QR Code Design Secret Revealed!

You've probably begun to notice odd UPC-like codes popping up online, in print ads, on posters and even on TV.  They're called QR codes. That's short for "quick response" code... something that Toyota actually invented back in 1994.  The cool part about the codes is that with a simple free iPhone app, your Smart phone can read them — which, in turn, transports you to the web page of your choice.

Although Toyota has the license on this, they have allowed it's free creation and usage at this point in time. Fantastic! So how can you get one for any address you'd like?  Just jump over to the Kaywa site and you'll have your own in about 60 seconds.

But what's the big secret?

Well, as it turns out, all of the little bits and bites of the design of these codes are not necessary. What that means is, is that you can add a few graphic elements to enhance your code and it's recall without affecting the delivery of your web page.  As you can see by the graphic found on Wikipedia, the scan really only needs to read a few key sections of this square.  The rest, is up to your designers to fiddle with. The cool part about that is that you can test its effectiveness instantly. Either you get to the page or your don't.

Need help developing your own?  I just happen to know of a design firm that can produce one for you, starting at $50 a pop.... just scan the code on this page to find out who it possibly could be!

20/20 Brand Vision

You've got to get this right...

Branding is not your logo. Brand strategy is not a marketing plan. Brand vision isn't what others think of you.

Brand Vision is having a clear picture (shared with your employees) as to the company you WILL BE 10 years from now.  That leads you beyond a single product line or a cool new package. It transforms your business into thinking strategically, and not just as a collection of tactics.  You can say "yes" or "no" to new opportunities because you will have a simply defined benchmark from which to judge.

"We'll be the household name in backyard gardening."
"Our products will be synonymous with luxury."
"We will become the most trusted brand in local marketplaces."

No where is there is a "HOW?" That's brand strategy, not vision. But, if you and your team are not in agreement with the larger goal, you will constantly work against each other vying for an uptick in sales off of tactics that are hit-or-miss at best.

Take the second sample above (synonymous with luxury)... were this company offered the opportunity to merge with a larger, but low-price competitor, should they take the deal?  The answer should be, "No."  How could the cut-rate competitor add to their vision? However, if a new product area opened up in a high-end market, should they consider entering it , — even if they don't have much experience? The answer should be, "Yes." They may still not choose to do so, but the exercise remains consistent. 

Think of Apple. iTunes saved it. Apple has stood for "cutting edge technology with stunning aesthetics" in everything they do. They now own music downloads as a by-product of the introduction of an entirely new category. If they only saw themselves as a computer manufacturer, they would have never worked on the R&D of transforming Flash drives into music machines. The scope of the product lines Apple works on are quite diverse, but their brand vision remains true. We all can learn from this - regardless of budget.

So where do you begin? Here's the exercise:

1) Who are you now? In short, how would your typical customer describe you, what you do and what you do for them?
2) What should they be saying about you?
3) What kind of company/brand will you have in a decade? Again, in short, not specifically a marketshare question, but an emotional one.  Who will you be?

Once answered — and they're not easy to answer... you'll be well on your way toward saving your company years of frustration and even more wasted investment.  The more fractured your brand is, the more you have to spend to keep it a float. The cool part is, the more cohesive it is, the farther (whatever money you spend) will go towards achieving your goals.

How to Brand Better than McDonalds

The McDonald's golden "m"... can any brand identity be better than that?

Most likely, no.

What does it mean? Cheap hamburgers? Great french fries? Happy Meals? Mick-anythings? If you have a child, that golden M means only one thing: toys. You did realize that the largest distributor of toys in the world is McDonalds? Well it is. And anyone charged with chauffeuring toddlers around in their mini-vans and SUVs knows that if they don't want to go to Mickey-D's for lunch, they better start distracting junior as they race by.

Amazing - a child that does not even know what the alphabet is, can discern what that "m" means. Now that's branding!

But when Dick and Mac McDonald first founded McDonald's (as a BBQ car hop)in 1940, the logo wasn't the golden arches - it was a funny little baker-dude who later turned into the "burgerman" cartoon who then became Mayor McCheese. The golden arches weren't invented until architect Stanley Meston designed them into the modern day founder Ray Kroc's Des Plaines, Illinois franchise. It really wasn't until the 1960's that McDonalds recognized that their golden arches was actually an "m" and until 1969 to actually promote it. You can almost see Ray driving by one of his restaurants and watching those golden arches turn into an "M". Guess it just goes to show you that the genius of inventing a better way to buy, cook, and sell hamburgers is more important than the genius behind the logo.

That being said, how much further and faster would the brand have traveled had they recognized what they had from the very start? Happy Meals weren't invented until 1979! How many kids (aka families) did they miss from 1953 to 1979? Quite literally, millions.

The point is, you have an opportunity — right from the start — to recognize what you have in your brand and utilize it in every piece of marketing you create. Do so, and you maximize the profit potential from every marketing dollar you spend. And what if you don't? Well, if you recognize that your brand is greater than your logo, you could well be on your way just the same - just not as smartly or as profitably. McDonalds didn't know what they had, but forged ahead just the same and became one of the world's greatest companies.

So here's your chance to outshine Ronald McDonald and all of his friends. Start by seeing your own golden "m".

Teaching an Old Dog a New Trick

Who hasn't seen the funny Old Spice spots?



This one, was recently selected as the best TV spot at the Film Grand Prix in Cannes. Why? I suspect it goes to the ability this spot has at holding your attention, the use of humor and the juxtaposition of one of the world's stodgiest brands with the new "Mustafa" pitchman. Thing is, Proctor & Gamble's gamble, actually started in 1990 when it acquired the brand and worked on revitalizing it's image. Long the mainstay of any mature man's medicine cabinet, the old ivory bottle of Old Spice aftershave seemed closer to a ship wreck than ship shape. It wasn't until 2003 that it overtook Gillette's Right Guard as the no. 1 men's personal care brand. What's been happening lately, is just the logical extension of a bold path and vision they had for their brand. Namely, "We want to own what men spread or spray on their bodies."

In a $10 billion industry, that's not a timid statement.

The Isaiah Musafa "Smell Like a Man, Man" commercial that went viral was the continued extension of applying solid branding principles to a brand. Wieden + Kennedy, the ad agency behind the effort, has been one of the world's great creative firms, ever since it first tackled the Nike brand in it's early days. So sharp is this recent round of spots, that many may have forgotten that just a few month's before, they launched the Terry Crews Old Spice Odor Blocker Body Wash campaign. It too, was a smash online sensation.


Now, for their third act, W+K's creative team pulled off the proverbial social media trifecta, by upping the ante on Twitter - utilizing the buzz around Mustafa by writing and filming video responses to popular Twitterers like Perez Hilton, Yahoo!, various regular Tweeters and even his own daughter, Haley. It's good clean zaniness, delivered Flip video style in a single 24-hour period on the 13th of this month. The "buzz factor" is over the top, as each "tweet" video link has received well over 300,000 hits a piece (many, in excess of 1,000,000 views). That's a lot of eyeballs on your man... er, your brand.



So what's the take-away for the rest of us? If you or I simply supplied shower video answers to the many followers we have on Twitter, would it go viral? Does one need to have a million dollar ad campaign already underway to attempt such a thing?

The answer is no, and thankfully, no.

Doing the shower scene now would be viewed negatively because it's a copycat; wouldn't be written nearly as cleverly or performed with as much panache, and, let's face it, takes balls (ahem) to deliver this kind of marketing campaign. But for any of us to create simple and fun real-time video replies to customer oriented tweets... I think it's safe to say that you'd generate some buzz for your business. OK, maybe not the 1,000,000 views kind - but what's the harm in trying? Everyone is looking for a positive surprise. When the manager of the store actually handles the complaint, negative feelings are usually dismissed. When we're given a little something extra for our efforts, we smile and place a mental note to think more kindly of even the cheapest of trinkets. Doing the unexpected is the very essence of changing stodginess into contemporary value. 

Find that in your brand, and you win.

The key to updating the branding image of an old brand is in affording your marketing team the kind of freedom to risk failure.  That's the real test for the rest of us: Do you really want to do what it takes to create publicity?

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The Good Karma of Participation

Recently, Sue West, an old high school friend of mine who I had reconnected with on Facebook, challenged me to enter a T-shirt design contest for a place called Big Top Chautauqua (pronouced: Sha-tock-wa). If you've ever listened to A Prairie Home Companion or NPR, you may recognize the name. If you haven't, you're like most of us who haven't experienced the joy of listening to outstanding folk music under a big top tent near the summer shores of Lake Superior.

Being an "opportunist", I checked out the prize awarded to the winner of such a contest.

A $50 gift certificate and one free t-shirt... wow.

I decided to enter anyway. I thought that even though it wasn't worth the prize, it might be fun and it might produce some interest online. As long as I was going to enter, I might as well attempt to win — it's in my blood. Engaging the same skills I have used with literally hundreds of brands for the past twentysome years, I asked my Facebook friends what they knew of the place, it's music and how they felt about it. Why did people go? What kinds of folks are they? What's the history and so forth? Lastly, what is quintessentially "BTC"?

Receiving dozens of comments on Facebook from friends and strangers, listing what BTC meant to them and what their impressions were, I began to form an image of what this design might become. I posted images of different poster styles to help them define what they thought the proper style might be. More questions, more answers, more posts along the way.

In the end, I did the design based on what I had read and from the intuition that any good designer imparts on a blank canvas. After some final tweaks, I posted my design to my Facebook masses and let them take a last critique before submission. I e-mailed the collaborated design just prior to the deadline.

A week later, the results were in.

We won the contest.

Which, of course, I had to share with my "peeps" on Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn. From start to finish, about three weeks worth of info, interest and victory. What I learned is this: that the prize for winning may not have had anything to do with "the prize for winning". Simply engaging in this activity, under the freedom of doing so without monetary gain (at least momentarily), allowed anyone and everyone to participate.

My success would be their own success.... and who doesn't want to be a part of that?

My suspicion is that hundreds (maybe even thousands) of eyes have looked on this design and recognized some talent there. I've also re-engaged people from my past who now remember that I had a passion for good design. Could it be that they (or an acquaintance) may have a business in need of some brand assistance?

Here's to the good karma that can come from doing something well, for a noble cause, without the expectation of winning the contest in the first place... all under the starry skies of a warm Lake Superior night.

Oh, and now the hard part. Dividing up the winnings! :-)  Thanks to all who participated!

What can brown REALLY do for you?

By now, you've certainly heard that tagline and seen Martin Ad Agency Creative Director Andy Azula's whiteboard TV spots. All with the closing tagline, "What can brown do for you?"

For which company?

Of course, it's UPS. The color brown, as a memory trigger, for an entire company. You could say that the color brown is perceptionally owned by UPS.

Anytime you see a brown van, truck or package - you'll be tempted to put UPS at the front of your thoughts. Anytime you see a man in brown shorts or a brown baseball cap, you'll be teased into thinking UPS. Quite possibly, the next time your daughter brings out the box of crayons, you may start to think "shipping".

But it wasn't always this way.

For years and years and years, UPS' overnight boxes and packages were red and white. It wasn't until UPS decided to change it's logo to remove the old drawstring package that it finally decided to use what it already had established with it's trucks and drivers.

Why? You know why.

Gee, let me think... "our company's strongest colors are brown and yellow. What do I think of with those two colors?" No one in the company, and no agency (up until creative powerhouse The Martin Agency), could say that the Emperor had no clothes. And, for years, squandered the opportunity that they finally found the answer for. In stating the obvious, we know call it "genius".

We have to ask ourselves, "Is my brand missing out on the obvious? What do people already associate with us - even if initially negative - and TURN it into a positive?" White Castle did it with "sliders" and Volvo did it with "safety". Sometimes the "sexiest" thing you can do, is to praise the most mundane thing and claim your title in your very own backyard.

$20,000,000+ Reasons to Play the Lottery

And the winning numbers are...
No, I don't condone playing the lottery for the reasons lotteries around the country site:
• Quit your crummy job!
• Instantly retire!
• Travel the world!
• It's fun to play!
• You could win!
• Think of what you could do with all that money?

If you want marketing's simplest and cheapest promotional campaign, this is it: play the lottery. 

What I mean is this: purchase a few lottery tickets and give them out to your clients and prospects a day or two before the big lottery is announced. I guarantee you, that you will be in the minds of those "lucky" folks for much of the time between when you gave them the ticket and when the numbers are announced. For $1, you are now top of mind.

The power of this promotion is that they will have thought of you fondly for giving them the opportunity. You can say to them, "If this ticket is a $1,000 winner or more, I want half." Good luck in having them honor up. You'd probably be better off stating, "Whatever you win, keep it — just remember the little people when you're on your new yacht."  Most likely, they'll cut you in for a few grand.

Seriously, forget whether they've got a winning ticket or not, (trust me, you should be so lucky that they win — can you imagine their joy, and the publicity you could generate — in winning $20,000,000+?) the point is to be the guy who offers them the chance at more money than they can dream of. That's like being the sponsor of the hole-in-one hole at the golf outing hoping that someone actually sinks it. Now that's a lot of fun!

Just tell them to share the wealth.  :-)

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Fastest Way to the A-List Secret Revealed

I'm going to give it away. Really.
Read on and be impressed. WARNING: You're not going to believe it, at first, but then, you will become a convert.

Here it is: CONVINCE (someone) THAT (something) BECAUSE (of something special).

OK, you ask, "What is that?" That, my friend, is a POWERLINETM. It's better than the old USP (Unique Selling Proposition) because it forces you to craft a laserbeam-like mission statement within a single sentence. But don't be fooled of it's simplicity. This is really hard to do.

Fill in those blanks about your business, your brand or yourself. Do this now.

(do you hear the Jeopardy song?)

Everyone tries this and fills out something that's completely bland and meaningless. That's the first draft and important, because it get's the crap (forgive me) out of the way. You've got to be tighter about your answers. More insightful about what drives your prospects (and exactly who they might be) to you and why (this is critical) they get to a transactional point with you. Answer this: "For what possible reason do your customers buy from you, and not someone down the street?" Need more to assist you? Try this Powerline winner to get you thinking more intelligently...

GOT MILK?
Here's the California Dairy Board's Powerline: CONVINCE grocery shoppers THAT they need milk in their cart BECAUSE without milk, you can't eat certain foods.

Break that down and you'll see the beauty in it all. This campaign came out in 1992 and has been a hit ever since. Think back on that era and you'll recognize that milk consumption was down due in a large part to diets that said milk wasn't good for you — yet the campaign for milk was "Milk, does a body good." You can see how this might be a problem for milk producers.

CONVINCE people who are at the very spot to make a decision on buying milk (grocery shoppers - not moms, dads or kids - just someone with a cart or a basket) THAT they need milk, (any size milk — gallons, quarts or even little pints) in their cart BECAUSE if they put Oreos, chocolate chips or peanut butter in their cart, they will have to buy milk.

Every tried to eat a snickerdoodle with orange juice?

Read that tagline (Got Milk?) The world's most effective tagline? Quite possibly, and it embodies the entire Powerline in just two words! Don't expect yours to be this perfect... and that's OK, because slicing your Powerline down to it's bare minimum (even if a run-on sentence) will force you to learn about your business and jettison those "benefits" of your product that have become meaningless to your customers. The ad industry has done a fantastic job of making powerful words completely meaningless (quality, integrity, value, etc.) — so you'll have to be judicious to get to the crux of your call to action. Having your own effective Powerline is the no.1 trick in getting to A-list trust...
   • consistently delivering your reason to buy to the right prospects
   • saving your firm time with creative-types charged with constructing your message
   • saving your firm money by generating a quicker understanding of each message.

Now take a new attempt at that Powerline... take as many drafts as it takes to get to a statement that you can deliver with confidence. Do so, and your brand will get gobbled up like milk and cookies!

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Perception Over Reality

Early in my marketing career, the hottest ad agency in the world was in my own back yard — Fallon McElligott & Rice. Today, Fallon is one of the world's leading agencies, doing ads for some of the very biggest and best known brands in the world. Yet, when they first started out in Minneapolis, they were but three people meeting over the lunch hour. They simply decided to do things a bit differently, and with hard work, and some very clever headlines, were able to radically change how ad agencies put themselves on the map.

The "real" FMR story...

Account executive Pat Fallon knew that Tom McElligott, a copywriter, and Nancy Rice, an art director, had the talent, energy and drive to succeed, but none of them had any recognition. So he took the simple assignments from low budget client's and parlayed them into a series of ads run in all the usual places (bus stops, billboards, weekly shoppers, newspapers, local TV and more). They practically invented the punny headline which caught the eyes of customers AND some local businesses, as well. In short order, they had banded together a nice regional collection of brands to work for.

But here's where Pat's marketing savvy took over. One of the key awards shows of the day was the One Show in New York. It's open to any agency that wishes to submit work (along with a check of $100 for each entry). Entries into exciting categories like BEST REGIONAL BLACK & WHITE NEWSPAPER AD, and BEST :60 SECOND PSA TV SPOT. Madison Avenue agencies typically walked away, coveting the 3-5 golden and silver pencils that they had won from the juried competition; on a great day, maybe a baker's dozen.

Fallon thought they might be able to win some trophies, too, proving that their brand of "creative" was as good as any in the country. Just think, a little shop from the Twin Cities mentioned in the same breath as venerable shops like J.Walter Thompson, Oglivy & Mather, BBDO and Saatchi & Saatchi. Pat Fallon's plan was audacious, yet oh, so simple. If their clever headline really was clever, the judges would have to award it, but if you entered the same ad in multiple categories - wouldn't the judges have to award it in each and every one, too? Fallon ponied up close to $10,000 in entry fees.

The result?

FMR took home close to 80 pencils in one awards show (and parlayed those wins in other national and international competitions). The nearest competitor's tally was 15! As you can imagine, the new talk of the town was the "hot" shop from the Midwest. Fallon never looked back and now operates around the globe with over a billion dollars in business. They had officially become an "expert" in creative advertising on the backs of "exciting" brands like the Episcopal Church and Hush Puppies shoes.

What has this to do with your brand?

Fallon knew it had the talent, just not the PR to match. Generating a buzz for the very topic you wish to be an expert in should become your primary mission this year. Fallon wanted to wear the Creative Crown. The only way to "prove" that was to win an award show that had everything to do with creativity - what's more, it was juried by the "best in the business". If the judges liked it, EVERYONE had to like it. It was a risk, but they outsmarted the game - in effect, the risk they took was an "expert" one. So, where can you effectively place yourself or your products so that the outcome is proof of your own superiority? Consider how you might handle these areas differently this year:

• Doing something dramatic at a trade show
• Organizing something that gets local TV coverage
• Owning an issue in your industry to get write ups in the important publications
• Finding the blogs read by influencers and contributing to them
• "Piggy-back" the endorsement from an industry celebrity or expert
• Establish a professional image via web beyond anyone else in your field

The point is, there are a number of options from which you might find some traction. Rack your brain to determine who might be willing to assist or how you might generate a superior perceived level of importance. If you believe in yourself and the might of your brand, regardless of whether it's achieved any status as yet, the perceptional value is more important when you first begin. Perception becomes your reality.

For Fallon, it couldn't have been clearer. Three years from inception, they landed the Rolling Stone Magazine account and crafted the now famous comparison ad campaign... FMR's public perception had finally matched their fiscal reality.

Now create your own.

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If you're interested to gain more ideas on personal branding, contact Mike Farley via: Facebook, Twitter or his website.

Doctor Operates on Own Brain and Lives!

Now that's a headline.

Think of how incredibly difficult (albeit macabre) this operation would be... completely conscious of your actions while you lay on an operating table, cutting and probing into your own skull. Yet, this is completely applicable to each and every one of us.

Why?

Because as marketers, we know that we need to sell our own business ideas, yet we're reluctant to produce them for our own benefit. Not for lack of know how - we're the big experts... typically is really isn't money... it's time? We're so busy with everyone else, that we never get to the stuff we know we're supposed to do. Like the brain surgeon with mirror and scalpel in hand, we refuse to put on a gown and start the operation.

"Branding" is that all encompassing term to describe the action of making a perceptional (and tangible) name for yourself, your business or your cause. Branding is every little drip, drop and splash you can make that might positively affect how others - namely your desired audience (read customers) - come to relate to you and your endeavors. In short, everything that you can put into the public eye, the better. From the logo you create to an ad in a magazine; an embroidered polo or your company website; your county fair booth or even the cleanliness of your rest rooms... all make a statement about who you are and what you value. Your brand is built over time with consistency and TLC.

Since this is so, we've also begun to embrace social media venues because of their immediacy and their ease of use. From Facebook to LinkedIn, Twitter to Flickr and more, using "the box" to magically spearhead your branding campaign seems like it should be so easy to access. And yet, so few of us put all of the pieces together. Most of us are hardly off the dime. Maybe you've set up these tools, but you haven't maximized how you use them... frankly, you have little idea of how to use them at all.

So why are we doing this?

Because it will help your branding efforts. It will earn you new business, and your life will be transformed.

Believe that? I didn't think so, but here's the bet:

By coordinating the process, you could save time and energy, while maximizing how many times your branded messages get out to your public. Like good salesmen say, "The more touches you have with your customers, the more likely they'll be to buy what you have to sell."

I think the thing that hampers our efforts is that we're so busy working out the details for everyone else, that we never take our own medicine and work out all the sticky details so that this "social media machine" actually works. Monetizing the web is the silver bullet we're all looking for, but, making silver bullets ain't easy. Like they say, if it was, everyone would be doing it.

Lucky for you, I'm a doctor of Marketing and I have your prescription (in 9 easy steps):

1. Understand your business, it's +'s and -'s and where you know your customers come from. This is easier said than done, but comprehending this honestly may be more important than the rest of these tips combined.
2. No matter what you do, make sure you're consistent in tone from your website on down to a single Twitter. Have a focused brand message really means that you don't have to spend as much to make an impact. And that's just smart business.
3. Set up a blog of your own. Add to it on a consistent basis, but there's no real right or wrong - just that it reflects your best thinking that actually helps someone.
4. Set up an autoresponder e-mail campaign. There are many 3rd party tools you can use. Finding one that allows you to put it on autopilot will pay off in time.
5. Set up social media sites for your best people, products and/or business. Today you can set up shop right in the midst of your customers. Why wouldn't you?
6. Link as many as possible to each other. 8 words - a lot of work. Not hard work, just the back-n-forth of getting the blog to link to Twitter, the RSS Feed to reach a customer, a web form to feed into the e-mail database. BUT, do this, and your reward is a transformational leap in productivity. Write a blog/send an e-mail/post a link, and it auto feeds to your customers, wherever they are.
7. Stop "selling" and become consistent about adding value to your customer's lives. That's Carnagie, as old as dirt, but its still so true and so effective.
8. Monitor where people are connected with you and how. It would be nice to know, wouldn't it? Just keep doing those things that warrant the most connections.
9.Enjoy your transformed life. :-)

Steps 1 through 6 are the brain surgery part. The rest is gravy. In subsequent blogs, I hope to give you insights into exactly HOW it's all done. But for now, you have the template. You can readily access this kind of information all over the web. Discerning which works and why, well, as you can imagine, guys like me are all too eager to hire out their services to assist you.

But for you, just sit tight until the next JacksonSpencer Blog.

Building a Powerful Brand in 60 Seconds

:01 Pick something, anything, to promote your business and be consistent about it. Here's a thought: try putting all of your stuff in a brown paper bag. What if your business card was kraft paper brown? And the envelopes? And your website, too? That organic look alone would put you in a different spot than your competitors and your cost would be next to $0.

:20 Pick a domain name that can be understood quickly. Skip the dashes, try to be short and sweet, but if you can't, it's OK to be long... as long as it's simple to type in (i.e: Milwaukeesbestmarketer.com). The real trick for most small businesses is that you simply need to get your web address or e-mail address from your business card to your prospect's computer. Don't make that too challenging.

:40 Answer this one question, "What do you do?" Be careful, this is a minefield disguised as your unique selling proposition. Why? Because if you answer too glibly, you'll lose credibility; if you answer to slickly, they'll think you're trying too hard; and if you answer too dryly, worst yet, no one will remember. When this is asked of you, rephrase it in your head to: "What do you do that makes my life a whole lot better?" You'll answer more succinctly and invite a follow up question... and getting a real conversation going is the best brand builder of all.

:60 Now you're brand is off to a powerful start!

Fishing for Social Objects

One of America's leading interactive agencies, Razorfish, publishes an annual digital outlook report. Feel free to read the 2009 Report (http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com/razorfish-digital-outlook-report-09/), but in case you don't have the time to rifle through almost 200 pages of marketer-speak, let me point out one key point that really has relevance to small and mid sized businesses: the use of social objects.

"Social Objects" is a way of describing a new way of bringing a connecting tool to your marketing campaigns. People tend to talk to one-another in reference to something else. Something they saw, heard or something yet to come. These conversations are exactly where any advertiser would love to be, however, the trick is creating something promoting your business worth talking about.

Building loyal customers is still the same as it ever was - delivering a great experience with your products or services. It's just that many of the tools we use today have changed. We may not pass product endorsements over a picket fence anymore, but we certainly have customers spreading the news via texting, Facebook and Twitter. You may think your firm is too old fashioned, too conservative or too local to be affected by these new global tools... to that I say for certain, "You will be, if you aren't already."

Razorfish gave an example of an event they helped one of their clients with regarding the sponsorship of an upcoming concert. Clues to who was invited, how tickets could be garnered via GPS coordinates, even to which mystery entertainers would perform, were all used to virally help generate a buzz factor worth the investment in the event.

You may not be putting on a rock concert, but what about your own open house or a trade show event? Most simply dump info out to customers and presume that they will show, only to find low turn-out and a lackluster day. Providing a "social object" -- understanding what you want your participants to take away from you -- now becomes hugely critical. Prior to your event, you might set up e-mail and direct mail teasers that hint of what's to come. Maybe it's a simple promotional handout (like iTunes cards, or lottery tickets or even specialized samples of your products) that leave your guests with more to share than when they first arrived. The point is, far too often we simply let marketing opportunities fall flat by not realizing that whenever we have a place where people gather, we have the right to interject that time with an experience worthy of our very best customer's time.

Seize that social opportunity by finding a "social object" and promoting it vigorously. Your brand will be better for the effort.