I have conversations every day about brand champions, leaders within communities, word of mouth marketing and how some things can go viral. During yesterday’s Hashtagsocialmedia chat with host Rachel Happe, someone used this video as an example of a Flash Mob within a community. Watch this video. It is a perfect example of how a) one person can make a difference and b) how viral things can quickly become.
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So I’m late. There’s a killer pick up game of basketball going on down at the park. I know they play every Monday , Wednesday and Friday at 5pm. For weeks I sit and watch them. This time I’m gonna play. There’s 11 guys including me. They pick up teams and I don’t get picked. WTF? I know I can play with these guys, their games are weak. Yet, I still don’t get picked. Why is that?
Because they don’t know me. Even though I’ve been watching them for weeks, they don’t know me. I could have easily played dozens of times over that span of time and yet I chose not to. Now when I want to, they don’t want to let me, because they don’t know me or anything about me. I’m not even a familiar stranger to them.
All I had to do was take that first step and become part of their little community. I don’t even rise up when they needed a 10th guy so they could run. Benny, Joe, Arnold, Rambis, Chris D, BV, California, Stick, Coach, and Jackie, could have used me but I stayed passive and quiet. Just watching. All it would have required was an occasional appearance in one of their games, and I could have played any time I wanted. Minimal effort on my part to get the ball rolling.
You’re a brand, thinking about social media. Thinking about community, about your customers, about growing your reach and your depth. Thinking about getting in. What should you do? How would you do it?
I was reading a lengthy deck preso on Giovanni Galucci’s website and happened to scroll down to this kick ass video/website from Boone Oakley out of North Carolina. What do you think? Brilliant, if you ask me.
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In Business, I don’t really have a hard time saying “I’m sorry”, I just don’t like saying it, because it constitutes either failure or the inability to “do” something. It conveys that perhaps you did not hold up your end of the bargain. And yet, a lot of people cannot say it or do not say it, or, do everything in their power to avoid it. That makes things worse.
I don’t like saying “No”, because it means I can’t or won’t do something for you. I am refusing to do something for you. Some people do not like to hear No, or in some cases won’t take No as an answer. Others, instead of saying No, agree or say yes, when they really shouldn’t. That’s not a smart thing to do.
I don’t like saying ‘Goodbye”, because it signifies that our current engagement is ending or over and sometimes you don’t want it to end. Other times saying goodbye is exactly what’s needed a “good” bye. Sometimes, it’s just time.
In life, and in business, some things are painful to do. We don’t want to do them because they hurt or we fear that we will lose business. The three things that I mentioned above are all communications issues aren’t they? But in each scenario, its a form of communication that is often times necessary but avoided. Which again, makes things worse.
Sometimes we do have to say No.
Sometimes we do have to say I’m sorry.
and Sometimes we do have to say Goodbye.
What happens to the marketing person, the social media specialist, or the PR pro that decides to incorporate those three words into their lexicon?
They get Respect. Street Cred. and probably more business. Is this about being transparent?
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There’s an article in todays online Newsweek about a Bud Light spot that came out in February with little fanfare and completely under the radar. However, the commercial rivals, if not leapfrogs over the Quiznos spot in terms of what they are suggesting, cancel that, in what they are implying, strike that, in terms of what it is saying. Bud Light has taken the game to a new level or perhaps has lowered the game to a whole new level.
Granted, the assumption is that this commercial is directed right at its sweet spot demographic; and that in and of itself is somewhat troubling if only for that fact that it tells you how much Porn has become accepted into mainstream America and mainstream marketing and advertising. The assumption being that nothing in this spot is really outside the norm for the demographic. Or as Newsweek likes to call it, we are undergoing the phenomenon of “Porn Creep”.
Decide for yourself. Has Bud Light taken things to an all time low? Does this make you want to drink their beer? Do you even care?
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Behold, marketers take it to another level with 3 spots I saw over the weekend.
In the immortal words of the Budweiser “dude”, “Seriously…Dude..Seriously..”
Are these chin ups? Or are they chin downs? Late night direct response marketing has just gone to a whole new level.
Then there was the Quiznos Video. Or was it? Quiznos denies it.
Which leads me to ask..How does the pitch meeting go down? How do things like this get the green light? Which at this point allows us to segue’ to this..
Another Go-Daddy Spot pushing the limits of acceptability..You be the judge.
Not sure who the Agency is that did this spot, but see if you do the same thing that a few of us did towards the end of the spot. Great timing, great spot. Intuitive marketing/branding at it’s best!
Beyond the obvious. Small business owners closing up. Demand for products and services drying up. People losing their jobs left and right. There is an aspect of this that all of us have overlooked. The customer.
What does the customer do? Where does the customer go? What are their alternatives?
For the brands and the businesses that do survive, what are they doing to keep their existing customers? What tools are they using to keep and engage their current customers? What are they doing to get new customers?
Not that I’m keeping score, but who has the upper hand right now? and who can leverage that?
Oh brand managers, where art thou? Apparently Pepsi didn’t read my earlier post on why brands move so fast on damage control. Maybe they should. Why? Because they need to move pretty damn quick to soothe the Yankee Fans they pissed off with their promotion of giving away free Yankee tickets and Pepsi-Cola products. Call it the anti-promotion.
In an Adage post titled, Pepsi Promotion Ends With Chants of ‘Pepsi Sucks’ Pepsi shows what happens when brand managers and product marketers fail to plan. They can plan to FAIL! can you say #PepsiFail?
Watch how quick this anti-promotion spreads virally on Twitter and the blogosphere. Brand managers, have you learned anything yet?
Can I get an amen? OK maybe it’s too soon in this post to ask for that. But really, I could not help but to think about the shitstorm that has happened over the last 7 days with Dominos and Amazon, and that maybe companies big and small, might want to take the time to better understand how they go about branding themselves either using social media or not.
I know, we’re not talking about a branding issue here. Or are we?
You see, it’s not so much how they brand, but rather, how fast, or the pace and the speed in which they do it. The reason I’m thinking out loud about this, is that I’ve now watched in 3 very high profile cases (Amazon, Motrin and Dominoes) how quickly large brands have moved to incorporate damage control via certain media channels, formats and vehicles- which led me to postulate-
Why don’t they move this fast in branding in general, controlling the brand or creating and shaping the message? What’s holding them back?
I suppose we can sit here and be quick to criticize or answer that question by stating a) If they are moving too fast then they must be trying to shove the message down out throats, and grab market share. And of course we know that’s not cool with their core audience, the blogosphere, social media pundits, marketers and the Twitter mob, etc., etc., etc. Right?
Or… We could criticize them for moving too slow and missing the boat and of course that’s not cool with their core audience, the blogosphere, social media pundits, marketers and the Twitter Mob…Right?
So they can’t win.
But what strikes me is this. Have you ever heard this statement? “You never know how fast someone can run until they’re running for their life.” Which always begs this question: Why don’t they run like that all the time?
Direct Marketing Observations 