February DIG: Hammers & Thumbs

Today, I had the distinct pleasure of serving as tour guide to a group of trusting fellow marketers through the world of marketing blunders. We relived New Coke, grumbled at the iPhone repricing debacle of 2007, and laughed at Snapple’s big idea of 2005 to create the world’s largest ice pop. (It melted – everywhere – in the middle of New York.)

What we learned today is that if we make marketing decisions based in strategy, we are far less likely to end up as fodder for a similar presentation. Of course, we also learned that it’s okay to laugh at ourselves — because if you aren’t making mistakes as a marketer, you probably aren’t trying very hard. The presentation portion of today’s DIG is below; to continue the conversation and get updates on upcoming educational opportunities, visit us (and be our fan) on Facebook.

YouTube’s Only Five Years Old?

In advertising these days, the holy grail is “viral video” — a spot that gets hundreds of thousands of impressions online, even if it only runs a few times on traditional broadcast television. Ad agencies spend tons of time and money trying to make the next “viral” spot, because internet buzz proves more cost-effective — and often just plain effective — than spending millions placing an ad on television.

So it’s hard to believe that, just five years ago, the term “viral video” didn’t exist — because there was nowhere for the virus to incubate. But on Valentines Day 2005, the domain name www.youtube.com was registered… the first little baby step in a project that would quite literally change the world.

More than 1 billion videos per day are now viewed on YouTube, and a whole host of imitators and innovators have popped up since. Want TV on your schedule? Go to Hulu. Want higher-quality, artier fare? Try Vimeo. Want comedy? Head over to Funny Or Die. But the queen bee is still YouTube, the place where news, advertising, soapbox and spam collide. Some of the most popular advertisements of recent years (Bud Light’s “Swear Jar,” for instance, or eTrade’s “Trading Baby”) only ran a few times on television, but garnered millions of intentional views on YouTube.

But what does it mean for you? It means, at a minimum, that there’s a low-cost, low-maintenance way to reach potential customers. But what is also means is that “traditional advertising” — print, radio and television — is now just a part of the equation. The other part — a portion that’s growing larger each and every day — is social media. Businesses and brands can no longer rely on a huge ad buy to make an impact, because if it doesn’t connect with consumers in a meaningful way, it will make LESS of an impression than it ever has. The market is saturated: More channels, more websites, and more ad impressions than ever before… it spurs us to tune out the noise, and pay attention only to those things that really connects to us.

It’s a challenge, to be sure, but it’s also an opportunity: To stand out from the crowd by being… well, interesting, for sure — but more importantly, being open, honest and accountable to your customers and clients. It’s a rebirth of human connection via technology, and it’s arguably all thanks to YouTube.

At Right Angles

Yesterday, Tim and I had the great opportunity to speak to the Bowling Green Professional Marketing Association. The presentation, “At Right Angles,” was about brand congruency. We discussed what “branding” really is, as well as how to approach branding by wearing the hat of a strategist.

We covered a lot of ground, but the moral of the story is that branding — and staying congruent in your message, tone, design and delivery — is a choice. Take a look at the presentation here.

Marketing and an Old House

Those close to me — actually, almost anyone that’s met me — know that over the past few years, I’ve become somewhat obsessed with tools. The idea of the “marketing toolbox” likely spurred from very literal (and neverending) experiences with tools as my husband and I fully renovated our home.

I live in a very old house. When we bought it in 2006, we knew it needed a lot of work, though we may have underestimated just how much work. Then the gas company showed up and turned off our gas line — not only did it need work, but it was dangerous! It was then that renovation (and some demolition) began.

Somewhere along the line, I saw the parallel between the process of fixing up our house (have you seen “The Money Pit”?) and the process business owners go through when marketing their businesses. Just like a home, a business needs constant maintenance. Sometimes, it even needs a complete renovation!

The core of our clients at Werkshop is made up of small businesses, with owners who steer the ship. As entrepreneurs, their business is their baby, and they’re generally emotional about it. So when it is time to grow, change or evolve, marketing suddenly becomes scary. Sometimes, in fact, the owner has been a part of the business for so long that strategic problems — much like our gas leak — come as a complete surprise!

That’s why we don’t just storm into the house and start tearing down walls — we first have to develop a plan. We evaluate the history of the business, then survey the industry’s landscape. And we find out lots of things this way. Is someone else utilizing the same (or similar) brand name? Has the competition started taking marketshare with a new pricing model?

We work with the business owner to show them that if we move a wall two feet this way (pricing), and update the plumbing (logo mark), that everything will make more sense, work better and become the home they once loved all over again. Over time, the rest of the plan can be put in to place, and the business owner’s goals become realities. And while it might not be cheap, it doesn’t have to be “The Money Pit,” either.

Four years into our home renovation — even though we may never quite be “done” — we’re loving our home. Likewise, I’m loving what it has taught me about small business.

Around here, it’s all in a day’s werk.

Sky-high marketing

One of the many great things about marketing — and by “marketing,” I mean the art of getting a client’s message out in an effective and eye-catching way — is the way it inspires those behind the scenes to go above and beyond for a project. Take, for example, a film shoot that could have been routine… routine, that is, if it weren’t for a director who’s willing to go above and beyond to translate big ideas into small-screen reality.

In the summer, we began planning for a new television spot for Western Kentucky University’s football team. It was the Hilltoppers’ first year as a Division I program, and we wanted to give them a commercial that was equal to the higher level of competition they’d be facing. They had just finished at $35 million stadium expansion, and had already settled on the theme of “See It. Believe It. Achieve It.” So, we developed a 30-second spot that would illustrate the anticipation and energy that was driving the team as a daunting season approached. Part of the visual idea was a “mile-high” shot — a single trip from the clouds down to the stadium, and ultimately to the face of a gridiron warrior preparing for battle. It was our “big idea,” one that would (quite literally) take WKU’s message to a higher level. But how to do it?

The director, our close associate Gabe McCauley, started searching for an answer; what he found was something none of us expected. Gabe hooked up with a company called Micro Aerial Projects, who brought out a super-duper-high-tech, helicopterish, “Star Wars”-looking drone — a tiny piece of equipment that can fly a mile high, or many miles away, and can stay planted in a particular spot in the air thanks to GPS technology. Just getting to see it was cool enough — and some of us even got the opportunity to fly it a bit! — but the truly amazing part was the final result: An breathtaking aerial shot that provided the perfect backdrop for the rest of the spot. But don’t take my word for it — check it out yourself!

If it weren’t for someone (in this case, Gabe) really stepping up to the plate, we could have ended up producing a cookie-cutter sports commercial. But who would that attract; who would even notice? Which brings me back to the true joy of marketing: being able to powerfully present our clients’ distinct messages — in ways that they might never had considered — and see them prosper because of it. We do it every day… but it never gets old.

Bowling Green Daily News touts Werkshop merger

The Bowling Green Daily News is the latest to give Werkshop some love, in the form of this article on our recent changes. Thanks to Jenna Mink, the BGDN’s able business reporter, for putting our message out there in southcentral Kentucky!