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Our Partners
Generations Beyond in partnership with Log My Calls will be holding a free webinar tomorrow, April 25, 2013 at 2pm EST. We will be covering common mistakes made while marketing and how to avoid them.
You can register here: https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/690060583
See you there!
UPDATE
Here is the video in case you missed the webinar:
Starting up a social media campaign takes a lot of hard work, dedication, knowledge, and perhaps even a little luck. No one can really help you with the lucky part, and the hard work is something you have to put in for yourself, but when it comes to the knowledge, there’s a lot you can learn by viewing other brands’ social media campaigns.
You don’t only want to look at the successful campaigns, either. Sure, it’s great to know what you should be doing, but you also need to look at the failures to see what you should be avoiding. Below you will read about the three biggest successes and failures in social media campaigns for 2012. With this information, hopefully your 2013 campaign(s) will be successful.
2012’s Social Media Successes
2012 Election
Barack Obama’s 2008 Presidential Campaign made great use of social media, but it paled in comparison to 2012’s campaign blitz. Part of Mr. Obama’s social media dominance over his opponent was his use of Twitter. Real-time tweets, debate news, making light of tough situations, etc – Obama was able to endear himself to others while also politely running down his opponent. Since Obama won reelection, this has to be considered a smashing success.
Ikea
The Swedish furniture company Ikea had a huge campaign in 2012, operating an interactive catalog, Celebrate Brilliantly, which was loaded with video clips, sharing options and other features for users who wanted to share gift ideas, friends, etc, via Facebook and Pinterest. It was very innovative in the sense that sharing became incredibly easy, and adding in user-generated content was just the icing on the cake.
Dollar Shave Club
The Dollar Shave Club proved that even a small company can have a huge social impact with the right campaign. Campaigns in social media widely vary in terms of promotions, apps, etc, but Dollar Shave Club made their splash with a simple YouTube video. The video featured tennis legend Roger Federer catching a beat-down; a colorful catchphrase: “Our blades are f***ing great”; and it was funny and lighthearted enough to pull in around 8 million views.
2012’s Social Media Failures
Snickers
In early 2012, Snickers went the “Punk’d” route by hijacking the Twitter accounts of Rio Ferdinand and Katie Price in order to pull a publicity stunt. With Price’s account, Snickers made a series of Eurozone debt-related tweets, which were snuffed out by Price’s audience as fakes. Then Snickers chimed in with, “You’re not you when you’re hungry,” promoting their brand.
McDonald’s
The fast food mega giant thought it was a great idea to start a campaign on Twitter using the hashtag #McDStories, where loyal customers would share their favorite McDonald’s moments. However, people quickly started to tell tales of fingernails in sandwiches, animal cruelty, and other unsavory stories. McDonald’s pulled the campaign within two hours, but the damage is still going.
Urban Outfitters
There was just something about Hurricane Sandy that obviously made many companies feel it was okay to use the storm as advertising material via Twitter. Another in a line of Sandy fails, Urban Outfitters tweeted out, “This storm blows (but free shipping doesn’t)! Today only…” They had to go into damage-control mode quickly, and their Twitter presence still hasn’t recovered.
Points of Interest to Focus On
A lot of people marketing via social media believe that campaigns are either hit or miss. This isn’t entirely true. There are multiple levels of success and failure, and you’re going to experience a lot of grey in most of your campaigns, probably never achieving massive success and hopefully never falling flat on your face.
Quality and consistency is what you should strive for with your campaign, so use the examples listed above to teach you a lesson about what you should and shouldn’t do in a social campaign.
Post written by: Craig Robinson, online writer for Qwaya – a facebook ad management tool. Besides writing about social media topics, Craig covers other trends within social media for Qwaya and he has studied social context and media-communication science.
On December 13, 2012 I was invited to give a webinar for LogMyCalls. I was free to choose any marketing related topic I wanted. Being a monster geek, and representing Generations Beyond, I felt I had to add some fun and flair to it. For those of you who were unable to attend, I proudly present the meat and potatoes of that webinar in blog form.
Batman Marketing Lesson #1: Always Have A Clear And Consistent Brand!
If there’s one thing that can be said about the caped crusader, it’s that he has dedicated himself to an amazingly consistent branding effort. From his outfit and his car, to the Bat-Signal and all of the tiny details of his weaponry and tools. All of these items are clearly identifiable, and distinguishable as a product of the Batman.
Why does Batman put so much time into branding?
Batman’s goals are simple. He knows that he cannot be everywhere at once, and yet, he must create a universally identifiable, and impactful presence. When a criminal sees the Bat-Signal in the sky, he/she must be struck with a sense of fear and dread, or the Batman’s efforts will be for naught. If the Batmobile is seen nearby, or even worse a bat-a-rang comes crashing through a window, any nearby thug knows to high tale it out of there as a beating is sure to follow. No questions asked, this is universally understood throughout Gotham. Would this effect be achievable if the Batman drove different cars? Used different colors in his logo each time or even worse a different logo or font each time a branding opportunity was presented? Does anyone in Gotham quake in terror at the sight of a Mini Cooper? Unlikely.
What would clients think if you had a Bat-Signal for your company?
Most likely, you’re not looking to create fear in your existing or potential clients when they’re presented with your branding. But ask yourself this, what does your existing branding say? If your logo was projected high above the skies of Gotham what would those citizens think or feel? Is that feeling in line with your vision statement? Would your existing clientele even recognize it?
While very few of us have the luxury of utilizing something as attention grabbing as the Bat-Signal to blast our branding onto the consciousness of the general populous, we do have numerous other tools at our disposal.
Examine the tools you use most. What is your most effective branding opportunity? Is it your email blasts? An email signature? Facebook updates? TV commercials? These are all branding and awareness opportunities that range in cost from completely free to high budget expenditures. But no matter which you choose, remember to ask yourself, are you following a clear and consistent effort across these channels?
Batman Marketing Lesson #2: Where Does He Get Those Wonderful Toys?
Another trademark tool consistently tied to Batman is his utility belt. No matter what situation he finds himself in, there’s a very good chance that Batman will be able to pull some handy “bat-tool” out of his utility belt to successfully defuse the situation (Bat-Shark-Repellant Anyone?) This is an important lesson for all of us to heed. Batman’s use of advance planning and foresight (sometimes to the point of being campy) allow him to overcome just about any situation, no matter how complex or dangerous. Now, as marketers, it’s not often that we’ll need shark repellant, however we can, and should create a strategy filled toolbox for any situation in our upcoming or ongoing marketing campaigns.
Why So Social?
The Joker’s ultimate downfall is his one track mind. Some men just want to watch the world burn, and some people just want to tweet. Over and over. For no reason. The results are one and the same, money is burned and nothing really gets accomplished. One of the things that can sink any campaign is the allegiance to what I call a “One Tool Wonder” i.e., the social media guru or the “seo specialist.” It sometimes shocks me to see such a blind alliance to social media efforts or search engine optimization campaigns that have no real thought given to the quality, or even presence traffic once its gets to (if it ever even reaches) your online storefront.
A true marketing superhero knows that one tool just isn’t going to cut it. While social media and/or search engine optimization tactics are vital and important tools on your media utility belt, it is important to know how and when to use them, or, alternately, when and why you should not use them. If to readjust that home or landing page. More traffic doesn’t always translate to more sales, and Bat-Shark-Repellant just isn’t ever going to get rid of the Penguin.
What Tools Are In Your Marketing Utility Belt?
What tools are you currently utilizing in your marketing efforts? Can they be combined with each other for a more explosive effect? Or used in succession for a powerful one-two punch?
Batman Marketing Lesson #3: Treat Your Analytics Like A Crime Scene!
Imagine your analytics information as the evidence left behind at a crime scene. It’s an accounting of the thousands of people who trafficked your online storefront. With even the most basic of analytics tools, you can typically get a little peek into the heads of your past visitors. And while we may not be looking for clues left by the Riddler, there are many riddles that do have to be solved to help you to strengthen your marketing. For example, by finding, and accessing the top keywords utilized to find your site, you can begin to decipher what mindset your visitor was in just before they found your site.
Are the people searching for your site the right type of clientele you are looking for? Is your website serving up the content they are looking for in a clear and concise manner? Are you making your potential clients do more work than they’re willing to in order to utilize your products or services? There are enough riddles to drive one insane, but, as a marketing crime fighter, you must battle on.
Data overload can easily become a person’s kryptonite, which isn’t really Batman’s problem, but, I’m going to drop a little Superman here, so that even the more upbeat nerds can follow my drift. A marketing superhero learns to love this data and eats it up like Galactus (OK too far into the nerd realm) .
The average citizen is quick to accept failures such as high bounce rate or poor click through conversion rate on a pay per click campaign. This is the sort of digital marketing crime fighter who’s never going to get his own series, much less a movie, cartoon or video game. He’s going to end up as an answer on Jeopardy. That’s sad. Don’t be that kind of background “Super” hero.
When I approach a failing online campaign, I’m always searching for a “Marketing Breakdown” moment. This is the point where your conversions fail to materialize into your goals, and instead, get struck down. It is at this point that your efforts are most likely to fail, and your clients are most likely to be lost.
I define a Marketing Breakdown as follows:
A prospective customer goes through a series of minute actions from the moment he or she initially realizes they want to buy a product or service, to the time when they either develop the specific need for the product or service and are actively searching for it, or they have passively, but successfully been marketed to, such as at an end cap store display or via a television ad which acts as a purchase catalyst.
From the point of that catalyst, be it one of need, or one of a simple combination of desire and marketing, that buyer goes through a series of actions and reactions until ultimately the sale is made or lost. It is at these critical points, these actions, and reactions, where a breakdown can occur.
Think about the following moments in relation to their corresponding marketing breakdown opportunities:
Utilize your analytics to identify these possible breakdowns. What keywords are being used to find your website? Are they correctly identifying your products? If not, they are likely increasing your traffic but killing your bounce rate. Figure out what mindset your clients are in when they are ready to buy and adjust. Does your ad promise too much? Sure we will decrease our click through ratios by making our ads more specific, but we’ll also decrease our placement budget and increase our lead quality. Working smart is almost always better than working hard, particularly when we don’t have an unlimited budget, like the one at Wayne Enterprises.
And there it is. Chalk outlines in the street, sirens blaring. The scene is set. An ad campaign lies dying on the pavement, and the ultimate cause of death? Ignorance of analytics. So sad. It hadn’t yet begun to see its full potential, but some SEO bagman came along at just the right moment and told an uninformed site owner to just pop up some magic meta tags and *pow* success would be sure to follow. A true Gotham tragedy.
I implore you, and all of my fellow citizens of the internet to consider all of these marketing techniques when creating your online campaigns. If you’re feeling particularly productive, you can even go Lucius Fox on the job and create your own wonderful toys. There’s nothing stopping you. Sure, Batman has the power of rich and the power of crazy on his side, but you’ve got some of your own super powers, and just ONE of them is access to this blog. That’s more than enough of a start to ensure that the next ad campaign you create has a good chance of success.
Hope you enjoyed this entry, more to come soon. I’ll see you in the next one! Same Bat-Time, Same Bat-Blog.
Please join me on December 13, 2012 at 2pm EST. I will be presenting a free webinar in partnership with LogMyCalls.com entitled What Batman Has Taught Me About Being A Marketing Superhero. I will be sharing lots of information about the importance of branding, what tools I personally have in my “marketing utility belt,” the power of keen detection skills in marketing, and tons of nerd references that you should be ashamed of yourself for getting (if you do!)
Its free! But you have to RSVP here: www.logmycalls.com/webinar
See you this Thursday! (Unless DC Comics sues me.)
Greetings from Long Island in the aftermath of hurricane Sandy. This month we have an abbreviated version of Video Marketer of The Month – November 2012. The award goes to Activision who tapped into a very special place in my heart by creating viral videos of parents reacting to current video game releases.
In short, yes I am incredibly biased,
yes I will be purchasing the game on release date
and yes I would watch this every week if it was a TV show!
Enjoy “Elders Reacting To Call Of Duty: Black Ops 2″
Pay-per click via google and facebook ad networks are very powerful tools in driving highly targetted traffic to your website. Pay-per-click is a tool that allows us to bid on placement for our ad’s which often appear as search results on a given website.
Google vs. Facebook pay-per-click?
At Generations Beyond we classify targeted marketing into 2 types:
• Passive Marketing
• Active Marketing
Active Marketing (Google Pay-Per-Click): This type of marketing can be used when people are actively searching for your product or service. For example, if a large portion of the population is searching for in-home music lessons on a daily basis, a music company could take advantage of this fact by purchasing placement at the top of Google search results for such terms as “in-home piano lessons” and thus garner a lot of targetted website traffic.
Passive Marketing (Facebook Pay-Per-Click): This type of marketing can be best utilized for demographics who may need the product or service but don’t know it yet, therefore they are not actively searching for it.
Similar to the example above, we can reach an entirely different demographic by using the same technology but in a different way. With Facebook Pay-Per-Click marketing, we can still target specific people who would be interested in our service. If we happen to know that:
a. mothers are usually the decision makers when signing kids up for music lessons
b. they typically do this most in September when school starts
c. they typically own a home
d. are married
and e. live within a certain town or radius.
We can create a campaign that will populate our ads on the Facebook profiles of; women, between 25-35yrs of age, who live within 25 miles of Ronkonkoma, who are married and own a home during the month of September.
While, these moms may not be actively searching for music lessons, or even considering lessons, the appearance of this ad may spark interest in the idea leading to a conversion. By running this campaign in a hyper-targeted manner, you can most likely see a very high ROI for minimal investment as you are only marketing to your key, ideal demographic.
So consider these two examples when you approach your marketing campaign. Pay-per-click can be a very powerful tool, but like any other tool is must be used correctly for the right job.
Need help deciding which is best for your website? Give us a call at 631.696.0324
That new girl? She’s not in your league, but don’t get discouraged.
There’s a new kid on the social media block, and her name is Pinterest.
Pinterest advertises itself as “an online pinboard.” The demographic is largely female, and its content is certainly wedding/food heavy. If Pinterest were a party, it would be a bridal shower, bachelorette party, or even a book club.
Lately, we have clients that call us with the idea that they MUST get in on the Pinterest party. However, you, my valued client, may not be very Pinteresting.
Now, before you go off in a huff, have a listen. There’s nothing inherently wrong with not being Pinteresting. We can’t ALL be ballerinas, or surgeons, best selling author,s or even a world class chefs. We each have our own strengths, and we can’t ALL be Pinteresting.
So, what does it mean to be Pinteresting? Generally speaking, it’s when you can offer an item that people will find unique, lovely, enlightening, charming, sexy, scary, or beautiful. Something that catches the eye and makes people say “I want that!” Sometimes, being Pinteresting means that you can offer a tutorial on something that people will want to copy, learn or share, (and here’s the important part,) that they have NEVER SEEN BEFORE, and is accompanied by a GORGEOUS photo.
To be more specific, a recipe for Rice Krispy Treats? NOT PINTERESTING.
A recipe for Cadbury Creme Eggs salad? PINTERESTING!
A recipe for apple pie? NOT PINTERESTING.
A recipe for caramel apple cheesecake bars? PINTERESTING!
Now lets translate this into something that you can equate to your business situation.
Do you own a unique boutique? You might be pinteresting. Pin one or two of your MOST unique items, along with items from OTHER stores so you’re not only advertising for yourself, but you’re also participating in the community.
Do you own a salon that does truly amazing updos that you regularly photograph? You’re probably quite pinteresting. Post some of those updo photos on pinterest along with a tutorial. You’ll be very popular.
Are you an electrician? A plumber? Are you a mechanic? Sorry to say, there’s a VERY good chance that you’re not pinteresting, but that’s ok. You might be the life of the Facebook party! Hang out on your fan page and offer people brilliant tips like “always use your parking break, it’ll take stress off of your transmission!” Blog your heart out, and network like crazy on LinkedIn. Those are more appropriate venues for you. Better still, contact a reputable digital media firm and have them work up an advertising campaign utilizing television and the internet. That’s where you’ll do really well. You have a LOT of other options out there, but Pinterest may not be one of them. Just like fixing a car, leaky pipes or faulty wiring, when marketing a business there are tools you should use, tools you could use, and tools that just aren’t right for the job at hand. Use the right tool for the job and everyone is better off for it.
We can’t all be the life of every party, and maybe on Pinterest, you’re never going to be the popular kid, but if you stick to what works for you, and don’t get distracted by the latest internet fad, you’ll achieve long term marketing success and get a much bigger bang for your advertising dollar.
Still can’t decide if Pinterest is the right fit for you? Why not come down to our free 2012 Pinterest Summit on May 16, 2012. More information
One of the best things about having been in the marketing industry for so long is that I get so much hands on experience through viewing other people’s marketing campaigns, that I’ve gotten to the point where I’m able to predict what a new product launch will cost, how much ROI a particular tactic will return or what can be expected from a certain strategy. One of the things that I, as a marketer can also bring to the table, besides industry experience, is customer experience. You see, being a small business owner and entrepenuer, I have plunked down my hard earned cash on marketing for certain endeavors of my own, much in the same way my clients do. I’ve done it all, from flyers and handouts to viral videos and television.
I’ve written books, produced a toyline, and dealt with the mass production process in Hong Kong, and all of these projects ultimately ended up with my needing to get the word out about each of these products. In most of these ventures that meant that somehow, I had to get the public’s attention on a shoestring budget. I’ve gone through an almost endless number of tactics to do so, and, short of skywriting, I like to think if it’s out there, marketing-wise, I’ve done it.
Now when a new marketing tool comes around I’m hard pressed not to give it a go. This is both to satisfy my entrenperial spirit, and because I also feel it’s my duty to our clients to have some first hand knowledge about every single angle there is to digitally market their brands. If I’m not willing to take the risk with my own capital, I’m not going to suggest that they risk theirs. So, when the financial figures from the App Store from Apple become impossible to ignore, Generations Beyond decided to jump in and see what it was all about.
It’s my goal with this series of blog postings to let you in as to what was involved in each step of the way to get our app released, updated, and eventually what brings it to it’s ultimate success. With that, I present to you Generations Beyond’s first app “I Got A Guy”.
I Got A Guy is an app that makes it easy to refer people you trust to others you trust. While I can certainly hop onto Facebook and post an update about needing a plumber. That would probably lead to me getting referred to some guy who’s a buddy of a buddy of mine that I went to high school with 20 years ago who I havent talked to since High School but for some reason is on my friends list. In short, might as well open the phone book and throw a dart. Think of “I Got A Guy” as your ultimate contact list, it’s social media with social integrity. It’s the people you know who get things done right, the list of people who you would refer to your own mother… and with the click of a button, now you can.
“I Got A Guy” started in August 2011 as a concept.
Total hours of labor to complete phase 1 of the build: 175 hours
Submitted to Apple: January 3rd, 2012
Approved by Apple: January 17th, 2012
Time to show up in app store after approval: 8 hours
Bug fixing and minor updates to version 1.1 in labor: 8 hours
Update #1 submitted to Apple: February 24, 2012
Update approved by Apple: March 1, 2012
In the coming weeks I’ll be sure to share any kind of additional analytics as we proceed on our marketing journey. For more information about the app please visit http://igotaguy.generationsbeyond.com
If you already have it, please feel free to rate us or give us a review! We’d appreciate it!
Warning! You will probably wind up spending money before you complete reading this blog entry. (I did)
So much can be said about this incredible spot. I for one am inspired. For any small businesses or startups out there who thnk they can’t afford a video or commercial, this one features Dollar Shave Club’s CEO and Founder Michael Dubin. He wrote, shot and produced the entire commercial in his office/warehouse in one day. 90 seconds after watching, he got me signed up on a monthly plan.
Sure it’s funny, and sharable, but does it translate to profits? Well, Dollar Shave Club uploaded the video to youtube 4 days ago, since then they’ve garned over 2.5 million views and 30,000 likes on facebook. What would happen to your business with an extra 2.5 million eyeballs this week?
UPDATE – I was just notified that my new membership will not be able to be activated until May 15th. I guess things must really be buzzing around Dollar Shave Club’s offices. Congrats guys.
Kinetic typography refers to the expression of a story, song, or idea through animated text. Over the past few years, kinetic typography has grown in popularity as animation software, and the knowledge of how to succesfully utilize it has become more accessable to the masses. The combination of the animated word along with audio has proven to capture the viewer’s imagination far more than either stand alone text or voiceovers ever have. By combining the dramatic audio and effects normally found in film with static text, an animator can capture and manipulate a viewer’s attention in new and exciting ways. In short, kinetic typography is a really cool way to take an idea and make it really pop. Here is a sample of Generations Beyond’s take on the show MADMEN on AMC:
It’s been said that people remember:
10% of what they read,
20% of what they see,
and 30% of what they hear.
These numbers have been contested, but there is no arguing that the collaboration of reading, seeing and hearing raised the ability to interpret and rememeber information making kinteic Typography a useful tool in marketing. Combined with the fact of not needing actors, makeup, a set and a crew, a small business owner on a budget can use this tool as an effective way to create messaging on a budget.
Here is another example from the Generations Beyond lab!
