You’re in Marketing? You are the Devil !

Toronto – Ontario

The idea for this post actually came to me a long time ago when I was still studying, but had a part time job working in a kitchen. I always thought of the atmosphere of working in a kitchen similar to that of working on ship. Everyone arrived in the kitchen through some device of their own and you’re stuck in a tight space with flames and sharp objects, so it guarantees the personalities will be lively and entertaining.

C’mon you know you want some Zip!

One of the cooks that I worked with was a bit younger and slightly less jaded than me. He didn’t buy into corporate culture or business in general, so when he found out that I was studying marketing he was horrified. I even remember he turned to me and said “You want to work in marketing? You are the devil!”

I was taken aback because I always thought that marketing was a necessary component to any business, even the kitchen we worked at depended on marketing for more work, and as a result our pay cheques. Fundamentally the difference in opinion between my portly co-worker and I arose from the fact that he saw marketers as people that manipulate people’s purchasing behaviour and preferences, which they obviously do. However this is not the extent of all marketing.

While I would say that the savviest marketers are consumer brands with mass media exposure, they are not always the best marketers. Besides,there are numerous sectors where marketing is not evil, but necessary to communicate to consumers and a wider audience. Think about health, pharmacy, not-for-profit, agriculture as examples.

It would be naive to assume that marketing is not inherently bias, after all you are trying to convince someone that your product/business is better than the competition or that the consumer needs your product. Evil or not marketing is something every business needs to do to survive, how you do it will determine whether or not you’re “evil”.

Mmmm yes EVIL!

International Airports – Where Aspiring Brands Come Alive

Toronto – Canada

Recently, while embarking on some travels through Southeast Asia, and a pleasant stop over in the Hong Kong airport, I got bored and then I got to thinking. As I wandered throughout the airport I realized how golden of an opportunity it is for aspiring and established brands to position themselves to a global audience. It is also where reinforcing brand image pays off, as I can attest from personal experience.

“Hmmmm, which international, aspiring brand should i buy??”

Placing your brand in an airport is a very strategic and logical step if your goal is to reach a jet-setting, impressionable demographic. Especially considering that it may be the first time that some people even see the brands in person.

I have even heard a story, where a Russian business man traveling outside of Russia for the first time since the fall of the Soviet Union, was so excited to purchase a Coke, because of everything that it symbolized – such as freedom and the American way of life. When he went to open it the tab popped off and he was left holding an un-openable can of Coke. But a man that survived the Soviet Union would not let a faulty tab stop him, he simply stabbed the top with a pen and guzzled the whole thing down. No problem. I’m sure that many others feel a similar way when they see certain brands. Can you remember the first time you saw and were able to hold Louis Vuitton, or Burberry?

Having a presence in international airports makes sense because you are able to position your brand as international and exclusive but also to reach a global audience. Even if it does not result in direct purchases it could even be considered a type of advertising. Since this strategy is undoubtedly quite expensive, it is not surprising that most “airport brands” are of the luxury variety.

Another point to consider is how a brand’s domestic advertising can pay off at an airport. This I speak form personal experience. I myself was seduced by McDonalds. Yes it’s sad, and I am slightly ashamed, especially since I consider myself quite an adventurous eater. Nonetheless I can justify my experience as an experiment.

The thing about McDonalds is consistency. It prides itself on the same level of service, and taste no matter where you are in the world. This is definitely true. At a time when I was travelling and in need of nourishment that I knew was reliable and tasty, I knew exactly what I would get by going to McDonalds. So while McDonalds does adjust to national flavours its overall global mass appeal does have its benefits. I was pretty happy until a big glob of grease popped onto my face from my McChicken, enthusiasm did not ensue.

Besides the actual thrill of being at an airport because you are traveling, its always interesting to take a look around and see the brands that are making a push, that are aspiring to position themselves as international to a global audience.

Real Time Bidding, the Auction You’ve Never Heard Of…

Toronto – Canada

There is all types of funky stuff happening below the surface of the internet that we don’t know about. For example there is an auction going on in your home right now, but you weren’t invited…mainly because you’re the one up for auction. It’s called Real Time Bidding (RTB).

Sold! Sold! Sold! BTW this is not how it works anymore.

It is the latest trend in online advertising that helps advertisers target their main audience. It is a complex yet, genius system that ensures the message gets to the right destination. So how does it work?

First lets take a look at the landscape. Before RTB if you wanted to buy ad space you could select space on a website or search engine that was frequented by your target audience but you couldn’t necessarily guarantee that it was a perfect fit. For example if you were targeting baseball enthusiasts you could advertise on a sports website, but the website’s content might be geared towards other sports as well, thereby making your message irrelevant to other users. It’s a common problem experienced by all types of advertising mediums.

Here is how RTB is different, it generates a profile about the user from his/her path through your website and sends it to a central location. It compares the generated profile to criteria set out by advertiser’s target audience, and sells it to the highest bidder. Imagine two car companies wanted to reach 18-25 year old females that are environmentally conscious. Advertiser A is willing to pay $100 to show his advertisement to this demographic, but Advertiser B is willing to pay $150. If an RTB enabled website has a user that meets this criteria, it sells the ad space to the highest bidder in a matter of seconds.

Obviously I have simplified this method considerably, there are complex algorithms involved in generating a profile and selling the ad-space. The criteria for a certain profile is also quite specific, this means that Advertiser B, wouldn’t win the auction every time. Advertisers also distinguish how much they are willing to pay for certain profiles so there can be considerable differences between competitors.

It is a method that has gone to great lengths to help generate content for a specific audiences. Other mediums such as television, radio, or print can only give a glimpse of who the audience maybe when a commercial hits the air, whereas RTB creates a much more targeted approach.

Here is a simplified technical break down of how this whole process works (burrowed from Wikipedia):

1. A user logs onto a webpage that uses real time bidding
2. The user’s browsers receives the html for the webpage. Imbedded in this html is a URL tag for an ad request
3. The user’s browser makes a call out to the ad server
4. The ad server calls out trying to get the best price
5. Multiple advertiser platforms evaluate the bid request and decide how much they want to bid and respond with bids to the server
6. The server selects the highest bid with a URL of the winning ad and returns that to the browser of the Internet user which started all these transactions

Its an interesting, slightly complicated system, but don’t be surprised if the majority of online advertising moves in this direction.

Social Media Week – Monetizing Digital Content

Toronto – Canada

The winter blues in Canada can hit home pretty hard, but this winter has thankfully been quite mild, and in addition to the mild weather Torontonians have been able to enjoy Toronto Adweek swiftly followed by Toronto Social Media Week. Due to school and work commitments I was only able to attend two events, but I managed to keep a common thread throughout: how to make money publishing digital content.

Don't be anti-social, it's Social Media Week!

The first event was graciously hosted by Agility Inc., yes free Steam Whistles and tasty hors d’oeuvres for all those that attended. Andre Gaulin was the night’s moderator, and got the conversational juices flowing. The topic of the night was Monetizing Digital Content for Online Publishing. The panel consisted of Beth Young of Corus entertainment , Laura Baxter of UXD, Ryan Keaveney of RKP Publishing, and Lucia Mancuso of The Blog Studio.

As a combo the panel was well versed in digital marketing. They unanimously agreed that clients are shifting their marketing budget to the online sphere, and as a result present challenges and opportunities. It means that publishers (even bloggers) with space and a big enough following on their websites might eventually have the opportunity to host advertisement on their sites. Yet the challenge faced for some digital providers is convincing clients to go digital with their advertisements. According to the panel, established clients that are accustomed to print advertising are often reluctant to make the switch due to their skepticism about the ROI. However, despite the hesitation there is a general push from clients to go digital, and after seeing their ads up and running they become quite fond of the control and the ability to customize and adjust adspace as needed.

Going back to the theme of monetizing digital content; the panel discussed that it depended on whose content it is. As a blogger you can monetize by having ads and directly related content. The panel commented that, if you are a brand you will find that having an online presence consistent with your other media platforms will help your brand image and indirectly lead to ROI. Ryan Keaveney discussed how his companies print magazines use their online presence to drive viewers to purchase print subscriptions, which has turned out be a successful strategy.

I know you want to tweet about my beard.

Throughout the discussions the panelists frequently reverted to advertising as the most popular form of driving online revenue. This wasn’t quite the breakthrough we were looking for, but they did elaborate on some alternatives. Laura Baxter mentioned that certain associations provide exclusive digital content for members as an incentive to join. For example a “Dentist’s Association” would post exclusive content online for its members, thereby driving membership and providing ROI on the digital content. Conversely RKP’s digital strategy is to have an image consistent with its print publications, but also to encourage vistors to their website to purchase print subscriptions. Besides advertising these were the two alternatives the panel offered for achieving ROI on digital content.

All in all the night was a success and Agility Inc. were great hosts. We will all be looking forward to attending their event next year!

Is Advertising Really Effective?

Toronto – Canada

Nowadays advertising is so ubiquitous that people are exposed to it from the minute they wake up. This advertising can be subtle, in the forms of logos on appliances or blatant like billboards and TV commercials. It has been estimated that on average a person sees about 5000 advertisements a day, all of which are meant to persuade or convince a person to eventually pick up that product and buy it.

With such overexposure, does the individual not become dulled by the constant barrage of ads, do you yourself feel like you are immune to the influences of advertising? Probably so, but if you watch this video clip, you will find that advertising may play a bigger part in your subconscious than you actually thought. View on and enjoy!

This clip was actually shown to me by Tony Marlow during his Adweek presentation. The video pretty much speaks for itself in terms of the power of subtle messaging and repetitive exposure. Considering that both Tony Marlow and Martin Lindstrom have discussed that up to 95% of our purchasing decisions are made at an unconscious level, perhaps advertising is a lot more effective than many of us think.

Original Banksy Stolen From Australian Hotel – Thieves Caught, No Charges Laid

Prague – Czech Republic

In a daring feat of cunning Maura Tuohy and her criminal accomplice managed to walk into an Art Series Hotel in Melbourne armed with a great idea, and they left with an original Banksy painting. 15 minutes after pulling off the succesfull heist they walked back into the hotel to boast about their accomplishment. The catch?

Steal a Banksy and stay the night, screen shot from the Art Series Hotels website

The Art Series Hotels actually wants you to try and steal their Banksy paintings. It’s all part of a campaign to raise awareness about their hotels. If you steal the Banksy you get a free nights stay. It’s quite simple, you must check into the hotel, succesfully steal the painting, hopefully no one gets hurt, and in the end you give it back for a free nights stay.

It’s a great marketing ploy, and really great if you are an enterprising art thief who wants practice- without getting arrested. The only person who might be upset is Banksy- who ironically speaks out about the commercialization of art. But hey! If he doesn’t like it, he can always steal it back.

Maura Tuhoy walking her Banksy out of the Hotel and past the cameras, screen shot from the Art Series Hotels website

** Thanks to the Art Series Hotelsand Marketing News for the photos and info. **

Help!! Advertising Stole My Baby! Secret Truths From the King of Branding

Toronto – Ontario

Never did I think that someone deserved or could have the title: “King of Branding”. Yet yesterday I was summoned to a performance from the royal court of advertising at Koerner Hall, where Martin Lindstrom, Time Magazine’s 2009 Most Influential Person of the Year, was giving a speech regarding his new book Brandwashed. Martin came to Toronto to lay down the law on the advertising/marketing world, whats wrong with it, whats good about it, what works, what doesn’t, and most importantly provide insight into his own personal research about Brands and their affect on our lives. I will share with you some of these insights because they are honestly too good to enjoy on your own.

Do not do unto others as Jobs would do unto Microsoft

Firstly, a little background on Mr. Lindstrom would be in order. He is a self admitted Lego maniac who was one of few children actually employed by Lego to advertise their brand to other children. After Lego he spent 30 years in the advertising world building up some of the most prominent brands you see today. Nowadays Lindstrom has made the change from influencing consumers to being a consumer advocate. As admitted in his speech he did some bad in the marketing world (didn’t explain what) but now he is using his powers for good.

Lindstrom predicated his speech on the basis that although we believe ourselves to be rational, throughout our daily lives we make irrational decisions sometimes in response to advertising stimulus or preconceptions that we have as a result of advertising. Being a curious guy Lindstrom decided that talking to us regular folks would not give him the answers he needed, instead he turned to science to solve some of the “irrational” decisions that consumers make. In fact he turned to modern MRI technology to scan the brain patterns of consumers as they react to various ads.

His most interesting project was mapping the similarities between peoples interaction with brands vs that of religion. His research was backed up by two years of traveling around the world researching major religions and brands, along with quantitative data from MRI scans. The results helped him to create a matrix based on the four elements of: Ritual, Sense of Belonging, Story Telling, and Clear Vision, there are sub headings for each element to create a total of 10 tenets to follow. Essentially if a company can “tick” all 10 boxes they have earned themselves a license to print money.

Lindstrom then discussed some effective forms of advertising. Despite the latest craze over social media Lindstrom pointed out that word of mouth is still the most effective in influencing consumer behavior. He suggested that in the future it will not be uncommon for companies to use “seeders” or undercover brand ambassadors to promote products to friends and families. He said its already happening, remember the I-Phone that was forgotten at a bar before its launch? Or even how Lindstrom himself was employed by Lego? There is even a movie about it called The Joneses an idea that Lindstrom replicated in real life called The Morgansons.

If you blink -Lindstrom will sell you this book.

He also dropped some serious branding knowledge about an idea he coined, “the smashable”. “WTF is that you ask?”, a smashable is a part of your product, that when separated from the whole product is still recognizable as an intrinsic part of the main product. Think for example, Apple head phones, or McDonald’s Golden Arches. He said the smashables are some of the most important elements of brand building and recognition.

Lindstrom’s talk was engaging and very powerful, but it was also worrying. He touched on a Filipino chocolate company that targeted pregnant woman with coffee flavoured candy. These children showed a preference for chocolate by the age of 2, the youngest ever documented. This is a target market that cannot even breathe on its own yet.

The use of statistics was common throughout Lindstrom’s speech, the accuracy of his research was not discussed so one cannot help but take it at face value. It clearly shows a worrying trend where science has begun to track and influence consumer behavior to a degree not yet been seen. However, lets not forget that advertising has become a tough game, companies cannot reach the average consumer as before and the consumer is more empowered and informed. So while the companies are getting smarter the consumer is not making it easy.

Lindstrom based many of his conclusions on scientific research that he conducted, but I can’t help and remember that at the beginning of his speech he mentioned, “On average companies now spend about 7 billion a year on R&D, and despite this 9 of 10 products fail.” Now that he did all his research will it be worth the money?