filter by date: February 2010

It’s safe to say many of the media’s most influential editors and reporters are based in major markets like New York, Los Angeles or Chicago. And, while brands can be successful communicating with these reporters via phone and email, there is nothing quite like a face-to-face meeting between a brand representative and a reporter to foster a fruitful relationship.

Brands can take several approaches to these meetings:

• Deskside Tours – a brand representative travels to the offices of several media outlets over the course of a day. Reporters often find these convenient because they don’t need to leave their offices and may even feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts about what your brand is presenting. But remember, deskside tours can be time consuming for the brand representative who has to get from place to place.
• Editor Events - editors gather in one location to hear an announcement from a brand. This format allows your brand representatives to speak to a variety of people in one location, but limits the amount of one-on-one interaction. It’s valuable if there are a lot of products to share (that don’t travel well) or if there is a spokesperson who has limited availability.
• Lunch Meetings. Of course, there are always good old fashion lunch meetings, coffee and drinks. This is encouraged when brands want to foster a deep relationship with a reporter – maybe they are offering him or her an exclusive – or if the reporter is a new contact and the brand would like to build a more personal rapport.

When planning for these meetings, here are a few things to think about:

• What type of media are you trying to reach? If it’s high-level business media, a CEO or senior level executive should be a part of the meetings. If it’s a lifestyle editor, an industry expert could be valuable.
• Is the reporter in high demand? If so, you may need to get creative with your meetings or events. If you are launching a nail polish, try offering her a manicure at the editor event, or if it’s a fashion product, consider planning a fashion show.
• What do you need to be prepared? For face-to-face meetings, it’s important to have any available press materials, key messages points, background information on the reporter and his or her recent stories. It is also helpful to develop sample Q&A, anticipating any tough questions the reporter may have. If your spokesperson is new to media interviews, he or she may require media training.

While a lot of planning often goes into face-to-face meetings, brands often experience positive results and find, in the long run, they’re well worth the effort. I know I have!

--Jennifer Newberg, Account Supervisor

Customer service is more than just a 1-800 line or salesperson who helps you. As a marketer, I believe it is really about external brand communications and ultimately enhancing brand equity. Now more than ever, a small, isolated customer service incident can become a national PR disaster. For those companies who don’t make customer service a priority or handle situations the right way, it can cost them dearly.

It’s simple – failure to meet consumers’ expectations can damage brands. According to a recent study from Genesys, with research firm Greenfield Online and Datamonitor/Ovum analysts, U.S. companies lose an estimated $83 billion each year due to lost purchases and customers as a direct result of a poor experience. In fact, 71 percent of consumers have ended a relationship because of a poor customer service experience.

Consumers don’t want to feel like they are not being heard. These days, with the help of social media and other channels, consumers have a much bigger voice. This is something we saw with film director Kevin Smith and his recent Southwest Airlines flight experience. While Kevin has a slightly larger platform than most, he was still able to catapult his unpleasant flight experience to national news.

It is important for brands to set up the proper infrastructure to ensure communication is being trickled all the way down and to the right people. There is nothing worse than consumer-facing employees not being educated about programs or products that are heavily promoted through other disciplines (e.g., ads, POP, email newsletters). Some things to consider when developing a customer service strategy are:

• Ease of implementation
• Employee communications
• Pertinent information distribution across all appropriate channels
• Program-specific reactive responses
• Online conversation monitoring
• Direct-to-consumer communications, if appropriate

Brands should be willing to adapt to the times and be open to change. A plan that was well received for the last 25 years might still be outdated. At the end of the day, the ball is in the brands’ courts. If they choose to put emphasis on evaluating their customer service efforts, it may save them big in the end and win the hearts of consumers across the country.

-- Jessica Lappen, Account Supervisor

There seems to be a trend emerging wherein agencies and clients use new media and Web analytics to catch each other sleeping. It started with the Zappos agency review in July in which one respondent, Ignited, tracked Zappos’ review of its submission and found the company had spent fewer than 15 seconds per page viewing only five of the 25 pages submitted. Right, wrong or otherwise – as usual both sides have their story – the point is that Zappos was “found out” thanks to Google Analytics.

And just yesterday, Marty St. George, senior vice president of marketing and commercial at JetBlue, tweeted the following:

We're pitching our advertising AOR. Curious on digital savvy....first test is how many of the agencies will find me on twitter. #sneaky
10:57 AM Feb 17th from UberTwitter

I would look at these examples as an eye opener for parties on both sides – you better be on top of new media or it’s likely to bite you in the “you-know-what.” The hashtag #sneaky at the end of JetBlue’s tweet gives me a sense of the spirit in which it was done. But, for Ignited, I think it was a legitimate test to see if there was any valuable return on its hours of time invested.

Some follow-up tweets from JetBlue indicate the sneak attack may not have been as fun as initially thought, but it was a great wake-up call to agencies on the types of metrics some clients are beginning to use. No longer should we just view new media as a way to communicate, but realize that they’re also a way to track us, like a bloodhound. Sarbanes-Oxley would be proud – you can run, but you can’t hide.

As someone involved in business development, these tactics initially make me question the authenticity of a relationship we might be about to embark upon. If the client and/or agency is setting up “tests” for us to fail or pass and we don’t even know we’re being tested, it seems sneaky (no hashtag needed) to me – the wrong way to lay the foundation of a trusting relationship. Shouldn’t the quality of our work, the quality of our strategies speak volumes? Isn’t that what they are hiring us for?

The JetBlue example also feels arrogant. But even if I “passed” the test, found the tweet and presumably were as smart as the client, I’d constantly have to wonder what next test was being administered. Would I start to think up some of my own tests to get the upper hand (even if I never told the other party)? Wow, this could get interesting…

--Cici Gordon, Senior Brand Strategist

Many watch the Olympics to see humans triumph over the greatest odds to achieve their Olympic dreams. And with the ubiquitous presence of social media in our society, no doubt many will follow these triumphs on their favorite new media channels. Or will they? Before the 2010 Olympic Winter Games even begin, there has been a cloud of confusion settling over the competition. Although it is predicted that more than 200 million plan to watch the games over the 17 day period, it seems they won’t have such luck online.

It turns out many Olympic athletes are confused as to whether they can share their experiences on blogs, Twitter or other social media sites. According to the International Olympic Committee, “athletes and other accredited people must keep their posts confined to their personal experiences… Only those persons accredited as media may act as journalists, reporters or in any other media capacity.” Athletes are also banned from blogging about sponsors or advertisers who aren’t official Olympic partners.

Poor communication about the dos and don’ts of blogging, and fear of breaking IOC rules, have left most athletes simply abandoning their blogs and Twitter pages. As such, the Committee has come under fire from many fans wanting to gain a first-hand perspective from their favorite athletes. Lindsey Vonn, one of America’s best chances to score a gold medal, told 35,000 Twitter fans she sadly has to refrain from tweeting until after the Games.

If the Committee had better communicated its guidelines prior to the Games, millions of people would have the opportunity to engage in the experiences and emotions athletes go through during this most elite athletic competition. Without a doubt, it would have added another meaningful layer of understanding about the extent of human endurance. After all, aren’t the Games just as much for the audience as they are for the athletes?

-- Jenn DeBarge Goonan, Senior Account Supervisor

The Super Bowl is the greatest advertising spectacle of the year. But were Sunday's commercials everything we hoped they would be?

Cone folks weighed in on the hits and misses of Super Bowl XLIV's commercials. Check out the video below to hear what they had to say:

What do you think? What made you laugh, cry or just scratch your head? We'd love to hear.

One-in-five Americans will be tuning in to this Sunday’s Super Bowl just to watch the commercials. While this may not be good news for Manning and Brees, Madison Avenue couldn’t be happier. You might say the Super Bowl is the Super Bowl of advertising, and brands lucky enough to afford 30 seconds of our time know there is a lot on the line this year, as always.

Viewers’ expectations will be just as high for the Budweisers and the Coca-Colas as they will be for the Colts and the Saints. So the big question is, what can we expect from the commercials? Will advertisers go for the easy laugh? The warm, fuzzy feeling? The sex appeal? We’ll have to wait a little longer to find out, but in the meantime, some early buzz provides some clues.

1. Through the roof: At least the costs will. A 30-second commercial in Super Bowl I cost around $40,000. Forty-four years later, advertisers are shelling out $2.6 million.
2. Social: If you don’t have a social media presence this year, you don’t have a commercial. Brands are leveraging the hype around the big game to preview commercials on their Web sites and Facebook pages to engage consumers via multiple touch points. Look for online/on-air synergies from Budweiser, Coca-Cola and Monster.com.
3. Old school: What’s old is new again. This year we’ll see some old favorites with a modern twist. LeBron James and Dwight Howard take the reigns from Jordan and Bird in McDonald’s “Nothin’ but net” commercial, and Boost Mobile brings back the 1986 Super Bowl Shuffle featuring some of the original Chicago Bears rappers.
4. Controversial: Whether it’s CBS’ much maligned Super Bowl PSA or risqué ads banned from the game, this year’s commercials aren’t shying away from controversy. Former Florida Gators quarterback Tim Tebow will star in a pro-life PSA for Focus on the Family, but GoDaddy.com got its “Lola” ad nixed. Gay dating Web site ManCrunch.com was turned away because ads were sold out, but site reps are alleging discrimination.
5. Consumer-generated: Why pay an ad agency when your consumers can do it for you? Doritos and CareerBuilder.com are hosting contests to find the best consumer-generated commercials. The winner gets the most coveted ad space on earth.
6. Au naturel: Although not completely nude, it’s certainly close enough. Dockers, CareerBuilder.com and Bud Light will get as close to naked as possible with a barrage of underdressed advertisements.
7. For a drive: Toyota might be mired in a recall crisis, but that’s not stopping the rest of the auto industry from getting in the game. One-in-six commercials this year will be car commercials. Expect to see Volkswagen, Hyundai, Kia, Honda, Dodge and Audi.
8. At each other: Indianapolis and New Orleans aren’t the only rivals facing off this Sunday. It’s the battle of the online job-search sites, too. Monster.com and CareerBuilder.com go up against each other, along with Coca-Cola and Dr. Pepper, Denny’s and Taco Bell and Doritos and Pop Secret.
9. To Hollywood: It will feel like the Academy Awards are being hosted in your living room. Celebrities will be all over this Sunday’s commercials pitching everything from real estate to chocolate bars. Will.i.am, Chevy Chase, Gene Simmons and Abe Vigoda will walk the red carpet.
10. Away: Long-time advertiser Pepsi will forego the $2.6 million spot this year to focus its resources on its new cause marketing campaign, the Pepsi Refresh Project. Now that’s money well spent.