Archive for December, 2009

23
Dec
09

Vintage Toy Commercials Just in Time for Christmas Shopping

By Jay Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: commercials
Tags: , , ,

Vintage Toy Motorcycle

Straight out of the “Leave it to Beaver” era, I ran across this great video of vintage toy commercials by John Behrens (2009). It seems to be from the ’50s, ’60s and ’70s. I love how many of the commercials are totally driven to be sold to boys. Then at the end of the commercial, when the voice-over says, “No BOY should be without X toy,” the same voice then says, “And great for girls, too,” with a closeup of a smiling girl holding the obviously boys’ toy.

The level of technology, if you can call it that, is funny to watch and see how far technology has come since even the ’70s.

Collection of Vintage Toy Commercials

17
Dec
09

Top Seven Twitter Mistakes to Avoid

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Marketing and Twitter
Tags: , , , , ,

If you aren’t familiar with the “Quick and Dirty Tips” series, I highly recommend you check it out. It’s a sequence of blog posts, podcasts and newsletters from experts in everything from grammar and nutrition to digital marketing and dog training. The experts break down complicated subjects to make them easier to understand and apply to your everyday life.

My favorite series is “Grammar Girl.” I love receiving her daily grammar tips in my inbox, and you wouldn’t believe the things I learn—and I thought I knew a lot about grammar. But I digress!

I’m writing today to talk about the top Twitter mistakes to avoid, according to “The Digital Marketer,” one of the “Quick and Dirty Tips” series.

The Digital Marketer

If you’re using Twitter for professional purposes—to promote your business, build yourself professionally, or market a product or service—you should definitely pay attention to how you’re using it. Repeated mistakes online can cost your company and your reputation.

Without further ado, following are seven of the top Twitter mistakes to avoid from “The Digital Marketer,” Aliza Sherman:

1. Following a ton of people. There is no need to follow a lot of people on Twitter, especially if you are just starting out. Of course, “a lot” can mean different things to different people. I keep the number of people I follow under 2000. Others keep it below a few hundred. Still others follow only a dozen people on Twitter. Know your information overload threshold. Following too many people can send you into a mental tailspin. And it also makes you look suspiciously like a Twitter spam artist, so just don’t go there.

2. Shaming someone for unfollowing you. Stop taking it so personally if people follow you or don’t follow you, unfollow you, or never follow you back. Contrary to popular belief, it is not always about you. And calling out in your Twitterstream when someone doesn’t follow you back or chooses to unfollow you makes you look like a spoiled child who had his toy taken away. Very unprofessional.

3. Forwarding links through Direct Messages. With the onslaught of Twitter spam, it just isn’t good communications practice to share a link with someone privately in their DM box. If you cannot share a link publicly, then email it to them—and include something in the message that is personal so they know it is not spam. DMs are terrible for extensive communications anyway–take it to email for best results.

4. Crafting tweets too long to retweet. One annoying thing on Twitter is when you read a tweet that you really want to repeat—or retweet—in your own Twitter stream to your followers, and it is way too long to retweet properly. There is a very simple formula for crafting a retweet that I use: Take the number of letters in your Twitter handle. Add five. Then subtract that number from 140. That will give you the number of characters for your retweetable tweets.

5. Overtweeting contests and giveaways. Everyone loves a freebie, but you’ll lose friends and followers quickly if you keep retweeting contest and giveaway tweets—unless that is what you are known for. We can all get overzealous with our retweeting—I personally tend to do a lot of it in the morning when I’m just starting my day—but remember that what you retweet is a reflection on you.

6. Automating a “Thanks for Following Me” message. Contrary to popular belief, canned “Thank you for following me” messages are not looked upon favorably. They come across as canned at best and creepy at worst. If you cannot take the time to review who is following you—and Twitter emails this information to you—and then send individualized messages to them, don’t bother. No message is better than a fake message.

7. Being overly commercial. Want to put out a lot of salesy tweets to get people to buy your products or hire you? Just don’t do it. Twitter isn’t about broadcasting commercial messages. It is about listening to what others are saying, thoughtfully engaging others in conversation, contributing meaningfully to the conversation, and building real contacts and connections. Gone are the old ways of advertising and marketing. Today it is about real conversations between real people.

I love how Aliza describes Twitter and what it’s really about. She says, “Twitter is about listening to what others are saying, thoughtfully engaging others in conversation, contributing meaningfully to the conversation, and building real contacts and connections.” I couldn’t agree more. Being thoughtful with your Twitter posts will not only help you promote your cause, but it will also help you save face.

If you have other common Twitter mistakes to add to this list, we’d love to hear from you. Include your comments here.

16
Dec
09

The year’s top videos – in under 3 minutes

By Jay Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Stunts, Video Ads, Viral, Web sites, YouTube and commercials

Just a fun day here at TheSideNoteBlog.com.

Check out this list (one of many I’m sure) of the top 100 online videos from 2009.

The Top 100 videos of 2009 in less than 3 minutes

Now, how many of you wasted hours of time at work watching these videos?

The power of the internet.

Here’s the complete list for your convenience:

1. The Amazing Beat-box Kid2. Elephant Sneezing3. Surprised Kitty4. Weird Animal Gets Tickled5. Cat Kicked By Breakdancer6. Mambo Dog7. Two Dogs, One Cockroach8. So Your Cat Wants a Massage?9. The Horrifying Sleeping Dog10. Baby Does Beyonce’s “Single Ladies”11. David After Denist12. Baby Jack-In-The-Box13. Little Girl Flushes Fish14. Talkative Baby15. The Stay-at-Home Dad Workout16. Dog Freaks Out Upon Soldier’s Return17. Sad Giants Fan18. The Matrix in Legos19. NES Game Cartridge20. Soccer Gutar Hero21. Post-It Note Animation22. Cardboard Animation23. 20-Foot Front Flip24. The Tree Bike Trick25. Bruce Lee Plays Ping Pong26. Man and His Exercise Ball27. This Guy is Good at Everything28. Human Mattress Dominoes29. Little Kid Break Dances on Ellen30. Glow-in-the-Dark Dancers31. Choreographed Wedding Entrance32. Fat Kid Gets Served33. The Crazy Shirtless Man Dance34. Insane Japanese Backpack Commercial35. Ghostbusters A Cappella36. Great Mascot Dance37. Smoking and Singing in the Shower38. Ping Pong Celebration39. Amazing JumboTron Performance40. The Breakfast Song41. Close Call With a Bus42. Man Defies Death Twice43. Woman Passes Out In Front of Train44. Kick to the Face #145. Snooki Gets Punched46. Russian Prank Gone Right47. Accigone48. WoW Freakout49. Bad UPS Man50. Butt Acrobatics51. Bat Prank52. Saving Private Ryan Prank53. Be a Smart Bully54. Fat Kid Sings About Being Fat55. Vanilla Ice Says Sorry56. Extreme Faith57. Jesus Pwn3d U58. Jesus Christ Bail Bonds59. Vince With Slap Chop60. Shamwow Guy in Jail61. Take U to the Movies62. OK GO – WTF63. Billy Mays Re-Dub64. Fat Kid Loves Bacon65. Balloon Boy Pukes66. 80s Video Dating67. Chicken Tetrazzini68. Phillies Fan Ruins News69. The Problem With Live News70. Giant Seagull Ruins News71. Will Ferrell Crashes Newscast72. Students Define Grinding73. Crazy Georgia Fan74. Susan Boyle75. Sharon Osbourne Vs. Charm School’s Megan76. Jimmy Kimmel Vs. Melissa Joan Hart77. Frisky Ewoks on Today78. Kittens! Inspired by Kittens79. Kanye’s Imma Let You Finish80. Mad Men’s Lawnmower Fiasco81. Wrecking Ball Vs. Mini Van82. Conan Hits His Head83. Hot Water Floor Prank84. Terrible Singers, Great Production Value85. Sleepwalking Dog86. Japanese Sniper Prank87. Unbelievable Baseball Catch88. Baseball Spin Swing89. Impossible Baseketball Shot90. Double Bicycle Kick91. Fantasy Football Players Show Off92. 9-Year-Old’s Amazing Hockey Goal93. Oops, Wrong Tackle94. Taco Explodes in Slow Motion95. Crazy Soccer Girl Fight96. Redhead Kid Dances97. Strange Kid Sings98. The Most Drunk Guy Ever99. Risky Business Fail100. Keyboard Cat

10
Dec
09

Want to implement a great marketing campaign? Start with the awards process.

By Tracy Weise 1 Comment
Categories: Marketing
Tags: , ,

Your marketing planning for 2010 is probably well underway by now. Budgets are finalized or about to be finalized, new campaigns are getting started and marketing directors have visions of beautiful creative dancing through their heads. What a glorious year we hope it will be.

So I thought that during this time of planning, we should dedicate some space to reminding you of a few essentials for preparing your campaigns, collateral, ads and outreach plans. I have overseen a variety of communication awards programs, and I believe the easiest way to talk about best planning practices is to discuss how the best campaigns win awards.

Following is a breakdown of the categories that many communication awards programs use to judge submissions:

Start with good planning

All communication competitions want to know how you planned your campaign. What was the original idea behind it? What problem are you trying to solve? What was the original issue that caused a need for the program? How much money do you have to spend on the program and how many man-hours can you dedicate to it?

Research is the key component of planning. It helps you better understand what tactics will influence your audience in order to get them to behave in the manner you desire. Even if you can’t implement a full research program, there has to be a plan set in place to help you justify why you are developing something and determine what you intend to get out of it. And don’t underestimate the importance of low-budget research. There is a lot of research you can do that doesn’t cost a lot and doesn’t take a lot of time. The key thing is to remember that good planning is essential to have an effective program.

Goals

OK, so you figured out what you want to do, what the concerns are, what problems need to be solved and how much money you have to spend. Now you need to get a target into place. How are you going to measure your success? What will you consider a success? Remember to use benchmarks, not just final goals, so you can adjust the campaign while it’s in progress if you are falling short in certain areas.

Over and over again I have heard, “We have never done this before, so we don’t know what to expect.” That’s not good enough. You have to expect something, you have to strive to reach something so that you can measure the return on investment and justify the work you are doing.

Implementation

When preparing write-ups for campaigns, you always need to describe how you implemented the campaign. But even while you are in the process of planning, you need to consider all the elements of how you will implement the campaign. Be sure to question every execution, every message and every medium to make sure you are placing the right message in the right place. Things to consider:

  • Where is my target audience?
  • Are they in the right mindset for this message?
  • Is there a better place?
  • Is the message motivating with a clear call to action?
  • Does the visual component speak to my audience?
  • Is there something more innovative I can implement?
  • Is the creative thinking strong enough or are we missing ideas?

Don’t forget that sometimes complex campaigns with a variety of messages for a variety of audiences is key to get the action you want. And other times, simplicity is essential.

Overall Quality

This is rather self-explanatory. Just don’t forget that good design and great copy writing are key in any successful execution.

Results

Once the campaign has run its course, or even while it is still in progress, be sure to start collecting results. The key here is to remember that results come in many shapes and sizes. I was recently in a meeting where we were discussing how to quantify the results of a recruiting campaign. The “number cruncher” insisted that we had to have a direct link from the online message to the application process. While this is an ideal result, it may not be practical. But we can evaluate the campaign based on a number of different, more qualitative, results, such as:

  • Did the cost of recruiting decrease overall while the numbers of qualified applicants increased?
  • Did we fill more positions in a shorter period of time?
  • Did we increase employee referrals?
  • Did we increase Web site hits?

The key idea in results is to make sure that you have measured your campaign from a variety of different angles. But don’t forget about the goals you put in place originally. Did you solve the problem? Did you hit your benchmarks and your overall target? And remember the campaign is not a failure if you hit most of your benchmarks and fell short of your ultimate goal. It just means you have changes to make next time.

I hope these communication awards essentials will help as you prepare your 2010 marketing campaign. Just remember, it all starts with good planning.

09
Dec
09

Healthcare marketers beware: this baby wasn’t born yesterday

By Tracy Weise 2 Comments
Categories: Uncategorized
Tags: , , ,

Last week federal courts ruled that Mead Johnson, maker of Enfamil, had to pay $13.5 million in damages as a result of a lawsuit claiming that their baby formula had better benefits then private label brands. Adage and The American Lawyer both covered the story from different angles, but both articles underscored the impact of the case – this award is one of the largest to date for a false advertising claim.

First I would like to say, as a mother, that false communications about the health of my children, of any child, is not OK. It’s never OK. Trying to lead a parent to believe that your child may be unhealthy because a white label brand does not offer the same health benefits, when the products are in every way identical, is just wrong. I am glad Mead Johnson got stuck with the huge claim against them. I hope executive heads roll, and I hope that Saatchi & Saatchi, the newly hired agency to handle U.S. marketing of Enfamil, learns a hard lesson from Mead Johnson’s penalties.

According to the article by Rupal Parekh in the December 2, issue of AdAge:

“Mead Johnson’s ads have been false in suggesting that there is a nutritional difference between our store-brand formula products and their products, when in fact the only major difference is price,” PBM’s CEO, Paul Manning, said in a statement. “This jury verdict should send a significant and clear message to Mead Johnson about the way it conducts marketing and advertising for its brands.”

I understand that in this economy, every brand, every service, every company, every person, is fighting with all their might to gain ground with their brand when resources are scarce. But when parents are falsely told to choose between the health of their child or saving funds that may already be scare, a grievous act of harm has been done. Mean Johnson should have relied on other messaging tactics to maintain their brand as top of mind and preferred by customers. As it stands, the general public will probably mistrust the company for years to come. I hope this blog posting ads to that mistrust.

09
Dec
09

The evolution of inner space

By Jay Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Business Strategies, Businesses, Creative, Media, business to business and business to consumer
Tags: , ,
The Jaz Drive. Solid State Storage.

The Jaz Drive. Solid State Memory.

After recently purchasing a new external hard drive and being amazed by the advances in technology with respect to cost, I ran across the following infographic and it immediately caught my attention. This infographic shows the evolution of storage media, from the original record players to the latest flash drives and hard drives.

The old rule of thumb has been that every six months technology will double in size or speed and half in price. Well, that may not always be true, but if you haven’t been shopping lately for technology, you’ll be amazed by the current prices.

03
Dec
09

How to make your Twitter posts more retweetable

By Beth Hardy Leave a Comment
Categories: Social Media and Twitter
Tags: , , ,

Getting your Twitter posts retweeted is a great way for your information to reach thousands of people. But how can you help ensure your posts are retweet worthy? Blogger Dan Zarella researched the “factors surrounding retweets.” Below are a few of his findings along with a list of the most retweetable words and phrases:

“When I looked at the parts of speech that occur in retweets versus those that occur in normal tweets, I found that retweets tend to be noun-heavy and use third-person verbs.

“This pattern is reminiscent of newspaper headlines. Highly retweetable headlines talk about someone or something doing something.”

“The words that tend to occur more in retweets than in normal tweets are topped by the word ‘you,’” continues Zarella.

“This means, whenever possible, you should talk directly to your readers. ‘Top’ and ‘10’ also rank highly, showing that lists do well on Twitter. Not surprisingly, talking about social media and Twitter itself also helps.”

Another of Zarella’s conclusions that I found quite interesting is that rare and more novel words are highly retweetable. For me this is great news – an excuse to comb the thesaurus, one of my favorite publications! (I know, I’m a nerd!)

For Zarella’s full report, click here.

02
Dec
09

TV shows about salad dressings and lipstick? Welcome to the (advertising) world of Webisodes

By Tracy Weise Leave a Comment
Categories: Advertising, Branding, Product Placement, webisodes
Tags: , , ,

Product placement has existed for years. Companies pay big money to get their product placed in a movie or TV show. The blockbuster hit “New Moon” has a Burger King bag precisely placed in the middle of a scene, and “American Idol” may as well be called “Coca-Cola’s Idol” with the grotesque amount of product placement on that show.

But what happens when the entertainment outlet doesn’t exist for your product? You call in the advertising agencies that know how to get creative, and then you create your own entertainment outlet. Welcome to the world of Webisodes.

According to Wikipedia, “A webisode is simply a web episode – collectively it is part of a web series, a form of new medium called web television that characteristically features a dramatic, serial storyline, where the primary method of viewership is streaming online over the Internet. While there is no set standard for length, most webisodes are relatively short, ranging from 4–15 minutes in length.”

Stuart Elliot in a New York Times article writes, “Webisodes — part of a trend called branded entertainment — are growing because marketers feel compelled to find new methods to reach consumers in an era when the traditional media are losing eyeballs, ears, hearts, minds and perhaps other body parts to the Internet.”

Webisodes are being created to advertise everything from makeup to cleaning products and salad dressings. And, like most advertisements that run when and where the target audience is viewing, Webisodes are being placed on specific Web sites that reach the most appropriate audience. Hidden Valley Ranch Webisodes, for example, star Jenny Garth and will be featured on ivillage.com starting this January. I personally like Jenny Garth, the new queen of Webisodes, but I hope the “entertainment” is strong since I can’t really get my head around being interested in ongoing mini-shows about salad dressing.

A Webisode currently getting plenty of attention is Maybelline’s “The Broadroom” (also starring Jenny Garth). Episodes for your entertainment are below.

What do you think? Are Webisodes the new marketing platform that will get your attention? Not cheap to produce, are they worth the cost? What products would you like to see in a Webisode?

01
Dec
09

How will the public relations (fake) gold standard change when “The Oprah Winfrey Show” ends?

By Tracy Weise 1 Comment
Categories: PR, Public Relations, Publicity and Uncategorized
Tags: , ,

Last week I read the blog “The Ethical Optimist,” and I have to echo the comments of Ann Subervi in my own words, “Phew, what a relief! Only 10 more months and no more ‘Can you get me on “Oprah?”’ PR requests from clients.”

Over the years, the “Get me on ‘Oprah’” requests and the number of people making money with “I can tell you how to get on Oprah” seminars, has become the PR professional’s thorn in the side. As Ann mentioned, it is most infuriating when the product or service does not even remotely relate to “The Oprah Winfrey Show’s” audience. For example, why would the women watching the show care about satellite uplink technology when they could be watching Tom Cruise sofa jump?

It is often difficult to explain that getting on “The Oprah Winfrey Show” may not be your defining PR moment. But as the show starts to wind down, at least we won’t have to have THAT discussion anymore.

And the opportunities to get on the show in these last 10 months are decreasing quickly. There will be no “Oprah’s Favorite Things” episode this holiday season, and we are guaranteed a handful of “over the years” show recaps as well.

But moving forward, what will the new PR gold standard be? Will it be another TV show or a specific magazine? Personally, I hope not. And with the growth of online portals, I doubt it.

I hope that PR professionals will be able to communicate to their clients and their perspective clients that all media outlets are not created equal, regardless of their viewership/readership/listenership.  For example, having the right people following you and re-tweeting your information on Twitter may create a huge jump in a product promotion. Providing the right YouTube video may get the phones ringing for your service. Or having a strategically written and optimized press release may create a flurry of attention in your industry that gets your brand noticed and recognized

Next time you are hiring a PR professional, cut us some slack. If you are hiring a reputable practitioner and she or he tells you that “The Oprah Winfrey Show” (or fill in the blank with the next big show) is not “IT” for you, trust them. It’s not because they can’t get you on the show, it may be because they know it’s just not a good fit for you, your product or service.

“The Oprah Winfrey Show” will be missed. But the stagnant question, “Can you get me on ‘Oprah?’” will not.

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