Big props to AdWeek for this finely edited piece. Makes me think AdWeek should be making all the Super Bowl commercials in 2013. Although, we’re still looking for our shot at Lessing-Flynn.

And in case anyone was wondering, flying babies rule!

BTC Capital Management – a wealth management firm owned by Bankers Trust Company – aims to reach a unique audience: high net-worth individuals, corporations and institutions.

We knew communicating with these audiences would require a unique strategy. Websites, blogs and social media alone wouldn’t suffice. Nor would conventional tactics like direct mailers, brochures, press releases or media buys be effective for persuading high net-worth individuals, corporations or institutions to entrust millions of dollars to BTC Capital Management.

No, there needed to be something personal and tangible. A marketing piece that didn’t come out and scream “Look at our marketing collateral!” So we pitched the idea of publishing a magazine. It would be sharply designed and eloquently penned. A classy and sophisticated magazine that a multi-millionaire or the head of a financial institution might realistically pick up and read.

This was the idea behind LEAD Magazine – a biannual publication we helped BTC Capital Management launch in the spring of 2011. In each of the first two editions we featured four members of the BTC Cap team, the long-form copy style of magazine profiles proving to be the perfect form for capturing the personality and expertise of the investment professionals.

LEAD magazine – which goes out to approximately 3,000 clients, prospects and members of the investment community – was an immediate success. While our friends at BTC Cap wouldn’t disclose how much new business it helped generate, we’re told that it was instrumental in landing some new clients. And when new clients mean millions of dollars for the BTC Cap team to manage, it’s no wonder they decided to give LEAD a permanent spot on its roster of marketing publications.

When it comes to ad placement, there are two types of marketers.

1. Highly targeted.  These are the folks that talk demographics, geo-graphics, psycho-graphics, contextual based, seasonal, regional and the list goes on.

2. Blitz. These are the folks you see everywhere. Even when its not at all relevant.

While writing a different blog post about Flash technology, I came across a story about Catherine Zeta Jones being flashed (not the technology) with some amusing pictures of her running and looking shocked. Turns out, this is a scene from a movie she is filming and not real.

So while being highly amused by the story, I couldn’t help but notice a political ad by Mitt Romney in a poorly placed position. You can only imagine for yourself what I’ve covered up.

I’m sure the Romney campaign is less than thrilled with this placement. But the bigger question is why are they running ads on a celebrity site called Posh24? A site that runs stories on the Kardashians, the Jonas Brothers and apparently fake flashers.

This is where being a blitz marketer can make you appear disingenuous and inconsistent. Real “Conservative” of you, Mitt.

Your print ads won an Addy award, but didn’t generate the sales numbers you forecasted. You pull them.

Your radio spots were a dud. Maybe it was the script? You pull them too.

Your billboard, while clever as hell, had no call to action. You pull that too.

Your social media efforts have proven to be more work than you thought and no matter what you try, you just aren’t seeing the kinds of returns you expected. Sorry, there’s no rip cord to pull for the parachute here.

If your brand has walked to the edge of the great abyss and looked down into the social media plunge you know there’s really no turning back. Like they say in James Cameron’s movie, The Abyss..

“This here’s a bottomless pit, baby, two and a half miles, straight down.”

But don’t let that get you down. Truth is probably what you need right now. And the truth is once you start down the Abyss that is social media- listening to and engaging customers, creating relevant content sometimes for multiple audiences in the form of blog posts, pod casts, videos, white papers, and measuring the results of what drives traffic to your Website, what truly engages, what people actually say about your industry and your brand, you have both a run on sentence and a ton of work to do.

The debates of whether or not to jump off the edge and into the Social Media Abyss are over. If you’re not using social media today, you’ve already lost to your competition. So, if you’re swimming in the Abyss your only option is to “Go Dory” from Finding Nemo and just keep swimming.

Jeez, how many ocean related movies is this guy going to use?

Just one more.

Failure to keep your social media efforts alive in the Abyss are the difference between creating one of the best sci-fi movies ever made like James Cameron did, or being the scourge of the ocean like Kevin Costner’s career since he starred, appeared in Water World.

There’s plenty of talk today about mobile marketing. Think of the B2C market like a well-flowing tapped keg. There’s plenty of discussion surrounding driving traffic to retail and consumer based campaigns.

But what if you are in the B2B space? That keg is largely untapped. And because of that, your company has the chance to succeed where your competitors fail. Your mobile website doesn’t need to win awards for the amazing technology it offers. Like all mobile marketing, your mobile website needs to offer utility. Consider your customer or prospect’s situation when they pull up your mobile site on their phone. Then feed the need.

No matter what B2B world you play in, here’s our top five things every B2B mobile site needs.

5. Location.

Mobile = Utility. If I am thinking enough of you to visit your website from my smart phone, I need something specific. I’m not looking to read case studies. Chances are, I want to know where you are located. I might be dropping by to give you the business. Do users a favor and hook them up with a map and they’ll be even more motivated. Have more than one location? Provide a search feature, or better yet, build your mobile website so that it recognizes the location of the mobile device and then serves up the closest location.

4. Phone Number

I have a question I need answered right now. How can I contact you? This should be front and center. If I have to dig for it, I might be trying to recall other businesses that offer the same things you do.

3. Social Platforms

Someone has told me you were a company to check out. Hook me up with a feed to your Twitter account, blog, and a link to your Facebook page. I probably don’t have time to fully engage now, but I’d be interested in doing it later. Let me in by letting me follow, like and read.

2. Dealer / Distributor / Technical Support

This one is critical for B2B marketers. If I am interested in these features, I either sell your product, distribute your product or need help fixing a product you sold me. I want some FAQs, some key contact information, and perhaps even the ability to send in a trouble shooting question. If you’re really on top of it, you might include some basic video that answers the trouble shooting questions most often asked.

1. Brief Overview of Services

Again, BRIEF! What do you sell? Who do you sell it to? Who sells it for you? Why do you do it better than anyone else? How can I learn more – > Contact Button = Success. Get in, get out.

Going Viral

Every marketer dreams of having a video that goes viral. In fact, we’ve been asked on more than a hundred occasions if we can do viral videos. The answer is typically the same…

“Maybe.”

And the reason why is that there are too many factors that go into trying to make a viral video to guarantee success.

Most videos that go viral aren’t the efforts of an actual brand. Sure, there are the Old Spice videos, and some of the stuff that K-Swiss has been putting out as of late has been pretty strong (Google at your own risk). But those are rare exceptions. And, when it comes down to it, most brands aren’t funny. As hard as they (and their ad agencies) may try to be.

Here’s why you’re better off going for effective and highly targeted videos instead of going viral.

Owned Platform First

What you are reading is on our “Owned” platform. And so is our Website I just tried to link you to. And with the exception of hosting, the platform that you are engaged with now (You are reading it, right?) costs us nothing but sweat equity. Who better to serve content, like videos we created, to the people who have already come here looking for information? Videos that appear on your blog, your YouTube Channel, your Website or your own Facebook page have a better chance of being effective (in selling something) than going viral to an un-targeted mass audience. And while going viral is great for the ego – last time I checked, moving the sales meter is what actually matters.

The beauty of owned media is you actually have some control of the conversation instead of being locked out through paid media where you rent eye balls for a limited time, or through earned media where the conversation is good, but you aren’t always heard.

The Taco Bell Phenomenom

Many of you may recall the Taco Bell dog. That dog was so viral that people were literally heard saying “Yo quiero Taco Bell.” It was part of pop culture before places like YouTube existed. Bet that sold a bunch of tacos? Nope. In fact, sales numbers dropped while that campaign was going on. Turns out people associating a dog that looked like a rat with fast food mexican fare was a recipe for disaster. The masses did not equal “late night there’s nothing else open” kind of consumers. And while they indeed thought “outside the bun” with their marketing, they ended up just using it as a tagline.

Who is your target audience?

Think about this very blog. For the most part, we want to reach our current clients and potential clients within the state of Iowa. Sure, we’ll travel, but we butter our bread in the 515, the 319 and the 641. (Those are popular area codes for those of you playing at home). There are approximately 300,000 companies in Iowa. Of those companies, I’m guessing only 10% of them at the most would even consider hiring an ad agency. So that’s a population of 30,000 eyeballs we are targeting. So if we get 3,000 views of a video – like we did with this one – we’re probably pretty pleased. (Granted, they probably weren’t all from Iowa, but they are most likely people interested in social media services.)

Bottom Line

Who does your business target? Where are they? What are they interested in? Engage that audience, and be happy when 100 of them see it, instead of 10,000 who think its funny but may not be the right audience at all.

Believe it or not, in the 1980s, Apple’s biggest rival was not Microsoft or Dell or Google. It was IBM. Big Blue. The epitome of a large, progressive world-dominators. The kind of company that made you shudder if they decided to enter your industry – because they would do it in a big, big way.

And that’s exactly what they did to Apple when they decided to enter the personal computer market. What did Apple do? Well, obviously they didn’t close up shop. They dug their feet in and competed. And they did it with confidence. They actually ran an ad welcoming IBM to the market.

That’s swagger.

It’s important for your brand to portray a level of confidence – especially when you’re a startup or you’re competing against the industry giant. Your customers need to have confidence that, if they invest their money in your product or service and invest their energy into your brand, you’ll be around to perform.

So, how do you demonstrate swagger? You do things that are bold and daring. Things that a bigger rival couldn’t touch. Things like what Mini did in their rivalry with Porsche.

A few things to consider:

Swagger doesn’t have to be expensive. The Apple ad above was a black and white ad with no graphic design. The Mini challenge video could have been shot with a flip cam. It’s more about being authentic.

There’s a fine line between swagger and cockiness. People are attracted to confidence – but are turned off by overconfidence and arrogance. To stay on the right side of the line, you need a sense of humor and hint of vulnerability or a willingness to be a bit self-deprecating.

Swagger works best when you’re the underdog. People already know when you’re the top dog. If you’re Microsoft, Google or McDonald’s, swagger can easily be misinterpreted. But if you’re not the dominant brand in your industry already, it’s best to target the top brand in your category – and make the conversation all about you and them, leaving the rest of the competitors out of the conversation.

On the heels of the second DSM: SUSHIBOMB, we’re happy to announce that we raised over $4,000 for the restoration of the Des Moines Salisbury House’s historic kitchen. Unlike year one, when all we wanted to do was have a successful event (we did) and break even (we lost about $100), the DSM: SUSHIBOMB having a charity component raised the bar for our event.

We are all about charity at Lessing-Flynn. Fundraising is often about volunteering your time and smart thinking. When we set out to put together DSM: SUSHIBOMB II, our challenge was to market the event with a budget of only $200. Yep, $200 to sell over 275 tickets and raise money for charity. Here’s how we pulled it off.

-Facebook Ads – $100
While we can’t prove actual numbers, we believe that about 30% of ticket sales came via Facebook advertising.

-Google Ad Sense – $0
Searches related to sushi, Des Moines sushi and the names of sushi restaurants in town were used to generate ads on Google. We had a coupon for  $100 and used it. Thank you Google!

-Goldfish, Fishtank, Hypnotic Blue Rocks – $40
We made videos staring Gil and Gary Goldfish talking about the DSM: SUSHIBOMB and how they wanted to go to the event. They still don’t know that people eat fish. We placed these videos on YouTube, Facebook and the Blog/Website. And while they didn’t go viral, we found them amusing.

-Printing – $60
We printed flyers and passed them out at the Des Moines Farmer’s Market and the East Village Bazaar. Even dressed up one of our employee’s kids as Darth Vader to get some attention!

-Social Media – $0
This is where the real magic happened. News, sponsors and participating sponsors were pushed out through Twitter and Facebook.

In Kind Partners Saved The Day

Actual tickets weren’t printed, instead we did everything “Will Call” at the event. And the folks at Tikly did a great job of managing all of the sales for the event through their Website. Not to mention, Tikly promoted the event almost as much as we did through social platforms. We’re guessing they’d do the same for your event. We encourage you to check them out!

Boesen the Florist provided awsome in-kind table centerpieces with a Japanese theme.

Iowa Asian Alliance and Japan American Society of Iowa brought a ton of culture!

La Tran from Hoshi Sushi agreed to teach an Introduction to Sushi class with the proceeds going to Salisbury House.

Andy Brudtkuhl, the WordPress Ninja from 48 Web donated his time to give the DSM: Sushibomb Website some attention.

Kirin/Doll Distributing – Kirnin beer tasting and a free keg. Other kegs were provided at cost.

Jasper Winery supported us again in year two with wine sales and expertise.

Sometimes, all you gotta do is ask!

From all of us at Lessing-Flynn, thank you for a wonderful DSM: SUSHIBOMB II. We’re looking forward to next year!

Alexa Thomason

Guest Blog Post: Alexa Thomason

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Besides being a social media fanatic, Alexa Thomason is a jetsetting art enthusiast. She splits her time between Chicago, New York City, and Paris, learning about design, fashion, and technology. Follow her adventures on Twitter or add her on Facebook.