Category: Clutter Free Marketing

Motivated Mii

Motivated Mii

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I never thought that a brand relationship BENEFIT from telling a customer in graphic detail that he/she is a fattie patattie.

My MiiOn Friday, however, that very scenario took place when our hotly anticipated pre-ordered Wii Fit arrived. The first activity for all users of the Wii Fit is a “body test” that uses your ability to steady your center of balance and weight to calculate your BMI and Wii Fit age. My Mii was created by my husband and has been with me through months of golf, bowling, and tennis (I play Guitar Hero 3 as Slash, naturally).

When I stepped on the Wii Fit balance board and it measured my weight, however, my Mii expanded. Turns out my previous, un-weighed, Mii’s body type was a bit wishful and my fiends at Nintendo have rectified the situation. The only way to shrink my Mii? TO ACTUALLY LOSE REAL WEIGHT.

The surprise? I feel shockingly motivated by playing with my overweight Mii. Perhaps this is the brand equivalent of Mystery’s “Neg” technique where men use a subtle insult to make women want them more. Because Nintendo has unceremoniously judged me, I want to prove that they’re wrong about me. I am a Cindy Crawford Mii trapped inside the “VeeDub” Mii and I am going to show Nintendo. My motivation is certainly encouraged by the fact that the WiiFit’s activities are addictive fun.

When I began my own blog, I originally thought I would join in the Jason Calacanis’ “Fatblogging” meme. Now I think it makes more sense to Wii Fitblog. I am going to try to post every two weeks about my Mii’s progress and hope that anyone else who is motivated by shrinking their Mii’s virtual behind will do the same and tag as “wiifitblogging”.

Top 5 from WOMM-U

Top 5 from WOMM-U

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There is an advantage in the tardiness to this wrap up post from WOMM-U in Miami: the following highlights have already stood the test of staying with me for a full week , these are observations that have at least held up through a full week of work, media consumption, deep thoughts and Twitter. As a tribute to WOMMA’s always-useful Daily Five newsletter, I thought I’d use that construct for the wrap up.

Highlights from WOMMA’s WOMM-University in Miami:

1. New Format: WOMMU was the trial run of a new event format that John Bell and I were part of hatching from previous event feedback. There were 3 types of sessions: Mainstage keynotes/case studies, 12-person working group sessions with experts, and large working groups tasked to complete a Word of Mouth Marketing plan for 1 of 3 charitable projects. Most of the feedback I heard was very positive (balanced with the fact that participating in discussions and workgroups is more tiring than being fed Powerpoint presentations), but I also had lively discussions with someone who vehemently disliked the new format. What I learned is that by enacting a radical change, we began a dialogue that no amount of theoretical “how can we improve?” questions could have elicited. Go ahead and build that strawman to get people talking.

2. Word of Mouth is “marketing’s butt crack”. Jeffrey Graham from the New York Times chose to use this particularly colorful metaphor as a tribute to the appearance of the sliver of WOMM spend as a part of the total marketing spend pie. Graham shared great data surrounding the increased return of WOMM as part of an integrated program – brands require both relationships and impressions to achieve communications goals.

3. Dell’s social media transformation story continues to grow and evolve very swiftly. An amazing 120 ideas from Ideastorm have already been put into production. Check out the very light touch of Regeneration.org. My favorite quote from Dell’s VP of Community was “Beware of Content Pushers“.

4. Carnival Cruise Lines has come a long way since Kathie Lee sang “Ain’t We Got Fun?”. The blog of Senior Cruise Director John Heald takes brand personality to the next level as does their enthusiast club named for an on-board drink specialty “The Monkey Head Wasters”. Carnival noticed that a group had formed and built them their own forum to keep in touch. Bringing customers together is powerful marketing.

5. OPI proves names contribute to WOMM. Technically, this wasn’t the point of their case study, but it was demonstrated by the women who asked questions afterwards – all of whom identified themselves by the fun OPI color they were wearing. The effort put into hatching names like “I’m Not Really a Waitress” certainly creates some brand preference.

If you missed it, check out the live blog for all the details. Hope to see you at the next WOMMA event in November!

Tom’s of Maine Walks the Walk

Tom’s of Maine Walks the Walk

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Tom’s of MaineMy sensitive (gums, that is) husband recently purchased a tube of Tom’s of Maine natural toothpaste. What caught my eye was not the tube, but a stuffer inside the box that highlighted a particular employee and her volunteer with with animals. Her title was listed as “consumer dialogue specialist” and the volunteer work in question was done on Tom’s company time (5% of paid employee time is spend volunteering and 10% of profits are reinvested in the community).

In the midst of the alarming number of “greenwashed” commercials that we were all forced to watch last week as every company and industry tried to get on the Earth Day bandwagon, I was inspired to read a little bit more about Tom’s. As you might imagine, they don’t just live their values for Earth Day – it was the core of the company’s founding in 1970 and one of the reasons they are the top natural care brand (now an independent subsidiary of Colgate Palmolive). The factory, packaging and products themselves are all as green as you would expect a product with “of Maine” in the title to be.

Check out the website to read more about their success in building a values-based business and the Boston Globe’s enlightening “Office Invasion” tour of the Tom’s of Maine offices.

New Orleans: Soul Is Waterproof

New Orleans: Soul Is Waterproof

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I ended the week with a complete change of scenery – flying to New Orleans to spread the word on Word of Mouth Marketing at the New Orleans AMA. I knew that I would enjoy sharing the WOMM stories that inspire me with a new group of people. What I didn’t anticipate was how much inspiration I would find in the Big Easy. Dinner at K-Paul’s with some fabulous hosts, a morning walk through the Quarter and breakfast at Cafe Du Monde, and some fabulous conversation with the resilient marketers of this extraordinary town put new wind in my own sails.

The night before the presentation, as we were walking down a pretty-full-for-a-Wednesday-night Bourbon Street, Malcolm Schwarzenbach told me not to be afraid to discuss “the storm”. Being a lifelong uptight WASP, I had no intention of bringing up any such thing. Malcolm saying that it was OK to acknowledge the elephant in the room changed the next 24 hours for me. I spoke with my hosts about property valuations, tourism, and the unique challenge of recruiting talent to the marketing and advertising companies within the city.

Before I left, Malcolm shared a recruiting card for his company Trumpet Advertising with this image Jolly Louis on the front and the Ernest Shackleton challenge on the back: “Men (and women) wanted for hazardous journey. Small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.” It is a unique touchpoint that highlights Trumpet’s attitude and creativity. Based on the amazing New Orleans tourism video that they produced below, it looks like their efforts to recruit talent have been quite successful. I hope it gives you a taste of how I felt after my brief stay. Enjoy the video but be warned, you may want to book tickets to the Big Easy immediately…

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/JMIoDw4LxX0" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Small Business + Blogger Experiences = Gold

Small Business + Blogger Experiences = Gold

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This is cross posted from Ogilvy’s 360 Digital Influence Blog.

Check out some wonderful examples of small businesses getting a boost from the blogosphere in today’s WSJ. Bean Bag chair maker Sumo Lounge International was able to work with technology uber-blog Engadget to achieve a chain reaction of business success that that $60k in trade show exhibitions hadn’t produced – getting exposure for his product with the audience that would most appreciate it. 2 years after the initial deal with Engadget, Sumo Lounge has been reviewed by 250 bloggers and has tripled profits.

The article maps tightly to our evolving Blogger Code of Ethics, but also illustrates the golden rule for blogger outreach efficacy – inviting a blogger to participate in an experience is infinitely more powerful than sending a press release. Inviting a blogger to review your product, attend a demonstration, live chat with your engineers, enter your contest, tour your headquarters, etc, is a better course for blogger outreach for 3 major reasons:

  1. An experience is something that the blogger/social media creator can capture and interpret in their own style, chosen medium, and on their own time.
  2. Experiences provide bloggers with conversational capital that they can in turn share with readers.
  3. The final benefit of inviting bloggers to participate in an experience is that, because it is more involved than sending a press release, it will force you to tightly focus on building relationships with the bloggers most relevant to your offering.

What type of remarkable experience can you offer your key constituents?