Blog Archives for Marketing
Social media summit: Mobile marketing is on the move
Posted by Cary B. Willis on September 29, 2011 · 1 Comment
Smartphones are changing everything. They’re part of a huge trend toward mobile marketing that’s still growing.
That was one of the main messages we picked up at the Third Annual Emerging Media Summit recently here in Louisville. The summit was put on by the International Association of Business Communicators’ Kentucky Chapter and the Louisville Digital Association. It was a great conference with a lot of good speakers.
Speaker Jason Falls discusses the role of games in social media
Here were some of the other big takeaways:
- Blogs are losing some of their influence as mobile marketing ascends. If you want to do any mobile marketing, you need to have a clutter-free, easy-to-navigate, mobile-optimized version of your web site.
- Technology is changing rapidly. What’s hot today might not be hot tomorrow. Don’t put too much stock in any one tool.
- In social media, no one person can know it all. Any organization involved in communications needs to have multiple people who are comfortable with social media.
- Use multiple approaches to reach out (QR codes, SMS texts, news releases, website, Facebook, Twitter, etc.) and to listen to/quantify what people are saying online (social media monitoring tools, switchboard, surveys, etc.)
- Online health is a growing trend
- Gaming is a growing tool that is applicable to many clients
Tim Hayden of 44Doors compared social media to “the campfire in the village,” where a broad range of conversations is taking place. You can either join them or not, but the conversations are going on. Hayden said mobile marketing brings a new dynamic to communication that is liberating, rewarding and empowering – bridging the online world with the offline. The challenge is in harnessing it.
The use of QR codes in marketing has exploded, allowing smartphone users to wave their devices over a code that takes them to a website. Ergo, instant buy-in from the customer! But does it take the customer somewhere he or she wants to go? Is the site optimized for that little tiny screen the user has in his hand? Does it allow for a quick and seamless exchange of information with him? Does it offer him some sort of reward? Or does it take him to a home page that takes two minutes to load all the graphics, minuscule copy and a confusing array of links?
QR codes are being used for virtual grocery shopping in Korea, wine-brand rollouts in the U.S., restaurant deals, car-repair deals, traffic info, and much more. QR codes are even used as identifiers that could save your life. Say you have an accident and are found unconscious. Medical personnel could scan a code in your wallet that will instantly bring up your health-care history so you’re given the right kind of treatment – and not, for example, a drug to which you might be allergic.
Don’t be surprised if one day soon you walk into your favorite home improvement store and are greeted with an automated voice that says hello and asks if the power drill you bought last time is still working for you, and would you like to save 10% on power tools today?
Showcasing what Kentucky has to offer
New West has been spending this long, hot summer working with the state of Kentucky on TV commercials promoting the richness of the commonwealth.
A foggy summer morning at the D & F Farm in Somerset.
To promote Kentucky Proud produce, we recently shot a 30-second commercial featuring tomato farmer Dwight Faulkner of D & F Farm in Somerset, Kentucky. Eager to capture the gorgeous scenery, our creative team (Paul Gosselin and Mike Duck), the director (Dennis Goodman) and the production company (Videobred) were on location before the sun ever rose. It was worth it, as we got some great shots of rolling fields in the early-morning fog.
You can watch the completed Kentucky Proud spot at http://youtu.be/vzvSRV63iLA
Shooting at Ashford Stud, Versailles
New West is also working with the Kentucky Department of Travel & Tourism to produce a series of three spots showcasing some of Kentucky’s unique attractions, from Lincoln’s birthplace to Cumberland Falls, from horse farms to distilleries.
Production on the Travel & Tourism spots is drawing to a close, and the ads will air sometime this fall in neighboring states — and likely here as well.
Awards — Are those all you agency folks care about?
What a way to end the week! Last Friday night, we attended the Louie Awards (local Addys). And brought home 11 awards: one gold and 10 silvers. In terms of sheer numbers, that’s the single biggest night we’ve ever had at the Louies.
This show, sponsored by the Louisville Advertising Federation, recognizes creative excellence in our localadvertising community. It’s part of a three-tiered system. Work that’s awarded at the local level then advances to the regional level. If it wins at the regional level, it then competes in the national Addy show.
This is all fine and well if you’re an agency. But if you’re a client, a question might cross your mind: “Why should I care?”
Some people believe we admen and adwomen enter award shows simply to satisfy our creative egos. And while I will admit there’s a certain amount of ego gratification involved, that’s not the whole story. An agency that enters the work it creates for its clients is making a statement. It’s saying, “We’re proud of this work. We think it’s some of our best.” Think about that for a moment. If you’re a client, don’t you want an agency that’s doing its best for you?
There’s another reason you should care. Last year, a new study in the UK by Thinkbox and the Institute for Practitioners in Advertising found that most creatively awarded work is 11 times more efficient at delivering business success. Did you get that? Eleven times. 1,100% more effective. You can read a summary of the study at www.thinkbox.tv/server/show/ConWebDoc.2490.
Now back to Friday night. Our “Scrapbook” TV commercial for Kentucky Tourism brought home the gold in the special effects/animation category. It was also awarded a silver in the general regional/national TV category. (You can view it on this page.) “Vintage Kentucky,” a video promoting Kentucky’s winemaking industry for the Kentucky Department of Agriculture won us another silver. A bus shelter poster campaign promoting the free downtown trolleys for the Transit Authority of River City earned us four more silvers. And a newspaper ad campaign for Trilogy Health Services, a network of assisted living and rehabilitation facilities, earned us our final four silvers of the night.
On behalf of New West, let me offer a hearty thank you to our clients who allowed us to do such stellar work last year. And to those of you who aren’t clients yet, maybe you should ask us to create some award-winning work for you, too.
New West, GE put the bliss in BlissDom
Posted by Cary B. Willis on February 1, 2011 · Comment
It was the perfect storm for a home-product rollout. Eight hundred moms gathered together in one place. Moms who have their own blog. Moms who are likely to be intimately familiar with the world of laundry. Moms who are a little stressed, a little wilted, after bouncing from session to session, networking, and wandering dozens of busy displays.
Moms who neede
d a little “me-time.”
So New West decided this would be a good opportunity to reach out to these tech-savvy moms with some old-school human touch.
We teamed up with General Electric to show off some of GE’s new Profile™ Washer & Dryer pairs at the BlissDom conference in Nashville Jan. 27-28. These are beautiful machines, with all the latest technology, including “Overnight Ready” wash cycles that remove so much moisture you won’t even need to transfer to a dryer, plus a SmartDispense™ system that automatically adds just the right amount of detergent or fabric softener.
In other words, more me-time for the launderer.
And what does a busy woman do with a little free time? She goes to the spa! We decided to reach out to conference attendees through a spa atmosphere, complete with skilled professionals to provide neck massages and manicures.
To sweeten the pot even further, GE gave away a gorgeous new GE Profile™ washer and dryer to one of the attendees who dropped by the booth.
Bingo.
“How amazing was that massage? Loved it! Thx to GE, Opryland spa, and #Blissdom,” mommyinsider wrote on her Twitter page.
“I’m in a conference room…make your first stop the @GE suite where you can get a great massage! #blissdom I’ll meet ya’!” tweeted StressFreeBaby.
“Holy cow…I just saw the Bentley of washer dryers. @rationaltunes would die. GE profile (@GE_appliances),” said Twitter-happy looneytunes.
And on and on.
Now that’s what we’d call a clean sweep.
Whew! What a month it was!
Posted by Tom Howell on October 28, 2010 · Comment
Hundreds of thousands of visitors explored the Kentucky Experience at the FEI Alltech World Equestrian Games.
The last four weeks have been a blur of activity here at New West. And before we light out to our next assignments, we thought we’d catch our breaths for a brief recap.
It all began with the load-in of all things Kentucky into The Kentucky Experience at the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games. Two years in the planning, the three pavilions and courtyard gardens welcomed the 500,000-plus people who visited or participated in the Games at the Kentucky Horse Park. From Corvettes to crafts and bourbon to bluegrass bands – every item, every activity and every inch of space was carefully designed, decorated and displayed to showcase the best Kentucky has to offer. For 16 days, the International (and NBC-TV) “sun” shone bright on this Kentucky home! For that work, the Kentucky Department of Travel presented New West with its “Partner of the Year” award. Thanks for the recognition. It was FUN!
Visitors to the Louisville Water Company's 150th anniversary celebration enjoyed a carriage ride. The historic Water Tower stands in the background.
While WEG was in high gear, we were also helping our friends at the Louisville Water Company prep for a big 150th anniversary celebration. The water branded Pure Tap by New West more than a decade ago was first delivered to businesses in what is now the Central Business District on October 16, 1860. Highlights of the celebration included tours of the magnificent buildings that water company leadership has carefully preserved and maintained over the years (photos) and carriage rides around the Water Tower property on River Road. And through May of 2011, visitors to The Frazier Museum in downtown Louisville will be treated to a display of LWC firsts, facts and artifacts (See http://www.fraziermuseum.org/).
New West helped celebrate a major economic development announcement as well. Our writers, designers and event management teams helped our GE Appliances and Lighting client orchestrate some world-class good news. It began with an early October announcement at the GE Lighting plant in Bucyrus, Ohio, that will double its workforce over the next two years and ended just last week with the simultaneous announcement at four GE facilities in middle America involving hundreds of millions of dollars of new investment and hundreds of new jobs.
New Westers to the Rescue
The usual creative hum of the office was broken this week when cries of concern ricocheted throughout the halls. “Baby ducks have fallen through the storm grate in the parking lot,” says the normally calm and cool Bobbi Davis, Senior Account Manager.
“The mother duck is frantically circling the grate and the lone remaining baby is in danger of falling through as well,” cried Marketing Assistant Donna Wade.
In a flash, Mary Walter-Yandell, Graphic Designer by trade, but bird fancier by choice, leapt into action. “Who has a net?” she cracked (in a voice that is barely audible on most occasions). Nancy Roth, the agency bookkeeper/receptionist wasted no time in calling building maintenance…but it was lunch time and the usually trusty handyman was a good half hour away.
Justin Toon reaches into the drain to rescue the ducklings
Meanwhile, Mary had called into service the wiry but sturdy Art Director Justin Toon to go outside and help move the iron grate and capture the fallen ducklings before they were swept away by a mounting rain.
In short order the ducklings were rescued and they were reunited with momma. She and her babies waddled into the nearby creek and swam away. Ruffled feathers were smoothed.
The quick thinking and seamless teamwork of these office mates helped one lucky family of ducks avert certain disaster.
The ducklings: safe and sound after being rescued
Momma and babies head to the creek after the rescue
Ohio marketer praises ‘Kentucky Unbridled Spirit’ brand
It’s one thing to toot your own horn. It’s another to get a ringing endorsement from a peer.
We checked our Google alerts recently and discovered that Jean Gianfagna, founder and president of a marketing consulting firm in Cleveland, had nice things to say about the Unbridled Spirit brand New West created for the state of Kentucky in 2004.
More on that in a minute. First, though, Ms. Gianfagna wanted to talk about her home state’s new “Beautiful Ohio” plate. The plate, Ms. Gianfagna said, “makes a classic branding and marketing mistake: Obscuring the name of the product through ‘creative’ graphic design. In fact, it’s hard to imagine what else the designers could have done to bury the brand.” She complained about typeface that’s too hard to read, “clumsy” visual elements, an overly busy design, and positioning of the word “Ohio” in such a way that plate frame holders will cover up at least part of it.
Many other states have made similar mistakes, Gianfagna said. Kentucky, on the other hand, “designed a clean, attractive license plate whose main visual element is its ‘Kentucky Unbridled Spirit’ branding, the official logo of the brand strategy that applies to all of Kentucky’s tourism marketing and promotion – including its license plates.” This strategy has paid off, she said, noting that public perceptions of Kentucky have improved as a result.
“Imagine the impact,” Gianfagna concluded, “if Ohio officials had followed Kentucky’s lead and recognized the state’s license plate as a branding opportunity. Suppose they created a visually striking graphic design that showcased the brand in a readable, engaging, and memorable way and linked to the state’s tourism marketing campaign. Ohio would be making millions of powerful, positive impressions on people everywhere, every day. And that would be a smart branding strategy.”
Thanks, Jean. We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.
For the full text of Ms. Gianfagna’s remarks, see http://www.gianfagnamarketing.com/blog/2010/03/01/a-branding-blunder-averted-ohio-almost-makes-a-classic-marketing-mistake/
Build market share
We’ve been preaching about how this is an excellent time to pick up market share, and NOT the time to cut back on marketing efforts.
Here is another example, in the form of an excellent article in “Media Daily News” on Procter and Gamble’s aggressive advertising strategy. This is from that article:
“CEO A.G. Lafley said marketing outlays have remained at their traditional levels, and P&G is looking to take advantage of the turmoil in the ad market to build share of voice.
In a call with investors, Lafley said the marketer of Tide and Crest is “absolutely not” trimming ad dollars. In fact, what’s really going on is that “the advertising markets are softening–and for the same dollars, we’re buying more delivery.” That, in turn, has led to “improving our shares of voice” in multiple categories, he said. “
Careful with that axe, Eugene!
The economy has taken a beating lately, that’s for sure. Amid the constant refrain of bad news, businesses have cut spending. For many of those businesses, the first expense to face the axe is marketing.
Bad idea.
While it might be tempting to trim an expense that doesn’t immediately add to the bottom line, fading into the background is never the path to success. Think about it: Does hunkering down increase your sales? Do you honestly think you’ll succeed in these hard times when fewer people are reminded of your goods or services?
Marketing now, while others are following the mob into the void, will allow your company to stand out and, most important, remain viable. And when the larger economy does reawaken, you’re well positioned for serious growth.
Marketing is not merely an expense, it’s an investment. The issue is how to invest shrewdly.
For example, this might be a good time to finally jump into the social media swimming pool. A well-designed, well-executed, frequently updated blog, Facebook page or Twitter account will help you accomplish two things – you can not only speak to your customers, you get to hear directly and immediately from them what they like and don’t like. In other words, you learn how to better meet their needs, so you can sell more of whatever you’re trying to sell.
Your most important sales staff. What your employees say can make or break your company.
(This was originally published in The Lane Report in November 2008.)
While at the checkout counter the other day, I heard an interesting conversation between two cashiers.
“I hate this place. They scheduled me an extra shift without even asking.”
“They did that to me last week. Plus I haven’t gotten a raise in two years. I’m looking for another job and I’ll be out of here as soon as I can.”
Two thoughts immediately came to mind.
- I don’t want to hear these people complain. I just want them to finish my order.
- If this company treats its own people this way, I’m not shopping here again.
And after overhearing that brief conversation, that company has lost my business forever.
Your employees are your most important marketers. They can attract customers to you or they can drive them away. They can make or break your image in the community.
So what do you do to help them market your company? “I pay them, and that should be enough!” may be your most common response. However, that’s not enough.
Here are four action steps you should implement with your “most important sales staff”:
- Treat your employees as a niche market. Communicate with them in a regular manner. Make them feel special. Why? Not only are they the face of your business, but their families also are extensions of your business. The good and bad things that happen at your company will be discussed at family gatherings, parties, church functions and throughout the community. What do you want them telling other people about you?
- Train your employees on good customer service. Let them know that they represent you and educate them on how to treat your customers. Let them know how important they are to the future of your company. Give them specific ideas on ways to make your customers have a great experience and want to come back.
- Empower your employees to “market” for you. Give them coupons, special offers or other incentives to hand out to customers, friends, neighbors and perfect strangers. This gives them a stake in your success and enables them to showcase your business to people.
- Reward your employees for bringing in new customers or for exemplary customer service. They’ve just helped you make more money. Shouldn’t they get a piece of the pie? Incentives will encourage that.
Every employee you have is a potential marketer for your company. Keep them informed. Talk to them. Give them the tools that will help them – and you – succeed.
I will say it again. Your employees are your most important marketers. Help them succeed. Your bottom line will thank you.
