By Aubrey Watts | May 25, 2010
Integrated media; balanced marketing
Lost within the maze of our office, sitting in front of his Mac – probably playing video games – is Justin Mather, one of our graphic design veterans. Last week we bribed him to sit down and spit out a few notes about traditional advertising. Here’s the dirt:
Traditional advertising has been around a long time, much longer than anyone reading this. Today, it still plays a vital role in the success of any business. The technological aspects of marketing are changing fast, but traditional media is still a great way to consistently reach large numbers of potential customers, particularly for local advertisers.
Your logo, brand and image is just as important as it ever was
Keep your collateral materials fresh and updated. For instance, if you are featuring more services or made upgrades to an existing product, you’ll need an updated brochure/rack-card to make existing and future customers aware of this. You must maintain a strong market presence while effectively reaching your intended audience.
Consider this…
It’s true that fewer people are reading actual newspapers (as opposed to online), but fewer is not the same as nobody; and even that depends on your demographic. If you’re trying to reach an older demographic, newspapers work great. Coupons are also a good way to increase traffic. A direct mail piece with a good offer is a wonderful way for you to get more “bang for your buck.” Just make sure to routinely change your offer and the look of your mailer to avoid being overlooked by desensitized consumers.
Even though the possibilities offered by interactive media are compelling, and we’re doing more all the time, advertising in print, outdoor, and direct mail will still have a great impact in any balanced, integrated marketing plan.
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Photo courtesy of aeu04117
By Ian Sharp | May 24, 2010
Bidding on a beauty.
On Saturday we headed west for my first Murdo in May classic car auction at Pioneer Auto. After a quick trip to Murdo, I was really getting excited and wondered how such a small town in rural South Dakota can attract so many car enthusiasts.
I lost count of the number of people attending, but there must have been several hundred car lovers enjoying the day.
There was plenty of shopping at the Swap Meet/Auction, and the Murdo Lions club did a great job keeping hungry people satisfied with hamburgers and hot dogs all weekend.
Things really kicked off Friday with the parade, awards for best cars and free live music. People from all across the country attended, and I was lucky to meet people from as close as South Dakota and as far as Washington.
Ian and Pioneer Auto's Dave Jr. at Murdo in May.
Going once…going twice…
Saturday morning the McPherson Auction team opened bidding to a record number of attendees at the classic car auction. Some of my favorites included a 1936 Dodge Street Rod Coupe and a 1955 Pontiac Star Fire convertible – unfortunately, I wasn’t able to take either one home.
The whole weekend was a great experience and I loved seeing all of the classic cars. I can’t wait to make the trip next year – you could say I’m sold!
By Tarah Heupel and Aubrey Watts | May 20, 2010
Ericka Heiser speaks to 1000+
Yesterday a few of us had the opportunity to attend the first Day of Excellence in Rapid City. Hosted by Leadership Rapid City, the one-day conference focused on fostering personal and professional growth.
We showed up to the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center yesterday, coffee in hand, interested to see if the speakers would have anything to teach us (and praying they would be funny). More than 1,200 people had the same idea, and luckily, we weren’t disappointed.
Aubrey says:
Developing a sense of purpose for everything you do: Mike “oooooh-stir” Oster, Lieutenant Colonel for the South Dakota Army National Guard, began the day with an outstanding discussion on self improvement. Helping others realize their maximum potential is Mike’s strength and the crowd enjoyed it.
Through demonstration and audience participation, Mike showed us the effects of negativity on your mental and physical strength. He said some things are obvious (like not frying bacon naked), but others, like determining your goals and knowing your purpose, are more difficult. My favorite take away from the speech is Mike’s advice to start the day out right by “smiling yourself out of bed.”
The Five Powers of Leadership: As an experienced trainer in the practice of building partnerships, Malcom Chapman provided conference attendees with many useful tools – or powers – that can help anyone become a stronger leader. Malcom expressed that if you are willing to change, then you can make it happen – a point that touched me and many other members of the audience.
Tarah says:
What goes around, comes around: I had read V.J. Smith’s book, “The Richest Man in Town,” a few years ago, but listening to him tell the story of Marty, a Walmart cashier who touched thousands of lives, still put a lump in my throat. V.J. impressed upon the crowd a few VIPs (very important points), including 1) you get what you give; 2) you don’t need money to be truly rich; and 3) never ever forget to say thank you.
Side note: If you haven’t read V.J.’s book, I highly recommend it! Aubrey even bought a copy, so if you ask nicely, maybe you can borrow hers.
I’m a Sally: Bryan Flanagan, a corporate trainer for Zig Ziglar in Dallas, took us through a series of exercises to determine our personality types (David, Irene, Sally, Charles). While identifying a working personality is nothing new, Bryan did give practical tips for relating to other personality types – including what words and tones to use to communicate most effectively. Bryan also encouraged us to bring out other parts of our personalities in the workplace, meaning I need to work on bringing out my inner Irene.
We left Day of Excellence feeling happy and uplifted – and impressed that so many people in the Black Hills community turned out for the event. Leadership Rapid City was able to donate $44,000 to local charities, making it a truly excellent experience.
Did you attend? What was the best part of the Day for you?
By Aubrey Watts | May 18, 2010
Kashi Company...On a mission to keep their branding consistent
Still jealous of our fearless leader’s trip to Florida while we suffered through a mid-spring wintery mess, we cornered Robert into giving us another lesson he took away from the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies conference in West Palm Beach.
Takeaway #2: Branding is not just a logo, it’s a means to success
For any new company, success is the ultimate goal – to come out above competitors – but many small businesses often find themselves falling short. One of the biggest mistakes made is failing to understand what a brand is. Establishing a brand is the first crucial step towards true success. Not only is a brand important to the success of your business, it also allows for the opportunity to share what your company is about, who you are and what your business have to offer.
But we already have a logo….that’s not enough?
No it’s not. Your company name and logo represent your brand, yes, but that brand goes much deeper. A brand is the way customers perceive your business and relate to the services offered. A brand also allows your company the opportunity to define a reason for doing business. Finally, a brand proves your effectiveness in marketing to specific audiences through various media outlets.
Before you get the investors lined up and the first product is designed, a clear image of your company brand should be in place. With this, you can easily identify and market towards the correct target audience, attracting the appropriate customer base.
What a clear branding strategy can do for you
“Seven Whole Grains on a Mission.” Chances are, more than half of you already know what brand I’m talking about.
There are multiple factors leading to the success of Kashi Company, but for this staff of 70 people, Kashi is not just a brand – it’s a way of life.
From commercials and cereal boxes to missionary work and recycling practices, Kashi Company is the best example of a company that has consistently remained focused on their goal while building their brand. This focus, dedication and sustainability have followed through to the products produced.
Through successful branding, Kashi has changed the way people view food while remaining true to their goal. Their goal: to provide healthy food through the use of natural ingredients.
A brand and mission that is so strong, it has remained untouched since 1984.
The moral of the story
Having a proper brand with a clear strategy to back it up is not only necessary but is vital to the success of any business.
By Tarah Heupel | May 13, 2010
Last week, as Rapid City was pounded with rain, snow, and blistering winds (in early May, no less), our fearless leader ventured south to attend the Alliance of Marketing Communications Agencies conference in West Palm Beach.
Lady Gaga recycles...and uses genius product placement.
While Robert didn’t bring back sunshine or “I swam with dolphins” t-shirts for the worker bees, he did gift us with some conference nuggets that we’d love to share.
Takeaway #1: kids are smart.
Today’s tweens have grown up in the world of 24/7 advertising, where everything from their underpants to their morning cereal is a blatant advertisement for a movie superhero, cartoon character, or up-and-coming pop star. Tweens are exposed to so many messages in any given day that they’ve learned to tune out the noise, skipping commercials and ignoring movie previews altogether. So what’s a marketer to do?
Get smarter. Learn to craft messages that don’t look like the tried-and-true commercials everyone expects to see during the four-minute gaps in our favorite television programming. Creative product placement boosts credibility and top-of-mind awareness for your product, when mixed in a believable way.
Bank of America struck marketing gold when it announced a partnership to present History’s “America: The Story of Us” last month. The channel’s 12-hour miniseries is sprinkled with two-minute mini-documentaries detailing Bank of America’s role in American history. The mini-documentaries are shot and narrated in the same style as the series, blurring the line between programming and advertisement.
Other recently successful placements include the partnership between NBC’s “The Biggest Loser” and Subway; contestants visit a Subway restaurant in nearly every episode. Lady Gaga made headlines for working in a bevy of products for her big-budget “Telephone” video, including Diet Coke cans (used as curlers) Virgin Mobile, Miracle Whip, and her own branded Heartbeats headphones, among others.
To make sponsorships and product placement work, especially for tweens, it’s important to make sure the product and the project fit together naturally. Find an angle that seems organic, not forced, and you just might get through to the smarty pants generation.
Stay tuned for more takeaways from Robert and the AMCA conference. And who knows, maybe he’s just waiting until later in the week to give us our t-shirts?
By Aubrey Watts | May 11, 2010
Video + Blog = Vlog, to test this theory we enlisted the help of Sean Coyne, our superstar videographer and office comedian.
Sit back….grab your lunch, a snack or maybe that fifth cup of coffee needed to get through your day and enjoy.
Sean says: “Visit our Youtube channel”
By Aubrey Watts | May 7, 2010
Simplicity and Social Media….Do they really go together?
In an age where advertising isn’t just about a billboard and a plan, many marketers are running around in circles trying to figure out the next platform to follow. While most large companies are looking for the next big thing, the next idea to get them ahead of everyone else, we like to remind our small business owners that simple can still be better.
What Is All The Fuss Really About
From Twitter and Facebook to Foursquare and Gowalla, there is plenty to choose from in the social media world when it comes to creating buzz without spending the cash. If you have asked yourself many times, “Why does any of this matter to me?” It’s simple. Advertising to your customers not at them, can be the best way to reach multiple demographics at one time.
While traditional advertising can still play an important role in any business owner’s marketing strategy, social media can play just as an important part in the grand scheme of things. Just as word of mouth between friends, family and co-workers can raise brand awareness in a traditional way, social media takes it to the next step. In turn, this allows them the opportunity to exploit their experience with your business to as many people as possible.
But what if they are sending out negative Tweets?
Keeping an eye on social media platforms like Twitter can save you from a world of hurt later on down the road. By now, everyone knows about the trouble Toyota faced with bad design. Instead of consistently denying there was a problem, they finally took a step back, entered the world of social media, and apologized for what was happening.
The same can happen for your business. Whether you are a hotel owner or a small mom and pop store owner, knowing what people are saying about your services gives you the upper hand. Negative reviews keep coming in? Figure out a solution, fix the problem and promote the heck out of the changes you made.
It’s really that simple……I promise
Besides giving y
ou the opportunity to chase after problems or advertise successes, use social media to offer deals, promotions and giveaways – marketing your business in a very simple yet effective way.
Through a simple tweet yesterday, Starbucks announced:
Starbucks Starting tomorrow, it’s Happy Hour at Starbucks! try a @Frappuccino for Half-Price from 3-5pm! (until 5/16)
Let’s just say that the madness is on and Starbucks will be cashing in big on this deal.
Included in that tweet was a link to a video promo posted through YouTube. All together, Tarah and I gave this post an A+ for their marketing efforts. In fact, we are probably on our way over there now to take part in this amazing deal!
Finally
This can be overwhelming, scary and sound downright crazy to most but overall, at the end of the day, we’ll tell you what we tell all of our current customers: Just do it! Social media is cheap, quick and with the right strategy, one of the best ways to reach a large audience quickly.
By Tarah Heupel | April 29, 2010
Me, in a bad dream last week: “So, tell me why you want to be on Facebook/Twitter/YouTube?”
The phantom client: “Because everyone else is.”
Still not using a plan? Time to wake up and smell the bacon.
Me: (Shuddering)
To be fair, we spend a lot of time talking about how important it is for businesses to have a social media presence, and a lot of people are ready to get on board, which makes us really happy. However, when we see a business with a lackluster fan page or a silent Twitter feed, it makes us sad.
Social media is seductive – it’s new, exciting, and a relatively cheap initial investment (in both dollars and manpower), requiring only that you choose a clever screen name and upload the perfect photo.
But then what?
Like everything else on the web, social media is a twisting, turning, ever-transforming thing, and you have to be prepared. It’s like having a baby, but with (hopefully) fewer dirty diapers: you need to nurture it, respond to any messes, and eventually help it grow up and do amazing things.
There are great opportunities to make social media work for you and your business, but it’s important to have a plan. Just like any other type of marketing, know what your ultimate goal is, then figure out who you’re going to talk to, what you’re going to say, and how often you’re going to say it.
Once you have that blueprint in hand, then you can jump in and start posting. Not only will strategy help your business use social media more successfully, but it will actually save tons of time and energy down the road – and keep me from having any more of those dreams.
If your business uses social media, are you operating from a plan, or just flying by the seat of your pants?
By Tarah Heupel | April 27, 2010
The MacGyver of marketing.
As first-time home buyers, my fiancé and I have discovered that we are woefully unprepared for jobs that require a certain level of handiness. While I have a small (pink) toolkit that has been deemed unfit for manly use, his tools are limited to 1) a hammer, and 2) a Swiss Army knife. Apparently, that little knife is a miracle worker.
In the world of interactive marketing, we have our own pocket-size tool complete with screwdriver and bottle opener, à la social media. Social platforms are serious workhorses that give businesses an opportunity to connect with specific people who might be interested in products or services, learn about them, listen to feedback, stay informed, build the brand, and more.
While a lot of businesses have fully embraced the new frontier, there are still a few hold-outs who want to see concrete proof of the power of social media. For the remaining doubters, I’ve prepared a menu of tasty stats, broken down into fun-size bites:
- There are more than 400 million active users on Facebook. That’s more than the population of the United States, United Kingdom, and Canada combined.
- Employees access Facebook more than any other website from work (sorry Robert!).
- Twitter’s 106 million users tweet an average of 55 million times per day – that’s 636 tweets per second.
- FourSquare, a location-based social network that’s barely a year old, recently added 100,000 users in 10 days, and is being hailed as ‘the next Twitter.’
- LinkedIn, a social network for professionals and businesses, has more than 65 million users.
- The most-viewed video on YouTube – Lady Gaga’s “Bad Romance” – has received more than 186 million plays in only four months.
Basically, if social media isn’t part of your current marketing strategy, you’re missing out on great opportunities to talk directly to potential customers. And if you think South Dakotans aren’t as social savvy as other parts of the U.S., think again:
Social platforms are like the Swiss Army knife in your toolbox; they can do all kinds of amazing things, provided you know how to use them (stay tuned for more on that later this week). While there are still jobs that other tools work best for, it might be time to consider adding a combination scissors/wood-saw/fish-scaler to your marketing mix.
By Kyle McCabe | April 22, 2010
I like it. Kind of. Like, maybe.
This month Facebook started rolling out a change to “fan pages” that takes the “fans” out of the picture. Now instead of becoming a “fan” of something, you simply “like” it.
I guess the reasoning is that becoming a “fan” is too much of a social investment for people, resulting in lower page activity than Facebook desires. I get that. There are plenty of brands, organizations, causes and such that I “like” but wouldn’t consider myself a “fan” of.
The problem is they took away fans, but replaced them with… nothing. What do you call those people now? Likers? Former fans? We have a verb replacing a noun, and it just doesn’t work. They thought “fan” was a little too high on the approval scale, but they overcompensated by plummeting to a mere appetitive whim. Blaaaaaah. It’s weaksauce (that’s right, weaksauce).
Like it or not (I’m punny), it seems to be a permanent change. So no more Fan Pages. No more fans. We’re all just people again.
But the burning question I think we’re all asking is this: where the DEUCE is our “dislike” button?
There’s your shot from the hip for this week.
