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Marketing

• Marketing

  Advertising as a sign of product failure?

  02.28.11 | Permalink | Comment?

  

  artwork by Hugh MacLeod

  Interesting post from Fred Wilson, a VC and principal of Union Square Ventures about advertising (he calls it marketing).

  This quote stands out:

  I believe that marketing is what you do when your product or service sucks or when you make so much profit on every marginal customer that it would be crazy to not spend a bit of that profit acquiring more of them (coke, zynga, bud, viagra).

  I’ve often thought that advertising is what you do when a product is either mediocre or commoditized. If customers don’t love your product, give you repeat business and tell their friends, you’ll have to do the talking yourself through paid media. Big brands like Google, Facebook, Zara, Starbucks and Zappos though demonstrate that you can build large successful brands without much advertising.

  The thing I could never reconcile in mind were the ads ran by companies like Apple. They have a cult following and products people love and rave about. Why bother with spending anything on paid media? The second part of Fred’s quote is brilliant and makes sense. Advertising can rally your base and pull people of the line.

  I’m not claiming advertising doesn’t work. I’m sure that the amount of sham-wows, slap shops and collectable plates sold as a result of their TV Ads makes the producer a profit. But that doesn’t mean its a good product.

  A good product sells itself. Don’t fix a mediocre product with advertising, fix the product instead.

   

• Marketing, social media, Think! Social Media, Travel & Tourism

  The story of our Super Bowl Social Media Campaign that got 2.4 million people talking

  02.01.11 | Permalink | 9 Comments

  

  This is the story about the ‘Mystery Man’ campaign we ran on behalf of the Dallas Convention & Visitors Bureau last week. It’s a story of the power of social media, passionate communities and bringing people together. We knew it was a great idea but the results exceeded our wildest imagination.

  Background

  Social Media is about sharing and bringing people together. When the Dallas CVB asked us to design a campaign around Super Bowl XLV we thought ‘Why not use social media to get people talking to each other about Dallas?’.

  At Think! Social Media, we work with the concept of passionate communities. These are groups of people connected through a shared passion. Engage a passionate community in the right way by offering something remarkable, and they will do the marketing for you through word-of-mouth.

  The Big Idea

  Needless to say, every NFL team has an extremely passionate community… and offering a chance to win Super Bowl tickets is pretty remarkable. Remarkable enough get people out into the street talking to each other.

  We decided to send a Mystery Man to each city of the teams who made it to the Super Bowl. The first person to find the Mystery Man and tell him the secret phrase,  ‘Have you been to Dallas lately?’ would instantly win tickets to the big game, 4 nights accommodation, tickets to the NFL experience and some cash towards travel.

  The Process

  We researched NFL and travel/lifestyle bloggers in each city and asked them if they would like to participate.  As “Exclusive Bloggers”, their role would be to share daily clues about the location of the Mystery Man.  We were careful in choosing bloggers that have strong social media presences and very engaged readers.  We chose 5 in Green Bay and 4 in Pittsburgh.  Their role was crucial in tapping into the existing communities and raising awareness about the campaign.

  

  The clues tied in to imagery and facts about attractions in Dallas and became increasingly specific as the weekend went on.   By printing the clues on photos they were easy to share through Twitter, and were eye-catching on the blogs and Facebook.

  The secret password could only be revealed by ‘liking’ the Visit Dallas Facebook Fan Page.  A campaign Twitter account (@DallasSBHunt) was created to coordinate all activities, answer questions and share the latest updates.  In addition two hashtags (#SBHuntGB and #SBHuntPGH) were introduced to facilitate discussion around the contest.

  Results

  Sunday

  The conference finals were played on Sunday January 23. We were prepared for each of the 4 cities. At the end of Sunday we knew the contest would run in Green Bay and Pittsburgh.

  Monday

  We finalized the details of the contest and sent out materials to the bloggers so they could prepare their first blog posts announcing the contest.  At this time we activated the contest tab on the Visit Dallas fan page which only had 600 fans.

  Tuesday

  By noon, the bloggers in each city had announced the contest.

  Green Bay: Total Packers, Brent Farvre, Packers Club, Purple Pants Green Jersey, All Green Bay Packers

  Pittsburgh: IheartPGH, Steelers Gab, Pittsburgh Sports and Mini Ponies

  Slowly the word started to spread.  At the end of Tuesday, the fanpage had grown to over 1,000 fans and the followers of the campaign Twitter account began to grow.

  Wednesday/Thursday

  We continued to build awareness over the next few days. By carefully listening in on Twitter, tapping in to relevant communites and joining the conversations where appropriate we were able to rapidly spread word of the contest. By Thursday, traditional media had gotten wind of what we were up to and a few stations began to report on the contest on the the nightly news.  By the end of Thursday over 3000 people had liked the Visit Dallas page.

  

  Friday

  At 9am the Exclusive Bloggers announced their first clues and the contest began.  We quickly learned that we had struck gold in both cities. The streets were full of people searching for our Mystery Man, many tweeting as they went and following along on Facebook.  By Friday @DallasSBHunt was trending in both Pittsburgh and Green Bay.

  

  Best of all, two whole cities were out on the streets talking to each other about Dallas.

  

  

  

  That night, the hunt for the Dallas Mystery Man was the headline news on all the local stations (this is my favourite). The Visit Dallas Fan Page had grown to 8,000 fans and the campaign Twitter account had well over 1500 followers.

  Saturday

  We were lucky that Friday’s clues had been vague enough for our Mystery Men to keep from getting caught, but by Saturday the amount of people on the street made it significantly more difficult to make it through the city unnoticed.

  Just after noon our Mystery Man in Green Bay was found and not long after our man in Pittsburgh was caught as well.

  The hunt was over, but the ride wasn’t. The winners were invited on news shows (1, 2, 3, 4, 5) and countless blogs, websites, radio stations and news papers were reporting on the contest and its winners.

  

  Sunday and beyond

  The winners in Green Bay turned out to be a couple who are homeless and live in a local shelter. They were invited on Fox 11’s morning show to tell their story.  Shortly thereafter CNN picked up the story and we had reports from our contacts all over North America (even as far as Australia) who saw the campaign on the news.

  

  The Results

  We definitely succeeded in getting people talking about Dallas. We also proved that when you run a Social Media campaign within passionate communities, you don’t need a big media budget.  And, if the community is passionate enough, you’ll even make it on the news.

  We grew the Visit Dallas Fan Page by almost 10,000 fans in three days. The fanpage received about 100,000 pageviews and generated over 500,000 news feed impressions.

  But what we’re most proud of is the incredible positive reaction from the people in Green Bay and Pittsburgh. We received many messages from individuals telling Dallas how much they enjoyed the weekend.

  

  

  We want to thank the Dallas CVB for giving us the opportunity to execute our crazy idea and give a big thank you to all the local bloggers and the great people of Green Bay and Pittsburgh. May the best team win on Sunday!

  This entry is cross-posted on the Think! Social Media blog.

• leadership, Marketing, Travel & Tourism

  Highlights from Things to watch in 2011 (by JWT)

  01.02.11 | Permalink | Comment?

  Interesting list of things to watch in 2011 from JWT. Many trends relate to travel, tourism and hospitality. Here’s my highlights to pay attention to and why.

  

  People might be sceptical about Foursquare, Gowalla or Facebook Places. But checkin-in services aren’t going away and services will become more intelligent, more meaningful and more relevant to people as innovators finds the sweet spot. And it’s a natural for travel and tourism.

  

  Microbreweries have been hot in BC for a while and new restaurants and pubs offer selections of beers from around the world. This niche is turning mainstream and offering a great selection of beers might just be a great differentiator for your restaurant or pub.

  

  Most DMO’s are still producing paper guides (don’t get me started). Many offer the option to download an electronic version to reduce production and shipping costs while minimizing environmental impact. Most DMO’s create an exact (PDF-like) copy of the paper version. But that’s missing the point. Offering an electronic format requires re-thinking the existing model for this kind of content delivery.

  

  People are more socially and environmentally aware and the choices they make as consumers are starting to reflect this more and more. Brands are clueing in. Pepsi’s refresh project is a great example. The travel and tourism industry needs to become a lot more mindful of this. Voluntourism is one way of  doing this. Tribes wanted is a good example and so is Abraham’s Path.

  

  The next economic driver might very well be the green economy as innovators across the world are looking for solutions to global warming. People’s expectations for products and services will change. If not careful, traveling could become a frowned upon activity because of its environmental impact. It doesn’t have to be this way though but the travel and tourism industry needs to take this trend seriously. It takes leadership. Resort town Whistler for example is leading the local industry in realizing their sustainability vision.

  

  Food is a very important part of a tourism experience. People talk about the weather, the food and how friendly the people were when they come home. A celebrity chef restaurant can be a reason to visit a destination.

  

  This is the stuff I have nightmares about but some people’s definition of ‘getting away from it all’ is to disconnected all devices. As a tourism operator, you need to find your niche and this could very well be yours.

  

  Another example of finding your niche.

  

  As the internet and social network allow people to connect with people in passionate communities, they want to meet in person. The opportunity lies tourism and hospitality businesses is to find relevant communities and offer them the chance to connect in person, from foursquare swarm badge parties to geek cruises.

  

  Needs no explanation.

  

  There are a multitude of people traveling the globe and broadcasting their adventures to their communities. This is the new travel media. I remember suggesting inviting “Where the hell is Matt” to create a video in every community in BC. Never happened unfortunately and I still can’t believe no DMO ever has.

  

  One of the break-through trends of 2010 and a hot topic during DMAI even though it’s old news in Japan. A QR code is in essence nothing more than an easy way to direct a user to a URL/app. But directing people to information is just the beginning. We need more imagination, like these Buddhist munks, Adidas or CASA.

  

  This one is a bit more abstract. It can refer to physical objects as the center of a social interaction. A hotel review on Tripadvisor for example. It can also used as a virtual object used socially in an online environment. Sending someone a virtual gift on Facebook for example. It’s easy to do and the thought that matters, and that’s why they work. <plug>By the way, Think! licences a Facebook gift app for DMO’s and tourism businesses</plug>.

  

  Will there be a galaxy DMO?

  

  Tourism is all about stories. Tourism operators don’t sell a product, they sell a story, a memory. And a story needs a plot, a beginning, a middle and an end. You can design the story and the process is called service design. Companies like Disney go as far as creating a detailed backstory for everything in their themeparks, creating the perfect story for a guest to join in. What’s the story your guests joins?

• Internet, Marketing, social media

  Expert content on VisitFlorida.com

  12.29.10 | Permalink | 10 Comments

  Every year I use the ‘quite time’ around the holidays to have a look at what other DMO’s around the world are doing. I love poking around to see what I can learn. I’m thinking of creating a giant presentation with my findings (let me know if you’re interested).

  One of the things I’m looking at is what DMO’s are doing to incorporate real time information. This is a trend DMO’s can’t ignore. Brochureware websites are no longer acceptable and consumers expect content that is timely as well.

  Florida has created a Florida Live section on their website. The page includes their Twitter feed, Flickr photo’s, YouTube videos etc. It also includes a Google Map with the Twitter feeds from local DMO’s, live webcams, YouTube videos and Fishing Reports.

  

  The fishing reports are very cool. Every day the captains call in from their boats to give an update of the fishing conditions of their area. Users can listen to each captain reporting on the conditions.

  Incorporating expert content from industry members or residents is something I’ve been pitching for a long time now. Most DMO’s do this with expert bloggers (some better than others). This is a very creative idea to make it timely, relevant and credible.

  Great idea, good content, good execution. I love it.

  Do you have examples of ‘live information’ incorporated into DMO or other tourism websites?

• Experience Design, Marketing, Travel & Tourism

  Traditions and folklore as powerful tourism motivators

  12.05.10 | Permalink | 2 Comments

  

  When we were on vacation in Ireland a few years ago we went to kiss the Blarney Stone of course. When I was trying to find out what the stone is about, why people kiss it and when it all started it turned out there are all kinds of legends but no real definitive answer. The only reason why people kiss the stone seems to be because everybody else does it.

  We also went to this festival called Puck Fair, where a little town parties for a whole weekend. They catch a wild goat (the puck), get it crowned as king by a young girl and hoist it on top of the main stage for the duration of the event. Why? Nobody is really sure. But the town is packed.

  In Rome, people throw about 3000 euros a day in the Trevi fountain. In Prague, people rub the Statue of St John Nepomuk.

  People are social and people want to be part of a story. For a tourism business or DMO, traditions can be remarkable experiences that put people in the story of your destination. People will go out their way not to miss them.

  What traditions and folklore does your destination have people can be part of?

  It doesn’t have to be steeped in history either. It can be as simple as nailing a pair of shoes to a tree. Next thing you know it’s a tradition, everybody is doing it and you have a tourist attraction like in Prince Rupert, BC.

• Internet, Marketing

  So What? Gmail Priority Inbox & Facebook’s Social Inbox

  11.15.10 | Permalink | Comment?

  

  Google added a new feature to Gmail recently called priority inbox and Facebook today announced something similar with their social inbox. Google and Facebook are using algorithms to predict the messages you really care about from the ones you don’t and put them in different folders for you. You can further refine this yourself of course.

  So what?

  I’ve been using this feature in Gmail a lot. I love it. Because it separates the few emails I really need to respond to from the ones I don’t. The emails that don’t make the priority list include all enewsletters I’ve signed up for. I scan the non-priority emails once or twice a day to make sure there’s nothing important in there.

  The implications for direct markers are that this feature is another barrier between your email message and a consumer’s attention. It’s not just about getting permission anymore, you better make the priority list as well.

  Keep an eye on your open rates for gmail (and soon Facebook) users. Are they dropping below average? This means these features might be impacting your marketing and you should re-think your strategy. The key is to be relevant in the content you serve and in the frequency of communication, or people will ignore you.

• Internet, Marketing

  So what? Google Instant Preview

  11.09.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  

  Today Google announced instant previews in search results. You can hover over Google’s search results and you’ll see a small preview of the page.

  So what?

  For users this is a great feature because it eliminates some ‘pogo-sticking’ where people move back and forth between websites and the search results before they find the right page for them. Google claims people are 5% more satisfied when they’re using instant previews.

  For website owners, the implication are that SEO all of a sudden also means making sure the preview of your web pages look relevant and appealing enough for somebody to want to click on it.

  Keep an eye on your web analytics over the next few weeks. If your percentage of organic search engine traffic goes up and/or your bounce rate decreases, the feature could very well work in your favour. If not, you might have some work to do.

  Google already put out webmaster guidelines for instant previews and SEO forums are buzzing.

  You can test drive the new feature here.

• Marketing, Travel & Tourism

  Being remarkable: the five hour drive test

  08.27.10 | Permalink | 6 Comments

  A few years ago I drove 5 hours from Vancouver to Portland with my buddies Abdulla and Fred…

  …to eat these 5 cheeseballs at Salvador Molly’s.

  

  I hear you ask…. WHY?

  Because they’re habanero cheese balls. And they’re called Great Balls Of Fire. And they’re insanely spicy. And if you finish all 5, including the habanero sauce, they’ll put your picture on the wall.

  

  That’s remarkable enough for me to sit in a car for 5 hours.

  What’s the remarkable thing your business or destination has that’s worth driving 5 hours for?

• Internet, Marketing, Travel & Tourism

  Take-aways from VisitBritain’s social media presentation

  07.29.10 | Permalink | 1 Comment

  

  Somebody emailed me this webcast where Justin Reid from VisitBritain shares their social media strategy, examples, results and learning. Very insightful. Here are my key take-aways.

  People don’t make a travel decision on a national tourism board website

  Justin said: “Our research told us that the majority of long haul travelers visit a national tourist board after they’ve already made the decision to visit”

  VisitBritain’s rightly concluded that in order to target people in the decision making process, they need to engage in other places like third party websites. A content partnership with Yahoo is working very well for them for example.

  The future of CRM/eMail Marketing is under threat

  Justin said: “Where previously you might have focused a lot of CRM activity we learned that the inbox is no longer a happy place. People want to clear it out as fast as possible. So we now want to focus on finding places where people are in the mindset of making decisions about travel [social media].”

  I wondered about the same thing about a year ago in this blog post. As people become overwhelmed with email, they pay less attention to marketing messages, even when they opt-in. This kind of change won’t happen overnight but social media is an environment where people are easier to engage, two-way dialogue is possible and content is easy to share.

  Social Media’s network effect has incredible reach

  Justin: “10,000 followers is amazing. But we followed the traffic of some of our tweets and each of our tweets reaches a potential audience of about 325,000 people”

  Through re-tweets on Twitter, and by tagging and sharing on Facebook, a message can travel far and wide in a very short period of time. And the content itself is much more credible because it’s endorsed by a friend who shared it.

  Tourism Australia’s fanpage with over 600,000 fans is a good example. Every message they posts could be read by that many people. And for every person that comments on the post, the post gets published to their friend network, extending reach with the potential to organically grow their fanbase.

  And as a side-effect, “Facebook is now the third largest referrer to VisitBritain after Google and Yahoo, and we’re not even seeking to push people to the website.”

  Content is far more important than a website

  Justin: “Our website is not the most important marketing tool for us, our content is. We’re just as happy if somebody reads our content on Yahoo as on our website.”

  VisitBritain is agnostic about where content is being consumed and as a result, more of VisitBritains content is being consumed on third party websites. A partnership with Yahoo produces an exponential amount of views, for free. More videos are viewed than some market websites receive visitors.

  Producing or gathering the right content, and pushing it out into place where you add value for the publisher and the consumer, preferably with easy sharing opportunities is much more effective than trying to generate website visitation through advertising alone.

  User Generated Content is an easy and cost-effective way to publish content

  Justin: “95% of VisitBritain’s photography comes from user generated content” and “when somebody’s photo appears on a national tourism boards site, you can bet on it they will send a link to all their friends to check it out.”

  VisitBritain set-up a Flickr group called Love UK and is using it as one of the sources for its photos on VisitBritain.com. And because most people are happy to see their photography used, they will tell everybody about it.. on social media.

  Brilliant. This is something I’ve advocated for years but I could never get it going. Well done VisitBritain.

  Thanks for sharing Justin!

• Internet, Marketing, personal, Travel & Tourism

  Presenting with a live twitter feed at PNWER

  07.19.10 | Permalink | Comment?

  

  Today I presented our social media strategy for the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Games at the PNWER conference in Calgary. One of the things that goes through my mind while I’m presenting these days is “what are people in the audience tweeting about this presentation RIGHT NOW?” Today was different. I could see exactly what was going on.

  At the start of my presentation I asked @seattlemaven (who runs Seattle’s Twitter account and was invited to speak but couldn’t be there in person) and the Twitterverse in general a few questions about social media via Twitter. I set-up Tweetdeck notifications and throughout the presentation, answers and comments popped-up on the screen.

  The result was organized chaos, but I think it told an interesting story about the power and immediacy of social media. Either way, I had a lot of fun and great feedback from the audience.

  Here are the questions I asked and the answers that came by during my presentation.

  @seattlemaven When did you start, how many interactions do you have a day on average, and how much time does it take you?

  • @wilhelmus Began Soc Med in June 2009. Currently 120K FB fans & nearly 6K Twitter followers. Brings truckloads of positive sentiment! #PNWER
  • @wilhelmus Generally I answer between 10-30 ?s in a day. Time allowing, I also ‘jump into’ convos already happening about our city. #PNWER
  • @wilhelmus Public tweets approx 10x/day – generates a lot of responses & builds our following AND the essence of Seattle/NW #PNWER
  • @wilhelmus 1 hr/day, I’d estimate (but the fun-factor’s HUGE!) :o) #PNWER

  @seattlemaven How are you different from a phone or in-person interaction with a consumer?

  • seattlemaven: @wilhelmus Twitter allows me to speak to broader audience. 1 public tweet may answer question of 200 followers – that’s powerful! #PNWER
  • seattlemaven: @wilhelmus Following me early (B4 arrival) they gain greater sense of area & more comfortable/willing to explore once they arrive. #PNWER

  @seattlemaven What’s the best new hot bar in Seattle for a bachelorette party? (audience question)

  • seattlemaven:@wilhelmus Pnk Ultralounge opens in a month – we can’t wait! Swanky & hot!!
  • seattlemaven:@wilhelmus Amber in Belltown’s hip & fun – great drink specials & a private room that’d knock their socks off!

  Tweeps, join me live at a conference. 1) Why should businesses care about social media? #PNWER

  • mikalat: @wilhelmus Best advice for social media: figure out where your customers are/what they’re using. Start there, don’t worry about the rest
  • seattlemaven: @wilhelmus #1 reason to start SM: People are talking (about you and others) you can either jump into the conversation or not. Do it! #PNWER
  • mikalat: @wilhelmus Also – LURK! Read, follow and find out what your competitors are doing and take notes. Learn first, dive in second.
  • erikrolfsen: @wilhelmus Don’t be a stranger. Fill out that profile information and do it in a way that will interest people.

  2) What’s your #1 piece of advice when starting in social media? #PNWER

  • nigel220: @wilhelmus we could learn a lot by listening to our youngest employees when it comes to social media!!
  • seattlemaven: @wilhelmus über-important to be authentic — your audience knows canned vs. real! Real = experiences, voice, personality #PNWER

William Bakker's Destination Marketing blog