Strategy
Advertising quotes to live by.
"If the client won't buy good work--try great."
I didn't suggest this first. One of my bosses at DDB said it to me many years ago. I don't know if it was original to him. (John Noble. A funny, smart, irreverent man who said lots of good stuff. May he rest in peace.) It may have come from Bill Bernbach (May he rest in peace.) who was infinitely quotable and said many things worthy of stitching on a pillow or tattooing on your arm.
Creative social marketing example #20: United Nations Campaign.
Sometimes creative not only breaks through the clutter but breaks new ground in what is possible. It’s pretty mind-blowing to imagine a poster campaign that talks. This is truly interactive at it’s best. The UN Voices Project combines cutting edge mobile phone and image recognition technologies. The campaign is used to put out the message of those who would otherwise go unheard. People around Sydney were encouraged to take a mobile phone photo of the persons mouth and sent it as a picture text to the number on the poster. The sender then receives a return phone call with a pre-recorded message from the person they have photographed. The call to action is embedded in the phone message where people are then encouraged to leave their own comments through the UN website. I applaud the creatives that came up with this idea and the technologists that made it happen. It is inspires the rest of us to push ourselves to create new ways of communicating our messages. Have you seen any other groundbreaking examples of creative that re-invent the way we engage? Please share if you do!
This blog post is #20 in the series, 21 creative social marketing examples.
Watch out for fake websites this holiday season.
This seemed appropriate for the holiday season, because as we all know, online scams become much more prevalent this time of year. We've all received bogus emails that lead to fake websites, where thieves try to phish for your credit card number, social security number, or log-in information to other websites. Well this year you could be scammed just by searching for a reputable company in your favorite search engine.
A recent experiment by a security researcher proved that he could fool the search engines into believing that his bogus bank website was legit and was even able to outrank the real banks website. His fake website was creditunionofsc.org, and the real bank's url is cusocal.org. Within a year and a half, his website ranked #1 in Bing, #2 in Yahoo, and while Google wasn't as easily deceived they still ranked it on page 6. His fake website is no longer live and now redirects to the official bank's website. While this was done to prove a point, it raises some interesting issues:
- First of all, make sure that you are visiting the correct website. Especially when it requires you to log in, make an online purchase, enter your social security number or other personal information. If you are not sure, you can visit http://www.whois.com to verify the owner of the domain name.
- It's possible that any website that uses proper SEO techniques can top the search engine rankings.
- If I were a customer of this bank, I would feel safer if they had considered a more strategic response. They vowed to purchase more domain names similar to their own to protect themselves. Shouldn't they instead be monitoring search engines and implementing safeguards to prevent this from happening again? Or perhaps working to improve the search engine ranking of their own website?
They could learn lessons from eBay and PayPal, who have been plagued by this problem for years. Reporting mechanisms have been added to their own sites to identify deceptive websites. Email campaigns have been launched to raise awareness of the issue, in addition to information put online to educate customers.
Have a safe and happy holiday!
Building a brand? Listen to your consumer, closely.
I ran by this spot while I was reading one of my favorite marketing blogs, written by Keith Jennings.
Not only is it hilarious, but it serves as a healthy reminder to anyone or any company trying to build a brand or a meaningful customer relationship. Reminder - you don’t want to be the guy looking at your own reflection. Bottom line, your marketing efforts won’t work if you don’t know what your consumer wants, needs, feels, desires. How do you figure that out? Do your research. The more you know, the better your outcomes are going to be. Don't have the budget in this tough economy? Do your own mini focus groups. Just don't go in blind.
Have you seen any advertising recently that you feel just hit the nail on the head? That just proved the company was really listening and understood what their target was saying? Share it with us.
Creative social marketing example #18: Michigan Department of Community Health.
Okay, I cannot do a blog series on creative social marketing without giving some props to our client, the Michigan Department of Community Health. For over 20 years, we’ve been partners in creating some of the most memorable ad campaigns in the state. One of our agency favorites, is “I smoke when I’m coloring.” Research showed the best way to get adults to quit smoking was to do it through their kids. This campaign swept award shows, lit up the quit line call center and was so successful other states were calling in for it. We even heard that the commercial inspired Whoopi Goldberg to quit smoking. Leo Burnett once said, “There is no such thing as a great advertising agency. There are, however, a few great clients.” MDCH is a great one (thanks for being great partners, guys), and we’re not blowing smoke.
This blog post is #18 in the series, 21 creative social marketing examples.
Creative social marketing example #17: Thinkb4youspeak.
Homophobics are still in the closet. Even though most of us have gay friends, relatives, co-workers or at the very least have watched “Will & Grace”, homophobia is still hiding out there. And sometimes, it comes out, passive-aggressively, like when teenagers say phrases like “That’s so gay.” This is a noteworthy campaign by the AdCouncil to encourage people to thinkb4youspeak. While the TV featured Wanda Sykes and Hillary Duff, strange bedfellows for this in my opinion, my favorite is the one with the non-celeb below. The website also has many different features like e-card sharing, a pledge, a word origin game, how to get involved and ways to share your stories and videos. But I am hoping they add more depth as the e-card and games are pretty simplistic and could be more interesting.
Are you guilty of ever saying “That’s so gay?” If so, out yourself here. Do you think that makes you homophobic or just plain careless and prone to cheesy pop vernacular? This blog post is #17 in the series, 21 creative social marketing examples.
Creative social marketing example #16: Stop Land Mines.
This PSA is so powerful, I am going to let it speak for itself. Maybe we all would care more about the land mine problems in other countries, if it were in our backyard.
This blog post is #16 in the series, 21 creative social marketing examples.
Creative social marketing example #15: obesity prevention.
Despite the 40 billion dollars poured into the diet industry, 2 out of 3 Americans are clinically obese. I, myself, have poured a big chunk of change into this industry. And while I adore my nutritionist, Gail Posner, and the progress we’ve made over the years, it is a daily battle of wills. Like “Will I put myself first and walk today?” or “Will I love myself enough to say no to that cookie calling my name?” Which is why I love some of the work the AdCouncil has done for the U.S. Department of Health & Human Services’ Obesity Prevention Campaign. While creative like “Love Handles” and “Double Chin” are very funny and attention-getting, they don’t really inspire me as much as the posters like the one below. I can relate to these people with spare tires and the copy that follows their curves to demonstrate how by taking small steps you can become smaller. These give me hope. These encourage me to keep trying. I just joined my old gym again this weekend. Here’s hoping I will use it and lose it. If you have any small steps to get healthier that have worked for you, please share them…
This blog post is #15 in the series, 21 creative social marketing examples.
Creative social marketing example #13: Parkinsons Society Canada.
Aging gets under my skin. Already, at just over 40, my knees creak, my hands get stiff, and I have glimpses of how my body will betray me. Or maybe I have betrayed it. In any case, I cannot imagine how painful it would be to experience the kind of physical betrayal that comes with Parkinsons Disease. One of my best friend’s dad had it. It was painful for her to watch Parkinsons steal him bit by bit away from her. Most of us take for granted that if we want something like a pen, we reach for it and get it. We can’t understand a degenerative disease that makes simple tasks like this so extremely difficult, one that interrupts the circuits between our brains and our bodies. This awareness campaign for the Parkinsons Society of Canada does an excellent job of visualizing for us what happens when a body betrays it’s owner with this disease.
This blog post is #13 in the series, 21 creative social marketing examples.
Establish yourself as the healthcare marketing expert.
My fiancé and I recently started re-drywalling our house. While I trust that he can tear down walls, and lift heavy things, I didn’t feel as confident about his mudding, taping, and actual installation skills. After a long debate he admitted that someone trained and seasoned would be better at doing the job. While it hurt his ego a little bit ... the end result spoke for itself.
It’s funny how much the story relates to the lives of healthcare marketers across the world. Many of you deal with a similar issue day-to-day with your internal audiences. Too many of them think they can do your job. I'm sure many of you have received a call from a Dr. saying he didn't like your recent marketing campaign. And this pretty much sums up the feelings on that ....
So, how do you prove to them that you are the expert and that they can allow you to do what you do best? Here are a few ways that may help guide you:
- Be confident. This is your turf. You have been doing this for x amount of years. You went to school for this. You’ve launched x amount of campaigns that have resulted in a great ROI. Think of it this way, would you trust a doctor that sounded like he was second-guessing his capabilities?
- Build a sound strategy. We all know a campaign won’t work if you don’t have a smart, thought through strategy with specific outcomes stated. And remember, no one can argue the right strategy.
- Get buy-in. Explain your strategy to those that matter and get their buy-in before you develop a campaign. Meet with them, gather their input and use it to help strengthen your position.
- Remind them who the target audience is. Sometimes it's hard for them to remember that they are not the target audience. It always helps to verbally tell them to take off your “Doctor hat,” and think like the target audience. Then have them ask themselves – does it connect with me, does it breakthrough to me, will it make me take action? After they do that exercise, they tend to get it.
- Tout your successes. If a Doctor didn’t talk about her outcomes, how would anyone know she's a leader in her field? Make sure you shout your positive results from the rooftop. Let them know when your marketing campaign successfully increased web traffic, brand awareness, calls to the call center, etc.
Do you have any more hints? I would love to hear what you have done to help establish yourself and your team as the marketing experts within your healthcare organization.
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