The Buzz Forge

bigbuzz September 24th, 2009

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A recent AdAge article featured the headline “Luxury Marketers Move Online but Most Lack Digital Cunning”.

No Shit!

Most companies still lack digital cunning or basic knowledge as to how to best utilize the internet to drive their business. One reason is the varying views as to what success looks like online. Another is that few success models are available and even fewer people want to look at what brought that success.

I was faced with multiple examples of this recently as I met with various clients. Invariably they told me how much of their budgets were going to interactive advertising and how well it was doing but when asked to qualify their success the answer was “We get a lot of hits.“

OK, I am learning to overlook the inaccurate use of hits understanding they are meaning click throughs and site traffic. However, non could go beyond the hits and convert that to conversions, actual sales. Why? If all your efforts are going to driving traffic fine but if you are selling books or games or shoes you want to know how those hits converted to dollars.

Why spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on hits that bring in no sales? Why wouldn’t tracking be in place to give the conversion info so that you could see if your efforts were actually profitable?

Too often we see good ideas, especially in the digital realm, taken half way to a point where success and failure can not be determined. In these cases the definition of success and failure is changed to meet the outcome. “Hey, that banner got us a 30% increase in traffic! The campaign was a success.” Too bad the time spent on your site plummeted and your bounce rate skyrocketed. And it’s really too bad that your sales didn’t increase a a bit.

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• Advertising in General
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bigbuzz September 14th, 2009

I sometimes have to chuckle when I read about the changing of marketing. I sometimes rant. This morning I can’t help but shake my head and wonder where people have been for the bast few decades. Social Media has been around for ever and yet it seems to be a new thing to most.

Those who has worked in local advertising understands Social Media. They understand the importance of customer contact contact on a personal level and the importance of telling a story. They understand shaking hands and networking whether it’s at Chamber events or from a booth at a local expo or fair.

The ingredients that have gone into successful Social Marketing for generations are the ingredients that are being espoused as new tactics on Twitter, FaceBook, Linkedin and other social sites. Perhaps giant companies and agencies are so detached from the streets that they have forgotten. Or maybe they are so wrapped up in winning awards with their creativity that they lost sight that the 4Cs were always the important aspect of marketing.

“Long gone are the 4Ps of marketing, these are the days of the 4Cs, a customer centric approach that includes the customer’s wants and needs; the cost to satisfy the customer; the convenience; and communication.” Read the rest

If we haven’t been focusing on the customer all of these years what have we been? It comes down to your marketing If you want to win a street fight higher a Street Fighter. Look at who’s in your corner do they mind getting dirty, even bloody, for you? If not find someone who will tell your story ’till they drop.

• Advertising in General , Social Media
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bigbuzz September 9th, 2009

I noticed this headline this morning In Advertising, Stupidity Can Win You Awards mainly because it fits my attitude toward most advertising. I’ve been in one form of media for over 25 years, add an additional 15 if you count growing up with a career radio dad. I hate to say it but over those years advertising has made virtually zero gains.

I’m talking about the presentation, the message offered to the audience. Of course we’ve seen advancement in the delivery methods and the number of ways to reach the public, I was faced with a 4’ x 5’ ad for Mt Dew in a frame zip tied to a fuel hose as I filled up my car the other day.  Is that an advancement?

We are each bombarded with 5,000+ ads each day it’s too bad they are mostly garbage.

What is it that makes ads garbage. On the larger stage, that of national and international campaigns we too often run into creative’s with clout. These are well known names, award winning teams, who value the awards and recognition but too often forget the purpose of the ads. On the local stage we run into uneducated sales reps who do what everyone else does, over worked copywriters and designers who crank out one stale ad after another. Both are often faced with know-it-all clients who dictate what is included in the ads and spreadsheet management that sees spending too much time on creative as counter bottom line.

An additional for better ads is the pressure for status quo. If their ad does not sound like, look like, feel like their competitors, and everyone else’s, the belief is that it is not good. Poop!

Ads can be creative but the creative can’t distract from the client message and not sell the product. Remember the “Dogs Love Trucks” campaign for Nissan, or was it Toyota, I don’t remember. It won awards. It was cute. But nobody cared and truck sales took a dive.

Ad development does not have to suck life out of a bottom line. When done well ads will increase the bottom line by keeping clients and gaining more.

If you are a local ad rep learn, read, write, design, practice.  Become the person known in your market for great creative and happy clients with growing businesses. The time you spend learning will pay off hugely.

If you were wondering about the stupid ad and didn’t follow the link here it is. It’s tasteless and insulting to New Yorkers and everyone in the US.

WWF stupid ad

• Advertising in General
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jeff September 2nd, 2009

That’s the headline in an AdAge article today. The reason…Companies Aren’t Social by Design.

As a test we’ve been playing with Twitter and other social sites exploring aps and looking into who is utilizing them and who. We’ve seen professionals promoting their services well, Socially Fresh for one, and MANY spamming everyone with get-rich-quick programs.

Scammers, gray and black hat users are often new adopters. They learn the boundaries of a service by pushing ’till they get punished then walk the line.

If companies want to become more social, at least in their online marketing, it’s time to look at those who are playing in the social arena not just assign a cubical dweller to learn on the go.

• Social Media
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jeff September 2nd, 2009

I wonder how many great coaches were great players.  I’m not one to follow any player, team or sport closely enough to answer this. In football I can list a few who I believe were some of the greatest coaches; Lombardi, Shula, Landry, perhaps Walsh and Parcells. I’m sure there are more but my question is Where are the any stars as players?

Here’s a key point for up and coming managers to remember…Great managers are rarely excellent at the things they manage.

My first management opportunity came at 30. I stunk. By age 32 I was above average. At age 35 I had become a decent manager, at least I believe so. The key came when I accepted the fact that I could not do everything. I was not good at everything and was not the best at most things.

I am far better handling 10 things at a time than one. There are too many details to deal with in the one. I learned and accepted that my detail abilities were not my greatest talent. One of my soccer coaches once told me “You’re not the best player we have but you see the field and how the game is developing quickly and can put the ball where it needs to be better than the others.”

Once I accepted my limitations and focused on my talents it all came together. I surround myself with detail people, those who love to handle the i dotting and t crossing.

If you are the star seller in an organization and have aspirations for management think about your skills and your managers skills. Look at what your manager deals with day to day. Are they the things you enjoy?

We often see VP of Marketing or VP of Finance people elevated to President or CEO only to crash. We forget that they are the VP of Marketing because they are excellent at Marketing and relating to the people in the Marketing department. They don’t relate to penny pinchers. They don’t handle HR or company PR well.

Great coaches, great managers, generally are not star players. They have broad talents rather than highly focused ones. They have high assist numbers and low scoring stats. They relate to teammates better than cameras.

Great managers are rarely excellent at the things they manage.

• Proverbial Other
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