Seven Tricks That Made THIS Survey Experience Top Drawer

This morning, the ACLU emailed a survey asking me to “share my thoughts.” This turned out to be a top survey experience. Here's why:

1. Easy. The survey looked simple to fill-out (roomy, with broad margins and generous white space) and it was. I finished in 7 minutes.

2. Relevant. They had me at the first question -- the "three areas of civil liberties" most important to me.

3. Genuine. The choice of survey questions appeared to really want my opinion because: a) there was no apparent “assumption” of my views or questions leading me to water; b) the multiple choices were comprehensive; c) the survey offered the “I don’t know” option at strategic points.

4. Serious. The serious nature of the questions implied that – collectively -- responses actually will guide the activities of the organization.

5. Informative. In seeking to determine the ways (if any) in which I might be willing to get more involved, I learned about volunteer options.

6. Non-intrusive. The survey had only two personal questions (gender and age).

7. Helpful. At the end, the survey featured links to the ACLU Blog of Rights, showed how to follow the ACLU on Twitter (did that immediately), become a Facebook Fan, or sign-up for YouTube videos (bookmarked that).

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo

The New Zipcar App Is A Windshield Into 2011 Marketing

Yesterday, Zipcar, Inc. – the popular car-sharing service – released a new App for the iPhone and iPod. This maneuver is target marketing at its best.

"Like so many urban dwellers today, more than 25 percent of Zipcar members live their life from their iPhones," said Scott Griffith, Zipcar chairman and CEO. "The new Zipcar App is a simple, fun and self-service technology that now allows millions of iPhone and iPod touch users to have on-the-go access to Zipcars around the globe."

This particular App underscores another marketing tenet, too: mobile marketing innovations can drive market share even as the market drives App development. In all cases, the iPhone and other smart phones win.

For example, the Zip App is so useful that Zipcar drivers who don’t have an iPhone will probably want one now. Meanwhile ease-of-use issues that may have stopped some eco-conscious urbanites from adopting the Zipcar life have been resolved. Users can get directions to their Zipcar. They can easily find a reserved car by telling the horn to honk. To get help during a reservation, just tap the App. For those who have not yet Zipcar-ed, no angst: even non-Zipsters can download the app and take it for a test drive.

Marketing Brillo thinks Mobile/Life interface technology like the Zipcar App will dominate the consumer marketplace within two years. So, hurry up and add "brainstorm an App" to your next marketing agenda. And while you're at it, get ready to "Draper that stuff" because that App could be your next market penetration breakthrough.

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo

Direct Marketers: Are We Witnessing the Slow Death of The DMA?

Gerry Pike who sits on the board of directors of the Direct Marketing Association (the DMA) sent an angry email to members last Friday titled “S.O.S. re. the DMA.” The email began like this:

If you’re a voting member of the DMA you need to listen to me. Urgently. My name is Gerry Pike. I’ve been a member of the DMA Board of Directors for the past 3 years, and like many of you, active for decades in the DMA ... I’m writing you to ask for your DMA Voting Member Proxy because I’m very worried for our Association. What I have to tell you will worry you, too.

Pike’ goes on to criticize the million-dollar compensation package paid to the association’s CEO, John Greco. He charges that “as membership, revenue, and reserves have plunged, DMA’s management has cloaked its intentions from members and closed off communication." Pike notes that he was “engineered out of” his board position because he worked for change from the inside and he expresses concern that The DMA’s relevancy is fading as "competitors take the lead in a digitally-driven direct marketplace."

Pike’s go-get-'em website, features some fascinating posts gathered over the past year or so, including one by BigFatMarketing blogger Richard H. Levey commenting on the huge staff layoffs that took place at the DMA 11 months ago. “DMA got one last hurrah out of them before letting them go, and in light of this it would be fascinating to go back and review all interviews and speeches president and CEO John A. Greco gave during the conference. Especially those dealing with the health of the industry.” Pike's is hardly a voice in the wildnerness. In April, The NonProfitTimes seriously begrudged Greco a base salary that grabs 2 cents out of every dollar brought in by the DMA.

The day after Pike sent his proxy challenge to members, ex-AT&T executive Greco fired back, saying “The Compensaton Committee of the Board of Directors reviews and approves the president’s compensation with close attention to comparable organizations. The Committee believes the terms of compensation have been appropriate in years when the business was growing rapidly,” but “froze all executive compensation, including that of the president, effective months ago.” Not sure, but sounds like that means Greco's salary was "frozen" at a million?

As a close friend of mine coldly put it in an email: “ICEBERG, RIGHT AHEAD! Are we witnessing the slow-death of The DMA? In 25 years in the DM space I don’t think I’ve ever seen a proxy-challenge like this! I didn’t realize John Greco was making so much damn money. Certainly I gave him enough of mine, but got little in return. He’s tried to make the DMA into a shameless money-machine, but that strategy has backfired. And now that they are hemorrhaging members like me, it’s time to rearrange the deck chairs on the Titanic.”

Personally, I'm opting for a lifeboat, Dan.

--Scrubbed by Marketing Brillo

Plaxo Violates My Dunbar Number, Plus It Bores Me

A lot of people with whom I am somehow acquainted appear to be on Plaxo. Maybe Plaxo hopes to become the ultimate social media aggregator by combining drivel from Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, MySpace, and outer space. It's too late. Microsoft is all over that one.

Plaxo's self-described purpose is to make sure you "stay in touch with people you care about." For me, it's not working. Okay, maybe in some weak moment years ago, I unwittingly became a Plaxo-ite. I don’t remember doing that, but I do know I haven’t used Plaxo -- ever. And yet, over there in Plaxo-Land, they are very persistent.

[Alert: This is going to get even more boring. I won’t be insulted if you quit reading.]

Yes, my faithful friend, every week – week after week after week – I receive my Plaxo updates. They tell me what my fellow Plaxo tribespersons are doing. For example, I know that Catherine is now connected to both Jacquelynne and Edith. I’m not surprised. Daily, Catherine becomes shackled by yet more hangers on. She's so encumbered that LinkedIn has stopped counting her connections. All they will say is that she has "500-plus." I wonder, often, how any one individual – except, maybe, Kim Kardashian– can be connected to so many people! But I digress ...

Via Plaxo, I am also privy to tidbits from Scott and opinions from Allen. Note: In case you're interested, Allen detests the Cowgirls. Is he talking about the Dallas cheerleaders? What does he have against them? I'm curious, but I manage to let it go, because there’s always more to wonder about at Plaxo.

Leah is live chatting with Shannon and Tony has posted a blog entry. But that's just the surface stuff. By clicking through, I can read the bonus “21 Pulse updates.” Should loneliness overwhelm me, I'm petitioned to Plaxo-up with six people they've tracked down because I might know them already. In the meantime, I can amuse myself with 14 [fourteen!] more Tweet-like updates from Scott. Predictably, I also learn that Catherine is now connected to Elizabeth.

Are you bored yet? I know I am.

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo

p.s. Dunbar's Number

The War of the Ad Worlds: Blue Collar vs High Collar. Who Will Win?

A friend of mine who’s in corporate PR read my blog yesterday about the TV ads that feature GM’s new president Ed Whitacre. After watching the video, my friend says he came away thinking that Whitacre wasn’t selling cars as much as he was selling a company.

“It was targeting a different audience than consumers...it was a reassuring ad for the suits in DC and NY. You could probably see it as a follow up to this confidence builder [aka [Reinvention] ... What do you think?”

Not exactly, my friend. Yes, the Whitacre ad is talking to Wall Street and Congress. But Whitacre also is selling cars to you and me. He's helping us "trust" GM all over again. But why should we listen to this guy? Doesn't he represent the Wall Street pack that got us into trouble in the first place? Isn't that Texas drawl touted by GM's marketing director reminiscent of a former president whose final approval rating fell to 22 percent? Isn't Whitacre's white, male, upper class segment (Forbes reported his 5-year compensation total at $92.55 million) an abysmally small piece of the American population -- about 1 to 2 percent, some say? What makes us believe in or trust this itsy-bitsy, hyper-privileged viewpoint? Is it possible that -- even though we have, for all these years, relied on this group -- maybe now, we just won't?

Consider the difference between spokespeople Todd Ingersoll featured in Saturn's “We’re Still Here” ad and Jim Smith who appears in the Saturn “pundits” ad. These guys couldn't be more different from the white-haired affluence that is Ed Whitacre. Like a lot of America today, Ingersoll and Smith are of uncertain ethnicity (Italian? Black? Hispanic? Asian? American Indian? A mix? Who knows?). Moreover, they are car guys themselves, talking the common man's language about building cars that work in our lives. I suspect these Saturn ads have been successful, since they’re still playing.

So, yes, the bottom line question is: Who will America trust? Maybe it will be Ed Whitacre all over again, though his seems a peculiar Voice Choice for convincing a wildly diverse American demographic to trust GM.

On the other hand, as my friend pointed out, "I'd hire [Whitacre] for that job, too. Isn't the government really running the company anyway?"

And that is supposed to console us how?

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo

p.s. Amazing in his utter icon-acity, Ed Whitacre is a fabulously wealthy ex-CEO of AT&T, and an ex- national president of the Boy Scouts. Part of his appeal is pitched in the claim that, like the rest of us, he "doesn't know anything about cars." Again, that is supposed to console us how?

The Question Is: Would YOU Buy A Car from This Guy?

This morning, AdAge is reporting on an interview with Bob Lutz, marketing chief at General Motors. Lutz is talking about GM’s new ad featuring Chairman Ed Whitacre. Why – out of all other choices -- is Whitacre featured in the new “reassurance” ads? "What we were looking for was a highly credible spokesperson who would be a new fresh face .. [Whitacre] is the new guy in town. He's tall, good looking, has impeccable white hair and has this nice soft Texas drawl and limps a little bit when he walks, which sort of gives him this old cowboy look."

Marketing Brillo is fascinated that GM's marketing department identified these particular attributes to communicate credibility and trust to an increasingly Hispanic, black, Asian, and American Indian population. To these segments of the market, impeccable white hair and a Texas cowboy drawl might communicate less appealing character traits -- like being born to privilege, bred with a narrow view of "who counts," or even representative of that “old, white, male, America” that probably only exists in the minds of people like… well, Mr. Whitacre himself.

Don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against Mr. Whitacre. In fact, I think he does a credible job as GM’s spokesperson. The ads are very nice and even quite convincing. I’m just curious that a company that marched into bankruptcy to a public (and government) chorus singing “You’re so vain” would choose to get back in touch using the same heavy voices that appeared to sink the ship in the first place.

The unfortunate reality may be that these ads still work. Somehow Americans -- all of us, despite gender, race, or social station -- have been educated, even sociologically brainwashed, to be soothed by sage white men with impeccable hair and the gait of an old cowhand.

This particular marketing choice can’t have been accidental or uninformed by some sort of corporate research. How the ad fares -- will it sell cars? -- will be an excellent barometer of whether or not the marketplace is still stuck in yesterday's reality.

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo

Tidbits on the new Video-In-Print Technology

Technology from Americahip can embed a video chip in a print product like a magazine. The technology was launched in the September 18 issue of Entertainment Weekly. As Julian Gratton, Red C’s creative director explains, “The video advert will work by having slim screens inserted into the magazine that are activated when the magazine pages are opened – kinda like what happens on greeting cards.”

How does it work? “Each chip that feeds the screen can hold up to 40 minutes of video with the battery that powers the chip and screen being able to play for about 65 to 70 minutes. This battery can then be recharged by plugging in a mini USB cord and once you’ve got bored of the content contained in the chip… you can download additional content from the Web.”

As Gratton noted, it “sounds clever, and expensive… so will it take off?” Comments on LinkedIn’s Direct Mail Group expressed curiosity and reservation.

Miri Thomas, Editor at Catalog e-business saw possibilities for retailers. “Imagine what catalogues could do using the moving image. We could soon see product demonstrations, catwalk videos, and nonselling content such as interviews with celebrities/brand experts within their pages.”

John Noble, owner of the UK's Pro-Active Business Information Limited, shed light on practical aspects – and high costs -- of the technology in talking about his own company’s involvement in the production of the first speaking magazine advert.

"At Pro-Active, we were involved in the production of the world's first speaking magazine advert. It was in Media Week and the advert was for Radio advertising. The centrefold of the magazine was blank, and on opening the centre pages, the voice module was activated (extolling the virtues of radio advertising). It was a very powerful campaign. 

The cost of the voice modules was not too bad, the challenge was to implant them in the spine of the magazine. This proved to be tricky and could only be done manually. The labour costs of implanting the modules was the most expensive part. This also had a bearing on turnaround times as each magazine (from a total of 50,000) had to have each implant placed, primed and tested. 

Voice modules, however, must be far more cost effective to produce than video as the use of voice modules (especially in greeting & birthday cards) are widely available. If anyone fancies having a voiceover for their magazine advert, get in touch as we can help on the physical production side. 

As for the moving images, although the technology may be coming down in price, surely the largest cost is in the execution? If so, then surely overall production costs would only come down once the affixing or implanting becomes automated? 

I can certainly see this type of approach taking off as it breathes new life into print media."

Gratton noted journalistic as well as advertising applications. "If this technology is used in support of articles there are clear benefits. No more can people in the public eye claim to be misquoted… especially when news stories and articles where they are featured have them speaking in full colour on the page. And instead of sports writers trying to tell us that a goal was spectacular or a tackle was horrendous… we can actually watch it back ourselves in full colour… in print and on the train to work."

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo