New Year, New Strategy?

I can't imagine there are too many of us who are sad to see the passing of 2009, at least in terms of business, budgets and jobs. I don't know of anyone who can't say it was a rough year, but it's also true that out of adversity rises opportunity, and I for one, still see the opportunities that lie ahead.

In the Ad Age article Planning Your Next Move in Ad Land, Ad Age asked its correspondents to look ahead to the coming year and identify the single-most important issue faced by the industries they cover in 2010.

Where are the opportunities in yours? Is now the time to get out ahead of your competition with something new and different? Is it the time to try that risky idea that just may put you way out ahead? Is it time to buck the trends altogether and be groundbreaking and innovative? In any event, for all of us exists the opportunity to look back at what worked and what didn't, what was worth it and what wasn't, what we would do again and what we would do different and learn something from all of it. Every experience is a learning opportunity, especially the challenging ones, because it's in those instances that true character is revealed. I've always believed that it's not the challenge that we should regret, but not learning from it. So with that being said, I'll close the door on 2009 as the year of learning, and open the door to 2010 as the year of opportunity.

That's what learning is, after all; not whether we lose the game, but how we lose and how we've changed because of it and what we take away from it that we never had before, to apply to other games. Losing, in a curious way, is winning.
-Richard Bach, The Bridge Across Forever, 1984

Marketers Must Be the Ones to Lead the Country Out of Recession

This article from AdAge discusses the case made by the Association of National Advertisers that marketers should be the ones to lead the country out of the current recession, and cites examples of CMOs who have led such turnarounds with their own big brands.

While the recovery of the country will rest largely with the recovery of these brands and companies in terms of prompting hiring and consumer confidence, I'd like to take the idea one step further by pointing out that advertising itself has the intrinsic ability to transform human behavior, and thus the responsibility to do so.

I was working as a marketing manager at a small, residential homebuilder when the housing market crashed. I started there in September 2006, when things were still rocking and rolling and agents were still order takers and buyers were still entering into lotteries to get their hands on investment properties. Over the next year things unraveled fast and heavy and I survived 5 rounds of layoffs to be one of the last 15 or so employees (down from about 500 when I started) to go down just before the ship sank.

Needless to say those were challenging times, but one of our biggest challenges from the very beginning to the bitter end was how to deal with the media. We had a good product at a good price in good locations, but nothing we could do could get potential buyers to ignore the media fire storm that was fanning the flames of the market crash. No matter where you turned in those days, all you heard was a cacophony of Chicken Littles pronouncing that the sky was falling. We began and ended so many meetings, lunches, events and even prayers lamenting that if only the media would just stop talking about how bad things were, or were going to get, we could all get back to work and sell some houses. I still believe that the way the media covered the news in the housing market during that time contributed, at least in some degree, to it ending up as bad as it did.

But, I also believe that the media, or at the very least, the advertisers, have the ability and even responsibility to turn things around as well. We've already seen a number of "optimism" campaigns from the likes of Wal-Mart, Bank of America and Coke to name a few, and this is one band wagon I'd like to see more businesses, advertisers, and media outlets and pundits jump on. There is power in the ability to influence the opinions and behaviors of the general public, and it's time that it be used for the betterment of all.

AdAge: Facebook's Big Changes: Action Items for Marketers

(From AdAge) Facebook's latest round of updates announced this week will affect everyone: marketers, developers, publishers, consumers and anyone else remotely connected to their site and platform. And some of the changes will especially impact marketers.

The highlights:

Near-term changes

1. Opt-in email
2. Notifications Put on Notice
3. A Shift to the Left

Long-term changes

1. Fanning out Across the Web
2. Analytics Upgrade

A quick shout out

So I've been attending a lot of events lately - expanding both my network and my horizons. I've handed out a hundred or so business cards and have received many compliments on the logo, the printing or both, so I realized I'm long overdue to give those guys a proper shout out.

My good friend TJ Harley designed the Element logos for us and we couldn't have been happier. TJ is the graphics manager for The Collegiate Licensing Company so you can usually see his work on the 50-yard line at a college bowl game, but his capabilities and creativity are hardly limited to logos. He also does corporate identity and apparel, print and package design and is available for freelance work.

Mike Strelser is the president of Square Fruit Communications and ColorCards.com, and is married to one of my oldest friends, Laura (who, by the way is an amazing interior designer). Mike was not only patient with us as we went through the never-ending options of layouts, stocks, and finishes, but he also provided expertise that allowed us to ultimately defer to his judgement for this important piece of our visual ID. And based on the responses we've received, I'd say that was the right choice.

So if you've been one of the many to receive one of our cards and compliment the work of these two talented guys, please continue to help me say thanks by considering them next time you have graphic or print needs of your own.

Do you know the difference between a Facebook Page and a Group?

If you're on Facebook (and let's face it, who's not these days?) you're probably "friends" with at least one business. But how do you befriend a business? On Facebook anyway, you don't, or shouldn't, but many businesses are so eager to have a presence that they don't take the time to research or understand how to go about it correctly.

Below is a link to an informative article which discusses the difference between Groups and Pages from a marketing perspective, but I've seen way too many businesses who are not yet ready for that conversation because they're still using Profiles to represent themselves on Facebook.

http://www.insidefacebook.com/2009/06/08/4-reasons-why-marketers-should-choose-facebook-pages-over-facebook-groups/

So to supplement the article, I'd like to provide a brief Facebook 101 lesson on the differences between the various Facebook entities: Profiles, Groups and Pages. I'm sure there will be more lessons to come, and I'll do my best to post/comment on them as I see the need.

Profiles - Profiles are intended for personal use only. Per Facebook: Profiles can only be used to represent an individual and must be held under an individual name. Profiles have "friends."

Groups - Think of Groups like fan clubs. They are "unofficial" in that they can be created by anyone for anything. For example, someone may love a team, tv show, restaurant, product or other entity and they can create a Group for people who like the same thing. Groups are not necessarily endorsed by the represented company, and in many instances there is no affiliation with the company at all. Groups have "members."

Pages - Pages are reserved for the "official" presence of a business or entity on Facebook, and can only be created by an authorized representative of the business for which the Page is for. They are intended to help an entity communicate publicly. Pages have "fans."