Content Marketing Inst, 8/26/10
The Miami Heat has Wade, Bosh and James. What super-star line-up can your clients expect on their content marketing project team? Bringing together talent that meets the objectives of the project is key to long-term success. Having the wrong players in the wrong positions can put your organization on the sidelines.
Here are four simple questions to ask when putting together a project “Dream Team.”
Adweek, 8/25/10
People in advertising and public relations can feel a bit smug next time they meet with clients in the airline, pharmaceutical or banking industries. In a Gallup poll this month that asked adults whether their overall view of various sectors is negative or positive, the “advertising and public relations industry” fared better than those other businesses.
One-third of respondents voiced a positive view of the advertising/pr industry (6 percent “very,” 27 percent “somewhat”). Twenty-seven percent were “neutral.” Twenty-five percent expressed a “somewhat negative view,” while 11 percent were “very negative.” (The rest didn’t venture an opinion.) The numbers aren’t significantly different from those yielded by last summer’s edition of this annual survey.
Media Business, 8/24/10
More than two-thirds of b2b marketers plan to decrease spending on print advertising in the next “two to three years,” according to “The B-to-B Marketing Leadership Study,” which was released last week.
On the other hand, the same study found that 67% of b2b marketers plan to increase spending on social media efforts in the same time frame. Additionally, 64% of the study’s respondents said they planned to boost digital spending.
The study was conducted jointly by American Business Media, the Association of National Advertisers and consulting firm Booz & Co. Among the purposes of the research is to help b2b media companies grow their businesses in this time of transformation of the industry.
Jack Myers, 8/24/10
Between 2007 and 2012, advertising’s slice of the total marketing pie is forecast by Jack Myers Media Business Report to decline from 30.7% to 25.9%. That represents more than $100 billion that is shifting away from traditional media spending to alternative marketing options during this five-year span. Even with hundreds of millions of dollars invested in effectiveness, engagement and emotional connections™ research studies by media companies and agencies, advertising remains a cost center that is increasingly subjected to procurement oversight and intensifying cost controls.
In contrast, trade and consumer promotion investments are often under the management of corporate sales organizations and a priority for brand management teams, less subjected to the demands of procurement officers.
Ad Age, 8/23/10
A Host of New Devices Are Making the Now Traditional TV, PC and Mobile Paradigm Obsolete
“The Sixth Screen.” Sounds like something from a sci-fi flick with Bruce Willis, doesn’t it? But actually, no; this is as real as it gets and we are quickly moving from three screens to six screens fast and furious.
To see what’s coming, we need a quick primer on what the multiscreen concept is all about.
As marketers, we all understand the need to translate our brand message across the three screens — PC, TV and mobile. Truth be told, that is easier said than done. The speed of content being served virtually simultaneously among three screens is presenting some pretty tough challenges for brands. Just mobile, for instance, is moving so rapidly to becoming our computing platform, which in and of itself complicates life for a brand. This stuff is so complex, in fact, specialty innovative mobile marketing technology companies have risen as the technological bridge to help companies move through this evolution. Augme is one example with its AD LIFE platform that enables “seamless integration of goods and services within consumer life experiences …” In other words, they use mobile technology to match the marketing message to the real-time life moment of its users. This type of sophisticated marketing still requires a strong stomach on the part of marketers to execute.
eMedia Vitals, 8/19/10
Business-to-business publishers that excel at marketing services are outperforming their competition, according to a new research from American Business Media, Booz & Company and the Association of National Advertisers.
ABM members that provide marketing services saw more revenue growth from 2007 to 2008 than those who didn’t. And B2B marketers and media buyers are looking to put more dollars into marketing services.
The B-to-B Marketing Leadership survey (a summary is available here for ABM members), conducted last quarter, drew responses from 132 marketing executives across most major industries. The study rated the marketers in two categories of marketing: “foundational” (event marketing, direct marketing, customer training and development, and sales and marketing collateral) and “leading edge” (data/lead management, customer insights, multi-platform media campaigns, and post sales engagement).
Junta42, 8/18/10
We received an unbelievable reaction to my post last week on why print will be making a comeback in 2011. The overall point was this: Print is still an incredibly important part of the marketing mix, even though it may have fallen outside of the spotlight for the past few years. (If you get a chance, take a stroll through the comments of the post.)
Joe Pramberger from NASA Tech Briefs was nice enough to point out some findings about how important the integration of advertising and content marketing are (findings in association with Lion Associates).
Here are some of the major findings in their 2010 reader survey.
ClickZ, 8/17/10
Former Kodak CMO Jeffrey Hayzlett said marketers must shorten their elevator pitches and ensure that consumers understand the value of their brands.
In fact, he insisted the elevator pitches should be 118 seconds or less.
Why 118 seconds? Because the average elevator ride in New York City is 110 seconds and the average person’s attention span is 8 seconds, Hayzlett quipped during his keynote speech at SES San Francisco, which is part of Connected Marketing Week. “As CMOs, our elevator pitches have gotten too long,” he said.
Gartner News Release, 8/16/10
Business leaders in marketing, brand management and communications should implement a four-step process to tell better marketing stories, according to Gartner, Inc.
Reducing an organization’s range of capabilities into a crisp, compelling story that leaves a lasting impression is one of the toughest things leaders in marketing and communications do. Even with the storytelling opportunities that social networks and video provide, most technology marketers lack good storytelling skills.
“Visit any website and you’ll quickly see lists of product features, functions and capabilities,” said Richard Fouts, research director at Gartner. “While features and capabilities are relevant buying criteria, marketers substitute this style of communication for good stories. We tend to remember a good story, even years after we’ve heard it. We tend to forget lists of bullet points.”
Gartner interviewed several marketing executives (including a few outside the IT industry) and professors at leading MBA schools to garner insight into best practices for telling good marketing stories. The results have been culminated into a four-step process to help marketers hone their storytelling skills:
BtoB, 8/16/10
Lori Smith, senior manager-corporation communications at Kinaxis in Ottawa, knows a thing or two about white papers.
After all, they’re central to her company’s plan to steal business from some of the deepest pockets in the world. Kinaxis sells supply chain-management software and competes head to head with industry giants.
“We’re marketing against giants like SAP and Oracle, and we’ll never have their marketing budget,” Smith said. “So we’ve taken a thought leadership approach. Our idea is to get more content out there. It’s about building our brand and getting our message heard.”
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