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Thursday, December 20, 2007

Happy Holidays

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Labels: BRANDEMiX

Written at 7:16 PM by JODY.

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Manage Your Intranet. Don't Leave It to the Beav

By Susan Solomon, The ClickZ Network
Every day of his gray-hued life, Ward Clever kissed June goodbye, patted Wally and the Beav on their heads, and drove the Edsel to work. He sat at his desk until 4, pushed a few papers across the desk, and called it a day. The tune didn't vary much, except when -- every once in a while -- those crazy boys from accounting trotted across the hall to swap stories about those truly wild guys in finance. But that was a rarity. Most of the time, old Ward relied on a monthly corporate memo or two to learn about anything new in the company.

Today, Ward probably lives in Boca Raton and his sons Wally and the Beav are themselves nearing retirement at Ward's old stomping grounds, but, man, how times have changed. The company intranet has the power to keep them posted on everything that's happening to the company, not only in the Mayfield office but also at the outpost in Mexico City. "It's really neato," Beaver emailed recently to Wally. "But, geez, did you see what the guys and gals from accounting posted the other day? I don't think the company brass intended for us to use the intranet for publicizing the number of drinks they all enjoyed at their holiday bash."

Huh? Cut! I'll bet you thought this was going to be an article about the wonders of the intranet for employee communications. I'll bet you thought it was going to be about creating a free-for-all on the company electronic bulletin board. Well, yes and no.

The truth is, the content of internal communications is just as important as the external stuff. It may not be as glamorous, or as widely viewed, as a multimillion-dollar television campaign or even a well-visited Web site, but employee communications is truly a strategic function that affects the corporate bottom line.

Those marketing communications people who have responsibility for the corporate intranet have a very powerful tool to manage. Don't ignore your duties because it's "just internal communication." Employee relations efforts have a significant impact on your bottom line. Here are some suggestions for handling content.

The intranet is not a bulletin board. Don't clutter your site with employees' notices about cars for sale and condominium rentals. Worse yet is letting your site become a free-for-all. Employee communications -- similar to external communications -- must "stay on message." You don't have to be Attila the Censor, but you have to be a good editor. Set parameters early about what can and can't be posted. And make sure you -- or another communications professional -- are in the editor's chair. Set up a quick and efficient approval cycle and stick to it to prevent bottlenecks.

Architecture counts. Set up your intranet site with the same care you would your Web site. That includes considering which items go "top of fold." Test ease of usage with employee volunteers and listen to their responses.

Reward submissions. Give employees "beats" and reward them with bylines. But never, ever let an article go by without your initial perusal. (Have I emphasized enough the importance of an intranet editor?)

Don't mistake the intranet for email. Email is communicated to a select group of people under some semblance of confidentiality. Forget confidentiality on the intranet, where the message is shared with the entire organization. Therefore, if a department head has a message for a select group of employees, suggest the use of email instead.

Don't substitute the intranet for face-to-face communications. Employee satisfaction is highly influenced by the staff person's relationship with her supervisor. Remind supervisors that the intranet is not a substitute for communicating face-to-face with their direct reports.

Empower employees. Give people the tools they need to do their jobs better. This includes online educational materials, software tutorials, and postings of important presentations.

Expand benefits. Let employees better manage their benefits with tools that allow direct access to their pension accounts, health insurance, and so on.

Communicate the message. Use the intranet to let employees preview ad campaigns. Provide an explanation of the strategy behind the campaign and "talking points" that will help employees further the branding message through word of mouth.

Survey employees. Be as responsive to employees as you are to Web site visitors. Survey users on the effectiveness of your efforts, and don't forget to report on how you've used the information to make changes.

Yes, Wally and Beaver, company communications have changed. But the new medium is useless -- or could even have negative effects -- if you don't take seriously your responsibilities as communications professionals. So, pay attention to those corporate intranets. Otherwise, I'll tell Eddie Haskell on you.

Labels: BRANDEMiX, internal communications

Written at 3:52 PM by JODY.

Wednesday, December 12, 2007

YOUR BRAND- Will It Blend?

This morning’s email brought me the Top 5 viral video advertisements of 2007-- The advertisements that were most successful in attracting online viewers, as ranked by GoViral, the online marketing agency. It’s a subject I am fascinated by since everyone wants to go viral and its harder than you think to achieve viral status, particularly for commercial purposes.

I should know, I think that BRANDEMiX viral videos (http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=brandemix&search=Search) are hilarious but viral, they are not. Not even mildly contagious.

They are-
The Cadbury Gorilla Drummer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CbLr2NEV_7o
Launch online: August 2007
Views on Youtube: 5m + lots of other user generated versions

Smirnoff Green Tea Partay
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GWzNiUXTh7E
Launch online: August 2007
Views on Youtube: 3.4m

Ray-Ban - Catch Sunglasses
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-prfAENSh2k
Launch online: May 2007
Views on Youtube: 3.2m + user generated content

Lynx/Axe – Bom chicka wah wah
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8eUGtZr4Co
Launch online: August 2007
Views on Youtube: 3.4m

So, when I went to see the Best of for ‘07, I was was even more puzzled by most. Great songs, pretty girls, humor (particularly Ray-Ban) but still. And the trend of real Global Agencies making what looks like User Generated Home Movies?

There is one on the list that I do think is genius- for building a brand, a cult, and sales.

It’s a campaign called “Will it Blend”
According to a series of 30 second to two minute infomercials demonstrating the Blendtec line of blenders, especially the Total Blender. In the show, Tom Dickson, the Blendtec founder, attempts to blend various items in order to show off the power of his blender. Dickinson started this marketing campaign after doing a blending attempt with a box of matches.

Nothing could be less sexy than a blender, so the fact that this campaign- by the founder, has dramatically increased sales and built such a strong following is really impressive.

Impact

The phrase Will it blend? has become an internet meme on sites such as Digg. Dickson has revealed that the campaign has been a great success for Blendtec. “The campaign took off almost instantly. We have definitely felt an impact in sales. Will it Blend has had an amazing impact to our commercial and our retail products.” Dickson has made many national television appearances, including NBC's The Tonight Show with Jay Leno on March 30, 2007, on which he blended a rake handle in mere seconds.

Here’s the latest- Blending an Apple Iphone

Check the rest out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZLe0T1rUeDA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DieCnMS0G8k
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ek0OAXmer38
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=29qOT4JozSw
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k7SKDnhI3Eg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9POR8IfawVo
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a7JCrbRr54w
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIakPZ0DJjg

Branding for Business Results- That’s what I’m talking about!

Labels: BRANDEMiX, viral marketing

Written at 11:00 AM by JODY.

Monday, December 03, 2007

R.I.P- The Death of the Tag Line

From BrandWeek, November 26, 2007; T.L. Stanley

JUST DON’T DO IT

According to T.L Stanley at BrandWeek, that might be good advice for companies looking to build their brand in a world of blended audiences, fragmented media and high turnover of Chief Marketing Officers.

For generations, taglines have served as the foundation for advertising—a short statement poised to deliver the brand message in a memorable way. Today, there is some consensus that the tactic is on life support. Not so today. Starbucks, Samsung, Converse and others are among the growing number of brands that do not focus on the use of taglines.

“It used to be on the list of deliverables,” said Mike Wolfsohn, vp/executive creative director at Ignited, Los Angeles. “It was mandatory.He suggested marketers be bold and definitive about taglines, or skip them all together.

“Treat it heroically,”. “Celebrate it. Don’t relegate it to eight-point type in the lower right-hand corner.”

Too often, taglines are used as safety nets out of a fear that the rest of the campaign isn’t communicating well enough, he said.

Taglines are often more utilitarian and less emotional, experts say. They tend to be fed through the focus group mill until they’re watered down beyond recognition. That process does not produce “Think Different,” “Got Milk?” or “Just Do It.”

“If the Nike tagline were suggested today, the question back would probably be, ‘Just do what?’” said Wolfsohn. “There’s a level of trepidation now that people won’t get it and they won’t be able to parrot the idea back to you. So, taglines get over-defined.”

That’s when they lose strength and become meaningless, he said. For a slogan to stick, it’s not just coming up with five catchy words or less, said Landor & Associates’ managing director Allen Adamson. It’s vital to weave that message through all the communications and the very brand DNA itself.

“It has to be the right promise, with the brand living up to it, expressed in a sticky, unexpected way,” Adamson said. “And then you have to spend money and stay with it for the long haul.”

He points to GE’s “Imagination at Work” as a breakthrough tagline because it’s more than a slogan. “It’s the business strategy,” he said. “It’s the mission of the company.”

I have always thought of the tagline as the bag to match the shoes, and I will be sad to see it go.

Labels: internal communications

Written at 3:08 AM by JODY.

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