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.

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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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Connected World Radio: Post-PC Era

March 20, 2012 By

Post PCWelcome back to Connected World Radio!

We are back and will be on a weekly schedule. The show will also have a loose format consisting of social media news, a tip and a tool. I always want the audience to come away with something tangible and useful they can use right away.

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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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Face Value

November 30, 2009 By

David JacobsI have been fortunate enough to attend a few really great social media conferences in the past few months and while there I noticed something very interesting. It’s something I had experienced in years past as well. Several people that I came into contact with were familiar with me because of Facebook or Twitter and my profile picture specifically helped to jog that recognition. One person even commented how much he enjoyed my picture on Facebook as it includes my new baby Capella on my shoulders. He said it makes him smile every time he sees it pop up in his Facebook stream.

That’s a kind of brand awareness that you can’t purchase for anything. Traditionally we think of brand awareness as it is associated to a logo like the Nike swoosh or Apple’s Apple with a bite out of it. Logo branding is still a powerful tool and I help many customers crate or revitalize their logos but in this increasingly social world there is also a power in your own face. I guess they don’t call it Facebook for nothing.

Don’t underestimate the value of your face. Think carefully about all those profile photos on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook and everywhere else. If you’re into this for building business and brand value, here are some tips to remember:

  • Make sure your picture is a good one. A clear close up view of your face. Make sure the exposure is good and the pose is comfortable and positive. Something that captures a little of your personality is always great.
  • Don’t use cartoon characters or other logos. If it is an account that represents the entire company, a company logo would be appropriate for that.
  • The background should be as clean and clear as possible. You don’t want anything to obscure or take focus away from what’s most important, your face.
  • Don’t change your picture often. You can change it now and again, especially if you get a better picture to use, but try to remain as consistent as possible.

I would not appear with anyone else in your photo with the exception of your kids. This could even be a debated point, but I chose personally to have Capella in my Facebook profile for a few reasons. My personal Facebook account is a little less business and more personal. My Connected World Media Facebook page uses the company logo. My kids are also a big part of my life and so much of who I am, I don’t mind showing that. That being said, I have recently changed my LinkedIn photo to a photo of just me and my Twitter profile pic is the same one although my Twitter custom background has the Capella and me photo on it. I try to use the same photo across all networks as much as possible, again for consistency sake.

As with most things there are no hard and fast answers. You have to discover what works for you and your company, but I hope I have given you some things to think about. As always if you want help in this or any other social media regard, don’t hesitate to contact me. I would love to work with you on your brand image online.

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Carnival Dream to Feature Onboard Social Networking

September 21, 2009 By

When it comes to cruise ships it seams as if bigger is better. Cruise ships keep getting larger and as the population on these floating cities continues to grow so do the services. On-board Internet is nothing new as many ships provide connections and even terminals at cafes shipboard and in room as well. The disadvantage is these connections are often very expensive. But what about the thousands of people who are already onboard with you?

Carnival is the first company to address this with a first of it’s kind on-board social network. From the various terminal points or from your very room on the new Carnival Dream you can connect to an exclusive online social network. There are typical features such as your own profile and the ability to invite friends to activities both on and off ship. I actually think this makes sense because of the enormous number of people on any given ship these days. As a marketing move it’s very smart as younger customers, very familiar with social networks, will appreciate the high tech touch as well as the easier ability to connect with others that share similar interests.

The one thing I see missing is the ability to take your connections with you when the cruise ends. Why not allow this network to continue to function with customers get home? There is no reason customers would not want to continue to communicate with their new friends, especially of they are nearby. There is also an increased chance they may want to take another Carnival cruise together, even allow them to plan the trip right on the network. It’s a community that Carnival is creating with this network and that’s one of the most powerful things a company can do. It’s very much in Carnival’s interest to keep the community going and even extend it to others who have taken Carnival cruises. Your profile could list all the Carnival cruses you have been on with your comments and reviews on each one.  At first blush this feature might looks like a gimmick but it has the potential to be much more than that.

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Social Media is not a Broadcast Medium

August 6, 2009 By

Martha Stewart recently announced she is giving up on Facebook in favor of Twitter. More bang for the tweet she says. Bill Gates also has stopped using Facebook citing difficulty keeping up with friend requests. I hear this from clients as well. Facebook takes more work than Twitter. There is also more nonsense going on with Facebook apps like Pirate games and thrown snowballs. There is nothing quite like the raw simplicity of Twitter. Also with Twitter, you can gain followers without having to do anything. They follow you by choice and you do not have to follow them back. No management required. I understand all this, but don’t underestimate Facebook.

For one thing, I find that more of my non-geeky so called “normal” friends use Facebook much more and sometimes exclusively over Twitter. If your goal is to reach a less bleeding edge audience, Facebook is really the way to go. Also, it’s a fairly easy to thing to get your Tweets to automatically populate Facebook, so there is really no need to completely abandon it.

As far as the reciprocity of Facebook friends go, that brings me to my second point. I wish I had the problem of having to manage more friend requests than I could handle. But it brings up the larger point that many of these stars aren’t interested in reciprocity. They don’t want to listen or converse, they want to talk. Look at Martha’s Twitter and you will find over a million followers but she only follows 35 people. Her tweets rarely if ever include conversations to other people and when they do it’s mostly to other stars. This is common for most big stars on Twitter. They are using Twitter like another broadcast medium. This, of course, is inherently wrong and against the very spirit of social media. They don’t call it social for nothing. It’s disappointing to see this because these stars have an unbelievable  access to their greatest fans. With a million people following you, I’m sure it’s hard to talk to everyone but I see no reason why they cannot at least make an effort  and do what they can.

Facebook takes more work than Twiter because it does more, but Twitter takes work to if you’re doing it right. It’s something my clients often don’t want to hear, this stuff takes work. But marketing your business takes work too and this kind of marketing can pay off in a much more powerful and long lasting way for all that effort.

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Twitter Marketing with Twibbon

July 27, 2009 By

There many interesting and innovative ways to market on Twitter, but here is one of the more interesting ones I have come across lately. Twibbon is a program that overlays a graphic of your design onto Twitter profile pictures. Your profile picture shows up to the left of your every Tweet. It was originally started as a cause marketing system for people wanting to promote things like Cancer research or the current Iran political situation. You can still see this today in profiles that have the green tinting to them. Green is the color of the opposition leader in Iran. Twitter users must opt in and choose to display the overlays on their profile picture. Users can just as easily remove or change the overlay.

More recently, I am seeing marketers pick up on this trend and design overlays for their products and services. Even fans of certain products are creating Twibbons like this fan created overlay for the HBO show True Blood. Now that’s real user generated marketing. If you can convince enough people to use your overlay, there is the potential to get your brand image in front of tens of thousands of people. Plus it’s free and easy to do.

One problem I see for users is how much will this obscure your own profile brand and how many of these things are you willing to layer on top of your profile? I’ve already seen people with multiple overlays. If you are a brand and you are using Twitter for marketing I would not use any other Twibbon other than your own. I don’t think it hurts to have one but make sure your design is tasteful and doesn’t block too much of the original profile photo. Anything that looks bad or that takes over too much of the photo will probably not be used much. Also, as always, monitor the conversation and if you find people mentioning how annoyed they are  by your overlay, get rid of it.

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Connected World Radio: Etsy.com

June 29, 2009 By

Homemade crafters have a wonderful tool in etsy.com to run their small business backend and website. The really smart ones, though, also use social media marketing tools to promote the business.

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Connected World Radio: You Can't Buy Influence

May 23, 2009 By

Very disappointing as I find a company that is selling Twitter followers. They also have some other very questionable online marketing tactics. Two quick rules for you. 1. Don’t spam. 2. Don’t be a scumbag.

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