|
|
OK, maybe not healthy, but it IS the new norm for just about everyone we interact with. If you make a promise, expect to be scrutinized even by those close to you. Do we miss the old days of trusting folks to do what they profess they’ll do? Absolutely. Have they delivered on their promises? Have you?
“She believed in nothing; only her skepticism kept her from being an atheist. “-Jean-Paul Sartre
The most trusted institutions in our society have failed, and/or been depleted beyond belief and no one seems to be able to do much about it – leading to a deep distrust of anyone except those who have also been hurt to some degree. If you are seen as one of the institutions that helped get us into this mess, good luck on recovering trust from all but your stockholders (in some cases, that’s enough!) and if you are one leading the way out, it won’t all be rosy as we climb out of the abyss, but there are real opportunities now to rally support and awareness.
Back a few years ago, it was expensive to get in touch with your most loyal consumers on a regular basis and deepen brand loyalty. Today, direct message them on Twitter or Facebook with a new offering or news of your company’s progress toward complete recovery and what that means to them! Be honest and remember that even your biggest victory will be met with deep skepticism and a few negative blogs which stem from a new core of our society which simply exists to throw water on concepts catching fire. Dr. No is alive and well and multiplying while Dr. Probably Not is the one you’ll bump into first to convince as you release your news. Know this and accept it as a part of your public discourse and don’t try to shelter your customers from it as they also know it exists… in fact if there isn’t a negative or two on someone’s blog, you probably believe it has been sanitized, right?
Our message must be phrased in an understanding of context and as you survey the marketing landscape, or that of imaging products, meet that skepticism with legitimacy and honest answers to the questions you know Dr. No will ask. Let folks call you out on your blog and let them know the reality of what’s going on and the thought process surrounding their concern, and odds are you’ll win them over in a more deeply rooted and a longer term way. You don’t believe me do you? That’s why I went first!
Gar
PS http://tinyurl.com/yfwksw2
 Dan Kieley, Jeanie Feeney and I used to marvel at what some would consider the amazing number of coincidences which occurred in our daily lives and Dan’s response was always “co-inkidink? I think not“. Today I saw this “There are no accidents…there is only some purpose that we haven’t yet understood. – Deepak Chopra” and once again it got me back to the effort of being true to our journey.
We are working on a project which arose from a very lighthearted brainstorming session on a simple and elegant solution to a simple and not very pretty problem. One thread of the brainstorm has brought us to the creation of a large scale community project which crosses all socioeconomic and geographic boundaries and in fact draws organizations across them all to the task. When time, space, friendships and projects intersect and the seemingly impossible becomes no only doable but logical and obvious, some might consider that coincidence; or, like us consider it the next step in a lifetime of putting puzzle pieces in place which are now beginning to resemble something beautiful.
Occasionally, it is rewarding to take a step back and look around you at the projects at hand and marvel at the journey which brought you to them and those gathered close who will be a part of their completion.
I believe there is a reason we are here, together, right now and helping each other along on our crossed paths. I hope we can soon revel in the beauty of our coincidental creations. Thanks for your help on mine!
Garry Leigh Snafu Consulting
 So, when was the last time you got a new email address and started from scratch actually walking through the experience of being a brand new customer to your business? Oh yea, a while back we did that…. maybe a couple of years ago and nothing has changed, so I’m sure it’s OK! Right?
Maybe not so much. The good news is with social media tools o’plenty you’ll find out quickly if it was a bad experience, right? Yea, and so will the rest of the world. Now when you disappoint one customer, hundreds or thousands may hear about it immediately and often these bad experiences (or simply not great experiences) could have been foreseen by simply taking a day and going through the process yourself! Play dumb because you may be completely ignorant to what it’s like right now being on the other end of the pipeline you so carefully built. Ask questions and see if your full time folks being on vacation makes any difference on the answers. Load your new stuff on an old OS and then on the beta for the latest and see how they feel. As the new customer call the support staff with questions and see how it feels.
Exactly as planned? No? Rarely does everything go perfectly in any business, but now it is so much more critical to take care of each and every customer or listener or viewer with the utmost care because they directly connected to hundreds more; plus, it’s just good business.
Take the time and sign up for a goofy new email address that will become your new spam address next week and walk into your company with a fresh perspective. I hope you’ll like what you see! If not, give me a call and we’ll try to fix it quickly!
Garry Leigh Snafu Consulting
 Winter Beater Pt 2
Back in the day at KKRC-FM we did the Winter Beater contest where we gave away a not so new, not so shiny, beater to get you around for the winter without messing up your own nice new vehicle. 356 cubic inches of drift busting power and a new battery as often as you needed it made our car a compelling and quite sought after Grand Prize. We had no idea that one day such a prize might be considered a $4,500.00 prize! That might have taken almost all of the fun out of the contest!
Once again, I smell a promotion here. Just a little creativity and you have some very topical prizes to load up and some real fun with the content on-air. Which reminds me, what was the last promotion you did just because the live mentions could be so funny? As talent we always love the creative license that came with cracked promotions and as a result, the audience had a blast with it too (as a programmer we grimaced a lot at some of the mentions, but knew it was worth it)! Think of the tweets this could generate too!
Ladies and Gentlemen, Start Your Engines! This could be a fun ride.
Garry Leigh Snafu Consulting
What Are You Listening To?
Sound Thinking from our friend Durr Boyles serving in Afghanistan
Sent: Tue, Jun 30, 2009 8:27 am
Good Morning,
As I’m typing this latest letter to you, an F-15 fighter is taking off
outside my office.
In Afghanistan, ground operations are supported by air operations
constantly and many times these aircraft engage the enemy as the enemy
is engaging our guys on the ground. This gives us a real advantage; an
advantage that is feared by the insurgents. The F-15’s travel in pairs;
so, when we hear one jet take off there is always a second jet to
follow. Why? Its safer to travel with two. Not only is the sound they
make as loud as any engine you’ve heard, the noise shakes the buiding as
the jet rumbles past and hits its afterburners. Many will tell you -
this is a “Sound of Freedom.”
I share a room with transient officers who travel through Bagram Air
Base. Imagine their surprise at 2 am or 4 am (depending on the time of
the mission) when the building begins shaking to the sound of aircraft
taking off for aerial patrol. Quite a sound. I’ve actually gotten to
the point where I can sleep through it; but, I’ve often joked with my
peers, that at home I’ll need a sound machine to sleep by that has the
same effect.
In the evenings as we enjoy taking a little time off before we return to
our jobs, a handful of us will gather on our 20 foot tall deck
overlooking the airfield and an Afghanistan sunset. We can hear prayers
(salaats) being chanted from the two nearby villages. Hmmmmmmm, I
assume these are prayers of Islam; although, I’m not sure of the true
sect or dialect. Sunni Afghan’s represent aboot 80% – 85% of the
population while the Shi’a make up another 15%. Most of us understand
that there is a difference although we know very little about their
differences. I understand that when Muhammed died there was no plan of
succession – so dependng on who you thought at the time should follow
Muhammed – identified you as a member of one group or the other.
Nevertheless, the chanting is a reminder that we are not at home.
Bagram Air Field and many other locations in Afghanistan are surrounded
by mines used by the Russian army to provide security during their
presence here. The international community represented through NATO and
the Internatinal Security Assistance Force (ISAF) have mine action teams
who are involved in clearing and thus “recapture” the land occupied by
the mine fields around the old bases. One of several forms of clearing
these mines is blowing them in place, so its not unusual throughout the
day to hear 3 – 5 explosions. Do people jump or run? No, its part of
our routine – except for the visitors who often have looks of concern on
their faces.
Life around any military air base is going to be full of the sounds you
customarily associate with an airfield; helicopters, large, small and
executive “fixed” wings, continually landing and taking off day and
night. We also hear the trucks and equipment moving cargo on and off
the field; or, the sounds of construction equipment which indicates this
place is not yet fully constructed or completed; and, the sound of
constant conversation as soldiers and civilian contractors “walk” from
here to there whether they have a destination or not.
But – The real sound that is a luxury here is “silence.” It is very
special when we have the time to pause and absorb an uncommon moment of
quiet in this place.
And……in this moment, I am reminded that I am surrounded by young
soldiers who are as little as a few months out of high school, going
about accomplishing complex tasks under difficult circumstances. They
are accompanied by seasoned soldiers who have for the most part
volunteered or “re-upped” to mentor these future leaders in our armed
forces. Young and old they emerge from our American towns, cities, and
rural farm lands to be here.
On this anniversary of the signing of our “Declaration of Independence,”
I am also reminded of a few young soldiers, their mentors and leaders,
who also emerged from towns, cities, and rural farm lands to camp on
the banks of a river at Valley Forge, and the expectation they must have
experienced as they crossed the Delaware River in “silence.”
Perhaps, it too is a “sound of freedom.”
Boyles
Storm 8
Our thoughts and prayers are with all who are serving our country this holiday! Garry Leigh
Last weeks big news…….
TMZ? Really! Traditional media was simply irrelevant yesterday when it came to real time news gathering. Twitter and Facebook are now the “go to” media in a crisis to instantly check with those we trust and see if they are reacting. If so, it’s real and if not, we IM or text those most in the know to double check. Radio, Television and even the Washington Post simply reported TMZ’s coverage if they bothered to break in at all. TMZ! Really. I was on the air when Elvis died and heard the alarm bells got the bulletin on an AP Teletype. Yesterday I heard my phone chirp and at my computer I got the tweet from TMZ and the reality of real time instant access hit home. Twitter was exploding for hours and there was no corroboration from any traditional source which in effect took them out of their role and redefined for many their new “go to” sources for news. How did our outlets fare? Those who have made the switch to real time awareness on social media sites did fine and utilized them for added dimension. We could eavesdrop on an entire world reacting to the news together in real time with no moderator, all looking to each other for guidance and help and not relying on some authority figure to tell us what was going on or tell us how to react. Those authority figures were busy following the book and trying to get multiple sources confirmation before saying anything. It’s refreshing on many levels, but also means the rules have changed dramatically. Already this morning the news headlines in Dallas have shifted from Michael to Idol auditions as the lead. Welcome to real time. Welcome to our new reality. Let’s get busy. I’ve gotta get back to Twitscoop to see who is covering the mass moonwalk at 6pm today @ Liverpool St.
Garry Leigh
2009 Radio Mercury Awards without radio?!
OK… So it’s the Radio Mercury Awards and sorry, there will be no awards in certain categories…but we are keeping the entry fees anyway. So what happens when they give an awards show and no one enters or shows up? I have a feeling we’ll find out next year! Amazing.
If the judges believe there is such a spectacular lack of creativity, whey aren’t they filling the void and making millions with their creativity? I could go on for days but this is a SNAFU so self-evident that I just wanted to post a picture of the award we’ll probably never see again.
Garry Leigh Snafu Consulting
 OK…. Had to do two this week. U.S. Senator John Ensign resigned from a party leadership post Wednesday after he admitted an affair with a female staffer whose husband also worked for him. But wait, it gets better. Ensign and his mistress worked together at Battle Born PAC…. yes, a Christian family values centered PAC.
check the link http://www.battlebornpac.com/about-john-ensign Is it just me, or does this remind you of the movie Birdcage? Remember with Robin Williams?
Management is doing things right; leadership is doing the right things. – Peter F. Drucker
 The National Academy of Sciences heard about leadership today, as did we who eavesdropped on the speech, and the question becomes whether we want to embrace what can be, or listen to the minority on why we can’t get there from here. After meetings with many entrepreneurs investing heavily in r&d on energy and the accompanying support systems, the future is now or there really is no future economically or environmentally for our kids. We can’t leave the “situation normal, (well you know the rest of the corporate name) as inherent, but create new Snafu Solutions. As they like to say in Texas, Jeanie and I are all in and it’s nice to know our President is too. Let’s get creative and help with a solution today! Oh, and if you missed it, the speech is available at President\’s speech NAS
All too regularly I am in touch with friends who are finding themselves with a lot of extra time on their hands due to more corporate “right sizing” and we sort thru the immediate steps of goal reassessment and plotting the job search strategy. Then comes the step of actually putting yourself and your talents out there and opening up for the harsh reality of a very tight job market.
I try to frequently tweet and post articles relating to staying engaged and motivated in our creative endeavors by volunteering some of our talents to organizations to which you feel connected. They are feeling the economic crunch from all levels and can probably really use the help and support of your time and talents while you get the creative rush of doing something new, different and challenging of your skills in a whole new working environment. We don’t mind “making money for the man” when it’s a cause we believe in and it is particularly satisfying to be around like minded people making progress toward our mutual goal.
Showcase your talents, connect with others in your field, stay primed and ready for the next job and feel great at the end of the day for all that you’ve accomplished on the way. Positive energy can be created quickly while the alternative is often lost focus, dwindling momentum and precious time wasted while waiting for things to happen as opposed to making good things happen. Forward your phone to the cell and you won’t miss a call that day or two a week that you are out pro bono.
Some corporate structures include pro bono as a part of who they are, like GSD&M in Austin, and it helps balance and center creative energy to apply it positively to mankind as well as to the bottom line.
For many this is a great opportunity to decompress, reassess, and properly address our most heartfelt passions and that energy created will cross into your job search as well as the excitement of learning the systems employed by the non-profit. I just put together an IP Television system for streaming races for my daughter’s team and had a blast doing it!
When asked in your next job interview what you have done since leaving company X, it will be fun to feel your pride as you explain the progress you helped facilitate within that favorite organization and that will speak volumes on who you are!
Let’s get busy.
Garry Leigh
Snafu Consulting, LLC
When ad revenues sharply decline what do you do with your magazine? Make it more focused on the reader to increase circulation, word of mouth, demand and thereby ramp up revenue? Of course not. You do what everyone else in traditional media does today and change the product to better suit an advertiser’s message while hoping the consumer doesn’t feel used in the process.
Living is going where the remaining ad spending is for publications and will be adding new features to court those accounts like a health and beauty column, a fashion department and of course, an occasional travel piece for better ad proximity to editorial content.
Pages in Living are down over 35% this year so why not? Will the reader notice or care?
Does this remind you of any other facet of media lately? It reminds me of an episode of “30 Rock” which really brought home the product ramifications of catering to advertisers rather than viewers.
The real solution for traditional media’s dilemma might just be to go where the consumers are and give them what they want when, where, and how they want to consume it. Rather than spending billions trying to push an audience to our house, how about we take our brilliantly targeted content to them in their environment in a form that is most usable to them?!
I know, this is the same message you’ve heard from Snafu Solutions for years, but when MARTHA STEWART gets dragged into the fray, it’s time to act or in the very near future her magazine may be adding a stock tips feature. Brought to us by Citi.
Garry Leigh Snafu Consulting
Are you sure you know what she's thinking?
The days of our programming departments spending TONS of money on audience research are pretty much over and now we have to fight for every bit of music testing we can get, so perceptual research and the usual strategic planning based on those volumes of information are pretty much left to local management to figure out now. There are marvelous exceptions along the way, and you are the lucky ones, but for the most part we’re out digging up every bit of info we find on our audience and what they want to hear right now. Not last week or last month, but right now. It’s actually a tall order and many Program Directors are screaming at their staff right now for saying something no-one wanted to hear. Yes it is a part of the PD’s job to help the staff find hot topics and guide them on seamlessly integrating that content into their show, so as always, check with me anytime on an extensive list of sites which overview usage in their particular web niche. Then we’ll try to focus them as tightly as you can on your market as the hot topics will very widely by geography, but this can help you get into the moment.
Garry Leigh Snafu Consulting.com
When doing Hot Hits back in the day for Mike Joseph, at boot camp he always stayed in our face about each live break being referred to as “a relate”. He never called them a break or whatever… only “a relate”. Obviously, that meant whatever we said had damn sure better relate to the target audience in the moment or we’d never get out of boot camp and wind up back on our old stations somewhere. You had to know and understand the target audience well enough to relate EVERY BREAK to build a connection to that listener one by one. We had to earn their trust every day break by break. There was never a throw away time n temp, never a simple call letters/title/artist… every break was a relate or you didn’t deserve to be in Hot Hits in a top 5 market. Two boot camps and two different Hot Hits stations in two different top 5 markets, I still agreed with Mike on that and to this day that fundamental of the medium hasn’t changed for truly successful stations. Lots of time and effort went into researching the audience and Philly was amazingly different from San Francisco, but the audience weren’t there to listen to me, they were listening to hear a reflection of what the station meant to them. When I read this piece from Advertising Age this morning, it brought back that broadcast basic of making the connection with the listener every single break – oops – relate (sorry Mike). Good reminder that it’s not just us, it’s a part of the fabric of life and our intercommunication at many levels. See you in New Orleans! Enjoy. Garry Leigh Snafu Consulting
Connect More, Advertise Less
What Mardi Gras Parades Can Teach You About Human Nature
Posted by Tom Martin on 01.21.09 @ 08:55 AM
Tom Martin
Here in New Orleans, the Christmas decorations have given way to the Mardi Gras decorations, which got me to thinking about an old blog post I wrote a few years ago about connections.
As I sat on the neutral ground one year during Mardi Gras helping my kids yell for and catch beads, toys, etc., I had an epiphany. Here we were, in the middle of what can only be characterized as organized chaos, and amidst the yelling, screaming music, an interesting thing happened — we made a connection.
As my 3-year-old (at the time), Hayes, sat slumped in his ladder, fast asleep (poor thing was sick), I was doing my best to keep him from being hit by a flying bead while also catching him a few trinkets so when he awoke he wouldn’t feel left out of the fun. And then a float stopped in front of us and on the top deck some 20 feet away a young woman (I think — not sure as riders are masked) made eye contact, gave a quick little frown and then reached down and launched a huge stuffed animal, but only after assuring she had my attention and that I realized she was throwing to Hayes. I caught it and waved a thank you to her and then she was off. Mission accomplished. I was a good dad.
Now if you’ve never ridden on a Mardi Gras float, you can’t fully understand how unique this situation is. As a rider you can’t hear anything but a constant swell of screaming and yelling. Hundreds, thousands of people screaming for your attention in hopes you’ll “throw them something mister.” Add to this the fact that you’re on a moving platform, it’s dark and maybe you’ve had a cocktail or two, and it is hard enough to pick people out of the crowd that you are looking for much less make a random connection. But it happens.
In fact, this same thing happened a dozen or more times as the parade continued to roll on. I didn’t know these people, they didn’t know me but they felt something. A connection. For a fleeting moment, a personal connection was made and the nameless rider put down the 25-cent plastic beads and tossed an item that costs them (Mardi Gras float riders pay for the stuff they throw out of their own pockets) not an insignificant amount of money.
Why?
And that has gotten me thinking. About this idea — connection — the simple human need to connect to others. Powerful. Powerful because it causes people to do things, feel things and act on those feelings. Powerful because connection lives beyond the transaction and creates feelings and memories that last. Powerful because in a world of hyperconnectivity, consumers have never been less connected to brands.
At first I thought it might just be me, but then one night I read a report of Anderson Coopers’ coverage of Mardi Gras that year — he rode in Endymion, a Super Krewe, the big parades that you see on TV. He remarked: “Rolling on the float late at night, I realized Mardi Gras is not about the beads or about Bourbon Street. It’s about making a connection, one person to another.” And it hit me. Anderson was right. He had captured the essence of Mardi Gras but more important he had captured this powerful human insight, one that I’m sure can be used to create more powerful and effective work. People really do want to connect. But as advertisers, we need to give them something worthy of connecting too.
So the next time you sit down to write a brief or review concepts, ask yourself if what you’re doing is advertising or trying to connect. If it is the former, try again. Who knows, you might just get rewarded with a nice prize for your efforts.
~ ~ ~
Tom Martin is president of Zehnder Communications, with offices in New Orleans and Baton Rouge. He can be reached at Tom.Martin@z-comm.com. Follow him on Twitter: @TomMartin .
For years we’ve been discussing ways to take radio across boundries and make aspects of the local station brand not just available, but as a “go to” at the top of your daily digital adgenda. In fact, the very first blog in the archives relates to exactly this and I think Ketchum’s research is screaming we need to take another look. Garry Leigh Snafu Consulting
Legacy Media and New Media Meld: Mass Communications Succumb to Communications by the Masses
According to the third annual U.S. Media Myths & Realities survey by Ketchum and the Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center, the melding of media means that content deliverables once owned by a specific medium are now found on nearly all platforms, creating a participatory and fragmented media landscape.
As Americans buy products, seek information, plan their social lives, and make personal and business decisions, the lines between media channels in the 21st century have become increasingly blurred, says the study report.
Along with a steep rise in the use of shopping Web sites among consumers, doubling from 2006 to 2008, 44% of those visiting shopping Web sites read consumer reviews and comments there, showing that these sites have transformed into virtual social gathering places and information destinations, rather than just a place to purchase goods.
Consumers are (frequently) placing more trust in the experiences of their online peers than they are on the retailer’s product descriptions. This participatory media landscape, says the report, means media audiences are having just as much influence, if not more, as the content providers themselves.
Nicholas Scibetta, Ketchum partner and director of the agency’s Global Media Network, concludes that “… not only are people posting their thoughts via consumer-generated reviews, but they are also responding to each other’s comments… (creating) pockets of social networks found all over the Web… conversations among readers, information seekers, and reviewers can be found from The New York Times and The Huffington Post, to YouTube, to the neighborhood blogger… with the widespread availability of such conversations, the lines that once separated mediums have now melded.”
Jerry Swerling, founder and director of the USC Annenberg Strategic Public Relations Center, says “.. it’s a transformative time in which we are seeing outlets move from single-media to multi-media… ”
Consumers are using a wider variety of channels than ever before. Newer channels, such as blogs and social networking sites, are gaining more and more traction. The survey found that 26% of consumers use social networking sites, compared to 17% in 2006. The usage of blogs nearly doubled (24% in 2008 compared to 13% in 2006).
Among influential consumers, the 10% to 15% of the population who initiate change in their communities, 32% read blogs written by journalists (vs. 8% of the general population), and:
43% read blogs by non-journalists, compared to 16% of the general population
70% of influencers use search engines, vs. 57% of the general population
43% of influencers use video-sharing Web sites, vs. 25% of the general population
29% of influencers use specialty information portals (such as WebMD), vs.16% of the general population
Influencers also use more new media such as videocasts (19%), RSS news feeds (15%), podcasts (12%), and mobile media (9%)
The use of more established media channels continues to wane. 65% of consumers use major network television news as a source of information (down from 71% in 2006). Local television news saw a sharper drop – 62% in 2008 compared to 74% in 2006.
Swerling concludes “… we’ve watched traditional mass communications give way to communications controlled by the masses… the melding of media is… demonstrated in the actions of legacy media, which are continuing to embrace and implement the principles of new media. Conversely, the journalistic principles that underline news organizations… accuracy, timeliness, objectivity… move to other delivery channels.”
For more information about melding media, please visit Ketchum here.
|
|
