by Nedra Weinreich | May 29, 2006 | Blog, Marketing
File this under “What were they thinking?” What marketing genius decided it would be a good idea to connect the dots between the tobacco industry and one of the largest fast food chains? With Fast Food Nation and Supersize Me highlighting the unhealthiness of things like fries and hamburgers — and attacking fast food and obesity as the next smoking epidemic — why would Burger King possibly want to evoke images of the Marlboro Man now? I have a feeling this agency in Germany won’t be working for BK much longer.
The ads remind me of an old Truth campaign billboard:
by Nedra Weinreich | May 22, 2006 | Blog, Marketing
Eric Mattson at MarketingMonger takes the reins this week as the host of the Carnival of Marketing. While you’re there, check out some of the podcasts he’s posted as part of his quest to conduct 1,000 interviews with marketers and other interesting people. I’m scheduled to be interviewed in June and will let you know when that podcast is available.
I especially liked the post by Jack Yoest reminding us that something as low-tech and relatively inexpensive as a printed calendar can be a very effective marketing tool. He runs the numbers for us:
Assume a cost of $3.00 per calendar. For every 100 calendars sent to a client:
An estimated 50% of the calendars will be hung up on the end-users’ wall.
A calendar is viewed five times per day per person.
A calendar is viewed by 1.5 persons per day.
A calendar is hung in an office open 5 days per week,
50 weeks per year.
I’ll the math, if you don’t mind.
100 X .5 X 5 X 1.5 X 5 X 50 = 93,750
If you would allow me a +/- 10% variance, the campaign could have 100,000 impressions for $300. (Marketers always round up.) Or .003 cents per impression. Cost would be a penny for three viewings. Cheap eyeballs.
Calendars have the potential for both raising awareness and reinforcing those daily behaviors that we’re often trying to promote in social marketing. With attractive graphics portraying your issue each month (or why not one of those chunky daily calendars?), you can portray the benefits of adopting your healthy or socially beneficial behaviors. You can provide monthly or daily tips to keep your audience motivated, help them remember to do what they are supposed to do, or help them think about the issue in a new way. Even if they get so used to seeing the calendar that they start tuning it out, they will get a new infusion of your message when they have to turn the page each month. And when they are ready to take action, they’ll know exactly where to find your organization’s contact information. A client of mine combined their annual report with a 12-month calendar that started from the back page of the publication, killing the proverbial two birds (which is ironic given that they are an environmental organization!). Now’s the time to start thinking about how you will get your message out in 2007 — start collecting ideas, tips and days/weeks/months on which relevant observances are held (e.g., May is Asthma & Allergy Awareness Month, this is Schizophrenia Awareness Week, and Thursday May 25 will be National Missing Children’s Day).
by Nedra Weinreich | May 19, 2006 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Steve Rubel at Micro Persuasion offers a model for thinking about how to use both old and new media together for maximum advantage:
The Magic “T” of Marketing is really simple to understand and use. Basically you leverage the mainstream media world for what it’s best for – big reach. And you use new media to develop a deep level of engagement by conversing with a very narrow slice of your audience. This taps into two big marketing needs – reach and engagement.
An astute commenter noted that the “T” should ideally turn into an “I” because by reaching deep to evangelists, they will spread the word at the bottom to their own constituencies.
But don’t forget that, just as important as having people hear your message, is making sure that the message itself is effective. If the message that’s spreading is ineffective in bringing about the desired behavior — or worse, negative — the Magic “T” is not going to help you.
by Nedra Weinreich | May 19, 2006 | Blog, Marketing, Social Media
Fard Johnmar at HealthCareVox discusses the ways blogs and bulletin boards can be used to foster discussion and community around health issues.
He concludes that
Bulletin boards are a great way to forge close, vibrant virtual communities of people who share common medical conditions or healthcare-related interests. Blogs are an ideal means of educating readers, shaping dialogue and aggregating diverse commentary on a range of topics.
In the rush to take advantage of new media technologies, don’t forget the oldies but goodies like bulletin boards that have been around since the Internet was nothing but a bunch of BBSes.
by Nedra Weinreich | May 14, 2006 | Blog, Marketing
Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends. We’re so glad you could attend. Come inside, come inside…
Before we move on to our tentful of amazing marketing acts for your entertainment and edification, let us pay homage to the lessons we can learn from those quintessential marketers of the past — the carnival sideshow promoters:
- The sideshows had what Seth Godin would call a remarkable product (though definitely not politically correct today!) — unusual people (siamese twins, the dogfaced boy, the alligator man), amazing acts (sword swallowers, fire eaters) or strange artifacts (mummies, elephant skeletons). These were things that people did not see every day and that were so intriguing that they were willing to pay to get a look. What is unusual and different about your product?
- To entice people to buy a ticket, large colorful canvas banners were hung on the front of the tent depicting the wonders to be found inside. They also hung bills, or advertising posters, around the town. Make your product attractive and your advertising hard to miss.
- Many shows featured an outside talker (often erroneously called a barker), who stood on a small stage in front of the tent doing a sales pitch — the spiel. You have to grab their attention!
- Sometimes the pitch would include a “bally,” or a free show outside to attract a crowd of potential patrons. They also used a teaser curtain that let people on the midway see only the reactions of the crowd to pique their curiosity so they would pay the admission to see what everyone is looking at. Give your potential customers a way to try out your product before they buy — but leave them wanting more.
- They often planted shills in the crowd, who would pretend to buy a ticket in order to entice others to follow them. Make your potential customers feel like everyone’s using your product.
Sorry, we don’t have any cotton candy, ferris wheels or bearded ladies, but we do have seven of the best marketing posts from throughout the blogosphere. Move along through the midway and take a look.
Marc Sirkin at npMarketing Blog writes about Fourth Place Marketing — extending the idea of “third place” communal meeting areas outside of home and work like Starbucks to cyberspace. How can we work with the virtual self-sustaining communities like MySpace, YouTube, etc?
Eric Mattson at Marketing Monger offers a podcast of his interview with Joe Waters of Boston Medical Center, who writes about cause marketing in his Selfish Giving blog. Listen to the interview to learn more about how cause marketing can be used as a win-win strategy for both the business and the nonprofit partners.
I loved the report at Selfish Giving about the fleet of cement trucks that bear the logos of various local nonprofit organizations — everything from the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the American Heart Association to smaller organizations, like the Buddy Dog Humane Society. This is a great way to build goodwill with the community for a very small investment.
Josh Cohen at Multiple Mentality discusses how Starbucks is trying to make itself the generic name for coffee (a la Kleenex), by making coffee into an experience rather than just a drink.
James D. Brausch says that Split Testing Sucks, and offers us a way of analyzing a sample of other people’s ads to see what kind of marketing approaches work best.
Kavit Haria at Awareness and Consciousness talks about his experience with building his musicians’ coaching business through developing relationships.
And from Houtlust, one of my favorite blogs highlighting social marketing campaigns from around the world, take a look at a powerful Australian outdoor advertising campaign raising awareness of the plight of homeless children.
Thank you for coming. Don’t forget to get your hand stamped on your way out if you’d like to return later. And check out the Carnival of Marketing next week when it will be hosted by Marketing Monger. Send your submissions over to eric at marketingmonger.com.
I would also like to pose a challenge to the brilliant marketing minds who read this post. How can we do a better job of spreading the word about the Carnival of Marketing across the blogosphere so that we get a wide range of participation and readership? Please leave comments with your suggestions.
And finally, happy Mother’s Day to all of my fellow mothers out there. Hope you had a good one!
by Nedra Weinreich | Apr 24, 2006 | Blog, Marketing
Social marketing campaigns seem to be keeping the rubber hand manufacturers in business this week. Here are two campaigns featured by Adfreak:
The first is a campaign from Amnesty International that uses rubber hands hanging from a grate in the street to highlight the plight of political prisoners who are put in jail because they hold the wrong opinion:
UNICEF used the same idea to raise awareness of children who are imprisoned simply for living on the street:
And this campaign from Brussels Airlines, as seen on Advertising/Design Goodness, makes clear the ease with which pickpockets can put their hand into someone’s bag without them noticing.
As these campaigns show, the only limit to the types of promotional methods you can use is your own creativity (and your budget too, I suppose). It’s interesting that all three of these campaigns came up with the same idea independently. Perhaps there was a sale on rubber hands at Hands ‘R’ Us. On the other hand…
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
