Cuneo Advertising

New Years Resolutions for Your Brand

This time of year a large number of people take a moment to reflect on their lives and vow to make a change. Some changes - like quitting smoking or losing weight - require lots of effort while others are small and only require a minimal change.  But people know that sometimes making that small change can do great things for their lives.

What about making a resolution for your company? Shouldn’t this also be a time we look at our company and make changes? Like our personal resolutions, it doesn’t need to be anything major. Here are five resolutions that can improve your brand and advertising:

1 – Review your customer base.

Look at any data you have on your customers and compile results based on gender, age, income, shopping times (time of day, time of month or time of year), repeat business, why they indicate they are shopping and much, much more. This can be as simple as reviewing your customer tracking system or sending a quick online survey. Why do it? Your advertising strategy is based on who your customers are so to be most effective you really need to know your customers. Sometimes new products or sales affect your customer base so evaluating them sporadically to monitor changes is an easy way to boost your advertising campaign.

2 – Review your social media strategy.

Are you connecting with your fans? Are you providing them valuable content and information? Make sure if someone posts on your page you are responding to them within 24 hours. Did you try offering a coupon to your fans? Make sure you looked at sales figures to determine if it worked. Don’t have a social media page? Then maybe this is the time to re-visit and evaluate if you need one.

3 – Audit your brand

Look at your logo, store, ads, etc. to verify branding message is consistent throughout everywhere and everything. If your logo is blue, green and white make sure those colors are used in your store, on your emails, in your ads, etc. They will go a long way to ensure people know your company.

4 - Review your creative.

Is it out of date? Could it be freshened up? If you read number three and smiled because your brand is solid and consistent would it benefit from a tweak? What if you changed your template? It might make your content pop more and draw more attention.

5 – Talk it out.

Are you communicating all of the above information with the person in charge of your advertising? Make sure to share your thoughts, results, research, etc. with everyone involved in helping draw people to your business. More information is always better and you never know what might trigger something that causes a campaign idea or media campaign to succeed.

Resolve to look at your brand with a fresh set of eyes as we usher in 2012. Investing the time today will mean a better year for you and your company. And besides, when your new training regimen has you not able to lift your arms, at least you can brag about the strength of your brand.

Emily Gausman is a Media Planner/Buyer with Cuneo Advertising. She started her career at Cuneo Advertising after college and returned in 2010. She previously worked at another advertising agency and at the Minnesota Wild in media and marketing roles. Follow her on Twitter @egausman.

Why pitching a new client is like going on a first date

I recently pitched a potential new client and, in the process, realized it is like going on a first date. I mean, we've all been there: there's someone you like and want to spend time with. Then, comes the ask: "come hang out with me and let's see if this will work out." You are thrilled!

Am I talking about a first date or a client pitch?

First Blush

Boy meets girl, boy thinks “that girl is cute, I wonder if she’ll go out with me”. Girl thinks “hmmmm that guy is cute, I wonder if he’ll ask me out”.

He asks.

She says yes.

 

Company thinks "that agency is good, I wonder if we should work together." Agency thinks "wow, that is a great company, I wonder if we could work with them."

Company asks Agency to pitch.

Agency says yes.

 

The Preparation

Boy picks a time and place and tells Girl.

Girl stalks Boy on Facebook,  buys a new outfit, worries about what to say, how it's going to go and daydreams about what would happen if they got married.

 

Company selects time and place for meeting.

Agency does research to learn more about Company. (And probably stalks them on Facebook.)

Agency rep buys a new outfit. (Like you've never done it.)

Agency puts together a pitch, practices what they are going to say and daydreams about landing the account.

 

The Date

Boy and Girl meet up, smile politely and start their date.

Boy and Girl hope they don't say the wrong thing.

 

Company and Agency meet up, smile politely and start their meeting.

Company and Agency hope they don't say the wrong thing.

 

Post-Date

Boy thanks Girl for going out and says he had a great time.

Girl says she had fun.

Boy says he'll call.

 

Company thanks Agency for pitching and appreciates the effort.

Agency says they had fun.

Company says they'll call.

 

The Anxious Aftermath

Girls heads home, calls friend to determine how it really went.

Girl waits for his call.

Girl assures herself that it went well and he'll call.

 

Agency heads back to work, calls their colleagues to determine how it really went.

Agency waits for the call.

Agency assures themselves that it went well and they'll call.

 

See?! It's the same thing! And here I thought since I'm engaged I don't have to worry about this anymore!

 

Now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going back to work to wait by the phone to see if they call. If they don't, hey, I'm a grown up and I'll understand.

 

But maybe I should pick up a pint of Ben & Jerry's on the way home. Just in case.

 

Emily Gausman is a Media Planner/Buyer with Cuneo Advertising. She started her career at Cuneo Advertising after college and returned in 2010. She previously worked at another advertising agency and at the Minnesota Wild in media and marketing roles. Follow her on Twitter @egausman.

Don't Judge Me by My Numbers

When I was in high school  I worried about my class rank and SAT scores so I could get into the college of my choosing. Gratefully I was accepted by Marquette University where again I stressed out about my grade point average. Once I finished school,  and landed my first job, I stopped worrying about my grade point average and was now thinking about buying my first house. So I needed to make sure my FICO score was at an acceptable level to qualify for a low interest mortgage. Got that done so I thought all of this judging me by my numbers stuff was behind me and WHAM… along comes KLOUT. For those of you who don’t know, KLOUT is a score that measures your social influence.  KLOUT is much like a Google Q score. It’s based on a bunch of things. Some are obvious like the number of times you Tweet, the number of followers and the KLOUT scores and engagement of your followers. But some is based on algorithms which KLOUT doesn’t share with us and is constantly changing which impacts my score.  Heck if the NFL decided to change the number of points you got for kicking a field goal, they would certainly tell the players.  

So some of you are thinking who cares if you are a social influencer. In fact that was my initial reaction. While I’m very involved with social media via Linkedin and Facebook, I’ve followed others as they've tweeted but not really tweeted much myself. But today at a breakfast meeting a group of us were discussing KLOUT and someone brought up that they look at a potential candidates social media usage, including their KLOUT score before inviting them to join the company. Cuneo Advertising does do basic background checks on all perspective employees. I of course check out a candidate who’s applied for a position in my office on Linkedin, read their blogs and see who they are connected with and what groups they belong to. If their Facebook is open I look at who their friends are, what they post and what is in the pictures; after all they are worth 1,000 words.  But, do I care that their KLOUT score is high? I’m thinking someone that has enough time to consistently post, unless it is part of their job to do so, just might be spending too much time worrying about the KLOUT score and playing Angry Birds and maybe not enough time getting their work done.

Would you buy a car from dealer X because their KLOUT score is 20 points higher than their competitors? Would you let a KLOUT score influence your hiring decisions? If so how?

 Kathy Carlson is the Media Director at Cuneo Advertising with expertise in both digital and traditional media. .

BACK IN THE DAY…

What does that mean “back in the day?” Well according to UrbanDictionary.com there are three immediate meanings that pop up:

Urban Dictionary - Back in the day definition 

The first two are what I am about to describe – where the third definition… well it’s humorous that is for sure, but not at all what I am talking about here. As a matter of fact number 3 is just plain strange. I mean who eats wood other than termites? I don’t get it.

Back in the day… when I first started to work in media, the process of placing, trafficking, and posting / reconciling a media order was largely a manual process as a media coordinator. While I do look back at my past with great fondness, I certainly don’t miss the laborious task of manual processing media orders. This is a time where the technology advances have saved me from hours of mundane data entry and excruciating headaches and allowed me the time and efficiency to learn and grow with the ever changing media landscapes and modern advances in advertising.

For example – placing a simple zoned cable order in any given market would mean that I would enter in hundreds of spots in dozens of buy lines manually. This would take hours, sometimes days or even a week depending on if we were placing a weekly, monthly, quarterly or an ANNUAL…. That word still makes me shake. The trauma comes from the moments that I would be off in spots or dollars and I would have to go through the avails again and again and try to find out where I may have missed something, somewhere – that one spot or $100 dollars has got to be somewhere! Facial tics are starting to happen so I will move on.

Once the order would be entered and approved to place - now comes the printing of that order. It would be dozens of pages long! Oh and getting that order to the station sales rep – by that good old FAX machine of course. Some of you may know the wonderful ways a fax machine can or cannot work – so a timed follow up phone call to would take place to confirm that the order was received. If not – refax until all pages are received. Since our agency works on our signed orders and not station contracts, making sure that all pages are returned with a station official signature found me standing at the fax machine again waiting for all of the pages to come through. And of course if you were missing any pages that would require another phone call to ask for it to be resent… again! UGH!

Order placed and signed order received – next would come trafficking and sending the stations the spot(s) to run. I just felt a rush buzzing in my head just thinking about this! I would need to manually create the instructions (what to run, when to run and how to run) – and remember that good old fax machine – yeah, I’m standing in front of it again… followed up by a phone call for confirmation. The delivery of the spots were put on a Beta SP tape and sent by courier or delivery service. Piece of cake you say? HAHAHA! It would never fail to happen that I would receive a phone call at 4:45 PM on a Friday from a traffic person at a local station saying… “Ahh.. Lisa Jo, we haven’t received the dub yet.” WHAT!!!! But it starts tomorrow! Good lord I think I need a Xanax.

Reconciling– Remember I said that a simple zoned cable order could take hours, days or even weeks to enter? Here comes the daunting task of reconciling invoices! I swear nightmares are going to resume just thinking about this! All of those dates, times, spot codes and charges to be MANUALY entered and matched against the order. Gratefully we did have the latest media buying software that would help this process along. It would show you what spots matched an order line and what spots did not. The spots that did not… that was my puzzle to solve every month why? Was it a make good, spots run out of flight? How about Incorrect rates or extra spots? It’s enough to drive a girl batty!

Now keep in mind that I am only referring to a SINGLE zoned cable buy for a single client. Add multiple zones, broadcast stations, radio, OOH, print for multiple clients and you can see that all you would spend all of your time doing is those three tasks. BORING! Media is exciting, fluid and ever changing – and therefore the process has had to change and adapt to keep up with this frantic pace. I am reaching for the pain reliever’s right about now.

TECHNOLOGY!!! (Insert angels singing here)

Technology Definition - Urban Dictionary

Using Urban Dictionary’s definition again, I’d like to stress the part that reads “to create tools and implementations deemed useful by a society.” HECK YA! Bring on the technology! With all of the advances of technology in media buying – now this the media coordinating has become substantially less laborious!

Media avails can be requested and sent back in electronic data files that are easily downloaded or uploaded depending on which side of the buying fence you play on. This includes spots, dollars and ratings. This process takes minutes versus the enormous amount of time prior to this advance technology. NICE!

Media orders can be pulled and converted to handy dandy PDF’s which are then in turn emailed to the station rep. So simple! And if you are anything like me - you save all of your emails, organized and electronically filed as your proof that the order was sent/received/placed. Station reps can print, sign and SCAN the order and return via email as our confirmation. Taaa Daaa…. I wonder if we still have a fax machine.

Traffic instructions and spots have the ability to be sent electronically through email and our Agency’s FTP site or I can upload directly to the stations site. Confirmations are immediate. SLICK!

Media invoices also come in through electronic services such as, Spotdata.com, emediatrade.com, TVinvoices.com or radioinvoices.com. These files are downloaded from the sites and within in minutes uploaded to the media software and matched the appropriate order for the correct client! The system matches and rejects ANYTHING that was not matching the order. I can see within minutes if a station delivered, over delivered or under delivered what was ordered!

So if you are asking… what do you do with all of your “free” time now that technology has made your position more efficient and streamlined? Answer – media research and project managing. I used to put in 40+ hours a week in pure clerical tasks prior to most of the technological upgrades. I have gained between 10 – 15 hours a week to take on new tasks. Now due to the improved technology, I have the opportunity to continue to learn and grow within new media opportunities such as digital and social. I am now able to do Media Buying and back up my fellow co-workers. These technological advances have allowed me to branch out and continue my career development. I’m no longer a one trick pony in this field. This I like!

Has technology improved your efficiency? What has it given you – time, less headaches, If so, how? Join in the conversation.

 

Lisa Jo Lampi started as the part-time receptionist for Cuneo Advertising a little over 10 years ago and quickly worked her way up to account coordinator and then a media coordinator within the first year of employment. After a 3 1/2 year leave, she has returned and has called Cuneo home for the past 5+ years. Lisa Jo is currently Cuneo Advertising's Media Analyst.

Learn From Other Company’s Mistakes

ChapStick is the most recent victim of a social media marketing misstep. Their recent integrated marketing campaign prompts viewers of their on-air TV spots to “Be Heard at Facebook.com/ChapStick.” On their Facebook page they posted a picture of a woman’s rear end as she digs around behind her couch for her ChapStick with the tagline “Where do lost ChapSticks go?” The premise of the campaign is insightful but the image of the woman’s rear end caused some people to be offended.

ChapStick’s problems really started when one blogger who had an issue with the image commented on ChapStick’s Facebook page expressing her displeasure. Her comment and similar comments were deleted by ChapStick which prompted more people to express their anger at the deleted comments only to have their comments deleted. Meanwhile ChapStick was not providing an explanation for their actions.

They recently issued the following apology: "We apologize that fans have felt like their posts are being deleted and while we never intend to pull anyone's comments off our wall, we do comply with Facebook guidelines and remove posts that use foul language, have repetitive messaging, those that are considered spam-like (multiple posts from a person within a short period of time) and are menacing to fans and employees." ChapStick also restated their commitment to listening to their consumers: “We're committed to listening. We're committed to the dialogue. This is a perfect example of listening to your followers, your fans. We're trying to live by those words."

Most thought their response seemed insincere and placed the blame on the people who posted the comments on Facebook rather than addressing their concerns. In addition ChapStick’s comment about continuing to listen to their consumers seemed ironic since their tagline for all of this was “Be Heard at Facebook.com/ChapStick” yet people’s comments were deleted.

How should they have handled it?

I recently listened to a social media and leadership webinar conducted by Charlene Li. A conversation entitled “The New Failure Imperative” featured herself, Brian Solis and Chris Brogan and the topic revolved around how to handle failure and the best way to utilize social media in that situation.

They stressed the need for companies to be open and transparent about a misstep, responding immediately to followers’ criticism and engaging followers on a solution.

Any company can learn from both ChapStick’s misstep and Charlene Li’s social media leadership series. Due to social media’s growing influence it is imperative companies have a social media action plan. It does not matter if your company has five people or five million -  one bad sales person or one bad customer experience can grow exponentially overnight via social media and cause your company irreparable harm.

Ask yourself this: Is your company prepared to handle something negative? If something negative is posted on your Facebook page who internally will notice? If it’s an intern or a lower level employee do they know how to handle it? What happens if they don’t handle it correctly and the problem grows before higher-ups are aware? Do you respond to a positive comment? Who answers customer’s questions?

Can you answer these questions about your company’s social media? If not, you need to put together a plan of action.

The United States Air Force has created a social media response flowchart which is an excellent example of the type of template all companies should have in place.

 

Their flowchart accounts for the most likely scenarios they encounter. It undoubtedly took a lot of time and effort to put together but now responding to and managing their social media is simpler, uniform and people contacting them via social media are handled appropriately.

For the good of your company please take a minute to think about your social media.

Emily Gausman is a Media Planner/Buyer with Cuneo Advertising. She started her career at Cuneo Advertising after college and returned in 2010. She previously worked at another advertising agency and at the Minnesota Wild in media and marketing roles. Follow her on Twitter @egausman.

Why We Do What We Do

You won’t hear many middle-school students saying they want to work in advertising media. In fact, if you tried to explain how media sales, planning and buying works I’m pretty confident they would stare at you blankly.

Just ask Billy Crystal’s character in City Slickers 2. He tried.

I have a nagging suspicion even my parents and friends only feign understanding for what I do. In fact, if quizzed, they likely would admit they know only that it has to do with advertising.

Yet the media professionals you meet are passionate about what they do and they have extreme longevity in the field. They have been doing this for years and love it.

How do you recognize a true advertising media professional? For one thing, media professionals get excited about Fall. It has nothing to do with school starting or cool weather. To them, it’s TV Premiere Season..  All of those new shows to sample and ratings to track. It’s exciting! I’ve been part of two conversations recently with multiple parties involved on both sides of the table and everyone can talk about the new shows on multiple stations. And they’re excited about it. What show is doing well? Which are failing? Who watched something and can personally agree or disagree with the ratings?

Another way to recognize media planners and sales people is, they like putting together media schedules and promotions. To them it’s an exciting puzzle with additional opportunity to be creative.

How did these people get here?

I admit, I took Media Planning/Buying in college, I got a B- and I didn’t particularly like the class. Approaching graduation I interviewed for any advertising or marketing position – just trying to land a job. I was brought in for a Media Coordinator position interview with Kathy Carlson, she seemed nice and the position sounded interesting. So when offered the position I figured, why not? A few months in I realized I really liked working in media. It was interesting, I liked paying attention to TV and radio shows and figuring out ratings systems. Plus each media plan was like a puzzle.

Eight years later I’m still here and liking it.

If you do a survey of media professionals you’ll hear similar stories. Everyone, it seems, took different paths to get to a career in media, but in the end, found an industry they find enjoyable.

John Quaintance from CBS Radio said: “Sports and Entertainment is what I studied, and where I wanted to be. Getting the opportunity to work in media was an accident, but I wouldn’t change a thing about it. It’s a business that is always evolving; it’s fun, creative, has great earning potential and gives you a chance to network with some great people!”

Andrea Yoch from KARE said: “I started as a sports writer in college because I loved sports and writing and I loved being a woman in a man’s business. I thought I was going to be a sports writer for life ...preferably with the Boston Globe. Turns out sports writing and husbands and children aren’t a great match. So in my mid-20s I had a chance to move to the business side of sports media and a more normal life. The rest is history!”

Please share your story.

Emily Gausman is a Media Planner/Buyer with Cuneo Advertising. She started her career at Cuneo Advertising after college and returned in 2010. She previously worked at another advertising agency and at the Minnesota Wild in media and marketing roles. Follow her on Twitter @egausman.

YOU DON’T HAVE A PLAN B!?!

How do you get organized? Do you stay on schedule or are you constantly trying to keep up? I have found in my professional life that organization is an absolute critical skill utilized in my every day routine. I spend time daily prioritizing, organizing and basically getting my sh!$ ahh… stuff together. Failure to make time to organize means that I can easily lose track of a task, lose focus of the goal and allow a situation to get completely out of control. This is never a good thing especially in a professional setting.

I am one of the lucky ones – being organized comes naturally to me. I like to think of things in lists or steps. I am crazy about procedure and truth be told – I don’t like deviation from a plan unless I see that plan B is just as organized. I have learned that this strength I possess allows me to easily put a process or system in things and places where disorder rules. I have found that this allows my fellow co-workers and clients to work seamlessly by putting in steps that work efficiently. For many people being organized is a daunting and excruciating task that feels like hard work.

Now I work in advertising – specifically media for approximately 6 years now and I am asked “How is it possible to be organized and on task when this industry is constantly moving and changing?” With things like last minute budget adjustments, multiple media schedule updates, traffic revisions, program changes, preemptions and so on and so forth – if I was not organized I will create errors. In media, errors equal lost dollars for both our agency and our client. It is critical to our client’s success as well as our agency’s success, by having an organized well thought out plan.

For me, when a new task or project comes my way – I stop and think of each step that I will need to do so that I can finish the task at hand by deadline. I make a list and like good old St. Nick, I check it twice. As I’m reviewing this list, I try to think of potential problems that could arise and have a solution in place – you know, just in case. I’ve always said it’s not a matter of “if” but rather it’s a matter of “when.” Maybe someone famous said that first –but I sure believe it.

From a client perspective – since they simply cannot be everything to everybody - they depend on our organized service to help keep their media and marketing plans on track so that they can do what they do best!

If you are not good at organization, hiring those who are is very important to your success. Advertising agencies, such as Cuneo Advertising, have a complete staff that takes organization and project management very seriously and I’m one of the proud members of such a team.

What is the one organized thing, item or process you just cannot live without? Mine – OUTLOOK! The task feature alone has been my reminder so that NOTHING slips through the cracks. All steps can be recorded and tracked, assigned and then marked completed! Brilliant!

 If you are have some tips or tricks with being organized – please share them here. I would love to hear of your success story of how being organized helps you in your professional world.

Lisa Jo Lampi started as the part-time receptionist for Cuneo Advertising a little over 10 years ago and quickly worked her way up to account coordinator and then a media coordinator within the first year of employment. After a 3 1/2 year leave, she has returned and has called Cuneo home for the past 5+ years. Lisa Jo is currently Cuneo Advertising's Media Analyst.

When Brad Pitt Talks About it People Listen

Brad Pitt is currently starring in the movie Moneyball which profiles a real person, Billy Beane, a professional baseball player turned General Manager.

 

I recently read the book, but I’ll try not to give too much away.

Billy Beane sought to find better ways of analyzing amateur baseball players in the hopes of being able to better predict their success in Major League Baseball. He didn’t manage a big budget team and therefore had much less to spend on talent compared to the behemoth-budget baseball teams. 

He utilized new methods of evaluation and poured over new and interesting statistics, all in the hope of finding a baseball player he could pay less but who had the type of talent that would lead the team to wins.

Guess what I do?

I spend my time researching TV programming, radio shows, websites, etc. with the goal of finding the best place to advertise. Demographics, ratings, unique impressions all compared to the client’s target audience. Ideally the budget is placed in the medium where my small budget can have a big league impact.

Not all clients have multi-million dollar budgets so I can’t afford to waste money in places where I think the right people will see the message. I need to do the leg work to put together the media plan utilizing all of the information available.

During the 2002 draft year Beane was obsessed with an amateur baseball player that other scouts were interested in only because his father had been a major leaguer. Beane thought he had great unrealized talent. His name? Nick Swisher. Yes, rookie of the year, turned All-Star, turned World Champion Nick Swisher.

 

The point is this: Billy Beane proved there is more than one way to be successful in major league baseball. He stepped back from the traditional viewpoint and looked at things from a different set of eyes – his own. Beane couldn’t win the way the Yankees win. He needed to find his own way. And he did.

The same can be said for your advertising plans. We get lost sometimes in what a giant budget can deliver and wrongly assume that if we don’t have that money to spend, we can’t be that kind of successful. Sometimes that’s true. Sometimes, however, it pays to look at how you can be successful – not how the other company is.

Squeeze the most out of your ad dollar this buying season. Channel your inner Billy Beane.  Do you have a Billy Beane story?

Emily Gausman is a Media Planner/Buyer with Cuneo Advertising. She started her career at Cuneo Advertising after college and returned in 2010. She previously worked at another advertising agency and at the Minnesota Wild in media and marketing roles. Follow her on Twitter @egausman

 

The Emperor’s Media Planner’s New Clothes

My fiancé told me I should start dressing better.

My initial reaction likely mirrored that of any woman in my position. I looked at him fiercely, half-hoping he would begin to melt under the heat of my stare and beg for mercy. (I have perfected that stare). I contemplated throwing my hair straightener at him. Then I stomped away in silence.

But then I took a step back. Was he right? Those colors and styles work for me! I like them! And I’m comfortable in what I wear, because it’s a style I’ve become accustomed to. Yet, he looked at my wardrobe differently, pointing out that I have a tendency to wear the same style of shirt in maybe three colors. (Black is a color right?) 

His mere interest pushed me to consider new options, so I put some effort into it. (How many girls have their guy encourage them to go shopping?!) I bought new clothes and accessories in colors and styles I wouldn’t typically buy, and may have been slightly beyond my comfort zone.

Is your media plan suffering from the same sense of stagnancy as my wardrobe?

Any successful company knows what works to get their message out and increase their customer base. The issue is; how often do you stop, look at what you’re doing, and evaluate it? The media mix being used is probably effective, to a point -- but just because it’s been working for five years doesn’t mean you should keep doing it.

It is necessary to evaluate your company goals and how best to accomplish them, at least annually. The advertising landscape is constantly changing and advertising plans should change too. But only if they need to. Maybe increasing digital and social media is the way to go. Maybe a mix of TV and some digital is the best avenue. What matters is that your plan is evaluated and analyzed to determine if it is the best way to go.

My last blog touched on the importance of understanding research (click here to read) and this is one of those scenarios. Utilizing research sources new vehicles and ideas can be evaluated. Or even take a closer look at your customers which can help define your target audience. This evaluation doesn’t need to be a stab in the dark.

You never know, you might look fantastic in a cranberry boat neck sweater with a black and white necklace. Or targeted digital ads with a corresponding website landing page.

Emily Gausman is a Media Planner/Buyer with Cuneo Advertising. She started her career at Cuneo Advertising after college and returned in 2010. She previously worked at another advertising agency and at the Minnesota Wild in media and marketing roles. Follow her on Twitter @egausman

THEY SAID WHAT!?!

Word of mouth is said to be the best form of advertising. There is nothing more powerful than a friend, relative or co-worker endorsing a particular brand, service or product.  But what is the power behind this form of advertising?

I personally think that all humans love validation and so when they make a purchase, use a service or fall in love with a brand, they also love to share with all of those who will listen. I mean if I love it so will you! This thinking helps others who haven’t tried, purchased or experienced, feel like there is established creditability in what they are recommending. For most consumers hearing another’s review or recommendation takes the sting out of those who don’t like to be the first in line to try or buy. No one wants to feel bad about their purchase – right?

In the marketing world we label the people who will try new brands, products or services as “early adopters.” This brave group of people are the true target for most advertisers who are introducing new, never been seen before products, brand divisions or services.

According to Seth Godin’s from his book “Purple Cow” the most important of these early adopters are the “sneezers.”

A sneezer is an early adopter who can’t wait to tell all who will listen about their latest find, purchase or discovery. It is this influential group that starts the word of mouth endorsement lending that invaluable credibility.

Seth Godin writes “- a group’s value is related to its influence. In this market, for example, the early adopters heavily influence the rest of the curve, so persuading them is worth far more than wasting ad dollars trying to persuade anyone else.”*

But where do the early adopters/sneezers hear of these new brands, products or services? Why advertising of course! This is where digital, direct traditional or non-traditional advertising comes in. The message must first reach the general masses like little fingerlings and reach out to attract that highly coveted early adopter, who will then sneeze what they find. And like a common cold, the word spreads.

Without advertising messages how would anyone know what you do, sell or have available? How would they know that it is NEW or IMPROVED? There are millions of people in this world seeking the next great thing and when they do they generally tell can’t wait to tell others about it. Until that message has reached its intended target and a transaction takes place as a result, consumers wouldn’t know what the latest and greatest is. With so many choices, options and opportunities marketed to us – it is sometimes very hard to choose which one is right.

Now plug that early adopter or sneezer into social media such as Facebook, Twitter or a simple online forum group and the word of mouth advertising is cast into that huge global sea of the internet. Sneezers can now reach even more people with their word of mouth endorsements – causing in some rare cases an over night success!

When was the last time you had tried, bought or experienced something that you couldn’t wait to tell everyone about? Or do you usually wait until you hear from someone else? Are you an early adopter/sneezer? J

 

*Seth Godin’s Purple Cow – Transform Your Business by Being Remarkable

 

Lisa Jo Lampi started as the part-time receptionist for Cuneo Advertising a little over 10 years ago and quickly worked her way up to account coordinator and then a media coordinator within the first year of employment. After a 3 1/2 year leave, she has returned and has called Cuneo home for the past 5+ years. Lisa Jo is Cuneo Advertising's Media Analyst.