Why We Love Dogs--Customer Journey Research

Meet Killi. She’s a German Shorthaired Pointer who is gracing our lives while her human family takes a holiday. Her owner brought her by this weekend for a meet-and-greet. It was love at first sight.

Sadly, my own dog passed away last year. We miss her terribly. A brutal travel schedule and indifferent teen-aged kids make my home inhospitable for pets, so I’ve been dogless ever since. But for the sake of my research for the pet supply category, I’m playing host to Killi for two weeks to reacquaint myself with the rituals and purchase decisions of life with a dog. Read more about the experiment here.

St. Patrick's Day--Keeping It Real

Happy St. Patrick's Day! For real...

The celebration of St. Paddy's Day in America is like most holidays, over hyped and over celebrated. I always skip the annual parade in Chicago, mainly because it's a drunk fest having nothing to do with the heart and soul of the day.

I am the product of an Irish home, meaning my mother is from the old sod. In fact, she grew up in a mixed neighborhood of Belfast where celebrating St. Patrick's Day was a political statement weighed judiciously lest you get roughed up.

Her own mother sent her children out the door with green shoelaces and medallions of the Blessed Mother fixed to their lapels with green ribbon. Subtle, but demonstrative. As mom tells it, all the Irish kids in her neighborhood were turned out in similar fashion. The walk to school could be dangerous that day, so the kids formed their own parade. With strength in numbers, they'd walk together down the middle of the street. British soldiers stood by. Mothers came out on doorsteps to keep careful watch over their children as they marched to school.

Food plays an important role in any culture. Hartman Group does cool research on dining occassions that explains that the "who" and "when" of food is as important as the "what." Tonight, I'll gather friends and family for corned beef and cabbage. My daughter and I will bake Irish soda bread from scratch. It's an old fashioned affair: I'll set the table with Irish linen, china and Irish crystal. We'll play traditional music as well as a little Van Morrison as we tuck into our supper. There'll be laughter and stories....because we're Irish.
Slainte.

Pitch Perfect: Finding a Sponsorship Hook

Selling a sponsorship means finding the right hook. I’m talking about that deep need that hooks a sponsor’s attention and gets them thinking creatively about how they might work with you. Erik Gensler, manager of sponsorships for New York-based TMG—The Marketing Group, handles sponsorships, marketing and promotions for Broadway theaters. He recently secured a deal for the Lee County Visitor & Convention Bureau in Fort Myers, Florida to sponsor the Roundabout Theatre Company’s series of post-show discussions with theatergoers and actors. The time from conception to contract: three months.

Gensler was able to close the Beaches of Fort Myers and Sanibel deal because he not only showed an understanding of the potential sponsor’s needs--he also found creative and appealing ways to meet them. “New York is an important feeder market for Florida,” he explains. “They were looking for an opportunity to reach an upscale demographic, and people who have money to go to the theater have money to go on vacation. They were also looking to get tickets to entertain travel agents.”

The Roundabout’s series provided an opportunity for marketing to the theater's subscribers along with sponsoring private parties. “This fall we’re planning a night on Broadway, where they can invite their clients to a cocktail reception and then to see the show,” Gensler says. “They’re using this sponsorship to give a great evening to a couple hundred of their clients.” It’s a great hook.

More here.

CDC Uses Twitter to Protect, Inform

The Internet is complicated. Perhaps that explains why Twitter has become so popular--it's simple. Tweets are limited to 140 characters, so they have to be quick. When you follow other users, all their updates are right there on your homepage. There aren't many actions to take in the first place, and most take a few short seconds to complete.

And yet the Center for Disease Control and Prevention recently published a nine-page primer on how to use Twitter. The document, titled "Micro-blogging Requirements and Best Practices", explains the basics of posting, covers lingo, addresses Twitter etiquette and talks about how to best reach audiences. Whatever they're doing must work--their feed, CDCemergency, has nearly 1.3 million followers.

The Twitter compendium is part of a larger social media project that has continued to grow since CDC put it into action. They have also published guidelines for text messaging, Youtube and viral videos, motion graphics, and eCards. As they say on their website, "the use of social media tools is a powerful channel to reach target audiences with strategic, effective and user-centric health interventions." Talk about using the Internet for good purposes. 

Read more about CDC and social media here.

--Mo Hickey

Profiting From The Idea Economy

Last Friday, the deadline closed for entries into the National Endowment for the Arts logo contest. The controversial call-for-entries raised important issues for the creative economy, the biggest question being the value of creative work.

We live in a time of unprecedented creative output. Much of it is facilitated by the Internet and mobile technologies. Take Facebook, for instance. A vast digital canvas for creative expression, Facebook now has a population equal to the fourth largest country in the world.

Recently, Pepsi's bold "Refresh Project" shattered marketing records when it offered grants from its charitable coffers to young leaders for their altruistic community-building projects. AdAge magazine hailed it as a "pivotal test case for other brands." This suggests the seeding of a marketing trend. For more see my post at Huffington.