The @oldspice guy responded via video to an @Alyssa_Milano tweet in less than 2 hours. The ad agency Wieden & Kennedy had the Old Spice guy plus writers and interactive specialists locked in the bathroom for two days – they posted more than 100 YouTube responses to Twitter, Facebook and social media posts about the brand.
The social media response was incredible, time will tell if it will increase sales.
UPDATE: According to Nielsen data, Old Spice sales are up 107% in the last month.
From the California State Univeristy Northridge, Deaf Education And Families Project e-newsletter:
the Deaf Education And Families Project launches a new website!
The Deaf Education And Families Project launched a new website in June. The website, www.csun.edu/deafproject, was designed by Counterintuity. Rachel worked with Amy Kramer, President and “marketing whiz” of the company, to redesign the DEAF Project site. The goal was to create a warm, family-friendly, and useful site for families and professionals who are looking for resources and information related to deaf and hard of hearing children. Visit our website and let us know what you think!
I was talking with a client who had a marketing concept she’d been using on her blog for almost 6 months with tremendous success. Recently, it stopped working. Comments dried up. Traffic slowed down.
I asked her what changed? The answer was,
“Nothing. Nothing changed.”
Aha! In six months, nothing had changed. We figured out the problem pretty quickly.
With internet marketing, you need to keep things fresh, keep your audience on their toes and wanting more. If they know what’s coming week after week, they are probably going to get bored. And a bored audience is not an engaged audience.
photography by Azoome
Even the best marketing campaigns have a life span. Recognize when you need to shake it up.
Have you been marketing the same way for months, years, decades? Change it up.
If you are mostly doing search engine marketing, add social media to the mix. If you are doing ads in local papers, add email marketing.
Take a close look at your marketing. Could you use a change?
At the Tri-City Mixer in Glendale, we had a freshen your drink and your marketing contest. Mixer attendees needed to collect all 7 Counterintuity team business cards and drink fresheners to be entered into a drawing for $2,000 worth of social media marketing.
Do the firm’s people ask good questions and then listen? Do they get you thinking about approaches you haven’t considered before? Are they curious and passionate about doing great work and getting results? If they disagree with you, do they present a thoughtful explanation why? A great agency will give you things you didn’t think to ask for.
A while back, my boss Lee posted a blog asking for some doodles and magnets to decorate our company’s brand new white fridge. A few days later, Lee’s friend responded to the posting by mailing one of his drawings. I suddenly got this fun idea that we, the Counterintuity staff, should draw each other for the fridge. So we picked each other’s names out of a hat during our staff meeting and were given a month to turn in our drawings. We had great fun and laughs out of this experience!
See if you can guess who drew who (Literally). Answers below.
You have to give the City of Santa Monica credit for doing their utmost to protect their resident businesses. Last week’s emergency preparedness seminar covered every likely eventuality — right up to zombie attacks. (See bullet points.)
Stefan from Dynamic Advantage (a client and friend) popped over today with this treat for the C! staff — donuts with bacon on them. We were all a little dubious, but they turned out to be a big hit! It seems the Nickel Diner is combining delicious ingredients to make something new and fresh. Hmmm, who else does that?
Daily life consists of so many details that can be lumped into the category of “minutiae”. All those little things you hardly notice but subconsciously take in. More often than not, advertising falls into this category. From television, to radio, internet banners, pop-ups, emails, billboards, and especially all of the social media we engage in – the average American is exposed to hundreds of commercial messages every day. We all say we’d rather do without them. Many people pay for services that remove them like XM Radio or Tivo. But do we really hate them?
I personally think that people have a love affair with marketing. Though, I’m aware my opinion might be slightly biased. After reading this article, I realized that these messages reach far deeper than simply getting people to buy. Even if you don’t notice it outright, you probably let media influence you in more ways than one. Marketing can inform and entertain, break up your commute or just provide an endless amount of conversation. Now it seems that commercialism may even help you like your favorite show better.
Some of it is good, a lot of it is mediocre, and (let’s face it) there are some downright ugly messages out there in the world of marketing. When was the last time you laughed or cried at an ad? How about the last time you bought a product after seeing their media? Do you think those commercial breaks help you enjoy your favorite show more? Let us know what you think.
(Last time) back in April, I was beginning to get into the swing of blogging. It’s not easy finding relevant topics to blog about. Despite being immersed in a plethora of available topics, that one would otherwise find it quite easy to blog, writer’s block hit me.
What’s the best cure for writer’s block? Well, reading! The Frugal Traveler – a blog that has recently transferred authors, but is generally about how to travel frugally. In the latest blog post, the new author (whose last name coincidentally rhymes with frugal) interviews the old author. Here’s an excerpt of my favorite part in the Q&A question, Any advice on how to keep them happy now that they don’t have Matt Gross to kick around (or hug) anymore?:
A. You don’t want to keep them happy. You should be provoking the readers. The readers come up with answers and solutions and ideas when you fail. And you will fail. There will be times when you do things wrong. When you spend too much money, when you miss seeing the really cool thing because you didn’t know it existed, and your readers will be there to tell you afterward. It’s nice to have the readers create a community around the thing you do. So it’s not just you out there. There are people who are rooting for you.
In creating a blog, it’s important to take a stand and release your inner persona. Sometimes it isn’t easy to, because… maybe I don’t know how to express how I feel, until I hear the other side and differing points. Sometimes, it’s hard to take a stance on, Facebook, Twitter, Graphic Design– things that are very broad. But I’ve learned that if I take a stance on something more specific, it’s easier to generate a (possibly) thought-provoking and interesting viewpoint.
Which is, of course, why I return every-so-often (and why you, the reader of this blog, might as well to this blog) to my favorite blogs– to read varying view points, to gain a better understanding of a particular topic, to learn…and for the sheer enjoyment of reading.