Canadian Marketing Blog

Who Won the Superbowl?

Okay, I admit it. While you're reading this during the week at some point after the SuperBowl aired and know who won, I'm sitting here writing this blog entry on SuperBowl Sunday instead of watching the big game. And while I'll be interested to hear who won (Go Saints?), I, like you, will go online tomorrow to find out who advertised and which spot was the funniest or most outlandish. And then I'll go on with my day and probably never think about those spots ever again.

However, the Superbowl is the most watched televised event of the year with some 100 Million people expected to watch. According to a recently televised report, a 30 second spot on American TV during the Superbowl will go for between $2.5 and $2.8 Million. That's about $80,000 a second!

But the larger question being asked these days, especially by a lot of young people I know, is whether that money could be better spent. Especially with everything that's going on in the world right now.

Now after years of producing some of the most memorable Superbowl ads in history, PEPSI is asking the same question and has decided not to run an ad. Instead, they're going online with "The Pepsi Refresh Project". http://www.refresheverything.com/

According to their "refresh everything" site, they're looking for people, businesses, and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact. "Look around your community and think about how you want to change it." Submit your ideas and vote on your favourites. Those chosen will be awarded up to $250,000 in grants in categories ranging from Health, Arts & Culture, and Food & Shelter to the Planet, Neighbourhoods and Education.

And the so-called Pepsi Generation is eating it up. This is just one example of what's going on right now. We saw the impact the internet and social media had and is having post-Haiti. This is more of the same great trend. The NetGeneration is getting involved and looking for something more fulfilling than a gratuitous 30-second spot where the money spent to buy the media could eradicate so many issues affecting Haiti, Cambodia and the Congo to name a few -- and those affecting us right here at home. Pepsi is on to something and other brands ignore the trend at their peril.

IDEO Shares Learning

I had the opportunity to attend a Rotman Lecture on the TOPIC: “Knowledge Sharing at IDEO: Designing for Social Interaction” January 28, 2010. The guest speaker was Gentry Underwood, Head of Knowledge Sharing Domain, IDEO

Gentry described a series of tests that his organization had conducted to learn how to design the optimal knowledge sharing system that can be implemented at companies. Much of this learning can be applied to the selection of social media programs and strategy development. Note that he cited as key to consider openness of company culture to collaboration.

Assuming that this is in place, he described the following top 5 considerations in designing the optimal knowledge sharing system as the following:

1. Building pointers to people, different from old school systems management. Service capability companies find this especially valuable. Shared people database
• Similar to facebook people like sharing about themselves
• Integrate available systems, like HR systems for office location and contact information
• Include your personal interests and your external blogs
• Tell your story in no more than 3 bullet points
• Upload documents related to your recent projects
• Team can share what they liked or not about their projects

2. Build rewarding systems, reward individuals - How to build rich people and project pages
• Three main sociological motivators
• Recognition: human nature
• Project staffing: help build better teams
• Career development: connect feedback through the system
• Able to look at individuals in the context of their peers.
• Compliance is not mentioned but included with an animated character in the system named Milton. This animated character appears as a man dressed in a suit and tie; he pops-up on the user’s screen if inappropriate information is being shared or vulgar language etc. The appearance of this character is almost comical as he waves his finger at the system user. In keeping with the intent of increased collaboration and sharing; Milton serves as a reminder rather than a harsh admonishment.

3. Design Intuitive interface, for example, iphone
• Must be really easy to use
• Reduce blocks to usability
• People already had account in system, did not have to set it up
• No training, not set-up, no hand holding->make it as easy as possible
• Information already existed and just needed to be bought together in an easy-to-use format

4. Take the road more travelled - Integrate with existing work flows
• Bring information to people through their in-box
• Public gathering place, in-office cafes now include large wall screens with the 20 most recent people page status updates. People paid attention to people pages and felt more connected. This encouraged passive and ambient connection between offices

5. Iterate early and often - Try lots of stuff and see what sticks
• Learn early and change fast
• For clients, develop software prototypes
• Social software is complicated the human factor is added to the computer interaction. Intuitive and understandable but appropriate social preferences integrated. Social software is in its early stages. Computer and human interaction integration is challenging.

Interesting, at the end of the presentation, the speaker reminded us that none of these on-line collaboration or social networking tools replace face-to-face communication. This may appear obvious, but we really do have to remind ourselves of this.

Patricia McQuillan

Sales and Marketing - Allies?

In many organizations, the reality is that sales and marketing relationships can be strained. In contrast, research shows that organizations that have embraced an integrated approach vastly outperform those that have not.

In conjucntion with the Canadian Professional Sales Association (CPSA), and SiriusDecisions, we (CMA) are examing what successful integration looks like through an online survey with the B2B community.

If you role is sales or marketing, weigh in and provide your persepctive -- take the survey now!

Survey closes on Friday - Feb. 5th.

Elizabeth Harvey

Digital Wild West

I’ve had the fortune of blogging here since the inception of this blog and deliberately never wrote anything marketing-related with regards to my current employer. Today is one exception I hope you will grant me.

So I’m not accused of 'ambush shilling' or taking 5 minutes of your time that you will never get back - I’m warning you now. You can close this browser and get out of Dodge. I won’t take offense. I promise.

Still here? Thank you. So let’s saddle up ‘pardner’ and we’ll mosey on out for a little ride!

Some may know I have the fortune of working at Harlequin Enterprises. Yes, that Harlequin. The Harlequin that is one of the leading publishers of women's romance and fiction around the globe.

Recently we launched a new campaign promoting our HQN imprint series ‘The McKettricks’ by author Linda Lael Miller. So what's so special about this online marketing campaign?

Last fall our Creative Director Margie Miller teamed up with our Director of Digital Content & Social Media Malle Vallik to create a unique behind-the-scenes video that shows the making of a Harlequin cover. We had never done anything like this before. Take a look.

Now I’ll admit I’m not a big cowboy fan but I appreciate good content. And although I’m biased, I think this documentary is terrific. As Malle points out in her blog, it gives you a greater appreciation of the work that creative directors and photographers do on a regular basis.

How has the campaign done? We’re very pleased with the response so far. We took some excellent content and promoted it via various online marketing and social media channels by directing people to Take A Cowboy Home which features the video content, sample editorial, cool contest and (most importantly) where to buy the books.

We also got some great support from the fine folks over at MSN who created a unique section promoting this campaign. Not to mention many friends/fans/authors/bloggers who spread the word via various social media channels such as Twitter and Facebook.

So everything is perfect and we ride off into the sunset, right? Not so fast. There were a few things I learned from this campaign. Call them the '3 Cowboys' like the McKettrick brothers:

1. Many companies work in silos. Often campaigns are created and other teams such as Social Media, PR, IT and/or Legal are left out until the end and then added like a check-box. Do not make that mistake. Involve key groups from cradle (so they become stakeholders) to the grave (so they share in the successes and learnings).

2. It will not always be utopia. There will be hiccups. The issue is not ‘if’ they happen but ‘when’ they happen. And how your team reacts to quickly address them and ensure they don’t happen in future. We started creating a ‘list of oops’ so we include them in our campaign post-mortem report.

3. This is my biggest takeaway. Regardless if you sell books, lotion, laptops or luggage - it's my view you must have a good combination of strong content and promotion for your digital campaigns. They are not mutually exclusive and together make them all the more stronger. Especially in the digital wild west.

SEO - Search Engine Optimization Basics

Do you want to get first page on Google? If you have a web page or blog, you likely already are first page for some searches. With a bit of SEO, you can gain first page on more searches. And its simple.

The first and most obvious step is think about what words or phrases you want to be first page on.

Once you have that list, determine how many people are searching for those terms. To check how popular a search is you will need a tool. I use Wordtracker (there is a free online version). The higher the number, the more popular the search.

No point in trying to optimize for a word or phrase that is rarely searched. There is also no point in trying to optimize for a word that is too popular because getting a high ranking there will be almost impossible. So this is a "just right thing". You want to optimize for words that you have a good chance of ranking for. I suggest choosing 10-20 words and phrases.

Think about "long tail"

Think about how people will search. People often search with a question. EG where do I find X? Or where do I find Y in Canada. The longer the string, the less competition you will have for it so the easier you will get ranked.

So make the list of phrases you want to "own" and ones that are realistic to "own".

Now it is simple. Just put these words and phrases in your titles, picture descriptions, videos and in your text. The titles are the most important. That is why a blog called "Vegetable Lentil Soup Recipes" will get good Google juice on all 4 words. So searching "vegetable soup" will get first page. Or "lentil soup recipes" or "vegetable lentil recipes" etc.

Yes you want to repeat your words and phrases often in the text. This said - write naturally. Never let SEO be a substitute for good content.

So you do this and you still are not first page. That is because you do not have enough credibility with Google. You need another free tool to check this. I use a free Firefox plugin called searchstatus. It gives me both the PageRank and the Alexa rating of any web page. Higher PageRank numbers are better. High credibility is your ultimate goal as that is what gets you ranked first and Alexa tells you traffic (a lower number is better)

My blog (www.jimestill.com) has a pagerank of 5 and Alexa of 493,052 (meaning it is the 493,052th most popular site in the Internet). CMA blog has a pagerank of 4 and an Alexa of 587,900. This means if I SEO on the same phrase as CMA blog, google will list me before CMA Blog.

How do you increase your PageRank?

It is all about quality inbound links. You want people with a high credibility (PageRank 4+) to link to you - eg Globe and Mail would be great. More is better and link rank is almost logarithmic so a PageRank of 6 is worth 10 times one of 5 etc.

The best inbound links are contextual. So someone blogging and saying I heard time management guru Jim Estill speak and hot linking from "Time management guru" is great for me. Second best, hot link to "Jim Estill". Third is just having a link on a blogroll without any context or a link to click here.

You get a higher rank if you update your content regularly. That is why having a blog on your site is a good way to increase your ranking.

Moderate cross linking within your own material will also increase your rank and clarify for google what it is that you do.

3 ways to get links to your site:

1 - Ask politely. You might not always get a link but it never hurts to ask.

2 - Comment on other relevant blogs (and have your PageRank on so you ignore low PageRank and high alexa). Note that most comments in themselves do not constitute a link. But being out there gets people to look at you. You need people to look at your stuff for them to be inspired to link to it.

3 - Have good material. People link to quality. But of course they have to see it so promote your content

4 - Have your URL on all your print material, cards, letterhead, email sig file etc.

5 - Write guest articles and blogs in the right (high traffic) places (check the pagerank and Alexa).

6 - Contribute to other sites. EG write reviews on Amazon, join the conversations.

And a word of warning. Never play games (like buying links).

In the end it is about having good quality material. And being out there so people look at your material. People link to quality without you asking as long as they know about it.

Jim Estill

Who is Arianna Huffington?

Earlier this week I had the great pleasure of seeing celebrated author and blogger Arianna Huffington, co-founder of the Huffington Post, speak at the Telus Centre for Performance and Learning in downtown Toronto.

Chatting with a good friend just prior to the event, I tried to explain to her who I was going to see. The conversation was a fraught with difficulty, as my friend was not really familiar with the Huffington Post – or online news aggregators or blogs or the internet, in general. It was an uphill conversation.

After all, if my friend wasn’t familiar with the Huffington Post website, how could I describe the woman at the helm? Who is Arianna Huffington? Is she a dedicated journalist? Is she a left-wing politician? A rich business owner? A media darling?

The answer: yes.

Arianna is fascinating speaker and eminently quotable. Once she started her lecture, I found myself frantically jotting down notes, scribbling madly as one bon mot after another came flowing effortlessly from the podium. The event was billed as “The Brave New World of the New Media: How technology is changing the way we think, learn, play, work and vote”. Well, yes. That about covers it.

The agenda was lively and diverse. Arianna covered a variety of topics, switching hats from journalism to politics to lifestyle, each time cleverly conveying jewels of wisdom:

Wearing her Newspaperwoman and Journalist Hat
Journalists sometimes get seduced by access. They get the “fly on the wall” detail, but miss the story. Example: China shut off the internet and gave access to select reporters. This was a significant moment in journalism. It's easier to snow a few reporters than thousands of internet users.

Why be citizen journalists? Why do all the online stuff? Answer: self expression is the new form of entertainment. This does not undermine the role of professional journalism. Media will always need journalists to edit the content, frame the stories and give them context.

What we need is a hybrid; a world that brings together the accuracy, fairness and content of traditional journalism as well as the immediacy, accessibility and transparency of new media.

Wearing her New Media Advocate Hat
With regard to traditional media vs. new media: we need to be better at biopsies, not autopsies. Old media is acting like nothing has changed, merging into traffic using a horse and buggy. We can't use an analog map in a digital world.

Traditional media is ADD: breaks the story and then...nothing. New media is OCD (obsessive compulsive disorder): stays on the story day after day after day.

Content follows the user. As a media outlet, we can't expect the world's eyeballs to come to us. We need to go to where the eyeballs are.

People don't consume, but share news. Citizen journalists contribute to the national conversation. New media gives a voice to the voiceless.

Wearing the Politician and Liberal Pundit Hat
The American middle class is in trouble. Wall Street got bailed out, but Main Street did not get the same treatment.

In the U.S., the markets are treated like a Victorian lady - “she” can't handle bad news.

Not everything is Right versus Left – that's a lazy way of looking at politics. We need to take responsibility for our content: objectivity not stupidity.

Instead of Hope, we need Hope 2.0. It's not enough to just cast your vote, people need to stay engaged and contribute if they want to realize change.

Wearing her Lifestyle Guru Hat
Surrounded by our devices, we must learn to disconnect too. Technology can move ahead of social adaptation. We should use technology, but not let it use us.

Unplug and recharge, especially at night. Remove your wireless devices as far away from the bed as possible. Create your own oasis and retain your humanity. Our most precious resource is ourselves.

Arianna had dinner with a man who bragged about only needing four hours of sleep a night. She quipped, “That's too bad. This dinner would have been a lot more interesting if you had gotten five.”
----
So if you ask me now, who is Arianna Huffington? I’d answer: she's an author, a syndicated columnist, a new media advocate, a blogger, a humanist, a politician, a public speaker, a liberal pundit and a businesswoman. She’s the ultimate “all of the above”.

By Kerin Donahue, marketing coordinator at the Canadian Marketing Association

The iPad has arrived. Now what?!

Today, as I was riding in on the subway, reading the New York Times on my new iTouch, I stumbled upon an article about Apple's launch today (Wednesday Jan. 27) of its tablet product, or iPad.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_zI21XEo0Q

Being an Apple fan from way back I couldn't help but feel a sense of real excitement. It got me reflecting on how much the Apple brand has meant to me over the years. And I'm not alone. The excitement that's building up in the media and among the Apple Faithful is almost palpable and very real.

I bought my first Mac (Mac Classic II) back in 1993ish. I was working at an agency and wanted a way to be able to work on those weekends when I was going back home to Kingston to visit the folks. The idea of a portable computer was exciting. Imagine, being free to take your computer anywhere. It was only 14 or 15 lbs. Oh, you PC people chained to your desks. How quaint.

Then when the first Apple notebooks came out, I was fortunate to be working on the Apple account and helped develop a launch campaign for them. (Best. Account. Ever.) The objective, as outlined in the brief, was to get the public over the mental hump of being able to work anywhere. Imagine sitting in a park or in a coffee shop clicking away on your laptop computer. Why, you could even work from home!

Then of course, the iPod changed everything. The recording industry, advertising, interaction (or lack thereof) between people in public places...everything. The iPhone then revolutionized how we think of what a phone is and what it can do. People could earn money and express their creative by developing Apps. We were now all working for Apple.

Walk into any mall where an Apple store exists and you'd think they were giving stuff away for free in there.

And now the anticipation for the iPad is reaching a fever pitch. People can taste it. The article in the NYT suggests that it's going to do for newspaper publishing what the iPod did for music. They're counting on it because we all know where the newspaper industry is headed. But will our collective love for all things Apple mean that we'll be willing to pay for things like the Star or the NYTs online through the Slate, when so much of the same information can be found on free sites elsewhere.

That's just one fascinating question we as marketers should be watching and reading about -- probably on our iPads.

Bryan Tenenhouse

B2B Branding: Internal Branding a Key Factor to Success

Much has been written in the past few years on the topic of B2B branding. I find it the most rewarding aspect of branding and marketing planning, when it is done right.

Last week, I had the opportunity to moderate a panel on the topic of B2B branding; what does it take to win. I have to say that the quality of the panelists' discussion was top notch in terms or insight and expertise. The discussion lasted over 2 hours and easily could have gone on for several more…

A couple of first-hand observations that I took away from the panel include: 1) the agency turnout was stronger than client. This likely reflects the newness of the topic and the desire for greater expertise. 2.) The importance of internal branding was cited over and over again by the panelists (using a range of terminology) as the key factor for success in B2B branding. Considerations with internal branding and the connection to B2B branding success or failure included:(i) building trust with and through your employees in their one-to-one relationship with customers; (ii) the power of developing one voice through consistent internal and external communication; (iii) the absolute necessity to consistently delivering on the brand promise (key benefit) that you make through your people; and (iv) the importance of gaining buy-in from your CEO as you develop and refine your organization's B2B brand. Employee communication and education as well as connection to performance management systems were discussed in detail.

Several examples were provided by the panel and the audience of B2B brands failing to keep their promises and the tremendous opportunities presented when you get it right.

Has your organization had experience recently with B2B branding success or failure that relates to your internal brand?

By Patricia McQuillan, Brand Matters

Why I'm Optimistic

Fear not marketers and agency types. I am here to tell you that the future of our business is in good hands. I have just started teaching in the Communication Arts program at Seneca@York. And I'm pleased to report that I'm meeting young people who are working hard to break into our industry. They are passionate, creative, intelligent and hungry to learn.

The course I'm teaching is basically a workshop where students have 10 weeks to produce work toward building the perfect portfolio -- one they can take around to prospective employers. Or at the very least, Creative Directors who will give them an internship.

When I started in this industry, there were no courses at Humber or Seneca or Centennial for aspiring copywriters or art directors. I had no portfolio and wouldn't have known how to create one that would resonate with a Creative Director. I had a resume and the passion to break in and that was about it.

Today they have the passion but they have so much more. They have a place to learn. A place to prepare for "the real world". Although I have to tell you, the world they're living in is pretty real. If their work isn't up to snuff at the end of the 10 weeks, they don't pass and they don't get their internship. That's the real world they're living in. So it'll be interesting to see how the work develops and who makes the grade.

From what I've seen so far though, there's hope.

I'll keep you posted.

By Bryan Tenenhouse, Creative, The Tenenhouse Project

Time to Talk Community

Communities can take on many shapes and can be formed for numerous different reasons. Some may share a common interest in bird watching while others may congregate to discuss computer programming techniques or even dating tips. Although, when discussing communities in the context of brands, trying to understand the motivations that drive consumer involvement becomes slightly more complicated.

What do you mean by “Community”?

What’s the difference? We should begin by defining both an online community and a brand community as follows:

online community: is a group of people that primarily interact via communication media such as email, internet social network service or instant messages rather than face to face, for social, professional, educational or other purposes. (Wikipedia: online community )

brand community: A brand community is a community formed on the basis of attachment to a product or marque. Recent developments in marketing and in research in consumer behavior result in stressing the connection between brand, individual identity and culture. (Wikipedia: brand community)

According to the definitions above, an online community is focused on how people form and nurture relationships online while a brand community is all about why people/consumers choose to affiliate themselves with a particular brand. This distinction is very commonly overlooked and may be a key reason why many brands who attempt to build a strong following are unsuccessful in doing so.

Consumers are not inherently associated to any one brand. They build an affinity to them when they feel a connection; a certain passion for something that the brand values embody or represent. To simply build the infrastructure to allow consumers the ability to congregate and communicate with each other without understanding what they may be passionate about would result in an environment that lacks cohesion.

The 50th Anniversary Party

Use the example of a 50th anniversary party. John and Sally have been married for 50 years and have a large network of friends of family. They’ve decided to have a large catered event with live entertainment and are thinking about who to invite. Since it is such an exceptional milestone, they thought it would be nice to have an open event where anyone could attend.

In theory it sounded like the event would be a gallant affair yet how would they spread the message to let people know about the occasion? The message would be sent to family and friends as well as to strangers looking for an enjoyable night out. To some the concept of free food sounded appealing while others were looking forward to a night of dancing or even the prospect of meeting an eligible bachelor that they could click with.

Now the question is would people attend because of the couple who were celebrating their milestone or for the freebies that had nothing to do with them at all? If the couple were to host subsequent parties in the future, would people continue to attend and possibly bring their friends along with them? They might, although what would be the common thread that would connect everyone together? What similar interests would people share who were attending these events?

The same could be said for the creation of online communities. To create a series of tools (“freebies”) enabling consumers to congregate online without providing the common thread upon which they may have a unique experience would be similar to inviting people to the party as mentioned above. When developing communities online it’s important for brands to identify the theme or values that will not only connect those who participate but to also bring them closer to the brand.

CCM Takes a Shot at Online Communities

Take CCM Hockey for example. In speaking with Ross McCracken, Senior Brand Manager he mentioned that hockey fans are a very passionate group and that they have a natural tendency to organize themselves and form groups online. CCM recognized this and has been leveraging the web to form meaningful relationships with their consumers since the late nineties when they would respond directly to consumer enquiries via e-mail. Their level of responsiveness and shared passion for the sport allowed them the ability to establish the foundation of an online brand community which has continued to grow and evolve ever since.

Although ROI is not currently being tied back to their online community initiatives, the organization recognizes the power that the social web brings not only to their marketing communications but also in their focused product development efforts. “Key influencers are a big part of our success,” says McCracken, “we look to them to provide valuable input into our new product innovations while helping to create excitement for them when they become market ready. Our communities have enabled us to build a stronger relationship with our consumers while simultaneously positioning our brand as a category leader”.

CCM has done a great job of listening, communicating and connecting passionate hockey fans with the brand, although Ross states, “we still need to do a better job at linking all of our approaches together. The web is constantly changing and we’re continuously looking for ways to keep up with the times so that we can remain relevant to our consumers and be perceived as a trusted partner who understands their needs.”

The organization has embraced the medium and has developed a corporate culture where virtually everyone in the office is involved in social media at some level, not necessarily all working on the brand, albeit, the first step truly is about understanding the channel before being able to realize its full potential.

Is Your Company Ready?

Organizational cultural readiness is a critical success factor for any company seeking to leverage the power of the social web and this is where I will begin my next topic...

By Jeff Pontes, Director – Digital Strategy, FUSE Marketing Group