Experience Matters

Archive Page 3 of 17

Oct 16, 2008

Published by
Heidi Skinner

Topics
Customer Insight, Delivering Results and Methods of Work

(4 votes)

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Give Before You Get

“Make a Facebook Fan Page because it doesn’t cost anything. Create a YouTube Brand Channel to house your video assets - YouTube allows you to do it for free. Befriend 100 people on MySpace and create a Ning community because there are no fees…” If you’ve ever allowed yourself to say these things, please adjust your social media compass.

The expectation that social media tactics are free initiatives is a huge fallacy to both agencies and marketers. There are four reasons why a good influential marketing strategy should cost you money:

1. Focusing your scope costs money. Take the guess work out of social media by engaging a buzz monitoring tool. Before you decide on your brand’s approach, gain insight on the topics, tonality and volume of conversations around our brand before you get started. If not, you aren’t truly fishing where the fish are.

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Oct 14, 2008

Published by
Scott Shamberg

Topics
Compelling Experiences, Customer Insight, Methods of Work and Tools & Technologies

(1 votes)

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Group Therapy Marketing: Reaching Consumers on the Edge of Sanity

Originally published at iMedia Connection’s Blog

As many of you know, the beginning of the month saw perhaps the third largest bursting of a bubble ever (behind the .com bubble of ‘99 and the recent real estate market crash). This bubble, upon implosion, secreted a substance referred to by many as “Cubbie Blue,” a euphemism for the overwhelming enthusiasm displayed by North Side Chicago fans for their favorite baseball team which means they “bleed Cubbie Blue.” Ironically, the team they lost to, the L.A. Dodgers, also bleeds blue. So apparently what you had was a NLDS made up of Martians.

The passion that this fan base has for its team is on par with all the great team/fan relationships in history. I have friends who, over the course of the last four days, have refused to talk about baseball, who have spewed venom, the likes of which you don’t hear in the most heated political or religious debates. I even had one friend who picked up the phone, called the Chicago Cubs and demanded an apology.

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Oct 9, 2008

Published by
David Armano

Topics
Customer Insight

(2 votes)

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Random Thoughts From IDEA 2008

I recently had the opportunity to both speak at and attend IDEA 2008, a wonderful design conference which exceeded my expectations. There were many take-aways for me, but here’s a few random thoughts that I’d like to share:
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Oct 7, 2008

Published by
David Armano

Topics
Compelling Experiences and Customer Insight

(1 votes)

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Marketers, Interested in Some Karma?

Originally published at Ad Age, Digital Next

Here is a recent illustration of how the web works. Chris Anderson, author of “The Long Tail,” is working on his new book in which he explores the notion of “free.” Rather than hole himself up in a cabin somewhere while writing, he uses his blog to test out content, source external perspectives and even ask for a little help.

Several weeks ago Chris put together a couple of rough visuals of his “free models” in the hopes that someone could improve upon them. A Critical Mass co-worker passed the blog post on to me, knowing that I might take Chris up on the challenge as I love solving problems visually.

Within minutes of my post being launched, Chris provided feedback on my visual, I reposted and he linked back to us.

The irony is that this little exchange is not only becoming more commonplace, but it’s also reflective of the fourth model Anderson outlines as the “gift economy.” People will provide things of value at no cost, and it’s likely that something good can happen in return - call it karma. Now that’s something to think about as marketers. When was the last time you asked your customers for help? When was the last time you listened? And when was the last time you produced something of value only to freely “give it away”?

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Oct 3, 2008

Published by
Scott Weisbrod

Topics
Brand Experience, Compelling Experiences, Customer Insight and Emerging Technology

(No Ratings Yet)

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Weekly Points of Interest 2008-10-03

Quick Links

Sites of the Week

Oct 2, 2008

Published by
Scott Shamberg

Topics
Brand Experience and Compelling Experiences

(3 votes)

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It’s Not a Wheel. It’s a Carousel.

For all that digital marketing is - efficient, interactive, impactful, measurable - there is one thing that it seems to consistently be lacking. Theatre.

When are you building a website or putting together a digital media plan, the requirements are usually pretty cut and dry. As an industry, I think we forget that some times ideas are more important than requirements. They aren’t more important, however. Don’t be Crispin. Everyone wanted to be Crispin and get paid for ideas. Turns out that most of their ideas don’t sell a whole helluva lot of product. The shop for distressed brands, we like to say. But I digress…

You don’t often think of technology and theatre walking down the aisle hand-in-hand. Jobs is the exception. Each time they announce something, it is shrouded in more secrecy than Tom and Katie’s marriage, eh, “contract,” or Bill Belicheik’s injury report.

Steve Jobs, technological maestro.

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Oct 1, 2008

Published by
Ben Truyman

Topics
Delivering Results, Methods of Work and Tools & Technologies

(No Ratings Yet)

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I Sketch With Code

Sketching is undoubtedly an integral part in the initial creation process of interactive pieces. Traditionally, a pencil and piece of paper was all that was (thought to be) needed to create quick and dirty mock-ups. But as of recent, there’s been a bit of debate over which is more effective: paper and pencil or text editor and code. Both provide an empty canvas waiting to be painted with the next viral YouTube video campaign, microsite layout or iPhone web application design.

As a web developer, I sketch with code. One of the inherent benefits of sketching with code is the ease of transformation into a functional prototype. With the number of available JavaScript libraries, CSS frameworks and application frameworks available for us developers, creating something we can touch and interact with is significantly easier than it’s ever been before.

In the end, it doesn’t matter what I use to produce sketches - it all comes down to choosing the right tool for the job. And the only “right tool for the job” is the one that consistently produces positive results. So whether it be a piece of paper and a pencil or Textmate, they’re both just tools, and nothing more. As for myself, I just so happen to sketch with code.

So now I must ask, what do you sketch with?

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Sep 29, 2008

Published by
David Armano

Topics
Customer Insight and Organizational Implications

(4 votes)

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Viva La Evolution! Get More Return On Insight.

Over the past few months, I’ve had some great opportunities to meet folks from a variety of companies and I’ve detected a bit of a pattern. Organizations are genuinely challenged with what to make of the changes on the Web, both from an external marketing perspective as well as the internal enterprise.

For example, many companies are eager to take advantage of “social media” efforts, meaning non-traditional marketing initiatives that involve either unpaid media or interacting directly with consumers/customers/users and communities. BUT, there is risk involved and the most often asked question which is inevitably asked becomes “what’s the ROI”?
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Sep 26, 2008

Published by
Scott Weisbrod

Topics
Brand Experience, Compelling Experiences, Customer Insight, Delivering Results and Emerging Technology

(2 votes)

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Weekly Points of Interest 2008-09-26

Quick Hits

Sites of the Week

Sep 22, 2008

Published by
Devlin Dunsmore

Topics
Brand Experience, Compelling Experiences, Customer Insight and Methods of Work

(2 votes)

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Branding Through Experience: Go With Your G.U.T.

Branding is thought of as “the process of creating a unique, positive and recognizable identity for a product or service” and has traditionally been achieved by companies through mono-directional interactions with their customers. Social marketing requires companies to let go of their death grip over their brand and put faith into the hands of users and customers. Branding 2.0 has nothing to do with product shots, tag lines or carefully crafted copy created by marketers. Branding 2.0 is about letting customers define your brand for you.

That G.U.T. Feeling

The catch with social marketing is that it doesn’t really matter how pleased the company is with the effort - if customers aren’t feeling it then it will fail. Try to make a piece of brand-friendly social media that doesn’t allow customers to interact with it the way they want to and you will end up with nothing more than a web based black hole that sucks in money and resources and never gives anything back. So what makes one social marketing effort a success and another a dud? The G.U.T. - Genuineness, Usefulness and Thoughtfulness.

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Experience Matters

Archive Page 3 of 17

Give Before You Get

Group Therapy Marketing: Reaching Consumers on the Edge of Sanity

Random Thoughts From IDEA 2008

Marketers, Interested in Some Karma?

Weekly Points of Interest 2008-10-03

It’s Not a Wheel. It’s a Carousel.

I Sketch With Code

Viva La Evolution! Get More Return On Insight.

Weekly Points of Interest 2008-09-26

Branding Through Experience: Go With Your G.U.T.

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