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Finding A Fitzgerald
The Impact of a Generous Artist |
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 Brazil, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, France, Japan, New York. Christopher Fitzgerald is quickly becoming one of the most widely appreciated artists around the world. His abstract expressionist works sell in well-regarded art galleries across America. But it’s not among art critics and aficionados that he makes his greatest impact, although his work has been favorably reviewed and regarded. Christopher Fitzgerald has brought fine art to anyone capable of “Finding a Fitzgerald” on the street.
"No one really experiences paintings anymore," Fitzgerald says. "They only get access to reproductions and copies." "I hope to create the anticipation of finding something extraordinary in an ordinary day."
Extraordinary is the only word to describe an artist who leaves his art for people to find. "Generosity" and "free to the public" just don't fit the stereotype of a starving artist. And it's not like he painted 5. He's already painted hundreds and has plans for many more.
“Fitzgeralds” lurk on the shelves of retail stores and outside the windows of storefronts. They sit patiently, 4x4 inches of wood and paint, reclining on the benches of railway stations and fireplace hearths, waiting to be seen, discovered and inhaled. They offer themselves to the public and people who’ve never owned a piece of art in their life. And they’re available to anyone who thinks they’re worth picking up.
"I found this painting on a railway station in Gent. It's a lovely small painting."
- De Volder Dirk: Tielt, Belgium
"We didn't know this art before so it was a big surprise. We're very proud to have this piece here with us in Brazil.
- Wizard Candelaria, Candelaria - RS. Brazil.
"I was extremely excited. Who knows how long it had sat there, unnoticed."
- Ryan, New York
For all the wonder produced by renowned painters throughout the ages, unnoticed describes most of today's "fine art". "Who's searching... ...to bridge the gap between popular culture and highbrow, academic paintings?" Fitzgerald asks. "I want to share original art like I shared Snoopy drawings back in third grade."
In fact, sharing isn't just accomplished by Fitzgerald, it's accomplished by the finder as well. On the back of each painting appear the words: "Public Paintings. Find and keep for a month." Art becomes more than just a treasure to hoard. It transforms into a gift to share, an invitation to take part in both a private conversation with art and a larger, interactive story with the world.
What better story connects people across cultures and economic status than an artist who gives his art freely for all people to share? Whether he's ever recognized by critics for his artistic brilliance or social statement to the creative elite, Fitzgerald is opening the eyes of those who have never before owned original art. And for that, as Johan of Valenciennes, France points out, "(he) deserves all of our attention."
 Read About Peter Nevland |
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What Teens Want
11 points to consider |
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I found this article at Ypulse Daily Update and thought that you might find it intersting. It was written by Vanessa Van Petten, entrepreneur and teen author of the parenting book You're Grounded!. This is her report on from the recent What Teens Want conference in Los Angeles.
11 Take-Home Points From What Teens Want
 What teens want seems to constantly be changing, but there are a few things that never change that the speakers at Nielsen’s conference recognized:
- There is always a widening gap
- Teens are always fickle
There were a few overarching themes of the past two days that I want to summarize for Ypulse readers:
1. Purity Rings vs. Vibrating Rings
Becky Ebenkamp of Brandweek started her presentation with a slide from the MTV Music Video Awards. Take home point number one is the idea that this generation is feeling a split of ranks. Yes, there are teens joining pregnancy pacts, going to rainbow parties, and wearing belly tops at the local hookah bar. Yet, there is also a rise of anti-cursing clubs, purity rings, virginity pacts and a move back to conservatism (Sarah Palin anyone?). Marketers need to be aware that not every teen wants salaciousness.
2. Maybe teens like being teens
Jane Buckingham of the Intelligence Group [a Ypulse advertiser] asked the audience: “Who here had miserable teen years?†Most everyone in the audience shook their heads and grumbled to their seatmate about their awful prom experience. [Note: I had my prom in the same room as the conference]. Even though most previous generations have hated their teen experience, Buckingham mentioned that teens today are actually quite proud of their pubescent-ness. This would explain the many names of this generation of teens--"entitlement," "spoiled," "tyrants" to name a few.
3. Teens might be happy, but they are mega stressed
65% of teens say they are really stressed out (Intelligence Group). This generation has been over-tutored, over-scheduled, over-medicated and over-exposed. Buckingham attributed this to the product of nervous boomer parents, but also said that teens are all blaming themselves! What Teens Want stressed for us: teens are stressed and no one is helping them.
4. Reward Me! Reward Me Now! Reward Me Hard!
Parents have been rewarding their kids for just showing up. These teens have grown thinking everything they touch is perfect. Even marketers have rewarded teens with free stuff for just coming to the site, walking in the store or walking by a rep on the street. Marketers need to learn to give rewards for free, but also teach teens not to expect it every time. Sharon Lee of Look-Look talked about the need for brands to stay engaged (beyond just freebies).
5. Your Keds Might Have Bombs
Teens today grew up taking their Keds off at the airport in case of shoe bombs. They had leashes, Baby on Board signs and eat all organic. I call this Teacup Parenting. Marketers need to be aware of how delicate and fragile these teens are. They feel like everything is a big deal and they worry a lot. This is why trust, brand building and authenticity are crucial.
6. I am Going to be Famous
Many members of this generation truly believe they are going to be famous and use it as an excuse to not work as hard in school or for future jobs. The YouTube 15 minutes of fame has grown, while the gap between celebrities and real people has shrunk with the rise of reality shows, Funny of Die spoofs and celebrity blogs. This has contributed to teen’s need for attention. Celebrities still work in advertising.
7. Perma-Rose Colored Lenses
It was brought up a few times at the What Teens Want conference that many teens seem to never take off their rose colored glasses. This is an extremely optimistic generation; they believe in the Secret and have parents that tell them they can do anything they can put their mind to.
8. Escapism
Greg Foster of Imax and Aria Finger of Do Something both talked about the need for teens to escape. Fantasy books, movies and shows are even more popular because teens today love to be taken away and swept up into a secret or different world. Chris George of Advertising Solutions also talked about how entertainment needs to be an exciting place for teens to go to.
9. Help the World
Patrick Pedraja, an amazingly young social action motivator with Leukemia, talked about the need for teens to feel like they are making a difference. Luckily, their desire for fame can actually help push their desire to make a difference to be bigger. Teens align with brands that are more earth and social conscious.
10. Diversity Rules
As expressed by Tru Pettigrew and Shadyra Santiana in the Bicultural Hispanic Teen panel, diversity is also valued highly by all teens. Many teens are making it a statement to be more integrated and diverse.
11. Brand Aware
Sharon Lee of Look-Look talked about real brand awareness for kids and teens. What they value in a brand:
- Community
- Collaboration
- Co-Creation
- Empathy
- Real Story
- Meaning
Sharon Lee stressed this is the conscious brand. Niranjan Nagar of Sims Internet Group also discussed that consumers and companies are talking about lifestyle, values and goals. Matt Palmer of Stardoll Entertainment talked about constant engagement of users with the brand in different ways (content, social networking and products).
Overall, What Teens Want really reiterated what many marketers are already learning about Millennials and Gen Y. Brands and companies need to work to be consumer’s friends and make an experience for them where the brand can be authentic, trusted and engaging.
Read About Jane Fraser |
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Four tips to prepare for the Gen Y Mommy Tsunami.
an interesting article by David Griner |
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If you thought the Baby Boom was big, wait until you see the Gen Y Mommy Tsunami.
With the leading edge of Generation Y turning 30 and more than 9 million of its members already mothers, marketers need to brace for a truly massive new demographic.
Here are Stutts' four tips for marketers looking to get an early start on rethinking the American mom:
1. This is the most marketing-savvy generation ever seen. This coupled with their mastery and reliance on the Internet for word-of-mouth information from moms in their social-networking circles, will leave traditional marketers with a very challenging proposition for creating brand connections.
2. Their Internet and social-networking savvy has created a generation of moms who are used to being (and expect to be) involved in the creation of ideas and content. They don’t want marketers selling to them; rather they want to be invited and engaged by brands. They know they have a strong voice and expect marketers to listen and adapt to them, not the other way around.
3. Gen Y moms will be looking for ideas and inspiration that can help them create a healthy, active and rewarding life for their families.
4. No matter what generation they are from, most moms never feel they have enough time in the day. For marketers speaking to Gen Y moms, it may not be so much about trying to create time as it is about showing an understanding of the lack of time and asking how they can help.
Read About Jane Fraser |
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Gray Gouging
After Hurrican Ike |
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Just before Hurricane Ike spit on us...
...my wife waited in a line of 100 people for to get her hands on one of an extremely limited supply of generators.
She was buying a generator for her widowed grandmother.
When she finally got to the cashier w/ a 7,000 watt generator and two 50 ft. extension cords, she phoned me for my opinion.
This one purchase, one day before Ike’s torrent, was close to $2,700.
She bought it and I delivered the generator to her grandmother.
But there was talk of price gouging going around our little town here, but here's what I said.
"Had the generator been any cheaper, it wouldn't have even been there for you to buy."
Now with that mindset price gouging gets real gray.
Suddenly even gas prices make more sense when you just think, “There is gas IN the tank.”
So while I’d rather not pay more, more often than isn't the REAL VALUE in presence of product?
Read About Joshua Stevens |
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Measuring the Power of Bloggers |
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Toyota, GM, Honda Capture the Lion’s Share of Positive Bloggage
22 September, 2008 11:53:00
Radio Business Report
Based on analysis of 40 million blog posts collected during the past six months, Toyota, General Motors and Honda are the topics of a large amount of spontaneous consumer online discussions regarding environmental sustainability -- and have a higher-than-average number of positive mentions, according to the J.D. Power and Associates 2008 Environmental Sustainability Report.
J.D. Power and Associates Web Intelligence Division, which specializes in blog research and consumer generated media for market insight, has released its first comprehensive look at consumer conversations about environmental sustainability, global warming, purchase trends and user demographics, which are captured from online blogosphere conversations. The report is designed to provide automotive industry executives with ongoing measures of the extent of consumer engagement around the topic of sustainability, and how that engagement is influencing the buying habits and preferences of their customers and other consumers within their targeted demographics.
The inaugural report details discussions about the sustainability topic in general and also classifies brands based on both volume (measured by the number of new mentions per week, on average) and percentage of positive mentions. Brands that are discussed are then categorized into one of four quadrants: pacesetters (having higher-than-average volume and higher-than-average positive sentiment); contenders (lower-than-average volume but higher positive sentiment); emerging (higher-than-average volume but lower positive sentiment); or challenged (lower-than-average volume and low positive sentiment). Those brands that receive less than 1% of the total number of automotive online social media mentions are designated as dormant in online discussions of sustainability.
General Motors, Honda and Toyota emerge as pacesetters and score in the top quadrant for both volume and the percentage of positive mentions. Toyota leads General Motors in the total volume of posts, accounting for 14% of all posts regarding automotive brands and sustainability. General Motors is a close second in post volume, representing 11% of all posts. However, General Motors received a higher percentage of positive mentions between January and June 2008 -- 49%, compared with 46% for Toyota. In contrast, Honda's rate of positive mentions is 53%, but the brand receives a lower volume of mentions than the other two brands in the pacesetter quadrant -- 7%, which is half as much as Toyota.
Nissan outscores all other automotive brands in the percentage of positive discussion with 56%, but receives a lower overall volume than the brands in the pacesetter group, just 2%, which places the brand in the contender quadrant. Ford also accounts for considerable volume of discussion (8%) but has fewer positive mentions than many other brands, with less than half of all comments being positive in nature (43%).
The report findings also include:
-- Overall, the majority of conversations surrounding automotive brands and environmental sustainability were either positive or neutral in sentiment-very few were negative.
-- More than 320,000 spontaneous conversations about environmental sustainability, global warming, conscious consumerism and related topics were found among English-language posts in the public blogosphere between March and August 2008.
-- The overall volume of online discussion regarding sustainability issues has increased considerably during the past 18 months. Discussion volumes increased by 160% during 2007, and another 250% during the first six months of 2008.
Read About Jane Fraser |
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Marketing Food Products to Kids Under 12?
Here's what's on your horizon |
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FTC Urges Food Makers To Take Care With Under 12 Demo
23 September, 2008 12:51:00
In testimony before a Senate panel, FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz recommended a proactive approach from food manufactures when marketing products to children under age 12. Self regulation now, he suggested, may head off government regulation tomorrow. He made five general points, starting out with joining the Council of Better Business Bureaus Initiative to adopt high nutritional standards when marketing to children, and added that such efforts should not be limited to television and radio marketing, but should include all media used for promotional purposes.
FTC Chairman Jon Leibowitz before Senate Appropriations subcommittees: “A useful first step would be to join the CBBB [Council of Better Business Bureaus] Initiative. In other words, all companies should take measures to limit their food and beverage promotions directed to children to those for healthier products.
“Second, given the integrated nature of most marketing campaigns, the Commission also recommends that these nutrition-based standards be extended beyond television, radio, print, and Internet advertising, to cover the full spectrum of marketing activities to children, including product packaging, advertising displays at the retail site, premium distribution, celebrity endorsements, and other promotional activities.
“Third, the Commission also recommends that all companies stop in-school promotion of foods and beverages that do not meet meaningful nutrition-based standards. In addition, all companies that sell ‘competitive’ food or beverage products in schools (outside of the school meal program) should join the Alliance for a Healthier Generation or otherwise adopt and adhere to meaningful nutrition-based standards for foods and beverages sold in schools, such as those recommended by the Institute of Medicine.
“Fourth, the Report contains many other specific recommendations for the food industry, which address the nutritional profile of product offerings, nutrition labeling, healthy messages, and marketing in schools.
“Finally, in light of the character licensing and extensive cross promotion of foods with films and children’s televison programs, the Report also recommends actions by media and entertainment companies. Included among these is a recommendation that media and entertainment companies should consider instituting their own self-regulatory initiative and working with the CBBB in this endeavor.”
Read About Jane Fraser |
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GOOGLE -- it only took 10 short years
story from Radio Business Report Sept 23, 2008 |
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BELATED BIRTHDAY
Almost as quietly as it began, Google celebrated its 10th birthday this past September. Hard to believe the search giant has become an advertising business heavyweight in just 10 short years. Here are some sobering realities to consider when reflecting on Google’s rapid rise to online domination:
• Google began in 1998 with just $100,000 in seed money and four computers.
• Google is now worth over $150 billion.
• The net worth of just one of Google’s founders is nearly as much as the amount of advertising revenue the entire radio industry fights for each year. (Google’s founders are worth approximately 19 billion, while the radio industry is worth around 21 billion.)
Would you invest $100,000 for a shot at $100 billion? If you think the answer is a no-brainer, not so fast. As we look around the industry – while many say “yes” - the answer appears to be “no”. Actions speak louder than words. Cuts trump creativity. Does anybody really believe that Google was built by cutting budgets and people? Might be just one of the reasons Google has enjoyed revenue growth while the radio industry as seen steady declines.
THE GOOGLE DIFFERENCE
Recently Jim Cramer of CNBC’s Mad Money interviewed Google CEO Eric Schmidt. During the interview, he asked when we could expect to see advertising on the front page of Google? Take a look at this exchange:
Cramer: Why can't you sell "as presented by Anheuser-Busch" […on the google home page]?
Schmidt: We absolutely could. Some number of billions of dollars.
Cramer: Why not do it?
Schmidt: People wouldn't like it. We prioritize the end user over the advertiser.
Cramer: You're willing to throw away a half a billion dollars in revenue?
Schmidt: Absolutely... We're not going to sell it.
Cramer: If I'm a shareholder, what kind of attitude is that?
Schmidt: You want those users to come back?
Later in the interview, Cramer was grilling Schmidt on why Google doesn’t provide earning estimates on a quarterly basis like everyone else…
Cramer: People feel you don't provide enough guidance, management shepparding.
Schmidt: We don't provide any guidance.
Cramer: That's because --
Schmidt: We don't want to get in the way of running the business. If we started giving quarterly guidance the company would focus on the quarter rather than trying to change the world.
(CNBC – 8/15/08) Read Entire Transcript http://www.cnbc.com/id/26218897
SHREWD MOVES
Whether building a user base or targeting advertising dollars, Google has been a shrewd player in the business world. Google’s rise to online dominance happened not merely by being a neat online tool, but through a number of key strategic moves as a business.
For example, some of you may recall that Yahoo (the dominant search engine back in 1998) was indexing hundreds of thousands of web sites by hand, using humans to review and categorize web sites in their directory. By contrast, Google relied on an automated spider-crawling process to index millions of web sites in their search database by keyword.
Still very much an internet pup, Google struck a deal with Yahoo to become a secondary search engine of sorts for Yahoo users – in other words, if a visitor didn’t find the site they were looking for within Yahoo, their search automatically reverted to Google. Seemed to make perfect sense to Yahoo - they couldn’t possibly index as many web sites by hand as Google indexed with spiders.
The one thing that Yahoo missed? They were now exposing their millions of Yahoo users to their competitor. After years of such exposure, Google’s primary user base expanded to rival other big engines like Yahoo, AOL, and MSN. So, when the time came to renew the partnership with Yahoo – Google said no thanks.
Another example? Rather than build a giant audience and target big advertising dollars, Google built a system to allow any business with any budget to advertise within Google… $10, $15, $30 at a time. Rather than go after a handful of big dollar spenders – they went after millions of little dollar spenders. Google took a “radio” approach to online advertising.
And it paid off big time.
These types of moves helped to make Google the dominant place for online search – to the tune of 65% of the search market.
Read About Jane Fraser |
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How Real People Deal with Portable People Meters
High Tech Measurement of Who is Listening to Radio |
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How Real People Deal With Real PPM's
RADIO BUSINESS REPORT 20 September, 2008
We finally have some answers to questions that people have been asking about Arbitron’s Portable People Meter measurement system since well before the first PPM markets began operation. Truly groundbreaking research by Coleman Insights found that PPM does, indeed, report radio listening that the people carrying the devices are not even aware of. But while that exposure that would never have been reported in a diary drives up cume tallies, the overwhelming amount of time that panelists are reported listening to radio by PPM they really are listening to the radio – and almost always to a small number of favorite stations.
“Chasing incidental listening can cause more harm than good,” said Coleman Insights President Warren Kurtzman. He advises stations to focus on catering to their P1 listeners and not try to chase cume by becoming too broad in their appeal.
“Real PPM Panelists Tell All” was a study made possible by Arbitron permitting Coleman Insights to contact participants as they came off of PPM panels in New York, Philadelphia and Houston. Individual meter data, which is not made available to stations, was used to study in an in depth manner the radio exposure reported by PPM for each of the 30 or so former panelists interviewed by the Coleman researchers.
The study identified three distinct levels of listening reported by PPM:
1) Invisible listening, where the person carrying the meter has no awareness of the radio station whose encoding is being picked up;
2) Incidental listening, where they are listening to a station that they didn’t choose (“I hear it, but you’re not interested in it,” one man said of the rap station his son has on as they work together); and
3) Intentional listening, where the PPM panelist is listening to a radio station because they want to hear the programming.
Gasps could be heard in the audience when Kurtzman put up a slide showing that for the small number of people studied, invisible listening accounted for 50% of cume, incidental 19% and intentional 31%. “Those numbers may freak you out a bit,” he noted.
However, when it comes to actual minutes of listening, the numbers are very different – and much better for broadcasters. Invisible listening was a mere 5%, incidental 18% and intentional listening a whopping 77% of the time the panelists had spent with radio.
“The key to success in PPM is driving intentional listening,” Kurtzman told the audience of radio broadcasters. That means focusing on the people who listen a lot – the P1 and P2 listeners.
The study found virtually no evidence of PPM panelists finding a new station by scanning the dial. They tended to use presets and stick with them. Where people had begun listening regularly to a new station it was because of something like a billboard or because a station already on their presets had been re-formatted and they liked what they heard.
Don’t get fooled into believing that external marketing should play a smaller role under PPM measurement, Kurtzman said. “People are not stumbling upon radio stations.”
Coleman also gathered a lot of information about how the former panelists reacted to Arbitron and the process of participating in a PPM panel. Yes, being paid was a major factor. “Free money…are you serious?” was one woman’s reaction. (People were also paid for participating in the Coleman Insights interviews.) Once people agreed to participate, there was an overall sense of commitment to carry the meters. Most people took the attitude that they had agreed to do it, they were getting paid to do it, so they were going to keep their end of the bargain.
Most of the participants said they were comfortable carrying the meter, although there was a general consensus that an even smaller device would be better. “People thought I was behind the times because I was carrying a beeper,” said one man.
Participants did admit to some deviation from Arbitron’s request that they carry the meter from the time they get out of bed until they go back to sleep at the end of the day. There was quite a bit of variance on when people first took their meter out of the docking station in the morning. Some said there were situations where they couldn’t carry the meter. One young woman noted that there was no place to put it on a dress when she was going clubbing. There were also admissions that family members had accidentally carried each other’s meters – and worse. “My mom would take mine whenever I forgot it,” said one young woman.
People also tired of carrying the meter after a period of time. “It became kind of tedious,” said one man. Arbitron removes a household from the PPM panel when one participant exhibits poor compliance with carrying the meter. Several of the people interviewed indicated that their family had been removed from the PPM panel because a single person didn’t want to carry their meter anymore, while the rest of the family was still gung-ho.
Panelists had good things to say about their frequent contacts with Arbitron staffers. They appreciated the calls to check up on them if they had not been carrying their meter regularly.
In addition to the money, people said they liked participating because it made them feel “special” and they liked the idea that collecting their listening data was an opportunity for their opinions to be heard. “It was an awesome experience,” said one woman.
“This was a very positive report card for Arbitron,” said John Boyne, Vice President of Coleman Insights.
A summary of the study’s complete findings is being posted today on the research company’s website, www.ColemanInsights.com. An on-demand version of the NAB Radio Show presentation, featuring audio and video of the interviews with PPM panelists will be available on the website in October, Coleman Insights said.
RBR/TVBR observation: This was great stuff – exactly the kind of information broadcasters need to really get a handle on how PPM works differently from the diary. We were particularly struck by the blank stares from the former PPM panelists when they were asked about stations they were not conscious of ever having been exposed to. But it was also reassuring to hear them talking in depth and passionately about the station or stations that they were very aware of listening to – their favorite radio stations. The intimate relationship that radio has with its listeners is very much alive in the PPM world.
Read About Jane Fraser |
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The Wizards On The Road
Boom Your Business - A Success Story |
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I have put together hundreds of events, and I must say the recent " Boom Your Business" in Nashville, was one I was very proud to be a part. Everyone was so professional to work with. Each Partner pitched in and offered to be a cog in the wheel of opportunity that this event offered. Our next Boom Your Business is scheduled for Denver, Colorado February 19th and 20th 2009.
If you missed the Nashville event, here is an overview of what took place at the Music City Sheraton on August 1st and 2nd.
- Friday Morning Welcome by Clay Campbell and Peter Nevland
- Mike Dandridge - How to fight the big boys and win
- Tom Walters -the APE - Advertising Performance Equation
- Ray Seggern - Ad budget and the different media comparisons
- Dave Young - Web sites, Building relationships
- Paul Boomer- 10 things to do to improve your website
- Yours Truly- Get Big Results from a Small Ad Budget
- Chris Maddock presented an abbreviated course from his Wizard Academy Ad Writing 101 class
- Michele Miller closed out day one with Marketing to Women
DAY TWO
- Tom Wanek showed an intriguing PowerPoint - Signaling Theory
- Chuck McKay - Marketing PAIN - writing an ad for the different buying stages of a consumer
- Chris Maddock and Tom Walters Ad Writing Workshop
- Peter Nevland Thinking Outside the Box
- Video How to avoid Embezzlement
- Scott Fraser told the great success story of his business in Canada, and talked about Commodity Revolution
- Michael Kessee closed out the two day event with a presentation made famous by Roy H. Williams called “The Pendulum ” Michael’s version was Marketing in 2008 and Beyond
Watching the event go from speaker to speaker with everything timed and going like clockwork made me again so proud to be one of the Wizard of Ads Partners.
The Wizards on the Road may coming to your area. To find out when- sign up for the Monday Morning Memo
Does one of these presentations interest you?? You could have a Wizard Partner to come to your town and make their presentation for your group, just call the home office 512-295-5700 or you can get all the Partners contact info by just clicking on their name in the column to the left.
Read About Clay Campbell |
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When Advertising Goes Bad |
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 "Things aren’t great here, we’ve had to inject a large amount of cash into the business to keep it afloat as sales have dropped off dramatically."
Discomfort brewed at the bottom of my stomach. I couldn't believe it. Just weeks before I had written 5 radio ads for The Garage Door Company, a small business in Chichester, England which uses their woodworking expertise to install the best garage doors better than anyone else. I knew they had a great product and a great message, but this was a disaster. I sent Bradley a reply email.
"Is it the commercials that have done poorly? Has no one responded? Is it just the economy? I can see there being a lag time in garage doors from the time the commercials aired to the time people need a garage door. Is there any way we can help for free until you get back on your feet?"
Bradley's response told me what I was afraid to hear.
"We’ve had no traceable response to the radio ads as yet, although it is early days. However we find ourselves in a situation where we cannot sustain the cost of the adverts as the strategy is too long term and in the current climate we need instant transactional customers to stay afloat. We need to pump what limited resources we have into AdWords to find these customers to generate the short term cash flow we need to survive. We’re currently running £20k a month behind where we need to be."
£20k a month?!! For those of you unaware of exchange rates that's $40,000 every month. This wasn't going to be fun. Sometimes bad stuff happens that no amount of advertising money can fix.
"It sounds like you may have overextended your reach, and I'm not sure that google AdWords is going to rescue you right away, although I would say that it'll be faster than radio. Either way, the time cycle it takes people to hear your name and then realize they need a garage door is long. You have to be willing to send your message out for the long haul and wait a bit for the turnaround.
Roy told me this a little while ago when I was wanting to get a loan to shoot a tour documentary...
Do what you can
With what you have
Where you are.
It's a quote from Teddy Roosevelt. I'm sorry to hear where things are. If you can find some way to survive until people find out where you are, you'll be allright. You've got a great product and a great message. Until then, you'll have to think creatively and cheaply.
Is there any way you could assemble a garage door in the middle of town in broad daylight? Maybe alert the radio and/or news that you're pulling a stunt and let them come watch your guys make a garage door from scratch? Do you have any inventory where you could do some sort of demonstration? Can you make a bunch of flyers and then have someone dress "strikingly" and go pass them out at the center of town? Can you give away service - free garage door inspection? Paper and sweat are cheap."
Let me know if that stimulates any ideas, and if I can be of any help in the ideas that you have. You're on the right track,
Peter."
PS: when I first left Motorola to be a full-time performer I spent over $5000 on promotion and had a net loss of over $8000. The next year I only spent $288.51 on promotion, my income went up $20,000 and I posted a profit of $15,000. I still promoted myself. I just switched from sending out physical press kits to emailing and calling people.
Bradley told me they had a brainstorming session and have come up with some low cost, short term marketing plans. He's a good guy, and The Garage Door Company does things well. I hope they make it.
Read About Peter Nevland |
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