Hasta La Creative!

In today’s digital age, the traditional categories of b-to-b and b-to-c marketing are converging, and frankly, it’s about time. I’ve always believed that making a distinction between the two is irrelevant, but Keith Navratil’s recent column has made it clear that the industry continues to insist on categorizing marketing to businesses and individual consumers as two entirely separate strategies. I’m calling B.S.

All companies face the same challenge: standing for one cohesive idea and tailoring its messaging to a network of audiences, including professionals and consumers. While Keith gets it right that business decision-makers have emotions, he fails to acknowledge that all brands need to appeal to an entire ecosystem of decision-makers — implying that brands like CVS and L’Oreal are strictly consumer, while FedEx and SAP are b-to-b brands.

Marketers should worry less about fleshing out distinct b-to-b and b-to-c strategies and more about thinking creatively about reaching every human who has a potential to touch a brand. To be successful like Apple and GE, which have erased the distinction, companies must ask themselves the following questions:

Continue reading at AdAge.com

Minneapolis-based agency Martin Williams recently completed a rebranding effort for Mall of America, the nation’s largest retail complex in Bloomington, Minnesota.

“Mall of America is in the process of expanding and rebranding itself to reflect its vast and unique experience,” explained Tom Moudry, CEO and chief creative officer, Martin Williams. “We’re really excited to have been chosen to be part of this effort.”

The new television campaign focuses on the excitement possible from the array of experiences found at Mall of America, crafting two separate “best day ever” type narratives from the perspectives of visitors, while avoiding the use of the word “mall” — which we’re guessing is a key component of the rebranding campaign. Both spots are created to show a dizzying whirlwind of different experiences at Mall of America, with a short-attention span let’s cram everything in series of events that’s exhausting just to watch. The narrator has to talk really fast to even keep up. “A tiring day spending hundreds of dollars (at least) at Mall of America could get you laid” seems to be the message behind “Couple,” which ends with the line, “Who needs date night when there’s date day?” Okay, so that may be reducing things a bit, but there’s definitely the suggestion that a day at the mall cramming in countless shopping and dining experiences can spark some romance. Positioning a mall as romantic is a hard sell, to say the least, but Martin Williams does a passable job with that premise.

“Girls” meanwhile, shows Mall of America as the perfect place for a girls day out, which makes a bit more sense, although the execution comes off as a bit stereotypical. What do girls do at the mall? Get a crush on a bag; try on jeans, jeans, jeans; find some guys, ditch some guys; eat something and don’t remember what it’s called. (At times things get a bit insulting.) At least they ride the rollercoaster a couple of times for good measure. Both of the 30-second spots end with the “Always new” tagline, emphasizing the ever-evolving nature of the 4.2 million square-feet complex housing over 520 stores. Check out “Girls” below and stick around for some behind-the-scenes footage, along with credits, after the jump.
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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Burger King is officially conducting a global ad review after performing a bit of a two-step in recent months.

On splitting with Crispin Porter & Bogusky in 2011, the company moved on from its infamous “king” spots to work with CHI & Partners in the UK and Mother New York in the US. Earlier this year, company leaders hinted at changes in the UK after beginning and then cancelling an agency review; global now seems to be the answer.

Where will the brand go? CHI & Partners’ “We wish Burger King well as they make more global marketing arrangements” statement doesn’t sound particularly confident.

We will note, based on this recent New Zealand campaign from Colenso BBDO, that BK has not lost its desire to be weird.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Voici une compilation par Spoon & Tamago des meilleures photographies de fleurs de cerisiers qui ont été faites en 2014, par différents photographes japonais ou qui ont voyagé dans le pays du cerisier. Les photos de ces beaux arbres blancs et roses très inspirants sont à découvrir dans la suite.

By Yuga Kurita.

By Sue Hsu.

By Yukatan.

By Akio Iwanaga.

By Masato Mukoyama.

By Nobuhiro Suhara.

By Noisy Paradise.

By Saori.

By Onotch.

By Poojartiwari.

By Torne.

By Zhangning.

By Tomosang.

By Takeshi Tanaka.

By Ta3mam.

By Ryosuke Yagi.

By Hikaruno Mikoto.

By Haru Digital Photo.

By Danny Dungo.

By Kyle.

These days, most enterprise marketers use a multichannel brand awareness and business development strategy to spread the word about their company, products and services via a variety of platforms including digital ads and social media marketing. But, sadly, television still gets the lion’s share of ad spend. Isn’t it time for enterprise brand marketers to demand their TV campaigns work harder and smarter?

According to a recent Nielsen report, Internet display ad spending grew 32% in 2013, which demonstrates the growing power of the digital medium. However, Internet display advertising still makes up just 4.5% of total spending, with TV accounting for nearly 58%. And marketers have good reason to put their faith in TV advertising: A Nielsen analyst noted that TV remains the most trusted source of paid media information.

But the question remains: How do brand marketers measure the effect of their TV marketing to make their campaigns more accountable? Predictive modeling platforms can provide the answer by delivering data. The concept of “Big Data” has generated significant buzz in the business world for the past several years, and in this instance, the hype is justified: Big Data can provide unprecedented insights into how advertising drives consumer behavior.

In the past, marketers in sectors such as insurance and telecommunications put brand awareness campaigns on television with no accurate way to measure the return. But predictive modeling technology offers a more scientific and analytical approach, empowering enterprise brand marketers with accurate metrics to demonstrate exactly how campaigns are delivering responses via the web, telephone and retail locations.

With an intelligent marketing platform, enterprise brand marketers can bring all relevant media performance data together with information on fulfillment, cost center data and web analytics. This allows them to tie consumer actions back to the specific airing of direct response TV ads. By using an algorithm similar to that used by day traders, marketers that use predictive modeling technology can accurately project which specific ad slots will drive the desired consumer response.

And who wouldn’t want this Holy Grail of television advertising? A fully accountable media strategy that enables brand marketers to funnel ad spend where it drives the best response and redirect dollars that aren’t generating sufficient ROI. None of this would have been possible just a few years ago, but with predictive modeling technology [ed. which I’ve only just become aware of having attended conference like eMetrics and Predictive Analytics] , it’s not only feasible – it’s affordable. And given what’s at stake in terms of television ad spending, brand marketers would be wise to explore predictive modeling.

This contributed article was written buy was written by Jill Draper, President of Marketsmith Inc.