Organic Marketing Musings

Excellent article in today’s MarketingProfs.com by Glenn Gabe about how Boar’s Head took action and empowered their customers to report misuses of their brand and product by deli owners. The article is a must-read as Gabe does an excellent job at illustrating each point, but the short list is:

Earn trust by always going above and beyond for your customers.

Communicate with your customers!

Build your insider program.

Don’t be afraid to ask for help when needed.

Arm them.

Follow up with your customers

The point is that your customers can be the greatest extension of your team if you give them the right infrastructure to communicate with you and the information to empower them.

Radio ads rarely intrigue me. They typically invoke an immediate response to change the station, or they just hang in the background until the next song comes on.

But, recently, a radio advertisement for Boar’s Head meats demanded my attention. It was about an old flimflam and a unique way that Boar’s Head is trying to battle a longstanding problem.

After hearing the commercial, I came home and immediately visited the Boar’s Head Web site.

Here’s a quick rundown. About 20 years ago, Boar’s Head realized a disturbing trend: Some deli owners would show Boar’s Head in the deli case, but then use a cheaper deli meat when actually making sandwiches—not good for Boar’s Head, not good for customers, and ultimately not good for the deli owner.

Fast-forward to today. Unfortunately for Boar’s Head, a company with a long and proud history, it seems that the old flimflam has again reared its ugly head.

But Boar’s Head isn’t sitting back and taking the punches. It’s fighting back. How? Well, it isn’t sending an entire force of lawyers out on the streets, and it certainly isn’t sending the deli police on raids. That wouldn’t scale, or be that powerful.

Instead, Boar’s Head is tapping into a much more powerful force that it has worked hard to build over the years. That’s right—the Boar’s Head loyal customer base! The company is asking consumers to report any deli that’s pulling the old flimflam. It has set up an 800 number and wants customers to demand to see the actual product that is being sliced. Brilliant!

Read the rest of the article here.

TubeMogul, a powerful video syndication & analysis platform, has released data from a research report that concludes video viewership peaks early. Based on a 90-day study of 10,000 videos, they can now offer a simple projection of how many video views can be expected within a year and what percent of the total expected views views have already occurred. That video calculator is available here.
They set out with a simple question: “Throughout the life of a video, do most views occur in the first few days and weeks or are they distributed randomly over time?”
The data is clear: video viewership peaks early.
So what does this mean to video producers and marketers? It brings up a number of interesting challenges. Here are just a few that come to mind right away…
•How do we leverage videos in the early period to get the most out of the viewershp?
•What type marketing initatives should be implemented after the first 90 days to continue viewing momentum?
•What is the best time frame for releasing serial videos?
With so much happening in the area of online video, I’m sure that many of these best practices will be forming quickly.

Last month we head up to NY to Book Expo America to promote Book Divas and meet publishers, writers, and the like. It was an incredible experience to meet new people and also to meet many of the people I have known and been doing business with for years, but have never met face-to-face.
We attended the Galley Cat party at Lolita the night before the Expo launched and were captured on Media Bistro film:

“mediabistro.com and GalleyCat threw a huge publishing bash to welcome all the publishing industry pros to town for BookExpo America. More than 200 people packed into Lolita to meet, mingle, share BookExpo survival tips, and meet special guest Dana Vachon. One party-goer called the party “the go-to event for young publishing.” Many thanks to GalleyCat editors Ron Hogan and Sarah Weinman for hosting a fantastic party!

I returned last night from Dallas, after spending the last four days at the 7th annual eWomen Network International Conference and Business Expo held at the impressive Hyatt Regency hotel. Over 2500 business women, mostly business owners, joined together for what was an unbelievable production of inspirational speakers, power networking, fundraising, and some good old friend making.
What was more impressive, though, than the shiny, tiered bar graph of a hotel was the amazing speakers…Linda Kaplan Thaler of the Kaplan Thaler Group, Stedman Graham (the accomplished marketer & brand expert, and yes, Oprah’s significant other), Tory Johnson (Founder & CEO of Women for Hire, and Workplace Contributor on Good Morning America), the amazing Patricia Russell-McCloud (Professional Orator and Author of A is for Attitude), Carly Fiorina (the first women Chairperson and CEO of Hewlett-Packard), Michael Port (Author of Book Yourself Solid), Carol Gardner (Founder and CEO of Zelda Wisdom - those cute greeting cards and books of the bulldog, Zelda, dressed up in funny costumes)…and many, many other fantastic and inspirational speakers.

Executed flawlessly by Sandra Yancey, CEO of eWomenNetwork, and her staff, the conference included a Power of the Purse Silent Auction, an on-site Origins Pampering Spa (yes, there were masseurs, manicures, pedicures, and facials available with all proceeds benefiting the eWomenNetwork Foundation) and what was dubbed “An Evening of Chocolate Decadence”. Despite my love for chocolate, I opted to experience a little bit of Texas and for the first time in my life, attend a real Texas rodeo - at Resistol Arena in Mesquite, Texas. Not only did I get a chance to watch bucking bronchos and bull riding, but the evening wasn’t complete without the special events of “Mutton Bustin’” - where children under 55 pounds ride on top of a bucking sheep, and my favorite - a cowboy monkey riding on top of a dog.

While nice to experience a bit of the local flavor, I came to Dallas to learn from some very accomplished business people. Here are some quotes I heard throughout the weekend that I’d like to leave off with…

On Marketing…
•“Don’t focus on the marketing tactics, focus on building trust & creditability in your marketplace.” - Michael Port
•“Only work for clients that most inspire you, for then you will do your best work.” - Michael Port
On Success in Business…
•“A change in attitude is the change from ‘Duh!’ to ‘Ahh!’” - Patricia Russell-McCloud
•“Leaders don’t look for followers, they look for other leaders.” - Stedman Graham
•“Passion and curiosity are more important than intelligence.” - Tory Johnson
•“Think big, set a big vision, for they will push and propel you.” - Sandra Yancey
•“Don’t become a victim of circumstance, become a victor.” - Stedman Graham
On Balancing One’s Life…
•“If you don’t replenish, the well runs dry.” - Oprah, via an email sent to Stedman Graham to read at the conference
On Being a Women in Business…
•“Well-behaved women don’t make history.” - Patricia Russell-McCloud

It’s been about 9 weeks since the relaunch of Book Divas and we have been so busy with promotions, reviews, setting up Author Visits, and even launching our First Annual “Words to Art” Contest.
Here’s a couple of things going on we’d like to share…
•Words to Art Contest launched on Monday, May 21 and will run through June 22nd. BUST magazine rocks
as our co-sponsor. We have three awesome artists judging the entries: Leigh Young, Yasemin Kackar, and Angela Munitz. The deal with the contest is that we are asking our members to submit a piece of art inspired by their favorite book, scene, or character. The art can take any form…painting, sculpture, photography, a quilt, song, video, or other computer-generated art.
•The Starter Wife Movie Contest was just launched last night to help promote the book-turned-6-hour-movie on USA, starring Debra Messing. Book Divas is giving away prizes worth over $500! Show some love and check out the movie when it premieres on “with a special two-hour episode” Thursday, May 31 at 9/8C on USA Network. Come on, you know you miss Will & Grace.
•Check out the book review on Unlikely by Jeffery Brown, done by our own Matthew Bernstein. Matthew enjoyed the book so much, he’s reviewing Jeffery Brown’s other books so look for those on Book Divas soon.
•Book Divas is attending Book Expo America next week! Our first of many Expos, I’m sure.
•Also - a couple of more contests are currently running (straight book giveaways - great for summer reads) Check them out here, though you’ll have to register to see them & enter.
There’s a lot more in the works, including 4 Author Visits coming up through the summer and fall so check out the site if you haven’t yet!

Sinuate Media is proud to announce that CEO Leah Messina will be speaking at the Educational Symposium of the Young Professional Network of the Columbia Chamber of Commerce on March 20th, 2007 on the topic of online marketing. Leah will be speaking alongside Duane Carey of IMPACT Marketing.

Educational Symposium of YPN: Business Development

Featuring

Aaron Altscher

from NBC’s The Apprentice

7:45 am to 12 Noon, March 20, 2007

Loyola College

8890 McGaw Road, Columbia

7:45 – 8:15 Registration, Networking &

Continental Breakfast

8:20 Program Begins

This first Education Symposium is designed to provide young professionals (and those young at heart!) with essential ingredients of a successful business.

Symposium Topics include:

Marketing

Personal Presentation

Negotiation

Career Development Strategies

Follow Through

“TRYSUMERS: “Freed from the shackles of convention and scarcity, immune to most advertising, and enjoying full access to information, reviews, and navigation, experienced consumers are trying out new appliances, new services, new flavors, new authors, new destinations, new artists, new outfits, new relationships, new *anything* with post mass-market gusto.””
Does this make you as excited as it does me?

One of my favorite trend analysis companies, TrendWatching, launched this new briefing this week on Trysumers — new consumers, willing to try out more and more as prices have decreased and niche products overtaken our consumer livelihood. (ok, well not entirely, but we are thisclose.)

The briefing really speaks to the importance of sampling - consumers more and more want to test out products for free or low-cost before they buy or commit to a high price.

The take-away: traditional retail has changed, big time. Smaller retailers have powerful tools to compete like the social shopping sites Cloudstorm. Even consumers are becoming their own little businesses, and the Long Tail is growing. From pop up stores to Nike’s pop up vans, consumers are looking for experience before they commit. If you don’t offer it, someone else will.

Mobile Marketing continues to immerse itself in major brand names. The latest use of mobile marketing….to fight bad breath. Promo Magazine reports today…

Crest is tapping into the sensitive issue of bad breath by targeting young people where irresistible fresh breath can really count; when boy meets girl. The SMS campaign is one component in a broader effort to drive sales and brand awareness of its new toothpaste, Crest Whitening Plus Scope Extreme.

All across the country branded napkins began landing under the noses of 18- to 34-year-old females in nightclubs, bars and eateries two weeks ago with a call to action to “take the Crest irresistibility IQ quiz for a chance to win prizes” by playing on their mobile devices.

“We want to make sure we connect with them where they are really thinking about fresh breath and reach them in places where it makes sense,” said Kevin Buss, Crest interactive marketing manager.

Players text the message “IQ” or “Extreme” to the short code 27378 to receive a series of questions based around dating scenarios and written by Samantha Daniels, a relationship expert and author of Matchbook: The Diary of a Modern Day Matchmaker.

For example, one question asks: Tonight is destined to be special, what do you wear? Three answer choices are: Whatever’s on top of the laundry basket that looks clean; The killer outfit that somehow landed on my credit card last weekend; And, I go with the fallback I haven’t worn in a while. It looks great no matter what. A message bounces back letting the player know whether they are at the top of their game or may need to polish up a bit on their dating skills. The message tells players to check out CrestIQ.com and to try Crest Whitening Plus Scope Extreme, made by Procter & Gamble.

Players can register to enter a sweepstakes for a chance to win video iPods, iPod Nanos, iTunes gift cards and signed copies of Nick Cannon’s latest album, Stages. Cannon is the host of MTV’s Wild ‘N Out and was featured on the Web site when it—and the product—first launched in April. The sweeps ends July 31.

The SMS campaign runs on all major U.S. wireless carriers including AT&T-Cingular, T-Mobile, Sprint Nextel and Verizon. The IQ Test was created by mobile direct marketing company, Flytxt Inc., Seattle, which handles the campaign. Eprize, Pleasant Ridge, MI, hosts the quiz.

“You can see people sitting around the bar participating, taking the quiz and having a laugh,” said Carsten Boers, president of Flytxt..

In addition to the SMS campaign, Crest partnered with popular social site MySpace.com to create a Miss Irresistible profile to promote the quiz. The profile launched in April followed by TV spot and print in May.

As reported in Promo Magazine this morning: Interference, Inc., the agency behind the Cartoon Network marketing stunt that prompted a citywide bomb scare in Boston last Wednesday, and its client, Turner Broadcasting System, issued public apologies Friday for the ruckus. In a statement released on its Web site, Interference said it didn’t intend for the stunt to cause harm. “We at Interference, Inc. regret that our efforts on behalf of our client contributed to the disruption in Boston and certainly apologize to anyone who endured any hardship as a result,” the statement said. “Nothing undertaken by our firm in any way intended to cause anxiety, fear or discomfort to anyone. We are working with Turner Broadcasting and appropriate law enforcement and municipal authorities to provide information as requested and take other appropriate actions.” Interference CEO Sam Ewen could not be reached for comment Friday. The agency also does work for Clorox, Discovery Channel, Fila, G.E., Godiva, HBO, MTV and Sony Ericsson. Also Friday, Phil Kent, chairman and CEO of Turner Broadcasting System, Inc., apologized for the “the confusion and inconvenience” the stunt caused through a full-page ad in Boston newspapers. The company’s letter acknowledged it is taking responsibility for the incident. “We never intended this outcome and certainly did not set out to perpetrate a hoax,” Kent said in the letter. “What we did is inadvertently cause a great American city to deal with the unintended impact of this marketing campaign. For this, we are deeply sorry.” “Our focus today and in the days ahead is on demonstrating to you the sincerity of our desire to do what is right,” the letter said. “What happened in Boston is a humbling reminder that reputation is something we earn every day. We are working to regain your respect.” Calls seeking additional comment from Turner were not returned. The comments come as the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office continues its investigation into the incident, in which it is seeking upwards of $750,000 in restitution against Turner Broadcasting for fees the city incurred responding to what it believed was a terrorist threat (PROMO Xtra, Feb. 1, 2007). Boston Police Department fees alone are estimated at $150,000, a spokesperson for Mayor Thomas Menino said. The Boston police alerted several agencies to handle the situation. Among them were the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the U.S Secret Service, Massachusetts State Police, Federal Park Police, Transit Police and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. As of Friday, Boston officials were still working toward a resolution on recovering costs related to the security scare, a spokesperson for the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office said. State officials are also investigating whether or not to pursue legal action. Turner hired New York-based Interference to execute the guerilla marketing campaign to promote the Cartoon Network show Aqua Teen Hunger Force. The stunt included placing several small, electric signs in 10 cities last month. The agency selected the locations to place the boards, Turner said. The blinking 12-by-14-inch devices, which resembled a circuit board, had wires, batteries and magnets protruding from them. It featured a character from the adult cartoon raising its middle finger. Those components made them look like bombs, triggering calls to Boston police, city officials said. Last Wednesday, police shut down a highway and called in the bomb squad, throwing the city into a panic. The stunt resulted in the arrests of two men Interference hired to place the light boards in Boston. Peter Berdovsky, 27, of Arlington, MA, and Sean Stevens, 28, of Charlestown, MA, were charged Wednesday with one count each of placing a hoax device and disorderly conduct. A Charlestown District Court judge ordered Berdovsky to surrender his passport, the Massachusetts Attorney General’s office said. Both men were released Thursday on $2,500 bonds after pleading not guilty and are due back in court on March 7. After their release, the two suspects met with reporters, who questioned them on their role. The men, who were advised by their lawyers not to talk about the incident, instead joked about their hair and hairstyles from the 1970s, saying they would only answer reporters’ questions about hair. Yet, Berdovsky released a statement later, saying, “I regret that this incident has created such anguish and disruption for the residents and law enforcement officers of this city. I certainly never intended to do anything to frighten this community, which has welcomed and nurtured me for 10 years.” Meanwhile, news of the marketing fiasco has played out on social networking sites like YouTube. Some people have made videos of their own response to the marketing fiasco. Others are adding comments to the videos themselves, including footage of recent TV news coverage of the incident. The response to those videos was mixed. One viewer wrote, “Has anyone heard of Viral Advertising? Geez.” Another wrote, “Well, with something this terrifying you can understand the panic.” Visitors can see exactly how the light boards were erected in Boston. YouTube has video showing the men putting up the displays at YouTube.com/watch?v=doD_VpT_yAY. As of Friday, people had viewed the clips more than 38,000 times since they first appeared on Thursday. Interference reps erected 400 light boards in 10 cities, including Boston, New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Atlanta, Seattle, Portland, OR, Austin, TX, San Francisco and Philadelphia. No other incidents have been reported in the other markets, Turner said.

An interesting article originally appeared on ClickZ on January 26. It brings up a lot of interesting things from brands experimenting with virtual worlds to mobile ordering your Starbucks latte. Most interesting to me…the mixing and middling of typical demographics.

Another trend [Edie] Weiner predicts is “time space.” The human lifespan will extend, and the aging curve has flattened. “Seventy year olds have iPods, and kids have cell phones,” she observed.

As marketing has moved from “one message to all” to “targeted messages”, we have to continue to break down niches into tiny group where the Long Tail theory will prove to be our mantra.