McIntosh Marketing Blog

Madison Avenue must be reeling at the fast changes within our media world. How could they have predicted the sheer transformation of how YouTube, social media and the worldwide dominance of the celebrity mentality would shape how we market.

Nike just released a new advert that say’s so much about the changes of not only how world revolves, but how we interact with each other. Moreover, this advert from Nike indicates to businesses on how the majority of marketing has yet to really caught up with those fast-paced changes. The Nike advert that they just released, featuring soccer phenom Ronaldo, is not only a strong message in itself, but a commentary of where we are at as a global community.

Let’s look at the critical aspects of this advert from Nike:

• The advert is three minutes long, not 30 or 60 seconds. This is because YouTube has extended our ability and expectations from a video and an advert. Nike is not buying a traditional TV spot; they are telling a story and letting viral marketing run its course.
• The video shows how addicted we are to sports, but how much it is a part of our lives and even the ability to gain power, affect markets and transform the pride of an entire nation with sports. True sports heros are national treasures and icons, just as Ancient Greece revered their gods.
• Featuring in that video is how YouTube videos are not only watched, but how then drive new jargon, dances and even how we communicate, establish reality and that we understand each other, knowing we belong to the same “tribe.”
• The new slogan, “Write Your Future” captures the desire to determine our future in these uncertain times. Just like Nike captured a generation with “Just Do It”, they have now found three new words to embed the minds of a new generation looking for empowerment, even if vicariously through a brand and a hallowed sports figure. It offers hope and that one can do something about it without looking for government entitlement.

Nike has struck marketing gold once again, showing that like any art form one can capture and articulate a new feeling through a strong brand and simple message.

You just have to love how mainstream media is now utilizing online buzz to generate their own stories. Moreover, Ellen Degeneres recently demonstrated to all of us a powerful way to spin that buzz, even becoming a part of that craze.

It was just a matter of time before someone called Greyson Chance, a veritable overnight success on YouTube, due to his amazing cover of “Paparazzi” by international phenom, Lady Gaga. That really isn’t the story of this blog. While the young performer was featured on Ellen’s show, and even getting to speak via phone to Lady Gaga herself, the real success on the spin is how Ellen featured herself in the video while Greyson Chance did a shortened version on Ellen’s show.

Knowing that this video would as well go viral far above anything Ellen could ever dream of, Ellen and her producers made sure that Ellen stood next to Greyson Chance during his electrifying performance. Five hundred thousand hit later, and now Ellen is empowering her brand and relevance to the social media crowd.

Lesson: News is happening all around you in your industry, town and other circles of influence. With some creativity and some good taste, you could find yourself easily riding the wave of the success of another.

Even though Kodak did not invent the camera, they sure did have generations believing so. Special times became known as the “Kodak Moment.” Now with the proliferation of video technology and accessibility, Kodak film is long dead and now we live in a YouTube world.

In speaking with people, you get the idea that most assume that YouTube invented online video. Like Kodak before, their brand is now synonymous with online video. They didn’t invent it, they have dominated that position in the mind of the consumer. And now it is time for business people and entrepreneurs to utilize YouTube’s brand dominance and reach to position themselves above their competition.

You see, we are still in the infant stages of the usage of the technology, not the technology itself. A recent study found that the average YouTube user watched 98 videos just in the month of March 2010. These YouTube videos represent a fundamental change in how we get news, become entertained and make decisions with whom to do business with. And believe it or not, it builds credibility. It can even make you a on-line celebrity.

Now while your ambitions may never be to land in US Magazine, it nonetheless represents a powerful medium to reach people, and withing a very short period of time educate and excite your potential market. Don’t show me a picture of your lunch special, show me how you make it. Start your own on-like cooking show.

While so many companies want me to download a PDF file, they should be sending me to their YouTube TV channel, describing it, involving me and demonstrating their passion for what they do. People want to connect, feel attached to something and that really is what is at the core of any brand: A valuable relationship.

Become a YouTube media expert for your brand and watch more and more people connect with your brand like never before.

One of the least used methods to explode your brand is to identify and build relationships with Mass Influencers.

According to a recent report from Forrester research, 16% of all online Americans are responsible for 80 percent of the brand impressions in online social settings. “Social media has created a new type of influencer – one defined not merely by number of friends or frequency of dialogue, but by both,” said Forrester Research Senior Analyst Augie Ray.

The key is to not only to identify who these key 16% are for your market place, but to then make offers in such a way that starts to build a relationship with them. In turn, this turns into on-line discussion of your product.

Scott Voigt, VP of marketing at Silverpop said, “Start building goodwill by … providing them with special benefits. These persuaders can have a huge impact, so make them feel important. You’ll cultivate increased loyalty and give them further incentive to share even more.”

But be careful to what is said about your on-line, via blogs and on social media. Monitor what is being said and treat this as not only a survey, but an invitation to listen, change and adapt your product or service closer to what is needed and wanted.

By finding key influencers you can bring rapid and significant brand awareness. Not only that, you are entering an activity which puts you in the drivers seat of generating buzz.

Now that we are getting over the DT’s from the high wine of easy credit, it is important to understand how we were caught wth our marketing pants down. You see, easy money makes you lazy and undisciplined. Like Paris Hilton, there is no need for responsibility when there is enough money to bail yourself out of any mess. And so it happened with the marketing budget.

Now if you are having a hard time recalling what a marketing budget is, that is because for over a decade American businesses developed a serious case of Alzheimers. This set in after we killed the marketing plan. Why have a budget, when we do not even need a plan? Why plan, when you can borrow?

What replaced the marketing plan was easy credit. If you got into trouble, you didn’t need to develop a better plan, a more intelligent methodology of how to get yourself out of debt, and even more to the point, become profitable as a business. You simply applied for more credit. And like a crack addict, we got in deeper and deeper, never addressing the original source of pain that drove us to our own self-destruction.

What is needed now, for each of us to crawl back up the ladder of financial responsibility, is to develop a plan of action that includes how to better market our skills and products. This must include a strong positioning for our brand, an clear identification of our key market, a budget that we adhere to and to treat that budget as an investment versus that as a discretionary budget item that we cut down when we panic.

We have to turn to intelligence and better planning when we panic, not easier methods of fast money that eventually drowns us.

Original content is king. For most of you this is nothing new; not at all a revelation.

But what I see very little of is the interfacing of blogs with social media; namely with Facebook. This became very clear to me the other day when I ran into a friend and we were talking about mundane stuff and she said, “Hey, I loved your blog post on Facebook.”

Without having to mention anything, she took the effort to mention it. She never commented back which can make a blogger think that no one reads their material or posts. Not true, to my chagrin.

While others talk about their mafia wars, farms and puppies, you can easily and rapidly position yourself as a thought leader. I can think of no faster way to help reinvent your brand, or at least your position within your market. Start blogging, and if you are already, then take the time to post these on Facebook.

Had a great laugh, but I knew he was serious.

“What makes you guys different than those guys with the stupid lawn signs?”  I guess the pinstripe suit wasn’t quite enough to ensure the differentiation. After my chuckle, I realized that this was a key question to full address with this potential client.

I told him that I have never done stupid lawn signs, well because, they’re stupid. But in reality I appreciate the lawn signs. It is another American ingenuity right up there with the Ford Pinto and the home loans with variable interest. It is an attempt at doing business, but it eventually labels you and positions you at the low end of business. And for the guy, like me, who will never do a stupid lawn sign, it presents another challenge to clarify my position in the market place.

But I have to “give props” to the stupid lawn sign people. They have helped me to define my position in what I am not. So thank you. In fact, keep putting up more of those signs so I can clearly show that I am the opposite end of the spectrum. But this is a key to all of us to understand an opportunity. Within your own industry, there are varying examples of stupid lawn people who make your industry look cheap and gimmicky. This presents you with a wonderful chance to clearly communicate what you are not and how you are different – in a good way.

If you look around, stupid lawn people exist everywhere making it hard to get others to differentiate what we do. But in that very challenge lurks an amazing opportunity. Maybe it opens the door to reinvent your Brand.

It is important that everyday you are becoming a smarter, more informed social networker and internet marketer.

To re-invent a business, a brand, or even yourself in this new economy, it is vital that you stay abreast of the information and rapid changes within the world of on-line opportunities. Here is a great video to give you vital insights from a Harvard business expert. Enjoy!