Let’s Meet Face-To-Face

As all of you know I am a big fan of the internet, email, and all the web technology.  I seem to be on it all day.  If I am not using it at my desk then I am one of those addicted “crackberry” users.  Ask anybody who knows me; it is not hard to find me through technology.

What I like about all this technology is the ease of communications.  I blog all of you every weekday, get email all day long, and researching anything is a “Google” away.  What I don’t like about the new technology is the lack of face-to-face. 

Because we are becoming a slave to our technology we are losing the art of personal contact.  Do you remember when you actually met with people to discuss business?  Now we send email back and forth.  Deals are now made without the handshake.  This may be part of the problem with our economy.  When you have personal contact, look at the person in the eye, and shake their hand it means something.  I believe you just brought that business deal to another level.  It’s personal now.  If you cut a deal in person you have less a chance of one side screwing it up. 

My brother also writes a blog called LiveWorks Newsletter www.liveworksnews.wordpress.com.  He has started a “dinner club” for other peeps in the business.  They get together at a restaurant to eat and talk about the biz.  The place they meet is not some “powerhouse” deal making place.  The first meeting is at a pizza place.  He is also trying to get people in the live event & entertainment business to meet in other cities throughout the country on the same night.  I think this is a great idea.  Meeting face-to-face to chat about the industry.  I bet if this takes off it will make a difference to our industry.  Why, because people are focused when they meet in person (unless you are Joaquin Phoenix).

As we all get ready to enjoy the weekend lets try to wish our loved ones a Happy Valentines Day in person and not through email. It’s hard to kiss someone through the iPhone.  I don’t think they have made an app for that yet.

Have a great weekend!

 

Even The Big Three Are Doing It

They can continue to produce cars no one wants or can afford. They build automobiles that are very 20th century.  They cry to Congress they need a bail out. They don’t understand what’s so wrong with flying the private jets to DC.  You can say all of that but don’t say they are not hip on the non-traditional marketing scene. 

Yes, it’s true they are taking to the web to sway all of us what “good guys” they are.  They are going digital to have us tell Congress that we love the Big Three and want them to get the money.    According to today’s Wall Street Journal Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler are bringing their message to Google, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and the blogs.

The car companies understand these online messages will last a long time.  Once something is posted it can stay out there forever.  I see this all the time even with this blog.  Posts that I wrote months ago are still getting hits everyday. 

They know that the right use of ”tag” or “keywords” will get them to the top of the Google search. I am sure that the car companies are currently among the top searches.  When a searcher types in these words they could be sent to one of the many websites or blogs that the car companies have set up to lobby their case.  They are even buying search ads on Google.  Ford has staff that’s job is to scan the social network sites and exchange messages with other users. 

Another good reason the Big Three are using these forms of marketing is the image of spending “big bucks” on traditional marketing to get the message out.  I guess they did learn from the corporate jet screw up.  I still cannot believe not one of the CEO’s or their “people” didn’t think about the image of flying a corporate jet with their hands out. Is this not part of PR 101?  Of course to fix that mistake they make the return to DC into a big driving event. How predictable of a PR move was that?

Look for more big corporate companies to take the marketing message deep into the web in 2009.  I will say it again; this is marketing/PR for the 21st century.

Have a great weekend!

 

Marketing Thoughts From The Weekend

Times Are Tough For Print

I looked through my Sunday newspaper in the entertainment section this past weekend.  This is usually the time of the year when all the shows and events are running ads to gear up for the holiday season.  I noticed right away how few ads there were.  I only found two of the traditional holiday events.  A smaller ad for the Nutcracker Ballet and a small ad for the Regal Player’s Christmas show.  Where was the Holiday Pops?  Where was the Grinch live show?  This is not a good sign for print. 

I did see a nice color 1/2 page ad for the Triceratops exhibit at the Boston Museum of Science.  It made me want to go see it.  Nice job!

A Good Billboard is Hard to Find

But, I did find a decent one that holds up to what a billboard is supposed to do.  I was driving along the highway this weekend and saw a billboard for the Boston Bruins.  The board had the yellow & black colors of the team (also good for billboards).  It had a picture of its most popular (current) player Chara.  It had the tag line: “We want it as much as you”, referencing the Stanley Cup.  This is a good billboard.  This works because it gives you just enough info to make you think and remember the brand.  Remember, the average view of a billboard is about three seconds.   Too many words and it will just be a blur.

Goodbye Yellow Book Road (sorry, could not help myself)

I read about how the end may be coming very soon for the yellow pages.  Before the internet, we used the phone book and yellow pages almost everyday.  Do you know when the last time you used it was?  About four months ago I got a call from a yellow pages sales rep trying to sell me a listing. I felt bad for this guy.  In the grand world of ad sales, this cannot not be very close to the top in overall ad revenue.  The yellow pages people started moving to the internet.  This was the right idea but it never really caught on.  Two reasons for this: 1) Google is as easy as typing in the search word. 2) Have you ever used the yellow or white web pages?  Way to hard to search (again see first reason).  Without the easy use of the internet, their extinction is near.