FEBRUARY 26, 2010

Our collegue Peter Fenn had a hand in this video Macalester College made where the President of Macalester College Brian Rosenberg gives an insider’s look at their campus and the student experience today. It is a great example of a low-cost, fun, breakthrough communication. Originally posted on February 14th, the video has had over 25,000 views.

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FEBRUARY 22, 2010

I recently received some marketing materials in the mail from United Healthcare. I don’t know a lot about this particular health insurer. I’m sure they are a good company. If I could give them a little advice however, it would be not to send this promotion package.

Click on the images to enlarge.

What’s wrong with it?
1. Because it is meant to look like a file from a doctor or hospital, it is a little alarming to receive
2. Since it’s obviously an x-ray, your mind races to recall what x-ray you or a family member has had recently
3. It’s meant to be funny, but it falls very flat
4. It’s expensive. Doesn’t look good for a healthcare provider to spend money this way.

As I said, I’m sure they are a good company. This campaign is just way off-key. What’s your reaction to this marketing strategy? Leave us your thoughts in the comments.

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SEPTEMBER 24, 2009

A colleague recently sent around a very interesting BusinessWeek piece about the efforts companies are making towards restoring public trust in their brands. It was, I thought, a great look at how McDonald’s, American Express, and Ford are tackling the core problem of distrust in an era when largesse, recklessness, and complacency among major corporations have led to a financial panic and recession.

While McDonald’s and Ford have primarily improved their public standing by actually improving their products, American Express’ story, I thought, was more interesting because its products aren’t exactly tangible. It, primarily, is in the business of moving money around - a valuable, essential service - but the extent of the average consumer’s interaction with AmEx involves swiping a card at the grocery store and paying up at the end of the month.  The same is true of all credit card companies, really.

So traditionally credit card issuers have competed at the margins. Credit cards are more or less functionally identical, so companies had to lure new customers by touting perks like the security of their cards (AmEx “Blue” cards),  the quality of their customer service (AmEx platinum cards), or the ubiquity of card-accepting merchants (Visa). AmEx even benefited from a false underground rumor of an exclusive “Black” card issued only to celebrities; in response to the rumors, the company actually started issuing a similiar “Centurion” card in 1999. Rewards like cash back and airline miles are other competitive battlegrounds for issuers.

But given the new austerity of the recession and the leeriness of consumers punch drunk from commodity bubbles,  financial panics and record unemployment, AmEx needed a new marketing tack. So it turned to the stalwart of American business mythology - the yeoman entrepreneur, repairing bikes and baking bread in once-vacant storefronts across the nation.

As someone with an entreprenurial bent, I love the ad. I really, really do. I’m incredibly inspired by stories like these, where an economically beleaguered place like Detroit, thanks to plummeting costs of living, attracts artists, entrepreneurs and other risk-takers to rebuild the city. My escapist fantasies usually revolve around moving to places like Baltimore or Cleveland and participating in their ongoing rebirth.

AmEx is right to run campaigns like these on two levels: first, as an emotional matter, I think most Americans are kind of like me - we envy the freedom and the boldness of entrepreneurs, and alignment with those virtues is never a bad thing. But on a more substantive level, the only surefire way to improve America’s moribund corporations is to enable small businesses to mount challenges to their dominance, and American Express’ fate is directly tied to the health of the broader corporate sector.

I would have liked to see more substance in the campaign, though. What concrete actions is the company taking to improve small business’ access to credit? Is it working with Chambers of Commerce in places hard-hit by the recession to offer business tips to would-be entrepreneurs? How else is it promoting OpenForum, its online resource for small businesses? Is it working with governments to remove barriers to business creation? You never find out.

So, big business - if you want my trust, don’t try to align yourself with my values, or sell me on your brand image. I want to know exactly how you can help and what you’ll do in the event you fail to help. Information that doesn’t accomplish one of those two things just isn’t particularly relevant.

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SEPTEMBER 3, 2009

I’ve been seeing some interesting examples lately of companies using Twitter to increase engagement with customers and make their products better. Here are two I really liked:

1. Kodak’s crowdsourcing.  Kodak has a pocket videocamera currently called the Zi8, which is similar to the Flip videocamera. Kodak wanted a new name for the camera, and apparently wasn’t happy with what it came up with internally. So, it turned to “the crowd” for ideas. The contest: submit a new name for the camera via Twitter or the company’s blog, and if your name is chosen, you get a trip to CES 2010 in Vegas to see the camera revealed. Another 100 people chosen at random from those that submitted entries will get free cameras too. I love this promotion - it got people thinking about the product, and judging from what I saw, inspired a lot of really creative entries. (I submitted 6 myself - Kodak, when do we find out who won?). I also have been enjoying tweets from Jeffrey Hayzlett, Kodak’s CMO, who allows his followers a fascinating glimpse into what he does all day long. I like hearing about his meetings, and guessing at the strategic directions Kodak is taking, as described briefly in 140 characters. 

2. Fox’s “Tweetpeats”. Tomorrow night, Fox is re-airing an episodes of one of its TV shows, “Glee”. “Glee” is a new show for Fox whose pilot aired once last spring and again last night.  The Friday airing will be a little different - it will feature cast tweets across the screen as the show airs.  The tweets will answer fan questions and offer behind-the-scenes commentary on the episode. I think this is brilliant - it gets viewers involved, it generates interest in a new show, and it adapts to the new multi-tasking reality of how we enjoy our entertainment these days.

I love seeing the creative ways companies are using Twitter to engage in conversation about their brands. Nice work, Fox and Kodak.

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JULY 22, 2009

Last year I saw a cool story on how Nintendo was using a unique approach in marketing their gaming consoles to women. They held “Nintendo parties” where groups of women got to play games, drink some wine, and munch on some hors d’oeuvres. I thought it was a cool idea, targeting groups of women in a low key social setting has been done to sell everything from tupperware, to make-up, to even sex toys.

Recently my friend LiLu over at Live It, Love It got to throw such a party. She got an e-mail from Brand About Town and next thing you know she and 25 of her friends were off to a “Girlfriend’s Guide to Gaming” bash. They got to try out the new Nintendo DSi and ended up receiving one to take home and enjoy.

What makes this such a great move for Brand About Town and Nintendo is natural buzz that followed afterwards. It only took a couple of days before all of our friends were talking about it. My blogger pal Liebchen attended the party and couldn’t put the DSi down all night:

“Before I knew it, it was almost 9pm and I was still bent over the little device, trying to get to the next level of Dr. Mario. God help me when I finally get more games on this thing; someone might have to stage an intervention. For instance, if I were to get Mario Kart…I used to think that video games were something that you grew out of. I’ve never been so happy to be wrong.”

This is the kind of word of mouth you want surrounding your product.

What makes these events so valuable is the chance to connect with the consumer in a casual, low-key setting and allow them to test drive your product. Liebchen didn’t fully realize what the Nintendo DSi was all about until she picked one up, “I still liked playing other people’s games, but didn’t figure I needed one of my own but the DSi…it was just fun the games were fun; the camera; all of the capabilities I didn’t really know how much it could do.”

A great way for Nintendo to reach out to those outside the typical video gamer demographic, in fact I could easily see this model transferring over for different kinds of products. The key is to keep it casual, make it fun, and make it about the consumer.

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JULY 2, 2009

It’s a unique experience to be on the other side of what you do for a living.

One of the things I enjoy most about my job is the chance to help clients engage social media - find a way to connect with bloggers, twitterers, and other groups online in a way that’s engaging, informative, and sometimes even fun. We’ve had the opportunity to help plan many great events - everything from roundtable discussions over dinner to trips to company facilities - but last weekend I got to be the recipient of someone else’s planning. It all started with a typical afternoon on Twitter…

I’ve followed the Southwest Airlines (@southwestair) account for the past several months and had talked with them a few times about my flight experiences and how the heck you ever get the first boarding position. (I think it’s impossible.) However, no previous tweet had ever caught my attention like this one did:

I was lucky enough to see it 20 seconds after it posted so I responded and received a congrats message just a few minutes later. Over the next 48 hours, Christi Day, who works in emerging media for Southwest, sent me some additional info about the trip including flight times, hotel, etc.  On Saturday afternoon we showed up at BWI ready for a random adventure - and that’s exactly what we got: New York-themed gate area, complete with Frank Sinatra singer, balloons, buffet, and gift bags; the most fun I’ve ever had on a flight - a trivia contest, in-flight commentary, and champagne; transfers to and from our great hotel in Times Square; and interactions with lots of enthusiastic Southwest employees who obviously love their jobs and their company. They made the experience memorable without making us feel like we were part of marketing campaign. (Check out fellow passenger TheRobStory’s photo set on Flickr.)

My husband had never flown Southwest and was blown away by the entire experience. To say he’s been converted to a Southwest fan would be an understatement. Looking back, here’s what I think made this campaign so successful:

• Great opportunity: Who doesn’t want to go to NYC for the night? And, who isn’t going to tell everyone they know about it? We told at least 50 people about our experience, each time mentioning Southwest Airlines and LaGuardia, which was the entire goal of this effort. This doesn’t include all the people who saw our updates on Twitter and Facebook.
• Genuine fit: It’s an airline - giving away a free trip make sense.
• Passionate people: As I mentioned above, I was very impressed by every employee I interacted with, from the marketing staff to the pilots. Each conveyed a sense of enthusiasm and passion for what they do. You can’t help but want to be a part of that. I feel better about a company when people love to work there - to me, it means that Southwest is about more than just making money.

Beyond Southwest, here are a few other companies whose recent Twitter promotions stood out to me. And, while the ideas may seem simple (give away free stuff), they have attracted my attention - and I’ve talked about each of these companies positively offline because of what they did on Twitter, which I have to believe is the ultimate goal of any campaign:

• Orbitz - Followers eligible to win a free roundtrip airline tickets when they retweeted an Orbitz message.
• Maggiano’s -Offered $100 gift card to any of its restaurants.
• Baskin Robbins - Holding a cake trivia contest every afternoon in July, winner takes home a free ice cream cake.

Attracting attention and keeping it are two different things, so I look forward to seeing if these companies over the next few months continue to put their Twitter accounts to good use. Maybe giving away free stuff seems like a cheap ploy to attract attention, but the bottom line is that it works. It might not work forever, but it works for now. And once these companies have crowd following them, the next challenge is how they continue to offer value. I think this is where bigger picture concepts, like the ones Chris Brogan offers, come into play. Any other Twitter campaigns that have stood out to you lately?

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APRIL 30, 2009

Sometimes, I hear about various corporate marketing promotions and think to myself, “What could that company possibly have been thinking? Why would anyone respond positively to that type of outreach?” (The recent Kohl’s TV campaign comes to mind – wow.) But sometimes, I have the complete opposite reaction: I find that a marketing effort is so on target that, in retrospect, it seems obvious.

Yesterday, I read about just such a promotion in MarketingDaily. Cheerios, as part of its seven year-old Spoonfuls of Stories program, has been working with Simon & Schuster to feature more than 35 million paperback editions of selected books from the publisher’s children’s division free in boxes of the cereal. The goal of the program is to encourage parents and children to enjoy reading together, as well as get great books into kids’ hands, according to Cheerios Marketing Manager Jeff Hingher.

As a mom to five-year olds, I’ve purchased my fair share of Cheerios over the years. And I remember reading a book to those five-year olds that I got from a Cheerios box – a classic about a family reunion called The Relatives Came, by Cynthia Rylant. One particular illustration in that book made one of my daughters, who was two or so at the time, laugh with glee whenever she saw it, which is a sweet memory for me. Thank you, Cheerios!

Cheerios has also used the promotion to help identify up-and-coming authors. Starting in 2007, it launched a new-author contest that allows undiscovered authors to submit their books to Cheerios for a chance at a $5,000 prize and consideration for publication by Simon & Schuster. The first winner will be published in hardcover this summer after a paperback run in cereal boxes this spring.

So why is this a successful promotion?

• Cheerios perfectly targeted its audience. Cheerios are a mainstay in any toddler’s house – what better way to reach out to parents who are always in search of good books to share with their kids?
• Offering new books on a regular schedule attracts repeat buyers (and deters defection to store brands or other competitors).
• The brand earns goodwill for doing a good thing – promoting reading and family time.
• Simon & Schuster wins by getting its products in the hands of parents, who buy books as birthday presents and, like I did, may need to replace the paperback copies that come in the cereal box.
• Cheerios and Simon & Schuster also win by reinforcing the promotion through an interactive contest to identify new talent.

I also like that Cheerios is using mommy bloggers and book bloggers to get the word out about the promotion and the author contest via giveaways of Cheerios’ Spoonful of Stories books.

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APRIL 16, 2009

Long before I accepted a position at TMG Strategies and learned a lot about consumers’ concerns and habits regarding drinking water, I was a fan of filtered water.  In college, I could only afford a Brita-filtered pitcher for my drinking water needs. (Bottled water was a luxury I just couldn’t afford in college - along with Starbucks, toilet paper, and deodorant.)

Now that I’ve graduated from college, I can proudly say that I’ve moved past my Brita-pitcher budget, but my habit of drinking only filtered tap water remains. Only now, I use a faucet-mounted Pur water filtration system for all my H2O needs.  On one of my recent trips to Costco (another habit I picked up along the way - I can’t help it, I “heart” wholesale!) while shopping for replacement filters, I was stopped by a woman who asked me what I knew about using the Pur system. She appeared to not know anything about the product- or filtered water, for that matter - but was concerned since she lived in an area where dye testing was under way.  As a seasoned user of the product I simply explained to her how the whole system worked - everything from installing the filter onto the tap to replacing the filters when the little LED tells you it’s time.  Now, I’m no scientist, I’m not an engineer, nor am I a salesman for Pur, but at the end of our conversation, she smiled, wished me a good day, and picked up two Pur water filter kits for her and her son.

Despite the fact that I’m no salesman, I know I’m the one who “sold” her that product!  It wasn’t some grandiose advertisement, a gimmick of sorts, or a celebrity endorsement that sealed the deal, it was a simple recommendation from an Average Joe (or maybe in my case an Average “Pho”) who could relate to her concerns about contaminated water, who knew the product well, and could share his own personal experience with the product.

And that, my friends, is the power of “word of mouth”.

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MARCH 30, 2009

Some people in the office get to read cool magazines. Kristen reads The New Yorker and Mallory reads O. The bestselling titles I read include Digital Content Producer and Videography. They are trade publications, and as a wannabe video guru, I like keeping up with the times.

So as I was reading the latest issue of Post Magazine (where are all my film editors? You totally read it too!), an editorial blurb caught my attention. It was titled,”The Changing Face Of Trade Shows” and, similar to the post Gayle wrote here on Undercurrents a few months ago, it was about, well, the changing face of trade shows (easy-to-understand title - points to Post editor Randi Altman.)

Altman writes about the expected decline in exhibitor and  attendance for NAB, the trade show for the film/video/television industry. Trade show budgets are expected to drop 17% this year. Apple is out to prove that you no longer need trade shows to debut new products and make major announcements. If strategized the right way, companies can instead turn to social media and traditional news outlets.

So what do trade shows need to do? If I had a say, I’d also emphasize industry shows as a chance to gather industry experts to interact with their peers, and emphasize educational and certification opportunities. I went to a local video trade show last year with a specific agenda - to see if there was a solution to a problem I had - and I found many answers thanks to the people I met there.

While trade shows used to be a cavalcade of the latest and greatest gadgets, that aspect of the show needs to take a backseat and find other ways to attract consumers - or else we may see trade shows fall the way of the World’s Fair: extinct.

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MARCH 18, 2009

Yesterday, Hoda & Kathie Lee, my favorite 10 AM morning show anchors, were discussing a “Today Show” story on Wild Freeborn, an Ashville, NC girl scout who decided to sell her cookies online instead of the traditional “door-to-door” approach.  By creating a YouTube video and a Facebook group, she managed to sell over 700 boxes of those addicting cookies before she was shut down by the national organization, citing rules against online orders.

Hearing that the Girl Scouts of America “punished” this young girl’s clever approach to business got me riled up. I understand that there are rules, but isn’t the cookie program supposed to teach young girls about entrepreneurship, after all? Maybe the “rules” need to be revisited.  My anger over the situation initiated a conversation with my officemate, Peter, that went something like this:

Peter: It’s all about getting out there and interacting with people - it’s about building a relationship.  It’s having that real experience of following through with a task and accomplishing something.

Me: But what about the sense of entrepreneurship?  What about creativity and thinking outside of the box?  I just don’t like the idea that the organization shut down her idea, which I happen to think was genius.

Peter: Taking orders online eliminates the experience of real-life success and failure.

Me: How so?  Not taking orders online makes the organization appear antiquated by resisting technology.

Peter: You don’t need to teach kids technology; it’s inherent to them. What you need to teach them is values - the value of hard work.

Me: Okay, grandma…

Maybe Peter does have a point.  But still, while I can understand why the Girl Scouts prohibited Wild from selling her cookies online due to the fair factor, it could have handled the whole situation differently.  Instead of appearing on television and giving Matt Lauer a list of reasons why she shouldn’t have taken that approach, it missed an opportunity to praise one of its own for an innovative idea. Furthermore, the Girl Scouts should be open to creating an online affiliate program, since it seems to be a service consumers want.  It works for Avon and Mary Kay - why not the Girl Scouts?

The moral of the story is this:  companies cannot allow their traditions to stifle creativity and innovation.  They must embrace new ideas and not be afraid of change.  Reinvention is often the key to success and leadership.

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