PodCamp 2014

In the past 3 years of my time at St.Lawrence College in the Advertising Marketing Communications Management program I have been given some amazing opportunities. Everything from going to New York City for Pivot Con to competing at the Ontario Colleges Marketing Competition in Windsor. Each experience has taught me the value of attending these networking events and actively perusing opportunities to expand my learning.

Recently the idea of PodCamp has traveled across our classroom. After doing a little bit of research of what PodCamp really was it was clear that this would be another opportunity to grow, learn and expand my network.

PodCamp is being held in Toronto on February 22 in the form of an un-conference. A number of different topics will be introduced and discussed by industry leaders in the social and digital realm. We are even lucky enough to have two students presenting a topic at the conference.

There are a number of reasons I am interested in attending PodCamp this year. First is the fact that this is my last year of formal education. Although I know I will have opportunities like this once I enter the working world. I want to ensure I take all the opportunities offered to me. Next is the forward thinking during the sessions with industry leaders. This type of thinking is stimulates great discussion and expands upon the learning we do in class. Finally I am looking forward to meeting the SLC Alumni and discuss with them about their "after college" adventure. These are people who were in my shoes less than 5 years ago and are having huge success in the industry. They know the ins and outs of making the transition from student to working professional – which I must admit I’m a bit nervous about myself. 

I’ve booked my ticket and started making arrangements for my stay. I can’t wait for this experience to begin! I am sure it will not only meet my expectations but also beat them as these opportunities usually do. Bring on the learning, networking and ultimately great time!

Want to join me at Podcamp this year? Click here to register!

How Valuable Are Your Relationships?

A lot of time has been spent talking about what a business can get from a customer or what a customer can get from a business. But the real question is which transaction is more important? Who is ultimately getting the most value in a business to consumer relationship? Until recently I would have said that without a doubt a business receives much more from its consumers, however my opinion has been changed forever. 

Ted Rubin, a keynote speaker, suggested that the most important transaction that takes place is called the “Return on Relationship”. He defines this term as “the value accrued by a person or brand due to nurturing a relationship.” 

As a concept this seems very simple but the implementation is a very different story. It takes a lot of work to keep an open line of communication with your consumers, and timing is everything. Jay Baer states that 40% of consumers expect a response within 60 minutes of posting to a social media platform – and that is a lot of pressure for a brand. However, by giving consumers a return on their relationship consumers will move up Seth Godin’s relationship ladder from stranger to friend and from friend to loyal customer. Innately this growth has a monetary value attached to it. Relationships are the new currency!

After listening to Rubin at Pivot Con earlier this year my mind has been forever changed. I now see more value in social media that I have ever seen in social before. I have significantly changed the goals for my marketing plans in order to adopt this new way of thinking, because in my eyes, it works! Brand evangelist play a huge role in the success of a brand and quite simply these people would not exist would the Return on Relationship principle.

What brands do you know of that have provided a great relationship experience with you? It can be in-store, online or over the phone – as long as you felt the connection and it was maintained. Palm Bay does an amazing job interacting with their consumers online and responding very quickly to questions or concerns. MANY businesses could learn from this example.

Simple Term or Valuable Knowledge?

This week in class I was challenged to define and understand one of the many SEO terms we that are going to learn about next week. Me, being a busy student and having no extra time tried to take the easy way out and choose the word “Play Rate”. To me the concept seemed relatively simple. The play rate was the rate at which your video or ad is played. But upon doing some actual research I found that this term has a lot more value than my simple definition.

Play Rate can be defined as “how often your ad’s video was played compared to how often the ad was shown.” That basically means that the play rate is a ratio that calculates the number of plays verses its total impressions. These numbers can and will have a huge effect on the overall marketing campaign on platforms like YouTube. If your ad has a low play rate then we as advertisers know we need to enhance the ad or the experience the ad is giving in order to engage our customers more. This can be done a number of different ways. You could have a stronger call to action or even something as simple as having a more graphically appealing opening image.  

With this knowledge we cannot only better understand our consumer but we can focus our marketing techniques for the future. The play rate gives us clear data that we can use to support our AB testing methods or to solely show the success of our work. Search Engine Watch believes that video has the perfect balance between creativity and data - with information like this we need to ensure that we are taking advantage of tools like play rate in order to give ourselves the best chance of success.

I think its safe to say that this basic term holds a lot of value in the strategies and technique I will be using in the future. This just once again goes to show “do not judge a book by its cover” or a term for its value in this situation. 

Has Apple Gone Sour?

News about the new IPhone 5 can hardly be ignored. What’s interesting this time around is that I feel let down - I was expecting more. The question is why? Are we holding Apple to a higher standard or are they truly not producing the innovative technology that we have grown to expect.

The IPhone 5C pleasantly surprises us with the new use of colours like green, yellow, blue and red.  This is like a breath of fresh air compared to the previous versions, which were available only in black or white. But this isn’t something new.  Historically Apple is known for “living in colour.” I find it odd that it’s taken so long to introduce this option for the IPhone. Ironically, Apple was producing coloured computers before their competitors but in recent years.  I’m struggling to understand if this was a tactic to keep consumers on their toes or just simply poor branding. Just adding colour to a phone is not enough to make me get ride of the current phone I have. It’s not “New” enough.

Now when it comes to the IPhone 5S, I can’t discount the obvious new finger scanning technology. This is what we all expect from Apple. Big, new, flashy innovation that makes us “need” the product. As consumers, we are willing to spend big money in order to have the latest technology as long as it’s innovative.  Well, innovative it is!

However even this does not feel like enough. Compared to updates like the front facing camera, FaceTime or icloud - which where revolutionary to what we expect from our smartphones – it feels lack luster. How is it that we have become so accustom to advance technology that even major break throes seem like a small bump in the road? 

The real question here is are we holding Apple to a higher standard than other smartphone creators? If another brand had come out with this idea would we be more excited or is it just truly not enough to keep us interested? Innovation in its definition is "the application of new solutions that meet new requirements, inarticulate needs, or existing market needs" and we as consumers need to decided if Apple is meeting this expectation.

My gut tells me that we do expect more from Apple.  It is fair to assume that with every new product Apple creates they are also creating a piece of art. But does that make it innovative? Does that make it new or fresh enough to rationalize spending the money buying a new phone? I believe if Apple went back to a time where the IPhone upgrades were less often, but more revolutionary, we would not be experiencing this feeling of disappointment. 

Are We Tailored or too Tight?

Oh how the advertising world has changed! Long gone are the days of John Wanamaker spending his hard earned money on advertising only to quote, “Half the money I spend on advertising is lost, I just can’t figure out what half.” We are living in a much faster-paced and tailored world that changes the ad game dramatically.

With all of the changes in today’s society, the thought of using only mass marketing techniques is hard to imagine. As consumers, we beg for individuality, authenticity and want brands to reach us on a personal level. This has proven to be a daunting task for marketing and advertising experts.

With the switch from “Ad-Men” to “Math-Men,” businesses are spending their dollars more wisely and consumers are receiving ads targeted toward their own personal wants and needs. This fluid relationship between the buyers and sellers allows for true value for both parties.

This relationship can be more powerful than you think. Consumers are being put into a bubble of knowledge of things they are interested in at this moment. How are we expected to learn about anything new? Recipes, news, activities - all of these things are filtered out for us in hopes of giving us what we “want". This trend is not only affecting consumers but businesses as well. Search Engine Watch notes how this tailored marketing is affect businesses at an SEO level. Ideally ads need to be like a good pair of pants, comfortably tailored but not to tight just incase we want to expand.

I challenge you to reach outside of your comfort zone – try something new and different and not necessarily what is being fed to us by advertisements found on Facebook pages, Google searches or others. There is an infinite amount of information and many different perspectives that can help us to expand our horizons.  Many of us are far too complicated for that!

Sharing Thoughts To Expand The Mind

This year I was tasked to perform an informational interview with a person in the community. Just anyone? No, this person needed hold a position in their perspective business that I may be interested in pursuing for my future career.  Now, like most students in my class I was skeptical on the importance of this assignment, but after this experience I can totally see the value.

I was introduced to Shawn Whalen, the Promotional Manager at Bell Media Kingston, through Greg Hinton, the General Manager and family friend.  Shawn was very responsive to my questions / emails and was more than happy to have me join him at the radio station for our interview.  

He started by taking me on a tour of the station; I was introduced to the marketing team, radio personalities, writers and so many more industry professionals. Everyone was very friendly and willing to give me a quick brief about what they did in the station (I felt as if I got many mini-interviews on this tour).  We then sat down in Shawn’s office where he answered my questions about his education, daily activities, favourite aspects of the job and some general information.

Through this experience I learnt a great deal about being in promotions and working in the radio business.  The connections I made for my personal network will be in valuable for my future and the simple thank you card I sent made a lasting impression.   

Who would have guessed that an informational interview could provide an experience like this? I received a wealth of knowledge and was able to see into the “real world” of business. I hope to stay connected to Shawn via Linked in and email.  He is not a connection that I would want to loose!

I would also like to send out a quick thank you to Shawn, Greg and the rest of the team at the station for donating your time. I truly appreciate you teaching me about your careers and allowing me into your place of work. You’re the BEST!