Collide Inc.

Wonderful spot. Simple insight told well.

Mon, 14 Nov 2011 21:58:06 -0500

Wonderful spot. Simple insight told well.

The Kids Aren't Alright

Tue, 01 Nov 2011 13:08:17 -0400

Today’s children will be the first generation in our history to live a shorter life than their parents.

And the biggest culprit of this trend is childhood obesity.

According to a recent study by the Rudd Center children today are exposed to even more advertising for sugary drinks than ever before. Even after all of the child protection laws that were passed to help protect the marketing of these drinks to children under 12.

As marketers we should be ashamed.

We should have a fiduciary duty to not bend the truth. When juice is sold as “real juice” yet there is less than 5% of “real juice” in the bottle that’s a problem.

That’s not marketing. That’s lying.

"On-time and on-budget doesn’t matter if nobody cares when you launch. It’s still a..."

Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:06:55 -0400

“On-time and on-budget doesn’t matter if nobody cares when you launch. It’s still a waste.”

Low-Fidelity Prototyping Tools for Marketers

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 12:52:20 -0400

Part of the lean start-up methodology is to create low-fidelity prototypes that can be quickly designed to start testing market assumptions.

Remember the whole point of lean thinking is to eliminate waste - anything that prevents a team from starting to learn based on real consumer behaviour is considered a waste.

As I continue to think how this can be applied to marketing I quickly realized that in order for this approach to work it requires ways for marketers to create their own version of “Minimum Viable Products”.

Minimum Viable Campaigns.

How could this be done? Here’s the start of my list which I will continue to add to:

1. Direct Mail Campaigns

Use Multi-Variable or A/B Testing on an E-Mail Newsletter to a segment of your consumer database.

Test offer copy and call-to-actions. Use landing pages to test different creative concepts.

Create landing pages with: KickoffLabs

2. Digital Campaigns

Use a 1-page website and e-mail sign-up to track interest of the core idea. Run AdWord tests to drive traffic.

Create low-fidelity sites with: Unbounce

3. Contests

Test contest ideas on your brand’s Facebook Page. Offer a scaled down version of prizing and/or offer.

Easily create FB contest/sweeps modules using: NorthSocial

The key point here is not necessarily to test creative or execution but instead the core hypothesis of your campaign. For example, if you’re creating a campaign that involves consumers purchasing special offers it would make sense to first determine if people value the types of offers you plan on offering. If they don’t why build an entire campaign around it?

Or if you’re a non-profit planning a campaign with a donation ask first determine what’s the strongest message to do exactly that.

There are some obvious gaps here which will require more thinking - how does this work for media campaigns, in-store POS or print? There has to be solutions for these types of ideas as well…

User Experience at its Best

Wed, 26 Oct 2011 10:00:00 -0400

I never thought you could make a fan, heater or hand dryer beautiful and functional.

Then Dyson came along and changed everything.

I never thought you could make a thermostat beautiful and functional.

And then came along Nest.

Amaze. And a perfect example to show that focusing on the user experience and baking it into every aspect of the product can create beautiful results. In virtually every single industry. Even seemingly boring ones - thermostats.

Nest is led by Tony Fadell. Who? He’s the guy that led the team that created the first 18 generations of the iPod. Oh. As the kids say, ‘nuff said.

The Elephant in the Room - Why don't agencies advertise?

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 09:34:49 -0400

Seth nails it today.

He says what every client has probably thought:

“throughout the history of advertising, ad agencies have rarely, if ever, bought ads for themselves. Worth noting that firms that would seek to help you generate earned media are much better at taking their own advice.” - Seth Godin.

Strange that agencies would spend your money on expensive campaigns and planning but would never do the same with their own money.

Minimum Viable Campaigns Part 1

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 15:45:42 -0400

“In a startup no facts exist inside the building, only opinions.” - Steve Blank

I believe the same can be said for agencies and clients when developing marketing campaigns. A lot of the talk is based on opinions of those in the room not on facts and not on actual consumer responses.

The answer isn’t in more research either.

There’s a lot of talk in the start-up world about Minimum Viable Products (MVPs). (Steve Blank, Eric Ries and Sean Ellis are all awesome sources to learn more).

The basic premise is that any work done beyond being able to start learning what people actually think is a waste of time and resources. If it prevents you from starting to test your business model’s assumption than you are likely not being productive. A MVP allows you to go out in the real world and begin testing core assumptions about your product/service.

I’ve been wondering if the same philosophy can be applied to the marketing world? Could Minimum Viable Campaigns help prevent the creation of marketing campaigns that nobody cares about? In my opinion it really doesn’t matter if something is on budget and on time if nobody cares - it’s a waste.

The idea would be to create an MVC and test it in the real world (not with focus groups) and iterate the campaign accordingly instead of planning for the “big launch”. Strategy and Planning becomes part of the creation process rather than a long drawn out process that gets handed over to Account/Creative teams to execute.

In order for it to work it would require a significant restructuring of the client-agency relationship, how agencies operate and even how clients operate.

More thinking to come on MVCs…

Buzzword Alert: Competitive Moats

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 17:23:00 -0400

What’s are your competitive moats?

Huh?

Apparently this is a fairly common term in the start-up world.

Before you go off dropping buzzwords like they’re hot you should know where they come from.

Today’s lesson: Competitive Moats.

For some reason, I caught myself watching the GroupOn Roadshow as they try to convince investors their business model is sound and are indeed worth billions of dollars. And their were lots of talk about competitive moats.

What the hell is a moat? Time to investigate.

The word means a deep and wide ditch. It was either dry or filled with water and used to surround castles as part of a defensive strategy. Kinda hard to use a battering ram back then if you had to cross a large ditch. Makes sense.

Today, the word is used to describe how a business maintains competitive advantage. Competitive moats are the specific assets that they have.

Now you know. Moats.

Damn. That’s one hot moat.

Connecting Audiences as a Business Model

Thu, 20 Oct 2011 22:08:10 -0400

The Internet has brought rise to a number of new business models. One that I’ve been particularly fascinated by are business models that aggregate a group of sellers and also identifies buyers at scale. These organizations connect the two in an efficient manner adding value for both sides. Netflix, GroupOn and Birchbox are all examples.

I characterize these business models as follows:

1. Discovery is at the heart of the business model

Netflix = new movies based on your viewing habits

GroupOn = new products/services in your local area

BirchBox = new beauty product samples

2. Online to Offline

Consumers are found online (discovery to sign-up to purchase) and the fulfillment is made offline (mail). Doesn’t completely apply to Netflix as DVDs become obsolete.

3. Secret Sauce

Netflix = complex recommendation algorithm

GroupOn = database. but value created questionable with so many competitiors.

BirchBox = ? If they are going to survive they will need to invest in some form of recommendation/personalization engine

4. Aggregate Sellers & Buyers

Netflix = movie studios. people who want a wide selection of movies/tv shows

GroupOn = small businesses with excess capacity. deal hunters.

BirchBox = beauty companies with samples. “cool” hunters - want to be in the “know”

What makes all of these business models interesting is that they scale and are profitable. People are willing to pay for something that they can feel and touch. It’s tangible.

Collaborative Discovery

Wed, 19 Oct 2011 12:14:10 -0400

Behind the scenes at most agencies the brainstorming process is a completely arbitrary process (never to be admitted to a client).

A select group of “brainstormers” consisting of suits, maybe a few “creative” people and maybe somoene who fits the consumer target from the agency sit in a boardroom and stare at each other blankly.

No real process or structure and not that many people involved.

Why?

It’s expensive and inefficient to try and involve lots of people in the brainstorming process. It also requires a lot of coordination.

There might be a better way.

Collaborative discovery involves using technology to quickly generate insights and ideas from a large group of people. The idea is you have a digital tool where a question is posed and people can contribute their ideas. The technology then automatically bubbles up the best ideas based on other people’s feedback, groups like-minded thoughts together and allows for the efficient evaluation of ideas.

Check out Hybrid Wisdom Labs developed out of UC Berkley for a tool that could be very promising in facilitating the discovery of ideas.

This could be a great tool to help agencies in the ideation process.

"Brand currency, the value generated from our investments, is not equal to spending more time with..."

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 17:08:44 -0400

“Brand currency, the value generated from our investments, is not equal to spending more time with people but making the time they have to spend with us more valuable.”

- Helge Tennø

"Natural" Lies

Tue, 18 Oct 2011 10:16:00 -0400

More marketing lies. Spotting these are becoming a bit too easy. What a shame.

A Globe & Mail article suggests that meat packaging companies have been misleading consumers with their “natural” product lines that claim they do not contain artificial preservatives such as nitrates. Read it here or get the crux of it below.

As marketers we have an obligation to tell the truth not mislead consumers. That’s not marketing.

From the article:

“Maple Leaf Foods uses a boy named Dylan Carter in a commercial for its Natural Selections brand. A butcher explains in a voiceover that Dylan’s parents wouldn’t let him eat hot dogs because of added preservatives, so the company made one with “no artificial preservatives and ingredients his parents can actually pronounce.”

The promises tap into the mindset of consumers looking to avoid artificial ingredients with complex names such as sodium erythorbate. For this reason, many are willing to pay higher prices for “natural” processed meats.

But the ads and packages for these new meat products don’t mention that they contain cultured celery extract, which is a source of nitrates and nitrites – preserving agents linked to an increased risk of heart disease, cancer and Type 2 diabetes.”

Yikes. And a great example of the disconnect between marketing and product development. Marketers make a promise. The product doesn’t hold up.

After, all of the controversy around Maple Leaf only a few years ago you would think they would get their act together…

Oh Porter Airlines. I feel for you. I really do. In September...

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 14:44:00 -0400

Oh Porter Airlines. I feel for you. I really do. In September they ran a campaign announcing their last promo sale. Radio spots said it would be the last sale ever. Discounts are like a drug. You really can’t just stop because you’ve trained people to only buy on sale. Run a discount, sales go up but only temporarily. It’s never sustained. And that’s the problem here with Porter. Regular consumers don’t buy Porter when its not on sale. So their marketing department runs another sale hoping nobody will notice or care…

"The richest society the world has ever seen has grown rich by devising better and better ways to..."

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 11:37:41 -0400

“The richest society the world has ever seen has grown rich by devising better and better ways to give people what they want.”

- Michael Lewis, Vanity Fair