Posts filed under ‘Media Industry’
Marketing Lessons Professional Services Firms Can Learn From Mad Men – “Tea Leaves”
As the season of Mad Men progresses, Michael Bond will be providing a short summary of the marketing lessons professional services firms can learn from the advertising drama.
Last week’s episode seemed like it was setting up a number of events for the future. Betty –Don’s ex-wife – made her seasonal debut and had a brief cancer scare, Pete continued to play with Roger’s mind and a bit of tension is starting to develop between Don and his new bride, Megan. This was all great stuff, but hardly very relevant to professional services firms.
An interesting event that does seem relevant is the H.J. Heinz Company executive asking Don to convince the Rolling Stones to record a jingle for them that changes the lyrics to the song “Time is on my Side” to “Heinz, Heinz, Heinz is on my side” for a commercial.
Don and Harry (the agency’s “new media” guru) trek off to see the band only for Harry to be fooled into signing an unknown band called the “Tradewinds.” Hardly what the Heinz executive wanted.
The lesson in this is that it is important to know your limitations. It is important to understand what you are trying to promote or market and have realistic expectations about how the campaign will unfold.
It is paramount that you undertake a thought-leadership or marketing campaign with both aspirations (such as being quoted in high-profile, national publication) and more readily-achievable goals (such as being quoted in a regional publication or authoring a byline article in a trade publication). The two are not mutually exclusive. In fact, we have found that the later set of frequently makes it easier to achieve the former.
By the Way -- Just for fun, here is the Kellogg’s Rice Krispies ad that Don references:
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Marketing Lessons Professional Services Firms Can Learn From Mad Men – “A Little Kiss” Parts I and II
After a long hiatus, Michael Bond is excited for the return of Mad Men. As the season progresses, he will be providing a short summary of the marketing lessons professional services firms can learn from the advertising drama.
This past Sunday, Mad Men returned for its long overdue fifth season. While the two-hour debut lacked Don Draper working his magic in pitching clients, it did not disappoint in drilling into the marketing lessons relevant no matter the era.
Peggy Olsen (played by Elizabeth Moss) presented a cutting-edge (for the time) ad proposal to executives from the H.J. Hines Company. The idea was to use high-speed photography to show beans dancing. Here’s Peggy, taken from a scene replayed in a recent interview on NPR’s Fresh Air:
And so we take a bandage of this new micro photography and high-speed camera to show a bean ballet. Spinning in air with their delicious perfection. The beans pirouette in slow motion. They somersault in slow motion. Some of them spin clockwise, some counter-clockwise so they’ll appear to be moving towards each other, until they drop into a full can, first seen from the top. There’s a splash of mouthwatering sauce as each one lands. Then we cut to the front. The iconic label…
And the client’s reaction, one that invokes the tone many professional service marketers receive when they pitch new and different:
You ever seen beans up close? They’re slimy. They look like a bunch of bloody organs. And it’s not just for fellas like me that saw things in Korea. Kidney beans are called kidney beans because they’re shaped that way. But you could call all beans that. They look better in a group, in a bowl. Hell, what’s wrong with a spoon?
Replace high-speed photography and a spoon with print and electronic and you could have had a similar conversation regarding the transition from printed firm brochures to websites. This was a paradigm shift much like Peggy was proposing to the Hines executive.
At times, we can become very limiting in how we present our core information – beans or expertise. It may feel right to have that spoon in there with the beans, or to have a firm brochure to hand clients, but are you making a statement? Are you effectively differentiating your product in the marketplace? With all due respect to tradition, today’s professional service companies need to consider the “high-speed photography” of today – social media (Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, blogs). After all, a good product needs great presentation.
What’s Going on in your Patch?
There has lot of grumbling about the imminent demise of newspapers. You can scope out all the latest casualties here.
On the flipside, there are many exciting developments that suggest news reporting in new and different forms is here to stay.
At the community level, Patch is one of the more interesting and innovative developments.
Patch is giving voice to underserved, but significant (15 – 100K population),
suburban markets that are generally overlooked by the major metro dailies (that it, if the market still is one). They’re doing it online, encouraging active community participation and giving back through their “Give 5” program.
Cheers to the talented team of publishers, editors and reporters who saw fit to evolve and innovate. And another shout out to the local, on-the-ground teams across the country charged with starting up their community Patch sites.
But this is a business-to-business blog, so why should professional services providers care about these hyper-local, community-centric online publications? Because this is the future of news and information delivery.
Pick a city and check out the “Who’s who” profiles. This is an opportunity to let the Little League parents know that, despite your fanatical screams for the Pony Padres every Saturday, all week you’re a mild-mannered expert in interstate taxation issues. Are you a green architect who wants to showcase your services and work with like-minded folks with the potential to refer business your way? Check out the volunteer opportunities to steer local school and library greening programs.
In recent weeks, my office has had reason to coordinate with two different Patch editions. In both instances, there were fatal accidents in the local area, and attorneys were working to find witnesses to help sort out what actually occurred. The Wall Street Journal just isn’t very effective for this purpose. Of course, there are highly targeted advertising opportunities to be had, as well. Patch is an easily accessible information resource unlike any the majority of smaller communities has ever known.
Remember, every media outlet – from CNN to The Recorder to the El Cerrito Patch to your personal Facebook page (yes, it counts) – appeals to a different audience and speaks to that audience in a different voice and style. So beware of thinking the neighborly tone of your local Patch allows for less-than-professional participation. Working with media remains all about awareness of the differences in these communication tools and delivering appropriate messages in a manner that is going to resonate and reflect well on you and your affiliated organizations.
Do Newspapers Really Need Outrageous Headlines to Sell?
You don’t have to be a football fan to know about Michael Vick. We learned, with horror, about the dog fights, and we debated about paying debts to society and second chances when he was given an NFL comeback. 
Interesting – now he’s been named starting quarterback for the Philadelphia Eagles, the Philadelphia Daily News is using the headline “Top Dog.” This is the same newspaper that included the headline, “Hide Your Dogs,” when Vick was originally signed. Yardblocker, a football blog, recently posted images of both headlines, leading to a discussion of the NFL and its marketing of star players. However, it would seem the better discussion would address whether or not the Philadelphia Daily News is a daily newspaper or a supermarket tabloid selling to consumers based on outrageous headlines?
Peter Shaplen Discusses BP Media Coverage
In his blog, Peter Shaplen poses the question “Is BP Buying Off Media Coverage?” While it does seem a little too conspiracy theory to ask the question, Peter’s post does bring up some interesting points that makes one wonder about the relationship between media buys and editorial coverage. Of course, the minimizing coverage could also just be a reflection of ratings, sensational news and topic du jour, you know, all the other things Peter blogs about.
Free Bud Campaign Spurs Interesting Comments
I have a friend that says his favorite kind of beer is a free one. So he seems the perfect target for Budweiser’s new campaign that involves free samples. I, on the other hand and given the choice between a free Bud or no beer at all – well, let’s just say it would be a dry night. With the campaign announcement resulting in more than 200 news articles and blog postings, I was interested in seeing what others thought about free Bud.
One would assume a posting on The Consumerist would lead to a discussion of the marketing merits of the campaign . . . Wrong. The comments mostly provided a list of other beers to drink.
The USA Today article was even more interesting as most comments complained about how Budweiser is no longer the “King of Beers” because it’s owned by Belgians.
Four hours into posting, the article announcing the free beer, in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, had no comments. Shouldn’t Budweiser’s hometown be a bit more excited?
It seems the campaign’s initial media splash is not delivering the enthusiasm Budweiser was hoping for. Maybe the Bud marketers should take a lesson from LifeHacker and add vinegar to its brew. But it better be American vinegar, not Belgian!
- Chuck Brown
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October 1, 2010 at 7:26 pm 2 comments