Marketing Mistakes #3: Fumbling the Media

“Media? What media? In this wonderful Web 2.0 era, I can get all the exposure I want in the social networks, for free!” Yeah, and if that’s what you think, good luck. Here’s the door. Don’t let it hit ya where the dog shoulda bit ya, and all that. Come back when reality sets in. [...]

Posted by October 27th, 2011 | by Jason | Permalink

Marketing Mistakes #2: Missing the Message

Continuing our series about marketing mistakes, here’s another we run into all the time: missing the message. Arguably, this is even more common than #1: Forgetting the Goal, but it’s a lot more sneaky—it comes in later in the process, usually when legal gets involved. Kidding. Or not. “Wait a minute,” you’re probably saying. “We [...]

Posted by September 26th, 2011 | by Jason | Permalink

Marketing Mistakes #1: Forgetting the Goal

It’s funny. For all the marketing we do—online, offline, B2B, B2C, traditional, cutting-edge, whatever—the biggest mistake we see is simply this: forgetting about your goal. In fact, I think we irritate a lot of clients when they first come to us and say, “Wow, we have this great new product or service and we need [...]

Posted by August 22nd, 2011 | by Jason | Permalink

The End of the Catalog Age (and 5 Things You Can Do About It)

We had an interesting conversation with a client recently that went something like this: “You know, we went to a trade show recently, with all our cool new catalogs printed up. But the funny thing was, nobody wanted them!” “Huh,” we said. “They didn’t want them at the show, or they didn’t want them to [...]

Posted by July 22nd, 2011 | by Jason | Permalink

Strategic Versus Reactive Marketing

It may just be us, but we get a bunch of clients who come to us with requests like this: “I need a new print ad.” “I want a Facebook presence and a really compelling social media campaign.” “Our website blows, can you redesign it?” Now, there’s nothing wrong with any of those requests. Not [...]

Posted by May 17th, 2011 | by Jason | Permalink

The Myth of the Home Run

It seems that every time we talk to someone these days, they’re looking for the home run. The big score. The thermonuclear event. The Big Deal That Changes Everything. This isn’t just in the course of business, either—I can’t tell you how many twentysomethings I’ve heard repeat the phrase, “I want to do something huge, [...]

Posted by May 4th, 2011 | by Jason | Permalink

The Parable of the Ice Cream Man

There should be a saying that goes something like, “Beware the ice cream man in January: what he sells may seem tasty, but it ain’t what you need on a cold Toronto night.” What does this have to do with marketing? Okay. Let’s say it’s another perfect day at your office. As head of marketing, [...]

Posted by February 7th, 2011 | by Jason | Permalink

The App Deluge (and the Voice of Reason)

“There’s an app for that.” On hundreds of millions of iOS and Android devices, that’s the rallying cry. Want to identify the tune you just heard on the radio? Get free directions on a 3D rendered cityscape? Scan barcodes for comparison shopping? Play Angry Birds? Measure EMF? Perform audio analysis? Make music? Amuse your cat? [...]

Posted by January 13th, 2011 | by Jason | Permalink

Instead of Social Media . . .

Okay, if you’re a consumer marketer, skip this post. We ain’t talking to you. This is for the B2B marketers in the room. For you guys, we have one very simple message: Resist the siren call of social media! By now, you’ve probably heard about Facebook’s traffic surpassing Google. You’ve been barraged by dozens of social [...]

Posted by January 3rd, 2011 | by Jason | Permalink

The Next Big Thing

So, it’s that time of year again. Clients and partners start asking us, “So, what’s the next big thing?” Sometimes I think they’re hoping we’ll say something like, “Well, it’s this new platform, OMGWFTBBQ.com, that combines auto-generated creative with positive-only social commentary to spread the word about your new product completely free! Even better, it [...]

Posted by December 20th, 2010 | by Jason | Permalink