Broadstreet - collective experience

Lennon

2010-12-20T18:28:48Z

If you stroll down a particular long and winding road through Central Park, you'll find a knoll that happens to be in the shape of a teardrop. Known as Strawberry Fields, this hidden sanctuary houses the world famous Imagine mosaic, honoring the late, great musician, John Lennon and his quest for world peace.

There is always an assembly of people gathered around the mosaic, they hail from varying of social stratum, ethnicities and religions with one interest in common - a desire to pay homage to a man who wanted to maximize human potential. They do so in different ways: strumming guitars along with Beatles songs, snapping photos, painting portraits, or simply thinking about tomorrow.

I visit Strawberry Fields not only as a fan of Lennon's music, but more so a fan of a man whose personal wounds and pitfalls pushed his courageous art form to a new level that reached so many more than an average musician. It is this brilliance that transformed John Lennon from a "Nowhere Man" into a "Working Class Hero."

Q14: can you put a price on a "Eureka" experience?

2010-03-29T17:14:07Z

Marketers spend billions of dollars every year to create unforgettable moments that make indelible impressions in consumer's minds.

Create enough of those prime impressions and your brand becomes top of mind.

Marketing Nirvana is the day your brand becomes a verb. It's a copyright lawyer's nightmare but to a marketer it's a job well done.

"Fedex that package."

"Google it."

"Hoover the carpet."

...all great brands that have created experiences so exceptional that they not only become the leaders in their category, they define the key action of their category.

Experiences can be exceptionally bad and fortunately, for some brands, they have not become verbs based on those bad experiences.

Creating exceptional experiences is neither easy nor guaranteed. You always know when you've produced or experienced one. There's magic in the air during the meeting or event that lingers well beyond the moment.

The result can be smiles or tears or people wanting to recapture the moment with others whom they just shared it with.

At the shop, we call it the "cell phone moment." We work really hard at creating conditions for it to happen and a lot of the time it does. People walking out of a meeting or an event on the cell phone saying, "You won't believe what I just...saw, heard, did...experienced."

That's the experience we like to have.

Exceptional experiences are defined differently for each client and each industry. In the finance where certainty is the ultimate desire, flawless execution is the exceptional experience. In the consumer industry it's the light in which the brand is cast. If the light shines brighter and the brand is elevated, that's an exceptional experience. In the Media and Entertainment world of Ad Sales, if it differentiates the brand and sales increase, that is an exceptional experience.

For attendees, exceptional experiences are defined differently and are usually based in the emotional side of the brain.

Steve Diller, Nathan Shedroff and Darrel Rhea recently authored a book called Making Meaning: How Successful Business Deliver Meaningful Customer Experiences. In it, they deconstruct human experiences to help identify the opportunities for meaning. They also reveal fifteen global meanings people from around the world feel strongly about and suggest designing brand experiences around one or more of these meanings creates a greater opportunity to form create an emotional bond between their brand and the consumer.

Most of the fifteen meanings they define, appeal to purpose. Why we are here on the earth. It's powerful stuff and when an audience is witness to it, the results can have a huge impact in the consumer's perception and their emotional attachment to the brand.

We tried to share this notion in a short video we created over the summer. Click here to experience it.

Q13: Short Answer: how do I rev up my site's ranking on the top search engines?

2010-03-22T17:18:09Z

Making the most of your search engine optimization efforts begins with intelligence; audience intelligence. Knowing who your audience is, what they want and how they talk about what they are looking for should be the first step in any SEO campaign. Audience intelligence helps you to select the keyword phrases to target and the content to develop so that you increase your search engine rankings and make the most of them.

Q13: Deeper Insights: How do I rev up my site's ranking on the top search engines?

2010-03-22T13:04:31Z

That first position search engine result that you covet isn't worth the effort if it isn't where your audience is looking for it. It also isn't worth it when the audience you are reaching isn't the one that you want. Careful strategy makes the most of your investment and makes it easier for you.

As you embark on an SEO campaign one of the first steps will be to determine keyword phrases to target. The keywords that you select will be used to write copy for your website, to select page titles, to name links, to produce meta data for your pages, images and video. You'll develop the structure of the site, determine the content on landing pages, craft press releases, plan new content for the site, even register a domain name all based on the keywords that you select. In short every decision that is made in this campaign will be based on keywords.

Those keywords then determine the search engine queries that return your site in their results. And there is the issue. Assuming that your search engine optimization campaign is successful and you rise through the ranks appearing on the first page of results. You want to be sure that your audience is there to find you when you achieve your goal.

So where do those keywords come from? Some are easy. Product types, brand names, industries, locations, these all make fine keywords. But these are broad keywords. Your company, your competition and hundreds of other associated companies and websites are targeting those same keywords. Achieving high ranks for broad keywords is tough. So you pick niche keywords.

Niche keywords are more difficult to select than broad ones. They are based on how your audience thinks and talks about your products and services. The words are more nuanced and specific to your audience. They may even change based on how close your audience is to conversion. Of course this means you have to really know who your audience is in both meaning of that phrase. You have to know which audience you want to target and you have to know the specific attributes of that audience.

Knowing your audience to this detail takes research and interviews. Most importantly it takes an open mind willing to see audiences in a new way because sometimes this process uncovers surprises about the ways that audiences think and talk. These insights can yield the most valuable keywords. But they can be a gamble, which leads to my last point.

Along with beginning your search engine optimization effort with research, you have to continue researching. Reviewing and analyzing your results to confirm that your campaign is drawing the audience that you intended and that they are acting as you anticipated puts you more in touch with your audience and how they are changing. Then revising your campaign as needed is critical for maintaining the rankings that you worked so hard to achieve.

Q12 - in an online world, has print lost its power?

2010-03-21T17:24:23Z

The Internet's most interactive website doesn't allow you to feel the texture of its pages. You can't fold your computer screen into an origami swan. And you sure can't smell your favorite URL. But with print all this and more can be part of the experience.

To be honest, I never bought into the power of print until I started looking around at some things that have had a lasting affect on me. There's the hand-drawn soda bottle label from Vermont, the flip book my son made for me when he was about 7, too many concert tickets to count and, of course, every box Apple has ever made.

It's been estimated that the average U.S. adult is exposed to over 5,000 marketing messages every day. Most of those messages float right by us producing no conscious result at all. But really great print work sticks with you. You actually keep it. Wow, that's impact. That's establishing an emotional connection with your audience. That's an experience.

Here's a great example of the value of print. If you've ever watched the Antiques Road Show on PBS, you've probably seen that items that come in their original packaging usually fetch twice the price. I don't know why, but maybe it has something to do with the fact that print touches many of our senses at once.

So the next time you're thinking of creating a print piece, think outside the... I'm not going say it. Think pop-up, think elegant Apple-like design, think scratch and sniff. Make the most of the medium, and maybe your audience will save your boxes too.
If they do, you've probably earned a long-term customer.

Print is powerful when it enhances the consumer experience. A cereal box, a wedding invitation, a poster, a greeting card - tell us about the most impactful print piece you've ever seen.

Can you imagine what the iPod box might look like if Microsoft designed it?
Check it out

Q11: transparency: what are you afraid of?

2010-03-20T17:29:51Z

No doubt most of us have heard about the web-wide transparency trend. When it works, it's great - a giant free focus group where positive feedback and innovative thinking flow. When it doesn't, your brand goes up in flames, fast. But when companies first adopt a transparent philosophy behind the relative safety of their firewalls, they can get the best of both worlds without getting burned.

Sure technology makes transparency possible, but launching wikis and blogs is the easy part. The biggest benefits of transparency, leveraging the hearts and minds of every employee, are realized when companies embrace a fundamental change in the way they think. They establish a culture of collaboration, and they nurture the belief that great ideas can come from anywhere within the organization.

Here's an example of how powerful internal transparency can be. While prepping for a big event, we worked with our clients to survey their 1500 employees on lots of subjects. As the results rolled in, we started to see some interesting patterns. We were getting all these really passionate, amazing answers - full of personality and integrity. We suggested using this material as fuel for a meeting opener video. Management was cool enough to go for it, warts and all. The results were impressive; 1500 people were kind of looking around saying: "Wow...I had no idea we were this smart, this cool, this dedicated."

The rewards that come from open and honest internal communication often yield far-reaching results. Think about it, when employees work in a transparent environment, it's likely they'll begin interacting with clients in similar ways...openly and collaboratively. These quality interactions create deeper customer relationships, and that generates brand loyalty.

It takes guts to be transparent, but without honesty employees and clients alike will see right through your messaging as nothing more than propaganda. Bottom line...before you implement the tools that make transparency possible, get real with your brand and with the people who have to make good on your brand's promise.

Q10: Deeper Insights: when does online video become must-see tv?

2010-03-18T15:41:02Z

"The stage is set, your lines are well rehearsed, everything's perfect, but sometimes S!#T happens."

This is how one of the most effective training videos I've ever directed begins. It gets a laugh every time. More importantly, it prompts audiences to relax and allows the learning process to begin... every time.

PhDs call these "behavior-modeling videos"; I prefer "scenario-based learning." Whichever title you like, the bottom line is-video is a highly effective tool for teaching the kinds of soft skills that are so important for success in almost any business.

From pharma sales to the concierge desk at a boutique hotel, if your front line customer experience relies on positive, consistent face-to-face interactions, video that changes the behaviors that drive your key business goals is must-see tv.

Telling associates it's important to smile, make eye contact and take ownership of customer problems is one thing, but reinforcing those messages (and many others) by illustrating these behaviors in action, within the context of a story, delivers more impact by:

Increasing retention

Breaking down many language and education barriers

Facilitating increased and accelerated learning

How? There's a lot of science behind these assumptions. Basically it has to do with a concept called dual coding, but we're not going there now. If you're really interested, check out this deep research.

Q10: Deeper Insights: when does online video become must-see tv?

2010-03-18T15:41:02Z

"The stage is set, your lines are well rehearsed, everything's perfect, but sometimes S!#T happens."

Increasing retention

Breaking down many language and education barriers

Facilitating increased and accelerated learning

Q10: Short Answer: when does online video become must-see tv?

2010-03-17T15:36:46Z

From hospitality to retail to HR, when you're teaching soft skills, a picture's worth a thousand words.
Delivering those "words" online allows you to more frequently update your content and keep associates tuned in and turned on, on their schedules, without the hassle and expense of duplication and dissemination.

Wanna read more? Read our other entries related to video, hospitality and soft-skills.

Hanna Andersson knows where I live.

2010-03-16T17:10:19Z

She knows I have kids. 2 of them. And she also knows that I'll only really buy anything online from her when there's a sale. That's why I clicked on the email from her enticing me with incredible savings on kids' classics, but ignored the catalogs that came in the mail.

In the emails I get from my good friend Hanna, there are coupons for in-store savings and deals at the brick-and-mortar outlet stores. But I ignore them. No special road trips for savings in this girl's life.

And so what does this say about Hanna Andersson's efforts to reach me? I think she tries pretty hard. And sometime I oblige, and sometimes I don't.

But the point is this: the Hanna Andersson company is doing its best to make sure I know all about them, via emails, coupons and print.

Q9: Deeper Insights: how do you make PowerPoint slides say more with less?

2010-03-09T18:34:23Z

PowerPoint celebrates its 20th birthday this year. The Wall Street Journal has a retrospective article that provides some insights on the evolution (or devolution) of presentations in that time.

Broadstreet produces hundreds of presentations every year. We write the speeches and then design and assemble the visuals in the form of video, animation, PowerPoint and Keynote. Since its introduction, PowerPoint quickly replaced slides, transparencies and flip charts and has become the ubiquitous tool for presentations. Today everybody uses PowerPoint--from elementary school teachers and church preachers to rocket scientists and nonprofits.

There are even blogs dedicated to PowerPoint presentations. One of the best is Garr Reynolds' Presentation Zen. There are websites for presentations. SlideShare is the MySpace for presentations and recently had a competition for the world's best slide presentation.

In all these winning presentations there's not a bullet to be found; instead, they tell a story. Now, don't get me wrong; these are beautiful. Great design and imagery. But where does the presenter fit in? These examples are, in a sense, graphic novellas, short stories with short sentences and interesting images. But they're designed to be viewed, not presented.

When it comes to standing up and giving a presentation, the PPT is meant to SUPPORT the presenter, not tell the entire story on its own. Single images in the form of pictures, words and measures that illuminate a key point in the message are ideal; something like the presentations in SlideShare but without the whole story included. Steve Jobs does this well as do many others. It takes a little more work on the design of the presentation, but it's not as daunting as it may seem.

Here are a few quick steps on how to boil down your slides to a deck that supports your presentation rather than spells it all out:

Outline your entire presentation in PowerPoint Headers, Subjects and Sub-bullets. (Most people call it a day at this point and head to the front of the room with laser pointer in hand.)

Now, take every bullet and make it its own slide. "Huh? My 30 slides have multiplied into 300; how is this 'saying more with less'?" Don't fret! Step back and look at how many thoughts you're asking your audience to remember. "But I'm just supporting my point," you're thinking. That's fine, but most people retain visual cues rather than vocal cues. Unless you want your audience to remember something long term, don't make it a bullet.

Remove all the bullets that are supporting a point. (Move them into the notes section because that's what they really are.) "Wait!" you're saying, "I've cut 20 - 30% of the slides ... what happens to the remaining deck?"

For the remaining slides, take each bullet (which is a slide unto itself) and figure out the executive summary for that bullet--the one or two words that capture the essence of your point. Better yet, make it a picture or an image. Bottom line: What's the one key point of this bullet? Remember: less is more, and even though you have 150 slides instead of 30, it's the same amount of information. What this means is that you will be clicking more, a lot more. That's a good thing. Why? Because it keeps the idea you're thinking about and the supporting visual in sync, on point. The audience can't get ahead, so they stick with you. And with 150 slides quickly changing, you naturally feed into short attention spans with ever-changing information.

Now, review the deck again and see if there are redundancies or if the story has lost its flow. Remember, the story is coming from you not the slides; they are only reinforcing the key points you make in the conversation with the audience.

Lastly: know your presentation. The slides are for your audience. It's up to you to fill in the details that aren't spelled out on the slides. So rehearse, make some notes, and you're GUARANTEED a better presentation.

This format keeps the audience's attention focused on the presenter, not the slides. It energizes the room with images that are refreshed 150 x rather than 30.

More slides, less words, more retention, less frustration.

Q9: Short Answer: how do you make PowerPoint slides say more with less?

2010-03-08T18:32:23Z

In today's world of short attention spans and media impression overload, less is more when it comes to PowerPoint Speaker Support (PPSS).

Keep that acronym in mind when composing your next deck: PowerPoint's not the speech, it just supports it.

Scroll down for details on creating engaging PPTs that'll keep your audience on their toes.

Q8: Deeper Insights: who owns your company's story?

2010-03-07T19:04:49Z

Once upon a time... just kidding, but that's exactly the problem when you mention the word "story." Too often your audience assumes you're about to get all soft and gushy or speak to them like children. Fact is, storytelling is one of the oldest, and when done with purpose, one of the most effective means of communication on the planet.

Great corporate stories present an opportunity to focus on what differentiates a company.
They can tell us where we come from - Hewlett Packard started as two guys in a garage - and where we're going, like AT&T's "You Will" campaign.

Customer stories - when they're real - are authentic, no one's more convincing. And product stories like "our eggs come from free-range chickens" or "this table is made of salvaged wood" tickle opinions and our emotions.

Objectivity, openness and a willingness to tell it like it is are some of the attributes that go into creating a believable, repeatable story worth telling or listening to. Whatever you do, make sure your mantra is consistently deliverable and make sure it has buy-in across the corporate strata. When it's fully baked, test it internally, tweak it, and then encourage every associate to learn it and repeat it.

Q8: Short Answer: who owns your company's story?

2010-03-07T18:54:23Z

Creating a corporate story worth sharing requires an open mind.

When employees contribute to, believe in and consistently deliver on your company's promises, you've earned a competitive advantage no one can take away.

Vision-focused, product-focused, customer- focused, stories are powerful communication tools that can help you meet just about every business objective.

Scroll down for tips on how to create and disseminate your company's message.

Q7: Deeper Insights: are your emails "...zzzz" mails?

2010-03-05T19:12:02Z

According to emailexperience.org, emails that include the sender's name and/or branding in the subject line enjoy open rates up to 60% higher than those that don't. So knowing (and liking) who's contacting us is critical. But that's just the first step.

From terrific offers to important information, the value you deliver the first time customers or coworkers say open sesame has a huge impact on whether or not they'll let you in again and again. B-to-B, B-to-C or internal communications, the challenges are the same, at least when it comes convincing people to open up.

Preview panes, subject lines, time of day, day of the week--they've all been studied, and they all appear to play a part in how we make the hundreds of split-second decisions we make every day. The statistics boil down to one simple reaction: "What's in it for me?"

If the email is from a client, my boss or from my co-workers, I open it because I love working here and I'd like to keep it that way.
If it's from family or friends, I open it because I love them.
If it's from anyone else, it's either relevant or it's trash.

Whether it's a person or a brand, all of these choices are based on relationships with the sender. We realize email's full potential when we create messages that cultivate positive relationships by delivering something our audiences' really want or need. This builds trust and trust builds loyalty. One study claims that in a consumer environment, loyalty-in the form of emotional connections with brands-allows companies to charge 20-200% more for their products or services.

When it comes to internal communication programs, developing these kinds of relationships may be even more valuable because we're connecting with people who help our companies succeed.

Okay...if you still want some stats, here are just a few regarding consumer open rates; but remember, it's really all about relationships:

About half (41.1%) of consumers open an email because something in the subject line caught their attention.
Half (53.7%) read the subject line first and then decide to open the email.
The best subject lines according to consumers clearly state the offer (55.2%), promise immediate answers (30.3%) or promise to solve a specific problem (15.2%).
Discounts work well (49.6%) as does having the brand name of the sender (48.8%), humor (14.1%), and personalization (11%).

If you found this information valuable, wouldn't you be more likely to open an email from me?

Check out a ton of great research here and read other entries about using email to reach your audience.