Category Archives: marketing

New report notices that Boomers are retiring; offers band-aid for sucking chest wound…

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Lately I’ve been talking a lot about the looming macro-succession crisis, and it’s felt like I’m the only one who sees the issue coming. This morning, though, a MediaPost item addressing a piece of the issue came across the desk, and while it’s only partially aware of the whole problem and the solution it points to is a half-measure at best, it’s at least nice to see a little validation on the subject.

Thursday July 12, 2007
Retiring Boomers Important in Hand-off to Younger Employees

A recent survey of 28,000 employers in 25 countries, by Manpower, revealed that only 21 percent have implemented retention strategies to keep their senior employees participating in the workforce. Continue reading →

Sprint fires 1,000 customers: let the games begin…

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If you’ve ever been involved in a business of any kind, you’ve probably had occasion to wonder if some customers are more trouble than they’re worth. Whether too high-maintenance, too low-value, or a bit of both, there have probably been times where you thought you’d probably be better off without them. In my case, there have been a couple occasions where I did some informal cost-benefit analysis and walked away from a customer. You hate turning down money, but sometimes it makes sense.

Of course, I’m not a big-time consumer retail and services company, either. If I were, I’d think long and hard about taking the drastic step that Sprint has taken. Continue reading →

Campaign mobile update: from bad to worse to what the heck?

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A couple days ago I had some comments on Obama, Clinton and Edwards and their respective mobile marketing activities. Turns out I was wrong about a couple facts, but finding that out has now opened the door to some new questions and concerns.

Here’s where we currently stand: Continue reading →

Obama campaign launches mobile, screws it up

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I yarped for months that political campaigns weren’t launching mobile. There’s this massive youth generation that’s setting records for political and community activity, the mobile phone is one of their favorite things in the world, and all these politicians and their high-priced communications groups were doing … nada. I’ve talked to some of them, too.

  • “We’re working on it.”
  • “Yeah, thanks, I’ll pass your name on.”
  • “Sounds great – here’s a list of 30 people you might try.”
  • “Ummm, I have no idea who would be in charge of that.”

Well, finally this week the Obama campaign launched a mobile marketing campaign. Continue reading →

Where does mobile fit in the social media discussion?

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If you’ve snooped around the site, you probably know that mobility is coming along a lot more slowly than I feel like it should. For every business out there doing a good job ramping up mobile marketing there’s probably a few thousand doing nothing. Why is a little hard for me to fathom – mobile is a preferred medium for Millennial-aged consumers, who control more disposable income than any generation in history. Why you’d refuse to communicate with these customers on their own terms is beyond me.

Well, maybe not. Mobile is comparatively new for most corporate decision-makers, most of who fail to understand the real extent of its capabilities. Sure, new technologies and practices often take longer to get traction in the marketplace than we’d expect – I remember the result of a poll from about 1996 or so that said less than half the US population had even heard of the Internet, and at that point in time the Net was being dramatically underused, as well.

Recently, though, I’ve noticed a phenomenon that concerns me Continue reading →

The problem with measurement

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In yesterday’s MediaPost Marketing Daily, Douglas Brooks touched on a subject I’ve been yarping about for some time – measurement. He offers some prudent advice, but sidesteps the issue that’s been bothering me: to wit, our rage to quantification is driven by fear, not expertise, and it often leads us to ignore a whole suite of important decision-making tools.

I would never suggest that ROI doesn’t matter – quite the opposite – and I also wouldn’t argue that quantitative methods can’t provide us with useful data – of course they can. The problem is that American culture has this odd relationship with knowledge and evidence – in any kind of professional enterprise, statistics and numerical metrics are increasingly being taken as the only kind of evidence. If we want to say something about our customer base, we feel an obligation to quantify whatever we’re trying to say. Continue reading →

Sprite Yard is the right idea

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And this morning, a glimpse of the future:

Sprite Launches Mobile Social Network
by Tameka Kee, Thursday, Jun 7, 2007 6:00 AM ET
MOVE OVER, MYSPACE AND FACEBOOK. Coca-Cola’s Sprite is debuting its own social network, called the Sprite Yard.The brand’s global interactive marketing team is betting that the mobile platform will set new benchmarks for consumer brand engagement.

Launched officially in China on June 1, with plans for a U.S. rollout to start June 22, users connect with the Sprite Yard through any WAP-enabled phone. After texting the word “YARD” to 59666 (LYMON), they are invited to register–and to create a tag name, a profile, and even an avatar. Members of the community can then share pictures, send “Shouts” to their friends, post “Scribbles” to a discussion board, and plan events on a shared calendar.

At the Sprite Yard, users will also have access to “Nuggets” of exclusive downloadable content, from mobisodes (short animated and video content created by Coca-Cola and other media partners) to ringtones. The branding tie-in is designed to drive sales as well as engagement, as content can only be unlocked by using a PIN found under Sprite bottle caps. (Story.)

I’m in no position to predict how well executed this project will be, but the concept is dead-on and I wouldn’t be surprised if it becomes the model for consumer brand mobility over the next couple of years. Continue reading →

Free white paper: what is interactivity?

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Today’s Online Spin column by Joe Marchese addresses a topic that’s been front and center around here lately. To wit, what exactly is “social media”? It’s a term that’s being tossed around pretty enthusiastically these days, but as is so often the case with particularly fresh and buzzy marketing jargon, not everybody is 100% sure what it means. Hey, I didn’t quite know what people meant when I first heard it, either, so don’t feel bad if you’re a little fuzzy on the details.

However, it occurred to me that this terrain is actually more familiar than we might realize. Way back in the Dark Ages (1993) the catchphrase was “interactivity.” Everybody used it, but it became quickly apparent that no two people were using it in quite the same way. Continue reading →

Reality TV hoax raises interesting marketing question

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Whatever you think about reality TV, this would pretty much have cemented your opinion. If you, like me, appreicate how some reality shows illuminate our genuine moral trashiness, then by god, this would be the best you could hope for until FOX debuts Christians v Lions 2007: Payback Time for Kitty. If you’re appalled by that same trashiness, then this would have made you hack up your own skull.

TV show to offer kidneys as prize
Wednesday May 30 05:00 AESTThose disappointed that reality show Survivor didn’t quite live up to its dramatic title are in luck — contestants on a bizarre new Dutch program will actually be fighting to stay alive.

In The Big Donor Show, which is set to air this Friday, a terminally ill cancer patient will select one of three patients to receive her kidneys.

Viewers will watch testimonials from the three Dutch contestants, aged between 18 and 40, and send in text message advice to the donor to help her decide who should receive the lifesaving operation. (Story.)

Of course, by now you’re probably catching a whiff of Eau de Hoax, huh? Continue reading →

Doubleclick report missing the mobility picture?

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I was reviewing the Doubleclick Touchpoints IV report earlier today, and while I still need to dive a little deeper, there are a couple things I wanted to comment on.

1. The study’s top finding – “consumers acknowledge that online video shows great potential for advertising” – points to the exploding importance of social media. This shouldn’t come as a surprise, but maybe it does. Sometimes I slip into assuming that everybody tracks “the next” like I do, but the truth is that the pace of advance these days is so rapid that it’s hard to keep up even if keeping up is your main job.

2. The study suggests one potentially dramatic finding that the authors either ignored or failed to recognize. I’m going to ask you to study a couple charts from the report and see if you notice something: Continue reading →