The Holiday Season is upon us and many companies are struggling with depleted budgets ...

The Holiday Season is upon us and many companies are struggling with depleted budgets and the increasing need to stay in front of prospects and existing clients. A great way to eleviate the tension that comes with this recession is to continue with your companies Good Will in a more public fashion. I suggest that instead of the traditional holiday greeting card that you issue a short video greeting via email that encompasses your holiday spirit and gratitude. This shows that your firm is still dedicated to helping those in need during the holiday season. By telling your audience on tape that you intend to continue giving to (your choice of charity) and this year are dedicating it in their honor, you are setting a great example and are limiting the amount of marketing dollars spent.

10 Tips for Adding Video to Your Marketing Plan

Every where we look on the Internet today, we see videos. They have more potential for becoming viral than any other marketing medium. They can be serious, educational, funny or just down right "makes-no-sense". Whatever the case, they have a tendency to take on a life all their own - thus your viral message is born.

With RSS feeds and video sites such as Yahoo Videos, AOL Videos and YouTube, a company really has no choice but to start a video campaign. By uploading a simple video and giving permission for the video to be picked up, then you may see it appearing on sites such as MySpace, FaceBook and many others. This is branding that once created you don't have to baby-sit.

Here are our Top 10 Tips for Video Creation:

1. Keep it simple and clean (consider creating a series of images that have text overlaid that can be looped together simply by using Windows Movie Maker)

2. Use imagery that appeals to your target audience

3. Include music or voice overs (increases your watch rate as the average person will not watch a mute slide show)


4. When filming live video try to use average looking people (increases the appeal to the majority of your target audience)

5. Keep the branding to the background (this will help keep the focus on the entertainment or educational value)

6. Make sure you only use licensed / owned imagery and sound (if you need to license sounds or music, there are dozens of online resources where you can purchase rights for just a few dollars)

7. Embed tags in all images to ensure your organic search optimization

8. Tell a story! It must make sense and keep the audience captivated for 30 - 120 seconds.

9. Inlcude linkage to your website (helps drive traffic) as well as having it viewable on your site (YouTube can provide coding to embed on your site as a video viewer widget)

10. Make Sure to Copy Right it!

There are many other ways to help you in the creation of a video campaigns. To learn more watch for the launch of Ardynn.TV on Dec.15th, 2008.

Presidency, Economy and Small Business: What does it mean for us?

With the new president elect preparing for one of the most important transitions in decades, Obama has a tough fight on his hands. What we, as small business owners, need to pay attention to is how he handles his fiscal policy. In many ways I can understand the need to raise taxes for businesses with revenue of 250k or more. What I worry about is the fact that we are a start-up and have not reached that point as far as revenue streams go.

From a branding stand point, I feel confident in Obama and his ability to pull the country out of it's current economic mess. When we look at how he held a strong, united position from day one and did not change his message simply to combat the negative ad campaign launched by the McCain camp. As business owners this is a great lesson to observe. When a business is building a brand, it must stay consistent and on track. Otherwise, the brand will suffer because it causes confusion in the eyes of the consumer.

From a financial stand point, I intend to watch closely how his fiscal policy evolves and gets implemented. By doing so, I can make minor adjustments to our brand strategy and marketing plan with out pulling away from our original company goals.

The key here is to stay educated and pay attention to the economic climate. If that means looking to outside sources for assistance in keeping your company brand in line, then do so. We can not all be gurus of all things. Seek help when needed and your chances of surviving and thriving in the current economic turn around are that much greater.

When has a business crossed the line between promoting an opinionated position versus business prejudice?

Late Friday evening I received the following email from Forbes.com giving me the option of an urgent and time sensitive ad campaign that could be added to my blog. When I read the offer I was amazed and appalled that a major corporation would take such a risk that could end up being detrimental to their bottom line. I understand that the purpose of targeted marketing could work in favor of that advertiser, but you can not simply rely on geo-targeting as it still hits a broad audience and you are taking a huge risk in alienating a particular populace.

There is a thin line when it comes to business ethics and personal opinions. I understand a business supporting a particular political stance, but when you bring what is actually a personal opinion in to the picture you have forgotten that business is business.

Walter Arzon, National Sales Director for Ardynn Media had this to say. "Every business in the country needs to realize that by simply jumping on an ad campaign, it can end up having a negative impact to your company's bottom line.

We have to remember that personal opinions and feelings have no place in corporate America."


Hi:

I hope this e-mail finds you well and that you are having a Happy Halloween !

I am writing to you with some urgency because our partners at Adify have proposed a short-term campaign for us to run across the Forbes.com Business & Finance Blog Network.

The campaign is very unique in that it is political in nature and may potentially be objectionable to some readers. We ask that you please take the time to consider whether you’d like this advertisement to run on your site. It is up to you to decide whether you will accept this campaign.

Some details on the campaign:

The campaign advocates a “Yes” vote on California Proposition 8, which touches on some potentially sensitive issues related to familial values and marriage. Specifically, a “Yes” vote on Proposition 8 advocates a ban on gay marriage in California.

The campaign will run only in the 300x250 ad size and will feature a video similar to a political television commercial.

The campaign is Geo-targeted exclusively to the state of California.
The overall CA-only campaign CPM is $2.85 to you.
We are hoping to set this campaign live ASAP as it only runs until November 4th – election day.

To provide you with an opt-out/reject opportunity for this single campaign, Adify has rejected this campaign across our Network. It will appear in your rejected area, at which time you could choose to accept it. We’ve been assured by Adify that the ad WILL NOT automatically serve on your site.” You can preview the video for this campaign in your Adify account as well.

Please let me know if you have any questions- feel free to call my cell phone listed below.

Have a nice weekend.
Many Thanks,



Forbes.com

Their response was this



Hi Michael:

(PR) is cc'd above.

Forbes is not paying for this ad whatsoever -- supporters of Proposition 8 are paying for it. When the ad was offered to you , we made it very clear that the campaign was "political in nature and may potentially be objectionable to some readers." If the opponents of Proposition 8 also wanted to pay for an ad, we would be happy to offer that to you as well. In any case, we do not want to make advertising decisions for you, and think it best to let you decide whether or not to run a particular ad. We have standards regarding the advertising on Forbes Digital owned and operated sites, but as a member of the Forbes.com Business and Financial Blog Network, it’s your right to set your own standards on how to operate your site.


Many Thanks--



Come on America, let's play nice.

Where Does Perception Lie When It Comes To Advertising?

We launched a new marketing campaign yesterday and I have been amazed and shocked at how it has been perceived. At times it seems that stereotypical ideals from a previous generation are coming into play and at others, that the premise behind the campaign is simply not understood.

Obviously, those that are indicating that it makes no sense shows us that the campaign should be pulled (remember - even the best planned campaigns from the most sought after ad agencies don't always pan out). But on the other hand, when I look at the responses indicating aged ideals and stereotypes, I am reminded that at times an educational value needs to be added to a campaign. This can only help disspell any myths or outdated thoughts.

The lesson learned here is that advertising is always changing and evolving and no matter how hard we try, there will be times when mistakes are made. When mistakes are made, we must realize that by generating the type of response we have already received, publicity can be a double-edged sword. It's how you handle the situation from that point on that will determine your overall outcome of the campiagn.

AARP's Vote 2008 Viral Campaign Goes Gang Busters

When we think of viral campaigns, we typically do not think of a campaign that is interactive and self branding. That is exactly what AARP's latest endeavor has accomplished. Their Vote 2008 campaign has a great promotional video where the viewer can insert their own name into the video. I tested the video a few times with different variations until I realized that I had just spent 10 minutes watching the same video over and over and over.

Kudos to you AARP....you sucked me in!

When Sales Matter - Opinions Count part 2

I have found that the average person is thrilled to be asked their opinion and will go out of their way to be completely honest with you. Now, we may not always like the depth of honesty that we receive, but it does allow the doors of communication to stay open. When we apply this to the sales process we need to remember to be honest as well. A potential client that is telling you "NO" may not actually mean it, but is using it as a way to get more information from you, the sales person.

How you handle a client telling you "NO" is going to vary in each instance. You need to be able to not only hear the underlying meaning of the word "NO", but also need to be able to access the body language that is accompanying the response. Make sure to listen for hesitation in the response as that can be a dead give away that there is some interest in your sales pitch.

There are a multitude of reasons that a potential client will say "NO" when they actually do not mean it. As sales people, we have to get to the bottom of things by drilling down to uncover their true needs. Once those needs are identified then you can adjust your sales pitch to meet that need in such a way that makes it difficult for them to mean "NO".