By association with the content and qualities of the show and its host, Mutual of Omaha built a solid, nationwide brand name. This is the important message here: Sponsoring a show about the benefits of having insurance would be pure self-promotion and therefore would have done little to brand the company and create the emotion of trust which is what insurance is all about. You never gain someone’s trust by saying, “Trust me.”

The “Wild Kingdom” strategy was essentially the same as that of a podcast. A podcast creates a marketing channel of it’s own that reaches your prospects and creates branding by association.

A podcast is basically a periodical “broadcast” over the internet. It is also known as an “RSS feed” (Really Simple Syndication) though not all RSS feeds are considered podcasts (such as news feeds). It can also be referred to as a “webcast”, “netcast”, or “videocast.”

“Podcasting” is a contraction of “iPod” (the ubiquitous digital audio players made by Apple Computer) and “broadcasting.” Although normally an audio or video file, a podcast can consist of nearly any content such as a PDF newsletter, images, and data files. The content can usually be accessed directly at a website, as well as automatically downloaded to your computer each time a new episode is posted.

A program called an RSS reader or podcast reader such as Apples iTunes is required to automatically download a podcast. The program will automatically and periodically connect to the publisher’s host and check for new episodes. If it finds one, it will download the file automatically.

If a podcast reader is not installed, the files can be accessed directly if they are hosted on a website, or accessed via a link in an email and most newer version browsers have RSS feeders which will give subscribers an updated drop down list of all available episodes. Generally each episode is available for both downloading for later use, and “streaming” for immediate use. So there are four methods by which subscribers are reached:

Subscription - Requires a reader, automatically downloads to your computer

Download - Creates a copy of the file on your computer manually

Streaming - Listen or watch immediately

Email Subscription - Link contained in an email

In order to be an effective marketing tool, a podcast needs to be utilized by as many people as possible. Channels for “syndicating” your podcast include iTunes, Yahoo Podcasts, MySpace, YouTube, and many dedicated podcasting directories. Prospects find your podcast via keywords embedded in the files. The content and the keywords need only be of interest to your prospects, they need not be related to your business (remember “Wild Kingdom”). For example, a local service business might create a podcast of local entertainment, news and events and act as the podcast’s “sponsor.”

Podcasts achieve some specific things as part of a marketing campaign. Podcasts are great for branding, adding credibility, creating good will, and for advertising just like “Wild Kingdom.” They keep your prospect engaged on a daily, weekly, bi-weekly, or monthly basis creating top-mind awareness. They allow you to give a longer pitch than a radio or TV commercial. They create a more intimate bond with your prospects. And they do something “Wild Kingdom” couldn’t do, they encourage traffic (in fact the best kind - frequent, regular visitors) to the website where the podcast is found.

The effectiveness of a podcast as a marketing tool can be easily measured to assess return on investment. By measuring the number of subscribers and downloads you can build an accurate picture of how many prospects are being reached. Tracking of incoming leads through that podcast channel will provide a ratio of listeners to leads. Tracking sales will provide a ratio of sales to leads. Then by tracking profit margin an actual ROI can be calculated.

The ROI of a podcast will usually increase over time. It may not be profitable for months, it may break even for a year, but then achieve outstanding results for years to come. Therefore, podcasting requires a long-term commitment. The most important thing to measure in the beginning is how useful the podcast is to your prospects and how well received it is. If your prospects are coming back again and again, your investment should pay off very well in the long run. In fact, you could be the next Mutual of Omaha.

[HOME]

Anyone who has ever had an email address has been exposed to viral content of some kind from a heart-warming story, to a funny home video, to a warning of some kind, to some ironic story that’s been passed from person to person for no other reason than they thought their friends and family would be entertained by it or benefit from it in some way. What do all these self-promoting viral snippets have in common? They have a twist.

The twist is the part that makes it worth sharing. It makes you look at something from a whole new angle and causes an emotional-physical reaction. The twist makes the tragic funny, it makes the difficult simple, it makes the obscure obvious. It says what everyone’s thinking but can’t put into words. It serves as a way of sort of tickling people you know. Tickling is actually a good analogy because it can be thought of as touching someone in a way that they’re not expecting to be touched which causes that instant emotional and physical reaction.

Any marketing that doesn’t incur distribution cost is good marketing in my book. And the only marketing that I know of that doesn’t cost anything is marketing that markets itself through the viral effect. The production might cost money, but that’s money you would have spent on a normal (expensive) advertising campaign any way. Why are so few businesses doing it and so few agencies offering it?

I’d estimate that ninety-nine out of one hundred businesses pay to have their advertising produced, and then they pay even more to have it distributed or broadcast. Then nine in ten ads that run don’t work well. Ninety-nine out of one hundred of the few ads that do work do not become viral. Can it really be that hard to create something that’s funny or uplifting or unusual enough for people to pass along to their friends or colleagues?

The problem is this: Even creative people think inside the box. Business owners are creative. They created a business didn’t they? But when it comes to advertising very few are willing to think outside the box and even discuss investing in advertising that doesn’t make a wholehearted effort to pitch their product. Well, where’s the twist in that? Without the twist, there’s no reason to pass it along and you have to pay to have it distributed.

Let’s look at and analyze an example.

I have a client in the home services industry who offers plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning services. We talked about all that he wanted to say in his advertising such as their fast, professional service, low prices, around the clock service, for plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning. That’s a lot of stuff to remember! And there’s no twist in just saying it. Everyone is expecting that. It won’t get their attention and it won’t cock their head even a little. So I asked the question, what don’t people expect of a plumber or electrician. And on top of that I needed to turn the tables on the fact that they had too many services to make it stick.

Here are two ideas for radio ads based on a twist (they’ve been shortened for brevity sake):

PLUMBING AD

Female Dispatcher: ABC Plumbing, Electric, Heating and Air Conditioning! How can I make your day better?

Old Man on Phone: Yeah, could you guys send over a plumber. Ahhh, my gazebo’s on fire.

Dispatcher: Um, sir, don’t you think you should dial 911?

Old Man: Weeeell, you guys did such a great job uncloggin’ my drains with the lightnin’ fast e-mergency service that I figured you could help me out with this situation… [and so on]

ELECTRICIAN AD

Dispatcher: ABC Plumbing, Electric, Heating and Air Conditioning! How can I make your day better?

New York Accent on Phone: Yeah, would ya mind sendin’ over an electrician. My cah won’t staht.

Dispatcher: I’m sorry sir we only do residential…

New Yorker: [Interrupts] Listen, Lady, you guys did such a great job re-wirin’ my garage, I’m sure you can handle this job….[and so on]

At the end of each spot we added a tag line that explains the twist: “You’ll love our plumbing, electrical, heating and air conditioning services so much, you’ll wish we did more stuff!”

With good talent, these ads made everyone that heard them chuckle. We were able to put in a plug for the benefits of using the company and still have a pretty good twist.

Another client in the residential moving industry asked me to come up with a viral video idea. I thought, “what can’t be shipped?” The idea I came up with was this: A family is sitting around the kitchen table eating dinner, and their two kids are fighting. The mother says, “If you kids don’t behave we’re going to trade you to the Indians” (something my mother used to say in jest). The kids stop for a moment and then go back to misbehaving. The next thing you see is the moving truck (with the moving company’s logo) pulling up to the house and two jostling boxes sitting in the driveway (the kids are obviously inside them). The truck pulls up to the Cleveland Indians baseball stadium and parks at the loading dock. Next you see the scowling kids scrubbing the pitchers mound and clipping the grass and the parents are having dinner with a baseball star (the kids literally got traded to the Indians). The tag line could be something like “ABC Trucking. Your family moving company.” The client never used this ad as far as I know, probably for fear of being criticized for showing kids packed in boxes, but that’s exactly the twist! In my view they chickened out and this would have been a great video to throw onto YouTube. It could be a quick 30 second gag and parents everywhere would get a laugh out of it.

Here’s another great example that came to me this past Christmas. My mother sent me an online Christmas greeting which was quite funny. It was a cartoon elf doing a funny dance and singing a song but it was my mother’s face on the elf. It was really cute. A flash program on the company’s website superimposed her photo with the dancing elf. At the bottom of the screen I saw an offer to send this to my friends with my face on the elf, and an office supply superstore logo which obviously linked to their site. There was probably a relatively small production cost to make the flash program that created the video. Once in place, it spread all by itself. I made one for my friends and I’m sure some of them did the same. What did it have to do with office supplies? That’s right, nothing! But it was a twist on the usual electronic Christmas card.

So forget what it is your selling for a moment. Stop listing the benefits. Think way outside the box. Start from the desired result - a useful or entertaining, self-replicating snippet of some kind which causes an emotional-physical response - and then work your way back. First think about what people are expecting you to say or do. Then think of something that will take a sharp left-hand turn, knock people out of their expectations, tickle them, and make a real impression. When you think you have something worth passing along, then you can tie it into your brand.

As a postscript I’d like to say that there are many other exciting viral marketing techniques than the few mentioned here. Give me a call at 603-560-6545 to discuss how I can help you create a twist and help your message go viral.

[HOME]