Wow, what an exciting time it's been down here in LA this past week. I try to get down here at least once a month and even started to think about getting a second home here I like it so much. Attending the Hollywood Chamber's Annual Entertainment Luncheon yesterday only confirmed that my time here would be well served.
For awhile now, I've been touting that marketing today is all about entertainment value. It's in the hands of the consumer and if it's not fun to interact with a product, Americans just keep on surfing. We live in what I call the world of the '4 second blitz'. This means simply that if your message is not able to be absorbed within 4 seconds, you probably don't have a sale.
The world of new media marketing has made this rule even more biblical. Companies that are recognizing that their products or services are going to gain leverage in the market place when they step outside their box and design opportunities for the consumer to interact are going to blast their competition while they sleep. What does this mean for Hollywood and all the glamorous people? It's a beautiful marriage and Hollywood is starting to recognize that entertainment value comes in many shapes and forms. A town like this not only knows how to capture that value, it knows how to sell it and sell it hard. You see, consumers don't just want to watch a celebrity on the screen anymore, they want to interact with him. Celebs with entertainment agents that are also thinking outside the box on this level will offer their clients some major value over this next decade.
Here's an example. Imagine one of these little Hollywood hotties endorsing a new camera. I believe Ashton did a run with Nikon recently. Now, traditionally, a camera company like that will hire an ad agency, develop some ads with a featured celeb and blast it all over the place for a period of time. The world will see it, hear it and sure, some brand positioning takes place. Consumer retention value? Ummm, whatever comes to mind about those commercials and that product when the consumer is in the market I guess. Weak positioning in today's predictable world of social marketing. Just my opinion but I don't remember the last time I was wrong about a marketing trend.
Now, what about if Nikon would have put word out last Halloween that Ashton's going to be on Twitpic judging the best doggie costume and tweeting his favs at 5PM that Halloween eve? Here's where the real magic happens: What if throughout his tweets, he sharing about his new camera, asking his audience if they're using Nikon's new CoolPix too? What if he randomly tweets how it a cool feature it has and asks the audience to post pictures of their dogs using that setting on their Nikon CoolPix if they have one. Think a few million Gen Y folks will be all about it? Oh and how about that product envy from all the folks that aren't using a Nikon CoolPix in that moment? How much value is in their emotional loss of significance...thinking they're all "loosing points with Ashton." Talk about the power of branding in that 4 second blitz of one tweet.
That's just scratching the surface and so off the top of my head while I'm having a soy latte this afternoon. Oh, what about the whole underground world of online scavenger hunts and Geocaching?!! Tie in a few celebs into that world and you've got a product frenzy waiting to happen.
Bottom line is that it's just too easy folks. The new world of social media is the most powerful marketing that has ever existed. It's cheap compared to other forms of marketing/advertising and with a little creativity, it can catapult any unknown product/service to the head of the line overnight.
Cheers.
Friday, November 20, 2009
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Adobe to "pattern interrupt" the training/seminar world
As you probably already know, 80% of the world's population are visual learners. History shows us that Adobe's done a great job of setting a standard for 'the way to communicate ideas and information.' I mean look at how it's played out, Corel was the tool in graphic manipulation in the 90's, Adobe stepped in and now it's "Corel who?", MS Word was the norm in document serving, now if someone does not send a PDF, it's a sin and I'm sure you've seen what After Effects has done for the video production world. Seems that once Adobe arrives to the party, it becomes 'the way' and everyone kinda falls into place to follow the new world leader of visual content.
As a marketing strategist, I have no doubt that they will once again define the rules for all of us. This time it's going to be: how corporate America shows up on a training level. They're seeing the trend (good news for you), rolling up their sleeves and deciding that they want to play in the webinar world (not so good news for you if you're not prepared). You may say, "we don't do webinars" but if you look at it, what is a webinar? It's nothing but training so, indeed, this will very much affect the training world you're living in.
How does this affect you? You guys provide e-learning solutions, yes...that's true, but what are you really selling? It's all about entertainment value...isn't it? You're selling the idea of keeping people engaged longer and more attentively during their training experience by incorporating graphics and video elements. Right?
I dare say that if you can get a head start on figuring out what Adobe's going to do in the training/webinar world, you'll be much better suited for the day when a prospect looks at you and says 'well, we bought the new Adobe XXXX program and think we might try to produce our webinars and training materials ourselves.' Take it from someone that's heard that statement for years when people started figuring out how to use Photoshop and thought they could design their own websites. As a professional who wanted to keep her income bracket, I had to figure out my added value niche and more importantly, the strategy I was going to use to let them know how ridiculous they were for even trying to go about it themselves. It's how I was always able to maintain my higher end pricing structure, when the rest of the designers in my field would cave at lower pricing requests.
All trends in our industries move in cycles and now of course 10 years later, people understand that just because one has Photoshop and can do the work, does not mean one should. Much to their sympathy, they had to endure wearing ugly websites designed by some in house guy who didn't get enough creative time at the crayon table in kindergarten...needed to prove he had 'talent' to learn the hard way, again: just because you can, does not mean you should. I digress.
Coming back to your backyard, Adobe is coming, full bodied and ready to play. Been doing this strategy stuff for over 13 years, I can't remember when I was wrong about a corporate marketing trend. I hope you'll be able to spot the nuggets and get your game plan. I'd start by attending Adobe's gig on Thursday. Good luck!
https://www.signup4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=YOUH10E&TID=BVS5DRjx4HxflrapMmvc5Q%3d%3d
As a marketing strategist, I have no doubt that they will once again define the rules for all of us. This time it's going to be: how corporate America shows up on a training level. They're seeing the trend (good news for you), rolling up their sleeves and deciding that they want to play in the webinar world (not so good news for you if you're not prepared). You may say, "we don't do webinars" but if you look at it, what is a webinar? It's nothing but training so, indeed, this will very much affect the training world you're living in.
How does this affect you? You guys provide e-learning solutions, yes...that's true, but what are you really selling? It's all about entertainment value...isn't it? You're selling the idea of keeping people engaged longer and more attentively during their training experience by incorporating graphics and video elements. Right?
I dare say that if you can get a head start on figuring out what Adobe's going to do in the training/webinar world, you'll be much better suited for the day when a prospect looks at you and says 'well, we bought the new Adobe XXXX program and think we might try to produce our webinars and training materials ourselves.' Take it from someone that's heard that statement for years when people started figuring out how to use Photoshop and thought they could design their own websites. As a professional who wanted to keep her income bracket, I had to figure out my added value niche and more importantly, the strategy I was going to use to let them know how ridiculous they were for even trying to go about it themselves. It's how I was always able to maintain my higher end pricing structure, when the rest of the designers in my field would cave at lower pricing requests.
All trends in our industries move in cycles and now of course 10 years later, people understand that just because one has Photoshop and can do the work, does not mean one should. Much to their sympathy, they had to endure wearing ugly websites designed by some in house guy who didn't get enough creative time at the crayon table in kindergarten...needed to prove he had 'talent' to learn the hard way, again: just because you can, does not mean you should. I digress.
Coming back to your backyard, Adobe is coming, full bodied and ready to play. Been doing this strategy stuff for over 13 years, I can't remember when I was wrong about a corporate marketing trend. I hope you'll be able to spot the nuggets and get your game plan. I'd start by attending Adobe's gig on Thursday. Good luck!
https://www.signup4.net/Public/ap.aspx?EID=YOUH10E&TID=BVS5DRjx4HxflrapMmvc5Q%3d%3d
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