Paul Pomeroy weighs in on a couple of car ads.

As a guy who works in advertising I often get asked by family, friends, acquaintances and perfect strangers to offer my opinion on current ads in the marketplace. I find this funny because, unlike most people, when I meet doctors, lawyers and auto mechanics, I don’t find a way to wedge questions related to lumps on my back, clauses in my will or an incessant knocking noise coming from under the hood of my car into the course of casual conversation. But whatever. Most advertising people are raving narcissistic know-it-alls who are more than happy to share their opinions on just about anything — especially good ads vs. sucky ads.

OK, that really just describes me. And that brings me to the point of this post. Read the rest of this entry »

Miracle Whip's current campaign

Advertising used to have one goal: to make you buy a product. But recent campaigns from big names like Miracle Whip and Domino’s are taking the opposite path. They are spending big chunks of time, space and money to tell us that lots of people hate them. Read the rest of this entry »

Marketing to the Baby Boomers

According to a recent report from NielsenWire, advertisers focus on reaching consumers 18–34 or 18–49. While these consumers spend billions of dollars every year, the report states that advertisers and consumer goods manufacturers are overlooking a group that has tremendous buying power — the 78 million Baby Boomers. Read the rest of this entry »

The benefits of our TAAN membership

Think there’s a typo in that headline? Wrong. TAAN stands for Transworld Advertising Agency Network.

TAAN is the oldest worldwide agency network and has member agencies in 47 markets around the world. From South Africa to St. Louis, members meet and share openly and willingly. Often they will partner on projects when the blend of expertise or location makes sense for the client.

TAAN is a membership-based organization with dues and benefits and responsibilities, created for agency owners. We are very honest about everything happening at our “shop” and look for advice from others. The most exciting part is that we truly are global. Every two years we hold global meetings where we not only learn new ways of approaching the advertising business, but get a chance to build or renew relationships with folks from other cultures and countries. Read the rest of this entry »

Traditional marketing tactics may be like your old mix tapes.

It seems like only yesterday. I wanted to catch the attention of that special person and I knew the perfect way to go about doing it — the mix tape! A combination of all those songs that would tell her exactly how I felt and why she should want my company as much as I wanted hers.

Times have certainly changed. Now you wouldn’t make a mix tape, or even a mix CD. Now it’s all about the playlist.

Are business relationships really any different? Read the rest of this entry »

Creating a customized online risk assessment

So how do you get a cardiovascular campaign to stand out above the clutter when there are more than 50 hospitals flooding the market with similar messages? How do you engage consumers to come to your website and sign up for your marketing materials? How do you get people to realize that they’re at risk for heart disease and proactively seek out a cardiologist in your health system?

These are all questions we were asked by The Chester County Hospital (TCCH) marketing team and questions we asked ourselves as we developed marketing recommendations for their cardiovascular service line.  Our answer was to develop an online risk assessment that would determine an individual’s risk level for heart disease. Read the rest of this entry »

Applying strategy is critical to social media success.

99 ways to use Twitter?

There are plenty of articles on the Internet that outline the 17 ways to use Twitter or the 32 ways to use Facebook. If your approach to social media has been to start with these types of articles, you may be focusing too quickly on tactics without an appropriate social media strategy. Tactics without a strategy are particularly bad because they often end up being ineffective, hard to measure and mask real opportunities a more strategic version of the tactic may provide.

Because social media tools are so accessible and seemingly easy to use, a planning/strategy phase is often skipped, perhaps also in part because the realm of social media seems so complex. Because there is no clear place to begin, there is a tendency to start with tactics, a fatal mistake.

How to approach the problem

One technique for approaching a problem that seems complex is to break it down into a series of simpler problems. This is a great approach when it comes to the social media landscape. Instead of looking at a list of 50 ways to use Twitter, it makes more sense to look at a smaller list of ways to use social media in general. Read the rest of this entry »

Dashboards can help drive marketing strategy.

Looking for an easy way to gauge your client’s driving forces? Ask what’s on his or her dashboard.

Dashboards are a businessperson’s CliffsNotes®, condensing tomes of information into readily digestible nuggets. Where do overall profits stand? Any new leads from the northeast territory? Is maternity patient volume up? Dashboards provide a snapshot of the key metrics your client needs to succeed.

Which brings us, as usual, to marketing strategy. Knowing what’s on a client’s dashboard enables you to customize a plan that speaks to his or her exact needs and goals. And that’s a plan you can get some serious mileage from.

Changing the way they advertise.

Everyone wants to reach the top. Mountain climbers have always set their sights on conquering Mt. Everest. Baseball players have always aimed for the World Series. Big companies have always budgeted to advertise during the Super Bowl.

Until now. Pepsi is ending its 23-year run as an advertising staple during the most watched television event of the year. According to the Wall Street Journal, the soft-drink powerhouse is moving its advertising dollars online to kick off the “Pepsi Refresh Project” that will “award grant money for community projects proposed and selected by consumers, such as helping high-school students publish books to develop their writing skills.” Read the rest of this entry »

Social Media Strategy and Success Stories

About to plan your social media marketing strategy? Wondering about the return you’ll get on your investment? Check out Socialnomics: Social Media ROI. This short video showcases success stories, plus some interesting facts. For example:

• More than 300,000 businesses have a presence on Facebook; about a third of these are small businesses.

• A Wetpaint/Altimeter Study found that companies that are heavily into social media blow away their peers in both revenues and profits. The study also found that companies using social media the most increased sales by 18%, while companies with the least social activity saw sales decline 6%.

• Dell sold $3,000,000 worth of computers on Twitter.

• eBay found that participants in online communities spend 54% more money.

What’s your social media strategy?