2008 September

Preparation:  A little ingenuity, a penchant for considering and trying what may be unknown.  Must gather all of the ingredients listed below and take heed of the Cook Time.  If using Google Analytics, then establish campaign goals within the system in advance of going live with your AdWord campaign. Cook Time: Varies according to your brand's prior sustained presence in online search; interest in being competitive for placement in search engine results pages (SERPs) via bid commitment; strength...

Old Dogs TV flights.  Print schedules.  Outdoor rotations.  Radio spots.  These tactics presuppose an audience's interest in your brand message, just as they presuppose a measure of proximity is indicative of ability to influence.  They're expensive, too:  to concept, create, produce, plan, distribute, in addition to the obvious and variable cost of media run.  Factor in all of the filters available today (TiVo, RSS feeds, iGoogle and Google Reader, satellite radio) and you can echo the sentiment...

AdAge and Twitterville This is a busy weekend in Las Vegas.  At the risk of sounding oxymoronic, let me quickly add that I'm referring to BlogWorld & New Media Expo 2008, the convention for connectivity.  I'm workin' the laptop, and my TwitterFox keeps catching my eye - so I invariably check out the new Tweets and read all about the after parties, the panelists, see the Flikrs.  Good times had by all, it sounds like.  Although I'm here and they're, well, there, the stream of updates and photos...

Here's How We Help You Continuing the essence of a "service" theme [yesterday's post centered around transactional customer service as an opportunity to extend your brand, more fully surround your customers with your brand promise], I'll take a different approach to the same theme tonight.  It would seem my roles as parent, co-leader of household, professional, and general adult-type-person would afford me with several perspectives and experiences on service, so you could say I've completed my focus...

The Customer Is Always... I'm not one of those customers, I'm really not.  You know the type.  The ones who claim the spot wasn't there when they brought the shirt in, that the plate of half-eaten steak was cold when it was served.  But having been in service-focused businesses all of my adult life and many points during childhood helping out at the family company, I walk a fine line between supporting customer orientation and a businesses' responsibility to shield employees from irrational,...

The Inspiration The art and allure of storytelling is one our team has talked about lately, and as I begin organizing some thoughts in order to plan a Webinar segment on the topic, it struck me as a timely post, too. Last week, our company held its' annual client retreat. It's at this event where our leaders talk about the direction of the product, some key organizational pieces. We had some brief sessions on tactical site improvements and "how-to's" and we offered some longer sessions focusing...

This week I had the opportunity to be in an audience when guest speaker Tana Gertz from season 3 of "The Apprentice" reality show with Donald Trump addressed the crowd.  As Mrs. Gertz began speaking, there were a few things that struck me immediately: Comfortable and relaxed interacting with a group Tara strode into the room with ease and confidence, as though she had held a rapport with the persons in the room, and this was just one of several conversations she'd had with them.  It felt as though...

Many of you insightsandingenuity readers are aware that I also blog for Geonetric at GeoVoices.  As a contributor to our corporate blog, I post articles on topics ranging from brand, social media, lateral thinking, and many others. In case you haven't checked out GeoVoices, I thought I'd bring over a little of the material I've posted there and save you a trip. My GeoVoices blog post: Your Consumers Are Driving The Bus - Are You Strapped In? BusinessWeek book review that the above post...

The Social Media Marketing Best Practices Project, originated by Mitch Joel of Six Pixels of Separation, appears to establish a collective, organic SME repository using, of course, the inherent viral quality of social media to spread awareness and encourage participation in the Project. I found out about the project last week from Shel Holtz when reading his blog (he wrote about inclusion).  I'm a little apprehensive of throwing my hat into the ring, given the esteemed company, but the maverick...

Branding is one of my favorite topics.  Respected peer and pal Sam Meers is a big brand advocate with whom I love to chat.  Sam owns an agency in Kansas City, and I'm an agency gal myself, so we share some commonalities when talking about the genesis of promise, positioning, and strategy. I hope Sam reads this post, because I'm choosing a write-up from the 8/11/08 AdAge digital section to share tonight.  The focus is how a historically digital-focused agency has expanded its service scope to now include...