Location-based marketing is poised for growth

Executive summaries of industry research reports are not necessarily documents one expects to mine for great writing.

But I came across the following sentence good enough to “borrow” in a recent report by market researcher Borrell Associates:

“Mobile marketing is where Web marketing was in about 1996: plenty of excitement, lots of experiments, general agreement that it will be Really Big, but not much data to provide visibility into how it will all unfold.”

OK, maybe it is not Hemingway, but I thought it was spot-on.

Locating potential
I also thought this sentiment was particularly apt for location-based mobile marketing and advertising, which this publication and others has been touting as the next big thing in the mobile landscape for some time.

Now, with the news awash in reports of Starbucks and L’Oreal entering into a six-month trial with O2’s location-based mobile advertising service, it seems like location-based marketing is finally starting to unfold.

Starbucks and L’Oreal: that is big. But is it the Really Big that we are talking about? And if not, what will it take to get there?

The fact that these brands are gearing up to participate in location-based marketing is indicative of the strategy’s potential.

Certainly, this potential has driven interest in location-based marketing since technology first enabled the prospect of it.

Reaching consumers where they are most likely to commit to a purchase, at the precise time they are in the proximity? And circumventing the time and distance inherent to most traditional marketing and advertising which targets consumers mostly in the home?

Why would marketers not jump at that opportunity?

Continue reading here.

Committing Word Crime

This article originally appeared in MediaPost on November 10, 2010
Perhaps it's a little early for the annual Best Of/Worst Of lists, or a look back over the year just squandered. But why wait until December or even January to protest the overuse and abuse of words whose meanings have been diluted and diffused with every re-churned blog post, hash tag, social media release or hyperbole-laden marketing/PR piece?

Don't get me wrong, I love a good metaphor as much as the next writer, but can we push the envelope just a bit farther? Yes, it seems we can and so I would like to propose a collaborative effort with MediaPost readers to create an extensive list of the most meaningless words of 2010.

Following is my "starter-kit" of most meaningless word usage this year - your comments and additions are welcomed.

1. Leading
Add "thought leader" into this mix. Firstly, who decides this? Is there a contest? And who is on the panel? At least "4 out of five dentists" leaves room for discourse. Until there are legal ramifications for falsely claiming "leader," it is quite meaningless and nobody is fooled (for long).

I propose to replace this with thought-trailers; those who pick up the crumbs of the thought-leaders and do something useful with them. I also call it the "Hansel and Gretel method of creativity."

2. Social media
Although it's a useful "platform" (see #7) can we please stop talking about it now? Even my 87-year-old granny in Bulgaria has a profile, so cut it out. Now, show me the companies that are managing their social media presence in a meaningful, measurable and profound way, then we'll talk. In the words of my hero Anthony Bourdain, "Social Media This!"

Which brings us to ...

3. Strategic
Whose meaning is generally not stretched. Its usage does adhere to the literal definition, but like solution, it has meandered into the buzzword arena and through sheer overuse fails to instill confidence. To a word-weary customer, it could well flip on the trickery switch. Use sparingly.

4. Cutting-edge
Everything is cutting-edge, stop insulting our intelligence.

5. Offline
Simply put, this means "in reality." This becomes confusing to those of us who spend so much time here online (where the really interesting things happen.) The other day I had the pleasure of being driven as opposed to driving, and so could enjoy the scenery. Gazing out the window, I marveled at how three -- dimensional the clouds looked - until the driver kindly pointed out that they appeared that way because they actually were three dimensional -- in reality. I should be driven more often, it's enlightening.

6. Apps
More lazy nomenclature. MIS-apps? Per-apps? ...Apples? What's 3 more syllables in the great scheme of things? Find the time folks, find the time.

To continue reading, click here.

Communicate or Die Mr. President

In the vein of all things political this week, I've been looking at the impact of paid media on the elections. No need to point out that the Dems got absolutely hammered by digruntled voters. But was it the misleading ads, the relentless tea party coverage and the extreme soundbytes from the extreme right polluting our eardrums that have contributed -- to what I believe -- is a temporary demise?

Or could our polarized, 24-hour/cable news cycle have tipped voters over the edge?

Or perhaps it was the billions of dollars that under-the-radar orgs like
American Action Network, or American Crossroads pumped into the most heinous ad
campaigns that, anywhere else, would have led to massive libel suits?

The answer is all of the above. And more still, the lack of communication from Mr. POTUS and Co.

Like millions of Americans, I fell in love with the new vision being sold to us in 2008. I don't believe that vision has changed drastically. But what's clearly lacking is communication from the White House - and from our President.

Working in PR, I know too well that when a company you work with cuts back on the communication, or "goes dark" for a while, this is exactly the time that eager competitors pounce - and find their spot in the limelight. Sometimes deservedly so, other times not.

We've seen that spending $140 million doesn't assure a win (too bad Ms.Whitman), but consistent communication does.

So Mr. President, here's my PR advice to you right now.

Communicate with your people, or die.

Because sorry won't be good enough in 2012.

No Frills Language

I subscribe to a great blog, "Life In the Boomer Lane." Her posts are just
hilarious and deliver a lovely little dose of reality every day, or so.

I'm not in the boomer lane just yet but seem to share and/or relate to some
of this blogger's experiences. I've always felt I was an older person trapped in
a younger body.Proof perhaps?

One of Renee's posts last week had me in absolute hysterics - Six Word Memoirs.
Apparently the AARP recently published memoirs from the senior community. Hers
was a cracker, but the premise of such an exercise got me thinking about the
current trajectory of our language, being reduced to 140 characters, or short
bytes that can be digested in 30 second spans - the most time that people have
available before moving to the next post.

In other words, stripping everything superfluous, discarding the verbose
and really, communicating in the most rudimentary way. It can be unintelligible
and selfish at times. No frills indeed.

I will be exploring the meaning of words - the frilly and not so - in my next
MediaPost column, but in the meantime here are a few of my six word memoirs:

- Started way too young, oh well.
- Ahead of my time. Cliche? Yes.
- Still learning to walk the walk.
- Lots of frequent flier points accumulated
- Tinting hasn't affected my brain cells (I cheated here)
- Round the way girl lived here.
- Most obnoxious line used, "Google Me!"

What are your six words?

My big fat mobile app/from Mobile Marketer

As the marketing clock inches closer to Thanksgiving and the holidays, it seems that the rush is on to bring out yet another mobile application – which has become almost as ubiquitous as the mobile device itself.

There are roughly 250,000-plus applications in the Apple App Store, ready and waiting for download to the more than 30 million iPhone subscribers.

But it is not all about Apple.

The average Android user has, at any given moment, about 25 applications on that device, and the number of applications downloaded by any smartphone user across any platform – BlackBerry, iPhone, Android – has increased almost 23 percent since December 2009.

However you slice or dice it, that is a lot of applications.

For advertisers and marketers, that is a lot of impressions and interactions. And those, of course, are worth a lot of money.

What led me to explore the explosion of applications in this column was actually my last opinion piece, “5 arguments on why mobile is indispensable to marketing plans”.

No sooner had my column come out than a surge of mobile application developers began contacting me. Some admitted to openly copying others, and they all wanted help in promoting their next best thing.

So this trend of marketers and their client companies rushing into the mobile apposphere is hardly surprising. In fact, it is to be expected based on the above numbers. This is the future of marketing, right?

As with many trends – even viable, sustainable ones – the impulse to anoint The Next Big Thing is quite irresistible....

To continue reading, click here.

Outside The Cubicle: When Creativity Kicks In

The work I do takes me to a lot of different places. I get to travel a great deal - which is both tiring and fun - but I wouldn't have it any other way.

What I’ve discovered when I'm on the road (or in a cab, or on the runway or at 35,000ft), is that being outside the proverbial cubicle feeds my creativity.

Being untethered to a desk and away from a routine working environment somehow unleashes a different part of my thinking process, one that is unencumbered by the barrage of calls and emails that I deal with at ThinkInk on a daily basis. Armed with my blackberry, laptop (and now iPad), I’m able to churn out an incredible number of articles, new ideas and projects to get started on.. So many, in fact, my office dreads when I go away now because I come back with so much more to do.

And not a minute seems to be wasted while I'm on the road; emails are answered, documents are checked, files are saved and work caught up on.. Alas, now I’m desk-bound again and the cycle starts all over.

Do you find yourself more creative away from your regular work environment? More productive even?

Here’s a short visual “diary” of the last trip, courtesy of my phone.

Bye bye beach


View from my London office – grey skies, what a surprise!


Luna the dog (my son’s charge for a day)


Streets of Toronto


Night time in Toronto


Interviewing Richard Cushing at the GuestLogix User Group conference, Toronto

Cheesy smiling with John Devin at the GuestLogix User Group conference, Toronto

Night out with the boys in Toronto – Jason and Richard at the GuestLogix User Group gala


Vieux Montreal – thank heavens for sunshine!


Atwater Marche – YUMMMMM


Brunch at Thursday’s, on Sunday


Montreal’s main thoroughfare in Chinatown.


And yes I did manage to work in between all that… I’ll be posting conference pics very soon.

DIY PR: Leave It To The Professionals

My original post appeared in MediaPost's Marketing Daily on October 14, 2010.

When I was a young adult, I did what many Australians do -- go travelling. I eventually settled in London, in a quaint little town called Richmond Upon Thames. Beautiful in the summertime; miserable, grey and cold for the remaining 10 months of the year.

It was at this time that I discovered the concept of DIY, do-it-yourself home improvements. Temples devoted to all things home decorating were popping up everywhere. The home improvement center, it seemed, was becoming as ubiquitous as the English pub.

It was also around this time that the ghastly trend of sponging paint blobs onto walls took hold. Like the recent trend of becoming a foodie, back then it was being a home decorator. Garden pots, flowerbeds, wallpaper and mouldings. Easy-care, faux wooden treatments and under-floor heating -- I was going all out. My Aussie feet couldn't stand the British cold. Thankfully, I stayed away from refurbing the hot water system, but my home had begun to resemble a construction site. My tiny Victorian cottage was in various states of "improvement," -- my decorating talents and skills having reached their respective limits long ago. It was time to call in the professionals, or risk turning my digs into home decorating hell.

WHY IT PAYS TO USE PROFESSIONALS
My short-lived calling as a DIY home decorator taught me a valuable lesson. When you need something done for which you do not possess the requisite skills (or time), seek out a professional.

This applies to virtually every industry I can think of: auto, legal, real estate, medical and so on. I can't imagine performing a root canal on myself any more than I can imagine fitting and aligning new tires for my car.

Why then should PR be any different? It is a skilled, bona fide profession, and it takes years to learn the "tools of the trade" and then continuing education -- applying learned theory to an ever-changing reality, to help companies and brands build relationships with their public.

THE PROVERBIAL PLASTER OF PARIS

And so I was somewhat offended by the following quote: "PR Agencies Are Dead, Handle Press Yourself," posted on Business Insider by the president of a networking site. I'm going to call him Mr. X -- no need to give him unwarranted PR -- who had the following to say:

"When you had to go through mass media, there's really a handful of media outlets or influential/important reporters. Because there were so few of them that had the ability to publish, there was this whole layer called the PR industry. Well, (now) everybody has the ability to publish. You engage in direct conversations with both traditional journalists and bloggers through the Web. As long as you are willing to be more open and sharing than in the past, now it's much more of a conversation." Mome again?

EVERYONE IS NOT AN EXPERT

To read the entire article on MediaPost, please click here.