This afternoon I headed over to Frank’s Chop Shop with Jason Newport to bounce ideas around with owner Mike Malbon. Jason predicted the trip would inspire me, and he was dead right.

Mike and his brother Stephen Malbon come from a family of Virginia hog farmers. Instead of going into the family business, the Malbon brothers moved to New York City and eventually started a marketing firm specializing in helping big brands connect with the youth through music, sports, and fashion.

The Malbon brothers also create their own entities and do for them what they have done for their big name clients. Frank’s Chop Shop is your favorite rapper’s favorite rapper’s place to get a cut in NYC. There’s also Frank 151, a pocket-sized, heavily visual publication that highlights up-and-coming artists among other things.

There’s unlimited ways to connect with people, but most marketers do the same old thing. Not the Malbon brothers. They are proof that when you commit to your creative marketing ideas, you can get results. For me, the trip was a reminder of the potency creative offline marketing can have for a brand, especially when combined with a sound digital marketing strategy.

Check out my Vine from Frank’s Chop Shop…

The post Marketing Inspiration From The Malbon Brothers appeared first on Chris Franco.

Whether you’re a marketing professional or the brand that relies on marketers to get the word out about your product, 2013 is the year to step your game up and start creating experiences. We have consumers who are willing to be engaged, and unlimited ways we can use the web, social, and mobile to engage them. Unfortunately most marketing professionals are blowing it.

Instead of real desire to engage their audience and make a lasting impression, the majority of modern marketers are more focused on the volume of impressions. They are stuck in the cycle of creating slightly-above-average content, promoting it, and optimizing for maximum ROI.

How many more “7 Killer SEO Tips Every Blogger Ought To Know” posts does the Internet really need? How many more ‘social media secrets’ are there left to reveal?

When I was a little kid I told my mom and dad that I wanted to be an inventor when I grew up. To succeed in the world of marketing in the 21st century, you need to embrace your inner inventor. After all, marketing in the 2013 means having the opportunity to do things that have never been done. That’s not fluff speak, it’s the truth. It should make you excited.

Even more exciting than the new technology is the new kind of consumer that we have the privilege to address. As Fjord illustrates, this is the era of consumer self-realization and this new kind of consumer — which includes you and I — does not want to be sold to, but rather engaged. As marketers we will win when we provide consumers with an experience, not ad-copy. Think about making a memory before making a sale.

To the content creators and marketers: We have this endless digital landscape that allows us to publish and promote anything our minds can imagine. It is being filled with soul-less content that gets impressions without making an impression. If we only harvest our most inspired work, we will get results, and that’s what marketing is all about, isn’t it?

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