God bless technology…

As I’m obsessed with advertising – good, bad, and otherwise – nothing could make me happier than the fact that Superbowl ads can now be seen the morning after on Youtube. Part of my elation at this is due the fact that my wife sent me to pick up ice cream, pajamas, and a lemon at half-time. I know, it sounds kinky, but it’s not. Parenthood is like that.

Anyway, Mashable has neatly compiled the superbowl ads here:

http://mashable.com/2010/02/08/super-bowl-ads-2010/

Some, like Motorola’s Megan Fox spot, were totally missed by me the first time around. Like I said… God bless technology.

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PS – I’ll weigh in a little later with my top and bottom Superbowl spot pics and, for the record, way to go Saints!!!

I hate hypochrites!

Unfortunately, that doesn’t always stop me from being one….

My video blog is a great example. At the beginning of the year I insisted that I was going to do a video blog EVERY day. Then one day, early on, I didn’t get to it, so I made up a quaint excuse, uploaded someone else’s video, and figured I’d get right back to business the next day. I didn’t. In fact, I dropped off almost entirely not long after.

Really, there’s no excuse for this. I had an obligation to do a video blog every day and I didn’t meet it. I had that obligation based on the fact that I said I’d do it. It’s a good old-fashioned verbal contract that I failed to uphold and I’m a little embarrassed. And I should be embarrassed – because that, my friends, is shitty customer service.

Yes, customer service. My blog (albeit free) is a product  that you consume (thank you – by the way), and as a consumer of a product that I provide, you deserve better. All I can hope is that you’ll stick around and give me a chance to make it right. All I can DO is be honest… and deliver the goods.

All really can of us can do when we’ve failed to meet our clients/customers expectations is make sure we’ve set realistic expectations, and then find a way to exceed them. Yes, I didn’t say meet them – I said exceed them. This is a basic principle that goes all the back to elementary school – it’s called extra credit.

NOTE: In some cases, you can earn that extra credit just by delivering what you’ve promised. If your promises seem unrealistic, most of your customers won’t actually EXPECT you to deliver them, and you can therefor exceed their expectation just by doing so. This is, however, a very risky strategy that I don’t recommend unless you KNOW you can deliver.

In your marketing equation, extra credit translates to a Personal Experience Factor (PEF) of greater than 1. Your PEF is the thing that will multiply or divide ALL of your other business efforts. Please note, I didn’t say add or take away from, I said multiply or divide. In other words, if you do $100,000 in business annually but meet expectations only 90% of the time (a PEF of 0.9), expect to lose 10% of your business each year until your broke. Of course, you can offset this with a great advertising/marketing plan, but you’ll never do better than 90% of your potential. By contrast, if you consistently exceed expectations by 10% (a PEF of 1.1) you will grow 10% every year, even if you do nothing else.

That is why I’m saying right now, that I probably won’t video blog, or even just blog every day.  What I will do is focus on giving you tangible information (along with my opinion, of course) that’s useful for you in your business. For the time being, I’ll commit to doing this two or three times a week and we’ll see where it goes from there. Like all good relationships, we need to get to know each other a little better before we get too hot and heavy. Also, I’m still seeing other sites on the side. You can get to know some of them by scrolling to the bottom of this page.

I know this is an extra long one, so extra thanks for reading it all the way through. In fact, since you have, if you click here and send me an email, and I’ll give you (or a designee of your choice) a free hour of social media/marketing consulting. What you can expect from that hour is my undivided attention and honest answers to any questions you may have. That’s all I can promise, but then, I do love extra credit.

Cottonelle Roll Poll Throwdown

This rather silly argument, which I’ve reposted from Brandfreak, actually makes for a great viral marketing campaign. Never underestimate how seriously people take their personal preferences. In fact, this goes right to the heart of why some marketing works and other marketing doesn’t; it’s about the the consumer, not about you:

We’ve all had arguments like this before: Should the toilet paper roll over or under?

BrandFreak is a fan of the former, though Kimberly-Clark, one of the nation’s largest TP makers, is helping Americans to decide once and for all. (Thank goodness!) K-C, which makes the Scott and Cottonelle brands, has launched a contest that encourages consumers to vote for “under” or “over” at CottonelleRollPoll.com. Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott are leading the charge. (Tori is “a firm believer in rolling over,” while Dean is “an under kind of guy,” according to K-C). You have till March 6 to vote, though we have some stats in the meantime (courtesy of K-C) that might surprise you:

1) Of 1,000 adults surveyed, one in five get annoyed when the TP is hanging the wrong way.

2) Men are more likely to notice and be pissed off (if it’s not to their preferences, that is).

3) One in five admit to flipping the toilet paper if it’s not to their liking, even in someone else’s home.

Another interesting tidbit: “Overs” are usually overachievers and super-organized; “unders” are laid-back. Those who don’t care tend to “minimize conflict” and “value flexibility.” OK, yes, we’re in the overachiever group.

—Posted by Elaine Wong