For many of us, the idea mobile marketing creates a cringe-enducing association with mobile spam. Images of random text messages waking you up in the middle of the night race through your head. You begin to shiver with thoughts of your cell phone rattling in the middle of a presentation letting you know about “Free Pix”. Well I’m here to tell you – It doesn’t have to be that way.

Utilizing advanced network capacities, refined measurement/tracking capabilities, and a solid strategy, marketers can safely enter the mobile universe with little fear of turning off their valued consumers. The key to connecting with your audience through mobile is to provide valuable and timely content on an opt-in/opt-out basis. If people are asking for you to communicate with them, you have a perfect opportunity to provide an engaging brand touchpoint.

Here are a few tips for entering the mobile space for your company:

Continue reading "Mobile - The Final Frontier"

How cool is this: Chanel is sponsoring a Mobile Art pavilion designed by the award-winning architect Zaha Hadid that will be landing in New York's Central Park in October (having already made stops in Hong Kong and Tokyo, with London and Paris to follow).

According to the New York Times, more than a temporary art space (not to mention Hadid's first building in New York), "the pavilion is a provocative advertisement. Chanel, the fashion brand, commissioned Ms. Hadid to create the traveling structure to house works by about 15 hot contemporary artists. Each was asked to create a work that was at least in part inspired by Chanel’s classic 2.55 quilted-style chain handbag, so named because it was first issued in February 1955."

For my first 360 blog I thought I’d take the opportunity to talk about a few of the web services I use every day and why I think they’re important. Web 2.0 (I guess we should stop calling it that pretty soon: it’s just the Web now, eh), has given birth to an explosion in interesting and innovative interactive services. The three I’ve highlighted below are all a little older in Web terms, each having been around for a few years and each having been acquired by a larger more established corporation, but all three are widely adopted and among the best services out there.

Continue reading "Killer Web Services"

The art of customer service has become somewhat obsolete in this day and age – we are at a place where good behavior is hard to find and on-brand behavior is rare. So when you encounter good customer service, it makes you feel all warm and mushy inside and you want to tell everyone you know. Hello, everyone.

I’m not a very tech-savvy person. My last computer was a hand-me down from my brother and it resembled one of those computers the military used in the 60s – large, bulky and slow. I decided to embark on the scary journey of buying a new computer. Like any good consumer, I started doing preliminary research. I needed a very simple computer – something easy to use, easy to maintain and easy to carry. (Did I mention it needed to be easy?) I looked at all of the major websites – Sony, Dell, HP and with each site, became more and more discouraged as the options I wanted either became astronomically expensive or limited me to computers that didn’t seem to fit my needs. Then on recommendation from our entire design studio, I went to the Apple website.

Continue reading "Deliver What You Promise and People Will Like You"

I watched a fascinating presentation from the TED conference (aren't they all!) by Susan Blackmore. Her bio says:

Susan Blackmore is dedicated to understanding the scientific nature of consciousness. Her latest work centers on the existence of memes -- little bits of knowledge, lore, habit that seem to spread themselves using human brains as mere carriers. She's exploring the existence of a new class of meme, spread by human technology. It's temporarily named the "teme."

As I watched her explain memes in terms fashion, trends, etc., it occurred to me that our job is essentially to turn a brand -- logo, concept, experience -- into a meme. This presentation takes it a step further, exploring the notion that technology has enabled a new kind of self-replicating entity, which she dubs "techno-memes" or "temes" for short.

If you have 20 minutes, check out this video. It's mind expanding.

While many people are tired of talking about Web 2.0 and social networking, companies still seem to be ill-informed on how to develop an online voice that is differentiated from all of their other marketing communications. In the world of Web 2.0, the question is not whether to open a dialogue – because people are certainly already talking about you. The question is, “Do YOU want in on the action?”

Continue reading "Getting in on web conversations"

My colleague Matt Jones wrote another opinion piece published in B & T Magazine. In it he discusses whether a brand-based discipline should focus on driving sales.

“It’s all about the Benjamins” (money for those not fluent in hip hop speak), according to the artist formally known as Puff Daddy but now known as Diddy (or P. Diddy as he remains in some markets for legal reasons). That could also have served as the theme of Jack Morton’s global leadership meeting in Boston last month. Because money featured a lot. Specifically, how we can help our clients make more of it.

Continue reading "Retail or Brand?"