As media strategists, our goal is always to target our client’s desired audience and generate results in an efficient manner. The proliferation of the internet and computing power continues to make this process much more accurate, and I believe we are on the cusp of the next revolution in customer insight. In the beginning an analyst could pull log files, parse them, and then collect insights about users (browser, OS, etc…) but nothing more about the person that would really be useful from a targeting perspective. With the introduction of cookies into web communication, browsers were capable of learning cross-site user behavior, websites were able to remember information about returning users, and data companies were able to build audience profiles based on all sorts of data points. This dramatically improved the ability build useful audience profiles, and in turn, the efficiency of digital campaigns. But as many know, the downside to cookie-based data is that people are suspicious of them, Read More
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Finely roasted musings. Burnt offerings.
Archive for Strategy
This week, Ashley and I attended the January AAF-Dallas luncheon entitled “Social Media Marketing: What Are the Future Factors for Success?” The discussion was moderated by John Lee, who worked in various Dallas advertising agencies for over 20 years before starting his own consulting firm. We heard from Gabrielle de Papp, Vice President of Corporate Public Relations at Neiman Marcus, about the company’s overall approach to social media. Gabrielle oversees media relations, events, social media and charitable giving for the Dallas-based luxury retailer. A few key takeaways from Gabrielle that I think are important to keep in mind: A brand or company using social media has to take the bad with the good – For example: leave positive and negative posts on Facebook. Bloggers are journalists who expect to be treated with respect when being pitched for content. (Also interesting to hear how Neiman Marcus is activating bloggers in unique ways through events such as SXSW) Social media is HR, Read More
From Snake Oil to keywords, the Shady salesman lives on, but in 2012 his wares may include promises of rankings, traffic, and leads galore. Because not many advertisers understand search marketing, they are forced to put their trust in a small group of “experts” who hold the majority of the knowledge and invest their money in a technology they might not understand. But Advertiser beware because some search marketers take advantage and advertisers pay dearly in terms of website rankings, which leads to loss of search traffic, which leads to loss of business, and so forth and so on…making all search marketers look unethical. Here are a few quick tips to help keep you and yours from getting burned.
Forgive me – I just got to Austin, so I haven’t really wrapped my head around what my takeaway is from SXSW. But there is clearly one thing that seems to resonate across all the seminar discussions and happy hour mixers: the idea that your brand must be heard over all others to gain a loyal and passionate following. To this I say, “no shit.” This is something I heard in my Marketing 101 class. The challenge posed to the “experts” here at SXSW is how to be louder without being intrusive. It seems that with all the connectivity we have, we are being bombarded with brands wherever we turn, whether it be Facebook, Twitter, or any other digital/social engagement. Now, the challenge is not about reaching consumers, it’s about reaching them in a manner that makes them true brand enthusiasts, and not brand haters. Hopefully in the next day here I will find the solution. Stay tuned for more Read More
I came across a great article from Scott Cendrowski at Fortune on what Nike is doing with their Nike Digital Sport. It details the heightened emphasis Nike is placing on the digital possibilities for their brand. Secretive and intense, these efforts are less about marketing a new product and more about deepening a connection between brand and consumer. The latest example of why smart marketers are saying it’s not about ads, it’s about engagement. And that makes perfect sense, because Nike has nearly unlimited possibilities for strong daily engagement with its fans. This new division has only been around since 2010, but from the sounds of things, it will become more and more integral, in fact central, to the marketing of this brand from this point forward. The data capture and relationship building is amazing in its approach. The shift in marketing spend and emphasis is fast and furious. And frankly from a customer viewpoint it’s all a little creepy and Read More
Just back from Iconosphere 2011 the annual event focused on better understanding consumers and put on exclusively for Iconoculture clients. Here’s a rundown of highlights. Warning: It’s longer than a typical post, so read at will. First off, the keynote and closing speakers were both great picks, delivering unique perspectives that illuminated how to do what creative thinkers do better. Author, technologist, all-around smart guy Steven Berlin Johnson kicked things off with a talk about the nature of breakthrough ideas – they are rarely a lightning bolt, rather a slow soaking rainstorm, an accumulation. He used the story of John Snow who discovered cholera’s water-born transmission to illustrate the power of “the slow hunch”. You have to give ideas time to grow. Google’s 20% policy, one day a week devoted to free, company- but not job-related thinking, was cited as one example of creating idea breathing room. Also love the thought of giving staff a reading vacation – work time Read More
Since the dawn of marketing communications (and approximately 16 seconds before that term was shortened into the insufferable mash-up “marcomm”), advertising agencies and clients alike have fallen into the same trap over and over and over again. No, not the starburst trap. No, not the underline-important-words trap. No, not the show-the-customer-smiling-while-holding-eating-caressing-the-product-inappropriately trap. No, not the…well, let’s just say the traps into which those of us in the business can fall are legion. But today, the trap of which I write is the trap of equating a tool with a strategy. The tool-as-strategy trap is an easy one to fall prey to. It usually involves a shiny new form of media (Newspapers! Radio! Television! Internet! Telekinesis!) and a proclamation that all previous forms of media are forthwith null and void posthaste, etc. etc. Gurus arise (often of the self-anointed variety), agencies and clients are fleeced and large segments of the populace don’t notice a thing has changed. The current tool du Read More
We’ve always been big believers that paid search coupled with a right display campaign makes sense for most brands, but just recently have we been able to add even more relevance to our client’s digital strategies thanks to search retargeting. Until now, paid search has always been a pull medium with unknown amounts of inventory. The amount you get is dependent on the amount of times searchers hit the search button — which is currently around 530M times a day. This seems like a lot of inventory, but advertisers want more. Because of the consistently high ROI that paid search delivers, a lot of brands have allocated more and more of their budgets to it over the years. And even though this is good news for the medium, several industries are seeing a rise in rates to record highs — posing an uphill battle in continuing to achieve effective ROI metrics. Behold… Access to more scale is now available with Read More
Numbers are funny. You see one and it communicates something right away—long before you learn the context of how it is being used. Like the number at the top there. It means effort, right? Well, not so fast. Today I sat down at my computer to attack another week here in 2010, and 110% came to mind. Not due to effort, but because it represents my confidence level. I am 110% confident that 2010 will be our best year yet here at Firehouse. Despite the economic and geopolitical headlines, we will achieve great things in 2010. I’m certain of it. That’s because in times like this the safe thing is often times the wrong thing. The status quo is death. And while we’d been doing a good job of pushing our clients to do new things, we also saw an opportunity to take a fresh look at our own brand. We forced ourselves to rethink who we really are and Read More
I want to introduce you to something we’re very excited about here at Firehouse. You see, we’re in the idea business. And we love what we do. You may also notice (if you’ve seen our client list) that we have a great deal of restaurant experience. In fact, not just experience, but a real passion for the dining industry and tackling the unique challenges restaurant brands face. So as the economy started going south and the media kept banging the gong of doom, people started hunkering down, staying home and spending less. But for some reason, things didn’t get a whole lot better. Our planning and insights team started taking a hard look at behaviors, trends, statistics and a whole lot of other factors in order to see if something could be done to help not just our clients, but everyone else as well. And as we dug, and learned and uncovered…an idea began to form. Waiting around for bailouts Read More