Posts Tagged ‘Brands’

Are Bloggers Part of Your Plan?

Aug
12

Written by: Kim Hardcastle

Picture this…you’re in a room with 3,600 of the nation’s most influential voices and they are there just to meet you, learn about and try your product, and listen to your elevator pitch. What an opportunity to learn about the perception of your brand, your product, your message. Now consider this – the room is filled with bloggers – women bloggers. And these women are the voice (a very, very large voice) in the buying decisions of all of their peers, networks, friends, families and even strangers. How do you stand out and how do you tap in to this network of potential brand advocates?

Here’s a little insight from just such an event – BlogHer, which is the largest gathering of women bloggers from around the world and was held just last week in San Diego.

  1. Female bloggers are not just mom bloggers anymore (heck, I never was). They blog about everything from veganism to employment law, bras for breast feeding (that they invented by the way) to vodka. They are looking for brands to affiliate themselves with, and they want to play a part with your brand – not just get paid for posting a story. Invite them to engage by hosting an event on your behalf in their hometown, participating in a focus group at headquarters, critiquing your next online marketing campaign, or providing feedback in a product design charette.
  2. They’re smart. Really smart. As discussed in another ThinkStand post this week, these savvy businesswomen know how to market, they know how to write, and they can help or hurt your brand in a significant and measurable way. For some, blogging is simply a creative outlet. For others, it’s a very viable business model. Consider this– 85 percent of BlogHer network readers purchased something as a result of reading about it on said blog. And, Nielsen now rates blogs higher than both social media and corporate web sites as the go-to source for information about a company or product.
  3. Blogging is not just for chicks. There were several brave men who ventured out for this estrogen-heavy conference, and they are writing about their roles as single-parents or Mr. Mom, their jobs and hobbies (like home improvement, hint, hint). Make sure not to pigeonhole your outreach to target only moms or women; men matter too.
  4. ROI is also important to them. Bloggers want to work with you to show results – let them in on the secret, figure out a way to measure together. What’s good for them is ultimately also good for you.

Next up, we turn the tables and provide more key learnings on how bloggers can and should work to form better relationships with agencies and corporate partners.

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Reminiscing About SXSW: The Brands

Mar
23

Written by: Chad Sour

What do you get when you combine 14,000 people, their smartphones and their tens of millions followers on social media? Well, if you’re a brand manager, it’s the perfect opportunity to make a splash and create some viral buzz.

The past few years, clients mentioned to me that they wanted to launch or promote products at SXSWi, so one thing I really focused on while in Austin was how different brands leveraged the event to build brand equity and awareness.

This was no easy task. The fact of the matter is that there are so many brands trying to make an impact that they collaboratively run the risk of just netting out as a bunch of noise. There were, however, a few brands that were able to break through the clutter, and they did so because they found a way to be more than just a gimmick – they found a way to be relevant.

Golden Ticket

I won a Golden Ticket!!! Big Boi, here I come!

A few examples:

Pepsi /Foursquare – Pepsi’s first smart move was to team up with Foursquare. This proved to be its tie to the social media community.

With that, the two took over an entire parking lot and turned it into party central with free food, Pepsi products and prizes, all with an old-school twist: you could compete in an actual four-square tournament, playground style.

All of this culminated in a concert by Atlanta’s very own Big Boi.

Gaining entry into the concert, required Foursquare check-ins across downtown to uncover a Golden Ticket. And guess who got one?

One of Chevy's 30 Catch A Ride cars

Chevy – Two things that SXSWi attendees really needed?

A ride to the next session (sometimes two miles away) and electricity (to power dead gadgets).

Chevy covered both essentials. Its Catch a Ride program spread 30 Chevys across downtown to give attendees a firsthand brand experience while giving their feet a break.

Chevy’s branded power strips helped attendees “recharge” between sessions.

And while Chevy did an excellent job providing value to attendees, something more than a magnetic sign on the door of the Catch a Ride cars would have made them more visible from afar and provided even more exposure to the brand.

Squarespace Menu

The Squarespace Truck's always changing, always interesting menu - zoom in...it's worth it!

SquareSpace – This website publishing service tapped a hot trend for one of the most effective promotions at SXSWi: Food Trucks.

This is exactly what it sounds like. SquareSpace sponsored trucks that pulled up and dished out some delectable street grub with an edgy, gourmet spin.  Each day SquareSpace sponsored a branded food truck that featured the cuisine of a different Austin food.

A photo of the line for the SquareSpace Food Truck. In this photo, the line is relatively short

The food was free with an ever-changing menu that resulted in folks standing in line for up to 45 minutes to take part.

That’s right – the company had some consumers spend almost an hour with their brand.

Talk about impressions.

Again, these are just a tiny fraction of the brands that tried to make an impression at SXSWi. There were hundreds of brands vying for your attention. Some were well-known brands that wanted to leap into the social media space. Others were using SXSWi to launch their product or service. Some of these brands were winners, others not so much.

Tomorrow, we’ll discuss the winners as well as other technology and trends that emerged from SXSWi. Stay tuned…

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Talk of brands always misses two of the biggest

May
19

Written by: Randall Kirsch

Whenever the topic of branding comes up – and it obviously comes up a lot in the marketing communications business – big consumer brands tend to be the default topic. Let’s face it, most people outside our industry don’t understand branding that well. I’m not saying they should, I’m just pointing out that non-marketing people tend to correlate brands with logos or brand names, when brands are much more than that.

That said, pretty much every U.S. consumer would agree that Nike, Google, Amazon, Oprah (and even [shameless plug] JS clients like Delta, Orkin and Chick-fil-A) are brands. But no one inside or outside our industry ever seems to talk about what I would argue are two of the – if not the two – biggest brands in the United States.

Let’s test it. Can you name these two organizations?

Difference and emotion – the twin engines of a great brand

I’ll bet you can do more than name them. I would guess you could outline, at least broadly, what each of the organizations stands for, and more importantly, how they are different from each other. That’s the first and most important element of a good brand – clear difference from the competition.

The other element of a great brand is the set of emotions it conjures up. I think we can all agree that, like all good brands, both parties have invested a lot in stoking strong emotional reactions from us. Raise your hand if you saw otherwise close friends get all bent out of shape at each other during last year’s presidential election cycle (or found yourself getting ticked at friends and family).

Don’t buy it. Apply it.

How does this happen? It’s the power of branding. And I would argue that few if any brands possess even a fraction of the same influence. Can you imagine Nike and Reebok manipulating consumers who actually agree on most things into believing they’re fundamentally different at the core?

Sample argument:

“If you don’t understand why the ‘air’ in the sole matters, you’re obviously a Communist.”

OK, I’ll admit that the political parties have the massive advantage of daily “earned media” coverage to work their magic on us that no other corporate brands can claim. But still.

As the November election cycle winds up to fever pitch in the next few months, let’s respect the power of branding. Let’s watch in awe at how much both parties invest in the two prongs of the branding fork – difference and emotion. And finally, let’s agree not to let it blind us, but instead figure out how to put the same principles to work for our own businesses.

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