(click the image to start the presentation. Quicktime is required. You can download Quicktime here)

Lisa Helminiak gave this presentation to the Saint Paul Chamber of Commerce on Thursday, October 2 2008.

You can also download the presentation in Powerpoint format.

I got some great feedback on my last blog post, “Why Advertising is Irrelevant.” It has spurred some great discussions with people I admire and who’s opinion I respect. I have to admit I wanted to be provocative because of the tired old approach of blanketing the earth with ad copy to get my attention, or worse, reading about work that puts gold statues on agency shelves but doesn’t help the client.

That said, I think I need to decamp for a moment. Everything in the marketing mix has it’s time and place. A TV ad still is probably the best choice for quickly gaining general awareness for some consumer audiences. My point is that we’ve got to start thinking differently.

Our goals as marketers should be to come up with great creative work, but it needs to be more driven by consumer input than ever before….and I don’t mean the kind of input that chooses the ending of Hollywood movies. I am talking using a measurement-driven marketing model to make the appropriate choices at the appropriate times by using input gathered from your customers.

This is easy to write about in a blog, but much more difficult to implement. This is hard stuff for most companies. Even most consultants who are talking about measurement-driven marketing, only get a piece of the puzzle (the left brain or the right) but can’t put the entire picture together in their own consulting company, let alone with the clients. You know as well as I do that internal silos, management structures and lack of clear directives are keeping measurement practices from gaining ground in most companies.

We’ve been thinking a lot about this problem and have been developing some alliances around this involving management consultant, analytics tools and design and development practices that are helping companies gain customer insight through metrics to improve marketing effectiveness. To steal a phrase from Mike Ackmann, one of our favorite consultants, the goal is “Data, not Drama.”

To meet this goal, we’ve crafted a different approach:

1) Strategy Integration
Develop integrated strategies involving key stakeholders across all disciplines in the company. Involving Marketing, Operations, HR, Finance, Technology and Sales.

2) Profitability Practice
Develop processes and practices to integrate customer interaction data into actionable business intelligence across the organization. We translate what is happening out there in the marketplace to what it means for your business.

3) Practical Application
Start simple. Measure what you can today and begin to develop a measurement/profitability practice within your organization. This applies to technology we choose as well. We look for the simplest, most cost-effective tools and technology to get the job done. Learn more about getting started ……

I’ve been talking to lots of advertising and marketing students lately about the future of advertising. I am probably the worst person to be talking to these kids about this. I don’t like advertising and never have. I don’t care about it and don’t find most of it entertaining or engaging in any way. If I want to be entertained, I will go to a movie, thank you. I don’t think most people are all that engaged with advertising. Oh, I think they will talk about the super bowl spots, because that is one of the main points about watching that game. Or they might mention a favorite ad to a friend because it makes them laugh. But I don’t think most look forward to their morning commute just because they will get to read the billboards on the way to work. I have to admit in my younger days (when I had more free time) even being a little vindictive with people trying to market to me. I’ve been known to fill direct marketers pre-paid envelopes with other direct marketers junk mail just to prove a point. I stole this idea from a good friend of mine. Don’t bother me with that stuff.  Thus my issue with talking about advertising … I don’t think there is a future for it…though I have colleagues who will disagree with me and that’s why I work with them. There is very little advertising in my present, let alone my future, because I use technology to avoid it.  Since I don’t have the advertising vernacular in my vocabulary, I’ve developed my own over the years as it applies to online media. And I’ve come to discover how close it is to the world of product development. When it comes down to it, we develop online products. These products communicate. They save time and they save money. They help people do business in new ways. We develop these products for people; people who want to save time, make their lives easier and find new information or ideas. We want to do more than help people pass a minute or 30 seconds of their time. We want to improve their lives, even if it is in a very small way. Think about things like finding out what salaries for your industry tailored to your location www.careeronestop.com or things like being able to get wine recommendations based on your taste and style www.artisanvineyards.com. I don’t think I am alone out there. Advertising has to shift its focus. In fact, the whole notion of advertising has to go away (okay, change) for marketers or business managers for that matter use the medium in a way that can affect their businesses the most. Here is some inspiration from one of the gods of advertising planning……Russell Davies to get you moving in the right direction!

Unfortunately, we’ve had the first buffalo/car collision in the State of MN this week. We at Azul 7 are happy to say that it was not our Buffalo. He is safe and sound and will be back for more posts.

The traditional process for putting together marketing or advertising initiatives involves a creative team coming up with the BIG idea, the thing that gets you and the creative team noticed. It is packaged and delivered through multiple channels to build awareness for your company, your new product, or anything else you want to get attention for.

It is a black box process that is driven by the agency trying to look its most creative and a client that wants attention. The over-arching idea is aimed at the broadest audience possible, blasted out through as many channels as you can afford. If done well, it delights, entertains, and gets attention. Done poorly, it annoys or worse, disturbs our space. Well, at least it disturbs mine.
:: continue reading this ocean post ::

One of the things we often miss as American marketers is the fact that there is a bigger world out there. America has had the luxury of being a self-contained marketplace through much of the 20th century. But the world is changing–quickly. Much of the world’s economic growth will happen outside our boarders as the 21st century progresses.

How can companies expand their reach with the smallest investment? Your web site by its very nature is global. Why not harness this power and create a site that is your international calling card?

Here are some steps to get started:

1) Show, don’t tell: One way to communicate effectively is letting visuals tell a story. Think of those international business signs you see in airport. Pictures, illustrations and animations can sometimes tell a more compelling story than a paragraph of text. This goes for data as well. Charts and graphs can provide information at a glance that is universally understood. One technology client, I am familiar with, had success communicating product benefits without translation by publishing industry standard data charts on all their products to help Asian engineers make product comparisons and purchase decisions.

2) Translate: Even if you are designing a site for the North American market, leaving out Spanish is cutting out a larger and growing share of the market. With database and web interface technology, creating translated sites is not only more cost effective than ever, but reaches out to the broader market in a way that speaks their language. Nothing can really replace translation if you want to be global. No, everybody doesn’t speak English.

3) Cultural Sensitivity: If you are going to translate, it is important to find culturally sensitive translators. If you have overseas’ partners, sales or distribution channels, use them to help write copy or develop marketing themes that will resonate. Don’t assume everything translates. I just returned from Russia for the second time in two years. Every guidebook tells you how to say, “Hello, how are you?” in Russian. The trouble is, Russians don’t ask, “How are you?” to acquaintances. This is a question reserved for good friends and relatives. Yikes, I didn’t mean to be rude!

4) Extended Technologies: Design content for alternative delivery devices. Make sure your web site works on other web-enabled digital devices beyond a computer. Cell phone and wireless culture is far ahead in many other countries. Make it easy for customers to find you no matter how they connect.

Small, but considerate steps can go a long way to position your company outside our shrinking borders.