Brand Becomes Part of the Content

Even as print media and television find it increasingly difficult to maintain their audiences, advertisers are finding it harder to grab the attention of these prospective customers as well. Our habits are evolving with the ongoing digital revolution and some leading brand name companies are starting to produce their own content to reach their desired target market. Content being short films or articles where brands are weaved in with the actual content.

I’m not referring to the can of coke or bottle of beer sitting on the table for all to see, although that can be effective too, I’m talking about movies being produced by businesses with the primary objective of creating a hit movie people want to watch. If their movie hits it will go viral reaching more viewers (i.e. prospects) without any additional cost. Call it the anti-Tivo. People don’t forward through a great video, they forward it to their friends.

The short Featured Video was produced by BMW and is an excellent example of an advertiser becoming a producer with their brand (BMW 740i) not-so-coincidentally being right in the middle of the movie start-to-finish. It bares no resemblance to a commercial and young males, the ultimate BMW prospect, will love the flick.

My point? Times are changing and changing fast. Today’s effective advertising is not advertising at all. What works better is your brand being there when your customer or prospective customer is doing something they enjoy doing. For a BMW a series of short films works superbly. For a small restaurant it might be rolling out and maintaining a blog or holding a contest or throw-down between two chefs. Of course, the video would go on YouTube and the local press would have to be there to cover the story as well.

Just watch my teenagers TYPING on their cell phones while listening to their iPods with no TV in sight and think about how you’re going to get their attention and business 10 years from now. Better start preparing for the future because it’s here now. Enjoy the movie!

Blogging is Smart Business

My take on blogging: Blogging is smart for businesses and individuals alike. Blogging significantly increases the volume of communication and interaction with prospective customers, vendors, and other potentially meaningful contacts. Blogs make it easy for someone to connect with the blogger and begin a dialog.

Blogs are also easy on the blogger, with easy to setup blog sites, and easy to update blogging tools. Yes, it’s hard to carve out the time to make a habit of blogging, whether it be for personal reasons or for your business, but it’s worth doing it if you can stick to it. If you need help getting started or want to outsource the startup and upkeep there are companies that do that. (pssst. we can do that.)

Millions of people are blogging and many millions more are online, giving you great opportunities to earn new customers. Eventually someone is going to post things about your business and their experience in dealing with it. May as well get out there in cyber-public and gain a little more control over your destiny.

If you don’t fully get it yet just look at the various online initiatives the strongest brands have underway right now and you’ll see that they’re spending heavily to remain relevant in this rapidly evolving marketplace. All businesses of the future will have an online presence that will need to be tended to just like the office or store or shop.

Crime Reports

Every so often a new tool comes along that makes you say “wow, the internet is awesome!”. Crime Reports is such a tool.

Using Google’s powerful mapping engine combined with input from local law enforcement agencies Crime Reports gives residents nearly real-time reports of all crimes reported in any geographic area selected in their neighborhood (or a relatives for that matter). If you’ve ever used Mapquest or Google Maps then you can use this with ease.

Did I mention it’s FREE?

Here’s why the Utah based company put together this great tool for us and law enforcement:

“CrimeReports.com was created to help law enforcement agencies put crime data in the hands of those who care about it most—citizens. While crime statistics in a specific city may be available, they may not be accessible. CrimeReports.com standardizes the way law enforcement agencies communicate crime data to the public, down to the specific neighborhood or block they live on.”

Crime Reports

Google Preview is a New Addon for Firefox Browser

I like thumbnails of sites when I’m deciding whether or not the click the link so I think this add-on for Firefox  browser users is great.

It took all of 30 seconds to download and then after restarting the browser it was working. Now when I do Google searches the results have thumbnail images of the Websites.

The best Website to use for download is Mozilla’s (Firefox) and can be found here: Google Preview

If you still use Internet Explorer this is a good time to explore using Firefox. Biggest benefit is that it’s faster.

Firefox download