by Lisa Wedmann | Jun 27, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Interactive, Latest, Social Media
Which do you want to know first? The good news or the bad news? I like to hear bad news first in order to assess damage control. And I still have something to feel enthusiastic about since the good news is yet to come. so, since this is my blog… here’s the bad news… first. The bad news is that those who study how to go viral are almost unanimous in the conclusion that going viral is a result of synchronicity, that simultaneous occurrence of events that somehow appear related but have no understandable connection. It’s about being in the right place, at the right time with the right material and a little bit of luck.
THE GOOD NEWS ABOUT VIRAL MARKETING
However, where they do agree is that you can position yourself to be in the most fortuitous place to make going viral happen.
Below are a few viral marketing tactics that can help in your quest. They may seem elementary but they are the type of tactics that build a foundation and that is always a good place to start.
VIRAL MARKETING TACTICS
Think carefully about your topic.
First, understand that not everything has the ability to go viral.
I mean, come on now did you really think your thesis on Greek Social History would go viral? That means before we start fantasizing about our success we have to consider is it reasonable to expect that your project can go viral. You need to choose your topic carefully. At the same time, in all fairness, none of us know which things can and will go viral. I find it hard to believe that a 15 minute video of a women trying to parallel park went viral but it did.
Experiment, test and then test again.
Next, be prepared to experiment.
Try different approaches. Don’t be satisfied with one idea. Put two or three or more ideas out there and if you don’t get results, or as my Dad used to say, don’t flog a dead horse. Try a different approach. Experiment, test, refine, and then test again.
Turn the ordinary into extraordinary.
I never relate to those articles that tell me how easy it is to get that killer app or that killer eBook or that killer product and all you have to do is have a unique idea, or create memorable content. Duh. That’s what having a good product is all about. Face it guys, you are preaching to the converted.
But you can borrow from a few standard marketing techniques. Techniques such as turning the ordinary into something beautiful, take Apple and their visually beautiful line of products or Dove with their real beauty campaign.
Give your idea a partner.
Here’s an easy way to get that extra push. Pair your idea with something unrelated but totally relatable. A bit of an oxymoron? Not really. Think of Maxwell House Coffee and the positive little girl who loves her house and just about everything in it.
MORE GOOD NEWS ABOUT VIRAL MARKETING
Viral marketing makes your business visible.
There’s one more aspect of viral marketing that makes me want to stand up and jump HOORAY! When you create a viral marketing campaign you are creating awareness and increased visibility for your business.
Do you have any ideas on how to make a campaign go viral?
by Lisa Wedmann | Jun 26, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Latest
Some guy in a suit is yawning, another guy in the back is asleep, a woman in the front is reading notes, another looks at her nails and everyone else is checking their phone.
And then there’s you, standing at the front of the room, nervous and starting to sweat, trying to hang on to their attention.
You’re feeling frustrated and don’t know whether you should speed up your presentation or slow it down. Maybe you need to add a little humour? You could tell a few jokes, but maybe the topic of your presentation can’t be made light of.
Is it you? Is it your subject matter? Or is it your PowerPoint? You rack your brain thinking about what could you have done differently to be more effective?
All this to say, if it’s your delivery, well that’s an issue for another blog. If it’s your subject matter, there’s not much you can do about that. But if it’s your PowerPoint presentation, I can help.
In fact, I can provide you with two killer tips for powerful PowerPoint presentations.
All you have to do is follow these two simple rules when you create and design your material and your PowerPoint presentations will not only look better, your audience will be more interested and more engaged.
ONE, ONE, TWO
It’s an easy rule of thumb: One idea, one slide, two minutes. It’s the most basic formula. 1+1=2. Simple to remember, easier to use. The reason for this is also simple. When you create content heavy slides with more than one idea per slide, your audience is unable to determine what message you want to deliver. Your slide is high in noise and low in message.
Your audience is thinking to themselves, “And the point is…?”. The result: Yawning and nail inspection.
Ideally, you need to design your presentation so that you spend approximately two to three minutes per slide. Yes, that means you must know your subject matter well. Any more than three minutes and your audience will get bored and end up losing interest in your presentation.
THIRTY-SIX OR TWENTY-FIVE
I can’t count the number of times I have seen PowerPoint slides with far too many words. Oh yes, I can count. More than 36 words per slide is too many.
The slides are there to support your comments, to act as reinforcement and to keep you on track with your presentation; they are not there to chronicle your entire speech. No, they don’t replace the index cards of the past.
I know we all hate presenting, but If you’re reading this it means your career is dependent on giving presentations at some level – so you’re going to have to get over it. I digress, back to the presentation and the number of words…
There are various rules for the number of words per slide but one of the easiest to remember is 6 x 6. That means six bullets each with six words for a total of 36 words. Some will even say 5 x 5. You can decide which makes the most sense to you. So, another simple formula: 6×6=36 or 5×5=25.
If you must have a slide with more than 36 words, take a few well chosen words from that slide and consider putting additional information in the Appendix that you leave behind. The audience can read about it more in depth at their own convenience and without yawning in your face.
THOSE WHO CAN COUNT
These two rules are very simple, but rarely will you find anyone who follows them. But as I always say, there are three types of people in this world, those who can count and those who can’t.
by Miriam Hara | Jun 21, 2013 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Latest
Attention all Marketing and Brand Managers: We know our marketing and we know our brand. More importantly, we know who our target buyer, audience and groups are. That’s important and is what makes for great creative. But there’s a catch – we suffer from brand intimacy. By knowing so much through living our brand, day in and day out, we forget that our target doesn’t know our brand intimately and probably couldn’t care less. We need to make them care. The only way I know how to do that is through good advertising and communications for them… not for me. Too often in a boardroom environment decisions are made about what works and what doesn’t without market research (but that’s a post for another time!). More to the point, many day-to-day decisions or the way to go ahead on smaller projects are based on what I refer to as “internalized judgment”. Whether you’re developing a full-scale advertising campaign, billboard creative or just doing a one-off brochure, the question you need to ask when assessing your advertisement is: “Does it makes sense to someone other than myself?”
Here’s a quick checklist to make sure that your ads and communications are not a victim of brand intimacy!
Have ad sense: In other words, is it clear? Clarity is very important in any communications piece. By being brand intimate, sometimes we feel that we don’t need to “spell it out” to our audience… or we just skip the details, leaving the message too vague for our target to decipher.
Don’t talk to yourself: Take a step back and remember the first time you walked in the door to your new job and had to get to know and understand your brand. Remember how you thought about it… before intimately knowing it. This applies to judging creative ads, headline copy and even segmentation. Often companies refer to their business segments in categories driven by manufacturing or by organization divisions. Consumers don’t see these segments how business sees them. Be very cautious of this because it can make or break your brand’s success.
Fatigue syndrome: Admit it. Whenever you see your brand initiatives, whether it’s a TV ad, a billboard or a social media campaign, you pay attention. Of course you do! As you should! But understand that your niche market or mass target groups don’t. It takes time for them to even acknowledge your ad, even though they’ve seen it once or twice already. Remember, the ad fatigue syndrome effects Brand Managers, Marketing Directors, Marketing Managers and Vice Presidents of Marketing and Sales… and everyone else in the organization. But, it doesn’t affect your consumers.
So the next time your brand agency asks for your opinion on communications… don’t leave your hat on… put on your target market’s hat instead!
by Lisa Wedmann | Jun 20, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest, Social Media
I finally got a “round twit”.
Sure it’s an old joke, I hope that it’s so old nobody has heard it and it seems fresh again and people will think I’m incredibly funny.
But even if you don’t think I’m funny you may have guessed it’s a joke about procrastination.
There are two types of people who procrastinate.
Those who fear failure and those who fear success.
Afraid of Failure
Those who fear failure think of all the things that could go wrong. They worry about what people will think when they fail and as a result of their worries; they think it’s better not to try.
Afraid of Success
On the other hand there are those who fear success. To me, it seems counterintuitive to fear success. What is there to fear in success? Isn’t that what we want – to be successful? I wish I was successful in everything. That would be great. Sadly I am not. But I am fortunate to say I am not afraid to try.
People who fear success may be overwhelmed by the fear they will have new responsibilities. They may be afraid they can’t handle these new responsibilities and people will expect more of them. Consequently they don’t try.
Procrastination can be serious and could require professional help. But for those who simply need a bit of a push following are my top 3 tips on how to avoid procrastination.
Take the first step
We’ve heard this before. Break it up into tiny pieces. Focus on the first piece only. Once you complete the first piece, go to the next. Do not think about anything other than that first step. As soon as you begin to take action you are changing your mental attitude and you will become more positive and open and willing to try.
Set Appropriate Goals
There are tough jobs and there are even tougher jobs. Sometimes the job may seem impossible. Sometime we may feel there is no chance of success. To overcome this resistance, be realistic about what you can do and then set achievable goals. When you successfully achieve your first goal you can set the bar a bit higher. Each accomplishment will bring you closer to success.
Start with the Hardest or the EasiestJobFirst
This is a tough one. It’s tempting to start working with what we know is simple. But if we start with the hardest task and get it out-of-the-way we feel relieved and the rest seems easy.
Some people say to start with the easy things first so that you have confidence and this will move you forward. If that works for you then go for it but I find starting with the most difficult task works for me.
Procrastination is complex and it can take many tries to break you of bad habits. In the meantime if you would like to know more about procrastination … I’ll tell you later.
by Lisa Wedmann | Jun 13, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Creative, Latest
A few years ago I was having a conversation with a photographer friend of mine. We were talking about business and giving each other tips on how we could become more effective. At one point in the conversation he turned to me and said, “There’s always time to do it over but there’s never time to do it right in the first place.”
I wondered what point he was trying to make since this statement seemed contradictory. Then he told me his story. A long-time client of his was on a tight deadline and needed a high priority, rush shoot. His assignment was to go to a busy street and shoot the crowd. Sound easy? You would think so.
He rushed over, took the shot and raced back to the client. He couldn’t wait to show them. He was proud of himself and was positive they would be happy. At that time he didn’t know about his BIG MISTAKE, he was still caught up in the delight of meeting his deadline.
What he didn’t know was there was a large billboard in the background of the photo. So what, many busy streets have billboards. Well, it wasn’t the billboard that was the problem, it was the competitor’s name on the billboard that was. And do you know what happened next?
He had time to do it over.
If he had taken the time to think through his assignment this wouldn’t have happened. And the moral of the story… the client never hired him again.
When we are rushing to meet deadlines we often jump in without thought. When we jump in without assessing the environment we make big mistakes and the consequence is we have to do it over and like my friend you may lose a client. So how do you do it right when you are faced with seemingly impossible deadlines?
DON’T GET CAUGHT IN THE HYSTERIA
In order to do it right from the beginning do not get caught in the hysteria of the moment. You need a clear head to determine how you will get the job done. You look out of control when you run around screaming “I have to meet a deadline” and it can be infuriating for others who are trying to get their own work done.
As my friend felt about his photo, not a pretty picture. Instead, pause and take that spot of time where you would have been running around to plan your approach. Those few minutes can make all the difference.
ASK QUESTIONS
Don’t be afraid to ask questions. Make sure that you know and understand what is required. Ask what is the purpose and what you are intended to accomplish. Obtain as much detail as you can. This information will steer you in the right direction and provide answer questions that you don’t have time to ask.
One question you might not think to ask is why is there such a tight deadline? Is this deadline final or is there any wiggle room? Is the deadline for a specific time of day? If it is at the close of one day you might be able to squeeze in some extra time by asking to provide your deliverable in the morning of the next day.
Just remember doing it right from the beginning will save you time in the long run.
by Lisa Wedmann | Jun 12, 2013 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest
I looked up and high on the shelf in the Dollar Store was a giant eraser with the words “We Make BIG Misteaks”. I thought it was funny and not so funny.
Not so funny when you are the one making those misteaks.
I bet Lululemon doesn’t think making misteaks is funny after their recall of yoga pants in March because you could see through them. The recall amounted to approximately $67 Million in sales, a big chunk of change but small change when last year’s revenue was close to 1.4 Billion.
The supplier said they followed specifications so what happened?
Maybe the Chief Product Officer knows. He was fired immediately.
Then, three months later after the excitement settled down it was announced that the CEO, Christine Day would step down. She gave no explanation for leaving.
Looks like that was a big misteak somewhere. But where: Lululemon or the supplier? The Product Officer or the CEO? We may never know.
We can only hope it doesn’t happen to us.
If don’t want to make big misteaks like Lululemon I have two recommendations to help you ensure product quality control.
Define Guidelines
An important way to ensure quality control is to have specific written guidelines for your product. These standards must be followed at all times. Do not turn a blind eye and make the excuse to let it pass just this one time. If you turn a blind eye to quality you are on a slippery downward slope.
Teach your vendor about your products
Having a good relationship with your vendor will go a long way to getting good results. Help them understand and teach them what is important about your product . Regularly rank your vendors so you can determine which of them needs improvement and work on getting that improvement.
By making these recommendations I am not meaning to act like I know better than Lululemon. I’m not. It’s hard to beat a Billion dollars in revenue. But what I do know is I can protect my business ….and with all pun intended … that’s the bottom line.
