Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category

A clip of me talking about healthcare marketing

18 Jun

Posted in Advertising, Marketing | No Comments »

Faux False

01 Apr

Posted in Advertising, Marketing, TV | No Comments »

Faux-Fake: “I am not selling what I say I am – I am selling what I say I am not selling”

To illustrate: The progression of “Faux Pitch Men”

True-True – Sham wow “I am who I say I am - selling what I say I am.”

Faux-True: Norelco: Shave Everywhere “I am not who I say I am - selling what I say I am.”

Faux-False: Jetpack Adspace

Successful Faux-False ads tap into that exciting/shameful moment you feel when you first suspect you are being told a lie. It is that sub-conscious tension between what appears to be true and the growing realization that it is false which makes these kind of ads really work. Good Faux-False make us feel smart for a few seconds – before we slip back into a Web-based stupor. Great Faux-Fake extend that moment indefinitely.

The danger in the Faux-False approach is that if the lie is too obvious it is either boring or insulting. For example: this BMW motorcycle “viral” is clearly faked - tipped by the bogus congratulatory pile-on at the end and just falls flat.

Jetpack’s deception is burred much deeper – Calling the client an asshole still has enough shock value to provide cover for the fact that it is still business as usual: Jetpack gets paid. Advertisers get paid. And of course, Google gets paid.

Like the old saying goes: The more things change, the more google embeds itself into every dark corner of our lives!

The Limitless Expansion of Creative Space

13 Aug

Tags: Creative challenge, interactive marketing
Posted in Advertising, Creativity, Marketing, Social Media, Video Games | 3 Comments »

15 years ago, if you told me that in 2010 I’d be creating a text message pilot program that delivered customized appointment reminders and health tips to dialysis patients I’d probably assume I would be on my second or third career – Maybe in telecom, or the R&D department at a medical device manufacturer. In fact I in interactive marketing.

Even back then the lines were blurring, but text reminders… But text messages, how is that marketing?

The bottom line is that more and more agency services are edging closer to the client’s bottom line. Programs like the text campaign are laser guided missiles aimed directly big problems. For our client that means”missed treatments,” their #1 cause of lost revenue. The idea is simple, if we identify scheduling problems before they happen and reinforce healthy behavior thru lifestyle tips patients will stay healthier longer.

Deep-dive immersion into client products and services is not new to the agency business. Large agencies and industrial design super-boutiques like Smart Design have been doing it for years. But small agencies, like Signature Advertising where I work, are inching closer to true partnership with clients. The best example in our case is the development of the Private Renal Suite in dialysis clinics – an industry first. This program was conceived and designed solely by the agency. Roll-out cost to the client was in the millions, but the results were impressive. In an industry suffering from record declines the Avantus Clinics posted 13% growth.

Measurable does not mean stupid, boring or lazy.

Like pay-per-click and ad-banners, these hyper-measurable programs are often as much about technology as what is commonly thought of as advertising or marketing, which tend to be creative focused first. The delivery channel is secondary. Unfortunately, this can lead to lazy creative, or worse programmers insert “copy” into public facing messages. They are not fault. They seem to have been born that way. For example, when going thru testing on a website with registration features, the thank you email said: Thank you for registering Gender=Male Mr. Mark Stevenson. Now, this would never have made it past testing, but the programmers honestly saw nothing wrong with it.

In the case of the text campaign, we spend a great deal of time considering the tone messages should hit, and continuity of that tone across all patient touch-points. Luckily, the platform is super-flexible, so tinkering is possible (also a source of problems).

Creative for Creative’s Sake? Hells Yea.

Just like any good ad, pay-per-click ads that work are compelling calls to action not want-ads on crank, and the same holds true with Ad banners. Each must balance annoyance, attention and applicability while still adhering to an overall brand strategy. Even text messages need to say more than “remember your appointment”

As new technology opens up opportunities to expand the scope of our services it is important to remember that creativity is our currency. So marketing and advertising professionals must constantly challenge themselves to expand the boundaries of what they think of as “The Creative Space.”

I’ll Show You Mine: Facebook, Fear and Friends

28 May

Tags: community, Facebook, privacy, Zuckerberg
Posted in Advertising, Marketing, Social Media | 13 Comments »

For all the recent angst about privacy it occurs to me that I don’t know a single person who has suffered significantly as a result of posting too much information on facebook, twitter or linkedin. Yet the belief we are in danger gets passed around like the flu until we are all convinced there is a problem.

So, what are we really afraid of? What have we lost?

Personal Data Theft. Oh Those Bygone Days of Yesteryear

In 1934 my great-grandfather John Stevenson (not that guy >>>) moved from New York to Snohomish, WA. Somewhere along the road his identity was stolen. This fake John Stevenson went around the Northwest writing bad checks and generally misbehaving.

Does this happen more often today? I‘m sure it does.
Am I willing to risk a drive across country with Big Brother tracking my every move via EasyPass, while Midwestern meth-head cashiers (pictured) swipe my debit card at every no-name combo gas station/general store between Chicago and Rapid City? Hell yes I’ll risk it!

Imagine trying to get across country with no interstate, no cash machine and no cell phone. You can get nostalgic all you want - I’d rather read my visa card number and expiration date over a cell phone to book the top rated B&B in Bangor when I’m still three hours out, than roll up on the Econo-lodge at 11 PM hoping to find a room where I might lay my head.

Fun in the village

Nosy Neighbors

Amazingly, until about 100 years ago, with no 4square or facebook people were likely able to identify where their neighbors were at any given moment down to the half-acer. Not only that, without placing a single cookie, or cross-referencing profile and “likes” they could probably predict where almost all the people they knew would be next February 24th and what they would be wearing that day. Amazingly, even with all this data-leakage, life went on with no formal privacy policy, or user agreement. Sure there was an understanding about what was acceptable and what to expect, yet the fact remains that people were literally “all up in each others shit”. I guess when you are born, live and die in the same village, sleeping 5 in a room with wheat thresh for a floor your expectation of privacy is somewhat curtailed.

So much for the good old days.

The New Dark-Marketing Magic

I suspect what people are most afraid of is Zuckerberg selling them out to P&G or match.com. In this nightmare scenario helpless consumers will be served relevant content about products they may actually want to buy.

Back in the good old days before the internet, benign corporations helped homemakers (or “women“) identify exactly which products she needed and best fit her active lifestyle. How could they tell? Simple: It’s 2:30 Tuesday afternoon and you are watching TV. You want Borax!

Is it perfect? No. But based on what is in my inbox and on my eyeballs things get better everyday. Personally I’d don’t miss those bygone days of the 1990s, when my in-box was filled with urgent messages from Somali bankers and Indian Pharmacists.

NOOOOOOOooooo

Worst Case Scenarios

With all the cookies, preferences, likes and friends-of-friends access I’ve divulged, my worst experiences relating to privacy on facebook are:

1. 1. Getting served Sarah Palin ads for about three weeks after clicking on a Rush Limbaugh ad by accident.
  2. Bemusement when my ex-wife’s fiance came up as the number one recommendation for “People you may know”
  3. Annoying need to “reset Safari” every time my kids want to play Poptropica on my laptop.

Fancy Meeting You Here!

Last year, after joining the group “Westchester” on Facebook I discovered my ex-wife’s page (she belonged to the group and they recommended her). With an intoxicating queasiness I poked thru her friends list – people I had known well. Loved even. I missed them. It hurt. I quit the group. I reset all my preferences to “Only Friends.” I pulled down the shades.

But if everyone ducks for cover like I did (briefly) then facebook turns into another gated community filled with nothing but like-minded back-patting chatter and photos of laundry:”Separated my laundry today!” “OMG, looks like my house!”

After a few days I realized that facebook privacy preferences were not the problem. I had not been screwed over, or duped by shifting user agreements. My experience was simply the online equivalent of running into her at Barns & Noble with a new guy on her arm while I leaf thru “When Bad things Happen to good People”.

I decided to reopen my facebook settings. I’m not going to stop going to book stores, or using facebook. But I’m not stupid about it either. I don’t run up and down supermarket aisles shouting my most personal thoughts and feelings – that would be reckless. Nor would I follow someone up and down the aisle – that would be creepy. I’ve been socialized to know these things about the physical world since birth.

The lesson in the end is that when it comes to privacy there is no virtual. Whether at the office or on facebook: hurting or being hurt, supporting and being supported, opening-up or hiding-out – it is all just behavior.

Saint Zuckerberg of the Community

Communities thrive when members balance sensible behavior and the willingness to risk opening up.

Ultimately, the problem is not facebook’s privacy policy…
it is our own.

.edu Marketing: Tell Stories about Belonging and Change

10 May

Tags: edu, Education marketing, video tour
Posted in Advertising, Marketing | No Comments »

Close your eyes and think about where you went to school.

Fast Times at Ridgemont High What came to mind? Was it GPAs, class size, student to teacher ratios? I bet not. Generally, we think of the people we knew and the places we spent time together. Working, playing and learning.

So, who is the person we are now trying to reach? What is important to her?

Usually it’s someone getting ready to make a big change in their lives – A student choosing a new school, or parents letting go of a child. It is an emotionally charged time, filled with tension caused by the friction between who we are and who we want to become.

Message

Front-line messaging for education markets has much in common with other markets such as health & fitness and residential where the goal is to qualify the brand in the mind of consumers in order to motivate them to make an onsite visit rather than a direct purchase of some kind.

What truly matters to people in this market are not USPs such as features and benefits such as average SAT scores. Successful brands requiring an onsite visit to achieve conversion almost always emphasize the emotional connection prospects feel toward community and physical location first. For example: Supportive and Serene. Competitive and Dynamic.

Friction

Successful conversion comes not from the elimination of friction between the prospect’s sense of self in relation to the brand, but in properly gauging the right amount (and type) of friction they need to satisfy the desire to feel simultaneously safe and challenged.

Three key actions items are:

1.Identify what the brand’s community/location characteristics REALLY are and determine if that is currently reflected in the marketing

2. Determine how prospects identify themselves and what they hope to change

3. Tell emotionally and visually compelling stories that tap into a basic need to belong to a group that can take you where you want to go.

Examples:

The Lawrenceville School

ClubFit

Wiley Team For Success

Do you have any examples of great (or terrible) .edu marketing?

You Got Shame on my Peanut Butter!

27 Apr

Tags: Advertising, Jetpack, online ads
Posted in Advertising | 3 Comments »

I’ve been trying to get my head around this hilarious ad on (the very funny) Where’s My Jetpack. It’s like looking at an advertising version of the Esher staircase :

Loving this!

I love how Jetpack adds value here (and I mean that sincerely) by calling advertisers (Toyota in the case I saw) “these assholes”. Even better, the Jetpack logo/header is itself explicitly and ad for the Jetpack ad space. All logos are ads of one kind or another, but this literally is one!

In itself that would be worth commenting on. But this ad really stuck in my head all morning and here is I think why: What Jetpack is doing exemplifies great execution of a big trend in advertising today – It tapps into that exciting/shameful moment you feel when you first suspect you are being told a lie. This sub-conscious tension between what appears to be true and the growing realization that it is false makes this kind of ad really work. They make us feel smart for a few seconds – before we slip back into a Web-based stupor.

The danger is that if the lie is too obvious it is either boring or insulting. For example: this BMW motorcycle “viral” is clearly faked - tipped by the bogus congratulatory pile-on at the end and just falls flat.

Jetpack’s bullshit is burred much deeper – Calling the client an asshole still has enough shock value to provide cover for the fact that it is still business as usual: Jetpack gets paid. Advertisers get paid. And of course, Google gets paid.

Like the old saying goes: The more things change, the more google embeds itself into every dark corner of our lives!

Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category

A clip of me talking about healthcare marketing

Faux False

Faux-Fake: “I am not selling what I say I am – I am selling what I say I am not selling”

.edu Marketing: Tell Stories about Belonging and Change

You Got Shame on my Peanut Butter!

Mark'd Up

Notes from America's Most Beloved Creative Mind

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Archive for the ‘Advertising’ Category

Faux-Fake: “I am not selling what I say I am – I am selling what I say I am not selling”

Measurable does not mean stupid, boring or lazy.

Creative for Creative’s Sake? Hells Yea.

As new technology opens up opportunities to expand the scope of our services it is important to remember that creativity is our currency. So marketing and advertising professionals must constantly challenge themselves to expand the boundaries of what they think of as “The Creative Space.”

So, what are we really afraid of? What have we lost?

Personal Data Theft. Oh Those Bygone Days of Yesteryear

Nosy Neighbors

The New Dark-Marketing Magic

NOOOOOOOooooo Worst Case Scenarios

Fancy Meeting You Here!

Communities thrive when members balance sensible behavior and the willingness to risk opening up.

Ultimately, the problem is not facebook’s privacy policy… it is our own.

Notes from America's Most Beloved Creative Mind

NOOOOOOOooooo

Worst Case Scenarios

Ultimately, the problem is not facebook’s privacy policy…
it is our own.