Digital-First Marketing Needs a Human Touch Posted by Priscilla De La Rosa on April 6, 2017 Digital marketing for technology companies is fundamentally different than marketing for the non-technical industry. Although it sounds like a simple distinction, if we unpack it, we discover surprising insights. A few months ago, I had some conversations at the digital marketing SoDA conference that opened my eyes to the differences between digital and traditional marketing ecosystems. I’ve been living in the tech industry so long, that a new perspective from outside the fishbowl was clarifying. “As a digital marketer, what is the biggest challenge you face working with your clients?” This seemed like an innocuous question when our workshop leader asked, but the answers I heard were surprising. Except for me, the unanimous answer was: We focus tremendous time and effort convincing clients to believe in digital-first marketing. Then we have to ensure that the digital-first approach is accepted and operationally integrated into the marketing organization. What’s Different? Traditional, mature companies like Coca Cola, Citibank, McKesson and Chevron completely understand how to communicate human feeling and value… Read more of this blog post on Medium.com >>
Immersive VR Presentations for the AEC Industry (Architecture, Engineering and Construction) Posted by Joel Yabrudy on January 10, 2017 Traditional methods of presenting new projects, whether it is a design for a new hospital, or the construction phases of a new office building, usually involve printed images and documents, videos with 3d animated flyarounds, or physical maquettes (miniatures) of the building. Project leaders from firms rely on these methods to present everything from designs and analysis, to scheduling and cost to their clients and investors. Even though these methods work in terms of getting the information across, the overall engagement with the content being shown will always be limited by the quality of the material and the technology being used to present it. AEC firms are just beginning to leverage VR for not only their internal practices, but for client-facing material as well. The value that VR brings is greater engagement through immersiveness. By allowing a viewer to see content as if it was actually there, walk around it and interact with it, presentations can be brought to a whole new level. Using the right creative, strategy, and technology can make content more engaging. What we have done with the new Viewstream AEC VR Demo, is design and build an experience around a specific product, in this case a new construction presentation. We took what is a traditional method of presenting information, and reestablished how it is presented. In the Viewstream virtual presentation, we showcase a variety of information that is both important and essential to this type of product, and we do it a way that is engaging for the viewer. Cost and scheduling, lighting and energy analysis, general neighborhood data, as well as full views of the new construction are some of the elements we find important to this industry. By creating a realistic, immersive, virtual experience around this concept of an architectural/construction presentation, we can engage the viewer and in turn deliver greater value. Would you like to learn more about Viewstream and our VR services for the AEC industry, including checking out a demo? Email info@viewstream.com and a team member will get right back to you. Or complete our contact form.
Top 6 Marketing Trends of 2017 Posted by Priscilla De La Rosa on September 8, 2016 As marketers, we embrace the expectation that we have to constantly come up with new, innovative methods for reaching target audiences. We love to come to work in the morning where every campaign needs to be a “game changer.” We strive to conjure up “purple cows” every day. Marketing spend needs to go further to meet these elevated expectations. But in this new digital reality, how do you be both efficient and effective, and how do you differentiate your brand in a crowded marketplace where everything is presumed to be new? Here is a preview of the six key trends that will dominate 2017 and allow marketers in the know to get ahead of the curve: 1. Customer data is skyrocketing as big campaigns plummet. Data on customers or potential customers is readily available. Demographics, behavior, interests, browsing history, previous purchases, and on and on. All of this data can be used to deliver personalized, relevant content to individuals across any channel, leading to the death of the one-size-fits-all campaign. The days when marketers would do a long march towards a big campaign launch are over. We need to be executing daily, weekly or monthly campaigns that are consistently optimized and put into the world. To discover the rest of the key trends, such as virtual reality and the future of email, download the report today. GET THE FREE REPORT
Why are you special? Posted by John Assalian on March 7, 2016 Getting marketing right requires a real understanding of why your product and company is unique. To help, Viewstream created a “Positioning Generator“. It’s the marketing team’s Mad Libs. Fill in the blanks based on the prompts provided and get your positioning statement. It’s sure to get you thinking, at least. This type of statement ought to be a default part of your messaging, communication and go-to market arsenal. Check it out here: http://viewstream.com/positioning-generator/
In between the panels… Posted by John Assalian on March 3, 2016 What can marketers learn from comic books? Succinctly said, the power of comic and graphic novels occur in between the panels. Between panel A and panel B, a world of curiosity, sensibility and feeling is unlocked. It’s not what is said or shown, it’s what is not said or shown that is unique. Think about that from a marketing perspective. How many times do we try to say too much about our product, solution or brand? Comic books teach us to think about what occurs “in between the panels”. Say and show something creative. Then let your audience imagine. Let your audience translate their needs and desires into something our offering delivers. What would happen if, for your next marketing project, instead of saying everything, you left some things for ‘in between the panels’? Give it a shot and let me know how it works.
Top ten marketing trends Posted by John Assalian on February 3, 2014 View the top ten marketing trends for 2014 from Viewstream. Any trends resonate for your marketing mix in 2014? View the trends
Ethnography for Business Posted by John Assalian on March 21, 2013 Ethnography has become a buzz word. A lot of companies claim to do “Ethnography” or offer it as a service. However, most of the companies offering ethnography services are just market research firms and what they are offering is basically “fancy” surveys and focus groups. In terms of agencies, a lot of agencies offer “ethnography” as part of their services, but usually they are bringing in outside consultants to do this (i.e. they have no one with an anthropology background on staff). Also, in most cases this is an adjunct to the standard branding, marketing, and design services as opposed to a unique focus. Several of MDC companies noted their “ethnographic” work, but none actually listed an anthropologist on staff. Red Associates is the only agency I could find oriented towards selling Anthropology qua Anthropology and have an actual Anthropologist on staff. Most of the other real business ethnography, anthropology companies are small consulting firms. Ethnographic Solutions being a good example. Red Associates Red is a NY/Copenhagen based company that mixes social sciences and marketing. They broadly categorize their services as “Applied Business Anthropology”. From website: Who We Are ReD Associates is an innovation and strategy consultancy. The anthropologists, sociologists, economists, journalists, and designers who make up ReD employ the methods of social science to study human behavior. Our teams in Copenhagen and New York work together to develop deep insights into how and why consumers make decisions. We use these insights both to see the world in more compassionate and complex ways—and to identify new opportunities for our clients. We benefit hugely from having a very international staff: Our diversity of perspectives enables us to ask culturally relevant questions and explore the world in open-ended ways. In our practice we employ methods and ways of thinking from two domains—social scientific practices from ethnography, market analysis from traditional business practice—to provide clients with clear and comprehensive directions for moving forward. Ethnographic Solutions DC based Market Research company. The principals are all Anthropologists from respectable backgrounds. Looking at their services they have found some interesting ways of applying their skills beyond the usual “market survey”. From their website: Services: ETHNOGRAPHY -Physician-Patient Dialogue -Sales Representative Ethnography -Day in Life Customer Ethnography -Employee-Customer Dialogue -Consumer Unmet Needs BRAND COMMUNICATIONS -Positioning & Platform Research -Message Testing & Story Flow -Creative Concept Testing -Visual & Sales Aid Testing CUSTOMIZED QUALITATIVE -Medical Device Testing -Consumer Buying Process -Disease Exploratory Research -Netnography -Customer Tracking Research
Viewstream Research Posted by John Assalian on March 12, 2013 As part of our research group, we are publishing a few overviews of interesting companies in the social media space. Altimeter Group is not a marketing company, rather a research/consultancy company (Powerpoint company). Think Boston Consulting or Bain mixed with Gartner or Forrester, focus is “Social Business” which includes social media aimed towards customers but also includes how organizations are internally organized and how information is shared within a company. In some cases this can mean using social media tools internally, but it can also mean creating whole new org charts for large organizations. Their model is essentially as follows: produce a large number of free report’s which are then use to leverage engagements in advisory, speaking or strategy. For advisory, this is be the classic consulting job. Called in to provide research and outside eyes on a project. Classically consulting in large organizations to displace blame. i.e. idea fails well expert consultants said it would work. For speaking, past topics include: Hot or Not: Deciding Which Disruptive Technologies Matter Creating a Coherent Social Strategy The Future of Social Networks Convincing Your Curmudgeon — Getting Executive Buy-In for Your Social For strategy, Altimeter has published on: Get Engaged With Your Customers (or Employees) Recruiting an Unpaid Army for Word of Mouth The Customer of the Future Developing a Mobile Strategy for the Whole Customer Lifecycle Developing — and Investing — in a Social CRM Strategy Rethinking Innovation in Your Enterprise Strategy It’s the People Stupid: Designing a Social Experience Funding an Enterprise Strategy Career Path of the Corporate Social Strategist Developing a Scalable Social Strategy Some great reports here: http://www.altimetergroup.com/research/reports http://www.altimetergroup.com/research/webinars All altimeter reports are released under a creative commons license so you can pull their slides and use them in your own presentations as long as you give them credit.
Truly Understanding Your Target Audience Posted by John Assalian on September 14, 2012 “Behind every decision to buy –whether the item is a service or a product, an argument or an idea—is an unspoken emotional motivation. This is the hidden agenda,” writes business development expert and long time advertising professional, Kevin Allen, in his insightful book The Hidden Agenda: A Proven Way to Win Business and Create a Following. The author describes how important it is for companies and brands to make a connection with their followers through discovering and understanding the hidden agenda of their customers. One area of the book that can be really beneficial is his take on targeting. A lot of times we get hung up in the analytical side of targeting, and lose a powerful side of targeting which is the more emotional, creative, and aspirational in focus. Taking a cue from politics, Allen develops the notion of the conceptual target—a way by which you can develop a powerful emotional definition of your audience. An example would be a “Soccer Mom.” This singular concept nicely sums up the motivations and aspirations of the target, and provides instant demographic and psychographic sensibilities. Allen says, “In the pursuit of the Marriott business, no matter whether the person was staying at the JW, their topflight property, and spending several hundred dollars a night, or they were staying at Fairfield, the emotional composition of that audience were called Road Warriors, people who are out there selling for their companies.” For business marketers, there is a lot to learn by rounding out our audience understanding in a more creative, conceptual and aspirational way. And for fun, and outstanding commercial taking the emotional/aspirational approach:
Seeing a Future in Tablets Posted by John Assalian on August 21, 2012 It’s amazing to think the iPad is only two years old–and across the spectrum usage is skyrocketing (along with the stock). Avid readers in particular have been downloading magazines on their tablets, and engagement remains high. Seeing a future in Tablets for business communication and marketing, we unveiled Viewstream Mags recently. Viewstream Mags brings magazines to businesses for marketing, communication and data analytics. The Mags are beautifully designed and feature engaging content written by actual journalists. Plus, we can do something that other digital document formats cannot do: we can track everything! From page clicks and swipes to engagement patterns and view duration of motion content, our analytic datasets offer a rich source of data for better decision making. To find out more, watch the short video on Viewstream Mags here: http://viewstre.am/1m