“B2B is dead,” I told the several hundred gathered there. It gave me no particular pleasure to do so. I had founded a B2B agency in the American Midwest in 1981 and not only built my firm through the years into the world’s largest, but also championed the importance, distinctiveness and prospects of those professionals who market goods and services to other businesses. Friends in the industry took to referring to me as “Mr. B-to-B”; many still do.

But my offense against my own kindred was that I was to be the one to declare the party over. B2B is dead. Kaput. The discipline of reaching, persuading and engaging business decision-makers changed irrevocably when people began carrying their own telecommunications and computing power on their person. “Being at work is no longer a place, but rather a state of mind,” I told the audience last December. “The individual has replaced the firm as the organizing principle of business-to-business marketing,” I added. Human relevance is now the foundation of marketing to business decision-makers, and it is mostly terra incognito for those still lingering round the grave of B2B.

I have spoken to hundreds of audiences over the course of my career, written dozens of articles for publication and websites like this one, served on the boards of several important industry associations. But nothing I have ever said or done has been seemingly more influential than what I said on that fateful trip to Berlin in 2010.

When I returned to the U.S., almost immediately I was drawn into a widely covered public debate with our competitive peers, at least one of whom argued that we aren’t doing anything appreciably different than we ever have, only with different tools. I suggested he stay his present course in the hope and with the confidence that he would soon no longer be one of our competitive peers.

As we say in Appalachian foothill region from whence I hail, “We kicked a hog in the tail,” though I really wasn’t trying to be just the agent provocateur. I really, genuinely believed then, as I do now, that what we have known as B2B is dead, behind us. A passion for a new paradigm, a NeoB2B, has gone viral.

Nowhere was this confirmed to me more obviously than as I visited with clients and prospects throughout 2011. Our agency was named last year as advisor to Forbes Media for its Chief Marketing Officer Practice. My job has been to visit face-to-face and counsel with over 150 senior marketing executives in the U.S., Europe and the Middle East. With virtual unanimity, they have repeatedly affirmed the demise of B2B.

“There is no longer any such thing as B2B,” one told me. Another observed, “Work-life balance is a myth; it’s just life.” Yet another claimed, “Business decision-makers are just a different kind of consumer.” It seems that world-class marketers everywhere have awakened to the fact that today we are communicating with living, breathing human beings with aspirations, spirits and emotions. Oh, it’s undoubtedly true we’ve always known that business-to-business, at the end of the day, was person-to-person. But what the world’s savviest marketers seem to have appreciated quickly is that personalization was the last best practice. Humanly relevant ideas are the new best practice.

No longer is it enough to understand the requirements of a person in a job title to be successful in influencing that person to make a purchase consideration. No longer is it enough for an advertising planner to get into the head of a business decision-maker. With the amplified voices and the new organizational empowerment of these humans at work, successful marketers must get into their hearts. This venue is softer, more humane, more empathetic and, dare we say it, more loving.

People have been rendered numb by the demands of this new, flat-world economy: incessant messaging, high-performance pressure, overexposure, loss of privacy. It’s been said, “They love brands, but hate advertising.” In a day gone by, a person in employment would be pummeled by the day’s labor, and then retreat to the sanctuary of home to rest and regroup. Now, work follows them wherever they go, and they’ve become insensate to commercial messaging.

The only way we’ll revive them is with humanly relevant ideas that respect their humanity and ignite their hearts. That’s the new frontier in which we’re passionately focused.

by Rick Segal
President Worldwide and Chief Practice Officer

Follow Rick on Twitter @MrBtoB

Originally published at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

So, what did Apple and Amazon do that the others did not?

It seems to me that Apple and Amazon talked to consumers or at least looked at what and how they do things online.  Apple and Amazon came at their new product development process from the consumer point of view.  It would appear that they asked questions like: What are people doing with their current technology? What do they like and not like? Are there places that the current technology options inhibit what consumers want and like to do? What could we create to better enable consumers doing what they like to do? How can we improve their experience?

I somehow envision the other tablet manufacturers sitting at long conference tables in various global locations saying things like: “We have this huge investment in technology. So, what other spin-off products can we develop that won’t take much R&D time and leverages technology we have today?” Ta-da—tablets that act sort of like PCs are born.

So, getting back to Apple and Amazon, they figured out how people would use their tablets.  And it came down to two words: content and usability. Amazon and Apple are good at both, although their strategies in each area differ.

Today, tablets are being used to access the content “I” am interested in; access the various types of content formats (email, music, video, apps); offer me a way to curl up on my couch with my content, bring it on a plane or in a car, or take a bathroom break. (Staples Tablet Survey Talks about Usage Statistics)

In an article from Business Insider (Here’s How People REALLY Use Tablets) posted at the end of November 2011, the research showed that consumers spend 40 percent of their time browsing the Web and 21 percent use apps. With a tablet, a person can create his or her own universe of information. For many people, the tablet is their personal device customized to whatever is important to them. Unlike my laptop, which is often a work device that also gets used at home, when I launch my Kindle Fire, the device immediately becomes My Kindle. Over time, it becomes even more about me.

Apple, building on its iTunes success, experimented with “my” content long before the first iPad hit the streets. Both Apple and Kindle provide ways for iPad and Kindle Fire owners, respectively, to access all sorts of information in any number of formats. And the functionality built into these devices is just right for curling up on my couch or my seat back in coach to engage in my stuff.

The moral of the tablet story is: Marketers—know your audience. Don’t just create cool tech toys. Give consumers something they can use and enjoy.

by Carolyn Ladd
Vice President Account Planning and Digital Strategy

Cross posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

For example many organisations rely on central planning for rolling out digital initiatives in many different markets. The risk is in missing some of the key differences in those markets.

According to Orange Exposure 2011, a study that researched European habits in mobile Internet services and content, Spaniards increased their use of smartphones in one year from 29 percent in 2010 to 71 percent in 2011. At the same time, adoption of tablets went from 28 percent to 51 percent. Impressive numbers, but still tremendous room for growth compared to penetration in France and the UK.

More significant, however, is how Spaniards use these technologies. More so than their French and British neighbours, Spaniards are heavier users of smartphones for entertainment. It’s a way to kill time when no other screens are available for viewing. Tablets, on the other hand, are used more to save time and for more efficient navigation.

Spaniards consume more entertainment content on-demand and streaming through smartphones and tablets than through traditional media. Still, tablet users are far more likely to have used their device to complete a purchase than those relying on smartphones (60 percent vs. 35 percent). Spanish users also rely more heavily on their browser, as opposed to dedicated apps, to access the Internet than those in many western economies. In Spain, apps remain in an incipient phase.

The pace of development and adoption of mobile technology is different in each country.  Focusing on a single strategy for both content development and online communication is, therefore, not a valid approach. It’s important for marketers to understand the pace of technology development and adoption in specific markets and cultures so that they can be sure they’re delivering meaningful content through relevant channels.

Bottom line: If your audience is more comfortable buying online using a tablet, your plans for a phone-centred secure shopping app may be ill-advised.

by Ana Garcia-Hierro
General Manager, gyro Madrid

Follow Ana on Twitter @Ana5Names

Cross posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Advertising’s big business, to state the obvious. That’s why it’s sometimes easy to get lost in all those zeroes and media placements and forget where it all came from: the idea.

Ideas are the DNA of our work. They bring the message to life. They shape and connect its expression through various media formats. And, ultimately, they determine its fate. If an idea is good, you don’t necessarily need a lot of money to see it spread and flourish. If it’s bad, no amount of ad spend is going to save it. (New Coke and certain political candidates come to mind.)

The trick is coming up with one good idea. Just how and where are good ideas born?

Nature or nurture?

Some people are natural idea generators like Thomas Edison, Steve Jobs or Pat Gunkel. Gunkel, who once worked as an independent researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, came up with the science of ideas, called ideonomy. His plan: Map out and classify all manner of ideas and draw connections from them. Sounds like a brilliant idea, except it’s still in the backwater pages of an MIT website. Hmmm. Maybe it wasn’t a good idea after all, or one whose time has not yet come.

Some places are natural think tanks, like hot showers and cocktail napkins. They’re veritable petri dishes for new thinking, offering environments where random thoughts can mingle to create something new. Imagine how many great ideas have been born over suds, be it a brew or a morning shampoo.

Unfortunately, few of us are born geniuses. Typing in the shower’s impractical. And I’ll go out on a limb and say most agencies and marketing departments don’t want to get into the bar business, at least during normal working hours.

But your organization can encourage people to feel free to express themselves and explore. You can create an environment that enables various perspectives and disciplines to connect and cross over. You can create a culture of ideas.

I’m not saying it’s easy. Opening up our personal and organizational territories of hierarchy and expertise can be scary. But I’ll argue, it’s necessary. Now more than ever, business operates without boundaries, and so should our thinking. Ideas can come from anywhere, from the backstreets of New Delhi to the new guy in accounting to your local thrift shop. That’s exactly where the idea for the RedNek™ wine glass was born. Not too long ago, as Okie Morris went through a thrift store, she saw a Mason jar in one room and a glass candlestick holder in another, and inspiration struck.

“It just hit me to put these two items together and call it a redneck wine glass,” she said in a recent news story posted on CNN.com.

Now the RedNek wine glass is a bestseller on Amazon, earning more than $5 million in the first year for Carson Home Accents, which signed a licensing deal with Morris to manufacture and sell it. Pretty good for a novelty item that takes just $6.50 to make.

So as 2012 begins and we toast the birth of a new year, I invite you to take a sip from the RedNek wine glass, think of Pat Gunkel and write down on that cocktail napkin the happy returns you can expect when you invest in creating a culture of ideas. Cheers!

by Pamela McWhorter
Copywriter, gyro Cincinnati

Cross posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

If we exclude certain extremist movements that are taking advantage of this situation, who, then, are the last emotionalguides of our society? Who or what can create want, satisfy pleasure and decree the keys to the success of individuals and their degree of fulfilment? Who, if not brands and artistes (who have themselves become brands!)?

This statement is an acknowledgment of fact and certainly not a value judgment. It emphasises the role of brands in our society, looking beyond their ability to satisfy needs, which is clear. Each brand has its own universe, which will contribute to fulfilling the consumer’s expectations and existential needs.

The product itself adds to the brand universe, giving it physical form. In the choices made by consumers, the emotional value of the brand takes precedence over the functional value of the product.

And where is the CMO in all that? He will play a new role as a creator of emotions, producing his work through all possible channels of distribution. He will stage the brand through events, shows, films, games and ideological debate. All these productions will pursue the same aim, seeking to attract, group, move and convince consumers.

In making his choices, the producer CMO will seek to expand the brand audience across every channel used. Audience ratings thereby become the new barometer of success. The higher they are, the greater the increase in sales. The power of the audience ratings will influence the quality of product referencing in distribution and could even reverse the balance of power between brands and retail. In this new world, point of sales becomes a theatre that needs the productions created by the CMO in order to bring people in. The world is changing fast. Make way for the show and the audience ratings!

Ladies and gentlemen, waste no time in telling your CEOs that you have become a creator of emotions. They think you’re still a CMO!

by Didier Stora
General Manager – gyro Paris

Cross posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

It’s a common question for people in marketing agencies and other creative industries – and the answers inevitably always vary.
The artist Isaac Julien takes a magpie approach to inspiration: “I seek it from all sorts of sources; anything that allows me to think about how culture comes together. I’m always on the lookout – I observe people in the street; I watch films, I read, I think about the conversations that I have. It’s about taking all the little everyday things and observing them with a critical eye; building up a scrapbook which you can draw on.”

Fyfe Dangerfield, lead singer of Guillemots, likens the process to seeing ghosts: “The ideas are always there, half-formed. It’s about being in the right state of mind to take them and turn them into something that works. One of the most difficult things is the sheer number of distractions: mobiles, email, Twitter, YouTube. When you’re writing, you have to be very disciplined, to the point of being awkward: Turn off your phone and find a space to work without any of these distractions.”

The director Rupert Goold prefers to look to his subconscious for ideas. “Get an alarm with a long snooze function and set it early,” he says. “Shallow-sleep dreams have been the source of many of my best ideas. The best ideas are tested by their peaks and troughs. One truly great image or scene astride a broken mess is more intriguing than a hundred well-made clichés.”

“Inspiration can also come when a good connection is made with the subject,” says photographer Martin Parr. “The nature and quality of this connection can vary enormously. It may range from getting into a small community and winning the trust of the subjects over a number of visits, but it could also come from walking in the mountains and feeling a certain affinity with the landscape. The knack is to find your own inspiration, and take it on a journey to create work that is personal and revealing.”

The idea “Ignition” process starts with finding that inspirational touchpoint where an incontrovertible product truth collides with a deep consumer insight. What happens after this is a chain reaction of creative thinking that comes from every department and discipline, drawing upon all of the diverse talents and harnessing every channel of communication open to your brand.

Solving modern business problems in an ever-changing digital landscape requires a team that’s equipped with a mind-set as eclectic and well connected as the world itself. There’s no room for creative apartheid anymore. Anyone can come up with an idea, at any place, at any time.

For me, the best way of getting to that mystical place where the best ideas are is staring out of the window on a train journey. What’s yours?

by Peter Davis
Executive Creative Director – Manchester

Follow Peter on Twitter @DigitalDavis

Cross-posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

On one hand, the phones themselves can practically do everything short of making a double espresso (although if I downloaded the right app, my new Samsung might do that for me, too). The technology has advanced astonishingly fast—the svelte and alluring cell phone that seduced me a mere two years ago came to feel like a clunky and not-so-smart artifact I couldn’t wait to dump—and there’s no sign that it will slow down anytime soon. Shall I instant-message that new bistro for a reservation? No problem! How about high-res cameras front and back? Sure, when I shoot the Grand Canyon I want a close-up of my eyeball at the same time! Sudoku on demand? I’m on game 51 at the “Challenging” level! The frosting on this scrumptious digital cake is that I can even make phone calls—although texting is usually faster.

On the other hand, despite their ever-expanding spate of features and capabilities, cell phones—or more precisely and remarkably, smartphones—already seem to risk becoming commodities. The product life cycle of many models can be measured in weeks, at a time when more than 87 million Americans now own smartphones, according to a comScore report issued in November. The carriers themselves—Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile at the top of the heap—face an equally daunting challenge: How to beat their competitors with offers just good enough, just simple enough to entice and retain customers?

The extent of all this churn might well cause Charles Dickens, if he were reporting for CNET, to summarize the state of the cell phone industry in 2011 quite tellingly: “It was the best of times, it was the worst of times …”

In her remarkable book, Resonate, CEO and educator Nancy Duarte notes that “if two products have the same features, the one that appeals to an emotional need will be chosen.” In a recent online discussion of retail promotion strategy, Carol Spieckerman, president of NewMarketBuilders, commented that “when everyone has access to the same raw materials, sourcing, supply chain efficiencies, and democratized design, brand is really the ONLY difference.” [emphasis in original]

As a hardcore loyalist of cell phone carrier “X” for 15 years, I embodied the twin stars of Duarte’s and Spieckerman’s points. I couldn’t wait to trade up, and I eagerly scoured the company’s website for details on the various smartphone features. But that all changed when I hit the nearby corporate retail store.

Indifference reigned, and the store wasn’t even busy. The rep assigned to me pointed vaguely to a wall display. I asked about the data plan for all four members in our family plan. “Lemme go check,” he said.  Meanwhile, I tried a demo phone but couldn’t access the Internet. “Yeah,” the rep said when he returned.  “Customers mess ’em up, and our techs have to reset them.”

“Would that be possible to do today?” I asked. No, apparently not until late on Sunday.

“OK,” I said. “But I’m ready to buy four new phones and contracts today if I can try them out.”

“Gotcha,” he replied, then paused. “Thanks for coming in,” he added, as he turned away.

With the rep nowhere in sight, I left the store 10 minutes later and, after some thought, ended up in a competitor’s store down the street. I didn’t simply want a new smartphone, I realized; I wanted a brand whose ambassadors would share my excitement. If I were an IT manager aiming to equip my colleagues with mobile devices to help them win in the field, the process would have differed, but the desire would have been exactly the same. Let’s make some cool stuff happen!

As it turned out, my needs were met on the second try. A responsive sales rep understood and shared my delight with the new capabilities a smartphone would provide; by that simple human connection—by making a mash-up of gee-whiz technical features into somethinghumanly relevant—the rep made me a new brand ambassador.

We’ll see if that feeling lasts; for now, I’m enjoying my new phone. One might expect that intense competition in an industry would raise the level of customer service; however, the forces of commoditization may be hitting cell phone carriers much as they have the airlines, eroding investment in almost any aspect of the post-purchase brand experience. Brand loyalty? Lifetime customers? Whatever.

If that’s the case, then being a cell phone carrier nowadays must truly be brutal—especially if you work on the retail side.

by Pete Healy
Vice President – Account Planning

Follow Pete on Twitter @PeteHealy

Staff who believe in the brand, product or service they are marketing can become or act as “brand advocates.” It therefore makes absolute sense for businesses to take advantage of this opportunity. There are no additional marketing costs, and the staff effectively market a brand or service to a wider yet targeted audience of their friends and family. Office dynamics can help by creating the right breeding ground for brand advocates. But how do you create this?

Internal communications.

Digital has had a revolutionary impact on the ease with which people now communicate and no less in internal communications. Social networks present a realm of endless possibilities for employers to provide places where staff can discuss their work and how it inspires them, spreading a positive message to the rest of the company. Creating staff-only social network pages is a major step toward cultivating brand advocates, and it’s something that many companies forget when setting up pages for clients or fans.

gyro’s Facebook page, for example, is a place where internal communications and personal employee messaging combine, enabling staff to feel truly involved with the company whilst also providing a place for internal communications to be less corporate.

One such gyro communications scheme epitomises what can be done through this platform. As gyro rebranded itself last year, employee buy-in for the new ethos of the company was essential. Creativity is intrinsic in everything we do, and so we challenged staff to be creative with the new brand ID, incorporating their own personal images within it, offering an overseas trip to another office as the prize. Not only did this approach offer a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for an employee to travel, but it also let different global offices feel connected and motivated as part of one community. An overwhelming response saw employees from all 18 global offices uploading countless inspiring works that our Facebook community discussed and judged.

The use of digital was the driving force behind this competition, letting the creativity present in the marketing industry not only flourish and spread but also promote integration and company buy-in across gyro’s global network. Employees bonded over their work, becoming motivated as part of one community, despite living on different sides of the globe. This is something not possible without digital technologies. Moreover, employees became empowered by their work and the clients for whom they produce such work. These employees quickly became brand advocates, extolling the virtues of both their agency and their clients.

What other digital channels can marketing agencies use to create brand advocates? In an extension of social networks, blogs have become increasingly popular in many industries, not the least of which is marketing. An outlet previously reserved for those in senior roles (often limited to CEOs), blogs are a great way of giving employees at all levels the chance to air their views on anything from topical events to the latest office Christmas party. This transparency and inclusion can serve to make employees feel empowered and integral to a business far more than social networks can, where single contributions are often devalued by the deluge of comments. Encouraging comment through company blogs is a key stage in creating a dedicated workforce.

Dedication comes when employees feel like they actively contribute to the business, and blogging for a company is an apropos way of achieving this goal.

And what about apps? They’re often overlooked, but businesses are using apps to communicate with their customers, so why shouldn’t there be a corporate app for internal communications that can be delivered straight to employees’ mobile devices? Such a tool could be an attractive alternative to blanket company emails on topics suitable for a more sociable and less formal platform. Employees would be able to engage with their employer on their own terms, as app content is consumed when and where the user sees fit. This permission-based interaction constructively grows the employee-employer relationship. An internal communications app just makes sense.

Digital also can be used to promote, support and raise awareness of initiatives that staff may not be aware of. For example, gyro works with Business In The Community (BITC), an organisation that gives businesses and their staff the chance to volunteer for good causes on Give and Gain day. Such activities promote well-being and goodwill amongst staff, and so are well publicised through digital internal communication channels to encourage staff buy-in and involvement.

Involving and inspiring employees are the main goals of internal communications. It enhances productivity and can produce those all-important brand advocates who can turn a good campaign idea for a client into a great one, while also promoting that client amongst their social circles. Digital technologies can play an integral part in this, giving staff the chance to socialise online, develop working relationships and inspire each other. Integrating current communication programs with digital tactics can spread the company message throughout the entire business via all formats, be they Twitter, the blogosphere or apps.

Remember, a company is no longer a specific place or office building. It is made up of the thoughts and ideas of its employees, and so creating a positive working dynamic that utilises this source of creativity is integral to a successful business.

by Patrick Danaher
Director of Marketing
Cross posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Follow Patrick on Twitter @PatrickDanaher.

But let’s flip that convention. What if you treated your advertising as an app?

What if you approached the development of your marketing/advertising campaigns as you would in developing an app?

Look at the similarities between developing and deploying a campaign versus an app, both of which are designed to drive usage among their respective audiences who derive value through some form of utility that ultimately enables them to reach a certain outcome by accomplishing specific tasks.

For a campaign, those “tasks” are myriad, including downloading and accessing (video, white papers, product demos and lite/free versions), consuming (reading, watching, trying), distributing (tweeting and retweeting, sharing links, posting photos), creating (reviewing, ranking, blogging, commenting and posting) and so on.

Aren’t those actions the same ones that any marketer would be thrilled to have prompted by their campaign? All of such actions ultimately lead to the primary objective: purchase.

What’s the purpose of framing a campaign like an app? It requires us to think of the campaign not as a series of associated but independent activities (such as a banner ad, radio spot, email, website) but as a tightly integrated singular yet multichannel initiative that serves a specific purpose for both the “user” of the app (the target) and the “publisher” of the app (the brand) whose goal is to generate outcomes that lead to purchase or trial.

Given that most, if not all, inbound marketing tactics rely heavily on the creation of compelling content, thinking of brands as publishers isn’t a stretch.

And if you consider the aspects of what makes an effective app and an effective marketing program, the similarities are plentiful. You might be surprised how close in construct a PRD (product requirement document) is to a creative brief. Of course, both require a thorough and clear understanding of the user/target. But that’s tablestakes. An effective campaign (as does an effective app) needs all these elements:

• -Good UI – Does it have a good user interface considering the audience? Does the campaign have a well-constructed engagement model?
• -Intuitive – Are all the elements easily understood? Is it clear what’s being communicated and what the calls to action are?
• -Aesthetically pleasing – Is it well designed? Does it look good?
• -Utility and functional value – Is there real value being delivered? Is it useful and does it serve a purpose to the user/audience as they move from awareness to purchase and beyond?
• -Stability and adequate testing – Will it produce the results you’re expecting in all the channels you’re deploying?
• -Multi-platform – Does the campaign work well on mobile devices, in social media, on the Web/online, direct, etc.?

It’s safe to say that the 30 percent of apps that go unused a day after downloading don’t have the key attributes listed above. They’re either deleted or left for dead on the dashboard. It’s not hard to imagine the countless amount of poorly designed campaigns we’ve all experienced sharing the same fate and having no measurable impact and delivering no return to their “authors.”

Therefore, instead of trying to develop apps that are really vehicles for your message, which is a surefire way to suppress usage, think of constructing your message delivery in the form of an app, which, if done correctly, should provide real value to users and to your organization and possibly transform your competition into a bunch of angry birds.

by Roland Deal
Senior Vice President – gyro San Francisco

Follow Roland on Twitter @RolandDeal.

Cross posted at Ignite Something on the Forbes CMO Network

Thankfully, it turned out to be neither. The musical offering on Cesar’s Pandora station is a rotating selection of recent cuts by bands such as the White Stripes, the Pixies and Parachute. No beat-you-over-the-head holiday theming, but as Cesar brand director Tierney Monaco was reported to explain, “We thought a playlist of songs to enjoy with loved ones would be an exciting way to give back to our supportive consumers.” The station is also promoted on Cesar’s Twitter page.

While I don’t know the details of Cesar Canine Cuisine’s target demo, I do know that the brand aims to appeal to the owners of small dogs, and to women in particular. I have no doubt that Peeps and Tuni (sorry—our own two astonishingly adorable Chihuahuas) would rip into a can of the gourmet-ish meals like rabid micro-Rottweilers if given the chance; but the positioning of the product, as well as its branding, is just a little too precious for my taste. But then I’m not the demographic—or so it seems safe to assume on the basis of the Cesar/Pandora repertoire. (If Ingrid Michaelson is too vapid, Seal is fine; but Radiohead isn’t likely to show up on the playlist, unless they happened to cover “Let It Snow” and I missed it.) For the engagement and loyalty that the Mars company seems to want to build with its ideal consumers, the Cesar brand team is doing a nice job with this seasonal promotion.

Curiously, though, a part of the campaign seems to be missing in the execution. Press releases early this month announced a QR code on retail signage at more than 14,000 major retail stores, designed to help shoppers connect instantly with the Cesar Pandora station. Billed as the first QR-code promotion that Pandora has done, this publicity campaign would engage dog owners through a savvy integration of in-store and online touchpoints. Unfortunately, the Achilles heel of this strategy is that it depends on the retailer to set up and maintain the signage—often a futile hope, while at the same time a critical portal for the shopper.

I’m a sample of one, and the Cincinnati market may not be representative; however, after two weeks of looking high and low in major retail stores in this area, I have yet to find any signage about the Cesar/Pandora promotion next to the Cesar products on-shelf. A disaster for the Cesar brand? Not likely, but I’d bet that signage in more stores would generate substantially higher traffic to the Cesar site. So, with apologies for the, well, shaggy-dog story to get this far, we’re reminded that in the age of so much digital whiz-bang marketing, our ability to engage, win and satisfy customers still depends on the hard work of executing at street level. If that’s a yeoman’s job, it remains as important as it’s ever been for the best marketers.