Here’s Sal Khan talking about his Khan Academy. To me, it looks like a stunning innovation in education.
So what’s this got to do with your marketing message?
“Marketing by education” is huge, especially in B2B markets. Just look at the crazy success of HubSpot, and all the free marketing education resources they and their partners pump out. (See: Google, Salesforce, Sequoia invest in HubSpot.)
Towards the end of Khan’s presentation, Bill Gates steps in and says “I think you’ve just got a glimpse of the future of education.” I think it’s part of the future of marketing, too.
So the question becomes, no matter what size business you are, how can you can use video for your marketing? Should you offer webinars? Can you make better webinars by using some of Sal Khan’s ideas? What about video for customer service? Video messages on Facebook and blogs to help build your community – or honor your customers?
If you’ve crafted a tight and compelling company/brand story, exuberant fans will spread it for you. Your employees will work harder to play their part in the story. Here are a few videos, created by raving fans, that remind us that if you get your story straight, customers have unprecedented means of spreading it. The videos: Continue reading
In 2010, Toy Story 3 was the top-grossing film in the U.S. by a large margin, and one of the biggest films ever. It was five years in development. But if you assume the Pixar crew spent most of that time using fancy computers to replicate human facial expressions, Buzz Lightyear has a surprise for you.
A lesson for businesses small and large: Pixar spent the first four years of development just getting the story straight!
For four years, they amped up the drama. They made every detail of every plot twist and turn flow together. They filled the story with emotion. Toy Story 3′s secret sauce is not Steve Jobs, Tom Hanks or amazing technology – it’s the storytelling. Continue reading
So you haven’t paid attention to your marketing for a while and it’s starting to show in your bottom line. Time to ramp up?
Ready for some self analysis?
Marketing isn’t something you can easily turn on and off. If you don’t make it part of your everyday routine, constantly thinking of how to better serve and interact with your customers, and constantly monitoring your competition, you put yourself at a huge, ongoing disadvantage.
Where do you start to catch up? Before you do anything else: analyze your situation. Do it yourself, or pay someone with an outside perspective – you’d be amazed at how liberating this can be. In any case, here are three things you need to truly understand: Continue reading
This is not a photo of Hayes Barnard of Paramount Equity Mortgage, who was fined $400,000
You’ll notice I didn’t write “Hayes Barnard and Paramount Equity Lie.” No, I parsed the language (quite cleverly, if I say so myself). It leads you to believe something a bit different than what’s actually written.
It’s kind of like the radio commercials of Hayes Barnard and Paramount Equity Mortgage. Continue reading
Maybe your small business can’t create a huge, beloved hit TV and social media campaign like Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” and “The Response Campaign.” But you take some valuable lessons from it.
In Creativity Online’s case study (below), the client/agency team learned that women control half the purchase decisions for men’s body wash. So their strategy: Unlike competitors such as Axe, find ways to appeal to men and women at the same time. This applies to media choices, and even more important, message development.
Lesson: Study the buying habits of your customers/brand community. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a tiny business or Procter & Gamble. You’ll discover valuable clues about how to engage and connect.
How has a particular insight helped your campaign?
Post a comment below. Or email me directly.
Best ebook ever. Best free ebook ever. Click image to download.
The Cluetrain Manifesto first slapped me in the face in 2002. I ran across this quote again just yesterday. It still stings:
The question is whether, as a company, you can afford to have more than an advertising-jingle persona. Can you put yourself out there: say what you think in your own voice, present who you really are, show what your really care about? Do you have any genuine passion to share? Can you deal with such honesty? Such exposure? Human beings are often magnificent in this regard, while companies, frankly, tend to suck. For most large corporations, even considering these questions – and they’re being forced to do so by both Internet and intranet – is about as exciting as the offer of an experimental brain transplant.”
It still rings true, doesn’t it – especially so soon after watching and re-watching so many Super Bowl commercials. Replace the bit about “intranet” with “social media,” and you can see how timely Locke’s message still is today.
If you catch yourself thinking or writing in the conventions of traditional marketing, I highly recommend you read or re-read it. (Oh go on, it’s free!)
Did the Manifesto affect the way you looked at marketing? Please comment at the end of this post.
The Manifesto had been picking up steam for a couple years…
An interesting column in at ForeignPolicy.com says this of the Egyptian uprising:
Harder than ever to control the message
“It underscores the new reality facing Arab regimes: They no long control the message.” Competing messages gets out via satellite and digital technologies. The days command and control dwindle. (see: The Al Jazeera Revolution)
Tip of the hat to Peter Shankman for finding this:
So, you think your audience is too old for social media? AARP is a pretty sharp marketing organization (whatever you think of their politics). They don’t think their audience is too old. You wanna rethink what you thought you knew?
Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer are one of the year’s big marketing success stories. An expansion team, they’ve sold every available seat and then some; they sold a huge number of season tickets; they’ve become the hot ticket in Seattle. They’ve created a compelling atmosphere inside the stadium. Paying special attention to the on-the-field product, they’ve made the playoffs and may well set even more records.
Yet Major League Soccer hasn’t enjoyed the same success everywhere.
The league has lost significant attendance in some markets, beyond what you might expect from the economic downturn. They’ve experimented with marketing plans that focus on youth soccer players, on Latinos and on young adults, with spotty results. And some of the product is, frankly, disappointing.
What type of marketing effort should the league make in this day and age?
Seattle Sounders FC of Major League Soccer are one of the year’s big marketing success stories. An expansion team, they’ve sold every available seat and then some; they sold a huge number of season tickets; they’ve become the hot ticket in Seattle. They’ve created a compelling atmosphere inside the stadium. Paying special attention to the on-the-field product, they’ve made the playoffs and may well set even more records.
Hi, I'm Barrett Rossie. If you want stronger marketing messages, send me a message through the contact tab above.