Category Archives: Think Strategy

In honor of the summer vacation months, I now turn my head to how technology emulates and influences our traditions of past and future.   I was motivated to do so one day as I was anticipating my own vaunted getaway.  I found myself repeating a practice that I thought had no connection to modern interactive marketing trends – only to realize, I was wrong. Again.

What I was repeating is a long practiced road-trip tradition of mentally inventorying road-trip games.  These various kill-time endeavors reach from the annoying to useful to truly annoying to the essential. Games like – “Name that Semi” – a game where you try and call the truck maker name of a truck before others in the car.  In my day, just answering MACK Truck would net you 80% score without fail – it’s a harder game to play these days.  Or this one – “Punch bug yellow” – my children insist on playing this game 24/7 – 365 and my arm is sick of it.  (If you couldn’t tell, this is one of the “truly annoying” and painful games.  But my favorite and a favorite of every experienced road-trip-traveled parent is:  “Who can be quietest, the longest?”  This one is always executed with the wishful thought that “if only I could have started this a 1/2 hour ago.”  If these don’t strike a cord, Susan Fox’s article, Classic Road-Trip Games of Disney Family Fun has hand-ful more classics to give you the idea.

The surprising thing is – each and every one of these arcane and inane games shares a surprising common thread of connection to our modern technical lives.  They are all classic forms of the now in-vogue marketing strategy/term – Gamification.  As Wikipedia defines it:  gamification is the use of game play mechanics for non-game applications, particularly consumer-oriented web and mobile sites, in order to encourage people to adopt the application and become engaged with it.

I see it as a marketing effort to turn either a brand interaction from boring to fun OR provide a fun experience during those times when a user is well – bored.  Which of course – is the point of road-trip games.  They are always engaged after hitting the n-teenth mile where everyone is about to keel over.

I guess this too has become the reason technology Gamified or “funware” brand experiences have become in vogue.  Apparently, all those people constantly checking-in, FarmVilling out, earning badges and becoming the mayor are just too bored with walking, crossing-the-street or say, engaging with the friend who’s house they just walked into on a visit.

And here is where the road-trip games and our new-tech versions differ.  The first – engages, and forces the assembled mass to face and conquer an entertainment challenge together – in the here, and now.  The other – pushes us away from the immediate situation, and people – and allows us to escape with a disconnected mass of “people” in the cloud.   So, this is the life we lead, with modern portable electronic entertainment devices that keep us connected, directed and spaced-out.

As a marketer and creative – I’m intrigued and entertained by the gamification strategy – I just hope they never come up with a funwared experience of “Smell the flowers.”

Tough-times puts everyone against the ropes.

It’s natural and expected that businesses would retract and posture to “tough-it-out”.  Being devensive – in a retracting market – is not only a common strategic move but emotionally natural.  Hold on to what you’ve got and don’t let it get away! But as natural as this reaction feels – we have all learned that success often requires we go against our “natural” instincts.  This lesson is repeatedly demonstrated in sports.  In sports it’s summed up in the old adage: “The best defense is a good offense.”  We can see this to be true when we look at fielding in baseball, taking on bumps and steeps in skiing and charging the net in tennis.

I was reminded of this same prosaic line
“The best defense is a good offense”…

just the other day as I watched my nine year old play baseball.  In baseball – one offensive move from the defense position of fielding is “charging” the grounder.  Run towards it, so you can pick it up and get the throw off to the base sooner.  This increases your chances of getting the ball to the bag before your opponent gets there.   In this way you make the play and get the out – i.e. you succeed!

Now, I don’t know if anyone reading this remembers trying to “charge” a grounder as a kid but I do.  And, I can tell you – it didn’t feel “natural”.

Instinct tells you: “Instinct talking here, that ball.  The hard-ball charging at you faster than you can run. Well any moment now it’s going to jump up and smack you in places you can’t mention in polite company.”

Then instinct says: “You should move aside, pull one arm up over your face, cross the other one down across your privates, close your eyes and hope there’s an astute outfielder behind you backing up your play.”

“Don’t worry about appearances this could hurt!!” says Instinct.

Meanwhile – in a far less convincing, animated fashion – team-mates, coaches and a few choice parental units are yelling at you:

“Charge the ball!!! Dig it out. Get it, get it, get it!!”

I was always partial to persuasive argument over bullying.  And, needless to say little boys are never too worried about appearances either – instinct won out for me!!

So, what can we take from this for our business lives?

Given we won’t “naturally” move towards what’s best for our success – we have to think-it-out strategically.  We have to think – what’s the offensive move from a defensive position as it applies to marketing and design? Well, it’s manifest in a number of subtle and not-so-subtle deliveries.  We can see it in proactive outreach programs like eMailer campaigns, newsletters, social marketing programs and appearances on industry panels.  Great examples can be found with friends of ours at Pitney Bowes and IVANS, Inc. - who are engaged in speaker panels, trade conferences and social networking.  See Lucy Hackman’s witty twitter posts @LucyHackman or blog, or follow Aneta Hall’s contributions on MarketingProfs.

In site design and marketing - it’s animated promotional type or bold and big imagery that commands the page and evokes emotional responses.  Look at how Quebec travel and tourism board’s unapologetic and brash use of languid and exciting imagery throughout the site.  Refresh the page and be faced with yet another in-your-face bold adventure.

Quiebec City Tourism - Official Web Site

These are defense positions because you are not taking on your competition in a direct fashion but making outreach efforts to established connections or viewers just passing by.

Another good example of good
offensive moves from a defensive position…

may be seen in the refinement and fine-tuning your company look and message. By doing this you are helping your customers learn who and what you are, sooner.  Design is crucial to this objective as the elements of color and spatial organization have the biggest impact on first impression and the dissemination of your company message.  Clutter will confuse and alienate a viewer.   Other moves that are “unnatural” offensive moves from the defensive position may be investing dollars in follow-up materials that play a strictly “relief pitcher” status. Collateral changes like updates to brochures, process improvements and website enhancements.

Now I’m sure this isn’t the first time you’ve heard this before.  Others have documented evidence and advice in far more eloquent fashion than I, in other industry examples and opportunities in the current business climate.  In the end, it comes down to perspective and drive over “instinct”.   So – charge the ball – and in that way you will provide the best defense in these challenging markets.

Oh, and another thing – if you don’t mind -please don’t share my fielding experience as a child with my boys.  “Dig-it-out” is still one of my personal, favorite parental expressions.

When it comes to passwords, you’d like them to be simple enough to remember. Ones that are familiar to you or series of letters and numbers that have certain significance in your life. However, organizations are forcing users to create increasingly complex passwords that are not as easy to remember.

But how safe do either dictionary words or complex patterns really keep us from hackers?

After much research, Microsoft has concluded that complex passwords are just as easily hacked and may not be as effective as other password strategies. Their new approach to online passwords eliminates complexity requirements, like “must be 14 characters long and contain two numbers and a symbol,” while still protecting against both dictionary attacks and statistical guessing. Their new online service counts how many times any user chooses a given password, and if more than a small number of users pick that password, it is banned from all other users to choose. However, this strategy is not a cure-all for hacking protection for everyone—it is intended to be used by organizations with millions of users and heavy traffic, like Microsoft’s Hotmail service.

Read more about password strategy and Microsoft’s new approach to protect its users.

Old Spice has created a wildly successful social media campaign literally overnight. It all started with a commercial of the bare-chested, toweled, ladies man Isaiah Mustafa that rocked YouTube with its masculinity and humorous transitions. “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like” campaign appeals to men and women alike, as it brings a sense of humor to a personal hygiene product line that dwindles in a competitive world of advertisements focused on sensuality.

To differentiate the brand, the online ads essentially ask women to compare their significant other to the hunky Old Spice Man. He says in a sultry-smooth voice, “Look at your man, now back to me, now back at your man, now back to me. Sadly, he isn’t me. But if he stopped using lady scented body wash he could smell like he is me.” With over 34 million views on YouTube in less than a week, the 72-year-old brand knew for certain that it had the attention of the younger demographic with this video.

Isaiah Mustafa, his dashing good looks and his witty advice for consumers, have been online since February; but it wasn’t until early July of this year that Old Spice Man really started to “spice” up the social media scene. Keying in on YouTube as a primary medium, the brand produced one more commercial to speak directly to online audiences. The over-the-top charades continue with a “Should your man smell like an old spice man?” question and answer session that invites bloggers, Twitterers, YouTube commenters, and even celebrities big in the social networking sphere to personally ask the Old Spice Man questions—and receive real-time responses.

On July 14^th, the Old Spice production team and Isaiah Mustafa met in Portland, Oregon to create dozens of these short, comedic YouTube videos in response to the questions and comments of followers. In two days time, they managed to dish out 185 video responses to tweets that ask favors of Mustafa, seek his advice, or just look to get him to say their name over the airwaves. In three days time, the videos received 5.2 million views on the Old Spice channel of YouTube. And with the open invitation for Twitter followers to speak directly to the Old Spice Man, the brand’s Twitter following grew from a few thousand to now almost 90,000.

So what is it about this campaign that we need to understand? Three things.

1. Realize your true audience

Proctor and Gamble has recently come to understand that their primary target market is not, in fact, men. Their research concluded that women purchase nearly 70% of hygiene products (including shower gel) for the men in their households. With women making the shopping decisions, it just makes sense to target them in these dreamy, idealized advertisements, rather than demean them the way Axe and Tag product ads do.

2. Keep messaging short and simple

The attention span of online users is becoming increasingly shorter as a result of micro blogs and social media sites like Twitter, that require users to sum up what’s going on in 140 characters or less; anything longer and you may lose interest. Messages should be strategically developed to address this and ensure that the audience will stay intrigued or amused with your content. There are very few of these Old Spice ads over 1 minute.

3. Markets are conversations

The Cluetrain Manifesto wisely advises us that the world of marketing does not have to be a one-sided world. The introduction of the Internet has created endless possibilities for advertisers and marketers to interact with, obtain feedback from, and have direct conversations with their prospects. The Internet alone is an incredible tool, but with the addition of social media, viral video, and the blogosphere, it becomes a viable weapon.

Old Spice undoubtedly has the fastest growing viral campaign of any product. Ever. By evading expensive traditional media and surging full speed ahead to the target consumer on their computer or phone, Old Spice has revolutionized the way advertisers and marketers utilize social media. If social media can help a guy in a bath towel connect with customers, just imagine what it can do for your business.

For more on Old Spice see:

• OldSpice.com
• Old Spice on Twitter
• Old Spice on YouTube
• Old Spice Voicemail

A “rising” trend in the advertising industry is the use of elevator advertising in shopping malls, high rise office buildings, apartment complexes, and other heavily trafficked buildings. These large, entertaining ads captivate audiences and almost guarantee that the ad will be seen and remembered.

The key to elevator advertising is location, location, location. Knowing the audience in a particular location and anticipating their reactions to the advertisement is important to the success of the campaign. But with an estimated 500 people a day* jamming into high-rise elevators in malls and office buildings, it’s hard not to increase gross impressions with elevator advertising.

So whether it’s a dunking oreo in a shopping mall, where the are sure to be hungry children tagging along with their mothers, or a weight-loss ad in an office building, where there are sure to be guilt-driven businessmen and women, strategically placed elevator advertisements can be a tremendously effective medium.

You can see more clever and creative elevator ads here

*gaebler.com