Is your digital advertising alive?

One of the best things to happen to digital media in the past couple of years is how easy it has become to create multi-media content. From adding pictures, movies, or slide shows, the possibilities for creating dynamic content to your website or blog are endless.

And easy. Forget about needing to know how to program. In most cases, with just a flick of the "upload," "copy," and "paste," commands, your content is created, uploaded, and alive.

With all the ease of use, there is just one thing to remember: make it strategic!

Since multi-media content is so simple to use, like social media, it can be all to easy to approach it with a "I'll post it because I can" attitude.

And while it may be a nice decoration to your website or blog, if it is not working toward communicating your particular strategic marketing goals - getting more customers to visit, selling more of a particular product, etc. - it is not working as hard as it can be to bring your small business results.

For this post, I've included a little show that I created in PhotoPeach as an example.

It's Not Rocket Science on PhotoPeach

The Strategy

One of my strategic marketing goals is to get new clients and to do that I usually need to quickly show small business owners what Simple does and how we can be of value to their companies. To that end, the topic of the show I created is to breakdown exactly what Simple does in the most basic way.

The Creative

Content: For the content of the show I used familiar images that I've included on my website, blog, social media, and business identity materials. In this way I am providing viewers with a consistent look and feel that will help make Simple more familiar at a glance. The messaging is also consistent: we take something complicated like marketing and advertising and make it simple for our clients to use with great results. The copy is also simple; short, quick-to-scan sentences that users don't have too work hard to read.

Music: I used the free service of PhotoPeach, so the music is one of the free choices that they offer users. I looked for something light and soothing, but also a song that users are familiar to hearing related on funny content, such as cartoons. Peace of mind and humor are two things I like to bring to clients, so I felt the music worked well for this goal.

Call-to-action: The final slide has the look and feel of the Simple website and the URLs of our website and Facebook pages. In this way, we are inviting users in and giving them an easy way to interact with us further.

Now, Simple can use this content in several ways. We can post it here on the blog and then create a link on Facebook that invited our friends to come take a look and learn more. I can also use it as I'm out and about talking with potential clients. Just flip open the laptop, pull it up, and twenty seconds later I've provided a fun way to explain what Simple does.

Want to learn more about strategically adding multi-media to your advertising efforts? Shoot me an email at julianne@simplesbm.com.

Branding Expert Andrew Sabatier Comments on Yesterday's Post

Yesterday's post, "BP, Branding and ... You?" has generated some positive feedback. First, our Simple Facebook page has received several new friends, which is great and we welcome you.

Also, Andrew Sabatier, the author of the Layars magazine article that I cited in my post, took the time to leave a comment on the Simple blog in response to my post. He mentions a few factors that provide a bigger picture of his thoughts on BP and I wanted to make sure that everyone who read yesterday's post got a chance to read his comments as well:

Hi Julianne

You are correct in your assessment that I wrote the article before the oil disaster for which BP has taken responsibility. Had the accident happened before I wrote the article I would probably have caveated what I wrote more heavily. I would also have emphasised the fact that the leadership who committed themselves to the branding has since been replaced.

I stand by what I wrote. BP is still considered a break-away brand. Now, more than ever, BP's brand identity serves to remind us of the relationship of a company's image to its behaviour. At the risk of loosing all credibility BP now has to demonstrate a renewed commitment to their brand. The branding as it stands in all its apparent falsity will, in all likely-hood, become its saving grace.

I agree with Mr. Sabatier that BP is motivating people - everyday consumers - to think more about a company's image vs. its actual behavior, and that kind of awareness is a very good thing.

Mr. Sabatier's thoughts on BP changing their actual behavior to reflect their green branding also inspires hope; the current BP brand does provide them with a positive direction in which to move. If he is correct and BP can actually manage to put that brand into practice, whether they are sincerly helping out the environment or sincerly trying to save their business, the company actually executing more environmentally friendly business practices is a win for everyone.

Maybe more importantly for you, the small business owner, is whether or not BP can pull this off and illustrate the power of branding. Imagine, if they can go from the exact opposite of what they are today, what could you do with your branding?

One final thought for today: I want to point out that the BP rebranding was just one example in a very thought-provoking six-page article that Andrew Sabatier wrote for the May/June issue of Layers. The article as a whole is really insightful and a recommended read for anyone who wants to get a quick yet thorough overview of branding today.

bp, branding and ... you?

I was reading the latest issue of Adobe Layers magazine over the weekend, mainly because it had a good article on "strategies and realities of successful market branding." Apparently the article had been written pre-BP oil spill, because the first example that author Andrew Sabatier referenced was the BP branding make-over.

With no mention of the spill, Sabatier gamely explained how the BP brand embarked upon an image update in the late '90s. According to the article, BP wanted to shed its imperialist history, take on a more "green" personality, and distance itself from the "petroleum age at its worst."

As a result, BP began to change their outward image, including a fresh new lotus flower shaped logo.

Writes Sabatier of the makeover:

"To some degree, BP may be wearing a mask, but in time the features of the brand will take on the features of the mask. For die-hard eco-warriors, this kind of branding may appear as a superficial greenwash, a false mask, but in the realm of appropriatly mediated brand experiences, BP has now become a breakaway brand, leading by example. BP's transformed brand identify represents a set of ideas that drives an internal and external business culture that envisions a future (B)eyond (P)etroleum."

In light of the company's reality today, day 84 of the oil spill, amidst Presidential investigations and daily media allegations that BP's business practices were habitually unsafe, this trickle-down idea of "if we present ourselves as environmentally conscious company it will become true" would be laughable if it were not so frustrating and sad.

Which brings the subject of branding back to you, the small business owner. The BP example serves as perfect, dramatic example of what not to do in your own branding: don't portray yourself through branding to be something that you are not.

It's pretty simple: Be your brand; not just by what you say or how you look, but by everything that you do.

For example, if part of your branding is that your company is a proud member of your community, make sure you are actually involved in events, groups, and promotions that support the community.

Perhaps Sabatier hits the mark best when he writes "Simply put, a brand identity is a brand strategy made experiential."

For BP, despite their green brand make over, the current "experience" of their brand is the exact opposite of the one they outwardly portrayed.