Marketing

I’ve had the best day seeing the amazing response to the Breadline Africa celeb campaign which launched today and that I am helping promote.

So to say thanks to all the fabulous South Africa bloggers who have supported us with posts, Tweets and Facebook mentions, here is some link love from me.

2Oceansvibe

5FM

Afrigator - check out the awesome ad

A thousand guitars

Biz-community

Cleo

Cosmo Online

Globalpost (via SA Rocks)

iMod

Mother City Living

Muse Magazine

SA Rocks

The Digital Edge

You can enter the competition on the Breadline Africa site, or read the press release on the Twokats site.

The 16 Days of Activism Against Abuse kicked off on 25 November 2009 (International Day of No Violence Against Women) and runs until 10 December 2009 (International Human Rights Day) in South Africa.

A bit about the campaign:

This year, in conjunction with media partners SAfm, City Press, GreaterGood SA and MXit, as well as  Anything Goes Video Production and Flat Stanley (who have given The Foschini Group CSI full rights to use their track ‘Song for the Broken Hearted’), the concept is to support 16 charities for 16 days  charities who all support victims of abuse.

Sixteen short listed non-profit organisations that meet the required CSI criteria each receive a R20,000.00 donation towards their work from TFG CSI.

The rationale behind this interactive campaign is that there are a large number of NPOs that are not widely recognised or acknowledged for their support of victims of abuse. By assisting them in increasing their exposure to the public, the campaign aims to build their profiles and to kick start support by providing the donation.

Click on the badge to the left to find out more. Well done to everyone involved with this incredibly worthy initiative.

Just like a virus spreads by copying itself and jumping from host to host, so viral marketing relies on the receiver of the marketing message to pass on the information to other consumers.

Some great examples of viral marketing include Google, which had almost no marketing budget initially and relied on its users to spread the word. Twitter is another example, and shows how word of mouth support can take a product from the early adopter phase and into the mainstream (even Oprah tweets nowadays!)

You also get examples where the marketing campaign itself (as opposed to the actual product or service) becomes viral, either on purpose such as Nando’s adverts, or accidently, such as Ogilvy’s History Channel ads.

This is a marketer’s holy grail, as the customers do their work for them, and also give the marketing message added credibility. Think about it, do you trust a smirking salesman more than your next-door neighbour or colleague who has no financial interest in telling you about the product or service?

Viral marketing is really just a form of word of mouth endorsement - which is as old as when the first hunter-gatherer told his buddy that the antelope hang out on the other side of the hill and he better head that way if he wants to eat today.

However, thanks to the Internet and specifically the rise of social media and platforms such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and so on, word of mouth had just been given super powers, and viral campaigns have the ability to spread to millions of people around the world. Likewise, when things go wrong, they will go spectacularly and publicly wrong.

In my opinion some of the best viral campaigns happen spontaneously, thanks to a combination of humour, timeliness, ease of passing on and intrinsic value. Seeding, or deliberately setting up, a viral campaign needs to be handled carefully by marketers, and usually involves “infecting” super nodes of opinion and influence in the hope that the message spreads.

Essential reading: Seth Godin’s blog

Definition:
Social media refers to the newish ability for anyone with an Internet connection to create content, interact, discover content and share content. A good example is the idea of “citizen journalism” where anyone online can communicate with hundreds, if not thousands and hundreds of thousands of people instantly, and unmediated by any editorial process.

Look at popular blogs where people are interacting, commenting and conversing with each other. You’ll see many traditional publications now allow for comments at the bottom of articles, taking the letter to the editor concept to a whole new level. News is often breaking on social media platforms first, and then followed up with more details and analysis from “traditional” media.

Related concepts: Web 2.0

What this means for marketers:
Communication is no longer one-way, from company to consumer. Consumers are having their own conversations about your brands, without your involvement. Companies need to change their approach and start conversing, rather than telling. This also has an impact on media relations, with traditional media looking to redefine themselves in this new media landscape.

This is the first in a series of posts that I have planned. The idea came about when I was sitting at a conference in Cape Town in May 2009 and overheard someone whisper to their colleague: “What’s viral marketing mean?” This reminded me that things are moving so fast at the moment that it can sometimes be difficult for marketers to keep up, and to know what is important and what can be disregarded. It also reminded me to get out of my echo chamber, and share some of the knowledge that I am been fortunate enough to pick up along the way.

Drop me a line with any requests and I’ll do my best to provide a user-friendly explanation.

Marketing a small or medium business has its own set of challenges and opportunities. The last thing you want to do is waste time, money and the chance to stand out by merely cutting and pasting a big company strategy onto a small company requirement.

Here are five issues to consider when you set out to create a marketing strategy and plan for your small or medium-sized business. These apply equally well to start-ups.

1. SKILL SET

Be clever about getting the right skill set on board. As a business owner, you need to focus on what you do best and not be distracted by writing brochures or press releases. You need to bring in the right specialist skills and the correct level of experience, at the right price.

Be careful about appointing a junior general marketer who will need a lot of hand-holding from you, and won’t have the breadth and depth of experience to cope with your company’s specific requirements.

You need a range of strategic and implementation skills, to work with someone who can manage themselves, and also look to the future to lay the foundations for growth. They also can’t be loath to get their hands dirty, down in the trenches.

If you take the agency route, which is a good option for getting a range of skills with a single price-tag, watch out for agencies used to working with the resources and expectations of a large company.

Ideally appoint an agency or a consultant used to dealing with smaller companies and their requirements. Hiring a freelancer who works for more than one company is a great way to get the experience and skill set you require, at a price that suits your pocket. An added bonus is the potential synergies with the contractor’s other clients.

2. FOCUS

You will be presented with a range of typical and not-so-typical activities and channels to reach your customers. Choose two or three of the activities and channels that make most sense, and then focus your marketing efforts on owning these.

Also keep your customer front of mind. Twitter might be the hottest topic in social media and marketing at the moment, but if your customers are mostly reading text email using a dial-up connection - you’ll be better off sending them a simple email newsletter, letting them know about special offers.

Keep sales and marketing tightly connected and focussed on the same thing. You can’t waste valuable budget on teams not being aligned and chasing the same goal.

3. MESSAGING ON THE FLY

You will end up creating branding and messaging on the fly. It’s not ideal, but it’s inevitable. As a start-up or a smaller company you need to get out there, talking to the market, and can’t afford to spend three months sitting around a board-room table, fine-tuning the most exquisitely crafted message and brand strategy.

However, don’t let your need for speed mean you don’t ever take time out focus on your branding and messaging to make sure it’s coherent, accurate and on track. Spend time once a month to reflect on how your messaging and brand is developing, and if you need to tweak, change track or emphasise any aspects.

4. KEEP IT UP

Understand that building and marketing a brand is not an overnight activity, nor can it be turned on and off like a tap. You need a sustained, coherent programme of activities that builds momentum.

So don’t be tempted to opt for quick wins. It will be more cost-effective in the long run to run a steady strategic PR campaign that builds momentum over three to six months, than to dedicate all your resources to a high profile advert that has a shelf life of less than a month, if it gets seen at all.

5. DUCK, DIVE AND HAVE FUN

Embrace the benefits of being small, nimble and able to react quickly by experimenting and trying something out of the ordinary. If it doesn’t work out, you can quickly correct the situation with minimum exposure, and if it’s a great success, you can do more of the same. Don’t act like a lumbering, slow to change direction oil tanker, when in fact you are a nippy speedboat.