When is SHOCK Advertising Detrimental?

Marketing and advertising is what I do, and I do it well, but how do we know when a particular line has been crossed? A few weeks ago I wrote a post titled Does SEX Sell? where I explored the idea of one form of shock advertising and the human body. I started to think that there were other forms of advertising that would be even more shocking that maybe we just don't see as much of here in the US, so I did a google search and was I surprised. I came across an ad for United Colors of Benetton on BrandChannel.com that talked about SHOCK Advertising and depicts an ad with 3 human hearts in it. I understand the premise behind the ad that we are all the same on the inside but realistically I can't get the image out of my head and I used to love shopping at Benetton. For me the lingering effects of the ad are enough to deter me from shopping at Benetton (and I spend 10's of thousands of $'s a year on clothes).

I know what you are thinking..that publicity is publicity, but when it is detrimental to a company's bottom line the ad should be rethought. I am but one customer who has seen the ad, how many others out there feel the same way?

I'm too small for PR!....Not Anymore!!!

As I was speaking with a new client the other day over a cup of coffee, I received yet another insight in the mind of small business owners and their preception of what they are allowed to do. She mentioned that she had never had a Press Release done for her firm. This is after being in business for 10+ years! When I asked her why they had never done a release she informed me that she always felt it was for large companies.

Well, needless to say, I set her straight and reminded her that with the advent of the internet, that was one of the doors that were now open to her. There are over 60 million blogs world wide, and as of Sept. 2005 there were over 10,000 magazine titles in print in the US alone. Once you add the newsletters and eZines out there, it becomes an untold # of publishers that are always looking for appropriate content.

By doing a press release you are actually providing a service to all of them in the form of information that needs not be tracked down. With newswires such as PR9.net and Free Press Release out there that don't charge a penny, it simply takes a few minutes to set up an account and learn the format that each requires for a news release (I have added a complete list to the right of this posting). You also need to remember that Press Releases are not just for announcements, but are an ideal tool for branding your company. I suggest that you come up with a monthly schedule and STICK TO IT! If there is no particular news about your company that you wish to share, then provide educational information that is targeted to your demographic audience. Not only are you keeping your name out there, by you are increasing your web presence AND helping to educate your consumers.

Now, you are probably saying that you can't write and that's OK, because there are services out there like Ardynn Media out of Harrisburg, PA that will write a release for a fee or even barter the service. Be proactive and get started TODAY.

What do you mean you're my customer?

Unfortunately the holiday weekend is over and it's time to jump back to reality. I attended the Harrisburg Arts Fest this weekend and was highly impressed with the overall turnout. This event kicks off the summer season here in Central PA and is usually one that I tend to avoid as I am more inclined to like Old Master artwork than anything modern or kitchy. As I was walking around my attention was caught by a woman having a conversation with a crafts vendor who was asking the woman to come and share a project with her Girl Scouts Troup. They were going back and forth about the complexity of the project when it dawned on me that this woman, albeit not a typical business person, was still a potential customer of mine. They and the thousands of other local youth groups depended on things such as bake sales and flea markets etc to make money for their organizations. Why not be the one to provide them with product ideas and the support they would need to raise money to get them through the next year or whatever.

So even though I was not actively working that day, I was enlightned yet again about who my target audience truley entailed. In todays economy and the multitude of competitors that we all face, why not take the road less travelled to help us succeed. We need to be ever vigilant in identifying our target audience and let inspiration and knowledge come from whereever we can get it. We do not always need to rely on the statistical reports that various agencies and oraganizations produce.

Why Toilet Paper Is More Important To Big Brands Than SEO

It's a beautiful day here in PA and I came across this article by Rob Young on Media Post as I was having coffee and getting my day started.


We all know that big brands can spend a small fortune on advertising and technology budgets. SEO advocates could hardly expect big brands to spend millions on search engine optimization efforts, but one might be surprised to see just how little money is spent on organic search engine visibility.
We took the top 10 largest retail chains and found that on average, they employ around 361,400 employees. After some basic math we roughly computed that these companies spend:
*Over $2 million dollars a year on free coffee ($2,1684,492)
*$1,693,774 per year on toilet paper expenses (12 sheets a day per employee)
*Over $21 million per year on pens, binders and calendars
*Over $15 million per year in wasted paper ($84 per employee per year)
*Over $142 million in printer paper and toner per year
And next to nothing on search engine optimization!
While these numbers are far from exact, it is safe to say that few big brands want to give SEO even a minute fraction of their budget. It often seems that the larger the brand, the less likely organic SEO efforts are implemented on their Web site. While million-dollar budgets are often allocated for extensive Paid Listing campaigns, most organic proponents are lucky to squeeze a few dollars out of big-brand wallets for even basic SEO steps.
There are many reasons why large companies often keep organic SEO in the closet, and it is certainly not its relevancy. Roughly 77% of search users choose organic over paid listing when searching, and 67% choose organic search when purchasing. Study after study indicates that people are less likely to click on paid search ads than organic search engine results.
For example, a Oneupweb Study found that search users are up to six times more likely to click on the first few organic results than they are to choose any of the paid results, while an Enquiro eye-tracking study showed that 50% of users begin their search by scanning the top organic results. With stats like these, it can be surprising to see that according to a 2007 Oneupweb study, only 40% of the top 100 retailer sites are optimized well or moderately well for organic search, and 27% show no signs of any organic optimization at all.
So with organic results driving a commanding number of clicks, why do SEO efforts so rarely make it beyond proposal phases? Here are just a few of the obstacles facing organic SEO implementation in large companies.
Ease of maintenance: Large companies can have complex IT structures, cumbersome tools or CMS systems that make SEO implementation difficult.
Tracking Metrics: Clear and detailed reporting is not available in organic SEO, which can make ROI difficult to establish. Since SEO is still a mystery term for many organizations, SEO proponents have difficulty gaining acceptance among upper management and company decision makers.
Legality: Most big brands have big names and wallets to protect; therefore site copy can be minimal as legal departments safeguard the brand by slashing content. Search engines love regularly updated unique content; legal departments do not. This means that many SEO campaigns can be crippled before they get off the ground.
Free platform: Many board members’ first question is “why pay?” There is a common misconception that organic is a free platform; in actuality, very little Internet marketing is “free”. SEO can be more accurately defined as a maintenance fee. Your site needs to be prepared for the engines and periodically realigned. Big brands that think SEO is a complimentary service will be rudely surprised when less relevant competitors begin overtaking important keyword positions using SEO tactics.
No need for SEO: Big brands are usually already visible for certain keywords like brand terms. Many companies feel that visibility already exists and they do not have to pay an agency to optimize their site, if they already rank. As long as customers can find them, it is not worth the investment. In actuality, these brands usually rank for branded keywords and some general terms, but are not ranking for the infamous long tail of search. The long tail of search, or the massive list of search terms that are not high-volume, can substantially affect your brand’s online conversions.
Internal department clashes IT/SEO: While SEO has been around for some time, it still has not found its department home in highly structured big brands. There are often internal conflicts regarding the department responsible for SEO costs. IT sees it as a Marketing cost and Marketing sees it as an IT cost. Even when budget issues are resolved, IT can often be weary of allowing SEO agencies to alter coding, URLs and other site features. Big brands that employ design and creative firms that are not SEO knowledgeable can also encounter huge obstacles in creating search engine friendly aesthetics.
Takes time and money… no guarantee: Organic SEO is not always cheap to do on a large scale. It takes multiple resources to handle a Fortune 500 or 1000 Web site. With no guarantee to give, C-level executives can be hesitant to sign off on natural SEO initiatives. This is the hardest selling point of all. Being able to validate high-cost and time-consuming projects usually requires some hard-hitting metrics to persuade non-savvy CEO’s. While SEO has shown massive ROI’s for companies of all sizes, few predictions or guarantees can be made on how SEO will affect brand visibility, e-commerce and other interests.
It is no easy task to persuade big brands to sign on to organic SEO projects. Big brands are late adopters, and as such, are losing massive ground to smaller brands and savvy competitors that are making SEO an integral part of their online marketing strategies. As big brands begin to see the large ROI of organic optimization, more and more companies will begin adopting SEO–and in many cases, all they will have to do is cut back their paper clip intake by 5% to afford it.

How big is too big?

It's been a little over a year since the concept of Ardynn Media was born and now that we have officially launched I wonder if we did it big enough. We have strategically placed marketing mediums across the internet as well as developed our own magazine to act as a branding tool. Not only is it designed to be a fresh take on modern marketing mediums, but has allowed us to found a way to align ourselves more closely with small business owners than any other publication out there. The Lime launches live June 1st. And we are offering free subscriptions through the end of the year.

For those that insist social networking sites such as http://www.linkedin.com/, http://www.facebook.com/ and http://www.myspace.com/ are just a few of the communites we are members of. We have jumped on board. Each of them allows us to promote specific product lines to a highly targeted audience and has shown us why we need to tailor the ads for those mediums in order to get noticed. It is working tremendously well so far.

We have also developed niche marketing pieces for the smallest of demographics and are painstakingly taking the time to add to the appropriate websites.

We have also started the Trade Show and Event process with NAR's Mid-Year Legislative Conference in Washington DC. The Power Broker Forum gave us insight on the current state of the Real Estate market. Now that we are back in the office we can tweek our approach for that specific group to meet their needs in such a rough economic climate.

The last piece of our puzzle as we launch is the release of our Affiliate Program. Our advertisements will be appearing on numerous sites around the country (some of them our actually regional competitors - which I'll talk about tomorrow).

So again, I wonder if it is a big enough presence. Only time and $ will tell.

Does Sex Sell? Advertisers Bank On It!

It's been one of those days and as I sit here drinking yet another cup of coffee I am trying to find the best way to target women business owners. How do I get their attention? Does sex really sell? How shocking can I make it?

As you can see I am going for broke and feel that if Calvin Klein, Dolce & Gabana and the multitude of other designers that use SEX to promote their brand... then why can't I?

Let's face it, it get's our attnetion. Some may find it offensive but they end up talking about it and then there are those that give it a life of thier own and make it viral.

Sex is everywhere! Americans tend to be more reserved when it comes to public images. Buy god gave us these bodies and if we can use it to take $ to the bank, then so be it.

It got your attention didn't it!

Lessons learned and taken to heart....

We all have those moments when we realize that a particular lesson that we have learned came from a specific source. For some of us, we come upon this realization at that exact moment it is learned, for other's it may dawn on us years down the road. For me, the lesson I thought of today was that creativity comes in many different forms and that we need to find the creativeness that is in each of us. I learned this from my mother, Sherry Walker, and I felt it only appropriate that I share that on Mother's Day! I will never forget the day that she began to teach me to cook and shared her passion. She has this amazing, inate ability to combine the least likely of ingredients and create a truly wonderful dish. She taught me to take risks and go with my heart. Just because some may look in the cupboard and see a few nonessential ingredients, others have the creativity it takes to create a meal for an entire family ... and leave them asking for more.

This is no different than any marketing campaign. We must look for ways to balance our marketing components and create that ideal meal that will have our target audience asking for more. It's amazing what I can do with, what most would consider, a meger budget. But then, I learned from a true chef how to combine ingredients for the perfect end result.

Thank you mom for all that you have given me. As you can see, you are an everlasting influence in my life.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY

The Well Has Sprung: Trade Show creativity at it's best!

Where would a company go to ensure that their limited marketing dollars where well spent in order to maximize their ROI? TRADE SHOWS, of course. I would say that most businesses have no idea what the true value of a trade show is. For the new business, trade shows provide the ultimate platform to build brand awareness. Since new businesses tend to be on a very strict budget, they have the opportunity to intereact with their target audience in an enviornment that is keen to their doing business. Attendees are expecting to be approached so they actually asre meeting you half way.



"The popularity and success of trade shows is growing at an enormous rate. Currently there are 4700 trade shows in the U.S. alone with over 130 million attendees. Most organizations allocate 6-10% of their overall marketing budget for trade shows which can reach up to 80% of their target audience. 64% of all attendees share information received at a trade show with 4+ people and trade show leads overall are 38% cheaper to close." says Neil Carroll of TPS Displays out in Richmond, VA.



The first few times a company exposes themselves to a trade show should be in the form of an attendee. This limits the cost involved as well as let's the business decide the best approach for the trade show presence. There are also consulting firms across the country that will work with you to ensure that your presense at a trade show is optimized. It typically will cost the same as if you were to not use their services, since they have the ability to maximize their buying power on your behalf.



A couple great examples are Comic Con and the National Association of Realtors Annual Expo. These shows show Trade Show creativity at it's best! Take a chance and explore the possibilities that arise from trade shows. You won't be disappointed.