ANA Marketing Maestros

My Departure and a Quick Review

By Will Waugh

This will be my last post for this blog. I am moving back to the ANA member side and joining SAS Institute in Raleigh, NC. I love New York but it is time to take my accrued skills and knowledge to a locale that is more tempered to my Southern sensibilities. I look forward to utilizing the vast resources of the ANA as marketers, from the client side in particular, continue to be challenged by this evolving landscape.

I do want to make a brief mention of David Verklin's new book (which he co-authored with Bernice Kanner, ANA author of The Super Bowl of Advertising). Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here was written for the masses and may be too "general" for this sophisticated media audience, but is an excellent summer read on what is going on with the media and marketing world. Due to my new role in the business intelligence field, I was engaged with the chapter titled Data Mining: Why Your TV May Think You're Gay where the authors talk about how the "datasphere" will help companies predict behavior on a grand scale. "What-if modeling" will allow marketers to make even smarter decisions based on data mining and the various tools available. I feel relatively versed in the media business, but was engaged with this book's foresight in to the transformations taking place around us.

This blog has been a blast and a tremendous personal learning experience. I look forward to following all the great minds and community leaders I have met in this space in my new role. Cheers blogosphere. 

Marketers in the Blogosphere

By Will Waugh

I like to keep track of what ANA members are doing in the blogosphere. I get asked who's blogging all of the time by our members . Marketers' appearance in the online world plays an important role with consumers and end users that demand transparency in the companies they give their loyalty too. Thanks to PRWiki for keeping me up to date as more marketers are set to enter this space in 2007. A brief list:

• McDonald's VP of Corporate Social  Responsibility hosts Open for Discussion focusing on what this major advertiser is giving back to the community
• Oracle has so many blogs that they actually have a directory of blogs
• Wells Fargo and their popular Guided by History blog
• Southwest's Nuts About Southwest is a perfect representation of their brand in the blogosphere
• Cisco's High Tech Policy blog
• Marriott's CEO Bill Marriott on a plethora of issues, including brands.

We are just scratching the surface here. There are many more marketers who have jumped in and jumped out. I expect to see more involvement here in the coming months/years as it gets harder and harder for marketers to communicate with their audiences.

Technorati tags: blogs marketing consumer

What Media Builds Brands?

By Will Waugh

I am still culling through the enormous amount of data we got for a our Brand Deterioration survey released at our Brand Innovation Forum. There is a variety of valuable information, but something I found interesting was this question - What Media Builds Brands? Over 300 client side marketers gave their perspective.

No surprise - and panelists from Wells Fargo and Pepsi agreed - TV is considered the most effective.

Surprise - Banner ads are considered the third most effective medium.

Most surprising - Pop Up Ads. I would think these contribute to brand deterioration not equity.

Other channels were mentioned but didn't make the Top Ten - they include webcasts, direct mail and database marketing, sponsorships, SEO, public relations and blogs (go blogs!).

Technorati tags: brand marketing media

Great Ideas Will Create Relevancy

By Barbara Bacci Mirque

A recent ANA survey highlighted that integrated marketing now tops the list as the issue that keeps senior marketers up at night. You have heard me say before that ANA members tell us that the best way to tackle this is to start with the idea and let the idea be the media channel integrator. That was emphasized at the recent 2007 ANA Advertising Financial Management Conference. Bob Lachky, EVP, Global Industry Development & Chief Creative Officer, Anheuser - Busch Inc., talked about how the “Wassup” campaign (here are few of the ads along with some interesting consumer generated versions) began online then spread virally, eventually running on television.

Jeff Hicks, President, CEO and Partner, Crispin Porter + Bogusky, told a similar story for Coke Zero and its very funny campaign with Coke attorneys (again, thanks YouTube). Great ideas will create relevancy so the media should be an outgrowth of the idea, not the other way around. Both of those campaigns were extended into television once they were picked up in the conversations occurring online and it was the consumers who said these campaigns should also run on television. So once again, advertisers should be aware of and participate in the conversations happening around and about their products and services. Start with a terrific brand idea and let that determine which media channels you use. This is great learning from some very smart advertisers.

Technorati tags: budweiser marketing coke creative

Bookstore News

By Kaitlin Villanova 

As some of you may know we are now successfully operating our ANA Bookstore through print on demand service lulu.com. This is all very exciting because it eliminates us sitting on thousands of dollars of inventory, and having to spend a few hours each week neatly packing up the books so they arrive at your office in the same condition they left ours.

With this transition now in full-effect, we are left with a few hundred books gathering dust in our book closet. We are looking to find a book liquidator or a company interested in purchasing a large quantity of these proprietary insights for a very small fee. These publications are written by marketing practitioners covering key topics ranging from marketing accountability, brand building and integrated marketing communications to issues on advertising law, agency relations and compensation structures. 

Some of the available titles:

Best Practices in Branded Entertainment by Richard Sutton and Barbara Zack

Trade Promotion Marketing by Bob Houk

Inside Advertiser and Agency Relationships by Melvin Prince and Mark Davies

The Power of Nice by Linda Kaplan Thaler

What Sticks by Rex Briggs

And many others.

If you are interested in purchasing a large quantity of these books for your organization, or if you know of any book liquidators please contact me at (bookstore@ana.net).

Visit our new ANA Bookstore to learn more (sorry for the shameless plug but I had to do it).

Technorati tags: lulu marketing content

Assumed Constraints in History

By Kaitlin Villanova

I was recently skimming through an advertising and marketing copy handbook (trying to advance my skills because as my boss and Marketing Maestros contributor Will Waugh reminds us, content is king) when I came across a brilliant section on assumed constraints, recalling some of the most famous in history:

"Airplanes are interesting toys but of no military value." Ferdinand Foch, commander of Allied Armies in World War 1.

"Stocks have reached what looks like a permanently high plateau."  Irving Fisher, professor of economics, Yale University, 1929.

"I think there is a world market for maybe five computers." Thomas Watson Sr., president of IBM, 1943.

"So we went to Atari and said 'Hey we've got this amazing thing, even built with some of your parts, and what do you think about funding us? Or we'll give it to you. We just want to do it. Pay our salary, we'll come work for you.' And they said 'No.' " This was related by Stephen Jobs, Apple Computer co-founder, on his attempts in the mid-1970s to get Atari interested in his and Steve Wozniak's personal computer.

"A cookie store is a bad idea. Besides, the market research report says America likes crispy cookies, not soft and chewy cookies like you make."  In response to Debbi Fields' idea of starting Mrs. Fields Cookies.

And last but not least, my favorite... "640K ought to be enough for anybody." Bill Gates, Microsoft founder, 1981.

All to often in advertising and marketing we assume constraints that aren't really there. We create limits to a product or an idea restricting the advertiser and the agency from unleashing the full creative potential. Next time you find yourself thinking an idea sounds a little too wild for your product or service, remember these examples of assumed constraints!

Technorati tags: assumed constraints marketing

Tidbits from Advertising Financial Management

By Will Waugh

I am out in lovely Phoenix at the Arizona Biltmore for our Advertising Financial Management Conference. For those of you who are not familiar with the show, it is a gathering of marketing, finance and procurement/sourcing types congregating over the latest in agency compensation/relations.

So the first topic on Monday's slate - the Net Promoter score. Or, in a nutshell, "How likely is it that you would recommend our product/service to a friend or a colleague?" This is the core of how Enterprise Rent a Car's customer research. It is also a major component of the organic growth of the organization which has more vehicles on the road than its three nearest competitors - combined.

Bob Parsons, the CEO from GoDaddy.com was the tail end of the morning. Here is an extremely interesting character with a fascinating story....fifth grade flunky, factory worker, Vietnam vet, accountant, successful entrepreneur. He is also, as we know, the architect behind some of these most talked about advertising in recent history. Apparently, he also has the most read CEO blog in the blogosphere.

Technorati tags: advertising godaddy

Microsoft and Yahoo?

By Will Waugh

I don't normally rely on the New York Post for much more than Page Six, but they  are announcing Microsoft is talking to Yahoo! about a potential $50 billion bid (thanks Forbes.com) Funny, I was just meeting with Microsoft on Monday and Tuesday and they didn't mention a lick of this to me (I feel slighted). The pressure, the Post says, is coming from Google's continued domination of search and online advertising, particularly with the recent purchase of DoubleClick.

If it is true, why not for Microsoft? I don't see this as a sign of desperation, rather a desire to expand it's capabilities online.

What this would give Microsoft:

• An expanded search reach with Yahoo's #2 position in the field.
• The #1 portal with some of the best brands in online media.
• Expanded e-commerce capabilities in spaces like cars and jobs.
• More content (I love content).

That's just a start. Looking forward to seeing how this develops.

Technorati tags: microsoft marketing yahoo

Reinvention of jetBlue

By Will Waugh

Flying out to Seattle yesterday reminded me of the true joys of air travel. I won't say which airline it was, but the comfort level was suspect. I will say, it wasn't jetBlue. Last week, at our Brand Innovation Forum, Andrea Spiegel, VP Sales & Marketing for jetBlue took us through their brand story. A story that, until recently, had evolved magnificently. We all know what happened in February with their first major "operational challenge." (Andrea mentioned several nicknames - The Valentine's Day massacre popping to the forefront) I direct you to a few posts from our marketing blog family about the debacle: Peter Kim, CK, Max, and Global Neighborhoods.

I personally love jetBlue. When I moved to New York seven years ago, I bought a one way ticket from Ft. Lauderdale to JFK on the, at that point, brand new airline. I still have the ticket stub. jetBlue is the one airline that could have suffered this setback and recovered so brilliantly. There are a couple reasons for this. One, which this audience will love, is they listen to the blogosphere regularly and actively track word of mouth. jetBlue's response to this crisis was heartfelt, sincere and personal:

• The Customer Bill of Rights - so far it's working and is another industry first
• The famous YouTube announcement from CEO David Neeleman - the first time a CEO of a major company had addressed customers via YouTube.
• Improved self service tools and call center resources
• The creation of a customer advisory council
• A promise to keep customers posted on progress in 30 days (a second YouTube video went up 30 days later and there was little discussion about it in the blog world)

In a world where brands keep taking away (I am at the W Seattle and I just found out a new W policy has taken coffeemakers out of hotel rooms. Well, I'm on East Coast time and a Starbucks doesn't open for 2 hours - not good!), it is encouraging to see companies do still care about their lifeblood. "Bringing humanity to flying" is JetBlue's brand promise and their hearfelt response - a direct expression of their brand - reminded people why they loved jetBlue in the first place.

Technorati tags: jetblue marketing customer