THINKing

Zigging

Back in the 20th Century when I first went into marketing, my mentor told me that when everyone else is zigging, you should consider zagging. Good advice now, as it was then. I got to thinking about this today as I was having lunch with a colleague I worked with back in that other century. More on that in a minute.

Think about what’s happening in marketing and advertising right now. Every brand is rushing to social media and converting every message into a digital one. Well, if you are going to zagnow, whatwould you do?

I’m not saying to stop social media and go totally old school from a communications perspective. What I am promoting is some old school tactics that help bring the brand to life.

My lunch companion works in events and sponsorships. Now is the time to do events. Many brands - particularly those in NASCAR - have gotten out of the events and sponsorship business recently. This means that you can do events for less money now. Why would you want to, you ask?

Whether your audience is allies, employees or customers, events - done correctly - are a great way to bring the brand to life. An event allows you the unique opportunity to inform, educate or entertain your audience. I’m not talking about a trade show. I’m talking proprietary events.

Research shows that  proprietary events are:

- rated more highly in terms of meeting the particpant’s needs than a trade show

-  more than twice as likely to result in sales compared to a trade show

- more likely to draw C-level attendees

We’ll be talking more about zagging in the days ahead. What are your thoughts on the subject?

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Steal With Style

Writers “steal with style” all the time - that is they may borrow a phrase from some other writer but somehow make it their own. Thst’s one thing, out-and-out plagiarism is another. Just received a note from Jonathan Kay at Grasshopper about an apparent idea heist. I’ll let Jonathan tell the story,

 A little over 2 months ago we released the video “Entrepreneurs Can Change the World” to spark a movement to help turnaround our economy, remind entrepreneurs why they started in the first place, and inspire others to go out and realize their dreams.   Our goal of this campaign was not to increase sales, but rather to inspire entrepreneurship.  From day 1 the only success metrics we tracked were “number of views”, and “comments & ratings”.

Recently our founder, as well as numerous employees throughout Grasshopper started receiving calls from friends asking if we had done a commercial with American Express.  People kept saying “We heard the song from your Grasshopper video on TV!”.  Like any curious person, when you hear something enough times you start to dig deeper, which is exactly what we did…We discovered Ogilvy & Mather was AMEX’s ad agency.  After some serious research and a lot of time on Google Analytics we discovered maybe it wasn’t a coincidence that Ogilvy’s new ad for AMEX is very similar to ours.  Below are a few statistics that well, made us think twice:

·         Between May 1 2009 and July 26^th 2009:

o   Ogilvy agencies visited our Grasshopper website over 15 times, spending nearly 3 hours or total viewing time.

o   The same Ogilvy agency spent the vast majority of these hours on our “idea” page which contains ONLY our video

o   The entirety of their traffic was either around May 4^th (when our campaign first launched) or the 2^nd week in July (right before their campaign launched).

o   The same Ogilvy agency then researched the producer of our video (Sonja Jacob) and visited her site 10+ times, around the exact 2 time period listed above.  All the pages they viewed were specific to Sonja’s Grasshopper work.

Now what bothered us here at Grasshopper is not how oddly similar the 2 ads are, but rather the use our message.  Ogilvy’s use of this “borrowed” message was for direct commercial gain by AMEX to promote their OPEN Forum.  We understand that here at Grasshopper we do ultimately sell a product; but the purpose of this video was to motivate entrepreneurs, or anyone for that matter, to go out and do something, make a difference.  We can’t understand why a near billion dollar agency, with so many resources couldn’t be more creative?  Either way, draw your own conclusions; I simply hope you will consider spreading the word about the video that inspired it all, “Entrepreneurs Can Change the World”, as well as the message that we really are capable of turning this country around. Here are the 2 videos and see all the analytics, and what our founder says.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6MhAwQ64c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pSkA91_nURo

What do you think? Was this an outright theft? Speak up.

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Stand By Your Brand

With apologies to Tammy Wynette, who warbled the song, Stand By Your Man, now is the time to stand by your brand. If you don’t, someone could hijack it or do it irreparable harm.

Prior to the rise of the Internet, marketers had a reasonable amount of time to respond to misinformation being spread about their brands. That was in the day of the daily newspaper. Instantaneous digital communication now makes it imperative that you be ever vigilant to online conversation about your brand.

You can’t afford to ignore it. Blake Cahaill, senior vice president at Visible Technologies, speaks to this today in a column for Marketing Daily.

Mounting pressure to be the first to break a story, and garner the highest click-throughs on salacious headlines - coupled with the rapid decline of resources allocated to ensure fair and objective reporting - have enabled inaccurate and biased information to flood the Web, often leaving a lasting effect on both businesses and personal identity. 

Complicating this picture is the flood of people joining social networks. Twitter has grown by leaps and bonds recently, according to Mashable. And as OMMA points out in a recent story,

Facebook’s seen its 35-54 demo membership blow up by 276.4 percent between June 2008 and January 2009. The 55-and over contingent grew 194.3 percent in the same amount of time. In comparison, that ever-so-sought 18-24 group bounced just 20.6 percent. The total number of Facebook users aged 35-plus in October 2007 totaled just fewer than 845,000, while as of this past January, their combined might totals just less than 8 million - 18.9 percent of the total Facebook pie.

Boomers, if we are not happy with a brand, will talk about it anytime online or offline. You need to protect your reputation. It is a bankable asset that must be kept safe. So, take Tammy’s advice, stand by your brand.

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Get Social Fresh

I’m part of a group which is presenting a social media conference, Social Fresh, in Charlotte, Monday, August 24 at the Holiday Inn Center City. Consider this your invitation to attend. You can register here. Here’s what we have announced so far:

We are very excited announce our first round of speakers. From left to right above, Jim Deitzel of Rubbermaid, Keith Burtis of Best Buy, and Social Media evangelist Wayne Sutton, Laurie Smithwick of Kirtsy.com, Chris Harrington of @VoteWoz, and Social Media developer Mike Rundle. These experts and panel announcements can all now be found on our Content page. We have many other speakers in the works from Fortune 500 companies, hip new social media companies as well as social networking power houses.

This is a solid group of social media experts. If you want to learn about where technology is going and how social media can be harnessed for business purposes, then you need to attend.

Additionally, we are accepting sponsors for the event. If you are interested, please sign up here and we’ll get back to you to discuss our sponsorship packages.

Keep apprised of more announcements by following us on Twitter @sofresh.  Below is the rest of our contact information. Hope to see you at the first Social Fresh.

Links

Site - http://socialfresh.com
Tickets - http://sofreshclt.eventbrite.com
Twitter - @sofresh
Contact - info at socialfresh.com
Hashtag - #sofresh
LinkedIn - Fresh SM Pros
Facebook - Social Fresh Page

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Social Media Generates Leads For Mainstream Marketers

More mainstream marketers are jumping on the social media bandwagon. The Center for Media Research reports,

According to a social media study by Michael Stelzner for the Social Media Success Summit 2009, 88% of marketers in a recent survey say they are now using some form of social media to market their business, though 72% of those using it say they have only been at it a few months or less. 

The study further indicates that “64% of marketers are using social media for five hours or more each week, with 39% using it 10 or more hours weekly and 9.6% spending more than 20 hours each week with social media.”

Why the sudden surge? Because it is working.

More than 80 percent of the survey respondents say social media has generated exposure; 61 percent say it has increased traffic, subscribers, list; 48 percent say it has generated leads, and 35 percent say it has helped close sales.Small business owners are most likely to report positive benefits from using social media. Its low relative cost levels the playing field.

Twitter leads the way among marketers, with 86 percent saying they have tried it. Twitter now beats out the New York Times in terms of traffic. Today, there are 10 million users, a growth rate of more than 1,000 percent in the past year. If you are new to Twitter, here is a quick overview of how to get started.

Are you using social media effectively? Tell us about it.

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Hidden Gems

I was checking out the statistics for my blog recently and found a number of excellent posts had had very little traffic. So, here is our first edition of Hidden Gems that will resurrect these overlooked posts:

Brand Euthanasia

Fighting For The Middle Ground

Client Media Relations Misconceptions

How Is Your Personal Brand Batting Average?

The Elasticity Of Truth 

Let me know what you think of these gems, please.

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Retool Your Content Marketing

Content marketers looking for a way to keep their communities informed now have a free tool for that purpose. Conduit now offers a build-your-own toolbar in which you can feature - and update - your best content. This is a great way to make sure your best content is a click away from your community members.

I’ve already built one for My Creative Team. If you download it, please let me know how you like it.

It’s simple: a step-by-step wizard walks you through the process. Says Conduit,

Whatever your users do on your website they can do with your community toolbar — from shopping to social networking to making reservations… you name it. Whole applications can even be put on the toolbar! Imagine your users always signed–in and engaged.

Advanced XML can be used for personalization and other database–driven content. Our easy API will assist with advanced features.

Keep your subscribers’ attention with exclusive new features like Community Alerts and u–Page. Choose from thousands of fun gadgets and tools, including e–mail notifier, local weather, pop–up blocker, message box, and more.

Let me know if you build one, and we’ll let the THINKing community know about it.

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Why Steve Jobs’ Health Is A Public Concern

Apple’s Steve Jobs and his PR firm are bucking the notion that the health of the ill CEO is of public concern. Ragan.com reports,

Problem is Jobs, and his PR machine, think his health should be kept private. To meet this goal, they have been—to put it kindly—less than straight-forward. For example, back in June, Apple’s PR pros blamed their boss’s notable weight loss on a “common bug.”

They are wrong to withhold this information.  Jobs, to most, is Apple. He is the brand, unlike Bill Gates at Microsoft. Gates did an excellent job of making Microsoft’s brand about the company and not reliant on him. When a person becomes the brand of a company, most of the things that can happen to the brand are bad.  Now, that is not to say that if Gates were ill, it wouldn’t be news. It’s just that there is no real Gates’ premium built into the stock price of Microsoft, as there is with Jobs and Apple.

When you are publicly traded, you must be open and as transparent as legally possible. Apple needs to start practicing transparency right now. Next, they need to show how Jobs’ creativity has been institutionalized. This helps separate Jobs from the brand and makes future executive health concerns less problematic.

I hope Jobs gets well and back to work soon.  Maybe while he is off-duty, he can think about how to change the Apple culture to one of  openness. What do you think?

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Twittering Journalists List Redux

Twittering JournalistsI’ve had several reports that people can’t see the Twittering Journalists wiki I set up. If you are having trouble, go to the bottom of the upgrade page. In small type it says “No, not now, take me to my wiki.” Click on this and it takes you to the list.

Or, I’ve copied the list into a Word document that you can download. Happy New Year.

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Branding Lessons From Santa

Every Christmas Eve, a burglar named Santa busts into homes around the world, but he has never been charged with B&E. He has one of the best, most positive brands around and it continues to inoculate him against any hint of impropriety, as it has for generations.

Why does Santa’s brand remain so strong? Because Santa is:

• Consistent

• Unique

• Customer-focused

• Viral

Let’s examine these to see what lessons we can learn.

First off, Santa has a positioning statement and has used it to stay true to his mission for decades.

It is this consistency that has helped him build a brand franchise that is the envy of other marketers. No matter what kind of communication vehicle he uses, the message is measured against the positioning statement.

Fed-Ex and UPS also deliver packages, but they don’t do it in the middle of the night in a sleigh drawn by eight tiny reindeer. Santa has cornered the market on uniqueness.

He has not strayed from the market he identified in his positioning statement. His target is not every carbon-based life form. He focuses on kids. End of story. Talk about customer intimacy. Santa has perfected data mining.

Who else knows if you:

• are sleeping or awake

• want a Barbie or a baseball bat

• have been naughty or nice

Santa invented viral marketing. As his customers get older and become parents, they market to the emerging group of customers for him. They know that if they deliver Santa’s message, they will benefit from their children’s good behavior.

And it’s not just the parents. Other marketers help him, too. Santa has never spent a dime on advertising. He has used good public relations tactics to develop, manage and maintain solid relationships with marketers who advertise for him. Consider the Coca-Cola ads featuring Mr. Claus. Think of all the newspaper inserts that carry his picture during the holidays. Then, there are all those helpers in department stores everywhere.

Because of his adherence to simple marketing tactics, everyone loves Santa. Not bad for an old burglar with a reindeer fetish.

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