Fieldnotes

For a majority of companies and consumers social media is still a new revelation. Many companies and industries are in the beginning stages of utilizing their social media power through Twitter updates, blog posts, and expanding brand awareness through social events such as Tweetups. Why is it that right when things begin to fall into place there is another way to reach consumers, communicate your brand, and build a social following, there seems to be a bigger and better option? That answer for the past year had been through the development of mobile marketing.

According to a recent online article I read on AdAge.com, spending for mobile advertising has grown 79% within one year and is expected to become a billion dollar industry by 2011. With text messaging (SMS) still holding the largest ad format (1 Trillion SMS messages sent in 2009) mobile marketing, mobile search and display ads are projected to surpass text messaging within the next couple of years. Thanks to rival competitors, Google and Apple, there is definite competition out there. No matter who gains the credit for the growth in mobile marketing, it is something definitely worth considering for your brand.

One of our top clients, NAVTEQ (leader in the digital mapping industry), launched their own type of mobile marketing in January of 2010, LocationPoint Advertising. LocationPoint’s main objective is to target the “on-the-go consumer.” Due to NAVTEQ’s highly effective digital mapping system, advertisers are able to buy information points on the GPS for advertising and promotional purposes. When the consumer is near an information point on the map, the technology is designed to send the “on-the-go” consumer an advertisement or promotion for that specific location.

Industries such as travel, media, and financial sector are the most common to have already implemented some of these forms of mobile marketing. However, there is still a huge disconnect between companies fully engaging and talking about how to implement a mobile marketing strategy.

As an advertiser/company you must know who your target audience is, once that is discovered, you can determine what will be most effective for your company. Here is a link to 9 types of mobile marketing that you may find beneficial.

So, become educated, begin forming a mobile marketing strategy, and get your customers engaged via their mobile devices. I encourage you to review articles online at www.mobilemarketer.com for some great information on mobile marketing.

Integrating social media into marketing has transformed the way brands and consumers communicate. No longer is marketing about telling a story or remembering a commercial. Through the use of social media, marketing has become about consumer engagement- brands striving for individual attention. Social media has created a personalized relationship with the consumer. Through social forms of media traditional tactics can be transformed into an engaging process, moving beyond telling a story and onto a process of personal reaction and conversation.

Today companies are adding social media sites such as: Facebook, Twitter, Linkedin, Vimeo, and Fickr accounts to increase consumers’ engagement within their brand. The number of individuals who utilize social media is growing dramatically, along with the growth in numbers of social media sites. People are becoming involved on both a business and a consumer level in order to build relationships with others. Integrating social media is an easy, low cost, and highly visible way to gain exposure to add to your brand’s marketing efforts.

In order to integrate a social media campaign effectively, marketers must first have a well thought out social media strategy set in place. Social media strategies are in essence designed to generate awareness and social “buzz.” Awareness will only be increased if the information provided is purposeful, concrete, and in alignment with your brand. Utilizing different tactics of social media can be extremely effective if they are managed to work together while reflecting your brand’s personality.

Integrating social media into your marketing efforts is not high cost, but effort is required and can be quite time consuming. We have all heard of the phrase, “Consistency is key.” It is critical to understand that time must be allotted each day in order for an integrated social media campaign to be successful. Without consistent contact, exposure, and worthwhile information, integrating social media will have little return on your investment.

Staying on top of the social media curve can seem like a challenge in the beginning. It is not, start today and figure out which social media hubs work for you. With a strategic plan in place and the appropriate time allotted, developing a social presence will become worthwhile and engaging for your audience. Check out the top 5 emerging social media sites that are creating buzz for 2010.

This falls under the category of “get a clue.” Or, “let’s not forget the basics.”

I have read way too many headlines in our trade journals like this one, “ROI is fuzzy for social media.” So, here’s my response in my best Seth or Amy voice, “Really.” Or as my son tells me, “I know, right?” Continue reading I know, right?

For decades, for anyone traveling from the upper Midwest to Florida––or from Texas to practically anywhere in the eastern U.S.––“See Rock City” has been more than just another advertising tagline. It’s been a symbol of rural American life, a country-style slice of southern marketing magic.

The campaign––which STAP has long used as an excellent example of smart, cost-efficient branding––was begun in 1932. Rock City owner Garnet Carter hired sign painter Clark Byers to travel the nation’s highways and offer to paint farmers’ barns in exchange for letting him paint three simple words on each barn: See Rock City. Continue reading See Rock City? Not.

Shoots, photo or video, are always a cross between junkets and hell. This one fell squarely into the former category.

We had come to London to shoot interviews and b-roll for a brief, documentary-style video for our client, an international company based in Chicago. After the red-eye flight over the Atlantic and a day of meetings and scouting, we set the meet-time for the morning, bade good-night to our client and crew, and retired, exhausted, to our hotel rooms. Continue reading Going to London to play with the stones.

Remember when people used to sit? We’d position ourselves in chairs in front of devices or publications and be entertained or informed by them. Newspapers. Radios. Televisions. Magazines. Sit. Sit. Sit. Sit.

Continue reading Your audience is moving. Go with it.

Someone probably didn’t invent the Internet. By someone I really mean some one.

Now, I’m an Al Gore fan. Although the guy needs to loosen up (how he does he hug trees with that tight of a backside?) But seriously, even though it was once a talking point on his (successful) campaign for the presidency, we all know the man didn’t wire up the Web. In fact, the idea that any individual came up with a worldwide interconnect computer network is kind of like thinking Abner Doubleday woke up one day, threw a couple of mitts and a stick out on a field around which he’d arranged a diamond shaped border of bag-bases and called it “baseball.” Continue reading Al Gore, Abner Doubleday, advertising and you.

Now is a great time to revisit what you know, what you think you know, and what you should know. Continue reading Strategic Planning. Think first, then plan.

It’s Michigan in February. And more to the point it’s Kalamazoo in February. Snow, ice, viruses running rampant. Why am I still here working in advertising in the Zoo? I believe there are decent agencies in warmer climates, maybe even bigger agencies.

We are here, because we were born here. That’s what a friend once told me. Well, that doesn’t sound romantic or even remotely ambitious. It sounds like something I should apologize for.

I don’t disagree with the statement. Continue reading Clippers and cold fronts

For years, Super Bowl advertising was the edgy stuff that made you angry that you didn’t do it. It was the ad industry’s inside joke that you taped the commercials and paused the VCR when the dudes in the shoulder pads showed up.

The Super Bowl was where legendary brands like Pepsi® and Budweiser® stunned us with fresh, contemporary work that raised their already high standards. It was the event during which new brands rumbled out the stuff that would soon become legendary. This was where we first met stunning campaigns from a shoe company called Nike® and its agency in Portland (learning, in the process, that there were agencies in Portland). It was where FedEx® absolutely positively sold us on overnight deliver and their brand of it.

But something has happened to the creative game within the Game. Continue reading Who knew hulu and other lessons from the Stupor Bowl