Category: Advertising & Marketing

I can be the talent, too

Posted on by Brian Lee

A couple of months ago, the Greater Madison Convention & Visitors Bureau asked me to be a part of its fall marketing campaign, to which I quickly answered YES!

We did photo shoots at the Dane County Farmers’ Market, Capitol Chophouse (at 10 a.m. for a romantic dinner) and the downtown location of the Great Dane (at 11 a.m. for a post-football game celebration) in mid-August.

I’ve been on the other side of the shoots before, telling the talent how to pose and the photographer/videographer what I want shot/filmed. It was interesting being on the other side–I hope my perspective made me easier to work with!

It also was nice working with Kate Dale, the marketing manager that I knew through a mutual friend, and John Maniaci, the photographer with whom I used to work at the Wisconsin State Journal.

So, do you want to see the results? Click through all the links on the following landing page to see the photos: http://www.visitmadison.com/food/

Bad decisions by a company

Posted on by Brian Lee

One responsibility of a public relations or marketing department is to explain to senior management what the outcomes of any company decision would be. Usually, bad decisions can be stopped or altered in the pre-planning stages before it gets too late.

I can’t imagine this scenario was played out at Netflix. In July, it announced its DVD rental and streaming video services would be sold separately at $8 each. Netflix’s indifference toward its customers’ backlash led one analyst to say, “This would appear to illustrate that Netflix is simply not concerned with the prospect of losing customers.”

Customers will always have concerns over price increases, but Netflix had a double-whammy, as its streaming service also was being reduced (despite promises of increases). One or the other could have been tolerated over time, but not both.

In this AP article, it mentions Starz Entertainment ending negotiations (meaning fewer streaming options), and Netflix losing 600,000 customers from June to September.

Well Netflix, you’re getting what you deserve. Bad decisions for your customers always lead to bad outcomes for your company.

Grocery shopping with QR codes

Posted on by Brian Lee

QR codes (the square, barcode-like picture that you scan with your smartphone to access a website) still haven’t taken off in the United States. For one, they were never really introduced to the public; rather, they just started appearing. Second, not everyone has a smartphone, and even the people who do know that QR code readers aren’t a standard app.

On top of that, I have read many case studies on QR code usage and have been completely underwhelmed (oh boy, a chance to sign up for your company’s crappy newsletter), until now: A Korean grocery store called Tesco put up displays of their foods in subways so people could shop while waiting. Watch this video:

Instead of creating some useless website as the destination of the QR codes, like most companies to date have done, Tesco actually filled a need (grocery shopping). Pure genius.