Friday morning I was on the Jim Blasingame radio show, and was talking about humor (Click Here To Hear The Show). So does humor work in advertising, in the social media?

It depends. A pretty good rule of thumb is that humor doesn’t work but that’s because you have to be really, really good and have a great client to make it work.

Most lesser talents think humor is jokes and vice versa and that’s simply not true. As David Ogilvy famously said, quoting Claude Hopkins, “People don’t buy from clowns.”

Humor works when it’s right, (often) self-deprecating and woven (seemingly) effortlessly into a USP.

When I was working in Canada and we had Tourism Canada as a client, we learned that US visitors came from everywhere but Texas. Could we do something about Texas? Our Creative Director, put a huge close-cut photo of a moose on the face of a white 9” x 12” envelope with the headline “Got any of these in Texas?” Bingo, Texas problem solved for Canada Tourism.

When I was head of Geller Direct at TBWA in New York, we worked on the Absolut Vodka business. The client, Michel Roux, told the creative team they could show the bottle profile with two words and one of the words had to be Absolut. The other could be anything.
They looked at each other. What? Then they came up with one of the most humorous and effective ad campaigns of all time.

One of the reasons jokes, visual or verbal, don’t do well in ads is that people often don’t get them or even notice them. And when they do get the joke, they remember the joke and not the product.

The funny Super Bowl ads (the reason I watch the game) get a laugh, once, and then all those millions of dollars are gone. Maybe they help the brand, maybe not.

I think I remember two over the years. One was back in the dot com craze when some idiots thought it would be funny to shot gerbils from a cannon (it wasn’t) and the other had a guy in a clown suit with the suit – including the clown head – upside down. He ordered a Bud and … well, never mind where he put the bottle. Two ladies in the commercial had the vapors. Ever saw the spot again.

Older readers (as old as, say 40) probably remember Mr. Whipple, the supermarket who nagged his customers with “please don’t squeeze the Charmin”. He wasn’t funny, at least not at first but over a 21 year campaign and 500 spots, Mr. Whipple (Dick Wilson appeared in al 500 spots) developed a hokey homespun kitchiness that I still think of when I buy toilet paper.

In 1984, Wendy’s hired 81-year old Clara Peller to look askance at a competitor’s puny hamburger and blurt “Where’s the beef”? Wendy’s started to take off. Humor can work, gentle humor that integrates the product and will continue over time to amuse middle America, not wiseacre agency kids.

So here are a few things you might consider about using humor in today’s climate:

1. Humor cheers people up. I got a postcard about a “hot copywriter” with a photo of a handsome young guy who writes great copy. It was fun. In mice type it said “appearance of some copywriters may vary.” Funny and focused.
2. Don’t “knock-knock” it until you’ve tried it; test a humorous approach vs. straight creative. Do a 50 – 50 split if it’s email or direct mail.
3. Play to your target audience. When using humor don’t use toilet funnies, unless you’re a plumber. The New Yorker keeps its circulation because of the cartoons, and they’re often earthy and sometimes sophisticated. Consider your own audience, and how you might laugh with them.
4. Brevity is important in this time of Twitter messages, IM and sound bites. Brevity is also the soul of wit, if you believe Polonius in Hamlet. If you use humor, begin with it and make it short and sweet to make your point.
5. Consider radio. In one commercial I heard recently an announcer called a healthcare company and had a hard time talking because a lobster had clamped onto his tongue - so the listener actually focused on his message.

Humor works if it’s relevant. If you just want to be funny, try Caroline’s.

My Creative Director and friend Michael McCormick (Guts of a Burglar blogster) needs a new car (at least I think so). His Ford Explorer is 12 years old, runs like a top and still looks pretty good … on the outside.

The inside is a different matter entirely. Passengers have to fly their legs over the Sirius antenna wire; the spots and stains are, well, spots and stains. The A/C in the back doesn’t work anymore and the vehicle is almost ready for its confirmation or bar mitzvah.

When Michael got this Explorer back in the late ‘90s (it’s his second one), I went with him to the dealership in Queens. He told the saleslady what he wanted, and she asked him what color he liked.

Anything you have is fine, he said. She and I looked at each other in disbelief.

Anyway, I thought the Cash for Clunkers program was a heaven sent opportunity for Michael to get a new ride. He disagreed. He thinks his Chuck (the Truck) is barely broken in. The tires are new, the brakes are new, the oil’s been changed and fluids checked every 3,000 miles. Yada yada.

It took me a while to understand his real reason.

For weeks I encouraged him to go to see the new cars. He wants an Explorer but the closest Ford dealership closed and they don’t make Explorers anymore, anyway.

So, I went to tweetdeck and started asking around. @ScottMonty, Ford’s Twitter spokesperson, gave me some recommendations. Another friend suggested the Flex and sent me photos. No buying action. I asked Michael why he wasn’t moving on this.

Turns out he really and truly doesn’t think taxpayers should be subsidizing his new car. Hmm. Hadn’t thought of that. And, he pointed out, a new vehicle cost a lot more than $4,500, perhaps around $25,000 more for what he wants. Why spend all that dough when he doesn’t need a new car? Men are soooo logical. It’s frustrating. But I already knew that. The new insights this whole episode provided got me thinking.

Not too long ago, the only way Ford could show its cars was in print or television advertising. Now that’s all changed.

What we see on TV or in ads is one-way communication, the company talking at us and controlling the flow of information.

Now we control the flow of information and we can find what we want, when we want it and consult with friends and family and experts along the way. I’ve known all this in theory and in making smaller purchasers for quite a while, but it’s a different matter to experience the whole process for a big ticket item (like a new SUV) in the real world of actually buying it.

In the meantime, people haven’t stopped looking for authenticity. And marketers are paying serious attention to what’s going on in Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn. On the web, customers can find anything, competitive prices, colors, and visit a website and buy anything in a NY minute.

Except, of course, Michael. He’ll be driving that car and me - and, horrors, clients - into the ground. Eventually, he’ll chat with a few friends and head off and buy a Flex or Edge or, who knows, a Club Cab F-250 – purple with a yellow interior, that some dealer happens to have on the lot and ready to roll.

A therapy dog can be any breed from a teacup Yorkie to an Irish Wolfhound as long as it’s calm, tolerates other animals and loves to be petted by strangers. They’re great at places like old folks’ homes, hospital wards for kids with long term illnesses, even prisons. Therapy dogs are happy to see you, whoever you are.
I have two cats at home that I think of as therapy animals. Mortimer, huge and orange with an extra toe on each of his four feet, loves everyone; Lucy, small, black and white, and younger likes three people plus Mortimer - and in the whole world that’s it for objects of her affections.
When we had an office near my apartment in New York, I used to bring my cats to work but now that we’re in our Hollywood, Florida marina office two and a half miles from home, I can’t do that anymore.
But I do have Cappy.
Cappy’s a Maltese Terrier who belongs to Bruce and Lara, a nice couple from New England. They sailed into the marina (our office is on the second floor of the Harbor master’s office) a year and a half ago and took a more or less permanent lease on a slip right outside my office window.
They live in their sail boat, and they share our huge downstairs terrace with us and people from other boats. It’s a very collegial gathering and was somewhat staid until Bruce and Lara brought home a tiny white bundle of fur. Cappy.
Dogs need somewhere to run off their leashes but you can’t take a dog off the leash in the marina. So Cappy comes upstairs to run around our offices. And run he does. Nonstop for the first 5 minutes, ripping figure eights around tables and chairs, racing after the balls we throw him for him.
His favorite spot is under my desk where he might find a crumb or two leftover from my lunch. When he (and Bruce and Lara, of course) went up north for a few weeks, I was bereft. No Cappy.
It is interesting that a dog can cheer you up; as you laugh, the creative juices start flowing again. I’m thinking of giving him a job as our Growler in Chief. Last week he accidentally took a small chunk out of Michael’s right hand when they both reached for a tennis ball at the same time. Good thing Michael throws leftie.
Cappy doesn’t know it, and wouldn’t care if he did, but he’s a therapy dog. Thanks, Capster for making Lois Geller Marketing Group’s office (a.k.a. Cappy’s Run), a happier place to work.

Twitter’s site went down for a few hours the other day and within 15 minutes I started feeling the pangs of withdrawal. Why? My goodness, it’s just a web site for short messages, isn’t it?

As I thought about it last night – why am I so attracted to Twitter? – it occurred to me that the reason might lie in Twitter’s competitive value to small companies like mine. In an important way, it gives us a leg up on big companies.

A lot of corporations worry about Twitter. Many of them don’t want to tweet on their own because they can’t control the process tightly; maybe employees will give people a bad impression of their brand. So they turn to their large agencies for help in testing social media. The large agency gives the job to junior creative people who do the best they can. The problem is that they can’t come up with revenue projections for Twitter results.

But small companies can really go to town with Twitter marketing. They can be themselves. If they’re looking for local customers, they can find them on Search. So if, for example, I have a store that specializes in interesting kites, I can talk about all the people who fly kites, I can give ideas for parties, have kite flying contests and sell discount kites, Twitter invite only, say once a month.

After several months, I can track ROI on Twitter much more easily than a large company ever could. This means that small businesses can:

• Build a great big wonderful Brand and voice that sound like they come from a real person;

• Begin to develop really solid friendships.

I’ve been doing this for a while now and I’m seeing real value. And I actually do feel a lot like the man behind the curtain, the Wizard of Twitter, pulling all the right levers.

If you’re interested in a Twitter or Social Media Program, feel free to call: 646-723-3231 or to visit me, on Twitter, of course, at twitter.com/loisgeller

I was speaking recently at the Boca Raton Hotel, and one of the conference attendees said that most websites and blogs have deadly boring personalities. She said yours don’t!

It was a flattering remark, and I knew what she meant. The websites we create have something unique about them. Your eyes don’t glaze over when you see them, whether it is
for a dry cleaner or for an association, I think that:

Websites should be interesting:

1. They should look unique, have character, do something different than your competitors’ do.

2. Your “Stand out” benefit should show. If you’re the drycleaner that can get the ink off my linen jacket. Then maybe that should be featured in a museum.

3. You should ask for visitors’ email addresses, and give them something Free for it.

4. Your website brand should be the same as the one in your store, in your catalog…everywhere, so people remember it.

5. On this website, the dry cleaner is on a busy street, but you can always spot her truck with her Apthorp Cleaners brand on it…in all the traffic.

Continue the conversation with you visitors with a great e-newsletter or Tip of the Month…and remember to thank them at holiday time, birthdays, and odd holidays.

Call us about your website: Lois Geller: 646-723-3231

Lois K. Geller
President
Lois Geller Marketing Group
1400 Marina Dr.
Hollywood, FL 33019
P. (646) 723-3235
F. (954) 456-2877
Visit me at: http://www.joyofdirectmarketing.com
http://www.twitter.com/loisgeller

The Nike commercial that says, “Just do it” always makes me smile, because it sounds so easy…and in life few people abide by those words.

It has especially struck home recently, as we’ve had some people come and go, at my office because they just couldn’t get things done. There’s a great saying in the Dale Carnegie Course, “I know people in the ranks who will stay in the ranks. Why, I’ll tell you why, because they haven’t the ability to get things done”

Our art director is not like that and I’ll tell you what happened at dinner last night…

His friend was telling me an amazing story. Apparently Donald was out on his terrace, and cleaning off some foliage from pillars he’s replacing. So, he was up on a ladder, and noticed that there was a palm frond hanging over the top of the roof. So, he reached up to pull it down, and jumped when the frond, leaped back away from him. Donald saw that he had pulled the tail of a huge lizard, and he said he could feel (and hear) the thumps as the angry lizard marched up the rooftop.

Wow, I couldn’t believe it. I would have moved out of the house the same night. I kidded them, and asked what the lizard’s name was. Donald said he had none. So, I named him Lizard Ferrer, as a take-off on the big investment bank, Lazard Freres.

I told my friend that I wanted to see what this thing looked like. And, first thing on Sunday morning, I received this photo of the strange looking critter. I was amazed at how beautifully Mother Nature had painted him, so he blends right in with the foliage.

And, I love the photograph so I thought I’d share it with you. And, I want to make the point that if you need to do something on that list of yours, get it done. Don’t think about, worry over it…or ponder too long. You might miss an opportunity.

Just do it!

This year I spoke about the power of Social Media, sites like LinkedIn, Twitter, and Facebook. One of the things I like about the social media world is that in many ways it’s like direct marketing on steroids - faster, more intimate, and easier-to-measure.

I was amazed that many in the audience didn’t know about Twitter or LinkedIn. Some had Facebook accounts for showing family photos.

I spoke about strategy and how to drive followers from Twitter to Facebook and then to your blog. As people get to know you, the more likely it is that they will do business with you, especially in b2b.
The title of my talk was How to get Tons of Free Advice on the Internet. I showed them how I floated questions on LinkedIn and received dozens of great answers from leading lights in our field.

My enthusiasm for this subject is over the top because I have a great time meeting people online. The Merit audience wanted to know the basics. I was amazed that with all of the publicity around these programs (how did Obama win the election? Social Media) that they hadn’t at least tested the waters. After all, it is all free.
My takeaway was:
· Many people in business are depressed. They’re worried about their companies and their jobs.

· They are waiting for business to come back as it has in the past.

· They are marketing conservatively, doing what they’ve done (just mailing less).

My advice to them and you:
· Develop the right attitude now! If you stay positive and keep on truckin’ - trying new ideas - something is a bound to work for you.

· If you just wait for business to come back, as it has before, it might not. Go after any piece of business that has a chance to pay off for you. (I call it the Dandelion Theory.) Blow out as many programs as you can, and one will take root. Maybe more.

· Now is the time to think creatively. Tell people about the benefits ofy our product or service, as if you were recommending it to a friend. Skip the rhetoric. Talk like a human being and tell your prospects why they should buy it now.

· Don Libey at the conference said, WAYMISH. Why are you making it so hard for your customer to buy from you? Make it easy on your website, on the phone, on your direct mail. Short is best.

And, let me know how you’re doing. Visit me at twitter.com/loisgeller at LinkedIn: Lois Geller, Facebook: Lois K. Geller and by email: loisgeller@loisgellermarketinggroup.com Easy, huh?

I used to see RAOK in my Tweet deck and I couldn’t figure out what it meant. Then it hit me: Random Acts of Kindness.

In real life we call them good deeds and I was reminded of one that happened to me years ago in far away California.

We were on our way to Woodland Hills to give a marketing seminar for our clients at Funrise. It had been a long trip from New York to LAX and I was starving. Whoa! Is that a Denny’s up there? Let’s duck in for something we can gobble down quickly.

And that’s where I met Tim Tallent, our waiter. He understood our predicament immediately and magically brought out our food right away, all the time talking good naturedly. He was funny, too, and by the time we left I felt as if I’d made a friend. Turns out I had.

Time gave me his card, and I gave him mine. When I got back to New York I decided to write about Tim in my monthly column for Target Marketing Magazine. It was all about how he lifted my spirits that day. I sent a tear sheet of the article to his boss, too.

Tim sent a Thank You note and seven years passed. Then yesterday I got an email from him. Click here to read it: Tim Tallent’s E-mail

All the best,
Lois
loisgeller@loisgellermarketinggroup.com

So now when I read the letters RAOK, I think of great people like Tim. Now it seems he manages the whole restaurant.

If only the lady behind the counter at Subway today had smiled and said something, anything, rather than slowly fill up all of her little silver trays with various Subway stuff, I might have ordered a sandwich and written about her today, too.

Last Saturday I cancelled my bridge game to have dinner in Fort Lauderdale with some fascinating people: dry cleaners. A few years ago, I was lucky to get invited to speak at a National Cleaners Association brainstorming meeting in the Bahamas, and then again in New York City.

Whenever I speak to dry cleaners, I learn at least as much as I teach. Mostly, I relearn about how great it is to be an entrepreneur, not to mention the brilliant ideas I hear for generating business. Large companies get bogged down with office politics, endless meetings, bean counters and layers of decision makers. Entrepreneurs don’t.

Dry cleaners usually talk to their spouses, maybe a colleague or a competitor, and then test a program right away. It makes the marketing process more fun, kind of like instant gratification. And dry cleaners are always looking for new ideas.
Last Saturday, the Association’s President, Nora Nealis, idea-woman-extraordinare, asked me to join her, Debra Kravet (owner of Apthorp Cleaners in New York City) and Susan and Mike Sternshein (owners of Cricket Cleaners in Lake Worth, FL) for dinner.

We laughed a lot but in between we talked about websites, marketing, social media and what they were doing to work even harder to satisfy their customers. Oddly, nobody mentioned the state of the economy. So, once again, I learned a lot from these successful people.

Debra Kravet took out her laptop and showed us every detail of how she designed her amazing store in a very small space at 383 Amsterdam Avenue. One great thing about successful people is they’re enthusiastic.

Nora Nealis and I about how she made me jump through hoops when I did my first speech for her. She wanted to see the PowerPoint in advance so we could discuss it and improve it. Successful people want to provide value to their customers (in this case her members).

The Sternsheins were at my first NCA seminar and they said they’d implemented many of the programs I’d suggested. Successful people actually accomplish things now.

So, take a lesson from them, and do some of these things yourself. And you won’t worry too much about the economy. You won’t have time.

All the best,
Lois
loisgeller@loisgellermarketinggroup.com