Business Development — No comments
07
Nov 09

The New York Minute

Do you know where the New York Minute originated from? The New York Minute came from the subway time schedule. All trains leave one minute later than scheduled, on purpose. That extra minute is for the laggards that cannot make the train on time.

Allow yourself a New York Minute. You might find you get more accomplished. By adding a “minute,” you allow for flexibility. Maybe you have a New York Minute by scheduling your blog posts ahead of schedule so you aren’t overwhelmed by other work and cannot post. Or, maybe it’s working on your business plan while you have a couple of minutes to spare. Because if you do not allow yourself that extra time, it might never get finished, or at least finished on time.

“Buying” a minute can be tremendously valuable to effectively manage your time. Whether it’s catching the train (though you’re late) or crafting an A+ business plan (as you allow more review time), a New York Minute can make all the difference.

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Branding — No comments
06
Nov 09

Don’t Just Say It, Dissolve It

Creativity in advertising often involves a witty tag or thought-provoking image. That’s great, but take it a step further. Go off the page and start to think multi-dimensional. What better company to do that than the Creative Review. The Creative Review recently released its new magazine in a special bag. Typically, the plastic sleeve that protects the magazine gets thrown out along with the annoying inserts. However, the Creative Review took this innocuous element and made it buzzworthy.

The Creative Review made the plastic magazine sleeve out of biodegradable material so it would dissolve in water. Though this new sleeve is not going to radically curb global warming, its carries symbolic value that speaks to the Creative Review’s commitment to the environmental.

The key take-away here is how can you make your company not just say your core mission, but actually do it. Is it developing an internal bike service to cut-down on emissions or is it as simple as creating a bio-degradable magazine sleeve. To create impact, it’s not just enough to say you’re remarkable, you have to act and be remarkable.

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Marketing — No comments
05
Nov 09

Best of Us Challenge

The Best of Us Challenge is a competition to create some buzz for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver. It’s not your standard competition, however. It’s all about the b-sports like hula hooping. And to top it off, you’re being challenged by Olympians. Michael Phelps will challenge you to speed putting, professional snowboarder Lindsay Jacobells will challenge you to a hula hooping contest and the list goes on.

And not only can you post your performance, you can create different challenges. Those contestants that come out on top get a chance to go to the Winter Olympics. This contest works on many levels to engage users that other promotional campaigns could take note from:

Have Fun: Start with a fun concept. If you’re constantly thinking about how to make your product or service buzzworthy, you’re going to talk about the product or service, not the fun.

Be Relevant: It wouldn’t make sense for the Winter Olympics to have mural painting contest. Though it might spark some fantastic user-generated art, it wouldn’t be all that relevant to the Winter Olympics. Keep focused. The creatives behind the campaign had the insight to identify the fun elements of sports: b-level or non-sports. Putting might be a part of gulf, but it’s by no means an actual sport.

Have a Face: Whether it’s Olympic athletes or a local hero, put a face to your campaign. It’s easier to identify with a human than an abstract concept.

Allow for Participation: In today’s digital age, there are many sharing platforms to engage your audience. Best of Us Challenge utilizes YouTube, but you could use Facebook Connect or Twitter (think Twestivals). Additionally, you can feature the user generated content on your site while promoting it on the uploading platform as well.

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Business Development — No comments
04
Nov 09

The Fun Theory and Sustainable Impact

It’s proven: we like to do fun things. We also like to take shortcuts with dull or tedious tasks (generally speaking). Not everyone takes the shortcuts in life, but if you have a choice between four flights of stairs and an elevator, most people are going to choose the elevator.

However, what if you made taking the stairs fun. Volkswagon put this “fun theory” to the test when they made a piano out of a staircase:

They also made throwing out trash and recycling fun. By simply adding a sound effect or making a game out of recycling, they’ve generated more interest and consequently, more impact.

For non-profits, the fun theory can be the difference in minimal impact or long-term sustainability. By injecting fun into your initiatives, you can create a lasting impact on your audience and those you support. Instead of starting with the money, start with the fun.

For instance, take jet skiing. Why not create a course whereby jet skiiers donate X amount of dollars for each hoop they go through. It drums up support in a fun, impactful way. It’s not enough to ask for money, put a little fun into the mix and people are more willing to help out.

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Marketing — No comments
03
Nov 09

Ninjas and Rewarding Creativity

The other day, I passed a man with a sign that read, “Wife and Family Kidnapped by Ninjas. Need Money for Kung Fu Lessons.” Call me Scrooge, but I normally don’t give money to homeless people. Partly because I hardly ever carry change (and I have trust issues with my credit card) and if I do have change, how could I only give it to one person and not the other 3 people that ask?

But for this guy, I could certainly spare a couple of quarters. If he was just asking for change, I’d keep my money. But I had to reward him for his creativity. The same principle applies to advertising. The typical message is, “could you give us your money because we have a better product?” Thank you for asking, but I’ll keep my change. You’re no better than the guy just simply asking for money because… what, he’s worth it?

Inject some creativity into your message. It could be as simple as, “No dogs. No cats. But who are we to say no if you bring in a walrus?” (This line was used by a coffee shop I believe. Not sure who to credit, as I first heard in about four years ago.) With more voices vying for attention on the web, it’s not enough to just say your better, show how you are better with a bit of creativity and guts.

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Business Development — No comments
02
Nov 09

Mozilla Raindrop and Web Intelligence Tools

Mozilla recently announced its new project, Raindrop. From the company that brought you Thunderbird, an open-source e-mail client, Raindrop aims to make the inbox fun again. By eliminating the democratic inbox (my work e-mail has the same value as a JetBlue coupon), Raindrop aims to bring some intelligence to e-mail. It will create a value hierarchy whereby e-mail that is more important to you will have a more prominent spot in the inbox.

Though Raindrop will not provide all of the answers to e-mail, it taps into the emerging trend in web 2.0 (or maybe web 3.0) of intelligent computing. With seemingly endless amounts of data, it can be overwhelming to face it all. As a result, we are going to increasingly rely on technology that understands our unique preferences and does the sifting for us.

Google Reader’s Magic feature is a great example of this. Essentially, Google Reader Magic scours the web for posts that are most relevant to you. As you build your user history, it can better find information that you’d be interested in. Therefore, you don’t need 250 subscriptions and waste time finding interesting nuggets. Simply build a small browsing history and let the algorithm do the work for you.

As more data and information permeates our lives, web intelligence tools will become more necessary than ever before. Those companies that can develop intelligence tools to make sense of this overwhelming amount of data will ride this rising trend.

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Marketing — No comments
01
Nov 09

Alarm Clock and Understanding Your Audience

For my last birthday, I received an alarm clock with an iPod / iPhone dock so I could listen to music in the apartment (a CD player is as useful as an 8-track at this point). It had several great features including a play list alarm so I could wake up to my favorite song. It was what I wanted and so consequently, I stowed the other alarm.

In the move from Rochester to Philadelphia, I started using the other alarm clock — as the iPod clock was in storage. When I finally unpacked in Philadelphia, I couldn’t figure out why I didn’t want to use the iPod alarm clock. Then I realized the iPod alarm clock didn’t have the interface I needed in an alarm clock.

The old alarm clock had the information I needed. When the alarm was set, I could see the time. Ok, so it’s not 7:00pm. I couldn’t tell when the alarm was set with the iPod alarm clock. Therefore, had I taken a nap the previous day, the alarm clock wouldn’t tell me. There were two symbols (alarm 1, alarm 2) — nothing else.

Nothing is wrong with the iPod alarm clock. It suites the needs of its audience — primarily an mp3 player and an alarm secondly. I was a bad consumer. Really, I wanted an iPod doc, not an alarm clock. Therefore, I could have saved a few pennies and purchased the iPod doc separately.

So why am I blabbering on about my alarm clock? For marketers, though you might have mound of great data on your demo and pyschographics, you can never really know who they are. There are always going to be several customers that will tell you what they want, but in actuality, they have absolutely no idea.

Everyone has an opinion about paper towels, though we never actually think about paper towels until we 1) buy them or 2) they fall apart. Sure, I could tell you I enjoy the soft, quilted kind — that paper towel makes me feel nice inside, right? But really, I’ve never thought about paper towels before, therefore I really don’t have an opinion.

Understand that there are a couple of duds in your data and account for them. Not everyone has an opinion about your product, nor do they invest much emotion in them. I would be a liar if I told you I enjoy one paper towel brand over another. To me, it’s all the same.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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