Blackberry Boys: Saying a lot without saying too much

If you've watched tv in the last few days, chances are that you have seen the 'blackberry boys' advertisement. Full credit to vodafone and their agency on this one. If you havent seen it yet, here goes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FPZH4OysGZI

The ad is well made technically and execution is simple yet powerful. For me this ad has a lot more than meets the eye, it re-defines the way in which business phones are currently positioned and marketed. Are the business phones really for the business users? Or is that why they are called 'smart phones'? Clearly today, the youth seem to have taken to the bb, and taken well.

About a year ago, i'd noticed that a whole lot of my friends moved to blackberry and these were the exact mix of people that the ad showed. From 40+ CEOs to 20 something coolios, from geeks and nerds to absolut party animals, men and women, boys and girls, everyone was switching and thankfully for blackberry, almost all of them continue to be the 'blackberry boys'.

I find the ad well made and some of what I can take from it is:

1. One clear message: 'Not just for the office guys'.
2. Absolutely real: Real people, real situations.
3. Breaks myths: Listen to the lyrics of the song
4. Evokes emotions: Music is used very well here, catchy tune.
5. Showcases benefits
6. Testimonial driven: Clearly demonstrates user acceptance

The one big negative for me here was the fact that someone actually had to point to me that the ad also said, "now on pre-paid"! If their objective was to announce the availability of blackberry on pre-paid, i completely missed that.

Do drop me a line and let me know what you think of it.

Essentials of writing and marketing a whitepaper

Essentials of writing and marketing a whitepaper

Writing / planning a whitepaper? Here are some pointers to get you started:

1. Objective definition: It is critical to decide your strategy at the onset – Do you want this to be a sales-driven effort and a build a base of qualified leads? Or is this initiative a marketing effort intended to establish your authority, expertise and presence? (Push or pull approach?)

2. Content is king: Cliché but true! Whatever the approach, it is the quality of content that differentiates your white paper from another. Figure out what makes for educative / interesting read to your target audience. If you are addressing CIOs, technology based content is a bad idea. (Psst psst…most CIOs don’t read white papers coz we make them too tech heavy and CIOs have full fledged IT teams to evaluate technology). Try taking the business route. In fact, try taking a story that CIOs can then take back to their management. Ensuring great content however, is only the start and not a panacea.

3. Lengthy vs crisp - There’s no definitive formula: While I love keeping things crisp and find it creating a greater impact, I have to admit I’ve seen lengthy white papers working equally well. Of course, we’re still going by the premise of the content being really good. So, this may vary from topic to topic and clearly on the information needs of the defined target audience. This also leads to the next point.

4. Project value: ‘Value’ needs to be projected in every part of the whitepaper, whether short or long. This post could have been titled ‘5 essentials of a good whitepaper’ or could have been called ‘101 essentials of a good whitepaper’ and based on the audience needs I am targeting, I would expect good results in both cases.

5. Minimalize vendor pitch: Increasingly you’ll notice that whitepapers are becoming more about an organization and their specific solution set rather than a particular technology and how enterprise audiences can benefit from them. Even in cases where the objective is to build the sales leads, try subtlety for a change.

6. Define your target audience: Knowing your reader is as important as having good content. Almost everything else revolves around who this is being written for!

7. Integrate it with other initiatives: Like when launching a product, integration of its promotion with other marketing initiatives helps leverage the buzz created and generate higher acceptance levels. While you’re at it, try blogs as a tool too.

8. Use examples / instances, opinions - make it real

9. Standardized boilerplate: Try using and sharing your whitepaper with a standardized boilerplate that people can share the paper and help you go viral with.

10. Next step for the reader?: Clear definition on what you expect the reader to do after having gone through the whole ordeal will help you either plan in advance on what’s coming next or right set expectations

11. It’s NOT all about the money, honey: Puhleeeeze remember, not every download is going to be a sales ready lead. The whitepaper is a step in the right direction, the rest of the race still has to be run, by choice!

12. Try a new Look and Feel: If it doesn’t work at the first go, try giving it a new feel. We’ve all seen old wine in new bottle work too.

13. Refurbish – Reposition: If one messaging approach hasn’t worked, try newer, interesting and non intrusive methods of promoting it, even if it means a change in content approach.

14. Piggyback: This is where you hire the gartners and idcs of the world to do this for you. A great way for you to leverage their equity to promote your digital assets.

There's a lot more where this came from. I'd like to hear from you on your experiences as well.

Barclays catches them young, online

Here's another brilliant example of online marketing and how marketers are using the web to connect with their target audiences. Demonstrating clearly that the opportunities of online marketing are only limited to how far we, as marketers can push the envelope, Barclays Bank in the UK has initiated an online GTA type game. Built around an interactive virtual city, this flash game aims to educate bank customers on learning nuances of money management.

Creating a bank account, current account vs savings account, Swiping your card, standing instructions on payments, staying safe of investment scams, basics of having a permanent address, respect in society, honesty and integrity in work and in life are only some of the things this game attempts to teach by rewarding the good.

Sounds clichéd but I think this works well for the clearly defined target audience, the early teens that Barclays is attempting to connect with. It even has a facebook angle to the game (I didn’t get around to using that so not commenting on that, yet. You cannot afford to go interactive without going social.)

Clean, simple and super effective game play is the icing on this cake. This reminds of what we had experienced with Times of India and the 'Newspaper In Education' they drove in schools. For me, this is a brilliant marketing inititative. Well done Barclays!

It would be realy interesting to know what drove them on this route. Feel free to check www.56sagestreet.co.uk and experience this for yourself.

Sapporo Biru

http://www.sapporobeer.ca/sapporo.php

Is sales a result of constant push or does it arise out of a need?

Is Product not a part of marketing?

Ideas? What ideas?

Some people believe that ideas arise even without thinking. I believe in ideas that arise when you put your mind to it. I know that organizations that promote a work culture that encourages ideation will do far better than the organizations that dont. Having driven a start-up for 6 years, I've seen this work.

It's kinda funny when you look at some of the most seasoned professionals and see how starved they are for ideas. I always wondered what limits them from being able to ideate as they owe their senior positions in the corporate hierarchy partly to ideas they once brought to the fore. Reflect on your company's clients and you'll see that half of them want to meet with you and interact hoping that either you would give them new ideas or through your interaction they'd be able to think of something new. If you are unable to break through, offer them an idea, repeat process untill sucessful.

Have you noticed how ideas pop with interaction. I enjoy interacting with a few people here coz everytime i do, ideas flow. Now, almost always those ideas are for things they are doing, so obviously they go forward to the management as their ideas, not mine. Do i mind that? Guess not. Does it help my cause? No sir!

We all know and have experienced managers feeding off their subordinates for ideas but what we do need to watch out for is when these ideas get flagged up to the senior management as their own. Can something be done so that ideas get credited where they should? Would you as a manager be open enough to putting forward your subordinates idea knowing he has more to gain from it than you?

I take pride in saying that in my six years driving a start-up, not one team member worked without contributing an idea that worked!