Not Funny Marketing Fails

Marketing FailsIn the age of digital media, all eyes are observing a brand’s every move. That’s great for brand awareness, but it can easily backfire on a company if they miss the mark, and the retribution is quick and can easily travel to social media platforms.

Here are a few examples of marketing fails that made us wince:

Kendall Jenner TV Spot. Kendall Jenner settles a Black Lives Matter standoff between protesters and police by offering a police office a can of Pepsi. The result? Outrage.

McDonald’s: Filet o Fish TV Spot. A young boy talks to his mother about his dead father and that one of the things they both shared was a love for filet-o-fish sandwiches. Exploiting grief to sell sandwiches left a bad taste in many people on social media.

Ford: Print Misfire. The year of the #MeToo movement, Ford actually ran an ad where three women were bound, gagged and stuffed in the truck of their new Ford Hatchback. What the heck were they thinking? Cringy.

Marketing FailsAnd the absolute worst, customers of Adidas who participated in the Boston Marathon in 2017 received a very poorly worded email from the company – the subject line read.”Congrats, you survived the Boston Marathon!” This message was sent on the heels of the 2013 Boston Marathon bombing, which killed three people and injured more than 250.

Avoid Being Tone-Deaf

Most of these marketing fails bombed because they were essentially tone-deaf. Always consider the implications behind your messaging. When you’re making jokes, look at them from all angles to make sure they won’t offend anyone.

Funny always wins big, but don’t sacrifice your brand’s values and beliefs for a few chuckles!

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Gifting strategies could make a difference with your clients and employees.

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Forget giving loyalty points – gifting is the new customer retention strategy. As remote EVERYTHING continues to rise, keeping connected to clients and loved ones will be key.

Gifting companies had record breaking years in 2020 and 2021. 1-800-FLOWERS had record growth, along with startups like &Open and Gracia.

Many of our marketing portal customers have added gifts and merchandise to their sites.

Why Gifting MattersEmployees can order wearables that they want with gifted dollars as a reward for length of employment or going that extra mile.

It’s always a good idea to send “care packages” to employees that are stuck at home and feeling unappreciated. We mailed succulents, candles, Christopher Elbow chocolates and warm fuzzy blankets with personalized cards.

Our latest project is working with a local company to personalize cards that our clients want to send with their gifts that we warehouse here. They have many design templates for birthdays, holidays, Thank You for the Order or Welcome to Your New Home, that we can match up with an appropriate gift that they specify.

Some of our larger companies are adding the feature to their portal so that their salespeople, through their CRM like Salesforce, can send gifts or cards to their clients for special occasions or just because!

If you want to talk more about gifting options through a marketing portal, please give us a call!

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Are you incorporating virtual reality into your marketing?

Virtual RealityConsumer and Enterprise VR market revenue is expected to reach 6.71 billion by the end of 2022, and 12.9 billion by 2024.

VR, short for virtual reality, is software that immerses users in a three-dimensional, virtual interactive environment – usually by a headset, to simulate a real-life experience. Many VR experiences take place in 360 degrees.

Can you imagine an engineering firm being able to demonstrate what it’s like to walk into a building as if they’re really there? Many businesses are already using VR to demonstrate and promote their products.

The Difference Between VR and Augmented Reality

Before we dive into some examples of businesses that have used VR for marketing, it’s worth noting that virtual reality has a few key differences from another term you might be familiar with, augmented reality. Augmented Reality (AR) is the overlaying of computer-generated objects on top of the real environment. You still use some kind of display device and an application… The application recognizes some element in the real environment and then places objects (graphics) in relation to it with differing levels of interactivity. The biggest advantage of AR is accessibility. Everyone has an AR viewing device within their smartphone!

Seeking inspiration for your own VR marketing campaign?

Virtual RealityBelow are nine of our favorite campaigns.

  1. Gucci Town
  2. Sephora’s Try-on Kiosk
  3. Wendy’s and VMLY&R: Keeping Fortnite Fresh
  4. A Tribal Past: Bear River, a Nation: What can eeling teach us?
  5. Adidas: Delicatessen
  6. Lowe’s Holoroom How To
  7. Boursin: The Sensorium
  8. Toms: Virtual Giving Trip
  9. DP World: Caucedo

Participants can explore art and towns, virtually test makeup, transport beef to freezers, learn about other cultures, follow a mountain-climbing journey, inspire charitable giving, explore cheese and show property around the world virtually.

VR technology can be used in so many ways for marketing products and services… the only limiting factor is your imagination!

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Are you looking to ease the pain of Trade Shows?

Trade ShowWe are currently working with a company that has 5,000 employees in more than 175 locations, serving all 50 states nationwide. They asked us to build a portal to ease the process for their marketing department. Hundreds of different items were available to all the offices, and they were also going through a re-branding of all their materials.

They needed a way to organize all the products and have a system where employees could reserve what they needed for upcoming trade shows and have everything that was reserved for the show shipped to them. The client also wanted a return label for the salesperson, so they didn’t have to travel home with all the materials.

Our IT department’s solution was to build a site with photos of all the materials that were available and a calendar that they could block out the items that they needed for a particular show. If someone needed a particular item that was already reserved, they had the opportunity to choose another item or order a comparable replacement from a catalog.

Planning with a Portal

Planning was an important step for people attending the trade show or they wouldn’t always get what they wanted.

Trade ShowOne of our other large clients also has a checklist on their portal for print and promotional items. The attendee can go down the list and check off everything they need for the show, along with a banner, backdrop or booth. We package all the items and ship them to the show with a return label.

Our clients can see, in real time, the quantity of any items that are on their portal. If needed, they can reserve a certain amount that they know they’ll need in the future.

While we constantly monitor the portal and have low stock alerts, the client will never run out of the items they need. No muss, no fuss!

If you would like to learn more about the efficiency of our marketing and distribution portals, you can learn more on our website or give us a call!

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QR codes are back and they are really useful this time!

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QR CodesQR codes are back and they are really useful this time! Who would have thunk it?

Now that you can capture them with your phone and no QR code scanner is needed, they have exploded in marketing. More than two-thirds (67%) of consumers say that QR codes make life easier in a touchless world and 58% favor the greater use of QR codes.

QR Codes for Menus

I was recently in NYC and all the menus were touchless – just a QR code to order. I think we will see more of this as the variant spreads.

QR Codes for Loyalty Programs

QR CodesMake it easy for people to sign up for your loyalty program with a QR code, instead of having them to go to your website. They’re quick and error free – typing a URL is time-consuming and inconvenient on a mobile screen and consumers are also likely to make errors.

QR Codes in Print

Print based marketing has limitations in real estate space – with QR codes you can give consumers a way to access unlimited information. You can also change all the information behind the QR code anytime information or the offer changes without reprinting.

QR Codes to your Videos

You can engage your customer with rich content like video through a QR code – don’t just sell the product, include an informative video on how to use it. Video is very popular right now.

QR Codes for Promotions and Contests

QR CodesBy adding a QR code, you can make your promotions interactive and get input from your target audience. If you run a contest, have them register through the QR code for the product or event to allow your customers to participate. A good example is World Park in NYC – the codes were placed throughout the park and engaged visitors in a quiz on the park’s history, pop culture, art and music, science and geology.

QR Codes on Business Cards

Many of the business cards that we print now – have QR codes on the back so that someone can just capture their information and add it to their phone. Did you know that our portal can automatically generate a QR code with all of your information on the back of your card?

We used them years ago as a gimmick to reach our website, but I would never have guessed that they would come back and be so useful!

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Tech N9ne and Strange Music Guerilla Marketing Techniques

Guerilla Marketing TechniquesGuerilla Marketing is an unconventional form of marketing that raises brand awareness among large audiences without interrupting them. One of the most successful guerilla marketing teams is right here in Kansas City and works with Tech N9ne and Strange Music, one of our oldest clients.

When Strange Music is going into a new market, releasing an album, or launching a new artist, they are on the ground weeks before the concert or launch in a city. They print huge posters that the street teams staple back-to-back on telephone poles to get everyone excited. They freely pass out posters and promotional items on the street and at events where their followers are.

They have built an incredibly strong brand over the years, without any advertising.

In marketing, guerrilla techniques mostly play on the element of surprise. It sets out to create highly unconventional campaigns that catch people unexpectedly in the course of their day-to-day routines.

Marketing StrategyIf you’re promoting a smaller brand, think of creative approaches to your work that can maintain guerrilla marketing’s budget-friendly, inbound nature.

Guerrilla ways, by definition, are easy to understand, easy to implement, and inexpensive. Combine that with today’s technology and social media marketing, mobile devices, and the use of video to give you an awesomely unfair advantage.

The book Guerrilla Marketing Attack has been around since 1984, when Jay Conrad Levinson wrote his book while working as the creative director at J. Walter Thompson and Leo Burnett Advertising. The Facción Marketing principles – word of mouth, helped people like Steve Jobs and Bill Gates get their companies started, and are still taught today in MBA courses.

Catch people where they are and insert your brand there. Don’t interrupt, but invite them to participate.

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Want to know how to make your customers happy? User experience matters.

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us·er ex·pe·ri·ence

The overall experience of a person using a product such as a website or computer application, especially in terms of how easy or pleasing it is to use.

“if a website degrades the user experience too much, people will simply stay away.”

User Experience

This week, I talked with a client that is building a very large portal for a high-profile customer. After I gave my introduction, she told me that I was the only salesperson that talked about the user experience for her customer. All of the salespeople had talked about equipment, features and how robust the back end was.

Years ago, after we started building portals for customers, they told us that their previous sites were so “clunky” that their customers or employees hated using them and so they didn’t. The original intent of solving the problem with a solution was not working.

We learned to build products with the end user in mind.

It’s our goal to make it easy – on and off in 3 or 4 steps and make them pretty like your website.

Single-sign on, only seeing what you need, pre-determined approval processes, PDF proofs that are legible (not those tiny jpgs) and a great checkout (where you can still make changes), all add up to the EASY button.

We have also helped customers who have too many platforms – no one wants to log into different sites for print, merchandise, wearables, signage and digital. Even if we don’t produce the products – we can build a central, one-stop-shop with multiple vendors.

Marketing Portals Built from Scratch

MEDiAHEAD Marketing PortalsMEDiAHEAD builds all our portals from scratch with software that is constantly updated. Unfortunately, most “out of the box” solutions that are used cannot be modified for a pleasant/user friendly experience.

After 17 years of doing this, there is a lot of competition, but I still think we build the best portals. And our clients enjoy working with us while we figure out the best solution for them.

People always wonder how a small company like ours has such huge clients – I think it’s because we make our clients and their users happy.

Would you like to see how we can make you happy with a marketing portal? Let’s talk.

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Making New Team Members Feel Welcome

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Most employees decide within 10 days whether they’ll stay, and 33% of new employees quit within their first six months.

What are you doing to make your new employees feel welcome?

New Team Member AppreciationWe recently completed a project for a large company here in Kansas City. They wanted to congratulate their new hires who were graduating from college and make them feel excited prior to their first day at work.

We mailed kits in a branded box with their new business cards, personalized notepads, a customized pen and a yeti water bottle. There was also a customized Happy Graduation card personalized with their name and department signatures.

We’ve done welcome kits with candles, baby succulents (so cute), company t-shirts and gear. This is also something that can be added to one of our marketing portals, so HR or the department head can execute in minutes.

Communication is so important!

Communication helps ensure that new team members feel excited about starting their new career with your company.

New Team Member AppreciationYou should have the new hire paperwork completed prior to their first day. Be considerate and send important information for them to review in advance. Reading the company handbook, knowing their benefits and having information on their other team members is important. Even now more than ever, because so many of us are working from home and our only interaction is through Zoom.

You could even send out an email with their picture and a short bio to team members, so they can be welcomed with a smile during Zoom meetings. And you could ask the new employee to help you with their bio by including some fun, personal facts about them.

Retention is the new acquisition.

Make sure new employees know how much you appreciate them joining your company. And if you need any help, you know where to find us. 🙂

New Team Member Appreciation

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We Make Holiday Cards Happen!

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Michele StillwellBy Michele Stillwell, Director of Marketing and Accounting at MEDiAHEAD

Quite a year, right?

The Corona Virus has affected our lives in every capacity. It has taken a toll on all of us that is for sure. 2020 will be a year that will be very hard to forget!

We’ve sheltered in place, socially distanced, covered our faces and washed our hands repeatedly since the beginning of the year. I don’t need to remind you of all the other things we have had to do or could not do for any extended period of time.

I know that 2020 will not be a year that we remember with fondness and reverence, but we believe that it is now more important than ever to send good wishes to friends, family and business acquaintances.

Seasons Greetings CardSending holiday cards shows that you’re thinking of others during this time of year. And there’s a good chance they haven’t seen your smiling face for a while, so what a great opportunity to brighten their day! This is the best time to send a holiday card… any time after Thanksgiving is what we have heard. Sending an annual greeting card can help market your business as well!

Benefits of Sending Holiday Cards

  • It generates goodwill. It’s a contact point that’s non-salesy
  • It is a way to reinforce your brand, by including your logo
  • A great way to win back clients – a simple reminder that you’re still around
  • A perfect way to offer gratitude for their business in 2020
  • Usually, a holiday card will get opened!

Now is the time to send holiday cards and MEDiAHEAD can help. Let us do the work for you. You can create your card, or we can help you. After that, just send us your mailing list and we can do all the rest for you.

MEDiAHEAD - Happy HolidaysIf you have several locations and want different cards for each location, we would be happy to accommodate.

If you have several signatures you would like inside the card, we can assist with that as well.

We want to make this holiday as easy as possible on you and your business. Let’s get some good holiday wishes out to our friends, family, co-workers and other business acquaintances. Spread some cheer this holiday season!

Give us a call at 816-931-7900 or email us at help@mymediahead.com

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Have you ever had access to an online portal for your sales and marketing collateral?

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Michele StillwellBy Michele Stillwell, Director of Marketing and Accounting at MEDiAHEAD

When doing a huge amount of research way back in my Corporate Marketing days, one of my tasks was to take on revamping a sales tool. I accepted that challenge with open arms. The current tool the sales team was using wasn’t working for them. We were splitting as a company and we needed to come up with a tool that would work for the new company. The tool would need to support the sales team with collateral and all the other tangible things they needed during the sales cycle.

The first step was to interview the sales team. I needed to understand the pros and cons of the current tool. I needed to know what they liked… and what they were missing. After that process, I had a great list of features a new system would need to provide.

Features Needed in the New Sales System

• Google search functionality
• Ability to customize the sales brochure/collateral/personalize
• Expiration dates for collateral pieces so the sales team wouldn’t be using outdated materials
• Photo library for vertical market segmentation
• Request for Proposal brochure build functionality
• Merchandise ordering
• Sales Kits
• Quick turn time
• Ability to add cost center codes for billing to various departments

Request For Proposal

The second step was to send out a Request for Proposal (RFP) to several companies around the country. This RFP contained all the requirements for the creation of the new sales tool. The companies were provided due dates to respond to the RFP. And then we started the interview process based on the proposals.

My team and I had a lot of work to do. We interviewed several companies and had them show us their web portals, sales tools and collateral asset management systems. (Several names for the same type of tool.) And then we chose a news sales tool that was perfect! They built the tool for us just the way we wanted it. It had lots of customization and many bells and whistles. This new system also came with a hefty price tag and a huge monthly fee.

Our team went out and trained the sales team in each of our locations. The sales tool housed more than 300 templates, 600 collateral items and supported the Welcome Kits for all our new and existing customers. Plus, we set up an integration with SalesForce. Even better.

So why all this information?

Marketing & Distribution PortalsWhen I went to work for Colormarketing Inc. about 10 years ago, I started out doing some marketing for them, then went into sales, and now I’m doing Marketing and Accounting. As I have evolved, I’ve grown very passionate for this company… not only because of the owner, Kat, whom I truly admire, but for the products we’re selling.

The portal that MEDiAHEAD builds for our clients is fantastic. I know this from my experience in marketing for over 25 years. If you want to purchase a tool off the shelf, then that is what you will get (and pay for.)

Our Marketing collateral web solution is much more than that. It takes everything that the sales team needed from my previous job and double the features. It’s all included in our Marketing Portal system. I’m proud that we’ve developed the best of the best, and I love backing that up during our demos. (Want a demo? Let me know!)

The MEDiAHEAD Marketing Portal

Our tool can do so many things to support your sales team in an efficient and timely way. How? Because we’ve built it from two different tool sets, and we have talented web developers. They’ll never say “no” when asked if something can be done. They always look for a solution. Which is good because that’s what we’re all about.

Does it have Google search functionality? Yes
Can you customize it? Yes
Does it let you put in expiration dates? Yes

All of the above plus so much more.

MEDiAHEAD: Marketing and Distribution PortalsI was amazed when I started working here and started reviewing our Marketing Portal. I found all the features I’d created from scratch in the previous sales support tool. It was right there in front of me in the MEDiAHEAD Marketing Portal. At a fraction of the cost.

It Just Needs to Work

Sales teams need to have access to a tool that they can get in, get the supporting assets they need and go make a darn sale. They can customize, download or print what they need and do it fast. Marketing needs to have the ability to change collateral on the fly. They need to be able to find what they need fast. Nobody has time to waste looking for stuff in a sea of documents, day in day out. I’ve been there, I’ve lived it. Personalization is also key in your marketing approach, let us help you with that. One touch of a button and it’s done.

As the world of sales and marketing continues to evolve, let us help. Everyone has had to learn new methods and processes to conduct sales and marketing efforts, and our Marketing Portal is built to support that effort. Want to know more? Let’s do a virtual coffee or lunch. We would love a chance to make your life easier and earn your business!

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