actionable marketing guide

Dear ,

Next Sunday is Super Bowl 51 where the New England Patriots will face the Atlantic Falcons.

To be clear, I’m not a sports fan. 

Neither is my husband.

Fortunately, my brother-in-law is.

At one point, I had a boss who loved football and I needed something we could talk about that wasn’t work.  So, my brother-in-law, not my dad or my brother, came to my rescue and taught me how to watch a football game.

BUT the real reason we invite friends over on Super Bowl Sunday is to view and comment on the over-priced, mass-market ads.

From a marketing perspective, super bowl ads reveal how brands use expensive investments to position themselves and drive sales. Most of them are well-established mass-market brands, notably soda and beer.

A few companies use this mega TV audience to establish their brand. Most notable was Apple’s 1984 ad introducing the Macintosh. With a nod to George Orwell, the ad was directed by Ridley Scott of Blade Runner fame. It aired twice: once on an obscure station to qualify for awards and once on the Super Bowl.

Apple’s 1984 ad remains an amazing piece of content marketing.  

Why?

Because Steve Jobs understood that great content requires a memorable story at its core. It wasn’t about the length of the story. It was about the impact the story made! (Here’s a detailed analysis of the ad.)

Apple’s 1984 ad cost $900,000 in production and $800,000 in media. It payed off:

• Apple received $5 million in free television time with post-Super Bowl news discussion. This was PR at its best in the pre-Internet, pre-social media world.
• Apple sold $155 million worth of Macintoshes in the 3 months following the Super Bowl.
• Apple cemented its position as the IBM competitor.

This year, Mercedes tapped the Coen brothers to create a play on Easy Rider complete with Peter Fonda (who is 70+). It’s already available and has attracted over 100,000 views on YouTube.

I challenge you as a marketer to improve your game.

Even if you don’t have a mega-size budget—most marketers don’t—what can you do to capture the imagination of your target audience?

What can you do with your resources to stand out to your prospect and their influencers?

  Understand: Your marketing isn’t about you!
              Your marketing is about your customers!

Don’t worry you’re not alone.

Every marketer has the same challenges.

If you watch the Super Bowl ads, consider how they work to achieve their marketing objective. Do they work for their core audience (even if it’s not you)?

Ask yourself, “What could they have done better?”

Then look at your marketing and see what you can do to improve it.

Happy Marketing
Heidi.

Heidi Cohen
Actionable Marketing Guide

Want to improve your writing (or any other skill)? Then read this piece by James Clear. It focuses on repetition. I love the story of an art teacher who tested the difference between shear quantity versus quality.

Guess what?

Quantity yielded better quality.

The other story is about making sure that you deliver your message in a context that your audience will hear. You can be right but if your reader doesn’t hear it, then you failed. This story was about entrepreneur Hiten Shah of Kissmetrics.

“90% of what made his advice so effective was not the counsel itself —
​​​​​​​but the context in which he couched it”

The Crazy Busy Marketer's Guide to Content Creation in the Real World

Content is how you get found, how you educate, build trust, answer questions, stand out, and sell in today's world.

Content is online, offline, shared, curated, excerpted, repurposed and packaged in every way imaginable.

In this 34 page guide, you will be able to make sense of the foundational need for more and more content in the most practical manner possible. You’ll learn:

• Content Creation Strategy
• The Essential Types of Content
• Stages of the Content Hourglass
• Getting an Education Through Content Creation
• How to Use a Content Platform as Referral Tool
• Content Amplification System

With this free eGuide you will also receive weekly marketing news, tips, and advice you can use courtesy of Duct Tape Marketing.

• Heidi Cohen collaborated with Orbit Media’s Andy Crestodina on Content Collaboration: 5 Powerful Ways to Upgrade Your Content. It’s helpful if you’re looking to expand the reach of your content creation.

• Heidi Cohen contributed to Social Media Examiner’s 19 Facebook Marketing Predictions for 2017.  This is article is a must read. See what the Facebook experts say is going to happen with the number 2 media giant.

• Heidi Cohen was quoted in Oracle’s 2016 Roundup along with other top marketing stars. (FYI, it’s a FREE ebook of marketing goodness!) Her quote:
  

  “2016 was the year that marketers stopped running after the shiny new thing!”

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