Advertising and Marketing Blog

Communicating for the Sake of Communicating

Posted on 08/25/2010, by Jenn McLean

My job is to be a good communicator. Through words and images and color and concept. As such, I should embrace all of the different ways I communicate with others, making sure nothing gets lost in translation or misunderstood or, God forbid, forgotten. And I’m not even talking about social media. I’m talking about the basics in a workplace between coworkers... emails, phone calls, yadda-yadda. In our office, we use a lovely program called “BaseCamp”... where everything we ever do or say is posted for all of us to have access (excess) to.

So on any given day, I respond to all sorts or things, sometimes more than once, while trying to do what it is I am sitting here trying to do, which is to... wait for it.... be a great communicator. All of this communicating is what it is... in our (physical and mind) spaces today, but I’m always looking for ways to lessen the amount of communicating I do so I can be better and more efficient at communicating... on my client’s behalf.

I know I have a lot of choir members out there saying “Amen, sister!” while others of you are probably thinking “Get over it.” I know we would all be lost without our unlimited ways we keep in touch, so I do see the value. But I just marvel some days when I look at actual working hours I have billed and wonder where the heck my day went.

Right?

I am reminded (again) of my mentor and boss, John, who once told me he wanted me to set my computer up to “auto-boot” in the morning before I got in, all in an effort to save those precious few minutes in order to make the morning that much more efficient for time to work and focus.

Ah, focus!

I see now, as a business partner, exactly where he was coming from. How he knew in his infinite wisdom how easily we creatives can be distracted, when we should be sitting down with our coffee with gobs of ideas ready to create.

So, a little advice before I go.

For those of us who have more than one hat to wear at our jobs, resulting in many emails that require our attention and response, here are some things I have learned to do in order to make my masses of emails remain relevant and meaningful to me and to those I communicate with:

1. Take the time required to read and absorb your emails, particularly the ones that require YOUR feedback and direction. To skim them will only cause you to miss something and lengthen that email thread when something required of you comes up missing.

2. If there’s more than one email about the same topic, read them all and THEN combine your responses into one concise email, eliminating the annoying snippets that end up getting sent over the course of an hour...as you think of them. It only confuses and frustrates everyone on the receiving end...and makes you look like a hot mess (say it isn’t so!!!!). So get it all in that first email: questions you have, things requiring clarification, changes to deadlines, needs from the client, next steps for you from here, etc. The more you can close the loop on any one subject the less you have to endure back and forth – and the more time you’ll have left to communicate some more!

3. Context is key. If you are writing with your officemate about the hottest new nail colors and then suddenly decide to email her about something related to a job you are both working on, change the subject line to reflect that! Seems obvious, right? Well, we all do it and that’s how that really important shipping address you emailed to her ended up getting lost or overlooked.

Thanks for listening (I feel better now). And, lest I get accused of communicating for the sake of communicating, I’ll get back to communicating (for the sake of billing), and you can get back to whatever it is you’re supposed to be doing...

Signing off....for now, at least.

“jenn mac” 

Marketing Analytics are Fun

Posted on 08/18/2010, by Dan Davie

Now don’t get me wrong, I love a well designed ad or campaign just like everyone else. I get caught up in the emotion of rocking headlines, inspiring visuals and body copy that tugs at my heartstrings. Recently, I was completely inspired by the campaign that Nike did for the World Cup (below).

However, as we’re going through our day-to-day providing strategic marketing services to our clients, I also get really excited to dive into the analytics of HOW the campaigns we build are actually doing the job we design and architect them to do. Marketing analytics play a huge role in the success of any marketing campaign. Right now we’re not talking about some of the core operational metrics we deal with everyday like conversions, close rates, customer lifetime value, etc. Here are five of my current online faves we use in analyzing the success of our marketing campaigns.

Open/Click Through Rates

The bread and butter analytic measurement for e-mail campaigns. Just knowing these two things can give you tremendous insight into the value of your e-mail marketing campaign. Is the subject line engaging enough for our prospect list to open the e-mail and see what’s inside? One of our best read e-mails carried the subject line, “a left brain and right brain walk into a bar.” Then once they’re in are they clicking on the link(s) that we want them to?

Shares/Retweets

With social media waging war for their piece of marketing budgets – and with programs being executed only sparingly well – how do we provide vision to marketing executives that social efforts are working? One great way to do that is shares/retweet. It’s surprising simple from a back end perspective and will help frame the discussion about how a particular campaign is growing a client’s community. And really in this world isn’t share the new “convert” anyway? Want to broaden your message, extend your reach and influence residents on a peer-to-peer level? Click to share.

Capture Forms/Landing Pages

The Robin to an e-mail marketing campaign’s Batman. Get people to click through to a landing page and you’re half way home. Those folks are ready for more detailed sales information and they’re open to the next conversation – the capture form. Think carefully here and don’t get too greedy. What information do you really need to take the next step? E-mail address, Twitter handle, name and company? Don’t try to get it all at once, you’ll scare off more people than you convert . . . and give yourself more reason to continue to nurture those leads.

Non-Branded Organic Traffic

Warning, I’m about to get my SEO geek on. It’s great that customers and prospects can remember and type in the web address. It’s the rest of the world that intrigues me. How we can keep traffic growing among those visitors who don’t know a site well enough to type in the address directly? To have a site come up in search results, etc. Those are new and potentially very valuable visitors. By the same token, for the most part we ignore traffic stats for the home page. Of course people come to the home page more than anything else. I’m far more interested in what inside pages are getting the most traffic. Are they the pages we expected with our architecture and design? If not, what’s missing?

Traffic Spikes

What makes site traffic go wild? Blog posts, and e-mail distributions? Does traffic spike higher when the post or e-mail is paired with social media outreach? How long does the bump last from a single post/distribution? And how can we make that peek last as long as possible? We love to look at this data to help determine the types of content to focus on for a particular audience. Take this in comparison with overall weekly traffic and you can come to some good conclusions on not only effective subject matter but days of the week people are most likely to be on your site anyway. Obviously a tool like Google Analytics is a must have.

Data is the best friend of successful marketing campaigns. What are some of your favorite metrics for analyzing he success of marketing campaigns? Let us know – it’s all gravy.

IdeaField Coworking

Posted on 07/22/2010, by Gavin Davie

Well it has been a whirlwind of a last month or two between launching the anti-litter campaign in Cincinnati and moving into our new space, we wanted to spend a moment and speak to all the freelancers, creatives and entrepreneurs in the community. In tandem with the launch of the new DMC space we have also relocated (co-located?) IdeaField with us as well! For those of you new to the idea of coworking here is some good info to bring you up to speed on the concept.

That being said you can currently check out the happenings, membership rates, and free days at IdeaField.org. We are planning to have a brand spanking new site up in the very near future (since Ning went rogue) so be sure to check back often. And for those who don’t feel like link clicking here is the ten second run down: free wifi and coffee, desk space and all the fresh air you can breathe. Fridays and your first time in are always free, so swing by check out the new space and have a steaming hot cup o’ coworking.

Oh, and we're at 1911 19th St. N. in Ybor City.

-g.d.

Littering Is Wrong Too

Posted on 07/15/2010, by Dan Davie

We are excited to announce the launch of a pilot anti-litter campaign in Cincinnati, OH. Below we have included the official press release!

‘WHAT IS AS WRONG AS LITTERING?’

Keep America Beautiful and Hill & Knowlton
Launch New Litter Prevention Campaign

New York, NY — Litterers beware! Keep America Beautiful (KAB), in partnership with Keep Cincinnati Beautiful (KCB), is launching a new litter prevention education campaign that calls attention to the inappropriate act of littering and the thoughtlessness of offenders. The campaign, “Littering is Wrong Too” was developed by Hill & Knowlton (www.hillandknowlton.com) and creative partner, DAVIEMCLEAN (www.daviemclean.com).  It allows everyone to get involved in a unique way by writing their own ads on the campaign Website, www.LitteringIsWrongToo.org. The campaign links littering with other wrongdoings like “networking at a funeral” or “breaking up on Valentine’s Day,” while also defining the personality of the litterer as a socially unaccepted jerk.

Geared at young adults, who are found to be most likely to litter, the campaign entertains in order to get people talking. The ultimate goal is to change perceptions of those who litter and the act of littering, to induce a change in behavior and lead to a cleaner, more beautiful city.

The campaign kicked off July 15 in Cincinnati, where a three month pilot is being conducted. The goal is for the campaign to be rolled out nationally early next year. KAB is currently seeking sponsors for the national effort. In the meantime, Cincinnati residents will see and hear a lot about the problem of litter in the coming months.

“Sadly, many still don’t view litter as a problem,” said Matthew McKenna, President and Chief Executive Officer of Keep America Beautiful, Inc. “They don’t understand that litter has a real and serious economic impact on a community, in addition to the environmental fallout. For example, a recent KAB study found that litter in a community can decrease property values by seven percent. We’re hoping to engage people through this campaign and in that process, get them to recognize that littering is a problem, but a preventable one.”

The Cincinnati pilot will feature ads on billboards, posters at popular bars and restaurants, online, city events and the radio. In addition to concerts and outdoor events, residents will be exposed to the campaign at select professional baseball and football games as well as local college sporting events, where they will have an opportunity to write their own “wrongs” and showcase them in photos and videos that will be featured and voted upon on the campaign Website, www.LitteringisWrongToo.org.

Residents can “write their wrong” online, adding their own creativity to the campaign.  Throughout the pilot period, residents can compete for the “wrongest wrong” with prizes being awarded throughout the time period and a grand prize winner announced upon completion of the campaign. Cincinnatians are encouraged to share their wrongs, photos and videos with friends and family through their social networks, helping generate more buzz for the problem of litter while engaging residents in a humorous way.

“We designed this campaign to be as engaging as possible,” said Lena Davie, vice president, Hill & Knowlton. “Litter is not something people think about every day, so we knew that we had to make the campaign fun, and different, to catch their attention, and hopefully get them talking.  We playfully put litter on their radar and in doing so remind them that it is still a problem, and that it’s socially unacceptable.”

Hill & Knowlton has been working with Keep America Beautiful since the beginning of 2009 on recycling as well as litter prevention issues.

ABOUT KEEP AMERICA BEAUTIFUL
Keep America Beautiful, Inc., established in 1953, is the nation's largest volunteer-based community action and education organization. With a network of over 1,200 affiliates and participating organizations, Keep America Beautiful forms public-private partnerships and programs that engage individuals to take greater responsibility for improving their community's environment. To learn more, visit www.kab.org.

ABOUT HILL & KNOWLTON

Hill & Knowlton, Inc. is a leading international communications consultancy, providing services to local, multinational and global clients. The firm is headquartered in New York, with 79 offices in 44 countries, as well as an extensive associate network. In Florida, the firm has offices in Tallahassee, Tampa and Miami. The agency is part of WPP, one of the world's largest communications services groups.