The Echo

April Dunford: From startup to corporate, and all over again

Thu, 28 Mar 2013 09:15:00 -0400

When I first started following April on Twitter (@aprildunford) she completely broke the mould of what I had envisioned a startup marketer being. In fact, April embodies the scientific side of marketing perfectly. In this interview, she shares her view on Growth Hackers, the most important startup marketing metric, and what it’s like being an engineer in a marketing world.

Tell me about yourself, and how you got into marketing.

I am actually an engineer by training. I graduated from the University of Waterloo in Systems Design Engineering. My friend gave me a job, and the job was as a Technical Evangelist for a technical product they were selling to a technical audience. They needed somebody that could demo the product, talk about the product, and that actually knew what a store procedure was. I got that job, and then I actually ran the marketing for that product a short time later. I loved it, and I never looked back…it was sort of an accident that that’s where I landed, but it turned out to be a good fit.

I know that you can go to school and study marketing, but I think that people who do that think they’re going to come out and market toothbrushes or running shoes or something. I think people doing marketing at startups didn’t originally intend to be a marketer. You fall into it and then suddenly say “hey, this is kind of a cool job!”

Earlier in your career you worked for large corporations like IBM, Nortel, and Huawei - how did you end up in the startup community?

It actually worked the other way around. I started at startups and then did some stints at bigger companies. My first marketing job was at a startup, and then we got acquired by a company, so I ended up there. That wasn’t much fun, so I left and did another startup marketing job. Then we got acquired, and this happened to me about five times. I consider myself a startup marketer, but I have done several stints at larger companies. Most of them I came into through acquisitions, but a couple of times I was recruited in to a larger company to launch a new thing into a new market - which is sort of similar to a startup marketing job. Since I’ve been consulting, I’ve only had one project with a large company.

If you’re doing startup marketing, and you’re doing your job right, your company tends to get acquired by somebody, and you have to figure out if you want to stay there and do your thing, or go find another startup. The smaller ones are way more fun.

At a startup, you have to be responsible for everything, you’re like the VP. You have to do PR, communications, lead generation, sales support - absolutely everything, whereas really big company marketers tend to specialize in one particular thing. They’ll be really good at that one thing, but not so good in other areas.

It’s a huge challenge for startup marketers, that we have so many tasks, but not enough experience in most of them.

At startups, there’s an expectation of constantly learning, because you’re never going to be an expert at every single thing. And, the market keeps changing - your company, your competitors, the product itself is changing. It’s a bit futile to try and be good at everything, when instead you should just get really good at building your marketing system and looking for new ways to drive revenue. The tactics will always change, but the engine is something that is fairly similar from company to company to company.

I think that’s how the whole “growth hacker” phenomenon began.

The thing about Growth Hackers is that they tend to think the engine is always the exact same. I’ve always seen it as being a bit tactical, really. It really is just talking about one particular thing, which is user acquisition. It’s not so much talking about other parts of the sales funnel like user activation or user retention. Growth hacking seems to apply almost exclusively to products where there isn’t a sale. I’ve seen very few examples of people saying they’re doing “growth hacking” on a product where the onboarding process involves selling you something. That makes me nervous. That said, I love the concept of growth hacking. I love the pieces of it - I love having things baked into the product that relate to user acquisition or awareness. If you define growth hacking that way, then I love it. It’s a thing that startups do very well, but that big companies struggle with. Growth hacking isn’t the only thing a startup marketer should be worried about though…I think there’s other things to focus on too.

You’re very strategic when it comes to marketing, but inject a unique and creative touch - where do you find inspiration for this?

I actually don’t consider myself a creative person at all. I am an engineer, so my big thing is thinking about revenue. The whole point of doing marketing is running a business - we’re not running a charity. My thing is really thinking about ‘who are the customers?’, ‘how do I interact with those customers to get them interested?’ and ‘what are the steps those customers go through to buy something, use something, love something, and buy something again?’. A lot of what I’m focused on is around that. You need to get a firm grasp on who the customer is and what they like to buy, and that is the key to your marketing. Don’t start with tactics (i.e. We need to be on Twitter, Facebook, doing PR, etc.), but start with the who and why and how, and then go to tactics. Everywhere I’ve worked, the skill that has been lacking the most is accessing customer insights, and asking how we build a better revenue engine.

What is the hardest part of marketing an earlier-stage startup?

I think the hardest part of marketing a startup is that most of the time you’re marketing something where people have absolutely no idea what it is. Sometimes it solves a problem that people don’t know exists. It’s not the same thing as marketing toothbrushes, because everyone knows what a toothbrush is, why they need one, etc. I just need to convince them why my toothbrush is better than the other toothbrushes that are out there. If I have that toothbrush, and I land on Mars, and I say “You should buy my toothbrush because it’s made out of organic bristles”, everyone else is saying “…what’s a toothbrush?”. You need to educate people not just about the product, but also about the space and the need. You’re trying to illuminate a market space where you’re saying there’s a better way to do something. If you keep doing things the way you’re doing them now, you’re wasting a lot of time, energy and money. When people realize that yes, they do have that problem, then you can show them the different ways to solve that problem, and that your way is one of those ways. That’s very different from selling smartphones, or toothbrushes, or running shoes. Everyone knows what those things are and why you might need them. It’s really a differentiation thing, whereas with startup marketing you’re starting at a completely different stage where you have to bring customers along this journey of showing them a problem that’s worth solving.

How do you prove your value as a marketer to more technical startup founders who are focused on building a product?

This is very easy for me. You prove it by revenue. There is no other number but revenue. I tend to get along well with startup founders because we typically have the same educational background. We speak the same language and are fairly practical people. We tend to be very numbers oriented, and they’re not bringing me on board as VP of Marketing to make everyone feel better. We’re doing it because we’re trying to drive some revenue. If I can show them that we put $2 in and $10 comes out, hey isn’t that cool? The engineers love that. It’s very easy for us to understand, we can put it in a spreadsheet. I think where marketers get into trouble with technical cofounders is when they’re not measuring things. When they are strictly focused on the creative aspects, which is of course important too, and they can’t prove to you in a logical, rational way how that connects back to revenue, frankly the engineers shouldn’t be taking me seriously.

So you think revenue is the best indicator?

Yes, of course, and you have to make the connection too. You have to show the flow of ‘okay, we did this, and that got people to this stage, and then we did this and got them to the next stage and out popped a whole bunch of money.’

You’ve advised a long list of startups across all sectors… what is the most important piece of advice you give to everyone you work with?

I think customer understanding is a really big deal, and it’s not just understanding who your customers are, but it’s understanding how they make decisions about things, what happens between the moment when they think ‘oh, maybe I should investigate this type of solution’ to actually pulling out their credit card and making a purchase. I think for a lot of startups, they design something that is very much for themselves, or they get a great idea and they build it without spending a lot of time really getting inside the heads of their customers. The more you can understand about that, the better your marketing will be. I think a lot of startup founders will think they know this, but there will be a whole bunch of untested assumptions baked into that. Then they’ll run marketing campaigns and they won’t work and they’ll think ‘well, that’s weird. Why didn’t that work? It would’ve worked on me.’ Maybe your customer target set isn’t exactly like you. So you’re making all these assumptions about them and how they buy that are incorrect. I think if you have failed marketing experiments, it’s usually an indicator that you’ve got an assumption that is incorrect. Now you need to go back and figure out what’s wrong with that assumption. That always means going back to your target market and having conversations with them and figuring out why it isn’t working. Really the only way to find out why something isn’t working is to get out and talk to your customers. It’s very difficult to survey your way into figuring out the ‘why?’

What does the future hold for April Dunford?

I have two things I’m working on right now. RocketScope is a new company that I formed with my business partner Amrita Chandra, who is also a very experienced Startup Marketer - she’s been the head of marketing at a number of different startups. We are kind of in the beta phase with an offering that we’re targeting at small- to mid-size, high-growth companies that want the benefit of having a couple of very senior full-stack marketers available to them to help them accelerate what they’re doing. We can basically help them with their marketing plans, and help them focus on the things that are important, and not focus on the things that are already good and working so they can move faster. We have a handful of clients we’re working with now and it’s going really well.

I’m also spending a day a week in Waterloo at Communitech as an Entrepreneur-in-Residence. I’m a working resource available to any of their ~800 companies that are part of Communitech. As an EIR, I am a resource available to any of those people that want to spend a little bit of time with somebody who is on their level. I can kind of review things, look at things, and give them my opinion on what is missing and what could use some more work. I spend about two hours every week with the Hyperdrive cohort, so I get those two hours set aside every week for those companies. I think Hyperdrive is amazing, I think they have a great cohort in there. Communitech is an amazing, magical place. I have not seen anything like it in Canada. They have this big building with a lot of the startups in that building, but they also have Google, Desire2Learn, Universities have representation, and some other bigger companies. There’s this really neat energy and vibe in there, and you have all these more senior people that are available as a resource there. I think they’re doing some magic stuff at Communitech right now. It’s fun to be a part of it. Since I’m a University of Waterloo grad, I hadn’t been back there in a while so it’s fun to hang out there. For myself, at RocketScope, we’re very interested in startup marketing best practices, so the EIR thing at Communitech gives me a chance to be exposed to a lot of startups, and they’re all different and they’re all doing things in very different ways. It gives you a chance to see the repeatable patterns of what works and what doesn’t. What are the common mistakes that people make? And how do we help other people to not make those mistakes?

Looking for more from April? Follow her on Twitter, and check out RocketWatcher and RocketScope!

handhcomms: Smart advert for Berrge Tattoo in Istanbul, Turkey...

Mon, 04 Mar 2013 22:10:59 -0500

handhcomms:

Smart advert for Berrge Tattoo in Istanbul, Turkey where applicants must demonstrate their skills to even access the application form.

So clever!

Saul Colt: The time traveling, story-telling, superhero marketer.

Tue, 19 Feb 2013 10:45:50 -0500

We’ve decided to do something a bit different this year with the Suprpod blog. Instead of writing pieces of content from our point of view, we’re bringing you interviews with some of the best marketers in the world. We’re kicking things off with Saul Colt, Canada’s Best Word of Mouth Marketer. I’ve known Saul for a couple of years now, and have always admired his way of marketing brands. I transcribed the interview for you all below, so get ready for some time travel, a few stories, and Saul’s quest to become Batman.

Tell me about yourself and how you got into marketing.

I got into marketing sort of accidentally - I didn’t even realize I was doing it. I was working in the family business, and as a side project, I wanted to be a film director. I didn’t have enough money to make my own independent film, so I started making comic books. I became an accidental entrepreneur, where I ended up with a publishing company. Making comic books is wonderful, but you have to sell them to generate revenue to produce more and more. I ended up spending a lot of time on message boards and going to conferences and conventions, and speaking to people. I ended up learning as I went along how to market to people, how to do real niche marketing, which I think is something I do very well. Ultimately, because I didn’t have a lot of money to spend on a marketing budget, I became really good at word of mouth marketing and started honing that craft as an effort to sell my comic books. Through there I sort of launched my career into other things, higher-profile things, and working with some interesting people.

Do you still do a lot of comic book drawing? Is that still your passion, or has marketing taken over?

I still love the idea of comic books, and a lot of my closest friends were made during that time of my life, but I don’t really read comic books anymore - I just don’t have the time. However, I enjoy superhero movies, and I follow what my friends are doing with their books.

So who is your favourite superhero?

Batman. As a child, I wanted to be Batman because it seemed the most realistic opportunity - he was just a rich guy. I assumed I would be rich someday, so I could be Batman as opposed to being born with some superpower. I could just train my body to develop superpowers. The license plate on my car is actually BATMOBLE.

Tell us about your recent IndieGoGo campaign, raising funds to become Batman.

I raised about $100. Since I didn’t raise the million dollars I was looking for, I didn’t collect the money - I gave it all back. But that’s an interesting thing you bring up. I talk about learning things on the go, and the reason I launched that campaign where I wanted people to give me a million dollars to become Batman, was that I really wanted to understand how the crowd-funding programs work, like Kickstarter and IndieGoGo. I picked a campaign that I knew would never get funded, but I wanted to go through the entire process of building a page, promoting it, seeing reactions, using the comments, and everything. It was really just a test of something I knew I’d never actually have to follow through on, because I wasn’t going to raise a million dollars.

You have a very unique and quirky personality - which, anyone who knows you knows very well. How do you feel that your personal brand has led to your success in the marketing space?

I attribute a lot of my success to my personal brand for a couple reasons. It’s given me the opportunity to stand out in front of some other people, opening doors for me there. As far as my personality…I’m interested in things that other people aren’t interested in. I consume pop culture, I watch far too much television, I read three-four books a month, and I’m not reading the same things as everyone else is reading. Because my interests are different, I’m coming up with different ideas because I’m inspired by different things. I believe if everyone’s consuming the same things, everyone’s ideas will be the same. Instead of reading the most current marketing book, I’ll read a book from the 80s or 70s because the principles are all the same, but the information is going to be disseminated in a different way. You might get a different insight, they won’t be talking just about social media - they’re going to be talking about the thought process that went into developing the things that we think are commonplace today. I love the fact that I’m fascinated by things that other people aren’t fascinated by, because it allows me to come up with wacky ideas that other people wouldn’t generally come up with because they’re not exposed to the same things as I’m exposed to.

Which is funny, because you say you don’t consider yourself to be a “traditional” marketer, yet you sort of go back in time to be inspired.

Yeah, I do it all the time. I will read detective novels from the 70s and 80s because it has completely different thought processes, and completely different things. I may not take ideas from these books, but I’ll definitely be inspired by them or see something that’s interesting or funny and I’ll jot it down in my phone. I have a notepad in my phone where any idea I come up with - even if it’s not relative to what I’m working on right then and there - I’ll put it in there because one day (and it may take years) it’s something that may be really cool, or different, or unusual. I’ll just be walking along the street, and I get an idea, or see something on a TV show, and I’ll just jot it down so that if anyone ever did say “I need an idea in 5 minutes”, I can go through my inspiration folder and probably come up with something cool.

So that touched on what inspires you, but are there any people who have inspired you along the way in becoming a marketer?

These aren’t people I know personally, but they’re more like public figures. One of my greatest inspirations is William Gaines, the Founder of MAD Magazine - he’s such an interesting and fascinating guy. There’s a great book called “Days Gone MAD”, which is about working at MAD Magazine in the heydays, and I think this is one of the greatest culture books as far as business culture…but it’s not meant to be a culture book. It talks about how they kept the place interesting, how they kept it fun - the lengths they went to to make sure that people thought of MAD Magazine in a certain way. A long time ago, MAD Magazine was printed on this really, really crappy newsprint. There came a time where that newsprint was actually hard to find, and the printer wanted to upgrade them to a nicer paper. William Gaines didn’t want people thinking that MAD Magazine was going to get any better, so he paid more for the crappy paper to leave the look and the feel. He was paying more for the inferior paper so people wouldn’t expect better content. My favourite William Gaines story, and I’ve got 10 other people to talk about, was when he did this thing called ‘MAD Trips’. As he got older, he was a very wealthy man but apparently very cheap. However, he would splurge on certain things, and one year he decided he wasn’t going to give Christmas bonuses, but instead would do MAD Trips. He would take everyone in the office, about 40-50 staff members, on a trip to somewhere amazing like China, Japan, Russia - all throughout Asia, and Africa as well. Later in life, he developed this taste for food and wine and became sort of a foodie, but he wouldn’t want to go to a restaurant alone. He would read about an amazing restaurant in Italy, but he didn’t have a lot of friends that he worked with, so he’d take everybody.

My favourite story from that is the first trip he took them on was to Haiti. He didn’t tell anyone where they were going, just told them to pack for a certain climate and when they got off the plane they boarded a yellow school bus and drove deep into the jungle. The way he was able to write off this trip was that they hand-delivered to the only subscriber in Haiti, but then they stayed for a week and had this amazing trip. People would bring their kids and their spouses, and it would be a big event.

I’ve always loved reading about PT Barnum and things he would do to promote the circus. My favourite PT Barnum story is that in order to promote the Barnum and Bailey Circus coming to town, he would get one of his newest employees that didn’t really know the way of the land yet, put him in a really nice suit, and have him go into town and be seen and spend some money. What PT Barnum would do, without telling this person, is tell everyone that this person was a child molester. The people would follow this person, because of course they wanted to torture or kill him, and they would be led unwillingly to the Barnum and Bailey Circus. Once they would get there they’d kind of be like ‘well, while you’re here, why don’t you come in - the show’s about to start.’

There are so many amazing stories of people who have done really cool things. I’ve always been inspired by Penn and Teller and the fact that they do magic tricks and actually tell you what the trick is and dissect it, which violates every rule of magic. My list of people that inspire me is very long because I’m inspired by all of these amazing people that do really cool things - that’s something I love more than anything.

Out of all of your experiences, in all of the companies and brands you’ve worked with, what has been your favourite product to promote?

I would say I have never promoted a product. I’ve worked for a lot of brands, and I’ve promoted a lot of things, but I never talk about the product. I never talk about features or benefits - I always try to promote an idea, or a lifestyle. With Freshbooks (for those of you not familiar, Freshbooks is the #1 cloud accounting specialist for small business owners), I would always talk about the freedom, and being able to work for yourself while looking more professional. I’d never talk about the features and benefits, because if you go from the beginning to the end of all the features of a product, it’s about a ten minute conversation for most things. Out of that conversation, there’s nothing anybody would share. I would always talk about the things that come from the product, or the lifestyle, or the experiences. If you create experiences for people, and that’s kind of been the secret to everything I’ve done, people will share those experiences and emotions they had through your interaction. If a friend is telling you about something cool, and I’ll just make up a number here, 80% of the time you’re going to go check that out yourself. Then all of the tricks of calls to action, and the website, and everything will get you in. In the real world, which is where I like to live most of the time as opposed to being digital, I love just creating experiences because I believe that that far exceeds just talking about a product and how this is going to save you ten minutes a day or something. It’s more about creating something bigger than the product, and the product is just the happy beneficiary of all of what you do. I can’t say I have a favourite, I’ve done hundreds and hundreds of things - some on a small scale, some on a large scale - and I’m proud of 98% of what I’ve done. To pick a favourite would be hard.

Looking forward, what would be your dream project in marketing?

My absolute dream project would be, and as I mentioned earlier I’ve always been fascinated by pop culture and my love of film, to work for a film studio and be the marketing person for film releases. I’d love to work for a brand like Nike, just because it’s one of the two or three brands that I’m fiercely loyal to. Again, it’s never been about the product for me. The thing I’ve always wanted more, is freedom and autonomy to take calculated risks. A lot of times if you tell people ‘I want to do________’, and that blank is this fantastical and whimsical thing that people are going to go crazy over, it’s sometimes hard for people to see the value in it, or see the reason for doing it. That’s not a slight against anyone, but the fact is if you go to a CEO and say “I want to kidnap people” or “I want to do a 21-gun salute in the middle of a shopping mall”, even outside of these extremes, it’s a hard sell a lot of times. I’d love to work for Nike or a film studio, or a hair line, but I’m also just as happy working for a scrappy startup that’s willing to do really interesting things because that stuff is more important to me than who I work for. It’s great to say you have a fancy resume credit, but I’m much more interested in the actual role than who it’s for.

How does living in Toronto inspire you creatively?

Toronto is a really interesting city. There are so many things to see, amazing restaurants, interesting people, amazing street art, art installations, and you can see Broadway-calibre theatre. Everything you can imagine is in Toronto. There are a zillion opportunities for inspiration - you just have to keep your eyes open. I walk around the city sometimes, and take hundreds of pictures on my cell phone all the time, picking up anything that is interesting - any piece of street art, or even traditional flyers. As far as conversations go, there is a great number of interesting startups coming out of Toronto, and even mature companies. There are a lot of networking events and social activities where you can have conversations with people and leave with an idea, or leave re-energized. I think the people in Toronto are really fortunate to have such an interesting community. I don’t know if it’s appreciated, but it’s there if you want it.

You do a lot of traveling for conferences and speaking engagements, so outside of Toronto, what place inspires you the most?

I really love Portland, Oregon. I love so many different places for different reasons. New York City is one of my favourite cities in the world, but it’s my favourite because I have so many friends there, it’s got nothing to do with the culture or the neighbourhoods or anything. I like San Francisco for architecture, I like San Diego for weather, and Portland has this really interesting and creative vibe. Everyone there is just fascinating and willing to talk openly. I was in Minneapolis recently, I had never been before, and just walking through some of the neighbourhoods, they had Charles Schulz from Peanuts as a bronze statue in the downtown area. People don’t make a big deal about it, but I thought that was really cool. The commonality is people. Since I travel so much, I’ve been able to make some amazing friends in a lot of different places. The physical traveling part is not glamorous. People think it’s amazing - you get to stay in hotels every week, but I have literally woken up in the morning and not remembered what city I was in. At the same time, I’ve been exposed to many wonderful people who have shared many wonderful ideas. That has been enormously valuable and inspiring. It’s interesting how geography really changes the way people think, when you’re exposed to different things. I try to expose myself to different things, and even being in a different city and a different mindset…it really opens you up to different ideas.

What does the future hold for Saul Colt?

I don’t know. That’s the most interesting part of the future! I hope to continue having a career that people look at and are always sort of impressed by, and I hope to always do great work that touches people and creates amazing experiences for people. Five years ago, I wouldn’t have imagined where I am, so it’s hard to say where I’ll be five years from now. There’s an opportunity I could be running my own company, there’s an opportunity I could be running a bigger company for someone else, there’s an opportunity I could be the Prime Minister of Canada, or an Honourary Senator for the United States…I could be an astronaut. I never limit myself to thinking anything’s impossible. I know that’s super cliche but my mindset is that there are a lot of people who are ‘why?’ people, and I’m really more of a ‘why not?’ person. If somebody actually gave me an opportunity to go to another country or halfway around the world and try something, I’d probably jump at it. Why not? I never want to feel like my feet are in the mud, and I never want to feel like I’ve seen everything and done everything. There are always things out there that are amazing. I want to touch everything and see everything, and touch every one of the female gender, and to do that I need to not limit myself to anything. I find it interesting when people do limit themselves.

Do you have any advice for somebody just starting out in the marketing field?

I’ve given this advice a lot of times, and I always qualify it by saying it is bad advice, but it’s how I’ve always led my career. I don’t think anyone should take the same path as I have - I’m both a pioneer and a dinosaur. I’ve done all these things that people have never seen before, but at the same time, people are moving towards digital marketing like it’s the only thing. They don’t believe in real-world experiences anymore, so there will be a day when I am rendered redundant and useless. Until that day, I’ll keep swearing at people.

If you’re in a customer-facing role, always care more about your customers than you do your managers above you. The customers are the ones keeping the lights on in the business, and are the lifeblood of the company. You should always respect your managers, but if you’re the one with the closest contact to your customers, you’re going to know things. One of the most dangerous things a company can get into is when decisions are made on behalf of the customers, without ever talking to the customers.

Once or twice a year, I have an idea that is so good, it is worth getting fired over. With my own personality I have to do them, even if someone says no. I have been fired, but I’ve done these ideas, and they haven’t blown up in my face - they’ve been successful, because I trust my own instincts. I’m not aloof or casual, I over-think things and strategize. Sometimes when you present something, like ‘hey, we’re going to take people in a hot air balloon and drop them out the side’, it’s a really tough sell but sometimes your customers really want that experience. It might only be once or twice a year, but when you have something like that, you have to do it because that is how you’re going to get noticed in your career. That’s how you’re going to make a name for yourself, as long as you’re not reckless. Every time I’ve been fired, I’ve been able to land something better the next time. I don’t do these things to be reckless, you have to do what you believe in. The worst thing in the world is going home from work, and not wanting to go back the next day.

For more on Saul and his speaking and consulting, check him out here.

wrdbnr: Replace : print/tee/free worldwide shipping Do...

Sat, 12 Jan 2013 20:22:52 -0500

wrdbnr:

Replace : print/tee/free worldwide shipping

Do it.

Marketing vs. Sales

Wed, 21 Nov 2012 10:00:00 -0500

If you are one of a group of people who thinks marketing and sales is the same thing: get out. Go here and come back when you’ve read it. The basis of this post has been in my mind ever since I read this article from Geoffrey James on Why Sales Hates Marketing. Even more recently, a friend received a cold-email and because I knew the sender, brought it to my attention. This fueled the…passion that you will read in this post. Maybe it isn’t about marketing and sales hating each other, but more about why confusing the two can lead your brand down a dangerous path.

They would do anything for a Klondike bar

In order for a company to have a consistent brand, all members of that company have to be on-board - especially team members that directly interact with clients and stakeholders. These groups are first-and-foremost customer service (typically dealing with negative situations) and sales (typically dealing with first impressions).

The problem with sales being the first impression is that it can, more often than not, come across negatively. First impressions are dependent on communication. You know who’s good at communication? Marketers. If it’s a sensitive sale (which always depends on the product and the client), doing your research as a salesperson is more important than ever. Don’t ignore brand integrity just to help your numbers.

They’re cold

Think of your brand voice and messaging. Is “cold” one of the feelings you want to evoke with your brand? It will be if you let your sales people make cold-calls/emails. Going back to first impressions, if you send a template email to those 1,000 people and get 30 sales, you have potentially ruined those other 970 recipients’ perception of the brand. It is now going to be extremely difficult for anyone to rebuild that perception of reputation. Which leads us to…

They’re throwing spaghetti at the wall

…leaving a mess for others to clean up. Brand equity comes from successful marketing, which is a long-term process. By a sales team essentially throwing spaghetti to see what sticks, there will be a LOT of spaghetti on the floor. Ain’t nobody got time to clean that up. Sales people need to think long-term strategy in their short-term numbers. This means doing research to generate qualified leads, making a positive impression on potential clients, and not leaving burning wreckage in their wake.

Marketers and salespeople don’t need to dislike each other. In fact, if we acknowledge our differences and play to our strengths, we can kick some serious ass. Even more importantly than that, business owners and managers need to see that one team does not replace the other, and that a unified (synergy!) strategy is vital.

jaymug: Pond’s Anti-Bacterial Facial Wash Billboard

Mon, 05 Nov 2012 10:05:01 -0500

jaymug:

Pond’s Anti-Bacterial Facial Wash Billboard

Guerilla Marketing: Science World

Tue, 16 Oct 2012 21:17:59 -0400

Micro-managing value: just stop it.

Thu, 11 Oct 2012 09:57:00 -0400

Marketers aren’t only growth hackers. Some of us (ahem, SEO marketers) may have the formula figured out (or at least think we do), but what about efforts where calculating the formula is less efficient than just doing? Here’s where we should focus more on empowering our front lines as opposed to micro-managing value.

Customer Service

This department of your business is sometimes the only contact between your brand and your customer. It can be initiated by a positive or negative event, but the really important part of this is how each experience ends. Is your customer service team there to answer calls and emails, or are they there to represent your brand?

One of my favourite examples of a customer service win, has become quite popular on the internet as of late. It’s about customers taking the process of ordering a pizza a step further to see if your brand will rise to the challenge. If a customer asked you to ‘draw a dragon fighting a flamingo’, would your first thought be analyzing what ROI you could see from doing this? Or perhaps the time-cost of performing this extra task? Colin knows how to manage his customers’ pizza experience. He owns it.

Social Media

As marketers, we’re finally getting to the point where social media is demonstrating enough ROI for a lot of companies to get on board. On the other hand, we’re bombarded with so many analytics tools, reputation raters, and stats trackers that our creativity is threatened. It’s not always the keywords that get us mentions, retweets, comments, and likes. Social media is about being funny, controversial, and human.

My favourite billboard campaign of all time is BMW and Audi being comically competitive.

Of course something like this takes time to write, design, print, and post, but social media is instant. You need people who can pull this off without checking with their supervisor, or wondering if their cleverness is an appropriate use of company time. A little while ago I posted this on our Facebook page as an epic win:

Watching brands interact with each other through media is like branded Rock’em Sock’em Robots. It’s personable, it’s memorable, and it’s just plain awesome.

Analytics help keep us on track in the bigger picture of marketing. However, micro-management of our brands’ most social functions will cripple brand voice and ensure that your popularity stagnates. Want to be interesting? Want your marketing to be effective? Let your front lines shine.

wordboner: It’s that simple get on a tee / get on a print

Wed, 10 Oct 2012 12:55:00 -0400

wordboner:

It’s that simple

get on a tee / get on a print

jaymug: Adidas Football Advertising Go big or go home!

Sun, 16 Sep 2012 20:20:03 -0400

jaymug:

Adidas Football Advertising

Go big or go home!

Fire. We had our favourite quotes from famous marketers designed...

Tue, 24 Jul 2012 21:37:00 -0400

Fire. We had our favourite quotes from famous marketers designed and printed on 11x17 posters! This is 1/3.

Words to live by? jaymug: Make it simple, but significant — Don...

Mon, 09 Jul 2012 20:55:35 -0400

Words to live by?

jaymug:

Make it simple, but significant — Don Draper

Anyone think Pantone has over-extended their brand with the nail...

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 22:00:32 -0400

Anyone think Pantone has over-extended their brand with the nail polishes, holiday ornaments, and laptop sleeves?

jaymug:

Pantone Canvas MacBook Pro Sleeves

Memes in advertising. weblast: Maynards Granny Smith

Sun, 10 Jun 2012 21:50:56 -0400

Memes in advertising.

weblast:

Maynards Granny Smith

Love the execution of this ad.

Tue, 05 Jun 2012 16:18:15 -0400

Love the execution of this ad.

jaymug: Kaku Icecream: Cow

Mon, 28 May 2012 14:50:19 -0400

jaymug:

Kaku Icecream: Cow

jaymug: Logo Lollipops by Gammacurta

Sat, 05 May 2012 12:40:08 -0400

jaymug:

Logo Lollipops by Gammacurta

Kony 2012: Why It Inevitably Failed

Fri, 04 May 2012 16:07:00 -0400

When the group Invisible Children launched their video for a campaign called ‘Kony 2012’, it went viral…and quickly. In 3 weeks, the video had been viewed over 80 million times on YouTube alone (other video sites would push views over 100 million). This is the first time (to my knowledge) that an international issue such as genocide in Africa would garner more attention than nyan cat, Rebecca Black, and keyboard cat. So how did they do it? And why did it flop?

Convincing Story

The internet is gullible. That’s why sites like Snopes and Reddit exist. So when every teenage girl shares a video on her Facebook page with the line “OMG this guy is so horrible, you have to watch this video!”, people do. And the story behind the fact that Joseph Kony is a horrible man who has done horrible things is a convincing one. So convincing, that nobody checks their facts. Instead, everybody wants to be the one to save the world…from in front of their computer monitor.

Lack of Context

People who are true activists (not Facebook activists) began pointing out that many “facts” stated in the video lacked context. This is why the stats surrounding the issue that the campaign was built on were so convincing. Thus, making it a successful piece of propaganda.

Exaggerated Facts

This is when we see the decline of the Kony campaign. When people started poking holes in the story, it went from inspiring to controversial. Invisible Children exaggerated the role they were playing in bringing Kony to justice, they exaggerated facts to make the video go viral, and this is when people stopped listening to the group.

Flip-Flop

Though ‘Kony 2012’ went viral with a bang and brought a lot of attention to an international disaster, it fizzled out before the campaign’s main event. On April 20th, communities were to “Cover the Night”, plastering their communities with posters promoting the campaign. In reality, the event came and went with little more than a whisper. The problem? Invisible Children no doubt underestimated the initial response to their video, which peaked and then declined within a week - too long before “Cover the Night.”

So when you’re trying to promote something (especially an important social cause), keep these things in mind:

1. If you’re going to lie, lie well. Nothing is worse than having to weave a web of lies to save your own ass.

2. If your video goes viral quicker than anticipated, keep the pressure on. ‘Cover the Night’ wasn’t a success because everybody had forgot about the campaign by that time.

3. Don’t run around your neighbourhood naked and drunk. Unless it is your intention to get press for yourself, you are taking all of the attention off of your social cause.

4. Be an agile marketer. Accept the fact that things will change. If you under- or over-estimate how your campaign goes initially, have a contingency plan in place. That way you won’t fizzle out as quickly.

jaymug: Food as App Icons by Julian Burford

Wed, 02 May 2012 19:34:55 -0400

jaymug:

Food as App Icons by Julian Burford

weblast: Google Search: Trailer Hitches

Mon, 23 Apr 2012 22:11:51 -0400

weblast:

Google Search: Trailer Hitches