Warning - The road ahead could be long and bumpy (and I'm not referencing our current economic situation).  According to a new study summarized in Ad Age, we still haven't made a lot of progress in bridging the expanse between Marketing and Finance. 

The ANA and Financial Executives International have just published and presented a new study at the ANA 2008 Marketing Accountability Conference on a topic near and dear to my heart.

So, which do you want first?  The good news?  Or the bad news?

Personally, I like to get bad news out of the way first, so I can look forward optimistically to good news.  So, we'll start with that. 

The bad news: 

• 60% of financial execs don't think that their companies' marketing department understands financial controls  

• 70% of them don't use the inputs and forecasts provided by marketing in any financial guidance  

• 90% of them don't use any type of ROI metrics for budgeting exercises concerning marketing.

• Only 1/3 of marketing execs say that their marketing goals are aligned with the overall corporate goals

• Another 1/3 say there are no written goals for their marketing department

Wow - there's alot of opportunity for improvement there!

And, now, on to the good news: 

• 60% of marketers are trying to measure their impact on sales

• 33% of marketing execs report that, in their company, marketing and finance are jointly working on establishing metrics and methodologies for evaluating marketing ROI.  (This is up from only 22% last year, so we're going in the right direction!  And hopefully, these projects will start to change the numbers above in the 'bad news' section.)

• Another 50% are at least experiencing some cooperation between marketing and finance

• More than half of marketers use their analyses as evidence to maintain or increase their budgets

Personally, I'm really glad to see that the tide is changing, and collaboration is increasing!  The collaboration is advantageous for many reasons:

Continue reading "Construction Ahead - I hope!" »

Posted by Trina Arnett at 11:19 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Want to find out a little more about the P+s culture? Check out this video.

 

Posted by Anthony Henriques at 11:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

At least not for the next seven-and-a-half weeks.

I am not sure what woman decided that women should "have it all" — work and family, that is — at the same time. Whoever she is, she deserves a kick in the pants. "Having it all" is a near-impossible task, and I have been doing it for almost sixteen years. I'm exhausted. I worked through my last anniversary. I missed my daughter's last concert. I miss most after-hours work outings getting my kids to karate. Every day is a juggling act. Some days, I don't feel like I do either work or home very well.

I'd be willing to bet that most women who "have it all" could say the same thing. The working moms I see at after-school pickup are as ragged as me.

I have been pretty lucky, though. I work for a great company. I get to do great work and leave at four to pick my kids up from school. It's worked for sixteen years, and now, I'm getting a six-week sabbatical. But I am not going to use the time to perform community service or travel around the world. I am using it for me.

No deadlines. No traffic to race through. Finally, cleaning the house will make it to the top of the list. Maybe I'll even be able to "date" my husband again. Sure, I'll have to break up a few (well, probably more than a few) fights between the kids. But other than that, I have no real plans. I've worked since I was sixteen, so this will be new to me. (Maternity leave doesn't count.)

I won't stop thinking about advertising, though. It's in my blood. I'll notice my clients' competitors' ads. I'll be influenced by new, interesting work I see. I'll stay away from email, but I won't stop reading my favorite web design blogs. I'll Twitter. Watch a lot of movies. Paint. Who knows what else?

I'm looking forward to not "having it all" for a little while.

Thanks, PARTNERS+simons. See you August 25th.
 

Posted by Nancy Carle at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

Tell me, Readers, how well do you know your customers and prospects? I mean really know them - beyond just "people in market for product xyz" or "people suffering from condition pdq"?

Beyond demographics, have you identified their psychographics? Behaviors? Motivators? Hot buttons? Have you taken the time to segment them into like-minded groups?

Seriously, indulge me with a response to this quick poll, and then read on to see how other marketers fair.

Continue reading "How well do you know your customers?" »

Posted by Stephanie Rogers at 05:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

For most technology sales people, getting into the C-suite is the holy grail. But I think that often when selling to C-level executives there's a tendency to assume that once these people reach the C-suite, they're all the same – that they must have the same, or very similar, needs and concerns and challenges given the attainment of the corner office. In my experience with enterprise customers that hasn't been the case.

So it was refreshing to hear the results of CIO Magazine's annual State of the CIO survey. Because the survey brought to light something that we’ve believed here for a while – not all Cs are created equal, or at least they're not all created the same.

The survey revealed that in fact there are three types of CIOs, and which archetype a CIO aligns with has nothing to do with the industry they're in or the size of their organization (it's so tempting to simply segment your audience by vertical industry or revenue). In fact, it has everything to do with how they perceive their role in the organization, the organizational imperatives they believe they should be supporting and leading, and what they feel they, and their organizations, should focus on. It's about how they behave, not simply what they do.

The three CIO archetypes identified by the research team include:

1. Functional head
2. Transformational leader, and
3. Business strategist

One archetype isn’t better than the other, rather it’s about where a CIO allocates his or her time. Functional heads drill down, focusing on improving IT operations and systems and managing the IT budget. Transformational leaders lead change efforts and identify opportunities to redesign business processes. Business strategists take an even broader approach, putting IT in the context of the business by developing and refining business strategy, understanding market trends and identifying opportunities for competitive differentiation.

Continue reading "All C's Are Not Created Equal" »

Posted by Jennifer O'Connell at 09:59 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In City Slickers, Billy Crystal asks Jack Palance to reveal the secret of life:

Curly: You know what the secret of life is?
Mitch: No, what?
Curly: This.
Mitch: Your finger?
Curly: One thing. Just one thing. You stick to that and everything else don't mean ****.
Mitch: That's great, but what's the one thing?
Curly: That's what you've got to figure out.

One thing.  It's as important in getting your message across as it is in life.  OK, OK, maybe not "as important."  But make a single point.  Clearly.  In a smart, meaningful way.  And you're likely to have a very effective piece of marketing communication.

Alas, that's not the reality.  Too often, we try to cram in as many points, proofs, features, benefits, graphs and charts as space or time will allow.  All with the assumption that a prospect will eventually stumble across something relevant. Somewhere in there.

Who's got that kind of patience?  Or time? Or interest? 

Not me.
I'll bet not you, either.

And that, gentle reader, is the point.

Posted by Bruce Patteson at 10:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

In a rare moment of reflection -- I have no rear view mirror -- I recently dialed back through the PARTNERS+simons pro bono portfolio. I had no objective. I wasn't interested in calculating how much we've given away, or in celebrating the creativity. I was just looking back.

What did I see?

A lot of work for United Way of Massachusetts Bay -- campaigns that show the organization's transition from fundraising intermediary to social-change driver.

There's that wonderful campaign for Leeway that features some remarkable photography, captured by our own Creative Director, Anthony Henriques.

The Beantown Jazz Festival brand identity and the Executive Sessions promotion are testimony to our expanding relationship with Berklee College of Music.

I like the heart in The Schwartz Center creative. (And I look forward to Co-Chairing the organization’s Fall gala in November.)

The more recent campaigns for The Freedom Trail and The Mothers' Walk in The Rose Kennedy Greenway are standouts as well.

And that's just some of the work.

But I was struck, during said rare retrospective moment, that this portfolio is representative of our attachment to, and engagement with, our community. This body of work is not a part of a grand strategy, or to curry favor with potential clients. It is simply the result of seeing the occasional opportunity to contribute our time and talent locally, and doing that.

As a creative guy, I find an exuberance and a positive energy in the work. And that makes me smile. I'm proud of that.

For the past month, Kristen Schimek and I have assembled most of our pro bono work and organized it elegantly. And while this is wildly (and perhaps unattractively) self-referential, we invite you to take a look at Your Money's No Good Here.

In any event, I encourage you to involve your company in your community. What with the uncertain economy, unfortunate war and the stresses of the day to day, this is may be the perfect time.
 

Posted by Tom Simons at 11:25 AM | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBacks (0)

PARTNERS+simons and Genzyme received a Gold Trophy at the The New England Direct Marketing Association 2008 Awards for Creative Excellence for Best B to C Campaign. 

The award was given for Balanced Living (See "Custom Content"), a quarterly magazine designed as part of a larger integrated acquisition and conversion campaign for Genzyme's SYNVISC.Balanced Living magazine was designed to look and feel like a real magazine – not like a sales-focused direct mail piece. Each target segment within the SYNVISC database receives a different version of Balanced Living based on their specific segment's needs.


Response to Balanced Living from the target audience has been strong, and Genzyme has even receive requests for additional copies and subscriptions for people not on the current mailing list.

Special thanks to Genzyme and the SYNVISC team for the opportunity to develop this program.  Also, thanks to the P+s team that developed this excellent piece of direct marketing creative:

Steve Lynch, Creative Director
Anthony Henriques, Creative Director
Doug Dayhoff, Art Director/Designer
Matt Fishbein, Copywriter
Ed Feather, Sr. Brand Director
Beth Johnson, Brand Manager
Melanie Winn, Traffic Manager
Victor Cali, Senior Production Manager

Posted by Ed Feather at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

People don't read online—they scan. But they do watch video. Lots of it.

According to the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 57 percent of Internet users watch video online, and among users age 18-29 that number jumps to 74 percent.

That's a lot of video.

But video online is not the same as video in your TV room. Video online is a "lean forward" experience while your TV room is a "lean back" experience. Actually, video at home is more like a "lean back, grab a beer and the DVR remote control" experience. But that’s another blog altogether.

The point is, if you're going to use video online, keep in mind the "lean forward" difference. It's also helpful to keep some trends in mind. Here are five key trends that Internet video mavens Brightcove shared with us recently.

1. Don't just show it – use it

Lots of people create a video, post it and that's the end of it. But there are things you can do to make your video more interactive. One fabulous and incredibly simple idea is to add cue points to the video. Cue points are user-defined points in the playback of a title when an ActionScript event is broadcast - you can then trigger custom, synchronized functionality on these events, such as animations, synchronized ad units, or closed captions.

The diver video here is a great example. While watching a video on scuba diving the video syncs up with google maps and more information about each species of fish discussed. Simple. But brilliant.

2. Integrate social functions (maybe)

Continue reading "Online Video Trends" »

Posted by Steve Lynch at 10:06 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBacks (0)

As marketers, we are all aware that marketing budgets are a prime target for trimming – or even butchering – during recessionary times. It often seems that we are our own worst enemies, feeding the recessionary monster without just cause. One large CPG or automotive giant pulls back spending and a trend emerges that rapidly begins to permeate across industries, both on the B2C and B2B sides. Even some companies that are hitting or exceeding their financial expectations begin to get tentative.

It seems that the negative industry news about ad spending is flooding my inbox on a daily basis. The headlines read: Online Retail Growth is Slowing, Upfront Questionable, Expected to Slip, U.S. Ad Spend Forecast for 2008 Lowered. Despite these reports and industry-wide cuts in spending, much has been written and validated about the benefits of maintaining or increasing marketing budgets during tough times. Studies have shown that you can not only gain competitive advantages while your competitors begin to pull back, but that those rewards can be reaped over the long-term.

Harvard Business School professor John Quelch wrote a great article about this topic in March. In his article, Marketing Your Way Through a Recession, published in the HBS Working Knowledge, Quelch suggests several key tactics for powering your way through an economic downturn. I have commented on three of the key points below.

Continue reading "Recession? Time to Start Spending." »

Posted by Doug Ellinger at 03:52 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)