Author Archive
AgencyThink • Social Media
For Those About To Blog
posted by Greg Batiansila @ December 11th, 2008
I just read this post from Social Media genius Rohit Bargava about failing corporate blogs, and it makes me cringe a little.
Are we sucking?
I need your help. Let me know what you want an agency blog to look like. More creative? More insightful like insider stuff? Hear about how to be great at marketing? Whether if you roll four ones in Yahtzee if you should keep them and go for the Yahtzee or just reroll? I wanna know.
The goal all along has been to say: hey, we see this…this ad, this trend, this article and it’s interesting BECAUSE and Avicom can help you with it.
Do you mind the salesmanship? Let us know.
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Online Marketing • Trends
Video Is Getting The Love
posted by Greg Batiansila @ December 2nd, 2008
In these troubled times, where should you invest your marketing dollar? What gives you the most opportunities to touch the most people on the most platforms?
Consider this: YouTube’s audience in September jumped to 82 million unique viewers watching 53 billion videos.
That’s in one month. I’ll just let that stat sit there in its own space.
If you want something that sales can take on a jumpdrive, that your webteam can share on the web, that can be message-driven, shared virally, touch different demographics differently, figure video.
Every single video product we create for clients has always started out being for a single purpose, and then because of its quality, message and ability to reach audiences, has been used in a number of ways. Most recently, we created something for a client that was to be used at their anniversary get-together. When the video got a standing ovation at the anniversary, the client put the video on YouTube.
Smart, prudent marketing means being mindful of your audience and what they’re doing today.
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AgencyThink
Your Vote Counts
posted by Greg Batiansila @ November 26th, 2008
I hereby and forthwith am accepting nominations for creepiest and/or least effective ads of 2008. Admittedly, this might end up in two categories: creepy and ineffective. But we’ll start as a combined category.
My first nominee: this. I need to meet the AE/Creative Director/Client who thought this would rock the world. Bring them to me.
Any other nominees?
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AgencyThink • Social Media
Heed The MommyBloggers
posted by Greg Batiansila @ November 21st, 2008
CEO of Corporation X wants to get in on that…what do they call it?…that “Social Media.” Maybe he can get one of those “blogs.”What else can he do? What else should he do?
Here’s a thought: maybe he doesn’t need a blog. Maybe he just needs to read blogs.
Blogs are about voice. About opinion and dissent. Perhaps our CEO would find the general population is less interested in hearing his voice - and more interested that he hears theirs.
Emarketer.com has an interesting - and informative - article about “MommyBloggers” - women who write blogs. Over 3/4 of them review products on their blogs. Think our CEO needs to hear how his product or company is being reviewed? It’s free, unfettered research.
Social media may not always exist in this form. It may not always be called social media. But it’s efficacy and ability to make connections between CEOs and Mommies is another sign that it has a place in marketing in the days to come.
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AgencyThink
Here’s What I’m Saying: Flexible, Scalable. And Groundbreaking.
posted by Greg Batiansila @ September 16th, 2008
Marketing Thinker David Meerman Scott is sick of all of us using the same terms which mean nothing. Can we cut it out?
Probably not. It reminds me of my days in graduate school, when fellow grad students seemed to be making references to the same canon of uppity books and self-indulgent authors. “Did Bronte write Jane Eyre, asked one thinker, or did Jane Eyre write Bronte?”
What?
In his most recent blog post, Scott noticed the following usage of baloney and gobbledygook in some big-time press releases:
HARTFORD, Conn.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Sep 15, 2008 - Aetna (NYSE:AET) has been awarded the prestigious “Recognizing Innovation in Multicultural Health Care Award” by the National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) for its prospective randomized study to determine if a telephonic culturally competent disease management program can improve the health of African American members with hypertension. Members in the study who received culturally competent disease management outreach and educational materials achieved a higher percentage of clinically acceptable blood pressure levels, increased their frequency of self blood pressure monitoring, and greater medication compliance when compared to a control group of members who received a light support program.
AUSTIN, Texas, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire/ — Campus Advantage, a world-class student housing management and development company, today announced its partnerships with the Student Association for Voter Empowerment (SAVE) and HeadCount, a non-partisan organization dedicated to facilitating voter registration and participation through the power of music, to educate students and their advisors about available voting resources.
DALLAS and DUBLIN, Ireland, Sept. 15 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Trintech
Group Plc (Nasdaq: TTPA), a leading global provider of integrated financial governance, transaction risk management, and compliance solutions, today attended the 2008 Sibos Conference in Vienna to promote its innovative LCM Payments solution developed using Microsoft technology.
If you didn’t make it through the above, why would anyone else? How about we write something that’s readable?
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Social Media • Trends
The Jesus Shot
posted by Greg Batiansila @ August 27th, 2008
If you want to see the future - at least a huge part of the future - of advertising, check this - and then this - out.
EA Sports created a golf video game. A user found a glitch and made a Youtube video showing the glitch.
Instead of ignoring him or adding a fix or apologizing, EA Sports created a YouTube video response to the user. If you think about it, that’s an already-incredible exhibition of social media. The gaming conglomerate is adept enough to note that someone has commented on their game, and created a video response to have an actual conversation with a customer.
Oh, and EA didn’t even try to broadcast this video. It went straight to Levinator and their own EA Youtube channel. Oh, and EA decided to have Tiger Woods in their video response. Yeah, the golfer who makes 130.00 a minute.
What’s the R.O.I. on what EA Sports did? Is it measurable? Didn’t they just change how gamers think of them? Change the rules on how to reach out to your customers? Pique every gamer’s interest in playing the game, maybe finding a glitch of their own?
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Social Media
A Direct Relationship?
posted by Greg Batiansila @ August 11th, 2008
As a social media guy at Avicom, I think it’s fair to say that there is a direct relationship between this and this. Video is the media of record for this era. It moves people. And really good video makes things happen.
The battle isn’t over - not by a long shot. But video -whose is better, which resonates, which said it best - is going to decide both local and national elections in the future.
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Online Marketing
Where Video Can Take You
posted by Greg Batiansila @ July 15th, 2008
One of the partners at YouTube, Corry Williams, shows off a less-than-unique but first-of-its-kind use of online video. Imagine using this as a campaign for a product roll-out, or a new branding campaign.
This particular series uses 64 videos to truly engage the audience. I love this idea, and my mind is whirring on how to shoot and implement it.
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Social Media
Blasphemy Against The Mighty Word Of Mouth?
posted by Greg Batiansila @ July 15th, 2008
There have been books, websites and campaigns about Word of Mouth Marketing. It’s one of the core precepts of Social Media.
So, why is the Senior Vice President for Digital Strategy at MRM ripping Word of Mouth?
Well…she isn’t really. She wrote a catchy headline and a compelling opening paragraph. She’s softened her tone by the final sentence to imply that WOM is something you can’t catch or harness. It’s a byproduct of good marketing.
Oh.
This is akin to Avicom’s strategy of avoiding the term “viral.” Many a huckster will offer you a viral campaign. No one knows what will resonate across the general audience.
On the other hand, we’ve had significant success in creating buzz when we have an intimate look at our audience, their needs and expectations. Which makes buzz a byproduct of good research and smart campaigning. Which means that we agree with Ms. Fou.
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AgencyThink
Making Dreams Real (This Might Hurt A Little)
posted by Greg Batiansila @ July 14th, 2008
I can’t get over how much advertising is like this. A client comes to us with a rough idea of what they want - no matter how detailed the idea, it’s still rough - and we set about taking their concept and making it real. Putting it on a billboard, or a webpage, or a brochure.
Inevitably, there is friction between what the idea became and how it existed before. Some of these drawings revealed a rude idea of perspective; some of the implementations of the drawings were too literal. Success requires trust and communication and understanding.
In our video department, we sometimes encounter client objections about a camera angle or style even though they, the client requested that particular angle or style. The idea is going through its own rite of passage. It’s all part of making a dream real.
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