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?
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Mike Troiano keynotes at LaunchCamp 2010
February 3, 2010 by Anita Tandon · Comments
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.
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How Social Media Is Like Cocaine
January 19, 2010 by Mike Troiano · Comments
Bill Cosby did a stand-up video back in the day called “Bill Cosby, Himself.” It’s one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen, and probably had a bigger impact on my parenting philosophy than anything outside my own family. You can get it on Amazon. You can also watch the video for free on Google Video.
At around 5:30, Cos is in the middle of a bit about drugs and alcohol, where he makes this observation:
“…But the worst is that cocaine. I came across a guy once, doing a line, and I said, “Hey – Tell me… what is it with the cocaine that makes it so wonderful?”
He said <snobby>, “Well, what’s wonderful about cocaine is that it intensifies your personality.”
And I said, “Yes, but what if you’re an asshole?”
In this sense, social media is like cocaine. It intensifies your brand personality. But not the one in your advertising. The one in reality.
For most brands, the best way to take advantage of social media is to do something worth talking about. Use it to make your product better. Deliver “remarkable” service, in the literal sense of that term. Listen, and engage where you can help. In the long run, that will take you further than 1,000 Facebook fans ever could.
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He Had A Dream
- Image via Wikipedia
As it happens, the world as a whole is coming together right now in much the same way, albeit through social media, to help out those in Haiti. I wonder what Dr. King would have done to motivate the world if he had Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and Google. Would he applaud our efforts to help those in despair or think that in an age of such powerful mediums we should be doing that much more. I think and I hope we have come a long way since April 4, 1968, but I know that sharing in the music and the love that the Gospel Choir brought to us on Saturday night was a good reminder of what we must continually do now. People coming together to embrace a spirit of love and acceptance… I think Dr. King would be proud.
Do something today in his honor, however small.
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The White Lie
January 5, 2010 by Mike Troiano · Comments
Caught this on NPR today… It turns out ski resorts have been <gulp> overstating snowfall to attract skiers:
Eric Zitzewitz and Jon Zinman are both associate professors of economics and fans of snow sports. In their report, Wintertime for Deceptive Advertising, they found that ski areas report more snowfall on the weekends, and that there is no such “weekend effect” in government weather data.
Zinman says they gathered snowfall totals from ski area Web sites and then compared those numbers with government weather data. According to Zinman, resorts reported 23 percent more snow on weekends. And the resorts that had the most to gain by fluffing up their numbers did more of it.
According to Zinman, resorts with more people living within driving distance inflated their numbers more, as did resorts that don’t offer money-back guarantees.
Shocking, I know.
Perhaps more interesting, it appears social media is providing a new incentive to tell the truth:
But in the age of Facebook and Twitter, he also says these traditional snow reports are becoming less important. Today, many skiers are getting information from their friends who live near resorts. So Berry has advice for his colleagues.
“If you try and create a reality that you perceive to be the truth, it better be consistent with the reality on the ground,” Berry says. “The consumer will remind you of that instantly if that’s not the case.”
Zinman saw evidence of this in his research. During the study period, an iPhone application was released that allows skiers and snowboarders to report conditions themselves.
“Once that came online, exaggeration by resorts fell very sharply,” Zinman says. “And [it] fell all the more sharply at resorts that have good iPhone reception.”
The lesson for marketers? Remember what your Mom told you. Always tell the truth.
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McDonald’s Social Media Strategy
November 29, 2009 by Mike Troiano · Comments
The inside scoop on how one of the world’s great brands thinks about social media.
Damn smart, if you ask me …
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