W6Marketing.blogspot.com

#40 The Future of Marketing is...Social.

2010-08-30T11:47:00.005-04:00

Audiences today do not want to be talked at. They want to be engaged in conversation. Social media gives us the power to do this, allowing us to define and control our brand. There is a shift from corporations and institutions to individuals and communities. Here are a few tips to take advantage of social media.

Facebook. To help spread the word about a new campaign, why not ask employees to change their Facebook status to announce your latest campaign? If you have 20,000 employees, most likely 10,000 of them have Facebook. With the average person having 100 friends, your announcement could receive over 1 million impressions for free. Ask employees to include their LinkedIn Profiles – now you have 2 million impressions for free

YouTube. Create a YouTube channel dedicated to teaching people more about your industry. This channel would feature a series of short, focused videos that educate your audience on related topics that help position you as an industry expert. The videos could highlight benefits and features of your products.

Twitter. To help build and establish your company as an industry expert, top executives should create Twitter accounts to help position your company’s executives as thought leaders in the industry. Tweets should be business-related topics that talk about industry trends and forecasts. Zappos CEO has 1.6 million followers and is following almost 400K people. A total of 430 Zappos Employees have Twitter accounts. This presence helps Zappos engage and participate in conversations about their company.

Flickr. Flickr is a great way to help promote events that your company sponsors. Photos can be optimized to show up in search results and increase brand awareness. Using Flickr to increase branding opportunities for KeyBank’s sponsorship of a 10K race, the Key “Bank to Bay” gallery has alone received 6,000 views following the event.

W6M: People visit social media sites every day, why not join them in what they are already doing?

#39 WeReward Allows You to Measure Cost Per Purchase

2010-06-01T10:48:00.015-04:00

WeReward, a mobile incentive platform that pays cash to consumers for actions they take in the real world, launches today in front of more than 1,000 technologists, entrepreneurs and venture capitalists at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference in New York City.

W6M: Basically you earn money for visiting/making purchases at designated stores. The visits/purchases are varified using your social media accounts (Facebook, Forsquare and Twitter).

WeReward could really help advertisers measure Cost Per Purchase. I typically recommend incorporating Pay Per Click into your marketing mix because it offers the ability to measure ROI when purchases are made online. Results get a little skewed when people research info online, but then purchase offline (in the store). WeReward could really help track a promotion through a store purchase. In a related story, NY Times reports on using Foursquare to replace all those rewards cards you have in your wallet.

#38 Five Tips to Get Your Audience’s Attention

2010-05-13T10:06:00.005-04:00

With the average person being exposed to 5,000 branded messages every day, how do you get your audience’s attention? Here are five tips you should consider when approaching your next marketing project.

Be Experimental. If you continue to do the same thing, you will always get the same results. When you experiment, you can figure out what works and what doesn’t. Always try to test and learn. Check out the case study video on KeyBank’s Cavs Snuggie Night Promotion.
Be Your Own Champion. If you can’t get excited about your campaign, why would others? As soon as you complete a project, go online and tell your friends. Use your Email Signature, Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter or YouTube.
Be Quick to React. Traditional media may take a couple weeks to print and distribute. But digital media allows you to implement a new message immediately. Using digital outdoor boards, KeyBank was able to create billboards with custom messages before and after each Cavs game during the 2010 playoffs.
Get Attention. Which ads grab your attention when you look through a magazine? If you put your ad in the same magazine, do you think it would catch your attention? Do you think others will stop and look at it?
Take Advantage of Loyal Audiences. Convince one person with a loyal following to support you and that center of influence will convince their supporters to follow you. Seth Godin has a great speech about Why Tribes will change the world.

W6M: The best way to get your audience’s attention is to try something new.

#37 Brilliant Move Pepsi

2010-01-27T16:11:00.014-05:00

By now you have heard that Pepsi recently became one of the first companies to pull its Super Bowl ad spend and redirect it to social media. Breaking a 23-year tradition, Pepsi instead will invest in a social media campaign called the "Pepsi Refresh Project" to help fund charity projects.

W6M: Whoever suggested that Pepsi not advertising this year would be the best way to make a splash on Superbowl Sunday, should be given a promotion. Seriously, I could only imagine the team that pitched that idea.

AE, "Are you ready for the big presentation today?"

Creative Director, "Oh shoot...that's today?!? Don't worry, I got an idea. Just play along. Instead of spending $50 million to produce and air a spot during the Superbowl, I am going to recommend we take the day off."

Well, they bought it. And strategically with all major brands fighting over a few seconds during the game, Pepsi seems to be a winner owning the media two weeks prior to the event.

#36 Google QR Codes

2009-12-08T11:08:00.007-05:00

According the NY Times, in the coming weeks, Google plans to send out 100,000 of these stickers, each with their own QR code, to a new demographic of businesses Google is calling “Favorite Places”. These favorites are based on search results from users interacting with local business listings on Google Maps.

W6M: I knew that QR Codes had been around in Asia for years. I am really excited to see what happens when they hit the U.S.

#35 The Fun Theory

2009-10-13T14:30:00.007-04:00

Volkswagen believes that the easiest way to change people's behavior for the better is by making it fun to do. They call it The Fun Theory.

W6M: Volkswagen tried something different and almost 2 Million people watched it in 6 days. Impressive. Even more impressive is the fact that they were able to change people's behavior, choosing stairs over escalators. How do you plan to change your audiences' behavior?

#34 Choose Your Own Ending

2009-08-25T18:25:00.004-04:00

Digital Buzz: YouTube campaigns are changing and so are the ways you can develop interactivity with video. Since the introduction of video hotlinks we’ve seen more and more “interactive” videos & story telling campaigns emerging. This new campaign called “Choose Your Own Ending” by DropTheWeapons.org is an interactive film that allows you to decide what happens next. You can interact with it, choose what to do and decide how it ends!

W6M: This is a fresh idea that you will start to see more of. If you grew up reading "Choose your own adventure" stories, you are really going to appreciate these. The campaign created by DropTheWeapons.org is outstanding.

#33 Kickin it Old School

2009-08-12T15:55:00.008-04:00

Marketing Profs article Kickin it old school reports "Social media, email, search engine marketing, interactive marketing, blogs, wikis, and knols—the list goes on … to include mobile marketing, podcasting, videos." But in your rush to marketing's online future, you shouldn't abandon its offline past. Print collateral, argues Fogel, remains relevant.

Despite the seeming ubiquity of Internet access and usage, many people simply don't go online.
Some segments prefer print marketing.
Even though digital marketing is growing with a vengeance, print collateral can still hold its place in an integrated marketing communications mix, at least for now."

W6M: When you are putting together a marketing plan, keep in mind a comprehensive approach using both traditional and digital efforts is your best bet.

#32 Talk and listen to your customers

2009-07-25T16:37:00.002-04:00

From the past to the future, Best Buy CMO Barry Judge tells the story of how Best Buy's Marketing Capability talks (and listens) to its customers.

W6M: Digital is going to play a big role, but I am all about comprehensive campaigns. Some highlights from this video include:

Talk with your clients, not to them
Create an experience in stores, show them what they can do with your products
Transparency builds trust
Encourage employees to talk about their jobs

#31 Social Bookmarking in Plain English

2009-07-20T15:01:00.007-04:00

A short explanation of the features and benefits of Social Bookmarking sites like Delicious.com. This video shows you how to keep all your favorite websites organized.

W6M: I know that I am a little behind the curve on this one. For those of you already in the know about Social Bookmarking, I apologize. If you are in the minority of people that have no clue what Social Bookmarking is you may want to check this video out. Then if you want, you can follow me on http://delicious.com/w6talent/.

At minimum you should visit delicious and see who is bookmarking your site.

#30 Why tribes, not money or factories, will change the world

2009-07-16T14:28:00.007-04:00

Seth Godin argues the Internet has ended mass marketing and revived a human social unit from the distant past: tribes. Founded on shared ideas and values, tribes give ordinary people the power to lead and make big change. He urges us to do so.

W6M: If we convince one person with a loyal following to support you, that Center of Influence will convince his tribe to follow you.

Mass Marketing has been replaced by targeted marketing. -nternet allows you to target silos of similar interests.
Take a close look at changing behavior and connecting with Center’s of Influence.
Find people who care and believe in your idea and they will spread your message.
Tell a story > Connect a Tribe > Lead a Movement > Make a Change

#29 Apps Get Real

2009-07-15T09:14:00.005-04:00

Gravitytank, an innovation and growth consultancy based in Chicago, recently completed a comprehensive study on mobile apps - those bite-sized applications on smartphones that are changing how we interact with software, our phones, big brands, our health, and much more.

You knew this intuitively. But interesting to see the numbers: The more time iPhone users spend with their apps, the less time they spend watching TV, reading newspapers, using PCs and pretty much everything else.

W6M: iPhone Apps allow for a much more targeted audience. The are not only fun, but they are useful tools. Expect to see more apps in the future. Currently iPhone dominates the App arena, but expect to see Google, T-Moblie and BlackBerry catching up soon.

#28 The Decline of Traditional Advertising...What does that mean?

2009-07-09T13:31:00.014-04:00

Forrester Research released its five year forecast that estimates interactive marketing spending from 2009 – 2014. Forrester predicts that interactive marketing in the US will near $55 billion and represent 21% of all marketing spend by 2014 and will include search marketing, display advertising, email marketing, social media, and mobile marketing.

W6M: A co-worker just passed along this article on how traditional advertising is on the decline. If you read it closely, this article applies to agencies that don't adapt. Lucky for us, we adapt well.

My job isn't traditional advertising. My job is to create solutions to business problems for my clients. In my experience, the best solutions are typically an integrated approach of the mediums that best reach my targeted audience. You tell me what your objective is. I recommend the best approach.

#27 Google Wave. Your computer just got cooler. Your life just got easier.

2009-06-23T21:11:00.020-04:00

Google Wave is a new tool for communication and collaboration on the web, coming later this year.

W6M: This video is long and has some bad jokes, but it is worth it. If you don’t have time to watch the video, just imagine one tool for:

Email + Instant Message + Bulletin Board + Blog + Photo Sharing + Facebook + Mobile Phone + Collaborating on Documents + Keyword Tags + Smart spell check + Improved Work Flow + Playback + Polls + Twitter + Maps + Real Time Translation. Add those up together and you have Google Wave. http://wave.google.com/

#26 I heard about the recession and decided not to participate

2009-05-26T10:31:00.012-04:00

The Glass is Half FULL

W6M: This is a great presentation about the importance of marketing in a recession. Here are some of my takeaways.

Times are tough right now for everyone and marketing budgets are being scaled back. Now is a great opportunity to pull away from the pack and increase your market share and decrease your ROI.
I love the Sam Walton quote on the recession, "I've thought about it, and decided not to partcipate.
Increasing advertising during economic expansion often yields no improvement, because your comeptitors are doing the same thing.
Tips: Listen, Engage and Measure

#25 SlideShare is a Great Reference Tool

2009-04-30T17:02:00.010-04:00

SlideShare is a presentation sharing website where users can upload, view and share presentation files.

W6M: Friends have been talking about it for a while now, but I really just started to pay closer attention to it. I think it is a great place to learn about current marketing trends and they have some great examples of the right way to create a PowerPoint presentation. Here are are couple good examples:

Let us know if you find any presentations that you want to share.

#24 Jailbreak your iPhone...You will love it.

2009-04-26T23:03:00.011-04:00

The iPod Touch/iPhone hacking community responds to the newest vendor updates by creating new ways to enable third party apps almost immediately. It was only in the wake of the popularity of the iPhone that the term jailbreaking became well known in popular culture worldwide.

W6M: I heard about Jailbreaking the iPhone a while back, but never tried it out until now. It basically gives you access to tons of apps that have not been released by iTunes. If you Google "how to jailbreak iphone" and you can easily find directions on how to do it. Here are a few things that I quickly discovered. You can:

Pick new themes that change up your icons
Turn your camera into a video camera
Change your background to more than just a wallpaper
Have backgrounds on your text messages.
Download Apps not found on the Apple App Store.

Let us know if you find any cool jailbreak apps that you recommend.

#23 Everyone is Bumping

2009-04-14T22:10:00.007-04:00

The new iPhone app, called "Bump," transfers data from one iPhone to another simply by bumping each other. While one person holds an iPhone, he "bumps" hands with another user holding her iPhone. Then detailed contact information or just select data, such as a phone number, is shared.

W6M: Sign up for this, then tell your friends. This App is going to be huge. I love checking out new Apps and will share cool ones when I come across them. If you have any cool Apps that we should know about, let me know.

#22 What is Green Marketing?

2009-03-01T19:21:00.014-05:00

About.com says Green marketing is the process of selling products and/or services based on their environmental benefits. Such a product or service may be environmentally friendly in itself or produced and/or packaged in an environmentally friendly way.

The obvious assumption of green marketing is that potential consumers will view a product or service's "greenness" as a benefit and base their buying decision accordingly. The not-so-obvious assumption of green marketing is that consumers will be willing to pay more for green products than they would for a less-green comparable alternative product - an assumption that has not been proven conclusively

W6W: Some marketers avoid "Going Green" because it's perceived to be more expensive. Short term it may be, but long term it will pay off in dividends. Some marketers are worried about people thinking they are just jumping on the bandwagon. Well, it's a good bandwagon to be on. If you are worried about a Green Backlash, you don't have to say you are 100% Green, just be honest and let them know you are taking steps to changes things where you can. Check out some of the latest Green efforts.

Let us know if you have seen any Green Marketing efforts that inspire you.

#21 PhotoFunia

2009-02-27T11:16:00.012-05:00

I recently discovered a new website called PhotoFunia.com. Again, when I say new, I mean new to me. Basically, Photofunia is an online image editing tool that allows users to insert their pictures into fun shots.

W6M: You really just have to see this to believe it. No real explaination needed. This site is very cool, very viral. Don't be tricked by your friends that created pictures using PhotoFunia.

If you have any similar sites that you would like to share, let us know.

#20 Social Media Map

2009-01-09T09:47:00.008-05:00

Social media are the means for any person to: publish digital creative content; provide and obtain real-time feedback via on-line discussions, commentary, and evaluations; and incorporate changes or corrections to the original content.

W6M: A number of my posts talk about social media (YouTube, Facebook, Blogs, etc.). When I found this Social Media Map created by Overdrive Interactive, I thought I would include it for reference.

When you create a viral video, the first site you think about uploading your video to is YouTube. But there are a dozen more Top Tier sites that you shoud also submit your video to.
When you optimizing your site, people typically focus on Yahoo, Google and MSN. There are again a dozen more Top Tier sites that you should also try to get listed on. Your competition may be duking it out on Google, which would allow you to take over ask.com or dogpile.com.
When you think Social Media, you want to create videos, get ranked on the search engines, blog, wiki and podcast. Try to take advantage of these and figure out what works best for you.

My advice would be to not focus on a single area or site, but get listed on as many possible.

#19 NY Times Top 10 Viewed Features of 2008

2009-01-08T17:38:00.007-05:00

Here are the Top 10 Viewed Features of 2008 on NYTimes.com between Tuesday, January 1, 2008 - Wednesday, December 31, 2008.

W6M: The top stories of the year always interest me, thought I would share. Scandal and Politics seem to be the major themes of 2008. The most amazing story to me is the American Idol story. Although these mostly aren't marketing related, I am always fascinated by what people find interesting. I also like to check YouTube frequently to see what the top videos are for the Day, Week,

#18 Handrail Advertising

2009-01-08T10:43:00.015-05:00

An article on Greatoutdoornetwork.com reported that Escalator Handrail Advertising achieves unprecedented 76% unprompted advertising recall. The results far out-performed competing out of home media such as billboards, street furniture or shopping centre panels.

76% unprompted advertising recall
75% unprompted brand recall
85% prompted advertising recall

W6M: It's been a while since my last post, finally found something interesting for me to write about. The idea of guerrilla marketing (which I define is non-traditional advertising or something that cuts through the clutter) always interests me. You could try to probably pull off messaging, or just simply use your logo. My creative director suggested customizing up/down messaging. Cav’s RISE UP or Bob Evans DOWN ON THE FARM.

#17 Photo Booth - Event Marketing

2008-11-14T11:54:00.008-05:00

I haven't had a chance to do this yet, but if you are looking for a cool idea for your clients next big event, you may want to try to set up a photo booth for attendees. The idea is to have people take pictures in a booth (perhaps provide them props to make it interesting) and have the photos appear on TVs or projectors through out the event. This is a great way to entertain guests.

W6M: If you want to do this right, set up a landing page to drive people online the next day. People will visit your website the next day and perhaps email their friends a link to their pictures. For a little extra branding, consider adding your logo or url to all the photos.

#16 Bank to Bay - Multichannel Communication

2008-11-13T15:27:00.019-05:00

In 2000, KeyBank and the City of Tacoma partnered up to develop 10k/5k Run called Bank to Bay as a means to showcase the growth and development of downtown Tacoma and to promote good health, family fun, and community spirit. Key asked us to develop the marketing materials for this race which included print, radio, TV, online, direct mail, in-store merchandising, street banners, race signage and more.

This race has been an extremely popular event in the City of Tacoma. Over the past several years, race entrants has been steady around 1,800 runners. With the addition of a website and a MySpace page this year, we were able to increase entrants to over 2,000 runners. This was a substantial increase for us that we look to build on next year.

W6M: I included this example because Bank to Bay is a great example of an integrated campaign using multiple marketing channels. As mentioned above, we reach our audience through a variety of marketing channels. We realized that our print, radio and TV communications have reached as many people as we could. We now needed to try other mediums to help increase the number of runners for the race. I feel that a successful campaign should incorporate a consistent message, consistent design, frequency of message and multiple channels. You don't need to own each channel.

How do we plan to continue marketing the race?
Traditional marketing (print, radio and TV) will remain constant, however we would like to promote stronger online by adding a FaceBook page and seeding the site on related sites. The objective behind seeding is to find related running sites and have them link to your site (offering them a reciprocal link is always a nice gesture). If you do a quick search on Google you can currently see who links to your site. Your goal is to make sure people who already link to you have your updated info and to figure out who else should be linking to your site.

About the Design
I also wanted to take this opportunity to mention a little about the design. Our agency has been involved with this race for 8 years now. The challenge is to come up with something new and fresh each year. We also have to keep in mind that the race is for professional runners, as well as first time runners and families with kids. Creatively we have to make sure the design is appealing to all audiences.

The website is also challenging because we don't want to have to do a complete redesign each year. We have therefore designed the site so color bars and photos can be easily updated each year to be consistent with the design of new materials each year.

#15 Online Marketing a Closer Look at Tracking Your Traffic

2008-11-08T20:02:00.016-05:00

Learn more about where your visitors come from and how they interact with your site. Google Analytics is free to everyone, whether you are an advertiser, publisher, or site owner.

W6M: I recently added Google Analytics to help track visitors to my site. I am not really the HTML coding expert, but I did a quick Google search how to track traffic and I was able to find easy to follow instructions.

Once the code is added, you can track the number of visitors, what sites link to you, what keywords were used to find you site and even what city the visitors came from. You can also see how long people spent on your site and what pages they visited. With this data you can see what content people are reading and what content they are ignoring. This will be a useful tool for you to use when deciding what content to update. If anyone ever reads this blog I will make sure to pass along an update.

For your online marketing campaigns, you can also track the success of your campaign. Specifically, Pay Per Click and Banner Ad campaigns allow you to track impressions, clicks and conversions. I talked about this in an earlier post, but online conversion numbers may only be part of the story. That banner ad impression may have led to the in-store purchase, which does not get accounted for in your online conversion numbers. Any influence your online campaign ad may have had on the instroe purchase is ignored in your online conversion results.

Knowing the data and being able to understand it is important to being able to sell this offering to your client.

#14 Online Marketing a Closer Look at Behavioral Targeting

2008-11-08T20:02:00.015-05:00

Behavioral targeting (BT) is an advertising methodology in which an advertiser’s creative is shown to users based on the sites they visit and/or what the user does on those sites. The network or publisher creates behavioral segments based on where the user has gone and/or what they have done on various web pages. These are typically broad based descriptions like “Travel Shoppers” or “Auto Enthusiasts”, but they can also be very specific to an advertiser like “Users who put items in their shopping cart, but did not check out”. Another example is a segment based on users who have searched for an advertiser’s company name or product name.

W6M: Banner Ads have terrible click through rates and even worse conversion rates. However, they are starting to grow on me. I always tell clients online is great because you can tracks results. Kind of.

An example that was presented to me was Corona. They spend money on print, radio, online and TV. Then a person goes into a bar and sees a neon sign that says Drink Corona. The neon sign then gets all the credit for closing the deal. Do you think Corona will stop print, radio, online and TV advertising and only focus on neon signs? Probably not. So although banners can track online conversion rates, this is only a part of the results. Also, I have seen reports that PPC in combination with Targeted Banner ads, helps increase the conversions of PPC substantially.

Now, back to Behavioral Targeting. If you are planning a trip to Vegas and you search for flights and hotels for a couple days. The next day you will notice banner ads popping up on Cleveland.com for a car rental in Vegas. Third parties use Cookies and Software to identify you for advertisers. Now, all the sudden I have Vegas companies reaching me where I live.

Next time your are working on a media recommendation, I definitely recommend taking a look at adding Behaviorally Targeted banner ads as part of your media mix.

#13 Online Marketing a Closer Look at Pay Per Click (PPC)

2008-11-08T20:00:00.011-05:00

Online advertising payment model in which payment is based solely on qualifying click-throughs. In a PPC agreement, the advertiser only pays for qualifying clicks to the destination site based on a prearranged per-click rate. Popular PPC advertising options include per-click advertising networks, search engines, and affiliate programs.

W6M: Most marketers think no one clicks on the paid listings, this is not true. Most people prefer the natural organic listings, but data shows that people do click on paid links. Since getting ranked in the top organic results is often difficult, PPC is an easy way to get your site listed at the top of the search results right away.

If you look at "car insurance" and similar related insurance products/terms, Progressive always Ranks at the top. They have an army of employees and an endless budget. For certain terms they may spend $5, $10, and maybe $25 per word. If you are competing in this market, keep in mind that being 2nd, 3rd or 4th position will still get you a substantial amount of traffic. You might only pay a fraction of what the top bid is. Keep in mind that if they are spending $10 per bid and they have a $1,000 daily spend, their budget will run out quickly and you will move up in the rankings.

Also, know when and where your customers are buying. If you only sell products from 5 pm - 8 pm, then you should day part your campaign to only run during those hours. If your customers typically work all week and shop on the weekend, then only run your campaign on the weekend.

If you know where your customers are you can also GeoTarget with PPC. If you are a "Cleveland Pizza" place, PPC allows you to geographically target people close to your location.

#12 Online Marketing a Closer Look at Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

2008-11-08T19:59:00.029-05:00

Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of improving the volume and quality of traffic to a web site from search engines via "natural" ("organic" or "algorithmic") search results. Usually, the earlier a site is presented in the search results, or the higher it "ranks," the more searchers will visit that site. SEO can also target different kinds of search, including image search, local search, and industry-specific vertical search engines.

W6M: Search Engines are basically modern day phone book. If I needed a bank back in the day, you would have opened up the yellow pages and looked under "bank". Now a days, people go on on Search Engines like Google and search for the term or keyword "bank".

This may change by the time you read this, but Bank of America currently comes up first on the left hand side in what they call the natural listings (these are the non-paid listings). Basically, BofA did a good job of optimizing their site to come up first and Google granted them the #1 spot telling people that BofA is the most relevant website to your term.

How did BofA get to be #1 on Google?
That's are hard one. Google like other search engines, uses advanced algorithms that are proprietary to their companies. However, there are a few known variables that search engines consider when ranking you in their results. Here are some quick tips.

Submit your site: You should submit your site to the major search engines to let them know you are around. They can't find you if they don't know you are there. Search for "Submit site to Google" and they will tell you how.

DMOZ: This is the Open Directory Project. I always submit my sites here first. Read up how to suggest a URL and it will be worth your time.

Content is King: If you continue to add relevant useful content to your site, search engines will notice and reward you for it.

Keyword density: When adding copy to your site, it should focus on specific topics and repeat the keyword you are targeting. If you the BoA homepage has "bank" on the page a number of times, but keep in mind if you just repeat the word "bank" 50 times on your site they may consider you a spammer and knock you out of their results for good.

Meta Tags: I have been told search engines don't look at these too much anymore, but I would add them on anyways. The Title Tag and Description Tags are used in the search engine results so these are helpful in getting people to click on your link when they do appear in the results. Keyword tags are they other tags that I like to include.

Inbound Links: If a popular site considers you a good reference for their readers, they will link to you. Search Engines take this into account and will rank you higher the more time legit sites link to you. Sites with .edu, .org and .gov will help you rank even higher.

Outbound Links: Offering a reciprocal link is a good way to get other sites to link to your site. If you promise to link to their site, often sites are willing to link to you. Not always the case though. Nike loves when you link to them, but as you will notice, they don't link to many external sites.

In Summary

There is a lot to learn about online advertising. You don't need to be an expert on everything, but you should be familiar with the basics. Staying on top of current trends is also important.

#11 Online Marketing

2008-11-08T19:58:00.010-05:00

Online Marketing is defined as using the interactive technologies available via the Internet to further create a dialog with potential customers by connecting with them with good educational content about your company's products or service offerings.

W6M: Online Marketing includes using Search Engine Optimization, Pay Per Click, Banner Advertising, Facebook, YouTube, Banner Ads and more. I will get into more details with the following posts on SEO, PPC and Social Media, but I just wanted to be clear that Online Marketing is basically the umbrella for all these efforts. The following posts have high level explanations, so the average marketer can understand what they will need to know to sell online marketing to their client.

#10 Business Etiquette

2008-11-08T11:27:00.018-05:00

The etiquette of business is the set of written and unwritten rules of conduct that make social interactions run more smoothly. Office etiquette in particular applies to coworker interaction, excluding interactions with external contacts such as customers and suppliers. Both office and business etiquette overlap considerably with basic tenets of netiquette. These rules are often echoed throughout an industry or economy.

W6M: Coming up with a great Marketing Strategy and great Creative is just the start. You also have to prove to the client and your coworkers that you are competent and professional. Here are a few small tips that may be helpful.

Dress: Friday is usually casual at work. Wear what you want. However, keep in mind that your client may call a meeting or drop by at any time. If they are in a suite and tie, are you going to feel comfortable meeting with them in your shorts and flip flops.

Proofing: Even if you are presenting the greatest campaign ever, the only thing the client will remember is that glaring spelling mistake you made. They pay you a lot of money not to make mistakes. With that said, don't be too critical of my spelling, no one is paying me for this blog.

Email Attachments: Nothing makes me crazier than forgetting an attachment or adding the wrong one to an email. Make sure to double check your attachments before sending to the client.

Email Content: Try to be short and concise when writing emails. Paragraphs should be broken up. Bullets should be used when possible.

Signature: It's important to always have your Name, Title, Address, Phone, Fax and Email address on your signature.

Voicemail: When you call someone and leave a voicemail, start the message with your name, company name and phone number. Then a short message followed up with your name, company name and phone number again. This gives them a second chance to write down your info. If they have to rewind and play again, your info is at the front of your message.

Answering the phone: Even with caller ID, I always answer the phone by saying my name first. Introducing yourself when you answer the phone sounds more professional.

Gossip: Careful what you say. Careful what you email. Its hard to bite your tongue some times, but try.

Websites: Careful what sites you visit at work. Large companies restrict what sites you can visit. Smaller companies don't typically block sites, but they do monitor sites. Most companies have software that can monitor if you are on a work related site or not.

Office All Emails: Try to avoid sending out non-work related emails to the entire office. If you feel that you need to share with the entire office, I would recommend putting your email in the To: line, then Bcc: Office All. That way you can avoid Reply Alls.

Reply All Emails: When someone does send out a Mass Email, try to avoid Reply Alls. Not everyone on the original email wants to hear what you have to say. People busy at work are especially overwhelmed with emails, don't add any unwanted emails.

Log Time: Ad Agencies get paid by logging their time against specific jobs. Make sure to log your time accurately. Even if you are on a retainer, this will help you determine how profitable a client is. Also, try to log your time daily. Trying to log your time once a month will result in many inaccuracies.

#9 Guerrilla Marketing Defined

2008-11-07T14:02:00.009-05:00

The term guerrilla marketing was coined by Jay Conrad Levinson in his 1984 book Guerrilla Marketing as an unconventional system of promotions on a very low budget, by relying on time, energy and imagination instead of big marketing budgets. The term has since entered the popular vocabulary to also describe aggressive, unconventional marketing methods generically.

Aqua Teen Hunger Force: 2007 Boston Mooninite Scare is probably the most famous example. On 31 January 2007, several guerrilla-marketing magnetic light displays in and around the city of Boston, Massachusetts, were mistaken for possible explosive devices. Several subway stations, bridges, and a portion of Interstate 93 were closed as police examined, removed, and in some cases, destroyed the devices. The suspicious objects were revealed to be ads depicting the Mooninites, Ignignokt and Err, characters from the Cartoon Network's latenight Adult Swim animated television series Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

W6M: I hesitated to include the Aqua Teen example because bomb scares are typically frowned upon, but thought I would include it as a warning to be careful when you try something. This promotion obviously did a great job of Market Disruption, but you really have to be careful. My personal definition of guerrilla marketing is doing something that is not the standard print, radio and TV and cuts through the clutter. And when I present guerrilla concepts I ask myself:

Can I track results? How?
If you are only concerended with branding, results can be quantified by keeping track of video views, media impressions, blogs you appear on and traffic to your site. When you are promoting a specific product and you appear in print, radio and TV at the same time, tracking gets a little trickier. For one promotion that we did, we gave people extra incentive to bring in flyers from the guerilla campaign when signing up for our offer.

Is the concept legal?
I am sure the Aqua Teen marketers had no clue people would think the toys were bombs, but try to consider any negative repercussions that might result from your promotion.

Can I physically pull it off? Do I have enough time and money?
If you pitch an idea and the cleint likes it, are you going to be able to deliver. Also, guerrilla ideas are suppose to be cheaper ideas that get big bang for your buck. You don't always have to spend big to get results, but you do have to be creative.

Does the promotion reach my targeted audience?
A good campaign will reach a highly target audience. Spill over into mass audience is a bonus.

Will it disrupt the market?
Again, the point is to get attention and have people tell their friends about your product. Disrupting the market can also have negative backlash that you may not want your brand associated with.

#8 Running From Camera

2008-11-06T16:33:00.002-05:00

The rules are simple: Muggezifter puts the self-timer on 2 seconds, push the button and try to get as far from the camera as he can.

W6M: I had to include my man Muggezifter on my blog. I found his site a couple years ago and keep returning to check out new pictures. He has a unique style and it works. When you are working on projects for your clients, try to keep Muggezifter in mind. Not suggesting you copy his style, he likes to call those people out "It ain't me babe". But rather do something unique that makes you stand out against the crowd. You will know you made it when people start to copy you.

#7 The 2008 Presidential Election Goes Viral

2008-11-06T16:18:00.005-05:00

The election has come and gone. The results are in and Obama crushed the web. From the Obama Sneaker to the Obama Girl he was every where. One of the founders of Facebook teamed up with Obama to help spread the word online. I am guessing that like me, about 100 of your Facebook friends posted this on their profile status:

W6M is the 1,357,978th person to donate their status to get out the vote for Barack Obama today. Donate yours: causes.com/election.

Whoever was in charge of online for McCain, was a little less successful. I did not see one McCain comment on anyone's Facebook page. However, I did see some great SNL skits and a few great photoshopped images of Palin.

W6M: Try to take advantage of all mediums. Print and TV advertising is great mass marketing, but niche marketing on Facebook, YouTube, blogs and other areas is a great opportunity to reach a highly targeted audience.

If there are any politicians reading this, feel free to steal this idea. Start A Blog. People don't really know what you do all day and what types of decisions you have to make. Tell me what decisions you are making and why. Even you have to make a decision on my behalf just tell me you voted this way because and I will vote for you the next time. Politics has too many smoke and mirrors, how about some transparency and honesty?

#6 Electronic Graffiti - Laser Tag System

2008-11-06T15:47:00.005-05:00

In its simplest form the Laser Tag system is a camera and laptop setup, tracking a green laser point across the face of a building and generating graphics based on the laser's position which then get projected back onto the building with a high power projector.

W6M: A while back I found Evan Roth's Graffiti Analysis website and loved the work. I have been trying to pitch the concept to my clients, but not having much luck. I think even using the projector to get a video on the side of a building would be cool. Let me know if anyone had any luck pitching to their clients.

#5 Create Your Own Word Cloud

2008-11-06T14:20:00.003-05:00

Wordle is a toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. The images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can print them out, or save them to the Wordle gallery to share with your friends.

W6M: I have not used this as a design yet, but I thought it was a pretty interesting idea. Its important to always be on the look out for the latest design trends. It's also important that you evolve your brand as design styles change. Being ahead of the curve is even better, but you never want to be behind the curve. Let me know what you think.

#4 My Top 5 iPhone Applications

2008-11-06T12:41:00.001-05:00

I made a list of my Top 5 iPhone Applications. If you go on YouTube you can search for iPhone Applications and there are a ton of videos out there about other applications available, the above video takes a closer look at one of my Top 5 iPhone Applications.

Urbanspoon - tells you what cool restaurants are available around town

Facebook - lets you access your account on your phone. I have the Myspace application also, but I am not a big fan. Most of my friends seem to be switching over to Facebook.

Sportacular - let's you get up to the minute scores on most major sports. This is a must have for sports fans.

Marketing Profs - this application is a great source for marketing info. It's bascially cliff notes for marketing profesionals on popular articles, case studies and seminars.

Shazam - Next time you are listening to the radio and want to know the name and artist that is currently playing, Shazam can tell you want the name of the song and let you download it from iTunes.

If anyone has suggestions on other cool applications, let me know.

W6M: iPhone and PDAs are becoming the norm. Marketers should attempt to take advantage of these and other new marketing mediums when they can. Do you have any clients that could benefit or take advantage of marketing on the iPhone?

#3 iPhone 3G Proves To Be Worth It - See if you qualify for an AT&T Discount

2008-11-06T11:47:00.001-05:00

Obviously I am a little behind the curve on this one, but I finally broke down and got the iPhone and love it. Since purchasing the phone in July, I have tried to convince all my friends to get one.

The phone itself is decent, sometimes I lose a call here and there, but you will have that. The real draw though is everything else the phone offers.

My work email and Gmail all feed into one easy to use location. I can't figure out how to get Hotmail to sync up though. I am guessing Apple doesn't want to play nice. I tried to forward my Hotmail to my Gmail account, but looks like Microsoft doesn't want to play nice either.
The iPhone allows you access to tons of great applications. You can search what the top free and paid apps are. Usually the paid apps have similar versions that are available for free.
GPS is a little tricky to use while you are driving, but works pretty well.
Camera takes decent pictures, but no video on the 3G.
Youtube works great, but iPhone does not support flash so some websites are hard to access.
Contacts, Favorites and Recent calls are easy to access.

Also, AT&T offers cell phone discounts to companies and schools. Looks like my company does not get one, but yours might. I typed in my college email address and it worked. As long as your account is active, you might be eligible for a discount.

https://www.wireless.att.com/business/enrollment/

W6M: Your clients are always looking to test out the next best thing. If you aren't up to date on the latest technologies, your clients may look elsewhere. Try to be on top of the latest and greatest. You may miss out if you don't.

#2 Cleveland Stands Together Against Neighborhood Crime Everyday (STANCE)

2008-11-06T11:23:00.003-05:00

We recently launched a branding campaign called Standing Together Against Neighborhood Crime Everyday (STANCE), which is aimed at reducing gangs in Cleveland. If you are familiar with DARE the anti-drug campaign, STANCE is similar, but the anti-gang counterpart.

Troy Smith and Ted Ginn, Sr. were the first two spokesmen to team up with STANCE. They are featured in print, radio and TV. The campaign is anchored around www.ClevelandStance.com/ where people can get more info about preventing gangs.

One really vital part of the campaign for us was the development of our Facebook page. Three weeks after launching the site, we had over 550 friends. Feedback has been very positive and it turns out Facebook has been an effective tool for reaching our audience.

W6M: This has been an extremely fun campaign to work on. When you have a chance to work on a pro-bono client, take advantage of your chance to do cool creative. This is a chance to build your portfolio, meet some celebs and perhaps experiment with new marketing mediums. We have attempted to promote on MySpace before with a decent response, but we have been extremly successful with promoting Stance on Facebook. Careful though not to request too many friends at one time or they may block you as a Spammer.

#1 Carmelo Anthony Etch A Sketch Video wins 2008 ABA Best in Show Award

2008-11-06T10:54:00.003-05:00

The 2008 ABA Overall Award Winner was developed by Adcom for KeyBank: a brand awareness campaign to introduce viewers to KeyBank's KeyClub . The video featured Etch-A-Sketch artist George Vlosich who created a customized portrait of NBA star Carmelo Anthony. A time-lapse video showed the Etch-A-Sketch portrait as it was being drawn. The video, then uploaded on several Internet sites including MySpace, went viral. To date, the video has been seen by a million viewers and after being picked up on hundreds of blogs, websites, and major search engines. A PR and communications program supported this innovative campaign.

W6M: The Carmelo video was the second video created by this artist. The first video featured LeBron and recieved over 2 million views. We took a chance that lighting would strike twice and it paid off. Often times coming up with a viral idea is difficult, but you should try to take a look at partnering with someone that has proven success.