TNG Blog

Remember when we needed to write a 500, a 1,000, or a 3,000-word essay for school? Don’t those times seem sooo last century, when the quantity of the content was equally important to the quality of the content? Am I starting to sound like my parents, who always talked about long-gone times? Would I now be able to make it to 3,000 words in an essay, after training myself to convey 140, 256, or 700 character communications all over the social media world?  The ongoing trend of shortening and compressing communication in business is becoming so common that we are becoming pre-programmed to think and communicate in a short, direct, and effective way. The handicap might only become obvious for a moment, on rare occasions when you realize that you have a great piece of communication in front of yourself,  but you just can’t fit it in your usual ‘le petit’ mold.

The trigger

As a Chicagoan, I maintain contact with the community through many subscribe lists for the area … I’m currently not residing in Chicago, so the other day thanks to one of those subscriptions, I had a nostalgic moment when I was linked to an inspiring video from Northwestern Memorial Hospital.

The experience of watching the video was like this:

• It started with excitement!
• Then, emotions overwhelmed me!
• Then, I approached a moment of pride!
• Then, a moment of acknowledging a job well-done from the marketing/communications side!
• Then, moment of coolness - connecting all of their statistic with dog years and Kim Kardashian!
• Then, they got the ‘Wow” out of me for all that they do or stand for!
• Then, hmmmmm…

I couldn’t say anything bad about the video, since it really was well made…but something was missing. Something that kept bothering me for a couple of minutes….and I just couldn’t figure it out.

The revelation

4min and 21 seconds!!!  The fact was that the video was too long for me! I became nervous halfway through…even if the content, their statistics, their success were all impressive and informative, I became jittery as the video pushed my limits. I became afraid. Am I really so handicapped that I’m incapable of handling more than 2 minutes of video content/communication? What happened to that person that knew how to appreciate and enjoy quality videos, articles, and speeches no matter how long they were, if they were good?

That person micronized – as most things in business: “Your email is too long”, “Your presentation is too long”, “Your excerpt is too long”, “Your status is too long”, “Your article is too long”… “Nobody is going to read/watch that…people don’t have time”.

Micronize. Shorten the URL. Forget the introduction. Get straight to the point.

The entire concept of ‘le petit’ measures communication not in words but in characters - exaggerating to the point that even empty spaces count. How far can we push this concept of micronization if we  micro-blog, micro-write, micro-talk, micro-listen?! and then as a result of the process, even micro-communicate?

Don’t business schools still teach that the optimal balance of  effectiveness and efficiency are key to business success…so how are we supposed to transmit powerful messages, influence stakeholders and customers, and make a difference if we continue to micro-communicate – an efficient, but not necessarily effective form of communication?

Great job Northwestern Memorial Hospital! Excuse the new generation of  ’micronizers’ that can’t get through 4.21 minutes of high quality content!

Have 4.21 minutes?

A notorious big-time executive died. As he hung out in Purgatory, waiting for his turn, he was sneaking glances through the windows of both Heaven and Hell. Heaven looked nice with wide green fields, flowers, singing birds, and people having picnics.

‘Hmm, not bad’ thought the former executive.

Hell, on the other hand, looked much more fun. It seemed like a big, wild party was being hosted there; hot girls were dancing and sipping cocktails, while candy girls were circling around, offering the world’s best cigars…everybody seemed like they were having the time of their lives.

‘Hell just seems like so much more fun…I would be so bored in that other place’ the corporate big-wig concluded.

Shortly thereafter, his turn came and a voice asked him ‘Where do you want to go?’

The executive eagerly responded ‘Hell.’

A door opened and the executive walked on through. As soon as he entered, fire started, demons grabbed him from all around, and started to torture him.

‘But, but…’ he began mumbling.

‘But what…you think that we haven’t heard of marketing here as well?’

…………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

Brainstorming with self about October’s blog, I fell into the typical Halloween trap. Hey, it’s a trick or treat season, no one can escape it (even here in Germany!). Being in the spirit of the season, I remembered the old marketing joke that you just read. It seems that we marketers have been placed on the same boat as blondes, policemen, and politicians… jokes are being told about all the luring and tricking that has been done throughout the years. Unfortunately, just as with blondes, policemen, and politicians, the outrageously stupid actions of a few individuals was all that it took to cause a whole profession to become a stereotype – marketers have been branded as tricksters. Although it is difficult to change such a stereotype, marketers are evolving, learning, and shifting from tricking to treating (with lots of yummy candy).

1. The product that can solve all of your problems

-         Trickers who promised an ‘amazing product that will outperform any other on the market’ never thought about creating a return customer. These marketers who relied on ‘gimmicks’ never planned on building a long-term business but only on that one sale, one profit, one trick. Ninety nine percent of the time, a once-fooled customer will not return for more.

-         Treaters are aware that times have changed; in this economy, treaters know that overpromising and exaggerating will take them nowhere. They know that honesty and truthfulness about the product, combined with a creative and witty marketing campaign, will be much more appreciated by customers. And, they will return for more.

2. Don’t put any effort into it…just buy 30 seconds during the Super Bowl or M*A*S*H

-         Trickers knew that their brand was in control of the game. The conversation, or should I say monologue, with customers was always on their side. There was no need to care about the customer’s response. They were unbeatable – the side with the recognizable product, more than adequate resources ready to invest in advertising / marketing … and with no need for further effort (engagement with customers, what?). Throw a line (e.g. during the Super Bowl), wait for the fish to bite (they can’t stop talking about you at the water cooler), reap the profit (your brand is etched in their heads).

-          Treaters today are here to provide much greater value to the customer experience. They are here not only to come up with and launch the campaign, but also to engage in any conversation that the campaign catalyzes (even if that means defending their brand). They are here to educate, to inform, to show another perspective that customers might have overseen. They’ve learned not to intrude, but wait to be found (ok, let’s be honest, the Super Bowl thing still works for some brands). For the most part, they know that customers have total control over what, when, and how they will be reached.

3. Just add some good looking girls (sex sells everything), or bring a celebrity onboard

-          Trickers knew the easy way in and didn’t hesitate to use it. Appealing visuals, lots of fast moving pictures, or even better yet, a trendy celebrity that would endorse the product. Content? Hmm, who wants to read when there’s a hot blonde squeezing toothpaste. And who cares if we end up using a bunch of different characters saying different things….the bigger, the louder, the hotter, the merrier, the better. A consistent and integrated approach?! What’s that?

-          Treaters know that content is king and that it will spread like a virus through the Internet (God Bless Smart Water!). Treaters swear in the power of a simple ‘search’ that will bring ALL into the light. They are everywhere, starting with a website and continuing onto different social platforms, blogs, and forums, all along making sure that their message is unified, genuine, and that customers’ questions are all answered with integrity. Yes, you can bring in a hot Isaiah Mustafa and try to make an Old Spice guy just based on sexy abs and fast-moving settings, but if you don’t put the right words in his mouth, he is not THE Old Spice guy.

So, Happy Hallowen fellow treaters! Tricks are so out!

Oh, those trends! Even if you try to ignore them, they somehow find a way to enslave you. It seems that one just cannot win this battle! Even if we engage in this tussle….in the long run it is almost inevitable that the war will be lost for most of us, at some point. That’s why the best way for us – small business owners – is to find the right balance between what our business essentially is and what it stands for, while incorporating particular elements of ever-changing trends. But! Easier said than done, right? Getting on top of the trend game is not easy even for the big guys – trust me! We often think that our limited marketing budgets are the main obstacle to creating outstanding promotions and incorporating a breakthrough marketing campaign. However, by looking at the big guys, we somehow realize that a big marketing budget does not always guarantee staying on top of the game, but occasionally following in someone else’s footsteps, copying, or even plagiarizing have led to success stories.

This month’s story has to start with the so-often-mentioned Old Spice campaign, launched in February 2010 as one of that year’s Super Bowl commercials. Wieden + Kennedy managed to produce The It Campaign ‘The Man Your Man Could Smell Like’ – a marketing program that is still in trend. The approach of targeting women for a men’s product (because HELLO, we are the ones who do most of the household shopping, which it seems only Wieden + Kennedy noticed) and utilizing shock marketing in a dynamic or even provocative setting, followed by a direct response to fans after an initial positive reaction, sounds like a good formula for a product certainly at or past its maturity in the product lifecycle. Can you think about something more banal than shower gel? No. Can you think about a sexier way to sell such a trivial item than Wieden + Kennedy did? No. All questions answered. But, we are not the only ones who noticed such a unique recipe.

After ‘Old Spice Guy’ managed to travel from the shower to a horse on the beach in just 33 seconds, people suddenly realized that you don’t need a spokesperson to stand still and talk about a product, or even a logical sequence of events related to the product, but rather a dynamic, engaging commercial that would catch the eye of viewers and remain memorable. If a guy who’s supposed to be taking a shower with a particular product can be everywhere, then it is certainly logical that a guy who uses a certain cleaning product can also be everywhere, right?  And, he was! Trespassing through 8 different sets in 30 seconds just to get back to the kitchen where it all started – with the multi-surface cleaning product Pledge. A much different setting than the glass box and a woman who had been in the game for a while. Did Old Spice’s unique approach start a trend of more dynamic commercials? Did Old Spice start targeting the sex opposite to the one expected to drive great results? Plagiarizing by another company? No? Inspiration by Old Spice? Yes.

The fever called Old Spice was spreading like a virus. On day 1, the campaign received almost 6 million views; after the first week, Old Spice had over 40 million views – a dangerous virus, isn’t it? A phenomenon was born and shower gel was reinvented. Everybody wanted to get a piece of Old Spice…or at least the concept driving so much attention. It was merely a question of style…how to get a piece of this concept, but not look like a total plagiarizer. A good way emerged, as Blendtec actually acknowledged Old Spice, and did so in a playful way. Could we give two thumbs up for the best implementation of the Old Spice trend?

The Old Spice effect even made its way to Europe, that is, the UK to be precise. Of course, the Brits gave it a special touch with coconuts just in the right place. You can’t complain too much even if you wanted to – comments are not allowed beneath the video on You Tube (any idea why???). As far as the American culture goes, I’m not sure what response this provocative video would have generated, but as far as my European roots go, I have a sense that lots of Brits will definitely visit page 3 of The Sun newspaper. Come on, be honest!

And, the Old Spice trend continues. A big debate surfaces each time people recognize anything Old Spice related. Dairy Queen is often mentioned in this conversation. A guy on the move and an outrageous rainbow on fire, spiced up with old-fashioned shaving bunnies (how does shaving fit into a commercial for a shake???). The video is liked by about 80% of viewers on You Tube (based on likes and dislikes). Not quite a miss, right?

The rottenest example I kept for the end - Edge shaving gel. I recently saw the commercial on TV and got an ‘Old Spice’ feeling. I went immediately to You Tube just to confirm my initial sentiments and…voilà…I wasn’t the only one who sensed it. About 90% of people dislike this commercial (as of today). Harsh language was used throughout, referring to the commercial as an ‘Old Spice rip-off’. The people have spoken and you can’t deceive the ones who hold the future of your product in their hands. The investment in this video does not appear to be prudent and might even backfire for the product. I was curious about previous Edge shaving gel commercials, so I snooped around. It seems that their prior strategy involved a ‘sex sells everything’ approach. The money made from girls in bikinis was invested in the ‘oldspicetized ’ ‘Get your edge’ campaign. I guess they forgot to get their own edge first.

Googlize me! Using trends and buzzwords to get your small business on the front page of Google

“I feel like I need to make a fool of myself or do something outrageous and then somehow connect that to my business to get any hits on the Internet. This whole new era of digital marketing is going in a way that I just don’t like, but I know that I will have to catch up with the trend, one way or another.”

Keeping up with trends has never been easy. It tends to be a full-time job: trying to stay informed, processing collected information, predicting trends (with some luck) and implementing an action plan – be the first who sensed it – be a trendsetter! However, if you are not a Nostradamus-like business owner, then there is nothing wrong with being even an early follower – a successful follower who is not brave enough to predict and innovate – but surely is capable of spotting something that is becoming hot before the majority does. For a small business owner, this is just one more thing on the to-do list (unless your hobby really is reading all sorts of business-marketing-social media related articles). We small business owners do want to get on board with all the big guys and follow them – as much as our resources allow. They were predicting the social media boom – we Facebookalized and Twitterized to stay connected to our customers; they said give a voice to your business – we Blogolized; they said localize – we Yelpalized for reviews and Grouponized to get some coupons out there. Now we need to Mobilize or should I say Applicalize (although mobile marketing was mentioned in 2008 as an upcoming trend, a recent research report says that 40 percent of small businesses still don’t have a mobile ready website or application), or go viral and get out there on YouTube. By the way, do all of this while focusing on the key task – keeping your business up and running. And then even if we find time to do all of this (or we pay someone with our hard-earned money to do this for us), we are still not there – not getting enough ‘hits’ and ‘likes’ on the Internet, nor popping up on the first or second Google pages, nor getting a major bump in our revenue.

“The tragicomedy of today’s world is what people are interested in seeing and what they respond to.”

What should we do? Let’s take a look at the current situation.

If you are a small business owner that Blogolized or already YouTubechannellized, and you somehow found the context to mention Charlie Sheen in the last month, you likely realized some hits that you wouldn’t have otherwise. I mean, it’s all about passion, right? Did you have ‘Charlie Sheen’ specials? Come on, don’t disappoint me now, you want to be in the trend right, get some winning rolls? ( I guess it’s my cynical day, sorry guys, this is how I roll sometimes.)

Or, giving a kick on Friday to your community with Rebecca Black’s “Friday”? At least if you Facebookalize yourself, your followers would get a good laugh. Don’t you want to add some amusement to your marketing mix while your name pops up in front of your follower’s eyes?

If we keep looking around current trends, we see that you just need to do something totally outrageous or somehow only interject into your own context ‘the most interesting man in the world’; after all, that is exactly how you want you/your own business to be perceived. Outrageous marketing is definitely the ‘in thing’ – with the ‘most interesting man in the world’ in a head-to-head matchup with the outrageous Old Spice guy. Can you turn your customer’s world upside-down with a new marketing approach or, even better, with your service or product…sort of like both of these guys can? Aren’t trends weird? Is being weird and different today the only thing that triggers customers’ attention?

So what can we do about all these trends? Should we follow them, embrace all of the pros and cons that they bring? Get sucked into trivial and dull for more exposure?  How much is enough to stay current but not get lost? Can we Googlize ourselves painlessly to get those über-wanted hits?

So, how is big business coming to an end with these trends? They make a ‘virus’ and spread it! We can’t do it like Smart Water (money is just ‘a little’ obstacle), but at least we can learn from them and admire them for squishing all the current trends and top searchable words into one marketing gig:  Jennifer Aniston (ok, no link on J.A. we all know who she is), Keenan Cahill, G6, internet nerds, animals (puppies and parrots), babies (dancing babies), dirty dancing (uuuu), double rainbow, sex tape. Lots of hits, can you feel it?

Sweet, right? I don’t know if you heard, somewhere among all the buzz about Charlie Sheen and about Ms. Black’s Friday, but Japan was almost wiped off the face of the Earth. Maybe it’s time for you to get that flyer or e-banner out there to raise awareness and raise some funds to help Japan.