Sent their users flowers when they’ve had a bad day
Received a 99% positive referral rating
Had an entrepreneurial blog and irreverent newsletter
Had a Twitter following so passionate that users solved problems
Instilled a little bit of “magic” into everyday life?
Well, if you’re a marketer, a manager, or public relations rep trying to improve your company’s image, then my interview with Saul Colt, ‘Head of Magic’ for the online invoicing company ‘Freshbooks,’ is a must-listen.
Our 20-minute conversation is a marketing case study for using social media and “retro marketing” to grow a loyal following. We discuss:
How Freshbooks was born out of frustration that many freelancers face
Why they take their customers — even non-paying ones — to free dinners
What just might happen if you get stood up on a blind date
His title, and what happens when the “Head of Magic” heads to Las Vegas
Why he has a Love-Hate relationship with Zappos.com
The iPhone promotion that differentiated them from every other company
Slumdog Millionaire is a love story surrounded by the harsh realities of life wrapped in a game show. While many inspirational and thought-provoking life lessons can be taken from the movie, I’m going to look at 12 Oscar-worthy marketing lessons from the film.
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4 MARKETING LESSONS FROM THE STORYLINE
1) Beware expectations
If you haven’t seen the movie yet, there are some ***spoilers*** in here so don’t say I didn’t warn you. The bigger problem for you right now is that if you haven’t seen the movie, now that it’s getting award show buzz and your friends are raving about it, it’s nearly impossible to live up to expectations.
Rana Sobhany is Vice-President of Marketing for Medialets, an analytics provider and ad network for mobile devices such as the Apple iPhone and Google’s Android phone. She sat down for an interview with Wired’s Marketing Guy Jim Hopkinson on The Hopkinson Report podcast.
Today I’m going to live up to my tagline and do exactly that, taking a look back at the marketing trends that mattered in 2008, and what’s to come in 2009.
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Hey Everyone… Christmas is just days away for me so I’m going to crank out a quick top 10 list before I head home for the holidays. I’ll give you the marketing trend that mattered this year, how that trend could evolve in 2009, and the podcast episode to go back and listen to that covered the topic. Let’s roll.
After years of Apple picking on Microsoft with their ‘Mac vs. PC’ ads, Bill Gates and the evil empire are finally swinging back. Who will win this round?
Back in June 2008, the tech world – and yours truly – was obsessed with the all-encompassing marketing hype surrounding the Apple iPhone 3G launch, while Microsoft had just awarded ad agency Crispin, Porter + Bogusky their $300 million consumer-branding campaign to make Microsoft cool again.
Since then, the iPhone has been the one with some PR problems, Microsoft has rolled out some new ads with some serious star power, and that podcast has been the third most downloaded out of 23. What, did you think Steve Jobs and Bill Gates would be more popular than an interview with Wired Cover Girl and self-promoter Julia Allison? Please.
This week’s episode is part rant, part How-to, and part customer service failure, as I take you through my special experience when switching cell phone carriers.
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When you’re just a kid, your mom tells you you’re special. That there’s nobody else in the entire world like you. And as I stood in line, speaking to the hapless worker behind the AT&T counter – telling my story, again – I was beginning to think that, well, that just may be true. Somehow, some way, I was the most unique mobile cell phone customer on the entire planet, and not a single person at AT&T, Sprint, Apple, Best Buy, or the vast expanse of the entire world wide web could solve my problem.
It was the weekend of July 12, and for fans of the Apple iPhone, it was truly Christmas in July. I had held off purchasing the original model, but for the past six months I had subscribed to 3 different iPhone RSS feeds, soaking in every rumor and secret screenshot, and was ready to get my hands on a gleaming new iPhone 3G.
This story is not about my quest to get the actual phone, although it could be. I bailed out on a 4-hour line at the 5th Avenue store in Manhattan that Friday night, was told inventory was sold out at an AT&T store on Saturday morning, arrived too late to get in line at the Apple Store again on Saturday night, but finally clutched the device in my hands after a 2 ½ hour wait at the Soho store on Sunday afternoon. The phone itself was mine.
My story is about what I thought was a very, very simple question.
For this week’s podcast, I interviewed Julia Allison, who appears on the cover of the August issue of Wired Magazine. We talked about tips for self-promotion in the new media age, personality-based marketing, and why she won’t be buying an iPhone.
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View photos, videos, and story links in the blog post below:
“BRACE YOURSELF”
Those were the words that Wired Editor-in-Chief Chris Anderson said to me when I told him I was interviewing Julia Allison for my podcast.
I’d already seen the media maelstrom that starts churning whenever her name is mentioned. And so had he. In response to a thank you e-mail Julia wrote to him, knowing all the flack he would take for putting her on the cover, Chris stated “Don’t worry – we’re big boys and we knew what we were doing.”
Put simply, what he was doing was marketing. Some people love her. Many people hate her. But what you can’t deny is that she’s a lightning rod for publicity. Would you prefer the alternative of a boring cover that doesn’t evoke any reaction?
I’ve heard more than one person say, “Oh my God, I hate that girl, I was on her web site for 20 minutes and I can’t believe the things she posts on there.” From a strictly marketing perspective, the key phrase is “on her site for 20 minutes.” What is the average time spent on your blog or website?
Julia talks about:
What three elements make the top YouTube video of all time
In this week’s episode, I rant about the movie going experience, the marketing surrounding it, and how’s it’s gone from distraction to infraction.
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I went to the movies to see the new blockbuster WANTED starring Angelina Jolie and Morgan Freeman during its opening weekend.My review? A great summer action movie that played out as The Matrix meets Office Space. Very slick. Very enjoyable.
But NOT so enjoyable was the process leading up to the movie.The pre-game, if you will, was unbearable.
Jim investigates new ad campaigns for the iPhone, and comeback campaigns for Microsoft.
We’re just one week away from a tech geek’s Super Bowl, Christmas, and First Born Child rolled into one… the release of the second generation iPhone. I give my prediction of what Apple’s ad campaign will be like for the 3G. Along the way, I rant about idiots that don’t observe cell phone etiquette on a 4 hour bus ride, and how to get back at them.
I also talk about Alex Bogusky, the man with one of the toughest jobs in the world… making Microsoft cool again. Now that Bill Gates is stepping down, Windows Vista has been thrashed beyond belief, and the Yahoo merger talks have quieted, I give my take on what can be done
I look into an unlikely field, the construction industry – and how they are – and are NOT – using the latest technology. I interview my friend David, a construction manager in Oakland, California and get his take on everything from digital GPS surveying equipment to Motorola push-to-talk phones.
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I also tell a hilarious story about my encounter at the W Hotel in Manhattan with a few hard core Iron workers sipping neon green Apple Martinis.
