News – Page 2

What I Learned From Downton Abbey

photo from pbs.org

The final show, the end of the series was last night. The most popular PBS show of all time, Downton Abbey, ended its Masterpiece Theatre run. It was a beautiful, touching show, filled with what we loved best and expected from the show. As I look back on six seasons, I realize there were some great life lessons from this period piece, some of which even has to do with marketing…

It’s All in the Writing: The core of the show’s allure was its nuanced writing. Without using dirty words or silliness, the writing illuminated the changing structure of English aristocracy, the service class, a more global world, the nascent bubblings of feminism, all within the structure of a family. Yet, far from being stuffy, there was pathos, abundant humor, suspense and surprise. As a writer for multiple clients, the importance of writing struck a happy chord, like an A-major!

The Key to Success: Maggie Smith: From her turn as the witty, sometimes stuffy, always wise Dowager Countess to Minerva Mcconagall in the Harry Potter series to her turns in the Exotic Marigold Hotel and now, The Lady in the Van, every good movie needs Maggie Smith. She’s the epitome of self-deprecating, self-aware, witty, but not mean humor and understanding.

But the Costumes were Lovely: The clothes were to die for, and PBS appeared to have an unlimited budget for style. Beautiful surroundings filled with well-dressed people: they still sell in New York’s fashion week, they still fill the magazines, and they embellish an already good product.

Real Estate Porn is Awfully Stimulating: Beautiful vistas of old estates, far-flung castles and quiet village scenery; they were like an additional character of the show, drawing us to make plans to visit the real Highclere Castle or even the town of York (is there actually anything to do there?)

Relationships Make the Show: Ultimately, we stayed tuned in to see how each character would handle his or her relationships with others, the romantic, the familial, the work relationships. Relationships are essentially what move us. It’s true in marketing: we have to form relationships with our clients, our patients, our customers. Nourishing that is the best marketing.

Leave Them Wanting More: There are many shows with far greater longevity. But Downton ended as its writing was winding down. When the closing music played and the snow fell down on the abbey, we wanted more and not less. It’s the same way with marketing; often, less is more. Understated often trumps overblown. Humility is more well received than braggadocio.

Oscar Night: Red Light, Green Light

This was a jittery Academy Awards season with the #oscarsowhite accusation of no nominations of people of color in the actor and actress categories. Tensions were high as the night began: how would Chris Rock handle his hosting duties, what would be boring and what would be exciting?

So, if we were in charge of the post-mortem of last night’s telecast, here are our picks for things that are a “go”, and a few projects that should be “red lighted”…

Green Light:

Chris Rock did an unbelievable job. He may have even been a bit too hard on the Academy, but oh, well. His opening monologue was brilliant and his interview of theater-goers in Compton was hilarious, particularly the man who said the best movie of all time was “Superfly”. Edgy comedy is still our favorite, even if it doesn’t make the room happy.
More edgy comedy: yes to Sarah Silverman, Louis CK and Sasha Baron Cohen; unpredictable is excellent.
Girl Scout cookies: unlike Ellen’s pizza delivery in the past, Girl Scout cookies aren’t messy and support a worthwhile organization. Furthermore, we could see everybody from Morgan Freeman to Tina Fey munching on cookies (they were done with their Red Carpet walks, and by the way, Tina Fey looked awesome.)
The moratorium continues on “Who are You Wearing?”. I’m sure every star’s publicist got that info out to whoever needed to know, but it was nice to see every woman being asked about her craft. But…I did want to hear about Cate Blanchett’s dress, as it was intriguing.
Lady Gaga. Last year we said bring back Lady Gaga at every awards show, and she brought down the house with her powerful song about sexual violence, backed up by victims powerfully, silently standing by her.
Last year we asked for a live song during the “In Memoriam” piece and our prayers were answered. Dave Grohl sang and played “Blackbird” beautifully while the images scrolled by. Much better.

Red Light:

The scrolling caption of thank yous went by way too fast to read, and apparently, it wasn’t visible in the theater, so winners didn’t trust it, and they shouldn’t.
Was Meryl Streep there? If not, why not? Never have an Academy Awards without her!

When Google Searches Find Trouble

Google is the search engine. Like Kleenex means tissue, to search, you Google.

But Google is problematic as a marketing tool for these reasons:

Google Ads can be expensive. Each click on a Google-sponsored ad can cost the advertiser as much as $30.
Many internet searchers are avoiding Google ads. They have figured out that the ads are purchased. As a result, a sector of affluent and experienced searchers are spurning the ads.
It can be quite difficult to move up organically in the Google search, especially for smaller businesses that are dominated by a few firms, practices or businesses that have deep pockets for merchandising.

Even Google Maps can be your friend or your enemy. Legitimate businesses are invited to turn in their address so that they can be found on Google Maps. And if you’ve successfully used Google Maps, the fact that it works (when it does) is pretty remarkable.

But, illegitimate businesses also exploit Google Maps and try to stay one step ahead of Google’s search engine algorithms and its too small staff for finding scams. These scammers are bilking consumers out of millions of dollars. This scheme is delineated in the following article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/business/fake-online-locksmiths-may-be-out-to-pick-your-pocket-too.html?_r=0

Essentially, these non-local businesses (typically locksmiths, carpet cleaners, security systems) position themselves through chicanery to be at the top of the Google listings, often purchasing ads as well. But these businesses are called “lead gens”, as they are essentially call centers with no local presence, sometimes even disguising this through fake Photo-shopped images of what looks like legitimate businesses and using the Wiki aspects of Google maps to present themselves with real looking buildings (again, fake, fake, fake).

Even worse, these call centers send out ill-trained local people to “come to your aid” where they try to get as much money as possible from you, sometimes three to four times what you were quoted or what was advertised.

We encourage you to check out the Better Business Bureau ratings and of course reviews of friends to make sure you don’t get caught in this trap.

And we also encourage you to be patient as we try to tread the G0ogle waters.

We do know this. Adding content to social media and blogs can only help.

The Multi-Pronged Marketing of Downton Abbey

photo from pbs.org

Downton Abbey, the British period drama focusing on the era between the Titanic and the beginning of World War II, began its sixth season here in the U.S. last night. The wildly successful series, which started on ITV in the UK, subsequently crossed the pond to PBS. During its five previous seasons, the show has entertained millions and also made interesting inroads through tried and true as well as innovative marketing tactics.

Here’s a sampling of some of Downton Abbey’s smart marketing:

The Downton Times: an advertising supplement was included in Sunday’s New York Times; in fact it actually was wrapped around the front page. The four page “paper” included a scone recipe from Mrs. Patmore’s kitchen and news about the latest spat between the Dowager Countess and her cousin Isobel Crawley.
PBS has rearranged its fundraising timing to coincide with the most popular episodes of the show, currently the most popular scripted show in PBS history.
Two weeks ago, there were live viewings of the first episode, including one at Macomb Community College. I attended and it was an absolute delight: audience members dressed as maids and flappers. It was essentially watching a movie but with a group of rabid fans. It’s the exact opposite of watching on a smart phone. How fitting that a show about trying to manage the changing times finds a retro way to enjoy the show!
The New York Times also has interactive components in its online version, adjacent to reviews or news of Downton Abbey, including quizzes.
The show already has been shown in the UK, but there appears to be a gentlemen’s agreement and spoilers have been well hidden, letting the American audiences enjoy the unfolding drama without knowing the plot twists.
Including some cast members known to American audiences like Elizabeth McGovern and Maggie Smith didn’t hurt at all. Maggie Smith has been a fan favorite, with her biting one-liners, including last night’s “Doesn’t it get cold on the moral high ground?” Even her critiques of American society were well-received in the U.S.
HGTV a la PBS. Anybody who enjoys the innumerable house and design shows on HGTV could enjoy salivating over the house and grounds of Highclere Castle, one of supporting actors of the series.
PBS channel on Apple TV and other viewing platforms which is similar to HBO Go, but with no subscription fee, has had multiple Downton-related programming including interviews, architectural tours of the castle and discussions of the etiquette, decor and mores of the time.
Timing truly matters. PBS locked down the Sunday evening spot for Downton and never wavered from it. Viewers could count on the series’ timing (or seeing a repeat). This used to be how TV schedules worked. Now, major reshuffling appears to be the norm.
Social Media Savvy: The cast and creators regularly tweeted and posted on Facebook, Twitter, Youtube, Instagram and Pinterest, including making some fun at their own expense. The Twitter feed during the Golden Globes when Downton Abby won best mini-series was high traffic indeed, outpacing the Super Bowl and the Royal Wedding.

Bold Marketing Move: The New York Times’ Special Sunday Surprise

As I went out on my front porch to retrieve my Sunday New York Times at 7:30 a.m. , I noticed that the paper looked different. And indeed it was different. Every weekend subscriber received an added bonus: a Google Cardboard virtual reality reader (pictured at left).

While this may look like some sort of kindergarten recycling project, it’s actually pretty amazing.

In order to get the ball rolling, you had to download the free NYT VR app, available for Android and Apple phones.The cardboard has a place for you to insert your smart phone (with a fairly recent operating system as a necessity). Then you look through the lenses (in the holes) and experience a virtual reality.

The New York Times distributed the cardboard readers (they need a better name, I think) in conjunction with three stories of orphaned, displaced children. You could play the videos of the stories while looking through the readers and move your head up, down, to the left and right to take in a scene of where the children lived (Lebanon, south Sudan and eastern Ukraine). You also could walk forward “into” their scenes. It was an incredible, emotional, immersive experience.

But it didn’t stop there. My 13 year-old quickly took the reader from me and began downloading all sorts of VR videos, including a Google maps street view (she went outside to view our house while viewing our house!), the White House, underneath the Eiffel Tower, the old city of Jerusalem, her summer camp, my sister’s house, a Cedar Point roller coaster and more.

The New York Times will be dropping more VR videos that accompany future stories. We are all excited to see the possibilities.

This was a very bold move on the part of the Times. It must have cost a fortune, although I suspect that Google fronted some of the collaboration. In addition, the costs for the creative talent for producing the writing and the VR videos appear to be quite high, at least if quality is any measure.

Will the Times be the preeminent producer of Google cardboard reader content or just one of many? Does it matter?

We are not sure. For now, we recommend that you get your hands on a set of these. We think they deserve a lot more attention than the watch from that other company.

Apple AdBlock: Another Roadblock to Getting Your Message Out?

Apple AdBlock and AdBlock Plus have hit the marketplace and not everybody is excited.

Apple’s native Safari is used by nearly all IPhone users, making it responsible for 25% of all online searches. Now, Apple users can download AdBlock and AdBlock Plus which automatically blocks out ads on websites.

Apple maintains that the raison d’etre for this software is to allow people to surf the net more quickly. It is true that every time you reach one of these ads, your searching slows to a halt.

However, media watchers and marketers are not fooled by this. AdBlock will allow certain ads through. They call this procedure whitelisting, get it? The opposite of blacklisting!

And how will an ad be whitelisted? We are guessing by paying a hefty fee to Apple, Inc.

So, what does this have to do with you?

If you’re a publisher, like the New York Times, AdBlock is your kryptonite. As modern newspapers’ print sales and ad revenue in the printed page has decreased, they have increased the bottom line by offering ads on their online versions. If these ads are now going to be blocked, who is going to pay for online advertisement? So, these corporations are scrambling to find workarounds the AdBlock, either by paying the whitelisting fee, which they consider extortionary, or finding an alternate revenue stream.

If you’re a small business with a website, like nearly all of our clients, you are in a position to be searched more easily and not be blocked because your sites don’t have advertising embedded in them. So, for people who are looking for content, your site will be more valuable in Apple Safari. This is already the case in Google, where content is more highly valued, even if paying for Google Adwords also enhances your searchability.

The takeaway: continue to add content to your website through adding pages, adding features and blogging.

Content is king, and Apple has just re-crowned it.

Back to School New Business Ideas

OK, we have a few weeks of school under our belts. And we know what we need, so here are our ideas. Feel free to steal them, fund them, promote them to us and we’ll market the heck out of them!

Uber-Carpool: With multiple kids, multiple schools or multiple divisions within the same school and multiple schedules, we have discovered these truths:

Our kids need to be in lots of different places, sometimes at different times, but sometimes at the same time.
If we are the chief driver, we can’t work full-time. Really.
We want to trust other drivers. But the permutations of our own kids’schedules leaves us gun-shy to include other adults.
Our adult kids LOVE Uber. And it seems to work pretty well.
We want a safe Uber experience for our kids, where they can call up a car from their ubiquitous cell phones, where we will be charged on our debit cards, and we will know the name of the driver.

School Supply Shopping Professionals: Again, we print the lists off the websites year after year. Private schools also include book purchases, too. The takeaway: This time of year is expensive and can be nerve-wracking, as the old supplies have to be culled, and we feel obligated to find the best deals. So, here are a few ideas:

Some schools sell bundled school supplies, already grade-appropriate, pre-bought, with a small profit going to the PTA. We love it. Make it universal. And for those schools that don’t have it, let your non-profit step in. We don’t mind helping to support other great causes and getting our kids’stuff bought in the process.
Personal Shopper for our Dresses?…heck, we know what looks good on us. No, go through our kids’10 sets of colored pencils, erasers, calculators (which ones are OK for the new SAT?) and take them shopping. Or if you’re super good at it, don’t even involve our kids…but if you pick them up from soccer, you can combine Uber Carpool and Personal Shopper.

Closet Organizers: Those darn kids keep growing. Come over, watch them try on their old clothes, determine if they fit (we will all abide by your decision) and make the definitive list of what has to be bought for the new school year. You can even tell us what are fashion must-haves. We will adhere to your list!

Private Equitable Start-Up: Everybody talks about private equity funds. We’re talking Private Equitable. Help us come up with a ratio to show our partners how much of this school transition falls on our shoulders. With your scientific data, we are armed to help our partners step up to the plate.

It’s a great feeling when your kids are back to the routine, learning and growing with friends. We just could use a little help in the transition.

Medical Marketing: Would You Like a Latte with that Laparoscopy?

Health care and marketing are not strangers to one another. Hospitals have been marketing robustly for years, competing for patients to fill hospital beds.

But actual doctors and dentists are often ambivalent about the role of marketing and how best to stay current without appearing to be money-focused as opposed to patient-focused.

Our general advice for health care providers is this:

Find out if you are findable. We have discovered that many physicians are the least visible types of businesses on the web. They may still pay for a Yellow Pages ad, but they often feel that other physicians refer to them (true) or that they are part of other physician or hospital groups. Our clients have been shocked to see on the screen how laborious it can be just to find a contact phone number and address. From this information, we have helped to persuade our clients that they have needed their own website that they control.
Build it and they will come to your website. We are pleased to help our health related clients with more streamlined websites that serve as resources with well-written and current information including weekly or bi-weekly blogs. Using a little bit of Google adwords money and some Facebook linked posts, you can draw some people to the website and make it a go-to resource without overt marketing.
Check your listings. Spend time investigating how you are listed (with correct contacts or not?) on Yelp, Yellow Pages and Google, as well as Health Finders and other physician searches. Try to correct incorrect information if possible.
Referrals, referrals, repeat. For many physicians, their key to new patients is referrals from other health care professionals. Nurture the relationships with those referring professionals. Stay in touch with them, make sure to keep them abreast of any changes (new office location, new equipment, new staffing) and show your appreciation.
Keep Social Media channels open. Utilize your desired channel to show that you are always interested in new research, new developments and to share your passions and interests. Patients like to feel like they have a glimpse into the minds of their doctors and that they are real people, too.
Make your patients’ experience as good as possible. Every encounter, whether with your billing manager, with the scheduler or for an appointment can be positive or negative. The outcome of the appointment is not just the diagnosis and the treatment; it is also whether the patient wants to continue being your patient. Compassionate, competent care is the overall goal. But let’s not forget courteous phone manners, clean waiting rooms, maybe some treats when there are unexpected long waits and open communication over all.
Value your patients’ time. The bugaboo for medical and dental patients is signing up for an appointment and then being kept waiting. Patients don’t truly understand that an appointment time needs to account for administrative tasks that must occur prior to seeing the doctor. But waiting more than 30 minutes is very hard on lots of people: working people, elderly or frail people and their caregivers, young children and their parents. Your reputation in the community would zoom to the top if you had a way of telling patients if there was more than a 30 minute wait. Why do you want them waiting in your waiting room anyway?

As medical professionals, there are so many tasks to be on top of. Being sure that your marketing plan is in place and healthy assures a steady stream of new patients as well as a satisfied lot of current patients.

How the Print Crisis Can Help You

Everybody is always bemoaning the death of print: newspapers print circulations are dwindling; magazines are shutting down (like Newsweek), ad revenues for print endeavors aren’t what the used to be.

This news is both good and bad if you are looking to do some marketing and public relations:

Bad news:

The readership may indeed be down.
An ad in a print publication may not be worth as much in terms of coverage and market penetration as it used to be.
Small, local newspapers (especially niche ones, like the C&G local papers or even The Jewish News) are cutting their writing staff to one or two reporters or sometimes none.

The Good News:

Newspapers and magazines are desperate for original content.
A well written press release can provide content for them without costing the newspaper or magazine staff time or staff resources.
Free publicity may be easier to come by!

Case in point:

We recently crafted a press release about a charitable endeavor of one of our clients. The press release was well-crafted. It had a catchy title, was concisely but interestingly written with the important details and a hook in the first paragraph and good supporting paragraphs. We submitted the press release to various media options, not knowing which if any would pick it up. It turned out that the trade organization paper and the local paper picked up the story right away. Even better news: the story was not altered one iota in the trade magazine, from catchy title to every last detail.

Our positive experience was that sometimes “free publicity” works out. Of course, it wasn’t entirely free. We had to spend the time writing and crafting (and by the way, sending in some good photos too) and hoping for the best. Ultimately, the coverage seemed to gain much more traction than a paid ad that would have appeared on the same page would have gained.

For pointers on writing press releases, see our earlier blog “The Picayune and Particulars of Press Releases”.

Fetch and Not so Fetch: Rules for Social Media Posting

Social Media is a changing landscape. As such, it may seem like the Wild West: free, unfettered and lacking all order, unencumbered by rules or law.

The truth is that Social Media is more like the Mean Girls lunchroom: there are various groups talking to each other and each group has their own particular way of communicating and their own established norms.

So, there really are some rules for posting on social media for all businesses, small and large. Here are some that we follow:

1. Choose what social media channel works for your business. Where are you likely to find clients? Where do your customers hang out?

2. Plan your posts. Unlike your personal social media channels, your business social media should not be quite as spontaneous. Develop a calendar of big events in your business (sales, back to school physicals, tax filing, open houses) and plan your posts to coordinate with publication of issues and information regarding those events. At K2M, we utilize a social media platform that helps us post on multiple channels for multiple clients. We are always one week ahead of schedule and some posts we have already created several months’ ahead of time.

3. Use your social media posts to sell and advertise, but keep it to a minimum. Customers, patients and clients understand when their “feed” includes direct marketing from you, but they like to see it tempered with information, both serious and whimsical (depending on the nature of your business). Be sure to keep the balance mostly non-advertising, which seems counter-intuitive, but trust us.

4. Hire a social media manager, especially at the beginning. It takes time to really master the tone, timing and content of posts. Unless this is your forte, this is a great thing to outsource to people who know what they are doing.

5. Use the 1st person plural. When you post, say “we” and “our”. This is inclusive, making everybody at your office part of the post. Ideally you should make sure that all employees check the social media sites so they are conversant in the postings.

6. Space out your posts. Don’t over Instagram, or you will be un-followed. Don’t like your own posts on Facebook, or you will annoy your “friends”.

7. Use analytics to determine what time of day or even what days you receive the most likes, reaches or whatever. Utilize this information to tweak when you post or even what topics are the most interesting to your audience.