Tag: collected materials

Collect and Analyze Materials: Signs, Billboards, and Banners

For my last post about collected materials I’ve chosen some unusual marketing materials:

When I think of my favorite sign I automatically think of Portland’s famous white stag sign over the Burnside Bridge. A giant neon sign for a city is not what you usually think of for marketing, but I would argue that this sign has been a great marketing tool for Portland. When people think of the Portland sky line they think of this sign. This image represents Portland. The “old town” part of the sign is often replaced with “made in Oregon” and stamped on products. This sign has become iconic to Portland. If an organization could recreate this kind of branding, that would definitely be a marketing success.

And I shall end this logbook an a comedic note. This is a simple sign but you would be amazed how many shares it has on the internet. Years after I first saw this sign, I still see it posted to Facebook once and a while. We should never underestimate the impact of comedy, even with a sign. I used a picture of this sign to advertise the Whiskey Bike Ride for Pedalpalooza (yes there is such a thing: Portland) on my old blog and that post had more hits than most. I quickly learned when running a blog that comedy is what people repost, what people remember. Marketers should remember this when they design signs, billboards, banners or any marketing material.

Collect and Analyze Materials: Social Media Tools

I’ve said this before and I’ll say it again, HootSuite has saved my life. Here is a screenshot of my HootSuite account.

As you can see I have many feeds. I have two personal twitters and the ELAN twitter, plus Facebook. As the Social Media Chair for ELAN, it is very important that I keep these separate. It is easy to tweet on the wrong account and it can get frustrating managing multiple twitters, which is the reason I originally got HootSuite. What I didn’t realize is that HootSuite would allow me to be so much better at Twitter!

Essentially, HootSuite allows you to put the people you are following into categories that are easier to search than one long feed. Then you can actually filter theses categories by keywords. I use this function to look for jobs and internships, which I post to the ELAN twitter every other day at 8pm. I have my feeds sorted by type of connection: Emerging Leaders Network, Eugene Related News, Arts Organizations and Arts & Administration News. This helps me scan each feed to find relevant information to re-tweet for ELAN’s twitter.

Though the feature that has saved my life is the ability to schedule tweets. Each time you tweet, you can choose to schedule it anytime of the day. This way I can spend 30 minutes on Twitter in the morning, but it looks like I’m tweeting all day. This has saved me so much time and it has increased traffic for ELAN’s twitter! People are starting to notice ELAN more often and we even showed up in some twitter arts news blogs! Thanks HootSuite! One day, I want to take their certificate program to learn more about how to use this software better.

Collect and Analyze Materials: Websites

Since we are about to go the Oregon Shakespeare Festival (OSF) and I am a long time fan, I decided to look at their website:

http://www.osfashland.org/

OSF has very loyal customers (I’m one of them). People come year and after year, plan vacations around seeing their plays and pay for expensive memberships. I think this is more based on the format of their festival than their marketing, but since so many people are buying their tickets in advance from far away, the navigability of their website is very important.

Their website is pretty confusing, but it is easy to get to the plays. However, since the plays are offered at different times, it can be difficult to plan your vacation. However, you can submit the dates of your vacation and they will tell you which plays are available. Or you can go to a certain play and pick the date to see if it’s available. I think the way OSF handles dynamic seating is smart. They have 4 different categories (A+ to C) and when you go to buy tickets it show you how many tickets are left in each category. It also tells you the comparison to price if you were a member. I’ve never been able to afford a membership, so I always have to buy tickets early enough to get the C price. And the great thing about the cheap tickets is that there is no bad seat in their theaters. So, there isn’t a big risk to buying the C ticket. This is why it’s so important for them to have this information on their website.

Though I think the most important thing about OSF’s website is that they have to have the full schedule for the year up and ready since people are planning far advance for their vacations. This way people can search what plays are happening a week in October or download a PDF of the full schedule. And people who come every year know that you have to buy your tickets well in advance. Last year, we waited till 2 months before and we got the last 3 tickets for many plays. Obviously OSF is doing well.

I impart some of this prosperity to their graphic designer though. I always love their posters and they make you want to see plays you’ve never heard of. I’m super excited for the trip next weekend!!

Collect and Analyze Materials: Posters

When I tried to think of advertising posters that I consider successful, the first one that came to mind was the posters for the movie Forgetting Sarah Marshall:

May not be the first poster to come to most people’s minds, but it had an impact on me. I remember walking around San Francisco and seeing these posters everywhere. And then I ended up discussing them: What did they mean? What were they for? Have you seen that poster? This could have been a bad marketing campaign since it was so mysterious, but I think the sheer amount of them made me actually look them up. I then discovered it was a movie and that it looked like it was going to be amazing. I do know these posters didn’t have the best reaction from all audiences. Some people were offended by them, some didn’t understand them, but the movie was a big hit. And now that I’ve seen and love the movie, I remember these posters fondly and the time I spent discussing them.

Another technique I think works for posters is making them collectible. I used to be apart of the San Jose Bike Party: 1000s of people joining up for one epic bike ride once a month and their posters used to be just as epic:

These posters were actually made by a local music legend Benjamin Henderson, which gave them an added prestige, but look at them: they are great pieces of art, even hand colored! Then they sell them as limited edition artwork! I bet they made good money on these. I mean there are literally around 2,000 people who go on these rides and a unique poster could be a great way to remember such a great event. I sure wish I had one of these posters. Bike partay!

And speaking of posters made by the right people. Check out this poster made by Carson Ellis, famous animator and resident of Portland:

Talk about leveraging a name for a community event! Carson Ellis is known throughout the animating world. She’s married to the lead singer of the Decemberists and they’re a well known Portland couple. They were selling these posters at the event and let me tell you: they were popular! I almost bought one mostly because I love the St. Johns Bridge, but I didn’t know it was designed by Carson Ellis till afterwards. They should have been broadcasting that like mad. I definitely would have bought one if I had known that.

Collect and Analyze Materials: Examples of TV/Radio commercials and Public Service Announcements

So, when I think of my favorite commercials, I immediately think of the Old Spice commercials with Isaiah Mustafa and I don’t believe I am alone.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owGykVbfgUE[/youtube]

This youtube video alone has 44 million views (already generating some revenue for Old Spice). When the first commercial came out, I remember everyone talking about it. It was the definition of going viral. And then they came out with the 2nd commercial, which was also an instant success. These commercials rock-stared Mustafa into instant stardom and even got him his first big movie deal. Then Old Spice launched a series of short videos in which Mustafa answered questions submitted through the internet. I remember some guy even had Mustafa propose to his girlfriend. Needless to say, these commercials were a marketing success. Everyone was talking about them and in my opinion, you would have to have no sense of humor not to enjoy them. But, then I heard a rumor that the commercials didn’t actually have big effect on Old Spice’s profit, so I investigated:

“The Old Spice campaign is considered a huge social media win, one that hundreds of social media experts have praised, but here’s where the story takes a bit of a surprising turn. I was sure that Old Spice planned to use the information it has on its almost 120,000 Twitter followers to start engaging with each and every one of them on a personal, meaningful level… As of September 2010, almost two months after Old Spice ambushed Twitter, the Old Spice account has tweeted only twenty-three times, and not one of the tweets talks or interacts with an actual person or user of the brand. Ad Age published an article that begins “Old Spice Fades Into History”… To me, it looks like Old Spice is a sprinter stuck in a traditional marketing mind-set, not a marathon runner living in the Thank You Economy. – Gary Vaynerchuk, March 2011, Fast Company: http://bit.ly/PD6lZm

So, while the rumor I heard was wrong: Old Spice sales rose by 107% after the 2nd commercial, they did not fully capitalize on their new-found internet glory. They had done everything right, but then forgot to maintain their fandom. According to Vaynerchuk, this lack of attention sends the message to consumers that:

“They’re glad that I, and thousands of others, spent our money with them, and now they’re just going to sit back on their laurels, enjoy the spike in revenue, and move on to a new campaign.” Old Spice may have had a short success, but they did not build a lasting relationship with their customers that would spark loyalty.

 

So, I don’t have a good example of a public service announcement, but I do have a great example of radio marketing: Radiolab.

All of Radiolab’s credits are either read by their listeners or people they interview. This tactic not only provides an opportunity for listeners to be involved in the show and actually hear their voice on the radio, but also keeps people listening during the commercials. It is true that they don’t let everyone read the credits, but it’s great way to build excitement over something that people usually wouldn’t care about. I think this would be an interesting model for a local public radio station to use. The station could post the PSAs on their website and people could call in and record their reading of the PSAs over a voicemail. Then people would listen for the PSAs in hopes of hearing themselves on the radio! Plus, it would save work for the station. I say, the more people are involved, the more they are invested.