Great Reads from Around the Marketing Blogosphere

This week we’d like to give a shout-out to other like-minded marketing or media agencies, whose blogs summed up everything we wanted to say before we could have said it.

Up first, is Thom Singer’s blog, “Tweet, Post, Update and Share Beyond Yourself,” which talks about the importance of promoting others even when there is nothing to gain personally. This is as easy as ‘retweeting’ someone else or sharing a Facebook update. The idea is to not make it all “Hey, look at me” but to make some of it “Hey, look at them!” You never know promoting others may lead to them promoting you.

Next we would like to mention Bazaarvoice and their blog on “Collaborative Economy,” a new(ish) way to reach, sell to and share with each other directly through a social, digital marketplace. This sharing marketplace allows customers to subscribe to or rent products other customers own. This was most commonly seen in media, such as: Netflix, Gamefly and Redbox, but now sharing has become something like a community.  This may seem like a threat to traditional businesses, but in reality, this sharing marketplace offers great opportunities for businesses that jump on the trend. For example, Toyota now lets customers rent cars off their lots, competing with services like ZipCar and Car2Go, and Chevy partnered with mobile app RelayRides, which lets members rent out their cars while they aren’t in use. The collaborative economy moves beyond selling, and allows business to create relationships for mutual benefit.

Our last shout out goes to Marketo and their round up of the “5 of the Most Innovative and Unique Marketing Campaigns So Far in 2013.” With 917 shares and counting, I was interested to see what campaigns made the cut. Out of the five campaigns, two really stood out to me in both creativity and just plain ole’ fun: Senador Volstead Beer and #lowesfixinsix.

  • Senador Volstead Beer is a truly genius campaign, I may have LOL’ed a bit while marveling at its website. Senador Volstead is a beer company based in Spain named after Senator Volstead, who declared the start of prohibition in 1920. How did they keep to the prohibition theme? By hiding their product to make it look like they are selling teddy BEARS not BEERS. This is memorable and hilarious.
  • Second, is from a Lowes Vine campaign: #lowesfixinsix on a solution to keep rugs from slipping across the floor. This is a really innovative campaign that uses Vine’s strengths to create a step-by-step process for the consumer. This campaign really sticks out to me; it really shows how a brand can use Vine to their advantage. Make sure to check out the other campaigns as well, they all do an amazing job of capturing the attention of their audience.
    Read an interesting blog lately or have any comments/thoughts? Please feel free to share!

    Image courtesy of Lowes

 

Stressed Spelled Backwards Spells Desserts

Every business has its busiest time of the year, and the beginning of January is Ketner Group’s. The National Retail Federation (NRF) holds its big show, literally called “The Big Show,” the second or third week of every January, and the KG team is up to our ears in NRF projects as we prepare nine clients for this year’s Big Show—now just 3 days away!

We are firm believers in the “work hard, play hard” philosophy, and right now we’re working hard—but not so hard that we can’t take a moment to laugh a little and keep the mood light. So what’s tickling our fancy today? Old ads—mostly bad old ads—the likes of which would never have made it past Don Draper’s trash bin (well, we hope anyway!).

Here are a few of our favorites—you’ll notice a couple of similarities:

a96674_wivesarefor

babies-in-plastic-wrap-vintage-ad

safety-razor

vintage-women-ads-1
5727161193_dffe48630d

vintage-advertisements-if-your-husband-ever-finds-1

Do you do anything fun to keep your office stress levels manageable? Have a favorite old ad? Share it with us in the comments!

A word from our newest!

Brittany graduateI’m Ketner Group’s resident rookie. I graduated with my bachelor’s of public relations way, way back in May 2009, and promptly joined the Ketner Group family.

I’ve known from the beginning that I liked my job. We have awesome clients. I have a super cute desk (let’s be honest, what PR girl does not like cute office furniture from IKEA?) and post-it notes that bear my initials (again, PR ladies, do not act like you aren’t jealous). I even have my own extension and business cards (I know you are impressed!). Our team really is like a family, which I proudly admit even though I fall squarely in the “cliché” camp with that admission.

I knew I liked my job, but when friends, family and really anyone else asked me how I liked it, I would quickly give a thoughtless answer, something like, “It’s OK,” and change the subject.
Really? It’s just OK?

I blame my wishy-washy feelings on the transition from full-time student to full-time employee. Let’s examine.

Maybe it was my deep-seated fear that I chose the wrong major. I mean, there was that existential meltdown of 2007 when I applied for and was accepted to become an advertising major, only to jump right back into the PR camp after deciding my professors were biased and made advertising appear overly sexy and glamorous. For shame, professors! But I never did feel confident in my decision again.

Maybe it was how I didn’t know how I truly felt about the cold, hard fact that I will never again have a summer vacation or a whole month off for winter break. Truthfully, it was a little difficult to pick and choose which family holiday obligations I was actually obliged to attend, and then to carefully ration my vacation days so as to make the most people happy while saving enough days for the rest of the year. Continue reading