Archive for the ‘Content Marketing’ Category
The Future of Market Research: 5 Innovations to Watch for in 2012
The great David Ogilvy once said, “I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination.” Those words from the great David Ogilvy are as true today as they were then.
Market research professionals, firms and organizations from IBM to Forrester Research are projecting the next trend in market research to be “making the transformation from research to insight.” If you ask me, that’s what market research has always been. An effective market researcher should be able to plan, conduct, analyze, and report actionable market insights and solutions to clients.
If you can’t do that, you’re probably just sharing stats that you found on eMarketer. I’m not discrediting eMarketer, which is an excellent research provider, but I see many advertising and marketing professionals searching for and relying too much on the latest stat or trend instead of taking that data point and translating it to something of value. Does that trend even make sense for your client’s unique situation? Or are you simply trying to impress them? This is not a problem with the research provider, but the researcher himself.
Instead of projecting the next trend in market research to be “making the transformation from research to insight,” which should already be innately infused into the mantra of the market researcher, I project the future of market research to be the convergence, or mash-up, of emerging technologies and lateral creative thinking across industries with the discipline of market research.
We are all living in a perpetual state of beta. We all have the ability at any time, to analyze our past and present to optimize for the future. And for market researchers, now is the perfect time to seize the opportunity to innovate the industry in ways George Gallup could have never imagined. So borrow from other competitors, borrow from other industries, borrow from culture – use lateral creative thinking to expand your potential and create new methodologies to reveal new insights and solutions. Below are five examples of this approach, which will continue to grow, especially in 2012.
Continue reading The Future of Market Research: 5 Innovations to Watch for in 2012
Landau Public Relations Merges into The Adcom Group of Companies
The Adcom Group of Companies is pleased to announce that Landau Public Relations is joining us! Our neighbors on West 6th Street have become the fourth operating division of The Adcom Group, joining Adcom Communications, Optiem and Uppercut Motion & Sound.
The addition gives The Adcom Group even more capability in social influence and brings such clients as Giant Eagle Supermarkets and Daimler Trucks North America into the fold.
Read the details.
Content Marketing World – The Countdown Begins
The Adcom Group of Companies is the Platinum Sponsor of the premier international content marketing world event – Content Marketing World 2011. We are excited to partner with a great organization like Content Marketing Institute and to be a part of an event that is bringing together some of the best marketers around the world. Continue reading Content Marketing World – The Countdown Begins
Terra Community College & The Adcom Group Launch New Website
The Adcom Group recently launched a new website for Terra Community College, www.terra.edu.
Terra is a community college based in Fremont, Ohio – like many community colleges in our state and country, Terra has seen exponential growth in enrollment and types of courses offered, requiring a more appealing website functionality more similar to what is found on the websites of 4-year institutions. Terra is also unique in that it has both an early-childhood education school and a continuing education school as a part of the college, providing the team here with the challenge to create a design, structure and content for the website to speak to a wide range of ages and folks in different stages of their lives. Continue reading Terra Community College & The Adcom Group Launch New Website
Content Marketing White Paper – In case you missed it the first time.
Not too long ago, we posted a discussion around content strategy and the growth and changes taking place in the content marketing world.
Our recent white paper written by Clyde Miles, Partner of The Adcom Group of Companies, The Contented Marketer: Insights into Content Strategy from a Marketer’s Perspective discusses the importance of creating real connections for your brand and creating relevant content that connects your audiences across all paid, earned, shared and owned media platforms and channels. While helping to educate and encourage customer interactions through consistently delivered, valuable content, you will build brand loyalty and equity, which will translate into sales. Continue reading Content Marketing White Paper – In case you missed it the first time.
We’re All Publishers Now
From big brands to local small business, we’re all publishers now. Clyde has posted on this in the past and continues to advocate this strategy with our clients. It resonates too and although it can take some time to gain momentum, we’ve seen clients benefit tremendously from our content strategies. Becoming a publisher sounds like a new approach but it’s not all that different from what you’ve been doing all along. In fact, it’s really just a shift in mindset and it can impact all facets of your brand, here’s why. When you shift to a publishing mindset the focus changes from “us” to “them” and more emphasis is placed on the real audience – your consumers.
Publishing requires more analytical and strategic thinking than selling. To be successful as a publisher you need to plan a little better and think things through. Some items to consider are where conversations are taking place, what topics are relevant and how will we respond to audience engagement. Suddenly, the focus becomes more external and community focused. This form of thinking can lead to new ideas, partnerships and ultimately perspective. To help drive home the thought further we thought it would be helpful to share a quick video from one of the worlds most known content marketing ambassadors, Joe Pulizzi. You might also be interested in this post on Joe’s blog “10 Reasons Your Content Marketing is Killing You” and the most recent whitepaper we’ve written on content marketing strategy.
LinkedIn Goes Granular With New Feature
LinkedIn has been on a feature releasing frenzy lately. Makes sense too, because the company recently filed for its IPO and is looking to stimulate its user base and activity level. This latest feature leverages a technology platform called Signal. Signal allows LinkedIn users to search network activity, groups and pretty much all of LinkedIn using a simple keyword driven search component. Tick a few boxes and you can filter the results based on connections, company names and industries.
We’re currently diving into it to help us conduct research and develop content for clients. There are dozens of ways to use this new feature; the video below shares a few ways you can get started.
You Are Ted Turner (or Rupert Murdoch, Depending On Your Politics)
Back in the prehistoric days of 2008, I gave a speech to a group of direct marketers entitled “You Are Me(dia)” in which I talked about how the powerful nexus of added value content marketing approaches and new (mostly elegantly simple and free) communications/distribution channels and streams were transforming the way brands would interact with the world.
Since then, I have watched as our business and our clients have begun to test, tweak and embrace the concept, and recently in rapid succession, thought leaders that I follow have crystallized this vision.
Brian Solis recently put together a great post on Mashable titled “Why Brands Are Becoming Media”. Exactly.
Brian: “As media, brands earn prominence and hopefully influence as rewards for contributing meaningful content.”
In his post, Brian cited the work of Sean Corcoran, a brilliant analyst at Forrester Research.
Sean: “Increasingly, interactive marketers are being asked to manage a wide
range of paid and unpaid marketing communication —- despite the fact
that many marketing departments are still organized around traditional
paid marketing channels. All types of online media (whether ‘earned,’
‘owned,’ or ‘paid’) can play specific roles in meeting marketers’
objectives —- especially when seamlessly working together.”
In his report, Sean provided a great chart that helps to define this new landscape:
Finally, Cory Treffilitti at MediaPost recently posted some great thinking on how brands should operate and broadcast in a connected world:
Cory: “The Always On Brand” is a brand that is actively
broadcasting and listening at the same time, all of the time. It’s the
kind of brand that knows what it wants to say, but is not afraid to
listen to feedback and react accordingly.”
The bottom line: Your brand equity should be based on solid content and immersed in all media…whether owned, paid for or earned, and remember, it’s always on. After all, Ted and Rupert really don’t need the business any more, but you do.
Posted by Clyde Miles