By Joanne Maly
April 23, 2010
It’s Contagious.
I love the new definition of contagious these days. Not medically speaking, of course.
For many businesses, the trend du jour is to be perceived as different, bold, edgy, creative and fun — and to have your message spread with a mind of its own.
The goal is to have your message reach potential eyes, ears, fingers, computers, ipods, ipads and mobile phones as quickly and as broadly as possible.
Undoubtedly, there are many an ad agency and product company who woke up this very morning hoping that someone on their staff would have a simply genius idea today. And they hoped that idea would result in a print ad, tv commercial or online video that in turn would then spark a contagious flurry of viral proliferation throughout every social media medium.
The Old Spice – If You Have It – commercial continues to have its own afterlife on the internet for instance, long after the actual spot aired on tv.
The ideal scenario is to have the germ (ahem, I mean concept) eventually disseminated across Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Plaxo, FriendFeed, Hulu, MySpace, Google and Bing, etc. The inspired graphic, the 30-second tv spot or the one-minute video would catch the imagination of the public and in a nano-second, we would see the idea-as-a-finished-product then proliferated across the world’s airwaves and web-ernet with immediacy and ‘contagious’ enthusiasm.
An example in point: the Roller Babies viral video produced by Evian cleverly spread the product’s targeted message across the internet through subtle fun.
Instead of virus symptoms being the topic reserved for doctor offices, we now spend time talking about viral basics in our conference rooms. We analyze an idea for success fundamentals such as message clarity and visual creativity. We probe ideas for elements of uniqueness, factors of fun, the possibilities for success, and hopefully, the potential for a full viral outbreak.
Last year’s amazing public singing debut of Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent swept through social and traditional mediums with a vengeance. Companies dream of a similar word-of-mouth success.
This new world of viral thinking has added a whole new world of fun and energy to business.
In essence, we have a new vernacular for successful marketing and advertising. And the word contagious now enjoys a whole new reputation.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing Facebook Fan Page.
Feel free to join the Lincoln Maly Marketing Facebook page as well for regular updates on excellence, creativity, management, leadership, motivation, marketing, and corporate communications.
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By Joanne Maly
February 7, 2010
The Google Parisian Love commercial might just be the quietest, most creative, classiest, memorable spot of this year’s Super Bowl.
Super Bowl XVIV is now history – and the hundred-plus $2 million commercials have had their 30 seconds of glory – or not.
Part I of this casual look at the impact of Super Bowl commercials ended with the thought that perhaps this annual advertising ritual reflects who we are at this point in our history and perhaps also helps sew the very fabric of our culture. After tonight’s commercials, I am reflective.
Are you as well?
I don’t recall as intense of a pre-Bowl ad frenzy as this year. What impact has social media played in the global grassroots conversation about the good, the bad, the ugly commercials? How much Twittering, FaceBook posting and blogging was going on during the game between the Indianapolis Colts and the New Orleans Saints? There might not be a definitive answer to those questions, but there is no mistake that Bowl viewers were anticipating some daggoned good ads to complement the four quarters of passing, tackling, whistle-blowing, chest-butting, touchdown dances, and on-screen animated scrimmage line drawings.
One of the most humorous 30 seconds in the game actually was part of the ‘real’ game, and not during the commercial breaks. The second half began with a mound of scrambling of 250 – 300 lb. men grabbing for anything that felt like loose pigskin. You had to laugh.
But I digress. There were definitely some good commercials as well during the 2010 Super Bowl including:
- Volkswagen’s Punch Buggy ‘That’s Das Car’ spot;
- the Doritos spot where the young boy warns his mom’s date to keep his hands off his mom and off the little boy’s Doritos;
- the Coke spot in which a sleepwalking man in the deserted outdoors opens a fridge and opens happiness;
- the Simpson-themed Coke commercial, again with the open happiness theme;
- the E*trade spot that added a young girl to the voice-over toddler conversation this year;
- the artistic Kia spot highlighting the company’s great car finishes.
For the consumers who wanted to have a say in which commercials they thought were the strongest, there were many options this year, including the MSNBC.com online ballot.
And not to be out-done by a competing network, CBS had their own website-driving concept.
Have you voted yet? Which was your favorite commercial in Super Bowl 44? Which commercial was your least favorite?
And… if you didn’t catch the Part I blog post of And Let the Annual Advertising Ritual Begin – The Super Bowl vs. The Super Bowl Commercials, you can find it here.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing Facebook Fan Page.
Feel free to join the Lincoln Maly Marketing Facebook page as well for regular updates on excellence, creativity, management, leadership, motivation, marketing, and corporate communications.
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By Joanne Maly
February 6, 2010
I am one of the millions who look forward to the annual Super Bowl Football Game, but I will confess that I am not a pro football game fan.
I am however, a non-carded-but-nonetheless-still-certified Super Bowl Ad Connoisseur. (now, there’s a cool Twitter #hashtag for you.)
There are numerous statistics out there to prove that the annual Super Bowl ad-watching frenzy has now reached almost epidemic proportions. AdWeek columnist and marketing expert, Pete Blackshaw tweeted this same fact on Thursday, February 4. “Most Super Bowl Viewers Tune in for the Commercials,” he tweeted. Pete (@pblackshaw) used a recent study by Nielsen to back his claim.
There are many of us out here in the arm-chair-watching crowd who feel that the four quarters of football activity Sunday, February 7 are in reality, the necessary skeletal frame on which the guts of the competition are really tested, aka, the awesome, creative annual commercials. My apologies of course to the professional players who will be competing this coming Sunday in Super Bowl XLIV.
Nielsen found in a recent survey that 51% of the (90 million +) Super Bowl viewers “enjoy the game’s ads more than the action on the field.” Source: NielsonWire.com – January 20, 2010.
The Super Bowl night is frankly an advertiser and marketer’s dream. It is like watching the Emmy’s. The Academy Awards. It might even beat the finale of American Idol. Or the last episode of the last Lost.
The cost for one of the Super Bowl ads is no hiccup. According to msnbc.com, the cost of a 30-second spot for Super Bowl I in 1967 was as low as $37,500. Twenty years later, a 30-second spot during the Super Bowl was $600,000. This year, it is reported that CBS is asking $2.6 million for a 30-second Super Bowl spot. (Source: www.msnbc.com)
There is no doubt that major corporations have been sequestered behind iron-clad, double-bolted doors creating this year’s blockbuster Super Bowl commercials. And the unveiling is just a little more than 24-hours away.
No doubt too, the post-game viral afterlife of these Super Bowl commercials and the inevitable social media traffic (via blogging, Twitter, LinkedIn and FaceBook posting) can be considered priceless.
And so I ask, “Coke, Pepsi, Annheuser-Busch, CareerBuilder.com, Monster.com, Doritos, Apple, and E*Trade — what will you perennial favorite Super Bowl commercial producers show us this year?”
Given the nation’s economic woes, the world’s focus on the plight of Haiti, and more, I wonder, will we see a litany of comedic 30-second spots — or will advertisers wow us with themes of sentimentality, the outdoors, or the memories of youth. Perhaps we will see a theme in the commercials for high-tech, light-flashing, fast-moving 30-second vignettes (similar to many of last Sunday night’s Grammy Award musical routines.)
Your thoughts? What do you think this year’s Super Bowl XLIV commercials will be like?
Will there be any commercials that make advertising and marketing history?
Yes, advertising history – like the unforgettable, dramatic Apple commercial introducing the MAC computer, against an eerie backdrop of a prison-type setting, the sound of rhythmic, marching feet, and the visuals of bald-headed, blank-staring men and women garbed in grey-prison-type uniforms moving in robotic symmetry?
Apple\’s 1984 Macintosh Introduction Commercial
TV commercials mirror our culture and yet, at the same time, they help sew the very fabric of our culture.
Note: Part II of this blog post will be available Sunday evening, February 7 …. after this Sunday evening’s entertainment.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, Reddit, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing Facebook Fan Page.
Feel free to join the Lincoln Maly Marketing Facebook page as well for regular updates on excellence, creativity, management, leadership, motivation, marketing, and corporate communications.
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By Joanne Maly
August 5, 2009
Creativity is like juice. It can give you an inspiration buzz similar to drinking a 10 oz. glass of freshly-squeezed chilled, foamy orange juice on an empty stomach.
And yet….
Creative energy can be easily sucked out of us by our own and others’ negativism, woe-is me talk, and by focusing on the reasons ‘we can’t’ instead of focusing on the reasons ‘we can.’ Relentless talk about the downturn of the economy, disappointing political heroes, and business leader trust gone awry, can almost visibly drain the inspiration right out of us.
I have an image though that I’d like to share with you …. and together then, perhaps we can all … break free of the things that are holding us back from being all we can be, and start again to ‘think large’, and believe in the big picture and in fact, a bright picture.
Here is your picture for the day.
Barnacles.
Barnacles are an unattractive, pervasive crustacean. (My apologies to all barnacles.)
Instead of working hard and ‘crawling after their own food’ barnacles glue themselves to rocks and other living and non-living things and wait for food to wash by. (www.library.thinkquest.org). Once something alive, free-floating and yummy swims by, that’s when the barnacles reach out their barbed legs and grab onto whatever and absorbs or ‘sucks out’ the oxygen of its grabbed prey. Through adulthood, the barnacle species will remain in their ‘spot’, held permanently by one of the strongest-known natural adhesives.
Barnacles have ‘trap doors’ that rhythmically open and close. (www.chesapeakebay.net).
An unscientific, personal interpretation of the above description:
a) Barnacles are lazy and are leeching off of the energy of others.
b) Barnacles ‘stick’ onto unaware passers-by.
c) Once grabbed, the passer-by is definitely ’stuck’.
d) If not alert, the unsuspecting can fall into the barnacle’s ‘trap door.’
A business and ‘real’ life interpretation of the barnacle saga:
a) In our own worlds, both business and in our ‘real’ lives, we need to be wary of the lurking barnacles around us.
b) Barnacles need our creativity and energy to feed themselves.
c) Barnacles can be people, businesses climates, work settings, the news, ourselves …. anyone and anything that can suck our own oxygen or drink our creative juice.
d) The barnacle folks will glue-us-back from being all that we can be.
e) It’s easy to be unaware that we have even fallen into dangerous waters where our creativity and spirit are threatened. It can just ‘happen.’
My thought for the day then?
For me, I’m going to think about what lurking negativity is ‘out there’ and ‘within me’ – holding me back from all that I can be. And then, I’m going to go against the scientific theory of being stuck by ‘the strongest known naturally adhesive’. I then plan to break free of any barnacles that are holding me back.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, or Facebook.
And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing fan page.
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By Joanne Maly
July 8, 2009
In America, at 12:34:56 a.m. today, July 8, 2009, the full numerical sequence was… 12345678909.
That daggoned ‘0’ before the ‘9′ messes things up a bit… but nevertheless…..
Being a historical moment and all, perhaps it would be good to make a list of new intentions for the rest of your life (a little like a New Year’s list, but on a full-life-scope.) After all, it won’t be 07/08/09 again for another 100 years.
Short of that same ‘ol take-stock-of-your-life activity though, why not seize the moment – or at least the 07/08/09 day – to reflect on other out-of-the-ordinary natural occurrences that happen regularly, and think, now, how you and your business can capitalize on the opportunities that such events bring along with them.
By the way, if you missed celebrating the 12:34:56 a.m. time on Wednesday, you can always shoot for 12:34:56 p.m. time, when the phenomenon occurs again just after noon. And, if you are in the eastern time zone at that moment, you could perhaps board a jet flying west and then celebrate this numerical experience twice in your life.
How could a business have creatively capitalized on the 07/08/09 occasion?
Here are just a few thoughts:
1. Local TV Station or Local Online News Site: Viewer or reader voting poll for the favorite charity out of a selected organization list, with a donation of $7,809 going to the top three winning charities. Prizes would be awarded at 7 p.m., at 8 p.m.; and again, at 9 p.m. on 07/08/09.
2. Gas Station: $.07 cents lower than the competition on regular-grade gas; $.08 lower on super-grade gas; $.09 lower on premium-grade gas on 07/08/09.
3. Clothing Retail Store: Brightly-printed t-shirts commemorating the day; only available with a purchase on that day; at a cost of only $.07 for a small; $08 for a medium; and $09 for a large. (e.g., “I bought my shirt on 07/08/09 at Macy’s.”)
4. Mega Stores like Target, Meijer, Wal-Mart, K-mart: Specific and different, super customer specials at each of these times: 7 a.m., 8 a.m., and 9 a.m. and 7 p.m., 8 p.m. and 9 p.m. on 07/08/09.
5. Online Merchandise Sites like ebay.com and amazon.com: Special discounts on 07/08/09 only, on items won or purchased or that have a 7, 8 or 9 as the first number in the product’s SKU.
6. Online Shoe Sales Sites like zappos.com: Special discounts for customers who order shoes in size 7, 8 or 9 on 07/08/09.
Through quick, free-flowing, idea-charged brainstorming, the sky is the limit on inspiration. Whether the day is 07/08/09 or 10/15/09, encouraging good ideas, fertilizing those ideas, looking for opportunities, and seizing special moments… are some of the surest ways to achieve extra company and product exposure, create higher customer awareness, and build consumer and community loyalty.
Is it too early then to post an entry in our Covey Planners and Outlook Calendars for six months before 10/10/10?
And hopefully, we won’t wait that long for some blockbuster brainstorming sessions.
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing fan page.
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By Joanne Maly
July 6, 2009
This morning, I found myself working as fast as my brain could take me. At one point, I just stopped, took a breath, said ‘whew.’ It’s funny how that ‘whew’ sound, in fact, did remind me to stop ‘running’ and spend a few seconds instead stepping back, look at the project’s end-goals, and re-strategize.
This ‘whew’ moment reminded me of the old Warner Brothers Road Runner cartoons. Poor Wile E. Coyote tried every trick he could think of — and he fell for each quirky ad promise for a sure-fire end to his nemesis, the always-clever Road Runner.
In the 50’s cartoon version of the age-old David vs. Goliath story, despite the obvious odds and literal roadblocks, Road Runner wins the challenge in every episode. In spite of Wile E. Coyote’s never-ending pursuit of Road Runner, the sprightly, little bird outsmarts his ‘hungry’ competition through humorous antics time and time again. On a second-level though, Road Runner wins because of astute, crafty, clever ingenuity. He doesn’t just pursue or run, he strategizes and ‘tacticizes.’ (so, there’s a new word for you.)
Does this scenario remind you of business and marketing?
For the last few years, we business professionals are constantly being asked to do more; do ‘it’ with less, do ‘it’ faster; and then come back to the table with high-five-level ROI. Period.
In a world of ‘don’t-tell-me-how-just-tell-me-that-you-did-it’ mentality, there is an easy tendency to speed through the planning and strategic part of an initiative. Research is big. Operations – perhaps even bigger. But, without inspired and well-considered marketing and communications, we too can face our own roadblocks and the wrong results we had anticipated.
We could just speed faster like Wile E. Coyote, but it could ultimately take us to a dead-end. We could easily imitate leaders in our individual areas of business, duplicate what they are doing, or one-up their efforts.
Or…..
We could stop, take a breath, (say ‘whew’’) and ask what can I do differently? What idea hasn’t been tried yet? What is my instinct telling me – as well as – my experience and research?
I wrote myself a message on a Post-it-note today. It says simply: “Beep-Beep.” That Road Runner sound will be my own reminder message to ’stop’ and creatively out-think the competition before I speed ahead.
To help you too think like a Road Runner — with ingenuity, guile, and quick-wittedness (and some humor), I encourage you to stop and say ‘whew’.
Perhaps, a visit to this fun link of some fun Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote cartoon clips from Warner Brothers will trigger some of your own creative ideas: Road Runner vs. Wile E. Coyote
Please feel free to share your thoughts in the comment box below.
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing fan page.
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By Joanne Maly
June 25, 2009
“Be excellent at what you do” — one of those six-word parent mantras we hear from the time we are sitting in a pumpkin seat observing the world around us. I truly think that when we are six-months old, we do want to be ‘good’, be ‘great’, be ‘excellent.’
But, that is before we find out that it is just plain ‘hard’ to go the extra mile and work to get an “A”, be first in line, win the blue ribbon, go for the cum laude.
Super marketing ideas, ad campaigns and business plans start out in the same place that non-super ideas, campaigns and plans begin… in a pumpkin seat, if-you-will.
But it takes something special to get raw, undeveloped ideas to a point where they stand out in the pack. Something (or someone) special has to take a ‘little’ idea, think it through, give it life and juice, develop a team, win management buy-in, and turn the little ‘it’ idea into a WOW campaign.
The new Dunkin’ Run promotion has given us just one of those ‘WOW-now-that-is-cool’ moments. http://www.dunkinrun.com/
The bottom line for the Dunkin’ Run concept itself is that we are asked to follow four simple steps to get some steaming hot Dunkin’ Donuts Coffee and chewy, icing-covered donuts for our office friends. Dunkin’ Donuts has come up with an out-of-the-box, fully-integrated marketing campaign encouraging us to Invite, Order, Run, and Enjoy. A fun, colorful, interactive, contemporary, user-friendly theme is pervasive throughout the program’s graphics, website and social media campaign. Dunkin’ Donuts deserves at least a blue ribbon for this marketing concept.
Ideas (and people) can get stuck in a pumpkin seat spot or they can take off and find their own ‘limitless’ future. With inspiration, freedom to be creative, and perhaps some magna cum laude execution, we can each reach one of our own WOW moments.
Please feel free to leave your comments in the space below. I look forward to reading your thoughts.
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing fan page.
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By Joanne Maly
June 23, 2009
This is the first blog post for a new blog – ‘Simply Said.’
Hmmm. Is this a historic moment? Nah.
Significant for you? I absolutely hope so. Over time, my hope is that this blog inspires readers to become all we can be; to think creatively; to go the next mile; to add personal passion to our business lives — and to our ‘real’ lives; to demand excellence from ourselves and our colleagues; to be risk-takers; and to be positive leaders among our business peers and life circles.
Significant for me? Well, yes, this blog is important for this company — and not just because of search engine optimization for the Lincoln Maly marketing website — and not just because I want to hear — or naively think you want to hear — what Joanne Maly has to say. But, this blog will be one way that I can share experience, learning, and insight with you, the reader.
These ‘Simply Said’ blog columns will most often be centered on themes relating to business, marketing, corporate communications, and PR. After years of ‘working at’ perfecting skills in those specific areas, I suppose you could say that much of my own brain’s grey matter has some good stories to tell and lessons to share.
The perspective in these columns is not going to be “How-to-create-your-fantastically-fine-Facebook-page-in-five-free-steps” or “How-to-be-the #1-Twitter-tweeter-in-your-city-in-10-easy-‘twi’-steps.”
The perspective will instead be an exchange of creative thoughts and inspiring anecdotes, as well as ideas that have worked for others. The posts will be written from a viewpoint of someone who has a thirst for the ‘just-awesome’, for the ‘high-five’ moments in business and in life, and for the ‘I-think-we-can’ mentality. The tone will be conversational and I will always welcome your own thoughts, ideas, and stories.
Welcome to ‘Simply Said.’ I look forward to our journey together and to your comments.
Please feel free to leave your comments in the space below. I look forward to reading your thoughts.
If you liked this post, please share it on Twitter, Digg, Delicious, StumbleUpon, LinkedIn, or Facebook. And, I’d be honored if you would like to follow me on Twitter @JoanneMaly or visit the Lincoln Maly Marketing fan page.
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