Pic Tip Friday: Light it up

Pic Tip # 12: Light it up. Make it special. If something seems boring, make it exciting. LA Philharmonic does this with its Hollywood Bowl concerts that involve creative lighting and, on occasion, fireworks, as well as video screens that make it easier to see what's happening if you're sitting in the cheap seats.

Digitize and keep your audience involved

SHN San Francisco, the Broadway touring platform for San Francisco, is doing something new and digital with the usual dance party that occurs at the end of the musical HAIR, which is currently playing in San Francisco. SHNSF decided to record the parties and make them available online for patrons to enjoy and share. Patrons can share videos, tag themselves in specific moments of the videos, and comment on the videos (and comments are posted to Facebook). The website also includes easy to use links for buying tickets.

SHN obviously knows how to get the word out, and its tactics are keeping patrons involved online, which keeps SHN on their minds until the next touring show comes around.

How have you used the internet and other digital methods? Do you have any specific tactics for keeping your audience involved?

Get your audience involved

If you want more followers.... get your audience involved.
If you want more customers... get your audience involved.
If you want more results......... get your audience involved.

I could go on, but I won't. You get the point. Contests, interesting content, discussion... GET YOUR AUDIENCE INVOLVED.

How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying has done a good job of this. The Broadway show held a contest for its fans. See the winner in the video below:

Chat in the Google Facebook Wars: Facebook announces Facebook Skype Video Chat

It seems that some of the Google+ versus Facebook wars is revolving around effective chatting (video or text). Facebook announced today that it will partner with Skype to offer group and video chat.

Personally, I use Skype for video chat - not Google. And I don't chat very often on Facebook.

Do you want all your chat functions in one place combined with your social media? Or do you prefer to keep them separate?

Live streaming of concert with Matthew Morrison of Glee

Talk about a great way to get viewers to like your Facebook page. Oscar Mayer is hosting a live Matthew Morrison concert in less than 30 minutes. The event has its own tab on Oscar Mayer's Facebook page, and if you're at the page, you might as well "like" the Facebook page. I mean, who doesn't enjoy breaking outinto song: "Oh I wish I was an Oscar Mayer Wiener!"

I don't think Morrison (Will Schuester onGlee)will be singing that song in his concert, but it's still a clever concept. The tab even includes a live chat below the video streamer for viewers to discuss the concert. As of now, there are 340 viewers and counting.

This is great publicity for three businesses:

1. The Grove - a shopping center in LA where the concert is located. From what I've read, the center has had some financial troubles and hasn't thrived as much as it could. Concerts like this help keep it alive and well.
2. Oscar Mayer - the concert stream brings traffic to Oscar Mayer's Facebook page and gets its admin guest appearances.
3. Matthew Morrison - free publicity for his upcoming album - positive public relations based on charity donation mentioned at the concert.

Live streaming is growing in popularity. YouTube has the concept down with its live concerts (YouTube Live).

Where else have you seen live streaming? How can you use it for your benefit?

*Update (12:40 p.m.): The channel has gone offline. Looks like it was caused by technical difficulties (which also caused it to start 10 minutes into the concert). Fans are not pleased, as evidenced by their comments. Not good public relations for Oscar Mayer.

*Update (12:20 p.m.): 20 minutes in there are over 1,600 viewers at the free concert happening at The Grove in Los Angeles.

How To... Play on Words

When you have an interesting title, it can be fun to do a play on words in your marketing material. The upcoming Broadway show, "How To Succeed in Business without Really Trying" has mastered this technique. They make the revival interested, not only by hiring Daniel Radcliffe to play the lead, but by using the "How To" part of the musical's title to sell the show.

The show's website features several "How To's." Viewers can learn "How To... Get Tickets," "How To... Get to the Theatre" and "How To... Tell Your Friends." Not only is this creative, but it allows users to interact with the site through social media and ticketing services. It attracts attention.

The website also features a recently released commercial for the show with "How To Succeed on Broadway."

The New Mr. Peanut: Finding Ways to Rebrand Yourself Successfully Part 1

Obviously, your brand can't stay new forever. All businesses have to change their slogan or brand at some point, even if it merely means adding something simple to it. In all cases, however, audience research is important. If you don't know what your audience wants, you won't succeed. If you don't test your new product or slogan or whatever it is on your audience, you have less of a chance of succeeding.

Research doesn't always work, as evidenced by Coca Cola's change in flavor, which tested well but didn't make it on the market. I'll write more about Coke in another post. You can't always completely depend on your research, either. Planters peanuts asked consumers what they'd like to see added to their Mr. Peanut mascot, and the number one answer was that no addition was needed. Some times the old still works. People like classics.

Planters went ahead with a major change, however, adding more clothes and a new voice to the character, as well as turning him into a computer-animated character. The voice, provided by Robert Downey Jr., may attract Downey's fans, but it doesn't fit the upper-class English accent associated with the character. The new commercial, itself, is funny, but you have to wonder how it will go over with the public. Personally, I like it, but we'll have to wait and see if it succeeds or not.

Cinematical.com and E! have more on the switch.

I'll be writing more on the successes and failures of Coca Cola and Mattel's Barbie movies in Part 2 and Part 3 of the "Rebranding Yourself" series.

A New School Year Brings In Creative Marketing Techniques

How can your business take advantage of the new school year? Even Fuddruckers, a popular hamburger restaurant, has capitalized on the "back to school" mentality, sending out emails to subscribers reminding them that Fuddruckers should be on their supplies list.

I just started my final year of college, which makes these sort of campaigns fresh on my mind. I've always been the student who gets excited about buying things for school, and I'm sure I'm not the only one out there. So, take advantage of the young person's need for supplies.

The Container Store has Back to School and Dorm sections on its website, and the Dorm section includes a video featuring a college student's dorm room full of Container Store products. The student tells the viewer that it's parent's weekend and she has had to clean up to impress her parents, so she went to The Container Store. The store's site also includes a dorm catalogue.

My favorite example of a great marketing method taking advantage of students returning to school comes from Walmart. Walmart created a project called Project Dream Dorm. The project has its own Youtube channel with a plugin that plays videos and displays pictures of and links to products that appear in the videos. Walmart found five college students, assigned design experts to each of them, and gave them an unlimited shopping spree in their local Walmart. The entire experience for each student was recorded and put on YouTube. Once back on Walmart's dorm website, the viewer finds attractive photos of products and an easily navigated menu to help him find what he's looking for.

How can you make your products visually appealing? What have you done to cater to students going back to school?

Create an Event, Attract Customers

A college acquaintance of mine is marketing a game called "Keep It Real." She arranged for it to be a part of a special event at Borders (happening tonight). I thought I'd share the event with you to spark a few ideas.

"Do You Have Game," the event taking place at the Borders in Columbus Circle, will feature a night of fun and games, games like "Keep It Real."

In your marketing, try to think of a creative event like this one, an event that can take place at a recognizable location and can involve something that will attract customers, such as a free product demonstration. In this case, anyone who goes to the well-known, well-placed Borders in Columbus Circle in NYC can play the game "Keep It Real" for free.

And always remember to put your event out for everyone to see. My friend put the game night on Facebook as an event and invited her many friends. She also created a video ad and put it on YouTube.

What are you doing to give customers a fun time? What kind of events do you plan for your business? Is it appropriate and useful to give away free products or to allow customers to experiment with products?

Using Documentary to Make Your Business Stand Out

It's amazing how many people prefer video over text these days, and that's something to take advantage of. I've done behind the scenes videos for a theater company and a trailer for a book, and I recently came across another great use of video: a mini documentary.

David Meerman Scott used a documentary to promote his book, "Marketing Lessons From the Grateful Dead," and wrote a post about branding a business through video on his blog.

The great thing about his suggestion is that it allows a business to reach out to customers who enjoy video and to tell them a memorable story. People love to learn new things, and a documentary gives them things to learn. Even the person who's not a big fan of video may be more intrigued by a documentary that feels more familiar; It's like watching something on television.

People also love a good story that makes them feel good or makes them feel attached to the people in the story. A good story gives the customer something to relate to. Combine the story with content the customer can learn from, and the customer will be thrilled and intrigued, far more intrigued by the documentary than by an advertisement.