Sociable Communications | Guelph, Ontario

Arts and Culture is the Core of Community Vibrancy

2011-10-28T13:53:00.000-07:00

Many folks question the need to support the arts - particularly on a community level. Schools across Canada are having their arts funding cut, and it seems there are as many people fighting for the arts as there are people fighting against it.

It has been proven that arts-education facilitates better learning in all other educational disciplines. So, my point is to highlight the value that the arts provides to a community in a way that is meaningful to folks who have the money to keep the arts alive and thriving - anyone who may be potential "consumers". Patronizing local arts and artists is not just good for the intelligence of a community - it is also fundamental to its economy.

The primary goal of anyone who works in the arts is to continue to make a living. It's as simple as that - most artists - painters, musicians, dancers, sculptors, actors or writers - are entrepreneurs, self-employed individuals who make a living exercising their skills and abilities. And yet, artists rarely get the same level of respect (or pay) that a dentist or a lawyer does. Artists usually have an equal depth of education, training and commitment to their profession, and yet they rarely earn a consistent, sustainable living wage.

Achieving a balance between artistic mission and economic need, and creating a sustainable economy for artistic work is essential for community artists and arts organizations to be sustainable and healthy in the long-term. This is generally difficult for cultural entrepreneurs to do, but it is critical to the health of a community. Why? Because it is measurably valuable to have a thriving arts and culture community in any town or city. Why? Because a community that cherishes and presents is own community-defining stories of heritage and humanity is one that carves its own clear, compelling identity. Where would you rather live? In a community that has a vibrant identity, or a faceless collection of factories and houses? Would you rather live with mature trees, parks, and skilled informed merchants and service providers under the umbrella of a defined, supportive "community" - or within a commodified community of strip-malls and tract housing?

A thriving cultural community attracts people. Cultural success leads to enriched lifestyles, which contributes directly to economic success in any community. A community that has a lot of "happenings" (not just in the arts, but in sport, volunteerism or any other social endeavor) will attract people - people who will live, work, spend, pay taxes, and contribute. Arts and culture has a place in community economic development that is fundamental to a strong, sustainable local economy.

All economic development starts with people who are thriving, happy and investing in their community. Creative innovation is essential to developing a culture of innovation in the broader community, and that starts with the arts. That means that, regardless of your love of the arts, it is essential to understand that a thriving arts community is a foundation of a strong, vibrant community.

Don't you think that it may be a good idea to invest in something that increases the quality and value of the region you call home?

QR Codes - Newfoundland and Labrador does 'em right. Yis bye.

2011-07-13T09:42:00.000-07:00

QR Codes are getting ubiquitous - but how many people actually use them? A better question - how many people even know what they are supposed to be used for? An even better question for the techies - what does "QR" stand for?? "Quick Response"... not that it really matters, but I thought I'd test you.

My concern isn't with the ubiquity of QR codes - in fact, I think they present an awesome opportunity to reach out to people in spaces where mobile computing is the only option. My concern is that it is still very, very new technology - and those of us "in the business" always forget that last month's news to us is still a bewildering, brave new world to the general public.

Enter the clever marketers behind tourism for Newfoundland and Labrador - the providers of what are arguably the most consistent and intelligent marketing campaigns in Canada. They recently released a print insert in National newspapers with a QR code that allowed you to "Get the soundtrack", which played audio of birds singing over Cape St. Mary's. What really impressed me though was the provision of text that said "Not sure how? Download a QR reader app on your smartphone, scan the QR code, and hear the birds." It may seem simple, but I bet this one print ad taught thousands of people how to do this. iphones are one thing - but how many BlackBerry users have enabled a QR reader app? Have you?

My point is that this ad made no assumptions about its audience - in fact, if it made one assumption, it was that people may not yet understand the technology. A pretty smart assumption to make, I think.

The ad itself is brilliant too - and the addition of audio, provided in the comfort of the newspaper reader's personal space, allows for a multi-sensory experience that lives up to the slogan "Give your senses a trip to remember".

Ah, I want to get back to Newfoundland.

Sociable Communications has moved out of the house!!

2011-06-01T09:34:00.000-07:00

After two years in business, Sociable Communications has recently moved “out of the house” to an official office space at the Granbry Innovations Centre on 130 Research Lane, Suite 7B in Guelph, Ontario (just inside the east entrance, down the hall from AdFarm).

All other contact information, including our Post Office mailing box (PO Box 1684, Guelph ON) will stay the same – we now just have a formal space and a boardroom for conducting business on behalf of our clients and partners. Come on by and say hello!

What Does “Sociable!” Mean, Anyway?

2011-05-31T10:13:00.000-07:00

Contrary to popular belief, Sociable Communications is not, and never has exclusively been a social media agency. We are an integrated communications agency, and we are extremely conversant in social media best-practices – but it is just one piece of a bigger integrated communications picture with us.

The root of the company name is in Atlantic Canada. If you have ever toasted a table of friends, a band or a full-house of revellers in a Halifax, Fredericton or a St. John’s pub (or kitchen party), you won’t say “Cheers” – you’ll say “Sociable!!” Our company aspires to a style of branding that supports this idea: we believe that successful branding should be engaging, personable, fun, and… well, ‘sociable’. Oh, and our Chief Communications Officer and co-owner is a Newfie. So, that’s the story.

Alan Doyle of Great Big Sea - nothing to do with us, really - just a proud Newfoundlander.

Chrysler, Detroit, and American Dreaming

2011-04-06T18:59:00.000-07:00

Truly great marketing communications must be simple, easy to understand, and evocative. They must provide a clean, simple articulation of extremely big ideas: they need to reflect where a brand has been, where it is going, and must acknowledge all the impressions people have about the brand. The product isn’t the only thing a brand represents: Rice Krispies are so much more than just breakfast cereal, aren’t they?

I am legitimately awestruck by Chrysler’s new positioning: “Imported from Detroit”. With three simple words, Portland-based Wieden + Kennedy have evoked the history and legacy of the American automotive industry, and even America itself. They acknowledge the power that imported vehicles now have on the auto industry, but remind us that America is a big country - Detroit may as well be on the other side of the world from Texas, California or Oregon. Detroit is positioned as a nation unto itself - for better or worse – and it kind of is if you think about it.

Furthermore, the folklore of Detroit is wrapped into a modern, relevant package by engaging a Detroit-based spokesperson in Eminem. This is a man who, if nothing else, is one of the most credible, respected people in American entertainment. He has also had his own ups-and-downs before coming back on top. He brings authenticity, immediacy and legitimacy to Chrysler’s born-in-Detroit positioning. They couldn’t have done better if Sinatra came back to life – and had been from Detroit in the first place (and never left).

Detroit has famously been in decline for decades, but if there’s one thing America loves, it is an underdog story. What greater underdog is there than Detroit, this faded colossus in American mythology? Chrysler has laid claim to one of the most significant anchors in the evolution of the American dream – the Motor City – with all of the baggage, dreams, fortunes, and tragedies that go along with that. It seems risky, but I don’t think it is: if Detroit is positioned as a rising Phoenix, then Chrysler will also catch fire and burn brightly.

America loves positive stories of National pride, and this positioning taps into a deep well of American passion: “it's the hottest fires that make the hardest steel.” It is genius in its simplicity – the same kind of sharp understanding of human nature that built the Motor City in the first place.

I bet the folks at Ford are kicking themselves (or are undertaking an agency review). The most simple, effective marketing solutions often remain the most difficult to articulate, but Wieden + Kennedy nailed this one for Chrysler with evocative, effective positioning.

Footnote: Wieden + Kennedy are the folks behind my other favourite brand re-positioning of last year, the now-legendary Old Spice campaign, which also turned an old-and-tired brand with significant baggage (Eddie Murphy’s ‘Delirious’, anyone?) into a new-and-vibrant brand again. If Wieden + Kennedy folks are reading, and want to open a Canadian office, we need to talk….

Heeding My Own Advice

2011-03-23T07:02:00.000-07:00

I fell victim to a common mistake, and it took me two years to notice. I was so busy helping other people that I forgot to heed my own advice.

I have spent the past two years recommending strategic, integrated communications – best practises to spread a unified message across multiple available platforms. As an illustration, I recommend that if you publish a newsletter, you should break the individual articles apart and repurpose them as blog posts. Those blog posts can be automatically fed to Facebook and Twitter accounts (if it’s appropriate for your brand). This can help to drive traffic to your website, and the circle can be completed by allowing easy access to your social media sites by providing quick links on your website.

I missed this last part.

The simple act of inserting clickable social media icons on my own website has eluded me until this week. The new-and-improved Sociable Communications website now includes direct links to the social media accounts I have been populating for years. This not only offers more communications functionality, but I think it looks better too. I consciously went for a minimalist design on my site, but the added splash of colour works for me.

It’s a common mistake to overlook the simple things in life and in business, even if they are elements that you recommend to others each day. Still, it’s a reminder that we all need to spend a bit of time and attention re-examining our own daily approach to the way we present ourselves and our business. You can always find a way to improve things and evolve your processes for the better.

I always liked a quote from The Shawshank Redemption: “Get busy living, or get busy dying.” My interpretation of the line is that it’s always in your best interest to seek self-improvement and growth. The challenge is that with a bit of ambition, you are often looking for the forest and the trees, forgetting to prune the bushes at your feet. It’s sometimes hard to see what’s right in front of you. We all need to stop and look down, even when we are running ahead.

Volunteer Commitments are Professional Commitments

2011-03-16T18:19:00.000-07:00

A well-rounded professional career can benefit greatly from the experience, connections and mutual value that volunteer commitments can provide. However, your primary focus should be on providing value to your chosen community: you provide no value whatsoever in your volunteer role unless you are fully engaged and fully committed.

This applies to any committees you may choose to join, and it particularly applies to Board positions. For all intents and purposes, Board roles (including voluntary Board positions) mean that you and your Board colleagues oversee other people’s careers, expectations, goals and lives. As such, you are honour-bound to step up and do your absolute best. The root of any Board position is that it should never be “about you”.

If the commitment feels like a duty rather than a privilege, then please do your final duty and source an engaged individual who can fill your chair – and then get out of the way.

So many people join Boards for the wrong reasons: they are fulfilling employer expectations, or worse, they are padding their resume. If you are one of these people, do us all a favour and quit your position RIGHT NOW. You may not respect the magnitude of your Board position, but the staff of your organization certainly do, and you owe it to them (to say nothing of all other stakeholders in your organization) to give your volunteer role everything that you can give.

If you can’t, then please get out of the way of everyone else’s progress.

Your Work vs. the Reasons Why You Work

2011-03-08T19:19:00.000-08:00

It can be a strange thing for a business owner or manager to present themselves on behalf of their company - where should the lines between a professional profile and a personal profile be drawn? It comes down to the level of comfort you have with "being your brand". If you own a store on Main Street, then you probably should "be your brand" - your friends will also be your customers (or should be), and your customers should become your friends. In person-to-person transactions, the best way to build repeat business is to build "sociability" into each professional transaction.

However, if you are selling "professional services", then you may not want personal details associated with your work life. Do you really want to know about your Doctor's weekend habits? Do you want your clients to know about yours? It's a tough call.

I personally couldn't care less what people know about me, but I still try to keep some distance between my personal and professional lives. At the end of the day, my clients are extremely important to me, and I count many as great friends, but other things are equally (or more) important than business stuff, and I choose to try to keep things partitioned - if only to remind myself when it is time to stop working. That's a big one - and it is a tough line to draw in the sand.

I spend a lot of my time talking with people about strategy, but it is important to have a life-strategy too - and that strategy should start with knowing where to draw the line between work and the reasons why you work.

Sociable Communications’ Favourite Viral Advertising 2010

2010-12-22T06:54:00.000-08:00

One of the key criteria of any ad campaign is the number of views any ad receives – literally the quantity of pairs-of-eyeballs any ad receives. As such, viral advertising should be judged for its quality for sure, but viewer quantity is also a key criteria. As such, I present my favourite viral video advertisements for 2010, with my humble commentary.

Old Spice – The Man Your Man Could Smell Like

This is (and will always likely be) legendary. It added “I’m on a Horse” to the lexicon. I laughed my ass off to everything the Old Spice guy did (including the brilliant ‘Twitter Responses’ campaign). And more to the point, I personally purchased Old Spice deodorant for the first time ever – I never would have considered doing so without this ad, and that call-to-action made the difference. I appreciate the Axe ads, but they weren’t for me – the Old Spice ads did hit the target though – until I ran out of Old Spice, and went back to my old habits. They may want to address that…

Arcade Fire – The Wilderness Downtown (Featuring “We Used to Wait”)

This is a game-changer in the world of music marketing and promotion – and a stunning example of how free web tools can be manipulated and embraced to create new (and shockingly personalized) works of art. And, the “video” is so damned good that you almost don’t notice how great the song is until your second pass through the “video” process (and let’s face it, didn’t everyone try it a few times??).

http://thewildernessdowntown.com/

Toyota – Swagger Wagon

Maybe it’s just the place I’m at in my life, but this ad blew my mind. There’s a whole series of viral ads with these characters, and I kind of want to hang out with these folks. This honestly makes me want to buy one of these vans, if only to support a company that could be this funny and cool.

Also, “Dare to dream – you could be this!!”

Transport Accident Commission, Victoria, Australia – Twenty Year Retrospective

The TAC in Victoria, Australia has been making deeply impactful conventional (as it were) television ads for twenty years. The Aussies don’t screw around with metaphors like us North Americans – they go for the throat, and get proven results with significantly reduced fatalities from drunk driving. This ad went global on the internet, and may hopefully make a global difference in the same way TAC’s television ads have had in Australia.

Axe – Clean Your Balls

From the divine to the inane… OK, this ad is a bit easy, but what the hell – an ad like this is designed for a viral space, and a brand like Axe is the one to do it with. Check out the long close-up on the golf balls – the tension is palpable. This kind of writing and direction takes some thought, and a bit of courage from the advertiser’s point-of-view. “Cleans right through the prickly surface”. Funny, well-cast, and smart (in spite of the over-the-top stupidity of the concept).

Adidas – Star Wars Cantina

Yeah, what can you say – awesome digital effects, funny, relevant celebrities, and Star Wars. Nerd heaven. Jedi Snoop-Dogg, David Beckham and Jay Baruchel (in particular) are genius. Baruchel sniffing the blaster is perfect – wouldn’t you do the same if you could?

Nike – Write the Future

This puts the aspirations of anyone who as even played a sport into a global context, and allows everyone to dream big, alongside their sports heroes. Ergo, if you wear Nike shoes, you can live your dream. Or something like that.

Tipp-Ex White and Rewrite – NSFW - A Hunter Shoots a Bear

This was a first – something I hadn’t seen before on YouTube, let alone in advertising, online or otherwise. The first time I saw it, I was legitimately surprised, and then delighted. I was even led to wonder about the technology itself, though I suspect YouTube was instrumental is adjusting their interface to allow this to work. It also had people trying new variations over and over – I bet the average viewing time was close to ten minutes – unbelievable for any advertisement. I just wonder how much it translated into purchase – I’ve never heard of (or seen) the product, and I almost worry that their product distribution didn’t match their impact. Still, the sheer depth of thought they put into this execution is stunning.

Independent Resurgence and the Demise of the Mainstream

2010-12-21T13:21:00.000-08:00

I always look to trends in music as indicators of shifting consumer patterns. Music is a great bellwether for predicting significant shifts in popular culture.

Rock ‘n’ Roll overthrew swing bands in the early 50s, bringing a whole new wave of fashion and culture. Then, in 1964, America turned to the Beatles as those pop culture heroes from the 50s became increasingly faded, bloated and over-produced.

In the mid-Seventies, punk and hip hop raised a street-level middle-finger to the faded, increasingly bloated music of the time – disco, prog rock, and stadium rock.

In the early 90s, grunge and “mainstream independent” music was a response to the fading, bloated excess of the mid-80s hair-and-fashion-based music of the time.

Of course, like all trends, each of these revolutions were co-opted and commercialized by the mainstream. The Beatles begat the Monkees. The Sex Pistols begat Adam and the Ants. Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five begat MC Hammer. Hell, you could say that Nirvana begat Limp Bizkit.

However, Nirvana’s Nevermind (which I will use as a revolutionary benchmark) was released in 1991, and nothing has shook the ground that hard since. Toronto’s “New Music” radio station still rotates Nirvana and early Pearl Jam (to say nothing of early Tragically Hip) more than any other music, in spite of the fact that the latter two have a deep well of great (and more current) ‘new music’.

I think we are overdue for a revolution.

The problem is that consumer consumption habits have changed significantly over the past decade. According to my prior examples, a “revolution” should come along about every fourteen years or so. By that math, 2005 should have been the tipping point – but by that time, music downloads were rampant. The recording industry was reeling. And more significantly, people weren’t buying actual recordings (in the traditional, physical sense). If people were buying music, they were downloading MP3s (which are a significant step back in terms of audio quality compared to 24-bit CDs). MTV and Much Music didn’t play music anymore. Clubs and bars didn’t host original live music anymore (at least in Canada, compared to the live music explosion of 1990 – 1995).

Since 2005, our mainstream pop culture touchstones increasingly rest with television – and not “music television”. Canadian/American Idol, Dancing with the Stars, So You Think You Can Dance, and auto-tuned vocals are the new normal. If a revolution was ever due, the time is now.

So where are the revolutionaries?

The revolution is already here. There are songwriters telling better stories that ever. There are bands with more edge than ever. There are bands with less edge – though intentionally so, to great emotional effect. And, there are bands that are finding new and innovative means of reaching a new audience. The difference is that these musicians aren’t enormous “stars” – they are simply career musicians, period.

My point is that some revolutions are coup d’états, while others happen gradually - slowly, until everything has changed and nobody is the wiser, and everyone is generally better off. These are the revolutions of the end-user. In commerce, like in politics, the majority (and end-user demand) usually has a way of ruling things sooner or later.

The “digital revolution” may have thrown off old patterns of creative revolution, but it hasn’t fundamentally damaged the artistic world – it has just necessitated some innovation. At worst, it has defined niches that are supported by the fact that artists have potential access to a global market, rather than a local market: artists may not need to water-down their vision in order to pay bills. Great art is, by nature, often polarizing – but if a potential audience is global rather than local, then you can “polarize away”, secure in the knowledge that those who like your work will be equally as large a group as those who don’t like it. You can comfortably ignore the naysayers, because the fans are potentially greater than you ever could have found through conventional means.

This new revolution is about distribution. The old musical revolutions were still supported by a major-label economic structure that helped to motivate the masses. Now, artists can motivate their audience themselves, with a bit of excellent creative work, and some creative self-marketing.

The new revolution is not about mass-consumer choices, but creative freedom, distribution opportunities, and economic reward. The same goes for any brand marketing – businesses large and small can focus on their target and/or niche better now than they ever could before. The classic “Four Ps of Marketing” include placement – which means product distribution and availability to the consumer. Businesses, like musicians and artists, can now also communicate with a closely-targeted market with efficiency and effectiveness, and they can gain the economic benefit that flows from that level of focus.

The Beatles vs. The Rolling Stones: Clear, Effective Branding

2010-08-17T08:32:00.000-07:00

Salman Rushdie once wrote that a person will primarily be either a Beatles fan or a Rolling Stones fan, just as one will prefer either Tolstoy or Dostoevsky. I appreciate the clarity of this analogy – one is carefully crafted and elaborate; the other is sharp and hard.

The clarity of the analogy immediately makes sense because both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones were successfully crafted instruments of effective marketing, whether it was fully intentional or not - they each presented a very straightforward brand promise.

Generally speaking, the Beatles were the fun, safe version of British rock ‘n’ roll. Their brand promise was supported by fun, high-energy, escapist pop music (especially in their early recordings), and was later supported by “artistic” leanings: cerebral rather than visceral.

The Rolling Stones were the harder edge of British rock. From their earliest club dates, the music was earthy, physical, sensual music rooted in (and lifted from) American Blues. They were somehow dirty and dangerous – and certainly more sexual. That was their brand promise: the darker, dirtier side of music with a sensual edge that early-60s America represented to England.

These brand promises were not accidental. The Beatles chose a band name with an obvious built-in pun in the word’s misspelling, hinting at a sense of humour and fun. The band members themselves were (relatively) clean-cut, and publicly innocent and fun-loving. They even quickly developed consistent iconography – the trustworthy brand recognition that carried from the logo on Ringo’s kick drum logo to every product with the Beatles name on it.

Similarly, the Stones presented a dark, smoky impression from their very first recording, and a consistent non-smiling attitude. The band members sported big ears, big lips, bad haircuts and acne scars - there wasn’t a “cute” one in the bunch. And again, their name supports the brand promise unambiguously: a rolling stone = rolling rock = rock’n’roll. The Beatles wanted to hold your hand. The Stones wanted to take you out in the alley behind the bar and knock your boots against the wall.

The effective, successful marketing of each band’s brand promise is evident when viewed through the lens their pre-recording years: the Beatles first dressed in leather, and the Stones wore suits and crooked-toothed smiles. In hindsight, both images look put-on and they probably were - which is why their later images, as we now know them, worked: they were genuine.

A clear brand promise for each band/brand was of course supported by excellent products, and the rest is history. The 60s supported this kind of clarity with branding or music and entertainment, and it may never happen again – but the lessons here do apply to brand marketing in general. You have a few moments to make a pitch, and a lifetime to develop repeat customers if you do everything well in the first place. A carefully-considered brand strategy, a clearly-articulated brand promise, and well-communicated product attributes will almost always win the day, and will win the test of time as well.

I mean, what the hell were Herman’s Hermits about anyway?

Frequency and Relevancy – The Sociable Rules of Content Generation

2010-06-15T12:36:00.000-07:00

If you review a few dates on this blog, you will see that I have broken a rule I so often espouse: when blogging, set a goal for frequency of posting, and stick to it. The problem is that I also recommend relevancy with every post: thought leadership can’t be established without relevant content. If your blogs, tweets or status updates aren’t directly relevant to your target audience, then it is better to say nothing. So, I’ve been saying nothing.

That’s not to say I’m not busy - but I won’t post information about my work on behalf of clients (my rule #4 of social media engagement is to respect privacy). The bottom line is that there are few rules with social media engagement, but if you are doing it at all, you need to set some goals and stick to them - so I'm providing a few "rules" of my own. My goals were sidetracked by my Rule #10 – until a client called me on my lack of posting frequency. Point taken – a client’s confidence was shaken in my ability, and it all comes back to revenue generation.

Since one of my unspoken rules of content generation is that blogs don’t need to be essays:

Sociable Communications’ Select Rules of Content Generation:

1. If you don’t have anything relevant to say, say nothing.

2. Know the ‘Who’ - who you are talking to.

3. Know the ‘Why’ - know your goals. Are you in it to build thought leadership? Drive sales? Brag?

4. Re-purpose existing content – if it’s worth saying in one place, say it in every place.

5. Respect privacy, and always give credit where credit is due.

6. Follow your company’s Code of Business Conduct and all other Company policies. If you don’t have any policies, write them and keep records of content generation.

7. Remember that your local posts can have global significance – and know that the Internet is permanent. When in doubt, do not post.

8. You don’t hold all of the keys – share your blogging opportunities with other staff. They have valuable insights too.

9. Do not say anything that could be perceived as confrontational, arrogant, libellous, unprofessional or slanderous – unless that is your goal.

10. If content generation isn’t generating revenue somehow, they why bother doing it?

My favourite is the last one. We are all too busy to do things that don’t add value. If you are participating in social media engagement, then always add value – if other people find your information valuable, then they will feed value back to you. At least, that is my goal.

Marketing to Middle-Aged Men - Anything is Possible.

2010-04-06T11:49:00.001-07:00

Middle-aged men are trickier to market to than many think. Lazy marketers develop tactics that disparage the “clueless loser” guy, or they’ll pile boobs ‘n’ booze into advertising, confidently assuming that it’ll speak to all middle-aged males - one way or the other. It may reach them, but will it penetrate? Men don’t need to be reminded of their failures, inability or complacency - they need is to feel like anything is possible.

From a social perspective, I have a theory about men that may define a better means of reaching these guys in a manner that will generate better results. Think about this: ask any man who their best male friend is. Ask who their next-best male friend is. Chances are that those names are men who were still boys when they met each other in their teenage years. The deepest relationships that men develop with other men are usually cemented before they turn 20. Men are experts are building acquaintances – business contacts, golfing buddies, drinking partners, husbands-of-wives-friends - but they never let someone “in” quite like they did when they were seventeen. That old friend may now have nothing else in common with their 45-year-old self, but that guy was “there” when their seventeen-year-old guard was down – and that’s why they are still there now.

Men are generally still the neurotic, insecure boys that much advertising ridicules – but they very rarely wear it with such inelegance. They often have a deep, persistent need to reconnect with a younger, more confident, more idealistic version of themselves, because that younger version knew how to dream without limits. They retain their oldest friends because they don’t know how (or don’t want) to build deep connections with newer acquaintances. And more to the point, they can’t (or won’t) trust new people when ever-present social, political or grown-up business concerns are apparent.

Truly effective marketing tactics should dig deeper into a man’s psyche and soul. Most men aspire to innovation and leadership, but their actions rarely match their goals. What is missing in marketing to middle-aged men is an understanding of what this teenage-friend theory reveals. Men need comfort, peace-of-mind, and simplicity, aligned with non-judgemental trust. People are judged every day, but sometimes you just need to be yourself. Men don’t need another salesman trying to be their “buddy”, and they need to be disparaged even less – they get enough of that already. They need to know that their core beliefs are respected and reflected, if not shared, without judgement.

Every young guy wanted to be a star athlete, rock star or mogul. It didn’t happen, and they’re all a little pissed off about it now, but their earliest friends who shared the articulation of those dreams understand the disappointment in learning that the dreams weren’t achievable (for whichever reason). Those friends also understand how those dreams evolved into the present reality – for better or worse. Nothing can touch that – not golf partners, drinking buddies, or even life partners. Good marketers should dissect, understand and respect that.

This explains the success of Nike, Four Seasons Hotels, or most luxury brands for that matter: it is always preferable (if not possible) to “just do it”; you deserve the best, without question or judgement (as long as you can pay the bill). Middle-aged men almost always aspire to be better than their current reality (even if actions rarely match goals), and leveraged aspirations are therefore a powerful marketing tool if applied creatively.

Men aren’t clueless or desperate – they are just very resistant to change, and they need an occasional comfort-zone separate from their daily concerns that does not represent dramatic change. If marketers understand that every 40-year-old man is still an 18-year-old at heart, then they should also understand that “boobs ‘n’ booze” won’t speak to them in an efficient manner: in their hearts, they know that the conventional “party picture” is a reality that is now beyond their grasp. Again, they’re a bit pissed off about it, but it’s a fact, and they don’t need another reminder of their fading dreams and abilities. What they do need is to feel like anything is possible – anything at all. Is it better to suggest the achievement of an impossible dream – or to deliver a sense of confidence, aspiration and security, such as that which comes from sharing in the confidence of a best friend?

Remember what life was like when you were seventeen? It probably sucked – but in hindsight, didn’t the world seem to be your oyster? Everything was going to change after high school – you would go to school, go to work, get money, and get a life. All of those things happened – just not as most people planned. But, if smart marketers can remember that we all remember the shimmering possibility represented in teenage/early 20s dreaming, there is a huge opportunity to leverage a brand in a manner that is relevant, exciting, personable and sustainable. Anything is possible.

Moosehead and Sleeman: My Animal is Bigger than Yours

2010-01-26T11:16:00.001-08:00

Moosehead beer has a new campaign in Ontario that has partnered with Roots, the venerable Canadian clothing line, to provide co-branded promotional goods. The radio spots supporting this campaign pair an exec from each company who discuss the relative Canadian merits of the Moosehead and Roots brands. A final comment points out that a Moose, the obvious symbol of Moosehead Beer (with a logo that looks not dissimilar to the Caribou on the Canadian quarter) is “bigger” than a Beaver (appearing on the classic Roots brand icon, as well as on the lowly nickel).

The Canadian beer business has traditionally been pretty scrappy, and not usually adept at subtlety. However, the Roots “beaver” icon is striking similar to the trademarked icon seen on every single bottle of Sleeman beer. Sleeman was the neck-and-neck competitor for the title of “biggest independent brewery in Canada” until Sleeman was purchased by Japan’s Sapporo some years ago, and Sleeman would still be seen as a clear, direct competitor in the “super-premium” segment of the domestic Canadian brewing industry.

Is it possible that the Moosehead folks (or their creative agency) were able to lob such a subtle grenade into the brewing industry, striking at the heart of the icon displayed on every single bottle of their competitors’ brew? Could this light-hearted banter in a radio spot in fact be a shot across Sleeman’s bow? Both Moosehead and Sleeman boast “roots” that go back to the early days of this nation, and it seems somehow probable that the similarity between their icons and national coinage is not a co-incidence.

In the wild, a Moose is clearly bigger than a Beaver. If the fine folks at Moosehead did intellectualize this campaign down to the point of quietly hinting at their superiority to Sleeman, then huge kudos to the team - what a great way to rattle the consumer confidence of those who patronize the direct competition.

Lazy Marketers – How can anyone build a sustainable brand if consumer stress is the result of your brand promise?

2009-12-18T12:12:00.000-08:00

Tyler Durden said it best: “Advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don't need.”

The New Economics Foundation is a think tank based in the UK who recently published a spectacular document that calculates the “real value to society of different professions” (http://www.neweconomics.org/publications/bit-rich).

Their calculations estimate the share of social and environmental damage caused by overconsumption that is attributable to advertising, and advertising executives rank spectacularly low in their research in terms of their net benefit to society. The math suggests that a daycare worker generates at least £7 of societal benefit for every £1 they are paid, while an advertising executive destroys £11 of value for every pound they are paid. It goes without saying that ad execs earn much more than daycare workers.

The suggestion is that advertising “encourages high consumer spending and indebtedness. It can create insatiable aspirations, fuelling feelings of dissatisfaction, inadequacy and stress.” This study quantifies what we all suspect – advertising may be a necessary evil if we want to be entertained with “free” radio and television, but at its foundation the job of advertising is to keep us “chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy shit we don’t need.” By igniting consumer stress, advertisers are in fact generating negative value.

I run a marketing agency, so I guess that makes me an “ad exec” of sorts. I do keep my clients branding efforts as “human” as the brand will allow (that’s the “Sociable” element of the company name), but the fact is that I am working to sell more “units” of whatever my client is “selling”. This New Economics Foundation paper has me thinking about my prospective client base, but also about marketing strategy. Is all marketing and advertising evil?

In difficult economic times, people need to cut back and purchase only essential items. Cars and clothes are necessary, but perhaps the designer labels can be cut back? Perhaps it makes sense to buy a used car instead of new? Nobody will put these thoughts on a billboard, but we all know it makes sense – and when was the last time you felt remorseful for a smart decision?

If someone buys something they don’t really need they will likely feel an eventual degree of buyer’s remorse. I therefore have to wonder - how the hell anyone can build a sustainable brand or product line in the long-term if consumer remorse, pain and stress are built into the brand promise?

I don’t question The New Economics Foundations’ results, but I do believe these results are driven by lazy marketing and lazy marketers. Before a business fabricates an illusion to support sales, how about developing an understanding of how the product can provide real, quantifiable value in the lives of your consumers? Instead of scaring your customers into a purchase decision, how about revealing a genuine significance? You may not sell as many units this quarter, but your business may still be here in twenty years. It is a big world, and consumer needs are as diverse as its population. Unless your business goal is to dump a load of consumer crap on the world and pack your business in next year, you need to get past the greed of generating immediate cash flow, and generate real value to a targeted consumer.

Otherwise, in the words of Tyler Durden, your customers will be thinking…. “we're slowly learning that fact. And we're very, very pissed off.” A twenty-year-plus return will almost definitely be greater than a one-year fast burn – and you may even generate some incremental societal value along the way.

“Free Social Media Seminar in Guelph” - When Value and Education are ignited by a Buzzword

2009-10-28T18:16:00.000-07:00

The Guelph Chamber of Commerce recently ran a survey of community small business owners to gain a sense of interest for a proposed all-day information-exchange event to be titled "Guelph Leadership in Information Technology and the New Economy".

The key insight I had in reviewing desired breakout session topics was that almost every respondent requested a session on either Search Engine Optimization, or on leveraging social media. Business people want to know more about social media, and they want more traffic to their websites – but the structure and process to accomplish this remains (perhaps understandably) mysterious.

So, when I partnered with Cam Guthrie of HJM Insurance to present a free seminar on “Marketing with Social Media” as a value-add to his clients, we had strong hopes for a big turnout. And, as it turns out, the initial response has been so strong that we’ve had to change venues from the HJM Insurance boardroom (capacity 40) to the Lakeside Church (7654 Conservation Road in Guelph, Ontario), which holds well over 250 people (the seminar runs from 7:00pm-8:30pm if you are interested – everyone is welcome).

I’m not suggesting that we’ll get 250 bodies in the door, but I am intrigued by the power of a buzzword: “social media” is what everyone is talking about, but few have a sense of how to leverage it for business applications.

The key message that I hope people will take away from the seminar is to not get worried or scared by “social media”. In fact, it is entirely likely that many small- to mid-sized businesses in Guelph would not gain much benefit from social media engagement – at least not unless they really dive in. The fact remains however that people are concerned that they are somehow missing out on something big - and they are pretty motivated to learn more… which brings me to the other thing that intrigues me here: the common desire for education.

The very nature of social media is that it is people interacting with other people. A seminar (or a classroom) is just an internet forum staged live – people exchanging ideas with other people in real time. If you tack the word “free” onto a buzzword that generates motivation and mix it into a public, interactive forum, you draw a crowd quickly.

What is my point? This is all about nurturing dialogue between people – the best marketing efforts are about establishing and nurturing human relationships – without that, you have nothing. That is why this seminar is “free” (and there will be more to come). Cam Guthrie and I both believe that the best “business model” is to be honest, transparent, and informative…

“Sociable”, I guess you could say….

Communications Strategy: Get the basics right before going social.

2009-09-15T08:36:00.000-07:00

Why would anyone consider social media for business without a clearly defined communications strategy? People are scrambling just to keep up with day-to-day stuff, let alone making the time to nail down the fundamentals of strategic communications planning, which leads me to ask the same question of media or public relations engagement too – why consider anything without a clearly defined communications strategy? And yet, with an existing palette of misguided non-strategic marketing approaches that shift with each fiscal year (or with each revolving-door Marketing Manager), so many businesses now believe they must get into social media too.

If this sounds familiar, first ask what your company’s communications goals are. Who are you trying to reach? Why? Do you have your goals written in a formal document that has been viewed and approved by all stakeholders? If not, go and do that. If yes, then ask how social media engagement will align with those goals. Why do it? Who are you speaking to? What are you going to say? Do you have anything relevant or compelling that will spark and sustain a dialogue? If yes to all of these, then write a plan. Then write a policy. Then do it, and keep on doing it because nothing looks worse than a corporate blog or twitter account with two postings. This isn’t a quarterly campaign – you basically just posted a new hotline to the company decision makers – you’d better answer the phone over the long-term.

Social media is just another tool in the marketer’s box, but it can deliver some communications opportunities to a business that other media and PR vehicles can’t. However, social media is fundamentally just a messaging distribution mechanism – though with the opportunity for consumer reciprocity. Do you publish a newsletter? E-mail blasts? If so, you should create a blog too and repost the information – the text has already been created for the newsletter. Not everyone will see your newsletter, and not everyone will see your blog – but it’s one more way to reach out. Face it, not many people heard your radio ad either – you need to take advantage of every possible communications vehicle. The blogged newsletter will also allows a mediated opportunity for people to comment on your “newsletter” postings – think of it as letters to the editor, but you are the editor. And if you care to listen, you may find that you gain significant consumer insights.

If you don’t want your business or brand to be conversational, then don’t consider social media – but if you see value in customer loyalty, extending your messaging reach, and enhancing your brand’s personality, then you may want to consider it.

However, if after reading this you are still unsure about your communications strategy, then do your company a favour: set a chunk of time aside, ensure that all relevant stakeholders on your team join you, and get to the core of your brand’s essence. Ensure that everyone turns off email, Facebook and Twitter accounts and Blackberries. Reach consensus on a brand strategy. Then write a marketing & communications strategic plan. Then ask which communications vehicles will most efficiently deliver your integrated brand message. Then do it. You will likely be surprised at how much money you wasted in earlier plans – but you may at least stop the bleeding now. You will also be surprised to find that your brand health will improve measurably. Basic stuff, but who has time to focus on the fundamentals these days?

Advertising in the Fifties - 'Mad Men' Ain't just Blowin' Smoke

2009-08-24T10:48:00.000-07:00

Did advertisers in the Fifties even think about consumer demographics? This ad proves they did not – I mean, The Flintstones was a kid’s cartoon, wasn’t it?

Are kids supposed to care that “Winston tastes good like a cigarette should”? You can picture the scene in ‘Mad Men’ (or on 50s Madison Avenue in reality) – the advertising weasels barking “kids are as good a customer as any! At worst, we’ll put it in their head that Winston is the way to go! At best, we get ‘em smoking Winston right now. Pack a day!!”

Of course, Camel Cigarettes had a cartoon as its mascot (remember “Joe Camel”?). Camel Cigarettes also went one better than Winston in the 50s, discounting the pesky health concerns of smoking with the tagline “More Doctors smoke Camel than any other cigarette”.

Awesome. And, as far as functional benefits, they go right to telling us “how good-tasting and mild a cigarette can be”. Even Barney Rubble gets into the features and benefits of Winston saying that “Winston’s got that flavour blend that makes the big flavour distance, up-front where it counts.” I guess the filter (what’s in back) was the hurdle to get around in those days... they probably hadn’t yet figured out how to get fibreglass tasty. That, and the health concerns….

Awesome. And to think – you can’t even name a Canadian arts or music festival after du Maurier anymore. You can’t even get into a website for Winston cigarettes today without a rather involved login process requiring third-party age verification (https://winston.tobaccopleasure.com/modules/security/Login.aspx?brand=WIN). Googling “Winston cigarettes” doesn’t even lead you to any specific corporate messaging at all until you are dozens of results into the list.

Of course, this isn’t a bad thing for the general public, but it does open some interesting challenges to advertising edgy (or deadly) products. So what’s a poor advertiser to do when their product is addictive and deadly? That’s right! Black Market! It surely isn’t a coincidence that heroin and cocaine are two of the leading revenue-generating consumer products in North America, is it? Prohibition did wonders for alcohol manufacturers in the Thirties, didn’t it? I suspect that with widespread consolidation in their industry, tobacco manufacturers are likely thrilled to save the advertising spend (Winston and Camel are now both owned by R.J. Reynolds) and put it right back to the bottom line. They still have plenty of consumers, regardless of no media messaging.

And the ‘Madison Avenue’ geniuses? What are they left to do without those lucrative contracts? C’mon…. have you seen mainstream beer advertising lately? If only they could get away with Dora the Explorer in a bikini pounding a six-pack of Schlitz while Boots the Monkey holds the beer bong, they’d be all over it. It’s only an inch away from sodapop, isn’t it?

Social Media is the NEW PUNK ROCK!

2009-07-07T10:52:00.000-07:00

Yeah, this one speaks to me in a BIG way. A video by Engage ORM, an Australian agency - defining the spirit of punk DIY as the missing link to social media communication and messaging distribution networks that run parallel to the mainstream (if not completely counter to the mainstream). The key is that the spirit of social media, like the sprit of DIY punk, is about reaching out to an audience with compelling, relevant, timely messaging.... and #%*% you if you don't like it! Fantastic analogy.

Ad Agencies and Social Media

2009-07-07T06:52:00.000-07:00

Yesterday's Advertising Age article (http://adage.com/agencynews/article?article_id=137724) seems to confirm my recent suspicion that many marketing/advertising/creative agencies simply don't "get" how a social media plan will work alongside a traditional marketing/media/public relations plan. I don't think this is too great a problem right now for most agencies, since most clients' marketing plans follow a fiscal year budget plan, but when the fiscal years run out, a lot of agencies are going to be srambling to meet or address new client demands for a social media component in their marketing strategy. As the article states, it's not surprising that digital agencies currently have the edge over traditional agencies, but I am surprised that the old guard isn't falling all over themselves to get educated immediately. Third-party agency engagement, anyone? Easier than learning (or hiring)..... which suits me fine if they want to hire me to manage this element, but if it were me, I'd prefer to keep this competency (and my clients' work) in-house.

I have recently taken great interest in following tweets with searchable, identifiable corporate names - it's kind of my new hobby, and I am always surprised at how often a consumer with hundreds of followers will post a "complaint" that goes fully unanswered by the corporation (to say nothing of answering brand-supportive tweets). This is where public relations can intersect with marketing messaging, and it is fairly simple to manage - with the right tools and skill-sets. I wonder if these corporate managers have considered the idea that this is akin to a DJ slamming their brand over the microphone through a mega-wattt PA in a crowded nightclub, with 800 clubgoers listening - "don't drink the crappy martinis - the Gin 'n' Tonics are waaay better" - except that in the case of a Tweet, the "brand owner" has the opportunity to reply. To my thinking, no reply equates acceptance of the comment as is - throwing in the proverbial towel. At worst, it shows that the company simply doesn't care about consumer views.

But hey, they are still racking up GRPs with the latest billboard and online campaign!! Great reach and frequency with a targeted demographic!! Great work!! "We're a 'Build Phase' brand - to hell with Grass Roots!" And yet, people (corporations and the agencies they hire) are wondering why brand equity continues to erode.... yikes.

The “Make It Seven” Soundtrack

2009-06-12T08:23:00.000-07:00

At the start of this week, I posted a song/video to YouTube as a bit of an experiment. The song was written with a band I play with called The GMOs. I often joke that some guys play “beer league hockey”, while The GMOs are a “beer league band”. We wrote the song on Thursday night in support of the “Make It Seven” campaign (www.makeitseven.ca) that is working to bring a seventh NHL franchise to Canada. I recorded the song in my basement studio on Monday morning, and posted a PowerPoint slideshow video to YouTube later that afternoon. By Tuesday afternoon, it seemed to be everywhere.

I must admit that I saw this song/video as a potential experiment in content distribution via social media. The message is extremely relevant to many, and the launch was very timely since a major court decision was scheduled for Tuesday to determine the fate of the campaign. My theory with social media (or any media, for that matter) is that relevancy of the message is critical – without a strong and relevant story, nobody will engage the communication, let alone internalize it.

The “Make It Seven” experiment proved to be far more successful than I ever could have anticipated. The song/video was posted directly to the official “Make It Seven” website (www.makeitseven.ca) and the “Make It Seven” Facebook fan site on Tuesday morning (as opposed to posting a YouTube link). Communication blasts immediately went out to all site members (155,000 at makeitseven.ca, and 23,000 on Facebook). While these sites surely received the bulk of views, YouTube continued to click past 10,000 views by Friday morning as the various video links were tweeted and re-tweeted dozens of times, and the song was discussed in numerous sports blogs. By Wednesday it was being called the “official campaign song”.

However, what I find really interesting is the fact that the message carried over to conventional media as well. There have been at least three print stories specifically about the song with more to come – we are only four days out from the posting, after all. The band members were also involved with four radio interviews, and the video, rough as it is, was even played on television news programs. And the biggest kicker – the band is now booked to perform at a downtown Hamilton “Bring NHL to Hamilton” rally on Friday, June 19th, which is planned to be “National Make It Seven Day” across the country. The crowd is expected to reach well over 5000 people. I definitely didn’t see that one coming.

I expected that the reach of this song would be limited to friends of friends who are hockey fans – and that alone would have been “successful” in my mind in terms of shared relevant content. I think the song it alright, and the audio recording stands up well, but the video is extremely amateurish. The fact that this has gone far, far beyond friends of friends suggests that its amateurishness may in fact be its appeal in this context. At the very least, this message hit the right note at the right time, and brought a little more focus and discussion to the core “Make It Seven” campaign. It is just one small piece of the overall picture, but it seems to provide a “soundtrack” to the effort, and music can strike emotional chords that many other communications don’t always hit.

At the end of the day, a strong message and a strong story will transcend any one medium. The immediacy of social media as a medium for message distribution is critical, but like ripples in a pond, the dropped pebble of social media can have a distant reach if the waters are clear. I don’t think this story is finished yet….

The Lorax - Environmental Awareness supports Sustainable Business Practises

2009-06-02T07:36:00.000-07:00

Dr. Seuss's classic story "The Lorax" is a well-known treatise on the effects of negative industrial environmental practises, and has inspired many excellent initiatives http://lorax.conservation.org/, http://www.loraxsociety.com/.

As I read "The Lorax" to my daughter last night (re-printed with recycled paper and vegetable inks of course), it hit me like a Super-Axe-Hacker that the subtext in the great Doctor's tale could be about sustainable business practises. As the Once-ler killed off the Truffula trees, he ravaged the local environment - perhaps irreparably (though that remains to be seen.... was there ever a sequel?).

However, as you may remember, the story ends with the promise that the Truffula trees can be re-established, if only the boy takes the last Truffula seed and cultivates a new forest.

"Plant a new Truffula. Treat it with care.

Give it clean water. And feed it fresh air.

Grow a forest. Protect it from axes that hack.

The suggestion is that the forest will live again, the animals will return, and everything will be fine again (which begs the question of why the hell the Once-ler didn't do the same thing years ago).

The sub-text that interests me is the fact that the Once-ler grew his "thneed" business at a rampant, unsustainable rate. The business depended entirely on the wild Truffula trees. He didn't diversify, investigate sustainable business growth strategies, nor did he investigate alternate production materials. He didn't even think to replant what he hacked down. He kept growing his business (under the burden of high debt, no doubt), until the primary component of thneed production was exhausted. He had no fallback - which killed the business (to say nothing of the forest and the environment).

The Once-ler wasn't just a bad person and a bad environmentalist - he was a horrible business person too. This is the part of the story that really interests me - and there are plenty of real-world examples of this kind of shoddy business practice (most of pre-Glastnost Soviet Union comes to mind...).

The Once-ler was a slave to immediate consumer demand, but he had no long-term vision, no strategic plan, and no apparent marketing plan. Crazy stuff. The story doesn't even mention the competitive textile magnate that likely planted a Truffula forest in China to fill the gap in thneed production when the Once-ler's business crashed... but I digress.

I love apparently simple parables like these. There can be so many layers - and so many lessons.

The Evolution of Social Networking

2009-05-27T15:23:00.000-07:00

This is a great video posted by Carl Anderson, pointing out the evolution of communication media, and the essential two-way nature of modern social networking/social media. Carl's quote: "Teaching students how to use the internet without letting them publish, blog, tweet, etc. is like teaching them how to read without allowing them to write." It's a bit lengthy, but it is a great presentation - take the time to watch.

Social Media 101

2009-05-23T18:16:00.000-07:00

I have had a fair amount of success with explaining the value of "Social Media" in person... here is my Web 2.o 101 online version. Please note that there is an audio file here alongside the video, so turn up your speakers!

Embedding Audio in Your Blog

2009-05-06T08:25:00.000-07:00

Just press "play" on the little arrrow above. However, if you are sitting somewhere where you can't listen to the audio.......

As simple as it is to embed video onto a blog, I was having a heck of a time over the past few months finding a reliable way to embed audio – just straight, MP3 audio. I actually wanted audio feeds for my other blog, robmcleanmusic.blogspot.com, but it occurred to me there might be uses for it here too. I was getting ready to just post audio onto youtube with a static image in the background, until I discovered a blog by Jane Nicholls in New Zealand with this helpful tip.

It’s all pretty simple – you just go to edublogs.tv, and set yourself up with a free account. The site seems to be pretty similar to youtube, though it is dedicated to educational uses, and more importantly, you can post audio files. It only takes MP3s, but that’s not a big deal.

Once you have uploaded your file, you post it to your account, and voila – an embed code is provided. You just past that into the “edit HTML” box on your new blog posting, and you are off to the sonic races.

One note important though…. The audio feed is set up to start automatically when a visitor arrives at your website – you can imagine this would get annoying if you have multiple audio files on the same page. There if a solution though…. When you have pasted the embed code into your “edit HTML” box, you will see something in the code itself that says "autostart=yes". You simply need change the "yes" to "no", and autostart is disabled, and the audio will play only when a viewer clicks on the play button.

Enjoy!

Advertiser vs. Consumer Pt. 2

2009-05-06T05:00:00.000-07:00

I love these guys.... I have been in that meeting before. Always alarming.

Static Business Websites – The Irrelevant Sales Brochure

2009-05-04T12:03:00.000-07:00

As a means of mass communication, the internet was the greatest technological revolution since the rise of television. Websites are now an essential communications medium for all levels of business – as elemental as a business card. Unfortunately, like business cards, they are often viewed only a few times by any one potential customer. At best, they may be bookmarked, but are rarely seen thereafter. If website information remains as static and unchanging as a sales brochure, a newspaper flyer, or a business card, then there is no motivation for repeated site visits. A significant business investment becomes a one-off consumer messaging tool – and an enormous opportunity lost.

Television and radio are effective advertising mediums because they attract repeated use with interesting, compelling, and relevant content, which is framed by brand messages – advertising. Without constantly-refreshed content, there would be little reason for repeated consumer engagement, and no consequent platform for advertising. It is curious that few websites provide routinely updated content to keep people coming back again. The adage “Content is King” doesn’t acknowledge the fact that a great message delivered once does not always stick. Content must deliver the right message, but repetition of the core message is essential too.

Social Media applications such as well-managed blogs and twitter feeds allow individuals and businesses the opportunity to regularly update web content, encouraging ongoing, repeated website viewings in a manner that is relatively simple and cost-effective. This opportunity for core message repetition is particularly efficient when it leveraged as part of an overall united marketing and media strategy.

Social media applications also allow a heightened opportunity for search engine optimization that may drive greater traffic to a business website. When greater traffic and recurring visits to a business website are encouraged, two things are accomplished. First, the static “branded content” of the website will enjoy repeated viewings over time, offering repetition and reaffirmation of the formal brand message. Second, anyone who revisits a site for the sake of gaining relevant, timely brand information will likely be susceptible to emotional engagement with that brand. As an individual spends more time with the brand and its message, it is more likely that the message will gain relevancy and acceptance in that consumer’s mind. They will be more likely to trust it, purchase it, and share the experience with their social networks, online or otherwise.

Many are predicting “the death of advertising”, or even “the death of print” as social media applications earn greater acceptance. Neither will die, but they will necessarily evolve. Television did not kill radio, nor did the internet kill television - each new medium was leveraged alongside the old as one of many expanding communications options. Social media must be similarly leveraged alongside conventional advertising mediums (including static websites) in order to keep your business abreast of evolving media communications trends.
Social media is no technical revolution, but it does demand strategic evolution when applied to your marketing mix. It has a place in the communications strategy of every business that chooses to engage any level of internet marketing, and can bridge opportunities in marketing, public relations, and even market research. A static internet business presence is just advertising, and advertising alone is rarely interesting or relevant - but when paired with appropriate, conversational and informative content, its relevancy and effectiveness compound exponentially.

Shake it Like a Sociable Polaroid

2009-04-21T17:09:00.000-07:00

I am fascinated by the fact that a Canadian group of investors paid US$87.6 Million for Polaroid - even though the company was bankrupt, and holds few (if any) tangible assets, other than the Polaroid brand name.

Kenny Finkelstein, CEO of Kinght's Bridge, the purchaser, says "the Polaroid name is one of the most iconic brand names and has almost 100% global awareness." I agree, and if they plan to spin the Polaroid name off into a variety of consumer products (as they apparently plan to do), I would take notice of the new product lines. A desktop printer with the Polaroid name, for example, would offer a significant level of consumer relevance, and promises a fun spin standing against the staid printer brands that currently exist. A home 4x6 photo printer, of course, would also be great, to say nothing of digital cameras - particularly when matched with the aforementioned photo printer. I could even see office products (everything from printer paper to mouse pads to laptops) as branded options.

My one concern is this: who among us under the age of 35 sees any relevance whatsoever in the Polaroid name? As I am pushing 40, I feel that I am still on the edge of the Polaroid brand-awareness bubble. I had a Polaroid camera in the late-90s, but it was retro-chic even then, and the photos were certainly nothing more than curiosities. It was great for candid shots at parties, but you weren't going to take any panoramic vista photos.

I am pulling for these guys - I agree that the Polaroid Brand is hugely iconic, if only to an older demographic - but hey, that demo alone could make these guys rich, if they get a good-quality product line, and if they approach this opportunity in a way that resonates with the "retro-chic" vibe of the Polaroid brand. They can't lose a sense of fun though - that will be critical. Polaroid cameras were simply fun in a box - a means to capture your sociable moments, and shaking out the candid shots was an essential part of the process. If the brand stops being fun, then the brand will die.

That would be a hell of a waste of US$87.6 Million bucks - but at the same time, it could be a bargain price for a very cool Brand name. I think they should launch a Polaroid digital camera and call it the "Polaroid Sociable". Any takers?

Being Sociable Loses Meaning Online

2009-03-10T15:25:00.000-07:00

Interesting thoughts... I like where Hawkins goes here. I also believe that the value of social media connections is in what you do with them - how you choose to reach out to engage the connection. Otherwise, it's just clutter in an already-busy day. I'm also liking the idea of Facebook as the Past, and Twitter as the Future - that's how I feel too, and I think that maintaining that viewpoint is the best way to get the most out of both. At the end of the day, Social Media may be best engaged as just a step towards true "Sociability" - human interaction is still the endgame.

The following article was originally posted by Will Hawkins at: http://arryawke.wordpress.com/2009/03/10/being-sociable-loses-meaning-online/

Relationships are made face to face

Is it just me? Social networking is all the rage but it is so shallow. Don’t get me wrong. It’s terrific for finding information and making connections with interesting people. But most relationships are transitory within these tools. I expect I have made more connections and had more chats people through Twitter since 1st January this year than my ancestors had in their lives.

I just get to the point when my head is frying with the amount of information (or tweets) that I have to sift through that I want to reach for the brilliantly titled book ‘Taming the Information Tsunami‘ by Bill Bruck to cool it down. And I have learnt that I am not being rude when I ‘unfollow’ people so that I can get my life back under control and keep the guilt in check for not reading all those damn tweets.

I have noticed that whenever I join up to a social networking tool or site such as the business networking site, ecademy.com, I get a small wave of people sending a message saying something like “Hi, I’m Greg. Let me know how I can help you“. What? Are you mad or just socially inept? I have seen this today on Twitter too. “Let me know what I can do to make your day!” You can get real for a start!

I’m afraid that’s a big turn off for me when someone gushes how they want to make my life extra-super-special. It feels like the unwanted attentions of someone who fancied you at school but from whom you could not run away fast enough.

But, I am hooked by the usefulness of all the tools such as FaceBook and Twitter. FaceBook helps me keep up with my past and Twitter helps me keep up with my future. I have been in touch with some terrific old friends and workmates through FaceBook. And with Twitter, I have managed to learn vital lessons in connecting with people with shared interests, and even experience contributing to a radio programme.

For instance, the highly skilled radio presenter (William Wright at BBC Radio Lincolnshire) reminded me, unwittingly, of something very important last night on his show. Technology is poor at helping to make meaningful bonds with other people.

At the end of the section to which I had contributed, William took his headphones off, looked me in the eye and said thank you. He then asked me if I had done any radio work like this before , to which I said that I hadn’t. He then suggested that if it was easier for me, we could speak over the phone or through the internet next time rather than come into the studio.

But, the reality is that I got to know about William through Twitter. And I got to know William by sitting in his studio with him. And that is human. Connections can be made now through the internet and relationships are made face to face.

- Will Hawkins

Social Media Revelations

2009-03-05T13:40:00.000-08:00

I had two interesting discussions today about social media with "non-users". I must admit, before I dug a bit deeper into social media opportunities, I didn't get it either - the common suggestions were along the lines of "if I have Facebook, then why do I need Twitter?" Or, "I don't need LinkedIn - I'm already have a MySpace page, and it hasn't changed in months".

Well, Facebook is nice 'n' all, but at the end of the day, it is populated with people I already know, and who know me. It is handy for drumming up new business among friends and ex-colleagues, for example, but the more advanced social media sites (as well as tweets and blogs) are chasing me down now (which is the "social" point of media, of course). LinkedIn and Twitter, when used well, open up a whole new world of opportunities, ideas, and innovative people with common thoughts and goals. With this comes ample opportunity for new business, as well as the opportunity to make existing business better and more effiecient with the most cutting-edge ideas and tools.

Using Tweeter as a search engine, and using LinkedIn as a huge resource for information are but two ways to sift through the clutter to get to useful information quickly - it's a big ol' WWW out there - it's nice to have much better help than a Google search.

I imagine that the most common thought among "non-users" is that they "don't have enough time" to engage social media. Funny thing - I don't think I can afford not to make the time for it. How about you?

Scalable Intimacy

2009-03-04T10:45:00.000-08:00

This is a great piece posted by Mike Troiano, discussing the importance of developing a relationship between a brand and a consumer set. I particularly appreciate the illustration of how ineffective conventional media advertising can be - it has always bugged me that "reach" and "frequency" were placed ahead of actual, quantifiable motivation to purchase. To my mind, the end result of any consumer contact is the important point (either purchase or brand engagement) - the emotional resonance and relevance that is triggered by your brand is the important thing.

Scalable Intimacy

View more presentations from Michael Troiano. (tags: branding media)

Skittles: taste the social media rainbow

2009-03-03T06:11:00.000-08:00

Have you heard what Skittles is up to? They've abandoned the traditional corporate website for a small toolbar that relies entirely on what's in the public domain. Want to know about their flavours? Click on the link and it takes you to a Wikipedia article about skittles. Want to watch their media? The link takes you to YouTube for both skittles- and user-generated videos. Curious to know what people are saying about Skittles? It directs you to Twitter for realtime updates where you can monitor everything anyone tweets about regarding skittles.

It's a brave move for a major brand to make, because it relies entirely on what's in the public domain. They're relying on user-generated content about their brand. Marketers are quickly realizing that it's difficult to control the message when it comes to social media. They're finding new ways to join the conversation, and learn more about their demographic along the way. How sociable...

Here's how your relationship with consumers may be changing

2009-02-19T08:05:00.000-08:00

A Sociable Brand

2009-02-12T17:02:00.000-08:00

I've been playing around with the idea of a brand as a "sociable" entity - and I believe that effective brand communication must be fundamentally 'sociable'. If a consumer doesn't feel engaged with a brand in a way that pleases them, they won't want to pursue a relationship with that brand.

It sounds a bit strange, but the fact is that if you meet someone who weirds you out, you will actively find ways to get yourself out of the situation. But, if you meet someone who interests you, you may actually go out of your way to discover more about them.

Think of this as it relates to consumer products: if something about a product weirds you out, you certainly won't buy it - but if something genuinely intrigues you, you may pick it up, you may read the label, and you may indeed take it home and "begin a relationship" with that product or brand. This is the fundamental nature of commercialism - and it is human nature to repeatedly choose products that are relevant to you.

Is this a bad thing? Of course it isn't - because you want to surround yourself with products and necessities that you feel good about, and which make you feel good in turn. If a product or service makes you feel genuinely (and justifiably) good about your day, your week, your life, or this moment, then that is a very great thing, isn't it?

It is the job of Sociable Communications to assist consumer goods and services to become as recognizable and relevant as possible within the local community that they hope to serve.

So, welcome to Sociable Communications - a community-focused communications and marketing company for local business, at http://www.sociablecommunications.com/.

ROB offers advice for small businesses

2009-01-19T07:54:00.000-08:00

In our previous life we had the pleasure of doing some business with venues in Toronto's historic Distillery District and we wish them well in this economic uncertainty.

But even if your business isn't targetting high end clientele that the Distillery District attracts, read on in this article from the Globe's Report on Business to hear some sage advice about small business survival - and benefits - when times are tight.

Learning to tweet

2009-01-15T11:01:00.000-08:00

We're embarking on expanding our knowledge of the wide world of social media. A little behind the times perhaps, but among our social and professional circles we're savvy to the extreme. Time to expand the social network, you say? We agree. The slightest tweet has our friends saying "yes, I agree - Spring can't come fast enough." They're still finding their way around Facebook while we're mastering Twitter. It's not much, but we'll get there.

Okay, so we're not leading the pack. But we're doing what we can to watch the leaders and take in the possibilities of this wide, exciting world of what blogs, microblogs and social news sites are doing to change the landscape of the public conscioussness. There are exciting opportunities to have real discussion about issues that matter. If they're smart, marketers and communicators will see what's coming and jump on the bandwagon to join - not control - the discussion, and work as part of a community to meet common goals.