The Big 3: Media, Entertainment & Marketing

American Idol host and TV/radio personality, Ryan Seacrest made headlines last week for the acquisition of 14-year old creative marketing services company, Civic Entertainment Group. CEG has been known to work with notable TV networks such as, HBO, ESPN, A&E Networks, and CNN providing services from digital campaigns to event production. (Poggi) 

When I read the headlines, I was quite impressed with the business-savvy of Mr. Seacrest. Its easy to forget his savviness when you see him as just the face of American Idol, but what he has done behind the scenes has put him in position to be a next generation media mogul. 

In an AdAge interview, he stated, "I am in the business of communicating to an audience, creating content,  and working with brands to bring them to consumers." This insight that he is sharing is breaking the ground of the convergence of media, entertainment and marketing.

The impact of this deal will send ripples through the marketing industry, because no longer can marketing professionals be focused on traditional marketing approaches. The need for these professionals to dig deeper to have the know how of seamlessly integrating media, entertainment and marketing into their campaigns will be essential.

These mediums are all becoming one function rather separate disciplines. In the future, I believe it will be hard to distinguish whether you are watching a strictly entertainment piece or  being marketed some product or service. This will be done on all forms of media as well.

The Managing Director of AdMedia Partners, Greg Smith stated,  "This transaction demonstrates once again the continued convergence of media, entertainment and marketing services." He also mentioned that, "We continue to see a broad array of non-traditional strategic and financial buyers in the space."

As the space continues to grow, this presents an opportunity for marketing professionals to begin to incorporate these inclusive strategies into their campaigns.

What are your thoughts?

• What steps will you take to begin introducing this integrated approach to your marketing?

Marketing Is No Longer Black & White

Steve Stoute has played a significant role in helping me define and clarify my career path. I always remember him being in the background as an artist manger and influencing the career of hip hop notables, such as,  Kid and Play, Nas, and now the unprecedented commercial success of his business partner Jay-Z.

I found this interview of his interview with the Harvard Business Review about his breakout book, The Tanning of America.

The general concept of the book talks about the trend and transformation of consumer tastes in young american culture, also known as millennials. He addresses the idea through the lens of a hip hop historian on why marketers can no longer market to consumers within the context of a racial box.  

He warns these marketers that use traditional demographic targeting that the mental complexion of consumers are changing. He suggests these marketers must  radically change their approach  by being aware that they are communicating to a community of "polytechnic" youth that have grown up in a mash-up cultural experience. 

Stoute states that this phenomenon is the result of the influence of the hip hop culture.

Some of the themes that he covered in the book:

•Aspiration

•Authenticity

•Risk

•Cultural Curiosity

•Tanning in culture and commerce

•Relevancy in the marketplace

•Revitalized Storytelling

•The New Code of Cool

As marketing execs in the 21 st century it is a necessary to be aware of how the cultural lines are being blurred. 

We no longer live in a black and white world.

 Although those aspects of society still exist,  with the rapid advancement of technology and access to other culture experieces by the click of button as stated in the book, a kid in the inner-city of Newark, NJ can learn how to skateboard the same time a kid of the same age learns how to skateboard in sunny California where skateboarding is a staple activity amongst the youth.

This juxtaposition will either scare up and coming marketers or can be a source of deeper research and creativity to penetrate into the mind-sets of this market.

We Want To Hear Your Thoughts:

• What ways can you begin to take steps in marketing to this tanning generation?

Interview With Darnell Davis, President of Evolution Magazine

I had the privilege of interviewing one of my good friends Darnell Davis, who is the owner and President of Evolution Magazine. Evolution Magazine is an online and quarterly limited print magazine. With the power of the Internet we are able to reach professional and savvy readers everywhere.

Darnell is positioning Evolution Magazine to be a business and industry resource for all from start-up business owners to CEOs. Evolution helps navigate and prepare for growth through in-depth content on leadership and management, technology, finance, sales and marketing, human resources and communications.

Darnell spends a lot of time negotiating in many aspects of his businesses and he took the time to explain how he handles the negotiating process.

TT: How do you separate the people from the problem when you are negotiating? 


Darnell: I endeavor to level the playing field in some fashion. This allows me not to see someone bigger or more experience than me which can often times come out as inferiority and you cannot ever begin to negotiate from that position. From there I begin to seek common goals and objective which in some form brings me up to their level if there happens to be a gap there. Once I feel we have made the experience level, I can then separate the problem from the people. We are the same at that point and our objective is to find a solution to the problem together.

TT: How do you handle positional bargaining tactics? 


Darnell: Kind of answered this one in the first one. However, I look for common strengths and weaknesses and create a situation where we are all planning from the same level. It does not matter from which position I am bargaining from, I seek to level the playing field and negotiate from a common place.

TT: Can you give me an example of how you worked toward mutual benefit when you were negotiating a deal? 


Darnell: Recently, I assisted a company in creating an affiliate marketing program. Knowing my network and my ability to speak to it effectively I position myself into a partnership with this company. What he did not know is that I had recently started a PR company and I really wanted to get his marketing dollars. Knowing my value I position Evolution Magazine and our outlets to be of great value to his company. He realized that we were actually bringing his brand up to our planning field and we began to negotiate from that point. I lowered my income expectation from the affiliate program; however, at the same time I sold him on using the PR Company to assist with his marketing efforts.

Follow Darnell on the following networks to learn more about Evolution Magazine and his business projects:

Click here to read the Evolution Magazine blog.

Click here for LinkedIn.

Celebrity Endorsement Strategy:7 Ways It Can Affect Your Bottomline

When you think about your favorite celebrity, your first thought may not be how their celebrity status can be seen as an asset on a balance sheet. However, as celebrity culture, a $50 billion dollar industry, is exploding globally companies are placing more value on the acquisition of a celebrity as a means to generate and increase revenue around a certain products and services that resonates with their target market.

The Perfect Combination
Its the perfect combination, because according to an article in AdAge.com, "brands love endorsements and consumers love celebrity." Also, the article stated that  recent studies of hundreds of endorsements have indicated that sales for some brands increased up to 20% upon commencing an endorsement deal.

However, a celebrity endorsement can easily turn into a liability when the endorser becomes problematic as in the cases with Tiger Woods or Michael Vick. The risk that marketers take is when negative behaviors surface  in the life of the endorsing celebrity, tarnishing the image of the brand and repelling customers from the brand because of the association.

The 7 Criterias To A Sound Celebrity Endorsement Strategy
So what are some of the areas that marketers must consider when looking to select a celebrity asset for an endorsement?

1. Brand must make sure that celebrity resonates with target audience so they can activate buying fans of the celebrity.

2.Brand must choose celebrity that fits in to the narrative of the brand to establish connection between the brand and educating the buyer.

3. Brand must choose a celebrity that highlights an attribute of the product or service that may not be highlighted in no other means.

4.Brand must be conscious of the celebrity's already existing personal brand as a means to build an option of reciprocity and cross promotions.

5. Brands must include celebrity in the product development phases to spur innovations.

6. Brands must choose and use celebrities that may break consumers perceived notions of the product/service offering.

7. Brands must establish  celebrity partnerships that impact the business model.

We Want To Hear Your Thoughts:

• In the age of social media, how important or unimportant is a celebrity endorsement strategy foe your brand?

Developing Your Marketing Budget In 3 Steps

Marketing and advertising is the line item on the income statement that may be the most difficult to figure out. With so many marketing methods to choose from understanding the nature of your company and who exactly your trying to reach is a good starting point for creating a budget that is most effective.

The Inc. article,"How To Build Your Marketing Budget" offers insights, even of the most experienced marketers. The first point of reference the author mentioned was figuring out first how much you expect to spend. Like I mentioned earlier this could be a battle to get the "perfect" number. 

Step 1: How Much Should I Invest In Marketing?

Some of the suggestions were to invest 1% to 10% of sales, another marketing expert weighed in and mentioned that  a company should invest as much as they can in marketing, especially in the first few years. 

Also, it is important to understand your profit margins as well.

Step 2: Traditional or Non-Traditional Marketing?

The next suggestion the author gives is to figure out how and where you should market, by either going the traditional route or look into more of the social media resources. One of the experts suggested that before you start looking at that it is important to know exactly who you are targeting and what channels of marketing would be most relevant. 

In terms making social media apart of your marketing mix, it is very important that you produce compelling content on your blogs, social networks, such as Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc. This type of engaging content, will keep customers and potential customers coming back for me. 

Even though social media channels are least cost effective in comparison to traditional platforms, its good to keep in mind the time commitment necessary to make social media work.

Step 3: Know Thy Metrics

The last suggestion was to track all marketing activities. One metric that is important to know is the cost per new customer. Once you figure out this number, you will be able to work on getting that number as low as possible without affecting profit margins. 

Also, paying close attention on what marketing channel is working most effectively in your marketing mix. Once that is identified continue to tweak that channel until you are yielding the results you are looking for.

We want to hear your thoughts?

• What other things would you add to this list?

SXSW: The New Frontier For Creatives

"SXSW is where the future hatches." -SF Chronicle.

The Hotbed For Creatives

SXSW was started in 1987 as a way to fill the void of isolation that the TX independent music scene felt from the rest of the world. Over the last decade it has become the goto destination for creative people and the companies they work with to develop their careers, also to be the bridge of communication with creatives from all over the world to meet and share ideas.

SXSW has developed events, trade shows, and festivals in the following niches:

-Film

-Music

-Gaming

-Interactive

-Eco

The demographics that they serve are second to none as well:

-39% ages 31-40

-82% Industry execs

-35% household income of $100K-$150K

-33% have a purchasing power of $1000K or more

-39% have a job function in the creative field

Multi-Wide Industry Impact

SXSW has had a multi-fold impact on the industry, for example Twitter was first launched at SXSWi. Twitter has gone on to impact every industry as a communication tool for brands and individuals.

They make this level of impact because , according to Josh Jones-Dilworth, who has worked on SXSW’s PR and serves on the SXSW Accelerator advisory board. “If anything, SXSW-goers are marketing-averse, super-savvy and able to triage credibility (or lack thereof) with a sniff.”

This multi-industry experience is  craving for the next big thing and that alone sets the tone for more innovation.

My Strategic Postioning

As a creative entrepreneur that is offering branding and consulting services to these creative-types positioning myself among the creative elite would be a giant step in the right direction.

 The events that attract the creatives that I would serve the best would be involved in Film, Music or Interactive events. 

One of the things I will do is to begin to is sign up for their newsletter and also connect with them on their social network channels to stay up to date with the latest happenings.

What are your thoughts?

• How can positioning your creative business or services at SXSW impact your product or services?

TED PROFILE: Simon Sinek

Simon caught the attention of the audience from the very beginning by challenging the assumptions and belief systems of why some people or organizations succeed and others do not. He sets this up by using illustrations of the success of Apple, The Wright Brothers and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. He will allude to these examples throughout the speech.

He developed a passion for answering this burning question because he began to notice patterns. After intense research, he discovered that those that aspire and achieve great success is because they think, act and communicate totally opposite of the masses.

He explained these communication patterns through his concept called the 'Golden Circle'. That's based on 3 components of perspective, what, how, and why. He explains that companies that struggle and even fail is that they focus more on the what and the how of 

their product, service, mission.

Where on the other hand leaders that focus on the why inspire people with similar beliefs to action. He continues to explain that these leaders have master the art of communicating from the inside out, rather than from the outside in. These leaders realize that people don't buy the what or the how, but the why. 

People show up not for the leader, but for themselves. Simon did a brilliant job of building trust  by his choices of illustrations that he used to get his point of cross. For instance, when he explained the context that surrounded hthe civil rights movement and the Martin Luther King speech he points out that the people showed up not for Dr. King, but for themselves. They believed within themselves of picture of America that he painted  on the steps of the Lincoln memorial.

The way Simon's speech helped me is by giving me a insight into how I should craft my leadership style. In the past, I could see how in the different leadership roles that I served in where I focused on the how, and the what, but briefly going over the why. The more I think about it the more I am aware of insecurities play a role of sticking with the how and the what. Really operating from your authentic self requires you to become more transparent and vulnerable, in which most people don't flock leadership positions.

What are your thoughts?

• What is your why?

Curation Is Not Just For Museum Directors, But For Marketers

Image Source: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/art/jeffrey-deitch/

Curation and Museum Directors

When you think of the word curation, the first thought of it may be of someone like

Jeffrey Deitch. He is not only a dealer in modern and contemporary art, a Director for  MOCA's (Museum Of Contemporatary Art) in Los Angelos, but is well known for curating some of the most talked about art exhibitions in the world. 

His ability to acquire, organize and oversee collections of valuable art has garnered him worldwide acclaim.

Marketers:The New Museum Directors

Over the last year or so the idea of curation has made its way into the marketing world. The role of a curator has always been seen as the content specialist responsible for the collections in an institution. Now, marketers are being asked to do the same thing to jump start their marketing.

Curation has been an important topic. With the onslaught of  content around the web (audio, video, text), users are looking for a one stop shop of content of things that pertain to them specifically. 

Depending on what niche your business serves in, will determine the specific content expected by the demographic.

The Poster Child Of Content Curation

An example of a blog/website that has garnered a lot of attention in the tech space is Mashable. Mashable was founded by Peter Cashmore from his home as way to curate content focused on the emergence of social media. 

In under five years it grew to the point were Time Magazine recognized them as one of the 25 best blogs in 2009.

This is a testament to the power of content curation.

The Human Element

An article in Forbes magazine mentioned that, "Well-executed content curation isn’t just a regurgitation of content that was already published but rather a personalized retelling of a story. The human element of content curation is what makes curated content compelling."

The article also offered 5 tips to help marketers capitalize on this growing trend.

1. Curate Images and Video

2. Curate an Online Magazine

3. Curate for Email Marketing

4. Curate Top Quality Content Consistently

5. Curate on Your Blog

What are your thoughts?

• Have you started thinking about your content marketing strategy?

ROI 2.0

Image Source: http://blog.oktopost.com/social-video-roi-why-it-matters-for-marketing/

ROI: The  Performance Indicator 

As a business development professional in the business documentary film industry, one of the main  concerns my clients have is what is the Return On Investment (ROI) of a certain  film project; and like every other client interaction, I begin to  lay out a what type of monetary ROI they will receive based on their upfront investment in the project. 

According to Investopedia a ROI is:

A performance measure used to evaluate the efficiency of an investment or to compare the efficiency of a number of different investments. To calculate ROI, the benefit (return) of an investment is divided by the cost of the investment; the result is expressed as a percentage or a ratio. 

The New ROI

This is what I was taught in undergrad and also by managers at the companies that I have worked for in the past. However, after reading Understanding The New ROI of Marketing in the Forbes online site, it gave me a more broad perspective of a more relative version of the ROI performance indicator. 

The article points out that ROI no longer only means return on investment, but return on impression. This is more of a softer metric than a hard dollar metric and when both metric indicators are used simultaneously  it serves as a great tool for marketing executives to have a 3-D view of true campaign performance.

The Affects Of The Social Web

The metric of return on impression is the result of the dynamic nature of the web. Now that the web has a social element, the sharing of text and video content has become a norm to users. 

According to blogger, Jeff Blulas, the social web is the third phase of the Internet's evolution which has followed the portal phase around 1995 (such as Yahoo and AOL) and search phase which commenced in earnest in the late 1990's (including Google and Bing).

He also noted that Facebook  users are sharing 4 billion items on the Facebook social network everyday, which is double what it was a year ago. Ultimately, this trend will continue and predicts that it will double again in 12 months. 

This does not even include the new apps they are developing that will make sharing easier.

The Implications For Marketing Executives

This has huge implications for marketing executives who have to make decisions about creating content and marketing strategy. Especially  if they solely depend on looking for a dollar value return on investment.

There is five elements that the Forbes article lays out that make up the soft metrics of the Return on Impression:

(1) Eyeballs-the number of people that actually see your content.

(2) Perceptions-this deals with the consumers perceptions of the brand.

(3) Opportunity-this looks at the indirect opportunities your content will have in relationship of your marketing investments

(4) Engagement-this looks at the number of conversations and word of mouth situations the marketing creates.

(5) Objectives-this looks at the long term objectives that positions the company for long term success. A metric that is hard to determine in the short term.

What are your thoughts?

• How will this affect you as you put together a marketing budget?

Content Marketing: From Noise To Poise

Gary Who?

In case you were wondering whom the passionate guy on the video was; his name is Gary Vaynerchuk. He is an author, speaker, and noted social media maven. However, he did not start in the social media space he started in business by working in his dad’s liquor store and in five years time he took the small store in to a multi-million enterprise. 

A big part of his success has been by creating daily video content on the top wines his store was bringing in. After about 18 months of posting videos he caught the attention of  The Wall Street Journal, Conan O’brian and other major media outlets.

So Gary has first hand knowledge of the power of content marketing.

Is Your Content A Commodity?

One of the first things he talks about is how content is a commodity. The number one mistake a company can make in their marketing strategy is not seeing the true value of creating compelling content. Content that is engaging  conditions the end-user to take some form of action.

When your company just creates “push” style content that just talks about the company in a age of low attention span you run the risk of losing visitors.

An example of a company that is doing it wrong is one that spends 80% pushing out content that is focused on the company’s products, services, sales, etc.

The Interest Graph

Studies show that this incorrect content creation could be the cause of a ‘content bubble’, similar to the Internet bubble or the real estate bubble. The only companies that will survive this bubble that is on the horizon will have a strong understanding of their potential customers interest graph. 

What is an interest graph? An interest graph refers to the specific and varied interests that form one’s personal identity. Unlike a social graph, an interest  graph includes a network of people that may not necessarily know one another but share the same interest.

The interest graph also has broad implications for B2B marketers where the graph will be based on the macro interest of the industry.

The Human Approach

The company that gets it right not only understands the interests that connects their customers, but go the next step and show how much they care about them as human beings. 

An example of the company  that is doing it right creates 80% of content that is focused on empowering customers to make the best buying decisions no matter where they make their final purchase.


What Are Your Thoughts?

• As a marketer how can you avoid creating content that is just noise?
• What steps will you take to get an understanding of the content that is of interest to your customers?