Casey Flanagan

What To Bet On

Posted: by Filed under: Content Strategy, Marketing

Two years ago, Grantland.com – a site that covers sports and pop culture – was launched. At the time, the site received a good bit of coverage – especially for a website launch. One article from The Atlantic’s title said it all – “Bill Simmons’s Grantland Is Doomed Even Before Launch.” Last week, Grantland celebrated its two year anniversary.

I’m not surprised. Its early detractors believed it would fail for many of the reasons I thought it would succeed – the identifiable personality of the site’s founder and the high-price of the site’s talent, to name just two.

Sure, hindsight is 20/20. It’s easy to pick the winner two years later. But Grantland’s success stems from two core strengths that were evident from the outset:

Fans who care

Bill Simmons – the site’s founder – was probably the most widely read sportswriter in the America. The site’s consulting editors – Malcolm Gladwell, Dave Eggers and Chuck Klosterman – all had rabid, rabid fans. As content begins to look and feel more and more similar and as eyeballs are splintering in more and more directions, why wouldn’t you bet on a core of writers who already have loyal readers?

And why are these readers loyal?

Quality content

That’s the most important thing. Always has been. Always will be. Grantland tells stories. They write in long-form. They experiment with formats. They do things differently. They are focused on not just having a point, but having a point-of-view. And while they don’t take themselves too seriously, there is clearly a pride in craftsmanship. You get the feeling that the product they put out is not just one they stand behind, it’s one they’d read themselves.

We have many choices for where to invest our time, our money, our resources. “Stories well told” and “content people look forward to” are opportunities I would bet on. Every single time.

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

SHARE:

Casey Flanagan

The Year In Review. Number Four.

Posted: by Filed under: How To, Ideas

This week marks my fourth year of writing a weekly blog post. In years one, two and three, I put together a Year In Review.

According to Hallmark, fourth anniversaries should be marked with a gift of appliances. So here are seven of my favorite posts from the last year that I hope you can use as a tool for your business.

Add A Will For A Way
Looking ahead not only allows you to live in the near future, it frees you from the same old thinking.

What To Learn From Being Wrong
To make better decisions, be aware that context is there. Whether you can see it or not.

The Real Value Of More Time
The real value of more time is “less.”

How To Preach To Your Choir
To keep your loyalists enthusiastic and engaged, you must find ways to stay fresh.

A Better Way To Think About A Better Way
There is always a better way. And that’s an opportunity.

If You’re Stuck, Start Asking Questions
If you have questions, you’re going to have to get answers.

Marketing Is Human
This doesn’t have to be complicated. It does have to be genuine.

Thanks for reading. And stay tuned. Next year’s gift is silverware.

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

SHARE:

Katie Mullen

Reaching “Peak Bullshit” and Where We Go From Here

Posted: by Filed under: Advertising, Branding, Marketing, Planning / Research, Trends

I’m a college graduation speech junkie. When you ask interesting people to share life lessons, not surprisingly, it can make for some pretty great stuff.

My favorite of 2013 was Jon Lovett’s address to the graduates of Pitzer College, which the 30-year-old former Obama speechwriter later excerpted in a piece for The Atlantic called “Life Lessons on Fighting a Culture of Bullshit.”

You had me at “bullshit,” Jon. Being that the recession created skeptics out of even the most trusting among us, I’m willing to bet his point of view will strike a cord with you too. It’s kind of hard not to agree with statements like this:

“One of the greatest threats we face is, simply put, bullshit. We are drowning in it. We are drowning in partisan rhetoric that is just true enough not to be a lie; in industry-sponsored research; in social media’s imitation of human connection; in legalese and corporate double-speak. It infects every facet of public life, corrupting our discourse, wrecking our trust in major institutions, lowering our standards for the truth, making it harder to achieve anything.”

You can see where I’m taking this as it relates to brands. Phoniness is becoming a liability and, conversely, there’s more opportunity than ever for brands that are honest. In a McKinsey & Company article about the rise of socially conscious consumers, the growing importance of brand integrity is spelled out in the stats:

“At the same time, consumer trust in corporations has declined by 50 percent since the crisis. Consumers now trust only one in four companies on average. The dearth of trust in the marketplace makes it an agent of differentiation. As a result, the correlation of trust to brand equity has increased by 35 percent in the past three years. Trust, once an afterthought, can even help companies enter new market categories.”

Jon Lovett not only recognized a similar demand for sincerity in his commencement speech, he argued that it’s led us to an important cultural tipping point:

“I believe we may have reached ‘peak bullshit.’ And that increasingly, those who push back against the noise and nonsense; those who refuse to accept the untruths of politics and commerce and entertainment and government will be rewarded. That we are at the beginning of something important. We see it across our culture, with not only popularity but hunger for the intellectual honesty of Jon Stewart or the raw sincerity of performers like Louis CK and Lena Dunham. You see it across the political spectrum, from Elizabeth Warren in Massachusetts to Chris Christie in New Jersey to Rand Paul in Kentucky.”

Marketing can’t create trust in this environment, it can only magnify it. More and more, people are looking into the practices and policies of the companies they choose to hand their money over to. Do they treat their employees fairly? What are their environmental policies? Where/how are their products made?

That’s why I think Jon’s parting advice to the Pitzer graduates is as relevant to brands as it is to individuals:

“All you have to do is avoid BSing yourself — in whatever you choose to do…be honest with yourselves, and others…reject a culture of insincerity by virtue of the example you set.”

SHARE:

Casey Flanagan

Add A Will For A Way

Posted: by Filed under: How To, Ideas

The path forward is ours to create.

If you’re looking for a simple tool to light the way, add a “will.”

While “where there’s a will there’s a way” focuses on intent and dedication, there is another important will – a future focus. And that is especially important to the questions you’re wrestling with.

Turn “What is our differentiator” into “What will our differentiator be?”
Turn “What is our story?” into “What will our story be?”
Turn “Who is our best customer?” into “Who will be our best customer be?”

Looking ahead does two important things.

First, it allows you to live in the near future. It allows you to explore different potential scenarios – to be thinking a few steps ahead of the competition. Let’s lead, not follow.

Second, it frees you from the same old thinking. It allows you to think in terms of should’s – what you should be, rather than just what you are. For better and worse, let’s not accept our current reality as a given for the future.

Let your will’s light your way.

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

SHARE:

Casey Flanagan

Have A Nice Day

Posted: by Filed under: Collaboration, How To, Ideas

No, literally.

Rudeness at work is rampant, and it’s on the rise. As a result, the global economy could benefit from turning Have A Nice Day from a bumper sticker aphorism to a mission statement.

According to a recent Harvard Business Review article titled The Price of Incivility, “over the past 14 years we’ve polled thousands of workers about how they’re treated on the job, and 98% have reported experiencing uncivil behavior. In 2011, half said they were treated rudely at least once a week – up from a quarter in 1998.”

The result? Creativity suffers. Performance deteriorates. And resources are wasted – managers at Fortune 1,000 firms spend the equivalent of seven weeks a year dealing with the aftermath of incivility.

Being nice doesn’t mean being a pushover. It does mean – at least from time to time – being selfless. Think about good collaboration practices. Share the credit. Show respect. Earn attention. Don’t forget to surprise. And / or delight. Spread the love.

If we work together, we can continue to create places in which people want to work together. From there, productivity and creativity flow.

It’s a nice thought.

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

SHARE:

Casey Flanagan

Smart Words From Smart People. The @leeclowsbeard Edition.

Posted: by Filed under: Advertising, Collaboration, How To, Ideas

In honor of the 1,000th tweet from @leeclowsbeard, let’s dust off the old “Smart Words From Smart People” approach.

Lee Clow’s Beard is not written by Lee Clow’s Beard. Or, even, Lee Clow. But it is genuinely insightful and enjoyable nonetheless. It’s no wonder Mr. Clow approves.

Enjoy an assortment of twenty-one of my favorite tweets from the last three years. If you want more – and why wouldn’t you? – check out @leeclowsbeard. If you want more in analog edition, support the Beard here.

  1. If you don’t think your brand should be brash, don’t be brash. If you don’t think your brand should be bold, you’re wrong. (09/18/12)
  2. A brand should always do everything it says, but rarely say everything it does. (08/02/12)
  3. Be patient. Changing people’s perceptions rarely happens overnight. At least not in a good way. (07/27/12)
  4. Make sure the strategy has legs before worrying if the creative will. (01/06/12)
  5. Great brands have interesting on-hold music that people rarely hear. (12/22/11)
  6. The facts of the matter are rarely the heart of the matter. (11/07/11)
  7. No one needs a link to opt out of your brand. (07/25/11)
  8. Critique first. Criticize fiftieth. (04/29/11)
  9. Please don’t complain about ROI if you are unwilling to actually I. (03/16/11)
  10. “Why not?” is not a rhetorical question. (03/01/11)
  11. Turns out there really is a formula for great advertising. Of course, it contains nothing but variables. (01/28/11)
  12. Simplicity is usually the result of much complex thinking. (01/07/11)
  13. Make your brand the strong call to action. (12/15/10)
  14. You can’t cut clutter with clutter. (11/08/10)
  15. Big thinkers don’t mistake simple ideas for small ones. (06/04/10)
  16. On collaboration: Just because all opinions are welcome doesn’t mean all opinions are valid. Now stop pouting. (05/20/10)
  17. It’s the little compromises that add up to a giant bucket of suck. (05/13/10)
  18. The best insights usually make you feel like you should’ve known them all along. (04/01/10)
  19. A brand doesn’t need a unique position in the market as much as a unique position in consumers’ minds. (12/17/09)
  20. If you want a stronger call to action, create a better ad. (07/22/09)
  21. Consumers never complain about ads being too smart. (08/17/09)

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

SHARE:

Sammi Dittloff

Amy’s Baking Company – What Not to do on Social Media

Posted: by Filed under: PR, Social Media

You’ve probably heard about the Amy’s Baking Company social media debacle that exploded after a recent episode of Gordon Ramsey’s Kitchen Nightmares, but in case you missed it, here’s a quick recap:

  • Amy and Samy Bouzaglo, owners of Amy’s Baking Company Bakery Boutique & Bistro, appeared on an episode of Kitchen Nightmares on May 10, 2013.
  • During the course of the episode, the owners mention they have online “haters” on sites like Yelp. It doesn’t take long for the viewers to figure out why. The owners’ offenses start adding up, including having customers wait an hour for their pizza, not tipping their servers, and serving frozen ravioli to their customers.
  • After trying to sit down with the couple and reason with them, Gordon Ramsey eventually gives up, labeling them as in denial people that can’t be helped.

For many business owners, this would be an embarrassing wake-up call. Maybe they should change their policies and try to win back business with a food (and ‘tude) makeover.

But this was not the case. The couple received negative comments on social media and shot back on May 14 with gems on Facebook such as:

 

 

These comments only fueled the fire. Tons of new negative reviews popped up on Yelp and Reddit boards helped curate the conversation. Their fan count, which was at about 2,000 before BuzzFeed covered it, 7,000 when I looked at it in the morning of May 14, and at over 52,000 a day later, is now full of the haters they were trying to fend off in the first place. Realizing their grave missteps, they released the following statement:

 

 

So, now that we’re all caught up, let’s talk about what we can learn from this:

1. Never alienate a potential customer

These owners seem to have received a sort of “Soup Nazi” reputation over the years – long before Kitchen Nightmares came along. Sure, there are a lot of people that hated them for their attitudes, but outside of the subpar food and service, there were genuine customers saying genuinely nice things about Amy’s desserts. Now anyone who had seen Amy’s as a place to get a dessert for any occasion will be forced to think twice. Do they want to buy from such negative people? (Some say the desserts aren’t made there, but that’s another issue).

2. Don’t feed the trolls 

Trolls are the oftentimes anonymous users that spawn from sites like Reddit, and continue to insult a person or business in order to provoke them. They want to see that person act poorly in a bad situation. The best thing to do with trolls is to just ignore them. They can take almost anything and turn it into a larger spectacle, but if you say nothing in the first place, they’ve got nothing to keep going.

3. In social media, not all publicity is good publicity

This new audience may be your “fans”, but you will never make money off of them. Best to rectify bad publicity as soon as possible to keep the good fans you had

4. Anticipate bad coverage, and prepare responses to reframe the negative

The most cringeworthy thing about this debacle for me is that the Bouzaglos knew exactly when this episode was going to air, and exactly how they were going to look. They had “released a statement” on their Facebook page on the night of the episode, but instead of admitting they screwed up, they defended the fact that they don’t tip out their servers.

Simply saying, “We appreciate everyone’s feedback and are working on making Amy’s Baking Company a better place for our customers” would probably pacify a large number of people. And, if you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all.

5. When you make a mistake, own it

Some of the worst PR debacles have been fixed by the company coming back and saying, “You know what? We screwed up. We’re listening now.” PayPal experienced that not too long ago in an issue with not releasing donations to Regretsy that were collected through PayPal’s service. The worst thing to do is to deflect the blame. Based on previous behavior from the owners, it’s hard to believe that they were victims of hackers. Even if it were true, at this point they’ve lied about so much, nobody would ever believe them.

You can follow me on Twitter @tasty_sammich. We’ll talk about the do’s and don’ts of social media.

SHARE:

Casey Flanagan

In Praise of Fact

Posted: by Filed under: Ideas, Marketing, Planning / Research, Tracking

Theories are the bedrock of innovation. They question the status quo. They drive new thinking. They spark change. But where do theories come from?

Whether we can articulate the specifics or not, theories originate from data. From numbers, experiences, results or reactions. And data comes from the past.

But the role of theory is to look into the future.

Facts are the bridge. If data comes from the past and theories look to the future, facts live in the present. Facts are the linchpin.

While theory’s job is to explain facts. It is the job of fact to organize data.

Theories get the credit. And, perhaps, they should. Great theories bring data – and facts – to life. With vision, through storytelling.

But make no mistake, facts do much of the work. Obsessing over facts is time well spent. Doing so is the first step towards your future.

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

SHARE:

Kelly Christiansen

Personal growth for brands: The Four Agreements

Posted: by Filed under: Advertising, How To, Ideas, Marketing, Social Media

Is your brand doing what it says it will do? No matter what is happening in the world around it, does your brand have a response plan in place? Is it listening? Is it always doing the best it can? Spring has sprung. We begin to grow plants and gardens. Perhaps your brand could benefit from a little personal growth.

The Four Agreements, a book by Don Miguel Ruiz, is his most famous and influential work.  It was published in 1997 and has sold around 4 million copies.It was featured on Oprah, in “O, The Oprah Magazine”, and Ruiz was recently on the OWN network.

These agreements apply to brands. These agreements are simple. We LOVE simple.

 

 

1. Be impeccable with your word.

In order to be impeccable with our brand’s word, we need to know the kinds of things our brand would say. To start, we author the creative brief:

We paint the big picture: the context and world in which our brand is living. We understand what makes our target tick. We uncover their emotional trigger, which tells us the motivation. We identify the promise, the one thing we can deliver. We take a blend of values together and define the brand. This leads us to our organizing concept, those few words that capture the essence of the brand.

 If everything your brand says nods to the motivation, delivers the promise, and is consistent with the organizing concept, your brand is following the first agreement. 

 2. Don’t take anything personally.

There is a fine line between listening to your customers and the idea that ‘whatever happens around you, do not take it personally’.

On one hand, brands cannot “tune out” – they need to listen to their customers and have two-way communication.

@DaveKerpen told us at @mobium’s New Paradigm Series, that the biggest mistake a brand can make is ignoring their highly captive, constantly communicating audiences.

On the other hand, negative events that impact our brands are unavoidable. We can’t just ignore it. Smart brands have a plan. Months in advance they prepare how to address negative comments or events that could have negative impact. When such events happen, boom, there your brand is with poise and grace to respond.

When your brand is proactive, it can deliver on its promise in the face of whatever is happening around it.

3. Don’t make assumptions.

When marketers don’t make assumptions, it means they are asking questions and listening.

 Asking questions and listening help us understand the world in which our brand is living and the needs of our customers.

 4. Always do your best.

One day a brand can make a mistake.  One day a natural disaster or other event outside of our control can impact the success of our brand. The best brands learn from mistakes, roll with the punches, and move forward with solutions.

Strong brands know that their best is different from one day to the next, and always do their best in a constantly changing environment.

SHARE:

Casey Flanagan

It’s Not What You Say

Posted: by Filed under: Advertising, How To, Ideas, Marketing

A communication isn’t what you say. It’s what the other person hears.

That’s a hard truth – but valuable lesson – for lovers of words.

The same truth holds true for brands. All brands. Your brand.

Your brand is not what you say it is. It’s what your prospect thinks it is. What your prospect believes it is. And what your prospect says it is.

What they think forms the foundations of their expectations. What they believe defines the ultimate relationship. And what they say influences the perceptions of their network.

This doesn’t mean what you say doesn’t matter. Rather, it’s a reminder to plan one step ahead. Instead of thinking about what you’re going to say, think about what they are going to say.

Once you have a clear understanding of what that is, then figure out what you can say to get them there. That’s the message to invest in.

Because it’s not what you say. It’s what they say that matters.

Interested in more stuff I find interesting? Follow me @casey_flanagan on Twitter.

SHARE: