2009 Marketing Budgets

Andre Mazerolle's Redbeard Marketing blog entry 2009 Marketing Budgets: Back in the Crosshairs makes an important point that in today's tough economic times companies should increase, rather than decrease, marketing dollars. His blog entry is based on information from the Canadian Marketing Association.

It's often not what you say but how you say it that matters: thoughts on Prime Minister Stephen Harper's interview with CBC

I was very keen to watch Peter Mansbridge’s interview with Prime Minister Stephen Harper last week. Admittedly, the problem with me watching any interview is that I often end up dissecting the person’s ability to communicate rather than fully paying attention to what is being said. So, here are some of my distracted thoughts and, therefore, humble advice for our Prime Minister.

1) Be careful of what I call the President George Bush smile. This is a slight smile (or smirk) that comes out at inappropriate times (like when talking about the economy). Likely, this is a subconscious nervous habit. The problem is that it risks being mistaken with insincerity.

2) Get personal. Connect with the audience by showing that you are one of them. There was nothing “wrong” with the answer regarding the job loss in the auto sector. It possibly was even a very good answer; but it didn’t give the impression of personally understanding and sharing the pain of people facing unemployment. I don’t know if President-elect Barack Obama understands either, but he sure makes Americans feel as if he does. A simple anecdote can go a long way.

3) Lastly, try to avoid starting answers with “Look,….”. This can very easily be interpreted by the reporter and viewers as an irritated response. In addition to it not sounding very polite (which usually doesn’t win points with voters), showing aggravation can suggest a lack of control over the interview.

As I teach in our media training course, it’s often not what you say, but how you say it, that makes all the difference.

Using Contests to Increase Clicks

Fern Stancer: You are my contest saviour!

Thinking up an idea for a contest to draw traffic to a website is easy. Ensuring it runs smoothly and is strategic from a viral marketing perspective is something else.

This is what Fern taught me:

- Look for every opportunity you can to promote your message within the contest.

- Get used to the word “flow”. Make sure the participant’s experience is easy and makes good strategic sense.

- Look for ways to get additional information about your target market, such as a survey, as part of the entry process.

- Make sure all rules and prizing information is drafted by a dedicated contest lawyer (you wouldn’t go to an eye doctor for your heart would you?).

- Identify ways to increase the viral nature of the contest – what built-in mechanism will there be to ensure participants tell everyone they know about this?

- Leave A LOT of days for testing. Make sure it works. Then try to break the system.

Thanks Fern! Check out www.getcentred.com to see our contest. Fern can answer your contest questions at fern.stancer@chasmarketing.ca.