Blessed Are The Meek

March 3, 2010 by Mike Troiano · Comments

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.

Look again. What do you see?

Filed under Backyard Boston, Driving Engagement, Getting to Imperative · Tagged with Business, Constant Contact, Consulting, internetmarketing, Investment, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Marketing Services, Small business, Social media

Domino’s Steps Toward the Truth

January 4, 2010 by Mike Troiano · Comments

When users are empowered to drown out your marketing messages, the nature of marketing changes. It needs to become “Marketing,” with a capital “M,” and bring more to the table than a tagline. As I said in my last post, where once you could focus on driving the product reality by shaping market perception, now you must also gather market perception to shape the product reality.

As if on cue, I came across a brand embracing this ethos in a very visible way.

If you want to understand why Holland-Mark is so committed to having a real impact on what our clients sell, and not just how they sell it, look no further than the changes underway at Domino’s Pizza…

Good for you, Domino’s.

So have you tried the new ‘za? What’s your take?

Domino’s Embraces Negative Thinking! (thepowerofnegativeblogging.com)
Domino’s Pizza Responds To Snooki’s ‘F— You’ (huffingtonpost.com)
How Restaurants used Social Media in 2009 (restaurantsocialmedia.blogspot.com)
Domino’s Pizza drops, despite 3Q profit surprise on cost-cutting (ceoworld.biz)
Social Complaints: How you can help yourself while helping us (jburg.typepad.com)

Filed under Getting to Imperative, Relevance of Offering, The Holland-Mark Way · Tagged with Brand, Business, Marketing, Marketing and Advertising, Pizza, Positioning, Reality, Restaurant Chains, Retail

The Future of Print Media

December 3, 2009 by Mike Troiano · Comments

Curious what print media will look like in the future? Here’s what Time Inc. thinks…

We think they’re right. What do you think?

A newsfeed bundle for “The future of media” (platform.idiomag.com)
Keynote on Creating the Future of Media including Six Strategic Issues for publishers (myventurepad.com)
Two Takes On The Future of Media: Rubert Murdoch and Clay Shirky (thewavingcat.com)
Adobes CTO Kevin Lynch: Video Content will be Soon be Created for the Mobile Device first in “Total Reversal” of Form Factor (beet.tv)

Filed under Societal Musings · Tagged with advertising, Business, future, Marketing and Advertising, Media, Media Buying and Planning, Sports Illustrated, tablet PC, Time

AOL Un-Brands with Un-Logo

November 23, 2009 by Mike Troiano · Comments

So AOL is going through a re-branding effort as it’s spun out of Time Warner, and a video of the CEO announcing the effort to employees has surfaced:

First … due respect … this is not “the brand,” it is “the logo.” Pet peeve of mine.

Second, while I’m not in the habit of criticizing other agencies’ work, I really think the mark itself is a mistake. On a practical level, a negative-space logo like this – particularly one that only functions on top of other content – is an Art Director’s nightmare.

On a conceptual level, it strikes me as too-clever-by-half. A great logo should add value to what it represents, not call attention to itself, as this does.

Finally, on a strategic level, I just don’t see how this non-idea could ever replace the swirly-A logo we’ve all known for so long. And it needs to.

How to Make a Logo

If you need a logo, take a piece of paper, and write down what you want it to make people think.

Got it? Great. Throw that away.

Now think of what you want your logo to make people feel. Write that down, not as a paragraph, but as a word or two. Then get someone with talent to design something that does that.

That’s what I think, anyway. How about you?

Sneak Peek: AOL’s New Branding Video Appeals to Artsy Headbangers And Acrobats (techcrunch.com)
AOL Reveals Lame New Look & Logo (gigaom.com)
AOL’s New Branding Trades Iconic Running Man For Goldfish (paidcontent.org)
AOL taps strategy boutique ahead of Time Warner spin-off (theregister.co.uk)
New AOL Logo: Aol.com (PHOTOS) (huffingtonpost.com)
Farewell, triangles: AOL preps its post-Time Warner look (news.cnet.com)
pukomuko: atencio: Brand identity firm Wolff Olins did a… (rafer.tumblr.com)
The New AOL (Or Aol.) [Branding] (cityfile.com)

Filed under Clarity of Message · Tagged with AOL, Art Director, Brand, Logo, Marketing and Advertising, Negative space, Time Warner

Social Marketing Is Rooted In The Brand

October 21, 2009 by Mike Troiano · Comments

Your brand is not your logo, or your product. It’s not your trademark or your spokesperson, not your equity capital or your advertising. Your brand is something that lives in the hearts and minds of people out there, and in that sense social marketing is the purest expression of branding.

Here’s a 5-minute talk to that effect I gave at the recent O’Reilly’s Ignite event in Boston, and I welcome your thoughts on it: