Bink's personal views on marketing and media

Here's some random thoughts.  Let me know if you have ideas on how to better connect them together.

1. Many people hate marketing and Marketers
2. Advertising works
3. The history of advertising has been to interrupt people's entertainment 
4. The future of advertising is about connecting and contributing to communities on multiple platforms
5. Not all media is priced appropriately.  While I agree that that the Yellow Pages can work, the cost of advertising in it is ridiculously high for the number of people who actually use it.
6. Each media type offers a unique platform to communicate from.
7. These platforms are most effective when connected together by bridges (The USP)
8. The more senses (sight, taste, touch, hear, smell) you can communicate to, the more effective your message and therefore brand will become.
9. Marketing is the strategy and Advertising is the execution
10. Passion & Connection wins.  
11. The best marketing plan that I've seen is this...CARE
12. The second best marketing plan that I've seen aligned all resources to a multi platform plan according to useage
13. Marketers are not normal.  we turn up commercials.
14. Today, every person has the ability to my publish & broadcast themselves. 
15. Marketing is hard to measure. 
16. The consumer purchasing journey is normal.  trigger, initial consideration set, active evaluation to add more options, purchase, post-purchase evaluation, re-trigger, loyalty loop.
17. Every media type has a use. 

Yellow Pages - lumps your business services alongside your competition, in every category, to reach an older consumer who "needs it fixed right now".  Less than 5% of daily media time is spent here and shrinking.

Newsprint - allows you to visually display a brand alongside editorial content of yesterday's news.  has a aging demographic of "coupon clippers".  Seriously, I wonder what the adspace to content ratio is.  Accounts for about 10% of daily media time and shrinking.

Radio - The original real time communication platform.  at it's best, gives you the ability to target any demographic by audio in their minds eye.  At worst, it's an unmeasurable Johnny Fever pimpin' product.  With online streaming added in, about 30% of peoples daily media time is spent here.

Direct Mail -  visually interrupts a person at home with your product samples/logo/mesage in a postal code.  1% rate of return is optimistic.  Less than 1%

TV - Bruce said it....57 Channels and nothing on.  "the boss" is only partially right.  On my tv, it's more like 400 channels and something's on.  Mostly on my PVR.  TV is arguably the most powerful medium up until now.  I read somewhere that The Final Epsiode of I Love Lucy had 70% of the american audience watching it compared to 17% of the final episode of the current reigning champion...American Idol.   Average daily media time spent 30%

Internet - Real time platform 2.0.  If radio is the James Brown of media, then internet is the baby Huey.  Canadians already spend about 20% of our daily media time with this medium, but are limited to high speed access.  What happens when the internet is as pervasive as electricity?  The ways that we can communicate with eachother (email, text, social media, geotargeting, game play, consumer reviews)  changes almost as fast as the devices that we communicate with (commodore 64, desktop computers, sony walkman, Android, iPADs, google TV).   

Outdoor - Billboards, bus wraps, building signage.  To make an impact, it's either "power to the people" good or it's about size & locations...the more the better

one other amazing facts...

Did you know that some preying mantis' can catch and eat small mice?

Crush it by Gary Vanerchuk: presentation notes from The Art of Marketing

• Gary Started WineLibrary.com and wine library TV
• grew to over $60million dollar business.  He's 33.
• from '95-'03 he spent over $4.5 million in marketing (annually?)
• from '03 to now he spends about $25,000 (annually?)
• Liquor laws prohibited mass distribution so he started trying to build his own brand
• push marketing - pound the message with traditional media
• Pull Marketing - Social media.  it's about caring.  You cant buy friends & relationships in online communities.  Your content has to be relevant
• Content is King.  But Marketing is the Queen that steers the ship
• Big Box marketing approach is rapidly changing
• Those businesses that go back to "small town values" will win.  In the small towns as a business owner, you've got to hustle, care and understand that people appreciate the bakers dozen price point
• online relationships are just as real as in person ones
• he has 850,000 twitter followers
• the web is just a baby.  it's only been 15 years since we even had such a thing as email.  Youtube is only 5 years old
• Virtual Currency:  Facebook Credits ,  Foursquare
• brands will have to care because word of mouth is now on steroids
• the truth is undefeated.  doing the right thing is never wrong
• if you're trying to reach consumers, you need to have a facebook fan page
• look at other companies that didn't adapt.  Zagat is getting killed by Yelp.
• you need to understand this stuff, play with it, taste it.  get on twitter and facebook and experience these new platforms of communication
• respect the customer
• be socially engaged 24/7.  get committed to it. seek out and engage conversations.  give authenitc non-salesy answers.  You don't need to convince people this is important...find the ones who already believe it is.

Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel: presentation notes from The Art of Marketing

• After months of sailing Cortez & his crew finally arrived in the new world.  His crew asked "how long are we going to stay here for?".  Cortez waited for everything to be unloaded from the ships...then burned them
• How do we get forward moving today?
• CTRL, ALT, DEL - time to reboot
• -50% people who clicked on banners since 2007 (comscore)
• under 8% of online users click through.  There are over 2 billion online users
• this is not a talk about the future.  its about the present.  we are living in the future ie. snaptell, red laser, google goggles, yelp  
• video is king
• media is becoming untethered ie. iPAD
• the question is not when is the web going to take over traditional media, the question should be WHEN IS THE INTERNET GOING TO BE AS PERVASIVE AS ELECTRICITY?
• Apple sold 2,000,000 iPADS in 60 days
• we live in the most branded generation ever
• there are more grandparents on facebook than high school students (readwriteweb - July 7,2009)
• 88% of canadians are on facebook
• Eckhart Walther from Yahoo! says "it's about doing, sharing, socializing, collaborating & most of all, creating"
• Facebook is like your very own "channel" (Think in terms of CBC, NBC, CNN...it is scaleable)
• 81% of online holiday shoppers read online customer reviews (neilson online - Dec 2008)
• Bazaarvoice proves that if you let people open up, you will win.  They have 150 billion impression reviews.  The average review is 4.3/5.  A negative review converts to sale more effectively than a positive review
• with the internet, people are having real conversations between real people
• these conversations are important because they are distributable and scaleable
• the internet isn't about the number of people you can get your message to, but who sees it
• same with Facebook.  It's not the number of 'friends' you have but WHO your friends are that matters
• mass media helps but you need permission for entry.  online allows communication with no barrier to entry
• 1/2 of youtube.com's audience is over 34 (marketingvox)
• the average Canadian watches 15+ hours of youtube video per week.  The average TV commercial is 30 seconds.  The average youtube video is 4 minutes
• Top 3 search engines? 1. Google 2. Youtube 3. Twitter
• Every day on Google, 20% of the searches have never been done before.
• your marketing has to change because of how we connect with one another
• BUT, if your IT consultant says to cancel all your advertising and move everything online...fire him
• the biggest change in this new world is amplification.  Consumers have always had the ability to choose to buy or not and tell their friends if they liked a product or service or not.  The word of mouth is now amplified
• Your brand is no longer what you say it is.  It's what Google says it is.
• Bounce Rates are important metrics to measure your website 'stickyness'  if the bounce rate is really fast it's "i came, I puked, I left"
• identify the pages on your site that have the most traffic and evaluate how the user interface is
• the best value of a brand is in its community
• Digital Darwinism 'we were on facebook & twitter, but it doesn't work'.  The problem is because you're not engaging.  What are you doing to add value? 
• you need to build a community before you launch a product

how to manage in this new world?
1. accept it
2. it goes with.  not instead of traditional media
3. dont write cheques with digital media you cant cash.  it's about honesty
4. open up. let the community share, create
5. attitude, not age related
6. Ask Why? not what.  It's not what are we doing, it's why is this better alighned with our business objectives

• if you have the right message, and you tell the right people, your story will spread....check this free hugs video out,  over 59 million views and counting