Canadian Marketing Blog

'Hey Billboard.....Say Cheese!'

Starting this month, US retailers will help consumers use their smartphones to experience Japanese-style point-and-shoot shopping. Luxury goods company Ralph Lauren is putting a bar code, called a QR (or Quick Response) in their company's store windows and on print ads and catalogues.

QR codes were created way back in 1994 and are widely used in Japan by millions of mobile phone users. They simply swipe their handsets over the codes on said media and are linked to websites with additional information and, of course - to shop.

In Europe, a company called BlueCasting offers a Bluetooth-based system to download video clips and music from codes printed on otherwise ordinary looking movie posters.

Ralph Lauren uses the technology, boasting it is the first US luxury goods manufacturer to offer it that links consumers directly to their website - no typing, no hassle. They alsy have a handy Q&A section on their website explaining how it works.

Retailers will no doubt be looking to see if the technology is driving incremental sales or merely offering up an alternative channel. I'm sure Bluecasting will have lots of interesting post holiday results to share.

My New Year's Resolutions

Every year around this time, people look back on the year that was and make promises or resolutions to improve themselves and the world around them. Here are mine:

1. I resolve to continue hoping IKEA will come up with something new for 2009. The radio spot that conjured the image of the naked Spokes-Swede was the straw that broke the camel's back for me.

2. I resolve to remind people every chance I get that you can learn a lot about marketing by observing the smart, strategic, targeted way a politician raised campaign contributions. I subscribed to Obama.com early last year and received (and still receive) emails a couple times a week. Several from "Obama himself", from "Michelle", his campaign manager, and his running mate. Obviously they were written by a terrific copywriter, but in 2008, ancient direct marketing techniques helped elect arguably the freshest face on the political landscape in years.

3. I resolve to be optimistic that businesses will remember the golden rule: You have to spend money to make money -- especially in tough times. Stay top of mind with your best customers and they'll remain loyal.

4. I resolve to give my hard-earned money to companies that consistently provide the best service. I recently purchased a new MacBook. There was a problem with it. Apple made it right, no questions asked. More than that, they made the whole process easy, convenient, fast and friendly. It's not that a problem arose. It's how they dealt with it. Great service (and the Word-of-Mouth that it generates) is going to go a long way in a tough economy.

5. I resolve to post to this blog more often. The last year has been a little crazy (crazy good) so I've been a little neglectful. I hope everyone has a happy, peaceful and prosperous new year.

What are your resolutions?

Students vie for Title of Canada's Next Top Ad Exec

Remember the Volkswagen Beetle spoofs that asked “how many people can you fit in a Beetle”? Not sure if this was an actual campaign born out of Volkswagen, but the hilarious stunt came out of the late ‘60s, and has been copied many times by VW competitors and people in real-time just having fun with the concept.

Memorable campaigns – that drive results – is what Canada’s Next Top Ad Exec competition aims to cultivate. Business students with fresh ideas, who grasp the complexities of communicating with consumers through multi-media platforms, who are ready to do the necessary background research, be creative and take chances, need apply. Serious contenders will vie for internships at ad agencies and the top prize -- the Volkswagen Golf. Since competitors can enter as a team of two, that means 2 cars are up for grabs should a team be the top winner. The challenge is to develop an experiential campaign for the Volkswagen Routan.

The submission deadline to register to compete is January 22 - this part is simple; submit a cover page along with just 2 pages that includes [page 1] a good overview of the proposed campaign and [page 2] an overview of the creative elements. The real meat and potatoes of the campaign is not due until February 23, 2009.

Odds are better than winning ‘Canadian Idol’ or ‘So you Think You Can Dance Canada’! The idea is the same – in this case, the chance to hone your marketing and advertising savvy, get noticed, get one step closer to your dream career.

If you are a student and qualify for the competition - what's holding you back? Here's an old ad for the VW Beetle that might inspire you to take a chance and compete - and ultimately pitch your campaign to the competition judges, playing to win your very own VW Golf.

Using Social Networking Tools in the Non Profit World

More and more nonprofits are experimenting with social-networking tools such as Twitter and Facebook. In some cases, these tools are helping them raise funds. In most cases, it seems awareness and integration with other fundraising activities are the main goals. These tools do offer organizations an opportunity to build connections with their supporters and donors.

When you think of the Salvation Army, you may think of a very traditional organization likely more focused on established offline communication methods like direct mail. While they are still very focused in the mail, they are also ahead of the game in the online world dedicating resources to this pursuit. You’ll find the Salvation Army using Twitter and Facebook on a daily basis. Their Facebook page is active with links about donating, volunteering and connecting with the organization and is a fantastic example of how to take control of these tools and their content. Here’s the kind of information they provide on the page:

The Salvation Army in Canada
Global
Basic Info
Type: Organizations - Non-Profit Organizations

Description: The international Salvation Army gives hope and support to vulnerable people in 111 countries around the world, offering service in 175 different languages. As one of the largest social service agencies in the world, and through its role in the global community, The Salvation Army seeks to alleviate poverty, suffering and oppression by helping people build secure, sustainable and productive communities.
Contact Info

Website: http://SalvationArmy.ca

Recent News
Become a Salvation Army Fan!

http://www.new.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/The-Salvation-Army-in-Canada

Tell me I’m wrong!

The deeper we get into this cyclical (yes, Dorothy, there still is an economic cycle) recession, the more bleating I hear about changed paradigms, new economies, death of TV, death of print, and so on.

On friday afternoon I packed my brief case to go home for the weekend. I had trouble stuffing it full of the “dead medium” reading material that I receive just about every week (Marketing, Strategy, Contact Management, Applied Arts magazine, VUE (MRIA Magazine), Argyle (A lifestyle quarterly), Backbone (Business, Technology, Lifestyle), Driven (Fashion, Automobiles, Electronics, Fiction, Travel, Men’s Lifestyle), Report on Business Magazine, Midtown Post, not to mention three daily newspapers for Friday(I try to avoid the Sun on Friday). On Saturday around two hundred pages of newspaper landed on my doorstep (and I only read the Post and the Star on Saturday), and the list seems never to end.

Every one of these gems is supported to varying degrees by advertisers.

I watched the news on TV on Friday evening (twice, actually), 60 Minutes on Sunday, several Sunday Morning news shows, and, I confess, a rerun of Boston Legal on CITY. All of these are supported by advertisers. When I look out of my urban window I see, if it’s not snowing, billboards, superboards, backlit boards. All supported by advertisers. I took the subway to the movies last night and between the two I was barraged by more ads than I could count…I could go on forever, but I think you get the point.

New paradigm?

Talking of which, the Facebook site for “Advertising Week” in November, had, at its peak, 274 members: 4 news posts all describing the event; three posts to the “discussion board” all of them appearing to be ads for unrelated products and 7 posts on the wall, all of which seem to be shills posted by the organizers. The group was started at least two months ahead of the event. All of this, and Facebook is a social site, not a business site.

Which reminds me. The linked in site for the same event achieved 41 members, many of whom were speakers or presenters at the event.

If somebody doesn’t call the “experts” on their expertise soon, there will be seriously disruptive results. The marketing communication and persuasion industry is in the middle of a Tornado of cloudlike idiocy, propagated by people who should know better! So far, this has led to an obsession about measurement that will destroy strategic and advertising creativity, but not lead to any increase in business. Brand loyalty (in which, as you know, I hardly believe), or brand loyal-like behavior (in which I totally believe) will be reduced to short term bribery, and profitability and margins will be shot to hell. But mostly, we will all live in a dull, HTML driven world of bland pantone numbers, formulated letters making up “tested” sentences to "drive" immediate, "trackable", on-line behavior that matches the results predicted by the "modeling" programs..

Call me a Luddite, or anything else you want. But before you do that, prove to me that I’m wrong.

The Kindle. Yawn?

I’m still catching up on my year-end reading. You know, all those magazines that come out with their Year In Review issues. They’re stacked on my nightstand like so many left over holiday cards, begging to be read or recycled.

The best of the bunch is the Newsweek with Obama on the cover. It had a brief mention of something that caught my eye -- Jeff Bezos’ brainchild, The Kindle. It’s described on Wikipedia as “… an e-book reader, an embedded system for reading electronic books (e-books), launched in the United States by prominent online bookseller Amazon.com in November 2007.”

Most reviews are glowing. You can carry a whole library around in your briefcase. Amazing. Apparently, it’s even been endorsed by the big “O” (Oprah, not Obama), making it to her Favourtie Things List of ’08.

You can’t get it in Canada yet. But when I asked several of my U.S. friends how the Kindle has captured the imagination of our neighbours to the south, the response was something close to a tree falling in a forest.

So here are the tough questions: With a nod to Malcolm Gladwell, why hasn’t it tipped? Why isn’t it, according to my U.S. friends, dotting subway cars and park benches and restaurants like ubiquitous iPhones, iPods, and dare I say it, real books? Where are the cool commercials with U2 or Feist singing its praises? Why aren’t there spoofs about it on YouTube? Why aren’t the “Millennials” snapping them up? And will Canadians be a better market for the Kindle when it does arrive on our shores?

Perhaps the secret is revealed in Newsweek’s backhanded compliment… “Amazon’s electronic reader is awesome, but the early adopters skew old, while kids opt for point-and-click.”

That excerpt is interesting for two reasons. Early adopters? The Kindle has been available since 2007. Would the iPhone be considered a success if it took this long to capture the imagination of its intended audience? I'm not talking about just dollars and cents here. There was the day before the iPhone launched in Canada. And there was the day after, when it seemed everyone on the TTC had one or was looking over the shoulder of the person next to them who had one. Can an e-book reader capture the imagination in the same way as an “e-music player”? There's a very specific difference today between capturing the collective imagination and selling units. Arguably, the former is much harder to do and predict than the latter.

And ‘skews old’? I guess Oprah viewers don’t influence the zeitgeist anymore the way some think they do.

The day will come when Canadians will be able to get their hands on a Kindle. The question is, will the “right” target audience (Millennials?) want one?

So from a business perspective, can Amazon continue making and selling them if they remain the technological equivalent of a television series like “NCIS”? It’s there, and by some measure successful, but does anyone care?

Is Direct Marketing still direct?

I've been pondering this question for a while (as much as it pains me to admit this publicly). However, as an individual who has built my career in the field of Direct Marketing, I've stayed close to how our business is evolving courtesy of the internet.

Direct Marketing used to be about stamps, data models, customer segments and reams and reams of results (good or bad). It was one to one. It was what we understood. It was our arsenal for clients who complained that they couldn't prove the worth of tv or radio.

Now, Direct Marketing is still about data, still about customer segments, but less about talking to one consumer in one specific way. The internet has enabled us to create customized campaigns and target niche audiences - but it's really one to many, vs one to one, or in the 'olden days' - one to everyone.

I believe Direct Marketing is still about developing insight based communication but now it's broadcast to smaller groups of like minded individuals via the world wide web. Blogs, social media forums, sponsored content, outbound emails, applications, etc etc....are all created daily to cater to the needs of distinct groups. Mail is no longer the only way to speak to a consumer 'directly'.

That said - in light of our new reality - how would you define the new DM?

Heading to the gym helps maintain a productive attitude

And part of that responsibility is to STAY POSITIVE consistently – rain or shine. Managing your attitude is a very personal thing. However, for me, one of the most important factors to staying consistent in my professional life is maintain some form of regular exercise.

After years of working, I've learned what I call my 'productive attitude' and my energy levels are directly tied to exercise. I can be doing everything else right, but without regular exercise I can feel my attitude heading downward - all it takes is a few missed trips to the gym because I'm traveling on business. Like clockwork, I start to get anxious, let small things bother me and loose focus at work.

I’ve got a friend who is 45 but looks like he’s 25. I saw him the other day and said, “Ron, you look great.” He said, “I feel great! I got a second job.” I said, “A second job? I thought your agency business was doing well.” He said, “It is. My second job is on the treadmill from 6-7 every day. When I started looking at it as a second job, I showed up whether I wanted to or not!” He said, “The pay is lousy, but the benefits to my health and my attitude are always paying me back!”

For me, an hour of 'gym' time every day (whether I'm traveling or at home) helps me burn off stress and stay focused on my life goals.

Tough Economic Times Hit the United Way…

The United Way of Toronto announced last week they have two weeks left in their campaign but are $4 million short of their campaign goal. It’s the kind of announcement many in the non-profit sector have been concerned about.

In an article published in the Toronto Star, UW President & CEO Frances Lankin is quoted as saying “this is one of the toughest campaigns that we have ever experienced.”

Is this a sign of more to come?
Is the United Way so unique because of their reliance on corporate support?
How are your campaigns performing?

Writing an Email that gets Read

As BlackBerry smartphones become the device of choice for the business user, consider this - their small utilitarian screen and basic font means your beautifully formatted email is being read by someone in a busy, frenetic environment, and being evaluated or rejected in a milli-second.

That's because more than 60% of senior executives carry one and use it primarily to view and send emails. Consider these pointers to help ensure your message has the best chance of being understood.

1. Use the right font size. “Based on what we’ve seen, using 8-point fonts seems to work,” says mobileStorm CEO Jared Reitzin. “In the end, you want to make the body text a small but viewable size.”

2. Keep subject lines short, using only key words, such as “Action Item” and “Reminder,” and for time-sensitive events such as webinars, “Filling Fast.”

3. Put the *subject* first in the subject line. For example, if your email is for a Search Engine Optimization white paper, “SEO” should be the first thing they read in the subject line.

4. Use codes to communicate the desired response: 411 (for your information), 611 (response in 24 hours please) and 911 (Urgent request).

5. Make the message scanable. Since the majority of senior executives in organizations have a mobile device of some sort, accept that busy people don’t read -- they scan. That's why it's so important to grab the reader's attention with a strong call to action, then bullet points of key content.

Worst case scenario - they can always call you if they roll their eyes after reading your email. For more tips and tricks on effective email writing habits, visit HowToDoThings.com.

Iconic Brands – Will They Be Salvaged During a Recession and Will the Consumer be Duped?

I can’t help but wonder about the future effect on branded customer experience with the recent recessionary push to salvage well-known consumer brands. Are we moving back to the days where brands only stood for a name and logo? Or is this a new era in affirmation of the equity and intrinsic value of well-known brands?

A recent example is provided with the salvage sale of the bankrupt household retailer brand Linens ‘N Things. This brand name is being purchased following bankruptcy by liquidators Hilco and Gordon Brothers for $1million U.S with the rational:
“ There is significant brand value in the name and there is the potential to leverage and grow it.”

The plan is to make a profit by licensing out the Linens ‘N Things brand to other retailers however what is the long-term sustainability of the brand without a mechanism to proactively manage and deliver a consistent customer experience?

This may be the beginning of a trend toward brand denigration. Let’s see what happens. Are there any other examples that you have recently encountered?

TV Commercials 2.0

For some time now parts of the marketing world have been wondering if the growing problem advertisers are having getting their commercials seen by their intended targets is not a problem of their own making.

One only needs to look at the Clio awards to see some great commercials being produced that stop traffic (and drive sales?), but these are the showcase creative executions that do not reflect the main stream advertising that is broadcast day in and day out. And that’s part of the problem, its push based advertising and some of it is not as good as it could/should be. This started me to wonder if we might see greater success (on many levels) if we adopted a google customer voting approach to TV commercials.

So here’s the idea:
What if we allowed consumers to come to the program/station website to preview and select which commercials they would like to see? They’ld have an opportunity to pick from a pool of let's say 10 commercials from which they select their final 5. The “Top 5” commercials with the most votes get aired, the rest…

Now the financial model for the networks would be based on 3 streams.
1. A fee from advertisers who wish to be submitted into the pool, plus a second fee for each commercial viewed and voted on.
2. A subsequent fee for the airing of the winning commercials.
3. Free analytics for the winners while losers would have to pay.

The station/program have an opportunity to wrap a contest around the voting event, spike program interest with teasers and get important viewer data in advance of the airing. Those ads that don’t make the cut, can try again – but if it fails to solicit a customer following then the advertiser has learned something about their commercial execution. Consumers could be encouraged to watch the aired commercials by participating in some on-screen promo/QR code event.

If you think this is a little far fetched – have a read of a similar approach being taken by Pepsi for the Super Bowl as they seek to get consumer input on which spots consumers will get to see. Pepsi Tries Super Bowl Spot Selection 2.0

So what do you think?
If consumers could pick which commercial they would see, would that:
1) Raise the level of commercial entertainment/communication value of the ads
2) Provide additional value to advertisers and revenue for broadcasters
3) Increase the % of viewers that watch and retain the messages being broadcast to them
4) Give consumers a sense of 'programming control' that would help broadcasters 'engage' their audience

Or do you feel it's too little, too late.

Taking the Pulse of Marketing, Globally

CMA is partnering with the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council in its 3rd annual Marketing Outlook survey - this year for the first time.

The CMO Council, a global network out of the U.S, has 3,500 members and is represented in 57 countries in multiple industries, segments and markets.

This survey is targeted to senior corporate marketing leaders who can provide for a review of marketing performance in '08 as well as challenges and intentions in '09. Those who complete the survey will receive a complimentary copy of the full report.

The survey report provides peer-level input and consensus on critical issues and priorities in the year ahead, such as planned investments, organizational changes, process improvements, and performance indicators.

A benchmarking tool in exchange for a 15 minute survey.....