Top 5 New Year’s Marketing Resolutions
January 1, 2009 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
With the beginning of a new year I thought it timely to suggest my top five marketing New Year resolutions for 2009:
- ROI, ROI, ROI! There may be some great sounding marketing tools coming out this year, just remember that the only thing that matters with a marketing campaign is that you make more money than you spend!
- Stay true to your brand’s mission. Do you remember the reason you launched your company? Return to your roots and your clients / customers will thank you for it.
- Create Raving Fans out of your customers. This can be accomplished by obsessively executing on what advertise.
- Work ON your business instead of IN your business. It’s easy to get caught up in the fast to day issues of your company. However to truly develop your business into a thriving organization you will have to develop looking term strategies that fuel innovation and growth.
- Always remember to not sweat the small stuff, and then remind yourself that it’s all small stuff.
The Right Way to Make Your Brand Disruptive
December 8, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
The most common question I’m asked by clients is: where should I be marketing my business to drive results? The funny thing is that the answer is never the same for that particular question. Your tactical advertising plan needs to be in line with your product strong suits. A good rule of thumb is:
If your advertisements are annoying to their audience, they are being distributed on the wrong medium.
For example, if you are running social networking ads that constantly get complaints, you probably shouldn’t be placing your banner ads on sites like Facebook or Myspace. Every business has its sweet spot, the key is being able to recognize how to become ‘disruptive’ without becoming annoying.
Let’s compare two ‘disruptive’ advertising mechanisms: Product Samples vs. Internet Pop Ups. Both of these marketing tools ‘disrupt’ the user experience, the key difference is that giving away product samples help to establish brand loyalty while pop up ads simply annoy viewers and many times drive them to competing companies.
Every business sector has a specific medium in which their advertisements should be placed, below are some of the best pairings I’ve witnessed with clients:
- Car Dealerships – Newspaper and TV
- Legal Counsel – Yellowpages
- Consumer Electronics – Search Engine Marketing
- Movie Studios – Online Video Pre-Roll Commercials
- Business to Business Enterprises – Blogging
So remember to keep on disrupting your audience (it’s the only way to get their attention), however make sure that you are building strong and positive relationships with consumers as opposed to simply throwing an ad in front of their face.
Reinventing Your Brand
November 24, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
I have previously discussed how important it is for a brand to strive to be different from its competition, not simply “better”. And I just reviewed a case study this morning that bolstered my belief in this principle. The perspective came from Jim Stengel, the former marketing head of Procter and Gamble, when he spoke at the Association of National Advertisers this past month. In his exhortation Stengel described how P&G’s Old Spice product had been stagnant for years, and had been consistently been losing market share to Axe for years.
But Old Spice has recently made a strong surge and has been robbing consumers from Axe like never before. So what h has Old Spice done to trigger the momentum shift? Stengel says the keys to success were two actions: Deep introspection, Switching ad agencies And what did P&G discover when they analyzed their brand? They realized they had no true market image, Old Spice needed a new image. Unless you have been hiding under a rock you have seen the result of Old Spice’s evolution.
I have placed an image from one of their latest commercials, Old Spice has successfully become the “older brother”of American males 14-25. This strategy and brand positioning has reborn the Old Spice product, and most importantly translated into market share ownership for Old Spice. So if you are looking to take market share from a competitor, do not look outside for your solution, take a page from the Procter and Gamble playbook, and look inside.
How to Market in Tough Economic Times
November 11, 2008 by OA Group · 1 Comment
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Garrison Fairfield
Garrison.Fairfield@TricorPR.com
How to Market in Tough Economic Times
LUBBOCK, TX (November 12, 2008) - When the economy gets down, the down get blogging! With the current state of the economy, it is critical that businesses begin analyzing the manner in which they reach their customers. There is a wide array of marketing options available to businesses today, however many of them will not generate the return on investment necessary for a company to remain profitable.
So with the wide variety of marketing options, what is the best approach to advertise your business? Corporate blogging has emerged as a proven method to:
- Increase Leads & Sales
- Generate Consumer Awareness
- Supply a Value Added Service to Retain Existing Clients
- Position Your Company as the Expert in the Marketplace
One of the most effective ways of attracting new customers is a corporate website, however the typical company site is not successful because it is not updated regularly and there is very little useful information to keep consumers coming back consistently.
That is where BlogSpur comes in; with its staff of writers which is made up of Venture Capitalist analysts, professional journalists, SEO specialists, and executives from a wide array of industries, BlogSpur creates a blog for its clients and posts industry-relevant articles on a daily basis. The posts are white labeled and credit the client with the authorship, thus positioning them as an expert source of information in their respective industry.
Allison Davis, BlogSpur’s VP of Sales had this to say, “The time to start becoming an industry expert is right now. By leveraging BlogSpur’s technology and industry expertise, businesses can drive high quality web traffic to their sites along with supplying an informative service to its pre-existing customer base.”
Along with the articles being shown on your site, BlogSpur’s social media team pushes out each article across all the most popular online social distribution points. This results in increased traffic to your site and helps to create a solid Internet presence for your website.
If a company is looking to keep marketing costs at a minimum while still maintaining strong consumer awareness, BlogSpur can offer a key solution during this difficult economic time.
To learn more about BlogSpur, Inc., please contact Garrison Fairfield at Garrison.Fairfield@TricorPR.com.
About BlogSpur, Inc.
BlogSpur is a ROI minded marketing firm that helps businesses get quantitative results. The BlogSpur Service enables companies to: Be positioned as experts in their industry, Drive quality web traffic to their websites, Increase leads and sales, and Provide a value added service to the marketplace. BlogSpur, Inc. is a subsidiary of OAG, an International digital creative and advertising agency. For more information, please visit: http://www.BlogSpur.com.
Reverse Merger Blog
November 8, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
We are very excited to now be working with the official Reverse Merger Blog. ReverseMergerBlog.com is run by David Feldman, a leading expert on reverse mergers and corporate law. Feldman has literally written the book on reverse mergers:
OAG recently re-designed the blog’s user interface and the new site went live this past week. We are highly-anticipating great results in working with David Feldman and the Reverse Merger Blog team!
See a screenshot of the new layout below:
Become Different
November 6, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
If you are in the advertising industry, the past few years have offered some great examples of effective branding. I’m talking, of course, about the presidential election and the lessons it has taught the marketing sector. Regardless your political viewpoint, the race between President-elect Obama and Senator Mccain has been a prime illustration of how to establish market dominance. Let’s look back at the race the same way we would review a client case study.
The Problem
A new market participant (Obama) was looking to enter a industry (presidency) that no other peer (African American) has been successful in (winning).
Solution
Develop a hyper-focused marketing message, offering a solution to a wide range of audiences. The message will be distributed with a multi-platform approach, including: TV, Internet, Social Media, PR, ‘Guerilla’ marketing, along with several other mediums.
Result
Ubiquitous brand awareness and expert positioning, resulting in making history.
In reviewing the marketing campaign, one key component stuck out to me:
Obama never wavered in his message of ‘change’. While Mccain altered the focus of his campaign several times, resulting in a lackluster apeal to the nation. If you are looking to establish consumer awareness for your brand it is vital that you stay consistent with your message.
In case you doubt this hypothesis, look at the following phrases:
- Just Do It
- The Ultimate Driving Machine
- I’m Lovin’ It
I didn’t have to say: Nike, BMW, and McDonalds; because the simple mention of their slogans (message) conjured not only their names, but also the way you feel about the company. This is the way it works in my mind:
Just Do It > Nike > Athleticism
Ultimate Driving Machine > BMW > Luxury & Performance
I’m Lovin’ It > McDonalds > Fast Food
How have these brands implanted these pavlovian responses in my mind?They have ‘pushed’ their message to me across a variety of mediums for decades, and this is the key: they have never wavered from the message.
Movement Marketing
October 1, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
I walked with my wife and in-laws this weekend at the Susan G. Komen “Walk for the Cure”. After the walk we were ushered into a parking lot lined up with the walk’s sponsors. Fortune 500 companies such as AT&T and Starbucks along with regional companies. I wanted to talk in this post about the difference between embracing a movement compared to simply throwing money to a cause.
The powerhouse regional gym called BodyWorks had created Breast Cancer giveaways along with providing activities for kids and families. Needless to say, their booth was crowded to overflowing. Compare that with Best Buy who had a very large booth with had nothing that was relevant to the event. It doesn’t take a marketing degree to know that BodyWorks made a strong brand impression on a large percentage of the thousands of attendees. And not only did Best Buy not make a positive impression, they most likely damaged their brand’s perception since anyone walking by their booth would see them as a large impersonal company that is simply attempting to “buy” their way into a non-profit event.
This example has illustrated clearly to me the importance of having a clear regional strategy if you are in the retail industry. Best Buy has been getting extremely negative press lately (coverage), and if this weekend was an accurate depiction of their market plan, it’s clear they need to make some changes.
Is Traditional Advertising Dying Online?
September 10, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
As everyone discusses the state of old world media such as TV, Radio and Print advertising being in the midst of a transitional period, I would like to talk about how old world online advertising is also on the way out.
As I talk with companies that are looking to run marketing campaigns to spotlight their brands, products or services, I’m hearing some very interesting perspectives from our clients, and I live by the #1 Business rule that the customer is always right. So what am I hearing from clients? CEO’s and CMO’s are no longer satisfied with simply running banner campaigns that drive brand recognition, they are now pushing for us to help them attain a ubiquitous Internet presence. And because of this evolved mindset, comes my favorite part: companies are not looking for agencies to simply create ad campaigns anymore, they are looking for us to be their business development partner.
A good example of this is what we are doing for a health and wellness client we have. As opposed to simply developing a marketing strategy for them, we formed several strategic partnerships with gyms around the country to market this particular companies services. And because the relationship was mutually beneficial for both parties, we were able to get the client a far wider and more targeted reach then they would have gotten by a ad buy, and it was able to be accomplished for pennies on the dollar. The result was that the client got the highest return on their marketing investment that they had ever gotten, and we’re working on something pretty cool for them right now.
Each quarter it seems as though fewer and fewer clients are wanting to buy the traditional forms of online marketing, however I don’t believe that it is due to the economy since the majority of our clients have been increasing their overall marketing budgets that we manage. Instead, these clients are asking how they can take advantage of the social media mechanisms that are currently in place. They hear all about outlets such as Twitter and Youtube, and they want to be at the forefront of these online activites. And they know that simply buying banner ads on an ad network is the closest thing you can do to burning money.
A great example of what I’m talking about is illustrated perfectly by some of the most innovative shows in the online world, Diggnation. Diggnation was founded by the the CEO and Founder of Digg.com, the popular online new aggregator, Kevin Rose. The show is extremely popular in the online community with tens of millions of views. And as opposed to trying to run pre rolls to monetize the show, Diggnation actually sells product placements in the show. This past Friday they actually talked about their beer sponsor for about 3 and a half minutes (all positive things to say of course). This type of marketing is the closest an advertiser can get to true word-of-mouth marketing. I understand that these types of ads are not scalable, however they give the online advertiser the best return on investment since they are talking with a highly engaged viewer.
So when you’re listening to people talking about how the old mediums of media are dying, just know the online world, in it’s current state, is not the future either.
A New Age of Advertising
August 20, 2008 by OA Group · Leave a Comment
The Missing Piece(s)
For industry insiders, I think you will enjoy the inside joke with the title of this post. Last year, the Founder and CEO of Facebook, Mark Zuckeberg, was highly criticized for telling a group of media ad agency executives that every 100 years media changes (coverage), and that Facebook was bringing everyone else into this new ‘age’. Great statement, except for the fact that he was talking to a group of media executives who have forgotten more than Zuckeberg will ever know about online marketing.
One of my favorite guilty pleasures, Valleywag, posted an article yesterday with some great tips on how the online social networking space could actually appeal to the ad agency marketing dollars. The tips from the ad exec are below:
Build a toll booth.
Everyone knows banner ads don’t do it for big-budget advertisers anymore— not even ones that allow users to comment on them and share with their friends, like Facebook’s new ads. Instead of creating gimmicky features that users don’t want, Facebook needs to come up with ways for advertisers to be seen as providing new functionality on Facebook itself. By way of analogy, my source told me to imagine American Express sponsoring a normally congested toll road for a day. Drivers approaching the toll booths would see them empty and maybe billboard that read: “No toll today. Drive on through and see what it’s like to be an American Express cardholder.” That’s the kind of branded experiences Facebook needs to create for users and advertisers, my source told me. Not gimmicky ones like asking users to design Mazda’s new cars or come up with new Ben and Jerry’s flavors. Facebook should encourage users to feel like a site improvement was brought to them by a brand. Maybe Facebook’s Video application should have been sponsored by Sony’s CyberShot line, for example. The challenge: Facebook’s site developers work separately from the group which comes up with ad products, a divide Facebook needs to erase.
Facebook needs to stop imagining it will ever reach Google’s size.
One reason Facebook hasn’t come up with these kinds of advertising arrangements already is that they require lots of creativity, planning and customization. They’re one-offs, and Mark Zuckerberg can’t simply program a computer to sell them over and over. It’s a terrifying reality for Facebook because its investors put money into it expecting it would become the next Google, which is an automated moneymaking machine. (Only 3,000 out of its 18,000 employees are required to run its advertising operations.) The sooner Facebook management and its investors realize that the company will not be the next Google — which, let’s face it, lucked into a ridiculously simple way of making money — the sooner it can take advantage of its massive, desirable user base.
Zuckerberg and Sandberg need to hire Madison Avenue insiders.
My source says Madison Avenue avoids spending money on MySpace because no one in New York knows its ad salespeople. Facebook needs to put Madison Avenue insiders in positions where they have Mark Zuckerberg’s ear. For example: Zuckerberg could have used someone with advertising experience to challenge him with the baby-name test before the company went forward with its Beacon ads. The baby-name test? “You know,” he said, “The one where you take the name and think of all the terrible things it rhymes with and then decide if you still like it.”
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Obsessive Agency Group Companies
