Category archives for

– Advertising –

Givers, Takers and Fakers

by Jason Falls · April 1, 2013

The social marketing space is an awesome collection of people. I’ve had the good fortune to get to know many of them in the last few years. Generosity of time and spirit is a common thread. Unfortunately, it’s not always the case. I spent three years or so helping other people build their businesses, lending time, travel, ideas, promotions, etc. When I needed help building my business, the true colors showed. Genuine friends emerged. The others were outed, even if they didn’t know it.

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Online Subscription Models Are An Assault On Literacy

by Jason Falls · January 7, 2013

If you don’t know the newspaper business is broken by now, I’m sorry about your decade-old coma. No, I’m not one to proclaim print media to be dead. But we are certainly planted squarely in the midst of a massive shift in how news is disseminated, who receives it and how reliable it is.

I fear that more and more newspapers and other online versions of trusted media outlets moving to paid subscription models is ultimately an assault on literacy. As you may know, I serve on the board of directors for the National Center for Family Literacy. This subject is close to my heart. I don’t speak for the NCFL here, only offer my own opinions, but I don’t come to this conclusion lightly.

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Does Compelling Art Sell?

by Jason Falls · August 27, 2012

Watching the promotional video for a friend’s new product recently, I found myself really engaged. It was a beautiful piece with vibrant imagery. Whomever produced the video worked hard and the finished product was well worth watching. It was compelling, visually. It was a piece of art.

Great art alone never sold anything

But nothing in the piece told me what the product was, why I might use it or how I can even buy it.

Great art serves a purpose. But great art alone never sold anything. For that, you need great copy.

Permanent link to this post (95 words, estimated 23 secs reading time)
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The Social Technology Behind Empowering Your Fans

by Jason Falls · August 20, 2012

Since the early days of social media marketing, which is to say for the last 10 years or so, the coveted Nirvana for brands has been to recruit, engage and empower its most loyal fans in hopes they’ll advocate on behalf of the product, service or company. Building an army of marketers you don’t have to pay drives word-of-mouth referrals and buzz, which is often cited as 10 or more times more effective than traditional advertising. Having a community of loyal advocates on your side is a powerful marketing weapon.

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The Power of the Social Media Savvy Moms: Interview with Kat Gordon

by Adam Helweh · July 13, 2012

I recently connected with Kat Gordon the founder and creative director of Maternal Instinct, an agency of creative problem solvers for marketing to moms. Kat is also the creator of The 3% Conference, an event that highlights the business importance of female Creative Directors — who comprise only 3% of their field – to succeeding in (her words) an estrogen-driven marketplace.

I asked her a few questions to help get her expert opinion on how women, specifically mothers, are influencing purchase decisions and using social media. I also wanted to get the scoop on why she feels the marketing and advertising industry needs an event such as her upcoming 3% Conference. Read on …

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Increasing Customer Spend With A Little Social Media Help

by Jason Falls · July 6, 2012

Postcardmania reached out to me recently to tell me of a social media case study of their own that generated $120,637 in sales. Case studies with metrics are hard to come by — everyone wants to tell me what they’re about to do. Very few want to tell me what they did. So, I started asking questions.

It turns out that Postcardmania, which is a full-service marketing company, but one that certainly has a direct mail bend, came up with a nice case study on increasing current customer spend. It’s not altogether a social media case study, but what they did is worth noting because social media can at least get an assist here. Here’s what they did:

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The Irony of Our Facebook Ad Fascination

by Jason Falls · June 15, 2012

Everyone is up in arms about Facebook ads. Sure the social network giant needs to improve its business model, which is mostly driven through advertising dollars, to help investors gain confidence and bring that stock price back up. And yes, there are those in the social space that are concerned about Facebook’s ability to do so and are, thus, watching closely.

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Brands Focusing Solely On Facebook Are Destined To Lose

by Jason Falls · May 7, 2012

Brands shifting all or most of their digital marketing and social media marketing efforts to Facebook are going to lose and perhaps big. Yes, there are 900 million users there. Yes, the IPO is coming and an influx of cash and becoming a publicly traded company will bring with it many benefits that will strengthen what Facebook is. Yes, Facebook will continue to be an ever-present social utility for years to come.

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27 comments

Daily Deal Fatigue? Not So Fast!

by Jason Falls · April 19, 2012

New research from Edison Research and Arbitron is out today on the daily deal world — Groupon, Living Social, TryItLocal and the like. Tom Webster is actually live casting the data this afternoon at 2:30 ET if you’d like to see it unveiled complete with explanations from the master himself.

Unlike infographics and “research” created for content purposes, Edison and Arbitron are actual market researchers and scientists that put their data through stringent checks and balances to ensure sampling is representative and biases are vetted. For research in the social media and digital marketing world, there are few as trustworthy as these guys.

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