Category: Marketing

The Great Twitter Challenge: A Review

The Great Portland – Vancouver Twitter Challenge is now history. When I started working on this, I wanted to see if Twitter could work as a marketing and promotions tool.

My conclusion: yes, but it’s not ready to play a major role in most companies’ marketing plans.

The negative: numbers, and tracking.

Numbers first — there just aren’t that many people using Twitter right now. Most of my co-workers don’t use it. To the best of my knowledge, none of my customers use it. And, based on the conversations I’ve had with them, they don’t see why they should. When I started promoting the contest, I saw a significant increase in the number of people following me — but I started with 40 followers, and wound up with 147. Until Twitter becomes much more widely used, it can’t be more than a tiny blip in a marketing campaign.

It’s also not particularly trackable. Although I know I had 147 followers, there was no way for me to tell how many of those 147 were actually looking when I sent out each question. There are no “page view” or “click-through” stats to examine.

In some cases, I’d get an answer back right away — the VanderVeer Center skin care products went in two minutes, as did the Oregon Athletic Club membership and the Portland Nursery stoneware pot. Other prizes took longer; in one case, I received an answer back two hours after sending out the question. All of this makes sense — if, say, twenty of the 147 were on Twitter at any given moment, and none of those twenty had any need for what I was offering at that moment, the question would be ignored. Which makes it like any other advertising medium.

The positive: the promotionwas easy to set up, and didn’t cost a dime. A Twitter account is free, and once I installed Tweetdeck (also free), it was simple to administer. I found nine local merchants who were delighted to provide some great prizes. It was also easy for people to enter. There were a few challenges in coming up with questions that I could communicate in 140 characters, but eventually I got the hang of it.

I don’t have access to the sponsors’ web stats, but I’m guessing they got some extra viewers, too — and some of those may turn into customers. I do know that this blog got nearly double its usual Friday traffic.

The network of people who know Phil Bernstein’s name has grown by 107 in the past ten days. That can’t be a bad thing.

If you participated in the contest, or just lurked as it went by on Twitter, I’d love to hear your thoughts. Leave me a comment below, or send me a tweet.

Special thanks to Tara Bloom for inspiring this. And thank you to Awakening Business Solutions, Green Lubrication Solutions,  Market Accelerators, Maternitique, Organizers Northwest, Oregon Athletic Clubs, Portland Nursery, Shindaiwa, and VanderVeer Center for being part of the First Annual Great Portland – Vancouver Twitter Challenge.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Great Twitter Challenge Prize #6

marketaccelerators

Prize #6 in the Great Portland – Vancouver Twitter Challenge is not one, but two — count ’em, two! — 1-hour marketing coaching sessions with Michael Thompson of Market Accelerators. One winner will win both hours. The sessions will be either by phone or in person, depending on the location of the winner. Michael is an authorized Duct Tape Marketing Coach, and he specializes in helping small businesses grow.

A quick summary from Market Accelerators’ web site:

  • In difficult economic times like this it is more important than ever that you have a plan. You can’t leave your future prosperity to chance. If you don’t have a marketing plan for 2009, Market Accelerators can help.
  • If you are tied up in the day to day running of your business and need help to focus on marketing your business, Market Accelerators can help.
  • If you have a specific marketing problem that you need to fix, Market Accelerators can help there too.

Two prizes to go!

Don’t forget, the Challenge happens this Friday, January 23. The only way to enter is by following my tweets at www.twitter.com/philbernstein

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Great Twitter Challenge Prize #2

 

READ THE CONTEST RULES HERE

PRIZES MUST BE PICKED UP IN PORTLAND

shindaiwa-jacketshindaiwa-shirt2

Prize #2 in the Great Portland-Vancouver Twitter Challenge: A snazzy windbreaker and shirt combo (one jacket, one shirt, both size XL). The jacket is black, and the shirt is an off-white — I think they call it “stone” in the catalog. Thanks to Mike Nichols of Shindaiwa.

And please note that Shindaiwa Outdoor Power Equipment is the first to start and the last to quit.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

Does Your Media Rep Matter?

Dan O’Day recently posted the story of a gift store owner who was making a potentially-extremely-costly decision. He was about to prominently feature this mistake in his radio ad. The mistake was an obvious one, but neither the owner nor the station Account Executive noticed it.

Luckily, the production director spotted it in the copy, and pointed it out to AE, who called the client. Crisis averted.

The story generated a lively discussion in the comments section about what a media rep’s job really is.

There are some advertising buys where it doesn’t matter who books the order — the campaign’s already done, the copy’s already written, and all that’s left is negotiating the price and doing the paperwork.

There are other times where it really matters who your rep is. This story involves one those times:

A Portland auto dealer decided on Thursday afternoon that he wanted to be on the air by Saturday. He doesn’t write copy, so he told me what the offer was, and I got to work.

  • Wrote a script, sent it back to the dealer, who approved it.
  • Sent it to the manufacturer for co-op approval. Learned that the factory had changed the co-op rules on January 1 (the dealer hadn’t mentioned this). Required language now much longer.
  • Removed some copy to make room for the longer co-op language. Resubmitted to the manufacturer.
  • Sent it to my contact at the Oregon Attorney General’s office to make sure there wasn’t a problem with the dealer’s offer. There was a problem.
  • Called the dealer to discuss the AG office’s concerns. Called the AG’s office back to discuss possible solutions. Called the dealer back and convinced him to change the offer and avoid a big fine.
  • Rewrote the script. Resubmitted it to the manufacturer for co-op approval.
  • Dealer decided he wants to make the same offer at two stores instead of just one. This means two versions of the script. Wrote a second version.
  • Checked the two stores’ web sites to make sure the links mentioned in the call-to-action were operational. One store web site turned out to be down. Called the store GM, learned that it was in the middle of a redesign and would be down for a while.
  • Removed the web site from that store’s copy. Replaced it with a phone number.
  • Notified three other radio groups that new spots for two stores would be coming later that afternoon.
  • Dealer arrived for his 11:30am recording session — at 3:15pm. On Friday. With the spots due to start Saturday morning.
  • Matt Jones, Clear Channel Portland Production Director extraordinaire, stayed two hours late to get the spots done. He sent them to me, and I sent them all over town.

There’s a much longer version of this story that stretches deep into the weekend (and involves a trip by Matt back to the station on Sunday. Thank you, Matt Jones). But that’s the basic idea.

This particular campaign would not have gotten on the air unless the dealer’s media rep:

1. Knew how to write good copy quickly.

2. Knew the procedure for securing co-op approval.

3. Had a basic understanding of Oregon and Federal consumer advertising law — and a relationship with someone at the Department of Justice who could clarify things in the case of a gray area.

4. Could effectively coordinate a project involving a manufacturer, a state agency, two stores, and four radio groups.

Luckily, I was available for the task. And in the words of Muhammad Ali, it ain’t bragging if it’s true.

If you’ve got a nice, simple campaign where you’ve already done all the work, feel free to call anybody.

If, on the other hand, your Portland or Vancouver-area business has a marketing project that’s too important to trust to just anybody, Phil Bernstein is but a phone call away. The number’s 503-323-6553.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.

A Green Marketing Innovation: Eco-Friendly Liposuction

Guy Kawasaki, via Twitter, alerted me to this story of Dr. Alan Bittner, a Beverly Hills doctor who claimed to be running his Ford Explorer on liposuction fat.

According to Dr Bittner, his patients are more than happy to be involved in the extraordinary eco-friendly scheme.

“The vast majority of my patients request that I use their fat for fuel and I have more fat than I can use,” he said.

This could have turned out to be the marketing coup of the century — save the earth and get thinner thighs! — if only the authorities hadn’t shut him down.

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Click this link to subscribe to Portland’s Finest Advertising and Marketing Blog.

Request your free copy of Phil Bernstein’s white paper, The Seven Deadly Advertising Mistakes and How to Fix Them here.

Got a question? Call Phil Bernstein at 503-323-6553.