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AT&T has hit advertising gold with their latest round of ads. These amazingly popular spots have left many wondering…scripted or improv?
This morning’s Advertising Age offers some great insight into the spots (created by BBDO). Turns out, “the spots are ‘guided’ improv” according to American actor and Caviar Director Jorma Taccone. Follow the link to learn more about the thought process behind this creative campaign.
P.S. The spot shown above is my personal favorite.
Thanks to authors like Peter Montoya (The Brand Called You) and Dan Schawbel (Me 2.0), the concept of a ‘personal brand’ is well known. While often discussed in terms of how you can advance your career, the strength and scope of an individual’s personal brand can often be leveraged in service of others. Such is the case with chef Tom Colicchio.
Founder of Craft and Colicchio & Sons restaurants and head judge on Bravo’s Top Chef, Tom Colicchio has built an amazing career since opening the Gramercy Tavern in Manhattan in 1994. What many don’t know is that Colicchio has also been fighting to end hunger in America since the earliest years of his cooking career. Today, he is fully leveraging his celebrity and strong personal brand to focus attention on the issue. As the executive producer of the new documentary film A Place at the Table, he, along with his wife, filmmaker Lori Silverbush, and her codirector, Kristi Jacobson, hope to bring to light the pervasive problem of hunger in this country.
.@placeatthetable is now playing in theaters, iTunes & OnDemand! #TakeYourPlace ow.ly/i/1A9aV
— A Place at the Table (@PlaceAtTheTable) March 1, 2013
The film reminds us that 50 million people in the U.S.-one in four children-don’t know where their next meal is coming from, despite our having the means to provide nutritious, affordable food for all Americans. “Sometimes you look at this and as a problem, it seems so big that you can’t fix it, but that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t start somewhere,” Colicchio says. Thanks Tom for leveraging your personal brand…hopefully, more of us will step up.
Here’s a quick link: Douglas Karr’s The Marketing Technology Blog ran a great post this morning with an infographic worth your attention. (Click the infographic for the complete information.)
The data and infographic, originally from ZenDesk actually points to something I’ve been talking about with clients for the past few years: once organizations and companies finally decide to ask their customers/donors, etc. for feedback, they tend to over do it. Keep it simple.
- Identify your primary goal for the survey (not multiple goals)
- Minimize the frequency of surveys
- Reduce the number of questions
- Keep questions specific and targeted
- Choose the right format depending on your target audience
- Consider creating more routine feedback loop for customers
- Reward them for their participation…show them you appreciate their time!
As the infographic reminds us: “Companies must remember that customers feel near-exhaustion with a seemingly endless stream of surveys. While surveys are an imperative part of gauging customer service needs, companies must keep their questionnaires short, engaging and full of possible incentives. Doing so will counteract customers feedback fatigue.
In case you missed this, Apple made big news yesterday on two fronts: 1) their advertising budget hit $1 billion in its last fiscal year, and 2) their App Store surpassed 40 billion downloads, nearly 1/2 taking place in 2012. The 2nd news story also contained the report that developers have made over $7 billion on the App Store.
When talking to developers at a conference back in 1997, Steve Jobs said “I think every good product that I’ve ever seen in this industry and pretty much anywhere, is because a group of people care deeply about making something wonderful that they and their friends wanted. You know? They want to use it themselves. And that’s how the Apple I came about, that’s how the Apple II came about, that’s how the Macintosh came about. That’s how almost everything I know that’s good has come about.”
The takeaway from these two stories: 1) Give people what they want. 2) Make sure they know about it. Simple concepts, sometimes hard to perfect. By the way, the company closed FY2012 out with $121.3 billion in cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities. Looks like they’re doing something right!
Read the full stories here:
Yesterday, Jon Gordon wrote “The Most Productive Way To Meet Your Company’s Goals This Year: Choose Just One Word” for Fast Company. The article references a book he co-authored with Dan Britton and Jimmy Page that was posted on Amazon last month. Thought I’d pass it along. Here’s an excerpt:
Every January thousands of leaders, companies, and teams gather to discuss their goals for the upcoming year. Numbers and goals are passionately shared by leadership and written down by employees with anticipation and excitement. It’s an experience filled with energy, hope, and optimism.
The problem is that by April the positive energy and optimism felt in January has given way to the tests and challenges of reality. And the goals and numbers that were shared and written down with such passion and enthusiasm are likely in the garbage can, in a binder on the shelf, or ignored on the laptop.
Three years ago I discovered a better way than numbers and goals to refocus companies and motivate employees. My friends Dan Britton and Jimmy Page told me how each year for the past 15 years they chose a word that would be a driving force in their lives and work. No goals. No Resolutions. Just One Word.
Read the entire article here.
You can hardly open your email or turn on your iPad over these last few days of the year without some new list of predictions for 2013. I really didn’t want to add to the noise, but I thought it might simplify things for my readers if I condense the plethora of lists down to what I think are the top five:
- Robert Passikoff atBrand Keys offers Lucky Thirteen: Trends for 2013
- Eric Savitz at Forbes offers his cliff notes on Gartner’s Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends For 2013
- Fast Company gave us Hootsuite CEO Ryan Holmes’ The Can’t-Miss Social Media Trends For 2013
- Mashable’s Your Social Media Marketing Checklist for 2013
- And, as I mentioned in a prior blog post – trendwatching.com’s 10 Crucial Consumer Trends for 2013
So there you have it – a list of lists for 2013! I hope they stimulate your own creative thinking as you sort out your plans for the new year. To my clients, associates, friends and followers: I wish you a Very Happy and Prosperous New Year!
Last week, Fast Company ran a great article by Joey Asher entitled For Presentations, Half As Long Is Twice As Good. It offers five important tips you’ll want to commit to memory. One point, in particular, has application far beyond the business presentation – the $300,000 challenge. It goes like this:
Let’s say you’re about to give a presentation to 20 people. Before the presentation I offer you $300,000 cash and say “You can have the money under one condition. After your presentation, I will approach three people from the audience and ask them to repeat to me your key messages. If all three can do it, you win the money.”
If those are the conditions, you will limit your presentation to a few key messages. You’ll keep the messages short. And you’ll repeat them many times.
Any good presentation should leave the audience with a few memorable messages. And it’s not hard to do. Just ask yourself, “What are the three things that my audience must remember?”
Wouldn’t it be amazing if we could hold all of our marketing efforts to the same standard? How often do you stray from the discipline of a few key messages? Both the profit and not-for-profit sectors are littered with failed campaigns that lose sight of this simple practice. I could point to several examples…and so could you.
What are the three things you want your customer/donor/audience, etc. to remember?
Make sure to check out trendwatching.com
This morning I noticed a story from MediaPost that took a look at HootSuite’s analysis of Sunday’s Super Bowl through the lense of social media success. With marketers focusing more and more on the intersection between TV watching and social media activity, there are insights to be gained by reveiwing which Super Bowl advertisers did the best job engaging with fans before, during, and after the big game.
HootSuite analyzed 105 ads ranking brands according to their use of social media channels and trending data. The end result? Take a look at this infographic on the top 20 brands based on their real-time, and after-game social media engagement.
One of the statistics that stood out was that the Super Bowl generated 12.2 million comments on social media. You can read more about their findings on HootSuite’s blog found here.
The biggest takeaway for me was that 88% of ads made NO reference to social media – missing out on social media’s full potential. What were they thinking?!
By the way, you may also want to look at MediaPost’s summary. If you don’t follow them regularly, you should!
