Mad 4 Blog

At Mad 4 Marketing, we’re always wary of resorting to gimmicks when we’re building a campaign for your business. Although it can be fun to come up with extremely creative and off-the-wall ideas to help you get the word out, at the end of the day these brainstorming sessions are often best just to get the juices flowing and then can be scaled back to more reasonable ideas. But that’s not always the case. For example, guerrilla marketing endeavors can be classified as marketing stunts. These are often a popular and practical way to catch consumers’ attention and make a lasting impression. The important thing is knowing the distinction between what will work and what’s over the top. This takes the discretion of a knowledgeable advertising agency with a diverse skill set, from traditional to avant garde media and marketing applications.

One of the main reasons for concern is that marketing stunts are unpredictable. Since you’re ideally seeking a one-of-a-kind event or attraction, this means there’s no way to know entirely what to expect. There aren’t analytics to see how successful a similar promotion has been in the past and anticipate its reaction with the public. However, this doesn’t mean that it can’t be done correctly. It just means that it’s very important to estimate cost (in terms of money and time) vs. reward, and make sure everyone involved understands and approves the plan so that expectations are aligned. Nailing key messaging throughout the course of the event is vital, since once of the key pitfalls to avoid with marketing stunts is burying relevant ideas within the framework of comedy, outlandishness or absurdism just to make an impact. At the very least, if a stunt doesn’t go over as well as you’d hoped, it’s good to know that the brand’s name and core essence do get out.

Product placement is one of those obvious marketing ploys that audiences typically don’t like to see – or don’t like to be aware of, at least. Then again, if it didn’t work it probably wouldn’t be all over your television and movie screens. Morgan Spurlock’s most recent documentary, “POM Wonderful Presents: The Greatest Movie Ever Sold,” explores the phenomenon of product placement by interviewing business execs and artists about the growing trend – while simultaneously soliciting the movie to sponsors. He actually makes an interesting point about the gimmick of product placement, however, by noting that he doesn’t consider it selling out because he maintained creative control. Similarly, if you’re going to go for a gimmicky marketing stunt, it’s important that those receiving it feel like it maintains some integrity and is more about addressing them and appealing to them than it is about doing something for your own benefit and bank account.

For more advice about the types of marketing concepts that are most suitable for you, don’t hesitate to contact us for a consultation.

As of June 30, 2011, there are more than 2 million LinkedIn Company Pages. These represent more than 50,000 products and services. Much like Facebook pages designed for companies, brands or products, this option allows LinkedIn users to break away from independent profiles to create consolidated business overviews. As discussed two weeks ago, Google+ — the newest social media platform — has even come under fire for not yet offering this type of business page for its growing base of users. (To be fair, it did take LinkedIn until the end of 2010 to get on the ball.)

Creating a Company Page helps spread the word to millions of website visitors about who you are, what the members of your team offer and how you benefit potential partners, employees, buyers or clients — all via that overlooked, underused social media site, LinkedIn.

So how can you take advantage of this tool to market your own business?

1. Company Pages are free to create for current employees. Just look for the “Companies” and “Add a Company.” You fill out basic information and upload your logo – then LinkedIn collects a bunch of data based on user profiles and similar resources to provide you with an aggregated overview. For a small fee, you can add extra features to further customize your profile.

2. Every Company Page comes with a set of tabs that you can fill out, making it easier for users to sort through your content to get an overview of your business and find the information they’re seeking. The four main tabs are an introduction to your company, an overview of what you sell or offer, an analytics tab with the aggregated data mentioned above and a careers tab for those seeking a job or wishing to learn more about your current employees.

3. LinkedIn users can click through to your Company Page from a person’s resume to learn more about where they work. You can implement a policy that employees should link to your company page from their own LinkedIn profiles (as discussed last week).

4. LinkedIn Company Pages also allow users to recommend your business and leave testimonials about their experience with it. This is a powerful resource for strengthening the reputation of your brand.

Bonus! You can adjust the privacy settings on this page to determine who can view what parts of it, and what LinkedIn members are allowed to have editing access to the information. This can help you streamline data and protect how users interact with your brand. On the flip side of that, LinkedIn offers an analytics page that helps you monitor who’s landing on your page, how they got there and how long they stayed. This can help you tailor your marketing to the correct demographics.

Ask how we can help you set up and market your LinkedIn Company Page.

When you think about how to integrate social media websites into your marketing strategies, your mind probably turns to Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and even the new Google+ before it considers LinkedIn. This business site is one of the least interactive of all social media communities, with a reputation for being used only to seek jobs and post resumes online. But that doesn’t mean that it should be overlooked when you’re planning affordable advertising campaigns on the Net.

Here are a few easy tips for making the most of LinkedIn:

1. Make sure your employees all have updated profiles on LinkedIn. Your company is going to be represented by these faces and profiles, so you’ll want to encourage your team to set up accounts, post accurate information about your brand and then maintain their profiles. When potential clients and investors are looking up your company online, there’s a good chance that
LinkedIn pages are going to have a high standing on search engine results. Like any other form of marketing, it’s important to control your brand image and utilize the power of high-ranking websites to get your messages out. The best part is that your staff is probably linked to professionals who already
have an interest in your industry and would be keen on learning more.

2. Link these LinkedIn pages with other social media platforms. On top of having your employees denote their associate to your brand with icons and key messaging, you can actually use these sites to promote your company website. You can list your Facebook page, Twitter account and even sync up your RSS blog feed using the LinkedIn blogging application. Those visiting your employees’ and affiliates’ pages can find out how to easily learn more and register with all of your other interactive advertising efforts. Going one step further, you can promote company events and reach out with viral and guerilla marketing efforts straight through these several far-reaching pages.

3. Advertise on LinkedIn. Did you know that you can post ads directly on LinkedIn pages? Much like Facebook ads, these are customized to post on pages determined by your relevant key words and pages that relate to your industry. Use LinkedIn’s detailed demographics to reach the audience that will most likely be seeking your products and services. Depending on the size, exposure and click rate of your ad, rates vary. But you can control and customize your budget to suit your needs, using the feedback from analytics to determine where and how often your ad should be posted at what cost.

Ready to go all the way and create a specific profile just for your business? Check back next week for a more comprehensive look at Company Pages.

This week, Advertising Age spotlighted a curious inconsistency from Google execs regarding Google+ brand pages. Immediately, companies accustomed to business pages on Facebook and Twitter tried to create standard profiles in their names, though there isn’t yet a distinct niche on the platform for organizations. One by one, Google suspended these accounts – since profiles are meant to be for individual users on what is perhaps the most promising social network to come along recently.

As Ad Age notes, it’s as if Google wasn’t expecting this to happen – which is odd, because it seems as though the mega Web presence would have anticipated the demand. If Google looks at its competitors and still feels the need to confirm the popularity and the call for brand profile pages, it’s either missing something huge (worrisome) or has something up its sleeve (far more likely).

Just to make things more confusing, Google went on to allow and maintain a Ford brand page, allegedly for testing purposes. Then it asked for applications from outside companies, and accepted a slew of them to analyze – purportedly to select a small number of brands who could begin building pages. But then it was announced that this tactic of applying for brand profiles also wouldn’t remain, and the idea was dashed with an announcement that public brand profiles would be rolling out within a matter of months. It’s been so broadly confusing that Google reps have even made statements admitting its poor handling of the situation.

Google+ remains in Beta, with users still testing out features and personally inviting friends through limited invitations (much like the halcyon days of Gmail), but analysts predict that it has what it takes to be major competition for Facebook, which has all but monopolized the market in recent years. As of July 2011, Ad Age reports that Google+ has 20 million users, compared to Facebook’s 700 million worldwide.

The most recent word is that business accounts are still being developed by Google+, while there’s been no clear answer about why Ford was chosen as the sole supported brand profile. In the meantime, Google continues to promise interested businesses that they can take advantage of the enhanced analytics and tracking available through Google+ — an area it clearly recognizes as lacking from Twitter and Facebook. So apparently they have done some homework about what businesses want and need from social network sites after all.

If you plan to advertise your business on television, radio or a live-person format, having memorable music is a key component. Several decades ago, jingles were a crucial element in successful marketing. Lately, unique tunes are often traded for catchy pop music running beneath an ad. Though royalties for these songs may be expensive, advertisers often pay big dollars with the theory that listeners already have attachments to music they know and love, and will stop to pay attention to it.

However, creating your own jingle can be much more affordable – and offer a much bigger ROI. It not only catches a person’s attention more than music they already know, but can also make your name and key information, like your website address or phone number, that much more memorable.

According to a Forbes article from June 2010, Linda Kaplan Thaler of New York’s Kaplan Thaler Group said: “A jingle is not successful if you listen to it once and like it. You have to listen to it and want to sing it. Essentially you become the advertiser for the brand.”

Other key elements for creating a custom jingle are:

• Short and sweet. Jingles notoriously only last a few seconds and contain about one line of lyric. This makes them easy to learn and share without detracting too much from the information and creative contained in the rest of your ad.
• Key messaging. It may seem obvious to say that your brand name must be included in the tune, but think about adding your phone number, website or a key message about your company as well.
• Clear wording. A great sound is the most important part for getting your jingle stuck in someone’s head, but also remember to be sure your wording is articulate and provides exactly the info that you need to convey that will hold up over time (for example, you don’t want to sing about next week’s promotions).
• Likeability. Because TV and radio are such broad advertising formats, you probably want people from across generations, cultures and locations to understand and enjoy your jingle. Whether it contains humor or sentimentality, finding a likable hook is half the battle.
• Timelessness. The success of the popular jingles we listed last week comes in part from hearkening back to a specific time and place – but on the other hand, these phrases and tunes still hold up in modern culture and could easily be found in ads for the same brand today.

Ask Mad 4 Marketing how we can help you develop an original, memorable jungle for your radio or television commercial and overall advertising campaign.