The Wax Blog

After Disney issued extremely conservative predictions for “The Jungle Book,” the live-action film by Jon Favreau obliterated expectations with its massive $103.6 opening weekend. These powerful results make this our IMC Campaign of the Month. Disney made several smart marketing choices during the lead-in to the release of The Jungle Book that helped build hype and buzz for the movie. They combined typical marketing approaches, special opportunities available only to Disney and a few unique techniques and messaging particular to this film. Each of these aspects of the IMC campaign were deployed with terrific skill and a keen eye toward how each part of the plan fit together. The result was maximum marketing impact. Recognizing that the Disney Magic Castle logo is not an automatic plus for the male demo, Disney aggressively and repeatedly pitched the movie to male audiences. Commercials on ESPN created the perception that The Jungle Book movie was not coming from the studio that made Cinderella but from the studio that produced the Pirates of the Caribbean series. An extended 3D trailer for The Jungle Book was played during the showing of Star Wars: The Force Awakens, of which the majority of the audience was male. Disney also rolled out an action-packed trailer during the Super Bowl. Plus Disney’s marketers targeted the Hispanic audience by teaming with Univision, the American Spanish-language TV network, for a five-week stint that brought The Jungle Book characters and clips to telenovelas, talk shows and sports coverage. Disney even built a tool to allow Univision personalities to appear in scenes. Word of mouth spreads faster than ever in the age of Facebook, Twitter and Snapchat. The Jungle Book had everything in its favor, and with the help of social channels, went over the edge in terms of popularity. Disney’s savvy online marketing campaign also contributed to the buzz. "With each new piece of material, you’re showing [fans] enough to have them understand what you are doing, but also just enough to keep secrets so there’s still excitement and discovery when they go to the theater," The Jungle Book director Jon Favreau told Mashable in a phone interview. To emphasize the “immersive world” (think Avatar)

content shockIt's been two years since Mark Schaefer declared that content shock is here. Since that time B2B brands have continually increased their marketing budgets while technological advances like ad blockers threaten to disrupt the industry. Still the problem of content shock remains. There’s an overwhelming amount of free content on the web -  far more than any rational human being can consume. As a result, people have become increasingly selective about the content they consume. Internet users are coping with information overload by scanning faster and reading with less intensity than before. This, in turn, makes it harder for B2B brands to reach their audience. To continue connecting with prospects, marketers will have to continually refine their niche. Yet, they face another problem.

social mediaHow to add more time to your day for social media.

Extending your social media presence beyond your company's profiles has many benefits, including direct engagement with customers, increased transparency, new interest, press coverage and gained authority in your industry. Despite the potential new business opportunities that come from having a strong personal brand, most CEOs ignore the free marketing that social media provides. The 2015 Social CEO Report found that more than 60 percent of CEOs have no social presence at all, and zero Fortune 500 CEOs have a presence on the six most popular social media channels. Small business owners have the advantage of growing their following organically as their company grows, which helps solidify strong, genuine relationships early on. But with all the challenges small business owners face and the multiple directions they're pulled in, social media may be on the bottom of the priority list. If this sounds like your business, use the following tips to create profiles that benefit your business and to spend time interacting with followers to achieve new growth.

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