As marketing and technology moves closer and closer, and branding and advertising can change literally overnight, the big challenge facing most marketers is how to stay relevant.
Podcasts are one of my favourite ways to keep track of everything that happens in the industry. The debates and contrasting points of view that often ensue help me learn and understand topics in more depth than simply reading an industry rag such as Mashable.
So without further adieu, here are my pick of podcasts you should be listening to if you’re serious about making smarter marketing decisions this year:
The Beancast Hosted by the golden voiced Bob Knorpp, The Beancast is a weekly roundtable with some of the brightest marketing minds in North America discussing the latest trends and issues affecting marketers today. Every episode is around an hour long but the debate and discussion is worth it.
Six Pixels of Separation Regular readers of this blog will know that I’m a huge fan of Mitch Joel and his blog Six Pixels of Separation, and his podcast of the same name is no exception. Geared toward senior marketers and executives, each week he interviews business and creative thought leaders such as Avinash Kaushik and Jonathan Salem Baskin giving unparalleled insight into a diverse range of topics.
If you do subscribe, keep your ears out for the occasional Media Hacks episode with regular hackers Mitch, Chris Brogan, Julien Smith, Christopher S. Penn, C.C. Chapman and Hugh Mcguire.
Marketing Over Coffee
Hosted by John Wall and Christopher S. Penn this incredibly popular podcast is essential listening for anyone looking for actionable marketing advice. I’m yet to listen to an episode that hasn’t given me something useful to make me better at my job.
Across the Sound
I’m totally cheating here, but this deserves it’s own entry. Another SPOS spin-off in a “two for the price of one” kinda way, this is a monthly discussion/debate between Mitch Joel and Joseph Jaffe – two of the industry’s heaviest hitters – riffing on the business, cultural and social impact of digital and social media.
Communication Junction ***Shameless plug alert***
Now coming into our second year, this regular discussion between Sarah Thomas, Jason Neave and myself covers digital marketing, PR and social media in Australia and is the only Adelaide marketing podcast we know of.
So there you have it, head on over to iTunes or use your favourite podcast client and start upping your marketing IQ.
When the Old Spice videos started showing up on social media a couple of weeks ago, I was amongst those who promptly declared it “the best social media campaign ever.”
Now that the dust has settled, I thought it was time to revisit my original assertion (I was wrong) and see what impact, if any, the campaign had and we as marketers can learn from it.
It began with traditional media
LOLing at the hundred or so YouTube videos that were created, it’s easy for international audiences especially to forget that the Old Spice campaign first took shape as a very traditional TV ad. Not just any ad, the spot earned top prize at this year’s Cannes Film Lions Grand Prix and went viral.
For this reason it’s a misnomer to call it a pure social media campaign. Without the mainstream awareness and equity built by traditional media, it’s doubtful that we would have cared as much as we did when Old Spice started creating personalised videos responding to Twitter celebs.
Turns out they were wrong as well with Procter & Gamble (Old Spice’s parent company) recently announcing a 55% increase in sales of Old Spice over the last 3 months and a 107% increase in the last month alone.
The bottom line is the campaign worked and based on the massive growth over the last month, and while we can’t say for sure social media played a role in this.
Extending the brand with social
So if the Old Spice ads as a whole did what they were supposed to and drive sales growth, what did Weiden + Kennedy (the Portland agency behind the campaign) get right with social?
Based on the overwhelmingly positive feedback towards the TV ads and the affinity the public felt towards the Old Spice guy, they identified an opportunity to move the campaign beyond traditional media and bring the character to life with social media.
The idea was deliciously simple and surprisingly low-tech considering the buzz it generated. Essentially, it leveraged on a very simple concept “make a series of 30 sec spots” and used social media to make it relevant to the audience. Read Write Web wrote a terrific piece about how the videos were made.
We should be doing this
Well actually, no.
While it’s a foregone conclusion that client’s will soon be asking their agencies for copycat campaigns (Cisco already tried and failed with Cisco Guy), without spending big bucks to build brand equity and a campaign concept that resonates with customers, it’s doubtful that Old Spice’s success can be replicated.
Even then, for social media marketers, the Old Spice campaign failed to leverage all the good stuff inherent in social media: conversation, community, engagement. As great and as innovative as the campaign is, it remains a brilliant traditional media idea that was very smartly repurposed and repackaged for social media.
Hat-tip to Mitch Joel and Joseph Jaffe who I just found out covered this topic in the latest episode of Six Pixels of Separation. I only realised this last night while listening to the podcast and well after this post had been written. If you want to hear their thoughts, you can listen here.
When it comes to hiring digital marketers, it’s a jungle out there.
Even with the number of digital marketing positions on the rise as businesses scramble to avoid being left behind, the growing pool of new digital talent and traditional marketers looking to reposition themselves means that competition in this space is fierce. The emergence of social media, in particular, has altered the landscape yet again making it harder than ever to distinguish genuine talent from the proverbial snake oil salesmen.
With the playing field leveled and everyone now being able to publish and spruik their wares online, what do you need to do to get noticed and ultimately hired?
Over the past few weeks, I have received a number of emails and DMs from people looking for career advice which has prompted me to write this post. However, instead of just hearing from me, I thought it would be even more useful to ask some of the most respected digital marketers in Australia and around the world (including two who have had a profound influence on my career to date),for one piece of advice that they could offer digital job seekers:
Mitch Joel(President, Twist Image; Author, Six Pixels of Separation): Use these channels to become a known voice for whatever it is you’re pursuing. How could someone not hire someone who is regarded in their industry?
Avinash Kaushik (Author, Web Analytics 2.0; Analytics Evangelist, Google): Learn to try new things and play in the real world. There is no better medium in the world for you to try anything you want, all by yourself without the need to rely on your employer to empower you. Tools are free or cheap. Platforms are free or cheap. All you need is a pinch of effort and a dash of desire to learn in the real world. If you do that no one will refuse to hire you because you’ll actually know what the heck you are talking about. If you don’t do that… well…. life will be tougher.
Jason Neave (Managing Director, Via Media): Be visible in the space. If I’m hiring you for a digital marketing role (versus a creative or development one – and even then your online presence plays a huge part), I’ll spend 30 seconds looking at your CV and 30 minutes browsing your social network profiles, blog posts, twitter accounts, flickr galleries, and LinkedIn info. Have an opinion and don’t be afraid to share it. Oh, and if you’re applying, please make the effort to find out who to address your emails/letters to. We get a lot of ‘To Whom it May Concern’ notes. There’s no-one here by that name.
Michelle Prak (Digital Communications Expert, Hughes PR): In whatever you say about yourself online, use keywords. If you’re looking for a job in the digital industry, say so. Don’t just mention the fact that you like cheesecakes and you have a pet dog. Consider how a stranger (and potential employer) would read your profile.
Nic Hodges (Head of Innovation and Technology, Mediacom): Where I see the challenge with talent now is in social and data. Most agencies are still grappling with how they execute and resource social, and that throws up the obvious issue of assessing skillsets and leveraging experience. Add in the plethora of ‘social media gurus’ crowding up the talent pool and there’s a lot of chaff to sort through to get to the wheat. People who can talk social media in real world terms, deliver real business results, and integrate with an overall communications strategy will be highly sought after in the coming years. And whether they go to media, PR, or creative agencies is still up for grabs.
Sarah Thomas (Owner, Carve Consulting): Whilst it is imperative you demonstrate your digital skills and knowledge online, don’t forget about the importance of the real world too. Take your online contacts offline; attend tweetups, industry events, catch up with people for a coffee.
Damien Mair (Principal, Fusion): Be open and willing to try and fail, so you can learn, as following what someone else has done will not provide innovation. There isn’t rules, the people failing will be the ones who leave a path of rules for the followers…to well follow…while you keep evolving….and that is what will make you valuable to whoever you are applying you mind, talents and focus to at the time.
And lastly, my advice: Don’t rely on Twitter to build your reputation. There’s a limit to how insightful you can be in 140 characters. Make the commitment to blog and demonstrate that you not only know your stuff and have some smart things to say but are also up-to-date with emerging trends and have an opinion about the way things are headed.
Did you find this advice useful? What did you think? Is there any other advice you would give to digital job seekers?
Thanks to Mitch Joel, Avinash Kaushik, Jason Neave, Michelle Prak, Nic Hodges, Sarah Thomas and Damien Mair for their generous contributions. If you like what you read, please take the time to check out their blogs/websites, most of which are in my blogroll.
Amidst the chaos leading up to the holiday break, I thought I’d sneak in this quick post.
Aside from spending time with family and friends (not to mention spoiling my son rotten), one thing I’m really looking forward to these holidays is settling in for some R&R to rejuvenate, consolidate and build on my thinking for 2010 by catching up on some reading.
Call me old-fashioned, but while blogs and podcasts are an integral part of my daily life, there’s still no better way to really wrap your head around a topic than reading a book. To that end, here are a few I’m looking forward to sinking my teeth in these holidays:
Crush It!: Why NOW Is the Time to Cash In on Your Passion by Gary Vaynerchuk
No one is more passionate about what they do than Gary Vee. He’s the guy who turned his passion for wine into a multi-million dollar enterprise by harnessing the power of social media and engaging his community.
Web Analytics 2.0: The Art of Online Accountability and Science of Customer Centricity by Avinash Kaushik
Google’s Analytics Evangelist’s latest book on why in this new age of marketing, it’s not enough to have a gut feeling about your customers. The web has given us access to so much data and knowledge about our customers. We need to figure out how to use it.
Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell
One that slipped through the cracks. I’m a huge fan of Malcolm Gladwell and I’ve been hanging out to read this for awhile. Mitch Joel calls him a rock star, and you won’t get any arguments from me.
And if you’re still looking for more to read on the digital marketing side of things, make sure you check out Six Pixels of Separation by Mitch Joel and Trust Agents by Chris Brogan and Julien Smith. I’ve just finished these and they are great primer for any marketer thinking about getting started or even those well immersed in the digital space.
Interesting to hear on Episode #164 of Mitch Joel’s awesome Six Pixels of Separation podcast that the barriers to entry for recent adopters of Twitter may be getting too high.
Where in the early days, or even 6 months ago, it was easy to connect and engage with people you respected and position yourself as a thought leader, the sheer volume of content and number of users has made it extremely hard for newbies to get noticed. Case in point: tired of my endless preaching about the virtues of Tweeting, several of my friends signed up only for them to retreat back to the relative safety of Facebook within weeks simply because they didn’t know where to start.
While Twitter’s recent makeover and official 101 guides, etc, are useful starting point the fact that they are even necessary means that the learning curve might have potentially got too steep for most new and occasional users to bother spending the time figuring out.
I'm a digital strategist and social media consultant living in Adelaide, Australia. These are some of my thoughts on the changing media landscape and what organisations need to do to adapt. I also record a regular podcast "Communication Junction" with Sarah Thomas and Jason Neave. You can find that here.
