A Measured Approach

Why is simple so difficult?

That’s a question I often think about. Early today (4:00 am) I was up and reading my email and came across a great, 2005 study on the power of simple copy. Its title: “Consequences of erudite vernacular utilized irrespective of necessity: problems with using long words needlessly” more

Here’s my annual list of what to expect, marketing-wise, in the upcoming 12 months. Time will tell how accurate these are, although my 2009 list was fairly spot-on:

#10) Mobile advertising will still NOT flourish in North America in 2010. However, if the Google mobile phone becomes a hit it could make a late-year run and enter 2011 with great momentum.

#9) The web will continue to grow and play an even more important role in great, measurable marketing. Websites that create relevance, with smart use of microsites, and also help develop a dialog, will reign supreme. One-way websites will be viewed as antiquated and ineffective; YouTube will grow in its importance for traditional TV-based advertisers (:30 second commercials will decline greatly). Google Analytics will continue to gain users and importance.

#8) Wal-Mart’s attempt to compete with Amazon will prove more

In an effort to improve efficiencies by 10% or more in its movie recommendation model, Netflix asked anyone who was interested to prove that they could do so over their current model. Three years later they have a winner.

This is good PR, but even better business, as Netflix understands that by engaging people to make their service more efficient leads to an increased bottom-line. They become participants, not just customers. more

…the clever ads that don’t track their results, and probably lost money for their clients. Hooray! Perhaps I’m the only marketer alive that still thinks advertising and marketing is, now more than ever, about selling your stuff. (Please prove me wrong and comment here!).

Here’s the link to the clio article.

I have had way too much discussion lately with folks who still want to brand, but don’t take the time to realize that clever is out and relevant is in. By that, of course, I mean advertising/marketing work needs to produce measurable, real-world results. You’d think that after seeing how effective offer positioning and measurable marketing techniques are these days — even in these tough times — that folks would be using deep dive analytic crunching and testing until it hurts. Sadly, the education needs to continue.

I continue to read about the “hot creative shops,” the “killer idea,” “sexy work” and the “clever concept” way too much. Ask yourself if these brands fall into those categories: more

The big job search site has abandoned its ad agency and decided to run a contest among “average Joes” with the payoff being a Super Bowl commercial next year and $100,000. Yet another tactic where we can submit content and do the work for a corporation so they can make more money. Here’s the story. Yes, Frito-Lay had success last year with this approach, but they also ponied up $1,000,000 to the winners, two guys from Indiana.

We’ll see how well things turn-out, but with the tight economy - driving traffic to a job search site should be as hard as giving a kid ice cream before dinner. How this will help drive revenue — they make money by charging the companies to place ads on their site — is another story.

Perhaps some targeted, measurable marketing strategies and tactics to the real decision makers — the corporate execs who place the ads — would be a wise move first.

You’d expect that given the sharp downturn in the economy, marketing departments would be forecasting budget cuts for 2009.

Hardly. The annual CMO Council survey of senior marketers, which was just released last week, reveals that marketers are largely holding steady on budgets, with 50.9 percent planning no change or increases. And of the remainder planning for cuts, more than 30 percent expect only modest shrinkage. more