Launch Day

For me, the preparation and build-up to a major product launch is one of the highlights of technology marketing. The sheer volume of effort that goes into a successful launch makes the launch project stand alone in our marketing craft.

The process starts with early visioneering sessions – a chaotic white-board soup of R&D schedules, customer requests, market directions, competitive analysis, sales input, calendars, strategy, and healthy dollops of both hope and optimism. What’s in? Out? Important or filler? When can we release?

Hats off to Harry's

When we wrote our best-selling, five-star rated book, Recommend This!, JT and I thought a lot about what it would take to establish trusted human relationships with people you've never met (and never will) using only online and digital communication. 

We're both big believers in Zig Ziglar's approach - sell yourself first, help first, build trust first. In fact, we wanted to title the book, 'Help First", but the book marketing folks thought otherwise.

At the time, we were enamored with Dollar Shave Club's online use of video, friendly quirky approach to build a tribe, and have some fun. We wrote a lot about DSC in chapter two.

Well now, DSC has some tough competition in the let us ship razor blades to your house business. Harry's is hitting it hard with promotion, tie in, and tribe-building.  

Advice for the (About to Be) Newly Married Man

Congrats on your engagement.  

Marriage is a good thing.

I've been married for the better portion of my life - longer than I was single.  If fact, given how I lived my life as a single man, I'm sure I would be dead now if not for marriage.

So, by all means, go get married.

Getting married, however, is a major league, expensive, pain in the butt, so I suggest you get that part of the process over with as quickly, cheaply, and painlessly as possible.  

For Dads, Daughters Are Different

For dads, daughters are different.

When a son is born, we hold him up for all the world to see.

When a daughter is born, we hold her close to protect her from all the world can do.

We watch a son, but we behold a daughter.

An honest, pleasant, old-fashioned, relationship-oriented car dealer?

Following our horrendous experience at Brigham and Gill Motors, we found another similar Jeep Wrangler listed online at O'Hara Motors down in Falmouth. The car was a year newer, and had less miles than Ali's.

A bit far away, but Pam's Dad lives there so I emailed the dealer.  He was up front about the doc fee - and other aspects of the car.  I sent Pam's dad over to look at, and he reported it was in good shape, hadn't been smoked in, etc.  So far, so good.

Dishonest and Rude is No Way to Go Through Life, Son

My mom used to play bridge with a nice lady named Peggy Brigham. Every couple of weeks, I got the call to drag up the card tables from the basement and help mom set up the living room.  I still remember the chocolate covered nuts mom would put on the table. A living room full of bridge playing AAUW members was a loud room, but I remember Peggy was really bubbly and really loud. She was also a bit of a celebrity because her husband owned Brigham and Gill Motors out on Rte 9, where everyone bought their cars.  I remember also that she lived up on Livingston Road - in one of the BIG houses in town.

Happy Umpteenth Anniversary

We’ve both worked hard, probably too hard, to raise a great family. Our kids are awesome, each different and special, reflecting the love and hard work we both poured into them. You are a wonderful mother.

We’re both feeling proud and sad and happy and scared as each of our babies now steps out on their own, but we can both also share a deep sense of satisfaction knowing we raised them well, and knowing we are there for them unconditionally and always.

Another Awesomely Awful Airline Customer Service Experience

Ah, Noreen.  You’re a rising star in the pantheon of nasty, foul-tempered, airline employees that ruin your employer’s brands, and destroy the value of their relationship networks every day. 

Bless the hardworking, smiling, go out of their way folks at JetBlue.  How do they do it?

Somewhere at Delta Airlines headquarters in Atlanta, a team of marketing experts are beating their MBA’s against the wall, trying to figure out how to improve customer service, increase NPS scores, and build valuable long-term relationships with uber-profitable customers (like me).  They know that the success of the airline lies in convincing me, and the rest of my last-minute purchasing, frequent-flying peers to choose Delta. 

And Noreen – you do realize we have a choice, right?

Implement a digital marketing plan that works with the modern consumer

Recommend This! Delivering Digital Experiences that People Want to Share is a comprehensive guide to effectively engaging online audiences by leveraging the fundamental nature of human relations. By reframing the expectations of digital consumers as a drive to make connections, the book enables digital marketers and communicators to harness the power of the Internet by rethinking traditional methods of audience interaction and engagement. Marketing has become less about trumpeting a product, and more about creating a niche within the community.

Invasive, assertive advertising is falling by the wayside as the digital age provides consumers with more choices than ever before. While the medium has changed, the central principle of marketing – building relationships – has not. Recommend This! Delivering Digital Experiences that People Want to Share guides communications professionals through the new digital reality of marketing to the online audience, and provides the information companies need to build a brand that attracts customers instead of chasing them. The book examines the needs of the digital consumer, and provides a roadmap toward fulfilling those needs as a brand. Topics include:

• Why storytelling engages more than broadcast messaging
• Shaping digital content to receive attention
• Nurturing online communities and delivering on promises
•  Being authentic and maintaining credibility

My Friend, Paul

I lost a friend a couple of days before Christmas.  Hell of a guy.  Solid as a rock.

The kind of guy who was so competent that if you thought about it you’d feel  like a dolt in comparison, except he made you feel like the coolest, smartest guy on earth when you were with him.

Hell of a guy.

Calling him a friend seems sort of selfish and cheap.  We didn’t exchange Christmas cards or anything.  I had a few beers with him once in a while.  We argued about football, gave each other a bunch of crap when we could.  I didn’t bother to learn his wife’s name until I got the call that they found him dead in his bed the day before Christmas.

Recommend This!

So, by now fellow readers know that I've co-authored a legit business book with Jason Thibeault called, Recommend This!

Personally, I think you'll enjoy reading it, and you'll find it valuable. I hope so.  It was a lot of work to write it, and we have no motivation other than to help you.

JT and I won't see a dime from the project, but that was never the point.  We wrote it because we had to, we had something to say, which we thought was valuable.  Its like an itch in the middle of your back that you can't quite reach. It drives you crazy until you find a tree to rub up against.  Well, for us, the book was our tree.

Now that the book is done, that itch is better, but another one has crept up between our shoulder blades - this one is a little harder to reach, and only you can scratch it.  We want people to read the damn thing - argue about it - curse us out, or shout our praises. Doesn't matter. The only way to scratch this is not be ignored.

"Stop Right There!"

She's pointing a finger at me, and when she catches my eye she flips her palm up into a stop sign.

Way to make customers feel welcome, Belle.

She's concerned that a first class passenger needs to get back to his seat, and wants me to hold up in the galley and wait for him to get settled.  I got no problem with that. As readers know, I am about the most compliant, and thoughtful, passenger an airline crew could hope to have on board. If you haven't read it, check out my earlier blog post "Sit Down, Shut up, and Fly".

What I do have a problem with is Belle.  She's a first class you-know-what-that-rhymes-with-hitch. Every inch of her body language screams, "I'm sick to death of dealing with you idiot passengers."

Why We Are Patriots

Boston is a tough little town – always has been.

We face down Mother Nature’s worst - blizzards, hurricanes, fire, and floods (both water and molasses).

And human nature’s worst - unjust rulers, criminals, bigots, and downright scoundrels. 

A decade ago, we faced the devil incarnate. 

Every time we walk through American Airlines Gate B32, we get a shiver up our spine knowing the bastard himself was right there at 7am on September 11, 2001.  Walking down the same jet way.  Breathing the same air.

Yesterday, we faced him again. 

A storytelling masterwork

I'm really excited about the new focus on storytelling in marketing - Coke is doing amazing stuff - loved the race in the desert idea-and they're online storytelling presence is awesome.

We've been talking a lot lately as an industry about storytelling.  I am a big fan of stories as marketing tools.  It's so much more interesting and engaging experience a story rather than a pitch.  Yesterday we saw a dozen great storytelling adverts on the Super Bowl.

None more powerful emotionally than The Farmer

Everyone - including Gary Sinese loved it.  But I say, it's a lousy commercial, and a poor use of storytelling.  Why?  Quick, what product was it pushing?  A pickup truck, good.  Which one?  Chevy? Ford?  No wait...Ram Pickups? hmmm...doesn't Fiat own that brand now?

The commercial was well executed. Paul Harvey, great.  But the connection of the brand to the story?  Not so much.  Chrysler could have woven in all the great stuff they have done for farmers over the years...it must be more than trucks, right?  Well, a quick search doesn't show that much actually. Chrysler doesn't appear to have a farm equipment focus. In fact the only tractor related Chrysler connection was an old news story about Chrysler strong-arming a tiny mid-west tractor manufacturer into giving up its Plymouth Tractor brand.

Bottom line, great execution, but no brand hook other than repetition, equals lousy marketing storytelling.

One lousy touch point destroys the entire customer experience

One unsmiling flight attendant, one lonely french fry on the floor, one hair left in the hotel bathtub…

one lousy little snag in an otherwise perfectly planned and carefully choreographed system is all it takes to collapse the entire enterprise into mediocrity.  Whether you are paying millions of dollars in advertising to attract frequent flyers, or staffing the cash register at your own boutique, the experience you provide customers is a layered house of cards.  One little puff of ill wind sends your entire creation crashing down on itself

99 and 1/2 Days

Alaskan crab fishing may well be the most dangerous job in the world, but being CMO is the most dangerous in the enterprise. The average tenure of a CMO is 40 months, or 1200 days.  You'd be nuts to give a CMO a mortgage.

Today in my 99^th day at Limelight.  I only have 1100 days left – to fix the marketing operations plumbing, fill the pipeline with a steady stream of opportunities, increase brand awareness, improve analyst relations, build a user community, build out international marketing, and develop ‘thought-leadership’ whatever the heck that means. 

Maybe I should just jump overboard now and get it over with…

Nah.  Having too much fun.  And, I don’t get seasick. Much.

Why Marketing is So Damn Hard Nowadays....

Talk about a Limelight bulb going off in your head...

Take a (close) look at this infograph compiled by our friend and colleague Daniel Webster:

Are You Awesome?

Well...not you yourself...of course, you are awesome...

But is your marketing awesome?  

Are you engaging your online audience with sizzling, relevant content?

Are you consistently presenting them with an awesome digital experience on every type of screen and device they want to use?

Are you leveraging video and multimedia to improve engagement, lengthen sessions, and tell more compelling stories?

Putting Digital First - A guest post from Jason Thibeault

Putting Digital First 

A Brilliant Guest Post by Jason Thibeault on August 10, 2012 in Business, Hypothesis, Philosophy

In my role at Limelight Networks as the Sr. Director of Marketing Strategy, I have been deeply involved recently in the company’s significant market pivot around digital presence management. As I participated in an internal assessment of our own digital presence (which I have been blogging about on the Limelight website) and had conversations with smart people, I came to realize what makes a successful digital presence.

And it might not be what you think.

Who’s Side Are You On?

How does your customer service process approach a problem? 

On the side of the customer, or your company? 

If you start on the side of your customer, you seek to quickly understand and appreciate the concern, put yourselves in their shoes, empathize with the impact on your customer, and empower your employees to do what’s necessary to make things right.

If you start on the side of the company, you defend your processes, systems, and employees.  You attempt to convince the customer that they are wrong to be concerned. You try to push the problem customer aside. You attempt to baffle or frustrate them with complex rules of engagement. You blame the system. You tell them you are sorry, but there is nothing you can do.