Bullets on Blogging

A little while ago I spoke at an online marketing conference in Mexico City. If you think public speaking is intimidating try back translating and re-translating a Spanish PowerPoint in front of 150 people on the fly... Needless to say, those were some of the longest 45 minutes of my life. At any rate, my topic was an introduction to “Blogging and Podcasting” and the possible uses of both in brand marketing. I thought it might be interesting to post some of my points on blogging as a marketing tool:

For Brands that are Actively Blogging:
• ideal place to integrate consumers into the entire marketing cycle (including initial product design)
• puts a personality or face to the message
• creates transparency for a brand
• builds added value through content for your brand’s web presence
• HIGH possibility to distribute brand truths/values here
• HIGH possibility for word of mouth through cross-blogging
• higher natural search rankings
• blogging creates conversations between:
• consumers and the brand
• consumers and other consumers (about your brand)

For Brands that are not blogging but within the blogsphere (ie: actively listening):
• one of the best ways to listen to the customer, the competition, marketing trends, marketing buzz
• get insights on opinions and preferences of consumers

Some Pointers for Branded Blogging:
• DO NOT aim to advertise
• aim to create connections and dialogues
• aim to create strong content - a draw to your brand/website
• aim to entertain and engage, be informal
• aim to have other people blogging about your brand (WOM)
• Recruit, sponsor, or reward bloggers who favor your brand - mold them into online brand ambassadors

Dealing with Roadblocks

Last week was absolutely mad – no less than three projects hit major roadblocks. In this case all brand managers on client side were switched and replaced with new ones that were out of the loop on previous approvals and had their own (very different) opinions on art direction. Needless to say, after innumerable rounds of revisions we’re pretty much starting from scratch. At any rate I took this as an opportunity to get into a discussion with my executive director and a few of my account executive friends about how best to handle a problem like this, more to the point, how to handle endless rounds of revisions.

Firstly, all of them separately suggested changing up the creatives dealing with the project. Sometimes a fresh creative approach just won’t cut it. Sometimes, you need to start with a team that’s unfamiliar with the project at hand, and ideally - hasn’t seen any of the previous creative.

This actually works to highlight one of the key strengths the agency model holds against smaller and more focused digital studios. Agencies typically work in groups, with 2 or 3 creatives per group (copy, art, and possibly motion/online). Each group generally deals with 2 or 3 different accounts. So shuffling which creative team is handling a given project can be a smooth(er) operation or, at the very least, one that is possible. In comparison, smaller digital shops are generally more limited by their numbers and might not have the capacity to shuffle creatives - possibly burning out creative stamina while re-visiting the same project for the same brand over and over. I think every freelancer knows how soul destroying that process can be.

Secondly, as my ED put it, problems in the approvals process can be a symptom of a bigger issue below the surface. I would imagine this second solution would be to change the creative AND account teams, as well as getting the ED personally involved with the project – depending on the severity of the situation.

Anyway, will try to post more, but int he meantime if anyone has any other ideas, I'd love to hear them!