Here’s a brief interview with FIOS1 about social networking.

The internet as a medium is old news. Yes, it’s the most revolutionary medium in the history of man, but it’s old news. The good news is that we continue to discover how to use the internet to connect with consumers, build businesses, expand brands, and engage markets.  The 800 lb gorilla is content distribution strategy, which is how business get as much relevant exposure as possible across markets and demographics on the net. And why is that important? Well, think of your website as space sitting on your URL. And while you’re promoting the site in various way on and offline, there are ways to repackage your existing content and position it across the web.

Here’s an example:

Let’s say your site has video and 15 pages of static content. Think about the high value of relevant link-backs and create a channel on Youtube and upload your videos there, create a blog on blogger and recreate your content there…and use that blog as a platform going forward to update your customers on your products, business etc. Now, with a little effort, your site’s exposure just got exponentially more powerful.

Most importantly, continue to look for new ways to get your content out there where your customers aggregate and where you can get those valuable linkbacks…it’ll keep you one step ahead of your comeptition.

By Abe Kasbo.
The reason I enjoy sports so much, especially basketball, is because I get to see business in action. You see much of what business does everyday is to try to advance the ball, play defense, and score as much as possible, and perhaps get into the championship game and win.I see the world of business through the eyes of an athlete. And when you look at successful teams and successful business from a marketing perspective, they have a lot in common. This piece brings illustrates successful marketing tactics that work, through the prism of sports…here we go:

1. Fundamentals - successful marketers understand and practice the fundamentals until they are second nature. The fundamentals include: developing an integrated marketing and public relations plan, simplifying creative to deliver engaging key marketing messages quickly, and ensuring your frequency in the market by “owning” certain media to avoid dilution and maximize your investment. You see, much like shooting free-throws or doing basic lay-ups, the fundamentals must be reinforced daily to keep you on the right track.

2. Relevancy - In basketball having your point guard playing the power forward position will cost you the game, and it’s also a mistake to think that your market will come to you by doing the minimum. Make no mistake, it will cost you business. Businesses have to constantly strive to stay relevant. Apple’s relevancy is beyond it’s computers, ipods and iphones make apple relevant and in touch with their market. They position their brand in both advertising and culture with relatively simple, yet relevant messages that speak to current and future customers.

3. Strategy - The ball doesn’t just go in the basket, and you don’t get steals by just standing around. Strategy is your game plan and it should include:

1. Defining the relevancy of your product to your target market, by life cycle of the product and your customers
2. Identifying all possible media to reach your market
3. Integrating media, public relations, web, direct mail, sales, conferences, and any other traditional and non-traditional strategies to ensure the most effective results

4. Prioritize Media - Be sure to invest appropriately in media, but like a great asset manager, you must allocate your budget and efforts across the media that makes sense for your goals in order to get the best returns.

5. Execute - Down by 1, 3 seconds to go, your team has the ball underneath the opponent’s basket and a timeout. The coach draws up the play, the ball is inbounded, but the players don’t execute. Your team looses. The same for marketing and PR plans, in my experience, the execution is what counts. No good having a great strategy and plan if execution fails.

6. Innovate - Michael Jordan’s Chicago Bulls failed to advance in the playoffs for several years due to several factors including Michael’s seeming inability to share the basketball. Innovation came in the form of transformation, when Michael was convinced by his new coach Phil Jackson to change some habits, share the ball, and place the team’s priorities ahead of his individual game. Why is this innovation? It’s the same Michael. Yes, but the innovation came in the measured difference in execution.In marketing and PR, innovation can come from anywhere, we just have to pay attention and recognize it and execute against it.

7. Back to the Web - The web is the only medium that can aggregate and segment your market at the same time. So every marketing and PR initiative should have a web component. More to come…

By Abe Kasbo

Companies have been shying away from allowing users to generate content to represent their brand, and rightfully so. It’s perfectly rational that businesses ought not surrender their brand equity to the masses, or more importantly, the individuals who may have the ability to adversely affect their business by getting content out to the masses.

The arguments against user generated content range from lack of standards for the medium, to fragmentation of technologies and audiences, and measurement. But what if brands partnered with their customers to generate meaningful content? What if brands provided precisely enough guidance to users to generate content? You ask how? In many ways this is already happening on the medium side. Take Facebook and myspace et al, what they do well is allow the user experience - in this case - their social network to create user generated content relevant to both the user and his or her network. It’s the ultimate “it’s about me forever campaign.” The point here is that people don’t denigrate themselves on these sites. At least people that fall within the normal distribution curve. Not looking for outliers here. And with meaningful engagement, your customers will not denigrate your brand. Remember, your campaign has to provide guidance and control for your customers in order for your user-generated content campaign to work properly.

Businesses indeed can partner with their customers on user-generated content while exercising control over the brand message. And customers already engage in “user generated content” off the net, it’s called word of mouth. So why not partner with your customers to deliver your messages to the masses? Here’s why it makes sense:

1. Video / audio technology is affordable if not cheap
2. Video / editing technology is easy to acquire or outsource
3. Plenty of online distribution channels - youtube, myspace, revver, yahoo video etc.
4. While Internet video represent a tiny subset of how brands are distributed, the medium is growing exponentially
5. In many ways, campaigns are measurable

And while measurement is a key issue, no media plan has a perfect measurement mechanism - no matter what your agency says. So start thinking about taking a position online and rethink how your brand can partner with you customers. Because the more meaningful engagement, the more ownership your customers take of your brand.

By Abe Kasbo

So the CMO of Proctor and Gamble did it, so did his peer at American Express. And in February of 2006, John Stratton, VP & CMO of Verizon who controls a budget of more than $2 Billion bluntly warned “major money is going to be in motion in the next decade and yet no one understands exactly where it will land, or even if will land, or just disappear altogether.”

Mr. Stratton is referring to Madison Avenue’s love affair with existing media, “antiquated media plans,” and its apparent inability to capitalize on a variety realities including, media fragmentation, the Internet, brand loyalty shifts, and the changing American demographic scene.

So what’s happening? It appears that advertisers are lauding the Internet, but still are unable to make sense out of it. Kind of puzzling though considering Google’s meteoric rise - if that indeed can be used as a measure. If you’re American Express, Coca Cola, your fully invested in your marketing plans, but where do you get the biggest bang for the buck? Where and how do allocate your budget in an increasing wired world? And what do you make of the mobile web?

Media will change rapidly and the next medium is right around the corner. Regardless, this continues to be an issue of asset allocation, messaging, and consumer engagement. It’s those advertisers that can consistently bring those elements together that will be fully invested in the market - smartly.

So with that in mind, advertising firms need to step up and partner with their clients utilizing a different financial model to continue to expand their business and deliver more value to their clients.

By: Abe Kasbo

Often marketers tend to think about media as an end-goal for campaigns when then ought to be thinking about the market. I often hear, “we’ve gotta be on TV,” or “we’ve got to get on Youtube,” or “our competitors are running are on the radio.” My typical response is almost always, “so what?”

With so many trumpeting the demise of traditional media and touting the new social / Internet marketing Holy Grail, the numbers are telling. While there is a noticeable shift in marketing and advertising dollars from “old-school” to “new-school” media, the fact is large marketers are still masters of the traditional media domain. They are also endowed enough to experiment in and rule new media. Meaning that they have enough money in their coffers to see if something works, without degrading their market position.

Strategy (which incorporates, research, creative, messaging, placement, above the line and below the line tactics, etc) drives successful marketing campaigns, while media are vital spokes in the wheel. Media are essential tools that help you distribute your strategy. So use the tools wisely, but understand their nature as delivery mechanisms, and make the most of them by ensuring that your strategy is solid.