Get To The Grapes

It’s that time of year when everyone tunes in to see one of the largest sporting events, or in my case, to watch the commercials. The Super Bowl is a marketers dream. In the age of DVR, it is the one time that consumers actually watch the commercials. We get to sit back, watch and most importantly, analyze. Was it creative? Did it capture my attention? Was it effective? Do I even know what the advertisement was for? And they paid how much for that 30 second spot?

This year, the recession is affecting the Super Bowl, just like it is affecting every other area of American life. NBC had trouble filling the available ad space during the Pittsburgh-Arizona game because most companies are too cash-poor to pay for the multi-million-dollar-per-minute fee. General Motors, FedEx, and several other companies have pulled their scheduled ads this year because they do not have the money to justify buying such expensive ad space.

Despite the economy, Doritos, Coca-Cola, Pepsi, and Monster.com, among others, will have advertisements during this year’s Super Bowl.

Case study after case study shows that brands that invest in marketing and advertising during recessionary times gain marketshare and grow exponentially once the market turns around (which it eventually will). With less noise in the marketplace, those that advertise gain share of voice and in turn, share of mind.

We’ll just have to tune in and see if Monster.com’s millions of dollars for 30 seconds is worth every penny.

In celebration of Macintosh’s 25th anniversary, here is their commercial that ran during the 1984 Super Bowl:

‘Tis the Season! Happy Holidays to all that enjoy the agency life!

The world of Social Media can be a bit overwhelming for someone just joining the Web 2.0 scene.  If you are new to the game, I highly recommend checking out the Common Craft “In Plain English” videos.  They are short, sweet and extremely easy to follow. In one stop, become an expert and learn more about blogs, social bookmarking and wikis.

For your first lesson in Social Media, start here:

Social Media In Plain English

Have you ever received an email that if printed out it would be two pages long? How motivated are you to read each and every word? If you’re like me, you want the meat and potatoes in the very first sentence. Give me what I want up front. Now imagine you are an editor from a top national newspaper and receive thousands of email pitches daily from PR professionals. If each one of those emails is 1-3 pages long, do you think the editor is going to read it? Probably not.

When pitching the media, it needs to be an appetizer not a buffet. Just enough to get the editor/reporter/producer interested and to see why the information is relevant to them (Key word: relevant).

The following is a guideline to a strategic pitch:

1. PRE-PITCH: Simply put – be prepared!

• Know who you are pitching. Google the name of the editor to find out what they have written about in the past and their specific writing style/tone.

• Start a relationship with the editor before a story is on the line. Reach out to them and position yourself and your clients as a resource for future articles.

2. PITCH: Short, concise and to the point.

• Open the pitch with a hook that is newsworthy. Provide information on why it is relevant to the editor’s story and why it is important to their readers.

• Support the opening with facts. 70% of the information you send to a reporter should be industry stats that are relevant to the reporters beat. i.e. links to case studies, industry research outside of the category, supporting statistics, etc.
• End with a call to action. Let the reporter know that you will be following up in a few days and avoid leaving it open-ended.

1. POST-PITCH: Follow-through but don’t be a stalker.

• Under no circumstances start your follow-up call with “Hi, my name is Jane and I’m following up to make sure you received the product information I sent to you last week.” This is a major pet peeve with media professionals and you’ll probably hear a ring tone with this approach.

• It is important to provide value every step of the way. Call with new information. For example, you can find a new fact or withhold a relevant fact from the original pitch and use this to start the conversation.

It is that simple but it takes time, thought and strategy to craft a perfect pitch. Bottom line, make it short and sweet and be sure your pitch is newsworthy, relevant and provides value.

Happy Pitching!

During this time of DVR and TiVo, consumers have the luxury of fast forwarding through commercials. Personally, I like to watch the commercials because hey, it’s what I do. However, because of this new technology, marketers are desperate to find new ways to promote their products.

The latest tactic I’ve seen to combat DVR? Recently, while watching The Family Guy on TBS, a commercial spot to promote “The Bill Engvall Show” aired during the middle of the episode. Engvall walks on the bottom of the screen, pauses “The Family Guy” with a remote, and talks about how great his show is before pressing play.

From a marketing perspective, I understand that you need to be creative in order to cut through the clutter of a world that is over saturated with ads. However, you need to walk a fine line between getting your message heard and being so annoying that your target audience will refuse to use the product…or watch the show in this instance.

Just my $.02

I recently attended a social media seminar in San Francisco and the speaker mentioned Second Life numerous times.  I must be behind the times because I didn’t know much about Second Life or how to leverage it from a marketing perspective.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to educate myself and the readers of this blog.  It is a fascinating concept:

First and foremost…

Dwight’ Second Life

According to Wikipedia (trust me, this is the shortest definition I could find), Second Life (abbreviated as SL) is an Internet-based 3D virtual world which came to international attention via mainstream news media in late 2006 and early 2007. A free downloadable program called the Second Life Viewer enables its users, called “Residents”, to interact with each other through representation of himself/herself (alter ego), providing an advanced level of a social network service combined with general aspects of a virtual universe. Residents can explore, meet other residents, socialize, participate in individual and group activities, and create and trade items (virtual property) and services with one another.

So how do you leverage this virtual world from a marketing perspective?

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In the old days, when you received poor customer service, you could do one of two things: Wait on hold for an hour to speak to someone in ‘Customer Care’ or just get over it because seriously, how much impact could one person have.

Now, in the days of Web 2.0, business is becoming personal again and the beauty of it is that anyone can have a voice and they are using it! Case in point, Comcast.

Comcast is notorious for long wait times, poor service and technicians that often do more damage than good. Well, Comcast customers couldn’t take it anymore and it finally sent them over the edge. With the use of Web 2.0, the customers started fighting back.

Through the use of YouTube, one customer posted a video of a Comcast technician that fell asleep at their house while on hold with the Comcast customer service department! Another gentleman started a Web site called Comcast Must Die that allowed customers to comment with their own personal Comcast nightmare.

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I recently saw the super-anti-hero movie Hancock this weekend and I have to say, it was pretty funny. To promote the movie in Europe, an interactive banner-ad game ran online where you get points by throwing whales back into the ocean(this is a scene from the movie). I thought this was a creative and effective way to use an online banner ad. Research has shown that if you can get your audience to interact with your product and/or ad, they are more likely to remember it and take action. It obviously caught my attention because I spent several minutes trying to accumulate points and then passed it along to those I thought might be interested. So here, I pass it along to you: Hancock Whale Toss.

Note: if you hit a boat, you lose points. In my opinion, it shows your target skills and you should get more points. Test it out and aim for the boats…it’s more entertaining that way.

With an abundance of billboards lined up and down the freeway, they all start looking the same. Until someone comes along and puts a creative spin on a traditional medium. Check it out: Billboard With Sun and Rising Water Level

I eat this stuff up so if you see a creative spin on something that has been around since the stone ages, send it my way! We’ll get it on the merlog.

This week I attended a press junket at the Disneyland theme park. The resort was opening a new attraction in Tomorrowland called the Innovations Dream Home and the exhibit featured one of Merlot’s clients, Eldorado Stone. As a marketing professional, it is always a treat to visit the world of Disney because it is fascinating to experience an environment driven by marketing. However, as a PR professional, I was eager to experience Disney’s PR style and expertise. A strong believer in the best practices approach, I wanted to see if they did things better or differently.

One of the Walt Disney mission values is “Fanatical attention to consistency and detail.” This event did not meet this mission. Maybe, I just had high expectations because 1). I always do and 2). IT’S DISNEY! For example, the day started at 10:00 a.m. with a self-guided tour in the air conditioned Innovations Dream Home. It ended outside at 1:30 p.m. in the 90 degree weather (mind you, we are all wearing suits) with a 45 minute presentation from a variety of sponsors, including the president of Disney. Doesn’t this seem backwards to you? The day should have started with the presentation in the morning (when the weather was comfortable) so that the sponsors could explain what the press was going to see when they toured the house. Instead, they let the press tour the house by themselves in the morning without any idea of what they were supposed to be observing and then made them sit outside in the sun, waiting for the presenters to begin (don’t even get me started on the presentation).

In the end, what I realized is that if you are a marketing giant like Disney, you just expect the media to write about you and don’t really stress over the details of their experience researching the story. Needless to say, from a PR perspective, I left the “Happiest Place on Earth” a little disappointed.

However, my colleague and I did try to catch a ride on Space Mountain before heading to the airport and the line had a three hour wait. Disney is obviously doing something right.