Monthly Archives: March 2011

Voice Recognition

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March 29, 2011 | 5:11 pm

I have a renewed appreciation for the phone lately. Not my DROID which seems to want to be everything but a phone, but I digress…

Last week I placed an order for two gift baskets through Wolferman’s. A few days later, I received a message from them. A simple voicemail from a real live sales rep thanking me for the business and letting me know both my gifts had shipped. Last week, I got a call from a real live person from IAEE, not a pre-recorded teleblast, reminding me to register for the Mid-Year Meeting. I appreciated the personal touch in this age of automation. And since I rarely get calls or voicemails anymore, they had a strong impact.  One of my favorite clients will email me with a prompt, “Do you have time to chat about a few things this morning?”  I’ll call and we can knock out our top to-do’s sometimes in a matter of minutes. It’s efficient and I get to catch up with the person, not just the workload. For one of our other clients, we are currently experimenting with a new marketing tactic: personal follow-up calls to those who opened a call-to-register email but have yet to register for the event.  We know they are interested since they took the time to open the email. We believe that a phone prompt might be the enticement they need to commit to the event. It also provides an opportunity to deliver a sincere thanks or even a special offer.

Just as print is making a comeback, maybe phone calls from real live people are, too. I’m not the only one who hopes so.

Categories: Communication | 870 views No Comments

Yes, it even happens to Google.

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March 14, 2011 | 4:55 pm

Last week’s Ad Club ‘Best of DC’ event at Google’s DC headquarters was pretty fascinating. The rise of mobile is something every marketer needs to be aware of, and be able to do right. The numbers thrown around regarding website hits via mobile vs. desktop were eye opening. I didn’t get the exact numbers down, but something like 17+% of all financial sites were visited via mobile in the last year. And around a quarter of all restaurant sites. And these numbers are only growing.

A big thanks to Google for hosting the event. Dan Taylor, Director, Google Display Network and Brian McDevitt, Google’s Director of Mobile Display did an admirable job of answering every question thrown their way – marketing and techie alike.

However, as one who’s been on the delivery end of many a computer-based, multi-media presentation, only to see them go awry when the imbedded video content doesn’t play as desired, I was encouraged (happy?) to see that Google is, in fact, as fallible as the rest of us. That’s right. Both Dan and Brian gave multi-media presentations, broadcast on large screens to an audience of 50+. And wouldn’t you know it – the imbedded video in both presentations failed to play. Even after the uncomfortable re-start-look-for-the-original-video-file exercise we’ve all found ourselves in before, the videos still didn’t play.

Refreshing, isn’t it? Even with all that brainpower, all that technology, all those algorithms, turns out even Google can’t take the human out of the Google.

btw, if you want to see those videos, they’re posted here on YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/user/GoogleTV

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=eteucIGSaYI

Categories: Marketing, Mobile | 1,056 views No Comments

QR Codes – A Trend for 2011

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March 10, 2011 | 10:19 am

I’ve been hearing a lot about QR Codes (the QR stands for Quick Response) and how to use them in event marketing. This is a definite trend for 2011 and there’s a slew of ways they can be used. Everywhere I go I feel like I see them now—on signs, in direct mail pieces, emails, print ads, consumer products, museum displays, etc. QR codes can be scanned by downloading a QR reader application to a smartphone. Once scanned, they automatically pull up text, photos, videos or URLs. I think there are a lot of ways that they can be applied for trade show marketing and promotions, depending on the audience. Most will need to be educated on what a QR code is, what application is needed for scanning them, and why you have them. That’s all relatively simple to explain.

QR codes can be added to an event marketing plan. I recommend using them to lead people to a landing page with a white paper, a promotion (e.g., discount), exclusive content, special video, biz card, chance to win an iPad, etc., so there’s a payoff for the person going through the trouble of scanning the QR code. Also, by making it an interactive experience, there are ways to measure the response. If you’re interested in learning about who’s scanning QR codes, what kinds of devices they’re using and what brands are running QR code campaigns, Mashable recently published a very cool infographic about QR codes. I’d love to hear about your experience with QR codes – good and bad. Scan the QR code to email your comments.

Categories: Marketing | 1,302 views No Comments