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Google Old School.

By
Steve Poppe
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Is it ironic that on the day that Google reports disappointing earnings in The New York Times, it runs its first ever double-truck 4-color spread in said Times?  Google and its ad agency BBH are dialing up old school advertising in this new media world. Their Chrome TV ad with the father and newly minted collegiate daughter videoconferencing back and forth over the web is brilliant. (The wrinkle that the mom has just passed away (we think) adding a little Sons of Anarchy reality to the story certainly shows an evolution of the medium. Remember the “Sophie” spot?)

Now I don’t want to go all old school here but Joseph Jaffe and all those pop marketing people who cashed in on the “TV spot being dead, long live the social web” can now write new chapters. When Stub Hub, I mean Hub Spot, came down off its “inbound marketing” high horse a number of months ago and started sending out more emails than a belly flattening supplement, I knew the madness had stopped. Ish.

Google is still amazing. A brand that has lost some of its Is-Does way, it is still is playing in important, meaningful worlds.  

I once railed about “Google’s culture of technological obesity,” but have to admit there is a marketing hand at the wheel. Chromebook, Motorola, mapping services, Google+ Hangouts and AdSense make for strange bedfellows yet good marketing oversight fueled by tough decision-making will prevail.  And the freshest fish in the city for all NY employees doesn’t hurt either. Peace!

Hashtags and Deeds.

By
Steve Poppe
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It’s easy to make a hashtag. Getting people to follow a hashtag is an art. A hashtag can start a movement…and mobilize a movement.  “Binders full of women” was a meme started on the web as a hashtag. Someone with a good ear hit it and it likely will become a campaign mantra, even an ad.  President Obama’s reference to Lilly Ledbetter, an amazing debate uppercut, should have carried more weight but the hashtag slingers went with binders.  Probably started by a NY-area, skinny jeaned brand planner. And I say that with mad respect.

The idea of a movement though is pretty critical.  It sets objects in motion. Sitting on one’s coach or favorite chair while on a device is a precursor to movement. Precursor to a deed.  Occupy Wall Street was all about deeds. Getting off the couch and voting, going to the school board meeting to talk about teacher assessment – these are deeds.  Ceasing to buy high fructose corn syrup?  Deed.

What is so exciting about social media today is that as a precursor to deeds, it is an amazing tool.  Let us not forget however movements without marchers a wan.  What user experience designers on the web need to know and what brand experience planners need to know is that “likes” and tweets and strategy are great, but marketers need us to finish. Marketers need the ball in the hoop. (Lavinwood.) Engagement without sales is not a valid return. Social is too exciting a new tool to overlook and to diss, but it really needs to understand how to finish. Peace.

Brand smitten or brand love?

By
Steve Poppe
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0

I had an exploratory meeting with a smart brand planner yesterday morning on Bond Street. Quite an epi (epipen, epicenter) neighborhood.  I want to be her when I grow up/down. We talked about brands and freelance, the Sioux, NYC and Mari Sandoz. I suggested I need to love a brand before really doing it planning justice.  Smitten is good, but it’s not love. My planner friend mentioned agencies that rely on freelance planners often don’t want them to have face time with clients. Ouch, but understandable.  Sure one can read research, troll (the fishing troll) the web, talk to editors, study consumers and arrive at stimulating insights. But from these interactions and insights can love grow?  Smitten can grow. Idea lust can grow. Love however takes time.

So here’s a problem. Freelance planners doing project work are actually killing in today’s marketplace.  At least the good ones are. (Mostly thanks to didge.) They know what questions to ask, whose pulse to take and their bullshit meters are nicely calibrated. Plus they have great ears.  The work they generate is very good. But unless, this project work is grounded in a tight, instructive brand brief it is temporal and tactical.  This is smitten work.  Think building rooms, not homes.  

I never read Kevin Roberts Lovemarks, but maybe I should. Nah. Finding love is much more fun than reading about it. Puh-eace!

 

Square pegs?

By
Steve Poppe
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My sister recently did some consulting work for a small, quick serve restaurant in the Southwest. I’m not going to go into it very deeply – trade secrets you know — but suffice it to say that one of the partners in this little venture is a tad high strung …when he’s not low strung. He handles the kitchen and the customers seem to like him.

So, the restaurant ran out of potato salad and what does Mr. High/Low do?  Does he say, “Sorry we’re out?” Nope. Does he send someone out the back door to Restaurant Depot for a bucket?  Nope.  He looks around the kitchen, finds a baking potato, throws it in the microwave, mashes it with a fork, adds celery, mayo, whatever, and bam — instant potato salad. Now I have no idea what this little side dish tasted like, and if it sucked bad on him, but you have got to like the creativity and initiative. The fact that he ran out of the salad to begin with says something, but so does the solution.

Everyone has strengths and everyone has weaknesses.  It’s what we do with them that goes in the ledger.  If Mr. High/Low is allowed to put his creativity as a cook into the restaurant without having to do the things he’s may not be well equipped for, it’s probably a win.  Can some of this creativity find itself into other parts of the business, that’s something worth paying attention to.

People, just like brands, are most likely to succeed if allowed to play to their strengths. Figuring this stuff out is the fun of business.  Peace.   

A Content Marketing Tip and Story.

By
Steve Poppe
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Content marketing starts with being seen. Following is a story and insight. And a Twitch Point crumb trail.

This morning I was reading a New York Times article (a daily anchor read) describing a new ConAgra Slim Jim campaign. I twitched over to Twitter and followed an author by the name of David Vinjamuri, quoted in the article, writer of a book called Accidental Branding. I have heard of the book but now, thanks to the media surround, will consider buying it.) On Mr. Vinjamuri’s Twitter feed, I read and how his Amazon reviews rock, according to Mars Dorian. I might consider following Mr. Dorain but didn’t have time. His name will go into the gray mush database and should it come up again, he’s in.

The notion of being an Amazon review rockstar is very interesting to me, and plays into my Poster vs. Pasters theory of online magnetism. Mr. Vinjamuri, blogs, writes book, Tweets and no doubt does lots of other posting. His Amazon reviews, however, are placed on a canvas that seen by many and more importantly, seen in context. He has found a place where concerned readers congregate and he is posting there — with things they like. (In doing so, he is creating twitches back to himself.) Had Mr. Vinjamuri doen the review on his own blog he’d have to wait for his Google ranking on the topic to float up. So he used Amazon to fish for acolytes. Genius.

Just as inbound links are the key to Google rankings, commenting and leaving a trail of crumbs on other people’s sites is a key to content marketing. It’s the last mile. The one most people forget about. It’s the map or directions to you and your site. There is way too much Fotchbook focus for marketers today. They create content for Fotchbook (faccia, is Italian for face) and becasue the platform contains so many crumbs, people tend to stay there…giving Mr. Zuckerberg all the traffic. So Posters, you need to troll. You need to troll in rich waters. And you need to create content back at the ranch that will build greater affinity. Sorry for going long today. Peace!

Banks are Asleep at the Marketing Wheel.

By
Steve Poppe
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There are few banks, if any, that spend marketing dollars educating and counseling consumers in the art of saving. I guess there’s not a lot of revenue in it. Or is there? 

If a bank were to get a reputation for helping people save, when it came time to borrow, it would be seen as a preferred source.  

I am not a bank nerd and therefore not steeped in all the marketing ins and outs, however, I have not seen any innovation in the category, beyond mobile phone apps, in decades. And as for savings innovation, way longer. 

Banks have taken a beating in the press. A beating.  Was I to conduct a poll, I’m guessing between the mortgage mess, federal bail-outs and malfeasance, 70% of the pop would say banks are doing a poor job. The other 30% are bankers and their extended families.  So why doesn’t someone step into the void and establish a good old “roots” saving discussion (online)? Or innovate with a savings product?  

Wells Fargo is the only bank I’m aware of actually doing this — and spending behind it. Their “Way2Save” program (used to be called “Save As You Go”) puts one of your dollars into a savings account every time you swipe your debit card.  This is brilliant on so many levels: targeting, brand ethos, education, brand experience, loyalty and first mover status.  Now it’s possible some other bank or credit union did this first, but I just heard about it on the radio, so for me Well Fargo gets the credit. And it hits a market with pent up demand – one that needs to hear the savings message. 

The financial category is asleep.  It is not paying attention and doesn’t see the cloud over its head.  Saving, as antithetical to creating bank revenue as it may be, is a concept for the times.  Nice job recognizing it Well Fargo. That’s a good business investment. Peace.

Back end developers.

By
Steve Poppe
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An important target for What’s the Idea? is the technology company. I’ve worked with AT&T on the digital applications side, helped launch Lucent (now Alcatel-Lucent), wrote a lauded brand strategy for ZDNet and have helped scads of mid-size tech companies and start-ups.  Beyond experience, why tech companies are so important is the fact that they don’t get branding. The best of the lot are engineer-driven and see brand and marketing nerds are empty jeans.

So for you tech engineers and entrepreneurs, here’s a simple metaphor: Brand planners are like back end developers. If the back end is the hardware and engine and the front end the software and user interface (UI), then we brand planners work the former. The back end creates the organizing principle that determines which 1s and 0s to turn on and off.  The brand plan creates and governs the same and the pathways.  It’s simple really.  Perhaps marketers have tried to make it sound so complicated with all our markobabble and talk about silly things like transparency, activation and, and, and.  But a brand plan is one meaningful strategy and 3 governing principles. On or off.  

The front end in the metaphor  — what users see — is advertising, newsletters, digital content, acquisition programs.  Without good governance, these things show up on a corporate homepage as 38 buttons.  What I love about people like Robert Scoble, Brian Solis, Steve Rubel, Peter Kim, Bob Gilbreath and Jeff Dachis to a degree, is they get the brand “back end” and, so, their front ends are meaningful. People understand them.

Engineers need to hear and live this lesson. If they do, they’ll see the market through infrared goggles. Peace!

Good growth and bad growth.

By
Steve Poppe
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It was just announced that two scientists won Nobel Prizes for their work in regenerative medicine.  Cloning and stem cell science were their life’s work. 

Regeneration is an intended outcome of good brand planning. (You saw that one coming.) Creating an environment where new things grow, in the pursuit of product sales and loyalty, is a marketing strategy of the highest order. But the new things that grow must not be untamed…we know how that turns out. Conversely, we also know what repetitive “same old, same old” growth produces: boredom, lethargy and value dissipation. So we need to constantly regenerate, feed and care for our brands.

A tight brand plan (strategy+planks) can keep a brand fresh, vital and vibrant. It can do so over time, across agencies, CMOs and market changes. As I like to say Campaigns come and go, a powerful brand idea is indelible.

If you would like to see brand plan examples, please let me know at Steve@whatstheidea.com. I would be happy to share. Peace.

The problem with marketing videos.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

It used to be that a brand planner or strategist could easily sway corporate officers as to the need for a brand plan – or at least a campaign idea – by taking all company ads and pinning them to the wall.  For good measure one could display brochures, direct mail and other printed pieces. 

Today, the biggest culprit in creating brand disharmony, especially true at small and midsize companies, is the video.  In this social media age, most agree – and you heard the drum beat at Advertising Week in NY the last 4 days – visual selling through video is more engaging and powerful. 

The problem stems not so much from the quality of the videos, e.g., editing, audio, effects, it’s the content.  It meanders. It is not blocked out in serial, logical chunks.  With ads, if you didn’t have a tight strategy you called Ernie the montage artist. With a loose video, you just rely on fast cuts and louder music.

So who is making these videos?  Mostly, it’s inexpensive freelance, 20 something, fresh-out-of college kids with iMacs.  One such young man, who is more than capable, said he’d been to many meetings with large agencies like Ogilvy, where he was instructed to “just do something that gets noticed, that goes viral.”  No direction, no brief.  This is not how big agencies normally operates, but at those agencies on the digital creative side, it happens more than you might think.  As for smaller shops, or in-house marketing departments it’s even worse.

Marketing videos need to do a job but they also much convey a positive, organized brand imprint. With half of marketing videos either case studies or tutorials, brand strategy has a way of slipping away. Branding is always on. Approving videos without a brand planning oversight — and it happens thousands of times a day — is like writing bad checks.  So executive, turn down the lights in your conference room, fire up the interactive projector and start watching all your vids. Then ask yourself what are they trying to say about the company?  Peace.

 

 

The Pedagogy of Marketing.

By
Steve Poppe
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0

Here’s what marketers can learn from teachers…good teachers, that is.  Much selling these days, especially of the B2B variety, is done via PowerPoint. On average, it is done in 18 slides, anywhere from 12-60 words per slide, one or two pictures – and a flow that would make music bed blush. That’s how marketers and salespeople roll.

Teachers on the other hand, face a room filled with 22+ kids, all of whom have different IQs, learning styles and attention levels.  Good teachers assess the entire room of kids and create learning experiences to meet all of their needs. Poor teachers teach to the middle, to the median.

What marketers can learn from good teachers is sensitivity to the individuals, not the median audience. Using that sensitivity, born of bi-directional interaction, they can provide instructive, discovery-based selling scenarios. Make everyone in the audience feel smart, by allowing them to deduce and conclude. (And I’m not talking about the “solution selling” pop marketing approach of last decade, “Tell me about your pain points”.)

Ads can’t really take this individualized approach; they have to work for the whole classroom. That said, Brits do good job in this area with their ad craft. Everything is not served up rote.  Selling requires some brain work.

Now, I wonder what teachers can learn from marketers. Hmmm. Peace.

 

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