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Nothing beats a good headline:

Bright Lights, Booth Babes, or Swag: How to Create the Best Conference Exhibit

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How Could You Not Read this Article (03-29-10)

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Nothing—I mean nothing—beats a good headline to ensure an article or blog post gets read. A case in point:

“Sumo wrestling bank robbers … and Tesco”

A good description helps, too:

“I guess these desperate times cause desperate actions, as the last few weeks must have created the funniest spate of bank robberies ever seen. First, there was the Russian Sumo wrestler who wrestled an ATM out of the wall. . . ”

Needless to say, I clicked immediately on the link to see Chris Skinner’s whole story, “Credit crunch bank robberies.”

-Collin

Tags: content marketing, copywriting
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Take a look at the four pictures below and answer the question. Both “Windy City Summit: A Wealth of Information worth talking about” and “TAWPI: Summit 2010″ are financial conferences, the first for high-level treasury executives and the second targeted at department heads and managers that head transaction-related financial functions.

Those first two pictures show program covers. The Windy City Summit is two colors and focuses on the city, which isn’t necessarily bad given that the sponsor is the Treasury Management Association of Chicago. The second cover, though somewhat busy, focuses on the conference’s content. Done more in magazine style, the readers know exactly what they will learn at the Summit 2010.

The inside pages, below, also show a marked contrast. A lot of type advertises the main speaker at the Windy City Summit. Now look at the featured speaker for the TAWPI show. Wow. The first page looks like a speech from a dull financial executive—I’ve heard him speak before and he isn’t dull. The second picture shows a financial star. He’s a CFO from a major wholesale outfit, and that’s about all I’m going to read or need to know.

I want to go to TAWPI. Each page of the program is compelling and exciting. Now to be fair, TAWPI is a national organization, far larger, and as a result much better funded than the TMAC. They can afford color printing inside the catalog and more space for the text. But the brightness of the copy, the emphasis on benefits, the use of photos and type are not all budget related.

It’s about perception, not the quality of the shows. It’s how quality is portrayed, and these days, it’s also about generating excitement, showing value, and communicating both quickly and visually.

I’ve been to both conferences in years past, and they are both good. The year I went, I’d say that the TMAC show had higher quality speakers and more educational vendor presentations. But in tumultuous times, when finance can be anything but dull, make it so I can’t wait to go, not stay home.

-Collin

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It used to be called direct marketing, but if it’s an online world, then it must be offline marketing. Print. This piece caught my eye because it was heavy, the envelope had the flap glued down in front, and it was from Yahoo!

I noticed the flap on the
front because I don’t typically see it, and it gave
a good clear space on the back for the message, “A Special Invitation from Yahoo!”

The invitation is a folder, about 5×7 that opens
bottom to top. It’s on heavy paper, probably 120# cover stock, with a curve on the bottom flap and four inserts. The message appears on the inside cover.

I like it, and plan to steal the format the next chance I get. Beyond that, however, it’s great to see good solid print design as part of the online mix—or as a tool to sell the online part of the marketing mix.

Nothing engages the senses like ink on paper. . .

-Collin

Tags: direct marketing, print, Yahoo!
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We always get a number of lovely holiday cards—some are pop-ups, some have some really beautiful illustrations on the front. But, from a marketing perspective, the ones that stood out this year for us were the ones that were unusual and highly creative. Innotech Benefit Solutions sent us a card with the word JOY on the cover, with the O being the image of their logo. Our staff was delighted, since it got our attention, yet wasn’t commercial-feeling. It felt joyful and gave us the impression of a company that loves what they do. The other card that got our attention was from a friend at JP Morgan Compensation and Benefit Strategies. They took a humorous take on the iphone and its many apps. Each app on the card identified a person at the firm: our friend Tom had the “Caroling Buddy” app, while other colleagues were identified with apps such as “Toast Giver,” “Snowball Pitcher,” and “Festive Tie Wearer,” among others. The message on the front: “Holiday apps you may find useful…(and inside) “in addition to all the special gifts we bring you the rest of the year.” Acknowledging the business aspect, yet creative, warm and tasteful. Who ever said financial and benefits people weren’t creative? —Christina

Tags: B2B marketing, benefits, compensation, creativity, financial, holiday cards, holiday marketing, marketing
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In her blog post, “American Consumption and the New Normal,” Nancy Koehn discusses how Americans are going through the greatest changes in how they spend since the Great Depression. It’s one of the many references I’ve seen in the last year to how today’s economic situation is like the Great Depression.

Koehn, who teaches business history at Harvard, sees that as we head into a new year and new decade, we’re starting to see what our “new normal” would be like. Consumers’ recent flight to Wal-Mart and other deep discounters is over in favor of value brands. Then this sentence stopped me:

“Going forward, consumers today are looking to brands — new and established — that are worthy of their trust (think Apple or Hyundai or McDonalds).”

I read it twice and then again. Hyundai. That should be a major celebration in Korea, I thought.

That triumvirate of value brands would have been unthinkable in the 1980s. When the American auto industry was punch-drunk from the quality blows dealt by the Japanese manufacturers in the mid ’80s, the Korean auto industry wasn’t even on our radar. Apple was making a splash with the Mac and its 1984 commercial, to be sure. And McDonald’s was then, as now, the golden brand. But a Korean car manufacturer. Hyundai?

I thought of Blake, the supercilious sales manager in the movie version of David Mamet’s play Glengarry Glen Ross, with Alec Baldwin delivering the classic motivational sales rant.

In lording his status and skills over the “loser” salespeople he’s lecturing, Blake points out, “’Cause you drove a Hyundai to get here tonight, I drove a eighty thousand dollar BMW. That’s my name!!”

That’s who Hyundai was then. Now it’s a trusted value brand.

I love it.

Times change. The movie version of Glengarry Glen Ross came out in 1992. In 18 years, the Korean manufacturer is trusted, and the American auto manufacturers are, well. . . not exactly trusted brands.

Brands rise and fall—and not with the times, but through diligence and focus and the ability to change.

Koehn in her article writes that “the online medieval village has the power to revolutionize key aspects of getting and spending (and marketing!) in ways no one could have predicted even as recently as 18 months ago.  So despite the immediacy of the internet, the ‘new normal’ actually means that consumers are abandoning the ‘next new thing’ mentality that powered so much spending for the past 20 years, in favor of more enduring priorities.”

What we’ve also seen over the last 18 months is that today’s enduring priorities are tomorrow’s failed companies. And yesterday’s chumps can become champions.

By the way, the “new normal” is also a phrase I saw a lot of in the last year. We wrote about the idea as “Normal Redefined” in our May 2009 newsletter. Just for the fun of it, here’s how the phrase grew in popularity over the last year, according to Google Trends:

Google Trends report on searches for the phrase "new normal"

Finally, Blake’s speech in Glengarry Glen Ross is totally classic, even though the language is offensive, and it isn’t exactly the way you’d want your salespeople to act in serving customers. Watch it anyway.

-Collin

Tags: economy
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Google AdWords expert Perry Marshall is a down-to-earth speaker who gives real-world examples to support his points. At the ITA Marketing Roundtable yesterday morning, Marshall covered everything from impressions to conversions. He prefaced his talk by mentioning Claude C. Hopkins, author of Scientific Advertising (1923). Hopkins is relevant to AdWords in the way he used multiple coded coupons to see which ads were most effective. For example, a grocery store would collect all coupons used and could then determine which coupon was most successful in getting the customer to purchase the product. Likewise,you can track your ads on Google to see which is the best at getting clicks.

Marshall went on to explain that the most successful ads are the ones that sell with stories and romance, and how something as simple as changing the URL in an ad can improve click-throughs. To properly utilize AdWords, you need to do keyword research and, more importantly, you need to have something that’s unique to the internet. Something that’s unique in your local mall is not anything like what’s unique on Google. Some people will scour the Google zeitgeist trending topics to find popular keywords, and buy relevant ads for affiliates, hoping to make money off of referrals.

Another important thing to note when creating an ad is that it should be directly relevant to the page you’re linking to or it’s less likely you’ll be able to convert the click to a sale. If you’re going to advertise a specific product, let’s say a green silk tie, you should link to a special landing page for that product, not an overall product page. The problem with linking to an overall product page happens when the tie is buried at the bottom of the page and the frustrated user doesn’t have the time to scroll through all the trousers.

While I’m not necessarily interested in becoming an AdWords ninja, I found Perry Marshall’s speech both informative and insightful. For more AdWord goodness, check out Perry’s website at www.perrymarshall.com.

-Michael

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I was intrigued by a new Volkswagen advertising campaign that features interactive banner ads. There have been interactive ads before, but what makes this stand out is that it connects to Twitter using their application programming interface (API) in an attempt to help viewers decide which Volkswagen is right for them.

Christina and Collin drive a Passat, so I was interested in what the result would be if I typed Collin’s twitter name: collincanright. The ad said the Jetta was the way to go, so maybe there’s still a few kinks to get out of the system. Regardless, VW made an innovative ad that really caught my interest.

You can check out the ad at the CreativeZone.

-Michael

Tags: advertising, application programming interface, Social Media, Twitter
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Below is a series of ads that was released this month by Comex Group, a manufacturer and distributor of quality paints and coatings. Based in Mexico, the company started merely 50 years ago as a family-run business and now serves clients throughout North America.

These ads are quite clever in that the copy is minimal, but the message is conveyed instantly. Using iconographic cartoon characters, the ad utilizes the sense of familiarity to build a sense of trust between the consumer and the business. I may just be speculating, but I think most people will get a sense of nostalgia when exposed to these ads.

This is significant because it seems that now, more than ever, it’s important to appeal emotionally to your audience to get maximum results. When the global economic state is shaky, people will tend to go with the familiar, the trusted.

When deciding on your marketing strategies for your company, keep these ideas in mind. We would be more than happy to support you in your marketing needs. Give us a call! 773-248-8935

-Aya

Tags: Comex Group, images in marketing, marketing strategies
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Just when people are getting comfortable with the world of Web 2.0, BooneOakley, an advertising agency out of Charlotte, NC, decided to stir things up with their one-of-a-kind, interactive web site, published on YouTube.

Innovative? Creative? Crazy?

Yes. Yes. Yes.

Though the layout/content of the web site video is minimalistic, it speaks volumes about the company. You don’t need to reach the “About us” marker in the progress bar to know that these guys are humorous and clever. And upon viewing their work, you’ll see that your assumptions are confirmed.

My only complaint is that because the format and functions of the web site are unconventional, it takes a little time to get used to. I think that people who are not as accustomed to the web might get a little lost as to how to interact with their “web site.” Or, maybe it’s time we redefine what a web site is.

Innovation is about taking risks—BooneOakley certainly dares to be different!

What do you think?

-Aya

Tags: booneoakley, innovative, interactive, web 2.0, youtube
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