Look at this piece of utter hackery at left. It breaks every rule of good marketing communications. It’s unfocused. It’s ugly. It has giant freaking dollar signs, for chrissakes. Blecch.
And yet…
I find it interesting that humble brands – local restaurants, obscure b-to-b specialists, retailers like this one – seem able to embrace the “Content Marketing” ethos more readily than their advertising-addicted counterparts.
I look at this primitive execution – unfocused, horribly designed, e-mail based, etc. – and can’t help but admire the way it’s rooted in the belief that the best way to sell is to inform and empower.
And you know what? This stuff works. It’s arguably the best of two worlds, combining pull-worthy content with push-enabled reach. That would certainly explain Constant Contact’s lofty growth and impressive market cap.
While I of course believe that a dose of “professional marketing” could make something like this a lot more effective, I think there’s much to be learned from it by me and my fellow Big-Time Brand Folk.
Quite a trip to Florida last week in support of Hello Health, a big effort for the agency and a big win for Hello Health. We put some pics into Posterous; here’s the carousel…
So here’s the video from my thing last week. The audio isn’t great, and it turns out I’m not as good looking as I’d hoped. If you prefer the slides and the VO, see here.
Our very own Mike is the lunch keynote speaker at LaunchCamp Boston 2010 this Thursday, February 4. From what he’s told me, he’ll be sharing a bit about Scalable Intimacy, his philosophy on maintaining personal relationships while scaling your business. In short, what it takes to effectively leverage digital and social media to build meaningful relationships with your target consumer.
As most of you know, Mike joined Holland-Mark at the end of last year to head up our digital practice. In that time he has focused his efforts on imbuing new and existing clients with a practical understanding of the criticality of social media, as well as how it can be used to engage in more effective business practices. It’s great to have him out there sharing the wealth.
“Using the Web to build your brand is less and less about creating destinations, and more and more about creating content useful to the people you want to reach, then empowering them to access that content wherever and however they like. When you do this, you create a distinct and direct connection with a motivated consumer.”
A handful of Holland-Mark folks will be there and we’d love to see some of your familiar faces.
LaunchCamp is a day-long bootcamp focused on identifying and replicating some of the best practices in the market for moving entrepreneurial organizations along the growth curve. LaunchCamp takes a fresh look at the technologies and tools that are driving PR, marketing, social media and management, and attempts to identify the challenges that organizations face in the launch process.
More details on LaunchCamp can be found on their event website.