Lately I’ve been putting a lot of thought into my 2017 marketing campaigns. For me, it boils down to three questions:
What kind of content will I create?
Who will I attempt to engage with it?
How will I put it out there?
These are tough questions, but this question really bakes my noodle; when it comes to marketing, does anyone really know what the hell they’re doing?
We see the biggest companies spend millions of dollars every year on branding & marketing and make colossal mistakes. 2016 saw plenty, as this article demonstrates. I don’t know which ones are more forehead-smacking: Budweiser & Bloomingdale inadvertently promoting date rape or “The Man In The High Castle” putting Nazi symbols in New York subway cars. That’s one of my favorite new shows BTW so I’m glad it survived that short-sighted blunder.
We also see companies do something so simple yet brilliant that it makes your head spin. Disney’s #ShareYourEars fundraising campaign pledged $2 million. Paramount’s #BlueSteelSelfie campaign helped get them almost 86,000 followers. What they have in common is capitalizing on people’s love of taking pics of themselves and sharing them. Everyone is doing it anyway, right?
TIP OF THE WEEK
You would be amazed at the ridiculous things you can convince yourself of when common sense is kicked to the curb. You would be equally amazed at how often something brilliant stares you right in the face and you have no idea. It’s cliche but it’s true: keep it simple. An effective marketing campaign doesn’t have to be expensive, fancy, or even particularly original. When you have a marketing idea, ask yourself three questions:
Does it reflect your brand?
Is it engaging?
Can it be put “out there” effectively?
Oh, and if you don’t have a brand or even know what branding is, you’ve got a lot of work to do in 2017!
NEWS AND NOTES
This is the Edge Studio “Business and Money 201” webinar advanced notice! My next webinar “Setting Goals for 2017” will be Thursday December 8th @8PM EST. We’re going to talk about how to set you up for success in the New Year. Click here to sign up!
HAPPY HAPPYS
QUOTE OF THE WEEK
From my village to yours; this is Tom Dheere, GKN News…
Tom Dheere is a 20-year veteran of the voice over industry who has narrated thousands of projects for clients in over a dozen countries. He is also a coach at Edge Studio, voiceover business consultant known as the Voice Over Strategist, and is currently writing & producing the comic book “Agent 1.22”.