Innovation & Creativity Archives - Page 11 of 18

It doesn’t have to be fancy…or star Tom Cruise

September 26, 2007

Video is a powerful medium. It's a storytelling medium. We've seen that with the explosion of YouTube.

There's been a lot of discussion about production quality. Now do not misunderstand. I firmly believe there is a time and place when you need high end production and wouldn't allow a client to skimp.

But sometimes, you can capture the spirit and the story telling…and not spend a fortune.

Check our The Marketing Minute's friend Phil Gerbyshak tell us about a webinar series. It makes you smile. (Had me actually laugh out loud) It gives us a hint of what the webinar series might be like.

It's the first chapter in a story…

For more information about the webinar series, follow Phil's instructions and head to the website.

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Who is in my conga line? CK Kerley

September 11, 2007

As we dance our way to my first blogiversary (Saturday the 15th) I want to spend this week honoring some people who have been in front of the line, leading the dance and keeping us on beat. Because I sure didn't get here alone!

Without a doubt, one of the most passionate dancers in my conga line is CK (Christina Kerley).

My blog was about 60 days old when my family headed out for our annual pilgrimage to Disney World. I decided to blog about it and created the Marketing Lessons from Walt series. CK saw the series and did what she did best — celebrated another blogger. In this case, the lucky blogger was me.

In her post, CK suggested I re-package the series as a downloadable PDF and if I did that, she'd don mouse ears to help me promote the PDF. And true to her word, she did. So many new eyes on the blog, so many doors opened. CK sets the example I try to live. Give just because you can.

I have felt her support and encouragement from our very first e-mail exchange. She is the real deal and she has played a huge role in my first year of blogging.

From that lucky introduction, an amazing friendship has grown. We've broken bread together, spent lots of time on the phone, celebrated her momma's life…and now are proud to be co-creators of the Bloggers-Social '08!

If you've joined in the conga line and notice that we move at a lively clip…you can credit that passionate pace to a woman whose heart is always focused on others first.

My way of thanking CK? I do my best to mirror the love and encouragement she shines onto others and hope she knows she inspires all of us to reach in and give a little more.

Who is in my conga line?

Mike Sansone
CK (Christina Kerley)
Gavin Heaton
The smiling faces
My other blog homes
YOU!

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Web 2.0 meets Print 2.0

September 10, 2007

Eric Kintz, VP of all things fun at HP, is videoblogging from HP's NYC Print 2.0.

At this event, they unveiled some very cool printable mashup books featuring Gwen Stefani, Hannah Montana (from Disney) and others. Go on, print out a book that makes it look like you and Gwen were on the same tour! Or check out what designer Paula Scher has to contribute to your company's brand. Not your cup of tea? How about what snowboarding expert Jake Burton says about knowing your customer?

Take a peek at Eric's thoughts on how HP is shifting from printers to printing and how those of us who spend time in the digital world are about to discover some new and very cool ways to integrate traditional print with our speed of light digital world.

Eric also blogs over at The Digital Mindset.

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Product packaging — is it part of your brand or disposable?

August 30, 2007

A recent article in the New York Times focused on how product packaging trends have changed over the last 10-20 years. The trend, as late as the 90's was that companies would retain a packaging design for 7+ years. Today, the trend is less than 2 years. (To the left, Kleenex is now available in oval shaped boxes.)

The article lists many reasons why a company might shift packaging more often today.

Shorter attention spans of the buying population
The movement from container to a 3-D on-shelf ad for the product
Harder to expose audiences to mass media messaging, so have to grab them at the venue
Turning the mundane (tissue boxes, cleaning bottles) into decor
Trying to reduce package size/cost
Functionality (Coors label turns blue when it is just the right temperature)

An extreme example — Mountain Dew is changing its packaging 12 times from May-October. Wow. (see examples to the right)

So what do you think? Are they messing with their brand? Is this sort of revolving door packaging a good thing? Does it matter what the product is?

Related posts:

In the pink or just ick?

More packaging brain candy

Have you committed a Cardinal Zin?

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New bloggers toolbox

August 27, 2007

A couple months ago, I asked for your help. I said:

As fresh faces leap into the blogging waters faster than we can count them, it occurred to me that it's in everyone's best interest (and just good manners) to offer a helping hand to the neophytes. We're helping clients launch blogs on a regular basis and for many of them, these is new territory.

But I need your help. Someone helped you…now it's our turn!

Well, help you did! I have now compiled everyone's suggestions and organized them by the following categories:

Are chock full of practical tips
Act as a living lab on how to write compelling blog posts
Demonstrate how to build a community
Teach marketing tools
Are welcome wagons – bloggers who spotlight newbies

The toolbox will now have a permanent home here at Drew's Marketing Minute. Watch for a button along my sidebar.

Feel free grab the button and share it with your readers as well. Hopefully, the toolbox will be a resource that bloggers new and old can find value in for a long time.

Special thanks to the contributors. If I missed anyone, please let me know and I will add your contributions.

Contributors:

Spinning Silk Multimedia

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How brands help us decipher features

August 25, 2007

Picture_4

A good brand sets up expectations. The more definitive the brand, the better we can anticipate the experience. We can almost sense what would be a "right or wrong fit" based on the brand values or behaviors.

For example…see how many of these you get right:

What shape is Disney Cruise line's most popular pool?
What rating would Disney's 7 pm live entertainment show earn?
How about their 9 pm show?
How late is the casino open?
The food that is consumed in the largest quantity on the ship is…
How many times a day do the cruise activities team have "age specific" kid activities planned?
What is the decor of the most popular on-board restaurant?

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How much do you believe in your ideas?

August 16, 2007

Here in the United States, we gather every November to give thanks. Each year we sit at a table filled with turkey, dressing, pumpkin pie and of course, some post dinner football. Why?

Behold the power of persistence.

We all know the story of the pilgrims of 1621. But many don't know that while there was an occasional day of thanks after 1621, it typically happened in June and then would go many years before the next celebration. President Jefferson actually scoffed at the idea of a day of thanks.

We would be at work on that 4th Thursday in November and cranberry jelly free, if it were not for Sarah Josepha Hale, a magazine editor who wrote editorials, and letters to governors and presidents. Hale felt so strongly that our country should observe a day of thanks that she maintained her campaign for 40 years until in 1863 President Lincoln finally declared the last Thursday in November a national day of thanks.

Imagine if she had written just one editorial or letter and then given up.

And yet that's what marketers do every day. They try something once or twice and then throw in the towel. If you know you have a good idea – don't let fear, time or pressure wear you down. If you truly believe you are the right fit for a potential client…don't accept no.

Keep lobbying for a chance to tell the story. Even if it takes 40 years.

Related posts:

Keep banging into those walls

Be a Drip

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Plug into a wealth of networking advice

August 15, 2007

Have you ever wondered how Seth Godin or Guy Kawasaki build their networks? Or Joe Vitale or Scott Ginsberg? Me too.

Good news for us, so did Josh Hinds. He went one step beyond wondering. He asked. His blog, Business Networking Advice.com is a treasure trove of brief interviews with a who's who of the business world. Each interview explores the person's viewpoint on networking, asks for some pointers and success stories.

None of them are a long read, but they are all good reads. Josh kindly decided to include me in his series. You can read more about my take on networking, if you'd like.

I decided to turn the tables on Josh and posed a few questions of my own.

Q. When did you start your interview series and what prompted it?

Josh Hinds: One of the topics that I speak to groups and companies on is networking –creating win, win relationships — both personally and professionally. Initially I was going to use the site to feature mostly my own articles on the topic, but then the idea struck me that it would be a whole lot more interesting to reach out to others who were getting the whole "effective networking" thing right — so I decided that in addition to my own articles on the topic I'd feature the short interviews. I actually started BusinessNetworkingAdvice.com in August of 2006. When it comes to personal development I've always held to the belief that you have to really stay plugged in and learning on going — doing the interviews have helped me a great deal and of course I always learn something useful with each one as well — even if it's just another take, or validation for something that I already believed to be true.

Q. Are there any themes you see among the answers that really resonate with you?

Josh Hinds: That's a great question. Within about the first several interviews I'd done a pattern began to show up and continues — that is givers gain — but you can't go into a situation where you just met someone and expect to get something from that person right off the bat. It's all about building rapport with the other person. Creating value in their eyes first, then as time goes by there's a better than average chance that you'll be in a position where that person will help you if they are able to. Again, the key is that you don't come from a point of what can I get from this other person — but rather, what can I do to serve this person I've just met (or the people who are in my "network").

Q. Who is the one person you'd like to interview but haven't snagged yet?

Josh Hinds: I'm not sure I have enough space to list everyone I'd love to interview 🙂 Two that come to mind though would be Zig Ziglar and Jack Welch (former CEO of GE). Zig Ziglar has a quote which I absolutely adore and try to live my life around — it goes like this: You can have everything in life you want, if you'll only help enough other people get what they want" — talk about a philosophy that would serve anyone well. I think it would be particularly fascinating to get Jack Welch's take on networking — to have risen to the level he did as CEO of GE I suspect he could teach us all quite a bit about networking and building professional connections.

Thanks to Josh for being the interviewee for a change and for inviting me to be a part of his stellar series.

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Some products just should not be made

August 14, 2007

Here's the description for the Little Joseph candle holder.

Little Joseph is a hand-painted, porcelain candle holder. We can't decide if he's sinister or sweet. Part of that will certainly depend on what you decide to do with his hair. Use dripless candles if you'd like to keep him bald, otherwise, give him pure white locks, beeswax locks, or hair in several shades of the rainbow.

Eww. Found this little gem at the Denver Egotist, who says they are in existence to make Denver suck less daily. My suggestion, Denver should ban Little Josephs.

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A new model = a real brand

August 14, 2007

The phrase "a different perspective" is synonymous with Marcus Brown. He's one of the boldest, most daring marketing bloggers I've ever had the pleasure of getting to know. So it came as no surprise to me that he has crafted a completely new model for serving up ideas to clients.

The Ides of March works like this. In his own words…

All you have to do is get in touch and tell me what the problem is. It could be anything from developing a new kind of pizza, changing a process, launching or developing a new product, improving something, telling a story, repositioning something, finding staff, or getting your existing staff to smile. It could also be an idea for winning a piece of new business or finding the missing link in a brand thingy you’re trying to do for a client. It could be anything.

So you send me your problem and I’ll get back to you within 24 hours with any questions and tell you how long you have to wait for my idea. When I’ve come up with something I’ll send it through per email and you can have a look and a think and if you think you can use it then you pay me.

And you pay me what you think the idea is worth. It’s completely up to you. The absolute minimum per idea is 10 Euros. Once you’ve bought the idea it’s yours. You own it.

If you choose not to buy the idea it remains my property and I will post it on this blog.

I think anyone in the business has pondering this pricing model but we've got too much overhead and too little courage to try it. I can't wait to watch it take off and be ridiculously successful.

And I get a front row seat. One of the mechanics Marcus has added to his company is the creation of his Senate. A world-wide smattering of professionals that Marcus can call on as he needs them. I'm proud to be among the list. Here are my fellow Senators:

Victor Houghton, Jason V. Lonsdale , Grant McCracken, Christian Baujard, Todd Foutz, Angus Whines, Sean Howard, Tim Keil, Age Conte, Rob Campbell, Mark McGuinness, Rob Mortimer, Luc Debaisieux, Faris Yakob, Dan Germain, Nina Zimmermann, Paul H. Colman, Mark Earls, Fredrik Sarnblad, Andy Boucher, Richard Huntington, Henry Lambert, John Grant, Andrew Hovells, Gavin Heaton, Sebastian Oehme, Rory Sutherland, Russell Davies, David Brabbins, Charles Frith, Beeker Northam, William Humphrey, Mark Goren, Giles Rhys Jones, Gareth Kay, David Bausola, Philip Hubertus, John Dodds, Graeme Douglas, Amelia Torode, Drew McLellan, Dan Shute, Niku Banaie, Paul McEnany.

Marcus is boldly going to a completely new space within an age-old industry. Do you think he'll have any trouble differentiating his business from the pack? This is about actually doing something different, rather than just talking different about the same old thing.

That's branding at its core. You start by doing something different. What are you doing that's different?

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