Escape the Mundane + Experience the Remarkable

How Twitter Can Save The TV Commercial

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Marketing

Ask anyone with a DVR if they watch television commercials and I bet you’ll hear a resounding “NO”!

But follow that question with asking if they use their laptop, iPad or smartphone to browse the web while watching TV and you’ll probably hear an emphatic “yes.” Or at least a “sometimes.”

We’re living in an age of attention multi-tasking. We can watch TV with our peripheral vision while catching up on emails and reading the latest news headlines & blogs. All while scanning Facebook & Twitter to see what our friends have going on in their lives.

Where does this leave the traditional marketers? We are barely watching TV anymore, let alone the commercials. So what are advertisers to do?

Television advertising, as we know it, is dead.

Or is it?

I’m a fan of Mark Cuban. He’s a go-getter powerhouse in the world of business. And I’m happy to report he is on the new season of Shark Tank on ABC.

Anyway, I follow Mark on Twitter and noticed that he was live tweeting during the show. His insight was remarkable. And it lead to a host of people chatting about the current happenings on the show.

The TV Commercial Savior

Welcome Twitter hastags. And its unbelievable communication power.

The #SharkTank chat was interesting because it highlighted a pathway for the revival of a live & largely communal television watching experience. (While it’s not the first instance of this, the chat is a great example)

If you truly were interested in a show, you most likely would be interested in chatting with others about the show. Since we live in such a private society – watching TV from our living rooms – Twitter is the best option for us to interact with ease.

There are four huge implications of live tweeting:
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The Plight of the Bookstore

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Business

For the first time in about a year, I was in Barnes & Noble yesterday buying a book and realized that bookstores – as we currently know them – are on their death bed.

As I stared blankly at the business section, I noticed some favorites and some new books. Most had an attractive title and compelling cover art. But something was missing:

Social proof.

I’ve read hundreds of books and know not to judge a book by its cover. Literally. It may have the most captivating inside flap, yet will leave you wishing for your time and money back.

Big-box bookstores, no matter how well staffed, will never have the ability to guide you into a buying decision the way Amazon or 800-CEO-Read does. I among most other book buyers, base 99.9% of the buying decision on reviews and chatter online for a book.

While yes, they could integrate some kiosks or what not into the store to read reviews, but at that point why leave the house? I can do that from the comfort of my couch and my iPhone’s Amazon app. And have the book on my doorstep the next day.

So What Is A Bookstore Owner To Do?

Over the upcoming years, I’m predicting a huge transition in the ways bookstores position themselves. Just as any other business must focus on a niche in a highly competitive market, bookstores will start segmenting themselves.

If a bookstore is to compete successfully against online stores, the staff and offerings must become extremely compelling. Someone should be able to walk into the store, rattle off a few favorite books to a well-read worker, and within minutes be happily walking out of the store with a book perfectly suited for their desires. If the bookstore can’t accomplish this, they will follow in the footsteps of Borders.

This past weekend I was watching CBS Sunday Morning and they had a great segment on a bookstore doing just that:
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Social Media Marketing in a Small Town

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Marketing

Ask anyone from a rural area about technology and you’ll hear two common responses, “limited cell phone coverage” and “slow Internet speeds.” Which means most of the residents in low populated areas can’t easily access YouTube, communicate on Twitter or check-in on Foursquare.

Do you want to become a big, well-connected fish in a little, low-technology adoption pond?

This lack of social media adoption in small towns unfortunately leads to small businesses believing that the old methods of marketing (eg. newspapers, phonebooks, local TV) are the best strategies.  Yet, most businesses fail to realize it’s 2011 and technology is improving rapidly. While AT&T may be crappy today, tomorrow (actually let’s be serious, AT&T will be horrible long-term)… Verizon, Sprint and the like are quickly improving their coverage and speeds. Add to this the expansion of high speed offerings farther into the boondocks and we will be discovering that social media is on the verge of much higher adoption rates in low population areas

The Implication for Small Town Brands

If you are marketing your business in a small town and have yet to create an account on the top social networks (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, FourSquare, YouTube, etc). Nor have you found the tech innovators in the town or set alerts for your brand and town, do it right now. The sooner you can learn the networks and establish a presence, the more prepared you will be against the competition.

Specific Strategies to Start:
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Building Your Audience: What Ellen’s Gold Digger Machine Can Teach Us

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Marketing

The Ellen DeGeneres Show is genius. She is smart and funny, a tough combination to achieve.

One of her segments is Gold Digger, in which a viewer gets a few moments in a box with flying money up for grabs.

But a common theme I’ve noticed is the contestant usually freaks out and tries to grab the biggest clumps of cash. However, reflexes aren’t as fast as the fan blowing the money. So by the time their hand reaches the large wad, it’s gone. They try for the big bucks, yet end up with nothing.

Having grown up on an Indian reservation (blocks from a casino), I’ve watched these cash boxes in action first hand. And I’ve always noticed the participant grabbing for the clumps while winding up with nothing. However, what rarely happens is the contestant thinking logically.

We know the clumping strategy doesn’t work because we’re slower than the fan. But what does work is concentrating on one bill at a time. Humans have the ability to focus on one flying item and pluck it from the air. Maybe it’s an innate quality passed down from our hunter-gatherer ancestors. Whatever it is, we can focus and grab one item at a time. No matter how fast it’s flying.

To reiterate, grabbing one bill at a time is the key to tons of cash.

Building An Audience

So what does this have to do with building your audience? In one word, everything.

All to often, brands try to take a shortcut and grab for clumps of followers. They think it’s possible to bypass the need for individualized attention of their fan-base. This simply does not work.

A friend of mine shared with me a Wall Street Journal article today about a company, Bill.com, complaining that their B2B business is not seeing any positives from social media. But as I explored deeper into their strategy they are failing to understand how to cultivate a following. The article states that they have over 10,000 customers. Yet hardly any followers.
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The Secret Behind David Ogilvy’s Brilliant Headline Copywriting

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Marketing

“On the average, five times as many people read the headline as read the body copy. When you have written your headline, you have spent eighty cents out of your dollar.”
~ David Ogilvy

David Ogilvy is one of the greatest ad men ever. His contributions to the marketing industry are incalculable. And anyone in advertising couldn’t imagine a world without his iconic ads.

In his day, marketing budgets were spread amongst the traditional marketing outlets; magazines, newspapers and commercials, for example. But as we have transitioned into the digital age, what could we possibly learn from this classical ad man? Turns out, a lot.

Appealing to Your Audience


The above ad contains what is arguably considered the most famous headline of all time. But why is this? To answer that, we must think critically about the underlying message here and what Ogilvy is attempting to convey to readers.
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