Uncategorized

12 Sep

Posted at 14:37h in Campaign of the Month, IMC, Integrated Marketing, Uncategorized by
From a hot new band, to a boring car company, to every GenZ's favorite social network, these unconventional marketing campaigns stood out from the crowd.  Life is too short to stay in your comfort zone. That’s especially true of marketing campaigns. Not every campaign can be an innovative stroke of genius. But neither can every campaign follow the traditional general format. A well-timed unconventional marketing campaign can make a lasting impression and generate a great deal of buzz around your brand. Here are some of the most interesting unconventional marketing campaigns we've seen recently.  Marketing Campaign #1 - Subaru, Share the Love  Try to find the car in this supposed car commercial. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78z-xnLImFE And it’s not because Subaru doesn’t want to show off their cars - they won five prestigious awards in 2017. The Japanese car manufacturer’s recent “Share the Love” marketing campaign is part of a large scale US marketing outreach that accounts for 60% of the brand’s sales budget. Surely, a 60 second spot for a car that doesn’t even give a viewer a look at the car they’re trying to sell won’t work very well, right? It’s actually precisely what separated Subaru marketing campaigns from their lackluster competitors. Demand for cars has slowed in recent years, but Subaru’s unconventional marketing has been a major factor in its sales boom spanning back nearly 70 months of consecutive growth. Why did it work? Subaru has been targeting a liberal, mostly coastal audience for decades now. Words like “love,” “inclusion,” and images of adorable subjects like children and dogs tug at the heartstrings. The car industry is filled with monotony and it’s difficult to distinguish any one automaker’s ads from another’s. There are lots of sounds of engines revving and hairpin turns through mountain highways. We get it. Everyone’s got sleek designs and a cool logo. But can you remember any car ad that made you feel an emotion besides boredom? Generating an emotional response makes viewers associate positive feelings with Subaru. It helps them think more positively of the brand when it comes time to purchase a vehicle. When would a similar campaign be appropriate? Any time an industry is cluttered it’s a good idea to take another angle. Subaru proved the radical idea of ditching the product entirely is an effective way to stand out. Are you’re struggling to figure out what makes your product unique? Turn your attention to what makes your target audience unique and create new messaging from there.  

Marketing Campaign #2 - Snapchat, Spectacles

Snapchat has made it a very exclusive privilege to use one of its new features. The photo-messaging social media app has made its first foray into technology of its own with camera-equipped sunglasses called Spectacles. Spectacles are only available through distribution carts which appear for a fleeting amount of time before disappearing—mirroring the app itself. Drumming up excitement through scarcity has worked, and it shows. Some Snapchatters are eager to pay a pretty penny for the glasses through resale sites like eBay, to the tune of about $250, roughly double the retail price. Why did it work?

01 Aug

Posted at 08:37h in How to Pitch, The New Entrepreneur, Uncategorized by
How to Make Your Presentations More Impactful By Maurice DeCastro, Mindful Presenter Creating and delivering a presentation is a key part of any career, and a challenge that many people have to face - whether they feel they are ready or not. Delivering a presentation addresses a key fear for many professionals: public speaking. When you’re interested and passionate about a topic, it’s easy to talk about it with clarity and confidence to one person or even a few people. But speaking to a room full of people in a more formal setting suddenly becomes overwhelming. It’s easy to leave preparation to the last minute and deliver a lukewarm presentation that doesn’t make a huge impact. Here are some ideas and techniques you can implement to make your presentations impactful, thought-provoking, and a breeze to deliver. Part 1: Preparing the presentation [pullquote] ‘Success depends upon previous preparation, and without such preparation there is sure to be failure.’ -Confucius [/pullquote] Luck and confidence can be on your side, and winging it may seem second nature, but nothing beats good old-fashioned preparation. It’s hard to know exactly how much preparation goes on behind the scenes, but for many events - it’s a lot. Whilst you don’t need to spend weeks perfecting your presentation, dedicating time to really think about it will make your presentation more impactful. Think about your topic and how you are going to approach it Whatever topic you’re talking about, there is a way of making it memorable and interesting. Think about your audience and the purpose of your presentation. What will they find interesting? Do they already know a lot about this topic? Answering these kinds of questions will help you form the basis of the content. Plot it out in three stages

11 May

Posted at 12:41h in Uncategorized by

I was honored to be asked to write an article for Communication Director, the premier publication for corporate communications and public relations in Europe and Asia. The following is an excerpt from that article, with a link to the entire piece for your convenience.  [caption id="attachment_13168" align="alignright"...

23 Feb

Posted at 08:46h in Uncategorized by

Recently, I’ve been using the service Interact as a platform to create and host online quizzes. They offer both graded and outcome/personality type quizzes, and I’ve experimented with them both (see “What Kind of Marketer Are You?” and “Why the Media is Your Customer”). We know...

22 Feb

Posted at 21:38h in Uncategorized by
Brand transparency is directly related to industry trust, company loyalty and long-term revenue. As an integral part of relationship marketing, transparency is foundational to creating long-lasting consumer-business relationships. Yet most small businesses confuse transparency with authenticity and have misconceptions about the uses and parameters of positive brand transparency. Understanding how transparency works to develop consumer-business relationships is essential to developing a revenue-building marketing campaign.

Transparency Mitigates Conflict

Relationship marketing is a strategy that focuses on establishing, developing and maintaining successful personal interactions. Sales are not the primary emphasis but an associated outcome of a healthy consumer-business relationship. Conflict minimization is the most important factor in relationship development, and transparency is the best way to reduce conflict. When customers feel that they are well aware of the ins and outs of a company’s policies and procedures, they are less likely to perceive conflict, even if they do not like the outcome. Most large companies have their corporate docs available on their websites, but smaller companies tend to forget this step. At the very least, make sure your mission statement and executive bios are available for everyone to see. If you can make other information available without giving away proprietary company material, do so.

eWoM Still Has Eyes

In the days before digital media, much of marketing was done by word-of-mouth (WoM). Salespeople traveled from home to home, soliciting purchases and asking for leads. There was something about looking a person in the eye that helped to develop a relationship. A handshake was more important than today’s online consent form. Consider social media a digital version of WoM marketing. As such, it relies heavily on trust. The BrightLocal Local Consumer Review Survey found that