The Wax Blog

25 Sep

Posted at 09:34h in Integrated Marketing, News by
Pumpkin spice is big business. The first reference to what we now know as "pumpkin spice" can be traced back to 1796. That's the year Amelia Simmons published American Cookery, often regarded as the nation's first cookbook. In it she includes a recipe for "pompkin pudding," a pie made with stewed pumpkin and spiced with ginger and nutmeg. It represents a sense of goodness, natural abundance and old values that people think are good. Which is why pumpkin spice lattes bring equal parts devotion and disdain. More importantly pumpkin spice delivers a powerful marketing punch every fall.  According to Nielsen sales of pumpkin-infused foods and drinks are up 79 percent since 2011. It's now a $361 million dollar business. Social media intelligence technology provider Infegy even released a report that uses social media data to explain the widespread success behind this bestselling seasonal flavor options and explains how it can be used to better understand consumers, brand loyalty, purchase intent and more. The pumpkin spice latte now means more than coffee spiked with pumpkin and cinnamon. What started as a drink has now come to represent a certain fall-centric lifestyle thanks to IMC heavyweight Starbucks.

22 Sep

Posted at 11:22h in Digital Marketing, Integrated Marketing by
3 things all great digital marketers know, that you should too if you want to capture the power of integrated marketing. Online promotion and customer activity tracking have changed the face of marketing forever, that's a given. As a result of this I'm seeing some disturbing trends in digital marketing including a strong bias against  elements of marketing that have always packed a powerful punch. Every day there's a new digital "expert" telling me that numbers don't lie. Or that I need to add a tactic within my marketing strategy that is counter-intuitive to the overall plan, mainly because another digital marketing campaign found success using that tactic. I'm grateful to have the pleasure of working with true geniuses in the field of digital marketing. Here are three things really great digital marketers all understand  about integrated marketing: 1. Numbers are only half the story. Anyone who's done a ton of A/B testing will tell you there are some really weird subject lines and promotions that take off like a rocket. And we don't always know why. Great digital marketers know you have to throw in a few wild cards, particularly at the beginning of the campaign, because what the numbers will tell you will work, isn't always what works.  Numbers, plus experience and a bit of gut feel or intuition will always give you the best result. 2. Traditional media is still relevant. A lot of folks on the digital side look down their nose at print, network TV, direct marketing and other forms of traditional advertising and PR. Great digital marketers know that the best results (and this holds true for my IMC campaigns as well) result when there is an attempt to create synergy between digital tactics and traditional media. It may not be as glamorous as content marketing right now, but a good hit on local TV will always deliver for consumer brands. Learn how to synchronize digital tactics with these efforts, and they can provide a tremendous boost for online results.

13 Sep

Posted at 14:43h in Digital Marketing, IMC, Social Media by
jet-logo"Let's turn customers' shopping carts into improvised videos." It's an idea so brilliantly quirky as to border on insane - but Jet.com's one-day branding spectacular is one of the best examples of integrated marketing communications in action I've seen recently. The premise of the campaign, called #JetSpree, was simple but groundbreaking. One day only, during predefined hours, Jet.com asked shoppers for permission to turn their shopping carts into what they called "on-the-spot video." In essence, their purchases would be used as the inspiration for videos involving double dutch jump roping, a barbershop quartet, pantomime, yodeling, improv comedy, dancing toys and even a turtle. The videos were then shared on YouTube and social media during the event.

09 Sep

Posted at 10:32h in Campaign of the Month, IMC by
IMC campaign of the monthWhat happens when advertising creatives fed up with gender inequality brainstorm a creative way to draw attention to the problem? In Brazil, what happens is Cerveja Feminista, or Feminist Beer. And it’s our IMC campaign of the month. In Brazil, 65% of women feel they are not represented by ads and a mere 10% of advertising creatives are female. Inspired by this, the creators behind Cerveja Feminista also founded the activism group 65|10 to work in tandem with the beer to raise awareness and combat inequality in their country. Cerveja Feminista is a brilliant example of cause marketing though its motives are more altruistic than profit-driven. It’s also a strong example of good branding, careful audience analysis, clever advertising, public relations and social media working in an integrated fashion. As one would expect from a group of creatives, the beer itself is well branded down to the color of the ale inside the bottle – an Irish red, chosen because red is the color associated with social causes. Plus, red ale falls between the typically “male” dark beers and “female” pale beers. It’s intended to attract both genders equally, showing an understanding of ideal buyers that is the cornerstone of good IMC. The logo is simple and hip, appealing to the current generation of savvy beer drinkers. What’s more, the actual idea of choosing beer as the product to highlight 65|10’s cause is extremely smart. There are few things as stereotypically sexist as beer ads. That Cerveja Feminista hits hard at a market saturated with big brands targeting a largely male audience with demeaning messages about women is a bold move, and one that’s garnering a lot of media attention. What’s more, Cerveja Feminista’s creators are banking on the fact that the beer’s label itself will spark meaningful discussion about gender inequality. One of the founders, Thais Fabris, explained to Co.Exist,

01 Sep

Posted at 13:06h in IMC by
drink-20565_1280Although most marketers accept that integrating marketing communications is a powerful approach, campaigns today seldom realize the full power of the methodology commonly known as IMC. Most of us  synchronize our earned and owned media in some way.  Many of us have learned empirically the right combinations of tactics that lead to the most engagement, or the highest landing page traffic. What’s often missing in campaigns is the ability to plan, manage and measure the synergy that occurs as a result of powerful IMC strategies and strong linked tactics.  It’s the acceleration caused by this synergy – the combination of marketing efforts that add up to more than the sum of their parts – that provides the best results. Synergy looks and feels different in every IMC campaign. The good news is there are common elements to successful IMC campaigns that result in increased synergy.  The first is message alignment. IMC requires a persistent, consistent messaging strategy across channels. A core, or integrated, strategy statement should drive every campaign message. This statement is rarely shared with an audience. It is simple, to the point, and states what we’re doing and why we’re doing it.  For a healthcare practice, it might be something like “We’re here to provide the best care in a safe environment.” An organic food company might use “Delivering the healthiest products to families.” Every single message should be aligned with this basic message. Another important ingredient to powerful IMC campaigns is of course to choose the best combination of messaging channels.  Most people understand the importance of selecting channels that are right for the target audience.  However, it is crucial to select a set of secondary channels that boost the performance of the overall campaign.  If you think about it, you know which messaging channels complement each other. It can be as simple as automatically linking your Instagram account to Facebook, or as complicated as buying digital billboards to supplement a PSA. The selection of channels is part of creating a strong IMC strategy.  Too many projects are defined with only goals and tactics, without the strategies that provide the bridge in between. A good strategy  should be a consistent, long-term part of an IMC plan. A good strategy allows for changing tactics that are not working, without losing the direction of the campaign. Part of the beauty of IMC is that

27 Aug

Posted at 16:26h in IMC, Social Media by
twitterI don't know about you but social media for B2B feels a lot more like a pain in the arse than a marketing tool at times. To establish the right goals (which do NOT, by the way only include your follower numbers or engagement percentages) I always need to remember why I like Twitter in the first place. That kind of resets my social media mojo when I'm buried in some ungodly Buzzsumo list looking for good content. Here are top 5 reasons I like Twitter for B2B right here, right now. 1. Twitter is great for earned media. Journalists seem to feel safer in Twitter, likely due to the 140 character limit. I find them in Twitter and I quickly tweet them that I might have good stuff coming their way from time to time. Twitter is also the ultimate platform for helping media spread their own reach as well. Help them before they help you. 2. Twitter grows website search traffic and provides great branding at the same time. Keep an eye on your Twitter referrals in Google Analytics and be conscious about sending them to specific landing pages and posts. I think of Twitter as my online billboard. A lot of people see it in "drive by mode" as they scroll through a feed. That's okay, they don't always have to click through.  Twitter is great for conversions but it's great for providing additional brand impressions also. 3. Twitter boosts your LinkedIn performance.

21 Aug

Posted at 08:15h in Social Media by
social media managerIf you are still letting an intern run your social media accounts, you are doing it wrong. There was a time when Facebook and Twitter seemed like low-stakes methods to self-promote and interact with customers. So some businesses were quick to hand off tasks that nobody else wanted to do to the young, low-salaried employee who just started six months ago. Although that thinking never made sense, it is downright destructive in 2015. You need someone smart, measured and in tune with the company's operations to lead the most-forward-facing parts of your brand. Because that's what social media is today. Before you hire your next social media manager, make sure he or she has the following three characteristics:

Savvy

A few years ago, when social media was still young, all you had to do to become a social media expert was say you were one. If you had a few thousand followers on Twitter and wrote "Twitter guru" in your bio, then by gosh that's what you were. Who could argue? Nobody really had any idea what the platform was really for or how to use it for business purposes anyway. The days of faking it 'til you make it are now over, however. The industry has evolved enough that there are many who really do shine above the rest. It is critical that you find a fully-formed professional who knows the lay of the land, not just a hollow windbag. Anyone can pretend to understand social media and all its potential pitfalls and opportunities. But few really do. LifeLock, for example, is one company that has found someone who can manage social media very well. The company isn't afraid to interact with customers and does a good job of humanizing its brand by taking the time to listen to user concerns. By using its Facebook page to inform the community about industry-wide issues — not just PR spin about its own services — the firm's social media manager is exhibiting a savvy understanding of why potential customers want to engage with a brand on social media.

Discretion

The NBA has long been forward thinking when it comes to social media. Many of its teams are on the vanguard of finding new ways to interact with customers — in their case, fans — and have adopted a playful demeanor on Twitter that works. While a game is going on, for example, the two teams may wage a friendly back-and-forth competition using funny animated GIFs or quirky jokes.

20 Aug

Posted at 12:30h in Small Business by

Big businesses create their advertisements so that their names can be more recognized, and to create more future sales. And as a small business, you may not afford that. So, design your advertisements to produce more sales. Include an offer in the ad, and also...

18 Aug

Posted at 13:41h in IMC by
linked tactic toolkitI'm doing a webinar for WOMMA tomorrow (check it out here if you're interested - it's free!) and it got me thinking about linked tactics. This is probably the easiest way to inject a bit of IMC into your current projects. Creating an IMC toolkit basically means you're going to consciously "collect" the combinations that work for you. In order to build your toolkit, you need to really think about the tactics you're linking, how and why they work and how to make them even more powerful.
  1. First, carefully examine your current marketing processes. Identify everywhere you are already linking tactics, from social media to landing pages, hashtags, QR codes, etc.
  2. After that list has been created, try to brainstorm a third tactic that would boost the performance of the first two and predict the results. Just guess if you have to – testing and measurement has to start somewhere. The third tactic is often timing, or it can be another marketing channel.
  3. Now identify those tactics operating on their own and do the same exercise. Add another tactic, experiment with the timing, or even simply add a hashtag. Then measure what happens. This is the beginning of your IMC linked tactic toolkit.