Theresa Q's Viewspage on Marketkeeping

The best way to handle change is lead it. #li

In marketing, the ongoing challenge is the commodification of everything. Our clients are constantly trying to reduce us to items they can place in a pigeon-hole. Easily compared. We have to stand up for our unique contribution. 

gapingvoid.com: It Take Courage by Brian Solis, 2011-Mar-28

..., the truest, most genuine ans­wer that I can share is that…to bring about change does not take tech­no­logy, it takes cou­rage. And, this is why change is not a com­mo­dity. Change is not easy nor is it for­mu­laic. But I can say this with the utmost con­vic­tion, change.is.inevitable and it is yours to define.

Don't thoughtlessly let Facebook create your image. #li

I have seen amazing benefits from Facebook, many of them beneficial to me personally. But I will not carelessly let it create the me that it thinks exists based on the information it harvests. I don't agree with everything I read. 

CNet News - Molly Rants: How Facebook is ruining sharing, 2011-Nov-18, by Molly Wood

Sharing and recommendation shouldn't be passive. It should be conscious, thoughtful, and amusing--we are tickled by a story, picture, or video and we choose to share it, and if a startling number of Internet users also find that thing amusing, we, together, consciously create a tidal wave of meme that elevates that piece of media to viral status. We choose these gems from the noise. Open Graph will fill our feeds with noise, burying the gems.

You can't have a conversation with people who aren't paying attention. #li

Today's post connects back to Rob May's comment that innovation has moved from product to marketing. The biggest challenge facing business today is getting and keeping attention.

Blog: When minimal-viable-product doesn't work, 2011-Nov-5, by Seth Godin

Inherent in the process of minimal viable product, then, is a trusting, large permission base that will eagerly listen to you, try your new work and let you know what they think. And you don't have the option of building that audience once the product is ready--that's too late.

Why I only give lip service to Facebook

I'm an unwilling participant in Facebook. I refuse to invest any time in supporting the application itself, although I will use the tools to help my friends. I thoroughly support Dan Yoder. He spends a lot of time ragging on the privacy stuff, but because I WANT my opinions and loyalties to spread, I'm not that concerned with people finding out what I like. However I am sick of the crummy interface and appearance. And the ads: if they're so interested in what I like, why are the ads so poorly targeted?

rocket.ly: Top Ten Reasons You Should Quit Facebook, 2010-Apr-26, by Dan Yoder

1. The Facebook application itself sucks.

Two ways sponsorships engage an audience

As I observe the evolution of marketing and advertising, I am convinced that 'sponsorships' will become one of the most important ways for companies to gain and keep awareness among a target audience. Sponsorships take the pressue off a company to talk too much about itself (or theirselves, I guess). Your audience is interested in what you can do for them, but not in much else going on in the company. Unless your have employees who are particularly entertaining...if not, you can hire some entertainment by sponsoring a professional entertainer.

For instance, Hewlett-Packard is sponsoring the online airing of The Beautiful Life, a cancelled TV series produced by Ashton Kutcher. The really entertaining part is that HP is not promoting computers but a charity drive, and now the show's stars have to participate. Looks to me like a clever variety of product placement.

Hewlett-Packard is presuming that Kutcher and his supermodel stars will attract traffice, but Toyota's Scion brand is taking a different tact. They are helping their audience discover emerging artists in music and the visual arts, in keeping with their brand promise to help people express themselves. After sponsoring hundreds of performances and exhibitions, they have launched www.ScionAV.com to make sure their audience realizes they support many artists across many genres.

So Hewlett-Packard is 'borrowing fame' and Scion has its 'heart on its sleeve'--two ways you can use sponsorships to keep your market engaged.

Hanging out with the cool crowd

To improve the quantity and quality of people in their online community, The Patrón Spirits Company is building a two-way cross promotional system with more popular sites.

Mediapost Marketing Daily: Patrón Club Leveraging Content Partnerships, 2009-Jul-24, by Karlene Lukovitz

In essence, the brand is taking online media buys to a different level by aggregating and integrating the exclusive content and event opportunities. Eleven site partners are currently providing exclusive content, refreshed monthly, for an area within the club site dubbed "The Agenda." [Hip content sites include Going.com, Urban Daddy, Thrillist, Pandora, etc.] Partners are responsible for generating articles relevant to the Patrón brand's core target audience and driving new, qualified members to the club site via whatever brand-appropriate tactics they believe will be effective.

How to Host a Good Party

Corporate art patronage doesn't usually lead to great art, but it does lead to great parties, and it's a good fit for alcoholic beverage Campari. Art patronage can be leveraged in so many different directions. You can send out press releases, send out invitations, get the artist to help with images for the advertising, if they are so inclined. Anheuser-Busch has been doing some great digital artist sponsorship for Flavorpill.

Mediapost Marketing Daily: Campari Unveils Commissions Initiative, Targeting Artists. 2007-Aug-28, by Nina M. Lentini (free registration required): As it continues to target a key demographic for the brand, Campari has expanded its House of Campari contemporary art program--now in its third season--to include a newly announced 2007 Campari Commissions Initiative. The goals of the Campari Commissions are to provide financial support for artists to create significant new works of art and exhibition opportunities for showing the work, and then to donate the artworks to appropriate museum collections.