418QE » Advertising

Help me first – more meaningful ROI

James Caldwell — Sat, 19 Jun 2010 13:41:01 +0000

Businesses always want to increase their ROI. This is a pretty straight forward statement and one which no one ever argues against. The question of “How do we, as a company, increase our capital within the confines of our set marketing and advertising budget?” is an issue every company has.

But very few companies see beyond these statements of the bottom line. They ask the ROI question from their perspective and often only pay lip service to their clientele. I am not suggesting the companies don’t want the best for their consumers; it’s just that the consumers are relegated to the second part of the equation. For all the common jargon used, companies want to sell you a product or service first and then help you second. And this may be a great strategy for the quick buck or impulse buy, (i.e. the Slap Chopper – can you still hear him yelling at you?) but it can be vastly improved upon by integrated services delivered via the internet.

One of the most frequently used statements I make to clients is that they must deliver a memorable user experience to their clientele. And along those lines I also state that they must increase the user’s ROI through greater relevance to receive more business. And here is the catch, companies must first increase the user’s ROI and in turn the user will increase the company’s.

Traditionally companies handed out promotional literature that contained their product or service information, the value proposition, the technical information and testimonials. This brochure was great propaganda for general usage and could be given out at any event. But times are changing and people are experiencing their first glimpse of products and services online.

However many companies are not changing their attitudes towards their clientele and are still delivering a sales approach to an online audience. For example how many online ads have you seen in the last weeks which interfere with your browsing? With so much more potential these companies are still yelling at you to get your attention in an increasingly crowded online atmosphere. And guess what? This tactic has become the digital version of static background noise.

“Buy me” instead of “Let me help you” is too often the message. But the internet allows one to ignore the shouts in ways the consumer could never do before. There is so much more potential to be had on corporate sales sites in which the products and services are pushed on the users with only basic information, i.e. description and price. Companies need to take advantage of simple tools to help their potential clientele:

Teach them how the product or service can help them solve an existing problem
Allow them easy access to any helpful internal training material
Explain everything in plain, every day English, not hyperbole marketing speak which only creates more confusion and sometimes distrust if the product or service doesn’t work as they imagined
Showcase ways in which others (professional or amateur) have solved their problems
Allow individuals to showcase their unique view on problem solving or allow them to ask questions of the community
Explain potential issues that may be confusing to the consumer (I cannot overemphasize this one; time and time again people have questions about the product or service because it is written from an advanced perspective)
Connect the dots to other products or services which may have to be used with the one they are about to purchase (again it may be obvious to your company but not to the individual; besides this is a wonderful opportunity to cross-sell)

As a side note, I purposely left off the content point which explains why this particular company’s product or service offering is better than an other company’s for the very simple reason that I know companies will always include this information in the basic description.

Depending on your company’s situation this list can be improvised and expanded. But what is important, is that the creation of content that pertains to your products or services should be tuned towards creating a more helpful and memorable experience for your potential clientele rather than the spec sheet and list price approach. Give your clientele something useful, create a community of knowledge around your offerings and invite them back to comment on their experience.

Your clientele should become your focus. Although it may sound old-fashioned, if you keep them happy they will keep coming back.

EngageMe: A Fresh Approach

James Caldwell — Sun, 04 Jan 2009 20:03:17 +0000

EngageMe addresses a key infrastructure shortcoming of today’s Internet: the inability to find people across social networks and communications environments based on interests that users have in common. Built and structured on a proprietary taxonomy database, EngageMe is a sophisticated profile management application that gives users a single, free service for building, and then sharing, their personal interest profiles across social networks, instant messengers, emails, blogs, forums and chat rooms. The EngageMe profile application matches people, content and commercial offers as well as targeted advertising across social networks and broader communication environments – all in a way that takes users to the most granular level of topics.

Client

EngageMe

Period

2006 – Present

Client Bio

Startup internet venture.

Personal History

This project was slowly evolved during countless brainstorming sessions on how to fix the inaccurate and problematic tracking of user surfing patterns that companies use now-a-days to dictate a user’s online interests. Most of you can probably recognize the issues everyone faces with examples of your own. For myself it was the fact that many companies were tracking my movements across the internet and defining me incorrectly on very narrow terms, and one day it culminated frustratingly on Amazon where I was served up an offer for yet another children’s book just because I bought one for my niece over one year earlier. For my business partner it was the fact that Google kept returning billions of results on such a wide array of topics because they feel that giving you everything is what you deserve but not necessarily what you really wanted.

Keyword advertising had just taken off and Google was not yet the beast it is today. Other search engines were trying to radically change the direction of what search meant and delivered but unfortunately the simple one page of ten results that Google put out in a couple of micro seconds seemed to gain popularity too fast for other companies to challenge. I would bet that now-a-days, since our connections are generally much faster, that what has seemingly become Google’s trademark results would be drastically better.

So how do you make them better? I would argue the answer is to know and understand the user’s interests better and to deliver information that is skewed towards those interests. But to do this you would have to ask the user about themselves and behave honestly and track them across the web. You would also have to make sure that you did not take in any ‘personally identifiable information’ as that isn’t a trustworthy action.

This is what EngageMe intends to be: open, honest and accurate.

Objective

To create a proof of concept for an interest profile toolset using open source tools (LAMP) based on an AJAX model. EngageMe enables a user-centric profile ownership model that leverages non-personally identifiable information (PII) for security reasons and fast adoption and interoperability with emerging open profile standards.

Noteworthy

An interest taxonomy was developed with over 700k+ interests. A bookmark analyzer allows users to create an initial profile that can then be shared across social networks. Advertisers using EngageMe can target users based on their interests rather than tracking.

Vendor

Thirst for EngageMe

Perform Consulting

James Caldwell — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 15:20:03 +0000

Perform Consulting was a startup consisting of four high level business financial consultants who had just formed a new company. They had plans and needed quick but accurate marketing material. Thirst gave them strong images, bold design and powerful typography to stand out from their competition.

Client

Perform Consulting

Period

1995

Client Bio

An international firm comprising industry experts who specialized in finacial services and public utilities offering among other services; performance measurement, benchmarking and restructuring.

Objective

To capture business share from other major consulting firms with a bold and modern approach to advertising.

Noteworthy

Because of the size of this company’s audience, different tactics were taken to advertise services that were offered. Each piece of direct marketing or advertising was strong and confident. In every case making contact and receiving replies was the priority. This campaign was very successful, it created a marked increase (it actually quadrupled) in customer feedback and acknowledgement of the comapany’s variety of services.

Vendor

Thirst

MH Media Monitoring

James Caldwell — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 14:48:32 +0000

This client had never used any professional resources outside it’s own firm. They were skeptical about the benefits and thought that the cost to produce anything other than photocopies of Wordperfect files was too expensive. After one look at their fourth and fifth generation photocopies I knew I could help them. I explained the best time to use my services and they phoned me when the opportunity came up. This was the result of the first campaign: high impact, low cost mailers and leave behinds.

Client

MH Media Monitoring

Period

1996

Client Bio

A pision of Maclean Hunter, (now Rogers) MH Media Monitoring was the largest media monitoring and distribution service in Canada.

Personal History

Sometimes it is obvious that companies could use some help, and you know that no matter what you do you can improve their image substantially. This is one project that I relished because I knew that I could help them, fit within their budget and improve their image.

Objective

To extend the reach of their new electronic monitoring service on a photocopying budget.

Noteworthy

Several direct mail campaigns were designed at a very low cost. Most of the pieces were fold-out, accordian-style brochures. For the first time humour was used to announce what would otherwise have been fairly dry information.

Vendor

Thirst

Wright Technology Shocks

James Caldwell — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:38:15 +0000

Wright Technology, an Australian company, wanted to blast onto the computer imaging scene. They knew that they had superior imaging technology and made no bones about it. They were adamant that their introduction into the North American market place was to be bold and they wanted nothing subtle about it.

Client

Wright Technology

Period

1996

Client Bio

A software technology company that makes high-end image editing solutions for prepress.

Personal History

These designs came about because we were pushed by the client to shock. Normally we would never have gone this far but the client thought that they were so far ahead of the rest of the industry technically that they could see themselves as untouchable. Admittedly their imaging software was incredible for that time.

Objective

To advertise through a blitz campaign, their new high speed image editing software, “Wright Design”.

Noteworthy

A series of four ads that coincided with an industry show in Las Vegas. The ads were almost always controversial because of their boldness. The shock value of these ads in a staid industry really set this company apart. The feedback and recognition during this campaign was extremely high and sales of their software increased substantially. The following year the company was bought.

Vendor

Thirst

Canadian Hospitality Foundation

James Caldwell — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 13:25:55 +0000

Sometimes a worthy cause lands in your lap and even better your liason is so friendly that before you even think about the task ahead you already commit yourself to the project.

Client

Canadian Hospitality Foundation

Period

1997

Client Bio

Industry-driven and supported scholarship program for the hospitality sector.

Objective

To introduce the scholarship program to students across Canada.

Noteworthy

This charitable program had very little money to spend, but they still wanted maximum impact. Thirst created several sizes and designs of 2-colour posters using the same graphic language.

Vendor

Thirst

Family Channel

James Caldwell — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 12:14:51 +0000

Family Channel is a wholesome cable station which advertises both to the parents and their children. Thirst performed most of their print advertising work and as a bonus I made a good friend from one of my clients.

Client

Family Channel

Period

1995 – 1997

Client Bio

A television channel geared towards families and their children. They are now part of the Astral Communications company.

Personal History

This was an exciting client to work for. The material was always new and the tasks were varied. But I think the best of all, were the personal working relationships that I had with their staff. They were some of the kindest souls I had ever worked with and most of them were learning and growing with their jobs which made it possible to experiment and have some fun.

Objective

Family Channel was in it’s infancy and needed to expand their viewership. They were constantly offering new shows and needed to showcase them. They needed to create awareness among the Canadian population for new programming and specific time slots and create visual identities for programming time slots.

Noteworthy

Most of the work was done in black and white but it still had to have a wholesome attitude and a colourful personality. Over the 3+ years Thirst worked very closely with the marketing group to create many print advertisements. We also developed some of their early on air logos, which had to be colourful, and fit within the framework of Family Channel’s overall branding..

Vendor

Thirst

Sybase Launches in Canada

James Caldwell — Tue, 30 Dec 2008 22:33:12 +0000

Sybase decides to launch their brand into Canada and hired Thirst to create many of their intial prouduct launch materials. At this time they were vying for the number one spot in corporate database development and wanted to expand their user base.

Client

Sybase

Period

1993

Client Bio

Sybase focusses on the integration, management, and delivery of applications, content and data.

Personal History

All pieces of this campaign were extremely high resolution. It is of interest to note that back in 1993 image manipulation was done on very early versions of Adobe Photoshop using the equivilent of x286 computers… it took over a week just to detail their logo into the plug of the direct mail ad below. Almost all of the pieces made for Sybase took as long and I never thought they would. Lesson learned, price your work accordingly.

Objective

The Launch of Sybase Canada needed some highly visible pieces. They needed this campaign (before the ‘Internet’ was so aptly named), to extend their corporate presence into the Canadian market.

Noteworthy

A series of highly visual advertisements were created to show how easily Sybase systems could be integrated. At year’s end, feedback from this campaign tripled from the previous year.

Vendor

Thirst