A Shout Out to Ray Welch

This morning was no different than any other morning. Got up at 5:15-ish, got ready for work, grabbed the paper off the front porch, ate while scanning the Boston Globe. No Red Sox game to read about or articles that complain about Julio Lugo, the Sox latest shortstop. The Celtics draft "trade" was a bit of a let down. Dunkin Donuts is now selling iced tea — but it's the sugary flavored stuff. Micheal Moore's latest documentary, "Sicko," got good reviews.

Finally, I turned to the obituary section, "Ray Welch, 68; ad man was voice of Hub radio commercials."

"Damn!" I said to my husband, Howard, "Ray Welch died."

My Husband has worked with Ray. Howard is a recording engineer at Soundtrack. He told me this morning that Ray once told him he was a patient guy — Ray couldn't decide how he wanted to record some copy and Howard sat and waited. Ray had the best voice for radio. The ads he used to do for Tweeter were the best, when Tweeter was at its best.

I never had the pleasure to work at an agency with Ray, but he was a client — sorta. Ray wrote a book, COPYWRITER A Life of Making Ads a few years back. What's neat about the book is that Ray asked many of his art director and designer friends to each design a different chapter in the book. My boss, Tom Simons, was a good friend.

Together Tom and I had the pleasure of designing the cover and a chapter called Killington Pitch. In addition to the version that's in the book, we also created a PDF — with sound effects — of the chapter. The story is very, very funny.

Ray Welch was an old school ad guy. Before the industry was taken over by computers and faster and faster deadlines, advertising was a true craft. And Ray was a craftsman. I hope that the younger generations in the business take the time to read his book. If you work with my husband Howard, he has a copy on the client desk in his studio. Better yet, listen to Ray read it. You get the best of Ray — his writing and his voice.

Posted by Nancy Carle at 08:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

It's my turn to write a blog entry on strategy, an area that I know a thing or two about.

So naturally, I start with a list.

Corporate strategy. Brand strategy. Marketing strategy. Sales strategy. Communication strategy. Media strategy. Direct strategy. Offer strategy. Creative strategy. Service strategy. Product strategy. Pricing strategy. Web strategy. Promotion strategy. Contact strategy. Distribution strategy. Public relations strategy. New business strategy. Research strategy. Customer strategy. Naming strategy.  Measurement strategy.

Finally, I pause. I’m sure I could add more, but my head is already dizzy just thinking about this maze of decks. How do I possibly pull something together on such a broad subject?

I gave some thought to people who I consider to be exceptionally smart, strategic thinkers. Some can take the complex and make it simple. Others provided tremendous insight into customer motivations and how to connect with it. And that’s when I focus my thinking – the best strategy is the one that can be executed and measured.

Too often, we put more emphasis on the thinking...“coming up with the big idea”...than on the execution. What good is the strategy if you can’t make it happen?  And, even if you can make it happen how do you know if it's working or not unless you measure it?

Posted by Todd Baird at 02:25 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Technology marketers have historically spent a lot of their budget on events – without really knowing if they’re a productive sales and marketing activity.

It needn’t be that way. By developing an event measurement strategy and plan, technology marketers can better understand event ROI and make an informed decision on which events are profitable and which are not.

Our measurement approach collects data and analyzes event performance across three dimensions:

• Perception Metrics - focus on the range of functional, emotional and latent connections that combine to form an opinion of your brand resulting from the event.
• Performance Metrics - help to assess how the various brand building and demand generation activities of the event have combined to drive overall business results.
• Financial Metrics - represent the economic impact on the business of the event investment.

We then develop a turnkey measurement program plan aimed at guiding continuous improvement of events. This includes:

• Content - which content were attendees most interested in and why?
• Campaigns - what communications efforts aimed at driving qualified traffic and mining that traffic worked and what didn’t?
• Commerce - how many qualified opportunities that resulted in measurable economic value resulted from the event investment?

We can measure these by individual event and in total. The following is our recommended set of metrics for optimizing the performance of your event investments:

PERCEPTION METRICS

Did the event:

• Increase recognition of the company name and brand?
• Better position the company as the leader in IT and owner of its “space”?
• Increase awareness of the business units that comprise the company?
• Establish a position as a Thought Leader?
• Deliver content rich agenda that causes a customer to take next step?
• Become recognized externally as an annual “must attend” for a comprehensive understanding of the brand?
• Contribute to attendee’s better understanding the attributes of the brand’s leadership?

PERFORMANCE METRICS

Did the event:

• Drive repeat attendees and future referrals?
• Enhance the level of partner participation in content delivery (based on sponsorships)?
• Drive better attendee participation?
• Deliver content attractive to our targets?
• Can we increase the number of partners exhibiting and can we charge more?
• Drive more promotion responses, registrations, attendance, referrals, qualified leads, partner participation?

FINANCIAL METRICS

Did we improve?

• Cost-per-registrant
• Cost-per-attendee
• Cost-per-inquiry
• Cost-per-qualified lead generated
• Direct revenue generation
• Indirect revenue generation

With post-event analysis of all of these metrics technology marketers can vastly improve their decision-making regarding event participation and investment.

Posted by Ken Dec at 10:30 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I am currently reading Ideaspotting: How to find your Next Great Idea by Sam Harrison. The book offers suggestions about how one can find creative ideas by looking at life in new ways. I came across one particular anecdote I'd like to share.

Liking broccoli is not the same as eating it.

A boy goes to dinner at a friend's house, and the mother asks if he likes broccoli.

"Sure," says the boy. "I like broccoli fine."

During dinner, however, the mother sees the boy hasn't touched the broccoli.

"I thought you said you likes broccoli," says the mother.

"Oh, I like it," replies the boy. "I just don't eat it." 

Sam's point, "watch what people do rather than just ask for their opinions. What they tell you often belies their behavior."

This is a great excuse to move from behind the computer, leave the concepting den and try something different than the traditional focus group session. If we take the time to watch our customers and observe their behavior out in the real world, rather than make assumptions from what has been reported, we may spot our next big creative idea.

Great advice. 

Posted by Nancy Carle at 09:45 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)