Marketing Through the Clutter

New home for this blog

2010-03-31T14:54:00.002-04:00

Since launching this blog I've developed a website for my email marketing consultancy and have moved this blog to that site to keep everything in one place. For the latest and greatest, please redirect your browser to http://isendyouremail.com/about/welcome-to-my-blog/. Many thanks for stopping by and I hope you'll continue to follow my musings on email marketing at this new location.

When should we start social media marketing?

2009-06-24T13:19:00.002-04:00

Recently on MarketingSherpa, this question was posed in an article (Full link here):
When should we start with social media marketing?

Their response follows:

Social media is a powerful channel, but it works in conjunction with other efforts, such as email. You should get your email marketing tactics nailed down first, before you make a big social media push.

Here’s why: Engaging with customers and prospects through social media is another channel for two-way communications, like email. A well-developed email program can help you learn important things about your communication strategy, such as:
What types of content resonate with your audience
How frequently they want to hear from you
How to segment your audience to deliver relevant messages
How to convert visitors into subscribers who want an ongoing relationship with your brand

I’d like to add:

Before doing the above, make sure you have the infrastructure in place to handle a two-way conversation.

If you open a dialogue by sending an email, it’s important to have measures in place to keep up your end of the discussion. This means assigning someone to check the inbox of the reply-to address on your emails. It’s important to remember that someone may reply to your message with a question or solicitation for more information. Having an email like that go unanswered is a surefire way to lose a customer and inspire bad word of mouth.

The exception to the above is transactional emails. In those messages, be sure to include something like the following in your footer that’s linked to the page on your website with contact information:

Please don't reply to this email. We don't monitor this email address and won't be able to reply to email sent to it. If you have any questions or comments, please contact us.

Above all, ask yourself, “Why are we doing this?”

If the answer is, “Because everyone’s talking about Twitter so we may as well do it” then you need to re-think your plan. Email is a great way to stay in touch with your constituents. Shore up the points above and you’ll be well on your way to having an email program in place that will complement your social media strategy.

Don't abuse their trust

2009-06-13T08:51:00.002-04:00

I thought I'd mentioned on my blog the importance of not taking your list's subscribers for granted, but a search didn't turn up any results on the topic. Shame on me. Guess I'm the one doing the "taking for granted" and should not assume everyone knows that.

Reading this post on Andy Sernovitz's "Damn, I Wish I'd Thought of That" blog reminded me of the unique fact that email is the only form of "advertising" that people specifically ask to receive. It's so easy to create and send that it's easy to forget that your spot in your recipients' inbox isn't a right, it's a privilege. Your recipients may have asked for your communications, but only under the parameters you set forth on your sign-up page (i.e. the content and frequency you promoted).

But if you live up to the promise you made to your recipients from the get-go when they gave you their permission to send them your newsletters, you should have a long-lasting, mutually beneficial relationship with an attentive audience. What could be better than that?!

Ask more than "So, what's your address?"

2009-06-08T12:18:00.001-04:00

Ah, the old quantity vs. quality debate. Many folks ask themselves, “Do I want a large list or an active list?” Since I am not a mind reader, there’s no way I am going to attempt to answer that for you. But for the sake of having something for you to read, let’s discuss having an active list. One way to do that would be segment your list based upon their zip code, birthday or some other demographic information. The more relevant the information a recipient receives, the more likely they are to be engaged with the messages they receive.

Here are some steps to using segmented information:

Step 1: Ask for this information on your email sign-up page.

Before you add questions willy nilly, ask yourself what the most meaningful information is to have to market your goods or services. I met someone who sold infant clothing adorned with logos of U.S. colleges and it hadn’t occurred to him to ask for the child’s birth date to send information to parents specific to their child’s size. Think beyond basic snail mail address information.

OK, that’s swell and groovy, but what if you’re thinking, “I’ve already collected 3,245 email addresses? How do I go back and add more information about these folks?”

I’m glad you asked!

Step 2: Asking for information retroactively to segment contacts already on your list.

This MailChimp blog post has a lot of great ideas for adding information organically. The idea detailed in this post is to tell list contacts that you’re having a random drawing and will send the winner a free prize if they enter more information about themselves into your database. Create a reason for your contacts to come back to your site and tell you more about themselves.

Step 3: Creating a way for list members to update their information – preference center

Sometimes called a sign-up form, a preference center is a web page that allows your contacts to tell you more about themselves and which of your offerings they want to receive. The Musician’s Friend offers this preference center that asks for information about the contact, including birthday.

And here’s an example from Rocket Software that gives an explanation for each of their newsletters.

Step 4: Be sure your preference center is set up to allow contacts to log in and make changes. All of the above is great for collecting information up-front, but enabling contacts to retroactively update their profiles is critical. If you’re going to send out a note to your list to ask recipients to come back to your site to update their profiles (like the idea mentioned in Step 2), be sure you have a way for them to do this. It may be called an “Update Profile Form” by some email service providers (ESP). No matter the name, this is a function your ESP should offer.

Now that you've gone through the process of learning more about the folks you're emailing, be sure to tailor your content to your audience's specific interests.

Don't use ESP to pick an ESP

2009-05-03T19:29:00.001-04:00

Recently I was talking with a prospective client about the advantages of using an email service provider (ESP) over sending an email in-house. This person’s hurdle was exporting her address book to upload it to ESP’s platform. Obviously, that’s a huge obstacle. I recommended that she begin the process of figuring out how to recreate her address book in another platform before she had to resort to manually reconstructing her address book in an excel file.

But barring any issues, like that, here are a few reasons for recommending someone use an ESP over sending bulk emails from a standard email client, such as Outlook or Yahoo! mail:

CAN-SPAM: The CAN-SPAM law became effective in 2004 and requires that email marketing messages include the physical address of the sender and that unsubscribes are processed and honored within 10 days of the subscribers’ request. This isn’t something that most standard mail clients are set up to handle, but a reputable ESP should offer list management tools that can handle this for you.

Potential blacklisting: Standard email clients are not designed for email marketing. They are not approved for bulk mailings, so your messages will most likely be labeled as ‘spam’ by other email clients as well as by most of the ISPs, which will bounce them back to you or simply delete them. Your efforts will be rendered useless since your message will not reach the intended recipients’ mailboxes and the address you sent it from will eventually be ‘blacklisted.’

Real-time reporting: A comprehensive ESP can provide several, thorough real-time reports on the number of emails sent, the number of emails actually opened and who in your address list actually opened your message; the number of unsubscribes and who unsubscribed; how many were undeliverable and why they were bounced; the click-through rates –including which links in your message were more effective and who clicked through. All this information is invaluable when you plan and evaluate campaigns, fine-tune promotions and want to distribute very targeted marketing materials.

Other benefits of using an ESP include:

Testing variables, such as when is the best time to send an email or a subject line, to achieve maximum results for your email
Most ESPs offer a tool that allows you to produce your own HTML emails, even if you don't know HTML. HTML allows you to incorporate columns, images, color, bold, italic, and other elements that are a better way to present information.

Don’t be penny wise and pound foolish when picking an ESP. Here’s an article that can help steer you through the process. The last line sums up the process best: “There’s no such thing as a silver bullet for inbox delivery. No single solution or provider will be able to guarantee you perfect results. But the right ESP with the right tools and the will to collaborate on optimization will help you improve your ability to reach your customers effectively.”

Spammers back at it

2009-03-31T12:45:00.003-04:00

It's a bit disheartening to see this story in the New York Times with the headline "Spam Back to 94% of all E-Mail." Though this story is about malicious spammers who have found a way around the McColo take down last fall that cut off spam traffic, it lumps in opt-in email messages as if they're unwanted as well. Not all commercial emails are spam!

Stand out with relevant content

2009-02-25T21:53:00.003-05:00

Making your email messages relevant is more important than ever as the number of channels by which information can be conveyed grows (i.e. Twitter, Facebook) on top of existing methods of reaching your audience (TV, radio, newspaper, etc.). Thus the need to hone in on your audience’s interests is critical.

Batch and Blast or Tune In?

Loren McDonald, VP of Industry Relations for Silverpop, recently warned that email frequency is out, behavior is in. (You can check out his entire presentation here.) He recommends using behavior-based communications to avoid low-relevancy messages, which lead to subscriber churn. What does that mean?

Follow-up emails after someone has abandoned a shopping cart
Messaging buyers who haven’t purchased in a fixed amount of time to remind them it may be time to re-order
Ask for more than an email address: collect birthdays, geographical information or other information that will you better identify their needs

Don’t abuse the inbox!

Just this past week, an article appeared on BusinessWeek.com about “un-sexy” but successful enewsletters. Here’s the link to the entire article. This quote from DailyCandy founder Dany Levy was the key take away from the article for me: “It's a privilege to be in someone's e-mail box.” (And that is certainly how I feel about the I Send Your Email newsletter subscribers!)

Remembering it isn’t your right to that your message is in your recipient’s inbox is critical. With that in mind, thinking about what your audience wants to hear from you is a good first step towards developing a meaningful relationship with your audience through relevant messaging.

Email resolutions

2009-01-26T12:02:00.005-05:00

I sent this out recently to my I Send Your Email newsletter sign-up list, but wanted to share the information here as well. Here's where you can sign-up for the monthly newsletter with tips and information to get this sent to you directly.

Email resolutions

It's a safe bet that we've all made New Year's resolutions at some point in our lives. With this newsletter, I Send Your Email has decided to apply the idea of pledging to do something "the right way" to email marketing. Below are a few things you should resolve to do to make the most of your email marketing program in 2009. Also, with a new year, a new budget often isn't far behind. Also included some articles to help make the case for email marketing when it comes time to allocating your marketing dollars.

With my email, I resolve to....

Make the Open-or-Delete Decision Easy: Use a subject line that tells (not sells) what’s inside the message. Write a concise subject message with the value proposition in the first line of text in your message).

Make Your Message Easy to Share: Include functionality that lets recipients post your e-mail on their social networks. Be sure to include your subscription information to take advantage of this expanded audience.

Leverage What You Know: Develop more targeted, relevant offers and messaging by making the most of what you know about your customers, such as their demographics and/or past buying behavior.

I could go on with a much longer list of things to think about before sending your email, but Seth Godin has already done a fantastic job developing such a list. Since I see no point in reinventing the wheel, I’ll link to his excellent checklist of things to think of before hitting the send button.

Recession-Proof Marketing
Many experts agree that email marketing is one of the best options when allocating marketing dollars in a tough economy. Here are two articles that support that claim. You may want to consider sharing them with the decision makers in your life to keep email in the mix in 2009.

Ride out the recession with e-mail
John Rizzi points out in DM News “e-mail's ability to help you protect your most valuable asset in a down economy: loyal customers.” He also points out “e-mail marketing offers more cost-effective opportunities to surprise and delight your customers, while at the same time generating a quick sale or two.”

Tips for protecting your email marketing budget
Spencer Kollas shares that “the Direct Marketing Association estimates that email will bring in $45.65 for every dollar spent in 2008.” That could be music to your boss’s ears! Once you get approval to spend on email marketing, Kollas points out ways to spend your budget wisely.

Again, if you're interested, here's where you can sign-up for the I Send Your Email newsletter.

Sherpa chart: Marketers Tailoring Digital Tactics in Recessionary Economy

2008-11-18T14:33:00.001-05:00

From Marketing Sherpa:

SUMMARY: Every marketing tactic gets more scrutiny when budgets face the sting of a struggling economy. Here is a glance at how marketers expect to tailor their investments in digital tactics during a downturn.

As an email marketing consultant, I am pleased to see that almost half of those surveyed are investing in their email database, though it's to be expected given email's low cost and proven ROI. The increased focus on house lists, with a decrease in spending on rrental lists could mean more opportunity for cross-channel promotions to increase house lists, i.e. using paid search to encourage new visitors to register for an email marketing program.

Temporary hiatus

2008-10-29T18:19:00.003-04:00

Thanks to those of you who have asked if I've abandoned this blog, but rest assure that is not the case! I've just taken a temporary leave to get caught up on my workload, but I'll be back in early November with more posts.

I appreciate your interest!

Wrong source for lipstick information

2008-09-10T08:30:00.002-04:00

I noticed a spike in traffic yesterday to this blog of people searching "you can put lipstick on a pig." After a little bit of Google searching myself, I discovered Obama used the phrase yesterday in a speech. To everyone who landed on this post I wrote in June 2007, but was looking for a story about Obama using that expression, I apologize for the inconvenience.

Talk about learning current events by way of your blog stats....

Study: Email is cheap and we like it

2008-08-14T18:14:00.001-04:00

This week's Marketing Sherpa Chart of the Week highlights marketing spend allocated towards email.

Here's the chart, taken from the organization's Benchmark Survey:

A takeaway from the above is that just as many people said email is cheap or free and fine as it is as did those who find it to be a powerful tool that's worth spending enough on to stay on top of it.

Yes, email is an inexpensive marketing tool, but I think the "junk-in, junk-out" rule applies here. Companies will only get so much out of their email programs if they don't allocate proper resources towards them. MailChimp blogged about a company that notched a $157,000 ROI from its email campaign. (OK, this company deals in precious metals, but still.)

It is my hope that the 31% group grows and more companies begin to realize the power that the channel carries. As the market for mobile messaging grows, I see email as a complementary channel growing alongside it.

E-m-a-i-l: Email, email, email!

2008-08-12T13:45:00.001-04:00

No sooner did I write about the importance of combining text with images in email design did I come across this email from the New York Jets:

It's lovely to look at, but it goes against everything I believe in as far as email design is concerned. I'll give the team credit for blasting this message at 4 a.m., mere hours after the deal to acquire QB Brett Favre transpired. But I wonder how many Jets fans, before they've had their morning coffee, opened up their email to find something that appeared as jibberish to them. This could have been how some even learned that their beloved Gang Green was now home to the former Green Bay signal caller!

I know, more questions than answers here. But another example of how something rushed into the pipeline could have resulted in some missed opportunities.

Email design: The good, bad and ugly

2008-08-11T21:34:00.001-04:00

Lately I’ve been getting a lot of HTML-only emails. My settings, like those of most people, have images turned off.

In fact, here’s a quote from a Marketing Sherpa study:

MarketingSherpa data indicates that 59% of consumers and 90% of business email users view some or all of their email with images turned off. This includes people who may view email in their preview panels with images turned off (remember, this is the default for many email clients including Gmail and some versions of Outlook). It also includes people who view their email on a mobile device, such as a BlackBerry.

(This matches past posts here and here about the need to consider viewing email on PDAs.)

With many in planning mode for their Q4 holiday email campaigns, I wanted to show the good, the bad and the ugly of email design. It may have been chic at one time to put form ahead of function, but nowadays, good marketers know that improper planning and design can be costly. Style no longer trumps substance, but they still should complement each other.

Here’s the ugly message that I receive from Fifth Group Restaurants on a weekly basis. (Click the links to view the examples.) With images turn off and images turned on. If I didn’t display the images, I’d have NO idea what their message was trying to convey. (You only get so much from a subject line.)

Here’s a bad example. Images off (as it first appeared in my inbox) and after I turned the images on. There’s some information in the alt-tags, but darned if I get anything meaningful from it. Shame on them for putting the text into image format.

The winner (in my inbox) comes from Upromise. Even with the images turned off, I get the gist of their message. Turning them on complements the text. They still have a top navbar either way.

Here’s a quick and dirty list of things to think about and best practices (it’s by no means complete):

KISS – Keep it simple, stupid. Don’t pack too many bells and whistles into an HTML email
Use alt tags and support text around images. If a reader’s setting have turned off images, they’ll still get the essence of your message
If manually coding your message, lay it out with tables
If you’re not going the Design DIY route, use an email service provider with existing templates
Test, test, test

And here’s a list from Feb. 2007 that lists the default setting for images for most of the major email clients.

(Belated) Meet-up recap

2008-08-08T09:17:00.004-04:00

I have been terribly remiss in posting a follow-up to an earlier post that mentioned I'd be speaking at an Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs Meet-up last month. For a full review of the event, here's a recap by Ben Chesnut of MailChimp, who was also a speaker. His take is much wittier than anything I could put together. Again, I want to thank Mike Schinkel for the invitation to speak and for documenting the event. (That's one of his photos at the right, taken from his Flickr set.)

I also wanted to link to the presentation I gave at the event. It's uploaded to Slideshare, which is a great way for sharing slide decks. I titled it "Email 101" since it's pretty much an overview of things to consider when beginning an email marketing program. Another similar site for sharing PowerPoint presentations is 280 Slides, which I learned about from Ben at the Meet-up event. It is not a requirement that your deck have 280 slides, by the way.

What is this blog about?

2008-08-07T09:43:00.003-04:00

I'd say this is pretty accurate - email, marketing, Atlanta-based, communication on different platforms.

This was created by wordle.net. I just plugged in this blog's URL and presto.

Further proof that email is essential

2008-07-22T20:10:00.001-04:00

The following is from an article in the Charleston (S.C.) Business Journal:

In a May 2008 study of consumer attitudes conducted by the research firm Ipsos for Habeas Inc., 67% preferred e-mail as the primary method of personal and business communication. A majority (88%) said they would like organizations to give them more choice over the content and frequency of e-mails they receive, including ads, offers, articles, newsletters, white papers and other content.

This is exactly what I covered in the Email Marketing 101 presentation I gave last week to the Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs Meet-up. Knowing what your audiences wants - and how often they want it - is critical to your email program's success.

The article went on to give an example of how email can be effective when combined with other components of the marketing mix, such as a direct mail piece in this instance.

h/t: Douglas Karr

Look before hitting reply

2008-07-16T16:56:00.001-04:00

Seth Godin blogged today about emails that explicitly say, "Do not reply to this email. Here's his take.

Email is a unique medium in that it can be personalized and allows for instant feedback. Seeing that note at the bottom is a pet peeve of mine. I shared my address with them and indicated that I was open to their messages, I think the least they could do would be reciprocate and have an open line of communication!

For transactional emails, I can understand this. And, as Seth points out, larger companies may not be expected to sift through the one-off responses that emails could generate.

But, for smaller companies, having a dedicated reply-to address for emails is imperative. It's a step email newbies are likely to forget. But in doing so, they're missing an opportunity to have human-to-human interaction with their customers. Ones that want to hear from them, no less!

Want to use email to drive site traffic?

2008-07-15T23:06:00.001-04:00

I'll be speaking this Thursday, July 17, at the next Meet-up event for the Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs group.

Here are the details:

Event title: Using Email Marketing to Drive Traffic to your Website
Day: Thursday, July 17
Location: Georgia Tech ATDC, 75 5th Street, NW, Hodges Room, 3rd floor Atlanta, GA 30308
Time: 6: 45 p.m.

You can register for the event, by clicking here. I'll be wearing my I Send Your Email hat and talking about what to keep in mind when thinking of launching an email marketing program.

I hope to see you there!

Palm doesn't want to get lost in the shuffle

2008-07-11T16:38:00.005-04:00

I have received two emails in two days from Palm touting their Centro smartphone. With today's launch of the new iPhone, I guess Palm is trying to do its best to keep their product in the collective consciousness of telephone shoppers.

It's a nice idea, but I think it's a reach for Palm to think the Centro could be a replacement for an iPhone.

And today's message (at right) is pretty weak in my opinion. The call-to-action ("learn more") is buried and the font size touting the new color is awfully small. The new color feature is touted in the subject line - Palm(R) Centro(TM) smartphone now in Electric Blue on AT&T - but I think it should be written as prominently as the "Palm(R) Centro(TM) smartphone" headline above it.

OK, end of rant. But I will end by giving Palm credit for adding features to its phone and having a compelling reason to send today's blast. I just hope they set their expectations accordingly.

Well, now you know

2008-07-04T10:15:00.004-04:00

I've been a member of Facebook for over a year. This morning I logged-in to Facebook and was confronted with this at the top of my home page: What gives? Why am I just not being asked that question? Makes me wonder how I been identified in others' feeds all this time...

Quantifying the clutter

2008-06-28T17:00:00.001-04:00

When I created this blog, I had information such as this in mind:

“As consumers, we see over 3,156 images a day. We’re just not conscious of them,” says Marshal Cohen, chief industry analyst of the consumer research firm NPD Group. “Our subconscious records maybe 150, and only 30 or so reach our conscious behavior. If I have a celebrity as part of that message, I just accelerated the potential for my product to reach the conscious of the consumer.”

That quote is found in a NY Times article about the power of celebrity and how some brands can enhance their message's relevancy by using celebrities to hawk their products.

It illustrates the competition marketers have for consumers' attention and the importance of using smart methods to cut through the clutter. But "smart" doesn't always have to mean using a celebrity. It just happened to have helped in the cases cited in that article.

Technorati Tags: Marketing clutter

What's new?

2008-06-18T11:44:00.000-04:00

I have been gone from this blog for too long, but I haven't forgotten about it in the meantime. I've been sidetracked by a few projects and am planning to turn by attention back to this beloved blog.

When I do, I am predicting that the majority of my posts will be related to email marketing. I've begun an email marketing consultancy and would like to keep my posts focused on that area of marketing, rather than just marketing stuff in general. Time has helped me learn that I need to focus on one aspect rather than try to be a generalist. I have gravitated to email marketing in the course of my freelance work - it's what I enjoy most - so that will be the easiest thing for me to blog about.

Lately I've been working on my consultancy's web site. For now the .biz version is functioning (www.isendyouremail.biz) but I am working on the .com version and am looking forward to sharing that with everyone soon.

I've also been added to the MailChimp roster of experts (found here) and have enjoyed getting to know them and their excellent service.

On Tues., June 24 I'll be speaking to the Atlanta Online Merchants Meetup group on the topic of email marketing. Thanks in advance to Eric Winter for this opportunity. The event is at 6 p.m. at the Peachtree Branch of the Atlanta Public library if you'd like to attend. Click on the meetup link above to register.

Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs - May 15

2008-05-14T13:50:00.003-04:00

I'll be taking part in a Meetup event tomorrow, May 15, for Atlanta Web Entrepreneurs called "Ask the Experts."

The AWE group is intended for anyone interested in starting or running their own web-based businesses, especially those who are currently running successful web-based businesses and want to find, get to know, and learn from their peers.

For this month's meeting, there will be six or seven tables with four 20 minute sessions each where attendees can ask questions of and have peer discussions with “experts” in various fields regarding web entrepreneurship.

I'll be covering email marketing, but there will be people there to cover SEO, social media, branding, e-commerce, legal issues, video and much more. The list is way too long for me to include here, so click this link for the entire rundown.

Thursday May 15th, 2008 at 6:45pm to 9:00pm (dinner afterwards @ Gordon Biersch)
Ga. Tech ATDC, 3rd Floor Hodges Room (Parking North Side of Building)
$10 prepay, $20 at the door
RSVP at Meetup.com (RSVP by 12 noon on May 15th is REQUIRED)

Thanks to Mike Schinkel for the invitation to participate.

Look Kids, Big Ben, Parliament

2008-04-10T08:46:00.003-04:00

Big Ben
Originally uploaded by sandi_karchmer_solow

In my first real foray into using Flickr to share photos after a vacation, two of my photos were located by a writer for NowPublic.com, a Canadian news sharing organization. I went to London over this past weekend and took some shots of Big Ben, which can be found at right and here. Neither are anything spectacular, but they fit into a story she wrote on the 150th birthday of Big Ben.

I am just amazed that in all of the photos on Flickr, mine were located and I was contacted about them. (Not that this is anything new, as Hyku would tell me.) I guess it just goes to show that the right tagging and description can help separate your work from the rest of the online clutter.

Reaching an Audience of 8

2008-03-27T20:33:00.002-04:00

Here's a story that caught my eye:

To woo academic recruits, college makes them stars Philadelphia Inquirer 03/27/2008

Gone are the days when a simple acceptance letter was enough. Now Wilkes University in Pennsylvania is courting eight high school seniors into matriculating at the school by making them rock stars through TV ads, commercials and pizza boxes all featuring messages tailored specifically to these eight students. So far they're undecided on where they will go to college and Wilkes is hoping this tactic will be enough to sway these students into enrolling. Maybe the ads on MTV will do the trick.

Not only is Wilkes trying to reach these students, but the tactic is intended to raise the school's profile among other mid-level Pennsylvania schools. Interesting.

I appreciate their creativity, but I really hope this method doesn't become the norm.

How not to follow-up to SoCon08

2008-02-14T12:53:00.005-05:00

I went to SoCon08 this weekend and had a wonderful time. It was a fantastic gathering of people from a variety of backgrounds that all have an interest in social media. I was able to meet a lot of interesting folks, and see some old contacts, such as Josh Hallet, Dave Coustan and Grayson Daughters.

One person I did not meet, however, sent me a follow-up email yesterday (Wednesday) morning to pitch his services. I knew something was up when it came to my personal gmail address and not the business address on the cards I handed out at the conference. I checked the other recipients of the note (which were not hidden – shame on the sender!), and sure enough I was one of a dozen or so – listed in alphabetical order – whose names had been lifted from the conference registration sheet (which is where my personal address is listed).

Here’s what the email he sent said:

It was good meeting with you at the SoCon08 Conference. The Sales Group is a sales performance agency – focusing on sales recruiting and sales training for businesses. We are sending you separately our latest newsletter, “Driving Profit,” which we hope you will find beneficial. We would like to speak with you if you feel your company would like to increase its sales productivity.
P.S. Please visit our website at COMPANY URL HERE – no link love from me, sorry

Since I hadn’t met him, I sent him the below:

Hello Jack --

Thank you for your note, but I don't believe we talked to each other at SoCon. However, I can appreciate your business outreach effort and would like to reciprocate with an offer to talk with you about my email marketing consulting business and help you avoid future communications that could be construed as spam.

Regards,
Sandi Karchmer Solow
http://isendyouremail.com/default.aspx

Despite his advance warning, he signed me and the other 200+ SoCon08 attendees up for his eNewsletter. I never asked for this message and consider it the dumbest thing he could have done for his brand. I haven’t gotten a response to my email back to him – no surprise.

In the course of writing this post, I found others – Josh and Lance Weatherby (not Lancy) to name two – who have done a great job of taking this man to task. The comments to each of their posts are worth reading.

Don't discount a 140-character message

2008-01-23T14:35:00.001-05:00

We've been away far too long from this blog, but out of sight doesn't mean out of mind. It was the holidays, New Year, yada yada

Anyway, I found an interesting gem as one of the links of the day on Micropersuasion. A NY Times story on how some media outlets are using Twitter to microblog from the presidential campaign trail.

It's worth a read. But ever since reading the story, I've been thinking about the comment below from Josh Tyrangiel, the managing editor of Time.com, whose site is promoting its reporter's Twitter and Flickr feeds from the campaign trail. Is a 140-character limit really the best way for someone to follow the presidential race?

“If you tell people how to consume their content, they will ignore you,” he said, a truism that experience had taught new-media executives. “Let people do what they want to do and try to be in their circle of choice.”

25th Georgia Blog Carnival

2007-12-21T15:54:00.001-05:00

Welcome to the 25^th installment of the Carnival! Consider this a virtual tour through the Georgia Blogosphere.

With the help from Elementary History Teacher, this installment hits the interweb just ahead of the Christmas and New Year's holidays. As such, this carnival has a bit of a holiday flair to it.

The Georgia Carnival will be returning home to Georgia on My Mind for the 26th carnival on January 4th. Submissions can be sent to gamind@mail.com or use the blog carnival submission form here.

In the meantime, grab a blanket (it's cold out there) and bundle up for an entertaining trip through the 'sphere with our fellow Peach State bloggers. (As a holiday bonus, I won't even charge admission.)

Hobbies

Follow along with several blog postings as Maria Peagler creates a red and black contemporary quilt for the third generation of family members attending UGA.

Who needs Comcast when you can have iTunes? The Satellite TV Guru has an answer for that one.

Paw Paw Bill takes a look at The Mitchell Report and wishes someone would Say It Ain't So

Holiday Spirit

Lowe’s is selling “Holiday” trees? Brian Bowen has a rant on that!

Patchwork Reflections tells about the moving speech Truett Cathy, the King of the Chicken Sandwich, gave at her company’s Christmas luncheon.

Charles Wooton takes us on a shopping trip down Broughton St. for with a pre-holiday hispter wanna-be view of the experience.

Pastor Bill asks, "Do you have a manager set up in your home or on your front lawn? Often we look into those manger scenes and observe what appears to be a tranquil and placid event. We call it a "Silent Night". But it was anything but silent. It was a REVOLUTION!"

Political Soapbox

Jace Walden reflects on Ron Paul's comments on fascism

North High Shoals is the ground zero of political discontent in largely Republican Oconee County, where three Democrats are elected on a non-partisan municipal town council and local color has begun to freak out about it. Oconee Democrat has something to say about that!

Mike Huckabee?! That's what Jason Pye asks Neal Boortz in an open letter questioning the radio host's endorsement of the GOP candidate.

If this isn't pointing a finger then maybe it's just a one finger salute? John Heneghan documents the lack of coordination between the DeKalb County School System and the DeKalb County Government over a needed intersection improvement.

Book Nook

Here are Santa Yoda's reading suggestions for the holiday season.

Badassbard wonders why more people don't read. He wishes us all a more literate year.

John chats up John Joseph Adams, slush editor with The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction (F&SF), over at Grasping for the Wind.

St. John Flynn reviews Tea with Sister Anna: A Paris Journal by Rome, Ga., artist Susan Gilbert Harvey.

With one foot in the Guttenberg Graveyard, Paw Paw Bill takes a look at Amazon.com's latest offering.

aTypical Joe gives us his take on writing.

Elementary History Teacher, the aforementioned Carnival poobah, we have the following entries:

History Lessons

You Know Who isn’t the only person with a December 25 birthday. Here’s one more for the list.

Reminder: Wikipedia isn’t to be a one-stop shop for historical info. Thanks to the Wren’s Nest for an example of why this is so.

Concession Stand

Missing: Pimento Cheese from The Vortex. A perplexed Dave Coustan would love to hear from others who feel the same way about the absence of this delectable item.

The Blissful Glutton with notes from the Atlanta restaurant scene.

Fun House

Tiffany Colter talks about leaving the information age in our cluttered world. (A topic near and dear to my heart.)

Technorati Tags: Georgia Blog Carnival

Next Up: Blog Carnival

2007-12-19T23:10:00.001-05:00

I'll be hosting the next installment of the Georgia Blog Carnival, which goes up on this very blog sometime on Friday, December 21. This is a semi-regular (it's more than semi- but I don't know how often) compilation of blog posts written by Georgia bloggers or blog posts about Georgia.

Here's a link to the most recent installment, which was hosted by Drifting Through the Grift. I am not sure of the full history behind this traveling blog shot, but it was begun by the mastermind behind the Georgia On My Mind blog and she's the primary organizer.

Want to be included? If you're a Georgia blogger or posting on a Georgia topic, go here to add your permalink to the fun.

See you Friday at the Blog Carnival!

Per-plaxo-ing

2007-11-28T00:53:00.000-05:00

I dug through my gmail inbox and found an exchange I had with a friend in 2005 about using Plaxo as a CMS. At the time I was not able to give this friend a good recommendation for Plaxo based upon the comments of another friend. Our conversation died at that point and and so did the attention I paid to Plaxo.

Over the years since that email exchange I've would receive messages from a couple of people I knew asking me to update my contact information, but the messages I've received lately from Plaxo have picked up and have changed in nature.

A few weeks ago I got a spate of invites to connect to people who had me in their address book. Instead of something that looked like a business card that I was supposed to complete with my info, these people had profiles and were noting how they knew me (friend, business contact or networking). My participation has thus far been passive. I created a user name and password to accept these invites, but I haven't actively sought out connections by uploading my contacts or anything like that.

Since receiving these recent invites to connect, I've been noodling some thoughts about Plaxo. As a LinkedIn user since 2004, and a recent Crackbook addict, I've been trying to figure out how this Plaxo site fits into my life.

Do I really need another profile and way for tracking contacts? At this point, I tend to think not. I threw out a question similar to this in Twitter and didn't get a response. But that's only read by about 15 folks or so since most of my offline peeps don't Tweet. Not enough to say this is mass agreement.

Since I am registered on Plaxo, I got the email pictured above. It caught my attention because I am a Moto Q user (mentioned briefly here), which uses a Windows Mobile platform, and this was one of the few marketing emails (i.e. not sent from a personal contact) that actually rendered in a readable format in the windows browser. I usually have to wait until I can read my gmail on the web to decipher those messages since most folks don't think to go easy on the graphics and links. (That rant continues here.)

Back to my point about Plaxo. I first read the message above on my phone. There was a link to try the service and I clicked it. And I got a screen that is shown at left. In case you can't read it - and I'd be shocked if you could - it says:

Error
This file cannot be viewed on this device

I felt silly after reading the above and thinking that I was supposed to download something to my phone. Why would a note advertising a service for a Windows Mobile device not be viewable on a Windows Mobile device? The not-so-mobile-viewer-friendly web page was a clue I was in the wrong place. But a 1-2-3 how-to do this wouldn't have been so tough to include in the note.

So far, I feel Plaxo hasn't done a great job of getting me engaged in their site. Here are my problems:

No email to introduce a change in their M.O. from CMS to a robust networking site. If you can see that I've registered and done nothing more than passively accept requests, why not a nudge to do more?
What do I gain from participating in their site? I get a colorful (literally and figuratively) profile of contacts on Facebook and an electronic resume of sorts on LinkedIn. That's all I care to know.

From the time I started writing this post until publishing it I received three invitations to connect to people on Plaxo. In the cluttered world of connecting on the interweb, Plaxo isn't doing a great job of differentiating its services to me. It's a generic site in a sea of name brands.

If you're finding it beneficial in ways that LinkedIn and Facebook aren't please let me know.

Technorati Tags: Plaxo, LinkedIn, Facebook

Zappos responds

2007-11-26T09:15:00.001-05:00

Turns out I'm not the only one whose feathers have been ruffled by Facebook's advertising feature, Beacon. MoveOn.org has created a Facebook group to protest against Beacon's invasion of privacy. The Facebook group includes a link to MoveOn's petition to "respect privacy," which hit the 20,000 milestone yesterday.

After I wrote my first post on the topic, a Zappos customer service rep contacted me with the email below:

Hi Sandi,

I read your blog that was posted on Tuesday about your Zappos purchase and the data link to facebook. I am so sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused you.

This feature with Facebook is brand new and only works when you are logged into Facebook at the same time that you are placing an order on Zappos.com. We are collecting feedback from customers and may or may not continue with this feature.

There is an opt out feature to disable the data feed from Zappos.com to Facebook. All you would have to do is login into your Facebook account, click on the privacy link, click the "external websites" link, and then check the "never" radio button for Zappos.com.

Again, I apologize for any inconvenience. As a token of goodwill, Zappos is issuing a $25.00 off coupon that you may use towards your next purchase at Zappos. Below is your coupon code.

And then the email went on to explain how to use the coupon and ended with their boilerplate, which includes their mantra: "We like to think of ourselves as a service company that happens to sell shoes."

I wonder how many of these coupons Zappos has issued lately as a result of the Beacon feature. So far, coupon aside, my experience with Zappos has been great. The shoes came the next day, they're exactly what I ordered and look just like they did on the site. I was already contemplating my next purchase from them before their email arrived, and the discount coupon is a bonus.

As with other Facebook applications, Beacon should be opt-in, rather than its current opt-out format. On Cyber Monday, I hope my fellow online shoppers will log out of Facebook before making their next purchase.

Technorati Tags: Zappos, Facebook

Beacon: A signal of my displeasure

2007-11-20T23:07:00.000-05:00

The saga continues…

Instead of adding to my earlier post, I decided this whole Zappos-Facebook word of mouth marketing technique warranted its own post.

I added the link to my blog post as a posted item within my Facebook profile, and a few hours later it appeared as a News Feed item, pushing the information into each of my friends’ personal viewing space. That prompted an old camp friend to send me a blog posting by David Berkowitz about Beacon, Facebook's new application that allows "users to share information from other websites for distribution to their friends on Facebook." I got that from the press release, which lists Zappos.com as one of 44 participating in the Beacon launch.

Now I have the answers to all three questions I posed yesterday.

What does Zappos or Facebook think there is to gain by sharing my purchase with the masses?
What does that icon to the left of my name mean?
How the heck did it get there?

A peek at the Beacon application page answers question #2. Here's an explanation for the application, which is written with marketers in mind:

Stories of a user's engagement with your site may be displayed in his or her profile and in News Feed. These stories will act as a word-of-mouth promotion for your business and may be seen by friends who are also likely to be interested in your product.

And that answers question #1. Word of mouth marketing is their primary goal. But were my friends really influenced by my purchase decision? Some may have learned of Zappos.com, but I think the benefit to the advertiser was minimal.

Question 3 touches on user privacy issues, which the Beacon page also addresses. The application page mentions the importance of user privacy, but from my experience I think they need to walk the talk. Here’s what the page says (emphasis added by me):

When you send an action to Facebook, the user is immediately alerted of the story you wish to publish and will be alerted again when they sign into Facebook. The user can choose to opt out of the story in either instance, but the user doesn't need to take any action for the story to be published on Facebook.

Really? Can I? I didn’t find that to be the case.

I find this interesting from a marketer's perspective, but as a consumer I am troubled.

News flash: I bought shoes!

2007-11-20T08:54:00.001-05:00

Last night I was stunned to find out that a shoe purchase I made on Zappos.com turned into a newsfeed item in my Facebook profile.

I discovered this by looking at my profile and my first thought was, "Holy shiitake! How did that get there?" I was horrified and my knee-jerk reaction was to delete it from my mini-feed so that no one could see it when they viewed my profile. But it was too late for that secret. I IM'd with my friend Lauren about my discovery and she said something like, "Oh yeah. I saw that. They're cute." So you mean everyone of my friends knows about my shoe purchase?! Sure enough, this was in every friend's feed:

Anybody who can view my profile (which only people I've granted access to can do) could click on through to look at a picture of the shoes I bought. Thankfully my shoe size wasn't a part of the feed. At least something was considered sacred.

I can't figure out how my shoe purchase found its way into Facebook. I may have had Facebook open in one tab while making the purchase on Zappos.com in another tab, but that's too simple of an explanation. To borrow the term Dave Coustan used when I Twittered about this: creepy. At this point, I have more questions than answers:

What does Zappos or Facebook think there is to gain by sharing my purchase with the masses?
What does that icon to the left of my name mean? (I can't click on it anymore since I deleted it from my feed.)
How the heck did it get there?

I'm not ashamed of my shoe purchase. It just isn't something I consider newsworthy. I've never bought anything from Zappos, but have read great things about them and I thought this would be a good opportunity to give them a try. I'll be curious as to what kind of feedback I get from either group.

In the meantime, I think my shoes are supposed to arrive today. Then what? Do I upload a photo of them and create a Facebook album to show them off?

Technorati Tags: Facebook, Zappos

JPWN – Social Media Diva

2007-11-16T17:12:00.001-05:00

Toby Bloomberg was the speaker at today's JPWN lunch. As always, it was a great event. It was interesting to be around so many people who are still learning about social media and thinking about how they can use social media tools in their personal and professional lives.

In writing about my experience as a blogger for the November JPWN newsletter, I remembered that it was Toby who suggested I start this blog. I really enjoyed talking with the women at my table and another during power networking about how a blog can be valuable resource for their company.

It was also great to learn about Stacy's new business venture and catch-up with Laura, whose company is amazing. Check them out!

One Year Later

2007-11-07T23:17:00.001-05:00

I recently passed the one-year anniversary of my first blog post. I had every intention of posting something on the very day of my anniversary (which will go unmentioned here so as to avoid calling attention to exactly how overdue I am). But before I knew it, the day passed, and so did a week or two before I was able to begin this entry.

I started this blog with the intention of calling out marketing campaigns or practices for their successful (or unsuccessful) attempts at cutting through the marketplace clutter. But part of the reason for my falling behind in marking my anniversary may be that I became a victim of the very clutter I intended to take aim at - everyday life and an overload of information that I am trying to process.

In my first post I mentioned a conversation that I had with a friend about Barack Obama. This was way before he launched his presidential campaign and Obama Girl became a YouTube sensation. (That video cracks me up.)

So, I checked back with her to see if she had a better idea of who Obama is on year later. Here's what she had to say (syntax is all hers):

barack obama is a democratic presidential hopeful and is a senator from chicago. (i think) he wants to pay teachers more, so he's peaked my interest!! i still get most of my news from the internet on my yahoo page, and will scan ajc.com/usatoday.com on occasion. i am a people magazine junkie, but that doesn't really qualify as news. other than that, i'll hear important things by word of mouth.

I'll continue to post my thoughts on the marketplace, so long as my personal clutter doesn't get in the way. But, I am not going to limit myself to just what marketers do - I plan to address all the different channel consumers use.

Facebook's recent announcement has me thinking. Another post for another day, I suppose.

KISS: Keep it Simple, Stupid

2007-10-05T12:50:00.001-04:00

This AdRants post says the best practices for billboard advertising better than I ever could. What is the expression, "The more you add the more you take away"? (Or something to that effect.) I wish more billboard advertisers would heed the sage advice of AdRants imparted in the last paragraph:

It's unfortunate most agencies and marketers don't realize the billboard medium is at its most powerful when it's used for simple, direct messaging. Two to four words and a simple visual is about all the medium can take. Too many marketers and agencies try to cram the entire marketing plan onto a single 14 X 48 foot space which is usually seen for less than three seconds. For billboards, simplicity rules. In creating this McDonald's billboard, Leo Burnett clearly understands this.

Heineken A Winner at the U.S. Open

2007-10-01T09:18:00.001-04:00

I found this article in Forbes and wanted to talk about it before it was too late. Sports marketing is a personal interest of mine and this piece does a great job of showing how sponsors of the U.S. Open do more than just plaster their logos around the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y.

Tennis, like golf, attracts a high net worth fan. While most companies leverage their sponsorship of a sports event or team through venue signage, the U.S. Open is an event that warrants a more interactive approach.

"Marketing is getting more experimental, more aggressive and more direct," says Andy Glaser, brand director at Heineken USA, who adds that the four annual tracking studies the company performs show that its U.S. Open sponsorship improves its recall with customers. In addition to its Red Star Cafe sampling site, the company is unleashing vendors with funky-looking space age backpacks to dispense Heineken beer to fans in the seats.

I like this tactic - why not be proactive in getting your product into the hands of potential customers? Especially when a high concentration of your target market is in a setting that fits well with the brand attributes you want to highlight.

I hope more sports sponsors take this interactive approach. The Fan Fests are nice, but let's see more experiential attempts that allow consumers with a more enriching experience.

Technorati Tags: Heineken, U.S. Open

Quick Update to an Old Post

2007-09-14T12:33:00.001-04:00

In the not so distant past, I wrote about a creative website for an Atlanta agency, WestWayne. As one commenter pointed out, the agency was in the midst of a name change. They've rebranded themselves as 22 Squared. The name comes from the idea that, on average, people have 484 friends over the course of a lifetime. Take the square of 484 and you get 22.

The agency's PR person emailed me to say they've "taken the 'consumer as friend' model" and run with it. I guess it's an interesting idea. On the surface I think it might be tough to pitch that for B-to-B work, but those types of exchanges are driven by networking and having the right relationships, so it might work. This is their new website. It's full of flashy goodness, but I'm a text gal and wish they had a better explanation (other than the voice-over which I missed the first time since my computer speakers were off) for the thought behind the name. I found myself thinking, "OK, that's great. But how does this relate to me?" as if I were a client. The press release I was sent mentioned some research they did to quantify the strength, stage and type of friendships between brands and individuals, but I didn't see that anywhere on the site.

So, that's the update of my earlier post. Now back to my regularly-scheduled commentary on marketing clutter. More to come on that soon.

L.A.'s Outdoors go Digital

2007-08-21T09:29:00.001-04:00

Hello! We here at Marketing Through the Clutter are back from our summer vacation and ready to resume our critiques of the good and the bad of marketing in today's busy world.

Circa December 2006 I wrote about Atlanta Mayor Shirley Franklin vetoing plans by a few outdoor advertising companies to erect digital billboards in Atlanta. But over on the Left Coast, there's no such ban and some Los Angeles residents are pretty upset.

Clear Channel is doubling its number of digital billboards in L.A. To paraphrase the company's president and COO, the more congested a city, the better it is for billboards.

So he's saying that the worse the traffic, the better it is for advertisers to use billboards. I can see the logic that if you're sitting in traffic and need to stare at something, why not make it an advertisement? And why not make it a relevant ad since these digital billboards can change their messages pretty quickly?

Those who live near those billboards can tell you why not. The flashing lights are garish and disruptive as they stream into the windows of nearby apartment dwellers.

As I said before, I think this is a bit Big Brother-ish, but not a bad marketing tactic. I just prefer marketing methods that are more one-to-one rather than one-to-anyone who happens to drive by.

Critiquing J.C. Penney's Plan

2007-07-15T17:20:00.001-04:00

J.C. Penney's CMO calls out the dilemma of marketing clutter in his quote announcing the company's "2007 Back-to-School" campaign:

“While traditional marketing remains an important part of our approach, we are focused on incorporating new components into this year’s Back-to-School campaign that will truly reach youth in an authentic way,” said Mike Boylson, chief marketing officer for JCPenney. “Using this unique approach, we’re able to break through the marketing clutter and sameness to attract kids and teens – whether it’s at the movies, in the mall, on the phone or on the Web.”

But for all the channels J.C. Penney is working in this campaign, there's no social media!

There's a lot of one-way information going on here. I think the clothing retailer could really cut through the clutter by adding two-way dialogues with the teens and youths they're targeting.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Advertising, J.C. Penney, Social Media

Can you read me now?

2007-07-07T19:15:00.001-04:00

If you found this blog while searching for "Buzz Cola," welcome. If not, that's OK too. Earlier this week my page views spiked because of so many people looking for a place to get their Simpson's paraphernalia fix.

As I mentioned recently, I'd like to explore viewing emails on PDAs. Google seems to have this whole mobile apps thing down pat. I have a Q and just discovered Google Maps. (I tried it when I first got my phone and it didn't seem to work. Now it will, but I can't get it to auto-start in Atlanta. Oddly, it has this San Francisco bias...) They even make it quite easy to get Gmail on a Blackberry. (If you're wondering why I didn't hold out for an iPhone, that's a story for another day.)

The success of an email marketing campaign is partly dependent upon click-throughs. But with so many people viewing emails on a PDA, the landing pages used in these emails aren't always optimized for a mobile browser. What's the point in telling someone to "click here" for more information if the page won't load properly on their PDA? It's narrow-minded to assume everyone is viewing the email from a laptop or desktop and subsequently taking the requested action from the same place.

For those who make impulse buys, not being able to click a link to a mobile-friendly page is a sure-fire way to kill a sale quickly. I got an from Delta of weekly fare specials. It was easy read on my mobile browser, but it didn't allow me to actually purchase a ticket. If I'd wanted to take advantage of the specials they were sending me, I would still need to call their 800 number for a reservation. No thank you.

How do you read your emails? Seen something you liked? How about a marketing email from a company that made you cringe? And how has an iPhone changed your email habits?

Please use the comments to share best practices for email marketing and PDAs.

Technorati Tags: Email marketing, Gmail, mobile browsers, PDAs, iPhone

Using Buzz Cola to Garner Movie Buzz

2007-07-01T19:12:00.001-04:00

The post I wrote about select 7-Eleven stores being converted to Kwik-E-Marts is one of the most viewed pages on this blog. The magical conversion took place this weekend. Actually, only a dozen of the 6,000 7-Eleven stores have been made over to look like the fictional convenience stores of "The Simpsons" fame. But the rest will be selling Buzz Cola, KrustyO's cereal and Squishees, the slushy drink knock-off of Slurpees.

If you Google "Buzz Cola," my post is the seventh link that comes back in the results. There are more Simpsons fans out there than I had imagined.

All of this hoopla is part of the July 27 premiere of "The Simpsons Movie." It's a cheap stunt for Fox since 7-Eleven is paying for the whole thing (which is estimated at costing in the "single millions").

So why do this? It seems like a pretty cheap way for 7-Eleven to stand-out in the generic convenience mart category. It gets them some good buzz (pun intended) in the press and may even bring in Simpsons fans looking to buy the limited-edition theme foods. But I don't know if it's really going to attract much more attention from Slurpee/Squishee loyalists.

This is why Fox participated:

"We wanted to make sure the movie stands out as a true cultural event this summer," said Lisa Licht, a marketing vice president at Fox. "It has to stand out from other summer movies and TV shows."

Hmmm.... separating the film from the cluttered summer movie scene, eh? I'll go with it.

7-Eleven stores that have been transformed into a Kwik-E-Mart are located in New York City, Chicago, Dallas, Denver, Burbank, Calif., Los Angeles, Henderson, Nev., Orlando, Fla., Mountain View, Calif., Seattle and Bladensburg, Md. (UPDATE -- here are their addresses.)

Have you visited one of these stores? Did you go there because it was a "Kwik-E-Mart" or because it was just plain convenient? Please share your stories and opinions in the comments.

Technorati Tags: The Simpsons Movie, Buzz Cola

iPhones and Email Marketing

2007-06-29T16:11:00.001-04:00

I took a quick walk over to the Apple Store at Lenox Square Mall in Atlanta today to check out the scene before the iPhone launch. At 1 p.m. there were upwards of 185 people there – and it was growing by the minute. I just purchased a new phone (a Moto Q) a few weeks ago and have no plans to switch to AT&T. So I was merely there to gawk at the crazies who were at the mall before dawn to be the first in line.

At 11:51 a.m. today I got an email from Apple announcing the iPhone (see the picture at right). This week I've been talking with a colleague about email marketing, specifically viewing messages on PDAs. When I tried to view the same message on my Q, it came through as a garbled mess. (I'll try to post a photo of that.) For all the talk about how important email marketing is, we had trouble finding best practices on viewing emails on a mobile platform. I am anxious to see how HTML emails are rendered on an iPhone. It struck me as funny though that I couldn't use my Moto Q (a Windows Mobile Device) to read an email promoting the arrival of the iPhone. I guess Apple hasn't figured out how to send text-based emails.

This segues into what my next post will be about – email marketing and reaching those who read their messages in platforms other than the web and Outlook.

UPDATE: I've added the photo of how Apple's lovely HTML email became garbled on my phone. How/where do you read your email?

X Doesn't Always Mark the Age

2007-06-26T23:33:00.001-04:00

Penelope Trunk had an interesting post yesterday about generational ID's. You may think you're a Baby Boomer or in Generation Y just because of the year you were born in. But, how about identifying with a generation by how they use various forms of media?

Check out the test she put together and see if you're really acting your age, er, generation. I scored a 14, which puts me just out of my Generation X birthright.

This got me to thinking. The way a message is sent isn't always going to be received as it's expected to. To cut through the clutter, companies can no longer assume they know who's going to be on the receiving end.

Are you acting your generation? Take Penelope's test and come back with your results.

Bad Advertising: It's Not Me, It's You

2007-06-22T09:45:00.001-04:00

Heather at Microsoft posted the funny video below, which I wanted to pass along. It does a good job if showing how ignorant companies can be when trying communicate with their consumers. The dating analogy is perfect.

This also seems like a good time to mention that I was FINALLY able to get Windows Live Writer to play nice with my Blogger template last night. So I am now able to post much quicker and easier than I have been able to in the past. (But probably without pictures since I can't FTP them to Blogger, I don't think.) Now, if I could just get Outlook to work like it's supposed to on my home computer all will be right in my world.

Technorati Tags: Marketing, Advertising, Blogger, Microsoft

NCAA Regains its Senses

2007-06-22T09:06:00.001-04:00

After a reporter was ejected last week for live-blogging during the College World Series, the NCAA eased up a bit and now permits live updates are OK, as long as what's posted is limited to the score and time remaining in the game/match/whatever.

Here's the update and thanks to Joel Price for the tip.

Nice to see that the Double-A realized it doesn't own the rights to game scores. I remembered after my last post that blogging game scores and a running commentary is something Bill Simmons has been doing from his couch for a long time.

Technorati Tags: college baseball, ESPN

You Can Put Lipstick on a Pig but not a Condom

2007-06-19T17:16:00.001-04:00

Fox and CBS rejected an ad for Trojan condoms that was to have aired last night.

In the commercial, a cellphone-toting pig hits on women at a bar. He is unsuccessful until he heads to men's room, gets a condom from a vending machine and returns as a head-turning male in his 20's.

At that point, the tagline appears: "Evolve. Use a condom every time."

Trojan's Vice President of marketing explained:

"The 'Evolve' ad does a nice job of being humorous, but it's also a serious call to action," Mr. Daniels said. "The pigs are a symbol of irresponsible sexual behavior, and are juxtaposed with the condom as a responsible symbol of respect for oneself and one's partner."

It seems the TV networks objected to linking condoms to pregnancy prevention (as opposed to health-related issues. That was FOX's basis for rejection). I thought it was a funny take on the "men are pigs" complaint of single women.

Now, I know the average CBS viewer is around 60 or so, or at least old enough to know about condoms. And FOX is the network that knows a thing or two about sexy TV programming ("Joe Millionaire" anyone?). So it's OK to use sex to sell hamburgers (like celebutard Paris Hilton did for Carl Jr.'s) but not condoms? Give me a break!

I think CBS and FOX blew an opportunity to be a part of a very buzz-worthy campaign from Trojan. Thumbs up to those who do run this commercial. Hopefully this includes ESPN…

SMC Meet-up does Alpharetta

2007-06-19T15:39:00.001-04:00

Today I went to the Social Media for PR professionals lunch that Sherry Heyl organized through Meetup.com. Thanks for organizing it! Grayson Daughters led an interesting discussion, but I think some of the folks there needed a 101 lesson in the tools that were discussed before they could even think of applying them to their client work. I came away with some ideas and things I'll use in my personal and professional lives, such as blog commenting and tagging. No more blurking for me!

About bats, balls and blogs

2007-06-14T18:13:00.001-04:00

On Sunday, June 10, Louisville Courier-Journal reporter Brian Bennett was kicked out of the press box at the NCAA Baseball Super Regional for live-blogging during the University of Louisville's 20-2 win over Oklahoma State en route to the College World Series. What led to Bennett's ouster?

Here's how Josh Centor from the Double A Zone – the "official blog" of the NCAA - explains it:

Due to the NCAA's broadcasting agreement with ESPN, bloggers are not permitted to update their sites with in-game coverage from the baseball press box. In-game updates include providing readers with the score, inning of the game, roster moves, etc. The policy was enacted at a baseball game, but applies to all NCAA championship events.

Thus, if you want to sit in the press box, you'd better not think about telling your readers what's happened until the fat lady has sung. There's been much chatter in the blogosphere about this. Here are a few of the postings I particularly liked:

These guys have all argued great points – from the NCAA being totally out touch with how people receive information to the idea that any Joe or Jane with a TV and an internet connection (or attendee with a cell phone) could do the same thing Brian was doing.

When I was at the University of Georgia, we published the scores for the gymnastics meets (including the NCAAs) as they were announced. Since these meets were never broadcast live it was an invaluable resource for fans that weren't there to still follow along. That fact may be what separates what we were doing from what happened Sunday, as ESPN was broadcasting the game Bennett was blogging.

And when I was working at the boxing venue during the 1996 Olympics, we were constantly coming across men calling the action on their cell phones to be broadcast over the radio back home (which was usually somewhere in Brazil). If those guys had stepped outside the press area, they would have been beyond our jurisdiction.

But Sandi, how does this topic relate to Marketing Clutter? I am glad you asked.

To not grasp the fact that live-blogging is THE most effective and most efficient form of reporting and analysis of all kinds of events - sports or otherwise – demonstrates the NCAA's ignorance. There are so many ways for people to get information these days, that the NCAA cut off its nose to spite its face with its ban on live-blogging. Apparently they thought people would chose to read Bennett's blog over watching the game on TV, which is exactly what happens during the workday when more people turn to the internet than the TV for information.

Even though this didn't happen during the week, the NCAA's tone-deafness to the realities of how people get their information is appalling. This is counterintuitive to how people communicate.

Given that this is the same organization that also banned text messages between coaches and recruits, the ban on live-blogging doesn't surprise me. Way to stay in the 1980's, NCAA!

If this were a Bud Lite commercial, I'd salute you, Mr. I Regulate Information Like it's 1972. You're a real man of genius!

Here's hoping fans of the Louisville Cardinals who have to work during tomorrow's first-round game (which begins at 1 p.m. CST) can follow the action to their liking.

This pep rally sponsored by...

2007-06-12T17:27:00.001-04:00

I'm a day late, but there was a good article in yesterday's New York Times about how marketers are targeting the population of high school athletes, which to my surprise, is 7.2 million strong. As a former high school athlete, this story is of great personal interest to me. My take-away from this story is the increased interest by large media corporations in the population called Millenials, Generation Y or baby boom babies. It was only a matter of time before CPG and the beverage industries also took an interest. The 80% growth figure over the past 35 years quoted isn't a surprise. With the popularity of women's soccer after the 1996 Summer Olympics, interest girls has grown in all sports.

I hope this all isn’t some preamble to corporate sponsorships of high school championship games. The Sprite 1-AAAAA Georgia High School Football Championships at SunTrust Field, anyone?

Cover your eyes, it's the 2012 logo

2007-06-06T15:58:00.000-04:00

Having worked at the 1994, 1996 and 2000 Olympics, and been raised in Atlanta and lived through the fun that was (pre-Grey’s Anatomy) Izzy, I have a personal interest in Monday’s announcement of the logo for the 2012 Olympics in London. To say what was unveiled Monday has gotten a negative reaction would be an understatement. In just one day, thousands have signed a petition calling for the logo to be scrapped and an animated version of the logo was pulled Tuesday from the official website because of concerns that the footage’s flashing lights would cause epileptic seizures. Niiiiiiice….

I didn’t even realize the imagery represented the numeric 2012 date upon first glance. It’s been referred to as a swastika, and I don’t think that’s too far off. I think it’s a jigsaw puzzle piece gone awry.

On the left is a look at the old logo. As one BBC blog put it, this one doesn’t fit on cell phone as nicely, which is the medium of choice of the kids these days, which is apparently the audience organizers were targeting.

London 2012 organizing committee chairman Seb Coe says this logo "… will define the venues we build and the Games we hold and act as a reminder of our promise to use the Olympic spirit to inspire everyone and reach out to young people around the world.

"It is an invitation to take part and be involved. “

Yack. Someone needs to get this guy some training. Is that really how he speaks?

Seth Godin has already done a fine job of explaining the process of logo development and deployment. Creativity is subjective, but I think most are in agreement that what the London 2012 organizers put forth is atrocious.

What do you think of the logo?

Low Maintenance Messaging

2007-05-30T13:57:00.000-04:00

Talk about a different approach! Atlanta-based WestWayne advertising has downsized its website to a single page resembling the classic “404 Page Not Found” page. This is how WestWayne’s page looks now.

Most agencies try to blind visitors to their website with Flashtastic effects that are pretty self-serving. This is a very different approach and I’d love to hear how it’s received by current and potential clients. In addition to offering simple insight from the get-go on consumer behavior, they added a humorous touch by playing off the 404 code and blending it with their phone number. (Pretty convenient that it’s also the area code for the city of Atlanta.) If you know how long since the site’s relaunch, please drop a comment here.

Give BearingPoint a Mulligan

2007-05-14T18:01:00.000-04:00

I like Darren Rovell’s post today about the relevance of BearingPoint’s logo on Phil Mickelson’s visor. Well, maybe I should say “logic” instead of “relevance.” Having worked in marketing in the professional services space, I know that those products are really a relationship-based sell and not so much advertising driven. After reading in Rovell’s post the lack of awareness among golf fans for BearingPoint’s services, I thought, “duh.” Whoever made the decision at BearingPoint to make this buy must be a rabid golf junkie – or very interested in pleasing a superior who is.

Nike "Thanks" Imus

2007-04-24T19:37:00.000-04:00

Leave it to Nike to use the Don Imus controversy as the source for an ad campaign. In this print ad that began running on April 15, the sports apparel company has taken the comments made by the ugliest man on radio and turned them into an opportunity “…to move the conversation forward,” according to Dean Stoyer, director of U.S. media relations for Nike.

Nike’s connection to the situation is that it has outfitted the men’s and women’s basketball teams at Rutgers for several years. In thanking Imus – without actually naming him – for “unintentionally moving women’s sport forward”, Nike has taken the high road. While most advertisers dropped the talk-show host like a bad habit, this ad put the focus back where it belonged, on Rutgers and the team’s accomplishments.

Side note to Nike: Give some thought to taking a small slice out of your advertising budget to put towards spell check. Even I know it’s not Rutger’s. It’s good that you caught this for subsequent buys, but you were a little quick on the trigger the first go-round. Doh.

Mmm... sandwich - and a Buzz Cola

2007-03-30T08:59:00.000-04:00

You won’t have to go to Springfield to visit a Kwik-E-Mart in the coming months. Select 7-Eleven stores will be transformed into Homer Simpson’s favorite shopping spot to promote the new Simpsons movie. The front of 11 stores will be transformed to look like the fictional store manned by Apu. No word if they’ll use the name “Stop O Mart” in Ohio.

The movie hits theaters July 27, so be on the lookout for KrustyO's cereal, Buzz Cola and iced Squishees at a local 7-Eleven/Kwik-E-Mart near you in the meantime.

I like this idea a lot better than the R2-D2 as a mailbox promotion. Both parties will benefit from this partnership. 7-Eleven will get some new visitors to its stores and The Simpsons Movie gets some good buzz before its release.

At least they didn't pick Chewbacca

2007-03-28T22:54:00.000-04:00

I saw on TV recently that the U.S. Postal Service had partnered with Lucasfilm to transform the standard blue mailbox into an R2-D2 look-alike. At first glance it seemed kind of clever. But as I gave it more thought, it seemed like an odd marriage to me. To learn why this unholy union took place, I discovered the USPS is helping celebrate the 30^th anniversary of Star Wars. So there’s some benefit to George Lucas in this agreement, but what about the Post Office? Mack, over at the Viral Garden, has made some good points about this promotion, but I guess I don’t see much of a benefit for our friends in blue who deliver snail mail.

Yes, there’s a lot of buzz about these boxes (this post included). And I can see Mack’s argument that this gives the USPS a bit of personality. But these boxes don’t create a reason for me to go buy stamps. Seeing R2-D2 outside my post office isn’t going to send me rushing inside to buy some postage. Now I will admit that a lot of Star Wars junkies probably will buy stamps they wouldn’t have otherwise because they collect anything and everything Force-related. But is the buzz factor enough to warrant the costs associated with activating this promotion for the USPS? You tell me. I just don’t see there being much additional demand for stamps just because we can feed our letters into an R2-D2 mailbox.

In the meantime, I hope the Force is with my mailman. Given the pollen outside, he needs some sort of protection.

Sports: Taking the interaction off the field with fans

2007-03-16T17:35:00.000-04:00

There’s an interesting discussion taking place over on Sports Marketing 2.0. Pat Coyle has highlighted the problems the industry is facing. At the top of the list of problems facing marketers (those in sports and in general), is the challenge to find consumers in today's media marketplace. Given the title of this blog, that’s a topic that is of great personal interest.

The posting then moves on to discuss three trends that will emerge in sports marketing over the next five years. Pat’s last two points caught my eye and are points I hope to incorporate into my next career move, specifically making a consumer/fan’s experience with the product a two-way interaction.

The MyCokeFest coming up in Atlanta plays to the point of using a brand to enhance a fan’s experience at an event. But I really like Mission: SEC. It has new media elements, like the blogs and videos and works from a fan and a marketer’s perspective: pertinent information is delivered to an interested audience thanks to relevant sponsors that nicely tie their brand to the content.

I foresee more such marketing tactics to address the problem at the top of Pat’s list.

Here are the comments from Pat’s visitors. Feel free to leave your own below.

Crashed Ice: A Sport With One Message

2007-03-07T12:05:00.000-05:00

After reading about Red Bull’s creation of a brand new sport through which to market the energy drink in last weekend’s New York Times, I have to say… this is pretty interesting. Why be one of many advertisers in an arena or add your brand name to a single event? Red Bull has sidestepped the clutter in the traditional sports marketplace by creating an entirely new competition and owning the concept. The sport has drawn a large amount of attention, with 35,000 people watching a recent outdoor event in Quebec and 14 events being held throughout the U.S. The risk is a sports landscape littered with invented, branded competitions. But no one’s confusing this with ESPN’s X Games. And that problem is a long time coming, I think.

Finding Meebo

2007-03-06T09:21:00.000-05:00

At the bottom of the right rail I’ve added a Meebo widget for anyone who stops by to IM me while they’re visiting my blog. I’m trying this as an experiment to see how it works and if anyone will send me a message. Messages can be sent to me whether I’m logged-in to Meebo or not. I'll receive your message either way and would love to hear from visitors. If you're so inclined, there's a way to change the standard-issue/nondescript nickname to something more revealing by clicking on the "edit nickname" text. Don’t be a stranger!

New Orleans to Chicago: We're Windier

2007-02-18T16:23:00.000-05:00

Thanks to Adrants for this photo. It’s hard to differentiate one travel ad for a beach locale from another, but this billboard for a non-sandy destination is eye-catching. As Adrants said, humor directed inward works. This time of year sunny ads may work in colder climates, but I bet this board generates some buzz in Chicago.

SoCon07: I came, I saw, I participated

2007-02-11T00:04:00.000-05:00

I attended SoCon07 yesterday, not quite knowing what to expect when I registered. It was billed as an un-conference, which meant nothing to me. I was just hoping to learn more about using blogs and other forms of social media as marketing tools. I didn’t care what format the program took to do that. Early on I didn’t see how it wasn’t just like any other symposium, other than the laptops in use by many of the attendees. (In a way it reminded me of grad school, except these people were blogging the speakers. Professor lectures were never shared with the world as they were being given, thus the need to attend class. Natch.)

But the two-way dialogue between the speakers and the audience members was interesting. Leonard Witt kicked off the fun with a great exchange of ideas before turning the program over to Christopher Klaus, who spoke at length about his newest venture, Kaneva. There are plenty of pro and con sentiments about each of these speakers in the blog roll on the SoCon07 site, so I won’t regurgitate those opinions here. “Transparency” was mentioned during the kickoff session and continued to resonate with me personally, as so much of social media involves creating a meaningful and honest dialogue.

At lunch I enjoyed talking with Leonard before heading back for the afternoon sessions. Of the two I attended (Marketing & PR first and online communities second), Josh’s session was a little more interesting in that it was more of a group discussion. I appreciate the passion of the communities session leader, and he made some great points, it would have been more enjoyable if we had been able to spend more time if the participants had been able to share some of their intellect into developing various types of communities/programs.

All in all, it was nice to see some familiar faces such as Josh, Mark and Toby and meet the author of the Spacey Gracey Review, whom I’ve enjoyed reading. (Where were you Earthling?) And it was nice to meet so many new (to me) people too. But next time, I’d like it better if the size of the SoCon graphic and the participant’s names were inverted on the nametags. We knew where we are, but I’d like to know who you are when you’re too far away to read your name subtly.

All in all it was a good experience and I left more knowledgeable than when I got there and with a few ideas I’d like to try in the future.

Now that I have set a new personal record for hyperlinks in a single post, I’m off to look up the dozen or so sites I learned of yesterday. Happy blogging!

Interactive Advertising - Putting the Fans in the Super Bowl

2007-01-31T10:41:00.000-05:00

The idea of user-generated advertising during the Super Bowl fascinates me. That companies would be willing to allow Joe or Jane Public to control the content of the most expensive time on television is intriguing. Not that the advertisers are totally hands-off, as Chevy learned the hard way what happens when the public gets their turn at the advertising wheel. Doritos, bless its cheesy little heart, is going it alone – sort of. They’ve created a contest for fans to vote on their favorite commercial among five finalists. The winner will be announced this Sunday at the Super Bowl in Miami and broadcast on TV during the game.

I love user-generated content because it allows consumers to connect with brands in so many different ways. It cuts through the clutter and gets right to its target audience. It also builds a sense of community among a group of people with shared interests.

Here are a couple of links to articles: one about user-generated advertising and another about how it relates to the Super Bowl.

Instead of being passive spectators, the trend of consumers actively engaging with brands is one that is sure to grow. Any smart marketer should know better than to put a stop to consumers who can act as an evangelist and spread good cheer through whatever channel possible. And if the cheer isn’t so good? Consider it an opportunity to improve, I say. Shouldn’t marketing be a two-way street?

Redefining Comcastic

2007-01-22T22:43:00.000-05:00

Given that it’s been three weeks since my last posting, it’d be very easy to assume this blog was just another passing fancy and had been left to die a slow death in cyberspace. But that would be incorrect. The lack of internet access is partly to blame. (The other part can be explained by a lack of inspiring ideas. I don’t post for the sake of reading my own writing.)

Lack of internet access?! It’s 2007! How could that be possible?! Well, let’s just say that I was not having a Comcastic week last week.

My modem died on January 12, but it took three service technicians over a week to make the diagnosis. I’ll spare you the details. I was able to sneak peeks at my personal e-mail here and there, but not having the internet in my home office felt like my right arm had been removed. Needless to say, I was not pleased.

Just as I ended my last posting by saying how a positive customer experience can be a wonderful marketing tool, a negative experience can have the same effect – but not the kind a marketer would hope for.

So in the week that my internet was MIA, I at least had cable television as a link to the outside world. But in between watching my favorite shows, I saw more than one commercial advertising Comcast’s services. Which got me thinking, what’s the point in talking the talk if you’re not going to (or can’t) walk the walk? Shouldn’t companies make sure they’re able to deliver on current promises before they start making new ones?

The best kind of marketing is positive word of mouth from brand evangelists. But what kind of buzz can a company expect when those who are experiencing their brand (and are empowered to speak to it with authority) have nothing good to say? It’s time to reevaluate the link between marketing and customer service within the company.

A Happy iPod Story for 2007

2007-01-02T10:06:00.000-05:00

I am excited to start off 2007 with a tale of good customer service. Just before leaving town for vacation I noticed the screen on my iPod was broken. After a quick trip to the Genius Bar, my iPod was off to iPodResQ to be repaired. It wasn’t the cheapest option, but when I factored in shipping them my iPod, it was a wash. Here’s the 411 of how their process works, and I have to say, it really is that simple to deal with this company. I went from being really annoyed that my iPod was broken to a happy camper that I have my iPod back in working order. The lesson to be learned – never keep your iPod in your purse without putting it in a protective case. Thankfully it wasn’t a lesson to be learned by replacing my iPod entirely.

The (relevant) point of this story is a positive customer experience can be a wonderful marketing tool. We’re all quick to share horror stories, but when someone has a positive experience with your company or brand, their tale can be just as powerful when shared with those who find the source to be influential.

Atlanta Billboards Not Changing Soon

2006-12-18T22:58:00.000-05:00

I’ll be curious to see how the Atlanta City Council decides to regulate digital billboards. Talk about getting your message across in a busy marketplace! I loved the mention of a restaurant being able to tailor its pitch for different meal specials throughout the day.

This topic interests me for several reasons. I am a native Atlantan and like to track how the visual landscape of the city evolves over time. But as a marketer, it’s nice to know that I won’t be subjected to the same, irrelevant messages for extended periods of time.

But how exactly can a billboard operator monitor how many people view each ad (as the above article mentions)? So it’s great that an advertiser can measure its ROI, but there’s something about it that seems a bit Big Brother-ish to me.

Looks Like Philips Has a Winner

2006-12-11T16:52:00.000-05:00

Philips Electronics was the sole sponsor of the December 4 edition of NBC Nightly News and in doing so freed up more than an extra six minutes of airtime for the program. This elimination of multiple advertisers allowed all of the attention to be on Philips’ “sense and sensibility theme.” According to this USA Today article, the result was an increase in viewership and more than 4,000 e-mails from viewers thanking NBC for subjecting them to only one sponsor. All but one of the messages were positive and many mentioned they were planning to buy Philips’ products. The consumer electronics was the sole sponsor of an edition of CBS’ 60 Minutes last year as well as a college football broadcast earlier this year. It seems to me like the company is choosing to spend its money wisely. I can’t argue with spending to be the lone pitch in what would be an otherwise crowded marketplace when the feedback indicates a strong tendency to buy the product.

A Card in Hand is Worth More Than Two Gifts Under the Tree

2006-12-04T11:17:00.000-05:00

I read this blog about the Starbucks card and wanted to throw in my $.02 on the topic. Having given (and received) this card, I know first-hand how easily they can become a staple item in someone’s wallet. But I think this is an example of a good loyalty program. Given that many people make a Starbucks stop a part of their daily routine, and that one in eight visitors use a Starbucks card to pay for their drink, the coffee retailer has a wonderful opportunity to get to know its customers and create tailored marketing campaigns. In this time of holiday gift-giving, I wouldn’t be surprised if Starbucks cards accounted for a large portion of the $24.8 billion in sales projected here for gift cards. As one analyst pointed out, why not give a gift that allows the recipient to choose how its used?

Where Relevancy Road Meets Location Lane

2006-11-20T13:55:00.000-05:00

Here’s a great posting about the placement of messages by Seth Godin. With the abundance of clutter, if a message with information about a product I need is mis-placed, it’s likely to go unnoticed (un heard). A key to success is being in the right place at the right time. Right message, right location – as determined by the content being received and acted upon its target audience.

NBC Sells AND Produces Ads

2006-11-17T19:16:00.000-05:00

I wanted to point out Jon Fine’s most recent column for BusinessWeek, which discusses the new role NBC is taking with some of its key advertisers. While not so much a discussion of on-point marketing or anything that cuts through the clutter, it’s interesting to point out that the network has found a way to produce advertising and turn messaging into content (or even blend the two together). I guess NBC realized there was more money to be made in advertising. Someone must have thought, “We sell the time for ads, hey, let’s produce them too!”

“Media” is already such a murky concept, and NBC’s latest move of developing an in-house ad agency has added another wrinkle to the information marketplace that is already overloaded. Product placement is nothing new, but this is far beyond that, as the article mentions NBC potentially producing brand-related content for the advertisers and mobile devices. It just seems to me like another source for potentially mis-directed content.

The Smell of Success?

2006-11-13T21:33:00.000-05:00

Kraft is sponsoring a special issue of People magazine with ads that allow readers to experience the smell of one of the products being advertised. Kraft believes the more a reader can play with the ad, the better the recall of its message, says Gary Gruneberg, director of media buying for Kraft Foods. The idea of scratch and sniff is nothing to magazines, as I’ve received countless issues reeking of various perfumes. But I think this is an interesting twist on the idea, and from the article, it seems as if the printing technology has improved to prevent the scents from being activated accidentally, which would be counterproductive. (The magazines I received with perfume strips have always been delivered reeking and I can’t tell which perfume is which.)

The article mentions that marketers believe the addition of scents to ads is a huge differentiator from other print ads. My former GSU professor, Pam Scholder Ellen, is quoted as saying “scents can be a powerful advertising tool because they ‘transport people out of their current state into a more desirable state.’”

Instead of trying to make a visual impression, the company is hoping use of consumers’ olfactory senses will leave a more lasting effect.

Does Kraft have a nose for clever messaging? I think the marriage of scented ads with a special publication dedicated to holiday entertaining is a great idea. That the interactivity in this issue is extended to editorial content is icing on the cake for Kraft. (Can you tell I like puns?) Food engages our sense of smell, touch and taste, so why not allow a print ad to be more than just a feast for the eyes?

Full or Cluttered?

2006-11-08T17:44:00.000-05:00

Seth Godin’s column today touches on what I call clutter. He uses the term “full.” His posting is an interesting take on how repetition of a message can pay off. While I think the marketplace is cluttered and only the relevant content finds its way to an audience, Godin believes consumers are full until they’re ready to listen. Toe-may-toe or to-mah-toe?

"I just want my stuff": RSS feeds & You

2006-11-07T17:09:00.000-05:00

I’m a relative newcomer to the world of RSS readers and am now wondering how I ever lived without my Google reader or Bloglines page. Once upon a time I would manually check each blog I liked and found that I was missing content if I didn’t stop by each page frequently enough. Needless to say, I could only read so much and gave up on some that were too time-consuming. Now I am reading blogs and topical news items at my convenience – and have expanded my repertoire to boot.

I’ve mentioned my newfound love of RSS feeds to friends who have looked at me like I am crazy. (I don’t run with a crowd of early adopters.) Now, I’ll just forward them this column, which excellently explains RSS feeds.

RSS is short for Really Simple Syndication. J.B. Holston, the CEO of NewsGator, succinctly explains why we should love this technology: "RSS brings the Web to you, rather than you having to go out and find things on the Web."

Holston uses his RSS feed as a customized newspaper, which I have begun to do as well. It won’t be long before that behavior is commonplace. That means that we’ll be getting the information we want, when and where we want it. And thus a marketing challenge is born – or an opportunity, depending on your perspective.

I see ROI measurement increasing in future campaigns. Thanks to Technorati, it’s quite easy to track when an ad campaign is discussed in the blogosphere. So, now I wonder, how to reach an audience that has set limits to what it wants to read? While a marketer has the opportunity to reach a captive audience, the trick will be to reach folks who don’t know they want what you’re offering. Talk about a chance to put your brain to work to think of clever ways to circumvent the filtering process and incorporate your messages into new channels and feeds! How can that be done? Let me know your thoughts.

Thanks to Micro Persuasion for the Yahoo! link.

Reaching a Virtual Audience for Real-Life Action

2006-11-02T17:25:00.000-05:00

Another posting I found interesting today – this interview Nedra Kline Weinreich conducted with CDC Second Life representative John Anderton about how the organization is using the virtual arena to carry out its mission of public health advocacy and education. I really like how the agency has chosen this platform for communicating with its audience. Second Life has a captive group of participants, but I just hope action isn’t limited to cyberspace – it’s important that the message carries over to real-life. Thanks to Micropersuasion for the suggestion – it’s well worth viewing.

First and Goal: Philips Eyes a TD for its Medical Devices

2006-11-02T16:41:00.000-05:00

Philips Electronics has taken a novel approach to eliminating the clutter surrounding its ads. The electronics giant has purchased all of the national ad time available in this Saturday’s football game between Texas and Oklahoma State that’s being televised by TBS. You can read the particulars of the arrangement in this Wall Street Journal story.

I have mixed feelings about this strategy. The article mentions that Philips wanted the ads to be relevant to the viewers of the game, but are the buyers of Philips’ medical devices the same people who will be watching? I suppose this is just an awareness-raising endeavor, but it seems like a lot of money to spend and possibly only be remembered as the company that sped-up the pace of a football game. Not that there’s anything wrong with that….

Talk to Me So I Can Talk to You

2006-10-30T21:12:00.000-05:00

Here’s a nutty idea – listen to your consumer! But listening requires asking questions in the first place, and that could get messy. In what could be mistaken for a Mars/Venus debate, today’s most e-mailed story on NYTimes.com has the headline: What Do Women Want? Just Ask Look a little closer and you’ll find a great article about the steps some companies are taking to tailor their offerings and marketing campaigns to the female consumer. Seems like a no-brainer to ask your customer base what they like (and dislike) about your product, but more often than not it’s Mars making assumptions about what Venus wants to buy. A smart marketer knows that success comes not from saying what you want to say but what your consumer wants to hear. There’s enough clutter in the marketplace. Make your product – and your message – relevant if you want to standout and reach your target audience.

And that this story is so popular on NYTimes.com tells me that a lot of people find this topic interesting. I bet a lot of marketers haven’t thought of having a two-way conversation with their target audience. What do you think?

My oh my – Sports News

2006-10-26T14:40:00.000-04:00

The two leading sports news sites, ESPN.com and SI.com, have taken to the “My” revolution that’s taking over the internet. (Think MySpace, MyCokeRewards, My Yahoo and the like.) Each has its own “My[insert name here]” portal to bring users/fans customized information to an online portal (ESPN) or their desktop via downloadable software (SI). I am all about getting the information I want when I want it, but these sites have taken two drastically different approaches and I already know which one I really like and which one leaves a less than favorable impression.

In the interest of full disclosure, I once worked at SI.com, back when it was called CNNSI.com and there was a TV network to go with it. I managed the community department, handling celebrity Q&As, user feedback and the message boards.

First, let’s start with MyEspn – I think this site is a perfect example of everything that’s right with a personalized portal. It’s a website with everything I want to see right in front of me. I worry with these “My” pages that I might miss out learning something new about the world beyond my own set parameters because I’ve done too good of a filtering job. But thankfully the ESPN folks have used their good judgment and included a general headlines section. ESPN could stand to lose the video box that starts talking as soon as the page loads. Insta-sound annoys me. But I love that the process takes seconds – complete a short registration form and you’re logged in. From there it’s a few easy clicks to select which teams you want to monitor and you’re off (or on to reading, whichever you prefer).

Now, MySI.com on the other hand requires you to download software to run their program. (One CD mailed to SI subscribers amazingly was not purchased on eBay recently.) I like ESPN because it gives me the information when I want it, but MySI continually sends the information to my desktop where it seems to be constantly visible. MySI’s explainer/FAQ video was a turn-off to me and prompted more unanswered questions. What does the scoreboard show during the week if I only care about NFL scores? (And why would I need an NBA scoreboard to scroll continuously during my workday? Isn’t seeing it once enough?) Why was she explaining all of this to me in a robe? The swimsuit model that led the FAQ video started off by addressing “the guys.” Um, don’t you think that excludes us female sports fans?

Here’s a story hyping MySI.com’s launch. I say skip it and go for MyESPN. As much as I love SI.com for everything else, this isn’t one for their highlights reel.

Making a personal connection... one buyer at a time

2006-10-23T16:07:00.000-04:00

Well lookie here – a cluttered marketplace reference! I’ve found Seth Godin’s blog to be enjoyable and very informative. His advocating the use of data mining to analyze other habits of a product’s target audience dovetails with my last post nicely – anyone who wants to reach my friend who limits her TV watching to Sesame Street (her activities mirrors the interests of her two kids) would be wise to look beyond basic demographic data (sex, age, marital status) for targeting her with messages and look to her behavioral patterns.

I also wanted to throw a shout out to my friend and fantasy football opponent Dan Goldgeier’s blog posting over the weekend. An ad campaign, when done effectively (in my humble opinion), can do wonders for a company, but a consumer sharing a positive retail experience with another can do so much more. I’ve heard of B to B and B to C, but why no C to C? Or is that just WOMMA?

Where Obama and Oscar come together

2006-10-20T23:08:00.000-04:00

With my first blog posting, I feel I am setting a precedent for all future writings. So this seems like a good time to say that there will be no set formula or tone to this forum. The constant theme will be me expressing my opinions on life as a consumer in today’s cluttered world. Having worked as a publicist and marketing manager, I’ve experienced marketplace clutter first-hand from the perspective of trying to get my message across an already-crowded marketplace. But I am a consumer too and am intrigued by what hits home and what misses the mark.

In a recent IM conversation, a friend said: “If he's not on Sesame Street or in prime time, I don't know him!!!” We were talking about Barack Obama. Not exactly a household name, but given his appearances on Oprah and as the keynote speaker at the 2004 Democratic National Convention, he hasn’t been living in obscurity either. But her comment struck a cord with me because despite the abundance of information channels available, our over-programmed lives are such that if a message isn’t placed properly, we’re likely to miss out on some useful information.

Well, if it’s so useful, why am I not finding it? Because it’s a marketer’s job to find you and move you the consumer to action, i.e. buying, voting, etc. With so information channels available to consumers, picking the right one to share an idea it’s that much tougher for marketers.

So, from here on out, I’ll be sharing my observations of what has hit home with me – the good, the bad and the ugly.