How Your Kid Talks: Listen to the Marketing Future

July 17, 2012 Leave a Comment

With an incredible number of today’s tweens and teens armed with smartphones, you gotta wonder just how smart even the smartest of them is. Their communications are an interesting peek into what marketers of tomorrow will be saying and how/where they’ll be saying it.

A few things that stand out:

  1. The end of the subtle play on words. This generation tends toward more linear, obvious and less introspective use of vocabulary. Gone will be the double entendres, puns and other clever associative headlines in marketing and advertising copy.
  2. Less. Bored with length, raised on texting, the future looks brief interms of communications’ length and detail.
  3. Visual interactivity. We’re already getting there, what with Augmented Reality and rich text, but expect much more of it when our kids are the ones making marketing decisions.
  4. Brand, brand, brand. This is the crowd weaned on the specificity of particular brand relationships. By age eight, many of them have already developed highly sensitive brand preferences, be it Coke vs. Pepsi, Droid vs. iPhone, Hollister vs. Abercrombie.
  5. The end of marketing as we know it? Many do not read mail, check email, or crack a newspaper. Marketing channels of the future will have to interrupt the growing consumer passivity and resistance to “attraction” media to get their messages across.
  6. Teleservices redux. Phone marketing will need a re-think, as a large percent of “young people” (as many of our mothers used to call us) avoid the “commitment” of lengthy phone time, preferring the efficiency of texting.
  7. Fleet of foot. Products and services will need marketing teams who are fast on the prowl for the next hot gathering place, whether it’s digital, virtual or physical. Facebook has been co-opted by moms and corporate brands, so expect the next generations of secret, cool online clustering to re-invent themselves with increasing frequency.

Are we ready?

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

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The 411 on AR

July 10, 2012 Leave a Comment

We’ve been impatient lately with QR codes. If you’re feeling the same—looking for the next big thing—this may be it.

Augmented reality—or AR, as it’s commonly known—is the newest virtual technology to come along, creating incredible opportunities for marketers and manuf

acturers. Example: you’re pushing your shopping cart in the supermarket, smartphone with downloaded app in hand. Simply place your smartphone over the label on a bottle of Heinz ketchup, and what you see is more than just the label. An entire world of images is visible through your phone’s display: menus, recipes using the ketchup, images and more. That’s AR.

The technology pushes the barriers of photorealism by pulling graphics out of your television screen, printed material, product labels, or computer display and integrating them into real-world environments. This new technology blurs the line between what’s real and what’s computer-generated by enhancing what we see, hear, feel and even smell.

Sports fan? You’re already familiar with AR, then. The yellow  “first down” line seen in television   broadcasts of football games shows the line the offensive team must cross to receive a first down using the 1st & Ten system.  The real-world elements are the football field and players, and the virtual element is the yellow line, which augments the image in real time. Advertisers are already using AR to place sponsor messages on the field of play. And how did we ever follow the puck in ice hockey before AR gave it that extra highlight on our TV screens?

Head-up displays in AR cars, such as some BMW 7 Series models or on airplanes, are typically integrated into the windshield. Some passenger planes already feature fold-down head-up displays coming from just in front of the pilot’s head so he doesn’t have to look down while he is flying. (Are we comfortable with that? Not so sure.)

You get the idea.

We’re noodling AR concepts for our clients’ initiatives right now. With every extra edge critical in this marketplace, AR gives us a new frontier of added value.

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

 

 

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Summer Marketing: Not-so-lazy days of summer

July 3, 2012 Leave a Comment

Conventional wisdom and habit for brands has been to lie low a bit during the months between Memorial and Labor Days. Folks are on vacation, meetings don’t happen in as timely a manner, decisions that need to be made take longer. And marketing-wise, who’s really paying attention out there?

Put down the SPF 150 and listen to us: wrong, wrong, wrong.

Increasingly, it takes a full 12-month marketing calendar for companies and brands to make their revenue projections. And summer months offer unique opportunities for specific targeted campaigns and testing—not to mention gearing up for post-Labor Day programs—that shouldn’t be ignored in favor of a beach-read and summer office hours.

Herewith, our list of eight great things your brand can achieve over the summer months:

  1. Generate more revenue. Who can argue with that? Run the numbers and you’ll see that an additional campaign or two—smartly targeted and creatively produced at a cost-effective budget—can turn dead months into active months. Toss the “conventional wisdom” on its ear. There ARE consumers and businesses who will listen to your pitch and engage with you during these months, no matter what you may hear.
  2. Flatten out the peaks and valleys of your marketing communications’ expense and stress. Instead of a flurry of crazed activity and front-loaded costs over a reduced number of months, extend your efforts and amortize your expenditures into the summer.
  3. Renew contracts early. If you’re in…say…the insurance industry…now is a great time to put together smart renewal campaigns to bind up member relationships before fall anniversary dates.
  4. Partner with other organizations. Particularly if that brand is “out there” in the summer months, with a high marketing profile for their product or service.
  5. Leverage the holidays. Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Father’s Day, graduations, back-to-school and Labor Day all provide added wedges for awareness and lead generation for your brand.
  6. Do research. Summer months are a great time for certain types of consumer surveys and feedback activities.
  7. Refresh your creative. If you’re planning to be less active in the marketplace, or your campaigns are on auto-pilot, this is a great time to get ahead of the crunch and actually have the time and focus that change-making creative takes. Engage with creative resources who are appreciative of the opportunity and then work together to do something amazing.
  8. Plan for the fall and beyond. Too often it’s already Labor Day, everyone is “back from the beach” and you’re already behind. Plan to use July and August as think-tank time to review results, assess budgets and identify strategies for the fall and winter without all the stress.

Now, how about that margarita?

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Direct Choice Inc. is a full-service direct marketing agency that has worked with national and regional brands in a wide variety of vertical markets. In addition to this blog, you can also find us on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn

 

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