A microcosm of marketing and brand innovation, including the Good, the Bad, and the Silly was on display at the Ad Club of Boston’s recent Edge Conference. My first post covered the Bad. Working our way up, it’s time for the Silly.
Marketing microcosm at the Edge: The good, the bad, and the silly
Some things make me proud to be a marketer. Some make me sigh. Still others make me wince. All were on full display last week at the 2011 Edge Conference, sponsored by the Ad Club of Boston.
This annual event is designed to showcase innovations in branding. In a series of posts I’ll offer a highly subjective summary of highlights and lowlights, focused perhaps more on what they say about the current state of marketing—and humanity—than the actual items in question. Let’s start at the bottom and work our way up.
Five brand tips from dead poets
When you see a display of best-selling business books, what’s your immediate reaction? Excitement? Eagerness to discover new insights that can help your brand, company or career? Or do they make you feel a little squirmy? After glancing at one, do you ever feel that you’ve read it already?
To me, most look bloated and formulaic, with 10 pages of insight air-puffed into book-length. The rest? Bullet points, charts, graphics (pyramids! interlocking puzzle pieces!) and repetitive examples. All pulsing with ego and chest-thumping energy.
If your mind hungers for more than fast food, where else can you turn for help on brand and business decisions?
Three ways to connect with content
As people tune out the shoutfest in traditional media, how can a brand try to get some love in a media world that’s increasingly social? Content marketing is the answer, but easier said than done. In my last post, I discussed ego as the top problem in content marketing, because no one cares about you you you. The solution is empathy—but how, exactly? Here are three ways.
Content marketing: The No. 1 problem
Move over, Facebook and Twitter. Social media is being displaced as the hot topic in marketing as a new truth dawns. News flash: what you have to say is at least as important as where you say it!
Content marketing is the new holy grail, and brands are challenged to create content worth paying attention to. No easy task for most, for one big reason. Ego.