Clearly Creative

Are you ready for your close up?  If you missed the intro to our Clearly Creative Spotlight On… Series, read it here!

Dan Haygood - International Man of Marketing

Dan Haygood, an advertising professional with over 12 years of experience under his belt, a contributor to the Journal of Advertising Research and Sports Marketing Quarterly, and a lover of the Japanese candy, Pocky, was kind enough to chat with me about the intricacies of International Marketing.  Thanks to his time with DMB&B and Tokyo Agency International, Dan became known as an International Man of Marketing.  He inspired one of my previous blog posts on International Advertising Blunders and so I hope this spotlight piece inspires you to learn more about marketing without borders!

In his quest to see multiple sides of communications, Dan has traveled the world. And through it all, he has glimpsed the overwhelming impact that trends and culture have on the industry – in any region of the globe.

You’ve been dubbed an expert on research and new media.  With that title, what would you say are the major trends that are now sprouting up in the communications industry?

Brands are now focused on getting people engaged.  It’s not about communicating to people about the brand, it’s about getting people involved through websites, experiential marketing, twitter, and events.  It’s all about making people feel connected to a brand.  Another thing you have to realize is that there are so many different ways to reach people, and for them to reach our content!  And communication is becoming so individualized… mass media seems to be an awkward way to describe how we consume media.  Each person controls what they’re going to watch, when they’re going to watch it, and sometimes, they can even control the content itself!

Do you think those trends are happening all over the world?

I think they’re common in the well-developed countries.  Right now, the less developed countries don’t have the infrastructure to take advantage of these tools.  You could divide it up into three areas: high tech Asian areas that are leading the industry, traditional Western tech with a really strong communications infrastructure, and all the rest.  But in Japan, their mobile industry makes ours look underdeveloped.  I’d like to see our industry evolve to Japan and Korea’s level.

And you would know firsthand.  Some would even call you a bit of a traveler.  You’ve lived in three of the United States, China, and Tokyo in just over a decade.  What are some of the industry and cultural differences you noticed while in those areas?

I believe that innovation generally happens outside the major communications centers of the globe.  It also happens on a small scale… small companies come up with the real cutting edge technology or concepts.  And internationally, I’ve noticed that the Asian countries are great at producing hardware, but the US tends to lead in innovative content and ideas.  Culturally, there are differences too.  They’re subtler in most Asian countries.  They tend to like nonverbal communication, versus our clear, verbal style.  That showed in their ads, which made it challenging for me.  And in the US, people are individualistic, but in Japan, I was involved in a society where people play to a leader.  I had a hard time getting my team to realize that I didn’t want them to always agree with me… that I wanted their individual views.  But over the seven years I was there, our agency culture took hold, and they started to understand.  They became idea people.

How do you think all of your overseas experiences have impacted your view on communications?

They’ve given me a broader perspective; I’m no longer US-centric.  When I teach, I think about not just what’s happening here, but what’s happening globally by incorporating international aspects in the classroom.  I also think about whether clients would want – and have great potential – to work internationally.

Let’s face it: print and TV ads can be cruel to your wallet.  More often than not, those resources aren’t an option for smaller businesses that just don’t have the budget – which is why many have turned to social media advertising.   Facebook Twitter and LinkedIn, among many other popular social media sites, make a great place to advertise economically.  Especially with targeting becoming more and more sophisticated, you no longer need to advertise en masse to reach your market.  To give you a place to start, we’ve developed a short list of big companies that can bridge the gap between the social-media advertising arena and you!

Facebook Ads – This is the obvious place to start, especially for the B2C marketers.  As one of the early adopters of online ad platforms, Facebook is an obvious and effective option for newcomers with low budgets.  Here are some key benefits and qualities you should know about:

• Moderate control over ad types, with a choice between promoting your site or a page, event, app, or group on Facebook
• Impressive reach and targeting – what’s most appealing about Facebook Ads is that you can target an audience right down to the brand of socks they wear!
• You’ll have to bid on the price you’ll pay per click (CPC) or per thousand impressions (CPM).
• There’s a daily budget option that cuts off your ads once you reach the desired cost limit.
• ROI metrics are extensive and easy to find.

Promoted Tweets – As Facebook and other social media sites were developing ad models left and right, Twitter held out because it “wanted to optimize for value before profit.”  But just this spring, Twitter finally jumped in with its platform, Promoted Tweets.  Before contacting the Twitter ad team, though, you should understand that:

• Promoted Tweets present the opportunity to reach a massive audience – with 140 characters or less. 
• If users don’t interact with the Promoted Tweet, then it disappears.
• Measurement metrics are still in the works, and since these Promoted Tweets were just unveiled, success stories are hard to come by!
• Unfortunately, only the current ad partners (Best Buy, Sony Pictures, Red Bull, Virgin America, Starbucks, and Bravo) can advertise until a more robust platform is rolled out. 
• This platform is within the early stages – and will expand once the Twitter team learns more about how these Tweets resonate with audiences.

LinkedIn’s DirectAds – Okay, okay, LinkedIn isn’t exactly social media, but we thought the company’s DirectAds were too useful to pass up!  LinkedIn’s unique demographic is what sets it apart – since there aren’t many others that reach high-earning, high-ranking professionals in a wide range of industries.  Outside of that, LinkedIn’s DirectAd qualities include: 

• Specific targeting (you can search by geography, job function, industry and company size, gender, and age)
• Spending-control options that mirror Facebook’s CPC and CPM selections
• Ad customization that allows you to provide a line of text, an image or logo, interactive display, and a link to your LinkedIn profile
• Extensive, continuous growth within the consumer pool

But before you start buying ads left and right, realize that the purchasing process is probably the easiest part of social media advertising.  Be sure to understand and respect the social aspect of social media marketing.  For tips and tricks or to learn more, Clearly Creative is a great resource for social media advertising know-how!

Is it beer or is it chocolate?!

So you’ve already saturated your domestic market… now what!?  Just take a deep breath, a step back and check out your options in the international realm!  You’ll be in good company.  The emerging markets overseas are actually some of the only ones still experiencing growth, and international campaigns are becoming increasingly common.  Unfortunately, so too are some costly and embarrassing gaffes.  That’s why we’ve brought you three common international advertising blunders to avoid– and what fun would those be without some examples to prove our point?

1)      Cultural Confusion.  As a marketer, it’s essential that you appreciate cultural differences before launching a widespread campaign.  Values, emotional responses, communication styles – heck, even the perception of colors, numbers and symbols don’t always translate well between countries! 

• Pepsi encountered catastrophic international results (according to International Marketing) when it changed the color of its vending machines and coolers to ice blue in Southeast Asia.   Why?  Because light blue is associated with death and mourning there, not exactly refreshing! 
• Proctor & Gamble had a cultural flub of its own when it entered the laundry market in Japan.  The ads for all-temperature washing that had flourished in America flopped with the Japanese.  It took just a bit of research to find the reason: in Japan, people only wash laundry in cold water!

2)      Stereotyping.  Stereotyping will almost always offend someone.  And we’re in the age of social media, people!   Your marketing bloopers will go viral on sites like Twitter and Youtube – and news will spread fast.  That’s why you need to think globally even when you’re working locally. 

• Unfortunately for Burger King, it didn’t get that memo when it released its European campaign for the Texican Whopper.  Controversy bubbled up after the Mexican diplomat, Jorge Zermeno, wrote in about the offensive 30-second spot, which features a short Mexican wrapped in a wrestling costume resembling the Mexican flag.  The tagline, “the taste of Texas with a little spicy Mexican” was the final knockout punch.

One by one by one...

3)      Faulty Translations.  They’re way more common than some companies would like to admit, and they’re often the root of those costly international marketing slip-ups.  After all, a language is more than the sum of its words! 

• Poor Pepsi…we don’t mean to pick on them but they had to learn the hard way why a word-by-word translation doesn’t always work out so well.  The slogan, “Come alive with the Pepsi Generation” touted a whole different meaning when it was translated into Chinese:  “Pepsi brings your ancestors back from the grave.”
• In Italy, marketers for Schweppes Tonic Water gave consumers the wrong idea when they translated the name into Schweppes Toilet Water.
• When Parker Pen started up a campaign in Mexico, the marketing team got a little lost in translation.  The ads were intended to say of the ballpoint pen, “It won’t leak in your pocket and embarrass you.”  Unfortunately, the Spanish word they chose, “embarazar” only looks like it translates to embarrass.  It actually means: “to impregnate.”

Have any international ad blunders of your own?  Share them with us by commenting below!

Lights, Camera, ACTION!

Video for your website or blog can be a useful tool, but like all things, it is not for everyone (note that this is a text posting and not video format. Turns out I am camera shy!). What follows are some tips, suggestions and insights to help you determine if video blogging is right for you.

Questions before you begin:

• Do you have sufficient equipment? This includes the proper software to get your video from camera, to computer, to web.
• Do you have appropriate lighting? In today’s age, you can often get away with cheap equipment, but you NEED good lighting.
• Do you have the right person ready and available for in front of and behind the camera?
• Do you know what you are going to talk about? If you can speak comfortably without a script, that may be best – comfort is the key.
• Is your topic of interest to your target market?
• Do you plan to shoot the whole piece in one take, or shoot smaller segments and edit them together? If you plan on editing – do you have the software and skills to pull this off?

Tips, hints, suggestions:

• You don’t need to have a fancy background. Clean and simple is generally best.
• Get your lighting and backdrop set up well in advance; this may take more time than you think!
• Unless you are an editing pro, try not to over edit. A natural flow generally comes across best.
• Makeup is not just for special effects in Hollywood; use it to reduce shine and spots – even for you gents.
• Have AT LEAST one other person look at your video before you post it if you are going it alone. A deer in the headlights look may end up on a gag reel somewhere, so get honest, critical feedback before you post, because the internet never forgets!

Tricks and kitsch (Clown suits and bubble machines)

Whether you are creating a talking head style post or an animated piece with a voiceover announcer, make sure you have an engaging personality to guide the viewer through your video. Know who your audience is and play to their tastes. Personality is not something you can always convey through text and pictures alone, and video really allows you to take advantage of a strong personality, but make sure it compliments your audience.

For example, if your audience is IT CEOs, don’t dress up in a clown suit and have a bubble machine going off in the background. However, if your audience is mothers with small children and your service is entertainment at children’s birthday parties, going for the clown suit and bubbles is probably a great idea.

Avoid Accidental Window Closing

Once you are ready to upload your video to your site, decide if you want it to start automatically when the page loads, or if you want your viewers to click play to begin.

My suggestion is prominently displaying the play triangle in the middle of the window, giving your viewers the option to click it to start the video.  Auto play videos can cause a problem for offices workers if they have left their volume on and are suddenly startled by your voice in their quiet work space.  You want to avoid a sudden click and close – so let your audience choose when to start your video.

Concluding thoughts

Video can give the feeling of a face to face encounter that you can’t achieve through traditional blogging and text. It can also be very effective in humanizing your company and providing it with an identifiable personality (i.e your brand). It can also be a lot of fun, a break from the norm and extremely effective. Plus, it can help with Google ranking.

But, be warned, it is NOT for everyone. If you find yourself spending hours doing dozens of takes that end up in your computer’s recycle bin, it might not be your thing, which is ok! And if you decide video is right for your company, but you don’t have the right person or don’t want to go it alone, you still have options. A company like Boston Casting can help you get the right person for the face of your video and a company like Pixability in Kendall Square can help you edit it all together seamlessly. Also check out Steve Garfield who has been hailed as the video blogging guru for further tips, ideas and guidance.

Good luck and have fun!

Missed the introduction to our spotlight series?  Read it here!

For Seth Resler, it’s all about passion.   Throughout his career in both traditional and social media, Seth has come to realize that without a passionate community of followers, you don’t have much to work with.  This is the idea that has led to the launch of Mystery Meet, a social media site that provides an opportunity for Boston foodies to discover new restaurants together.  To ensure that attendees are truly passionate foodies, Seth sends out invitations only 24 hours in advance of the event. 

I had the opportunity to chat with an enthusiastic Seth just four days after the first Mystery Meet event.  We talked about everything from his career as Music Director of radio station WBRU to the advice he would give to those looking for a career in social media.  Here’s how our chat went:

Seth, you graduated from Brown and had an interesting career path that has led you to where you are now, can you detail that journey for us?

I started working at WBRU while I was at Brown, and after I graduated I had to move to a few different cities in order to keep moving up in the alternative rock arena.  Then I ended up back here when they hired me at WBRU to the run the station.  I really enjoyed working in traditional media because there was a great, passionate fan base surrounding the music.  After that I actually started my own business, called QuickWhatsUp, which started out as an events company.  We put on all kinds of events, things like bartender competitions, restaurant competitions, and a holistic and wellness expo.  And as I was doing these events, we were bootstrapping it, so to speak.  We really didn’t have a lot of money for traditional media.

Is this how you got started on your social media career?

Yes, but it was sort of by accident!  I’ll never forget the first time we promoted an event through Facebook.  It was a country night at a bar in Bristol and a few girls that were working for me were going to college at some local schools in the area.  They decided to promote the event on Facebook, and the turnout was huge!  It was far better than anything we’d ever done before, and I just remember thinking, “Well this is interesting.”  So I sort of sideways, got into, first Facebook, then Twitter, and began paying attention to how people were using social media. 

When I started using it for my business, people began to ask me about it.  So I actually went up to the Rhode Island Economic Development Center and started giving seminars on social media to small businesses.  It was just a basic “how to set up a Facebook page,” and “how to set up a Twitter account,” but the people were really excited about it.  Then I got hired by a company in Burlington to do some social media for them.  It was a much bigger project than anything else I had done.  It was everything from building a word press web site and a blog to Twitter and Facebook.  We basically completely reengineered the way they did their marketing.

So how did you end up in Cambridge starting Mystery Meet?

Well, for me, I love anything that has a passionate community surrounding it, because that’s something that you can tap into.  That’s why I like working with music, that’s why I like working with bartenders (bartenders who are really good get really into it!).  And after I had done this one restaurant event, I realized that there was this unique, passionate community surrounding food!  

So when I moved up to Cambridge last fall, I wanted to do a side project that was social media related.  I wanted it to be low key and fun, and not something that would take over my life… and food just felt natural!  My girlfriend and I loved going out to eat anyway, so I figured, we might as well do it! 

Then I had this idea coming home from work one day: What if it could be flash mob meets foodie?

[For those of you who aren’t familiar with flash mobs, here’s the Wikipedia definition: A large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual and pointless act for a brief time, then disperse.  One of the more hilarious examples: a flash mob on Bondi Beach in Australia]

In a typical flash mob, there are people who descend on, say, Penn Station – and they stand there and freeze for five minutes – and then they disappear.  I thought it would be cool if foodies could do it… if we all “descended” upon a restaurant on a particular night.  This became the idea of not telling people until the last minute, so they know it’s going to happen but they don’t know where it’s going to happen.  We set the date for the second Tuesday of every month, and the deal is that if you follow us on Facebook, Twitter, e-mail, or text message you can find out about us, but we won’t tell you until 24 hours in advance where the event will be.

I built the website in word press, put it up and started following people on twitter.  What I discovered was a really passionate food blog community here in Boston  So I started following a lot of the food bloggers on Twitter and through RSS feeds, taking the best articles that I’ve found, and passing them out over my Twitter stream.  Before long, we had built up over 2500 followers.

Before we even held our first event, Mass Innovation Night found out about us on Twitter and invited me to set up a table at one of their events.  This was great because then the Boston Globe called us and wrote about it in their technology blog at Boston.com.  So all of a sudden, we haven’t even held our first event, and we’re getting this press!  This thing that was a hobby, and something that I was kind of relaxed about –all of a sudden I went, “Well I guess I actually have to hold one of these things!”

Can you tell us a little bit about your first event that you held a few days ago?

A few weeks ago my girlfriend and I were at Ten Tables, which is a little restaurant in Cambridge, and we had a really good meal there, and I thought, why not hold the first event here?

I had no idea what to expect for the first one; I had no idea how many people were going to show up, so I didn’t want to do a place that was too big, and have five people show up, but I didn’t want to do a place that was too small and have 100 people show up.  So I talked to the manager, Ian Rose, who is a great guy, and he agreed to host it.  I put it up on Event Brite, and because Ten Tables is a small place, we capped it at 20 tickets.  We ended up hitting 20, no problem.  There were actually a lot of people on Facebook and Twitter who said that they wanted to go but that it had sold out.

I gave clues about the restaurant leading up to the event, and it ended up going really well!  Eight or nine of the people who showed up were food bloggers..  It was just this kind of group of 20 people who are all really passionate about food… And the meal was fantastic!

Then when all the bloggers went home and wrote about it, I think it ended up being a win-win for everybody.  It was great for the restaurant and it was great for the attendees.  So now I have to find the next restaurant!

Do you think the next location will just be wherever you have the next good meal?

No… I would like it to be suggestions from other people as well.  I tend to go out to dinner in Cambridge just because its close, but I would like to be spread out and to do more places.  Some bloggers have already suggested places: Mumbai Chopstix and Russell House Tavern were mentioned.  I would like it to be me discovering new restaurants as well as everybody else.  I would actually love to get to a point where we nominate restaurants and let everybody choose, but no one knows the results of the vote, so it’s still a mystery.

So I think the next step for me, now that we know we can easily get enough people out there, is to let the restaurants know.  I would like to start getting restaurants to come to us.  It would be great for new restaurants, places that just opened, or just opened a new location, or just got a new chef, or just redid their menu – I think that’s a real win-win for everybody.

So you said that Mystery Meet is a hobby for you right now – how much time would you say you spend on it a week?

A couple of hours.  But it was designed that way. It was designed to be something that was a challenge to myself:  I wanted to do this spending as little money as possible.  And so, in that sense, it’s a testament to social media – it shows just how much you can get done without spending money on the traditional radio, television, or print ads.  So far, I have spent a total of $30 – for business cards and a domain name.

You mentioned before that you’ve given seminars about social media – can you tell us about those and the kinds of things that you would talk about?

It always depends on the client.  Coming from a small business background, my specialty tends to be understanding that people don’t have all day to spend on social media.  It’s very important and unique and they should be doing it, but they have other things to do in order to run their business as well.    It’s about gathering all the comments together (whether they’re from Facebook or Twitter or your blog), responding to them and making sure that when you do post content, it gets out on all the channels.  I’ve found that different people want to be talked to in different ways – and you have to talk to people in the way that they want to be talked to.  That’s one of the reasons Mystery Meet is the way it is: Some people like Facebook, some people like twitter, some people like email… So we said – follow us however you want.

What kind of advice would you give to someone who has a passion for social media and wants that to be a big part of their career?

First, know that you are in a very good position.  I think we’re at a point where social media is one of those sectors that is growing – companies realize that they need to be in social media.  I would just say this: Wherever you’re doing social media, make sure you’re finding a place that already has a passionate fan base and a passionate community behind it.  That’s really what it’s all about – it’s about community.  And you’d be surprised the kinds of communities that are out there – I didn’t know anything about leadership development before I started working in it.  I didn’t even realize it, but there are people who are extraordinarily passionate about leadership and really get into it, so it’s fun to work with them.  Obviously there are communities surrounding things like music and food and drink and comedy… But if you don’t have that avid fan base to start with, social media can be very tough.  So definitely make finding that passionate community a priority.

For more information about Seth and Mystery Meet, you can visit his website: http://mysterymeet.org/