Buzz Builder

Moonstruck Chocolatier's Behind-the-Scenes Website Video Demonstrates the Power of Authenticity

To often companies forget that many people choose to buy from those they like as much as making decisions strictly based on the features and benefits of a particular product or service. My wife just sent me a link to the below video from Portland, Oregon-based Moonstruck Chocolatier. Aside from making you want to get away from your computer to find a great piece of chocolate, it demonstrates the power of authenticity in web-based video. I love that the only voice in the video is that of one of the company's chocolatiers. He stumbles a few times while talking but you can really hear his enthusiasm for the company and the quality of its chocolates. No actor or actress is as convincing as an enthusiastic person sharing what they love to do.  Enjoy!

Why I've Been AWOL and 2010 Business & Blogging Outlook

Since I started this blog in 2005, I've never gone nearly so long (nearly two months) between posts. But, my life has taken a marvelous turn for the better which was so all-consuming that I decided to take a break from blogging to fully enjoy the moment. Now, with life settling back into a more normal pattern, I'm returning to this blog with a new perspective and enthusiasm.

In November 2009, I traveled to Shanghai, China to visit a former client (DressMonkey) as well as a great business prospect. I did not have great expectations for Shanghai. From press accounts, I imagined that I would discover a gritty industrial city with little of interest to see or do. However, I discovered a sophisticated, dynamic place with an impressive infrastructure, friendly residents, amazing restaurants, lovely parks, and interesting sights. As for pollution, it was not nearly as bad as I anticipated, and locals told me that it has improved a lot in the past decade due to tighter environmental controls.

After leaving Shanghai, I met my wife Ellen in Beijing where we went through the final training in an adoption process that has taken more than three years to complete. On 12/7/09, we flew to Changsha, the capital of China's Hunan Province, to complete our family when we picked up Anya Yuzi Galvin, a healthy, happy, and energetic 21-month-old girl. We can't believe our good fortune in having Anya. It has been a joy to discover her unique attributes over the past month such as her love of spicy food. We never thought that we would need to ask a pediatrician whether it's okay to put Tabasco sauce on a toddler's meals so she will eat them (yes, it's fine). We've also learned that our daughter has an incredible affinity for music and dances whenever she hears it (particularly ballads from female singers but today she heard Rick James' "Super Freak" on the radio and couldn't stop bobbing her head in tune to the song). We've also gained a profound appreciation for all parents as we've learned the incredible effort it takes to mind a toddler who has no sense of physical danger.

As we kick off the eighth year of Galvin Communications, our word of mouth marketing and PR firm in Portland, OR, I'm excited about the possibilities that lie ahead. Even though 2009 was a challenging year for many companies, we had one of our best years as many of our clients looked to our services as a way to retain their existing customers and attract new ones at a fraction of the cost of traditional advertising. We expect that this trend will continue in 2010.

I also remain committed to this blog for five reasons which I share now in the hopes that they might convince you to start blogging or renew a lapsed blog:

1. Blogging is "Googlelicious."

My blog is much easier to find on Google and other leading search engines than our company website. Search engines continue to rank well trafficked blogs with strong inbound links much higher than most websites.

2. Blogging helps me stand apart from my competitors.

I live in the 23rd largest metropolitan market in the United States (Portland, OR/Vancouver, WA) but I'm the only one I know of who blogs regularly about word of mouth marketing. I've attracted clients both locally and nationally because I'm perceived to be more knowledgeable than many equally or more competent colleagues who simply don't blog. Most professional categories are similar to mine in that you can quickly raise your profile through blogging because few are doing this.

3. Blogging builds my credibility.

By writing regularly about word of mouth marketing over the past four years, I've been invited to speak at conferences and meetings around the country which has enhanced my reputation leading to more speaking opportunities and the acquisition of new clients.

4. Blogging creates PR opportunities.

Some of the readers who come to this blog are journalists which has resulted in getting my quotes featured in newspapers and magazine around the country. For instance, a 7/8/09 publicity stunt that Greenpeace did on Mt. Rushmore on which I commented in this blog resulted in some great mainstream attention for me which I detailed in this post.

5. Traditional blogging is on the upswing.

An insightful post with a surprising graph appeared on TechCrunch on 11/24/09 showing how traditional blogs are growing in popularity while the microblogging phenom Twitter is waning. I've certainly noticed this trend in the analytics of this blog as my traffic picked up significantly in the second half of 2009.

Whether you decide to commit (or recommit) to blogging in 2010 or pursue other endeavors, I wish you the very best as your pursue your goals. Thanks for your continued interest in this blog despite the long hiatus without explanation.

Hyundai Canada Leverages Buzz from the "World's Worst Parking Job Ever"

Thanks to a tip from Janet Clesse Hager at Tinfish Initiatives, a marketing firm in Portland, Oregon, I just watched a savvy YouTube video (see below) that Hyundai in Canada posted in response to a one-minute video about a Hyundai car that was crushed in "the world's worst parking job ever." The original video featuring the parking accident in Canada went viral and has been seen by 2.4 million times in its first two weeks online.

Kudos to the marketers at Hyundai Canada for seizing a great opportunity to to generate positive goodwill for the their brand by offering the owner of the trashed Hyundai a sweet replacement ride. Hyundai of Canada's video, which  has been watched 193,000 times in just the week since it has been posted, is a great example of the value of monitoring social media as it relates to one's brand and reacting quickly to an opportunity for creating positive buzz (or doing damage control for widespread negative word of mouth).

Buzz Camp Evolution Reflects Changes in Effective Word of Mouth Marketing Techniques

Yesterday, I presented Buzz Camp for the Oregon Remodelers Association. The dramatic change in Buzz Camp curriculum since I led my first one in October 2004 reflects how successful word of mouth marketing has changed. Five years ago, I spent 60% of Buzz Camp teaching people how to land free publicity in newspapers, magazines, TV and radio. Yesterday,only 10% of the curriculum focused on mainstream media. While traditional PR is still an excellent way to create buzz, there are so many other ways companies can generate attention and sales through customer cultivation, referrals, online tools, and social media. These approaches require more creativity and commitment than dollars.

Some business people are slow to embrace change while others just seem to "get it." My friend Sheri Fitts, Director of Communication and Large Plan Sales at The Standard, is always looking for effective ways to market her company and help the financial advisors who work with her grow their sales. Yesterday, she sent me a link to the below video, which had a YouTube launch on 7/30/09, about the incredible growth of social media. If you've been waiting for the "right time" to jump into social media, this video should convince you that the time is now.

Consumer Review Website The Senior List Aims to Be the Angie's List of Senior Services

A couple of days ago, I received an email from Chris Clark, president of The Senior List, a website aimed at people looking for quality senior services. Chris thought I would be interested in his company based on a post I wrote on this blog in January 2008 which explained why I'm willing to pay for membership on Angie's List, one of the leading customer review websites with approximately 750,000 members across the United States.

I'm intrigued with The Senior List because it provides a valuable service which I haven't seen elsewhere. In fact, a few months ago, my wife and I were thinking about how to find a reputable financial adviser for her parents and didn't know where to look. When I checked out The Senior List, not surprisingly, I noticed primarily health-related categories but I also saw that it has a money management section. If only it had reviews of money managers near my wife's parents, our task of finding a financial adviser would be much easier.

The Senior List is worth visiting since it has an attractive web interface and many useful articles for seniors or those who find themselves responsible for helping seniors make important life decisions. Since the website is relatively new, it still doesn't have many reviews. But, given the billions of dollars that are spent on senior services, I have no doubt that there is a large pool of potential reviewers who can provide insightful reviews for The Senior List. In the "Age of the Empowered Customer," when buzz from regular people is so influential, I'm sure that there will be a proliferation of customer review websites focused on important niches like seniors.

Comcast Reality Check: Comcastic is Bombastic Yet Hardly Fantastic

If you live in an area that cable television provider Comcast serves, you've likely been barraged with advertising for the company's new digital offerings. However, be wary of Comcast's promises if one of its representatives comes knocking on your door.

Last week, a gregarious Comcast representative rang my doorbell offering free digital boxes for our two televisions which he said would allow us to watch channels that we were paying for but had stopped receiving as well as access on-demand programming. Furthermore, he said the digital boxes would integrate perfectly with our TiVo system. Best of all, he promised that all this would come with no increase in our monthly cable bill. Momentarily, I forgot the maxim that "if it sounds to good to be true, it probably is" and agreed to the upgrade.

Today, a Comcast technician came to our house to install our new service. Things started off badly and got worse quickly. First, I was told that there were no guarantees that my TiVo system would work with the new digital box. In fact, he told me, "I don't know why our people promise so many things that can't be guaranteed." Second, he said that he had only one box with him since the person who created the work order had forgottent to put in the code for another box.Third, after installing the digital box, the framing of the image was distorted making it impossible to read the scrolling information on the bottom of the screen that has gotten so popular on television news. Fourth, when leaving, he asked me to sign a piece of paper approving his work and agreeing to a monthly price increase in our service. Since everything that the Comcast technician did contradicted what the Comcast sales representative told me, I refused to sign the work order and requested that the digital box be removed.

While the "Comcastic" advertising campaign has entertained me, I was sorely disappointed with what the company actually delivers. Instead of spending money touting "Comcastic" service, Comcast would be much better served concentrating on offering honest information and quality installations to engender satisfaction and positive buzz.

Derrie-Air Generates Lots of Buzz But Is It Good Marketing?

Many marketers are more concerned about showing off their creativity rather than creating meaningful results for their clients. A great example is the recent advertising effort from Gyro, an ad agency in Philadelphia, to build buzz for a Philly Media Holdings which publishes the Philadelphia Inquirer and other large newspapers in Pennsyvlania.

Recently, Gyro launched a spoof campaign for Derrie-Air, a fictitious airline that charges passengers by how much they and their baggage weigh - given the recent cust-costing announcements from many airlines, it's not much of a stretch to believe that such an airline might actually exist. Large display ads ran in various newspapers which Philly Media Holdings controls sending people to a very realistic looking website.

The hoax was set up to see how many people would fall for the idea. It was designed to "demonstrate the power of our brands in generating awareness and generating traffic for our advertisers, and put a smile on people's faces," explained Philly Media Holdings spokesman Jay Devine.

Can this guy be serious? For owners of furniture stores or an automobile dealerships, two of the biggest type of companies that advertise in newspapers, this spoof campaign proves nothing since their products don't lend themselves to such an attention-getting angle. 

Even though the display ads for a fictitious airline with a crazy business concept are humorous, they do fail to counter the argument that newspaper advertising is in steep decline because more consumers are going online for news and advertisers are following them there as Eric Alterman's excellent article in The New Yorker explains. Instead of creating gimmicky campaigns to fool their readers, Philly Media Holdings would be much better served making their websites more robust and user-friendly to attract an increased share of the growing online advertising market.

Red Bull Gets Wings & Buzz with Flugtag Publicity Stunt Since 1991

Kudos to Red Bull for creating Flugtag, an annual publicity stunt that has taken place in numerous locations around the world since 1991. Each year, it generates tremendous buzz for the company  reinforcing its advertising slogan: "Red Bull gives you wings." Flugtag is a tongue-in-cheek flying event judged on three criteria: distance, creativity and showmanship. What constitutes a craft is purely up to the imagination of the participating teams.

The first Red Bull Flugtag took place in Vienna, Austria, in 1991. Since then, more than 35 Flugtags have been held around the world -- from Ireland to San Francisco -- attracting up to 300,000 spectators. The record for the farthest flight-to-date currently stands at 195 feet set in 2000 at Flugtag Austria. The U.S. record stands at 155 feet set in Nashville, TN in 2007 (see video below from Red Bull which documents this flight).

I was impressed to see Red Bull's Flugtag event featured on the front page of The Oregonian, my daily newspaper, this past Saturday with a photo of a contestant getting ready to jump off a ramp. Clearly, a great photo was the clincher to secure such prime coverage since the article didn't cover the contest rather it merely noted the deadline to apply for the event in August is less than two weeks away.

Yes, Red Bull and other companies have discovered that publicity stunts can still break through the commercial clutter and generate tremendous media and public attention provided they meet some basic as I explained in this post.

Simple is Good Marketing Lessons from Twitter, Common Craft, and the Portland Baroque Orchestra

"Perfection is not when there is no more to add, but no more to take away."
Antione de Saint Exupery, author of The Little Prince and a pioneer in aviation

In a world in which the typical urbanite is exposed to 5,000 marketing messages daily, simple is good. Too many companies get lost in the commercial clutter communicating in a confused way. Today I noticed a public bus with a a sign on the back for the Portland Baroque Orchestra. There was a picture of a violinist, the orchestra's name, and three words: fresh, intimate, and alive.

It seems that more companies are entranced with stating their core values using three words. There is nothing inherently wrong about this. In fact, if you could tell folks what makes your organization, service or product different and interesting in three words, I'm all for it. However, if there is cognitive dissonance between the words you choose and what you offer, you're not helping your brand. Rather, you're merely confusing your possible customers. I can't imagine that there are many people in the world who are drawn to seeing an orchestra that is fresh, intimate and alive. Those words just don't evoke a quality orchestra rather they sound more appropriate for one of those newfangled automatic air fresheners.

But, simple words can be used very effectively. I recently stumbled across a small company in Seattle called Common Craft that does clever videos utilizing paper cutouts to illustrate complex products and services. Make sure to check out the below video that they did for Twitter since it provides an excellent explanation of rapidly growing social media and shows how much can be communicated using simple words and graphics.

Super Bowl Ads Can Build Buzz

Today my wife and I joined 90 million other Americans in watching the Super Bowl on television. I was most interested in seeing the game but my wife, who never watches football, always makes a point of catching the Super Bowl to see the ads. It's the only time a year we actually use TiVo to rewind our favorite commercials.

Fox charged almost $3 million for some 30-second spots although most advertisers paid far less than that depending on when they bought the time, how much they bought and at what point in the game it's placed.

For such a princely sum of money, it's easy to be skeptical that a Super Bowl ad is a good marketing investment. While I'm usually very suspicious of the claim that television advertising is a good way to create buzz, the Super Bowl is an exception.

In an interesting Dow Jones article a couple of days ago, there are some interesting cases of companies that generated tremendous buzz from Super Bowl ads.

For instance, Nationwide Financial Services had one of last year's biggest buzz building commercials with a spot  featuring Kevin Federline, best-known as the estranged husband of Britney Spears, fantasizing about doing a music video while cooking up fries at a fast-food restaurant. That ad has passed into Super Bowl legend, largely because of the enormous publicity it generated, with free media exposure estimated at $23 million in value.

In addition, the company said the ad generated more than 600,000 visits to nationwide.com featured advertising page, with over 500,000 new visitors, and was viewed 832,579 times on its Website alone.

One of the few commercials from this year's Super Bowl which seems to be generating buzz in the blogosphere is the racy Danica Patrick ad for Go Daddy, an website registration company. The company has long been known for pushing the envelope when it comes to good taste. In fact, that seems to be strategy. This year, GoDaddy generated free media attention for having 10 spots rejected by Fox before the network finally accepted one to air. In fact, the company even created a website that features some of the rejected commercials.

Although the Go Daddy ads aren't very creative, I salute them for creating a web page that leverages their Super Bowl buzz. It's amazing that many other companies spent millions of dollars on Super Bowl ads and didn't attempt to drive consumers to their websites to watch the ad again or learn more about the company.