Content Marketing Today

Plenty Has Changed from 1960 to 2010 but What Is Most Important Has Stayed the Same.

If you're not already a fan of the TV classic in the making, Mad Men, it's all about the Madison Avenue ad agency world of the early 1960s. There was plenty of drinking, smoking, and carrying on. But, there was plenty of great, and surprisingly timeless, marketing taking place, too.

Most of you probably are not old enough to remember when housewives really did wear shirtwaist dresses to do housework, when color TV was just beginning to take hold, when JFK  had just promised a man on the moon, and when a lot of famous brands were invented or enhanced by the ad agency Mad Men in the title.  That may have been a long time ago, but we can still learn some timeless content marketing truths from one wonderful segment.

In a Mad Men segment about the creation of the Kodak Carousel the roots of content marketing shine through when lead character, Don Draper, makes it clear that building a brand is all about storytelling and engaging the consumer--and not about technology or the company itself.

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And It's Not Just Content But Mobile Content for the iPhone

The Geico gecko campaign is an excellent example of effective advertising because it integrates humor with a consistent product benefit message. Nonetheless, it suffers from the same limitations that afflict all advertising:

• It calls out to customers whether or not they want to hear the message. Thus, however amusing, it's still an example of interruption marketing.
• Because each ad is short, Geico is limited in the amount of information it can convey.
• There is little intrinsic value to the content of the ads. That is, they don't help Geico customers be more successful or live better lives.
• However amusing, their constant repetition can become annoying even for big fans of Geico like me.
• This is strictly one-way communication that does not enable customer interaction.

Now, however, they have added a powerful content marketing component to their marketing mix.

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Just because you put a cute dog in a commercial, you won't automatically communicate effectively with your customers.

Storytelling is a key component of effective marketing and often of the very best advertising. But, you have to be really careful in the use of storytelling for a brief TV commercial that addresses millions of viewers who are not giving you their full attention from the get-go. That's why the State Street SPDR commercial featuring a cute Jack Russell Fox Terrier misses the mark. Read More

Why a talkative canine was able to put a family-owned business in our collective consciousness

One can only imagine the original ad agency pitch to the company when they suggested having the company president and a talking golden retriever be the centerpiece of a national marketing campaign.  It must've seemed just as crazy as the idea of the AFLAC duck.

But, in fact, it has proved to be just as successful. Just as AFLAC went from complete obscurity to pervasive brand recognition, so too have Bush’s Baked Beans become a successful national brand. This family-owned company from Tennessee now has the best-selling baked bean brand in the United States.  Even for a talking dog, that's an extraordinary accomplishment.

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When Their Own Commercial Shows How Hard It Is to Get Urgent Answers, You Know They Have a Problem

Imagine a scenario where catastrophe looms unless an immediate solution can be found.  That’s the situation here where an aquarium worker accidentally creates a crack in the wall which quickly expands to disastrous proportions. 

Can the Yellow Pages save the day?

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Out with Seinfeld and Gates and in with a real computer buyer.

There were lots of problems with the short-lived Bill Gates Jerry Seinfeld ad campaign.  In fact, we had a lot of fun trashing it last year.  Fundamentally, they did nothing to address the concerns of Microsoft customers or to solve their problems.  Basically, they featured two wealthy guys engaged in a meaningless dialogue that appeared to be complete self-indulgence on the part of Microsoft and its agency.  Fortunately, that ad campaign was put out of its misery quickly.

Their new campaign couldn't be more authentic or more effective.  The campaign is designed to counter the very effective Apple Mac versus PC commercials which positioned Microsoft as uncool and Apple as hip and happening. I think it works like gangbusters.

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She is listening to her customers and she is passionate about her products. So we believe Progressive is, too. And, through Flo, the company makes it a no-brainer to understand why we should buy from them and how we can do it.

I think we would all like to run into a sales clerk who cares as much about her customers as Flo does in the long running series of Progressive Insurance commercials that encourage viewers to visit their website, Progressive.com.  She is probably now just as much of an insurance advertising icon as the Geico gecko. 

Actually, the two advertising campaigns have something in common: they are amusing and memorable, but they make very clear points about why you will benefit from buying their products.  Creativity never gets in the way of their goal to persuade you to buy stuff.

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We all know that sex sells in plenty of obvious circumstances. But, sometimes, it may really put off the folks you really want to influence. A recent post in the CopyBlogger reminded me of the dangers that lurk when you fail to understand your target audience. And, it also made me think of PajamaGrams.

As Valentines Day approaches, we are bombarded with TV ads for PajamaGrams.  It may be that most of the recipients of those classy PJ's are comfortable grandmotherly types for whom full-length flannel jammies are more appealing than tiny bits of lace. But their frisky commercials sure seem to target a younger demographic for whom sleep is not the high priority it becomes as we get a bit older. So, in that case sex does sell. We know it's working because they keep rerunning the same commercial year after year.

But, as Simon Payn reminds in When Sex Refuses to Sell, just driving huge amounts of traffic to a site may be completely counterproductive. He recounts past incidents in which his companies' ability to drive traffic based on their sites' temporary sex appeal ultimately drove advertisers away.

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Charmin goes right to the bottom with its big and bold Times Square campaign.

Thanks to Neil Davidson in a guest post at Avangate's blog for reminding us that interruption marketing is not dead. 

Sure, we are bombarded by way too many messages in way too many places.  We are practically numb from the information and advertising onslaught.

But, that doesn't mean we can't be influenced by genuinely creative interruption marketing.  See if you can apply this kind of creativity in your own marketing efforts, so that you are generating a different kind of relevant and compelling content. So awesome and outside the box that it just can't be ignored! 

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Check Out These Gigantic Goofs So You Can Avoid Them in 2009

We all love top 10 lists, whether they are of the wonderful or of the woeful variety. We can learn from both. 

In that educational spirit and with thanks to the folks at Fineman PR, who put together this hall of shame, here is the list of really awful public relations gaffs from a year that is happily almost over.

1. AIG All-Expense-Paid Retreats ... Paid By YOU

Mere days after receiving an $85 billion federal bailout package, American International Group Inc. dropped nearly half a million dollars on an executive retreat to the posh St. Regis resort, complete with "spa treatments, banquets and golf outings," according to the Associated Press. Public reaction, as many watched 401(k) and other investments deflate, was heated. Ousted AIG CEO Robert Willumstad condemned the fete as "very inappropriate" when questioned by Congress, and presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama said participating executives "should be fired" during a debate with Sen. John McCain. AIG compounded the damage when it proceeded with an $86,000 New England hunting retreat. New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo promptly launched a fraud probe, saying "our message to AIG today is simple: The party is over."

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