Flies Carrying Ads

What? Flies carrying ads? Yes, you heard correct, folks. I’m still a little miffed at the ads on my cell phone, so this latest is truly interesting. I have no idea what the company is or what they’re selling, but the concept is amazing. Genius.

Cautionary Tale

I enjoy the professional advantages of social media sites and tactics such as FaceBook, LinkedIn, and, of course, Twitter as much as the next person, but I also enjoy playing devil’s advocate.

Hilarious example of the pitfalls and dangers of combining personal and professional uses of social media:

New Tools

I know many people hate blogs - how can you possibly keep up with them all?   Well, I regularly read a selection from the top marketing and PR blogs (according to Advertising Age and Evan Carmichael) and very often come across some great information and tips.

This week, Duct Tape Marketing has a posting called “The New Marketer’s Toolbox“.  In it, the many new, often free, tools that exist to helpus marketers (any anyone in business, for that matter) are discussed. Some of the ones mentioned are:

• Google Alerts - like a free clipping service, with the information sent to your e -mail inbox
• Central Desktop - manage projects, teams, and schedules, and take advantage of the built-in wiki editor
• Google Reader - a great tool to manage all those blogs you’re reading
• Jott - great tool for when you’re driving and don’t have a pen handy. Simply use your phone to ’say’ a message that is then transcribed and e-mailed to you

We’re all looking for tools that will make our life easier, and these sound like they can help!

Clif Bar Ads - Hilarious!

I am a triathlete. I love triathlons, and am fascinated by the sport. In fact, I write regularly on the subject of triathlons as the Baltimore Triathlon Examiner (please don’t mind the truly awful picture of me; honestly, I really don’t look like that).

As such, I’ve come across an ad by Clif Bar that I’m still snickering over. It is truly hilarious, the funniest I’ve seen in a while. Granted, I’m not sure how much it does to promote the brand other than via the Clif Bar tagline, but the ad is certainly memorable.

Take a gander:

Big Brother

Something struck me as I was reading through my latest copy of The Public Relations Strategist (Spring 2009). “In 2009, Big Brother is now a vast, collective and diverse group of individuals, organizations and industries watching the Internet and sometimes acting upon the information that they obtain.” This quote is in an article titled “Social Networking Media Present New Ethical Challenges for Public Relations” by Tim O’Brien, APR.

It truly is Big Brotherish out there. You hear seasoned celebrities make comments all the time, grateful that they didn’t come of age as a celebrity in this, the digital media age, because, today, they could not have gotten away with the things that they did then.  A listtle closer to home, where home is our marketing and public relations world, no longer is an irate or unhappy customer relegated to their simple letter to customer service and a few phonecalls to same. Today, these same disappointed customers take to the blogs and forums, loudly proclaiming to all who listen their woes with you and your company.

Today, everyone is watching, listening, and talking. You need to be aware, and you need to likewise - and you may need to respond. Or at least have a plan in place on how to react. But, more on that later.

YouTwitFace - Thanks, Conan!

“YouTwitFace.” I love it! Conan certainly got it right. Everywhere you go, someone is talking about who they’re friends with on FaceBook, while someone else is twittering away on their BlackBerry, and someone else is recording something on their iPhone to then post to YouTube.

All great PR and Marketing tactics, to be sure, but too often companies are forgetting that’s exactly what they are - tactics. They’re not an answer in themselves, they’re not a strategy on their own. They’re pieces of the bigger puzzle, and each can’t stand on its own. Twitter by itself is not an effective strategy; for some companies, it may not even be a good tactic. I know - I may be the lone voice in the wind out here with that one, but it’s true. Each company must evaluate its strategy and the goals of their campaign to determine what tactics work best for them - old school strategy creation.

Some companies utilize a social media plan, while others incorporate social media tactics into their overarching plan. Again, depending on your goals, each system would work if done properly. However, I’m seeing a troubling triend with clients (and even some colleagues) where the opinion is that Twitter/FaceBook/YouTube, you name it, is the be all and end all for them. They come to me with that answer in mind, without first considering what their goals are and if, in fact, Twitter would really be the best way to achieve them.

So, a word of caution - social media tools are amazing, and I certainly put them into use when needed, but proceed with proper planning. YouTwitFace, to be sure!

Apple’s Mac Marketing

Conceptually, has there ever been a better ad campaign than the “Hi, I’m a Mac” series? Seriously. These ads are engaging, entertaining, and creative, while also being informative - subtly - about the brand and the brand image they want to convey. You leave each ad in this series with a clear picture of what a Mac can do, as opposed to the negatives of a PC - at least from Apple’s perspective.

Microsoft has attempted a rebuttal campaign, which on paper I’m sure looked pretty good; it even looks pretty good on air. However, the strength of the Mac ads overpowers everything.  To be able to reduce your brand essence down to a T-shirted guy, and use this same guy to illustrate each strength of your product, is illuminating.

Now, there’s been debate as to whether or not the Mac ads are entirely truthful, and they are obviously selling their product on the ‘coolness’ factor. Plus, I’d love to see a study on how these campaigns have affected sales for each brand - for a time, Mac’s share went up, but with the economic downturn, their sales have been declining (the speculation is that while Macs aren’t losing customers, people aren’t buying them right now due to their hefty price tag). But have these ads helped to boost Mac sales? Not sure. Regardless, this is marketing and advertising conception at its finest creatively.