Social Media

Breaking Out of Boring: Tell Unexpected Stories

What does a brand known as buttoned up and boring do to broaden its appeal? I get this question a lot. One great model for inspiration is LinkedIn, which has become the poster child for a staid brand evolving its brand by telling unexpected stories. In the early 2000s, UK musician Matt Henshaw was living the dream as the lead guitarist for Censored, a British rock band he had established with a few friends. Censored became an integral part of the music scene of the East Midlands (a region located roughly between London and Liverpool), releasing some independent singles, opening for some of their music heroes, and at one point being named one of the top five unsigned bands in the UK by the music news site NME.com. Then the band fell apart—“burned out,” Matt now says. And so in 2008 he abandoned his music career and took a humdrum […]

Breaking Out of Boring: Tell Unexpected Stories Read More »

Make Your Customer the Hero of Your Story: ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ Video

The Fault in Our Stars opened this past weekend to become number-one at the box office. Which thrills me – because I’m a fan of the young adult novel the movie is based on and of its author (and video blogger) John Green. But more importantly: It thrills me because good writing deserves to find a wide audience. But that’s not why I’m writing about it. Instead, I’m writing about it because the movie’s soundtrack video trailer is a great content marketing example of what I talk about all the time: Make your customer the hero of your story. In this case, the “customer” is (of course) potential ticket buyers and fans, who were made “heroes” when the The Fault in Our Stars (TFIOS) franchise solicited their images to crowdsource the theme song’s music video, Ed Sheeran’s All of Our Stars. The result was like catnip to Lord Tubbington: The

Make Your Customer the Hero of Your Story: ‘The Fault in Our Stars’ Video Read More »

Honey Maid Takes On Haters, and Now I Want Graham Crackers

A month ago, the graham cracker brand Honey Maid launched a new program that aimed to redefine “wholesome” by telling the stories of interracial, single-parent and gay families. The idea was to align the 90-year-old Honey Maid with a modern yet steadfast narrative on what makes for wholesome. Families might’ve have changed, Honey Maid suggests. But “wholesome” — with both its moral and health connotations — never will. Here’s the original video produced by Honey Maid (which is owned by Mondelez International) and created by Droga5, New York: Accompanying it were longer profiles of real-life families on YouTube, like Jason and Tim — a married couple raising their two sons. Side note: Their lives are pretty pedestrian, and almost boring — like a lot of our perfectly ordinary suburban lives. But that’s precisely the point: The original video, which aired nationally in early March, received lots of public complaints for

Honey Maid Takes On Haters, and Now I Want Graham Crackers Read More »

How to Innovate in Your Marketing: Ask a Teenager

If you’re a company looking to use social media and content in innovative ways, ask a teenager. And not because you want to market to teens (although you might), but because teenage behavior online draws a kind of road map to where marketing is going. Here’s what I mean: My 17-year-old daughter bought a prom dress online this week. Before it even shipped from the warehouse, she had already posted a photo of it in a private Facebook group that the girls in her school set up weeks ago expressly to showcase what dress they were wearing to the prom, which is in May. The girls are essentially staking their dress claim and (at the same time) soliciting validation for their choices with likes and comments of their peers. In other words: Then: You bought a dress at a dress shop. You wore it to prom and hoped no one

How to Innovate in Your Marketing: Ask a Teenager Read More »

How to Use Instagram in a Genius Way (and Grow Your Audience)

If you’ve seen me speak in the last few years, you know I’m a huge fan of Instagram, because of its understated simplicity that makes for a rich story platform. You might’ve even seen me present one of my favorite examples, of the Toronto Silent Film Festival’s 2013 effort to promote the silent film experience to a brand new audience of potential fans. Now, the Festival is back, releasing its 2014 effort that uses Instagram in an interactive, genius way to spread its message and grow its audience. As I’ve written in the past, there are five reasons I love Instagram for content: Instant content. Instagram, at its core, allows you to tell stories visually, but with a simplicity and immediacy and elegance that’s hard to beat. But artful content, too. Instagram allows you to create visual stories with an artfulness and elegance and a special kind of gravitas that’s

How to Use Instagram in a Genius Way (and Grow Your Audience) Read More »

Samsung Bans Competitor Logos at Sochi: Legit or Ludicrous?

Olympics sponsor Samsung reportedly gifted Galaxy Note 3 smartphones to Sochi athletes, but with a serious string attached, Slashgear reports: Athletes were banned from using any other mobile device during the opening ceremonies. Or, if they did use them, they were required to physically cover up any competitor logo so it wouldn’t accidentally be caught on camera during the televised ceremony. As an official Sochi sponsor, Samsung is technically within its rights (and Olympic rules) to request the ban. But in our social-sharing, tech-savvy world, the question becomes more nuanced: Has that kind of model been disrupted? Is that kind of ban reasonable? Or does it make a company look authoritarian and hopelessly old-school? All athletes, coaches, and other Olympics officials have long been required to abide by what’s known as Rule 40 of the Olympic charter, as enforced by the International Olympic Committee (IOC). Rule 40 forbids athletes from

Samsung Bans Competitor Logos at Sochi: Legit or Ludicrous? Read More »

When Facebook Launched: Marketing In 2004

Facebook celebrates its 10th birthday this week, which made me wonder: What did marketing in 2004 look like? I was there, of course. Maybe you were, too. But time has a funny way of recasting memories. (Which explains how my siblings and I sometimes have annoyingly different takes on our childhood.) In marketing and perhaps in life, it’s easy to notice how much things have changed. In February of 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com from his Harvard dorm room, it entered what seemed at the time like a crowded social media world. Friendster, Classmates.com, Habbo, and MySpace all preceded Facebook. And remember FullCircle? Me, neither. It seems cute and provincial to think of that time before Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vine, Slideshare, and the rest as “crowded,” doesn’t it? This was before content marketing was a thing; before Big Data was our big daddy; before his first infographic was

When Facebook Launched: Marketing In 2004 Read More »

New Year, New You: 3 Things Every Marketer Should Be Doing in 2014

Last week, my MarketingProfs colleague Corey O’Loughlin and I gave a talk on what content-savvy marketers can do in this new year to impress their boss, get ahead of the curve, and tighten their bottom (line). January is, of course, a time of reset and renewal and 2014 resolutions: a time to re-examine your goals, reconsider your tactics, and refocus your content marketing and social media efforts. (January 17th is also the National Ditch Your New Year’s Resolutions Day. But that’s not you, is it? You’re better than that.) The set up was this: Your boss has a vision for what’s important in 2014. (That was me.) You need the tactics to make that happen. (That was Corey.) Together, we delivered ideas you can use to get your content marketing plans in shape and give your social media strategy a makeover. And, for the record, the throwback ’80s fitness photo

New Year, New You: 3 Things Every Marketer Should Be Doing in 2014 Read More »