experience matters

These are not the best of times. From a business perspective, all you need to do is scan the articles to see the patterns. The phrase “Return On Investment” is one of the most common statements you’ll likely come across as you look for guidance in how to make the most of a tough economy. We’re all trying to figure out how to prove our worth. On a more personal level, it’s times like this that our work can seem nearly thankless—most of us are just grateful to be employed. In a couple of days my own family will be on our way to visit my in-laws in Michigan, a state hard hit by the economic downturn. I’ll be sitting across from relatives who are unsure of what the future holds for them. Maybe this scene sounds familiar to you.

Last year I asked if there was an experience you were thankful for. But that was then, and this is now. These are the times to be truly thankful for what we have versus what we don’t. It’s a good time to re-calibrate and re-prioritize. Sometimes it feels like we’re living in thankless times. When we’re all too busy justifying our own existence to be thankful for the existence of others.

But it’s exactly in these times that we come to terms with what really matters. It’s an opportunity to dial down our hectic lives if even for the moment. It’s an opportunity to reflect. That’s something I’m thankful for, even in times which seem thankless. That matters to me. So I ask you, in times like this, what matters to you?

Originally published at iMedia Connection

Here at our agency, we have a program called Beer Camp.  Contrary to how it sounds, this is not some type of half-assed training program for the exceedingly popular sport of Beer Pong.

Beer Camp is a once a month opportunity for anyone in the company to lead a discussion about any topic they are passionate about.  This can range from obviously relevant topics, like web development or social media, to the not-so-obvious, like American Idol and self-defense.

Inspired by a scene from the last episode of Mad Men, I partnered with Heidi Skinner, our Director of Emerging Media, to lead a debate about what is more important, the message or the medium.  We had a room full of people from multiple disciplines – media, technology, creative, content, project and account management.

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(Frank Eliason of Comcast addresses the audience at WOMMA 2008)

It’s so easy to get caught up in the buzz isn’t it? Social this, social that. I’m sick of it. From this point on, I am making a vow to talk in more simple terms (I try to do this already, but I want to improve). So here’s something you should know. Chances are that your organization can’t move as quickly as consumers can, and that needs to change. I’ve met Frank Eliason, the man behind @comcastcares several times now and he knows a few things about this. I fired up our beta-cam at the WOMMA Summit (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) and recorded his talk (view video). Frank talks about building a culture of “rapid response” and he’s right.
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Cross Posted on Logic + Emotion

Updates:
-As of 8:00 CST, Motrin.com has been down for nearly 1/2 a day.
-Motrin.com is back up and has been updated with the below message in an image format (should have been text you can copy and paste)
-A “cosmetic surgery” parody of the original ad is now on YouTube

I am literally in the middle of watching what Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff call a “Groundswell”. As far as I can tell, Motrin posted an ad on their Website (view here) which ignited a community of mothers who were insulted by it. Specifically it seems that many of the mothers use baby slings and objected to the tone of the ad which describes them as “in fashion”.

Full disclaimer, I am not interested in taking sides, but I am interested in events like this and how they unfold, specifically as it relates to power consumers, online communities, brands and the digital trail all of this type of activity leaves. Here’s a few considerations for any business, brand or even individual to consider in similar situations:
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I had the pleasure of attending Zappos CEO, Tony Hsieh’s keynote speech at the 2008 Word of Mouth Marketing Summit in Las Vegas last Thursday.  Zappos is a company that’s renown for their customer service.  Tony spent an hour sharing his thoughts on why their customer service rocks and why word of mouth for them is so positive.  

Here’s a hint… it has nothing to do with blogging, social media, or Twitter.  In fact, it has nothing to doing with even *creating* word of mouth. Read the rest of this entry »

Jim Novo argues that during good times, cash flows to CFOs. During bad times, CFOs obsess over cash flows.

Why isn’t marketing more aligned with this CFO need during a downturn?

For one, traditionally, marketing is generally concerned with one thing – demand generation. It’s because the link between the impact of marketing on ROI is downright cloudy and contentious.

Web analytics is still, by and large, about the aggregate. It’s about the number of unique visitors, pageviews and conversion that happened in a previous month. It is not, as of yet, concerned with the behavior of individual, anonymous customers. Most companies struggle with even executing against those aggregate baseline metrics. The link between the aggregate volumes of an event, say, researching a product, and cash flow, has yet to be made in most organizations. That kind of analysis, linking aggregate figures with the financial accounting side, would require a high degree of cooperation between marketing and finance, and assumes that a web analyst would have the time and capacity to do that study. While it would be well worth the effort, it assumes a high degree of integration and trust between groups which, historically, do not communicate.

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Originally published at iMedia Connection’s Blog

Forgive me if this post tapers off somewhere in the middle. I will most likely be fielding calls from my friends on the publisher side as well as the ad networks.

Remember when people started saying the :30 spot was dead? That the microsite was dead? That newspapers were dead? Actually, newspapers are dead. I read the Chicago Tribune this morning. Ouch. But the :30 spot is still alive and kicking and microsites are plentiful. So why, do you ask, would I declare the death of digital display ads? Oh, where to begin…

Response rates aren’t going to go back up. Sure, you can work with some of the better BT networks like Yahoo! (through Blue Lithium) and broad reach networks like ValueClick, but how much of a lift will that really give you? One percent? Two percent? Is that enough to make an impact? Storing data allows for better targeting and the POSSIBILITY, based on a better profile of the user, of an action. Nothing more. Maybe you are just looking for eyeballs and argue that this type of buy provides them. Hold that thought.

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Search engine expert Danny Sullivan is one person who believes that rooftop ads are not aimed at Google Maps, but at passengers in airplanes. Perhaps this is because most of the rooftop ads are found in zones near airports, and that RoofAds, a company specialized in rooftop painting, doesn’t mention Google Maps on its website. Some companies have gone even further and used farmland to create crops designs that display their logos.

Aside from being seen by people in the air, these logos will inevitably be caught in one of the Google updates. But before you go out and place a logo on your roof, consider that Google’s database updates can take months or years to complete. Think of it as a medium to long-term investment.

Is there maybe a shorter way?

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