Why podcasting works

Take it from a 30-year radio veteran (me), people like to listen to interesting conversation. And if your podcasting, you're chasing the right people.


A 2006 profile of podcast users from Edison Media Research:

• 11% of the survey indicated that they had ever listened to a podcast as defined (and 21% of persons age 12-17 have done so).


• Podcast listeners are very well educated, have higher than average household incomes, and represent a very attractive advertising target for both online AND local retailers.


• While podcast listeners are much more likely to block unwelcome advertising than the general public, they are no less likely to click on relevant advertising than other Internet consumers.

Edison updated their report in 2007 here.



More and more tools are available to help you tell your story to your website visitors, in quick, easy, downloadable packets. Best of all, your conversations are original and framed the way you want. Let's go podcasting!

10 billion online videos watched in Feb. '08, up 66%

I noticed it a couple of years ago, when my then-5th grader walked away from evening TV to the other side of the room, where the family computer lives. There, for an hour or more (if we let him), he would surf the internet for videos of his favorite animations, and stupid cat tricks. Rarely will he watch evening TV these days, and that's OK with me.

I'm converting slowly too. I used CBS.com's video stream to catch up on their drama "Jericho".)

The trend is settling in to mainstream America, and it has establishment media scrambling. From CNET.com/MSN.com...
"All that time you waste at the office watching stupid cat videos on YouTube adds up: Numbers released by ComScore on Wednesday indicate that U.S. Web users watched more than 10 billion online videos during the month of February. That's a 66 percent gain from the previous year."

Trade you a prime time sitcom for a webisode? How will you adapt to this trend in your marketing plan?

Bad week for PR guy Mark Penn

(salon.com/AP/Jerry Lai/burson-marsteller)
Talk about “can’t win for losing…” Mark Penn was rolling large as chief strategist for the Hillary Clinton campaign. He was one of those spokespeople made available to the media after a debate to offer “perspective.” Everyone outside the profession calls it “spin.” This was done under the handle of his personal research firm, Penn, Schoen and Berland Associates. Penn also worked on the Clinton ’96 re-election bid, and Hillary Clinton’s senate campaign. Penn’s Wikipedia entry is loaded with juicy tidbits about other work with the Bloomberg NYC mayoral run, election monitoring of Hugo Chavez election in Venezuela, work with Tony Blair, and others. This guy is busy.

Penn’s other gig, as CEO of PR giant Burson-Marsteller, was to represent the South American nation Columbia in their attempt to win passage of a new free trade agreement, which Senator Clinton opposes, by the way. B-M is one of the largest communications firms on the planet.

So Penn’s meeting with Columbia last week raised a stir. Penn apologized for meeting with Columbia. Feeling disrespected, Columbia fired Burson-Marsteller. And then, under pressure from unions who oppose the Columbian free trade deal, the Clinton campaign fired Penn. Penn’s personal company (PSB) continues to do polling for the Clinton campaign. The fallout in the blogosphere:

Politico.com says Sen. Clinton’s message will not change.

The liberal Huffington Post says Clinton loyalists have long simmered over Penn’s strategy to sacrifice caucus states, B-M's corporate clientele, and his sometimes public arguments with other Clinton staffers.

The conservative hotair.com says Penn offered research and advice, basically a “locked feedback loop” that just reinforced whatever his research revealed.

And now, a word on conflict of interest from the Public Relations Society of America Code of Ethics:
A member shall:
· Act in the best interests of the client or employer, even subordinating the member's personal interests.
· Avoid actions and circumstances that may appear to compromise good business judgment or create a conflict between personal and professional interests.
· Disclose promptly any existing or potential conflict of interest to affected clients or organizations.
· Encourage clients and customers to determine if a conflict exists after notifying all affected parties.

It’s hard to keep all these competing interests sorted out when you’re a multi-national conglomerate. Success can be its own enemy. Perhaps you would be better served by a smaller, more dedicated firm… like Chavis Crew Communications.

Lasers, not floodlights - sharpening your attack

Three current marketing trends point to more specialization in marketing, and a reduced reliance on mass marketing. From a column by Gerald Bagg, CEO of ad agency Quigley-Simpson:

3. The splintering of social networks: Watch for dominant MySpace and Face­book social networking sites to lose ground to more specialized, specific offerings like LinkedIn, Badoo and Quepasa.com.
4. Fragmenting of streaming video: Streaming video will likely follow the pre­dicted path of the social networks. While YouTube is the largest of these video sites currently, we're seeing tailored secular video sites pop up almost daily.
5. Narrowcasting vs. broadcasting: Tar­geting audiences through media mix mod­els, and combining technology with that, allowing marketers to conduct more so­phisticated analysis of what media gener­ates the most results from a particular audi­ence, will become more widely used.

Generic appeals in my inbox bug me to no end. But I have a high tolerance for messages from people I like, companies I use, and lists I sign up for.

Thanks to www.garydfoster.com for this lead from DMNews.
http://www.dmnews.com/Eight-direct-response-trends-in-08/article/104179/

Church Marketing Sucks.

Ooh. Edgy. Offensive. Angry. Funny. So totally true. So what?

The sacred sub-sector of the non-profit world has its work cut out for it. Consider:

• the ripped-off red and white swirl logo that read “Things go better with Jesus,”
• the hulking Jesus doing push ups with the cross (and the weight of the world) on his back in the name of “God’s Gym,”
• the big F-150 pick-up truck grill with the caption, "Built Lord Tough."

Christian marketing is all over the map. Unfortunately, much of it can be labeled “cheesy.” Worst of all, it’s not taken seriously.

Whatever your message to the public at large, the worse response to a general, mainstream media message is apathy. Getting ignored proves that you wasted whatever time and money you invested.

Tied for third place is the hearty “Amen” from the already converted, and the indignant cry of “Wrong!” from the opponents, both with little in the way of follow-up and follow-through.

The second most desirable response to a general market communications campaign is the protest, demands for a retraction, a letter campaign, pickets. A real outcry extends the reach of your original message to exponentially more than would have received the message otherwise. I’ve seen pickets and demonstrations do wonders (make million$$) for the people they were trying to shut down.

The winner for any marketing message fired out into the atmosphere for the general public is the considered response by the unaffiliated and undecided. The second look. The “maybe I’ll try it.” Watch how the political campaigns sprint for the middle after their nominations are secure.

That’s the position most churches find themselves in. Declining in attendance, marginalized by the media, mocked by the educational and scientific establishment, churches have a lot of ground to make up with people who don’t hate church. They don’t love church either. They are kinda-sorta you know, just busy doing other stuff. Enter the blog “Church Marketing Sucks.”

Given what they think is a “timeless message,” and “good news for the whole world,” churches have the potential to build a pretty good reputation at the grassroots. Media images, sex scandals and mega churches aside, what can a small to mid-sized congregation do to communicate its positive, feel-good message to its nonchalant neighbors?

Check out the serious and fun-filled folks who post at Church Marketing Sucks. Recent posts include a gallery of marketing poster art, dispatches from a Compassion project with orphans in Uganda, and a poll on love/dating/sex sermons. It's an excellent forum for taking this sector up a few notches in quality and effectiveness. We can only pray.

http://churchmarketingsucks.com/

All out interactive: fun with your contact form

The more interactive web communications becomes, the more your website will have to connect and engage your visitors.

Writer Edward Pistachio was super-effective at this by putting a puzzle at the top of his "contact" page. Solve the puzzle, win the privilege of contacting the writer.

It's a perfect strategy if you're wanting to raise the quality of your contacts (and maybe make a repeat visitor out of him).

Read more at: http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/02/writer-makes-a.html
Edward Pistachio's website: http://o.rang.es

(Parental advisory: Pistachio's prose is vulgar at times. I hope you're not easily offended.)

Doritos goes “deep branding” - music and marketing

(written Monday morning after Super Bowl XLII)

At a friend’s Super Bowl party, one ad stuck out, mostly because it’s the one that got a reaction from his 18 year old daughter. “Who is that,” she asked, wondering about the strangely passionate and peaceful music video that ran right after the first quarter.

It was Kina Grannis, 22-year old songwriter and winner of the Doritos “Crash the Super Bowl” music contest. Seriously... exposure on THE SUPER BOWL! Instant awareness to 90 million plus, and the curious will follow up. Oh yeah, a contract with Interscope Records was part of the grand prize.

When I got back home, I found a story on the Doritos campaign in the Wall St. Journal. This morning, I googled her name. A few thoughts:

On her website, she says "thanks" and that she'll be busy for a few days. (I'm thinking she's being wined and dined in LA today, first class flights, limos, hotel suite, lots of sucking up... kinda cool...)

She's got good graphic support. Most of her website is down, and she has no shows scheduled right now.

The myspace page is poppin'! 4 songs to listen to, and lots of love from lots of people. The 4 songs she has are strong, very well produced. I'm at 196724 plays. Check back tomorrow. I wonder what it was before last night. And she's a very good writer. Which is to say (a few things about kick-starting a music career):

1) The music is central, starting with the composition. Cover songs mean nothing to an artist trying to break in. Build your career around original work. How deep is the well? How many songs do you have in there anyway?

2) Presentation = production. Good arrangements and recording are almost equal to the audience. We're in the media age - get it? People have to hear the work, ENGAGE with the work. One of Kina's songs on her myspace page sounds like it was recorded over the phone. Interesting. Cute. Penetrating. Good production is worth whatever you have to spend on it. Don't scrimp on this one.

3) Get out there. Kina's support and fan base love comes from being in a community (was S. Cal., now Austin), playing in front of people, being nice to people, random acts of kindness. Collaborations. etc. Which is to say, if you want a public career, you will have to be OUT (to the limits of your soul, integrity, creative output - out-ness can be overdone too, so be careful).

A few thoughts about the Doritos campaign (as documented by Betsy McKay in the Wall St. Journal, 2/1/08)...

CONTENT
Doritos sales dipped in the early part of the decade, so Frito-Lay/Pepsico shifted direction. So a brand that's been around for 42 years isn't afraid to change its look. That's easy when your target is teens and young adults.

Jay Leno and Miss USA out. "Name that flavor" online contest, Stephen Colbert, and edgy on line music competition in.

Wisely, Doritos didn't lower itself to creating a jingle-contest. All we know about Gen-Y and Mosaics says they hate hype and bad pitches. The campaign director - 32 year old Rudy Wilson, avid video gamer who plays Guitar Hero in his office. (did you notice the background to Tom Petty's concert had arrows moving along guitar strings, very "Guitar Hero"-ish.)

The angle worked for me: bring "original music with a 'bold, intense' image, because they 'bring a passion' to their music, Ms. Mukherjee (Frito-Lay VP-marketing) says."

TIMING
While the online music competition wasn't launched until later October, it caught on fast with the music industry and bloggers.

The concept took months to set up. It was not a "last-minute" idea rushed to the web. Today's fast-paced media world (easy-to-update social networking sites, digital video production) offers flexibility, and the ability to respond to market conditions, but nothing beats a well-executed idea with all the parts and players in position.

ROI
The Doritos music video got high and low marks from critics and viewers. (InformationWeek.com's Alexander Wolfe raved. Slate panned it.) But in the communications world, two things matter: getting noticed (for good or bad), and moving merchandise. I guess it depends on how much you value the squishy notion of "branding."

Sales have turned since F-L tuned it’s approach. WSJ reports a 6.4% rise in sales in 2007. The price tag for the music video - $5M (which comes to a mere .3% of Doritos’ U.S. gross revenues of $1.7B).

When I'm at the chip aisle, I' tend to buy generic, unless there is some emotional, subjective "feeling" toward the cooler, more expensive chip. Kina Grannis won't make me hungry for chips, but her music might create a physiological response, over-riding my budget and allowing me to enjoy the premium brand.

Hedging its bet, FoxSports.com put the Doritos “giant mouse” spot in its “Ten Best” for 2008 Super Bowl ads. It got out loud laughs (LOLs) from our crew too. So there you have it. “Deep branding” for younger, edgier set. Guffaws for us guys with da brats and beer bellies.

(photos by little grey-flickr, kinagrannis.com)