The third Thursday of each November marks a very important French holiday – the release of the new vintage of Beaujolais Nouveau wine. The wine itself is pretty low-grade (by French standards) and is typically only consumed by the French that first day and then is shipped out to the rest of the world where they consume it in mass, overpriced quantities.

But that first day is key – it is a day where French people throughout the country come out in droves to celebrate the new wine and drink many a bottle. It is through sheer marketing genius that they even call it a holiday and can even convince French people to get drunk on a Thursday night. And for that I am grateful because for once I’m not the most inebriated person in the bar.

So, three cheers (salut!) for French wine distributors jumping on the marketing bandwagon.

An inevitable debate is taking place around the nature of the marketing. John Moore, at his excellent blog, Brand Autopsy, has been a recent party to the discussion. He offers this edited footage of David Jones, global CEO of Euro RSCG speaking at a recent AdAge clambake.

Continue reading "The Nature of Marketing Revolution" »

I had a meeting this morning with a counterpart at a mid-size well established PR firm. We were discussing some of the work our company was doing for several clients. One in particular that was of interest to her involved helping our client to revamp a key executive's presentation content and style. I recommended the blog Presentation Zen to her when she inquired into some of the resources we utilized in developing our approach. I had forgotten what a great blog that Garr Reynolds has.

One of the things we have been preaching to all of our clients is to communicate in a way that is less autistic and more human. Many of the mediums we recommend have to do with applications for the Internet, as it allows more of a two way dialogue. But I had forgotten about how powerful a good presentation can be. It’s an opportunity to make a connection with your audiences, and potentially start an ongoing relationship with them. Unfortunately this opportunity is lost with many companies. They look at it solely as a way to push out information about their company or pitch their products and services.

As Garr points out in a recent post Presentations and Word of Mouth Marketing should play hand in hand. Giving your audiences something of value and providing a way for them to connect with you and your company goes a long way in fueling positive word of mouth. Direct them to a blog created around the topic being presented, share additional information and welcome feedback and dialogue. This has the added benefit of making it easy for them to share information about your company with their piers.

Think of presentations as an opportunity to build a new relationship and start a conversation. The end of the presentation is the beginning of the relationship, not the end of a tactic.

As if the impending global thermonuclear wasn't reason enough to stock up on soup ...

"The Andy Warhol Foundation is staging a marketing blitz for its founder this year, opening the archives to the likes of everyone from Hysteric Glamour, to Levis, to Barney’s. The most interesting—not to mention obvious—of these collaborations is their tie-in with the Campbell’s Soup company to produce a—yes, we’re going to say it—limited-edition line of cans in Warhol’s distinct color treatments. Don’t even front like you don’t want em. Keep your eyes peeled at the Piggly Wiggly, true believers…" (via Supertouch)

The Missouri Department of Transportation is floating a reminder of the consequences of wreckless driving in highway work zones. The timing of the PSA's release is brutally appropriate, of course, as the masses prepare to schlep to and from grandma's holiday soiree in wine-and-tryptophan-induced lethargy. The sobering MODOT spot, which for a low-budget, locally produced number does a solid job of evoking care and sympathy for our orange-vested comrades, concludes with the following plea:



... but given the untapped branding power of the highway construction aesthetic, I couldn't help but think they would made have made a more powerful impression with something along these lines:

Typos, malapropisms, and spilled drinks notwithstanding, creatives are – each in our own way – perfectionists. This just makes us ordinarily human, I reckon. After all, the pursuit of quality is a common human endeavor – an airtight moon base, a better relationship with Dad, a more comfortable sitting position – and perfection is just the ever-elusive end of that journey. But we perhaps wrestle more rounds than most with the unattainability of perfection because it's actually in our job descriptions, after the part about turtlenecks.

Continue reading "rounding corners" »

I'm sure everyone is already talking about this. Which, ain't that the point? The link was sent to me over IM. Utterly. Brilliant.

Russell Davies’ planning blog is a great read. I’ve been reading it for about a year now. I say this because I intend to make screed against something he wrote recently, and I thought I would show some respect before I wax polemical.

Continue reading "How to Feign Interest" »

Today is November 7th, Election Day. I am thrilled that after today I won't have to be bombarded with political ads that highlight everything people hate about advertising. Between the MO Senatorial race candidates (R - Jim Talent and D - Claire McCaskill) and the proposed State Constitutional Amendments (Stem Cell Research, Tobacco Tax) I couldn't tell you what to vote based on the ads. As the Election Day came closer and closer one camp would put out an ad making a negative claim against their opponent and a day later the opposing camp would completely discredit the claim and lash back with another negative claim. The proportion of negative attacks vs. image building ads has gotten more and more distorted over the years. If Nike and Adidas pulled these same tactics people would buy Reebok and sales would plummet. Too bad our political candidate and their parties still employ tactics that create decisions based on "the least of all evils" instead of the genuine embodiment of a candidate's values and credentials.

OK - rant over.

Reports are abundant of the experts’ incredulity of the success of Sacha Baron Cohen’s new film, ”Borat’s Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan”. Two seemingly obvious questions are: Why did the film make some $9 million on its opening Friday? And, why were the experts so wrong in their anticipation of this film’s failure? I have no pretensions about being the kind of expert whom have been rendering these prognostications, but I won’t let that stop me from trying to answer these questions.

I don’t have any desire to critique the film itself, so let’s just assume that Sacha and his film are good stuff. Anyway, I don’t have to critique it, because you can go to YouTube and see any number of Borat clips. Interestingly, this clip of Borat wrestling CBS’ Harry Smith has almost 500,000 views as of this evening. I submit that this is, in fact, the answer to the above questions. I don’t know how all these clips came to be on YouTube long before the movie’s release, but I wouldn’t be surprised if it were a part of a clever marketing strategy. I also wouldn’t be surprised to discover that the aforementioned experts knew little to nothing of this fact.

Update 11/6: That CBS clip has almost 900,000 views just two days later.