The Next Level Marketing Blog » Social Media http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog Just another WordPress weblog Thu, 01 Jul 2010 17:47:04 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9 en hourly 1 Did the LA Times sell out to Disney? http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2010/03/did-the-la-times-sell-out-to-disney.html http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2010/03/did-the-la-times-sell-out-to-disney.html#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 19:48:21 +0000 Deborah http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/?p=102 I picked up my LA Times from the driveway this morning and was faked out by seeing a full page photo of Johnny Depp as the Mad Hatter in the Disney/Tim Burton movie “Alice in Wonderland” on the front page. It only took me a few seconds to realize that it wasn’t really the front page at all, but a full page ad (actually a 4-page wraparound) for the movie that obscured the real front page of the Times. With my background as an ad agency creative director, my first thought was “wow…what a creative use of media!”.

The media buy must have cost a small fortune, but the LA Times is in desperate need of money with Tribune Co. in bankruptcy and the movie is forecast  to be a blockbuster, so it was probably a deal made in heaven where both parties were winners. The buzz and PR value from the ad placement itself has to be priceless for both the Times and the film.

I decided to do a search on Twitter just to see how the ad industry, the newspaper industry and the world at large was responding, and there’s definitely a lot of comments out there, both positive and negative. Jamie Court of The Huffington Post says “Advertising used to sustain the news, now it’s obscured it. Shame on the Los Angeles Time (sic).” His stance was re-tweeted by a lot of people and a quick online survey showed that more people seemingly share his view than my kudos to the advertiser and the newspaper. In “The Wrap” blog Sharon Waxman reported that the editors defended the paper’s decision to place the ad, saying it was one of several “innovative approaches” the Times was trying. In fact, the editors said the LA Times would seek to repeat this kind of project in the future, and is always looking for interesting ways for advertisers to distincitively market.
What’s your take on the situation? Did the LA Times sell out? …or was it a smart and savvy business decision on their part?
]]> http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2010/03/did-the-la-times-sell-out-to-disney.html/feed 1 Breaking through the blather http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2010/02/breaking-through-the-blather.html http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2010/02/breaking-through-the-blather.html#comments Wed, 24 Feb 2010 01:05:57 +0000 Deborah http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/?p=83 These days we’re all buried in clutter. YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, the blogosphere.  Information is constantly coming at us over the floodgates.

The amount of information we see, hear and read every day has mushroomed a thousand-fold.  That makes the task of creating a unique message that breaks through the clutter even more daunting. In a world where a clever video or a scandalous piece of news can go viral in a matter of hours, how does one get a message through the over-information pipeline?

The vehicles for delivering marketing communications may have changed, but I believe that the four basic principles of good communication that I was taught many years ago as a student at Art Center are still as relevant as ever. If your message doesn’t contain all of these elements, it probably won’t get through.  And it certainly won’t have staying power.

1.    The message must be CLEAR. If people don’t understand what you’re saying or selling, they’ll turn the page, click away, or hit the delete key. This is the first rule of good communication and it doesn’t matter what medium the message is in.
2.    HONEST. Another way to put it is “authentic”. Your audience knows when you’re not being straight with them and they won’t buy it, whether it’s on a billboard, a web site or skywriting.
3.    BELIEVABLE. If something seems “too good to be true” it probably is. People  have learned this, so if you make your message believable, you’re more likely to get a believer.
4.    MEMORABLE. This is where the creativity comes in. It’s the most difficult of the four requirements to get right, but it’s the one that makes all the difference. You absolutely need the first three, but you can’t break through the clutter without this one.

I’ve spent most of my career working to master #4, and it continues to challenge and excite me whether I’m designing a home page, a banner ad, a brochure or an idea for a sales promotion. Getting this one right is what successful careers—and brands—are built on.

]]> http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2010/02/breaking-through-the-blather.html/feed 0 Blogging on Blogs http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2010/01/blogging-on-blogs.html http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2010/01/blogging-on-blogs.html#comments Wed, 13 Jan 2010 23:14:21 +0000 Deborah http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/?p=76 The Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG), of which I’m a member, just published its list of the top 20 marketing blogs top marketers read. This list was gleaned from a survey of the membership, nearly 2000 strong, which is made up of senior level marketing executives from around the country. The poll asked which blogs (by non-MENG members) they actually read, which blogs were their favorite reads, and which ones were the most enjoyable to read.

Seth Godin’s blog ranked number one in all three categories. And no wonder. As a true thought leader, change agent and author of a dozen or so bestselling marketing books (including Purple Cow, Permission Marketing, Meatball Sundae, and Tribes) his posts are always insightful, entertaining, and thought provoking.

Mashable, to which I subscribe, was number two on the list. If you haven’t taken a look at it, by all means check this one out. Because when it comes to lists, Mashable is known for generating them on all manner of social media topics: Some examples: 5 Eye-Popping You Tube Videos;  Zen and the Art of Twitter: 4 Tips for Productive Tweeting; 5 Superb Social Media Tools for Musicians. There’s no better place to go for information on social media as well as a wide range of other topics.

The MENG blog list is formidable, and contains a few I’m familiar with, some I’ve only heard of and many blogs that I’ve never explored–but as a relatively new blogger, I intend to. There’s so much to learn, and not just in terms of the content but for blogging style as well. Here’s the rest of the list…Happy reading!

• Chris Brogan

• Guy Kawasaki(“How to Change the World”)

• Tom Peters

• John Jantsch (Duct Tape Marketing)

• David Armano’s Logic + Emotion

• Mack Collier’s The Viral Garden

• Steve Hall’s AdRANTs

• Joseph Jaffe’s Jaffe Juice

• John Moore’s Brand Autopsy

• Jeremiah Owyang’s Web Strategy

• Shelly Palmer’s MediaBytes

• David Meerman Scott’s Web Ink Now

• Brian Solis’s BrianSolis.com

• Denise Lee Yohn’s Brand as Business Bites

• Andy Beal’s Marketing Pilgrim

• Valeria Maltoni’s Conversation Agent

• Ben McConnell & Jackie Huba’s Church of the Customer

• Avinash Kaushik’s Occam’s Razor

]]> http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2010/01/blogging-on-blogs.html/feed 0 How tweet it is! http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2009/12/how-tweet-it-is.html http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2009/12/how-tweet-it-is.html#comments Tue, 22 Dec 2009 01:13:46 +0000 Deborah http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/?p=68 I was surfing the web this afternoon looking for something interesting to blog about when I was rewarded with a great story on Mashable about Trident Layers. I’ve seen their TV commercials, in which people trade their work for the gum as payment and I’ve thought they were pretty silly. But I think their use of Tweets as testimonials in a full page, color print ad in USA Today was brilliant.
What happened was this: The Trident people searched on Twitter and found ten unsolicited, authentic comments from fans, contacted each person to get their approval, and then ran them under the headline “The People Have Tweeted”.
It’s a great example of a brand integrating print and online communications in a very clever way and making the most of both the “old” and the “new” to reinforce each other. Now if only they had integrated those TV commercials into the program….
]]> http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2009/12/how-tweet-it-is.html/feed 0 The viral power of social media http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2009/10/the-viral-power-of-social-media.html http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2009/10/the-viral-power-of-social-media.html#comments Thu, 22 Oct 2009 15:54:28 +0000 Deborah http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/?p=36 A few days ago I was a witness to the power a few people can wield over a big issue as I participated in a discussion in one of my Linkedin groups (On Startups). I was attracted to the discussion “Chase hates small business” and posted a comment because, like the originator of the conversation, I, too, have been disturbed by the credit card companies’ policies of increasing their interest rates by up to 24.99% and decreasing credit limits even for their good customers with good credit ratings who pay their bill on time.  This after receiving huge government bailouts and posting record profits.

Apparently a lot of people feel strongly about this issue: over a 24-hour period, the conversation went at the speed of light from complaints and commiseration to action. Spurred on by the sharing of a home-made video posted on YouTube by Ann Minch , a handful of group members took the lead and began suggesting activities: the creation of a day without using credit cards, writing letters to the White House, creating a Cause page on Facebook, generating press releases and giving the cause a name: “Don’t Bank on Me”.  With over 200 posts and going strong, the cause had become a movement. At this writing, the organization is growing, committees are being formed through teleconferences, and a web sit is in development.

If you’d like to keep tabs on the action or become part of it, look for the web site launch or the Don’t Bank on Me group on Linkedin …and spread the word.

]]> http://www.tnlmarketing.com/blog/2009/10/the-viral-power-of-social-media.html/feed 0