New Rule of Marketing: Shareable

One of the new rules of marketing is to make content (or marketing) that is shareable.  Litter Genie has done that and more.  The Litter Genie cat video is so popular that the New York Times wrote a story about it.  Great content and great public relations.

The Cat video is called “Litter Genie: Me Luvz Mahselfz.”  It features a music video and custom song complete with opening credits made popular by MTV.  The views from this series of videos are in the millions.  No need to look for a hit TV show when your content is a hit itself.

What’s the secret?  First, you can’t be boring.  Second, high production values.  Third, confidence and bravery.  Does it take a brave soul to approve a cat music video about a system for disposing cat poop?  Yes and yes.

Great content takes courage.  And a cat helps as well.

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Are You a Lighthouse or Laser

Are you a lighthouse or a laser?  Lighthouses cut a broad swath of light with lots of spillage.  Lasers are modern, pinpoint accurate and very cool.  Laser light can do so much more than the simple illumination of lighthouse lights.

Lighthouses are antiques and on a national historic registry.   You can love lighthouses and long for a day when they were reliable and necessary.  GPS has rendered lighthouses useless.

When you think about your target audience, do you think like a lighthouse or a laser?

Are you still trying to hit everyone with one message? Are you sending your light far and wide, or are you pinpointed and laser-focused?

I’d say that we all worry that we will  be disappointed if we really focus our message to one particular audience—we think of the anecdotal exceptions.  We soften our message and our targeting the way the lens spreads the light for all to see.   Time to narrow our focus in message and media.

You can go after many audiences, but each needs its own pinpointed message and delivery method.

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How Many Times Do I Need to Talk About Frequency?

Results from the “2013 Edelman Trust Barometer,” the most informed people (35%) need to hear information from a company three times before they will believe it.  Another 29% need to hear the information 4-5 times.

“Informed people” are defined as those who are in the top 25% of household income, report significant media consumption and are engaged in business news and public policy.

The study also found that informed people trust the information from small companies differently than large companies.  More than 85% of informed consumers trust small business, 55% trust big business.

We often recommend that television campaigns have a frequency of 7 to 15 in order to have enough awareness to have an impact.  We now know how many times an informed public must hear information.  For the uninformed, it is much higher.

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I’m All for Short Copy, but…

I’m a big advocate of simple, short copy.  My favorite Apple TV commercial has fewer than 20 words.  My feeling is that if you write copy to fit wall-to-wall in a 30-second commercial, it has the same effect as a wall of wallpaper—soon you don’t even notice that it is there. 

However, I really think watch advertising needs some help.  Especially since younger people are not wearing watches (the time, like weather and news, is on the phone).  A photo of the watch and the name gives little reason to buy, especially a watch that costs as much as a motorcycle.

There is a fine line between too much and too little copy.  It’s not an easy line to see.  However, I think watch makers need to get with the times or soon they really won’t have anything to say.

If you want a job with little work, apply to be a watch advertising writer.

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Mormon and the Book of Mormon

Over the holidays I went to the play “The Book of Mormon” at the Bank of America Theatre in Chicago.  My quick review is that my face hurt from laughing (it’s by the South Park guys so you know what you are going to get).

But when I was reading the playbill prior to the show, I was genuinely surprised by one advertiser in the program.  It was the Mormon Church.

Instead of getting mad or starting an all out war of words and comparison advertising, the Mormon Church strategically attacked with grace, wit and perfect marketing control.

The campaign is three ads in the program:  First ad is, “I’ve read the book,” second ad is, “The book is always better,” and the third ad is, “You’ve seen the play…now read the book.”  Each ad stands well on its own, yet they work even better as a series.  By placing three ads they were sure to be noticed.

Compelling creative.  Short, strong copy.  Unbelievably smart media placement.  And the guts to do it.  ”The Book of Mormon” play is a great work of comedy and performance, and The Book of Mormon advertising is work of genius.

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Make It Real in 2013

This is the start of my 5^th year of blogging.  It is hard to believe how much has changed in marketing in such a short period of time.  As 2013 begins, I’m still haunted by the images in the Nike “jogger” ad.  It is the ad that featured the 12-year-old boy who is 200 pounds. 

Nike always has been able to create great visuals with its advertising and marketing.  However, this one seemed to be more powerful.

The reason I believe this, is that it is so raw and real.  We live in a green-screened, animated,  stock-photo world.  Technology is taking over our lives.  So, this lone child jogging on a gravel road fills us with human hope.  It says “Just do it” without literally saying it.  It makes you cheer.  It moves you.

So as we look to 2013, let’s make it real in our marketing.  In that realism, we will all “find our greatness” in every message we send.

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I Got a Great Deal on My Car

I’ve never heard anyone say that they paid too much for a car.  “It was a great deal,” “They gave me a lot for my trade,” and it goes on and on.  The problem is that most car dealers I know are doing very well for being taken so often by all these good deals.

One dealer says he has the “right deal.”  Another says he has “the lowest prices of anyone.”  The entire car buying experience is built on you feeling like you got a great deal, even if you didn’t get one. 

That is the problem with “everyday low pricing” (ELP) approaches like JCPenney has been toying with.  We want a “deal,” even if we have to pay a little more.   And so you see ELP JCPenney stores venture out into the deal world even though they don’t officially offer coupons, markdowns or deals.  Recently, JC Penney sent out an email with a barcode to get $10 off.  The company insists this is a gift and not a coupon.

JCPenney referred to the coupon habit as ”drugs” that cause a deep-discount addiction.   We  are addicted, but it is to the deal.  And if we don’t feel we are getting a deal, we don’t shop.  JCPenney had a 20% drop in sales in the first half of the year and suspended it’s stock dividend.  That’s a bad deal.

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Do Thank-You Ads Work?

I’ve seen a lot of thank-you ads over the years.  And, it sounds nice to place an advertisement thanking people who have done something for your organization or business.  But I believe these are lost messages. 

The problem may be in the intent of the ad.  It seems to me that thank-you ads are like the fake thank-you notes I get from nonprofit organizations.  The fake notes are disguised required IRS letters of acknowledgement.  Don’t send the two together.  I need one for the tax file and I need one to remind me why I contributed to your organization’s mission.  The two motivations are not the same and should not be in the same letter.

A thank-you ad has the same problem of a dual messaging.  Nearly every United Way runs an ad thanking volunteers and then announcing the goal achievement.  That’s two messages.  And two different and sometimes conflicting advertising motivations.  I’m also not sure the advertisement in the paper, in an email blast or on TV does much to make me feel special.  A thank you is personal.  As much as I like advertising, it is hard for it to get personal unless it is demonstrating a true and direct benefit to an individual.

So in this week of thanks, strive to make your thank yous more personal and meaningful for the recipient, and leave the tax notification and broad proclamations to the media for which it deserves.  By the way, have I said thank you for reading this blog?  Did that sound like I meant it just for you?  Happy Thanksgiving.

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Live Interactive Ad in Magazine

Have you heard about the smartphone that was part of an ad in copies of Entertainment Weekly?  The ad was for CW TV. The outside showed an LCD screen with live text tweets.  Incredible, Right?  

Mashable did a teardown of the ad to reveal what was inside.  It had all the components of a smartphone, including a battery, a mini USB port and a screen.  The keyboard was covered with black tape.  What a way to advertise.  If it were an advertisement.

It is not an ad.  It is a public relations stunt.  Only 1,000 magazines were equipped with the live screen in the ad.  Plus, they were only available to people in LA and New York at newsstands. It is very cool, but this is guerrilla marketing not advertising:  a small targeted audience with a huge talk-value impact.  This is the equivalent of pipe-bomb PR—it only hits a few people, but the media coverage has a far and wide circumference.

Watch for more of these kinds of techniques in the future aimed more at traditional media, digital outlets and social media.

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Political Advertising is Ruining Advertising

The election is over.  Thank God.  Now we can go back to some good, old-fashioned advertising.  Political advertising is ruining advertising and the media that carries it. 

Most of the ads are just bad advertising.  There are no benefits in most of the ads.  Just sharp barbs.  They may make issue associations and organizations smug with false pride, but these ads do nothing.  And, all of this is killing the advertising environment.  So here is what I propose for future regulations on political advertising:

• Only the candidate can speak. No schmaltzy or over-dramatic reads of copy.  A candidate must say it and say it all.
• Make the candidate say the words and be on camera the entire time.  We want to see your eyes.  You can add Photoshop backgrounds, but the candidate must be moved to the front.
• Allow the American people to sue candidates for false advertising.  Any business that runs advertising runs that risk every day. Why are candidates any better?
• Make candidates pay the highest unit rate, not the lowest unit rate.  Why do politicians get a better deal than the American people.  They work for us, right?
• Add a negative tax.  If the ad is negative, add a 50% tax to the advertising so even if we have to hear the negative ad, we get something good out of it.
• Add a hefty garbage-language tax to all pac or special-interest advertising.  If a group like AARP wants to slam some person on TV, let’s at least get a new bridge or a slab of new pavement out of the ordeal.

I’m sure none of this will see the light of day, not to mention a real bill.  But it is time we do something.  In just a few short months, politicians and organizations will start advertising for the caucuses and primaries.

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