Pure Thinking

Is Your Message, Your Brand, Getting Through The Clutter?

Quick! What is the name of your favorite restaurant? We'll get to this in a minute.

Okay, now on with the blog. The picture above is from a seminar I have done on all aspects of marketing. The idea focuses around a dart board, where the most outer rings are traditional mass media, expensive marketing, we go through the rings and other modes of marketing, as they get less expensive, more effective, until we hit the bulls-eye: Word of Mouth Marketing.

Why the picture? "Somewhere between 254 and 5,000 is a number that represents just how many commercial messages an average consumer gets each day" - Advertising Age, April 2, 2007. That was before the explosion of social media.

To really achieve your marketing goals and help get through the clutter make sure they are SMART; Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Results oriented, Time Specific. You should also think about where your customers go to get information.

My favorite ad of all time is in the most outer ring of the dart board; Super Bowl Commercials! That ad is the Apple Macintosh 1984 ad. It was edited a bit and used in the Hillary Clinton campaign in the 2008 election cycle. 

Most companies can't afford a super bowl ad, let alone any TV commercials. BUT, can you leverage local TV stations for their "Best of" contests they have? Does it make sense with your goals?

As we move from the outer ring we go through national and local print advertising, radio, direct mail, trade shows. 

Closer to the bulls-eye you have websites, micro sites, banner ads, SEO, blogs, and email marketing. Regarding email marketing, one of my favorite books on marketing is Seth Godin's Permission Marketing. It is great for email marketing but a good read to be a successful marketer.

The first ring outside of the bulls-eye in my mind is social media. The rise of popularity of twitter, facebook, and LinkedIn really helps the SMART marketer leverage word of mouth. In a future blog I'll talk about how the combination of email marketing and social media can be extremely powerful.

Bulls-eye: Word of Mouth; your friends, clients, peers, and associations talking about you and recommending you and your company. PR through people writing about you in articles and blogs, customer testimonials.

Back to your favorite restaurant. Why is it your favorite? Have you told other people about it? Word of mouth is powerful isn't it.

How can you leverage aspects of marketing that make sense to help you achieve your SMART goals and help you promote your word of mouth?

By the way. Click here to learn about my favorite restaurant. Turn on your speakers.

John Meyer @johndmeyer

It's The Content Stupid!

In the 1992 presidential campaign the slogan "It's the economy stupid" became the thing to talk about because that is what mattered most to the voters, just as it does today.

In digital marketing the thing that matters most is content. And the content must be outstanding. Whether you are promoting the latest white paper or ebook that will help your clients be successful, or promoting a video on youtube with a handsome stud riding a horse selling aftershave that smells like your grandpa. 

Is it relevant? is it interesting? Is it up to date? Last month I downloaded a white paper on social media and it was dated 2009. Really? With as fast as digital, online, social media changes the company couldn't at least update the date? It made me wonder how relevant the content was, and I did not share it, nor have I read it.

Before you get excited about blog posts, web site design, social media, email newsletters, mobile campaigns, step back and make sure you have content that matters to your clients. Is it something they will share on Facebook or LinkedIn? forward to a friend? add a link to your site in a blog they write?

In real estate they say it's location, location, location. In digital marketing it's content, content, content.

How do you make the content you have the key to your online success? Test what you have. Ask your clients what's important to them. Start a conversation on your social media sites, email newsletters, and blogs. They'll respond and your online converation will begin again.

John Meyer @johndmeyer

Integrating Your Website With Your Social Media

With the creation of the website came the desire to drive all marketing messages to go to the website to learn about your brand and product, and in many instances to buy. Ads in magazines, direct mail pieces, hand outs at trade shows, then email newsletters all had (or should have) "go to our web site for more information and buy now". Websites are wonderful as they are your virtual brochure and can be updated at anytime for the purpose you first designed them; to sell your brand and your product.

Smart marketers also use websites to keep existing customers happy and have them spread the word about you to others.

Some people believe that the advent of social media sites like Facebook and twitter has taken away the importance of a company's website. I totally disagree and feel the social media sites have made it even more important to keep your website the best it can be to sell and support your brand. The integration of the two can be a huge win when managed properly.

I recently started following Jeremiah Owyang's blog WEB STRATEGY. His recent article about "Corporate Websites and Social Networks Begin Integration" is a must read for anyone interested in leveraging the power of combining the best of both worlds of websites and social media. He calls it "Social Sign On". I call it the bulls-eye to get more prospects to your website to buy.

You can read his article here. Let me know what you think. How integrated are your website and social media strategies?

John Meyer  [email protected]  @johndmeyer

Colorado, Technology, and Marketing

Colorado, Technology, and Marketing. Three of my favorite topics and quite exciting that there are so many intertwined relationships with them right now. I'm a Colorado native in love with where I live. I have a great career growing alongside marketing and technology. It's fun working with the team at Pure Brand Communications on all aspects of digital marketing, centering on Pure Listening.

One of the things I like about Pure Brand Communications is how we give back to the community, personally as well as great agency work with non profits like Boys and Girls Clubs, Special Olympics, and Children's Hospital. I volunteer with CSIA, Colorado's Technology Association. On October 7th CSIA is hosting DEMOgala - an event showcasing technology companies and thought leaders in Colorado.

It's wonderful to see how many technology companies have started in Colorado that provide really fantastic marketing solutions. SimpleGeo offers solutions to enable location based services in mobile, web and desktop applications. We've got web conferencing company ReadyTalk, email marketing firm SwiftPage, social media marketing company FiltrBox that is now part of Jive Software. Associated Content's online publishing platform (now part of Yahoo). A really creative CodeBaby that helps you with web site optimization by leveraging the nature of human behavior online and scientific study. There are also applications for mobile marketing like SnapTag from SpyderLynk.

In most blogs each of these companies would have a hot link to their website to learn more about them. In this case I'm going to promote the event where the companies, many others, and their founders and executives will be. On October 7th the companies I mentioned, many more, and over 25 thought leaders will be speaking at CSIA's DEMOgala at the Hyatt Regency Denver at the Colorado Convention Center. Now there's the link that's important. There will be over 1000 people attending.

It will be a great day. I'm looking forward to learning more about all the companies, especially those that are taking marketing to a new level.

John Meyer - [email protected] - @johndmeyer

Advertising, Digital Media, R2D2 and Facebook

 

Good grief. What could the four words in the title of this blog post have in common?

A year ago my family drove to Columbia Missouri for my nieces wedding. Along the way I noticed about 50% of the billboards were giant digital screens. Aha, there is the link for Advertising and Digital Media in the title.

It turns out there are three significant areas where digital signage is exploding in growth. All of them are in the DOOH (digital out of home) category. The three areas break down into generic advertising where it is the display only, in store retail display to help people make a decision, and extremely interactive touch screen displays people can use to find out information or find a destination.

You are probably exposed to some type of digital signage many times throughout the day; Airports, elevators, fast food restaurants, hotels, health clubs, office building lobby, shopping malls, the list goes on and on.

In fact, according to a Arbitron Digital Place-Based Video Study 2010 these type of media reaches over 7 out of 10 U.S. residents each month. The study also reports that more people watch digital place-based video than watch video online, have a Facebook profile or a smartphone. There is the word Facebook! 

PQ Media forecasts that this $6 billion media "industry" will grow 9.4% through 2014 in the U.S. and 10% globally.

Coca Cola likes this new technology so much it is operating its own network of digital billboards. 

ROI is alway of interest in advertising and sometimes hard to measure. You can get some info from studies like Arbitron. And the more interactive the digital display is (ala touch screens) the more data can be collected. It will be interesting to see how ROI is measured as this technology grows and defines itself more and more. It will be fun to watch how creative the advertising becomes.

So why did I include R2D2 in my title? One word: Hologram. Remember when R2D2 projected the hologram of Princess Leia saying "Help me Obi-wan, your'e my only hope"? Wouldn't it be cool to add holograms to this digital technology? Done. Many companies are experimenting with this technology. Here is a link to a company that is building in store kiosks with holograms.

Is digital signage marketers "only hope" for standing out in the sea of marketing messages we see each day? Stay tuned.

John Meyer

@johndmeyer

Duuuuude, that brainstorm was like...totally rad man!

Brainstorming sessions are a fairly well known idea in a variety of industries and occupations; however, the way that a brainstorm is facilitated can drastically influence the quality of idea and outcome. 

A bad brainstorm can feel much like a middle school locker room, complete with apprehension, humiliation, and a general unwillingness to participate.

On the flip side, a good brainstorm has the capacity to shape a new project into the next award winning campaign or idea.

I recently stumbled across an article by Robert Sutton written for Bloomberg Businessweek in which he outlines eight tips for better brainstorming.  Check out the article here.

In essence, brainstorming should be a comfortable, warm environment in which people feel completely free to bounce new ideas, get creative, and build off of past experiences or work.

Brainstorm sessions are also a great way to tap into your team’s diverse resources and backgrounds.  I can guarantee you that each individual you work with comes with a unique set of talents, hobbies and passions which can lead to some pretty awesome creative thinking.

Be sure to go read the article above and start thinking about your own creative process.  How do brainstorming sessions happen at your company?  Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

--
Geoff Renstrom
Twitter: @savestheclash

If A Picture Is Worth 1000 Words, How Much Is A Brand Worth?

More importantly, how much is a successful brand worth and how did it become successful? Think of some successful brands; Apple, Chipotle, Starbucks, Kleenex, Virgin Atlantic. How much do you think their brands are worth? Then think of the marketing world's most famous brand flop; the Edsel.

What are all these companies selling? A product? A personality? An experience? Has the name taken over the meaning of another word?

I've seen way too many companies start selling their product without any kind of analysis of what their brand is. It makes it a whole lot easier to create an amazing marketing and PR campaign when you have a brand positioning statement to promote your product/company.

It's amazing how a little work upfront on a brand analysis will help the entire company get excited about a campaign to market and sell your product.

What are your current clients saying about you? other stakeholders of the company? What about clients you'd like to have? and former clients? What type of internal review have you done? What are your goals for the brand? Who are your true customers? Why would they want to be a customer? What is the core feeling or benefit from being your customer?

Once you have that figured out you will have a much better understanding for a brand positioning statement and then you can dramatically tell your brands story.

Why did the Edsel fail? Marketers say it was the Ford corporate culture and its failure to understand the American consumer. 

Are you doing your homework to understand your customer? Are you planning for a successful brand?

Is your brand, or more importantly the marketing for your brand, an Apple or an Edsel?

 Good luck with your brand.

John Meyer

@johndmeyer

Cool Swedish Vampire Movie

Let The Right One In isn’t your typical vampire flick. There’s no leather pants, Chinese fighting stars dipped in lead, shotguns, discos with laser light shows, or post-punk bands butchering the soundtrack. Instead, you’ll find lots of space; sparse, well-placed dialogue; an excellent cast; and an effective director with a great novel to work from.

It’s the 1980’s and twelve-year-old Oskar (Kåre Hedebrant) lives in the harsh, wintery blackness of Sweden. There’s something not quite right about Oskar. It could be that he picks knife fights with trees, is fascinated with violence, is continually bullied by his schoolmates, or maybe those long Swedish nights are just draining a bit of his soul. Regardless of Oskar’s bad state, a savior appears in the form of Eli (Lina Leandersson), a two hundred-year-old vampire that has settled in to graze on Oskar’s sleepy town.

Beautiful Losers film

In the early 1990's a loose-knit group of like minded outsiders found common ground at a little NYC storefront gallery. Rooted in the DIY (do-it-yourself) subcultures of skateboarding, surf, punk, hip hop & graffiti, they made art that reflected the lifestyles they led. Developing their craft with almost no influence from the "establishment" art world, this group, and the subcultures they sprang from, have now become a movement that has been transforming pop culture.

Starring a selection of artists who are considered leaders within this culture, Beautiful Losers focuses on the telling of personal stories. It speaks to themes of what happens when the outside becomes "in" as it explores the creative ethos connecting these artists and today's youth.

Has anyone seen this film?

The age old debate continues...

Shepard Fairy Vs. The AP

Although this is not breaking news, it is the age old debate of who owns the rights to an image - the photographer who took the image (or in this case the AP who the photographer was working for), or the artist who interpreted the photo and added his own personal touches and emotion to an otherwise bland image.

One could argue that because Fairey has earned some mainstream notoriety over the poster and most likely a substantial amount of monies from his artwork, the AP has just now decided it wants a piece of the pie. The artwork has been around for at least a year and only now has this become news, after Fairey had tried to give credit to the photog in the first place. (Other photograhers have said they thought Fairey had taken the likeness from their photo of the president elect). The AP has sued Fairey over the ordeal stating the work is a copyright infringement. Of course Fairey is claiming that his artwork is protected under the "fair use" doctrine. Click here to read more. It will be interesting to see how this plays out.

This is not the first or last time this issue will be debated. It has been discussed multiple times in our own shop when illustrating from a photograph. In this particular case, if the original photo is so inspirational, why not promote it on it's own in a free market for your own monetary gains, if you so choose. But without Shepard Fairey's artistic approach and mainstream noteriety, I beleive this would be a non-issue. What do you think? - Todd