Google Ad Thinks Like Apple

April 24, 2012 By

I love this Google ad so much. For one thing, I am a dad, so I do connect emotionally to it, but more than that I love the fact that it is centered on data.

I used to work for the hard disk manufacturer Quantum Corp many years ago. The folks at Quantum were always obsessed with the mechanics of the drive; the rotation speed, data density per platter and error rate. These are all wonderful things to have in a quality disk drive and when you are selling primarily to computer makers like Dell and Apple I suppose it makes good marketing sense. I always wanted Quantum to do a consumer campaign that centered around what I knew what was truly important, the data that lived on those drives. Much like the Intel inside campaign, this would be an effort to get consumers to specify Quantum for their hard drive. Consumers buy based on emotion and what they are emotionally connected to is their data.

I also love that this ad does not talk about features and specs, but focuses on the utility of Google+ and the automatic upload feature. This is a very Apple thing to do by the way. Look carefully at any Apple and you will see a greater emphasis on the utility than specs and features. This is one of the great secrets of Apple’s marketing, they understand people care a lot more about what a particular product can do for them than they do about specs. Other companies can try to compete on specs, but they never tell or show you how their product can change your life.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing, Social Networks, Technology Tagged With: , , ,

George Lucas And Clever Star Wars Marketing

April 19, 2012 By

Here is a great clip of an interview Oprah Winfrey did recently with the legendary George Lucas of Star Wars fame. The thing that caught my attention was his negotiating for the licensing rights. He didn’t do it to get rich and as he says nobody even did licensing for movies back in those days. But Lucas did not think the studio was going to properly promote the movie, so with his licensing rights he could print up t-shirts and buttons and other items that people would wear around town to promote the movie for him. This is real down and dirty guerrilla marketing and I love it. And how ironic that those very same licensing rights would also turn out to be the richest rights in movie history.

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Beware Too Much SEO: Google Changes The Rules

April 12, 2012 By

Search GuyMany times, when I hear people talking about Internet marketing they are mostly talking about search engine optimization (SEO). Companies are obsessed with search ranking on Google, often ignoring other forms of social media marketing. SEO experts have been raking in the cash as well selling companies their fancy tricks for climbing the search ranks. I don’t necessarily have anything against SEO per se and I do reasonable  SEO on Connected World Media projects, but it’s not the complete story.

The party is about to end, however, as Google will be changing their algorithm to compensate for “over optimized sites”. This penalty for overly SEO’ed sites will level the playing field, giving sites with great content a better shot at ranking above sites with not as good content but great SEO.

It’s a constant fight between Google and those that seek to artificially manipulate results. Google’s job is to help customers find what the are looking for in the most pure sense possible. It’s always been about the content and this new change is going to make that even more true than ever. Rather than paying thousands of dollars a month for SEO wizardry, companies will be forced to focus on the content. Real, honest, authentic content. It’s about time.

Connected World Media has always been more interested in content and the strategy that surrounds that content than SEO tricks. Please give us a call at 503-208-6426 if you would like help getting your content strategy in order. In the meantime I would recommend  reading Content Rules by C.C. Chapman and Ann Handley. This is one of the few new marketing books that focus on content and content strategy exclusively.

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Yelp Gets A Power Boost From Apple

March 28, 2012 By

Siri and YelpI have always maintained Yelp is one of the most important resources for businesses who have a very local focus such as contractors and other service industries. Now, it’s even more important as Apple has tightened the integration between Yelp and Siri even more. When users ask Siri, the intelligent agent in every iPhone 4S for information on local resources like a restaurant, Siri uses Yelp as it’s resource. With the new update, Siri will not only bring back the Yelp results but also the user star reviews. Apple has been very restrictive with whom it builds into it’s products as resources. You will notice, it has put Twitter into virtually every aspect of iOS, but there is no Facebook to be found. Think what you want about Apple and the iPhone, but you cannot ignore the massive user base. I would highly recommend you take a look at your Yelp listing. Make sure it’s up to date and accurate and I would also suggest you ask your best customers to place positive reviews for you as well.

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Google Goes Radically Transparent: Unedited Meeting Video

March 12, 2012 By

Google ImageI’m old enough to remember the days when Google was the scrawny upstart and the king of Internet search was Yahoo. Oh, how times have changed. Yahoo now struggles to survive and Google is a giant. One of the downsides of Google’s meteoric rise is that it’s lost a little big of their original mojo. Google controls so much now it seems like just another large, dominant company. It’s lost some of it’s personality and charm. Many even view Google with suspicion and wonder about it’s “do no evil” credo.

Just recently, Google has done something I think is pretty extraordinary. They have posted an 8 minuet video of an engineering meeting on Google search. Completely unedited and unscripted. It’s not particularly thrilling viewing as it’s filled with technical talk about how the spelling corrections work in Google search, but it’s a fascinating look inside one of the world more important companies. It helps people realize there are actual people behind the giant company, people who care about the product they are producing.

So much of what we see from large corporations are heavily produced and edited video and productions. The message crafted. Can you imagine Apple doing much a thing as this? Not in a million years. People like behind the scenes stuff anyway. I wish more companies would have the courage to do things like this. It is moving much closer to what I call talking in a human voice. Being this way and realting better to your customers and prospects is one of the largest strategic advantages smaller companies have against their larger rivals who often are not capable of doing it. Bravo to Goggle on this move.

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The Strange Story Of Marshawn Lynch and Skittles

December 12, 2011 By

Imarshawn_lynch_beats_eagles_eats_skittles‘m a big NFL football fan and while watching Monday Night Football tonight, I watched an odd bit of product placement/marketing. Marshawn Lynch, running back for the Seattle Seahawks scored a touchdown late in the fourth quarter to seal the victory and after he did candy Skittles rained down on him in the endzone from the fans. The camera showed fans celebrating, many waving homemade signs that said “Feed The Beast” and had Skittles wrappers on them. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out what was going on. One Google search later, I had the story.

It turns out Marshawn Lynch loves Skittles. It’s his favorite snack and ever since he was little his mom has been giving him Skittles before his football games. Now he celebrates his touchdowns by grabbing  a handfull of Skittles on the sidelines after he scores. The story got legs after week 13 of the season when the Seahawks destroyed the Philadelphia Eagles and Lynch had a monster game. The cameras clearly caught him eating Skittles after his first quarter touchdown. Soon after the game, Skittles jumped on the opportunity and offered Lynch a two years supply of the candy and a custom dispenser for his locker. I can’t wait for the offseason skittlesSkittles ads featuring Lynch.

This is one of those great marketing moments. It’s nothing you could ever plan for or expect, but good on Skittles for being on the ball enough to quickly capture the opportunity. “Feed the Beast” is the Skittles marketing slogan and now it’s also the nickname for the Seahawks big time running back. In business, sometimes you have to be good and sometimes you just get really lucky.

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Old Fashioned Guerrilla Marketing

September 12, 2011 By

Bulletin BoardWe like to be all high tech and fancy free here at Connected World Media, but on a recent walk around town I noticed a good old fashioned marketing tool, the community bulletin board. Spaces in all kinds of establishments that the public frequents where you are allowed to post materials about your business. What could be better? It’s fairly easy and inexpensive to come up with a flyer you can carry around in the car and post on these boards when you are traveling around town. Just because we specialize in social media doesn’t mean we shun traditional media when it makes sense. Think about it, these free boards can be though of as an early generation of social media. It’s a place where people can share information with each other. It’s not as efficient or sophisticated sure, but why would you pass up a free advertising spot? I’ve made the mistake in the past of overspending on overly elaborate marketing materials. Guerrilla marketing isn’t always the sexiest thing in the world, but often it’s better than your over-processed marketing plan.

Filed Under: Blog, Marketing

Netflix Dreams Of A Future Not Quite Here Yet

July 12, 2011 By

NetflixOn-line movie rental service Netflix today announced it is changing its pricing plans for customers. Now customers will generally have to choose either an online only streaming plan for their movie watching or a DVD by mail only plan. There is indeed a combo plan, but the price for that has skyrocketed to $17.98 a month. Netflix is forcing customers to choose one side of the fence or the other.

The company says it’s customers are already watching more content streamed on the Internet than its traditional DVD by mail option. It’s true DVD by mail is getting old and the technology easily exists for Netflix to do most of its business online. But when CEO Reed Hastings says “We are now primarily a streaming video company” I have to call time out.

Netflix has done a great job of getting their streaming service on just about every piece of electronic hardware there is from DVD players to XBox, Wii and even the iPad. But the available streaming library is woefully lacking. There is nothing I would like more than to only use Netflix online and stop all DVD mailings, but if you look at my current movie queue, that’s just not possible. Of the 38 movies I have in que, 19 of them are available for streaming but 19 are only available on DVD by mail. There is no way I will give up DVD by mail until that percentage gets up to 90% of my que available streaming. The only saving grace is that Netflix says it will spend more on licensing for streaming this year than for physical DVD’s. If they really want to be primarily a streaming movie company, they are going to have to get a much larger percentage of their library on the streaming service. So far, that transition has been much too slow, especially if you compare what is available online from Apple and Amazon. Enjoy your DVD’s while you can, because in 5-10 years, they will be extinct as the dinosaur.

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Barnes & Noble Almost Pull Off A Gutsy Marketing Move

July 1, 2011 By

Missed It“Missed it by that much….” – Maxwell Smart (Agent 99)

When I saw the headline, “Barnes and Noble offers 30 free e-books to switch to Nook” I thought, oh yeah, now we’re talking. When you are competing with the industry leader who has a stronghold on the market, you need to do something pretty dramatic if you’re going to get a leg up. Giving 30 free e-books to switchers would have been just the kind of bold, ballsy move that could have changed the tide, at least a little. Alas, it turns out Barnes and Noble isn’t that gutsy after all and this promotion isn’t going to do a damn thing. The 30 free books, you see, are chosen by Barnes and Noble and span a wide variety of titles from cooking to history to fiction. Great, you gave me 30 books, of which if I am lucky I might be  interested in one or two. They claim it’s a $300 value. Some value.

You see, the real problem is if I already have an Amazon Kindle, I have all my books already stored there. I don’t have access to them on the Nook and this creates a nice lock in for Amazon. Now if you allow me to take 30 of my favorite titles over, and make it even better, the rest of my titles for a nice discount price, you will be able to generate switchers. What would this cost Barnes and Noble? Plenty to be sure but what’s the value of a new lifelong customer? This game is hardball and either you step up and play or you’re going to be out of the game soon.

The same thing can be seen in the tablet wars. Apple is the dominant player with the iPad. Competition is coming now from various Android tablets and most recently HP. But the HP tablet starts at $500 and many of the Android tablets are close to the same price point. That’s the same price as the iPad and like it or not, those tablets are just not as good as the iPad yet. Price being equal, people are going to choose the iPad. If these alternative tablets are going to make any headway, someone is going to have to through down a price like $300. This is not about profit or loss at his point, when you are trailing a dominant player like Apple, you’ve got to grab market share anyway you can.

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Connected World Radio: Lessons from Pottermore

June 24, 2011 By

PottermoreWe look at the lessons gained from JK Rowling’s stunning announcement of Pottermore.com. eBooks will be available for the first time for the Harry Potter series but Mrs. Rowling cuts out the middle man opting to go straight to the consumer via her new website. Welcome to the new world of direct one to one relationships between business and consumers.

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