Marketing Roadmaps

Blogging

Corante Marketing Hub

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I am pleased and honored to be among the marketing bloggers selected by Corante to be part of its marketing hub. I am in extremely good company, and rather than miss someone off, I’ll refer you to the list on the hub.

Corante has taken a unique (and I believe ultimately successful) approach to the concept of collecting/aggregating interesting content. Instead of recruiting folks to contribute to another blog (in our copious spare time), they are providing what amounts to a daily commented, digest of content from participant blogs. Some posts are commented on, others are just included in a raw feed. BUT here’s the most important part: our feeds are pulled with NO ADDITIONAL WORK ON OUR PART. Amen to that.

It is up to the hub members to continue to write engaging,interesting posts on marketing topics. Which is after all the reason we were recruited in the first place: the folks at Corante thought we  had interesting, original perspectives on marketing topics.

Did I mention no extra work!!! I have participated in group blogs, and the hardest part is finding the time. The spirit is willing, but there just ain’t no time. Lately (as I am sure my readers have noted), it has been tough to find the time to write here, let alone somewhere else too.

So, take a look — this model has "legs" and I’m honored to be part of it.

One year on the Roadmap

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Wow!  While we were in Hawaii, this blog reached the one-year mark. Not sure whether that’s a birthday or an anniversary, but whatever it is, we’ve made it this far. Thanks to all my readers and commenters for sticking with me!

I’ll be back next week in full force with the Hawaii report and perhaps a few other things.

Off to Hawaii

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We are off to Hawaii tomorrow so blogging may be thin.

For the past week, I have been pushing hard on a web site for my client GuideMark. GuideMark provides CRM solutions to financial services organizations, and we just finished redoing their site to have more of a product and market focus: www.guidemark.com

When I return from vacation, I will be working on the sites for two other clients. Just call me the "Web Queen."

I’m also thinking about Web 2.0 — whatever that is, and will definitely have some thoughts soonish.

Catching up October 05

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Blogging was light to the point of ZERO this week because I was "on the road again" with limited time and spotty Internet access.

Midweek, I attended the Annual Meeting of the Association of the US Army in Washington DC. My client Spec.-Ops. Brand had a small booth in the exhibit, and it was a good opportunity to learn more about the military market as well as meet with the client. After 2 days there, I went to Somerset NJ for the Morris and Essex Kennel Club dog show on Thursday and then home Thursday night.

I’m finally more or less caught up on work, and will resume or normal marketing program next week.

Today, I just want to share something that really struck me at the AUSA show.

The attendees at the AUSA show are primarily members of the US Army of all ranks, ages and experience — Specialists and USMA Cadets to Major Generals and Command Sergeants Major. Just like any other association meeting, the event is a combination of networking, education, trade show and socializing.

While walking around the exhibits, and looking at the mix of attendees, I thought back to my childhood when my father (a career Army officer) was stationed at the US Military Academy (West Point).

At the age of eight, I thought the cadets (at 19 and 20) were all grown up. What a difference 30 plus years makes. This week, when I saw young men and women of a similar age — cadets, NCOs and Lieutenants — all I could think was how young they were, barely out of childhood.   

You read the papers, and it talks about these 20-year old kids, but most of us don’t see them on a regular basis. The reality is that the active duty Army is an Army of youth. Soldiers not much older than me are nearly through with their careers, preparing for retirement (and usually a second career in the private sector).

It may be trite, but it is also true: it is someone’s son or daughter, niece or nephew over in Iraq and Afghanistan. They may be well-trained, efficient soldiers, willing to do their duty for their country. But they are also kids far from home. Whatever you think of this war, remember that , and maybe do something nice for a serviceman or woman in the coming holiday season.

Serenity and grassroots marketing

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About a week or so ago, I posted about the Joss Whedon movie Serenity as an example of how customers can effect change, when they care enough AND somebody is actually listening. The post also was my submission to this week’s Carnival of the Capitalists.

As a fan of Firefly, I have been impatiently waiting for the film that continues the story just like any other fan. And as a marketer, I have been observing the grassroots and viral marketing efforts with great interest over the past year. I’ve even done my share of fan conversions. For the uninitiated, that’s when you loan your Firefly DVDs to a “virgin.”

Shortly after I wrote my post, as we got ever closer to this Friday’s general US release, the media – both mainstream and blogosphere – effectively exploded. The LA premiere generated a great deal of press, as did the rounds of interviews director Whedon and the cast are doing to promote the movie. I won’t list it all here, but you can find most of the coverage on the site Whedonesque.

Not surprisingly, given the grassroots and viral campaigns already in play, the studio (Universal) decided to approach bloggers directly. Among the bloggers they contacted with their offer for a free advance screening provided they agreed to blog about the movie, good or bad, was the Instapundit . Definitely the way to spread the word fast..   

In fact, three marketing blogs that I read on a fairly regular basis wrote about the offer, each with a slightly different take and what it means longer term. I’ve commented at all three, and won’t rehash all the discussion here, other than to recommend you read the posts, and all the comments.

As one of the commenters on the gapingvoid post pointed out, planned or merely unintended consequence, the free advanced screenings reached well beyond the fanbase.

The best post about the whole thing however was from a blog I hadn’t read before, New Persuasion   (again I tip my hat to Whedonesque for the link). The author of the post Nellie Lide actually was “confirmed” for one of the blogger screenings but chose not to go because she didn’t like the way the publicity firm handled the whole thing. Reading some of the language they used in their emails, I can definitely see why bloggers might be put off by it (notably too much use of the word MUST). And perhaps the PR firm didn’t handle it as well as they could have.

But I still stand by my opinion that no one was forced to do anything. It was a choice whether to accept the terms of the offer: get into a free advance screening of a much-anticipated movie in exchange for blogging about it. Or not.

Yes, the language the PR firm used was a bit strong and controlling. But, if you didn’t like the terms, don’t accept. Nellie Lide didn’t accept. Others did. (Although I do imagine it was easier to resist if you’d already seen the film than if you hadn’t.)

We will make mistakes … all of us … as we try to integrate new media into existing models. It is inevitable. But I’d rather try something new and perhaps make a mistake than never be willing to try. For that alone, I commend the team behind the blogger screenings –they tried something new. And hopefully, they learned from whatever mistakes they made. As I hope to when I make mine.

By Friday, this will all be moot anyway, as Serenity will be in general release. According to Whedonesque this morning, tickets are now available on movietickets.com.

See you at the movies. And "aim to misbehave."