Metrics Can Kill Your Business

Promises Promises

You want to take your significant other out for a nice dinner. Maybe you’ll check out that new steak joint? They had those cool commercials on the radio. There was also that direct mail piece and a billboard downtown touting the best Kobe beef this side of Tokyo. Decision made. Reservation for 7:30.

Fine Print Irrelevant

What they didn’t tell you in the advertising was that there is a mandatory $10 parking fee. A bit annoying and scam-like. Still not fazed, you head inside. You are met at the threshold with a line-up. Not a bad thing, it means this new place is doing well and you’re not worried, you have a reservation.

Service On Hold

At 7:45, you inquire with the snappy dressed guy at the front if your table is ready. He doesn’t take his eyes of the calculus that is the restaurant floor plan and barks that the kitchen is busy, they are new and all reservations are 30 minutes behind.

They Won't Make A Fuss

It’s a nice night out, why spoil it with complaints so you go back to the bench and wait quietly. Several minutes later a woman approaches you with two white cards. On one side is the restaurant’s logo and on the other is a questionnaire.

Survey Says

They want to know your demographic, how you found out about the place, how many times you go out for a meal each month, how much alcohol you consume in a year and for your trouble your name is put in a draw for one free dessert on your next trip - if you go to their website and register.

It’s 8:05 and burgers sound good about now. Almost an hour of your life not to return and it was all about them.

Potential Is A Dangerous Word

Before getting caught up in metrics and cost per point, number of impressions and average quarter hours, surveys and coupons, be careful people don't walk out before you get a chance to help them as customers.

@knealemann
knealemann at gmail dot com

Helping you better utilize all media.
How to make it, use it and profit from it.

You Have Three Seconds

Have you ever seen an commercial you liked but couldn't remember the product? Have you ever met someone but couldn't remember their name? Have you ever read something but couldn't remember where you saw it?

If you have ever worked in the advertising world – particularly outdoor/transit – you know all about the three second rule. It’s often even less, but you have about three seconds to make an impression with someone. Your billboard, bus board, transit shelter or subway message needs to resonate – even subconsciously – in about as much time as it takes to say your name.


Planning That First Impression

Months of planning, meetings, art direction, graphic design, more discussions, the client wants it bigger or pinker, more meetings, more design, more revisions, all for a three second event. Add to that, once your message is in a certain location for too long it becomes part of the unnoticed background.

Keeping Their Interest

How is that different than online marketing or frankly meeting someone in person? You have three seconds and they do too. Now most of us pass that three second test. Most of us can compose ourselves for one-two-three moments enough to get that chance to get to know that new person a bit more.

Lead Role In Your Own Movie

I heard a radio talk show last night and one the guests said “No one is more interesting in the story of your life than you. To us, we are all wildly fascinating creatures in our own screenplay.” That sounds egotistical but it’s true. That does not mean we don’t share and give but our only perspective is our own.

Make It About Them

Depending on your reading speed, you gave this post about a sentence before deciding to read on. You are reading this line now because something here made you read further. But if all I do is keep stating that you are reading this sentence you will lose interest. It’s no longer about you, and you are gone.

You have three seconds to make it about them; try it once and wait your turn. What do you think will happen?

@knealemann

image credit: technomarketer.typepad.com

ROI: Manage Your Expectations

What Really Is: Return On Investment?

Traditional channels are grappling with both the economic landscape and the countless new tools available. The ones having the most difficulty are those working in industries predicated on inaccurate mass marketing metrics.

A billboard may have given some in the past the impression of success. Or at least gave them the ability to sleep soundly at night.

It's Not Enough Anymore

I worked in the radio industry for many years and depending on the market, each radio station would be rated two to four times each year. During those ratings periods, stations would clamor to yell and scream the loudest in order to get noticed enough to be written down in a ratings diary by less than 1% of the population. Then the ratings company would ‘average’ audience numbers for each market. It's even more anitquated than that, but I won't bore you with the details.

I worked at The Edge in Toronto which targets Males 18-34. Less than ten thousand people would receive ratings diaries and decipher radio tuning habits for five million. That's a sample of .002%.

It's akin to me asking you to decide what everyone will eat at a particular restaurant for an entire year. Once you accommodate vegetarians, allergies, those who don't like spicy food or any cultural biases, your only logical choice is lettuce. Boring, unseasoned, lettuce. Yummy, huh?

Think of that the next time you wonder if the station has more than ten songs or why they keep saying their name. Neither is true, but perception is reality.

More Of The Same

If you ran a music label and wanted the next Coldplay, the chances of you signing an act that is a bit out of the norm are nil. There is too much risk in that; there is no road map or guarantee. Imagine a marketing company suggesting to a client that traditional channels are not their only option? How often do you think the client will pick the ‘sleep at night’ option?

Traditional Mass Media Is Not Dead
Online Is Not The Gold Rush

Radio, television, newspaper, and outdoor advertising options remain alive and will work if used properly. What is essential to ROI is managing expectations. However, one billboard or a few dozen radio commercials will not set you up for endless success. I lost count of the number of clients that would say to me “radio doesn’t work” after a one-week campaign. At that point, you may as well take your spouse on a vacation – at least you’d have some memories and pictures to add to your Flickr account.

A four-piece reggae classical punk band, a spicy Italian meal, a company embracing Twitter, or an adventurous radio station can all work but only when mainstream guesstimates are thrown away.

Count The Receipts

If you realize spending millions on a TV spot during the Super Bowl is less effective than building a community, you are well on your way to managing expectations, return on investment and living in the real world.

What are your thoughts?

Way Back When: Was Not That Long Ago

In the ‘olden’ days, dad would begin the day with a fresh cup of coffee, a pack of butts and the newspaper. There was a sense of accomplishment to hold the paper in his hands and digest each and every page. Interruptions were not permitted.

I have a friend who still sits at his kitchen table every morning and reads the entire newspaper. The ritual is complete once he has completed the crossword puzzle – in pen.

There was time when news of an anticipated new album release would cause a lineup at the retail location. Your choice was go to the store and purchase the music or perhaps a buddy would make you a tape.

These Times They Are Always A-Changin’
My day usually starts with Google Reader. In about half an hour I can sift through 10-15 news sources. Akin to radio and the music industry, newspapers are scrambling for ways to monetize the online model.

Here’s a study conducted by Nielson Online entitled "Online Newspapers Enjoy Double-Digit Year-Over-Year Growth, Reaching One Out Of Four Internet Users".

It was released in November 2005.

This is not the new reality – this it is reality.
I spent years fighting the good fight for musicians on the issue of downloading. None of us had the answer. I still hear how the music labels have a flawed business model.

Here are some facts: music is everywhere, it has never been more popular, and to most people it has no monetary value. This is no longer an issue of “the kids" downloading on Napster. Downloading and sharing music and video files is commonplace now across all demos.

The industry is working it out and the forward thinkers have realized that the lucrative days of simply selling hardware have changed forever.

Mix Your Media
In days of yore, media buyers had five main choices for their clients: radio, newspaper, television, direct mail and outdoor/transit. If a client had significant enough budget, it was advised they mix their media to insure more penetration for their message. Good advice.

Today the choices also include: digital, cross-media, social media, microsites, online, cellphones and more.

C’mon I Don’t Have All Minute!
As the history books show, it was not uncommon at one time that a person had to hand write memorandums that were in-turn copied in a monstrous noisy machine in the “copy room” to then be distributed to staff mailboxes by the lunch room. The only evidence someone had called while you were out was the number of handwritten messages on pink pieces of paper nestled in your bunk by reception.

Now we wonder why our emails aren’t returned at the speed of light.

We have created a society of impatience. If we can’t find it, we move on. That’s a scary notion to anyone holding on to the way things used to be with white knuckles and a glazed defiant stare.

Change Is The Constant
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office opened in 1802. There was talk at one point that it was going to close. The reason was simple – everything that was going to be invented had already been invented. By February 2008, the office had processed almost 8 million patents.

Historians have written about “simpler times” – but in the 'olden' days – they thought they were on the cutting edge too.

km

Mass Media vs. Integration

Have you experienced the raccoon in the headlights yet? You know those times when you are trying to explain that the way things used to be done, can't be done as well anymore?

The story is paramount, what you want to portray in your commercial, show, or website is crucial to success. But simply exposing the message or story solely through traditional channels may not be the wisest strategy anymore.

The price of admission is not simply being in the game – that’s not good enough and it’s dangerous. Some ideas aren’t ready. Plastering your message on a billboard or integrating a storyline in to your product are tactics used once you can realistically manage your expectations.

With television, visual and online productions we find clients are struggling with social media options and smaller but more accurate metrics. With integration and the Internet, it is increasingly more difficult and expensive to reach your potential audience with a wide aimless swath.

I equate it to an independent band. In the early days, the buzz is created by a tiny group of early adopters who shared the music and story with their friends. The influencers keep the story going while the band kept making music and doing shows.

Long gone are the days a when band would release a collection of songs on a piece of plastic and sell it in a retail setting, or sell it at all. That may work for Britney and AC/DC but most bands (and companies) need to look at a new reality. Not even the overexposed are selling like they used to.

Mass media will no longer solve all problems or provide the same solutions as it did in the past. Face it, not everyone is Microsoft or Apple with deep pockets to blanket the new and the old realities. The rest of us need to be careful and make choices.

There are more options for both the content provider and the audience. It takes patience and courage to navigate the minefield. Without the right targeted message or story, you may as well spend your money on something else.

There are no winning lottery tickets here. Formulas and templates are tougher to retrofit these days. This will take some time.

As we discover new options with the integration of entertainment and advertising, we must remember that if you live on the edge, you can’t expect a crowd.

km