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Extra! Extra! This Week’s Interesting Marketing Stories for CEOs and CMOs!
If you have an interest in sales and marketing, this post is for you. At HRB we’re constantly monitoring advertising, strategic planning, research and public relations trends that are driven by new software automation tools, unique bundling packages and social media marketing contests. Check out these stories and let us know your thoughts in the comments section or on the HRB Facebook page.
FTC Looks at Opt Out Option for Behavioral Targeting
If you have not been following the discussions surrounding online behavioral targeting and the resulting data gathering on individuals, you may want to start. Whether you are using behavioral targeting as a marketing technique or you are a consumer, you could be affected.
According to MediaPost, The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is considering a “do not track” list to address Internet advertising privacy concerns, similar to the Do Not Call Registry pertaining to telephone solicitations. To learn more about behavioral targeting visit the FTC’s Wikipedia page.
What Are America’s Favorite News Sources?
As a former journalist, I find the rapid changes in news consumption habits fascinating. Of course, age, technology and access all play a role in how we get our news.
According to a new study by Gather, Inc., individuals are increasingly turning to the Internet to find, receive, share and discuss news. The report reveals trends in how people are receiving and interacting with various Internet news outlets and starting millions of conversations across America.
For instance, a whopping 53% of people still cite newspapers as their main source of news, although 65% of respondents younger than 25 years old described their news habits as interest-based, only reading about breaking news stories or stories of interest. 70% of respondents in this age group turn to the Internet to learn more about a breaking news story and share information with others via social networks.
Marketers Increasingly Seeking Online Tracking Metrics
Marketers are slowly but consistently moving more of their marketing budgets from traditional to online sources. And, the more they spend on SEO and social media marketing, the more they want to measure ROI.
The Forbes Insights and software and analytics firm MarketShare Partners reveal that marketers and agencies continue to struggle with finding the metrics to justify dollars spent on online campaigns.
Strategic Growth Planning for Business and Marketing Success
Ever wonder why some companies turn everything they touch into gold while others struggle to capture great market share? Why marketing doesn’t work with sales?
These questions keep CEOs from sleeping at night. It takes guts and experience to bring accurate, honest analysis and advice to today’s company executives. When it comes to growing a business, most companies struggle to find just the right balance of all the right growth ingredients.
Download the HRB GROWTH brochure and perhaps you’ll see how the “domino effect” can work for your brand.
Can the iPad Slow Newspaper and Magazine Readership?
Earlier this year, just as the iPad was being launched, BtoB Magazine carried a front page story about the possible effects the Apple iPad could have on reviving the ailing print media industry. For one thing, with its vertically-oriented color screen that mimics the size of a single magazine page, the iPad is seen in some circles as an ideal device for reading digital versions of print publications.
“We feel it’s an exciting, new, major media platform, and it can’t be ignored,” said Jason Snell, Editor of IDG’s Macworld, which is currently developing an iPad application.
Jim Thebeau
Partner/CEO
Follow me on Twitter @JimThebeau
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jimthebeau
Extra, Extra! Interesting Sales and Marketing Stories for CEOs and CMOs!
If you have an interest in sales and marketing, this post is for you. At HRB we’re constantly monitoring advertising and public relations trends that are driven by new software automation tools, unique bundling packages and social media marketing contests. Check out these impressive campaigns and let us know your thoughts in the comments section or on the HRB Facebook page.
YouTube’s New Video Editor
With the launch of YouTube’s Web-based video editor, are we about to witness a hyper acceleration in consumer-generated media? Perhaps, but we’re not making any promises. As part of a broader push to empower even more online content creators, YouTube’s lead engineer Rushabh Doshi and product manager Josh Siegel created a video editor that will eventually include transitions, effects, title screens and audio layers. “It’s going to be a huge deal for anyone who uploads to YouTube on a semi-regular basis,” said Techcrunch.
Cinema Advertising Industry Revenues Increase by 2%
For anyone considering buying spots on cinema screens, you may be in good company. According to The Cinema Advertising Council (CAC), total advertising revenues for CAC members—which account for more than 82% of the 38,794 people who purchase U.S. movie screens—grew by nearly 2% to $584,067,000 in 2009 as compared to a total of $571,421,000 in 2008. This is despite a year that saw spending in other traditional media decrease significantly. The growth seems to be directly attributable to the number of blockbuster films released in the past year. Read about Cinema Advertising revenues.
Paid Search Leads Global Online Advertising
According to a study by MAGNAGLOBAL, a division of IPG’s Mediabrands, paid search has quickly become the most important component of online advertising. In 2010 this segment will account for $29.8 billion of total revenue, a substantial increase of 16.5% over 2009 totals on a constant currency basis. Although Google is the current global leader in paid search, all other online advertising—which is much more diffused with a handful of global portals, such as Yahoo and Microsoft—will account for $31.2 billion of total revenue. Read the full story on paid search by Jack Loechner of MediaPost Publications.
E-mail Marketing Still the Workhorse
We marketers are living in a revolutionary age where technology, customer expectations and an explosion of new communication channels are transforming virtually everything—from the way we do our job to our roles in our company’s success. While some employees tout e-mail as one of the more “boring” methods of communication, it has actually served as an important tool for today’s new marketing model. Here are two marketing trend examples from MediaPost that justify the relevance and vitality of e-mail marketing campaigns.
Speedier Calls to Leads Means More Conversions
When I read this study conducted by lead management company, Leads360, all I could think was WOW. According to BtoB magazine online, the study—which assessed some 20 million Internet-generated leads among its clients—reported that sales leads called within 60 seconds of being first generated online showed a fourfold (391%) advantage over average conversion rates. Leads called within 24 hours were still 17% more likely to convert than those that were not called, and 88% of leads that eventually convert were called within the first 24 hours. Impressive, to say the least.
Jim Thebeau
Partner/CEO
Follow me on Twitter @JimThebeau
Connect with me on LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jimthebeau
Was Bavaria’s Ambush Marketing Campaign at the World Cup Flat or Fresh?
The FIFA World Cup currently being held in South Africa is an absolute marketing nirvana for international brands. With hundreds of thousands of fans in and around the stadiums and billions of television viewers worldwide, the lure of being able to reach such huge audiences is irresistible. It’s three weeks of competition between countries for the championship trophy … and three weeks of brands vying for your attention.
I confess that for me watching soccer (a.k.a. “fútbol” to most of the world) is as interesting as watching a group of quilters sewing a blanket. It’s 90 minutes of guys in shorts chasing a ball, tearing up the middle of a huge field. Getting a shot past a goalkeeper is so rare that scores of 1-0 aren’t uncommon. It’s an excruciating exercise in waiting for something exciting to happen.
That said, I do find listening to or watching the fanatical fans in the grandstands to be incredibly entertaining. Now there’s some serious brand loyalty! A loyalty that has caused dangerous, even deadly riots between rival team fans to break out. Not something you could imagine at even the most hotly contested Yankees-Red Sox game.
This week, a major beer marketer, family-owned Dutch brewer Bavaria, took advantage of the World Cup frenzy with an ambush marketing campaign. A group of 36 Dutch women, wearing skimpy orange dresses, the brand color of Bavaria, entered Soccer City stadium to watch the Netherlands play Denmark. The orange-clad women made a very overt distraction for the other thousands of fans and global TV viewers. And FIFA officials.
Another brand, Anheuser Busch’s Budweiser, is the official beer for the tournament and world soccer’s governing body vigorously defends its sponsors from brands which are not FIFA partners. The result was some of the women were arrested, FIFA started legal proceedings against the Dutch brewer, news stories about it were seen all over the world … and I’m now addressing it as a blogger in Cedar Rapids, Iowa.
So the question is, was the Bavaria ambush marketing campaign a misguided stunt that ended up getting their brand in trouble? Or, was it an absolutely brilliant stroke of publicity that allowed them to get their brand name talked and written about around the globe for the price of some tickets and orange dresses?
I’d say it’s the latter … and I toast a cold Budweiser to them for their efforts!
Your Brand is an Iceberg. Why Graphic Design is Important to Your Brand.
We’ve all seen the movie “Titanic,” right? Maiden voyage, big chunk of ice gets in the way, Leon DiCaprio and the ship sink slowly to the ocean floor. You know the story. The villain in that movie was the iceberg which, considering the possible outcomes, the ship’s captain obviously didn’t respect enough to slow down and consider. It wasn’t the part of the ice he could see that did them in, it was the 85% that’s beneath the surface.
That iceberg is a good analogy for your brand. The graphic elements like your logo, ads, brochures and website represent the most visible part. They provide the visual indicators of the personality, scope and category of your company … the elements that can be easily seen. But its all those other aspects of your brand, sales and marketing, workforce, customer relations, products and services, response and delivery time etc. which represent your entire brand.
With this in mind, it is important to consider this “total mass” when developing design for a brand. Good brand design hinges on a clear understanding of how the product or service works, the primary audiences and how they make their purchasing decisions, how the sales cycle works and a complete comprehension of what the company stands for, its mission and purpose. In other words, before starting the work of design there should be a lot of “looking below the surface.”
What about the competition? Who are they? How does your company, product or service differ from others? How are you perceived? How do you want to be perceived?
By taking the time to reveal all of this detail, you have given the design team valuable insight to help them design an identity that best represents your total brand and speaks to your most critical target audiences. It helps avoid the painful rework that is inevitable when information is shared randomly during the design process. And most importantly, it will help give that other 85% of your brand more buoyancy, strength and longevity.
Jim Erkel
HRB Senior Art Director
Henry Russell Bruce is a full-service advertising agency and Internet marketing firm that focuses on branding, developing and executing marketing roadmaps, and growing companies.
The annual migration begins
Well, it’s that time of year again, when the Northern Right Whale migrates to their summer feeding grounds in the Bay of Fundy. For those not addicted to the Animal Planet channel, Spring also brings college graduation … when after four, or perhaps more, years of paying tuition, students start their forced migration from academia into the “real world.” Some of them are hoping they’ll become the next Lee Clow, Sandy DerHovsepian or Don Draper by landing their first agency job. Probably not as much as their parents though.
Here are a few tips I can offer those eager young souls looking to enter the ad biz:
A traditional 8 1/2 x 11” resume that touts your good grades and proudly mentions that you were captain of the Pom squad won’t get you an interview. Neither will a portfolio that shows you know the difference between serif and sans serif type, can use the “posterize” filter in PhotoShop or can write a headline for the Greek week dance poster. Those things got you out of college but won’t get you in to an agency.
Think of creative directors like that attractive classmate you most wanted to notice you and impress in Psychology 101. There were 200 students in that lecture hall every class. How can you stand out, look intelligent, clever, hard-working … someone they want to be around? In other words, how can you introduce your personal brand to them?
Remember what you’ve learned in college, then engage your brain. Think about something you’re most passionate about and understand well, like perhaps kayaking. Or maybe your favorite local coffee shop. Then create your own spec campaign … and show how it would work across multiple media platforms, from print, outdoor or the web. And write a brief rationale as to why you believe your campaign will work. You’ll have shown your prospective employers you know how you think. Remember, that’s what they pay people for.
Be personal. Find out who the Creative Director is and how to spell their name correctly. Letters addressed “To Whom It May Concern” quickly end up as paper airplanes or in the recycling bin. Write a personal note to the Creative Director (yes, ink on paper), introducing yourself in a friendly, professional tone. Be sure to give some hint that you’ve at least gone to that agency’s website to see their client list and work samples. Follow up in a couple of weeks with another letter, and ultimately a phone call.
When you get that interview, remember, as much as you may want the job, it really isn’t all about you. Ask questions … about the company, their clients, how they got in the business, and any tips they may have for you. The agency business is for curious and engaged people so why not start making them believe that’s you right away? First impressions are huge. Besides talent, agencies want people with genuine passion and enthusiasm for the biz. If they see you as someone unwilling to commit to more than 9-5, you’ll have a lot of unproductive interviews.
Be patient. As our economy slowly reawakens, it may take some time to find an agency willing or able to commit to a full time position. Maybe part time or hourly will work best for them at first. In the meantime, you’ll have an opportunity to prove yourself. Don’t overlook taking an entry level position. Unless your father is the chairman of IBM and would take his account to any agency that hires his offspring, you’ll probably be at the bottom of the totem pole when you start. No problem. The only way is up then, right?
Finally, when you get that job, you’ll get a job description. But don’t be afraid to stray from its “borders.” Learn everything you can about every department, every job function in the agency. You’ll build an understanding of the business that will only make you more valuable to your employer. And to the next one that discovers how talented, hardworking and enthusiastic you are.
The migration path of change and learning in this business is a never-ending but very rewarding one.
Henry Russell Bruce is a full-service advertising agency and Internet marketing firm that focuses on branding, developing and executing marketing roadmaps, and growing companies.
