Gotta get back in the habit here....

Hmm, here's some topics I'd like to hit on but would prefer getting feedback on.

Print classifieds vs. Craigslist.

What would be lost if newspapers quit.

And, more importantly, why does everybody like reverse copy?

Over and over, it's proven that reverse copy doesn't work. Convince me when it does.

Keep the torch burning

some days it's really hard to keep pushing forward and selling. The good news is I really believe that what I sell works. If you don't believe in the product your selling, that's rough.

I thoroughly believe that relationship-building and problem-solving are two overlooked aspects of sales. Us sales people are consumers too. We're influencers and bosses and bowling league teammates. Some of us are on the PTA or volunteer for a non-profit.

So, I have been walking around scratching my head wondering how my wife and I and the one you'll be hearing a lot more about, is MayFlower moving... or really Unigroup, Inc. They own like Mayflower, United Vans, and VIP Transport.

My wife and I paid literally thousands of dollars more to use Mayflower for our move because one of her friends had a horror story trying to move out of New Orleans using some "unknown" company.

Bottom line is Mayflower lost a whole crate of our stuff (like 15 boxes) and it wasn't like our socks and towels, it was boxes of wine and cd's and such. Most of the other stuff that actually did make it was broke. Not like one lamp or a few dishes. I'm talking boxes upon crushed boxes arrived and it was like reverse Christmas. Everything turned bad and ugly.

Worst part about it all? Nobody ever said they were sorry. Nobody offered to help. Immediately, we were called liars and the company then cut-off most communication. To make things worst, they tacked on a mysterious $600 fee after we complained. Saying it was because their truck couldn't make it in our development and they had to go shuttle our stuff in on a smaller truck (and since we've seen two other Mayflower trucks in there.)

That's the thing. Somebody sold us lies. Once we figured that out, everybody packed up their suitcases and left the hotel lobby. It feels dirty. It's the epitomy of dirty sales. Something goes wrong and your ad rep. takes off on you. That's not how it's supposed to be.

So, now not only are we investing our holiday savings in to a top-shelf lawyer but we're spreading the word like it's the gospel.

Just an overall bad move on their part.

Why it happened? They subcontract your move to local companies so their brand/reputation is out of their hands. The goons who moved our stuff from VIP on the Maryland side were hitting on my wife and running to use our bathroom every 10 minutes (we suspect drug users.)
Employees are, according to Jim Collins book, Good To Great, your biggest asset.

We had nobody take the lead the second we complained. Address issues head on. Don't sweep it under the rug. In my next post, I'll put all the email correspondence I had with all the companies (ranging three states from coast-to-coast) to illustrate the lack of concern and the combativeness. When somebody goes through something this traumatic, all that should matter is that somebody is assigned to help them through it. We would have spread the word that way as well. We're talkers and very social. It would have been turning a bad thing in to a good thing. It could have been something where we were raving about how Unigroup pulled the big "U-Turn" and have been treating us more like the suspects than the victims.

You must protect that brand

There's a great article on www.streamingmedia.com that talks about measuring video ads. It's a great way to start understanding how companies use online video and why. It justifies the trend and points out some key facts about why companies are investing in online video. Here's a quick blurb just to lay down a foundation:

"Research firm eMarketer predicts that by 2011, 86.6% of the US internet population will consume online video. Agencies and advertisers are responding accordingly—Forrester Research says that online video ad spending will reach $775 million in 2007, growing 89% from $410 million in 2006, and it’s expected to approach $5 billion by 2011. Online video ad spending is also growing as a percentage of total internet ad spending, up from 2.6% in 2006 to 4.2% in 2007. At some point in 2010, one in every 10 dollars spent on internet advertising will go for video ads." That's from the article, "How to measure online video ad success by Max Bloom but you don't have to have stumbled across his insight to see this in action.

With YouTube at the forefront, more and more companies are tapping in to the trend that almost four in five Americans are watching some sort of online video. Even Fox got on board with understanding that companies now need to control their content (they started www.hulu.com) and the creators of South Park did the same thing. Heck, even ESPN told Ad Networks to take a hike and they'd sell their own ad space as opposed to letting third parties sell ads on to their online properties because they were worried it would affect the brand.

It's important to think about that. Companies are protecting their brands and affiliations and, even with more advertising options, companies are becoming more concerned about who else shares your eyes on their domains.

As companies begin to purge and merge, we're seeing what looks to be a modern day circling of the wagons. With all the online option, it's never been more important to protect your brand.

How Cars Sell 2001-2008

Ever since I watched my first series of short movies by BMW, I have been enthralled at how the auto industry is using the internet and advertising to sell cars. Most results won't be as amazing as BMW and most campaigns won't pull in 100 million views over four years.

I have outlined a few of my favorite things that I've seen done with selling cars. This includes anything online and especially the one's that converge the technology of today with their traditional ad placement. If you have any you suspect should be here in addition (or in place of,) I hope you'll take a minute to add them in the comment box at the end.

Here's the best-of-the-best :

• The Oprah Show giveaway where her entire audience walked out with a brand new Pontiac G-6. The show came under some scrutiny because a couple of the ungrateful winners whined about the car tax they'd have to pay but, for the most part, it was an exacto-knife cut through advertising poopla. There wasn't a news broadcast - local, national, international, or otherwise - that didn't give the Oprah G-6 promotion some free press and it generated office cooler talk forever about how great Oprah was. Unfortunately, the G-6 and Pontiac could have sponged a bit more out of the campaign and demanded that "they" actually get the credit for supplying all the automobiles, but what of it. Pontiac reported that out of 52,900 total people who shopped the G-6 online the month of the Oprah giveaway, 51% shopped it either the day of the show (22%) or the day after the show (29%.)
  
• The Ford partnership with American Idol. Even though there's no way I can see David Archuletta rocking out a new F150, it has positioned the brand with one of America's top feel-good shows. The fact that you can watch the commercials of all the contestants running around and driving Ford's through paint online at www.americanidol.com or the music video breaks from the action on Fox, this one leaves its mark.
  
• On the partnership angle, some of my other favorite partnerships between automotive companies and movies/television are:
• The 1995 Goldeneye James Bond film with the z3 Roadster.
• Chrysler's cross-promotion with The Apprentice.
• Toyota's cross-promotion with The Contender.

• If you ever want product placement on a national scale, you need to go with one of these companies: AIM Productions, Hero Product Placement, Monkey Junction Entertainment, or Norm Marshall Associates.
  

• There are also several companies who specialize in measuring product placement for companies. You can use companies that track your return-on-investment (ROI) and get software like Compete and Nielsen Place Views Software.

• And, finally, my all-time personal favorite that got more media attention in 2006 than a tire could ask for is when Rip Hamilton (Detroit Pistons basketball player) allowed Goodyear to braid his hair in the style of their new tires tread (don't believe me, click here.) The results were outstanding and reached over 16 million people that week alone. And, according to the link to PRNews.com, "company earnings [for Goodyear] had a $35 million first-quarter improvement for Goodyear North American Tire, and Assurance has become the best-selling new product in Goodyear's 107-year history."

So, where next?

In 2005, BMW Brand Manager John Cappella (who did the BMW "The Hire" short film series) said in an interview with Digital Marketing (Digital Marketing, November 21, 2005) that he expects to see two things in the future. He looked forward to seeing where advertising would go with podcasting and also how product inclusion would be immersed in the online gaming industry.

In 2006, Wieden & Kennedy hit solid gold with Honda's diesel i-CTDi engine ad commercial that has been cleaning up in the advertising award arena. Here's the kicker - the diesel engine isn't ugly anymore and you can also play a flash-based game online to boot where you are a rabbit turning old technology in to lush environmentally-friendly landscape.

Guess we're on our way. Where's dem' Podcasts Johnny?

BMW got it right way back when.

Way back in 2001, BMW found that most of their male buyers who earned over $75,000 annually were watching high-speed Internet. They also found that, prior to most of them buying a BMW, they did some sort of research online.

BMW recruited advertising heavyweight, Fallon Worldwide, to put something big together. In Fallon fashion, they did just that and eventually put together a knock-out campaign of (8) eight short mini-movies (averaging around 7-10 minutes per movie) in a series dubbed, "The Hire," that was one of the most successful viral advertising campaigns put in place.

Here's why:

• The campaigns were exciting. They all centered around a central character, Clive Owen, who would play the part of the driver in all (8) eight episodes who was constantly ensuring that good-was-good and did it all in the drivers seat of a BMW;
• The campaigns were relevant. Each movie showed the car doing what car owners who drop big investment money on cars want them to do;
  
• They allowed online viewers to get involved more and, in return, the online viewers passed the branded-content around the online community to friends and family for BMW.

Fallon picked David Fincher (Fight Club, Se7en) to produce one of the eight films but due to some sort of conflict it never got done so he oversaw production of the entire first season of films.

The series won awards at the Cannes International Advertising Festival and (in 2003) was inducted in to the Museum of Modern Art.

I highly recommend taking time to watch all of them if you never have. Here's the film library with a few highlights. It's the most fun you'll ever have learning about convergence in the media industry and how a big, risky, innovative project might look:

• Ambush, directed by John Frankenheimer, and features the BMW 7 Series;
• Choosen, directed by Ang Lee (and featuring his son), features the BMW 5 Series;
• The Follow, with Forest Whitaker and Mickey Rourke, features BMW 3 Series and Z3 roadster;
• Star, with Madonna starring and directed by hubbie, Guy Richie, features the BMW M5
• Powder Keg, features the BMW X5

Season 2 (all second season features the BMW Z4)

• Hostage, directed by John Woo;
• Ticker, featuring Don Cheatle and Ray Liotta, directed by Joe Carnahan;
• Beat The Devil (my personal favorite out of all of them) features James Brown, Gary Oldman, Danny Trejo, and Marilyn Manson, directed by Tony Scott.

BMW saw their 2001 sales numbers jump 12% and the movies were viewed over 11 million times in (4) four months. They had over 2 million people register at BMW Films and those people started the viral success by sending the videos to friends & family.

The campaign was so innovate and successful that they actually received movie reviews from Time Magazine and The New York Times.

According to a BMW Films press release, "THE HIRE - THE ACCLAIMED FILM SERIES BY BMW - WILL END A FOUR AND A HALF YEAR INTERNET RUN OCTOBER 21st."

And so they did. BMW ended up doing another small series for their mini and some comic books as well for a few of their cars but the glory was all masterfully placed in the hands of that initial series because everything went right. They utilized a big budget, took advantage of an opportunity by making a move when the time was right, and stayed clear and concise with what they wanted to do. No shortcuts. By the time it was all said-and-done over four years later, BMW Films had received over 100 million film views (Here's what that looks like with all the zero's: 100,000,000.)

It was a great example of how, by using convergence in the media industry, big companies could make major waves.

When companies take advantage of all the ways that information can be passed and they stay focused on the goal and target a hand, there are many more gains than pure sales to be had. Product positioning and getting that visceral connection with your target audience can be a great way to get your product passed around online for you and a way for them to feel connected to your brand.

In my next post, I'll dive in to some case studies since this 2001 endeavor by BMW and find out what car companies are doing to brand their product using "unconventional" avenues of advertising.

Obama knows interactive marketing

The guy is good. Maybe the best. I might have a hard time winning many votes of my own in this internet high school but I am a super big fan of Barack Obama. This might seem a bit choppy but I'll work to be concise:

First we need to get some facts out:
1) Customer Relationship Management (CRM for short) is very important and some businesses have turned to technological superpowers such as RightNow Technologies for support;
2) Barack Obama has women wearing "Yes We Can" tee-shirts and parading around YouTube;
3) Despite what your momma told you: No, Al Gore did not invent the internet.
4) You can buy "Barack Obama is my homeboy!" tee-shirts (www.zazzle.com) if you aren't down with the "Yes We Can" tees;
5) Senator Hilary Clinton might pay with the election for not jumping on board with technology;
6) Obama will win this election because his camp united their followers and empowered them through the internet.

Now, back to #1. CRM is a lot of things. Basically, you can do things to help your customers and how you interact with them. You can manage sales leads, track your return on investment (also known as ROI), and you can send clents and your boss analytics to keep track of your progress.

Three more facts:
1.) Obama Girl's real name is Amber Lee Ettinger and her career just took off;
2.) E! just named her the #1 Hottest Woman on the Internet;
3.) No she didn't actually vote for Obama;
4.) #3 really doesn't mean anything.

Obama has created an internet community of followers and there are poems, rants, paraphernalia, and songs online to support him. Some of these being passed around by Will.I.am from Black-Eyed Peas (see "Yes We Can" video) but most of the viral Obama content is being passed around by regular people. Most of it is user-generated content (USG).

The Obama campaign made a "defining moment" when they grabbed RightNow Technologies to handle some technical behind-the-scenes to make certain parts of their campaign run.

RightNow can be credited for handling Obama's state-of-the-art answer center. If you have a question, you will undoubtedly be able to find the answer in no time. This is in no small part due to the software they use by RightNow. I'm pulling an excerpt from a great article ("Barack Obama: First CRM President? by Erika Morphy) that I think can explain the magnitude of this offering:

"The more comprehensive of the RightNow initiatives is the Obama Answer Center. This was mentioned in the Rolling Stone article I covered in my last post. When you come to the AnswerCenter the first question is, “What is the Answer Center and how does it work?” The campaign can then adjust the next questions depending on the topics of most interest. For example, when I looked the next question was “Has Senator Obama released his tax returns?” Clicking on this you go to a format used for all questions. This happens to be the standard RightNow template for answer centers so many people remark that they have seen this format before in such places as Environmental Protection Agency, Electronic Arts, and Nikon, understand it. There is first the answer. In this case, there is also a link to his actual tax returns. There is also the section, “Users who viewed this answer have also viewed.” And you see a series of related questions to encourage more exploration. Once you view a question, you also see your previously viewed questions. You can search questions by category and key word and browse the most popular answers."

That's pretty good, right? Well, Obama's camp didn't stop there. They have used mobile text messaging to assemble their voting faithful the night before the campaign. They even had the smarts to include a phone number in the text message so voters can find the nearest polling station. In several states, they used internet technologies to design call lists so supporters could make phone calls and motivate local teams to get out and paper the city.

In another effort, they created ways to donate online where you could "challenge" other people to donate money.

That's why he's the man. That's why he is changing the way politicians look at the new vehicles of marketing. Don't cut down traditional venues just yet (I do have a day job at a newspaper) and consider that a good chunk of the $400 million that he's ready to drop on national advertising will be with some radio, t.v., billboard, and newsprint.

After searching online for Barack and seeing all of the exciting voice for "move" and "change" I couldn't help but get excited. Now, once he can explain where the money will come from to support his ideas of:

• Every high school student that graduates with a "B" average will get a free ride to college;
• How everybody in the United States will really get free health care;
• Giving illegal immigrants social security.
  

I'll be all in. Until then, I'll just keep the 'hope' alive.