With many people talking about the recent ruling in the Casey Anthony case, somehow the social sphere watcher at Entenmanns saw the slew of #notguilty on twitter, but did not understand what they were for. Jumping onto the #notguilty band wagon, Entenmanns asked "Who's #notguilty about eating all the tasty treats they want?!" which is not terrible, but caused a bit of a stir with those who were following them.
Once the mistake was realized they deleted the tweet and issued an apology. I do not think that this will greatly effect the company, a small mark that will be forgotten, but it is a lesson to everyone about awareness. The biggest question that this raises is how does a person tasked with running the social media for a company not keep track of not just what, but why people are talking about or using something. If your job deals in social media, staying current is one of the most basic things that you have to do, and I think Entenmanns will be on top of this in the future.
Wednesday, July 6, 2011
Friday, July 1, 2011
Advertising failure
Day to day, everyone sees or hears a ton of advertising, and while much of it is inane, some is effective, every once in a while someone comes along that is just horrid. This Kia Ad is one of the worst things I have seen in a while. It makes me wonder, is there and oversight in their ad department. Perhaps Kia feels that they can compete against white windowless vans in the now highly competitive "pedophile" market segment. As part of the promotion, Kia throws in a $100 Sam's Club gift card for the purchase of candy (thereby making it free candy).
I understand that companies want new ways to reach people, to find ways to make an ad come to the top or all the things a person sees or hears in a day, I am just not sure that any brand wants to become a synonymous with having to inform your neighbors in accordance with Meagan's Law.
I understand that companies want new ways to reach people, to find ways to make an ad come to the top or all the things a person sees or hears in a day, I am just not sure that any brand wants to become a synonymous with having to inform your neighbors in accordance with Meagan's Law.
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Beer review podcast
Here is the beer review for the North East Ohio beer review podcast, I hope you all enjoy.
Right click to download this mp3
Right click to download this mp3
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
Marketing Twitter
The best way to connect with customers is when they are in need of a product or service, and today social media can provide that. As I have said before, I work for www.textbookly.com doing marketing and advertising, so far the most effective use of social media that I have found is twitter. Textbookly is a price comparison engine, we compare textbook prices on multiple sites to give our users the lowest price for new, used and rental textbooks. Thanks to social media, during times when textbooks are being sold, we can see the direct thoughts of people, for twitter we use TweetDeck to look for what people are saying about textbooks and other key search terms. From their we can directly talk with them, inform through tweets, either a specific price comparison or that our service can be used to save money. This is highly effective for us, by talking directly to the person we see not only a high rate of visits, but also a very high conversion rate. I will warn others against using bots, I tried to automate the entire thing, but the results where poor, having a person on both sides of a social media conversation is key. On a side note, I recorded the special beer podcast last night, and I hope to get it up as soon as possible.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Ohio Craft Brewery Pack
I was able to get my hands on the Ohio Craft Brewery Pack, which was supposed to be released October 2010. I will be releasing a Podcast with El Goro from Talk Without Rhythm where we will sit down and drink and discuss the various beers from this pack.
Monday, April 11, 2011
The Next Big Thing
Social Media is alive and well, but where is it going next? This is a tough question, but as a marketer I am putting my vote into geosocial networking. With dedicated products like foursquare and more traditional social media sites getting involved (Facebook) with the optional location tag, Geo is the next big thing.
What does this mean for companies though, can it be leveraged to create discussion or engage customers? The answer is yes, mostly, like any other social media there will be companies that can use this and will, there will also be companies that should not look into this growing trend. What do I mean, well it is location based, so if you are a location based business, or your product/service is or is relevant at a specific place then it is time to jump on board.
Stores, I believe can take the biggest advantage of this by offering deals or specials to people when they are nearby. If a person has gone to a coffee shop and checked in there, then the next time they are in the area of that coffee shop then the shop can send them a message through the application welcoming them to come on in, with a discount or promo offer. Also, the shop can offer a customer who has just checked in the ability to send there friends an invite to meet them at the shop, and include a discount to them all if two people show up that were invited. This same fictional coffee shop could also see that there are people who check in at other coffee shops in different cities near by, and can send them a "I know we are not your normal coffee, but come in and give us a try" with a savings attached.
Manufacturers like Pepsi can also use Geosocial to send coupons or promos when a person is in some place with a high temperature, or if they check in at a convenient store, the direct relevance along with a small incentive makes this a very viable use and I imagine would show to be very effective for a low cost.
Only time will tell if my predictions are true, but with 30% of Americans already owning smart-phones so we will see a lot more relevant advertising over Geosocial Media.
What does this mean for companies though, can it be leveraged to create discussion or engage customers? The answer is yes, mostly, like any other social media there will be companies that can use this and will, there will also be companies that should not look into this growing trend. What do I mean, well it is location based, so if you are a location based business, or your product/service is or is relevant at a specific place then it is time to jump on board.
Stores, I believe can take the biggest advantage of this by offering deals or specials to people when they are nearby. If a person has gone to a coffee shop and checked in there, then the next time they are in the area of that coffee shop then the shop can send them a message through the application welcoming them to come on in, with a discount or promo offer. Also, the shop can offer a customer who has just checked in the ability to send there friends an invite to meet them at the shop, and include a discount to them all if two people show up that were invited. This same fictional coffee shop could also see that there are people who check in at other coffee shops in different cities near by, and can send them a "I know we are not your normal coffee, but come in and give us a try" with a savings attached.
Manufacturers like Pepsi can also use Geosocial to send coupons or promos when a person is in some place with a high temperature, or if they check in at a convenient store, the direct relevance along with a small incentive makes this a very viable use and I imagine would show to be very effective for a low cost.
Only time will tell if my predictions are true, but with 30% of Americans already owning smart-phones so we will see a lot more relevant advertising over Geosocial Media.
Monday, March 28, 2011
New Orleans
Creating a personal website takes a lot of work these days, so much of my creative time is going to that. Though fear not, when I do have my personal website up and running I will keep this blog opperational and imbed the RSS feed onto my website.
On Sunday I returned from a trip to New Orleans for the AMA Collegiate Conference where me and my team took third place in the case competition sponsored by Nintendo. At the conference I attended 4 seminars, the good, the bad, the ugly and the who paid you to be here (fist full of dollars).
The Good: Nintendo's promotion manager gave a presentation on different promotional events that Nintendo has done, their impact and how they show success. He also talked about the way Nintendo thinks and how that impacts what they do, this included a red ocean/ blue ocean analogy.
The Bad: I am to blame for seeing this lecture, called mental toughness. I thought it was going to deal with the aggressive nature of marketing, no it was a motivational speaker. This man was convinced that by thinking good thoughts, fairy dust and sunshine and past success you can win at everything.
The Ugly: A marketer, and now producer of the show White Noise gave a short lecture on what she was doing. While this was not bad, she did have a solid plan, and her talk was derailed by people asking her about working with Whoopi Goldberg. She talked about leveraging new ideas to advertise and when she was not pitching the show to us, it was informative but not very much. *On a side note I do want to see this show (and did before I heard her talk about it), I hope it comes through Cleveland.
Fist Full of Dollars: The class was called "Internet Marketing Strategies" and was put on by a recruiter from Enterprise rent-a-car. I was excited by this, as E-marketing is one of my developed specialties. For the entire 45 minutes this recruiter proceeded to give bad, misleading and downright wrong information about subjects like pay per click advertising, Google Adwords and Analytics. When she was asked questions that she did not know an answer to she just made up an answer and then moved on, it was terrible.
Moving on from the conference I made sure to enjoy my time in New Orleans. After presenting to Nintendo, our entire group went to Pat O'Briens for their famous hurricane and some gator bites. On Thursday night I went to a few little clubs to relax and listen to Jazz. Friday morning I woke up early and went for a run, with proper planning, my run led me to Cafe Du Monde which is a must to anyone who travels to the Big Easy. The last time I was in New Orleans I did the full experience, coffee with chicory and beignets, this time I went with just an order of beignets for myself. This faux french pastry is wonderful, light friend and then murdered in powdered sugar, not the best for you health wise, but if you are traveling then you have to live a little. Friday night started with a bit of disappointment, Deanies which last year was great, it was however poor service and low quality food compared to other seafood I had. After this was my fated journey to Bourbon Street. If my blog where about stupid people, I would follow with an in depth description of what I witnessed that night, because it is not I will sum it up with New Orleans cops are useless, and people should not use drinking to justify acting stupid. I spent Saturday walking about, sampling some food from the street party that was going on in the French Quarter and going to the airport hotel to let me get to my morning flight on time.
*A side note, most cab drivers in New Orleans feign nice, but will rip you off. If you go to New Orleans call Earl at 832-884-5684, he is part of a limo service that has better rates, more options and is a much higher class of service then a standard cab.
Because I was so close, I choose to drink only Abita products, and I was able to get my hands on a few pints of Andygator which always makes me happy. This high gravity beer has a very smooth, hoppy taste, and I recommend anyone who can get it try it, you won't be disappointed. The other Abita brew that I was happy to get, and ship a few home, was Restoration, a pale and all American beer.
As a last point, This Ad Age Article talks about how Facebook advertising works, which includes a part talking about how you don't sell on Facebook, you build brand awareness and equity, something I have been saying for some time, its good to see CEOs of E-marketing firms and me think along the same levels.
On Sunday I returned from a trip to New Orleans for the AMA Collegiate Conference where me and my team took third place in the case competition sponsored by Nintendo. At the conference I attended 4 seminars, the good, the bad, the ugly and the who paid you to be here (fist full of dollars).
The Good: Nintendo's promotion manager gave a presentation on different promotional events that Nintendo has done, their impact and how they show success. He also talked about the way Nintendo thinks and how that impacts what they do, this included a red ocean/ blue ocean analogy.
The Bad: I am to blame for seeing this lecture, called mental toughness. I thought it was going to deal with the aggressive nature of marketing, no it was a motivational speaker. This man was convinced that by thinking good thoughts, fairy dust and sunshine and past success you can win at everything.
The Ugly: A marketer, and now producer of the show White Noise gave a short lecture on what she was doing. While this was not bad, she did have a solid plan, and her talk was derailed by people asking her about working with Whoopi Goldberg. She talked about leveraging new ideas to advertise and when she was not pitching the show to us, it was informative but not very much. *On a side note I do want to see this show (and did before I heard her talk about it), I hope it comes through Cleveland.
Fist Full of Dollars: The class was called "Internet Marketing Strategies" and was put on by a recruiter from Enterprise rent-a-car. I was excited by this, as E-marketing is one of my developed specialties. For the entire 45 minutes this recruiter proceeded to give bad, misleading and downright wrong information about subjects like pay per click advertising, Google Adwords and Analytics. When she was asked questions that she did not know an answer to she just made up an answer and then moved on, it was terrible.
Moving on from the conference I made sure to enjoy my time in New Orleans. After presenting to Nintendo, our entire group went to Pat O'Briens for their famous hurricane and some gator bites. On Thursday night I went to a few little clubs to relax and listen to Jazz. Friday morning I woke up early and went for a run, with proper planning, my run led me to Cafe Du Monde which is a must to anyone who travels to the Big Easy. The last time I was in New Orleans I did the full experience, coffee with chicory and beignets, this time I went with just an order of beignets for myself. This faux french pastry is wonderful, light friend and then murdered in powdered sugar, not the best for you health wise, but if you are traveling then you have to live a little. Friday night started with a bit of disappointment, Deanies which last year was great, it was however poor service and low quality food compared to other seafood I had. After this was my fated journey to Bourbon Street. If my blog where about stupid people, I would follow with an in depth description of what I witnessed that night, because it is not I will sum it up with New Orleans cops are useless, and people should not use drinking to justify acting stupid. I spent Saturday walking about, sampling some food from the street party that was going on in the French Quarter and going to the airport hotel to let me get to my morning flight on time.
*A side note, most cab drivers in New Orleans feign nice, but will rip you off. If you go to New Orleans call Earl at 832-884-5684, he is part of a limo service that has better rates, more options and is a much higher class of service then a standard cab.
Because I was so close, I choose to drink only Abita products, and I was able to get my hands on a few pints of Andygator which always makes me happy. This high gravity beer has a very smooth, hoppy taste, and I recommend anyone who can get it try it, you won't be disappointed. The other Abita brew that I was happy to get, and ship a few home, was Restoration, a pale and all American beer.
As a last point, This Ad Age Article talks about how Facebook advertising works, which includes a part talking about how you don't sell on Facebook, you build brand awareness and equity, something I have been saying for some time, its good to see CEOs of E-marketing firms and me think along the same levels.
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