Zaid al Zaidy, McCann London’s chief strategy officer, said today that online video advertising has not yet reached its maturity, and brands and advertisers “are going to see video explode again” in the coming years.
(TrendHunter.com) The Slit Bike Rack includes the same features as most other hanging racks available, but allows users to fold the device inward to provide a given area with more space to work with.
The mechanism…
Over the last few years, much of the marketing world has turned to content marketing: the idea that the best way to engage with audiences and raise your visibility is to share robust, usually educational content for free. This content takes many forms – blogs, videos, podcasts, books (and particularly ebooks, given their ease of distribution), material on social media, and more. Basically, anywhere and any way that folks learn.
Recent studies have, time and time again, shown the the same thing: content marketing works. It works in large part because there’s a hunger for substance in marketing – for folks to talk to one another, teaching and sharing knowledge, rather than talking past one another with fluffy pitches. But as the research has shown, it’s not just a feel-good strategy, but a serious driver of growth. So how do you go about implementing it for your own organization?
The kernel of wisdom at the heart of content marketing strategy really applies to all communication. Try to have something to say – preferably, something that your audience will find interesting or useful. When you’re trying to figure out what to write about in your content marketing program, consider the following three points:
Utilize your unique experience
Do you have extensive experience in a particular sector of your industry? Maybe you approach your area of expertise from a niche or novel perspective, giving you the insight to report from the bleeding edge. Think of specific, relevant knowledge that you’re particularly qualified to share.
If you can deliver that knowledge with some personal flair and compelling enthusiasm, all the better. Think of some of the best professors you may have had: they probably had the gift of infectious enthusiasm for the topic of hand. Few things establish your credibility more effectively than enthusiastic, authoritative educational content.
What types of content are you particularly well-suited to produce?
This question shouldn’t limit your strategy, but it may provide some guidance in the beginning. For example, if your topic of expertise is especially hands-on or visual – and if you have the resources – you might consider producing video tutorials for Youtube. (If you don’t have the resources, you might investigate external partners who do.)
Other types of content have lower barriers to entry, along with real and measurable benefits. Take blogging. You can get an awful lot out of regular educational blog posts: not only do they share your authority, they can boost the profile of well-regarded or rising figures in your organization, all while building up a rich, dynamic base of content perfectly suited to draw the roving eye of search engines.
And that brings us to keywords
Those roving, Google-y search engine eyes? They fall on your site (or don’t) according to presence of absence of words and phrases that folks actually search for when they’re looking for answers in your area. So the more content you have, the more opportunities you have to build a beacon with your keywords, drawing the right audiences to your corner of the web. And the more success you have, the higher your search profile will grow.
Keywords can also help you guide your initial content strategy. Conducting keyword research can help you understand what your audience is searching for – and then you can create a content strategy that provides the right answers. This can reassure you that you’re not just taking a shot in the dark…and that you’re filling a real need for real people in your audience.
From content to relationship
As you fill those knowledge gaps, you build up real trust. Folks might find your site because they searched for a quick tutorial that you provided in your blog. When it turns out that your tutorial is funny, wise, and helpful (especially over time) that same visitor is going to feel more comfortable offering up their email for deeper content – a free ebook, say. When that content delivers, a visitor will be more inclined to respond to an offer for a free consultation or webinar.
And if you take away nothing else, make it that: in marketing as in life, real communication – substantive communication – is the basis for relationships. You have unique experience. Unique expertise. Write what you know, make it real and relevant, and your audience will want to know more.
This article was written by Chris Ourand, Account Director at Hinge, a marketing and branding firm that specializes in professional services. Chris can be reached at courand@hingemarketing.com or 703-391-8870.
Are you currently working on a bill stuffer for the local utility? Perhaps a flyer that will soon litter windshields in Wal-Mart parking lots across the land?
Terrific, please stop what you are doing for a minute and consider how awesome your project can be.
Jim Copacino, co-founder and executive creative director of Seattle agency Copacino+Fujikado says creatives need to forget about working for VW, Coca-Cola, Apple, Nike and other iconic brands, and focus on the now.
Too often, creative people sulk because they don’t have a smart client like Snickers, or work for a great agency like Anomaly. But they miss the point: the next great advertising idea is probably on their desks, lurking within a work order or a strategy document. It’s our job as creative people to find the magic and power that’s sitting there and unleash it—even if no one before us has figured it out.
This is great common sense advice that just might free you from yourself and the preconceived notions that hold you back.
Copacino is asking you to be a pioneer who goes places that have yet to be reached. Let’s face it, unless you are working on an iconic brand known for its brilliant advertising, NO ONE before you ever figured it out. Now, it is up to you. What are you going to do?
Make your move.
The post Take Jim Copacino’s Advice, Make Better Work Today and Everyday appeared first on AdPulp.
From co-founding Netflix to his new role as CEO of Quarterly Co., Mitch Lowe has made it his business to bring the magic back to the mailbox. Quarterly Co., for the uninitiated, is a subscription service that sends you curated packages from influential contributors. It's like receiving a personal gift from your celebrity bestie. Lowe sat down with AdFreak to talk about Quarterly's latest celebrity addition—Bill Nye, the science guy—and why you won't be able to subscribe to your favorite brand anytime soon.
AdFreak: Tell me about adding Bill Nye as a contributor.
Mitch Lowe: He's someone that so many people have grown up with. He's the kind of guy who's always imaginative, and we really loved his idea of trying to make the world a better place by science. So we were attracted to his passion and vision. He's just so creative, and in like five minutes of conversation he came up with so many interesting ideas. Some people have sort of gotten to a point in their careers where it's just sort of a job, but he's still so passionate, and he's been doing it for so long.
How do you curate your curators? Do you choose the contributors, or do the contributors choose you?
We choose them. The flavor we're looking for are people with large followings who are passionate to the point that people really want to know more about them. Huge, huge celebrities are probably too well known. People already know too much about them. But there's a level where people are just really knowledgeable about their key area so much that people want to be inspired by them. So the first criteria we look for is people with large Twitter and Facebook followings. And then we look for the category they're in and the length of relationship. Just recently we hired a person who is responsible for seeking out our kind of contributor.
Bill's packages will contain a collection of tools to change the world and raise awareness of environmental issues. Changing the world was the mission of his TV show, and he did. How do you think he'll change the world with his Quarterly packages?
I think what he'll do is change the perspective and understanding of the people who receive the boxes because he'll be giving you that tactile understanding of the science that people are talking about. From global warming to all the big environmental issues, you'll get a tactile meditation into the issues. Instead of reading an article about how global warming is affecting us, you're going to be able to understand that firsthand.
You've changed the world yourself a few times with Netflix and Redbox. Will we be able to subscribe to you soon?
I am passionate about business and about young people starting in business, but I'm just more of an execution guy than an ideas person. I'm very rarely the originator of ideas like Bill Nye.
C'mon, you're telling me you never thought about what your theme would be?
(Laughs) Probably exercise and hiking. I love the whole meditation of hiking.
Of course, contributors don't go it alone. Tell me a little about the assistants that Quarterly assigns to each contributor. What's their role?
What we believe is that the contributor should play the major role with the ideation and the creativity behind each delivery, but they really aren't a buyer or manufacturer. So we assign them a contributor talent manager to take care of all that. We find one who has a passion for that particular genre. The contributor says they have this idea and this is what they want to do next quarter, and the manager goes out and finds the items and gives the contributor options for how they could make the idea work.
Do you run into a lot of limitations for what can be selected for a box, and how do you deal with interstate commerce inconsistencies? For example, if Bill Nye wants to add a favorite wine to the box, Florida subscribers are out of luck.
I wouldn't say we're experts on this, but over time we're learning about the things that are not shippable as well as items that don't tend to go well. Like barbecue sauce doesn't go well in a glass bottle. So our CTM will say, great idea, but in the past we've had three out of 10 of those things break in shipping. And of course we don't ship alcohol, we don't ship flammable things. For Tim Ferriss's first package, he had a supplement that we discovered last minute we couldn't ship to Australia, so we had to come up with a replacement.
What's the worst shipping experience you've had so far?
There's this product. It's a foam—an aerosol can that sprays foam marshmallows. We were told that like five out of 100 exploded inside the shipping containers, spraying marshmallow everywhere. But the funny thing was, most of the people who received the packages that exploded ended up saying it was a great way to try it, because they had to clean up the product with their fingers as they went through the box.
Exploding marshmallows aside, what's the psychological effect of receiving a personalized surprise package, even one you paid for?
I think it takes people back to their childhood. When they receive a gift, it has some type of visceral positive feeling. I'm getting a gift. A present. Someone is actually sending me something. I can't explain it, but I've seen it before when I was with Netflix. We would stand outside and watch people open up their mailboxes and look for the reaction when they got a new video. And we saw this smile just spread across their face. People just love receiving boxes. It's probably because we're moving so fast into a digital world and everything is delivered digitally nowadays. There's not enough physical contact.
That's true. And so many people, particularly brands, are looking for a way to deliver that physical feeling of connection. The moment I saw the site, I thought of a million different ways that brands could use this platform. Do you envision that happening?
We thought about it, and we think there's an opportunity there, whether it's a movie or a product release. But there's a lot of other people who do that, and so we're really focused right now on delivering a personalized experience that feels like a package you received from someone you know. There has to be a connection there.
We're not there yet. We continue to try and personalize things, and sometimes we remove a category because we realize we can't make it personal enough. For example, there was a Dog Lovers Quarterly package. And the problem was, every dog owner has a different size or type of dog. So we couldn't just send one size of thing. One size collar, one size toy, one size treat. Our overall goal is to continue to personalize that package so it's fairly customizable to each person.
I'd be remiss if I didn't ask you if BarkBox had something to do with discontinuing the Dog Lovers package.
(Laughs) It's really just a point of customization. We really believe in making the experience as personalized as possible.
Speaking of the boxes, how do the individual contributors advertise them? I noticed BoingBoing's Mark Frauenfelder gives sneak peaks of his boxes. Do you give them any guidelines for how to advertise?
We all agree that you should keep it a surprise. But we do give all our contributors our best advice for reaching people through social media, so we show the best examples on Facebook and tweeting and Instagram and blogs. Most of our contributors are actually more sophisticated than we are.
Do you know how Bill Nye is planning to announce his Quarterly box to his followers?
I don't think he's going to be wearing a Quarterly T-shirt on Dancing With the Stars, but you never know.
Well, now that you've called him out, he has to!
That, I would love to see.
Want to know what Bill Nye's first, world-changing package is going to contain? You'll have to subscribe and wait just like the rest of us.
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Jeff Dodds, the chief marketing officer of Virgin Media, is to leave the cable and TV provider in early 2014, after helping the business integrate into Liberty Global.
Jeff Dodds, the chief marketing officer of Virgin Media, is to leave the cable and TV provider in early 2014, after helping the business integrate into Liberty Global.
The price comparison site Gocompare has handed its £40 million advertising account to Fold7.
Netflix is blanketing Latin American computer screens with display ads in an attempt to add users as broadband adoption grows in the region.
The company’s video-streaming service was introduced to Latin America in September 2011, and since then Netflix has become one of the region’s heaviest online advertisers. In March it published more online display ads in Brazil and Mexico — 2.7 billion and 463 million ad impressions respectively — than any other marketer, according to the ComScore Ad Metrix, effectively making it the biggest display advertiser in the region based on the relative size of those two markets.
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Social-media popularity can lead to an equivalent leap in commercial success, according to the founder of start-up sportwear company Zaggora.
This week, Draftfcb is hiring a senior strategic planner, while Mullen needs a creative director. Williams New York is seeking an art director/designer, and Situation Interactive is on the hunt for a digital media planner. Get the scoop on these openings and more below, and find additional just-posted gigs on Mediabistro.
Find more great advertising jobs on the AgencySpy job board. Looking to hire? Tap into our network of talented AgencySpy pros and post a risk-free job listing. For real-time openings and employment news, follow @MBJobPost.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Grey New York aims for the funny bone with two new spots for Ally Bank, but they mostly miss the mark.
The more humorous of the two spots, “Nothing Hidden,” (featured above) opens with a man asking an Ally representative if Ally really has no hidden fees on savings accounts. He mentions that he’s worried about “hidden things.” When the representative asks why, he flashes to a series of memories of his father attempting to hide the fact that he’s a crime boss. It’s not exactly laugh-inducing, but also not bad enough to induce frustration or anger. Or maybe I’m just in a good mood today.
The second spot, “New Ways,” tries harder and makes a lot less sense. A woman speaking to an Ally representative asks if it’s true that she can reach Ally 24 hours a day, but there are no branches. She tells the representative that she’s “really reluctant to try new things.” When the representative asks why, we get another series of flashbacks. Like I said, this one makes a lot less sense, and tries a little too hard to be zanily funny. (Why would anyone tell a robotic dog to drink water?) The spot is also less successful in that the Ally feature it talks about doesn’t tie in as well with the flashbacks. Plus, people like cats; they don’t want to see them die on TV.
Credits and cat-killing spot after the jump. continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Le photographe Lukas Farlan nous propose des clichés d’une beauté incroyable. Particulièrement doué pour immortaliser des paysages, l’artiste vivant en Italie parvient avec des séries d’images prises dans les Alpes à capter notre attention et nous faire instantanément voyager. A découvrir dans la suite.
Todo mundo já passou por isso ou, pior, já fez isso. Você encontra um amigo que não vê faz tempo, e ele quer mostrar todas as fotos “maravilhosas” e “interessantes” que estão no smartphone. Ah, e claro, tem vídeos também. Casamentos, viagens, crianças, e selfies de toda sorte.
A Orange faz humor com essa situação, promovendo o serviço 4G Cloud que promete espaço e velocidade suficientes para guardar todas as suas lembranças, deixando-as acessíveis de qualquer lugar.
Criação da Publicis Conseil.
Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Welcome to the future of marketing.
In just a few weeks, Ad Age is kicking off a series of events this fall with Ad Age’s Digital Conference at the Ritz Carlton in San Francisco on October 15th. It’s our third year bringing Ad Age Digital to SF, and we’re really excited about the lineup:
Visa’s CMO Kevin Burke will open up the day by presenting the company’s plans for a future of commerce that bridges the physical, digital and social dimentions of consumers’ lives.
Durante toda a semana está rolando o Social Media Week 2013, e hoje, quinta-feira, 26 de setembro, é dia de Braincast ao vivo. Começa às 19h, no Palco Chewbacca.
Carlos Merigo, Guga Mafra, Luiz Yassuda e Bruno Tozzini farão uma breve retrospectiva da publicidade nas mídias sociais, relembrando cases que deram certo e que deram errado desde quando nem existia Facebook e Twitter.
O Social Media Week acontece no MIS – Museu da Imagem e do Som, em São Paulo. Avenida Europa, 158. Para assistir o Braincast ao vivo, não esqueça de seinscrever no site do evento. Entrada gratuita.
Post originalmente publicado no Brainstorm #9
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Later this year, the internet will commence its biggest transformation yet with the launch of hundreds of new “dot-something” web domains. Beyond the traditional .com and .org, brand-specific and geographic domains like .google and .nyc will start popping up. While this transformation opens myriad doors for competition and innovation, some brand owners remain concerned about the risks that the new domains present.
But safeguards are in place to help CMOs protect the interests of the brands within their organizations. This is why in March the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) established the Trademark Clearinghouse, to help brand owners and their agents defend their rights during the expansion of web domains. But even with over 10,000 Trademark Clearinghouse registrations as of this month, uncertainty remains surrounding the submission process.
Big data is “such a nebulous term it is almost meaningless” and marketers should avoid getting bogged down by the amount of data at their fingertips, according to Alex Chruszcz, Asda head of insight and pricing.
Mario Martins a imaginé l’architecture de cette superbe « Villa Escarpa » située dans le village de Praia Da Luz, dans le sud du Portugal. Une demeure splendide, proposant plusieurs chambres à coucher, mais surtout une longue piscine extérieur, très appréciable compte tenu de la vue. A découvrir en images dans la suite.
Advertising Agency: Kurara, Russia
Creative Director: Ivan Sosnin
Art Director: Alex Gagarin
Director: Ivan Sosnin
Music: Oleg Yagodin
Model: Yana Shmaylova
This is site is run by Sascha Endlicher, M.A., during ungodly late night hours. Wanna know more about him? Connect via Social Media by jumping to about.me/sascha.endlicher.
