater value, it would dissolve the final outcome.

Have a pay-off — Sellaband is an example of a crowdsourcing website that has a financial pay-off for participants. Fans give money to their favorite bands so they can cut a record. Once the record is released, fans can even share a portion of the profits if the album is successful.

Leveraging the power of the crowds, even if it’s only to fact-check or spark a discussion on your blog, can be invaluable for your brand. Allowing users to participate in something greater than themselves is tremendously rewarding and the nature of the web as a connector and facilitator has made collaboration and crowdsourcing more possible than ever before.

Marketing — No Comments
26
Oct 09

Emotion, Meet Viral Marketing

Wait at least half an hour to swim after eating. It will upset your stomach, right? Almost everyone has heard this from either their mother or grandmother when they were a child. If you’ve ever tried it, the answer is no. I’ve done it many times and been completely fine. And I take my friends with me and there is no difference between five minutes and half an hour. No one is sick or dying. So why has this myth been passed down from generation to generation?

The answer can help marketers craft effective viral campaigns. Viral marketing maintains many of the same principles as many myths, right? To begin, it’s about creating an emotion. Often times in myths, it’s about fear (don’t flash your lights at a car that doesn’t have their headlights on–it could be a gang!). It doesn’t have to be. Consider the viral sensations of YouTube. They do not instill fear–rather joy and awe.

It is those things that create a strong emotion that we want to talk about. Whether they’re viral videos or urban legends, we want to help people. Warn for danger or pass the joy, we want to share our experiences with others.

Consider Ray Ban’s viral video (viewed over 4M times). Or Levis. Something as simple as getting into a pair of Levis can be worth sharing if someone can to a backflip into them. How can you brand connect to an emotion?

Leadership — No Comments
25
Oct 09

Give Boring a Bang

How to Make Simple Things, Great

Everyone remembers gym class: sweaty locker rooms, dodgeball, track, etc. Across the board it wasn’t the most thrilling class, but at the University of Houston, they are trying to change that. They are offering something a bit more interesting and technologically advanced. The phys ed teachers decided to incorporate the Wii Fit into their curriculum. Had I had such forward-looking gym teachers, I would have actually enjoyed attending class.

What the teachers at the University of Houston have done is bring a new demographic into the fold by taking a new angle to an old tradition. Including the Wii into the course gets student excited about exercising while providing entertainment at the same time.

How can you put a new spin on an old website or product? Apple utilized touch-screen technology to revolutionize the way we interact with our mobile devices; Starbucks offered high-quality coffee when people thought quantitatively about coffee; Arm & Hammer found their product could not only be used in baking recipes, but baking soda is also a deodorizer; or even Ms. Baker’s high school biology class has a blog and wiki where students report on experiments. It can be subtle updates or completely re-thinking the traditional model.

Leadership — 1 Comment
24
Oct 09

Making Brands Tangible

How to Create Impact with Your Customers

Dan and Chip Heath, authors of the book, Made to Stick wrote an interesting post about moving beyond sentiment to the real thing. They tapped into a rising trend in branding that speaks to not only sentiment but action. It’s about what can we do for you, not just how can we make you feel; it’s about making your brand tangible.

To get you thinking about making it real, consider purchasing a car. You’ve seen the commercials, talked with friends and you have several cars you’re excited about. It is only when you step into the car and start driving do you know whether you can see yourself buying it. The same is true for brands–make the experience tangible by putting your customer in the drivers seat.

Through cause-related initiatives, brands can make a real-world connection between consumer and brand. For instance, Tide has Loads of Hope–a program that assists families affected by disasters.

The Heath brothers suggest ways brands can turn a ephemeral feeling into a sustainable relationship. Bounce could have a bounce back from your lay off–where they help job seekers find work. Or Snuggle Bear could offer coats for children in need.

The large amount of brand choices available to consumers is making it difficult for brands to say, “me too.” It’s not about the “me brand” anymore. Consumers are not forced to watch ads or be bombarded with promotions. That’s why it’s increasingly important to make “our brands.” Consider TOMS Shoes. For every pair of shoes TOMS sells, a pair is donated to a person without. It is an “our brand.” TOMS is not self-serving nor do they bombard anyone with their message. If you want to become a part of the brand and make a difference, you’re welcome to enjoy the product.

Rolling out your marketing plan over the next year, consider not how you can blast your message to as many people as possible–instead consider how you can incorporate an audience in creating impact.

Branding — No Comments
23
Oct 09

Starbucks and the Importance of Following Through

On my way to Philadelphia, as it was getting late, I stopped at a rest stop to pick up a Starbucks cappuccino. Of the past hundred of cappuccinos I’ve had, I’d say 20 fall in the 8-10 range on the quality scale. Of those 20, I’d say 18  come from Starbucks. The reason? I’ve never had a cappuccino from the café chain that didn’t fall in the 8-10 range. Likewise, I’ve stopped ordering cappuccinos from non-Starbucks cafes. With only two cappuccinos of other cafes able to deliver a premium quality cappuccino, I don’t test my luck anymore.

All numbers aside, brands can learn something from a quality cappuccino. It’s called consistently delivering on your value proposition. At first, the founders of Starbucks failed in their attempt to make a successful café in America. Dominating the landscape was Maxwell House and other coffee suppliers. Having journeyed to European cafes, the Starbucks founders decided to bring quality to the American coffee market. Impressed with the European coffee and espresso machines, the Starbucks founders imported the expensive hardware to the States.

With the brand value proposition that incorporates quality, Starbucks had the vehicle for which to deliver it with their premium café machines. Thus, America was introduced to exceptional coffee enjoyed by Europeans. And the rest is history.

After evaluating the market, you should have an idea of where your brand can deliver value. From here, you can develop your value proposition. The key is having a clear and simple way of following through. Are expensive coffee and espresso machines the way you’re going to follow through on your value? You must have the resources to deliver on your promise. If not, your brand will fall flat.

Often, brands are so aspirational they fail to keep their feet on the ground. To ground your brand, refine your value proposition delivery system. How are you going to get from A to B? At the end of the day, it’s all about follow through. Is your product going to hit the 8-10 range at a truck stop or down the road, in a different state?

Marketing — No Comments
22
Oct 09

What Marketers Can Learn From a Skateboarding Whiz

Rodney Mullen is the Einstein among skateboarders. His creative wit and technical ability in concert make him the inventor of the most jaw dropping tricks. The dark slide (a personal favorite) is one of around 32 tricks he’s created and inspired many more.

He combines the past Californian surf style (i.e. flat surface tricks like spinning 360 degrees) with the current urban street style (i.e. jumping staircases, sliding down rails, flipping the skateboard, etc) and forgets about what is impossible. It’s as if physics do not apply to him. Past and present together make him a unique and unforgettable skateboarder.

With rally cries for innovative entrepreneurship to usher in the next wave of industry, it’s easy to forget about the past. It’s always inspiring to thumb through old advertising awards books. It can be refreshing to see campaigns without the influence of Photoshop—when the idea wasn’t so stylized and masked in intricate design work.

As we are constantly looking for the next new advertising campaign, products, service, etc, it’s easy to remember what happened two, three, five, years ago. But look deeper. Advertising campaigns have been around a lot longer than ten years. Dig deep into the past creative works and see what the guiding principles were then and how they’ve changed. Connecting the past brilliance with today’s thinking will yield something new, different and interesting.

Blending different eras together makes Rodney unique, different and a blast to watch. Unlike many of his contemporaries, he goes beyond the basics to be an inventor of new.

Take a look at this video to see how fusing different eras can inspire creativity.

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