By Laura Morris

One of the most popular questions we hear from members is: “What are my peers asking you about social media?”

After spending last week speaking with members at MLC’s executive breakfast meetings, I got an earful of what’s keeping marketers up at night when it comes to social media.

The key theme:  There’s no longer any debate on if we should engage with our target audiences via social media.  The only question left is “how?”

Your peers are running up against three key challenges when it comes to answering that “how” question.  Here’s how we’re advising them on each: Read More »

By Whitney Satin

Articulating the unique benefits we provide to customers should be second nature for marketers, but this is much easier said than done.  Too often we get tripped up on the arms race for common benefits (e.g., “Our company is the most reliable … no REALLY!) or we fail to deliver benefits that truly resonate with customers.

Let’s table execution problems until after the holidays and turn for now to a slightly more existential challenge: what is your company’s unique identity?  This may sound trite, but here’s a quick gut check: can you articulate it in 50 words or less?  Likely not, and you’re not alone. Read More »

Someone smarter than me has surely waxed poetic on the virtue of looking to the past to prepare for the future.  Yet if 2009 taught marketers anything, it is that the past is no predictor or guarantee of future performance.  Heraclitus figured it out long ago – the only constant is change.  2009 was the year of assumption upheaval, of predictable patterns overturned by equally unpredictable economic conditions.  How about a few examples? Read More »

In the increasingly peer-centric landscape sparked by recent excitement (and anxiety!) around social media, we find ourselves with a new operating challenge: Marketing and Communications functions find themselves at odds with (or just driving different objectives from) many of their peer functions around the corporation.

We’ve all spent too much time talking about why social media matters, and even how to exploit its power, so let me skip over that well-worn path.

Inside the enterprise, I see a culture change afoot.  As companies try to maximize their ability to capture customer voice and shape product, to drive brand and product awareness, to leverage advocacy, they are further extending themselves out beyond the “safe” boundaries of their corporate walls.  We know that social media is by nature unstructured, unreliable, and, at its most powerful, deeply unpredictable. Read More »

There’s a bubbling, burgeoning cottage industry of social media vendors out there.  Some are traditional agencies claiming social media expertise.  Others are small shop upstarts with very clever automated solutions and workflow tools.

Having now conducted dozens of consults with members who have completed their social media maturity diagnostic, we noticed a real appetite amongst members for help navigating this kaleidoscopic (is that even a word?) vendor landscape.  Read More »

By Tasneen Padiath

I’m no wine connoisseur, so the marketer in me kicked in on a recent trip to my local liquor store.  I considered the attributes I wanted – under $15, preferably red, not too sweet or fruity, a familiar brand name and something that connotes a fun experience. Faced with an array of wines from California to Chile, from Merlot to Bordeaux, I was struck by the enormous difficulty marketers face in differentiating their brands and creating a connection with consumers in the moment.

Granted, I was probably a little outside of the target segment for most wine makers, but what would have altered my decision? A catchy label or even a suggestion from one of the sales people could have nudged me in a different direction. The lesson for me here: while there is immense opportunity to influence a brand decision before a consumer goes shopping, the importance of the in-store experience—whether through product placement, point of purchase signage or a well trained store employee—cannot be minimized. Read More »

The economic outlook has forced most marketers to make some of the toughest resourcing decisions of their professional lives. But this is all going to get easier next year, right? Not really. Findings from our 2009 Marketing Investment Benchmarks Survey reveals that marketers do not expect their companies to loosen their purse strings in 2010.

Results from our tenth annual survey show that in 2009, spend on channels conducive to driving consideration (website, social media, direct mail, PR) held flat or grew; while spend on channels that primarily drive awareness (broadcast, print, online display ads) declined in comparison to 2008. The question we asked was what is driving this trend? Read More »

In my last post, I wrote about the ever higher authenticity expectations that consumers have of their brand interactions.  To meet those expectations, marketers spend millions with agency partners and agonize over how to structure their agency rosters. 

Click Image to Enlarge

In fact, we found that two-thirds of clients are establishing lead or full-service agency partnership models in hopes of achieving integrated communications.  But if you ask clients their likelihood of recommending their current agency partners on their ability to deliver the most target-resonant creative or touchpoint ideas, you get embarrassing NPS scores (see the graphic at left). 

What gives?

Here’s the problem: the cast of characters on the typical agency roster is too far removed from today’s target audiences to routinely and convincingly clear a higher authenticity bar.  Read More »

Global warming be darned, it snowed in Dallas last week and temperatures never reached 50 degrees.  While I had the ‘pleasure’ of braving the elements for the week, I had the sincere pleasure of visiting with members as diverse as airlines and beauty products to discuss the impact of social media on their respective competitive landscapes.  It occurred to me that the current state of social media for most organizations is the Heisenberg principle in action: marketers can’t determine both their competitive position and relative velocity (social media adoption) with the same degree of certitude.  And right now, the equation is weighted toward velocity – everyone knows the speed (forward and fast) but very few have stopped to find their current position. Read More »

We may not have the jet-set, champagne-fuelled ceremonies of the B2C ad world, but our 2009 B2B MarComm Awards are just as exciting, if somewhat lower scale. 

MLC Members can access the links in this post, including our showcase of all 50 entries to see the high quality of work and get ideas for your own campaigns. Despite the consistently high standard across campaigns, we had to select a few that stood out from the rest.

We are pleased to announce 8 finalists that excelled in terms of campaign focus, target understanding, message relevance, and channel impact:

2009 MLC B2B Marcomm Awards Finalists

• Alcatel-Lucent | Hotel Experience
• Motorola | Two-Way Radio Lead Generation Campaign
• National Instruments | Energizing Engineers at NI Week
• Qwest Communications | Voice of the Customer
• Telecom NZ | No One Will Know You Are Gone
• Telstra | Enterprise & Government Productivity
• TELUS | Who Knew
• Thomson Reuters | ProLaw Office

Read More »