Just curious.
Sooo, whaja think of the Addy Awards?
6
Monthly Archives: March 2009
Old? Or classic?
It’s 1982 and about 15 degrees below zero.
Like we did every Saturday night, we were standing on a road that came to a dead end in the St. Lawrence River, with a raging bonfire and stacks of Genny Cream Ale we stole from our dads.
That was life growing up in Massena, New York…north of everything that mattered. My buddies and I would sit around and joke about how cool it would be to work at the Genesee Brewery. Think of all the free beer.
Our dads. We were always so much smarter than them.
It’s 2008 and about 15 minutes before our pitch to High Falls Brewing Company.
Like we did at every pitch, we were standing in a conference room with stacks of black boards, this time containing every good idea we could think of to help sell Genny Cream Ale.
It wouldn’t be easy. How do you sell a beer that’s universally thought of as an old man beer to younger guys? Guys who likely had their first taste of beer sitting in Dad’s lap, taking little sips of his Genny Cream. Guys who routinely liberated some Genny Cream from Dad’s garage without necessarily asking. Guys who realize with every passing day that Dad was right about more and more things.
Hey. Wait a minute.
Our dads. They were always so much smarter than us.
******
With the recent change in ownership at High Falls Brewing Company, it brought to mind that there are classics right in our backyard…whether it’s a classic brand from the old Genesee Brewery or a man in black socks and sandals mowing the lawn.
Meet Gary, Social Media Ninja
Gary Vaynerchuk owns a wine shop in New Jersey named the Wine Library, and also happens to be a social media expert. Now, I understand that you can’t swing a dead cat on the web these days without hitting a “social media expert”, but Gary’s the real deal, i.e. he uses tools like online video and twitter to actually increase sales, seemingly the point of our efforts.
His experience captures a dilemma facing the advertising industry: For very specific brands in very specific categories, digital technology will replace a big chunk of the “traditional” advertising spend. And with a bit of courage and panache, clients can do it themselves. This quote from an article in the New York Times on Gary’s approach sums it up:
“Last December, seeking to enhance sales, he offered free shipping and promoted it three ways. Direct marketing cost $15,000 and brought in 200 new customers; a billboard cost $7,500 and won 300 new customers; and tweeting the promotion on Twitter attracted 1,800 new customers.”
Sales up, costs down, and he’s humanized the store. I’m the first person to say that for 99% of brands, apps like facebook make little sense. People don’t want to be friends with detergent. But there will be exceptions and there’s more to social media than facebook. Here’s my free advice to agencies: have a point of view, educate your clients, and experiment like crazy under your own roof. Unlike Gary, most will want a partner.
Matt Jones
What’s PR got to do with it?
I was thrilled to have been chosen as a RIF RAF blogging team member. Ever since, I’ve been looking forward to my inaugural blog post. Yet I’ve also been debating what to write about, because I am a PR girl in RAF’s largely advertising world.
It seems there are several misconceptions about what public relations entails, so I thought it made sense to lead with a discussion about the value of our work.
True, public relations often goes unnoticed, but if we’re doing our job correctly, the work of a PR professional should go unnoticed. We are Jacks-of-all-trades, working behind-the-scenes to bring our clients’ news to the attention of their key audiences.
As a matter of fact, the Martino Flynn PR team recently did just that for RAF. In advance of the ADDY Awards tomorrow, we crafted a press release and secured an item in the D&C about the event.
While generating publicity (aka “media relations”) is one facet of public relations, our arsenal of tools allows us to do many things…whether it’s organizing trade shows, ghostwriting byline articles, or even establishing a crisis contingency plan.
Ultimately, PR can be a credible, cost-effective complement to the communications mix—helping a company to foster relationships with its constituents, and position how it is perceived now and in the future.
Photoshop: Friend or Faux?
it’s the beauty secret of the industry. and the subject of much debate. some say it adds an air of aspiration. others say it paints an unrealistic body image and false sense of face. and some are calling for full disclosure. see ny times op-ed video:
personally, i wouldn’t mind a retoucher slimming me down and smoothing my skin every single day. but i’m vain like that.
care to weigh in?
— Robin Lohkamp
Love for LinkedIn
I’m going for a job interview this week. I know the name of my interviewer and her organization. Within 2 minutes I expect to know her background, what she looks like, and whether or not I know anyone who knows her. Yes, I’m talking about LinkedIn.
As a freelancer, I’ve come to rely on tools like LinkedIn, but it’s not just for me…
- Employers send requests to their contacts when they need to fill a position (that’s how this opportunity came my way).
- Colleagues promote each other when their contacts have opportunities (again, how I got hooked up).
- People get references from other people who are in their “degrees of separation.”
Plus, it’s just fun to look up people you know (God, did everyone in this town except me work at Buck and Pulleyn at some point???).
LinkedIn may seem like old news, but I still find a lot of people who either aren’t on, or whose profiles badly need attention. Seems like the Rochester ad community lives and breathes by its connections. If you’re not already linked up, get hopping.
Tivos, DVRs and Timeshifted viewing – Oh my!
So, the audience watching timeshifted tv has increased by 36% from the previous year. Locally, 26% of Rochesterarians have DVRs. That means more and more people are able to fast forward through your commercials that were so lovingly created. How can we be sure that people are actually seeing the commercials and not flying through them?
It is important to look at your media buy and see where you may lose the eyeballs. Are you running in highly DVRd shows such as Lost, The Office or Heroes? On average more that 20% of their viewers are watching it on their DVR. If you are buying a lot of news and sports, your commercials are pretty safe. Look at purchasing the first spot in or last spot out of break, or you may consider buying spots online before news stories to support your campaign. Yes, it’s annoying to sit through a commercial online, but I’ll take forced viewership over fast forwarded viewership any day. Now is the time for media people to show their creativity.
Of course as media people, we all complain about the DVRs and Hulu.com taking away our “Must See TV” but I’ll tell you a secret…I don’t know any person in media that doesn’t use their DVR. Obsessively. I don’t think I have watched a show at the programmed time in 6 years. Buffy, how I miss you.
Remember the Facebook freakout?
Who remembers the old Facebook layout? Who remembers this guy?
Better yet, who remembers about a year ago when everyone, including me, totally freaked when the layout was upgraded to a more “intuitive, user-friendly” interface?
How did they know I would grow to love the new layout and eventually dismiss previous, technically-inferior layouts as Web 1.0 rubbish?
Well, they’re at it again.
And this time…(deep breath)… I trust them.
What are your thoughts on the proposed upgrades to Facebook?
What’s your pepperoncini?
Something crosses my mind every time I get a pizza from Papa John’s.
I’m just fascinated by the fact that with every single pizza, they include a pepperoncini pepper in the box.
I know, I know…the marginal cost of this is probably a penny per pizza- but it goes a long way for me as a marketer.
It reminds me why they are different, why they are better. It brings their brand promise to life. It says to me, “You ordered pizza, we delivered more.”
So, it makes me wonder- what little things can you do for clients and customers to add value and remind them why you are different, why you are better. Because it’s the little things like that which make a brand unique and excite people.
It makes me think, what’s my pepperoncini?
What’s yours?
What the Dream Team was to basketball, this team is to blogging
Ok, you’d have to know USA Olympic basketball to get that. Even then, it may not make sense. But this does: we recently invited 5 area pro’s to form the RIF RAF blog team.
The group was recruited to represent a range of specialties, and each member will be bringing it a couple times a month, beginning this week. Here’s the lineup:
1. Michael Chatfield, Account Planning, Partners & Napier
2. Duane Bombard, Freelance Creative Director
3. Sharon Harper, Public Relations, Martino Flynn
4. Susan Cregan, Media, Butler Till
5. Andrea Zuegel, Freelance Internet Strategy
To round things out, you’ll also see posts from RAF board members. Consider this an invite to join the conversation. And if you’d like to be included on a future roster, drop me a note.
Matt Jones