Friday, March 23, 2012
Why Some Ads Go Viral and Others Don't - Video
Ever wonder why some Internet ads go viral while others don't? In this video, Harvard Business School professor Thales Teixeira explain why.
Why Some Ads Go Viral and Others Don't - Video - Harvard Business Review
Why Some Ads Go Viral and Others Don't - Video - Harvard Business Review
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Image, Response, and Eye Candy: Trade show giveaway strategies
A colleague once asked me if I would suggest or recommend a giveaway or promotional item for his company. His company exhibited at many trade shows throughout the course of the year and he felt a giveaway item, or "tchotchke", would help his booth personnel draw traffic to his company's exhibit booth.
Despite the fact that the age of trade shows seems to be quickly fading, this topic is still often discussed amongst marketers and the thought of giving away a promotional item with a corporate logo or URL in mass quantities is very tempting to many trade show marketers. "What could be better?", they think, than placing the company name or logo in front of many, many people?
I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about promotional items with you that you might find helpful if you are considering incorporating promotional, giveaway items as a part of your trade show marketing efforts. Examine my colleague's logic and see if it sounds familiar to you...
COLLEAGUE'S PERCEPTION:
"I think at shows we need to have freebies or a giveaway item to just get our name out there and get more people stopping by the booth. This may not increase the quality of leads, but it does increase traffic for traffic's sake".
MY THOUGHTS:
Giving away freebies to increase booth traffic just for traffic's sake is foolhardy unless you can give away an item that makes a lasting impression at very low expense. This represents a very big challenge and it might even be an oxymoron. Untargeted promotion is simply a waste of money.
The best "freebies" are those that are targeted toward the right audience, that clearly communicate benefits, and that are just one part in a methodical, brand-building campaign that is reinforced by other marketing communications. Too many companies spend far too much money on expensive giveaway items that have little to no impact. Worse yet, these companies often do not even understand the impact or effectiveness of their giveaway item because they can not or do not measure the campaign in any way.
If you are thinking about using a giveaway item as a trade show marketing tactic, the place to start is with careful consideration of your budget and your goals. Believe it or not, I've seen more than a few trade show giveaway campaigns launched because the boss wanted a golf shirt with the corporate logo on it or because he/she thought all the employees of the company would appreciate a new T-shirt. This should not be the reason you launch such an initiative. Some things that should help define your campaign are:
- Your budget
- Your goal
- The message your giveaway item will communicate
- Your target audience
- The impression you are trying to create
You must ask yourself how much money you can afford to spend and how many impressions you need to make with that budget to achieve your goals. As with any other form of marketing, if you can't measure it then you shouldn't be doing it.
You, wise marketer, know you must work hard to fully understand the economics of the campaign, measure it, and maximize the effectiveness of each and every dollar you invest. You also need to define what you hope to accomplish with your campaign. Will you use the giveaway item to generate tangible sales leads? Will you use the item to reinforce your brand or identity in a complementary fashion to your other marketing communications? Will you use the item to reward your existing prospects and engage them in continuing dialogue?
Let's take a look at some of these strategies a little more closely.
Choosing the item
It is best to have a giveaway item that is somehow related to your business or products -- if at all possible. As examples, carpenters could give away rulers, car dealers - key chains, coffee shops - coffee mugs, etc. The more closely related the item is to your business the better because people make associations in their minds so give them a "hook" to make such an association. If you can't find an item that is somehow related to your business or product, at least make sure the creative aspect of the item conveys a close tie to your business or product.
I have seen or have been involved in successful campaigns that have used letter openers, ice scrapers, lotto scratch-off tools, posters, custom printed logo labels on water bottles, calendar magnets, pens, T-shirts, and coffee mugs. Any of these items, if targeted to the wrong market or with the wrong imprinted message, could just as easily have been losing campaigns. The possibilities when it comes to choosing a promotional item are almost limitless so take some time to explore the options available and choose an item that matches your business.
Image campaign
Some businesses have large budgets they can use to create an item that reinforces an ingrained marketing message or to help project corporate identity. These companies may be able to afford anywhere between $ 5.00 to $50 or higher per item and give the item away in an uncontrolled manner to anyone who walks by their exhibit booth and grabs one. They have closely analyzed their costs and know the lifetime value of their customers such that they know this approach is very effective for them. If you fall into this category and you know your costs are worth it to build your brand or identity, then by all means try a creative or clever giveaway item that reinforces your brand or identity and get it into as many hands as possible at your next exhibit. Most businesses, however, do not have such a strong identity or such strong brands that this type of image campaign is cost effective.
Customer relations campaign
You might be able to succeed giving away a high value item in a relationship building capacity if you make sure you target your prospects first and only invite pre-qualified prospects to stop by your exhibit booth and receive the giveaway item. Often you can target your audience by sending out a special invitation to your in-house mailing list or by carefully selecting the right segment of the pre-registered attendees using the exhibit's mailing list. In other words, target people you know have the need for or the interest in your products/services first, invite them to visit you at your exhibit booth, and then use the giveaway item as an additional incentive for them to stop by your booth. Marketing is a relationship and you are rewarding your prospects for staying in the relationship with you in this case.
Drawing or raffle
An alternative to using expensive giveaway items as incentives for pre-qualified prospects is to give away only one (or few) such items via a drawing in which you ask booth visitors to drop their business cards into a bowl and then conduct a drawing at the end of the exhibit. You will undoubtedly suffer from the "unqualified lead" syndrome if you choose to go this route. Some marketers use this tactic when they define a dangerous metric to measure their campaign -- the number of leads garnered at the exhibit. We're after quality of leads not just quantity. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that everyone who attends the exhibit or trade show is a qualified prospect. The number of names collected at an exhibit is rarely an effective measure of success.
Also, not only does the "drawing" campaign have to be fair, but it has to be perceived as fair. If people feel they don't have a chance at winning because the odds of winning are very small, then this will limit the effectiveness of the campaign. If you choose this tactic, you also run the risk of overburdening your sales force with expensive follow-up activities or sending out lots of literature to unqualified prospects. This is a hidden expense that many marketers overlook. Lastly, if you choose to conduct a drawing for your giveaway item, make sure it is not against the policy of the exhibit. Sometimes such games of chance are strict "no no's" and against the rules of the exhibit.
Response generation
Most marketers I talk with are interested in maximizing the lead or response generation aspect of the giveaway item while minimizing expenses.
If you wish to use the item as a lead or response generator, then you should think about how that item will either lead to the capture of a person's contact information for sales follow-up or how you will measure the reach and marketing effectiveness of that item. Do not create an item that provides no way for people to contact you (don't laugh, it happens). You are trying to generate a response so you need to provide a way for people to respond.
Ice breaker
If you think, like my colleague initially thought, that you must give away something in great numbers in order to (try to follow the logic here): Increase booth traffic in the hope of talking to more people in order to try to uncover needs and hopefully make a match between those unmet needs and your products and you don't care to measure response rate, then save your company some money and try using some low cost item such as candy. What you are really looking for is a way to break the ice with people and attract people to your booth regardless of whether or not they might have a need for your products or services. I don't necessarily recommend this tactic for everyone, however, it can be effective for people who feel compelled to give away something to attract booth traffic, qualified or not, on a very tight budget.
A bowl of candy is an excellent, inexpensive tactic that works well in this case. Think about it for a moment. A bowl of candy in your exhibit booth is very low cost, will not take much effort on your part, will be appreciated and most visitors will appreciate a little bit of chocolate, a mint, or other such confectionery delight. People will walk up to your booth and ask if it's OK to take some candy. At that point, it is very easy to say, "Sure, help yourself. By the way, what do you know about how you can benefit from our products"? You have broken the ice, you brought people to your booth, and it did not cost you a great deal of additional money on top of the cost to exhibit at the show in the first place.
Impressions
The risk we as marketers take with any giveaway item is that it will attract unqualified takers that are only interested in getting something for free. Since we can never fully and absolutely control this, another alternate tactic is to give away an item that has high pass along value. In other words, an item likely to be highly visible on a desk, attached to a wall, or otherwise be visible for many other people to see. Impressions is the name of the game in this case and we want to maximize the number of impressions -- or exposures to our advertising message -- while minimizing costs.
Examples in this case might be posters, magnets, or paperweights. Giving away expensive or personal items such as laser flashlights, calculators, hand-held electronic organizers, etc. are generally not a good ideas in this case because, although many people will want them, they will be consumed by individuals and very few other people would ever have the chance to see your company's advertising message.
Think about it for a moment.
Have you ever received a calculator as a giveaway item? Did you leave it out in the open for many other people to see or did you hide it in a drawer somewhere so nobody else would see/take it? If you choose to maximize ad impressions with your giveaway item, carefully consider how the item will be visible to many other people or how high its pass-along rate will be. An item given away to maximize ad exposures should clearly and concisely state a primary benefit of your products or services and also contain contact information, such as a URL, address, or telephone number.
Measurement
Measuring your campaign is critical. Here are just a few ways to measure the success of your giveaway promotion:
- Require booth visitors to swipe their conference badge through your electronic card reader
- Require visitors to fill out a form requesting additional information and indicate their level of interest
- Conduct or commission pre- and post-exhibit market research surveys to measure the effectiveness of your campaign and its impact on strategic awareness
- Train your booth personnel to record as much information about your visitors as possible. Booth personnel should collect business cards or otherwise capture people's names and contact information, as well as, take extensive notes about their personal interactions with booth guests
Creating an effective giveaway item for your trade exhibits can be a very important part of your marketing mix. Now that we've taken a look at some ways to approach the process, I want you to think about what you are trying to accomplish before you launch your next trade show giveaway campaign. Understand your budget, define tangible goals, develop a strong message, establish ways to measure the campaign, and most of all, be creative and have fun!
Good luck and happy exhibiting.
Despite the fact that the age of trade shows seems to be quickly fading, this topic is still often discussed amongst marketers and the thought of giving away a promotional item with a corporate logo or URL in mass quantities is very tempting to many trade show marketers. "What could be better?", they think, than placing the company name or logo in front of many, many people?
I thought I'd share some of my thoughts about promotional items with you that you might find helpful if you are considering incorporating promotional, giveaway items as a part of your trade show marketing efforts. Examine my colleague's logic and see if it sounds familiar to you...
COLLEAGUE'S PERCEPTION:
"I think at shows we need to have freebies or a giveaway item to just get our name out there and get more people stopping by the booth. This may not increase the quality of leads, but it does increase traffic for traffic's sake".
MY THOUGHTS:
Giving away freebies to increase booth traffic just for traffic's sake is foolhardy unless you can give away an item that makes a lasting impression at very low expense. This represents a very big challenge and it might even be an oxymoron. Untargeted promotion is simply a waste of money.
The best "freebies" are those that are targeted toward the right audience, that clearly communicate benefits, and that are just one part in a methodical, brand-building campaign that is reinforced by other marketing communications. Too many companies spend far too much money on expensive giveaway items that have little to no impact. Worse yet, these companies often do not even understand the impact or effectiveness of their giveaway item because they can not or do not measure the campaign in any way.
If you are thinking about using a giveaway item as a trade show marketing tactic, the place to start is with careful consideration of your budget and your goals. Believe it or not, I've seen more than a few trade show giveaway campaigns launched because the boss wanted a golf shirt with the corporate logo on it or because he/she thought all the employees of the company would appreciate a new T-shirt. This should not be the reason you launch such an initiative. Some things that should help define your campaign are:
- Your budget
- Your goal
- The message your giveaway item will communicate
- Your target audience
- The impression you are trying to create
You must ask yourself how much money you can afford to spend and how many impressions you need to make with that budget to achieve your goals. As with any other form of marketing, if you can't measure it then you shouldn't be doing it.
You, wise marketer, know you must work hard to fully understand the economics of the campaign, measure it, and maximize the effectiveness of each and every dollar you invest. You also need to define what you hope to accomplish with your campaign. Will you use the giveaway item to generate tangible sales leads? Will you use the item to reinforce your brand or identity in a complementary fashion to your other marketing communications? Will you use the item to reward your existing prospects and engage them in continuing dialogue?
Let's take a look at some of these strategies a little more closely.
Choosing the item
It is best to have a giveaway item that is somehow related to your business or products -- if at all possible. As examples, carpenters could give away rulers, car dealers - key chains, coffee shops - coffee mugs, etc. The more closely related the item is to your business the better because people make associations in their minds so give them a "hook" to make such an association. If you can't find an item that is somehow related to your business or product, at least make sure the creative aspect of the item conveys a close tie to your business or product.
I have seen or have been involved in successful campaigns that have used letter openers, ice scrapers, lotto scratch-off tools, posters, custom printed logo labels on water bottles, calendar magnets, pens, T-shirts, and coffee mugs. Any of these items, if targeted to the wrong market or with the wrong imprinted message, could just as easily have been losing campaigns. The possibilities when it comes to choosing a promotional item are almost limitless so take some time to explore the options available and choose an item that matches your business.
Image campaign
Some businesses have large budgets they can use to create an item that reinforces an ingrained marketing message or to help project corporate identity. These companies may be able to afford anywhere between $ 5.00 to $50 or higher per item and give the item away in an uncontrolled manner to anyone who walks by their exhibit booth and grabs one. They have closely analyzed their costs and know the lifetime value of their customers such that they know this approach is very effective for them. If you fall into this category and you know your costs are worth it to build your brand or identity, then by all means try a creative or clever giveaway item that reinforces your brand or identity and get it into as many hands as possible at your next exhibit. Most businesses, however, do not have such a strong identity or such strong brands that this type of image campaign is cost effective.
Customer relations campaign
You might be able to succeed giving away a high value item in a relationship building capacity if you make sure you target your prospects first and only invite pre-qualified prospects to stop by your exhibit booth and receive the giveaway item. Often you can target your audience by sending out a special invitation to your in-house mailing list or by carefully selecting the right segment of the pre-registered attendees using the exhibit's mailing list. In other words, target people you know have the need for or the interest in your products/services first, invite them to visit you at your exhibit booth, and then use the giveaway item as an additional incentive for them to stop by your booth. Marketing is a relationship and you are rewarding your prospects for staying in the relationship with you in this case.
Drawing or raffle
An alternative to using expensive giveaway items as incentives for pre-qualified prospects is to give away only one (or few) such items via a drawing in which you ask booth visitors to drop their business cards into a bowl and then conduct a drawing at the end of the exhibit. You will undoubtedly suffer from the "unqualified lead" syndrome if you choose to go this route. Some marketers use this tactic when they define a dangerous metric to measure their campaign -- the number of leads garnered at the exhibit. We're after quality of leads not just quantity. Do not fall into the trap of thinking that everyone who attends the exhibit or trade show is a qualified prospect. The number of names collected at an exhibit is rarely an effective measure of success.
Also, not only does the "drawing" campaign have to be fair, but it has to be perceived as fair. If people feel they don't have a chance at winning because the odds of winning are very small, then this will limit the effectiveness of the campaign. If you choose this tactic, you also run the risk of overburdening your sales force with expensive follow-up activities or sending out lots of literature to unqualified prospects. This is a hidden expense that many marketers overlook. Lastly, if you choose to conduct a drawing for your giveaway item, make sure it is not against the policy of the exhibit. Sometimes such games of chance are strict "no no's" and against the rules of the exhibit.
Response generation
Most marketers I talk with are interested in maximizing the lead or response generation aspect of the giveaway item while minimizing expenses.
If you wish to use the item as a lead or response generator, then you should think about how that item will either lead to the capture of a person's contact information for sales follow-up or how you will measure the reach and marketing effectiveness of that item. Do not create an item that provides no way for people to contact you (don't laugh, it happens). You are trying to generate a response so you need to provide a way for people to respond.
Ice breaker
If you think, like my colleague initially thought, that you must give away something in great numbers in order to (try to follow the logic here): Increase booth traffic in the hope of talking to more people in order to try to uncover needs and hopefully make a match between those unmet needs and your products and you don't care to measure response rate, then save your company some money and try using some low cost item such as candy. What you are really looking for is a way to break the ice with people and attract people to your booth regardless of whether or not they might have a need for your products or services. I don't necessarily recommend this tactic for everyone, however, it can be effective for people who feel compelled to give away something to attract booth traffic, qualified or not, on a very tight budget.
A bowl of candy is an excellent, inexpensive tactic that works well in this case. Think about it for a moment. A bowl of candy in your exhibit booth is very low cost, will not take much effort on your part, will be appreciated and most visitors will appreciate a little bit of chocolate, a mint, or other such confectionery delight. People will walk up to your booth and ask if it's OK to take some candy. At that point, it is very easy to say, "Sure, help yourself. By the way, what do you know about how you can benefit from our products"? You have broken the ice, you brought people to your booth, and it did not cost you a great deal of additional money on top of the cost to exhibit at the show in the first place.
Impressions
The risk we as marketers take with any giveaway item is that it will attract unqualified takers that are only interested in getting something for free. Since we can never fully and absolutely control this, another alternate tactic is to give away an item that has high pass along value. In other words, an item likely to be highly visible on a desk, attached to a wall, or otherwise be visible for many other people to see. Impressions is the name of the game in this case and we want to maximize the number of impressions -- or exposures to our advertising message -- while minimizing costs.
Examples in this case might be posters, magnets, or paperweights. Giving away expensive or personal items such as laser flashlights, calculators, hand-held electronic organizers, etc. are generally not a good ideas in this case because, although many people will want them, they will be consumed by individuals and very few other people would ever have the chance to see your company's advertising message.
Think about it for a moment.
Have you ever received a calculator as a giveaway item? Did you leave it out in the open for many other people to see or did you hide it in a drawer somewhere so nobody else would see/take it? If you choose to maximize ad impressions with your giveaway item, carefully consider how the item will be visible to many other people or how high its pass-along rate will be. An item given away to maximize ad exposures should clearly and concisely state a primary benefit of your products or services and also contain contact information, such as a URL, address, or telephone number.
Measurement
Measuring your campaign is critical. Here are just a few ways to measure the success of your giveaway promotion:
- Require booth visitors to swipe their conference badge through your electronic card reader
- Require visitors to fill out a form requesting additional information and indicate their level of interest
- Conduct or commission pre- and post-exhibit market research surveys to measure the effectiveness of your campaign and its impact on strategic awareness
- Train your booth personnel to record as much information about your visitors as possible. Booth personnel should collect business cards or otherwise capture people's names and contact information, as well as, take extensive notes about their personal interactions with booth guests
Creating an effective giveaway item for your trade exhibits can be a very important part of your marketing mix. Now that we've taken a look at some ways to approach the process, I want you to think about what you are trying to accomplish before you launch your next trade show giveaway campaign. Understand your budget, define tangible goals, develop a strong message, establish ways to measure the campaign, and most of all, be creative and have fun!
Good luck and happy exhibiting.
Saturday, March 03, 2012
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