Hyundai Misses It: Campaign Geared To Hispanics
I just visited the new Hyundai Hispanic marketing website and was very disappointed. Not only was the site boring, but it took me 5 minutes to figure out the navigation — clever, but way to complicated.
The site lacks visuals, of all things! I didn’t see a single picture of a shiny new Hyundai. The copy was good, but why, oh why, would they not use images or video? I mean, buying a car is a cultural and emotional experience, and there is no better way to communicate that but through visuals. Even when checking the “design” section — nothing — No pictures, no colors, no videos.
I don’t know who LatinWorks/Austin is hiring these days, but someone there should know this! Time to move on to a fourth option…
The company has a new head of multicultural marketing and is riding its third Hispanic agency in less than three years.
I visited LatinWorks site, (beware of the urban music on their splash page…) and immediately you can see that their Flash animator has a love for words and animated lines.
Hyundai’s new Hispanic slogan is “Discover it for yourself” but all I did was read about it… They missed the opportunity to provide their customers a truly interactive discovery process through the power of the web.
I haven’t seen the TV spots, so I won’t include those in this critique, but as far as the website, not effective use of marketing dollars, if you ask me.
How Wal-Mart sells CDs
Bradley Werner has an article over at iMedia Connection titled “The Wal-Mart Model for Video Advertising,” but what caught my attention was a section where he writes about how Wal Mart sells CDs.
Recently, a colleague was telling me how a few years ago, Wal-Mart installed machines in all their music departments that allowed customers to listen to the CDs they were interested in before making a purchase.
Customers needed merely to bring the CD to the machine, put on the attached headphones, scan the CD and listen to whatever tracks they chose.
As a consultant for Wal-Mart at the time, my colleague asked an executive why, if all the CDs were already in their database and accessible by search, the machines required users to actually scan the CDs.
“Wouldn’t it make sense to have all the CDs available through the touchscreen?”
“Nope. Once those CDs are in our customers’ hands,” said the Wal-Mart executive, “they’re half-way to the cart. This system helps get the CDs in their hands.”
Wal-Mart, or at least the inventor of those machines, knew how to interact with people. When it comes to online video, we too need to know people.
Makes you wonder if we sometimes make things much to easy on the internet? It seems to me that the lesson here is that the key to effective interaction is to understand human behavior.
Game Mechanics Applied to Marketing And Brands
I read this article by Max Kalehoff a few months ago, but it came to mind again last week as I was writing about usability. This is the new world of media: full user-interaction. Today’s media consumers don’t just want to consume; they want to participate, engage and have fun while doing it.
Kalehoff’s article reviews the work of Ami Jo Kim, creative director at ShuffleBrain and holder of a Ph.D. in behavioral neuroscience. Kalehoff writes that Kim “noted at Supernova how successful games shape our behavior by engaging us in ‘flow,’ which is achieved through an optimum balance of challenge and skill.”
As humans, we need appropriate levels of challenge as our skills increase. The ability to match these two components is what makes good teachers good and great games work.Kim suggests “game mechanics†as a framework to create services that are more fun, compelling and addictive. Boy, it seems incredibly obvious now: As YouTube’s popularity has skyrocketed, so has its alignment with these five key elements of game mechanics:
Those five elements are:
1. Collecting.
The most successful games involve the collection of items like artifacts or tools…
2. Points.
Points are the second critical component, because people will continue a certain behavior to gain more points…
3. Feedback.
The next key aspect is feedback on how you’re doing, whether auditory, visual, or other…
4. Exchanges.
Next are explicit or implicit exchanges, or interactions, such as trading or gifting…
5. Customization.
Finally, customization increases investment and creates barriers to leaving…
You can read the first article by Max Kalehoff on “Game Mechanics Applied to Marketing And Brands” right here and the rest of the “YouTube: The Addictive, Must-Play Game” article right here.
Can you imagine if more non-profits, churches, and even politicians started allowing more of their users/readers/members to customize their interaction with their websites, and engage at a deeper level? This would be one way to bring “community” and greater engagement through technology, which could then translate into more donations, more votes, or more people exploring their faith in person on Sunday morning.
YouTube and Politics: The Game Has Changed
It has indead.
This ad was not the first citizen ad, and it will not be the last. The game has changed.
In case you haven’t followed the story, here is part of it.
The video was posted on YouTube on March 5th under the usernameParkRidge47 (Hillary Clinton was born in Park Ridge, Illinois in 1947)
In an email to techpresident.com, ParkRidge47 explained his reason for making the video:
Hugh Hewitt asks a good (political) question:
What would the MSM be saying if the ad had come out of a shop working for one of the GOP’s big three?
Ok, for those non-political readers, I’m a conservative, so I do feel like the media has a bias. he’s got a point–the media would be all over this.
Conservative Tech Consultant, David All, was going in the right direction with his post.
We’re clearly not dealing with an amateur. This is very much aprofessional – likely someone who I would consider my counterpart onthe Left – and they have a budget behind them.
Based on the evidence above, I’m convinced that anonymous user, ParkRidge47, is a skilled liberal operative.
His reaction to the outing and Phil’s firing from Blue State Digital:
Typical over-reaction from Blue State Digital. “Let’s fire the most effective person on our team.†Back to being normal.
Its a new world out there, and this is how it’s looking like from the trenches inside the beltway. I know most of you readers from outside the beltway could probably care less.
But, if you are a business professional, you should read this and ask yourself “what lessons can I glean from this.” Do you know what your employees are doing? What if one made a YouTube video of your company? You need to be asking yourself some tough questions, and waking up to the reality of a new level of transparency and accountability thanks to citizen journalism, and websites like YouTube.
technorati tags:Barack, Obama, Hillary, Clinton, David, All, Philip, de, Vellis, ParkRidge47, YouTube.com, Blue, State, Digital
New-Media Solutions to PR Challenges
Today’s corporations have new channels through which to get their message out. Whether it is in response to a crisis or public criticism, or to proactively do brand messaging, the mainstream media channels are not the exclusive venue anymore.
Case in point, conservative blogger Rob Bluey’s writes about Big Oil and their efforts to preempt the media’s attacks on the industry for having “excessive profits.” They are, in short, getting their story out and if the common channels–network television–don’t take kindly to your message, you have to find a different messenger.
Seeking to get in front of the brewing storm over rising gas prices, the American Petroleum Institute on Thursday hosted a conference call for bloggers with its chief economist, John Felmy. Realizing it won’t get favorable treatment from the liberal media, Big Oil is turning to bloggers to share its message.
I had the opportunity to sit in on one of these conference call meetings with Ken Cohen, the vice president of public affairs for Exxon Mobil.He spoke to a group of conservative bloggers at the Heritage Foundation’s weekly bloggers’ lunch. Blue comments on that meeting:
Cohen’s focus was on global warming, but his presenceat the meeting was a clear signal that the company was willing to engage with a new medium.
They are smart in doing so. Whether the criticism on big oil is called for or not, I’ll let you decide (I have my own views, of course…), but every company has the mandate to ad value to their stock holders, and should have the opportunity to share their side of the story.
It is foolish for a company to not make use of the new-media channels (Blogging, YouTube, etc.) and make sure their side of the story is getting out. Ultimately, the consumer appreciates having more information with which to make an informed and educated judgment or decision.
technorati tags:Big, oil, PR, news, exxon, Robert, Bluey, media
JetBlue's Customer Bill of Rights and use of YouTube
JetBlue just jumped to the head of the class! How do you make lemonade from lemons? JetBlue is leveraging a bad customer service moment — a real bad one — and using it to leverage a viral campaign to spread the message of their new Customter’s Bill of Right.
They are using YouTube.com to distribute a video directly to consumer, and gaging by the comments, I think its working. I certainly have a very positive impression of them overall, dispite their big fiasko highlighted in the news all last week. I suspect as far as branding, JetBlue just might come out on top on this one. Check out the video.
technorati tags:JetBlue, YouTube.com, David Neeleman
Online Video: “Experience†is key here
This is the power of video over the web. It gives you the ability to reach directly to your audience, leverage the power of viral marketing, and define how you or your business is perceived.
“Experience†is key here, because you won’t get an understanding of
his appeal from the print journalism caricature of telegenic (but
Mormon) family values conservative (but Mormon) elected in liberal
Massachusetts (in spite of being Mormon).No one else in either party’s field of presidential wannabes comes
close to Romney’s communication skill and executive presence. He makes
Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., look like just another charming candidate
for high school class president.
technorati tags:Mitt, Romney, Politics, News, Mormon, White, House, Presidential
Communication, Politics, and Strategy
Check out this inside look at political strategy at work. This video shows some of the behind the scenes work being done in Congress by the Republicans. The key lesson I see is that in today’s communication battle, its about who can define the facts. Unfortunately, in politics, (warning: partisan statement to follow) some have no calms about distorting truth.
The Republican War Room (Politico.com Video):
http://www.politico.com/video/0207/2789.html
But, regardless of what side you are, the speed of delivery presents serious challenges for any communication strategy. Keep your facts straight, and get them out to your audience quickly.
Wawasee school chief leads way in blogging
Here is a good example of the effective uses of blogging to improve your standing as a leader.
SYRACUSE – Last month, 23 Wawasee Community Schools students were sent to the hospital after a driver crossed the centerline and crashed her car head-on into their school bus.
When Superintendent Mark Stock arrived at the hospital, he learned no students were seriously injured – information he wanted to share with parents as quickly as possible.
Using a hospital computer, Stock accessed “The Wawascene,†a personal weblog he maintains, and posted an entry about the crash,telling parents “everyone appears to be OK.â€
It wasn’t the first time Stock used the site during a crisis. On Sept.. 19, Milford School was put into lockdown after reports that a student left the school in a fit of anger, saying he’d be back.
Stock responded with a post, writing, “We took a few calls regarding Milford School being in ‘lock-down’ so I thought I would post the real story this morning to squelch any wild rumors.â€
He is obviously found a key area of his role that the blog serves well. Considering the crisis that seem to be more and more common for schools, it makes sense. But, the key lesson in this article is the effect his blogging has had with his national standing and his peers.
The novelty of The Wawascene has drawn some national attention. Stock will speak about blogging at the National Conference on Education in New Orleans in March. He will share the podium with Clayton Wilcox,superintendent of Pinellas County (Fla.) Schools. The two will speak about “Supers Who Blog for a Purpose.â€
“(Stock) really is a leader among his peers. He was among the first superintendents to develop a blog,†said Amy Vogt, communications and media relations manager for the American Association of School Administrators. The association hosts the National Conference on Education.
The conference is the largest annual gathering of school superintendents in the U.S., Vogt said.
This year, only six of about 70 conference speakers were designated“distinguished lecturers†Vogt said. Stock is one of the six, Vogt said, saying he was selected because he is an innovator in blog use.
“It’s not a communication medium a majority of school superintendents are using,†Vogt said. “Mark Stock is definitely out in front on this.â€
Social Networking and blogging for business purposes is still a novelty, so those who do it are quickly perceived as leaders or innovators. This won’t be for long, so if you want to rise above the pack, take the initiative, and use the tools available.
For example, this coming weekend, as I have mentioned here previously, I was invited to lead a workshop presentation on Internet and viral marketing to the state chapter board members of the National Society of Hispanic MBA’s. I doubt this opportunity would have ever presented itself if it were not for my active blogging and other online activities.
HT: Hugh Hewitt
TechPresident: John Edwards Unofficially Enters Second Life
OK. I know this is my second post from TechPresident, but I just found it, and there is a lot of good stuff in here. Joshua Levy has a post, and screen capture pictures of Edwards’ Second Life unofficial virtual campaign headquarters.
John Edwards has become the first presidential candidate to — unofficially — tread into the Second Life waters.
Politics makes for a good case study on the intersection between communications and technology. Its extreme, its volatile, and its short-term in length (2 years the most).
A volunteer named Jerimee Richir (avatar name: Jose Rote) set up a
virtual headquarters for the Edwards campaign on his own dime.
According to Steve O’Hear over at ZDNet, Richir is unaffiliated with the Edwards campaign but he has their support for the project.
What I tell organizations saying they don’t have the funds or time to improve their use of technology and the web as part of their communication strategy is that they are not thinking outside the box. Interns, volunteers, and friends are the greatest asset a non-profit can have! Politicians and DC companies have learned that very well. Our nation’s capital runs on interns!! (scary, I know…)
