The Quisenblog

Here’s a brain teaser for you. Let’s say you purchased a ball and a bat, and the total for the two was $1.10. In this instance, the bat costs exactly $1.00 more than the ball. Knowing that, how much did the ball cost?

When presented with this problem, 80% of people will give the same answer: 10 cents. Makes perfect sense. $1.10 is exactly $1.00 more than 10 cents. The answer just “feels” right. There’s no need to explore multiple options.

But consider the problem again. This time spend time analyzing the variables. When you do, you’ll discover that the ball actually cost a nickel (.05 + 1.05 = $1.10).

Why wasn’t this the answer you came up with originally? You had all the information you needed, right?

The answer to that was explained by Nobel laureate Dr. Daniel Kahneman of Princeton University. His studies showed that basically, our brains have two different “thinking systems” we use to solve different problems. The first system (call it “intuition”) operates almost subconsciously. This system is mostly reactive. We use it to draw conclusions quickly, without much thought. It is primarily driven by emotion. It helps you solve problems in a “shoot from the hip” kind way.

It is the system that helps you decide if you have enough time to get across the street before that approaching moving van splatters you all over the sidewalk.

The second system (call it “reasoning”) is much more analytical. As Kahneman describes it, it’s conscious, deliberate, slow-moving, and evaluates a variety of solutions to a given problem. It’s the system that helps us choose between mortgage options when faced with varying loan fees, APRs, payment terms and closing costs.

The rub, as Kahneman points out, is that the “intuition system” is our default system, and unless we’re confronted with information that indicates “we’ll have to think harder,” we stick with it.

As marketers, that’s hard to accept. We prefer to think our customers operate on cold, hard facts, not on knee-jerk whims. The fact is, however, unless we’re selling something that telegraphs the fact that “this is going to require some thoughtful analysis,” we’re confronting reactive customers more interested in how something “feels” than the facts we’re hoping they rely on.

This helps explain why humorous spots generally work so well..

The unfortunate thing to know as marketers, is that once our “intuition system” draws a conclusion, it’s almost impossible to reverse, regardless of the facts. To demonstrate this, take a look at the following two parallel lines, and determine which one is longer.

The truth is they are both the same length. But, like the ball/bat example, an overwhelming majority of folks will pick the top one because it “looks” longer. Amazingly, even when it was demonstrated the two lines were the same length by using a ruler, a surprising number still didn’t believe it was true. “My eyes don’t lie,” was a typical response, ignoring the fact that empirical proof existed they were equal in length.

So what’s a marketer to do? Make sure your first interaction with a customer (whether through advertising, online or in a brick-and-mortar setting) elicits an emotional response that’s in keeping with your “brand personality” in the first few seconds. Think of broad emotions. Humor, shock, surprise, irony, fear (of what they’re missing out on if they don’t choose you).

And whatever you do, it’s probably best if you not challenge them to think very hard.

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Mickey On Customers, Research, Uncategorized, customer experience buying decisions, default thinking, kahneman, optical illusion, reasoning vs. intuition

“How will we know that this will work?”

This is the logical question for marketers to ask when presented with a new advertising concept or marketing tactic. As much as they might like the idea–and as much as they are reassured by those who have created it–they yearn for some form of impartial information that will “prove” to them that the concept we’re presenting will outperform all others.

A decade ago, whenever a marketer asked that question of any ad creative presenting new work, the answer most likely was some variation of “trust me.” For support, we could point to consumer behavioral studies or similar case histories or previous experiences we’ve had with similar marketing problems. But at the end of the day, it came down to “Based on our experience, we believe this will work.”

Today, however, we in the creative industries have an unlikely ally: data. I say “unlikely” because for decades, creatives were trained to be skeptical of people bearing spreadsheets. Especially when it came to trying to apply hard numbers to emotionally-based creative concepts.

To be clear, there is a huge difference between “research” and “data.” “Research” is an undertaking to discover a specific answer to a specific question or concern (“Do viewers understand what the key message of this commercial is?”). Most research requires a fair amount of subjectivity to extrapolate precious few data points to form a conclusion. “Data,” on the other hand, are ongoing real-time streams of engagement metrics. Data provide “snapshots in time” that are based around action, not interpretation.

Today’s data are empirical, and can take much of the subjectivity out of the equation. For example, you can evaluate your email subject lines by seeing what your “open” rates are. You can measure how many more clicks Facebook ad “version A” got than “version B.” You can see where visitors are dropping off your web site. You can compare click-to-conversion ratios. You can quantify which content your audience has amplified or engaged with and which they didn’t.

Most importantly, today’s data make it easier to “course correct” during your marketing efforts, no longer forcing you to “throw the baby out with the bathwater” and pull the plug on a concept, tactic or a program because a single element underperformed. Today’s marketing is less about “campaigns” that have a fixed beginning and end, and more about measuring and sustaining ongoing engagement from your audiences.

Let me tell you, as a creative, the “era of data” takes a lot of heat off. Not just when analytics prove the times we are right, but more importantly to give us insight into how we can make efforts we’ve launched better.

And rather than stifling creativity, my belief is that data can help drive it. Bold marketers, rather than casting about for reassurance when presented with a bold concept, are more and more likely to say, “Let’s run with it, then see how it does,” knowing that the knobs can always be tweaked down the road.

The basic tools required to get started in capturing data are free (or cheap) and are relatively easy to use (find out more about that in this post).

It was deparment store maven John Wannamaker who supposedly said about advertising, “I know I’m wasting half of my money. The problem is, I don’t know which half.”

Today’s data and analytics might just help him figure that out.

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Mickey Creative, On Clients, Research, Uncategorized, strategy analytics, creativity and data, data vs. research, data-driven marketing

Last week I wrote about why it’s never a good idea to cheap out on guerilla tactics. This past weekend gave us an example of one marketer who not only didn’t cheap out, but may have set a record for spending on a one-time sponsorship event.

The example I’m referencing is this past Sunday’s “free-fall skydive” of Austrian Felix Baumgartner. “Fearless Felix” jumped out of a capsule suspended by a balloon 128,000 feet (24 miles) above the earth. He not only smashed the record for the highest ever free-fall, he also became the first skydiver to go faster than the speed of sound, reaching a maximum velocity of 833.9 mph before touching down safely just outside of Roswell, New Mexico.

From a social media standpoint, the numbers are pretty incredible. A reported 7.3 million people watched the event live. Soon after, a Facebook photo generated nearly 216,000 likes, 10,000 comments and more than 29,000 shares in less than 40 minutes. And on Twitter, it occupied half the worldwide trending topics, pushing past seven NFL football games. The blogosphere continues to buzz about it. And the major news networks, newspapers and magazines have run stories on the stunt.

Mr. Baumgartner’s feat was not your ordinary extreme stunt or quest for a world’s record. Rather, it was a promotion bought and paid for (and managed) by Red Bull.

The question that begs asking here is a simple one: despite all the attention the event received, did Red Bull get a good value for its participation? Did it get an ample bang for its buck?

This is where the spin meisters come in. Barely 12 hours after the stunt, Huffington Post’s Janean Chun calls Red Bull’s sponsorship of Baumgartner’s jump “the most successful marketing campaign of all time,” noting that the brand “broke the traditional barriers of marketing, sponsorship and social media.” And a CEO of a digital agency opines that Red Bull stands to rack up “tens of millions of dollars” in sales because the stunt, although in typical social media style, he fails to quantify where those sales will come from.

But let’s back off the social media hyperbole for a moment. There’s no arguing the event generated a ton of social media eyeballs for the brand. But these are “social media” eyeballs. Eight million live views is big news in social media, but in the world of marketing it’s nothing special. By way of comparison, Sunday’s season opener of AMC’s “The Walking Dead” attracted over 11 million viewers–and this is basic cable.

And while the promotion is consistent with the “extreme stunts” Red Bull has become known for (at least within a select vertical market) and with its “Red Bull gives you wings” tagline, we need to remember Red Bull isn’t the lead in this story, Felix is. And while the stunt generated a ton of “free media” (specifically TV and newspaper stories), how much of it haloed onto Red Bull? I saw a one-minute story on NBC news that never bothered to mention Red Bull. I got a quick glimpse of the Red Bull logo on the parachute, much like you’d see a sponsor’s logo on a NASCAR driver’s suit.

While Red Bull has yet to release any spending figures on the sponsorship, one could easily envision an investment of $20 million or more on the stunt, plus all the advance promotion (check out this slick CG “movie trailer” that teases the event) with no guarantee of a happy outcome.

I’m not arguing that Red Bull shouldn’t pony up for events such as this. They’ve sort of primed their audience to expect such things. But the real measure of whether or not it was successful can’t be ciphered by social media buzz alone, no matter how much it gets. At some point, it has to be about sales. Good old fashioned ROI (remember that?). “Soft metrics” like mentions, hashtags, likes, shares, sentiment, etc. might make you feel all warm and fuzzy. But did the $20 million+ spent on the event generate incremental sales? Did it help drive distribution? Did it increase market share? Did it allow Red Bull to charge a premium for its product?

To be clear, I’m not saying we needed to see 40 million cans of Red Bull fly off the shelves in the hours after the stunt. Give it time. But for the cost of running a spot in each of the next SEVEN Super Bowls, it’d be a shame if all Red Bull got in return was a few million YouTube hits and some news photos with an incidental logo splashed across a parachute.

Success in the world of social media isn’t about dreaming up outrageous ideas that’ll get attention. That’s the easy part. The currency of a social media program is how well it marries to an organization’s business objectives. And in this case, we’re yet to see how that works out.

A side note to this campaign: a marketer that seems to have successfully “coat-tailed” on this sponsorship was Mars, who sent a Kit Kat bar into outer space to give Felix a “break” during his jump. You can view that one-and-a-half minute video here.

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Mickey New Media, On Customers, Ramblings, Social Media, Uncategorized, strategy branded event, felix baumgartner, free-fall, promotion case study, Red Bull

If you are interested in exploring guerilla marketing (or, if you prefer, non-traditional marketing) because you’re committed to creating something outrageous, standing out from the crowd, hitting people with an unexpected message when their guards are down and perhaps inciting a viral campaign, then it might just be for you. If you’re interested in guerilla because you want to save money or don’t have the budget for a mass media campaign, prepare to be disappointed.

“Guerilla marketing” is often defined as hitting consumers (prospects) with marketing messages either in places they don’t expect them, or in ways they don’t expect. While guerilla campaigns are rarely scalable, they can break through the mind-numbing clutter we each have to deal with each day, and can help consumers think about you and your offerings in a new, fresh way.

That is, if you do it right. And let me just say it here: guerilla marketing is not a cheaper way to do marketing. While it is true you won’t have the media expenses of a more traditional mass media campaign, you will have a lot of expenses mass media campaigns don’t incur. A lot of what we in the business refer to as “man hours”–fabrication costs, research and preparation, event planning and hosting, content creation, fulfillment and follow-up. All things you don’t have to worry about in the “set-and-forget” world of paid media advertising.

So how do you know if the non-traditional approach you’re considering will be a hit or an exercise in futility? As it turns out, many of the most successful guerilla marketing efforts have a lot in common. More specifically, they’re able to unequivocally answer “yes” to each of these questions:

• Is it surprising/quirky/unexpected? Unlike with mass media marketing, where you can buy attention, with non-traditional marketing, you have to earn it. Your content has to be disarming, and catch people with their guards down. These beer stein decals installed on glass doors are but one example.



• Does it amplify the brand’s story outside the traditional media space? Getting attention is great. But if it doesn’t play back to your core brand story (and what you want people to say about you), you’re likely wasting your time. This urinal poster for the Arizona Science Center is an example of linking non-traditional creative and media to boost the brand.



• Is it sustainable? Coming up with a “blockbuster” event might sound like a good idea, but too often these are little more than closed-ended tactics. This video for Coca Cola showcases one event (in this case, rewarding good samaritans who turned in an unattended wallet with tickets to a soccer match), but it leads to a bigger pay off for the brand–“Buy That Person A Coke.” Works for honest folks who turn in wallets. Works in hundreds of other situations too.
• Is it supported? Is it a stand-alone execution, or is it tied to other things the brand is doing, both on- and off-line? Social media provides your brand many possible ways to reach people. Plan ahead to determine how to amplify your guerilla tactics through social. Check out this video to see how The Opticians Council Of Canada amplified their guerilla tactics.
• Can it do things in a way that can’t be done in a traditional media space? Getting out of the two-dimensional world gives you lots of possibilities to explore. Check out this guerilla tactic for a gym.



• Is it disruptive, without being inconveniencing or annoying? People are used to advertising messages being restricted to specific times and spaces (magazine pages, TV programming breaks, etc.). Once you venture outside the expected ad media, you run the risk of irritating your audience and building resentment against you. If you’re going to intrude into their lives, you better make it worthwhile for them.

With the rise of social media, and your audience’s ability to share and spread things that interest them, guerilla marketing can serve to garner tons of attention to the brand, ignite word of mouth and generate ample free media, and get people talking about the brand. (Old Spice’s “Man Your Man Could Smell Like” and Burger King’s “Whopper Sacrifice“ are two of the most famous examples).

In the not-so-best cases, brands have wasted a ton of money, resources and good will developing stuff that their audiences, to put it bluntly, could care less about (Cisco’s “Ted From Accounting” web series comes to mind).

For 50 great examples of guerilla tactics that worked, click here.

The net of it then, is that in regard to guerilla tactics, while spending money is not a sure-fire recipe for success, not spending it is a sure-fire way to fail.

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Mickey Creative, Media, New Media, On Clients, Uncategorized, how-to, strategy burger king, guerilla advertising, guerilla marketing, non-traditional marketing, old spice, ted from accounting

We’re happy once again to present links to the top marketing/creative/social media articles of the past week.

How the social media participation of ad/marketing folk differ from regular folk.

If you always suspected that we in the business are way more involved in social media platforms that John Q. Public, well, you’re right. This infographic from Heat Advertising in San Francisco pretty much tells the story. While our involvement in social gives us some real insights to the platforms, we need to challenge ourselves to not get too far out in front of the customer.

Sound-alike soundtracks for commercials are proliferating.

So you’d love to have a Beatles track under your next commercial, but can’t afford it? You could always do what some (even big name) clients are doing: hiring “sound-alike” bands to cut a track that “sounds like” the original. Does this put you on shaky legal ground? This article from the Wall Street Journal tries to answer that, citing a case between the indie group Beach House and Volkswagon (in this case, VW seems to be in the clear).

12 Fundamental Freebies to Give Away to Your Customers.

Giving freebies to customers is a great way to build repeat purchase behavior and spread good stories about your brand. But if you’re like a lot of companies (especially in the B2B space), you figure you don’t have much you can give away. This article will help give you unearth valuable “stuff” you can provide customers that could pay dividends down the road.

4 Ways to Manage Online Reviews.

If you have set up listening posts online to “hear” what’s being said about your company and your brand (via Google Alerts, Social Mention, Trip Advisor or whatever), you’ve no doubt wondered if there’s anything you can do to improve the quality of conversation. This article from Mashable gives you four simple things you can do to entice more and bettter reviews.

Facebook engagement takes a serious dive.

According to findings from a poll conducted among 1,032 Americans by Reuters and research firm Ipsos, 35% of Facebook users said they are less engaged on the social network than they have been in the recent past. Only 20% of members are spending more time on the site. What does this mean for brands? Is meaningful engagement still a possibility on Facebook? This article from Mashable spells it out.

That does it for this Friday LinkFest. A reminder: if you enjoy these articles, you can find more content like this by following me on Twitter by clicking the “follow” button on the Twitter stream to the right, for by following @mickeylonchar at twitter.com.

Have a great weekend.

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Mickey Friday LinkFest, New Media, On Customers, Research, Social Media, Uncategorized

End of another big week in the glamourous business of advertising! Time again for another edition of our popular end-of-week feature, “Friday LinkFest.” Plenty of good stuff this week:

Mobile Drives Direct Response for Other Ad Channels

The US is still several years away from seeing a smartphone in every pocket, but the rise of mobile and the fast adoption of smartphones have led to many consumers carrying their very own “portable direct-response tool.” According to research from Google, 43% of smartphone owners used their device to search in response to television ads at least monthly. Unearth more amazing smart-phone-as-second-screen stats in this article from eMarketer.

The Uneven Aging of America

Infographic of the week: Every day, 10,000 American Baby Boomers are turning 65. Where exactly are they living (hint: they’re not all in Sun City)? And how does this affect your marketing? (from Ad Age)

Facebook Paid Status Promotion Platform Is Official

By Facebook’s own accounts, 84% of your page’s “fans” won’t see your most recent post. Ah, but Facebook has a solution: “sponsored updates,” basically like ordinary status updates, but for a fee, Facebook’s EdgeRank will place them at the top of your fans’ walls. Perhaps a worthwhile option to Facebook ads or sponsored stories. Get the skinny here. (From PC World)

Is Pinterest Really Leading to Product Purchases?

Consumers are spending more and more time with image-sharing social networks like Pinterest and Polyvore. They are also clicking through to product websites more and more frequently. And apparently buying, too: this research report from eMarketer show that 32% of online buyers in North America have made a purchase as a result of seeing an image on a social image-sharing site, such as Pinterest. See who’s had the most success.

Why Brands Are Missing The Mark With Moms.

With 83 million moms in the U.S. controlling more than 85% of all household purchases (representing $2 TRILLION a year), it’s critical marketers know exactly how to reach this group. Yet most seem to view “Moms” as a monolithic (or rather, “momolithic”) demographic, when nothing could be further from the truth. So what’s the best way to segment this market and have maximum impact? This POV piece from Eric Porres in MediaPost gives some pointers.

That’s it for another week. Happy reading, and we hope to see you next week.

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Mickey Friday LinkFest, Mobile Marketing, New Media, On Customers, Research, Social Media, Uncategorized, customer experience baby boomers, facebook paid updates, Friday LinkFest, marketing to moms, Pinterest, smart phones

Every week, I read dozens of articles relating to marketing, social media, research and other related topics. Most of them are very good. A good number are great. And a handful are simply drop-dead-can’t-miss excellent. And I thought, “Why not share the very best of them with readers of the Quisenblog?”

So now, every Friday, I intend to publish a Friday LinkFest. This will include links to five or six curated articles I highly recommend, just in time for the weekend.

We’ll still publish regular posts on the blog; consider this “bonus content.”

If you like the idea of receiving article links from me, you can get a whole lot more by following me on Twitter (my handle is @mickeylonchar, or you can click my name in the Twitter stream to the right).

The articles:

What exactly is “The Social Media Funnel’? And how can it be used to work your customers and prospects through your traditional sales funnel? (From Search Engine Land)

What are the favorite Social Media Management tools for small business? This links through to a super-useful review of some of the most popular. (Jess Ostroff – Convince & Convert)

There are people and processes within any organization that tend to smother innovation. Harvard Business Review refers to them as ‘Corporate Antibodies.’ What are strategies to actually get them on your side?

With Facebook going public this week with an estimated worth of over $100 billion, what’s the true value of Facebook advertising for marketers? This insightful article touches on all the considerations. ‘Truth, Lies & Facebook Advertising.’ (from Forbes)

Brian Clark at Copyblogger is one of my favorite writers that covers content in social media. This article explores the creative benefits of exploring the “uncomfortable.”

The “sexiest” new social platform? It could just be your email inbox. Making your email program social. (from American Express OPENForum).

That’ll do it for this week. See you next week with a new post AND some new links next Friday.

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Yesterday I had the pleasure to speak at the Spokane Ad Fed monthly program. The subject of my presentation was (most appropriately) the Evolution of the Super Bowl Commercial. Here is the powerpoint from that presentation for your perusal. I look forward to your feedback.

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Mickey Uncategorized ad fed powerpoint, spokane ad fed, Super Bowl advertising

If you and I found ourselves standing on a street corner, waiting for the light to change, and it struck you to ask me, “What’s the one thing I could do that might help make my Social Media efforts more successful?,” in the few seconds I had to answer before the light changed, my response would likely be this:

“Think like a Business-to-Business marketer.”

Traditional marketers often struggle with Social Media because it doesn’t operate by the traditional rules we learned regarding marketing, advertising and promotion. Traditionally, we were able to buy attention. To be successful with Social Media, we have to earn it.

The problem with looking at Social Media through traditional marketing lenses is that it’s too seductive to view them primarily as additional channels to deliver brand messages. To get out of this mindset, it might help to approach Social Media with the mindset of a B-to-B marketer.

What do B-to-B marketers do that B-to-C’ers could learn from? Consider this list:

1) B-to-B’ers build relationships. B-to-B purchase decisions generally take much longer than B-to-C because there are multiple people or teams that need to have buy-in. Throwing your message out once or even a handful of times won’t be enough to close the sale. Building a relationship built on trust will.

2) B-to-B’ers focus on providing solutions, not just making sales. They get to know their customers and what their needs really are, then use those needs as a platform for conversation and conversion.

3) B-to-B’ers enable the customer to have her own “period of discovery.” In a B-to-B environment, generally the customer comes to you after she’s done a good deal of homework. She’s already “short-listed” you. The lead time or “courtship-phase” demands the marketer to constantly engage, communicate and maintain a dialogue with the prospective customer.

4) The B-to-B’er rewards loyalty. Once B-to-B clients make a purchase decision, they tend to be more loyal and spend more money.  Marketers who dedicate more of their resources to keeping current customers happy generally do quite well in the B-to-B environment.

5) B-to-B’ers enable their customers to get input from others. Successful case studies are important. First-person testimonials are important. Actual customer experiences are important.

6) The B-to-B’er understands that not all buyers are the same. Customers may come to them for different reasons, and different stakeholders in the organization are looking for different things. A one-size-fits-all pitch is unlikely to work across the board. Understanding the whims and agendas of all stakeholders allows the B-to-B marketer to directly address each need.

7) The B-to-B’er enables prospects to find out as much about them as they can. B-to-B purchase decisions are made in a very logical, deliberate way with a strong ROI case to justify them, whereas often B-to-C purchases are based on emotion.   Prospects often must justify their purchase decision to investors, bosses, or boards of directors.

Social Media, managed thoughtfully, can help any organization, whether B-to-B or B-to-C, better engage with its customers in each of these ways.

A brief side note: regular readers of this blog are familiar the importance of generating and publishing quality content on an ongoing basis. I will be hosting a three-hour workshop on Developing Killer Content on April 28^th through Greater Spokane Inc.’s BIZ Street series. You can get more information on the workshop and register here. Or just drop me a line.

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Mickey New Media, On Clients, On Customers, Social Media, Uncategorized, customer experience B-to-B, building trust, business-to-business, relationships, Social Media

Funny how a scene from a movie set in the 1930s can help provide a lesson for audience engagement in the 21st century.

This 2½ minute scene from Jean Shepard’s classic holiday film “A Christmas Story” provides a great example of how a “worst practice” can kill a community of followers.

Nine-year-old Ralphie is a devoted follower of the “Little Orphan Annie Radio Hour,” and listens to the program religiously. In an effort to build a community of dedicated followers, the program’s sponsor allowed kids to become “members” of a special club: “Annie’s Secret Circle.” Club members received an official-looking letter and a special decoder ring which allowed them to decipher coded messages that were broadcast at the end of each program.

Only Official Club Members with the official decoder ring could decipher these messages. Once you opted-in, you were part of a community of kids who also followed Little Orphan Annie and her adventures. You could identify fellow members by the ring they proudly wore. Suddenly, you had a connection to kids you didn’t even know through membership and shared allegiance to a radio show. Only this community had the ability to decipher Annie’s secret messages.

While this was a great way to build and engage a community, the sponsor ended up blowing it. As demonstrated in this scene, as Ralphie was decoding his first much anticipated secret message (hoping no doubt to discover the location of a hidden treasure or find a clue to next week’s adventure), he was let down to find the coded “messages” were no more than “lousy commercials” from the show’s sponsor, Ovaltine. In frustration, he threw his decoder ring away.

This scene dramatizes an important point in engaging your audience. Once you have a community, be sure the content you send them is relevant, useful and wanted. If your content becomes about “you” and not about “them,” you’ll see followers drop off and fall away, just as Ralphie did.

From a content standpoint, it always helps to be thinking in terms of the next engagement. Filter your content by asking, “Is what I’m about to send enough to get my followers to come back the next time?”

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Mickey New Media, On Customers, Social Media, Uncategorized audience engagement, building community, Christmas Story, Little Orphan Annie, Ralphie