Avoiding Social Media Weak Sauce

A lot of small businesses are using social media. But it is interesting to see how few businesses are actually using social media well. Unfortunately, not many of them do.

Most still approach social media as if were just another place to put their billboard. How many times have you seen a Facebook page or Twitter post history that consist of nothing but product blurbs?

What they fail to see is that they are missing great opportunities to start conversations with potential customers. They aren’t harnessing the ability to build community around their brand.

Often times, there seems to be a correlation between companies with weak interaction skills and companies that don’t really seem to have a coherent brand. If a company doesn’t even understand brand, then of course they won’t get how everything can be an extension of their brand.

Could it be that the same mentality that doesn’t understand the concept of “brand” can also be linked to organizations that don’t even want to venture in to social media?

Like social media engagement, early brand management was stymied by an inability to show direct quantifiable results. Despite that, there were some who rode the hunch – who understood the power of a strong brand and used it to build business empires. Today the value of a strong brand is not only quantifiable, but often times what failing businesses lack most of all.

I am not contending that Social Media alone can bring in these kinds of numbers, but it can strengthen a brand. After all, isn’t a Brand ultimately a means to build a group of people who favor your product. Isn’t that what successful social media does as well?

A few companies really do understand how to leverage the power of social media when it comes to a more practical aspect – like customer service. You’ll see a lot of great examples on Twitter.

Companies like Zappos or Quicken Loans aren’t just using the web to make the customer feel a little more empowered or validated – they’re giving customers – and, in turn, the customer service rep – the power to instantly address concerns.

They realize what other companies miss: that the interaction doesn’t end once the service problem has been addressed. It continues beyond the transaction – as the satisfied customer spreads the story of the experience through e-mail, word of mouth, Twitter. In doing so, these customers are strengthening a company’s brand and helping secure future business.

For many companies, the step into social media is be a big one. For those that not only adopt it, but really use it to its potential, the rewards can build and sustain platforms to gain valuable insights and future revenue.

If you have seen any other good examples using other web venues, we’d love to hear from you.

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Behind the Scenes: Filming with The RED ONE

You’ll have to excuse us if we get a little geeky for a minute.

A few months past, we were lucky enough to get our hands on a genuine marvel in digital video – The Red One, an HD camera that is poised to revolutionize digital video as we know it.

We put it to test – with help from Bill Gerring and the crew from Spectrum Films – on a recent Avera Heart Hospital shoot. And it was all we expected – and more.

Check us out, on location: playing with the fancy camera, executing beautiful videography, and rocking out with Avera Heart Hospital.

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Whale Insurance

This might be older, but I’ve seen a lot over the past few weeks.

Uh… Er…

Okay. So I understand the value of building your brand. And I certainly get making your logo memorable. I applaud the use of simple image branding.

But… Uh…

Well, I guess I’m wondering - what am I missing here?

Because if you take the copy out of this spot (and let’s face it - the copy is no more than a logo and “Mutual Funds, Annuities, Life Insurance”) I challenge anyone to understand what the blankety-blank this company is trying to sell.

Whale-watching tours? Life jackets? Pacific Ocean cruises? Moby Dick? OH, WHAT… LIFE INSURANCE?

Is it life insurance FOR WHALES, AT LEAST?

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Hooray Sioux Falls!

There’s something to be said for loving where you live.

It’s one of the things that drives us at HenkinSchultz – and I’m sure it’s what drives all of us, in all of the agencies across this dusty village.

A love for this city. A love for the people who live here. And a love for the opportunity to be creative – especially when it comes to working on local projects.

Warning. Things might get a little sappy from here on out. It’s a passion, this city, despite the snark that says you’re not supposed to like where you live.

There’s a reason we’re all here in one place – here in flyover-country, where the hills are barely hills and the houses are still cheap. Where the financial crisis has barely hit us – at least, not in the way it has elsewhere – and where we’re relatively safe and happy and content.

Most of us couldn’t imagine living anywhere else.

HenkinSchultz has worked (and continues to work) on some great Sioux Falls-related campaigns over the past several years – from the Sioux Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau to Downtown Sioux Falls to the Sioux Falls Area Chamber of Commerce Annual Meeting.

We’re excited and proud to have our name associated with the most recent news from the Sioux Falls CVB – the release of a new video designed to promote Sioux Falls for conventions, events and sports tournaments. It was a fun project. Of course it was fun – after all, we love this place. And of course it was exciting. It gave us a chance to celebrate this city.

Video is currently down, but you can still catch it at the official Sioux Falls Convention and Visitors Bureau Web site.

We’re not alone in this. Despite the size and perceived shortcomings, Sioux Falls is teeming with creativity, featuring a talent base you’d expect in a much larger community.

Go ahead. Ask the people who judge our yearly South Dakota Advertising Federation ADDY® awards. Ask the nationally-renowned ad peeps we bring in for SDAF meetings. We’re small town at heart, but we’re big time when it comes to talent.

Sure, there’s something to be said for loving where you live. But there’s even more to be said about the passion to create. It’s when the two come together that you truly realize how fortunately you can be to work with great people in a great industry in a great city.

Thanks, Sioux Falls. For being, you know, so flippin’ awesome.

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The Decline of Television and its Effects on Local Advertising

In an article on AdAge.com, Akamai CEO Paul Sagan points out that we’re witnessing the tipping point for web video vs. television. (Not surprisingly, he details this out in a web video that accompanies the article.)

In advertising, television’s superiority was that it reached the most people. Despite their diminishing reach, they continue to raise advertising rates. As a result, things start looking bad for local businesses. It will be more expensive for them to reach fewer people.

Enter the rise of online video. Hulu.com, for instance. Right now, Hulu’s ad breaks each consist of one very short spot. In addition, like Tivo and DVR, Hulu’s platform allows program pausing. These factors combine to give the viewer a superior experience over traditional TV.

The problem for local advertisers is that all the ads are a part of large national campaigns from big blue-chip companies. Which brings us to the big solve.

Technology has a funny way of creating new opportunity where it has wrecked the old. Local television advertising does not have to be an exception to this. Hulu, like all web video platforms, offers increasingly flexible and accurate ways of targeting consumers. More than simply targeting a demographic, web video can, through IP information and GPS in laptop and hand-held devices, make it possible for advertisers to literally know a person’s location.

If online video sites really want to show mastery of reaching specific markets, local advertising will be in its best interest. Right now, if you watch an entire program, you often get redundant commercials in the ad breaks. As a viewer, this is boring and annoying. Instead, fill some of those spots with local ads, offering a valuable layer of variety. In break A sites like Hulu could charge a larger rate to bigger companies. In break B, they could reserve one spot at smaller rates to local companies to make up the difference.

Local advertisers will also be able to show their clients much higher levels of analysis in tracking the impact of the online campaigns - something that is harder to gauge from traditional television spots.

But, it won’t be enough for local advertisers to just stay on top of web video marketing capabilities and technology. They will need great ideas for content and creative presentations that are engaging for the end viewer.

In that, some things never change.

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No Use in Walking with the Bulls

If you’re typically courting clients under a cloak of secrecy – for example, if your clients demand proprietary restraint, or if they are well-known, well-endowed or well-heeled…

If you provide a service geared toward those who typically don’t use computers…

If you’re bound by regulations (see: insurance, health care and public service industries)…

If you’re only interested in offering coupons, and not in creating a conversation…

If you have no one dedicated to working the wires or keeping track of mentions…

Most importantly – if you’re only interested because it’s the cool new thing, and not because it’s the right thing to do…

…there’s a good chance that social marketing might not be for you.

Let’s be honest. While social marketing is a valuable marketing tool, it’s not the only tool. Contrary to rumblings on the Internet, print, broadcast and traditional Web marketing aren’t dead – but they certainly can’t be relied on as the only marketing source.

Just as social marketing can’t be relied on as the only marketing source.

Today’s marketing landscape demands not a plan, but a web – a full-out interconnected brand development that reaches from one medium to another.

One strand in that web is social marketing. But if you’re not going to do it right – if you’re not going to keep up with it, and if you’re targets aren’t going to recognize the value – sometimes you simply need to step back and let it pass.

In other words, either grab the bull by the horns or think about vacationing someplace other than Pamplona.

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So, there’s this thing called Facebook…

As a service to you, the loyal reader, the devoted fan of Post Haste and the people behind it, The HenkinSchultz Facebook Page is now open.

You’ll find all of the usual stuff you’ve come to expect from a Facebook page - blog posts, videos, sample radio spots, awesome pictures, hilarity from Corey the copywriter, witty comments from the legions behind the big white building, etc.

I guess, while we’re at it, we should remind you that we’re constantly Twittering, too. We have been for a while, actually: @henkinschultz. And, for even more awesomeness, we’re compiling all of our video spots in one easy to access location on YouTube.

So become a fan. We’ll be here, waiting to Facebook-it-up.

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One Step Away from Creepy

I mean, I love Coke’s Happiness Factory spots, and I love Coke’s dedication to the feeling of their product (as opposed to Pepsi’s dedication to fitting into a specific demographic with a revolving door of logos, juxtaposed messages and awful tasting soda.)

(Full disclosure #1: I’m a Coke person. Our whole building seems to be, actually - it’s our fridge soda of choice at HenkinSchultz.)

But, come on Coke. Your new spots are original and fun, but they’re treading really close to creepy. It’s one thing to be a Flaming Lips fan. It’s another to actually be Wayne Coyne, smearing fake blood on your face during a concert and walking over the crowd in a giant bubble.

(Full disclosure #2: I do really like this spot.)

Via The Denver Egotist.

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Cinco de Mayo and a Side of Beans

You know, if it was always just great ideas and fantastic design around here at HenkinSchultz, our brainmeat would turn to mush. Seriously. Mush. It would be eerily similar to those awesome Hulu commercials (shown here, somewhat ironically, on YouTube).

So, whenever we can, we turn to the concept of overeating to help assuage our throbbing minds.

Yeah potlucks!

So, in honor of the Mexican army that overcame a much larger French army back in the mid-1800’s, assuring a victory that countless Americans without any connection to Mexico celebrate each year on May 5th as “Cinco de Mayo,” we ate heartily in the spirit of Mexican cooking.

I’m still trying to digest all of those beans. (Ohh… the beans…)

(click to see Joe larger)

Happy day after Cinco de Mayo! (Seis de Mayo?)

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Dr. Bogusky, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Client

Bribed to Sioux Falls by the promise of a Jackalope, Alex Bogusky—partner at CP+B, as if you didn’t know—enlightened our advertising community during today’s South Dakota Advertising Federation luncheon.

And his insights no doubt raised a few eyebrows and ruffled a few midwestern feathers.

In complete command of the limelight, Alex proved his ability to always do things differently—and effectively. He took control of VVI’s Toby Kane’s interview, cracked jokes about the diminutive projectors and marveled over how the AV guy always seems to get it wrong, no matter how much he’s rehearsed.

But his presence was felt even more with his message. With ideas on the power of account executives over creatives, delusional positivity, and the ease of social change, Bogusky examined the client relationship, remarking that there’s no wonder clients don’t trust our ideas when we always seem to discount theirs.

If we present work that will only garner us awards and solves none of their business problems, it’s only natural that our clients will pick the crappiest version of what we present, seemingly saying, “Up yours, XYZ Agency. You didn’t even solve my problem.”

When we don’t embrace changes (or, at least, position them as opportunities to push the creative further) we are only punishing ourselves. As Alex said, “Clients can’t be punished. You think you’re punishing them by giving them the crap work, but you’re not. You’re only punishing yourself, your work, and your agency.”

So what do we do?

It’s a simple answer, but a difficult process. That’s where delusional positivity comes in; because it’s hard, we have to keep each other up as much as possible—especially when it’s hardest. We need to reevaluate the way we approach our clients. Listen to their requests. Get jazzed about their perspective.

Start loving the process, not the end result.

In doing so, we can work together with more heart. As partners. It was never meant to be agency and creative versus client. Instead, it should be agency and creative plus client, each party embracing the inevitable changes with gusto.

Huh. AC+C. That structure looks familiar.

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About HenkinSchultz

HenkinSchultz is an agency. An advertising and marketing and branding and design and production agency. All of those things, and then some.

But, underneath all that, we're really a bunch of thinkers. As in, we think about stuff, both pertinent and not, with and without boundaries, as if our lives depended on it. And this right here, Post Haste, is where we write about it.

Visit us at http://www.henkinschultz.com.

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So, we've got some new window displays in honor of the 4th. Sparklers, fishbowls and Erik's awesome coat - the fun starts at dusk.

Recent Posts

• Avoiding Social Media Weak Sauce
• Behind the Scenes: Filming with The RED ONE
• Whale Insurance
• Hooray Sioux Falls!
• The Decline of Television and its Effects on Local Advertising
• No Use in Walking with the Bulls
• So, there’s this thing called Facebook…
• One Step Away from Creepy
• Cinco de Mayo and a Side of Beans
• Dr. Bogusky, Or: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Client

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