With the growing popularity of smartphones, mobile marketing has transformed into a billion dollar industry. Smartphones allow companies to target consumers through websites, texts, applications, and direct voicemail messages. Mobile marketing is an effective way to reach a target audience, but must be done properly. Many times companies are too aggressive and their messages are ignored by receivers.

Kleenex is one company basing their new marketing campaign around this popular trend. Getmommed.com is the site established by Kleenex to cater to consumers’ psychological needs for extra motherly care during the cold and flu season. Consumers are encouraged to visit the promotional site via Kimberly-Clark’s main Web page, print advertisements, and television commercials. Site visitors can complete a quiz matching them to one of eight cyber moms. Pick Magnolia and this Mom can cure your cold with home-style cooking, while Lisa offers craft and home decor ideas. Kleenex reports the most popular Mom is Jessica, the “Best Friend” Mom. After signing up on the site, consumers are able to request wake-up calls, text reminders, Facebook messages, and words of encouragement from their new Mom.

The GetMommed.com Web site makes sure you have adequate access to motherly TLC this cold and flu season.

Kleenex combines internet and mobile marketing, resulting in a highly interactive campaign. They avoid sending text blasts and e-mail advertisements to consumers, instead offering helpful services that consumers can voluntarily register for. Companies who want to effectively utilize mobile marketing to target their consumers can follow these simple rules.

Integration is key

Smartphones have given users the capability to scan all types of advertising mediums, so integration of all platforms is now extremely important in a company’s campaign. Kleenex effectively merged their platforms and prompted consumers to visit their site through print and television ads.

Give and you shall receive

Offer helpful services or incentives that smartphone owners will use on a daily basis. Kleenex offers weather updates, wake-up calls, or text reminders. These tools provide emotional consumer appeal and help build brand loyalty and awareness.

Get Social with Social Media

Leverage your marketing plan and business with social media sites. Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube are all platforms that can take your campaign to the next level. Remember that connection of all social media outlets is key. Display links for Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube accounts on your campaign’s homepage. Kleenex integrates Facebook links on their main page, allowing visitors to view each cyber mom’s Facebook and befriend them.

Get to know Magnolia, Lisa, and the rest of the Moms through Kleenex’s Webisodes on YouTube.

Kleenex has successfully entered the cyberspace of consumers with these simple rules and the help of eight fictional Moms. They continue to establish strong emotional ties with consumers and create long-term brand loyalty. Follow Kleenex’ lead and your company could be seeing similar results.

The economy has slowed and for many companies shrinking revenue means much smaller marketing budgets.  Shrinking marketing budgets can shrink results as well so what is the savvy marketer to do when looking for more results with drastically smaller budgets?  They recycle.

Five ways to reduce, reuse, and recycle:

1. Don’t throw out advertising too early - Redefine “worn out”.  Extend the schedules on which you would normally rotate your creative.  This turbulent economic climate leaves your customers and prospects seeking familiarity and stability.  When you find the effectiveness of your current creative waning, evolve what you have by introducing a new element rather than going completely back to the drawing board. For example, a sticker can take care of a change of address on a brochure. And when you do new things, plan with longer life and “refreshability” in mind.
2. Do something with that old bridesmaid’s dress you’re keeping - Reuse favorite advertising campaigns and direct mail pieces that worked well in the past.  Sure, a few things will have changed over the three years or so since you last ran an ad but editing is always less expensive than creating a new piece.  A few updated touches will create something new from something that might be old to you but thanks to audience turnover and poor long-term viewer retention, plenty of people will be enjoying for the first time.   For those that remember it, showing an old campaign can be a way to demonstrate that you are stable and give them a feeling of security.  Many large traditional brands have begun getting back to their roots and re-airing old campaigns for that reason alone.
3. Look in the trash pile - If you hired an ad agency for a project, chances are that they provided you with multiple concepts for earlier projects. Perhaps you can make use of one of the alternatives. There may be a charge to finish the piece, but it’s usually less expensive than starting over.
4. Car pool - See if anyone in your organization has unused seats.  Many organizations are siloed, especially around the area of technology.  Your IT department may have implemented a tool for Operations that might have marketing capabilities which are going unused.  A good example of a tool like this is Microsoft’s SharePoint. While your organization might be using it for internal collaboration, it is also an excellent tool to make external websites, secure micro-sites, promotional pages, and even to manage an electronic prospect dialogue strategy.
5. Switch to electric power - Marketers are still struggling to find ROI from broad use of the newest social networking tools like Facebook and Twitter but one thing is clear already.  The cost of reaching an audience using these tools is extremely low.  While they are not yet (and may never be) ready to carry the weight of a large portion of your marketing strategy this is a perfect time to replace some of the poorest performing media channels you pay for and add some inexpensive social media to your mix.

All of these ideas will be much more effective when used by a company with a well developed brand identity, and if yours doesn’t, there is no better time to focus on building your brand and taking bold brand actions.

Bill Cutshall

Kirsten Cutshall

From Stacy Armijo, Vice President, Pierpont Communications. Stacy will speak at the AMA Marketing Jam on Tuesday, May 12^th.

Some days, it feels like marketers are in the fight of our lives. Budgets are being cut, expectations are being raised and we must deliver more than ever with fewer resources.

Too often, we become insulated and assume our organization recognizes our value. We discover our mistake when budgets shrink and marketing is the first to be slashed.

Like the cobblers’ children with no shoes, we realize we’ve evangelized ardently for the brand, but done nothing to advocate for our own value internally.

That’s the bad news. The good news is that tumultuous times can present some of the best opportunities for communication professionals.

Now is a great time to go the extra mile and show your value. At Marketing Jam ’09, I’ll share tips for achieving this, such as:

• Creating outcomes, not implementing strategies;
• Speaking in the language of executives; and
• Learning to love metrics.

Our organizations need us now more than ever.

Join me at Marketing Jam ’09 to help them recognize it!

At Marketing Jam ’09 we will rock out and share new ways to grow your business and make the most of your marketing dollars. Attendees will learn from some of Austin’s leading marketing experts, including: Pierpont Communications ; TradeMark Media; and Emma Email Marketing. Following the presentations, attendees will enjoy networking, appetizers, cocktails and live music from Austin’s own Lip Service. Let’s rock!

Stacy Armijo is a Vice President for Pierpont Communications and leader of the firm’s public relations practice in Austin. A specialist in communication planning and media relations strategy, Stacy’s expertise lies in creating practical, effective communication programs that make the best use of every dollar invested. Learn more at www.piercom.com.

When John Ellett, owner of local advertising agency nFusion, speaks in front of college groups, it’s an Anheuser-Busch account that gets the most attention. Using interactive marketing, nFusion created a Bacardi Silver brand campaign, The Pick-Up Hall of Shame. The interactive campaign launched in January 2007 and is still running and pulling in viewers.

Yes, you have to be 21 to enter the website featuring all the flavors of Bacardi Silver. So, many of those college students have only heard of, not sampled the brand. After skimming through the over 1500 entries made by site visitors, the real list of Pick-Up Lines is surprisingly small. My favorite line was:

I wish I was a tear, that way I’d be born in your eye, live on your cheek, and die on your lips.

Many of the pick-up lines referenced advertising slogans:

When I studied advertising at Syracuse University, I chose a Bacardi ad for a critical analysis assignment. Through that exercise, I learned my first rule of advertising: Men like to look at women in ads. Women like to look at women in ads.

Bacardi often sells the social aspect of its product. So it was natural to continue the “fun feature” of the branding in nFusion’s campaign. The “Worse Pick-Up Line” feature is very viral. Of the viewers that “stick”, 82 percent of them will share the campaign with their community, add or rate the lines. That is an outstanding metric which shows the conversion of lookers to doers. The viewers spread the campaign through social bookmarking, adding it to their MySpace pages, or by forwarding it to their friends.

While we can’t trace actual sales that result from the Pick-Up Line feature, the Anheuser-Busch executives approve of it enough to let it to run for two years. In interactive marketing, that’s like dog years. I like how nFusion runs the flavor buttons at the bottom of the screen with a new flavor tag for the latest version of Bacardi Silver. The new flavor tag refreshes the content.

Bacardi Silver’s interactive marketing accomplishes the goals of stickiness and engagement with its target demographic. It also has a timeless quality — the pick-up line, “You must be wearing spacepants, because you’re out of the world,” could have come out of the David Bowie disco days of the 70s. There’s no other explanation for such a bad pick-up line. Why do you think this campaign works?

About the Author

Brenda Hessney

Brenda Hessney is a successful Austin marketing specialist with a knack for quickly analyzing, planning, and implementing effective, cost efficient sales campaigns.

The 1.01-minute clip swept through the media last week. As a Public Service Announcement, the anti-smoking message was effective in gaining attention and multiple views on multiple media platforms.

But at what price? How far should you go to get across your message?

There he is circling in distress, a 4-year-old boy, who loses sight of his mom in a busy train station. At 37 seconds, the tiny boy wells up. At 47 seconds, he is in full wail, sobbing his heart out, his cheeks and nose reddening.

Quit smoking commercial- Separation

The ad originated with the Australian non-profit Quit Victoria, a joint initiative of four health organizations. It began its Australian TV run in November. With the release of the ad by the New York City Department of Health April 1, 2009, NBC news called the PSA “heartbreaking and meant to make smokers gasp”. They tied it to the state’s sin tax on tobacco:  a New Yorker now pays $10 to buy one pack of cigarettes.

Did the Australian film crew make the boy cry? Did they tell him it was acting? Does it matter if it’s less than thirty seconds and obviously, since a camera is filming, the boy was not truly abandoned?

The voiceover is heart-stopping to any parent: “If this is how a child feels after losing you for a minute, just imagine if they lost you for life.

Ad agency owner and CNBC personality Donny Deutsch applauded the ad, saying “Bravo.” In a follow-up question from NBC’s Matt Lauer, Deutsch replies, “The kid cries 20 seconds, saves 20,000 lives, I’m all in.”

Indeed, anti-smoking hotlines reported as much as a quadrupling in calls.

Isn’t that what we’re paid to do as advertising and marketing professionals? We’re paid to get results.

End of story: The New York City Department of Health pulled the ad from TV.

Do you think the Department of Health made the right decision?

About the Author

Brenda Hessney

Brenda Hessney is a successful Austin marketing specialist with a knack for quickly analyzing, planning, and implementing effective, cost efficient sales campaigns. She also wrote and produced all the PSAs and ads for Boulder Radio Inc.’s KBOL and KBVL No children or animals were harmed in the making of those spots. Of course, it was all talk radio.

Early 2009 and you’re into managing your marketing budget for the year. The annual tug-of-war over a company’s marketing budget between the directors of the marketing department and the company’s Chief Financial Officer (CFO) was just a few months ago. Believe it or not, it’s time to start thinking about 2010.

With the downturn of the economy and no immediate positive forecasts, the 2010 budget tug-of-war is likely to get nasty… but it doesn’t have to be. As marketers, we’re trained to identify, target and speak in our customer’s own, unique language. I’ve found that CFO’s have their own language and if you’re willing to slip on a propeller hat and create a spreadsheet or two, your efforts will go a long way in getting your marketing budget approved.

I offer you five simple steps on how to get your marketing budget approved…and even speak to a CFO… if you really have to.

1. Marketing and Sales departments don’t “place nice” – be prepared: In most organizations, each department is focused on their own objectives and less interested in developing “the brand.” Often times, marketing and sales can lock horns with each other resulting in top management to make a choice. Awareness and management of this situation is the first step of getting your budget approved.

2. Ditch the marketing jargon and stop using the word “budget.” Company presidents and C-level executives rarely make it to the top via a marketing route. They don’t speak the marketing language. Smart marketers think of a marketing budget as an “investment,” while many company leaders think of marketing as an “expense.” For awhile, marketers were able to get what they wanted by simply switching these two words around – no more. The presidents and C-level executives have caught on. Today, the smart marketer should speak to CFO’s and company presidents as if we were managers of an investment portfolio.

Treat the term “budget” as a “loan.” CFO’s see the word “budget” and think money will be spent without any sign of returns. “Loan” implies the marketer will return the money with interest. Talk about your company’s marketing channels as different ways to make profits.

Stop using the term “ROI” and start using the term “profit.” Just like portfolio managers. C-level executives understand the word profit and all profit can be measured. Can all marketing ROI be measured? Likewise, stop using the word “cost” and start using the word “value.”

3. Become “metaphor-lingual” in business: Dropping the marketing jargon is step one in communicating (and convincing) the C-level budget slayers to stay away from your budget. When talking to the “propeller-wearing-spreadsheet-people,” use everyday metaphors to better explain marketing. Metaphor example: If you were working in oil or gas exploration and you just started drilling random holes, you’d probably be fired rather quickly. When deciding where to spend marketing dollars, the attitude from CFOs seems to be “let’s drill a few holes over here and a few here and hope it generates some response.” This of course, is the very definition of poor strategic planning for marketing. When speaking to non-marketers, learn to be “metaphor-lingual.”

4. Wrangle the ROI warfare and choose sides: C-level executives are often times obsessed with measuring ROI. When marketers can’t demonstrate or justify ROI, budgets get slashed. There are many ways to measure ROI in marketing, but unfortunately most of the metrics aren’t designed to co-exist. For example, direct marketing mailers focus on cost per sell. Media measurement is all about reach and frequency, while PR professionals are busy counting column inches and brand ROI is measuring brand preference. For large organizations, marketers need to create a ROI “dashboard” and keep all of the metrics in front of you, at all times. In smaller organizations, a marketer needs specific directions and buy-in surrounding the company’s business objectives. These business objectives must be supported from senior management and be measured by the appropriate ROI measurement method.

5. Adopt a culture of ROI measurement and build your plan. You’ve identify the challenges of working with multiple departments, you’ve ditched the marketing jargon, you’re using metaphors and you’ve selected the right ROI metric for your company. You’re well on your way to getting your budget approved. By taking the next 5 steps, you will accomplish three critical things: You’ll create a culture of ROI; you’ll be speaking to a CFO in a language he or she understands and most importantly, you’ll get your marketing budget approved!

1. Build the team – Unite departments, research and c-level management

2. Unify the ROI agenda – Agree to a strategy, set realistic goals and prioritize outcomes.

3. Establish metrics – Determine data sources, set goals and align budget with tasks

4. Communicate – brief agency partners, communicate to every employee and discuss metrics along the way

5. Adjust and review – Measure progress, review the processes and optimize performance and tactics during the process based on the numbers.

It is budget season planning time. Follow these steps and that marketing budget is yours.

About Darren Drewitz

Darren has 16 years of strategic and integrated marketing experience on both the client and agency sides. He has experience in both B2B and B2C marketing, including the multi-location, food, logistics, building & construction and tourism industries. Darren specializes in developing year-long strategic and integrated marketing plans designed to align business objectives with marketing initiatives. Darren lives in Austin, Texas with his wife Melissa and their two sons. Darren serves as an account director for MQ&C Advertising, a 25-year-old, full-service marketing and advertising agency.