Monthly Archives: May 2016

Reaching Millennials On Their Terms.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I was reading today how media companies are obsessed with reaching Millennials through TV advertising. Anyone with a Millennial in the family knows they’re multitaskers.  Millennials are the reason Twitch Point Planning was developed.  (Twitches are media moments when one switches media or device in search of more information. Twitch Point Planning is a communication planning technique where you “understand, map and manipulate” consumers closer to a sale.)

This is Upfront Week — where media companies showcase new shows trying to sell ad time before the season begins. It got me thinking about Twitch Point Planning again. For proper utilization of Twitch Point Planning with TV you have to anticipate what audiences will do while watching a particular show. Let’s say you are watching a classic airing of the movie Bullet, what do you think happens on Google when the car chase scene takes place? Como se dice “Mustang?” Or what happens when Claire Underwood is using her rowing machine? “Gym membership? Yoga pants?”

Real-time Twitch intercepts during airings of TV shows are big sales opportunities.  Google understands this, but hasn’t done anything with it. (Yet.) Media companies and ad agencies need to get on board. But to do so they will actually have to watch the shows and plot the potential twitches. It’s a cross medium play, but it’s the way Millennials work.

It’s a big revenue opportunity for everyone.

Peace.

Reaching Millennials On Their Terms.

By
Steve Poppe
-
0

I was reading today how media companies are obsessed with reaching Millennials through TV advertising. Anyone with a Millennial in the family knows they’re multitaskers.  Millennials are the reason Twitch Point Planning was developed.  (Twitches are media moments when one switches media or device in search of more information. Twitch Point Planning is a communication planning technique where you “understand, map and manipulate” consumers closer to a sale.)

This is Upfront Week — where media companies showcase new shows trying to sell ad time before the season begins. It got me thinking about Twitch Point Planning again. For proper utilization of Twitch Point Planning with TV you have to anticipate what audiences will do while watching a particular show. Let’s say you are watching a classic airing of the movie Bullet, what do you think happens on Google when the car chase scene takes place? Como se dice “Mustang?” Or what happens when Claire Underwood is using her rowing machine? “Gym membership? Yoga pants?”

Real-time Twitch intercepts during airings of TV shows are big sales opportunities.  Google understands this, but hasn’t done anything with it. (Yet.) Media companies and ad agencies need to get on board. But to do so they will actually have to watch the shows and plot the potential twitches. It’s a cross medium play, but it’s the way Millennials work.

It’s a big revenue opportunity for everyone.     

Peace.

 

 

A Facebook Confessional.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I have two Facebook accounts, one for my friends and another for What’s The Idea?, my brand and marketing consultancy.  The latter is really unused but I wanted the URL  Last week I posted something called “Brand Strategy Uncoupled” to my friend feed in an Account Planning Group and my blog traffic quintupled.  I rarely post anything in Facebook (friend) about business. That said, I am, there, a participant in a couple of business groups.   

Today I’m reading a news story about how people are wondering if Facebook is altering the news feeds for political gain.  Some of the statistics bandied about suggest 60% of people get their news from Facebook. Facebook has come a long way in the last 10 years. Ten years ago it was for college kids only and had 18M users.  Today it is a cover story in the NYT “algorithm with Agenda” and may become a political hot potato.

It is times for me to take Facebook more seriously as a business tool. This morning I dusted off the business account username and password and will start posting What’s The Idea? updates and memes in the feed with regularity. I have 65 friends for business and 285 on my main account. It will be interesting to see how the former grows.   

I still believe Facebook is for friends, LinkedIn for business, Twitter for “stream of personality,” and Instagram for the artistically inclined.  That said, there is no arguing Facebook today is for everyone and everything.

Peace.

 

 

America, the Budweiser.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

So the Federal Trade Commission can squash the proposed merger of Staples and Office Depot, whose collective asses are being kicked in by Amazon (over the last two years the two office supplies companies have been forced to close nearly 600 stores), but they say it’s okay for Anheuser Busch InBev to rename Budweiser beer “America” for the summer???

Budweiser America

I love America and I love Budweiser, but this idea crosses the branding line for me. Not that I oppose it – let’s see what happens… what the hell. I just think it’s a bit sketchy and too commercializing. It’s also too easy. Also, for those of us who stop and take their hats off whenever we hear the Star Spangled Banner, it may be off-putting and have a negative effect.

America is not a brand. And that’s the point. For the FTC or whomever to allowed this promotion to happen it’s a rookie mistake. Even for a young 240 year old.

Peace.                                                                            

 

 

A Dispassionate Plea.

By
Steve Poppe
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1

om

I read a lot about leadership and one word seems to pop up a great deal is passion.  Leaders want passion in their companies and hiring agents want it in their hires. Employees when asked about personal traits often play the passion card. It’s kind of an over-used word in my opinion.

In my business practice I use the word love a great deal, telling customers and prospects I must learn to love their product to be an effective advocate. But how does one love JPMorgan Chase? How does one love Hospice Care Network? Or PwC? It takes some doing.  

Passion and love may be allies yet they are really two different things. Don’t mix them up.

As a brand planner – someone who mines care-abouts and good-ats – I try to remove passion. It is the dispassionate planner who has the best ear. Removing passion for an idea or insight is not easy, especially if you hit it early on, but it’s a necessary.  Brand planners need to keep an open door policy throughout the gleaning process. Om. It keeps a clear heart while you flesh out and prioritize all the values you need to consider.

Selling can be passionate, planning must be the opposite.

Peace.                                                      

 

The Branded Content B Team.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Branded content is a thing in advertising now. Saturday Night Live, it is reported, will replace 30% of its advertising next year with marketer-generated segments. Oy. Where this phenomenon goes off the rails is in production. Rather than use ad agencies, the sponsoring media companies are often creating the work. Vice Media and The New York Times, among many others, are using internal resources to make this so-called branded content.

I’m not in the advertising business anymore and so have no axe to grind, but this is a bad idea. An idea only two steps better than a marketers doing it themselves.  It may be cheaper, it may feel more native, but in the end it’s poor brand craft.

With branded content, a marketer is way more likely to go off brand strategy. When the actual branded content piece is complete ask the branded content developer “How did this work support the brand strategy?” and listen for the answer. Homina homina homina.

Peace.

 

Deeds and Proof.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

“Deeds, not things, make father Berrigan one of the best-known Catholic priests of the 20th  century” is a line stolen from The New York Times today.  Deeds indeed.

At What’s The Idea? the framework for brand strategy (1 claim and 3 proof planks) is built upon deeds. And proof. They are the bedrock of a high-value selling proposition.

When I do discovery for a brand, I’m not searching for shallow platitudes or adjective-filled praise.  I need existential examples. When I ask hospital administrator why their healthcare is better than others, I’m often met with “It’s our level of care. Our people.”  That’s not input. That’s phonetic sounds and breath.  Hunting for proof and deeds, often through stories, is how we start the process. In a page of notes, you may only find 2 proof points. Read a web page or brochure someday. An ad even. Circle the proof.  Paltry.

When the same hospital says it does more cyber knife treatments in one year than any other NY hospital, that’s proof. But drill down. Find out why. Understand the proof and build upon it. The information is there.

Stories and storifying are big pop marketing topics today. I love stories…but as a listener. As a listener who’s looking for proof.

Peace.

 

 

Return On Strategy. Brand Strategy.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

The hardest part of quantifying the success of brand strategy (1 claim, 3 proof planks) is the act of tying measurement of “care-abouts” and “good-ats” (the proofs upon which brand value are built) to sales. I call this pursuit: Return On Strategy (ROS).

Back in the 90s while working on AT&T Business Communications Services, fighting off MCI (a smart competitors buying share with discount prices), we knew that messaging the right combination of “competitive price” (within 10% of MCI), “network reliability” and “innovative telecom tools” (the 3 planks) would result in added business users. If market perceptions of this trifecta were offset by MCI, they started winning new account “adds.” The trick was meting out the right combination of planks with our media budget.  We were using quantitative research to gauge attitudes and tie them to actions/sales.

This is the way one does ROS.  But numbers about attitudes can lie. Nate Cohn, The New York Times version of Nate Silver, mea culpa’ed today about Donald Trump. He spent a 1,000 words explaining why the numbers lied and Trump beat the odds.

I often write about “proof” in my blog posts. And about “deeds” — the actual activities that feed the care-about and good-ats. This line of thinking and study is where I need to spend more time. As was the case in Mr. Cohn’s explanation of Mr. Trump, attitudes and numbers can mislead. So I’m off to look beyond attitudes and on to awareness of deeds tied to sales. Should be interesting.

Peace.                         

 

 

 

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