Hasta La Creative!

After nine years and two months on the ad blogging mound, it is time to hang up my cleats. If you’ve become hopelessly addicted to AdPulp content over the years, please forgive me.

In all seriousness though, thanks for helping to make this one hell of a ride. The daily writing practice has been great training for me. Writers find a way to write, and AdPulp became (and has the potential to remain) a compelling place to explore one of our culture’s more interesting, powerful and at times deeply flawed industries.

I am moving on at this time to focus intently on doing the things that I have been writing about. Given my renewed commitment to providing media as a marketing service, all my professional energies will now go into growing Bonehook, the brand publishing company I started in April 2009.

On occasion, I will continue to write feature articles on important topics in brand communications for The Content Strategist and for Bonehook.com. For the time being Shawn Hartley, Dan Goldgeier and Wade Sturdivant may add new content here.

Shawn and I are also preparing the site for a sale. If you’re interested in speaking to an audience of ad industry professionals—and don’t want to start a new site from scratch—make a five-figure offer we can’t refuse (and AdPulp may soon be yours).

Thanks for reading my ramblings over the years, and thanks for letting our mutual interest in advertising bring us together. One of the things I will clearly miss is the chance to make more friends via this site. Starting with Dan Goldgeier, AdPulp opened the doors to Bob Knorpp, Rick Myers, Bob Hoffman, John January, Charlie Quirk, Jeff Hardison, Brian Harrison, Wade Sturdivant, Tom Asacker, Vinny Warren, Court Crandall and several other fine human beings who I can now call friends. With this in mind, I consider the project a smashing success from a relationship POV, and what’s more important that that?

Lastly, I want to thank Shawn Hartley for his immense patience and his good business (and common) sense. Partnerships require work and a shared commitment, and I feel we both benefited greatly from our work together on this project.

The post Time Has Come Today appeared first on AdPulp.

New York City, sometimes I wonder why I am so far away from you.

I am invited to countless industry events in Manhattan, and have been for years, but AdPulp’s travel budget is exactly zero.

So, I do appreciate BtoB and Online Media Daily sending reporters to the Rise of Brand Journalism conference at Forbes Inc. headquarters this week. Otherwise, I would not be puzzled by this statement:

Mark Himmelsbach, COO of IPG Mediabrands Publishing, said scaling the distribution of native content often creates a paradox for marketers and agencies, because they have to pay for both the creation of content and the distribution.

“We create content and are forced to buy advertising to drive people to it,” he explained.

How is this a paradox? Only in a dream world is brand content good enough to actually pull in the desired audience on its own. In the real world, we still need push mechanisms to get the word out. Push and pull, that’s the ticket to ride.

Publishers, Agencies Say Native Ads Should Look More Like Editorial, Not Less tip @mediagazer http://t.co/FefevKgkoC

— Steve Rubel (@steverubel) October 24, 2013

According to data revealed at the conference, brand content produces a 29% boost in unaided brand recall, an 8% increase in brand favorability and a 9% jump in purchase intent.

Branded content beats display ads alone but, when combined with display, the two are particularly effective, with brand recall boosted up to 15%.

Speaking of brand journalism, Sam Slaughter, vp of content at Contently* offered up a deepening of the definition on Adweek recently.

A valuable piece of brand content doesn’t exist in a vacuum, despite what some publishers would have you believe. In fact, content is an effective medium for brands because it maps back to a broader narrative—the story a brand is telling about itself.

Which is why in my office we have a swear jar for anyone who uses the term content marketing—it insinuates that the content exists to sell you a product, when in reality great content exists to tell a story.

Great content exists to tell a story. For sure, but that story better build the brand and grow the client’s business, or it’s just more fluff. Or worse, it’s smelly brown stuff stuck to the brand’s shoe.

*Disclosure: I have a working relationship with Contently. Here’s one story I wrote for them. Here’s another. And another.

The post Brand Publishing Is The New New Content Marketing appeared first on AdPulp.

Burt’s Bees and its agency Baldwin & are having fun with Instagram and Vine (as it should be).

The company is using stop-motion animation to create uber-abbreviated versions of classic novels. In Little Women, for example, one Civil War-era lip balm woman says to another, “We really are quite little.” “And each of us women,” her sister replies.

According to Marketing Daily, these new Vines are being staged by Jethro Ames, in San Francisco. Ames needs about four hours to shoot each six-second spot, after which it must go live or be discarded. No post work is possible.

Burt’s is also rolling out an Instagram campaign, featuring the company’s reclusive founder, Burt Shavitz in backwoods Maine.

The post Burt’s Bees Hawking Its Wares on the Corner of Instagram and Vine appeared first on AdPulp.

We need to develop a pH test for brand content in social streams.

Short of this chemistry set solution, we can listen to Mike Proulx, senior vice president and director of social media at Hill Holliday. Here are some nuggets from his Ad Age spotlight on the preponderance of brand babble in social channels.

Today the hope and belief that brands would connect with people has in large part given way to brands publishing to them by hijacking social buzz.

Driven by the myopic goal of increasing engagement, many brands are unscrupulously on the hunt for likes, shares, followers and retweets without an overarching strategy based on core business objectives. This blind yearning for social currency is leading to incredibly irrelevant and unavailing branded content (a.k.a. advertising) that’s preying on social media.

Phrases like “hijacking social buzz” and “preying on social media” make me wince a bit. Social media isn’t a more precious form of media. However, when Proulx suggests “this blind yearning for social currency is leading to incredibly irrelevant and unavailing branded content (a.k.a. advertising),” I say “Amen.”

The trick with digital is the always-on nature of possibility. A brand can make light of topics in the news, in effort to seem human, relevant and available. However, the same brand can just as easily appear flat and out of touch.

Let’s look at a few samples from this morning on Twitter. If you will, please use our comments here to grade these brand-generated Tweets:

1)

You can look at where you've come from. We'd rather look to where we're going. #TryingStuff http://t.co/hJwTjAf6sR pic.twitter.com/aqyES4MrrP

— Columbia Sportswear (@Columbia1938) October 3, 2013

2)

#DidYouKnow Intel has over 200 programs in 70+ countries fostering digital literacy and #STEM? http://t.co/zwR17cUMEM

— IntelInvolved (@Intelinvolved) October 2, 2013

3)

The Beercade consists of 2 buttons and a joystick, a rustic throwback #CreateTech

— 4A's (@4As) October 3, 2013

4)

Bye bye car, hello weight set. See these home garages creatively transformed into workout studios, bedrooms & more. http://t.co/UmDnADqBPH

— Redfin (@Redfin) October 3, 2013

5)

Clay oven roasted lamb leg, spinach, grilled peppers, fennel-fatali pepper purée http://t.co/h46rOdpYk9

— Wildwood Restaurant (@wildwoodpdx) October 3, 2013

6)

It’s Name Your Car Day! What is your car’s name?

— State Farm (@StateFarm) October 2, 2013

The post Brand Babble Is Social Media Pollution appeared first on AdPulp.

Hello Barstow. This hardscrabble town in the California desert is home to Levi’s new art project on rails, for the day. Following Barstow, it’s on to LA and and then San Francisco, which will wrap up an epic cross-country journey.

According to Levi’s, Station to Station connects leading figures and underground creators from the worlds of art, music, food, literature, and film for a series of cultural interventions and site-specific happenings.

Last week when the train stopped in Minneapolis, musicians Patti Smith, Eleanor Friedberger and No Age performed. Yesterday in Winslow, Arizona, Jackson Browne, who co-wrote “Take it Easy,” was literally standing on a corner.

The train, designed as a moving, kinetic light sculpture, also broadcasts unique content to a global audience via Soundcloud. And there are lots of little films being created, like this one:

Without question, Levi’s is once again making its mark.

Watch the story unfold on Instagram.

The post Levi’s Art Happenings Go Station To Station appeared first on AdPulp.

Jonah Peretti, Founder and CEO of BuzzFeed, kindly outlined his media company’s plan for the coming year. He also opted to share the memo on LinkedIn, “so future BuzzFeed employees could read it too.”

His seventh main point in the plan concerns Advertising on BuzzFeed.

Part of being a great business, is being a ‘must buy’ for advertisers who have many options. This means giving advertisers the full advantage of our scale, our data, our creative team, our social and mobile reach, and our technology platform… In the coming years we will expand BuzzFeed University to train brands and agencies in the ‘BuzzFeed way’, we will launch a branded video studio in LA to compliment our creative team in NYC, we will grow our partnerships with Facebook and Twitter to expand buys beyond BuzzFeed, and we will develop our social homepages product to power social advertising across the web. We have the ability to solve our clients biggest challenges with a unique combination of technology, content, scale, and expertise.

CEOs do get juiced on their own talking points, I understand that. And hey, if AdPulp was raking in the BuzzFeed cash pile, I might be the one issuing talking points. Regardless, let me ask you are you prepared to attend BuzzFeed University and learn the BuzzFeed way?

Hey, I can hear you groaning from here. But ad people have been notoriously slow on the digital uptake. Given how much money this reluctance to be disrupted has cost the industry, and how dumb it makes traditional ad people look, perhaps now is the time to listen to Professor Peretti. What do you think?

The post BuzzFeed Is Making A Nourishing Meal From Its Giant Menu of Info Snacks appeared first on AdPulp.

Digital disruption is more than an annoying ping in your pocket, and it’s not all good. Take the situation facing hundreds of drive-in movie theaters around the nation–if they fail to upgrade their projection equipment to the tune of $75,000 per screen by the end of the year, they will no longer be able to show first-run films.

Clearly, this is a problem in need of a solution and I for one, am pleased to see a progressive-minded brand step-up with an innovative solution.

Project Drive-In, a newly launched national effort sponsored by Honda to save as many drive-ins as possible, is raising community awareness across the nation, and will supply at least five drive-ins with digital projectors.

“Cars and drive-in theaters go hand-in-hand, and it’s our mission to save this decades-old slice of Americana that holds such nostalgia for so many of us,” said Alicia Jones, Manager of Honda & Acura Social Marketing at American Honda Motor Co.

I’m marveling at the perfect fit here. This is precisely what a car company ought to do and Honda is doing it, with help from RPA in Santa Monica.

As part of Honda’s fundraising efforts, there will be an online auction that features tickets to the Los Angeles premiere of Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs 2 as well as additional film-related merchandise.

Honda will also launch pop-up drive-ins at Honda dealerships across the country to help raise awareness and build a groundswell of support, featuring a free screening of the first Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs film.

The post Honda Makes Itself Useful, Launches Perfect Public Service-Like Campaign appeared first on AdPulp.

Flashback to early October 2011 in downtown Boston. I’m in the city to present a talk on paid content at Geekend (a smaller tech conference within the much larger DMA).

I see Bob Knorpp on the trade show floor from afar — he pretty much towers above the crowd. As a frequent guest on The BeanCast, his excellent radio program about marketing, we’re expecting to meet so I go introduce myself. We walk down the street to a Geekend gathering. I start quaffing margs and free apps at the high end tequila bar, but Bob says save room for dinner, we’re going big.

John Wall, a local and a marketing podcaster joins us. An hour or more later, we pick up Joseph Jaffe at his hotel and the four of us dine out in style. We also decide at the table to retire the phrase “social media douche bag,” at least among ourselves.

The next night, Bob Knorpp lends me his 48L sport coat and I wear it to the annual DMA award show where the majority of people are in evening gowns and tuxedos. Bob insists that I–an important editor–sit at the head table. Not everyone is so sure that’s a good idea, but I manage to pull it off with a huge assist from Mr. Knorpp.

When it’s time to head home, Bob’s on my flight to Kennedy. The man knows everyone and he’s omnipresent! Ergo, am I at all surprised that TheBeanCast has been acquired by Jaffe’s new firm, Evol8tion?

Surprised no, jealous maybe a little.

As part of the deal, show host Bob Knorpp will join the Evol8tion team as SVP, Chief Analyst for BrandWatch, a subscription-based insight product designed to help brands understand, prioritize and evaluate their innovation needs.

“As one of the earliest podcasters, I remain extremely bullish on the potential and future for “the spoken work” in an increasingly digital, social and connected world,” says Jaffe about the move.

“My vision for The BeanCast was always to provide the best possible insights and education to the marketing community,” said Knorpp. “Heading up Evol8tion’s BrandWatch product allows me to greatly enhance the quality of The BeanCast content, while more fully exploring my passion for informing and training the brand world.”

The post Radio Host Bob Knorpp Makes Move, Trades On His Show’s Success appeared first on AdPulp.

In a world where relationship marketing is the be all and end all, email wins again.

A new study conducted by Lyris and recapped by Marketing Profs, lays out the argument for email (click for infographic).

I’m surprised to see email rank higher than personal referrals. What does that say about the state of our friendships today? Maybe nothing.

Another interesting data point in the graph is how far down mobile devices rank. Mobile is reportedly the new frontier for marketers, although consumers may not see it that way.

This bit from the report is also worth considering:

When consumers research purchases online, 77% say they often spend their time comparing product prices and features. They prefer company channels over independent channels to do this research, by a wide margin.

On the other hand, they rate independent channels as more important for subjective information, such as expert and peer reviews.

People are saying give us “Product pricing and features, please, and save the ‘ad speak’ for another day.” What are we saying back? “Hey look, here’s a shiny new App — it orders pizza for you!”

For me, the takeaway here is people look to email as a trusted channel for receiving pertinent information from trusted friends, family and companies they buy from and are interested in. There’s room for advertising, and content marketing in the overall mix, but there may or may not be room for these things in an email to subscribers.

“Product pricing and features, please.”

To a creative person working in advertising, this sounds impossibly boring. But to a busy person who isn’t interested in what the brand has to say, per se, product pricing and a break down of features and benefits solves their needs, and guides them to a purchase decision.

The post Email Wins Again appeared first on AdPulp.

Gary Vaynerchuk became a video star and disruptive force in the wine industry care of his success with Wine Library TV. But he gave that up and has been busy building his social media marketing agency Vayner Media–taking it from 30 to 250 “young people.”

Doing so, has meant the continual emptying (and refilling) of his proverbial bucket. In other words, @GaryVee like most managers, needs to move things off his plate so he can concentrate on the big objectives in front of him.

Unlike most managers though, Vaynerchuk is compelled to create content and to interact with thousands of people online. He calls it scaling one-to-one. But scaling one-to-one is a high wire act with no net to catch you when you fall, and you will fall down repeatedly without a workable answer.

According to Forbes, Vaynerchuk has assigned the challenge of capturing his fast-moving thought stream to a staffer, who presumably shadows his boss throughout the day.

Why is Vaynerchuk doing this, and opening himself up to claims of narcissism? “Content is the cost of entry to relevance in today’s society,” he says. He also predicts the rise of thousands of “content people” who will speak for busy executives in social channels. I suppose the new role is something like a speech writer, but for the always-on 21st century media environment.

I am a fan of Vaynerchuk’s, but there’s something about outsourcing one’s personal story and daily interactions that I don’t like. For brands, yes — hire a whole team of content people, a.k.a. writers, photographers, videographers and designers. But for individuals invested in their personal brand, I’m not so sure.

Vaynerchuk admits he’s not a writer, and that he needs help conveying his pearls of MarCom wisdom in text. No harm there. My concern is that this isn’t a solution for scaling one-to-one that many people will chose to employ. And that leaves the challenge unmet. So, how do you scale one-to-one and remain authentic?

Update, 8 June 2013: The real Gary Vaynerchuk showed up here, and on Twitter to explain his moves in greater detail. I appreciate his willingness to engage — after all, that’s what a pro does.

@adpulp I’m not delegating my voice I’m building infurstructur to capture more ofIt – still all Mine

— Gary Vaynerchuk (@garyvee) June 8, 2013

Previous on AdPulp: Is Content Marketing Giving You A Furrowed Brow? Take An Aspirin And Call Me In the Morning

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