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A Delicate Situation
Alanna + June 4th, 2009
It’s no Enron scandal, but a recent potential AT&T mishap has reminded us all how truly important it is for brands to be insanely careful with their actions. So what’s the deal? Well, AT&T has been accused of intentionally teaching customers how to “power text” during the recent final vote on this season of American Idol. Power texting, which involves sending multiple text messages at one time, is an obviously advantageous technique with respect to American Idol since each text message sent to an AI shortcode represents a vote for one’s favoured contestant.
Now American Idol is standing by the results, as they apparently have mechanisms for tracking and discounting power votes. Regardless, even an innocent situation can lead to customer resentment and suspicion.
Life lesson?
As marketers, we have to be insanely careful about taking steps that might be perceived as harmful to one group or another. There are always going to be those claiming that marketing…
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Smart Marketing in a Dumb Economy
Marta + May 29th, 2009
Earlier this week, I had the pleasure of presenting Smart Marketing in a Dumb Economy through WOMMA’s wonderful series of webinars. (By the way: if you missed the live event, you can check it out with audio!) As expected, the audience had lots of excellent questions—including “how do you convince a reluctant executive to experiment with digital and social media?” “Who within an organization ‘owns’ the conversation?” and the infamous “How and what do you measure exactly?”
I did my best to answer each of them—but there was one question that came via email after the webinar that I couldn’t resist sharing and answering here.
Q: You mentioned that companies are moving away from spending large amounts on traditional advertising (TV spots, print ads, etc.) instead opting for targeted marketing and creating experiences, mainly online. Do you think this trend is mainly due to economics or is targeted marketing proving more effective, or both? Once the economy improves, do…
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The Importance of Being Earnest
Caroline + May 27th, 2009
A funny little ‘scandal’ is unwinding in the land of Toronto fashionistas today. It started at 1:45am (contributor Courtney Shea, you’re working too hard!) when Toronto Life published its daily ‘best dressed’ post in its Style section and featured local developer Deena Pantalone discussing her ‘vintage’ dress that she ‘sort of designed’. A small blurb about being a recessionista by reworking old clothes followed.
Within hours comments started pouring in about the fact that this dress was in fact the recent and completely original work of local designer Caroline Lim, owner of the Queen St.W store Champagne & Cupcakes.
And naturally, local twitterati starting talking about it too:
Now I’ve never met Caroline (great name though) but she is obviously not only a talented designer but one smart entrepreneurial cookie as well as shortly after being notified (and writing a strongly worded comment to the subject herself), she posted this comment:
What a great way to…
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There Are No Small Jobs
Brian + May 21st, 2009
Over the course of your career, you will be inevitably be tasked with a “small job”. It will usually be presented to you in the following manner:
“Client A wants us to whip up a Project B. Can you have something ready by end-of-day tomorrow?”
It’s the kind of job that neither the client nor the account person necessarily expect much from, and many designers won’t bother attacking it with the enthusiasm that they would when presented with a Peach. (An example of a Peach could be an identity system for a high-profile client where the budget per business card is around $5 per card. A non-Peach, on the other hand, might be something like, say, a moving notice for an engineering firm.)
But attack it with vigor one most certainly always should. Just because a given job’s scope, budget, and print run are relatively small doesn’t mean the thinking behind it should be. On the contrary. Small jobs…
