:: The Marketing Fresh Peel

Hold Off the Mob: AOC Bum Rush Rescheduled

Posted by Chris Wilson December 12th, 2007

Hold Off The Age of Conversation Bum Rush Mob

Calm your itchy little mouse-clicking fingers and hold off on the blog posts. We are going to have to reschedule the Age of Conversation Bum Rush.

I know. I know. You have been anticipating this for weeks now. I was rearing to go myself. In fact, I and was about to post an update preparing everyone for the big day when I received an email from Drew McLellan explaining that he and Gavin Heaton have been “scrambling to jump through Amazon’s hoops” and that the book has finally been accepted. The only problem is that it looks as though the book won’t be making the site before December 14th.

So we are going to have to push the bum rush back, and with the holidays nearing it may be hard for some to participate if we reschedule any later in the month.

Here’s what I’m thinking. Instead of having a year end push for the book, lets start 2008 off with a blowout! Let’s bring back the buzz that once was (this time bigger than ever).

Saturday January 5th will be our new date for the Age of Conversation Social Media Bum Rush.

And when the day comes, don’t think we are going to just sit and watch the ranking of a book on Amazon. We are going to start a conversation.

What You Can Do Right Now

Spread the word - Surely you are connected to people outside of your marketing cronies. Start talking…hence the word “conversation” in the title.
Blog about It - Make sure everyone gets the word that the Bum Rush will be rescheduled.
Play - Hopefully you will have some time off over the holidays. Take some time to play with social media sites. Make connections.
Join the Facebook Group - This is a great way to connect with all of the AOC writers and fans. You can join the group here.
Become an AOC Fan on Facebook - Show your love for AOC. Yet another awesome way to connect with AOC writers and fans. Join AOC fan page here.
Add AOC to Wikipedia - Any experts on Wikipedia guidlines? Made to Stick is a good example of what can be included.

CATEGORIES: Blogs, Events, Books, Marketing

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More Industry Nuts at Advertising for Peanuts

Posted by Chris Wilson November 12th, 2007

Advertising for Peanuts Bag

I hope you aren’t allergic to peanuts because Advertising for Peanuts is ditching it’s old model of serving up samples of advertising from around the industry moving towards what they hope will be a more conversational platform for advertisers, marketers, designers, those analytics guys, and really anyone in the industry to come together. Littlejohn, the brainchild behind Advertising for Peanuts, hopes you will express your,

“…comments, insults and complaints. Whatever gets the conversation going. Whatever changes things up a bit. Whatever keeps you coming back.”

The exciting part of all this is that Littlejohn has recruited an eclectic group of individuals with a vast array of expertise to be a part of this new direction.

Here’s a rundown of the new team, each of which have been assigned a different day of the week as their day to blog:

Monday - Jim Morris, Copywriter/Creative Director

Tuesday - Johnny Lefthand (I have no idea about this one)

Wednesday – Littlejohn, Advertising for Peanuts Founder as well as Copywriter

Thursday - Brandon Cox and Giancarlo Yerkes, Graphic Designers

Friday - Laurence Minsky, Author of How to Succeed in Advertising When All You Have Is Talent and is also an award-winning copywriter/creative director

Saturday - T. Willerer, works in strategic research, insights & analytics, consumer insights, etc.

Sunday - Tom Tom, Copywriter

Even though the copywriters weigh in heavy on this list, the opinions are sure to be far and wide. I’m predicting this will be a great resource for marketers wanting to become familiar with how the ad world thinks and for anyone trying to bridge the gap between strategy and design. I just wish they could have pushed the analytics guy up earlier in the week. I don’t know if I will have the brainpower to read anything too deep on Saturdays.

CATEGORIES: Blogs, Advertising, News

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Gladwell’s Back

Posted by Chris Wilson November 6th, 2007

Malcolm Gladwell has announced his return to the blogosphere after he left many of us thinking that he had left his last post on January 4th. So with 10 months to think about what to write, he is back in action (and some of you think that I am slow to post).

Gladwell’s is a big part of why I started blogging, so I’m excited that he didn’t give it up, even though at times I’m sure his blog has been a source of frustration to him.

If you want to read some deep thoughts on any and everything, in a language that you can still understand, he’s your man.

Anyways, I just thought I would give notice, since I’m sure that after 10 months he was removed from a lot of feed readers.

CATEGORIES: Blogs, News

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Feeding the Media Snackers

Posted by Chris Wilson October 29th, 2007

My generation is historically known for being addicted to bite-sized bits of information. The Internet hit schools right at the time we were enveloped in the core of our developmental learning. We quickly adapted and changed how we digested information, and schools in turn changed the way they taught. This was the beginning of the Media Snackers.

The story doesn’t end there. Now the term Media Snacker could be applied to just about anyone who lives in this mock 1 speed society.

Drew McLellan, from Drew’s Marketing Minute, tagged me on a discussion that Jeremiah Owyang started by asking, “do you respect media snackers?”

So here’s my analysis:

How I do My Part in Feeding the Snackers?

I try to keep my posts short.
I break my posts up into little lists and bites so that they are easier to skim so readers can indulge themselves where they were interested.
I started a blog series called Simple Idea. With only two Simple Ideas posted, I’ve had a great response so far.
I am a big Facebook user. This is going to give away my age, but I’ve been on Facebook since the first day it was opened it up to my University, back when all you could do was add friends and write on their wall. I use Facebook much the way that Twittheads use Twitter. I post items to Facebook as I run across them, often times leaving a very short description.

Where I could use some work

I need to work on posting more often. Like a person who eats little snacks all day, little media bites will satisfy Media Snackers for a little while but they quickly become hungry and search elsewhere for snacks if you can’t provide the stream of information they desire.

It would be a shame if the conversation stopped here, so I will tag Bill Gammell, Steve Woodruff and Dan Pink. I’m giving my coworker Kelly the tag, because her short blasts of design love keep the Media Snackers more than satisfied, myself included.

If I didn’t tag you, feel free to join in. I will talk to anyone.

CATEGORIES: Social Networks, Blogs

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Overwhelmed

Posted by Chris Wilson August 1st, 2007

Overwhelmed Marketing Guy

The word traveling through the camp is that the people are overwhelmed.

We are overwhelmed. In order for a marketer to sufficiently scrap by in this day in age, the scope of the must know has significantly been expanded. The umbrella is larger and wider than ever.

We are overwhelmed because three years ago, the terms “Social Media” and “Social Networking” would have meant almost nothing to most marketers. Yet here we are diving into the MySpaces and Facebooks of the web, feeling them out, making our analyses and placing bets.

We are overwhelmed because terms like “transparency” that are now a part of our vocabulary (and no we’re not talking about how clear, or not clear your Aquafina bottled tap water is). Transparency resembles something Confucious would have dreamt up had he been a marketer in this day an age. And you know you should pay attention because everyone is talking about it, yet you still get the feeling that no one fully knows where the boundary lines are.

We are overwhelmed because the heavy dialogue with IT has become an everyday norm. Web analytics have changed the game and clients are demanding that we play and justify those dollars.

The question is, when will we be able to finally take a breath?

I’m afraid the answer is not anytime soon. It might be of a tiny amount of comfort to know that for each of the issues that I mentioned, I have linked to blog posts from the past few days by fellow marketers dealing with these issues just like you and me. We are not alone, so keep on peelin.

CATEGORIES: Blogs, Marketing

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Your Clients Need Legos

Posted by Chris Wilson July 25th, 2007

Legos Car

Clients know what they want. In fact they know exactly what they want and when they need it.

They want a website redesign, or to formulate an identity for their newest product line development. Or they need an outdoor ad placed at that perfect spot where the road construction backs up traffic for hours everyday. Or they need a total ad campaign, ready to launch by the end of the week.

What Most of them don’t know, is why. Why do they need all of this?

It’s very easy for marketing to become a list of items to mark off on a checklist, and to think that if I’m doing this set of things then “I’m marketing.”

This is a trap that marketing pros like myself sometimes fall into. Here’s a simple analogy to help the idea of integrating your marketing plan stick a little better.

Marketing is like building something out of Legos. The pieces will fit together in just about any way that you can imagine. But if you want to build the race car pictured on the side of the box, then you have to make sure that all the pieces are put together in just the right way to build that race car. If they leave pieces out or try to throw in pieces from other Lego sets, then they will probably fit together at first, and you won’t notice that anything’s wrong until you step back and say, “What the heck is that? It looks like a mini Ford Edsel?”

It’s the same in marketing. Websites, blogs, magazine ads, direct mailers, TV ads, mobile text ads, and even that social network your programming team is building around your product, are just pieces that fit together to send a consistent message. And the better they fit together, the stronger the message will be.

I need to get my clients some Legos.

CATEGORIES: Blogs, Advertising, Marketing

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Starbucks and the Smell of a New Dip

Posted by Chris Wilson May 9th, 2007

Starbucks Logo The brand’s “watered down” right? So logically the next step is to drown what’s left of the brand, while trying to make a profit? Clearly, scent of crisp green bills are the only thing on the mind of Starbucks CEO, Jim Donald, who recently expressed interests in offering of breakfast sandwiches to customers. This is interesting considering the memo that chairman Howard Schultz sent out in February, discussing regrets of how the “Starbucks experience” has become a commodity. Schultz stated,

…we have had to make a series of decisions that, in retrospect, have lead to the watering down of the Starbucks experience, and, what some might call the commoditization of our brand.”

How does offering breakfast sandwiches do anything more than overpower the already “watered down experience” that Schultz is warning about? What Schultz realizes is that, the things that set Starbucks apart will soon be lost unless a company reformation takes place. But how do you reel in and rejuvenate over 12,000 store locations? Seth Godin points out the Dip that Starbucks faced in its early beginnings. Does Starbucks see what could be their next big Dip standing right in front of them?

CATEGORIES: Blogs, Branding, Marketing

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Interview with The Format

Posted by Chris Wilson April 23rd, 2007

Format

You are probably wondering how in the world are the happenings and opinions of a power pop rock band in any way relevant to the world of marketing? Honestly, I think there are a lot of things that can be learned in the corporate world from bands such as The Format. The band never seems to worry about conformity. In fact they were were dropped from Atlantic in 2005 because they wouldn’t conform to create the sound that the label wanted to hear. They are not afraid to bring something new to the table. That’s something that a lot of marketers and businesses a like need to learn. Like Marshall Goldsmith would say, “What Got You Here Won’t Get You There.” The truth is safe is risky.

———–

Phone Interview with The Format’s Nate Ruess (04/19/07)

Changing Dips

With Seth Godin’s new book, The Dip, just around the corner, Seth has been looking for successful people who at one time or another decided that it was time to stop settling for mediocrity and quit. As far as I know there aren’t any power pop rock bands on the list. Maybe The Format should be the first. In 2005, the band was dropped from Atlantic, which was their label at the time, and upon closer analysis you will find that the situation resembled more of a “fired before you can quit” scenario than the typical “band being booted by their label” scenario. Not every band can say that getting dropped from their label (twice) was the best thing that ever happened to them. In fact, in their bio The Format states that they threw parties both times it happened. Soon after getting dropped, The Format teamed up with Nettwerk to help with their management and distribution. By doing this, the band moved from what was a very large dip, run by the industry giants, where it took reaching the masses on a large scale to reach success at the top of “the dip”, and into a much smaller dip, where they answer to themselves and not the hierarchal structure above them. Royalties from music sales flow directly into their pockets instead of the slow trickle of money experienced when working with a large label.

Q: Tell us a little bit about the perks of running your own show and not having a big label breathing down your neck all the time?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Creating Format Worthy Content: Building Things Worth Noticing

In a world of cloning, look-a-likes, rip-offs and minor upgrades you have to create something worth noticing in order to be seen.

Q: You seem to be very unique and original with everything from your lyrics and music to your website and concepts for music videos. Everything seems to have The Format spin on it. What’s your method for creating Format worthy content?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Relationship Marketing: Interacting with Fans

The art of creating relationships is very important in the music industry. Seth Godin has been talking for years about Pearl Jam’s release of 72 live albums in two years, and they are all profitable. The reason they were successful is that Pearl Jam fans have a relationship with the band and are waiting and listening.

Q: How do you stay on top of interacting and creating relationships with your fans?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Creating Buzz

Without the backing of a major music label, The Format has to rely on their own resources to create buzz.

Q: What kinds of things do you do to encourage fans create more buzz about The Format?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Spin Tour Blog

Sometimes finding an established platform to stand on is the key.

Q: Tell me a little bit about your Tour Blog up at Spin. How did you guys get that gig?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

New Material

The masses don’t just want something new. They expect it!

Q: So when can we expect some new material from you guys? You recently mentioned to Mark Hoppus that you were in the process of recording a few new tracks.

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

New Song “Swans” & Working with a Full Band

It’s amazing how scarcity can make even the crudest products and information viral treasures. YouTube “Swans” footage from the School of Rock show in New Jersey last week.

Q: Tell me a little bit about the song titled “Swans,” that you revealed at the Jersey show.

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Things Change: Working with a Full Band

Since the beginning, The Format has been a two man band. Like their song, “On Your Porch” states, Nate Ruess and Sam Means have been writing songs together since they were kids.

Q: Do you think we will see any changes with having a full band?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Singing in Simlish

The practice of using video games as a promotional vehicle has been around since the beginning of the gaming industry itself.

Q: It’s a little known fact that “The Compromise” is featured on the Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pack, and like all the other songs in the game, it’s sung in the Sim’s language, Simlish. Did you actually record it this way, or was your voice mixed to create the Sims version?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

Cross-Promotion or Happy Accident?

My first thought when I heard that a song from The Format was featured on the Sims 2 Pets expansion pack, was that there must have been some type promotional relationship in play. The connections are obvious, whether they were intentional or not. Both were released at relatively the same time. The Format’s album Dog Problems was released just 3 months before The Sims 2 Pets Expansion Pac. Both carry a pet related theme in their titles, and Nate Ruess has recently been quoted several times describing their music from the Dog Problems album as, “childlike.”

Q: Was there any connection between the song being featured on the “Pets” version of the game, with your latest album being titled, Dog Problems?

Listen to Nate’s Answer:

CATEGORIES: Interviews, Buzz, Blogs, Music, Marketing

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