How to Package One-Time Events for Permanence (Just Like the NBA)

Recently I heard NBA Commissioner Adam Silver speak about how professional basketball coverage is perishable. Even though games can be streamed days after they are actually played, they rarely are.

Silver said that years ago, games that were played in Los Angeles on Thursday would be played in prime time internationally on Friday, with local commenters creating new wrap-around context for the game, because the final score wasn’t already known globally. That is simply no longer the case.

With the internet, fan apps and feeds, and social media properties, basketball fans can get real-time updates and know the score as the baskets are made. The internet has, once again, revolutionized an industry.

Silver did mention something they have done to fight this trend and keep their content relevant for viewers long after the final score has been posted. He called it “packaging for permanence.” The edited video of game highlights and the coverage of the slam dunk challenge are examples of this.

This same principle and practice can be applied to event-based content for your company. After all, trade shows, product announcements, and grand opening coverage can be just as perishable as a basketball game.

Here are some ways that content marketers can follow the NBA’s lead and package for permanence:

Take photos and videos from the event and use them for general marketing

With all of the preparation that goes into events, companies are often looking their best on event day. Don’t let the moment slip away without making the most of it. Capitalize on your hard work and capture as many photos and videos as you can for later use in your marketing materials.

• Tip: When you post your photos to social media, be sure to include your company logo as a watermark – this will increase brand recognition and provide extra information for viewers who might come across your photo without other context.

Create an infographic (think scoreboard) of the highlights of the event

Want to communicate with your customers and stakeholders quickly and effectively about the event? Use infographics. If your event’s results aren’t quantifiable, you can create a text-based infographic. If you had an event that produced data, use it for an attractive graph or chart that shows the success of your company.

• Tip: If you don’t have a top-notch in-house graphic designer, this is a good time to contract with a gifted expert who can bring the creativity that will make your graphic compelling.

Publish an event recap and send it to customers

Write a news report about the event. Capture the highlights in writing, add some photos, include the infographic if you made one, and send the recap out to your customers and post it online.

• Tip: Less is more. Don’t give in to the temptation to write down all the details or list all the attendees. Keep the newsletter short and sweet and only include the real highlights.

Create a recap video and post it on the company Facebook, Twitter and website so that customers who weren’t there can have an idea of what went on

There are bound to be amazing moments at your live event. Don’t let them perish on the spot. Capture them on video and repackage that video as a recap, a comedy video of a funny moment, a bit of wisdom if something wise was shared at your event, etc.

Each shorter video can be shared on your company’s social media channels and emailed out to customers and stakeholders.

• Tip: If you have enough content to make several short videos, do it. You will get more views, and different clips will appeal to different viewers.

In the world of instant information where events are over as soon as they are over, it is still possible to capture them and extend their shelf life. Plan to package permanence for content marketing success.

This article was posted by The Business Journals.

The True Value of Experience

This weekend, some of our friends were having car trouble.  They had ruled out a dead battery or a low gas tank and they resigned themselves to call roadside assistance.  The tow truck arrived and before it was hitched up, the technician did some trouble-shooting.  He then shimmied under the car and tapped the starter with a hammer.  It started right up.  If they had gotten a bill for this service incidence, the invoice might have read:

                    $1 – hammer tapping

                    $499 – knowing where to tap the hammer

Never undervalue experience.

Each of us have had similar experiences when bringing in an expert has made all the difference.  Costs avoided.  Disasters averted.  Downtime reduced.  Customers delighted.

And yet, we all romanticize the do-it-yourselfer.  Those Pinterest-fueled upstarts who can tackle professional-grade projects and make it look easy.  There are television networks to celebrate their accomplishments.  These shows give us confidence.  Maybe even over-confidence.  After all, we are seeing huge transformations in a 30 minute show.  A few time lapse videos between the opening credits and the big reveal.  That is certainly true in the personal world.

But it is also true in the professional world.  Sometimes executives find it tempting to think they can do marketing, business development or even legal work, without trained experts.  It is an all-too-common scenario to over estimate our own abilities and our time and to experience “Pinterest fail” type experiences in the work world.

So, when do you call in an expert?

1. When the risk of being wrong is extreme.

This obviously applies to litigation or regulatory compliance issues or any area where specialty knowledge is required, but it also applies to areas where the strategic risk is high.  If you can experiment with little impact, then, by all means, feel free to do so.  When you need a decision that is warranted or that requires technical expertise, call in the guru.

2. When time is of the essence.

Do you have a limited market window to get a product to market before big competitors sabotage your chances?  Then you might want a professional sales and marketing team with industry experience who can hit the ground running.  If you want to avoid delays in getting your product certified, setting up an efficient assembly line, or launching a new website, find someone who has done the work before and has a proven track record. 

3. When you are better suited for other priorities.

My grandpa, who has a contractor, told a story about how a doctor client of his took vacation time to paint his own house instead of hiring someone.  If he had worked that week, he could have paid a painter and had money left over, plus ended up spending more time than a professional. “It’s hard to beat a man at his own craft,” he would say.  Each one of us has things that we are great at and the more time we can spend doing those things, instead of doing a mediocre job, that others could do. Know what you are good at focus your time there.

This article was featured on LinkedIn Pulse.

In the News

Jennifer Davis was quoted in an article by Inverse in the article, The Future of Transparent Screens Isn't Iron Man's Smartphone- It's Bigger and Better.

What does Times Square teach about Digital Signage?

Times Square, that historic and iconic spectacle in New York City, is in a class of its own.  It is digital signage on steroids.  It has a larger-than-life scale that is awe-inspiring.  It has a reputation and historic significance.  It is one of the most popular tourist attractions in the city and possibly the world.  It’s more famous than its namesake newspaper. It has taken over-development and made it into a feature.  And found a way to monetize that over-development with ongoing investment in new equipment and content.  Despite similar spectacles in Tokyo or London, it remains a one of a kind.

So, what can this teach us about digital signage in other environments?  Be awesome, tie into the uniqueness of the space, and be one-of-a-kind. And use those things to build a business model for success.

So, what can it teach us about innovating our businesses?  Be awesome, tie into the uniqueness that is inherent in the space, and be one-of-a-kind. And use those things to build a business model for success.

Don’t say "yes," just because saying "no" is scary.

"Don’t say 'yes,' just because saying 'no' is scary."
- Isabelle Roughol talking about Volkswagon engineering cars to cheat emissions test instead of admit that they fell short of their public emissions goals

“Unable to reach the lofty PR goal, engineering chose to lie rather than disappoint the boss, which is how every other corporate disaster begins,” she continues.

“I Do Love Fig Newtons”

There is a scene in the movie Talladega Nights, where the race car driver character played by Will Farrell, sells the advertising space on the windshield of his car.  “This sticker is dangerous and inconvenient,” he says. “But I do love Fig Newtons” (the advertiser whose logo was obscuring his views).

What are the Fig Newton ads that you see in the real world?  Ones that cross over the line.  They are everywhere.

Phil Lenger from Show+Tell recently presented at a conference where he showed a picture of advertising gone wild when no one was advocating for the customer or the space in the conversation.  Every single surface of a public market was covered in some kind of messaging or brand language.  How can we ensure that this doesn’t happen in the future?  Is the role of the space owners?  Of government or municipal entities? 

Usually a fan of small government, I think this is an area where governments or public entities need to set and enforce standards based on what the consumers in the community want to experience.  The advertisers don’t have the context to limit themselves.  The space owners have a conflict of interest.  The individual consumers are not powerful enough to set and enforce policy (and the tools that consumers have to use to encourage self-regulation or government intervention, which include organizing rallies, petitions, boycotts, or the like, aren’t very efficient and of marginal effectiveness in a noisy environment with a fickle “news cycle” driven attention span).

Service Business Models

Software as a Service (SaaS) is all the rage today with companies like Salesforce.com racking up huge profits and trading multiples, and companies like Microsoft introducing their own versions of the same.  The same is true with people turning data insights into a business model (data-as-a-service or analytics-as-a-service).  But the “as-a-service” business model isn’t new.  Here are some examples of other products that have been sold as a service.

Alcohol-as-a-Service (AaaS): a bar

Food-as-a-Service (FaaS): a restaurant

Equipment-as-a-Service (EaaS): equipment rental and staging

Personal-hygiene-as-a-Service (PHaaS): beauty salons and barber shops

Reading-as-a-service (RaaS): story time at the library

Exit-as-a-Servce (EaaS): what a doorman does when you leave the hotel

Wayfinding-as-a-Service (WaaS): what the hostess does when she shows you to your table

Shelter-as-a-Service (SaaS): a hotel or even Airbnb

Pursue Epic

“We can’t really afford to spend time on things, unless they have a shot of being really epic." - Phil Libin, former CEO of Evernote, now with General Catalyst

That is true for each of us.  Time is the only commodity that is of limited supply to everyone.  Use it wisely.  Pursue epic.

The Tragedy of the Captive Audience

Investors and advertisers love networks that have captive audiences.  They love that fuel dispenser toppers catch people when they are tethered to a gas station with an 8 foot hose.  They love that people waiting for a movie to start in a cinema have to watch something when the lights are down and their cell phones are put away.  The captive audience that can’t escape the message you are trying to deliver.

But, think about it from the user’s perspective.  Who wants to be captive? “I want to be a captive audience,” said no one ever. 

People want to be captivated, not captive.  It’s a higher calling that we should all strive for.

Diversity

We don't care about diversity because it's in vogue. We care about it because we like winning." - Mike Gamson, SVP Global Solutions, LinkedIn

Asking the Right Questions

I read recently that we should not ask kids, “What do you want to be when you grow up?” Instead, we should ask, “What problems do you want to solve?” This line of questioning promotes thinking about the content of the work and the impact you can have on society.

In the same way that this is a good method to frame things for children, it can also work for executives. I recently reflected on the kind of problems that I strive to solve in my work. Identifying the problems is harder than it would seem.

I could easily identify the activities of my days and even my over-arching objectives, but framing them as problems was a good exercise. Especially because I, like you, consider myself and my company a solution provider, and those who provide solutions must deeply understand the problems they are solving.

These are the problems that I spend my days solving as a marketing executive and product strategist:

Prioritization and Allocation

The challenges of prioritization and allocation of time, energy, and resources to the most important things required for us to grow our business profitably.

Brand and Product

Cracking the code to bring our brand and product offerings to the forefront in the minds of potential buyers and to create identity for our products and harness demand in the market for our products that we can deliver to our sellers globally.

Employees

The problems related to recruiting, retaining, coaching, and celebrating our employees. Talent is at the heart of everything and creating a happy and inspired work environment is key to keeping talented employees a part of your team.

Balance

Solving the balance between my responsibilities in the office (and to our customers, partners, and employees) with my family and with the communities of which we are a part (i.e., the AV community, the business community in all the cities where we have offices, the marketing professional community, our neighborhood, and a group of students and mentors that is served by a local non-profit with which I serve).

What problems are you solving in your role at work? What problems are you solving at home? When you take the time to look at your roles from a different perspective, you might just get your next big idea or at least discover a way to improve your productivity and make your day-to-day more meaningful. We should all be problem solvers first and foremost.

This blog was featured in Women On Business blog. 

The brand formerly known as "Prince": what the rock icon teaches us about branding and legacy

The world said “good bye” to an innovator.  Born Prince Rogers Nelson, the singer, songwriter, and style icon made a mark on the world of music and fashion.

In 1993, Prince changed his name to an unpronounceable symbol, something Prince called a “love symbol.”  At the time he was reportedly fed up with his record label, was trying to get out of his contract, and wanted to make a break from the past (according to an interview with Larry King in 1999).  So, he reached out to graphic designer Mitch Monson, with Trollback and Company in Prince’s hometown of Minneapolis, to design a symbol that represented the artist – androgynous, edgy, and whimsical. 

So, as we reflect on the man and his career, what can Prince teach us about branding:

1. The brand does not belong to the company. 
    It belongs to those with a relationship to the brand.

To reproduce the love symbol in print required a special font (which the label had to send out on floppy discs to editors and journalists).  And in the end, most didn’t even try.  The media started referring to him as “the artist formerly known as Prince,” a moniker that stuck.  This became his brand, even after he started using his name again for stage performances and albums.  Even fans, who might have been puzzled by the change, found ways to refer to him.  This is a lesson for marketers who think they can control their brand.  The brand is truly owned by those who interact with the company, it’s employees, it’s products, and in the end, build both a logical and emotional connection.  The best we can do as leaders and brand managers is to influence how people perceive the brand by putting ourselves in their shoes and advocating for what they need.

2. There is power in color

The artist solidified his relationship with the iconic purple shade with his very popular “Purple Rain” album and movie.  In memorials all over the world this week, the color purple has been featured prominently.  It reminds me that in the world of marketing, which is now dominated by data analysis and ROI discussions, that there are some basics that can’t be ignored and one is the power of color.  McDonald’s red and orange, Coca-Cola’s red, IKEA’s blue and yellow, Facebook blue, Amazon’s orange smile (smirk?), John Deere green, Crown Royal’s velvet purple, and many other brand color associations are very strong and help propel the brand’s expansion into new markets and offerings.   Most people don’t have a signature color, but when we think of branding, having a distinctive color way is part of what the leading brands and artists rely on to communicate what they want their brand to stand for.  Purple was perfect for Prince’s brand, as it speaks to royalty, creativity, and the spiritual.  A few years ago, Fast Company published an exceptional article about the impact of color on brand that is worth reading.

3. Brand building involves risk

It is said that his record sales after the name change fell precipitously, but he secured his place as an eccentric and passionate artist who was forging his own path.  Other leading brands have reinvented themselves over the years, to emerge stronger and more engaged with their users, but that isn’t without pain in the process.  I think of what Netflix did with their DVD customers when they moved the brand to streaming and rebranded it’s DVD service as “Qwikster” (a brand they have since shuttered.  We can all think of other rebranding, packaging design, or logo design blunders.  But those who live through the transition (and don’t change for change sake), can reap rewards.

And perhaps the most important thing that Prince taught us about branding this week, is that brands are a legacy.  They have value.  They spark emotion.  They are celebrated and mourned.  And, no matter what tragedy strikes, they live on.

This article was posted on LinkedIn Pulse. 

Some Moments are Meant to be Forgotten

"Some moments are meant to be forgotten. You can't dance at weddings anymore." -Jared Ficklin

You are a Liar

I know it’s true.  And you can join me in blaming the internet.  I am nearly 100% sure you have never actually read the Terms and Conditions to which you just agreed.  

Expressing Emotions Changes Them

I recently heard Heather Andrew from NeuroInsights speak at a conference.  She explained how our brains are separated into right and left sections.  Emotions are on the right, but language is on the left.  So, to express your feelings is to pass them between the two lobes of the brain. 

This has several implications.  First, it can be difficult for some, as men, for instance, have less pathways between the lobes.  And secondly, the act of putting emotions into words, changes them.  Makes them more rational.  Our anger, becomes righteous anger or defensiveness.  Our shame becomes blame.  Our irrationalities and impulses get sanitized when they get communicated. 

Perhaps instead of speaking our emotions (and passing them to language on the left), we should instead use our right brains to sing them, paint them, or act them out in dance.  Or perhaps, that is precisely what the performing arts already do?

When are apps not apropos?

Tweeting Our Attention

It has long been said that if you really want to learn something, you should teach it.  But research shows that the same can be said for tweeting.  When NeuroInsights ran focus groups with consumers who were shown programming and told they would need to tweet about it, paid more attention and retained the information better than those in the control group.  So, instead of “pay attention, it might be on the test” perhaps we should say “pay attention, it might be in a tweet.”

Creators Rule

#CreatorsRule

Data is Transformational

It can transform beliefs.  It can transform behavior.  It can transform business models.

Scene's from PbJ's Mentoring Monday event

Jennifer Davis was a mentor at Portland Business Journal's 2016 Mentoring Monday event.