Rick Short’s B2B Marcom Blog
Recent Entries
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Animoto: Just What The B2B Marcom Doctor Ordered!
Want to spice up your internal and external communications? ... and are your resources limited??? Then check out ANIMOTO. This tool is a way to quickly, easily, and cheaply create interesting motion graphics using images and music. And the results look very professional.
I made this clip using shots of Indium coworkers and music from the Animoto site. Tell me what you think of Animoto. And tell me how you might use it. -
Advertising Value Index: EXACTLY!
“ABC sales president Mike Shaw said today that he would go into upfront negotiations offering advertisers a new tool, the Advertising Value Index, a formula that can be used to determine the effectiveness of their advertising on the network.” source: Adweek
Interesting!!! A few weeks back I issued this request for help in thinking this through to my B2B Marcom team:
In my quest to derive greater value-added from Indium’s media network, I would like you to ask these questions of every media we work with. I guess that this might come off as quite weird, even threatening, to some media. Can you help me rework this so it does the intended job, in a nice way?
Rick
* What is your BEST vehicle (media) with regard to advertiser performance? (metric: customer engagement, eg. click-thru, email, etc.)
* Within all of your various media (daily e-letter, print publication, website, virtual events, etc.) list the top 3 performing paid-for spots (eg. banner ad top of left-hand skyscraper, news-like teaser ad – center column, survey, etc.) (metric: click-thru, email, etc.)
* Within all of your various media (daily e-letter, print publication, website, virtual events, etc.) list the top performing free spots (eg. white paper, editorial, interview, etc.) (metric: click-thru, email, etc.)
* For each of your media, which days of the week do you receive the best performance? (metric: customer engagement, eg. click-thru, email, etc.)
* For all of these performance metrics, please provide your average performance rate (eg. CTR average is 2.7%, emails sent is 11/ad, etc.)
* If you have an email media product:
* do you segment your database to allow for more targeted messaging?
* How many subscribers do you have?
* What is the geographic breakdown of your subscriber base?
* If you have a (internally) searchable website media product, please provide a list of the top searched terms/phrases.
* If you offer a website:
* which search engine (Google, Yahoo, Baidu, etc.) is the source of most of your externally-searched visits? (list by per centage)
* how many visits do you receive per week?
* How many distinct visitors do you receive per week?
* How many individuals subscribe to your RSS feed?
* Please provide the geographic breakdown of your audience.
* If you offer an online community (chat, bulletin board service, etc.):
* How many members do you have?
* How many searches of the community site are performed per week?
* What are the top search topics?
* How many visits/sessions do you receive per week?
* How many distinct visitors do you receive per week?
* How many individuals subscribe to your community’s RSS feed?
* Please provide the geographic breakdown of your audience.
* If you offer online video:
* Are the videos tagged for search purposes?
* If searchable, please provide statistics on search activity.
* Do you offer an RSS-type subscription service?
I fully expect the following reactions:
- “Wow! Good questions. I don’t know if I can answer them all, but I will do my best.”
- “Go to hell!”
- “Hey, some of these don’t apply. Is it OK if I just answer those that make sense for me?
In a previous post, I wrote the following (about a meeting I had with publishers as part of my role on the American Business Media Advisory Board):
We eventually reached a point where it seems like a new engagement protocol might be in order. Here’s why: clients commented that media sales people frequently offer little more than “more ad space” and “cheaper ad space” when clients are actually seeking greater value. A couple of us made it clear that we are willing to PAY for such value. Media management people commented that they are disappointed when their sales team simply tries to sell space when management knows that their media organization is sitting on a mountain of rich data. Media representatives told us that there is a lot of value to be delivered. For example, they can often richly describe and differentiate subscribers far beyond the basic BPA-type data of which we are all aware.
So, we’re driving at the some point. And, for a long while now, I’ve been wondering why these media sales people haven’t been offering this info proactively. It seems that ABC is now on top of it.
I’d like to hear from you. Am I on the right track? Have I gone too far? Not far enough? What else is out there for us to use?
I’d LOVE to hear from MY media partners on this.
Image: noticebored website -
NEPCON Vietnam
I just spent a few days in Hanoi, Vietnam, exhibiting at NEPCON. This was the first show of its kind in Vietnam, so I was eager to see how it all played out.
First, Vietnam: With the construction, scooters, hard work, and people shuttling everywhere like crazy, it reminds me of China 15 years ago. It is not on the scale of China, but in the style. One example, today you do not see a two people and a pet on a scooter in urban China. You do in urban Vietnam. I really feel like Vietnam has what it takes to develop into a strong electronics assembly economy.
Next, NEPCON Vietnam: Over 7,000 visitors were reported by show managwement. This first-year show was small, and combined with other shows. The Indium exhibit was intermittently busy: customers, co-suppliers, media, show management, etc. I’ve been to many slower shows. The exhibitors I spoke with were mildly pleased, and excited about the future. That said, it happened! They’ve got one under their belt. I have tremendous faith in Reed Exhibitions, and I am sure they are building on this excellent first event. I am betting on year 2 being a real good show.
And … B2B Marcom: As a first exhibitor in a country, a company gets to help define (to the market) what to expect from future trade shows. It’s a cool experience. The exhibitors at this show were often world-class, professional, and hard-working. The bar has been set fairly high. Companies are going to have to “bring it” to Nepcon Vietnam 2009. -
It's The "Not Knowing" That Kills You
Let's communicate better - to reduce unnecessary stress.
I will start by quoting the entire e-letter I received from MarketingProfs:
You probably know the approach pattern at your home airport very well. So what would you think if your plane were about to touch down when it suddenly jerked skyward, overshot the runway and headed out toward the ocean? Even non-nervous flyers would know something was wrong. Near collision? Problem with the running gear? Inexperienced pilot who needs a do-over?
A MarketingProfs team member experienced this scenario not long ago, and sat patiently waiting for an explanation from the flight deck. Anything at all, if only to confirm that everything was under control. But nada, zip, zilch. It took a full ten minutes—after circling around in a bizarre pattern—for the pilot to give the non-explanation that the plane would be on the ground in a few minutes. Our colleague left the flight seriously pissed off at the lack of communication.
It’s never fun to deliver bad news. But in a
post at his blog, Tom Peters emphatically underscores the need to keep clients and stakeholders fully informed of “a delay (wee or grand) or glitch (wee or grand).” It’s better for everyone to know what’s going on, and what you’re doing about it, than to leave them seething in the dark.
“Make the call,” he writes. “And if you have … let someone know about a glitch … call ‘em again to update the status of the fix, or relay the sad but honest news that the fix is more complex than first imagined.” It’s Marketing Inspiration we can all use.
Coincidentally, I had a very similar experience last week. While flying from Hanoi to Beijing, my pilot made the usual announcement that we were about to land, seats up, tray tables stowed, yadda, yadda, yadda. We descended through the clouds, the houses got larger, then … the engines revved tremendously, we rose up, up, up above the clouds, and continued flying for 30 more minutes in a straight line before landing. What the heck happened? Did we almost land in the wrong place? I’d like to know. Sadly, not a word was spoken – no explanation – nothing.
And a coworker just told me of queueing up for airport security in “the longest line I have ever seen“. He was SURE he would miss his flight. Others in line with him were clearly stressed.
Each of our B2B customers are in slightly similar situations with us – they want to know something, are wondering about an issue, or feel that something happened that they would like to know about. Just like in the situations above, it’s the “not knowing” that causes the stress. In the case of the long security line, my friend was shocked to see how fast the line moved. Ultimately he was pleasantly surprised and had nothing to worry about. But, for five minutes, he suffered totally unnecessary stress. In our customers’ cases, you and I probably know a lot about the behind-the-scenes facts (things a customer can’t see or know). When all is well, we know it, and do business as usual. But … the customer doesn’t know what we know.
As B2B Marcom professionals, we need to see the world as our customers do – so we can create communications to reduce stress and to optimize understandings and alignment.
Image: airguideonline website -
Semicon Singapore
I am in Singapore for Semicon Singapore 2008. This is the first exhibition (that I can recall) that started on a Monday! It sure felt a little weird. Things were certainly slow on the floor up until noon, then the floodgates seemed to open up. This is one of the best-attended shows I’ve been to in a while. That’s great, especially when we factor in the fact that the semiconductor assembly market has moved out of Singapore (for the most part). This show used to fill two giant rooms in the Suntec Singapore International Convention and Exhibition Centre, now it is down to one. That said, this show has a lot of life. Here is a shot of our exhibit before the show started. I was filming a new video ad (exciting B2B Marcom) in Singapore on Monday – and things wrapped up early. So, I took the video crew to the show and interviewed a few exhibitors for the i-Connect007 team. The video is being processed now, should be posted in a few days. I’ll add the link here when they are online, so you can watch me fumble through things. Granted, I didn’t prepare for this gig, but even with simple questions and observations, it was a tough job! My hat is off to any and all video interview people – it’s harder than it looks. Image: Rick Short
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Indium Corporation: founded in Utica, NY - "The City That Loves Refugees"
Today the Indium Corporation enjoys a rich global texture. With facilities and teammates in Milton Keynes, UK; Jurong, Singapore; Suzhou, Shenzhen, & Liuzhou, China; Cheongju, Korea; and in Chicago, Utica, and Clinton, USA (as well as many other people in field offices throughout the world: Mexico, Malaysia, India, Belgium, Romania, etc.) we certainly benefit from a truly global perspective.
As our company looks forward to celebrating our 75th anniversary (13 March 2009) I am reflecting on our journey – considering where we came from as well as where we are going (and all those glorious points in between).
One facet of this company that I am intrigued by is the refugee population of Utica, NY, our global headquarters.
Utica, NY USA was founded by immigrants and populated by refugees. In fact, wave after wave of refugees and immigrants have replenished and bolstered our region from the beginning. Utica is the home of the Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees – I served on their board of directors for a few years. This organization is very successful in the way that it embraces and enables newcomers to our area.
This was said by Assistant Secretary Sauerbrey about Utica during the opening ceremony of the United Nations High Commission of Refugees executive committee in 2006:
I can cite one city in New York, Utica, New York, which has been called “The City That Loves Refugees.” Utica, New York was a city that lost a military base. Large manufacturers had been moving out. And the city was really in decline and welcomed in the early stages of our resettlement program, welcomed refugees from the Balkans, from Somalia, from Sudan, from really all over the world from the areas that we settle refugees from, and has become the quintessential American melting pot.
The result has been a phenomenal rebirth of the city. Refugees that came with nothing, with no education, that were able to get their education, refugees that started businesses and are now helping to rebuild the economy of the city. This is the attitude that Americans have to the refugee situation: that these are people who come to our country and want to become Americans, who embrace the American dream, the opportunities that America provides, for their children to get an education, for them to save, if they work hard, to invest, to build businesses, and to build not only better lives for themselves but to better the communities in which they find themselves.
I think this is the example, the whole basis of our resettlement efforts, that we can provide as a solution to those countries that still see refugees as a problem, not an opportunity.
According to a report from GlobalYouthUnite, Utica, “has the fourth highest density of refugees in the U.S. (Wilkinson). With over 11,000 refugees from Afghanistan, Vietnam, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Former Soviet Union, Lithuania, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Haiti, Iran, Iraq, Kosovo, Laos, Lebanon, Liberia, Libya, Burma, Poland, Romania, Sierra Leone, Somalia, Sudan, and Yugosalvia, Utica is truly a global community (MVRCR).”
I just viewed and enjoyed an interesting video, produced by pbs.org, and written by Emmy Award-winning correspondent Lucky Severson, titled Utica Refugees. Please take a minute and watch it now.
I have found that living in Utica is very enriching – especially because of the these many cultures. My children have grown up surrounded by people from Vietnam, Bosnia, Cambodia, Somalia, and more. I ride motorcycles with these people, play soccer with them, work professionally with them, learn from them, attend hockey games with them, worship with them, and mourn with them. I was proud to see dear friends of mine, Saram and Synath Buth, featured in a refugee-related article in the Reader’s Digest. We’ve shared meals together, birthdays, and most recently, the birth of their beautiful granddaughter.
I am thankful for this Utica experience as it has made my professional world travels a bit easier and a lot more rewarding.
Indium finds itself, today, immersed in a global village. Interestingly, it started there 75 years ago, amongst Utica’s early-1900s Italian, Polish, and Irish immigrants. Our company has matured in the city’s late-1900s/early-2000s influx of Africans, Eastern Europeans, and Asians. Our global corporate expansion is a tribute to the diversity offered by our home town, Utica, NY.
I am proud of Indium Corporation, of the Utica region, and of my global teammates. Together we have created a strong and meaningful organization that serves the global electronics assembly market – all starting from a humble city of refugees.
Image source: pbs.org website
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B2B Marcom Expertise
Indium Corporation’s Dr. Ronald Lasky is a highly-educated, very experienced electronics assembly process & materials expert. We are lucky to have him on our team.
In addition to working with our engineers, our customers’ engineers, delivering seminars, chairing tech sessions at trade events, authoring white papers, and blogging, he even has time to serve as a professor at Dartmouth College. Yes, he’s that good!
Here is a favorite photo of mine – depicting Dr. Lasky in a classroom setting as he and I received blogging training years ago at an American Marketing Association meeting in Boston.
Dr. Lasky is also pretty good in the B2B Marcom department. Check out the Dr. Lasky video interview (conducted at APEX earlier this month) to see him in action. He is truly a B2B Marcom expert.
In the video you will see that Dr. Lasky is:
- respected
- respectable
- respectful
- experienced
- knowledegable
- humble
- informative
- helpful
- curious
- non-commercial
- approachable
- fun
- realI have had the privilege of working with Dr. Lasky for the past several years. I enjoy watching him learn, as well as witnessing him teach. As a technical representative of our company, he is always communicating about us – showing his audiences what an Indium Corporation engineer is, how we behave, what we know, how we help, how we conduct ourselves, etc. This is CRITICAL Marcom – and he does it so well.
It is not easy to find a Dr. Lasky, and even harder to create one, to add to your B2B Marcom arsenal. People of his caliber are extremely rare. I am just lucky to be a colleague of his – I look forward to many more years of learning from him.
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Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques
As a B2B Marcom practitioner, you need to create change. It is your job to convince people to visit a web page, to send an email, to drop by your exhibit at a trade show, to read your product data sheet, and, ultimately, to buy your product. You need to persuade people to do something they might not naturally do on their own.
For these reasons, I suggest you explore Brian Clark’s Ten Timeless Persuasive Writing Techniques.
You can tell that I like these techniques – I just used one in my first paragraph: “reasons why”. Other techniques include:
- social proof
- comparisons
- prognosticate (LOVE the image, from zdnet)
If you want the other six, and the explanations of all ten, do check it out.
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Attention To Emotional Detail in Video Ads
It’s hard (at least for me) to make video ads that contain the main message along with just the perfect amount of artistically-expressed (and received) emotion (I haven’t succeeded in my B2B Marcom practice yet). I feel that this is how ads truly connect with the audience.
A recent TJ Maxx video ad (by Mullen as part of their Maxx Moments series – other examples are currently available on their website) does an excellent job of sprinkling in the perfect amount of emotional detail. I just love the nuances.
The ad, titled either “Translator” or “Interpreter” features a woman translating a seemingly-Russian VIP into English. While mirroring his motions, she veers off into her very own area of interest – fashion.
The subtle details of the TJ MAXX Interpreter ad are what kill me, including:
- 00:13 the facial expression on the man in the audience (perfect)
- 00:22 the ONE media camera flash feebly going off as the rest of the audience sits in disbelief (a TOTAL crack-up)
- 00:26 back to the man – he feels the social etiquette-driven need to applaud, but quickly realizes his error as his partner looks on with disgust (you can actually feel the egg rolling down his face)KUDOS!
Image: screen grab from adweek.com
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First Ride of the Year!
Today was the first warm, sunny, dry, clean roads day that I was home. So, of course, I rode my motorcycle to work. See my other bike.
I am NOT a hard-core biker who rides in all sorts of conditions. I am a fair-weather rider. So, I love these days.
Spring has arrived in Upstate New York!
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Marcom Stars
Anita Brown
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Marcom Stars are great! So who wouldn't want to have one (or more) on their team?
Lucky for the Indium Corporation, a bona fide STAR is a key player on our corporate Marcom team. Meet Anita Brown.
Dr. Ralph Oliva
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So, how do you get to be a B2B Marcom Star? Well, Ralph developed the "DLP" brand program (Texas Instrument's first ingredient branding strategy) and worked on several landmark products (including TI's "Speak and Spell", and the TI-30 calculator). And so much more. Read on.
Want to read more? Browse the archive of past entries.
