Body Hair All the Buzz in Viral Marketing

Becky (also from Morsekode) pointed me to another viral campaign – this time it’s Noscruf.org. This is an interesting approach as it’s a mock “campaign” against guys who wear “scruf.” (Much different from the shaveeverywhere.com campaign – and probably much less successful)

The draw for guys? Scantily clad models with unshaven underarmpits and legs (not sure that will have the same effect in Europe, but that’s a different entry). There are some mock news clips, a short length film, a song, and (I think) some poetry. The site itself takes on the non-profit, low-budget appearance.

Looks like the site/campaign was done by Digitas who currently has Gillette as a client.

What’s the Strategy?
I think the campaign has some nice elements that may attract some traffic. The question Becky asks is

“Is it a good idea for the company to go nameless in this?” (nowhere is Gilette mentioned in the campaign – at least not in my short viewing.)

That’s a great question.

Let’s say they get the traffic – then what?
I can only assume they intend to extend the campaign in some other formats or continue the no-scruf revolution. I would have a hard time seeing how this campaign would currently translate directly to Gilette sales. And without any mention of a Gilette product, it doesn’t even encourage awareness.

Maybe there’s more to come in the story?

I guess we’ll wait and see. As it sits right now, it would appear that this is largely wasted money.

PR 2.0 – The Social Media Press Release

I don’t spend a ton of time searching all the blogs, but this one caught my attention (and distracted me from a project that I’m a little uninspired by at the moment):

The Social Media Press Release

Todd Defren (and his team?) did a good job at saying “hey! we should think different about PR now!” (my interpretation)

Check it out – especially if you are a traditional PR guru – this is great thinking.

Dental Hygiene, Coffee Stains, and Satisfying Work

A Good Workout
“I like a good workout,” said my dental hygienist, noting the coffee stains on the inside of my teeth. I thought that was pretty funny. (She spent almost an hour working on my teeth with a variety of electronic tools, manual contraptions, polishers, and then varying grades of dental floss.)

It made me think about my work. Do I like a good work out?

Absolutely.

When there is a real business challenge that needs to be solved and the client trusts my team to deliver results. That’s when work is fun. Real fun.

Would You Like Fries With That?
Unfortunately, we all experience those moments where our intellectual muscles or creativity are left in storage. You know the projects. They’re the projects where you were the order taker. They said, “do this, don’t do anything else, don’t suggest anything else, just do what we tell you.”

You do it – in agency life, it might be to bill some hours, or maybe to get a high profile client on your roster. But there’s no satisfaction. There’s no joy.

(I’m reminded of one of my old colleagues, a Flemish software developer who used to tell me, “there’s a reason they call it “work.”)

A Little Like My Dog
I’m a little like my dog, Bailey. She is an active dog. She wants to run. She doesn’t want to sit around. It drives her a little crazy not to pull, tug, run, chase, etc. – basically all the things a sled dog was born for (I don’t know if she’s a sled dog, but she looks a lot like some that my friends got through a rescue program).

More “Workouts” = Success
I know there will always be some unpleasant parts of work, but the more my team and I can align with projects that “are a good workout,” the more successful I feel we’ll be. When we’re energized, passionate, and fully engaged we’ll do better work and deliver better results for both the client and our agency.

Smart business leaders know that already. Luckily, my boss is among those.

It’s hard to get right. But those that do figure it out tend to rise to the top.

What can you do to make your work more in line with how you’re wired?

PS One of my old managing directors, Lawler Kang, just wrote a book about this called Passion at Work. I haven’t yet read the book, but Lawler is a great guy and was a wonderful business leader to me. Give him a visit at www.lawlerkang.com. If you talk to him, tell him I sent you!

Learning, Blogs, Integrity, and “All Marketers Are Liars”

A good friend just gave me a gift with the inscription “Proverbs 23:12.” For those of you who, like myself, don’t have this ancient book of wisdom memorized, this verse says

Apply your heart to instruction and your ears to words of knowledge.

Interestingly, I just corresponded with a professional contact through the American Marketing Association yesterday from Upright Marketing and her signature had a quote from Proverbs in it as well. It was from Proverbs 11:3, which reads

The integrity of the upright guides them, but the unfaithful are destroyed by their duplicity.

Learning and integrity have been on my mind a lot lately – especially as they relate to marketing, blogs, and another word being thrown around lately: Trust.

The Web, Our Primary Source
As the Web has grown, it has become the primary source we use when we are looking to learn, research, or grow – both professionally and personally.

But the more I casually Google around, I’m beginning to believe the title of that book All Marketers Are Liars, which, btw, I haven’t read – but my boss likes Seth, so I imagine it’s good. You can visit Seth Godin’s blog to learn more.

All Communication Is Persuasion?
When I got my Masters, I took a course (maybe two or three) on rhetoric. It was given by one of my favorite professors, Dr. Kathryn Raign. We used to debate on whether all communication was persuasion.

It seems it really is.

Intentionally or not, I’m trying to persuade you right now that I’m an honest, critical thinker, who actually cares about integrity. Who actually would like to offer something of value to you in these posts.

Others might try to convince you that they are an expert in a given field. Still others may try to convince you to visit their Web site, buy their product, pass a link on, etc.

The Need to Filter
Maybe what I’m really saying is that now, more than ever, it seems we have to filter what we take in, process it, question it, probe it, consider the source. That is, as the message consumer. (common sense?)

And, as the Marketing Messenger?
Trust is key for long-term relationships.I think that Proverbs 11:3 quote above points out the value of taking the high road in your marketing communications. I think it will benefit your relationship with your customers as well. And, ultimately, that will bring the financial gain you are looking for.

B2B Cold Calling Study Finds It’s Not So Cold

Go-to-Market Strategies sent out in a recent newsletter a couple results from their internal B2B cold calling study. I found them interesting and more positive than I would have expected.

• They dialed, on average about 15-18 prospects in an hour
• They connected with a person about 20-30 percent of the time
• They converted 20 percent of the calls – Where conversion is defined as objective of the call being reached (qualification established, product demo scheduled, information requested, etc.)

That makes cold calling look pretty good. I know this blog is primarily about marketing, but I’m on the phone quite a bit and these numbers indicate I could probably do even better if I keep focused. Maybe you could too?

The “ME” Generation and Mother’s Day

I read this weekend (again, in the Wall Street Journal) with a bit of shock some of the gifts that Gen Y peeps were buying for their mothers on Mother’s Day: Tattoo removal for themselves, self-help courses for themselves, new jobs for themselves – the gifts were “all about me.”

The generation dubbed “Gen Y” (born after 1982) is apparently used to the world revolving around them. And, apparently, their parents are ok with that. Many claiming that they want their kids to be “their child’s best friend.”

I enjoyed someone putting a firm date on my generation (Gen X) – born in between 1965-1981 – and I’m glad my parents bucked some of the “soft disciplines” mentioned in the article.

I guess a lot of us in marketing and advertising have been playing to consumers’ love of themselves and how much they “deserve X, Y or Z” for a good while now. We know that it is successful.

At the same time, it’s a little scary (maybe more than a little) how self-centered and out of touch it seems many of us in the West have become.

What’s the take away?
Well, it’s really just another reminder of how often your audience is much different from yourself. . .well, at least in this case I hope they are.

Reaching Hard-to-Reach Audiences with Viral Marketing (and a brief rant on the lack of integrity from some bloggers)

The Wall Street Journal did a story on The Philips Bodygroom and the viral campaign they used to launch it. I blogged about it last week, voicing my concern over the brand voice, but also pointing out that it would be successful – which it obviously has been.

If you haven’t considered viral marketing, The Wall Street Journal article pointed out one really strong case for it:

Viral marketing, or word-of-mouth, is really an excellent tool for reaching audiences that are, well, hard to reach. (my paraphrase)

People who know you and your interests will send you links to things they feel you will find relevant and interesting. So, by the time a viral message gets to you, the chances of it being relevant are probably pretty good – unless they’re from your mom, of course. If not relevant, they at least feel you’ll be entertained.

Now for my brief rant
I posted a comment on another site about the Philips viral campaign and asked to be notified when someone else posts. Today there was a new post talking how awesome the campaign was, highlighting very specific details of the campaign and how Philips and their ad agency should really be commended. They offered a link to Amazon where you can buy the item. The link to the author, interestingly enough, also linked to the Amazon page listing the Philips product.

And therein lies the problem. Like the comment posted on my entry in this blog about the Philips viral, the comment on this other site is likely from the agency that created the campaign. I’m amazed that someone has no problem posing as an average consumer and misleading the reader. I guess I shouldn’t be.

But, if your campaign is so super, you shouldn’t have to go around and give yourself props (from fictional consumers) on everyone’s blogs – if it’s relevant, it will get sent.

I’ll save my The Integrity of Blogs topic for some other day. . .when I’m not grumpy.

Calling Software Vendors Bluff on Guaranteed ROI

Evan Schuman calls it like he sees it in this eWeek article called When Is A Guarantee Not A Guarantee? When It’s Coming From a CRM Vendor.

He nails it on the head, ripping on software companies that use the word “guaranteed” in relation to the effectiveness of their software in their marketing, but then don’t really offer any true compensation if they fail to deliver.

This is exactly the type of hype-busting I love. Good show Evan!

Catalogs Far From Dead – IBM Case Study (mid-size company focus)

This MarketingSherpa study is potentially surprising for those of you who had felt nobody is interested in catalogs anymore.

How to Market Services to Mid-Size Businesses — IBM Test Results.

This is particularly interesting if you are marketing services, as the example is from IBM Global Technology Services. Oh, and it’s targeting the mid-size businesses – which should be relevant to most of you in the technology world.

Love the Sherpa stuff. . .

What to Do When Your Agency Says “Trust Us on This One!”

Recently in my local market (Midwestern city of about 200,000) a couple of outdoor campaigns have caught my attention. No, not the ATT “Your World Delivered” campaign, but a set of local organizations – one a health system targeting moms and another, a bank with a number of branches throughout the region.

People that I speak with in the target audiences have all expressed confusion over both campaigns. And, in the case of the bank, the people could recall the copy of the ad, but not the name of the bank. In the case of the health system, many simply remark, “those are the stupidest ads I’ve seen. What were they thinking?”

In speaking with people close to the decisions on both campaigns, I heard similar language. They weren’t sure about the strategy behind the campaigns, but the agencies (two different ones) had both told their clients “Trust us on this.”

In one case, the agency was pushing the health system to be more edgy, because “that’s what people want.” Hmmm, none of the moms I asked were looking for that in their health system. Most moms I know don’t associate the vibe of Desperate Housewives with excellent health care for their kids. A branding/positioning problem?

In the other case, a different agency was recommending their bank client use numbers and percentages related to indirect financial topics. Things like “4.2% shinier vaults” or “6.2% firmer handshakes.” What does that mean? I don’t get it, nor does anyone I talk to (again, people in the target audience – which would include me on this one).

The bank VP I spoke with said he wasn’t yet sure of the success as it was too early in the campaign, but that the agency had said, “Trust us on this one.” Now, in the agency’s defense, they had just done a very nice rebranding and identity overhaul of the bank. But this campaign befuddles me. Sure, it made me think. But then it just annoyed me.

I can understand launching a campaign if I know it speaks in a relevant manner to my target audience, but if I’m not given any evidence that this is a good strategy, should I trust it?

This is a case where common sense has to play a role. If the creative direction isn’t supported with some sort of solid reasoning (and you may have to “push back” to determine whether it’s actually as solid as they think!), I’m not sure it’s worthy of trust.

What do you think?