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A Delicate Situation
Alanna + June 4th, 2009
It’s no Enron scandal, but a recent potential AT&T mishap has reminded us all how truly important it is for brands to be insanely careful with their actions. So what’s the deal? Well, AT&T has been accused of intentionally teaching customers how to “power text” during the recent final vote on this season of American Idol. Power texting, which involves sending multiple text messages at one time, is an obviously advantageous technique with respect to American Idol since each text message sent to an AI shortcode represents a vote for one’s favoured contestant.
Now American Idol is standing by the results, as they apparently have mechanisms for tracking and discounting power votes. Regardless, even an innocent situation can lead to customer resentment and suspicion.
Life lesson?
As marketers, we have to be insanely careful about taking steps that might be perceived as harmful to one group or another. There are always going to be those claiming that marketing and advertising are exploitative, and it is our collective responsibility to uphold truthfulness and transparency - not simply for the sake of their own corporate efforts, but to maintain the integrity of the industry.
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Smart Marketing in a Dumb Economy
Marta + May 29th, 2009
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of presenting Smart Marketing in a Dumb Economy through WOMMA’s wonderful series of webinars. (By the way: if you missed the live event, you can check it out with audio!) As expected, the audience had lots of excellent questions—including “how do you convince a reluctant executive to experiment with digital and social media?” “Who within an organization ‘owns’ the conversation?” and the infamous “How and what do you measure exactly?”
I did my best to answer each of them—but there was one question that came via email after the webinar that I couldn’t resist sharing and answering here.
Q: You mentioned that companies are moving away from spending large amounts on traditional advertising (TV spots, print ads, etc.) instead opting for targeted marketing and creating experiences, mainly online. Do you think this trend is mainly due to economics or is targeted marketing proving more effective, or both? Once the economy improves, do you think companies will move away from monitoring and targeted marketing to return to the spray and pray, or is this a permanent shift away from that model?
If we may share the Infiltrators’ perspective…
Traditional advertising has a few undeniable advantages.
- It’s familiar. Marketers have been relying on traditional media for decades. It’s simply what we know.
- It’s sexy. Or at least… it’s perceived to be. Agencies have long coveted their awards and their reels and clients have long enjoyed the prestige that goes with a killer TV spot. Reminds me of vanity license plates and the sunglasses that are so popular nowadays with the giant “D&G” carved in to the side.
- It’s the easiest way to blast your message to a mass audience. Unfortunately, blasting a mass message is beginning to sound like the definition of “SPAM” and, in the not-too-distant future, “POLLUTION”. Also, the idea of a ‘mass audience’ is quickly going the way of the dodo. But I digress…
Change is hard. When you’ve been doing something for a long time, it’s a tad uncomfortable to try a new approach. Especially if in the past your approach has been wildly successful. Which is why, until the recent economic turbulence kicked us all in the collective behind, most companies and most agencies were quite happy to ignore alternative marketing channels or to view them as “scraps” that get added on to a traditional media campaign with the leftover dollars.
Today, everyone’s wallet is a bit lighter. Some industries (you know who they are) are hemorrhaging cash or—even worse—asking for handouts from the rest of us. (As if selling us crap—and I do mean crap—wasn’t enough! The nerve!) This means many marketers simply can’t afford to bombard us with TV ads. They have no choice but to get creative; to shift their dollars and their brains away from paid media and toward the earned variety. Cliche as it sounds, necessity is indeed often the mother of invention. Or something like that.
The second part of your question deals with the “is this temporary or permanent” issue. Some argue (hope?) that once the economy recovers, we can all go back to The Glory Days of buying our way into the homes of our customers.
We say, not so fast. There is a bigger shift in the works than simple economics. We are becoming more digital. More mobile. More multi-channel and multi-screen. This point is particularly salient among youth who were “born wired” and don’t relate to our Pavlovian addiction to TV Guide. They consume media on their terms; on their device of choice. They detest SPAM. They know how to turn your broadcasts OFF.
But it’s not just the youngins that are drifting from the large screen to the smaller ones. It’s happening everywhere. The Kindle. The iPod. The iPhone. The DVR. And so on.
If there is one thing you can count on (and it’s clearly not the economy), it’s the growing expectation among ALL consumers of ALL ages to have a say in how, when, and where they consume information.
Which is a very long-winded way of saying: no, this ain’t temporary.
But there’s another important part of the original question worth discussion, and that is this: is targeted marketing more effective?
At the risk of answering a question with a question… is it more effective to water the entire neighborhood when it’s your lawn that you’re hoping to grow? No, of course not.
“Spray and pray” used to work in the past in part because everyone watched TV. At predictable times. And frankly, there weren’t too many other options.
Today, the options are virtually infinite. Creativity has some really fertile ground in which to grow.
We do so hope to see more of it!
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The Importance of Being Earnest
Caroline + May 27th, 2009
A funny little ‘scandal’ is unwinding in the land of Toronto fashionistas today. It started at 1:45am (contributor Courtney Shea, you’re working too hard!) when Toronto Life published its daily ‘best dressed’ post in its Style section and featured local developer Deena Pantalone discussing her ‘vintage’ dress that she ‘sort of designed’. A small blurb about being a recessionista by reworking old clothes followed.
Within hours comments started pouring in about the fact that this dress was in fact the recent and completely original work of local designer Caroline Lim, owner of the Queen St.W store Champagne & Cupcakes.
And naturally, local twitterati starting talking about it too:
Now I’ve never met Caroline (great name though) but she is obviously not only a talented designer but one smart entrepreneurial cookie as well as shortly after being notified (and writing a strongly worded comment to the subject herself), she posted this comment:
What a great way to take advantage of the local interest in your story and drive traffic to your store. Many more comments have come in about people’s interest being sparked in the dress and the store and I imagine this is not going to be the only blog post about it either. Perhaps Toronto Life will even follow up on it and feature Caroline in its piece. Now while I still firmly believe that claiming to have ‘sort of’ designed a dress that you ‘completely didn’t’ is wrong, by the time this all blows over I think Caroline may be sending Deena a thank-you note for all of the great publicity she has received as a result of her misrepresentation of her design!
Need help figuring out how to engage authentically? Infiltrate now.
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There Are No Small Jobs
Brian + May 21st, 2009
Over the course of your career, you will be inevitably be tasked with a “small job”. It will usually be presented to you in the following manner:
“Client A wants us to whip up a Project B. Can you have something ready by end-of-day tomorrow?”
It’s the kind of job that neither the client nor the account person necessarily expect much from, and many designers won’t bother attacking it with the enthusiasm that they would when presented with a Peach. (An example of a Peach could be an identity system for a high-profile client where the budget per business card is around $5 per card. A non-Peach, on the other hand, might be something like, say, a moving notice for an engineering firm.)
But attack it with vigor one most certainly always should. Just because a given job’s scope, budget, and print run are relatively small doesn’t mean the thinking behind it should be. On the contrary. Small jobs are a great opportunity to flex your creative problem-solving skills, play with some ingenuity, and — most importantly — impress upon your clients that the quality of your work isn’t primarily dictated by the size of the project. (This alone is worth expending the extra time and energy to deliver above and beyond both expectations and the brief as it builds trust and confidence between the agency and its client, paving the way for a creatively fulfilling and fruitful relationship down the road.)
The added bonus is that you may just come up with something rather brilliant — and that’s an opportunity that should never be taken lightly.
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The Virtues of Active Listening
Russ + May 20th, 2009
Last week, I did what most sons across Canada did: I ordered flowers for my mother. Needless to say there were some issues with my order, from late delivery to bouquet quality. Instead of boring you with all of the details, let’s talk about the outcome.
After telling several people about my experience over the weekend, it lead me to an obvious conclusion that I believe some organizations are missing all together – quality customer service is of vital importance to the success of a brand.Given that the economy is currently in a recession, companies should be doing everything in their power to ensure that their service is top notch.A positive experience with a brand can go far - moreover a company that resolves any customer issues or complaints effectively can go even further.A classic example of this is, of course, Tylenol or more recently Maple Leaf.
Negative word of mouth and mouse can quickly impact brand perception. People in general are quick to complain, and welcome hearing other people’s stories to avoid being caught in similar circumstances. Given the power and reach of social media and forums, such stories can spread quickly and have a devastating impact on a brand.
So what can companies do to avoid being the subject of a negative customer service story?
Listen to your customers.
Active listening online and offline can help your organization to identify any negative issues and quickly resolve them. Similarly, you can listen to what customers are saying about your competition and make sure you don’t make the same mistakes.Lastly, you can monitor what your company is doing right and use that information in the information of future programs or initiatives.
Actively listening to consumers enables companies to continuously improve upon the quality of their customer service and ultimately increase consumer retention.
Consumers are speaking their minds.Are you listening?
