Why the next big thing in marketing is…simplicity (part two)

(c)iStock.com/TimArbaev

Editor’s note: The first part of this two-part article, available here, explained the concept of ConOps – the concept of operations – in a marketing communications program to communicate the quantitative and qualitative system characteristics of the effort to the brand, as well as prospects, clients, and customers. This piece expands on the need to keep marketing efforts simple with various examples.

Complexity is not rule one in...

19 January 2017 | Advertising

Why the next big thing in marketing is…simplicity

(c)iStock.com/DNY59

Editor's note: This is the first of a two-part article on ‘simplicity’ in marketing: the second piece will appear on MarketingTech later this month.

Opinion A question to kick off 2017: have you ever thought how complex marketing has become?

I think about that all the time and attempt to relay to my client base that simple is better. I also emphasize a few of the fundamentals of marketing that need to be followed when developing a...

10 January 2017 | Advertising

Corrective marketing: The integration of message and media

(c)iStock/Pinkypills

You’re late, speeding at 120 mph, your satellite radio is blaring, your smartphone map app is recalculating, the fog is thick, the road is wet, and it’s hard to tell if the car is still on the road.

Is your marketing on the right track? 

According to internal research, that’s how most CMOs feel after recent changes in markets, economy, technology, and demographics.

A road once clearly defined is now part superhighway, part...

25 October 2016 | Social Media Marketing

Are you in need of corrective marketing?

(c)iStock.com/Wavebreakmedia

Have you ever considered this question? I ask it all the time.

Successful marketers have always been marketing and selling via an omnichannel stream, and integrated marketing is mostly self-corrective.

Corrective marketing involves using a holistic program that not only determines the problem areas but also offers a solution, a correction.

The advent and need for corrective marketing

Marketing programs are like a long-range space...

26 September 2016 | Best Practice

The importance of omnichannel marketing in bridging the isthmus

(c)iStock.com/choja

The brand and the consumer sit on either side of the 'isthmus of marketing'. This separation between the two can seem like a wide barrier or a narrow, slim, space.

It keeps the brand from reaching the consumer and the consumer from reaching the brand, and keeps them both from joining forces and both benefiting from the convergence of their needs and desires.

Brands need to build a marketing canal across the 'isthmus' to allow consumers to select the...

22 August 2016 | Content Marketing

Gaming: The next big thing in social media and digital marketing?

(c)iStock.com/Wachiwit 

In a world long ago, I designed or assisted in the design of a series of conflict simulation board games—mostly complex, very realistic war games, long before online games were common.

I was very observant, understanding the gamers’ demographics, their needs, habits, desires, the history of the game, and maintaining the needed, correct, realistic history of the event portrayed. 

In the back of my mind, I was always thinking...

22 July 2016 | Gamification

Mary Meeker and the case of the converging digital marketer

(c)iStock.com/baona

Each year, the world of the internet, advertising, digital, legacy marketing, and communications wait with more than baited breath for the Mary Meeker 2016 internet trends report presentation.

The anticipation is right for many people; for me, I am not so sure anymore. But this year, as much as I was impressed with the data, stats, and slides, I also divined that Mary Meeker was really supporting the argument for integrated, converged marketing.

The...

1 July 2016 | Data-driven marketing

Has social media really become a standalone marketing tool?

As a marketing communications integrator, I look to define and evaluate the added strength that converged, combined, and integrated media channels bring to the marketing table.

After many tests, I still find social media to be a developing communications medium and one that needs to be viewed as a media tool—a channel rather than a standalone strategy.

In my search to determine if social media is truly social or whether it has become saleable media – or both, I have...

2 June 2016 | Social Media Marketing

The future of marketing tech is account based everything

(c)iStock.com/shylendrahoode

According to Jon Miller, CEO of Engagio, the secret sauce and the future of marketing technology is - wait for it - account based everything (ABE). 

As the keynote speaker for the recently held MarcomCentral Marketing Tech Roadshow, Miller outlined in an exciting, determined, informative, and illustrative PowerPoint the new concept of ABE. 

Miller’s presentation headlined the MarcomCentral mini-conference, a three-hour event...

11 May 2016 | Best Practice

The positive aspects of a downward marketing spiral

(c)iStock.com/Polina Shuvaeva

We nearly always think that a downward spiral is a negative, a downturn, and a disaster. Not always. I disagree and make an exception when it comes to marketing and developing a ‘go to market’ digital cross-media or integrated strategy, selecting the media, and determining when to use that media to support your strategy.

I often explain to clients and students that a useful image to visualise when discussing the development of an...

5 April 2016 | Best Practice