The Steve O-Zone

The Long A.A.R.M of Steve O...

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Tue, 31 Dec 2013 20:48:00 +0000

Aimless

Assemblage of

Rambling

Musings of an over-caffeinated, slightly ajar yet well-meaning writer/content creator and strategist.

Before I get to today's A.A.R.M., I wanted to make reference to the title. It is merely my very SEO-unfriendly title I use from time to time when I just want to spout off on anything that's on my mind.

Dell Redux

Tonight, during Dick Clark’s New Year’s Rockin’ Eve With Ryan Seacrest on ABC, Dell will release its first ad since going private. As you will see it's a very nostalgic approach playing up the not-so-small role Dell had in helping many now-famous companies become successful. It also speaks to perhaps a new approach from Dell re: going after a B2B market.

Personally I like it for it touches on, at least attempts to, the emotional quotient inherent in all of us. Will it be successful insomuch as driving sales? Obviously only time will tell.

And as you can plainly see it's a far cry from the old "Dude, You're Gettin' A Dell" spots from many moons ago.

Can We Talk?

An article in The Atlantic caught my eye a few weeks ago, specifically the title.

The article, as the subtitle references, is about an MIT psychologist by the name of Sherry Turkle. Ms. Turkle is in fact also a professor at the prestigious institution and the reason the article resonated so much with me is because I am, and have been a long proponent of the art of having a conversation; of actually speaking with someone either face-to-face or via the phone.

I prefer face-to-face and with things like Skype you can of course do this without being in the same room let alone the same country. But the phone is not a bad second option.

Here's an excerpt from the article with some key points highlighted:

"The conclusion she’s arrived at while researching her new book is not, technically, that we’re not talking to each other. We’re talking all the time, in person as well as in texts, in e-mails, over the phone, on Facebook and Twitter. The world is more talkative now, in many ways, than it’s ever been. The problem, Turkle argues, is that all of this talk can come at the expense of conversation. We’re talking at each other rather than with each other.

Conversations, as they tend to play out in person, are messy—full of pauses and interruptions and topic changes and assorted awkwardness. But the messiness is what allows for true exchange. It gives participants the time—and, just as important, the permission—to think and react and glean insights. “You can’t always tell, in a conversation, when the interesting bit is going to come,” Turkle says. “It’s like dancing: slow, slow, quick-quick, slow. You know? It seems boring, but all of a sudden there’s something, and whoa.”

As a contributor to Forbes I am presented with many opportunities to speak with people within the marketing and advertising world. Nine times out of ten I prefer my initial conversation to be an actual conversation, usually over the phone.

And I will tell each and every person I speak with that I prefer to do "this" - to have an honest to goodness conversation as opposed to one via email or some other non-personal medium. And when I tell the person on the other end of the line of my preferred M.O. they are always grateful and appreciative for the chance to exchange in real dialogue.

Here's hoping we NEVER lose the art of conversation.

Sitting Ducks

I've been reading more and more about what is commonly referred to as "Sitting Disease." It is essentially a result of sitting too long during the day, be it for work or leisure.

Image Source: juststand.org

As one who sits a good bulk of his day this scares the you know what out of me. There's a great piece I want to share with you from a site called primaldocs.com. Click on the link to read the full article and here's some snippets:

Long days of sitting are linked with increased risk of heart disease, excess belly fat, chronic inflammation, insulin resistance, and diabetes. The metabolic changes predisposing us to these conditions happen quickly, within 24 hours.
Fortunately for the desk jockeys, former NASA researcher Joan Vernikos, who studied the negative effects of sitting and how to counteract them, presents evidence for a sitting antidote in her book Sitting Kills, Moving Heals. Vernikos’ research found you can counteract the negative effects of sitting by standing up. A lot.
To combat the negative health effects of sitting disease, do the following:

Find an online alarm or alarm app that goes off every 20 minutes, reminding you to stand. Sitting and standing 35 times in a row does not deliver the same effect as spreading it out in regular intervals.
If possible, work against gravity more vigorously at your 20 minute intervals by squatting or doing squat jumps.
Move in your chair and maintain good posture with shoulders back as much as possible.
Incorporate “non-exercise” activity throughout the day, such as reaching for things, bending, kneeling, walking, lifting, and so on. Basically, avoid what is convenient for what is more active.

Brier Beware

My last topic in this issue of The Long A.A.R.M of Steve O comes via my friend David Brier. Like many other friends I have made over the last x number of years, David and I met online - which sounds like met via a dating site or something.

It was not a dating site I assure you but David and I "hit it off" as we share a lot in common, most notably our experience and passion when it comes to the world of marketing and advertising.

Recently, as in today - December 31st 2013, David posted his latest brilliant SlideShare presentation The best business slideshare of 2014 for brands and entrepreneurs.

You notice the fact that David, quite boastfully, proclaimed this presentation as being the best of 2014 despite the fact that we are not yet in the year 2014 - at least not in the US.

Well to know David is to appreciate his brashness as well as his knowledge and he is in high supply of both and it's one of the reasons we get along so well.

Yes, his title is tongue-in-cheek... or is it?

Here it is below. Enjoy and have a safe, wonderful and blessed New Year!

The best business slideshare of 2014 for brands and entrepreneurs from DBD International

How Lowe's, Zappos And IKEA Use Technology To Provide Added Value To Consumers

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Tue, 10 Dec 2013 16:20:00 +0000

The evolution of technology within the retail and e-commerce space is shaping how consumers behave and interact with brands and savvy, smart retailers know that understanding shoppers’ behavior is key for success. These retailers realize they can utilize technology to capitalize on consumer needs and customize offerings to help significantly increase their bottom lines.

Here’s how companies are using technology to provide added value to consumers:

Improved Customer Service

It is no secret that customer service is key in sustaining business growth - especially when you consider the fact that according to a CEI Survey, 86% of buyers will pay more for a better customer experience.

Retailers such as Lowe's and Zappos know this as well as anyone and have been internationally recognized for their outstanding customer service, excelling in areas such as enhanced in-store experience and free, effortless returns. Technological advancements in customer service, such as improved use of digital channels, are leading to heightened consumer expectations and higher standards for retailers. These retailers and others like them know that when they focus on the happiness and well-being of their customers, it is reflected in profits.

Simplified Checkout

Retailers are streamlining the digital path to purchase, providing convenient services such as one-click ordering, secure billing information storage, and direct purchasing from alternative retail channels, such as print circulars. By eliminating obstacles at the point of purchase, companies like Amazon and Pounce are catering to the modern user-experience and directly impacting ROI through higher checkout completion rates.

Avital Yachin, CEO of Pounce believes the checkout is the most important part of the interaction with customers. "It’s the point where customers make the final decision to move forward with making a purchase," he said. "Essentially, this is just a 'technical' step of transferring payment from the customer to the merchant, and inform the merchant as of where to ship the order that’s been placed. Any failure to complete the process will cause in a cancellation of the sale.

Real-Life Shopping Experience

Improvements to e-commerce websites and services will be a primary growth factor behind the US online retail market’s massive $370 billion projection for 2017, according to Forrester. Enhancements such as rotating, interactive product displays and dynamic personalization are enabling retailers to deliver an online experience more aligned with consumer preferences. Companies such as RotaryView and RichRelevance are utilizing technology to create an online experience similar to what consumers encounter in-store. The convenience of online shopping paired with in-store personalization provides customers with the best possible experience.

For RotaryView CEO Gev Rotem, the key factor for retailers is to make the online shopping experience as real as possible. "Whether it’s personalizing the site appearance for each specific user, enhancing product views, or highlighting key product offerings – as vibrant SALE signs do in-store, the goal is to make the online shopping process as easy and intuitive as possible," he said. " A vital factor that sometimes is overlooked is the way products are presented. By offering consumers a more engaging shopping experience, retailers will increase conversion rates and reduce product returns due to confident purchasing. The equation is simple: show more, sell more.

Value- Added Services

When companies offer value- added services, they are more likely to cultivate strong customer loyalty providing a competitive advantage. By utilizing modern technology, retailers are now offering value-added services to transform shopping into a comprehensive, enjoyable experience. IKEA Catalog, utilizes its mobile app to provide added services with an augmented reality feature to give consumers a virtual preview of furniture in a room, allowing for a digital test-run of brand-name products.

Let's Hear From the Retailers Themselves

Those who know me know I am always one prone to dig a little deeper, to get more information and knowledge from a given source and this is no different.

To see just how they utilize technology from a customer standpoint I spoke with:

Tom Lamb, CMO of Lowe's
Darrin Shamo, Director of Direct and Online marketing at Zappos.com, and
Claudia Willvonseder, Global Marketing Manager, IKEA Global Retail Services
In addition to posing a question about the use of technology and service, I also wanted to pick their brains on a few other relevant topics to this discussion: marketing integration between online/offline and relationship marketing.

Steve Olenski: How does your company use technology as a means to engage and relate to its consumers?

Tom Lamb: Technology benefits customer service interactions by providing consumers information when and where they want it and by supporting our associates as they work to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Lowe’s uses technology at all consumer touch points, including our stores, which are all equipped with WiFi, as well as online to simplify the shopping experience and engage with consumers from the day they first think about a project until its completion.

Darrin Shamo: Like many others in the industry, we’re on a continual quest to create a 1 to 1 connection with our customers. Technical developments such as personalized retargeting, triggered communication, SMS/push and master data management are all arrows in our quiver. While each of these efforts help us to reach our customers in a relevant and personalized way, we still feel that the most effective form of interaction is person to person connections. Our most effective mediums will always be those that help us connect with our customers on a personal level and leave them feeling heard, productive and ultimately wow’d.

Claudia Willvonseder: Overall when it comes to the area of Marketing IKEA is more of a low tech company. Technology for us is used if it is a good enabler to engage with the many people, stimulate their interest in home furnishing or facilitate the many people to plan and create their cosy and functional home with IKEA home furnishing solutions. In the new IKEA catalogue for instance you can find 100 products which you can through augmented reality technique place in your room and see how it fits and would look like. You can scan the back page of the IKEA catalogue to see what is new at IKEA all of over the year. By this we use the technology to create consumer value.

Olenski: How does your company integrate or orchestrate its offline marketing with its online?

Lamb: We are committed to reaching customers on their terms-- when and where they want to engage with us. We optimize the roles of all the different online and offline channels to communicate an integrated message to the consumer. Each channel plays a different role within the integrated campaign - reach, awareness, inspiration, product and price, just to name a few.

For example, during the fall season, we highlighted bath refreshes in several different ways across multiple channels, online and offline. We used TV (offline) to tap into a relevant consumer mindset and create urgency by messaging that guests are coming, and Lowe’s can help you update your bath by Thanksgiving. On Lowes.com (online), we delivered inspiring content with curated product lists and photography. Through tabs (offline), we demonstrated selection and price while using search (online) to be relevant to those consumers looking for additional information.

Shamo: Integration can take many different forms including style guides, coordinated testing, balancing demand generation with demand capture, etc. When it comes to coordinated messaging across all marketing channels we tend to think in terms of tone and theme. When visitors come to our offices for a tour they are greeted by departments with chants, bells or vuvuzelas.:-) Each department is free to communicate to our guests in the way they choose but all should evoke the same disruptive tone and theme. We take the same approach to our outward communication.

Willvonseder: Like the consumers we in IKEA Marketing do not think so much about offline and online marketing. Is an original TV ad which you watch on your tablet on YouTube while sitting in a café an offline media content or it is online? You can hardly say. Most of our marketing communication works with all paid, owned and earned media and we use our owned media IKEA.com as a channel for engaging the many people into the IKEA brand and company and into our home furnishing offer. Then with 210 million catalogues which are distributed every year you can see our believe that the offline world and media are still very much alive and loved by the many people who like to have a cozy afternoon on the sofa and start dreaming about a home makeover while reading and flipping through the IKEA catalogue.

Olenski: What' the most important thing a brand can do when it comes to relationship marketing?

Lamb: Good relationship marketing meets the consumer on their terms by getting to the point where a company can anticipate their needs. There is an opportunity to lead the customer to a solution. What we are working toward is pairing the data a customer provides us with information we know about where they live, such as weather, to provide relevant and helpful information to consumers at the time of need.

Shamo: Establish a reliable system for creating 2-way communication then methodically build your technology to improve this conversation.

Willvonseder: Our understanding of relationship marketing is a very wide one. Relationship marketing is in every touchpoint the consumer and customer has with IKEA , and for us the most important one is the IKEA store and the IKEA coworker you will meet there. Here relations are built, through a good fun day out where you small kids can play in Smaland, through a good Swedish meal for a very good price in the IKEA restaurant, through friendly and helpful coworkers, through inspiring room sets which show you how easily you can fulfill your dreams in home furnishing with IKEA. When it comes to the context of external marketing we get into touch and conversations with consumers and customers through Social Media platforms.

Technology photo credit courtesy of Mervi Eskelinen aka tasselflower

[[reprinted from Forbes]]

JFK Assassination: A Fable

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Fri, 22 Nov 2013 15:28:00 +0000

Below is something I wrote back in 2003 and even though I don't write much fiction these days, it is something I am very proud of and on this 50th anniversary of JFK's assassination, I thought it a good time to share it.

I hope you like it...

Arbitro Historicus

(Witness to History)

My name is Zachary Michael O’Neill. When I was fifteen years old, I witnessed something that forever changed my life. It is something I have kept secret to myself until now. I knew one day the time would come for me to reveal what I have kept hidden all these years.

I do not know why it remained locked within my soul until now. Perhaps it was his passing away. I know many people will be skeptical — some will be cynical. I know many people will simply dismiss this as mere folklore or the aimless and pointless ramblings of a misguided youth. Others will look upon me as nothing more than a spotlight-seeking, attention-grabbing, media hound for what I will reveal will reverberate throughout every classroom, every boardroom, every dorm room, and every hall of justice. It will be discussed around every water cooler in the free world and debated via every news-related source under the sun.

Surely upon reading my story the entertainment television shows and their mindless drivel contemporaries — that unfortunately have now become the main source of news for many Americans, will see fit to bestow the title of cause celeb upon me. But that is perfectly acceptable with me. I have come to grips with the fact that my story and subsequent ramifications it will cause therein is something I cannot control and unfortunately will be forced to deal with.

***

My story begins in September 1962. I was an only child living with my widowed father in South Philadelphia. When I was eight, my mother, while crossing a street, was struck by two cars simultaneously sandwiching her between two automobiles that were traveling at a very high rate of speed. Her legs, from the knee down, were literally ripped from her body. She was rushed to the hospital, but never regained consciousness.

The drivers of each vehicle were both found to be legally drunk at the time of the accident and naturally walked away from the accident virtually unscathed and never once saw the inside of a jail cell.

A few months later my father lost his job at the Pendergast Tool & Die Company. After that he bounced from job to job, not staying in any particular one for any length of time. His chosen profession was construction.

One day he got a call from an old Army buddy named Lee about a potential job in New Orleans. He told my father it was all but a done deal and that if my father would be willing to relocate, the job was his and would pay him $20,000 a year.

It did not take long for my father to decide what to do next.

Without any real family to speak of and since he never really got along with his in-laws, off we went to The Big Easy.

Needless to say, I was quite apprehensive and distraught about this drastic of a move. I would be leaving all of my friends. I would be starting a new school. I would be starting a new life.

We arrived in New Orleans on Friday, September 21st, 1962. The reason I know the date is I wrote it down. While I didn’t know why at the time, I decided to keep a daily journal beginning with my very first day in my new home.

I thought the summers in Philadelphia were rough with the heat and ridiculous humidity, but compared to the summers in Naw’lens, as the locals refer to it — it was a proverbial walk in the park.

And you wanna talk bugs? I saw things that either crawled, flew or both that could have had TWA printed on their sides.

If that weren’t bad enough the locals would invariably wind up eating many of these same creatures.

Crawdaddies? Ugh!

***

My father and I both started our new careers on Monday, September 24th, 1962 — he at the Tobias Construction Company and me at Lafayette Middle School.

Within a few weeks, I made some acquaintances, nothing special and began to settle in to my new surroundings.

My father and I developed a routine of getting up in the morning, having breakfast together, then him driving me to school on his way to work. Most days he would also pick me up at school. On days he was tied up at work, I simply walked the two miles from the school to our house.

Dad found this great little house to rent. It was a one-floor ranch style house, with a big back yard and a garage. I had my own room, which when you’re a teenager and puberty and the corresponding hormones are hurtling themselves in your direction at warp speed and your hormones are in overdrive, is indeed a beautiful thing.

Occasionally his old Army buddy Lee would come by and have a beer with Dad and the two of them would reminisce about their days together in the military. They would always go in the garage to drink and talk. I never thought much of it; only that they were trying to be quiet as I went to bed.

Lee was a small, balding man, not very gregarious toward me. He wasn’t mean or anything, he just didn’t say much to me. A quick ‘hi’ and ‘goodbye’ was pretty much the extent of our conversations.

Then he stopped coming around. I remember asking my Dad what happened to Lee and why he doesn’t come by anymore.

When I would ask him, my father would quickly change the subject, and I quickly realized it was better to not even bring it up.

***

Our first Christmas in Naw’lens was, um different. The year before, we awoke on Christmas Day in Philadelphia to thirteen inches of snow.

We awoke on Christmas Day in Naw’lens to a temperature of seventy-five degrees and rain.

“I’m dreaming of a wet and balmy Christmas” just doesn’t cut it. But we made the best of it.

The next year we got to experience our first Mardi Gras. All I will say about that is I think I had a great time. I honestly cannot remember. I would tell you what I wrote in my journal, but the page for that day is blank.

It would turn out to be my one and only Mardi Gras in Naw’lens.

***

When school ended in early June of 1963, I was anxious to hang out with my friends. There were three of us, all the same age with all the same inexperience and collective wetness behind our ears. We were all eager to explore everything The Big Easy had to offer to a bunch of fifteen-year-olds.

As it would turn out, I would get to hang with my friends a lot more than I had planned on.

When we first arrived in New Orleans the previous July, my father gave me a curfew of 9:00PM each night. This would remain my curfew until it such time school started. Not having any real or close friends yet, the majority of my time in my new home was spent in the comfort of my room, alone. And when I did venture out, I never even approached the imposed time limit. Most nights were spent documenting my day in my journal.

So when the ’63 school year ended, I assumed the same curfew would be enacted. I was actually hoping to extend it slightly, perhaps to 10:00PM.

As it would turn out, I got a lot more than I bargained for.

The very first night I was home without the ‘tomorrow’s a school night’ edict hanging over my head, my father informed me I could stay out ‘as long as you want.’

He went a step further and told me not to come home before Midnight.

Why was he telling me this? Why was he allowing his fifteen-year-old son to not only stay out as long as he wanted, but not to return until at least Midnight?

I didn’t know and I didn’t care. All I knew was I was given a free pass and I was not about to question why?

Now, I was not a bad kid or anything. But tell me: What would you have done in my situation?

***

For the first few weeks of the summer of ’63, I was having a great time. Getting home around 1:00PM each night with not a care in the world.

Granted staying out until such a late hour did cause a cramp in my journal keeping, but I did manage to stay on top of it by writing about my day the following morning(s). On most nights my father would already be asleep when I got home. By the time I got up the following morning, he was already gone, on his way to work.

One night however, things would change.

I believe it was a Thursday. I was out with my friends as per the norm when I suddenly started to feel ill.

Was it something I ate? Perhaps. There are only so many bags of potato chips a person can eat before ones’ innards begin to rebel.

Was it something I drank? Before you start to think that my friends and I were consuming mass amounts of alcoholic-type beverages, think again. Yes, we did occasionally get our hands on some beer or wine, but for

the most part, our beverage of choice was Coca-Cola or any other soda pop we could get.

Perhaps it was the combination of the chips and cola that was causing my insides to erupt. I didn’t know and frankly I didn’t care.

I wanted to go home. I wanted to crawl into my bed. I didn’t even notice what time it was. All I knew was I wanted to be home, now.

A block from my house, I noticed the light on in the garage. Then it hit me.

It’s too early. Sure enough I looked at my watch and it read 10:30.

What do I do?

I have to go home. It’s that simple. I know my father told me not to come before Midnight. But this was my father after all and I, his son, was sick. Surely he would understand.

As I approached my house, I could see through the garage window that there were quite a few people inside. They were making quite a bit of noise. No music was playing or anything like that, but rather loud discussions or better still, arguments.

As quietly as I could, I made my way into the house and to my room. My plan was to be as silent as I could until Midnight. It would not be easy.

My silence lasted all of two minutes.

The lava that was the contents of my stomach was beginning to rise to the surface. Eruption was imminent. There was no way I could wait until Midnight. My mind was willing but the intestinal storm inside me was not.

I exited the bathroom after emptying my insides to find my father waiting for me just outside the door. He was not happy.

“What the hell are you doing home?!” he bellowed.

Although I tried to explain the circumstances behind my being home earlier than the pre-determined time, my father had absolutely no compassion.

“I will let it slide this one time” he stated matter-of-factly. “But don’t ever let it happen again.”

I had never seen my father so enraged. I was, for the first time in my life, afraid of my father. I was afraid he would actually physically hurt me. After a pause that seemed to last forever, he threw daggers at me with his eyes, then left to return to the garage.

I went right into my room and closed the door behind me.

I cracked my window to let in some much-needed fresh air, and just as I did I could hear voices. Although I could not see anyone due to the way the house was situated in relation to the garage, I could clearly hear the conversations.

The first voice I heard was that of an Hispanic man. He was speaking Spanish so I could not understand what he was saying. I could however tell from his tone, that he was serious, that he was trying to make a point as his voice kept rising over others.

I then heard a familiar voice, that of my fathers’, but he too was speaking Spanish.

‘Huh? ‘

‘Since when does my Dad speak Spanish?‘

I then heard another familiar voice, that of Lee — Dad’s old Army buddy that hadn’t been around in quite some time.

Lee too, was not speaking English. But he was not speaking Spanish, either. I did not recognize what language it was at the time. I would come to learn later that it was Russian.

There were others in the garage but the three doing the most talking were my dad, Lee and the Hispanic man. There was some English being spoken, but in my near-catatonic state, I was not able to decipher or remember much. The only thing I would recall the next day was my father saying, in English:

“No, I still say it’s got to be October. It makes the most sense. St. Louis in October.” My father was quite adamant in his tone.

The next day I awoke expecting another tongue-lashing but instead found my father cooking breakfast, acting as if nothing had ever happened.

I never once asked my father about what I heard nor did I ever arrive at my house during the balance of the summer any earlier than Midnight, no matter what condition or predicament I may have found myself in.

But I never forgot what I overheard that night.

***

September came and it was back to school and the 9:00PM curfew was reinstated. As soon as the school year began, the meetings in the garage ended. I didn’t realize it at the time, but this is exactly the time of year that Lee stopped coming around the year before.

Given what had transpired during the summer, I thought or assumed that our daily routine of dad driving me to school and picking me up would cease. I guess I figured he might be mad at me still, even though he never yelled at me again.

But once again, my father surprised me and on my first day of school in September of ’63, there he was — ready to take me to school.

Even though things had returned to some sense of normalcy, I still not could get out of my mind what I heard my father say or what exactly it meant. As I said earlier, my father was adamant, almost defiant in his stance.

When October rolled in, I nervously, or better still, anxiously waited for my father to tell me he was going to St. Louis. Why? I didn’t know, really. I just expected him to tell me this at some point.

But that never happened.

***

In the early morning of Wednesday, November 13th, I was suddenly awakened by the sound of the phone ringing. It was 2:00AM.

Thought: Why is that whenever the phone rings in the middle of the night, it’s more than likely
bad news?

But I digress.

Since his room was right next to mine, I could hear my father speaking to someone on the other end. He spoke in Spanish and English.

Unlike the last time I overheard a conversation my father had in which he spoke Spanish, I was completely in control of my faculties and wasn’t faced with the urge to visit the porcelain god every two minutes.

And while he tried to keep his voice down, he raised it a few octaves during the course of the conversation thereby allowing me to clearly hear what he was saying.

It was during the higher-volume portions of the call that I was able to make out my father saying the words, verbatim:

‘Ft. Worth. Dallas. Houston. November.’

The next morning I remember asking my father who had called so early in the morning.

Hesitating at first, he said it was Lee.

“What did he want?” I inquired.

“Nothing, just needed to talk to me about something,” my father replied.

With that, the subject was closed and off to work and school my father and I went, respectively.

I could not concentrate all day. My father was into something, but I didn’t know what. I could just feel it. I could not escape this overriding feeling. I could not come out and ask him for fear of angering him. I needed to know. I guess I would just have to wait until something happened that was out of the ordinary and that hopefully would shed some light.

It would not be a very long wait.

***

The next Thursday, November 21st, my father picked me up at school and announced that he had to go to Dallas later than night. He explained to me that he was asked to go to Dallas by his boss to help on a construction site. He told me he would only be gone one night and would be back late Friday evening.

We arrived back at our house, my father went to his room, packed a large suitcase and left. It was that quick. It was that abrupt. He was gone.

About an hour after he left, I made a decision. I made a decision that would change my life forever.

I decided I needed to go to Dallas. Why? I had no idea. All I knew was I needed to go to Dallas. My father was going to Dallas and he was up to something. I had no idea what. I just knew I had to go.

Scraping every last penny I could find, I rounded up what I hoped was enough money to purchase a round trip bus ticket to Dallas.

I went to the bus station as soon as I awoke the next morning.

Fortunately for me, I did in fact have enough money to purchase the ticket and I was on the 8:10AM bus to Dallas. Sitting on the bus, it hit me.

‘Why didn’t I think of this sooner?’

‘Why did my father need to take such a large suitcase with him if he was only going one night? He could’ve easily fit one day’s worth of clothes in a smaller bag.’

Now, my curiosity as well my heart was racing. Upon arriving in Dallas other thoughts came across my mind.

‘How in the world am I going to find my father?’

‘Why didn’t I ask him the name of the construction site he would be working at?’

‘I could’ve just told him I needed to know in case I had to reach him in an emergency.’

‘Why am I just thinking of this now?!’

***

Walking through the bus station, I felt this overwhelming sense of electricity around me. There was a buzz among the patrons that day. It was clearly discernible.

“Come on, we gotta hurry up,” said one woman hurriedly to her husband.

“What time is he getting here?” asked a man of another as they stood in line to buy a newspaper.

I had to find out what was going on. I went up to a little old man who stood patiently waiting to shine shoes. He was easily in his sixties, perhaps even older. He wore a kind face so I felt comfortable approaching him.

“Excuse me, sir. Can you please tell me what everyone is so excited about?”

“Are you kidding me? You really don’t know?”

“No, I really don’t. I just got off a bus from New Orleans.”

“The President’s coming to town today! He’s gonna be here in the afternoon and he’s gonna ride through the streets so everyone can see him and wave to him!”

“The President?” I asked just to confirm.

“Yeah, John Fitzgerald Kennedy himself, right here in Dallas.”

“Where will he be?”

“Well, I don’t know ‘zactly, but I’m heading over to Dealey Plaza cause that’s one place I know he’s gonna be passin’ through.”

I slowly ambled away from the man and began to walk away and head toward an exit door to begin the search for my father.

“Hey, you wanna come wit’ me?” a voice cried out.

I turned in the direction of the voice and it was the same little old man.

Thinking to myself that I didn’t really have any idea of where to start to look for my father and this may be a once in a lifetime chance to see the President of the United States in person…

“Sure. I’ll go with you.”

Why I decided to go anywhere with a total stranger was beyond me, but off we went.

***

About halfway into the twenty-minute car ride over to the Plaza, a strange, yet unmistakable sensation came over me. I had never felt these feelings of unnerving anxiety combined with maddening anticipation before in my life and frankly never have since.

As we approached our destination, we could see that there were hundreds, if not thousands of people already there, lining the streets surrounding the Plaza awaiting their chance for a glimpse of the President.

The old man, whose name I never did get, nor he mine — parked his car as close to the Plaza as possible, which was about three city blocks away.

We walked the three blocks and stopped at the corner of Elm and Houston Streets. The electricity in the air was absolutely palpable. I got chills standing on that street corner. It seemed as if the whole city came out to see the President. And I had completely forgotten about looking for my father. It was the furthest thing from my mind.

After just a few minutes I felt the need to move. I didn’t know why or to where, but all I knew was I wanted to move around; to circulate.

I said goodbye to my newfound friend, thanked him for the ride and off I went.

I didn’t get very far until the crowd was in a complete frenzy. I asked someone what was happening and they told me that someone had spotted the President’s motorcade and that it would soon be here.

So I stopped right where I was and decided this would be my vantage point to see the President of the United States as he passed by.

What would transpire over the next several minutes would change my life forever.

***

I spotted the President’s motorcade across Elm and across the Plaza. It seemed to be moving in slow motion; it was travelling very slowly.

He would be passing by me from my left to my right. My heart was pumping extremely fast and I was sweating. The noise was deafening. It was as all just so exciting. I thought about my friends back home in New Orleans and how I couldn’t wait to tell them that I got to see the President! How I would explain being in Dallas was another story.

The motorcade turned the corner onto Elm and for the first time, I could make out the President’s face.

‘Wow, that’s really the President!’ I thought to myself.

Suddenly and without warning, the President threw his hands in the air. It just seemed out of place. You didn’t know why or what has happening, it just seemed odd. He wasn’t waving or anything, he just threw his arms up.

Almost instantaneously, someone yelled out that the President’s been shot. Not everyone heard this as most

continued watching the motorcade. The voice came from my right and I instinctively turned in that direction.

Not thirty yards from where I was, a man stood with a rifle in his hands. He was in a shooting position. I distinctively remember thinking to myself, ‘Who is this and what is he doing?’ and ‘Why isn’t anyone stopping him?’

The entire area erupted in complete panic-mode. A man screams in pain and a woman shrieks like the wail of an air raid siren. Police whistles blow from every direction. People fall to the ground for safety. I however, did not. My focus was on the man with the rifle.

I started in his direction and saw that he now was carrying a bag over his shoulder, which presumably contained the rifle, which was now nowhere to be found. He was now walking away from where he had stood just minutes before. He was not running. He was walking and was doing so in a very calm manner. I got to within maybe twenty feet when I finally got my first, real good look at this man.

Webster tells us that the word “surreal” means having the intense irrational reality of a dream.

Intense irrational reality is the perfect way to describe what I was feeling throughout every fiber of my being as I confirmed that the man I just witnessed shooting at the President of the United States was in fact, my father. Or someone who bore an unbelievable and uncanny likeness to him.

Somehow I ended up on the ground as when I awoke from my surrealistic dream that is where I lay. Gathering what was left of my senses, I immediately got up to look for my father. I ran in the direction I last saw him, but he was not there.

I thought I spotted him near some train tracks. But it was not he. I thought I saw him amidst a crowd of people standing on the Plaza grass. Again, it was not he. I even thought I saw him when I made my way back to the bus station, several hours later. Again, a false alarm.

I didn’t want to leave, but I knew I had to. So back on the bus and back to New Orleans I headed. What awaited me there was anyone’s guess. On the ride home there were so many thoughts and scenarios running through my head.

‘Do I go to the Police?’ ‘Would they even believe me?’

‘Do I confront my father?’ ‘What do I say to him?’

I had a lot of thinking to do and spent the entire ride home planning my next move.

***

By the time I turned the corner and spotted my house for the first time since the incident, my decision had already been made.

I was going to confront my father. I felt I had no choice. I had to find out what he was doing in Dallas. The closer I got to my front door, the more I wanted to run away and hide. I opened the door and to my relief and amazement, my father was not home yet. It seems I had gotten home before him somehow.

Of course all this new found free time allowed me to start thinking of altering my plan. I literally went through a roller coaster of emotions and thoughts:

‘You know it might not have been my dad I saw.’

‘It is possible it was someone else.’

‘But if it wasn’t him, then what was he doing in Dallas?’

‘After all, I heard him mention Dallas specifically during that early-morning phone call.’

This game of emotional Ping-Pong went on for the next hour or so until…

The front door opened and there appeared my father, looking like he had just gone through a car wash without the car. Haggard. Disheveled. Unkempt. He walked right past me without so much of a greeting and went straight to his room, closed the door behind him and proceeded to sleep to until around 5:00PM the

next night, Saturday, November 23rd.

Now, given the fact that the news about the President was everywhere on the radio and TV and that everyone was talking about it — and that my father had just returned from the very same city in which the President was shot, you would think he would at the very least want to talk about it.

I guess not.

***

I was in the kitchen when he awoke and came in to find me sitting at the table. He joined me at the table and asked me how things were in his absence. I lied and told him things were fine. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, I decided to stick to my guns.

“Dad, can I ask you something?”

“Sure.”

“What were you doing in Dallas?”

My tone must’ve spoken volumes because my father fired back at me.

“What? What’ya mean, what was I doing in Dallas? I was there on work, you know that.”

“Anything else?”

My dad sat up in his chair.

“Anything else? What the hell’s goin’ on? Why do I get the feeling I’m being interrogated?”

“Dad, I have something to tell you.”

“I was in Dallas yesterday, too.”

My father cleared his throat, took a sip of his drink.

“Okay, what the hell is going on? I want to know exactly what you’ve been doing since I left. And I want to know now.”

“After you left, I decided to follow you to Dallas.”

“What? … Why?!”

“Because there were just too many strange and unanswered things going on around here and something told me to go.”

“Strange things?”

“Yeah, like the people in the garage that night when I came home sick. They were speaking Spanish. You were speaking Spanish. I never knew you could speak Spanish.”

“Like that phone call in the middle of the night when I heard you say the words Dallas and November to the person on the other end. Then a week later you tell me you have to go to Dallas that same night.”

“I can’t explain it, Dad. I just got this feeling. That’s it.”

My father sat stone cold quiet for the next few minutes.

“What did you think I was up to in Dallas? What did you think you would find me doing in Dallas?”

“I don’t know, Dad. I really didn’t.”

“So you followed me to Dallas. I don’t even wanna know how you got to Dallas, but okay.”

“I took a bus.”

“Where’d you get the money for that? Never mind. Well obviously you weren’t able to find me cause I never saw you at the construction site I was working at.”

“Well Dad, that’s just it. I did see you.”

“Where?”

Here it comes, I thought to myself. Now I sat up in my chair.

“Dad I was there. I was there when the President got shot.”

“What?! How the hell did you get there?”

“It doesn’t matter. I was there.”

“Wow! That must’ve been something son. Are you okay?”

“No, I’m not.”

“Did you get hurt?”

“After the chaos started Dad, I saw a man shooting a rifle at the President.”

“What?! Are you kidding me?”

“I got a real good look at him, too.”

“Really? So you can identify him?”

“Yes, I can.”

‘This is incredible. I cannot believe this. You realize you are witness to history? This is incredible! We have to call somebody.”

Now either my father was the greatest actor in the world or he really was not where I thought he was because he genuinely seemed and sounded completely taken aback and in total shock over what I had just told him.

“Dad, there’s one more thing.”

“More? Jeezus! What else?”

‘The man I saw shooting the President… kinda’ looked liked… you. Plus…right before you got up just now, they flashed a picture on the TV of the man they have accused in the shooting of the President. His name is Lee Harvey Oswald. And he looks exactly like your Army buddy Lee.”

After what seemed like an eternity of silence, I stood up and moved to the other side of the kitchen. My father remained seated.

Having just got this most recent news, coupled with what I already knew, my head was spinning and my emotions were in a free-fall.

“Dad, what the hell is goin’ on?”

I had never used bad language in front of my father before.

Over the next three and a-half-hours my father and I spoke, right there in the kitchen. He told me everything. He told me of being in Dallas. He told me that it was in fact the same Lee Harvey Oswald, the man accused of shooting the President of the United States that had been to our house.

He told me he didn’t tell me the truth for reasons of national security. That he was protecting me. He told me of the evil that was President Kennedy and that he needed to be stopped and that if they didn’t do it, someone else would.

And he apologized. A lot. And said he hoped I could one day forgive him.

I went to my room and literally shut myself off from the world. No TV. No radio. Nothing. I did not want to talk to anyone nor see anyone.

I was preparing for school on Monday when my dad told me that schools had been closed as a result of the President being shot.

I returned to my room and stayed there.

Two months later my father told me we were moving to Tennessee.

Neither one of us ever mentioned New Orleans, Dallas, JFK or anything remotely related to the incidents ever again.

***

I am forty-two years old now. Married with one son. Last week I said goodbye to my father. He passed away quite suddenly and unexpectedly.

The doctor told me it was a massive heart attack brought on by stress. He told me he was surprised because my father had always been the picture of health.

“It’s as if his heart just gave out,” the doctor said to me.

Guess you can only keep a secret for so long.

All images courtesy of Google Images

October Rain

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Thu, 31 Oct 2013 15:53:00 +0000

This (below) is something I wrote back in 2004. I just re-discovered it after thinking I had lost it forever and I wanted to share it with you.

It is a very personal story that has to do with the experience and epiphany I received 5 years prior as a result of my daughter being born.

Hope you like it...

October Rain

We are all conditioned at an early age on a varying and sometimes dizzying array of topics. We are conditioned to never trust strangers. We are conditioned to believe that if you do well and are good to people, you will one day make it to heaven. We are conditioned to love our mother and father; our brothers and sisters; our pets and perhaps our favorite foods. And if we are truly lucky; truly blessed; downright shined upon, we are also air-conditioned.

Okay, a little levity…sorry.

One additional item that we are conditioned upon, is the weather. Mother Nature and her oft-rambunctious children have a funny way of leaving their mark upon our psyche.

Snow conjures up, amongst many images — carefree days as a child spent frolicking playfully and Christmas and all the enjoyment that goes along with that time of the year. Generally speaking, the thought of snow has a relatively positive connotation.

However, for whatever the reason, our initial thought processes regarding water falling in drops condensed from vapor in the atmosphere otherwise hereto for known as rain is to equate this natural phenomenon with gloom and unhappiness and an overall sense of the blues. As children we associate rain with one undeniable, irrefutable and unmistakable truth:

We are not allowed outside to play!

As we get older of course, we learn that rain is not always necessarily a bad thing. We are educated on the ways of nature and how our mother from time to time must feed her children.

As adults we are further schooled on the intricacies and previously hidden meanings and nuances of these tears from above.

There’s a line from a song that reads: "I wish that I knew what I know now when I was younger."

Obviously this little bit of hindsighted, retroactive insight can be applied to a myriad of subjects — but in terms of rain, if we knew of rain’s alter ego as children, perhaps this would have helped lessen the indignation we felt towards the heavens whenever it had the audacity to rain upon our proverbial parade.

But alas this is not the case and it is not until we are older, wiser and more experienced that we can genuinely appreciate the subtleties of rain.

To paraphrase a great American, there all kinds of rain: “Little bitty stingin' rain... and big ol' fat rain. Rain that flies in sideways. And rain that seems to come straight up from underneath.”

To build upon Mr. Gump’s words of wisdom, there are additional varieties of rain — some with their own distinct significance and meaning. Often times however, the hidden message which accompanies such rains, is not readily apparent to those it falls upon or is simply lost on misguided or preoccupied souls.

One such unique and meaningful rain fell upon me on the afternoon of Wednesday, October 20th in the year 1999. That particular day started out in a somewhat less than typical fashion as my wife Terri, already ten days late with our first child, awakened me at the ripe hour of 4:30AM. She was having contractions and insisted — make that demanded, I join in on the fun.

After speaking with her doctor and timing the contractions accordingly, we left for the hospital around 7:00AM.

The weather: sunny, warm, especially for this time of the year — literally not a cloud in the sky. An absolutely glorious day to be sure.

After getting checked in and getting settled, we assumed the parents-to-be position.

My wife in a bed with yours truly right beside her on an unusually-comfortable-hospital-provided-expectant-father-chair.

Approximately four hours into our journey, my wife decided she had had enough and was now ready for essentially any pharmaceutical she could get her hands on. After receiving an epidural, she was ready to relax and wait.

To aid in her relaxation, she asked that some music be played via the CD player we brought with us from our home.

So, as the one playing the supporting role in this ever-changing melodrama, I proceeded to make the necessary arrangements. Got the CD of choice out its case, placed it in the player, hit the necessary functionality feature and…nothing.

Not a sound. Not a peep. Nothing.

Much like my wife, the batteries were in their own anesthetized-state. The difference being that unlike my wife, they would not be coming out of their current condition any time in the foreseeable future.

Like some sort of superhero, I immediately processed the information through my brain as to where I could obtain batteries in the least amount of time and quickly devised a scheme to achieve the desired outcome.

‘I got it!’

‘The gift shop in the Lobby!’

Off I went.

As luck would have it, they were out of D-Size batteries.

‘Okay, Plan B.’

‘The drug store down the street.’

‘But my car keys are upstairs in the room.’

‘A little exercise never hurt anyone and time is of the essence.’

So off I went, again.

I was not twenty feet out the front door of the hospital when my very own epiphany-inspired rain began to fall.

From out of the blue…sky, the rain fell as the skies instantaneously turned dark and threatening and the temperature inexplicably plummeted.

Running as if someone’s life depended on it, the un-timeliness of this rain and change in the weather crossed my mind. And even though I am a firm believer in the adage everything happens for a reason, I decided I needed answers to some questions.

‘Why are you doing this to me, God?’

‘Why is it raining now?’

‘Why was the gift shop out of D-Batteries?’

‘Why does this particular CD Player use D-Batteries?’

Arriving at the drug store and looking as if I just went through a car wash without the car, I located the section of the store that housed batteries, made my purchase, exited the store and returned to full gallop.

I immediately returned to the engaging conversation I was having with myself and the rhetorical questions I was posing to God.

‘Why didn’t I go back for my car keys and drive to the drug store?’

‘Why didn’t I bring the electrical cord for the CD Player with us as a backup in the event of battery failure?’

‘What types of medication are on the market to help someone like myself who holds conversations with themselves and can I get some when I get back to the hospital?’

The one prevailing question that kept returning to my thoughts was…

‘Why is it raining now?’

Halfway back to the hospital I realized there must be a reason. There must be a reason why on this day of all days did the weather pull an abrupt about-face at virtually the exact same moment I began my jaunt to the store, leaving me essentially at the mercy of the cold and damp conditions.

I never once thought it was some kind of omen or sign that something horrible was going to happen to my wife or child. Those kind of morbid thoughts simply never entered my head.

But what was the reason?

‘Why is it raining NOW?’

Then came the epiphany. The reason behind this natural phenomenon.

God was testing me.

This realization instantly lessened the child-like indignation I was feeling towards my maker.

I realized the rain that was falling was his way of challenging me. I could have easily turned right around at the very first drop and my wife would have understood completely. She didn’t even know of my journey for as far as she knew I was going to the gift shop.

But he knew, as did I, that the batteries — materialistic as they may be, were a vital component to my wife’s being relaxed and at peace until he decided it was time.

God tests each and every one of us in many different ways.

On this day mine just happened to come in drops condensed from vapor in the atmosphere otherwise heretofore known as rain. October Rain.

The Long A.A.R.M of Steve O...

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Fri, 20 Sep 2013 17:57:00 +0000

Aimless

Assemblage of

Rambling

Musings of an over-caffeinated, slightly ajar yet well-meaning writer/content creator and strategist.

OH HENRY!

Fans of Seinfeld, of which I am most assuredly one, will instantly recognize the name Jackie Chiles. The Johnnie Cochran-inspired attorney is one of the classic of all the Seinfeld recurring characters.

Well apparently the folks at Jim Beam feel, that despite the show being off the air for 15 years and counting, Jackie Chiles is still relevant and as such can help move product.

Oh sure there's a philanthropic angle to this campaign but Jackie Chiles? Really?

Look don't get me wrong, I love the character and I am as nostalgic as the next guy but why do I get the feeling this is another example of someone at the client (Jim Beam) saying to someone at their agency they're a big Seinfeld fan and how 'bout we do something Seinfeld-related with one of their characters?

In other words, the client likes Seinfeld. The agency wants to keep the client happy so they concoct an idea whereby they revive Jackie Chiles and thus the client can meet and mingle with someone they've loved, albeit a fictional character just so they can tell everyone they made a commercial with Jackie Chiles.

DON'T CALL ME SHIRLEY

In keeping with the nostalgia theme the Wisconsin Department of Tourism decided they too wanted to tap into what once was and reached out to local sons the Zucker brothers to create an ad touting the benefits of visiting their great state.

The idea for the ad, cue the nostalgic theme music, is reunite two characters from their classic film, Airplane.

So the Zuckers got back together with their partner Jim Abrahams in Los Angeles recently to begin shooting the commercial which will feature Robert Hays and the legendary Kareem Abdul-Jabbar.

Here's some stills from the set courtesy of The Business Journal:

This is NOT the first time they've gone to the Airplane well, however, as this spot below which aired earlier this year starred Hays and was directed by David Zucker.

THE DARK SIDE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Anyone who knows me knows that I am a firm believer in the power of social media from a branding, advertising and marketing perspective.

However from time to time we see the dark side of social media and such was the case not long ago when Facebook inadvertently used the image of a young girl who had hung herself in a Facebook ad for a dating service.

The girl, Rehtaeh Parsons, hung herself in April as a result of cyberbullying, according the New York Times.

The NY Times article reported that the site which used the photo, ionechat.com, "apparently pulled news photos of Ms. Parsons off the Web after reports of her suicide and used them without authorization in the ad. The owner of the site, which has been shut down, told The Toronto Sun that he had used the photo by mistake and wasn’t aware of the girl’s background. Facebook said it had blocked the company from submitting future ads."

In a statement following the removal of the ad in question Facebook said "This is an extremely unfortunate example of an advertiser scraping an image from the Internet and using it in their ad campaign. This is a gross violation of our ad policies and we have removed the ad and permanently deleted the advertiser’s account. We apologize for any harm this has caused.”

Look, there is enough blame to go around here. I realize Facebook has no way of knowing if an otherwise innocuous image someone submits for use in an ad is that of someone who took their own life.

But something clearly needs to be done to ensure this never happens again.

There's lots of smart people working at Facebook and surely they can come up with a way to prevent this from occurring in the future.

September 11th - Not Just Another Day

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Wed, 11 Sep 2013 13:37:00 +0000

There are days throughout the year that have a "feel" to them, be it a holiday or a birthday, etc. These are not just another day(s) in our lives. We must add September 11th for it will never be just another day.

The post below is something I wrote years ago and I repost every year on this date. The reason I repost it is for the simple reason I want people to always remember what it felt like on September 11, 2001; to never forget what it was like that day. My fear is that people already have or will in the future treat September 11th just like any other day.

***

Kramer: What's today?
Newman: It's Thursday.
Kramer: Really? Feels like Tuesday.
Newman: Tuesday has no feel. Monday has a feel, Friday has a feel, Sunday has a feel...

Fans of Seinfeld will of course recall this classic exchange. As was the case with most things Seinfeld, this was an example of something we all could relate to. I mean days do have a feel, don’t they?

But it’s not just days of the week that have “feels” associated with them.

How does January 1st feel? Well that probably depends on what you did the night before.

How 'bout April 15th? Tax day. Doesn’t mean much cause you always get your taxes filed early, right? Or perhaps you are an habitual late-filer and this date causes you to break out in hives.

July 4th? Cookouts. Burgers. Dogs. Fireworks. Summer. Any of these ring a bell?

October 31st? Halloween. Costumes. Scary ghost stories. Soon as night falls it takes on a whole new feeling, doesn’t it?

December 24th? Anticipation. Excitement. Expectation.

December 25th? Family. Presents. Children. Santa. Snow. A certain euphoria and sense of family comes over us on this day, doesn’t it?

Your birthday? Your spouse's birthday? Your children's birthday?

ALL of these are special days in our lives each with their own unique feel to them.

These are all Not Just Another Day in our lives and on our calendars and in our blackberries and cell phones.

Well I think we must add September 11th to the list.

Right or Wrong, September 11th will NEVER just be another day. It can't be.

For if we allow it to become just another day, then we will have failed.

We will have failed to honor those lost that tragic day. Their memory will die. And we simply cannot nor should not allow that to happen.

September 11th? Personally it evokes feelings of: Fear. Anger. Outrage. Bewilderment. Disbelief. Revenge. Shock. Sadness. Innocence lost.

September 11th will NEVER just be another day.

Mark it down.

When A Brand Promise Backfires

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Tue, 03 Sep 2013 15:31:00 +0000

Like every other marketing-related word or phrase, the term "brand promise" has its fair share of definitions. The one I like best is one that I think captures the essence perfectly for it speaks to the relationship marketing aspect.

It was written by Jean Wilcox, one of the authors of the book AbuLLard's ABC's of Branding: "A brand promise is the statement that you make to customers that identifies what they should expect for all interactions with your people, products, services and company. It is often associated with the company name and/or logo."

Wilcox also believes a brand promise is also the tagline for a given brand - and she's right.

Case in point:

Coors Light – “The World’s Most Refreshing Beer”
Geico – “15 Minutes Or Less Can Save You 15% Or More On Car Insurance”
Nationwide Insurance – “Nationwide Is On Your Side”

Three classic examples of a brand promise and tagline doing the same thing.

The Promised Land

With a not-so-indirect homage to The Boss, what happens when a brand promise backfires? Well, there may or may not be a "dark cloud rising from the desert floor" but, it can cause damage to the brand itself for sure.

Remember a few years ago when the whole News Corp. brand promise took a major blow? It's promise was to legally investigate and report news and a phone-hacking scandal and questionable journalistic activities did not exactly deliver on that promise now did it?

The brand's actions had a direct impact and effect on its brand promise.

Not long ago I became aware of a restaurant in New York city called Sushi Yasuda which made headlines when they announced they would no longer accept tips from its patrons.

To me this had red flags written all over it.

How great that you no longer have to worry about how much to leave your server.

Sure sounded like a good idea from a consumer's perspective.

Or did it?

And then there was the marketing perspective.

Shouldn't a restaurant's brand promise have something to do with providing not only great foot but great service? And inherent in that great service are the people delivering that service; that experience.

How would their attitude change knowing they are not receiving a gratuity?

Julia Carcamo, a brand strategist with a number of years of experience in developing food and beverage brands ranging from fine dining to casino buffets says what while the prospect of making a dining experience easier on a guest is always exciting, eliminating tipping seems to be a quick way to fail at delivering on a promise of great service.

And it all comes down to the people delivering on that promise.

"Like most brands, the rubber hits the road at the point of guest contact," she said. "You have to hire the people that will deliver on the promise, knowing that promise is even bigger now that you've taken the guests' ability to determine whether their experience was worth a tip and how much it was worth."

Jan Talamo, who is partner in the award-winning restaurant Catelli Duo (and as CCO of the ad agency Star Group knows a thing or two about marketing/advertising), agrees with Carcamo in that this idea is novel and would generate buzz.

However he doesn't believe it's practical for the everyday establishment.

"I believe it would border on entitlement and service would suffer," said Talamo. "There's something about tipping that keeps it honest and everybody striving to deliver the best guest experience."

He adds that tipping plays a role in performance appraisals of employees.

"At the end of the day the amount written in the gratuity line of the check doesn't lie. From an operators standpoint, we have technology that rates each server by the amount of gratuity they register, hence, another metric to gauge guest satisfaction and server performance."

Laying Down The Law

Carolyn Richmond is a partner in the law firm Fox Rothschild LLP. She is co-chair of their Hospitality Practice Group which represents and counsels employers in the hospitality industry, specifically restaurants.

She too agrees that an official ‘no tipping’ policy isn’t necessarily a bad idea. She thinks the answer lies in our state legislatures and Congress revising the wage and hour laws and addressing the epidemic of abusive litigation.

"Eliminating tipping is not a final solution, and what lies at the root of this issue are archaic laws that are on the books," she says. "We have different needs than in 1938. The wage and hourly laws need to be changed with A-to-Z reform."

Image Source: Google Images

Opportunity's Knocking And Marketers Are Not Answering

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Mon, 08 Jul 2013 21:00:00 +0000

"Someone's knocking at the door, somebody's ringing the bell, someone's knocking at the door, somebody's ringing the bell, do me a favor, open the door and let 'em in."

Being the pop culture savant that I am, the first thing I thought of when I read the headline "Global Study Shows Marketers Missing Digital Opportunity" was the opening lines to the Wings' song "Let 'Em In." See in addition to being a marketing, advertising and branding fanatic, I am also one prone to invoke and evoke otherwise trivial tidbits into my everyday lexicon.

I readily admit I am far from normal, whatever normal is these days. But hey, that's just me.

The aforementioned headline is from a press release I read on businesswire.com and was in reference to the results of a global study, The State of Online Advertising, conducted by Adobe. As I began to read the release I saw a quote which was highlighted that reaffirmed my inner channeling of Mr. McCartney.

It was from Adobe CMO Ann Lewnes and it went something like this:

“Digital marketing has created a remarkable opportunity, but it comes with higher expectations from consumers. They expect a story tailored specially for them, a level of trust and transparency with the brands they do business with and, most importantly, a great experience. Brands delivering anything less will ultimately be ignored."

Consumers are the ones knocking at the door and Mr. & Mrs. Online Digital Marketer are not answering the door.

Why?

Well in the first place, part of the answer lies in Ms. Lewnes quote. "They expect a story tailored specially for them..."

The word "expect" alone is powerful insomuch as no longer do consumers hope for a personalized experience, they expect it - they demand it. And Ms. Lewnes went on to say "We now have the technology and know-how to target relevant and personalized marketing messaging and media to our customers. Shame on us, if we don’t deliver on that.”

Shame, indeed.

Looking at Ms. Lewnes quote in its entirety tells me that, more than anything else, consumers want a relationship with brands. And with that relationship is an expectation that said brand will maintain "a level of trust and transparency" at all times. Else, as she puts, risk being ignored.

The Effect Or Lack Thereof Of Online Advertising

From the Adobe study:

As you can see from the chart, there is quite the prevailing thought among consumers as to the effectiveness of online advertising and in particular web banner ads. The gap is very wide in the US and Europe when it comes to how effective consumers view online and banner advertising compared to what the marketers entrusted to create them believe.

David C. Edelman, global co-leader, Digital Marketing and Sales Practice, McKinsey & Company didn't pull any punches in talking about banner advertising and it's impact on consumers saying:

“Banners have brought much of the worst characteristics of advertising – being intrusive and manipulative, catching one's eye with hyperbole, and using surreptitiously-captured information – into the digital space. Consumers realize they are now in control and won't accept it."

You tell em' David. Consumers are driving the bus Mr. Kramden (another trivial reference) and marketers need to realize they're along for the ride. Oh marketers can and should reference points of interest along the route, AKA content, but make no mistake about it - the driver will decide when to stop and smell the proverbial roses.

Ok, enough metaphors.

A Matter Of Trust

No, I won't reference the Billy Joel song of the same name, but I will reference this, also from the Adobe study:

Notice a trend?

Consumers are skewed toward the left side of the chart which is home to the non-digital/traditional world whereas marketers place more value than consumers do on the digital side of the ledger.

Could the reason consumers do not trust digital - websites, blogs, social media - be because of the content they are reading and ingesting? Could this content simply be not very good? Not relevant? Too salesy?

Nah.

No brand would ever do that, right? #sarcasm

You Are So Annoying

Ah to annoy. Something my wife tells me I do to her all the time.

But I digress.

In the world of marketing and advertising, annoy is most definitely a four-letter word for we surely do not want to annoy consumers.

As per the study, here's the most annoying marketing and advertising methods according to consumers: (in descending order):

Phone calls from marketers
Pop-up ads
Ads before online videos
Text message ads
Ads in applications/games

The least annoying types (starting with the least):

Advertorials in newspapers and magazines
TV commercials
Product placements in movies/TV shows
Google search ads
Traditional mail advertising

I don't know about you but to me the most annoying by far are ads that appear before online videos, especially those you cannot skip. Nothing will turn me off faster to a brand than making me sit through your commercial or video before getting to what I really came to see.

Sources: Adobe, businesswire.com, marketingcharts.com, Google Images

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a senior creative content strategist at Responsys, a leading global provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions, and a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing. He can be reached via Twitter, LinkedIn or Email.

When It Comes To Big Data Is Less More?

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Tue, 23 Apr 2013 14:15:00 +0000

My oxymoronish title aside, two esteemed professors at an Ivy League school say that while those in the marketing world continue to struggle with how to handle all the data they are accumulating, they may in fact be wasting their time and more than likely need to go on what they refer to as a "data diet."

The amount of data brands collect today from all the various channels: social media, email, mobile, and on and on is enormous.

Over the past year or so I've written three different articles about Big Data including one in January 2012 entitled Why CMOs Need To Get Real About The Policy Implications Of Big Data.

In that particular piece I made reference to a study done by IBM the year before of more than 1,700 CMOs from around the world who were asked to identify their four biggest challenges and at the top of the list was Big Data.

Also in that same article I interviewed an attorney who has worked with many Fortune 1000 companies advising them on issues related to cyber security, privacy and data breaches.

However, according to the aforementioned professors, all the talk about Big Data and privacy may be, as they put it, "a tempest in a teapot."

Do Not Track Legislation

Back in February of this year I read an article from the New York Times Senator Seeks More Data Rights for Online Consumers. The article dealt with the fact that Senator John D. Rockefeller IV of West Virginia wants to "give American consumers more meaningful control over personal data collected about them online."

So I decided to reach out to Eric Bradlow and Peter Fader, Professors of Marketing and Co-Directors of the Wharton Customer Analytics Initiative who have studied the problem of data-privacy from an empirical perspective. Their research shows that brands and companies who are on a “data diet” don’t necessarily lose that much customer insights because limited customer data in conjunction with aggregate information (less privacy sensitive) can still provide precise insights.

And when it comes to personal data, Fader says bluntly that "most sensitive data is worthless and firms are often making mistakes to try to use it (or even collect it)." And adds that "when you build a really good model, there isn’t a whole lot to be gained by bringing in personal data. "

The concept of a "data diet" is nothing new for Bradlow and Fader. In a March 2009 interview with Knowledge @Wharton, the online business journal of the Wharton School, they spoke of something they referred to as "data minimization" or "data diet." The concept behind this is relatively simple: Brands should keep the data they need to stay competitive and ditch everything else. In the interview Bradlow spoke of a trepidation among brands to discard ANY piece of data.

"I think there is a fear and paranoia among companies that ... if they don't keep every little piece of information on a customer, they can't function," said Bradlow. "Companies continue to squirrel away data for a rainy day. We're not saying throw data away meaninglessly, but use what you need for forecasting and get rid of the rest."

Click here to read the full interview with professors Bradlow and Fader.

Big Brands, Big Decisions

In addition to reaching out to the professors I also wanted to get the perspective of someone from the brand perspective to see how a brand - in this case a very large brand, is dealing with and handling the topic of the pending Do Not Track legislation and how they are currently handling the issue itself on their end.

So I tracked down, no pun intended, Christa Carone, the CMO of Xerox to get her thoughts on all this.

She told me from Xerox's point of view they believe there are two issues that need to be addressed: First, is there value for the public to have the option to receive targeted advertising? And, second should the public make their own choice about this, or should governments/companies do it for them?

"Xerox selectively engages in behavioral targeting, and finds it to be effective," she said. However, she added that Xerox is a long-standing supporter of giving consumers’ choice on whether they want to receive more targeted communications from brands. "We were an early adopter of AdChoices," she continued. "And we began implementing the AdChoices’ icon on our corporate ad units in 2011."

One telling statistic she shared me with was the fact across of their corporate units they had just one person elect to opt-out. She questioned whether this lack of action (opting out) was due to a lack of understanding or simply because the consumer chose to opt out. "It’s likely a combination of both," she told me.

Full Transparency

The need, or better still the benefit of coming clean and being as open and honest with consumers has never been more paramount than it is right now. The digital age affords no place to hide - be it figuratively or literally. Brands must be right up front with consumers and Carone is in full agreement.

"As an advertiser, we believe the industry can do a better job of being transparent about this issue -- driving consistent practices, systems and policies and helping to educate the public," she told me. She took it one step further saying Xerox believes consumers should have a choice about whether behavioral targeting benefits their purchasing process.

So, regardless of just how much a given brand stores and uses, the bottom line is there is an inherent responsibility for brands of all shapes and sizes to tell consumers what it is they're doing, why they're doing it and how it can and will benefit them.

Sources: Google Images, New York Times, Knowledge @Wharton, Forbes

LinkedIn Lady Show Interview March 22, 2013

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 17:02:00 +0000

Last year I had the honor of being a guest on The LinkedIn Lady Show hosted by the brilliant Carol McManus.

Carol is a is a self-described recovering corporate executive who left that world in 2007 to start her own business. She grew it quickly with a very limited marketing budget but through the creative and diligent use of social media.

Today, she is one of the most sought-after speakers and consultants for businesses and entrepreneurs who aspire to grow their business by using this digital medium as a way to stay in touch with and attract new clients.

On Friday, March 22, 2013 I was once again Carol's guest and during the show we talked about Responsys - my employer who is a leading provider of email and cross-channel marketing. Their services include email, mobile, social, the web and display.

We also talked about some of my recent Forbes' articles and the state of advertising, marketing and branding in general.

Enjoy!

Price Always Trumps Brand, But It Shouldn't Matter To Marketers

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Tue, 26 Feb 2013 20:15:00 +0000

Let me preface this article by saying categorically I believe very much in the power of branding. I myself (isn't that redundant?) have worked on many branding campaigns for marketers and advertisers of all sizes and shapes. I know first hand the value of branding done right and done on a consistent basis i.e. staying true to a given brand's tone and voice over time.

But I also have been witness to a growing trend.

A revealing trend that is bringing to the light the fact that more and more consumers are sacrificing brand loyalty for the best price on a given product, service, etc.

1/07/2013 - Is Brand Loyalty Dying A Slow And Painful Death? "Sponsored by AisleBuyer, a survey conducted earlier this year revealed that nearly 75% of consumers would switch brands if offered real-time discounts and promotions that were delivered to their smartphones in real time while they were shopping in a store."
1/09/2013 - The Most Powerful Brand Ambassadors In The World May Not Be Brand Loyal "A stunning 75 percent of women now say it’s important get the lowest price on everything they buy, up 12 percentage points. from 2008 and up 22 percentage points from 2004"

Exhibit B

Consider the above Exhibit A and the following to be, well, you get the idea.

The following (below) relates to a little something I like to call social media. Perhaps you've heard of it.

The lines have been skewing for some time now when it comes to brand loyalty and social media and with each passing day that line is skewing more toward the almighty dollar or if not currency in the monetary form, some other form of currency for sure.

From a Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and Lithium survey in 2011.

Then there's this (below) from a report put out by Forbes Insights and Turn late last year called “The New Rules of Engagement: Measuring the Power of Social Currency":

And finally and most recently, this below, from a survey conducted by PwC:

Not So Breaking News

If there is a marketer out there who finds all or any of this news to be "breaking" he/she may need to start considering other employment for this should come as no surprise to anyone.

Consumers are people, people. Get it?

In general they want the best deal, period. Now juxtapose that thinking over a failing or still-recovering economy depending on who you speak to, and price just becomes all that more important in the pecking order.

'Ah but Steve, what about those brands who can never win a price war for any number of reasons? Are they doomed to fail?'

Good question.

No, of course they are not doomed to fail.

If, if they realize that there's more than one way to skin a cat or in this case win a consumer's heart, that is - which ties into the "why it shouldn't matter to marketers" part of the title of this article.

Obviously many brands consistently thrive and survive just fine without being the cheapest on the shelf. They do so for a myriad of reasons including something I like to call "quality." Remember the old "you get what you pay for" adage? Yeah, that kind of goes hand-in-hand with this thinking.

So there are plenty of marketers, brands and so on who wake up every morning knowing they cannot possibly win a price battle but they know there's a quality product so all is well in the world.

Not So Fast

The real winners in ALL of this will be the brands who come to grips with the fact that while price and quality will always play a role in a consumer's decision making process, it is the relationships they create with a consumer that will ultimately determine success or failure.

Make no mistake about it, we are or already are, in what Responsys CMO Scott Olrich referred to as "the relationship era" in an end-of-the year piece entitled Looking Back, Looking Ahead - CMOs Weigh In.

His exact quote was "We will see the beginning of what I refer to as “the relationship era” whereby marketers will move away from an acquisition first mentality to a relationship first one. Marketers will focus more on the entire consumer experience to build and foster a long term relationship with a consumer as opposed to just that initial purchase phase."

The brands who understand how to cultivate and maintain relationships with consumers will be the ones who reap the biggest rewards.

Sources: PwC, CMO Council, Forbes Insights and Turn, Lithium

Photo credit: Wikipedia

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a senior content strategist at Responsys, a leading global provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions and a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Digital & Social Media Marketing.

What Two 5-Year Old Kids Can Teach Us About Society

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Thu, 24 Jan 2013 19:07:00 +0000

As anyone who knows me will attest I am a very passionate person by nature. And normally my passion, in this particular space, covers topics like branding, marketing, advertising, social media and so on. I write about my thoughts on the aforementioned topics and hopefully anyone reading what I have to say, er write, will come away the better for it.

Today, however, I want to share with you two stories - each dealing with a five-year old child in very different, albeit equally difficult circumstances.

Each should serve as a lesson to all of us and serve as a not-so-gentle reminder that ignorance is still rampant in our world and common sense is a truly lost art for for many. And yes, there is a lesson to be learned here for brands, marketers and advertisers - at least one lesson such as the customer is NOT always right.

You'll see what I mean.

The first story comes from Houston, home of a restaurant called Laurenzo's Prime Rib and a waiter named Michael Garcia. Not long ago Garcia was waiting on Laurenzo's regulars Kim Castillo and her 5-year-old son, Milo, who is very popular among the employees.

Oh yeah, Milo also has Down syndrome. Here's a picture of him.

According to a story in the New York Daily News "Castillo and her family were sitting at their table for all of 10 minutes when a group across from them got up and moved to the back of the restaurant. Their waiter Michael Garcia didn’t think too much of the move until one bit of conversation caught his attention. He heard a man in the group say, “'Special needs children need to be special somewhere else.'”

That's right. A man, an adult man - who was in the restaurant with his family, uttered what is arguably some of the most offensive words I have ever heard in my life: “Special needs children need to be special somewhere else.”

According to Castillo, Garcia, the waiter, then refused to serve this man and his family after hearing such horrific words. She wrote on her Facebook wall "The waiter promptly told them he was offended by their comment and refused to serve them."

My hat goes off to Michael Garcia who risked his job by his actions. "I had considered whether or not I would lose my job, but I knew it wasn't right," he said. "I could find another job and my guests would follow me."

As to the gentleman who said those disgusting words, apparently he too was a regular at the restaurant with the operative word being "was."

Clearly this was a classic of case of the customer is not always right and the lesson to brands, marketers and advertisers? Well remember the words your employees use carry a lot of weight. As Pam Moore just wrote about for Social Media Today, "Every employee within your company is a walking billboard of your brand. If you don’t like what they say, do, tweet, think, post, pin, video tape or sing about your brand, then you better start on the inside out and fix it."

Now juxtapose what Pam - who has been named as one of the Top 10 Influencers in social media by Forbes, wrote over this story. Do you think whatever company this man who said such derogatory things is proud of him today? Do you think they would want to hold him up as an example of their brand, their company, their values?

Don't think so.

Common Sense Is Not So Common

The next story comes from Mount Carmel, Pennsylvania and involves, well, here's one of the headlines about the story: Pennsylvania kindergartener uses Hello Kitty bubble-gun at school, suspended for "terrorist threat"

Here's how one writer at boingboing.net characterized the whole incident:

"Mount Carmel Area Elementary School in Pennsylvania suspended a five-year-old girl for pointing a Hello Kitty bubble-gun at another student, characterizing this as a "terrorist threat." The little girl had to undergo psychiatric evaluation before she was allowed back in.

Her parents say that they couldn't get their daughter into another school, because no one wanted a kid with "terrorist" on her transcript. They're considering a lawsuit."

The little girl even told her mom that she was being told she could go to jail by school officials. For their part the Mount Carmel Area School District said the allegations “may not be consistent with the facts" adding that they take "the well-being and safety of students and staff very seriously.”

I will be very interested to learn in the coming days and weeks of any inconsistencies the school district alluded to.

And as for the other part, that sounds fine, doesn't it?

Surely we want the well-being and safety of students and staff taken very seriously, right?

But at some point doesn't common sense have to enter into the equation?

Doesn't the letter of the law have to be interpreted differently in a situation such as this?

Don't you think the adults in this case could have exercised some common sense before overreacting, allegedly, in the manner in which they did?

So it would appear ignorance and lack of common sense are in abundance despite all the advances we collectively make every day. Perhaps it's good to hear about stories like these to remind us of that.

Sources: New York Daily News, BoingBoing

Looking Back, Looking Ahead - CMOs Weigh In

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 20:57:00 +0000

This is such a great time of the year isn't it? I mean with all the parties for hosting, marshmallows for toasting and caroling out in the snow. This time of the year is also time for fearless forecasts, the ones where everyone dares to boldly go where no man, or woman has gone before.

Or something like that.

What I am referring to of course is it's the time of year when people make predictions for the coming year about this and that. And while I wanted to pen such a piece myself, I wanted to put a little different spin on it - I am a big fan of spinning, as it were.

So I decided to reach out to a group of CMOs and other high-level folks across a wide array of industries to, yes, get their thoughts on 2013 - but to also get their take on the year that's coming to a close.

My esteemed panel consisted of the following: (in alphabetical order of last name, in case you curious)

Julia Carcamo, Vice President of Brand Marketing, Isle of Capri Casinos Inc. (JC)
Christa Carone, CMO, Xerox (CC)
Steve Fuller, CMO, L.L. Bean (SF)
Scott Olrich, CMO, Responsys (SO) (full disclosure - my employer)
Denny Post, CMO, Red Robin (DP)
Randall Rozin, Global Director, Brand Management and Marketing Communications, Dow Corning (RR) (Randall wins the award for longest title)
Will Seccombe, President & CEO, VISIT FLORIDA® (WS)

So quite the eclectic mix for sure which is good as I wanted a diverse group to speak to and cull and glean info from as they look back on 2012 and ahead to 2013.

Ok without further adieu here's some of their thoughts looking back on the year 2012:

Was there anything in 2012 that going into the year you thought was going to happen but did not?

(RR) "I thought the number of high quality leads generated from social media platforms would be much higher."
(CC) "Stronger economic improvement in the US and a leveling off economic declines in Europe. I’m an optimist; now I’m more of a 'cautious optimist.'”
(SO) "I thought this would be the year people would stop over investing in search marketing."

Conversely did anything happen that you did not see coming?

(JC) "I didn’t see our customer base using so much more social media and accessing our content through mobile devices."
(CC) "From a social marketing perspective, I did not expect LinkedIn to transition so quickly from a resume-posting social community to one that has increasing relevance for B2B relationship building through relevant content sharing."
(RR) "The popularity of social media curation via sites like Pinterest and the resurgence in direct mail."

In 2012 mobile marketing was very much on many marketers minds yet so many still found it hard to put into practical application. Did you use mobile marketing as part of your overall strategy?

(JC) "We kind of stumbled onto it in 2012, but now that we have a better handle on the tools and on the needs/desires of our customers, I think there will be a much clearer path in 2013."
(RR) "I ‘d say we’ve dipped our toes into the shallow end of the pool this year."
(CC) "Our initial focus is optimizing our content for all screens and taking deeper data dives to understand how, where, when and why business decision-makers access our information and engage with us to inform their purchasing."
(SF) "We’ve seen mobile (pads and phones in this definition) explode. And it’s amazing to think that the bulk of the traffic is being driven by a device that wasn’t even invented until early 2010."

Misc 2012 thoughts...

(SF) "2012 was a little different for us because it was our 100th Anniversary. Lots of new marketing activities and good lessons, but a few really stick out. While customers are especially 'careful' in their shopping since the recession, it's amazing how much they enjoy 'new and unique.'"
(WS) "We undertook a massive transformation in 2012 to position the organization to best create and add value for industry partners and travelers worldwide."
(SO) "Social media continued to be a great engagement platform but not necessarily a revenue platform."

And the winner for the Smart Aleck Award goes to Randal Rozin for his response when asked if if there was anything he would've done differently if given the chance? "I had a horse come in 25 to 1. Problem was the others came in at 12:30. I’d like to have that one back."
Looking Ahead To 2013
If not already, will mobile marketing play a role in your overall marketing strategy?

(RR) "Definitely. For me print is fast becoming like Jan Brady from the Brady Bunch, but instead Print is saying ' Mobile, Mobile, Mobile.' Mobile will be more important than ever in 2013 in users’ consumption of information, including video, but will also be important as an outreach platform from search to display."
(DP) "We currently employ two mobile apps - one for our very popular loyalty program and the other to guide guest menu choices known as the 'Customizer.' We will be expanding access to both applications next year and exploring other forms of mobile marketing to connect with our guests at just the right times to keep Red Robin top of mind."

What impact, if any, will the reelection of President Obama have on your overall marketing/advertising strategy going into 2013?

(CC) "None."
(SO) "Not much."
(RR) "Post election there is definitely more media inventory available. Also interesting to note there will be neither an Olympic event, nor any FIFA World Cup in 2013. There is an opportunity for other creative brand activation and sponsorships."
(SF) "Not really. We share everyone’s concern for the 'fiscal cliff' and the impact on consumer confidence, but nothing relating specifically to Obama’s reelection."

And finally what you've all been waiting for:
What are the three biggest trends or predictions you see for 2013?
(DP)

Multi-platform marketing - as I sit here watching on-demand TV with my iPad in my lap and my Blackberry at my side, I am know damn well I am one of many surfing, viewing and emailing all at once. Which marketers will be first to reach me in all three with relevant, connected messages?
Economic recovery gains momentum - I am an eternal optimist. We're due.
Fast retailing gets faster. The pace of innovation and imitation is dizzying and only getting faster. It has become harder and harder to hold a competitive advantage. Success being to those who are ready to move fast and move on faster.

(CC)

Data + Creative Content + Relevance: The role of B2B marketing shifts from sales enablement strategies and tools to communication-based, data-driven stakeholder engagement.
The priority becomes less about promotion and more about creating, curating and sharing relevant content to connect with decision makers in ways that give them more confidence in our brand and more reasons to be advocates of our technology and services.
Content really does become king -- in subtle, creative, engaging and really relevant ways.

(RR)

Content marketing is the new black of B2B marketing campaigns. Goes with everything.
Greater balance between mass customer marketing and account-based marketing. Investing in those accounts that spend more.
More B2B marketers will adopt marketing automation as a core competency, especially lead scoring and nurturing.

Additional trends Randall sees are:

Social CRM will move from ‘hype to heaven-sent’ for integration.
Social media marketing will move from experimental to accountable. B2B winners will emerge and others will be culled more quickly.
Knowledge management, corporate security, HR and legal will be forced to embrace social media within their firewalls and employees seek to connect at work.
Further fragmentation of media – Media will continue to become even more fragmented, meaning it will be more and more difficult to reach your target audience in mass. This means content management and distribution will be even more important to effectively reach your target audience and growing your business.

(SO)

We will see the beginning of what I refer to as “the relationship era” whereby marketers will move away from an acquisition first mentality to a relationship first one. Marketers will focus more on the entire consumer experience to build and foster a long term relationship with a consumer as opposed to just that initial purchase phase.
We will see a transition from big data to the right data. Marketers will realize that there’s plenty of data to go around but it’s finding the right data that will have the biggest impact on their ultimate program success.
Digital overtakes physical. Digital marketers and ecommerce marketers, etc. will begin to influence and drive more revenue than their bricks and mortar counterparts.

Misc 2013 thoughts...

(WS) "We will continue to increase investment in content and in international marketing and multicultural marketing."
(SF) "We are worrying about the Postal Service. The role of the catalog has changed dramatically over the last decade, but it remains a valuable advertising vehicle. The Postal Service’s continuing financial issues and possible impact on deliverability, etc. are a concern. And while I can’t say that I like the term “big data,” there are a number of intriguing services popping up in that space that facilitate advertising, better omni-channel service, etc."

When It Comes to Mobile Marketing, Integration Is Key

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 17:18:00 +0000

As a long-standing proponent of marketing integration I can speak to the fact that many marketers still have difficulty in putting it into practical use, including many chief marketing officers which was the basis of my piece aptly titled The Eleven Letter Word That Continues To Elude All CMOs And Marketers.

Based on recent research it would appear many in the mobile marketing space would be wise to integrate their marketing messages, especially this holiday season and in particular across two specific mediums.

The research comes from Responsys, AKA the company I work for, and reveals some very interesting and intriguing findings and shows a clear correlation and opportunity for mobile marketing folks.
According to the research almost 40% of consumers who previously opted in to receiving promotional emails from a retail marketer are also interested in getting promotional messages from these same retailers via SMS or text messaging.

The findings alone would be significant but when you factor in that this past Cyber Monday saw an increase of 96% in mobile sales year-over-year from 2011 according to IBM, plus mix in the the fact that the percentage of emails being read on a mobile device are growing steadily literally as we speak – you can see why in the press release announcing the findings were the words "...marketers will have a massive opportunity to drive online and in-store purchases this holiday season and beyond through smart cross-channel marketing."

Making Spirits Bright
Michael Della Penna, Senior Vice President of Emerging Channels at Responsys – who recently shared his views on the Papa John's saga What Mobile Marketers Can Learn From The Papa John's Lawsuit – says retailers and marketers can have a ho, ho, ho happy holiday season if they take advantage of some good old fashioned multi-channel marketing.

"The holiday season is a great time for marketers to experiment with mobile as part of their integrated cross-channel marketing strategy given consumers are traveling, out shopping and on high alert for discounts and offers from their favorite retailers," said Della Penna. "For example, offering information about an invite-only discount or a reminder that gift wrapped packages are ready for pick-up are effective ways to engage customers who have opted-in to receive mobile messages from your brand.”

As to what specific types of promotions consumers prefer to receive via text message:

42% prefer location-based offers
39% like general discounts, offers and deals
37% want to hear about in-store sales and events
32% are into gift guides and product recommendations

In terms of age breakdowns, 64% of younger adults (18-29) prefer to receive the location-based offers but not far behind were 30-39 year olds (50%) and 40-54 year olds (42%). All of this lends credence to the fact that the use of mobile smartphone technology is growing across many generations.

Source: Responsys

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a senior content strategist at Responsys, a leading global provider of on-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions.

Mobile Marketing - The Elephant In The Room For Marketers

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Tue, 20 Nov 2012 21:06:00 +0000

"A difficult situation that is very obvious but not discussed or addressed."

That's just one of I'm sure many definitions of the phrase "elephant in the room." Frankly I don't really care which definition you subscribe to. The fact of the matter is that mobile marketing - despite all it's continued hype and promise has been severely under utilized by marketers of all shapes and sizes.

And the word "continued" is absolutely the operative word in the sentence above.

Recently, in a piece for Digiday, Brian Morrissey wrote of the Ad Industry Lies and at the top of his list was mobile:

"1. It’s the Year of Mobile (for the fourth year in a row)
Everyone talks about the power of mobile and how it will change advertising. But the truth is, no one has figured it out yet. Mobile advertising is like going back to the internet 1995, except on a much smaller screen."

Did you catch the "fourth year in a row" reference? Think about it.

How many times have we all heard that this year is the year of mobile?

About a month ago I wrote a piece entitled Mobile Marketing Too Large For Brands To Ignore which featured a very telling quote from Mark Donovan, comScore SVP of mobile: "“With nearly 86 million Americans now shopping on their smartphones, this pronounced shift in consumer behavior is simply too large for retailers to ignore, with the future of their business depending on how well they adapt to the new environment.”

According to eMarketer:

Time spent using mobile devices for activities such as internet and app use, gaming, music and others has more than doubled in the past two years.
This year, the amount of time US consumers spent using mobile devices—excluding talk time—will grow 51.9% to an average 82 minutes per day, up from just 34 minutes in 2010

So we know consumers are more and more turning to their mobile phones to do well, pretty much everything but first and foremost they are using it to spend money, to buy your products, services and wares.

Then how do you explain that, according to the Chief Marketing Council, a mere 16% of companies have a mobile marketing strategy to establish and foster customer engagement which theoretically leads directly to more sales?

Or, also according to eMarketer, that less than 2% of all U.S. marketing spending, or just $2.6 billion, to go toward mobile advertising?

Is The Price Not Right?

As per a recent infographic the Wall Street Journal released "the cost and market for mobile ads remains relatively small compared to other outlets like television and the Web."

I realize these are estimates and best-guesses and all that but the infograph clearly shows that mobile ads are the least expensive medium for advertising at just $2.85 which is half the price of ads on the internet and ten times cheaper than those on tv.

And by no means am I stating that all marketers should suddenly shift all ad dollars into mobile. Of course not.

Anyone who knows me knows I am a huge proponent for creating an integrated marketing strategy.

The point is that marketers can obviously see the massive shift into mobile marketing and mobile advertising.

There is most assuredly a tremendous opportunity to set yourself apart from your competition by taking full advantage of the fact that more and more consumers are going mobile. And isn't that Marketing 101? Be where your customers are. Get your message in front of the right people at the right time on the right platforms?

Sounds easy when I put it that way.

Sources: eMarketer, Wall Street Journal

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a senior content strategist at Responsys, a leading global provider of on-demand emaion-demand email and cross-channel marketing solutions.

Content Marketing The #1 Driver Of Leads For B2B Marketers

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 17:48:00 +0000

This past May I wrote an article entitled Why The Value Of Content Is Nothing New. The opening line to that article would also be appropriate here:

"One of the big buzz phrases sweeping the digital nation is the term "content marketing.'"

It seems the sweeping of said digital nation is still occurring, especially in the business to business marketing world for B2B marketers - according to the results of a study conducted by B2B Magazine, identified content marketing (51%) as being the most important tool for generating leads, outscoring brand awareness (38%), thought leadership (34%) and sales (29%).

The study of 440 B2B marketing professionals also indicates a sincere willingness to make a commitment to content marketing with two-thirds of the respondents saying they will be either "very" or "fully" engaged in content marketing by next year. This represents a 100% increase (66% to 33%) over 2012 to 2013. I would say that is a pretty significant increase, wouldn't you?

In terms of the specific content B2B marketers prefer, social media was named as the the most important followed by articles, e-newsletters, white papers and blogs and several other digital or online types or methods.

It would appear, however, there is a disconnect between what method of content B2B marketers prefer vs. what method or avenue they judge their content marketing success against. From the graph below you'll see that Web Traffic is cited as the #1 criteria they are using to measure success and way down the list is social media.

Could it be B2B marketers, like their B2C brethren and so many others, are still having a problem connecting the social media dots from engagement and interaction to sales?

Reuse, Repurpose, Regenerate - The 3 Rs of Content Marketing

Randall Rozin, Dow Corning's global director-brand management and marketing communications, in speaking with B2B Magazine, said something I have been saying for quite some time which is basically that not only is ok to reuse existing content, it makes a lot of sense, too!

Rozin said "marketers can derive multiple uses from a single piece of content." He used examples such as a video that could double as a call to action while also living on the given company's YouTube channel. The transcript of the same video could be converted into a white paper and/or blog post.

In other words, go ahead and use the materials you already have "lying around." Companies have a wealth of information they use every day that would make for great fodder for Content Marketing such as information they can glean from sales fliers and presentations, annual reports, user manuals, customer service manuals, charts, and on and on.

All they need to do is position it as a value added service they're providing to their prospects and customers. Use the information from the aforementioned items as a way to educate their prospects and customers on ALL that they do for chances are there are some products and services that they may not even know you offer which could of course lead to more sales opportunities for you.

Sources: B2B Magazine, Google Images

Marketers Continue To Struggle With Big Data

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Fri, 12 Oct 2012 20:16:00 +0000

It would appear marketers the world over are collectively losing sleep over one thing: who will be voted off Dancing With the Stars next. I kid. Just wanted to see if you were paying attention. And no for the record, I do not watch DWS - not there's anything wrong with that.

: Big Data (Photo credit: Kevin Krejci)

No what I am referring to is that two word phrase that is surely on the agenda of many a marketing meeting from sea to shining sea. A two word phrase that marketers concern themselves with all the live-long day or at least a significant part of their day: Big Data.

And depending on who you listen to and/or believe either marketers are handling their new found wealth of prodigious piles of information quite well and are using insights gleaned from the data to their benefit or, quite simply they are not.

The headline of a recent article on Harvard Business Review: Marketers Flunk the Big Data Test. The article references a study done by CEB of nearly 800 marketers at Fortune 1000 companies which revealed that "the vast majority of marketers still rely too much on intuition — while the few who do use data aggressively for the most part do it badly."

The study also revealed:

On average only 11% of the decisions marketers make when it comes to consumers is based on data
Over 50% of the marketers surveyed said they rely on past experienced and/or their intuition to make decisions
In a list of what they rely on to make decisions, marketers listed data dead last after engaging with their co-workers, seeking expert advice and data last on their list — trailing conversations with managers and colleagues, expert advice and one-off customer interactions.

But is using your gut necessarily a bad thing? I can tell you as one who has worked the "marketing" side of the aisle, trusting my gut instincts has served me well. Christa Carone, the CMO of Xerox, believes there should be a happy medium and there's nothing wrong with trusting your gut.

"I wouldn't want to give up the data that helps us make fact-based decisions quickly. But I fear that marketers' access to and obsession with measuring everything takes away from the business of real marketing," she told me recently. "It's impossible to measure 'squishier' meaningful intangibles, such as human emotion, personal connection and the occasional 'ahhhh' moment. Those things often come with a marketer's intuition, and they deliver big-time. To me, this means trust your gut even while as you’re trying to embrace Big Data."

Could not agree with her more. There is no way to tell what someone is thinking or feeling. That does not show up on Google Analytics, at least not yet. A good marketer will know his/her audience and be able to not only use the data that is available to them but also integrate their personal experiences and knowledge into their decision-making.

Tsunami of Data

That's the phrase Acxiom CMO Tim Suther used when I spoke to him earlier this year for a piece I wrote for CMO.com entitled How To Rein In The Riches Of Big Data. And he of course was spot on for marketers, whether they choose to believe it or are even aware of it, are faced with a seemingly endless amount of data and as Suther puts it "the best companies and brands will be those who do a better job of controlling it.”

And speaking of awareness or in this case, lack of it - from a recent eMarketer article:

The writer of the article chose to look at the positive side writing "only 17% were unaware of the concept of Big Data."

To me, I look at it from the complete opposite perspective and believe 17% who were unaware of Big Data is 17% too many. Now I will admit I do not know who these retail executives were that were surveyed but how in the world can they not know about Big Data at this point in time?

Have they been out of the office for a few days, months, years? C'mon boys and girls, this is the big time, this is Big Data. I understand there are concerns about how to handle the data, what to do with the data and so on but the fact remains marketers - from ALL industries, have a tremendous opportunity to increase their bottom line significantly.

A recent Oracle survey of of North American retail executives showed that nine in 10 thought a failure to capitalize on the benefits offered by data translated to lost revenues.

Exactly my point.

As for how to use the data, Carone believes in not over-complicating things but rather taking a "simpler approach to aggregating the data and mining practical insights from the data." She says marketers need what she describes as "more elegant interfaces" that can bring all the data together to deliver those much sought after "aha" moments that "really influence marketing strategies and spend."

Sources: eMarketer, CMO.com

Three Of Four CMOs Say Social Media Impacts Sales

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 16:53:00 +0000

Not long ago I wrote an article on the use of social media among CEOs and how many often talk the social media talk on behalf of their brands/companies but very few actually walk the social media walk for their own personal use.

Today comes results of a survey conducted by Bazaarvoice of 100 members of The CMO Club. Now while I realize the sample size is small (100) it is worth nothing that 56.1% of the brands represented have more than $1 billion in annual revenuewhile another 36% have $100-999 million in annual revenue, and just 7.9% have annual revenue of $0-100 million.

Entitled “Chief customer advocate: How social data elevates CMOs” the survey and subsequent white paper ”reveals the results of an online survey of 100 members of The CMO Club, which includes CMOs of business-to-consumer and business-to-business organizations.”

Key findings include:

Social (media) data impacts decisions for nearly all CMOs. Almost half of CMOs have used social data to make predictions or forecasts, and nearly nine in 10 say this data has influenced their decisions.
CMOs use data to drive smarter decisions beyond marketing. While marketing teams and agencies most often uncover the data itself, insights are used in product development, customer experience, sales, and C-level discussions.
CMOs believe social reveals consumer sentimentand improves brand awareness. CMOs are most confident in social data analysis of product/service sentiment, and in its impact on overall brand loyalty and awareness.

As for the impact CMOs believe social media has on sales:

While I’m not sure why the folks behind this survey/white paper decided to “water down” the confidence quotient, if you will, by inserting the word “somewhat” in the subhead in the chart above, especially when they did not use the word in the headline – but regardless the fact that so many of the CMOs surveyed identified social media as having such a profound impact on sales, as well as brand awareness and loyalty speaks volumes.

It speaks volumes in that CMOs, perhaps unlike their fellow C-suite residents (CEOs), realize that social media is here to stay – yes there are those still on “it’s a fad” bandwagon, and that it can have a significant impact the things that matter most, AKA the bottom line and brand loyalty.

It would also appear that CMOs realize that social media is a direct reflection on the world around them – the world where consumers live, work and play. While not crazy about the use of the word “somewhat” again, the graph below shows that a large number of CMOs surveyed believe that social media is effective for identifying discernible trends among consumers with the word “discernible” being the operative word for sure.

The graph also reveals how CMOs believe that social media does a great job at reflecting consumer sentiment.

CMOs Are “Customer Champions”

Erin Mulligan Nelson, CMO, Bazaarvoice used that term in discussing the findings of the survey, saying “In a consumer-obsessed C-suite, the CMOs are the chief customer advocates and social (media) data is their ultimate weapon. Social data lets CMOs truly know their customers and predict consumers’ future needs before they even have them. Nearly all CMOs now use this data to drive decisions. As the business world re-centers around serving and delighting consumers, social data is turning CMOs into customer champions — and heroes within the C-suite. And as an industry, we have just started to tap into the potential of social data.”

She is dead on when she says that we have just started to tap into the potential of all the social media data of course as we are just now beginning to realize the sheer magnitude and power and scope of the mounds of data. Given the fact that we as consumers now create as much information every two days as we did from the dawn of civilization to 2003, I would say Acxiom CMO Tim Suther was correct when he referred to it as a ”tsunami of data” in an article I wrote back in February entitled How To Rein In The Riches Of Big Data.

The aforementioned article also speaks to the inherent dangers brands and businesses face when deciding what to do with all this new found data and the possible legal ramifications therein.

Sources: CMO.com, Bazaarvoice, The CMO Club

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a freelance copywriter/blogger looking for full-time work. He has worked on some of the biggest brands in the world and has more than 20 years experience in advertising and marketing. He lives in Philly and can be reached via email,Twitter, LinkedIn, or his website.

September 11th - Not Just Another Day

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Tue, 11 Sep 2012 14:24:00 +0000

***

Kramer: What's today?
Newman: It's Thursday.
Kramer: Really? Feels like Tuesday.
Newman: Tuesday has no feel. Monday has a feel, Friday has a feel, Sunday has a feel...

But it’s not just days of the week that have “feels” associated with them.

How does January 1st feel? Well that probably depends on what you did the night before.

How 'bout April 15th? Tax day. Doesn’t mean much cause you always get your taxes filed early, right? Or perhaps you are an habitual late-filer and this date causes you to break out in hives.

July 4th? Cookouts. Burgers. Dogs. Fireworks. Summer. Any of these ring a bell?

October 31st? Halloween. Costumes. Scary ghost stories. Soon as night falls it takes on a whole new feeling, doesn’t it?

December 24th? Anticipation. Excitement. Expectation.

December 25th? Family. Presents. Children. Santa. Snow. A certain euphoria and sense of family comes over us on this day, doesn’t it?

Your birthday? Your spouse's birthday? Your children's birthday?

ALL of these are special days in our lives each with their own unique feel to them.

These are all Not Just Another Day in our lives and on our calendars and in our blackberries and cell phones.

Well I think we must add September 11th to the list.

Right or Wrong, September 11th will NEVER just be another day. It can't be.

For if we allow it to become just another day, then we will have failed.

We will have failed to honor those lost that tragic day. Their memory will die. And we simply cannot nor should not allow that to happen.

September 11th? Personally it evokes feelings of: Fear. Anger. Outrage. Bewilderment. Disbelief. Revenge. Shock. Sadness. Innocence lost.

September 11th will NEVER just be another day.

Mark it down.

When Taglines Go Bad – The Best Buy Saga

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Sun, 02 Sep 2012 20:40:00 +0000

So there I was minding my own business when I came across an article on Fast Company entitled What Every CEO Can Learn From Best Buy’s (Continued) Branding Mistakes. Written by David Brier, who I know to be not only a great writer but also a branding expert, the article made reference to the new tagline the much-maligned Best Buy recently trotted out after what was surely an exhaustive 18-month odyssey.

Truth be told the 18 months was spent “working to reframe the retailer’sbrand proposition” and the new tagline was one item that came out of saidreframing.

The new tagline for Best Buy is, wait for it “Making technology work for you.”
In his article Brier refers to the tagline as “not only tired, it is a death sentence that is bland, old, worn, uninspired and not reflective of a single strand of your customer’s aspirations.” He also, quite correctly I might add, says the tagline “reeks of “marketing speak” and “committee-itis.”He goes on to talk about branding in general but I want to focus squarely on this horrifically bad tagline.

By the way, is it me or does the title of my article sound like a title for a new reality show? Can’t you just hear something along the lines of “Tonight on the Discovery Channel, advertising taglines or slogans are all around us and most of them serve to help a brand and inform the public.

But what happens when something goes awry? Tonight at 9, it’s the premier of When Taglines Go Bad.” Cue the loud piercing female scream or shriek and an image of people running wildly through the streets.

But I digress.

The new Best Buy tagline or slogan, whatever you want to call it – and please don’t start with the “they’re not the same thing, Steve” mantra, is all the things Brier said it was but it’s also a line that one would expect to hear from a new company/new brand, not from one’s that been around as long as Best Buy has.

If they were just starting out and they unveiled this tagline, I would laud and applaud it for it would immediately tell me what they do – in a matter of speaking. It would at the very least provide me a glimpse into what’s in their DNA.

But this is Best Buy, a brand that is very well known and instantly recognized.I will never understand why such an established brand sees the need to suddenly become Lucy Literal or Larry Literal, whatever the case may be. You’re Best Buy, we know you. Save the sales pitch. Save the educational angle. You’ve earned the right to be creative, to use an experiential tagline.

The Real Thing

Perhaps you’ve heard of a soft drink called Coca-Cola. Well when Coca-Cola first came to the attention of the public one of their first taglines was “Delicious and Refreshing.” See what they did there? Not many people knew what Coca-Cola was other than a soft drink. But their tagline immediately conveyed the benefits one would get from enjoying some. They realized they better let the consumer know right up front what Coca-Cola can do for them.

Fast forward to today’s tagline for Coca-Cola, which is “Open Happiness” and you can see the difference. Of course there have been many different taglines employed by Coca-Cola over the years but the point is this is a brand that is very well known and instantly recognized.

They know they can have some fun and put people in the moment, if you will, and utilize experiential type of wording in their tagline for the need to inform and educate has long since passed.

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a freelance copywriter/blogger looking for full-time work. He has worked on some of the biggest brands in the world and has more than 20 years experience in advertising and marketing. He lives in Philly and can be reached via email,Twitter, LinkedIn, or his website.

Did The Penn State Brand Get The Death Penalty?

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Wed, 15 Aug 2012 20:29:00 +0000

There are no shortage of definitions for the term “brand equity.” You probably have your favorite. This is one of mine, especially in the context of the Penn State brand: “A brand’s power derived from the goodwill and name recognition that it has earned over time, which translates into higher sales volume and higher profit margins against competing brands.”

The reason I like this particular definition when it is applied to the brand of Penn State is because of words like “goodwill” and “name recognition” and “earned over time.”

Clearly the Penn State brand, with Joe Paterno at the helm for over 45 years, wielded the power that came from goodwill while garnering name recognition, which in turn lead to higher sales and higher profit margins – that in the university world translates to an increasing level of enrollment and an increasing level of monetary donations from alumni. All of which makes the competing brands green with envy for sure.

At its peak, which for all intents and purposes was anytime right up until the world found out about Jerry Sandusky – the Penn State brand possessed a tremendous amount of brand equity.

And while in some eyes the lines may have been blurred with many wondering “Is it the Joe Paterno brand?” or “Is it the Penn State brand?” – the fact remains that the brand was an extremely powerful one and one that surely did not achieve its massive cache of brand equity overnight.

Yet as we now know, this once seemingly invincible and impenetrable brand, has been reduced to a mere shell of its former self.

A History Lesson

We all know the line about history and what can happen when one fails to learn from it. And history is replete with brands who, for one reason or another, have failed or fallen victim to issues – some not even of their own doing, which resulted in severe loss in brand equity.

In 1982 Tylenol suffered a massive blow to its brand equity when seven people died after taking Extra Strength Tylenol laced with cyanide. After recalling 31 million bottles and losing more than $100 million, Tylenol rebounded and recovered to eventually regain 100% of the market share it had lost.
In 2004 Martha Stewart was found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of an agency proceeding, and making false statements to federal investigators. Needless to say her brand equity and all its various offshoots, took a major hit. Her brand recovered eventually, her daytime TV show is in its sixth season, and this fall she will have a new cooking show on PBS.
On July 4, 2011, revelations surfaced that News of the World – owned by Rupert Murdoch’s powerful News Corporation, hacked into voicemail messages of murdered British schoolgirl Milly Dowler. Just three days later it was announced that News of the World would be shut down.

These are just three examples of major brands suffering severe damage to their hard-earned-over-time brand equity. Each of the brands recovered – well except in the case of News of the World but obviously Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp brand is alive and kicking despite the closing of News of the World.

But none of these brands needed to recover from the kind of damage that is being inflicted on the Penn State brand. The reason being none of these brands’ fall from grace, if you will, involved the sexual abuse of children and subsequent cover up by the very people who A) built the brand and B) were entrusted with maintaining its goodwill.

How can the Penn State brand possibly survive this unprecedented – a word that’s used a lot in talking about Penn State these days, loss of brand equity?

In the case of Tylenol for example, the problem was identified and corrected as fast as humanly possible. Yes it took a great deal of time to reestablish trust with the public but as you saw, it did happen and can happen again for Penn State.

Or can it?

What Does The Future Hold For The Penn State Brand?

As I sit here today I honestly do not know if the public will ever regain a level of trust with the Penn State brand. It’s quite possible I would have said the same thing back in 1982 about Tylenol. But I was only 17 and had a can of Spam for a brain, so.

But right now, do I think the Penn State brand can ever recover, I honestly don’t know.

Much of my uncertainty has to do with what is still emanating from Happy Valley. There are still far too many brand advocates/brand ambassadors of the Penn State brand still steadfastly refusing to admit something went terribly and tragically wrong.

There are far too many who are entrusted with maintaining standards of the brand – the board of trustees for example, who refuse to admit to the public, much less themselves, that such atrocities were being committed right under their very noses.

And if those entrusted with the brand’s health and future cannot first bring themselves to this fact, how can the brand ever hope to rebound and recover? If they don’t think anything went wrong in the first place, why would they ever think they need to repair and restore the brand?

Joe McDonough, VP/Executive Creative Director at Masterminds, a full-service agency with a focus on brand integration, says it comes down to brands realizing the responsibility that comes with achieving such lofty brand equity status.

“The more respected, more credible the brand, the higher the stakes and the more critical it is to treat the public trust as the cornerstone of your brand’s foundation,” says McDonough.

McDonough, who has worked on such big name brands as MGM and Pinnacle Entertainment, says the keepers of the Penn State brand made a fatal mistake in the face of the crisis.

“When the powers-that-be decided to go into damage control mode instead of pursuing the ethical, or in this case – lawful position, the stakes were raised to double or nothing,” he added. “Imagine if PSU had actually gotten away with covering this up?”

Crisis management consultant Dr. Ken J. Brumfield says the problems transcend the playing field. “It’s not the football culture, but rather the senior executive team culture that got them here,” says Brumfield, author of the book “S.E.T. CULTURE: What Every Organization Needs to Know Before Crises Occur.”

What Can Brands Learn From Penn State?

According to Brumfield there are three distinct things the leaders of Penn State need to do to rebuild its tarnished brand.

Change the culture from the top down
Make better decisions
Seek outside help

Of course these are a lot easier said than done.

Changing the culture means first admitting the culture was bad in the first place. As I mentioned previously, I’m not so sure the leaders of Penn State would openly admit their culture was bad.

As for making better decisions, that of course comes down to who is making the decisions in the first place. With all but one of the board of trustees still in place, if not power, making better decisions than those previously made may not be so easy.

And as for seeking outside help, setting up advisory boards, etc. – that too will depend on if the leaders of Penn State deem such an action necessary and warranted.

For his part, McDonough believes the best thing a brand can learn from Penn State is that despite all the years one spends building trust with the consumer, it can all come apart in the blink of an eye.

“The public’s trust is hard won and easily lost. In this day and age it’s the public who bestows the value of your brand upon you – they assign which rung on the brand consideration ladder you grasp – but the hold is tenuous and needs only the slightest negative momentum to send you tumbling down,” he says.

“Now that ‘all media is social’ and every conversation can become a public forum that trends in the millions for even trivial snippets of reality TV flotsam – the need for stewards of brands of every scale to maintain actual credibility – not just the veiled appearance of it, is paramount.”

Source: Live Science

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a freelance copywriter/blogger currently looking for full-time work. He has worked on some of the biggest brands in the world and has over 20 years experience in advertising and marketing. He lives in Philly and can be reached via email,Twitter, LinkedIn or his website.

CEOs On Social Media: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Sun, 05 Aug 2012 19:24:00 +0000

As a parent I of course have tried to instill a set of rules for my children to adhere to as a means to teach them as they move along the growth ladder. All parents instill their own set of rules and values and so on to help guide the instruct their children, right?

Well let’s say that when my kids were younger, say around 3, I hung up a sign in the kitchen that read: “Don’t Touch A Hot Stove.” I made the sign big, bright and bold so they could not miss it every time they walked into the kitchen. And they followed the rule and never touched the hot stove.

Now let’s say one time they walked into the kitchen and there I was touching the hot stove, burning my fingers, screaming in pain.

“Daddy, you told us to never touch the hot stove. Why did you touch it?”

“Um, well… it’s different for grown ups.”

“Oh, I see… you want me to get mommy so she can take you to the hospital?”

While this may not be the best analogy the point is very clear that when it comes to social media and the use thereof, far too many CEOs are telling their employees – and the rest of the world for that matter that they know their company needs to be “doing it” yet simply do not practice what they preach.

What CEOs Are Saying To Their “Kids”

“As a percentage of overall marketing budgets, spending on social media is expected to increase 17.5% over the next five years.” That comes directly from a study conducted last year by Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business of nearly 250 top executives.

From an infographic put out by MBAPrograms.com which reveals recent findings on how corporations are using social media. Note, how “corporations” are using social media, not those running them.

94% of corporations are using social media in one way, shape or form
85% credit social media for providing increased exposure to their business
74% indicated an increase in website traffic thanks to as little as 6 hours a week on social media
58% say it’s use for lead generation & developing brand loyalty
65% say social media is key to learning about their competition

As to their preferred social media networks…

No great surprise there.

Ok, this all looks great, right? CEO’s are investing more in social media and corporations are “getting” social media and realizing that is not a fad, is here to stay and to stay alive in today’s world, one better “get” social media.

What CEOs Are Actually Doing

Not long ago I wrote an article on Josh James, his company Domo and the now infamous #domosocial experiment. Josh is the living embodiment of a CEO who “gets” social media so I definitely urge you to read about his groundbreaking experiment.

Josh and his company recently teamed up with CEO.com to conduct a survey on Fortune 500 CEOs and their use of social media. Josh wrote about the findings of the survey which clearly revealed that a very large number of CEOs are “touching the hot stove” as 70%, yes 70% of all Fortune 500 CEOs have no presence of any kind on social media.

“You kids get to getting on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest and all that good stuff. I’m far too busy to spend my time engaging with the very people who keep us in business.”

The obligatory infographic from the Domo and CEO.com survey:

It really is mind-blowing and in fact quite hypocritical when you get right down to it when you consider the fact that CEOs openly acknowledge the importance of the use of social media for their companies yet don’t see the need to be socially active themselves.

Yes, I saw the stat that read the number of CEOs using social media is expected to grow to 57% from the current 16% in 3 – 5 years but I will believe that when I see it. And by the looks of things, I won’t be seeing in 3 , 5, 7 or even 10 years. Sorry, not buying it.

I want to leave you with quotes from Josh’s article and also one from David K. Williams who recently penned CEOs and Social Media — How Much is Too Much?

From Josh’s aptly titled article CEOs Afraid Of Going Social Are Doing Shareholders A Massive Disservice:

“It is my hope that CEOs come to believe in the transformative power of social media. But if they persist in lagging far behind the general population in social media participation and not delivering value to the shareholders that is there for the taking, they may not be CEOs for much longer.”

From David’s article:

“If we haven’t convinced you yet (of the importance of social media), consider these two results from the BRANDFog 2012 CEO Survey as the final clincher: More than 82% of respondents are likely or much more likely to trust a company whose CEO and team engage in social media. And an amazing 77% of respondents are likely or much more willing to buy from a company whose mission and values are defined through their leaderships’ involvement in social media.

The conclusion is clear: Any leader who isn’t engaged in social media today is like the leaders of 50 years ago who insisted on sending a telegram instead of dialing a phone.”

'Til next time,

Source: Forbes

Huddle Up: How a Former NFL Player Can Help You Score at Social Media

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 20:22:00 +0000

Like many other red-blooded Americans - both male and female, I am a huge football fan. Born and raised in the City of Brotherly Love, I am also a long-suffering Philadelphia Eagles fan.

I am also, as you could well imagine, a fan of all things social media, else why would I be writing this article in this forum in the first place?

I digress...

When I heard about a new social media platform founded by former Atlanta Falcon Will Overstreet called Voices Heard Media, I was instantly intrigued.

I mean if you added in coffee, you'd have three of my greatest loves all in one: football, social media and java.

A man can dream, can't he?

I am kidding of course. My wife and kids know I am kidding, right?

Anyway, Voices Heard Media is actually a leader in multi-platform user engagement tools including a patent-pending Engagement Engine technology platform which powers a suite of embeddable applications. These applications in turn generate engagement and help build and foster communities directly on a given website as well as across mobile and social media networks.

Their list of clients include Fox Sports, AOL, The Huffington Post, HGTV, Food Network, the Washington Wizards, numerous television stations and more.

I caught up with Will not long ago to find out why he believes that successful businesses need a real-time engagement platform that individual social media platforms don't fill... but his does.

Q: Why is it important for brands to engage consumers?

A: First and foremost the consumer now expects it. Their expectations are for a much higher level of service and the ability to reach anyone at anytime. Many times customers worry about the risk of engaging their customers; however if a company is not talking and communicating then someone else will be communicating for you. This is a far greater risk than simply hitting something head on, and at least being able to control the message and react to the market.

Q: What do you see as being the biggest challenge for marketers/advertisers today and how can Voices Heard Media help them overcome those challenges?

A: The challenges are many, Steve...

Provide something of value to the consumer. Your content and communication cannot just be about the next special or deal - it has to add value to the customer’s experience.
Start with real world goals and try different techniques to discover which activities have the most impact for your business
Not all customers are the same. Customers have different goals. There is no cookie cutter answer.
Set expectations with the customer. Overnight success is rare and not the norm.
Take the time to review what is working and what is not and be prepared to make changes
Explore the vast sea of technologies and know which one you should go with.
Come up with content ideas to reach the consumer
At first give the customer the fish but always be trying to teach them how to fish.

Our company works directly with customers but we prefer working with partner companies like marketing / PR groups, and other software vendors because our service in combination with other partner services ultimately delivers more value to the customer.

We work with customers and partners in many ways, from simply providing software to helping them plan and execute a strategy. We look to develop long-term relationships and become a trusted source for any type of community engagement opportunities. This mindset has allowed us to stay ahead of the game in developing the expertise and future solutions for the marketplace.

Q: What does the future hold for engagement tools when it comes to marketers and advertisers?

A: The tools will become more advanced in their reporting features and eventually will be able to automatically react and serve the customer a better experience and response.

The benefits will enhanced scalability and information gathering tools that effectively allow businesses to be communicating with consumers while requiring less human interaction.

***

So, what do you think of this platform?

Is it something you could use yourself or one of your clients?

What ways/platforms are you using to engage your customers and prospects?

'Til next time...

Image source: Google Images

Enough Already With The "Alien" Advertising!

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 20:22:00 +0000

Remember the movie Alien? Or was it Aliens? I can never remember which was the first one.

Doesn't really matter...

You will surely remember this classically-grotesque scene:

Now, you tell me, other than the blood, guts and screaming, what is the difference between this scene and these two commercials for Cars.com?

What is truly amazing to me is the fact that, well there are a quite a few things that are amazing to me about these Cars.com spots:

1. Someone in some ad agency conceived of this idea/concept and someone else - probably an executive creative director and others, saw the concept and green lighted it to send to the client.
2. Someone, or a group of people, at Cars.com saw the concept and green lighted it for production.
3. The first of the two spots above actually ran during this year's Super Bowl. So someone at Cars.com green lighted the agency to spend millions of dollars to air this commercial AFTER green lighting how much money to actually create and produce it.

Can someone point me to the nearest wall so I may bangeth my headeth against it... over and over and over.

Of course Cars.com is hardly the first and unfortunately will not be the last brand/advertiser to utilize the "Alien" advertising method.

Think about it... what other examples do you know of where a brand/advertiser used this method?
And what do you think of it?

Did you like these spots for Cars.com?

If so, what did you like about it?

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review, I am a freelance writer/blogger currently looking for full-time work. I have worked on some of the biggest brands in the world and have over 20 years experience in advertising and marketing. I live in Philly and can be reached via email,Twitter, LinkedIn or my website.

When It Comes To Inbound Marketing Time Is Definitely Of The Essence

noreply@blogger.com (The Fantasy Football Hub) — Fri, 15 Jun 2012 19:48:00 +0000

A couple of months ago I wrote a post titled Curiosity May Have Killed The Cat But Complacency Will Kill The Marketer. In that particular post I told of the dearth of retention marketing by quoting a survey which revealed that 60% of the B2B and B2C companies surveyed devote less than 20% of their marketing budget to customer retention.

Today I want discuss another form of marketing, one that has become extremely important since the digital age was thrust upon us – inbound marketing.

There are many definitions of the term inbound marketing but I happen to love this description/definition of inbound marketing, courtesy of Trust Media:

“Inbound Marketing is a marketing strategy where businesses implement tactics to ‘get found’ by customers. Inbound Marketing involves creating and providing valuable content for your customers, promoting your remarkable content, building customer relationships, and overall ‘pulling’ the customer toward you. Inbound Marketing strategies create brand awareness, improve Search Engine Optimization, create thought leadership, develop valuable customer relationships, establish credibility, and build trustworthy reputations.”

You may have your own favorite definition of the term, but I think most people would agree with the basics of the above description/definition of inbound marketing.

Now, I highlighted the phrase “overall ‘pulling’ the customer toward you” because at the end of the day, this is the ultimate goal of inbound marketing. If your goal is to “ pull your customer toward you” in order to sell them something, then time is definitely of the essence.

Follow The “Lead”er

Way back in 2007, if someone used the word “pinterest” you would have thrown the flag at then for misspelling and only the cool kids had iPhones, Dave Elkington, the CEO and founder of a company called InsideSales.com, along with Ken Krogue, the president and co-founder, wanted to know the answer to a question that sales professionals had pondered since the beginning of time – Internet time that is.

What Dave and Ken wanted to know was how and more importantly, when sales pros should respond to sales leads coming directly via inbound marketing.

After discovering that no research had been done on this topic, they decided to do it themselves. They reached out to James B. Oldroyd, a professor at the Sloan School of Management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

“Because so much money was migrating to Internet marketing efforts, we knew there would be significant interest around the topic of lead response rates, timing and effort, and there influence on the outcome of a lead,” says Elkington.

Krogue recognized the changing tides and shifts that were occurring in the world of marketing, “quickly realizing the industry was migrating away from the old way of doing business (outbound) cold calling to the new digital marketing environment, centered around web leads.”

Don’t Take Five

The most dramatic finding from the 2007 study had to do with the time it takes to respond to an inbound, marketing generated lead. “The study revealed that the odds of making contact with a new lead are extremely high if you call within the first 5 minutes of submission,” said Elkington. “The odds drop off dramatically by the first 30 minutes. Specifically, a rep is 100xless likely to make contact if the first call is made 30 minutes after submission. The odds of making contact drop by 3000x if the first call is made 5 hours after lead submission.”

“We call it the ‘wow effect’ as in wow, that was fast! You are impressive.” says Elkington, referring to the reaction a person has when contacted so soon after submitting a lead.

But according to Elkington the most interesting data had to do with qualification behavior. Qualification is defined as the rate at which the lead contact is willing to set an appointment and enter the sales cycle.

The study revealed that the odds of qualifying a lead dropped 21x if the first contact is made 30 minutes after lead submission.

The study, entitled How Much Time Do You Have Before Web-Generated Leads Go Cold, was presented at Marketing Sherpa’s 2007 annual summit. Krogue can still remember the reaction he got from Ann Holland, the founder of Marketing Sherpa.”I told her about the survey results and the first words out of her mouth were: “Do you really have what you say you have? She couldn’t believe it.”

That Was Then, What About Now?

Since the survey findings were released and over 100,000 downloads later, one would think the number of businesses/companies would now “get it” when it comes to the need for a rapid response.

Not so, according to Krogue who says they routinely conduct audits of businesses but “the bar is still set pretty low” and that many businesses are still “not responding fast enough nor are they persistent enough.”

There also may be the case of businesses not even realizing what’s going in their own company and that some are under the misconception that their company is not as bad as others. Krogue gives an example of a national sales exec at a U.S. based insurance company who raved as to the efficiency and proficiency of their sales team when it came to web based leads.

Sure enough, after submitting a lead of his own as a test, Krogue did not receive a follow up contact until six days had passed – hardly the optimal five minute time frame to say the least.

In Closing

According to Elkington B2B companies spend anywhere from $30 to $200+ on each marketing generated lead while B2C firms typically spend from $2-25 for each hot lead. He says “if a CEO realized the amount of money they were throwing down the drain in terms of wasted leads and lower close rates due to no-follow-up, slow-follow-up and low persistence, they would shake the tree and turn things upside down.”

I think it’s time to shake the tree and turn other things upside down in all sorts of other ways when it comes to inbound marketing, wouldn’t you?

Think about your own personal experience. If you go so far as to enter your contact information online via a form let’s say, all under the guise of wanting to learn more about a given product or service, aren’t you going to be more receptive to talking about it while it is still fresh in your mind?

I know I would be.

Sources: How Much Time Do You Have Before Web-Generated Leads Go Cold, InsideSales.com,James B. Oldroyd, Trust Media, Forbes

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review, I am a freelance writer/blogger currently looking for full-time work. I have worked on some of the biggest brands in the world and have over 20 years experience in advertising and marketing. I live in Philly and can be reached via email,Twitter, LinkedIn or my website.