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madstars-festival · 5 years

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MEET TEAM MIX&MATCH BUDAPEST: RITA EPERJESI & DANIEL TRENCSENYI

Last year’s winning New Stars team travelled to Busan all the way from Budapest. Dániel Trencsényi works at DDB Budapest and Rita Eperjesi works at Isobar Budapest. They competed as ‘Team Mix&Match Budapest’ – and we’re delighted to say that Dániel and Rita won a Gold trophy for their ‘Soul, Grooming’ campaign at AD STARS 2018.

New Stars is a competition to inspire young professionals to further their career in advertising by providing them with the opportunity to respond to a live brief, with just 24 hours to meet the deadline. This year, 40 teams raced to respond to the following brief: create a sales-boosting campaign to build awareness of Panasonic's premium electric razor.

Rita and Dániel caught up with reporter Lee Patten to talk about their Busan adventures.

How did it feel to win the top prize of Gold?

Rita: Of course, it felt awesome. But the more important part was that it helped us a lot to gain some confidence. Now when I have a frustrating day, I know that I was able to work that well and that fast, and that probably I’ll also able to cope with present challenges and that I have a place in this profession.

Dániel: It was a super great feeling! I’ll never forget that moment, I got really emotional when we learned that we’ve won, and after that I had my best party-all-night-long experience in years! We danced a lot, alongside the other AD STARS and New Stars participants. It was a night full of fun!

How hard was it coming up with a campaign in just 24-hours?

Rita: Since I was a kid, I’ve constantly been attending maths competitions, design workshops, and hackathon. I actually prefer having a short period of time when I really have to concentrate and come up with something and be done with a project, because then my head is free. When I have more time to solve a problem, it affects my thoughts in my daily life, which is also nice in a way, because I can reach deeper insights, but very often creative work peaks right before the deadline anyway. Of course, you need enough time to rest between these adrenalin kicks!

Dániel: Actually, it was more than 24 hours, it was more like 30. But still, it was really hard to stay awake and focused because we were still jet lagged, and we already had a lack of sleep. Otherwise it’s always a great feeling to see where your limits are, and there’s also a thrill for me during these kinds of competitions, as the deadline comes closer and closer.

Can you tell us about your award-winning concept: why do you think it won?

Rita: Our concept was talking about humans, and not just the product, probably that’s why it was more relatable. We read a lot about mental health and we discovered that it’s kind of taboo in the Korean culture to talk about your problems, even with close relatives. On the other hand, Korean people tend to care very much about how they look, there is a huge social pressure regarding this. We wanted to make space within their grooming habit for them to think about mental health, and we offered a way for them to ask for help as well.

Dániel: We created a new product category: the electric shaver that not only cares for your body, but for your soul. And at the same time we addressed a very relevant social issue, which we spun in a way that it became ownable by Panasonic, which is totally new territory for a brand on the electric shaver market. We spent a lot of time trying to understand the Panasonic brand, its purpose, values, promise, etc. Then we researched contemporary Korean societal problems until we found how we could make that relevant for the brand. Actually, we spent a lot of time looking for insights and with the ideation. We came up with several creative concepts, and then we shortlisted our ideas until we decided to pick one. It seems we made the right choice.

What was the hardest part of the New Stars challenge last year?

Rita: I think the hardest part was that we had to work on a target group whose culture is so different to our own. We had to spend quite a lot of time trying to understand how it feels to be a Korean man. We read a lot of articles, and I even talked with a Korean policeman on the beach. Finding a sharp insight that was not based on stereotypes – well, that was tough.

Dániel: As I said before, staying awake and keeping a clear and focused mind was the hardest part for me!

What is your favourite memory of Busan?

Rita: This is the hardest question! Maybe when we arrived. It was my first time in Asia, so the first shock was very memorable. We landed at night and we took a cab, we travelled through the city. I was amazed by all the different layers of the buildings and bridges, and hills and the sea and the lights. I don't usually have the chance to feel so small in a space. The other memorable thing was right before leaving Busan, I visited the Gamcheon Culture Village. Even though I had around 25 kilos of luggage with me and it was a rainy day, I couldn't stop walking there, because I was so happy to discover all the colours everywhere. Okay, I stopped once, at a café, where I could buy drinks which look like clouds, and as I'm a huge fan of clouds, it was a perfect hour to stay there.

Dániel: The whole thing was memorable for me, I’m unable to highlight anything, because the whole experience was perfect. Busan is a very nice place, it’s a very versatile and exciting city. I even stayed there a few more days after the AD STARS event to be able to further explore the city.

What did you learn from the New Stars competition? Were there any interesting workshops or guest lecturers?

Rita and Dániel: We watched a lot of lectures and all of them were very exciting. We especially liked Ari Halper’s (FCB New York), Toby Talbot’s (Saatchi & Saatchi New Zealand) and Tahaab Rais’s (FP7/McCann Worldgroup) lectures. We also saw many, many inspiring case studies during the lectures.

As the winners of that coveted Gold prize in 2018, if you had to give one piece of advice to the contestants in the 2019 New Stars competition, what would it be?

Rita: Believe in yourself: you are able to win, but you really have to take it seriously.

Dániel: Spend a lot of time looking for good insights, dig deep, find culturally relevant topics, ideate a lot and don’t just pick the first functional one, but push harder, ideate more, and then pick the best and most unique one from that bunch of ideas. Always challenge your chosen idea and try to fine-tune it. And don’t miss the sunset on the beach!

* If you’re a junior creative aged under 30, don’t miss your chance to take part in the 2019 New Stars competition, which runs during AD STARS 2019 in the beachside city of Busan, South Korea in August. For your chance to be a New Star, apply before 31st May via www.ADSTARS.org or contact [email protected].

#newstars

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davidrsmithlove · 5 years

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The Texas 3 Step: How to Create a Marketing Plan with Focus & Southern Heart

By: Bre D’Alessio South, Sr. Content Marketing Manager

When our team started out four years ago, most of our marketing plan was to overcomplicate any strategy we came up with.

This wasn’t intentional.

But we had this habit of overlooking some basic foundations for customer satisfaction and retention and ended up getting further and further away from finding a solid strategy.

Or long-term customers.

What were we missing?

The fact that an audience was such a vital focus to each step of a comprehensive marketing strategy. We didn’t cover all our bases because we failed to put real intention on each part of our marketing equation.

In short, our funnel development was a mess. We clumped our efforts together and didn’t evenly analyze what pieces were working for us and which were working against us..

We did a lot of rinsing and repeating for accounts and failed our audience by not taking the time to simply refocus what our efforts were showing us.

Our team spent so much time and energy into the awareness part of the sales funnel, we failed to focus on the customers who were meeting us in stage one and providing key insight into the following stages of success.

We brought them in and then immediately forgot about them by moving on to the next sale. We’re sorry about that, y’all.

The see-saw of our back and forth efforts ended up showing us a focused strategy for all our clients.

Our aha moment wasn’t immediate. It was a long process of seeing the pieces as they unfolded. And then analyzing the pieces to see what we missed along the route.

We could blame it on the fact that our summers consistent of 100-degree temperatures or how we’re in one of the top rated cities for allergy suffering. But at least we read the tea leaves within the mess and made it our own.

We took this approach and newish-found knowledge and were able to delicately fine tune it, focusing our efforts into three easy but robust steps.

Enter the Texas 3 Step

Audience Development→ 2. Sales Funnel Development→ 3. Client Retention

Prior to this 3-step approach, we were just plugging the holes in our leaking strategy ship.

Instead of labeling audience development in one category we separated the faces: cold audiences/prospects are different than a warm audience or an already engaged client.

Duh.

But why were our efforts not separated from the beginning?

We believed the way we spoke to a warm audience was the same way we could speak to a cold audience.

We weren’t making their path special or catering to what they wanted. Nope, we were lumping them both together assuming they were the same type of people with the same needs.

Kind of like lumping U2 concert-goers with Drake fans and saying they want to see the same stuff. Probably not the same road traveled.

Once we separated our two audience groups we created a carefully curated path for that person to be on and engage with our content how they wanted. This allowed us to know what to produce and for who: Where were they in their journey? What was next in the path towards long-term commitment with us?

This strategy showed us what was missing as we focused in on the separate audience paths, and what we needed to convert at the highest rate possible. We’re not saying we just wanted them to convert to sales. Sure, that’s our long term goal but we want them to like us first.

Enabling an audience to want to become a member of your community and to allow them to trust you, is the first step to any path you want them to travel or any relationship.

The traditional sales funnel sounds like a terrifying vacuum where you get people to enter this device by some offer or awareness piece and then suck them through a process (as quickly as possible) without really paying attention to what you’re saying. Or what your audience is wanting.

Nobody wants to get stuck in your vacuum. And your audience is getting smarter. They aren’t engaging with content that isn’t relevant to them and with over 4,000 pieces of content in front of us each day, you better get your game on track if you want to connect with your ideal customer for the long haul.

Their journey should be fun and informative, not filled with dust and mites and who knows what else you stuffed in your pipeline. Leave your sales vacuum in the community dumpster where all other failed sales funnels have crashed and burned.

Step 1 – Audience/Awareness/Engagement Building

Awareness starts with curiosity.

In order to build an audience, you have to produce content that gets their attention. The awareness funnel allows the first conversation between brand and customer. A meet-cute wrapped in content the client has been searching for and found in us.

We’re the potential solution to whatever problem they are needing solved.

Audience development is where branding and awareness should be magnified. The engagement built here will showcase not only your product or service but also lead you to find the people who will convert to customers.

How do you reel them in?

By identifying the sweet spot of content you can use to inspire and delight potential customers.

What type of information is your client looking to get an answer to? What areas in your field are they wanting to gain knowledge?

What is your job as a brand? Your job is to provide insight and solutions to the people who need it.

Somewhere buried behind your company’s vision board and that mission statement your employees were told to memorize, lies the content mission statement that gives your brand, its purpose and why. The reason you started doing the thing you’re still doing today.

Find the connection between the audience and your product or expertise.

What can you do with that sweet spot of knowledge you want to share and your potential customer is looking for? There are so many ways to provide insight into an audience through a variety of different platforms.

A few to start would be written or video content, conferences, speaking engagements, radio, contests, social media, collaborations with other influencers…the list is endless! But, just because it’s endless, doesn’t mean it will all work for you.

Take the time to test and figure out what works and what doesn’t. The point is that your audience is looking for guidance and you have the answer. Give it to them.

This connection is key to your top funnel engagement where you are delighting clients with educational and informative content.

And, the HaaS (Humans as a Service) video content marketing program uses video as the entry point to meet your audience. A simple concept but a singular platform no one had really taken the time to outline.

It’s no mystery that companies are finding success with video marketing. The HaaS makes it easy for your brand and audience to find each other.

Step 2 – Sales Funnel Development

Say goodbye to an outdated sales funnel and yes to developing a relationship.

Once your audience has met you formally and agreed they want to stick around for more content; your next step is to grow the relationship and lead them towards your intention.

What is your intention? Like any strategy, you need a goal for your customers, some accomplishment or next step to get them to.

You may have heard this called the “bread crumb” offer. A small incentive to move people deeper into the relationship. Most people get caught up in the idea that this offer must make them money.

They fail to realize most people aren’t ready to make a purchase with you yet (so back off!).

The last thing you want to happen is the scenario where a prospective customer is genuinely intrigued and engaging with the content you are serving them and out of nowhere, get slapped with some quick offer asking to BUY NOW.

But I barely know thee?!

Most likely, your customer is going to hit unsubscribe or turn off your notifications.

Like the high schooler that got overconfident after the first date and thinks they can score on the second, you have to put meaning, integrity and time between you and your customer before jumping ahead.

We were that high schooler. We just wanted the sale.

Completing a sale sounds too transactional for our taste, and frankly demotes the human on the other side of the screen. We’ve grown up since then and like you, don’t want to push our customers away because of some poorly timed offers.

As intentional marketers today, we recognize our past hang-ups and are committed to this process for any campaign we roll out. We’re sorry if we were pushy or rude. We didn’t deserve you and we are definitely making up for it now.

All of us marketers should be honored that someone has decided, out of all the millions of pieces of content out there on the web, that our stuff resonated with them. They want to stick around so let’s make sure it’s worth their time.

This relationship of trust is one to be nurtured and optimized for growth (both for the business and most importantly, the customer).

Keeping the customer in mind, what questions do they need to be answered before they would want to make a purchase? What problems will they need to overcome?

This doesn’t have to be a big offering either. We’ve found success in low barrier-to-entry offers to give our customers a taste of what could provide for them.

A free trial of your product or service is a great next step and makes it easier for the customer to test if your platform is a fit for them before they fully commit. Test different offerings to see which ones resonate with your audience.

A great approach is to offer a free incentive that helps your customer get closer to their goals and gain you more trust.

We were guilty of moving too fast with our customers. We would put an offer up, put a shiny call-to-action next to it and then pat ourselves on the back for moving our clients ahead in the funnel.

We didn’t ask them if they were ready.

And we didn’t give them the proper amount of time and content to earn their trust.

There were so many more steps we needed to accomplish between a new member joining and them wanting to take the next step in the relationship.

Every relationship needs a few test runs before a marriage certification is signed.

Step 3 – Client Retention (ie: Delight)

Customer relationships are like any other relationship you care about.

Once you’ve built a solid community of customers, it’s your duty to make sure everything you produce is there to keep them satisfied.

Remember the reason they chose your content to follow. Don’t let them down by producing sub-par stuff. Your clients will ultimately become your biggest advocates and brand ambassadors.

We’ve seen so many clients (including ourselves) cringe at the thought of asking for more from their customers. But like your mom always reminded you, “what’s the worst that could happen…they say no?” We tend to imagine an answer before we even try asking.

Here’s the truth: If you have a great product or program, your clients will want to share it with people they know.

Mostly because they want to be right about something, but also because they want friends to see the benefit too.

This relationship can enhance your community by extending this relationship to people they know, and more. How do you think testimonials happen?

We’ve found when people trust your brand and want to share with others how much your service has impacted their lives.

That’s content gold right there.

Take a look at what current customers are asking for and how you can enhance their experience. Better yet, is there another product or service at your company that would serve them?

Cater your content around this and you’ll see not only the growth of customer satisfaction but also your sales.

You already have the relationship intact so just because the honeymoon phase might be over, the relationship is still growing to even more potential.

We’ve created personalized offers for customers who have been with us since the beginning, and incentives for those who refer our services. There are so many ways to keep customers motivated and engaged.

A happy customer means a happy you. Check out some examples of highly favorable content you can use in our own marketing strategy today:

Exclusive Deals

Personalized Content

Contests

Co-branded webinars

Polls/Quizzes

Giveaways

The wheel is always moving with current customers because we recognize everyone is different.

We’re still growing and learning, so is our strategy.

The Texas 3-step was created after multiple failures..

We know we aren’t through the finish line just yet and are far from washing our hands of the idea of never having to re-frame our approach.

We’ll always be tweaking this strategy but for now, we have a solid approach to begin the conversation and ultimately know where we want to direct our efforts.

As technology continues to intensify and access to our audiences changes in response to it, we at least have these three points to guide our mission.

Texans are known for many things, but we like to believe southern charm and hospitality has helped in making this strategy work.

Sure we’ve been kicked down a few times and lost some footing along the way. But in true Texas style, we met the challenges head-on and found our strength to shine.

Get a Free Consultation

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archonreviews · 5 years

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The Archon’s Review of SOULCALIBUR VI

SOULCALIBUR VI is the seventh installment of a venerable series of fighting games that started with Soul Edge. The series is created by BANDAI NAMCO Studios, more specifically by Project Soul. In the 16th century, rumors of a powerful sword, Soul Edge, have emerged. Many seek it, some to wield it in service to a greater cause, others in service to themselves. However, only a few know of the truth, that Soul Edge is an evil, soul-devouring blade that slays every wielder to comes into its possession. Fewer still know that Soul Edge has a twin, the spirit sword, Soul Calibur. In the midst of this turmoil, many warriors fight for good or evil, order or chaos, and future of the world and all its souls hangs in the balance...

While I was never very good at fighting games in general, I consider myself passing skilled in the specific arena of 3d fighters. I’ve played the shit out of Soulcalibur II, Soulcalibur III, and even Soulcalibur IV. When I heard that another one of these was coming out, I was rather quite pleased, especially since it’s out on Steam.

So, in case you haven’t heard, the Soul Calibur series is a tale of souls and swords, eternally retold. In this case, it really is a tale retold, as it is a soft reboot of Soul Calibur, which came after Soul Edge. What this really means is that we get the tragic backstories of certain characters as they were told in SC, plus the tragic backstories of other characters as they were told in SCII and SCIII, and some stories were changed entirely, just for funsies, as far as I can discern.

“But Archon,” I hear you ask, “this is a fighting game. Story would have been shunted faaar down the priorities list; why are you talking at length about it?” And to that I would ask you how you got into my house. But also, I would say that the Soul Calibur series has always put a whole heaping helping of plot and story in its titles, and that story is often... interesting, but not skillfully executed, leading to some... peculiarities.

I’ll start with the main story. They call it “Libra of the Soul”, and it’s called such because it uses a set of scales (or “Libra”) as a metaphor for their moral choice system. So you’d think that if they’re naming the main campaign after the moral choice system, then that system would be executed well. You would be wrong, sadly. Basically, what happens is that every so often, usually after a fight, you’ll be presented with a binary moral choice. Some of them make sense, such as “Steal this defeated bandit’s weapon, or tussle his hair and tell him not to do bad things anymore”. But the decision that sets the tone, the very first one, in fact, is completely bonkers. See, you’re in a dream sequence, and you’re presented with two swords, one golden and one azure. You’re told that the golden one represents freedom and the desire to forge your own fate, while the azure one represents a desire to impose order and harmony on an inherently chaotic world; you’re then asked to choose one. Naturally, because I am a red-blooded, eagle-fucking, burrito bowl-eating American patriot, I picked the golden sword, after which the game literally told me that I was “Aligned with the darkness.” Oh I’m sorry, I didn’t realize that wanting to forge my own destiny made me a bastard! And there are plenty of other choices that the game boils down to either “good” or “evil”, despite being more complicated than that. Worse yet, the post-game content, as far as the morality goes, is literally just picking from those fucking swords over and over again. So why is it even here if it’s so poorly presented? Well, the only things of substance that seem to change if you’re good or evil is which of the two plot-important swords your character wields in certain cutscenes, and a particular line your character spouts after a post-plot optional fight. The game will tell you that certain optional fights are only available to characters who are either good or evil, but I don’t buy that, frankly. And certain weapons have an increased rate of scoring critical hits depending on your alignment, but realistically, you can just wield the one with the biggest average damage and you’ll be fine.

(This question about fate is the only moral choice in the game with a neutral option, and frankly, it isn’t even really a moral choice, in my humble opinion.)

While Libra is the story of your OC (more on that in a bit), the game also infuses the main cast with individual stories of their own. And it even does something quite revolutionary for fighting games: it creates a central canon and has the cast all tie their plots around it, so that you don’t have a case where theoretically one character’s ending is just as canon as another’s, unlike most fighting games I’ve played and seen. However, this creates a couple of glaring issues. First, it means that the main cast can’t be fighting each other all the time, because they’re all in different places and times. To solve this issue, a not-insignificant number of plot relevant fights are against total randos who contribute nothing to the story. This contributes to the second issue, that is to say that any character’s plot outside of the main canon feels tacked-on and unnecessary. Most of the characters don’t even interact with the main macguffins at all. In addition, many chapters are extended dialogues instead of fights, which seems extremely misguided seeing as how we are here for the fighting. One particular instance that really got my goat was the character Zasalamel, who’s entire plot is given via monologue, without a single fight. It honestly made me wonder what I was even there for.

(Now, when the game decides to go full cutscene, it’s pretty stunning)

So a fighting game has a poor plot; and in other news, bears remain Catholic. I bring attention to it, however, because SCVI just has a shitton of plot, more plot than is socially acceptable for a fighting game to have. This makes me wonder something. A thought, you see, crept into my brain pan as I traveled across the world map of Libra, stopping intermittently for plot-relevant fights and sidequests which I had little personal investment in. That thought being, “Would Project Soul be more comfortable just making RPG’s?” I mean, the Libra mode has all the trappings of an RPG: an expansive world map, random battles, tons of sidequests, weapon and item drops, a levelling system, and expansive scope, a binary moral choice system. And yet it was bound, or maybe cursed, to be a fighting game. So, Project Soul, if you guys happen to read this ever: Would you guys be more comfortable making RPG’s? Because I can’t speak for other people, but I would play the shit out of a Soul Calibur RPG. Just something to think about during the next company meeting when some bigwig from BANDAI NAMCO is droning on about how you’ve gotta make Sophitia twenty percent more “milfy” or how you’ve gotta make Siegfried sixty percent more emo.

So, lets veer away from plot and get more mechanical. I’ll start with the character creation; and let me just say that I’m actually more mixed on it now that I’ve had time to reflect. When you first create a character, the game gives you a list of fantasy races to choose from (my idea from when I was like, 13 years old, but go off I guess), and you can be as fat or as skinny as you want to be, and you can modulate your character’s voice to be however you want it to be. All in all, first impressions were good. However, I was disappointed to learn that you couldn’t be a female lizardperson. In fact, several races lack female options, which really irritated me, because I had an awesome idea for a lizardwoman character, but I couldn’t use the female clothing options to make that idea a reality, so I just had to use male clothing options and headcanon my own OC as a female, even though it said “Male” on her sheet. What chuffed me even more was the fact that you could have a female skeleton, skeletons being the one entity I could imagine skipping out on gender designations for. In addition, they still havn’t brought back the custom character styles from SCIII yet, nor have they allowed you to make your own, forcing you to use a pre-existing style, which, as has been stated before by better critics than I (notice me Yahtzee), is basically just crafting a custom model for an already existing character. This wouldn’t be a problem if they just brought back the custom styles from SCIII or let us create our own style in the vein of Mortal Kombat: Armageddon. However, the creator may be more robust than I give it credit for here; I did manage to make some characters that I thought were pretty awesome, and plenty of people have bent it toward the ever-noble goal of transplanting Pokemon into the Soul Calibur universe. Basically, if you want to create a fun and interesting-looking character, great. If you want to have a custom moveset, or if you wanna make a big-tittied lizard play a female lizardperson, so sorry.

(Seeing this screen actually brought me no small amount of joy.)

Now, what about the mechanics of play? Well, this is the reason I, despite all my earlier criticism, really like this game. The fighting is solid, each move having appropriate weight and impact. The controls are responsive and smooth, even at high graphical settings (online play notwithstanding). Guard impacting makes a triumphant return after its apparent disappearance in SCV, although, it seems like the timing on it is a little more lenient than in previous installments. Soul Charging is its own little cutscene and knock-back effect, instead of SCII, where I remember Soul Charging being a liability that no one used. There’s also this new thing called a Reversal Edge, where you and your opponent both press a button and the person who pressed the best button wins. Okay, it’s a little bit more complex than that, as when the two players tie, they do it again, except verticals win, except if both players did a vertical, in which case the instigator wins, so the whole process ends up being like speed Rock-Paper-Scissors with extra rules. People seem mixed on whether this is a welcome edition to the formula or if it’s pointless and dumb, but I personally like it. If nothing else, it’s flashy as fuck. The move list also seems slightly more simplistic, although that could just be down to me finding all my favorite moves early.

Now for small potatoes and nitpicks! They changed many of the voice actors since SCIV, although, since I didn’t play SCV, I wouldn’t know if these are recent changes. While I really didn’t dig most of the choices, I will admit that Siegfried’s VA was spot on, capturing a sort of perfect middle ground between tortured hero and lovable wangsty-man. I remember liking the old announcer more too, although I fully admit to having nostalgia goggles on for that.

The amount of objectification of women in this game is frankly intense, although, if you’ve ever seen the models for the characters of Ivy the dominatrix or Taki the ninja, that shouldn’t surprise you. What may surprise you is that clothing damage is back, which is weird, because while in SCIV, clothing damage had a purpose, as certain pieces of clothing informed certain stats, it doesn’t seem to serve any mechanical purpose here. However, it does mean that the men can get in on the sexualization action too. In fact, I’ll tell you all a little secret: Raphael, the fencer, has a move that can tear off all the clothes of any other character, leaving them in their skivvies. Step one: Soul charge. Step two: Use the Triple Botta In Tempo (forward+vertical, then vertical vertical vertical vertical...). If you’ve completed step one, and the enemy hasn’t blocked, Raphael will do this kind of Zorroesque maneuver and wham bam thank you mam, all your opponents’ clothes fall off. Do it on Mitsurugi the samurai and...

(Both of these characters are only based on the mentioned characters, but I hope it demonstrates my point. On the left, my Raphael-style character.)

One last point, and one that’s been made to death: the guest characters. While Geralt from The Witcher series made sense, being at least aesthetically consistent with the other characters, BANDAI NAMCO are apparently going to put in 2B from Nier: Automata, and frankly, that doesn’t make much sense to me, but I may very well be in the majority on this, so I won’t say too much more about it, since this gripe is even more subjective than usual.

To sum, would I recommend Soul Calibur VI? I would say so, if for no other reason than that the game mechanics are solid, and frankly, if I take the nostalgia goggles off, I have to admit that this one is the best Soul Calibur so far. In addition, this character creator is pretty robust, if you don’t mind not being able to do very specific things, such as making a big tittied lizard. While the unnecessary sexualization and weirdly grandiose story can bog things down for some, I’d still recommend it for the gameplay alone.

(No big tittied lizards, but Pokemon/Human hybrids are okay. Sure.)

#archon reviews #video games #video game #review #soul calibur #soul caliber vi #soul caliber 6 #fighting game #fantasy

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sempiternalsandpitturtle · 5 years

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How content marketing drives sales

These days, content marketing is marketing. Modern buyers know an advertisement when they see one, and more often than not, they’re not interested in hearing a sales pitch. Content solves this problem by creating value for buyers before they make a purchase – sometimes before they’ve even considered making a purchase.

Content that answers questions, addresses pain points or provides relevant information is content that buyers want to read. Brands that can provide helpful and insightful content are more likely to appeal to people who are ready to make a purchase.

In short, content marketing supports sales goals by:

Bringing relevant buyers to your website;

Nurturing leads with important information;

Improving brand awareness and recall;

Establishing thought leadership and authority;

Increasing buyer engagement with your brand;

Creating personalised buyer experiences.

Considering these benefits, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that B2B marketers are increasing their spend on content creation in 2019, according to the latest findings from the Content Marketing Institute. In fact, the most successful marketers spend 40% or more of their budget on content strategy.

However, content without a strategy behind it isn’t much better at driving sales than a flier stapled to a telephone pole. (Well, maybe it is, I haven’t done the research.) To be effective, marketers must think about how their content satisfies their readers’ interests, and systematise the way they appeal to their audience to move them closer to a transaction.

Marketing flywheels, funnels and buyer journeys

Marketers have different ways of thinking about their content marketing strategies. Some like to imagine their content as milestones along the buyer journey; others prefer to construct a marketing funnel that encourages prospects to take steps toward a purchase decision; others yet use Rand Fishkin’s marketing flywheel model to build momentum over time.

There’s no one right way to utilise content marketing to drive sales, but whatever model you use should be consistent with itself. To explain, let’s briefly examine these three models.

The buyer journey

In this model, prospects are like the main character of an epic journey. Rather than traveling across foreign lands at great peril, buyers are lost in the wilderness of the web, searching for answers that will solve their problems.

Like a knight errant finding a worn and moss-covered signpost at a fork in the trail, buyers approach content as helpful assets that will speed their journey to its conclusion. Blog articles and social media posts can aid the discovery process by spreading brand awareness and establishing thought leadership. Further along the journey, whitepapers and case studies can help buyers evaluate companies so they can ultimately make an informed decision.

Via HubSpot.

The marketing funnel

A marketing or sales funnel has a construction similar to a tailored buyer journey, but they aren’t the same thing. Buyers will go on journeys whether or not they ever interact with your organisation. A sales funnel leads buyers off the beaten trail and into a more personalised and brand-specific excursion.

Funnels are built around different types of content which are relevant to readers at various stages of the buying cycle. For instance, an email campaign might catch buyer interest and tell them exactly what step they need to take next. In a traditional funnel, that step is usually to consume another piece of content, like a blog post. That post will in turn direct the reader to take another action, such as submitting their email address in exchange for a detailed whitepaper. As you can see, this approach is much more focused on the company’s needs, as it constantly encourages buyers toward the next step that can produce value for the organisation.

The marketing flywheel

In the world of engineering, a flywheel is a revolving device used to increase the momentum of a machine by storing a reserve of power. A flywheel is difficult to start moving, but once it’s in motion, keeping it going becomes easier.

Organic marketing is like a flywheel in that the first engagements with your content are the most difficult to earn – but the more work you put into your campaigns, the easier they will drive engagements in the future. Page authority is an obvious example of this concept. A brand new webpage will take months to gain links and authority until it reaches the top of a search engine results page (SERP). However, adding content to an existing page can make that page shoot to the top of a SERP much more quickly. Here, each piece of content is like an extra shove to the flywheel – each email, article and social post adds momentum and generates lift along the whole strategy.

Via HubSpot.

However your organisation approaches content marketing, the elements will be roughly the same. Before we discuss how each type of content drives sales, let’s take a look at some of the potential goals of a content marketing strategy.

Content is a tool for sales enablement

Sales may be the ultimate goal, but they aren’t the only aim of a content marketing campaign. To build momentum in your flywheel, drive readers down the sales funnel or help buyers reach the end of their journeys, content marketers need to meet certain objectives first.

It can help to think backwards from the point of sale. What needed to happen for your most recent sale to close? What questions did you need to answer? Which pain points was the client most concerned with? How many conversations did it take? What could have sped up the process?

Content marketing drives sales by meeting goals along the sales cycle. Here are some examples:

Spreading brand awareness: Customers discover and learn about your brand through content they encounter organically through search or by clicking on paid advertisements;

Lead generation: The internet is a big place, and not everyone is relevant to your sales goals. Content qualifies leads by providing a way to gauge visitor interest in your company’s solutions;

Establishing authority: In a competitive market, content that demonstrates your brand’s thought leadership helps buyers decide who they want to work with;

Building audience engagement: B2B sales can take months to close, and you don’t want to lose the interest of your leads along the way. Interesting content builds engagement and keeps the conversation moving forward;

Increasing conversion rates: The final sale often requires many smaller conversions along the way. Content can benefit the sales team by bringing in more newsletter subscribers, eBook downloads, inbound sales inquiries and more.

Now let’s examine how different types of content achieve these goals.

Blog articles

Blog articles are the quintessential content marketing asset because they can be one of the most valuable sources of site traffic – if they’re constructed properly. People read them every day, often without realising they’re doing so. People have questions, so they type them into Google and get an answer, which is often found within an article. While they get the answer to their question, they also learn about the brand that supplied the answer. You want to be that brand.

If you believe that the average person doesn’t like reading and won’t read the content on your site, think again. Today’s readers are interested in long-form content that thoroughly answers their questions. In fact, we’ve found readers in the tech and real estate industries prefer blog articles that are up to 2,000 words long. If you want to generate brand awareness and become a known authority in your industry, in-depth content is always better. Consider experimenting with articles of varying lengths and check your Google Analytics dashboard to see which get the most engagement.

eBooks

If you’re using the sales funnel approach, eBooks tend to fall somewhere in the middle. They should contain valuable content that appeals to readers who already have some familiarity with your brand and offerings. An eBook won’t make a great first impression, but it can make your second impression a lot more valuable.

As a piece of gated content – e.g. readers have to input their contact information to download the asset – eBooks tend to perform very well. Compared to emails and blogs, they are much more polished and can provide deep insights into a particular topic.

An eBook is also a great way to repurpose content from your website. For example, if a thought leader at your organisation hosted a webinar, you could condense that information into a short eBook. Or you could compile a blog series into a graphic-rich downloadable.

Case studies

B2B marketers often need to appeal to multiple buyer personas within an organisation to make a sale. For instance, SaaS vendors may need to speak with IT stakeholders and operations managers and gain buy-in from the company’s chief financial officer. Each one of these personas has different concerns and levels of knowledge. If you give them all the same piece of content, it’s likely to only resonate with one or two people.

To effectively appeal to each distinct stakeholder, you need to tailor your content strategy accordingly. Case studies are excellent assets for your sales reps to have on hand as they’re speaking with certain prospects. For instance, if the CFO wants to see proof of how your product or service improves productivity, a case study is the perfect vehicle for demonstrating how your solution performs in the real world.

Here’s an example of a case study that showcases positive, tangible results.

Whitepapers

Like case studies, whitepapers appeal to unique buyer personas at a critical stage of the sales process. This type of valuable content provides hard facts and important details about the solutions your company provides. For example, if SaaS marketers are pitching their product to a company, they might give the CFO a case study and give the IT manager a whitepaper detailing the technical specifications of the product.

During the decision-making process, prospects can turn to whitepapers to get the answers to questions that don’t fit well in a blog article. At the same time, whitepapers can also serve the flywheel model by establishing concrete authority on a given subject.

Likewise, whitepapers can enhance your marketing automation process. You can set up an email drip campaign to trigger when users show interest in your services. For instance, if a user has subscribed to your newsletter and then reads a blog series on your site, your CRM solution could automatically deliver a whitepaper covering a relevant topic.

Infographics

Many of your prospects will be too busy to read long-form content, especially if they don’t yet know your brand well enough. Infographics can capture their attention for a few minutes, deliver insightful data and establish authority quickly.

Aside from being highly shareable assets, infographics are branded content that spread awareness wherever they go. This makes them a valuable tool for inbound marketing – that is, encouraging customers to come to you, rather than reaching out through a cold call. Readers typically click on them to get a piece of data quickly. In the process, they see your company logo, thus making a mental connection between your brand and valuable information. The next time readers need more information on the subject, they’ll think of your organisation.

Social media platforms

Social media is potent because it can be both a platform for your content and it can be content in its own right. For example, if you’ve just published a piece of interactive content on your site and you want readers to engage with it, a social media post can do the trick.

Additionally, social media is a great way to leverage user-generated content. For instance, if your customers are doing cool things with your products, you can encourage them to share photos and videos to your social media pages. This social proof will show prospects that your brand is trusted by the community.

In all its forms, content can drive leads to your sales team. To be effective, your content needs to fit within a consistent strategy. For an in-depth look at how to elevate your brand with content marketing to benefit your bottom line, download our free eBook today.

from http://bit.ly/2NJLVsE

#content marketing

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marketinghero · 5 years

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How one B2B brand is taking inspiration from consumer marketing

B2B marketing is all too often see as the poor cousin of consumer marketing, yet SAP’s CMO believes the two have more in common than most people think. I meet Alicia Tillman while she is in London in part to attend the Fortune Most Powerful Women Summit. The agenda is full of speakers who work at brands such as ITV, Procter & Gamble and Booking.com, not the most obvious place for the CMO of a software company to find inspiration. But Tillman is here because she believes B2B marketing needs to become much more like its consumer cousin, moving away from messages that resonate with business to ones that resonate with people. “B2B needs to move the way we market so much more into consumer practices,” she explains. “Consumer brands have always been about connecting personally with your buyer, whereas B2B you are more often focused on connecting with the goals of the company. “You connect yourself more to business metrics – savings, control, transparency, optimisation. Whereas in consumer you are focused on relevancy, feelings, emotion, experience. I find that is what B2B marketing needs to become and is so much of the journey we have been on at SAP for the past two years.” Tillman has spent her career in B2B, starting at travel management services company Rosenbluth International. In 2004, it was bought by American Express, where she spent 11 years before joining SAP in 2015. Initially she took on the role of CMO at its B2B marketplace SAP Ariba, before becoming the marketing boss of the whole business in August 2017. One of the first things she did on becoming CMO was streamline its communications and give the company a “brand narrative”. She did this because she found that, despite the company having a lot of messages and campaigns, there wasn’t a thread that tied them all together. B2B needs to move the way we market so much more into consumer practices. Alicia Tillman, SAP “We didn’t have a brand narrative, something that really articulates our purpose and what the value is we are looking to provide to our customers, that would serve as the anchor for our campaigns, sales strategies and innovation,” says Tillman. “Creating a narrative that works to do all of that and then serves as the anchor for everything you do from there helps to protect our purpose and authenticity.” SAP’s ‘brand narrative’ To find that, she went back through the 47-year history of the company to find the reason it was created – which is to “help the world run better and improve people’s lives”. To communicate that, she brought back a tagline SAP had used 15 years ago, ‘The Best Run’, but updated it to make it “modern and relatable”. That meant shifting the focus from operations to outcomes – rather than communicating how SAP helps companies run better it now communicates how the best run companies make the world run better. It culminated in a new global ad campaign, created by BBDO New York, that ran across TV, outdoor, print, digital, social media and its own websites that featured actor Clive Owen and stories of SAP customers using its tech to solve societal, environmental and economic challenges. “No matter if you are in CPG or pharma or politics, they are all about human relevancy, experiences and how we connect and personalise more at a human level. It is prevalent no matter what your professions, your job title, the business sector you are in – people want to buy from people that understand them,” she says. That’s a sentiment that is backed up by a new study from marketing consultant Peter Field and Les Binet, head of effectiveness at adam&eveDDB. Using the IPA’s databank, they have for the first time taken a look at B2B marketing campaigns to see if the same rules on effectiveness apply. What they found surprised many – namely that B2B and consumer are more similar than most would think. Brand building, broad targeting and emotions are still important in B2B, especially as companies get larger. It’s an outcome that doesn’t surprise Tillman. “B2B marketers can get much better at storytelling. Journalists are in the business of telling and writing a story that their readers will be interested in, that is no different to how I am trying to market the products of SAP or how P&G is trying to market its products and brands,” says Tillman. “How we tell that story, I would like there to be more emphasis put on that all around.” READ MORE: Why B2B brands need to invest in brand marketing She wants that emphasis to start when marketers are being trained. She suggests the clear distinctions made between consumer and B2B marketing at academic institutions are a major problem, and that more training needs to be done on building B2B strategies where there are differences. “It needs to start with our academic institutions that are training the future talent. There are clear distinctions that are made between consumer and B2B marketing but there are more general applications of marketing that are less specific to consumer versus B2B. “I also believe that marketing in B2B is not held as in high regard as consumer-based marketing. When you are in consumer marketing your success or failure rate of your product is based on the quality of the way you market the product and that is very different in B2B. Academically, we need to really get granular on how you understand and can build strategies because there are fundamental differences. But I also think that there are not… At the heart is always your ability to communicate properly.” She adds: “It doesn’t matter whether you are in consumer or B2B, we’re all in the business of helping our companies grow. Storytelling is perceived more as something you do at a consumer level versus B2B.” Becoming a top 10 global brand Another area where Tillman believes B2B can learn from consumer marketing is in targeting. She admits B2B has previously been guilty of honing in too much one particular job title – for SAP the CIO – when in reality there is no one person that makes a decision at a business. Diversity of reach is now one of her team’s key metrics. “Looking at the diversity of the reach is something we pay an incredible amount of attention to. Just reaching the CIO is not good enough because the CIO Is not the sole decision-maker,” she says. “The reality is, and this is a significant shift, no longer is there a single decision-maker for technology within a company.” SAP also tries to balance short-term sales metrics with long-term brand building. Measures such as purchase consideration, new business, acceleration of its sales pipeline, conversion and revenue are all key, particularly proving that marketing activity drives conversion at a high rate to revenue. But its “biggest” metric is brand value. SAP has an ambition to become the first pure B2B brand to make it into the top 10 of Millward Brown’s BrandZ listing of the world’s most valuable brands. When Tillman joined it was at number 21 but climbed to 17 in 2018 and is hoping to see further growth when this year’s results are revealed next week (Marketing Week will have exclusive access to this data on Tuesday). She admits it is a tough task, particularly because once in the top 20 competition is so strong. But Tillman believes SAP is doing “a lot of the right things” and so she is “optimistic” it can continue to rise up the rankings. We believe business today is won or lost based on the quality of your experience and that doesn’t matter whether you are in the consumer business or the business business. Alicia Tillman, SAP “I believe we are doing a lot of the right things to really build what are typically the characteristics of the most valuable brands in the world,” she says. “We have always built technology that disrupts industries, we have a very consistent brand story which we have paid particular attention to because big companies often have a somewhat fragmented message especially if selling to different buyers and attracting influencers, we’re very purpose-driven and finally we are all about service in support of the customer.” That goal also helps to focus the mind of staff, not just in marketing but also sales and product development, who might otherwise get lost in the day-to-day “Our brand goals are an incredible motivator for the team. Oftentimes people set big goals and it’s something fun for a week then they go back to the day-to-day but becoming one of the 10 most valuable brands is something everyone in marketing talks to me about and what they’re doing to help support that goal. That is what inspires everyone.” While SAP has shifted its marketing over the past two years, there is still more work to do. SAP is currently trying to establish a new business category that it refers to as ‘experience management’, which aims to use operational data (or ‘o’ data) and experience data (or ‘x’ data) to improve what it offers its clients and they can therefore offer their customers. “This is really going to be a tremendous shift in terms of how we market and position the brand of SAP. This is the moment strategically when we say there is no longer a difference between B2B and consumer,” she concludes. “We believe business today is won or lost based on the quality of your experience and that doesn’t matter whether you are in the consumer business or the business business.” The post How one B2B brand is taking inspiration from consumer marketing appeared first on Marketing Week.

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koopatzi · 6 years

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10 Tips To Avoid Failure In SEO 2019

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Search engines is the gatekeeper to enormous amounts of traffic and prospects - search engine optimization (SEO) opens the doors. Mainly because long as they are gained naturally, inbound links are most likely the most dependable authority contractors in the world of SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION. All of us call this new methodology AdaptiveSEO so that as its title suggests, it is made in order to adapt to the evolving plus sometimes unexpected changes in research algorithms. Several get confused in this region of SEO article writing recommendations for either they in place too little or maybe the particular wrong kind of keywords, or even they mention the keyword method too much which is occasionally called keyword over stuffing. Social SEARCH ENGINE OPTIMIZATION isn't a separate branch associated with SEO and it won't quickly be replacing traditional SEO, yet social signals are becoming more and more incorporated into search engine methods. Perhaps the particular most important aspect of lookup engine optimization is how a person can actually leverage SEO in order to assist drive more relevant visitors, leads, and sales for your own business. Just browse through the various types of our SEO blog page to find those important on-page ranking factors. According to him, key phrases have already lost their significance and in 2019 this pattern would only get stronger. Seo (SEO) is usually the most efficient way in order to drive traffic to your web site. Still, even for the particular best websites, maintaining a best organic SEO ranking requires continuous keyword monitoring and content re-doing. Writer and consultant Peter Kent provides helped businesses including Amazon plus Zillow with SEO and on the internet marketing. 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The article provides you 12 methods for E-commerce plus establishing an SEO optimized site which will help you improve your business exposure and visibility upon search engines. Making use of keywords in your article name, article body and resource is usually a great SEO article composing strategy that may make your own articles more effective in bringing in attention from search engines. Use SEO strategies like as transcripts and tags in order to help your videos appear increased in search results and entice more viewers over time.

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martechadvisor-blog · 6 years

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Tips on Optimizing Marketing Technology Strategy: An Interview with Jonathan Goldmacher of Valtech

In this hard-hitting and grounded interview, Jonathan Goldmacher, Managing Director, Valtech – NYC, speaks with MarTech Advisor on various crucial aspects of marketing technology, such as Conversion Rate Optimization, Personalization, Customer Experience and more. Read on for expert tips and real-speak to refine your marketing technology strategy.

The Conversion Rate Optimization (CRO) of a company is dependent on many elements (website design, brand responsiveness, etc.). What blueprint can CMOs follow to lead their organizations to a higher CRO? Which factors (content, personalization etc.) would be most crucial in this blueprint? I’m not certain that there is a blanket blueprint that any CMO can follow. I believe that blueprints themselves should be customized based on the business that the CMO is representing, the objective of that business and, ultimately, their marketing objectives.

That said, I do think there are several elements that ultimately can lead to better optimization of conversion rates. First and foremost, understanding who your customers or consumers are, and reaching them at the right place, at the right moment, with the right message: contextualization and personalization. Utilizing search to understand what is important to them in their lives is important to know when it comes to the type of content you create.

The easiest place to start, for me, is always in seeing what people are already searching for in your category then developing content directly against that since you know it's something that people in your category are highly interested in. Having that relevant content, at the right place and time is key in driving conversion.

Personalization has gained momentum as an important marketing strategy over the years. How does personalization affect the CRO? What techniques can marketers employ to make their personalization strategies more effective (for both SEO and CRO)?

Personalization affects conversion rate in a positive way when brands and companies, particularly digitally driven ones, understand who their customers are and what relationship their customer may already have with them: the size, shape, frequency of that relationship.

In e-commerce, it means tracking the kinds of purchases customers make and how frequently they’re bought. Then working to be able to model more predictably what their future needs might be while meeting those needs ahead of time. The idea of predictive modeling is, for me, core to the idea of personalization. You are trying to be a bit more proactive in your relationship with your customers and not just reactive. What you understand and know about your consumers, and what is important to them, is critical. The easiest way to do this, for me, is using the customer data that already exists online. An individual’s search history and what people in your category are searching for allow you to create relevant content. Consumers expect brands to serve them only with relevant and up to date content. How can brands utilize content to drive their CRO in the right direction?

**The reason why customers are coming to you should be for the superiority of your product or service and the belief that it is going to help their lives be better.** I’d start there. I’d start around the product before I venture all the way out to the other end of promotional activities and content creation.

Start by being relevant and up to date in your category and product and services, and make sure that stuff is matching up for all the traffic that’s happening in your category as it relates to search. That doesn’t mean it can’t be creative, quite the opposite. **Regardless of the subject matter, content needs to breakthrough and be engaging.**

So, to me, that is job number one. Once you’ve built your brand and your business, then it is right to be thinking of the dialogue of communications that comes from an engagement or content strategy inclusive of things like social, but I’d much more propose that people start by building a solid foundation based on the customer’s needs.

Marketers are slowly moving from a multi-channel engagement strategy to an omni-channel strategy with a more holistic approach towards customer engagement. What are some significant aspects of omni-channel engagement that are generally overlooked by marketers?

I think customer experience and UX are too often thought of only in an ecosystem of things digital. The physical customer experience, product experience and communication experience are equally critical to building a holistic omnichannel strategy. Putting what the brand stands for at the center, devising with great strategy how we will engage and what is important to consumers, how we talk to them, how we treat them when they’re with us physically and ensuring all of that stuff complements one another and is coming from the same place at the center is, to me, still one of the biggest challenges.

How have you seen the concept of seamless Customer Experience (CX) evolve over the last few years, and where do you see it heading in 2020? **Seamless customer experience is the notion of taking all four dimensions and designing from them with purpose from the outset.** Not many people are doing it well and we’re very much still at the nascent stages of this though some are doing segments better than others.

I hope that by 2020, if not soon afterward, that a fully-baked and complementary user experience across the four dimensions becomes the standard. I believe that there will be a lot of work to do, but it’s the right thing. The brands deserve it, and they should have a well thought out experience that starts with the core purpose at its center. Designing linear solutions is clearly not the answer but it is difficult to understand how to create and plan these fully-wholistic solutions.

AR-VR are the upcoming immersive technologies which have not yet been explored fully by marketers. What tips would you give marketers on making the most of AR-VR for their campaigns? In your opinion, which areas (retail, auto etc.) will benefit the most from these technologies? Technology is never a silver bullet to solve all of our problems but it is a tool. A tool in the right hands can allow that person to work more efficiently. Otherwise, it’s just a flash in the pan. Again, the most important thing to me is whether this technology is being used to deliver real utility to people and makes their lives better. The utilization of AR/VR against those goals is what I’m looking for.

Travel and hospitality, particularly with hotels, is a fantastic example. One of the things I’m most curious about when traveling with my family is where are we staying and what is it like at this place. Most hotel websites are terrible. I just want to see what the room is going to be like and I usually get three static photos taken ten years ago that don’t give a sense of how big the room is, how it’s arranged, or what it would feel like to stay there.

Think about cruise ships and people who have never taken a cruise – that would be a category that could really benefit from VR. What are the sleeping quarters like? What amenities, activities and food are on the ship? What’s it like to walk around the ship? Can I learn a bit more about the people and staff that I’ll be sharing the boat with and some unique facts about them? What are the crucial new skills that a CMO needs on their team when it comes to adapting to these new tools and strategies (mobile marketing, omni-channel marketing, AI and machine learning, chatbots, etc.)?

CMO’s must be nimbler than ever today. I’ve always liked the Mike Tyson quote, “everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth.” **When you go out into the market you’ve got to expect to get punched and not be surprised that your plans will need to pivot.**

Marketing has, for years, remained the same – to make customers aware of the value that your company provides and drive awareness to future customers. In that regard CMOs must remain steadfast in sharing that story of utility that the brand provides while viewing new technologies as tools that enables you to get from Point A to Point B.

That too is how future CMOs must consider omni-channel marketing. Yes, each individual component or channel is important, but it’s how they all work together to help drive home the experience of your brand. Valtech is a hub of digital transformation tools, services and innovation. Tell us a little about some of the most exciting, upcoming projects at Valtech.

Speaking of VR, I believe that the VR work we’ve done for our client, Decathlon, is second to none. Our implementation of VR provides real value to their business and solves a problem of limited store square footage, while solving the problem for customers who cannot see all the large products in their stores. It’s driven higher profit-per-square-foot for Decathlon.

**It’s easy for people to think that technology alone solves business challenges, but the deployment of technology must be done strategically and really push the needle on business metrics.** VR technology will continue to grow as future generations will be more comfortable with purely digital services and emerging technologies.

MTA: Thank you for that fantastic discussion on such varied aspects of marketing technology, Jonathan. We hope to talk with you again, soon!

About Valtech:

Valtech is one of the largest independent digital marketing and business transformation agencies in the world employing more than 2500 innovators, design thinkers, marketers, creatives and developers in offices across 16 countries.

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor

#martech #marketing #technology #business #cmo

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salesdigitalmarketing-blog · 7 years

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Chapter 14, 15 - Chapter & Case questions

14.15 Case Questions

1. Why was Twitter well suited to the Col’Cacchio #PriceSlice campaign?

Because Col’ Cacchio already had lots of followers, and twitter is a well known online platform and way to connect each other. Twitter is also very helpful because it gives people the opportunity to ‘retweet’ other tweets they like or are interessted in, which creates more interaction. 2. How were hash tags useful for this campaign?

Using the hash tag Col’ Cacchio gives one an insight on who and how many people are talking about it. For example, when people retweet a post that contains the hash tag, someone else can be triggered by that and might click on the hash tag. When he or she does that, a page then appears where one can find others that are also engaged. 3. Comment on the interaction between offline and online touch points used in this campaign.

The interaction of this campaign is that the online campaign received more attention because everyone noticed the action through twitter. If they had done something offline it would have been noticed as well, but not as much as it was online. It is also a good interaction between offline and online campaigns due to the fact that these kinds of campaigns do not happen often, so it is something different that customers like and are willing to join.

14.16 Chapter Questions

1. Visit www.guardian.co.uk. List the ways in which this print publication is embracing social media. Social networking: An online community is created where people can share real world activities, connections and interests. It is also a place to explore the interests and activities of others. Users can create personal profiles and interact with other users by sharing media, sending messages and blogging.

Content sharing: Users have the ability to put their ideas and opinions in their blogs and others are allowerd to respond to them. Bookmarking and aggregating: The website also encourages its users to submit their content to bookmarking and aggregating sites by using chiclets. Once you have clicked on an article, you will find these chiclets on your left side. Some examples are: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Google Plus. Location based: The website is location based and you can see that due to the fact that it offers a service which provides you the weahter of your location. 2. Why is transparency so important to marketing using social media? Has this halted or accelerated the use of social media for marketing? Those who deliberately use social media for marketing purposes, must implement openness and authenticity in the stories they publish online. For both good and bad stories spread and stick around on the web. Even though they are involved with a broad audience, marketers must remember that they communicate with individuals. Social media is a platform that provides the opportunity for anyone to join in on a conversation. So marketers might engage and possibly lead the conversation, but they certainly cannot control it. The power of social media lays in the concept that every channel is available for both consumers and businesses. Which means that when marketers or company’s use this platform, they create an understanding for the consumer and can level with them. There is more of a connection and that has definitely boosted the use of marketing through social media. 3. What is the difference between advertising using social media and marketing using social media? What are the beneﬁts of social media to each, and what are the challenges? While markerters can make us of the available social media tools to get their message across, the characteristics that construe a social media platform must not be forgotten. Social media is for users to express themselves. That also means that demographic information can be gathered for greater useful and specified advertising. This creates opportunities for targeted advertising and for discovering more creative ways to grasp the attention of your target group. Benefits: Social media provides the opportunity for businesses to interact with consumers through targeted advertisements and messages that the consumer can choose wether to get themself involved in. Another great feature of social media is its ability to make someone or something go viral. If enough people like your content, they will probably share it within their own communities. It also allows marketers captivate and cultivate on their consumers creativity, to help their message get even futher. Besides that, social media also allows marketers to create an online community for their brand and its consumers. Last but not least, the more interactions between the marketers and consumers, thus the more information and feedack you will receive from your communities. That can help in marketing strategies, as well as both future business insights and innovation. You can study your audience even more and discover their behaviours, likes, dislikes and needs. Challenges: Companies must understand that good and bad stories travel the internet and most importantly stay there. That connectedness with your audience can be very powerful and build you up, but it can also be your downfall. People tend to have more freedom online and dare to get whatever is on their chest off of it. Social media aids a two way conversation between consumer and company. This means that the company has to keep adapting its approach due to its constant involvement with the customers. Social media has made the customer king, and any attempt to overtake the king can backfire. Control over the conversation is impossible and cannot be persued. It is a fast world and is important to know what is being spoken of in order to be able to react everytime and stay relevant. Furthermore, when dealing with personal information provided by users, firms have to be very careful in how they use that data. Because there are rules and regulations attached to the use of that data.

15.11 Case Questions

1. How would you describe the link between social media strategy and the social customer? Social media is a platform with two-way communication. It is a world with quick interactions, and organizations that want to keep up with this pace need the resources to push forward messages, but also to respond to incoming messages. Incoming messages come from the organization’s customers. A social customer can be described as someone who reacts, likes and shares the organization’s content. In order to attract social customers, the company’s social media strategy must be well constructed and precise. There are several ways to fulfil a great strategy: get buy-in; listening and understanding the social field; analyzing; setting objectives; creating an action plan; implementing; and tracking, analyzing and optimizing. 2. How would you advise the strategists in the Social Media Command Center to respond to a very unhappy fan? I would first ask what caused the fan to be unsatisfied. After that I would solve the problem. But it is very important to solve the problem of an unsatisfied fan in a positive way. Because other customers will pay attention to how you respond. If they see that you come up with a good solution and compensate the unhappy customer, they will remember that and that leaves them with a positive image about the company. For example, in Germany there was a situation involving a Tesla owner who made an heroic act but crashed his car because of his actions. After that incident, the story got to the company, and they provided the man with a brand new Tesla for what he did. 3. How would you define a keyword in this context? The keyword in this context is best defined as a way to monitor what was said about the Super Bowl. You could say the keyword was used as a tool to monitor and accustom what was being said about the event. But it was also a way of helping people find a parking spot. Which made it in this case a helping tool that made sure the event went smoothly and so that people could enjoy it.

15.12 Chapter Questions

1. What are some of the pitfalls of engaging difficult customers on social media platforms?

There are risks and challenges involved when interacting in the social media evironment, and any social media strategy should account for them. They should also incorporate a protocol for when these risks occur. For mistakes made on the internet can take a long time to recover.

In the online world people do not really care. Especially in the beginnning fase of building a community it is hard to capture the following you want. That is why understanding the platform and market is very important. Make sure you know where your customers are and how to interact with them. Social media is a place where unhappy customers are, who deliberately and freely post whatever type of comments they want. Wether it being positive or negative, feedback is always good! Because that creates the opportunity for you to do something about it.

Even though most social media channels are free, it still requires a time and resource investment to make your strategy successful. Understand what your goals are for using social media, and allocate the time needed to meet those. Measuring the impact of your campaign can be difficult.

As hard as it can be to measure the success of your campaign, that does not mean that it is not successful. You will not find success overnight. Begin with the easier things that can be measured, and watch for case studies in this area that will help change your investment into revenue streams. 2. What skills do you think are important for a great community manager to have? You will need more than stellar social media skill in order to be a successful and effective online community manager. Understanding of social network growth is a great start, but even the best community manager candidates bring in a wide range of non social media skills to the table. With a list of qualities to set yourself apart from other social media managers and demonstrating a complex understanding of the position of the community management at hand.

By demonstrating different competencies like your strong writing skills, planning abilities and clear understanding of analytics, the company hiring will see that you have the ability to take on their private online community and achieve business objectives. 3. Should all brands be active in social media spaces? What brands have less to gain from trying to create an online community? Activity on social media is not necessary for all brands, you can think of brands which are not very common, such as a toilet company. Not a lot of people are online looking for a toilet so they do not have to be active on the web. They can have offline contact with their customers.

WRITTEN BY MARTYN - IBM11

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mariemary1 · 7 years

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11 Storytelling Formulas to Supercharge Your Social Media Marketing

Legendary marketer, Seth Godin, describes marketing as “the art of telling a story that resonates with your audience and then spreads.”

If you look at some of the biggest brands around, you might notice that they are often amazing storytellers.

Apple tells stories of people challenging the norms

Nike tells stories of people doing the impossible

Airbnb tells stories of travelers living in homes around the world and belonging anywhere.

But how do you tell compelling stories? How do you tell stories that your audience wants to hear? And how do you tell your brand story?

While researching on the topic of storytelling, I discovered several tested-and-proven storytelling formulas — formulas used by companies like Pixar, Apple, and more.

These formulas can be applied to your company’s overall marketing, content you produce, social media updates, copy on your website, and more.

Ready to jump in?

11 storytelling formulas to supercharge your social media marketing

1. Three-Act Structure

Setup — Set the scene and introduce the character(s)

Confrontation or “Rising action” — Present a problem and build up the tension

Resolution — Resolve the problem

The three-act structure is one of the oldest and most straightforward storytelling formulas. You might recognize this structure in many of the stories you come across.

In the first act, set the stage and introduce the character(s) of the story. In the second act, present a problem faced by the character(s) and build up the tension. In the third act, deliver the climax of the story by resolving the problem (with your product or service).

Example:

2. Freytag’s Pyramid: Five-Act Structure

Exposition — Introduce important background information

Rising action — Tell a series of events to build up to the climax

Climax — Turn the story around (usually the most exciting part of the story)

Falling action — Continue the action from the climax

Dénouement — Ending the story with a resolution

The Freytag’s Pyramid is created by Gustav Freytag when he analyzed the stories by Shakespeare and ancient Greek storytellers.

It is a more elaborate form of the three-act structure, which puts emphasis on the climax and the falling action of the story as much as the other parts of the story.

Example:

3. Before – After – Bridge

Before — Describe the world with Problem A.

After — Imagine what it’d be like having Problem A solved.

Bridge — Here’s how to get there.

This is our favorite storytelling and copywriting formula. We have been using it for our blog post introductions but it can be applied to social media updates, email campaigns, and other marketing messages.

Set the stage of a problem that your target audience is likely to experience — ideally a problem that your company solves. Describe a world where that problem didn’t exist. Explain how to get there or present the solution (i.e. your product or service).

Example:

4. Problem – Agitate – Solve

Problem — Present a problem

Agitate — Agitate the problem

Solve — Solve the problem

This is one of the most popular copywriting formulas, which is great for storytelling, too.

The structure is quite similar to the Before-After-Bridge formula. First, you present a problem. Second, instead of presenting the “After”, you intensify the problem with emotional language. Finally, you solve the problem by offering your product or services.

Example:

5. Simon Sinek’s Golden Circle

Why — Why the company exists

How — How the company fulfills its Why

What — What the company does to fulfill its Why

Simon Sinek’s TED talk, How great leaders inspire action, is one of the most viewed TED talks ever, with more than 30 million views so far. He explained that great companies like Apple inspire people and succeed because they use the Golden Circle formula.

Always start with your Why — Why are you in this business? What motivates you? Then, explain how your company will achieve your Why. Finally, describe in tangible terms what your company does to bring your Why to life (i.e. your products and services).

Example:

6. Dale Carnegie’s Magic Formula

Incident — Share a relevant, personal experience

Action — Describe the specific action taken to solve or prevent a problem

Benefit — State the benefits of the action

How to Win Friends and Influence People is one of our favorite books at Buffer. After studying many great leaders, the author, Dale Carnegie, developed this simple three-step storytelling formula that can help you persuade your audience.

Open your story with a personal experience relevant to your point to grab your audience’s attention. Describe the actions you took chronologically, showing that a change was needed. Wrap up the story by connecting the change to its benefits. (This could be a customer’s testimonial, too!)

Example:

7. Dave Lieber’s V Formula

Introduce the character

Bring the story to its lowest point

Turn it around and finish with a happy ending

Dave Lieber is a keynote speaker and the Dallas Morning News Watchdog columnist, who has been telling stories for almost 40 years. In his TED talk, The power of storytelling to change the world, he shared the story formula he has been using for his stories.

Once you introduce the character of the story, describe how things went awful for her, using emotions to draw your audience into your story. At the lowest point of the story, turn things around, describe how things improved, and end the story on a high note.

Example:

(Inspired by a true Airbnb story)

8. Star – Chain – Hook

Star — An attention-getting, positive opening

Chain — A series of convincing facts, benefits, and reasons

Hook — A powerful call-to-action

This formula is developed by, I believe, a Chicago consultant, Dr. Frank W. Dignan.

The star grabs your audience’s attention. The chain turns your audience’s attention into a desire. The hook gives them something actionable to fulfill their desire.

Example:

9. Pixar’s award-winning formula

Once upon a time there was ___. Every day, ___. One day ___. Because of that, ___. Because of that, ___. Until finally ___.

Former Pixar storyboard artist Emma Coats shared 22 narrative rules she had learned during her time at Pixar. Among the 22 rules was this simple storytelling formula that has helped Pixar win countless awards, including 13 Academy Awards, 9 Golden Globes, and 11 Grammys.

You don’t have to follow the wording exactly. The idea, as I see it, is to introduce a character or a group of character, describe their usual routine, present a twist that disrupts their daily lives, explain how they overcome it, and celebrate!

Example:

10. The Hero’s Journey

Departure — A hero receives a call to go on an adventure, receives advice from a mentor, and heads out on her journey.

Initiation — The hero meets a series of challenges but eventually completes the mission.

Return — The hero returns and helps others with her new found power or treasure.

The original hero’s journey is made up of 17 stages which are organized into the three acts described above. This formula is used by many of the greatest storytellers including George Lucas for his Star Wars films!

The hero of your story would often be your customers. They experience some tricky situations in their lives or work but eventually solve the problems with your product or service, improving their lives or bringing results to their company.

Example:

11. Nancy Duarte’s secret structure of great talks

What is — The status quo

What could be — The future that could be possible

Go back and forth between the two and end off with a …

New bliss — The wonderful future with your idea/product/service adopted

Nancy Duarte’s TED talk, The secret structure of great talks, has been viewed more than a million times. In her talk, she revealed the secret formula that Steve Jobs and Martin Luther King might have used for their famous speeches.

Start by describing the current situation and then contrast that with a future that’s way better. Make the present unappealing and the future attractive. Go back to the present and then point to the future again. End the story with the new state where your product or service is adopted.

Example:

5 storytelling tips from amazing storytellers

Armed with these 11 storytelling formulas, you are ready to tell your brand stories. To help you tell even better stories, I curated advice from several amazing storytellers. Here’re five tips from them:

1. Don’t complicate things

(by Lindsay Smith via Buffer)

Lindsay Smith is a producer at National Geographic Travel, who was awesome to join us for a podcast episode recently. National Geographic Travel has more than 25 million fans across their social media accounts.

One thing that’s very important for social media and storytelling in general, is to not complicate things unnecessarily. While we want to be very thoughtful about the stories and posts that we’re sharing, we don’t want to muddy that story up with irrelevant information. What’s important is that you keep it simple.

(Emphasis mine)

2. The 3 things to ask

(by Lindsay Smith via Buffer)

Here’s another advice from Lindsay that I love:

To tell a great story you must ask three things:

Is this story going to be interesting? (Gut Check)

What is the best way to tell this story? (Format)

How do people want to see this story and how are they going to consume it? (Visual Element)

(Emphasis mine)

// To be updated: In terms of storytelling format, here’re 20 creative ways to use social media for storytelling for your inspiration (link).

3. Create detailed imagery to craft the setting you want

(by Gregory Ciotti via Sparring Mind)

Gregory Ciotti is one of my favorite marketers. When he was at Help Scout, he helped grow the company blog to almost 4 million unique visitors per year.

In his article, The Psychology of Storytelling, he shared the importance of storytelling, ways to create better stories, and characteristics of highly persuasive stories. Here’s my favorite advice from his article:

Creating detailed imagery helps craft the setting YOU want

Want to get people swept up in your stories?

Tell them what they are getting swept up in to, and they will respond.

Could any of us relate to the heroic deeds in tales like those of the Lord of the Rings without Tolkien’s exquisitely detailed descriptions of the dangers of Mordor or the perils faced by Frodo and Sam?

The imagery paints the picture of any good story, we could say that [Spoilers if you haven’t read/seen Lord of the Rings] “Frodo and Sam fight a giant spider,” but Tolkien spends an entire chapter on the ordeal, taking the time to help the reader visualize the ferocious nature of the enemy and the bravery of our heroes who persevere despite their many weaknesses (doubt, fear, dismay, etc.)

Implementing the “real” into a fantastic setting often helps create a better connection with the reader.

I don’t know the feeling of encountering a spider the size of a house, but I do know what terror feels like, and I also know how hard it can be to persevere in the face of immense doubt of your abilities.

These “all-too-real” elements of a fantastical story make it easier to relate to.

(Emphasis mine)

The awesome thing about storytelling on social media is that you can use multimedia such as images and videos to complement your words. Instead of asking your audience to imagine, you can show it to them.

4. Parachute in, don’t preamble

(by J.D. Schramm via Harvard Business Review)

J.D. Schramm is a lecturer on Organizational Behavior at Stanford Graduate School of Business, where he teaches effective communications.

In his Harvard Business Review article, A Refresher on Storytelling 101, he shared seven advice on successful storytelling, and this is my favorite:

Parachute in, don’t preamble. The best storytellers draw us immediately into the action. They capture our attention and set the tone for a unique audience experience. Avoid opening with “I’d like to tell you a story about a time when I learned…” Instead, drop us into the action and draw the lesson out later.

As people on social media tend to have short attention span, your stories have to grab their attention immediately or they might just scroll past your post.

5. Get Personal

(by Kathy Klotz-Guest via Convince & Convert)

Kathy Klotz-Guest is the founder of Keeping It Human, which helps companies create compelling stories.

I read her article, 7 Ways to Make Your Business Storytelling Awesome, and this point stood out for me:

3. Get Personal

…

Great, emotional brand storytelling must be told through the lens of a person: a specific customer, a passionate employee, or a dedicated partner. Every great company story must be anchored in a human story and told through a personal human lens. Anchor your stories through real people, and you’ll see a big difference in your storytelling.

(Emphasis mine)

This reminds me that the stories we tell should seldom have our company as the main character or the hero. The hero of our stories should be our customers and community. The best example is the stories told by Airbnb, which are often about their hosts or guests.

What’s your favorite way of telling stories?

Whenever I write, I often find it easier when I have a structure in mind already. I hope these storytelling formulas help you in the same way when you craft your amazing social media stories.

I’m sure there are many other ways of telling stories. Would you be up for sharing your favorite way? Thanks!

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Some of the icons in the header image are from Iconfinder.

Thank 11 Storytelling Formulas to Supercharge Your Social Media Marketing for first publishing this post.

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martechadvisor-blog · 6 years

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Tips on Optimizing Marketing Technology Strategy: An Interview with Jonathan Goldmacher of Valtech

MTA: Thank you for that fantastic discussion on such varied aspects of marketing technology, Jonathan. We hope to talk with you again, soon!

About Valtech:

This article was first appeared on MarTech Advisor

#martech #marketing #technology #business #cmo

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