Chamber Lunch Bites Into New Marketing

Yesterday a clutch of Sioux Falls buiness leaders heard me give the world's only presentation in which mobile phones weren't just allowed, but actually put to use.

In a talk I called "New Marketing for a New Marketplace," I asked everyone in the audience to get out their mobile phones to demonstrate three important points: the pervasiveness of connective technology, the pervasiveness of design (Who had the ugliest cell phone? No one: there's no such thing anymore), and the power we now have to control the flow of information — whatever the market or context.

At the end we all took pictures, and I promised to post whatever anyone sent me on our blog.

Of course, if I were really cool, I'd have these on my flickr page....

Still, if I didn't make the case well enough yesterday, I hope anyone who follows up on this can see that the days of one-way, mass marketing communications is over. And if this doesn't do it, maybe this will.

Thanks to Kate Foley and the Chamber of Commerce for inviting me.

[click thumbnails to enlarge]

Kate Foley

Shots of the new New Marketing Iconoclasts...

And yours truly. Thanks to all who contributed!

I'll post a copy of the presentation online here shortly.

 

Naked Conversations

I reviewed Naked Conversations: How Blogs are Changing the Way Businesses Talk with Customers by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel for the Sioux Falls Business Journal. The Recommended read in the November 1 issue can be found on their website here. But, since it was edited to fit their space and a subscription is required to read it, here's the full text:

What do you call a low-cost tool you can use to communicate with your customers, investors, employees and other stakeholders individually and simultaneously? Naked Conversations co-authors Robert Scoble and Shel Israel call it a blog.

Both “A-List” bloggers, the authors admit their bias as “blogging champions” who deem blogs essential for business. They passionately document the right – and wrong – way to blog. Their advice ranges from the broad, be authentic – not corporate, to the specific, how to choose a title for your blog.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of businesses (including 40 companies from the Fortune 500 list) have jumped on the blogging bandwagon. How do you know if it’s right for yours? The bottom line is this: If your customers want a blog, you better start one before someone else starts one about you.

Although the book was written as things like RSS and podcasting were just emerging, much of the advice in the book will not soon be dated. If you think a blog might be right for your company, this book belongs on a short list of resources that you can’t afford to ignore.

If you're interested in more from Scoble and Israel, you can check out the book's blog where Shel Israel regularly posts or visit Robert Scoble's excellent blog. Happy blogging!

Meet Sarah in ATS #52

Podcasting legend Joseph Jaffe posted Across the Sound episode #52 over the weekend which included the first vignette from BKG's sponsorship. In the vignette, you'll get to know one of the recent additions to BKG. BKGPeople.com also sprung to life late last week and gives you a flavor of our agency and the kind of people we're hunting for. Take a listen and a look and see if you have what it takes to work at BKG.

BKG Sponsors Across the Sound

As we mentioned in a recent post, we need more people. Our agency has more work than we can handle (that's why the blogging has been a little light lately). Sure, we've tried the traditional outlets...Monster, Talent Zoo, Career Builder, etc. and we've been getting some results (hired four new people this month). The problem is, most of the people who respond are looking for a job.

We're not looking for people who are looking for a job. We want people who are looking for a new lifestyle. People who realize that it's not about titles or winning the One Show or selling Bacardi to people who don't need it. We're looking for people who have reached the point in their life where they realize that none of that really matters and they want a place where they can raise a family. A place where they can own a house with some grass in the front yard. But they also want to be able to do work that doesn't suck. Are there people out there like that? We know there are, because that's what people who have recently come to our agency from Portland and Minneapolis have told us.

So we're sponsoring Across the Sound: The New Marketing Podcast (subscribe via iTunes). Why would an advertising agency in Sioux Falls, S.D. sponsor a marketing podcast? Because we want thought leaders to work at our agency. Oh yeah, we should probably tell you which agency we are: BKG. We don't like to talk about ourselves much, but I guess we have to if we want people to come here.

We started the sponsorship of Across the Sound in episode 51, where you can hear an interview with Tim, one of the founders of BKG. We'll be contributing a little information to each episode of ATS in September so stay tuned. We'll also be updating this blog and our web site with information about BKG. For now, If you're interested, read this post and drop us an email at jobs (at) b-k-g.com. More to come...

Did I send a New Media Release?

As mentioned previously on this blog, I am a faithful listener to For Immediate Release, which most people (including me) consider to be the best Public Relations podcast. I mention the podcast because they have led coverage of how the press release is being adaped for new media. Specifically, FIR has added a separate podcast called the NMRCast, with NMR standing for New Media Release.

A release from Shift Communications jumpstarted an effort to develop a template of the Social Media Press Release and now there is a Google Group, a Wiki and a del.icio.us tag. Much of what they're discussing is giving the press release more multi-media that is usable by bloggers and online journalists and making it more discoverable through the use of social tagging, RSS etc.

But I sent a release on PRWeb this week that I think accomplishes most, if not all, of what they're talking about with the new media release. In addition to all of the event information, my release included numerous social tagging features, an RSS feed, trackbacks, a PDF version of the release, links to a previous press release from the client of mine, a photo, a downloadable logo and even a podcast interview with me that can be retrieved from iTunes. It also gives me statistics so I can see the number of page views, which was substantial. It was perfect for my client which has online and social media as a significant portion of their overall marketing plan.

Does PRWeb cover everything that's being discussed about the new media release? According to a release from the company, they clearly think it does. What do you think? If you're a blogger or online journalist of any kind, is there anything else that you'd like to see from a press release?

Fresh Start

  Yesterday was the first day of business for Eva Hofer who is now working from home as a freelance designer. This move will allow her to spend more time with family, which we wholeheartedly support. Eva worked for BKG as a designer / art director for the last four years or so. We hate to see her go – and we will miss her.

But we still wish her well with the new venture. In fact, we hope to be her best customer. Please don’t tell anyone about her so we can hog all of her time.

Good luck, Eva. But you don’t need luck.

Does your job suck?

We'd like to interrupt your reading with a message from our sponsor...Looking for work? Here's an ad that our agency is running for a copywriter:

We’ve got a great opportunity for a copywriter with chops: jump into the most decorated, buzzed-about advertising agency in Forbes’s #1 small metropolitan city — and make some creative waves. “Chops” means you not only have a tireless creative mind, you have great analytical, presentation and collaborative skills. You suspend judgment and explore new places like Spock on Google. But you make your ideas do work for clients who have real business rocks to break. And of course you can write. Real good.

That said, you know that writing is only 20 percent of the gig. But you also know the whole world depends on the magic you make in that fraction of the day when your fingers actually hit the keyboard. We’re not talking about just impressing yourself: we’re talking about work that changes people and businesses. That’s a lot of responsibility, and it may not be right for you. But if you get it and can bring some field-tested voodoo to the party, we want to talk.

At Breukelman Kubista Group, you get breakfast once a week, a close-knit team of the top creative and business talent in the region, thick coffee and a joke about Old Man McGinty. The traditional agency crap does not apply here. BKG trades bureaucracy and ego for a flat personnel structure, strong mutual respect and an intense hunger to grow.

If you’ve been around the block and have the battle scars (and book) to prove it, if you have an unrelenting passion for the work, if you live for the tough stuff, we’ll do great things together. In its six years on the scene, BKG has grown exponentially and helped clients from fire truck manufacturers to packaged food producers achieve breakthrough success. The right candidate will get a piece of this action in a town where people leave their homes unlocked and their car keys in the ignition. Life is good here — and better with you in it.

We're also looking for someone in public relations and account service. Think you're up to the challenge? Send an email to tim (at) b-k-g.com. We now return you to your irregularly-scheduled blog.

Attention = the new commodity

Ahhhh…vacation. I took two days off before Memorial Day Weekend to give myself (and my family) a five-day weekend. We spent the time in the Black Hills of South Dakota, which is one of my favorite places in the world (pictured to the right). We spent time fishing, hiking and soaking up the sun well off the beaten path.

In addition to the rest and relaxation, I caught up on some reading—two books that are relevant to this blog: All Marketers Are Liars by Seth Godin and Life After the 30-Second Spot by Joseph Jaffe (many thanks to Joseph for supplying us with a copy). I’d been meaning to get to these books for a long time and this vacation supplied me the time to get to both.

With the proliferation of blogs, I’ve noticed myself spending less time with books. It just seems that by the time a book comes to print, everything included therein has probably been covered by the blogosphere. However, this particular vacation I was without an Internet connection and my Treo was out of range, so I was forced to read the old way…and was rewarded for doing so.

One thing that jumped off the pages of these two marketing texts was the importance of gaining the attention of the consumer. The cluttered media landscape (which is rendering the 30-second spot irrelevant) has led to the “attention economy” with time “the new currency” states Jaffe. Rather than ROI, we need to focus on the “consumer’s ROA: return on attention."

Godin calls attention “the unstated precious commodity” and tells marketers that they “can no longer force people to pay attention.” Both authors reference the effectiveness of “permission marketing,” the title of a previous Godin book, and Jaffe calls for the introduction of “permission advertising.” The permission is necessary because marketers waste the time of today’s time-pressed consumers at their own peril.

Both authors see attention gained in similar fashions. For Godin, attention is earned from the consumer by telling a compelling story that does not conflict with their worldview. Jaffe urges advertisers to get attention by crafting advertising that is real, relevant and beneficial to the consumer (hint: it’s tough to do that with a 30-second TV ad).

This is consistent with what our agency regularly discusses with our clients. In our view, the first job of good advertising is to stop the consumer and get them to pay attention. The consumer is not looking for your ad; in most cases they’re actively trying to avoid it. That’s why they signed up for the “Do Not Call List,” bought a DVR and installed Google pop-up blocker. An ad can’t convince its target to do anything if it doesn’t first get someone to pay attention and today that’s harder than ever to accomplish.

I’ll be blogging more about these two texts in the coming days (perhaps even review them), but I first wanted to highlight a theme or two that was present in both. Following all the vacation reading, I have a lot of thoughts to share with Fresh Glue readers.

Incidentally, public relations pros have joined advertisers in discussing the importance of consumer attention. In a presentation titled “Communicating on the Read-Write Web” by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson, of For Immediate Release fame, attention is called “the scarcest resource.” The presentation is well worth the read.

Pride

If I were a dweeb — okay, the jury's still out on that one — I'd make a nervous little laugh and shuffle my feet before apologizing for this bit of "shameless self-promotion."

But I ain't ashamed and I ain't sorry for this report. Our homies got some props last week and I'm gonna give 'em a shout out here on the Glue.

BKG partners Greg Breukleman and Tim Kubista earned the surprise honor of dual "Businessman of the Year" from U.S. Small Business Administration. The Argus and the Sioux Falls Business Journal ran a couple real nice stories on the award.

Last week the partners flew to D.C. for a ceremony honoring the recipients of the award from all 50 states. Breukelman's kids will have plenty to talk about when they go back to school tomorrow — they got to shake the President's hand. Yes, that President.

Greg Breukelman (L) & Tim Kubista (R) wearing ties with SBA
District Director John Brown.

Not bad for a couple of guys with goofy last names who were selling pizza barely five years ago. Big ups, fellas.  D.C. today. Cannes tomorrow. Woot!

They really like us!

(Disclaimer: totally shameless self-promotion is the only thing contained in this post)

We at Fresh Glue are not ones to talk about ourselves. For instance, you didn't hear us say anything about our profile in PRWEEK or the big new client we signed recently. At last count (from Technorati) there are 24.6 million blogs (2 million if you don't count spam blogs) so we know that if we spent too much time blathering about ourselves you'd go elsewhere and the only readers we'd have would be our mothers.

With that said, we can't ignore a recent positive review for Fresh Glue from Liz Tascio at MediaPost. In A Few Good Blogs (subscription required), Tascio lists yours truly along with Adrants, Adjab, Adverblog and Adpulp as a few of the best advertising and media blogs. Here's what she had to say about Fresh Glue:

Don't overlook Sioux Falls, S.D. This occasional but thoughtful blog comes from a marketing agency there: the Breukelman Kubista Group. It references Marc Babej, a Media columnist who also pens beingreasonable.com, and Seth Godin of sethgodin.com. Bloggers here are confident enough to step into a dispute between Babej and Godin over the persuasive power of fact versus emotion, and whimsical enough to point readers to an article about Sioux Falls cage fighting. Just half a dozen posts a month -- it's dwindled since its launch in May 2005 -- but worth reading for some fresh perspective.

The article was noted by Adrants and B.L. Ochman (a regular read of mine). In all seriousness, it's an honor for us to be included with these four other fantastic advertising blogs that we've been reading much longer than we've been blogging. When we started this blog, we thought our little agency in the Midwest had a fresh perspective to lend to some significant conversations in the blogosphere. We're glad that someone agrees.

Okay, that's enough about us. We promise the next post will be interesting.