Enjoy this best-selling updated 8^th edition – packed with new material, keeping abreast with AI, AR, VR, MR, MA and other innovative approaches to marketing communications. All integrated with the world’s most popular SOSTAC® Planning methodology that delivers a reassuring sense of order in a chaotic digital world and also that delivers success from better, MarComms’ ‘information-based’ decisions.

In Part 2 – all ten marcomms tactical tools (incl ads, PR, sponsorship, Owned, Earned and Paid Media etc.)  has a sample SOSTAC® Plan at the end of chapter.

Ze Zook and I are so pleased with it.  So much new material including AI integrating with MarComms.  We’ve tried to keep the edutainment angle so readers actually enjoy discovering some cutting-edge examples, tips and tools throughout the book. Thanks to the team at @Kogan Page including: Alison, Donna, Bruna and  Jack, Jeylan, Susie and of course, Helen Kogan.

What New Marketing and What Classic Marketing is in the 8th ed.?

What’s new and what’s old in Marketing Communications 8th ed.?

20% author’s discount can be used legitimately by following these instructions.

1. Go to koganpage.com/MC8
2. Click ‘Add to Cart’
3. Click ‘Checkout’ on the top right corner of the screen.
4. Complete your Billing & Delivery Information
5. Click ‘Continue to Review & Pay’
6. Scroll down to ‘Review Items’
7. In this section, click the ‘Add an offer code’ button – bottom right
8. Enter your code AMK20 in the box provided
9. Scroll down to input your payment information
10. Click the ‘Buy Now’ button at the bottom of the screen.

Enjoy Your Book

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How can AR turn a competitor’s ads into your own ads? Answer: Use an AR specific lense in an app to recognise competitors billboard ads, magazine ads & discount coupons and then set them on fire (virtually, or at least on screen in augmented reality).

Burger King App using AR to show poster on fire

Here’s how: ‘Burger King (in Brazil) used advanced AR to enable customers to ‘burn down’ competitors ads – using a lens that recognised competitors ads (e.g. McDonalds) ads and caused them to burst into flames.

Plus they build in the Shared Experience: If a customer shared this experience, they get a free Whopper. This app also leverages BK’s USP: ‘fire’ or flame grilled burgers USP in a very different way. Although some criticise BK for using cutting edge technology negatively, I think many people will see it as a bit of fun, and certainly something different to show off. This unusual marketing hack also promotes BK Express, which allows customers to pre-order their meals to avoid the ‘real-world’ queues. Using technology to help customers – is the best way to consider using emerging technologies.

BK expects to give away over 500,000 burgers through this genius and super fun campaign.

‘Afterall, flame grilled is always best!’  (is what the app final onscreen message says after burning a competitors ad).

Perhaps this is all a spoof designed to generate increased awareness and usage of its app? Is it April 1st?  BK have not issued any news releases that I can find on their site – as yet.

What do you think,  is this:

(a) negative use of AR (‘burning your competitors’ ads)

(b) positive use of AR (new form of entertainment and engagement & adding value to the CX (skip queues)

(c) a clever spoof / publicity stunt – that we have all bought!

If you liked this, you might also enjoy:

Here Come The Clever Bots – bursting with artificial intelligence?

Here Come The Really Clever Bots – where AI meets customer needs 

Artificial Influencers – Meet Shudu & Miquela

Thanks to @AlixFrancis for the alert.

The post How Can AR Turn a Competitor’s Ads Into Your Own Ads? appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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So now you know ‘How Integrated Content Marketing Creates Competitive Advantage‘ but is it working? After going through the steps to generate integrated content, how do  you know if it is working? How effective is your content marketing?  Steve Farnsworth of the Steveology group interviews Erin Robbins O’Brien, COO with GinzaMetric.  We first showed this interview with permission of Steve and Erin in the hybrid eBook ‘SOSTAC(r) Guide To Write Your Perfect Digital Marketing Plan‘ .

It’s a fascinating video. Watch Erin and Steve discuss

• Measuring Content Marketing Effectiveness In Achieving Goals
• Creating The Perfect Content Marketing Dashboard
• Creating A Powerful Content Marketing Framework
• Social Media Hacks for Content Marketing

Some say content marketing is simply what marketers have always been doing – giving away sales promotions, prizes and gifts. Perhaps content marketing is therefore a sales promotion/gift that can be ‘won’ or acquired just by qualifying (clicking a button or filling in a form etc.).  Or perhaps, you’ll agree there’s a bit more to it than that (as per Erin and Steve’s intriguing discussion)? Do you agree or disagree? Either way, content marketing is definitely one of the hottest issues for marketers, particularly B2B marketers.

3 Actions For You:

1. Please, do post a comment below, regardless of how short it is. I will always respond. Don’t forget to tick ‘notify of me any comments by email’ so that I can alert you when I reply.
2. Discover more on Content Marketing and How it can Create Competitive Advantage 
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The post Measuring The Effectiveness Of Content Marketing appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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Assuming you are clear about what objectives you are you are trying to achieve, I’m going to show you my Tactical Matrix which is designed to trigger some discussion about which tactical tool/s is/are best for you. Firstly we look at how good each tactic is at moving your prospects/customers through various stages of the Lifetime Buying Process:

• Awareness
• Consideration
• Purchase
• Post Purchase Relationship Building
• Post Purchase Repeat Sales

The need for segmenting your customers or prospects by stage of the buying process emerges again.  Now, depending on what stage of the buying cycle you are trying to move your prospects/customers through, you can consider how good each tactic is across these 9 criteria:

1. Reach (how big an audience can reach?)
2. Speed (how quickly can it reach that audience?)
3. Time (how long to create &deliver this tactic?)
4. Message Volume (space to fit message in?)
5. Targeting (how granular or precise can the targeting be?)
6. Personalisation (can the tool personalise messages?)
7. Cost – is it expensive on a Cost Per Thous&(CPT/CPM) basis?
8. Control – can you control the message with this tactic?
9. Credibility – some tactics have more credibility

The last 3 criteria (cost, control & credibility) are sometimes used initially when choosing which tactical tool. We know that some tools give you more control over your message (advertising as opposed to PR or even social media),  while some tools cost a lot more (direct mail v advertising) in cost per thousand (CPT/CPM) reached. NB they compare a bit better when looking at cost per eventual conversion & some tools have more credibility e.g. PR, or editorial, has arguably three times more credibility than a message in an advertisement in the UK while reviews on social media platforms have, for many, the most credibility.

The Tactical Matrix

So this Tactical Matrix tries to encapsulate all of this – the 10 comms tools, the 5 stages  of the buying process & the 9 criteria to help you to choose which tactical tool is best for your plan. It was developed with the assistance of Mohamad Sameh, marketing  manager of IT Vision in Cairo.   I apologise that this is probably difficult to read here in this ebook but you can download it here from my PRSmith Marketing Blog.  It is something of work in progress so I welcome any comments.

Thanks to Mohamed Sameh from ITV Agency, Cairo, for his help in developing this matrix.

Message Volume means size of message or how much space is available.

This Tactics Matrix is designed to stimulate discussion about which tactical tool  (or suite of tools) is best in helping you to achieve your objectives.

This is an excerpt taken from my new SOSTAC® Guide to your Perfect Digital Marketing Plan available on Amazon eBooks or bulk tailored orders directly from me.

              The new SOSTAC® Guide for Digital Marketers

SOSTAC® takes 4 minutes to learn. It’s simplicity and logical structure is why it was voted in the Top 3 Marketing Models of all time by the Chartered Institute Of Marketing’s Centenary Poll.  See the 4 minute video, the instagram and what people say about SOSTAC Planning®.

The post The Tactical Matrix – Choosing Which Tool – Owned, Earned or Paid Media appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.

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What’s It All About? 

We feel achievement – completing tasks, whether building a boat, going for a swim or a cycle. Gamification taps into this human characteristic, particularly if there is reward, recognition and progress. Gartner forecast that 25% of redesigned business processes will be using  gamification to implement them by 2015. Given that Forbes suggest 75% of staff (in the USA) are not engaged, then it’s easy to see how gamification might help. But it’s more than just staff who can benefit from gamification.  Wikipedia suggests gamification is: “The use of game thinking and game mechanics in a non-game context in order to engage users and solve problems. Gamification is used in applications and processes to improve user engagement, Return on Investment (ROI), data quality, timeliness, and learning.” The phrase was created by computer programmer and inventor, Nick Pelling.

Who Uses Gamification?  Customers, Cashiers & Sales Staff Do

Customers – Nike+ is a  potent example of the power  of gamification. As its membership grows, the brand relationship strengthens, which, in turn, help to boost sales in the running category.  (They estimate that as membership increased by 40% in 2011 it helped boost revenues in the company’s running category by 30%).

Cashiers – Can gamification help cashiers who sometimes sit there and chew their gum aggressively? Target retail chain gamified the check-out process to help engage staff. As items are scanned the cashier sees red or green based on whether the item that was just scanned within the optimum time. They can also see their immediate score and compare it to the ideal time to see if they are “in-time”.

Salespeople – One thing sales people don’t like doing is the mind-numbing experience of entering data, filing reports into a database. So the system was ‘gamified’ by rewarding accuracy and frequency of data entry with the scoring of points complete with a leader board and monthly prize – morphing mundane into motivation by making a tedious task surprisingly exciting.

Gamification Disaster – the mistakes to avoid

Given that most staff are not engaged (I mentioned this in a previous post re the Forbes article suggesting that almost three quarters of US staff are not fully engaged), then it follows surely, that gamification could boost efficiency and effectiveness by even just a few per cent – which is sometimes the difference between profit and loss – survival and extinction – success and failure. 

However Forbes suggests that poor gamification design nullifies the potential and that by 2014, up to  80% of current gamified applications will fail to meet business objectives (because of poor design). Deloittes confirm that they also think that ‘80% of current  gamified applications fail to meet business objectives  primarily due to poor design’. So don’t leap into gamification (without understanding good design) like many business people who jumped into elearning (without understanding instructional design). It’s as if they felt they ticked that box ‘yes we do gamification’ or ‘yes we have a facbook page’. As John Horseley says  ‘remember not to confuse activity with success’. Being busy, ticking boxes might look good momentarily, but ultimately, you need substance.

Gamification    –   Getting It Right

First understand your gamers. Who is it that will engage with gamification, the most? We’ve already mentioned that customers, cashiers and salespeople are using gamification. Who are the heavy users?

So Who Are The (Heavy) Gamers?

• Average gamer is 35, married, earns £23k pa
• Games 12 hours a week
• Owns two consoles, 18 games & takes a month to complete one game
• Average Gamer rows with their partner twice a week over their past-time
• Source: Pixwoo.com

Note this will change as gamification spreads to customers, call centres, cashiers, salespeople, other staff, suppliers

How To Succeed – 8 Key Gamification Success Factors 

1. Narrative – that guides, challenges and changes as the player progresses
2. Feedback – immediate re success or failure , and most importantly, progress
3. Competitive – we like to compete with others – even in a  different location – make it social
4. GUI Graphical User Interface – must be easy & fun to use
5. Test with a view to usability, security, scale, local or global roll-out
6. Rewards, Recognition, Awards – it’s a motivation programme (that involves changing behaviour, knowledge and or skills) NB major staff motivator is ‘progress’ + powerful motivator is ‘psychic income’
7. Achieve business objectives (not just entertainment)
8. Promoting Gamification  – avoid using the ‘g’ word & focus on bottom line results (e.g. nto 50% more reviews but 50% more customers likely to buy

Get gamification right and add in ‘psychic income’ into the rewards programme – now that could be deliver some interesting results. I’ll discuss ‘psychic income’ (non- financial income/rewards – that are highly relevant to a person’s interests) another time.

Business Benefits & Objectives Of Gamification

• Customers – have fun, see progress, get rewards*
• Staff – boosts product knowledge, processes efficiency, customer service skills and engagement
• Business – boosts awareness of brand and/or features & /or benefits), recruitment, retention & advocacy
• Business Cost Reduction (cost effective tool to embed key messages and boost operations efficiency)
• Business Data capture – build your own customer database for future engagement and relationship building
• Business Boost Customer Engagement = boosted revenues eventually

Engagement is Good but Avoid Sledge-hammering Branding Into ‘Viral Drivel’

* In a fascinating short article Aleks Krotoski suggests web site designers can learn from gaming by: “Pacing, stories and engagement. Pacing is probably the most crucial element, and games makers have mastered the art of the adaptive learning curve. They carefully construct experiences that take the player form the novice to expert, usually at a pace determined by the player. if the curve is too steep, the game is will haemorrhage players. if the game s too easy, gamers will will complain there’s no challenge. Web developers manipulate the the pacing in such a way as to bring the visitor in through touch points…. as the action continues, the story unfolds and gives te player something to work towards. Te aim is to make the player feel like the hero in charge of the direction of the experience and his or hers own interactive destiny. What this means for web designers is that we can expect to see sites transformed from linear pathways into series of discoveries.’  However Aleks warns against asking visitors to ‘engage’ too early since the results are clumsy attempts to co-opt the ways games encourage people to interact with properties by sledge-hammering branding into ‘viral drivel’.  But there are more subtle and nuanced ways to achieve engagement in interactivity, and most involve a spin on the old chestnut, collecting coins. It’s just that the coins become reputation, friends, freebies and enhanced access. And those dangling carrots are the real clinchers in the success of an interactive experience.”  Krotoski, A. (2008) ‘What web designers an learn from games‘, Guardian 21 Feb.

So gamification can be powerful, but remember, caution, care and considered structure are all required for successful gamification.

As John Horseley says: ‘remember not to confuse activity with success’

The post Gamification – the good, the bad and the ugly appeared first on PR Smith Marketing.