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By Linda F. Jarrett
Companies preparing to launch a new product or concept have
shelved the old press kit and turned to the Internet via websites,
blogs, and pod casts, to name but a few methods.
In other words, it’s not your mother’s ad campaign anymore.
Commerce Magazine asked six area marketing firms how
they viewed the new advertising trends and how they are adapting
and measuring their success.
What Are You Seeing in Marketing Trends?
Momentum President Bill Schmidt says he has seen “explosive
growth” in the area of digital technology, giving as an example
the flat screens touting specials in grocery stores. These screens
show short, 90-second commercials designed to interest the consumer
and direct them to the product.
“When a consumer is in Wal-Mart,” Schmidt says, “they don’t
want a commercial on Verizon. They want to know the value of
the product and what it means to be in the shopping experience.
We’ll run a short commercial on macaroni and cheese and what
you can do tonight to fix it for dinner.
“You can couple that with a recipe, and tell the shopper there’s
a special in the meat department on ground beef for hamburger
patties, then a special in the produce section on green beans,”
Schmidt says. “Deliver that in a recipe card format and sales
go right through the roof, and the retailers can change what
they’re featuring each day.”
Another trend arriving soon at a grocery store near you is a
concept called “Catalina Couponing,” Schmidt says.
These colorful coupons are the brainchild of Catalina Marketing
Corp., the company responsible for most coupons issued at checkout
counters
“Grocery shoppers know that when they get their receipt, they
also get several coupons,” he says. “Soon that machine will
be put under the flat screens in the produce and meat departments.
If consumers like what they see being shown on the screen, they
can push a button and get the recipe, plus coupons for the ingredients.
A more advanced technology is afoot in Asia, Schmidt says, where
“they don’t have multiple cell carriers. You can take a picture
of the bar code with your cell phone, and it will feed to your
phone screen, and then tell you everything about that product
and its manufacturer.”
So, Schmidt explains that if a consumer is interested about
where a certain manufacture stands on the green issue, “you
can scroll down and you will get all the documentation of that
company’s profile.”
He adds that this works overseas where there are not multiple
carriers as in the United States.
What Are You Doing that is Different
from 10 Years Ago?
Mark Rutter, CEO and President of Group 360, says more sophisticated
ways have evolved to capture the customer. “In the old world,
there were only a few ways and those were traditional print
advertising and out-of-home media like billboards. Now we have
many different forms for in store marketing from floor graphics
to flat screen televisions.”
Messages on shopping carts are another new trend to get the
consumer’s attention.
“If you go upstream more into some of the newer technology,”
he says, “there are a variety of things that I call event marketing
which is much more powerful than it used to be.”
Consumers watching their favorite event on television, be it
the NFL, NASCAR, or NBA, will see all types of marketing messages
targeted to their interests.
“Cadillac and Mercedes are advertised on the Golf Channel since
golfers tend to fall under that category,” Rutter says. “Larger
masses would be tuned to the NFL or NASCAR where messages are
different.”
Millennium President Barb Pierce says changing demographics,
the evolution of the on-line media world and 24/7 mass media
is transforming business and the marketing communications world
along with the public relations, advertising and marketing firms
that support them.
“We are always looking at the online component,” Pierce says.
“We did a news release for a not-for-profit the other day, and,
typically, you would send a release with a photo, but the first
thing the board chair said was that he wanted an e-blast that
he could send to all his stakeholders.”
The web has “leveled the playing field,” she says. “A small
company with one product can compete with a huge conglomerate
with 5,000 products. On the web, they are equal. You can have
a huge web presence and not have a building. You can be someone
out there in cyberspace with a virtual storefront, no factory
and jobbing out your production.”
Blogs infiltrate every aspect of the Internet, and companies
are using these to their advantage, even to the point of hiring
people to populate these blogs.
“We have some strategic partners with whom we set up blogs,”
Pierce says.
“Businesses are seeing an active online discussion with customers
and suppliers, and want to be thoroughly engaged with them.”
Yet another tool is the pod cast, which Millennium has done
for their customers.
“We’ve done the RSS (Really Simple Syndication),” Pierce says.
“If you sign up and say you want to get information on a certain
subject, put in a key word and that information is fed to you.”
The day of the bulky press kit has gone the way of the LP.
“People don’t want you to mail them a big fat four color press
kit,” Pierce says. “They want to be able to pull all their background
produce specs, high res photos, all of that online. I feel that
the better the information that you can post online, the better
your story outcome.”
What Has Worked Best for You?
Marie Casey, president of Casey Communications, says that as
part of their marketing communications, they have expanded their
services into history and heritage.
“There was a survey that said that more than half of workers
don’t know their company’s mission statement, that nearly 85
percent don’t consider it fundamental to their work, and almost
half of the employees don’t feel connected to their employers,”
Casey says.
It makes sense that the closer employees feel with their company,
the more productive they will be. Casey Communications have
seized upon this opportunity to foster this closeness.
“I think it’s fascinating that there’s a great need for human
connection and the age-old practice of storytelling,” Casey
says. “We find that companies are not so different from families.
Work within this realm includes historical research and marketing
programs that tie in with a company’s history.”
To do this, Casey Communications collects stories that companies
can use on their website, in their recruitment materials, in
their showroom displays, videos, DVDs and direct mail.
The company produced a 100-page book for Schnuck’s Stores for
their 50th anniversary, plus a training video containing highlights
from the book. They also produced similar material for Peabody
Coal’s 100th anniversary, and a video for Sachs Properties 40th
anniversary.
“It’s a joy to do this when company leaders and long-time employees
take the time to reflect on what they have done,” Casey says.
“It’s so enlightening and inspiring.”
FUSE Inc. uses a variety of methods to deliver their message.
“We try to be very strategic in weaving Internet marketing with
all the other viable mediums like print, radio and television
instead of approaching it as an either/or recommendation,” says
President Clifford Franklin.
Using direct mail as an example, Franklin says if a client asks
for a direct mail piece, they will see if there is a more efficient
way to communicate their point with the consumers. “We may look
at doing some streaming video that, while it won’t be targeted
directly to a household, but rather a particular demographic.”
FUSE also puts pod casts on a third party site that, when clicked
on, will direct viewers to the client website.
“We let the consumer see the advertisements that will drive
them back to the client site,” Franklin says. “If we put viral
video on ESPN.com, viewers will see that viral feed.”
When determining client needs, Franklin says it’s important
to understand what the three to four year objective is. “We
try not to be formulaic. We sit down and assess what might be
the best methodology. Some companies are better at SEO (search
engine optimization) and some companies are better at streaming
media, doing live events, so we’ll talk to some of those outside
sources as well to come up with the best solution for our client.”
Mark Manitoban, president and CEO of NSI, says the change is
“really with consumers who are more Internet-focused than they
are into broadcast television. Traditional broadcast TV or radio
tends to grow at three to four percent a year where interactive
marketing grows at 25 to 30 percent.
“We were early doctors of technology and alternative marketing
efforts,” he says. “As the industry moved in that direction,
it was very beneficial for our growth.”
One of NSI’s focuses is providing online communication and marketing
tools for distribution partners of major manufacturers. In the
past, dealers would get a six-to eight-inch binder with ad selects
and line art. When a new model was introduced, they would get
new selects, pull out the old and put in the new.
“Now, when models change, we put artwork on the site and present
all of that information over web portals,” Manitoban says.
“We also do search engine optimization,” he says. “We all know
that the likelihood of getting a hit is your standing on the
page, and that’s a business that hardly existed five years ago.”
NSI is also using text messaging and in store marketing methods
such as the flat screens similar to those in the grocery stores.
“The automotive parts and sales department can use text messaging
to tell car owners when their car is ready,” Manitoban says.
“The digital photo frames can be on the finance officer’s desk,
and while you’re filling out the papers, the frames provide
information on extended warranties.”
Methods of reaching clients continue to be honed each day.
Manitoban says, “I heard Jack Welch say at a conference that
it will take 10 years for the dust to settle with all the upheaval
through the change in media associated with advertising and
marketing. I don’t know if it will ever settle down.”
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Client’s Perspective
Eric Gutberlet, director of marketing and public relations
for accounting and business consulting firm RubinBrown,
and client of Millennium Inc., says that maintaining a
relationship with clients through “snail mail” has been
challenging.
In order to keep up with these relationships, the company
has revamped their website and made it more interactive
through surveys and methods of education.
“To build that relationship,” Gutberlet says, “we try
to create a community on the website by membership in
what we call a resource center which gives members access
to all kinds of information whether they are in real estate
area or tax information. We also use the site to highlight
where our partners are going to be speaking at different
engagements across the country.”
Gutberlet
says they can tract the ROI (return on investment) through
individual feedback, traffic counts and the flow within
the website. “We gather that information on what pages
are most viewed and try to make an assumption.”
Casey Communications forwarded PRIDE St. Louis, the nation’s
first voluntary construction labor-management organization,
by creating a CD, “The Prevailing Wage: Fueling Missouri’s
Economic Engine.” The independent study, done by the Economics
Department at the University of Missouri at Kansas City,
has been an invaluable tool for the organization according
to Executive Director Jim LaMantia.
“When you have this audiovisual as a tool to use, it’s
better than any kind of letter,” he says. “You just can’t
make presentations all over the state and we’ve been very
successful with the CD.”
PRIDE has sent the CD all over the country, and LaMantia
says he has received positive comments from both coasts.
“I got a call from the assistant to the mayor of San Francisco,”
he says. “His comment was ‘Everyone likes to think everything
either begins or ends on the west or east coast, but we
could take a lesson from you in the Midwest.’”
High praise, indeed.
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