• 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:

]]> http://www.artandscienceblog.com/blog2/2008/07/ps_tour_1.html?fromRSS http://www.artandscienceblog.com/blog2/2008/07/ps_tour_1.html CREATIVE Tue, 15 Jul 2008 11:45:07 -0500 Anthony Henriques 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.
 

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.

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.

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.

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.
 

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

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)

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.

Custom content is becoming more of the norm across many verticals, including the pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device arenas.  Consumers are looking for helpful, educational information about conditions affecting them or a loved one.  Marketers have begun to embrace this need for information, and are now providing educational content online via websites, RSS feeds, emails, blogs and videos, and offline via direct mail, doctor office booklets, and many other formats.

As with any marketing, we must start with the target audience: Who are they?  What do they need?  What do they want?  How do they want to be communicated with?  In the pharmaceutical and medical device space, consumers have become extremely leery of information provided by the industry.  Thus, it is increasingly important to provide content that has immediate relevance and that clearly shows the origination of information.  For example, providing references at the end of an article can make a major difference to the untrusting consumer eye.

Different stages of the audience life cycle can also affect the type and placement of developed content.

There's lots of talk out there about how to market to Boomers. We all know they're more active, educated and media-savvy than past "senior" generations, and there's big money to be made off of them. But the majority of the senior population is still composed of non-Boomers, and will be for a while, even as ballooning numbers of Boomers join the retiree ranks. (The oldest Boomers, remember, are only 62.)

This means that for now, marketing aimed at so-called seniors has to speak simultaneously to the generation that swung to Sinatra at their high school prom and the one that rocked out to the Rolling Stones; to the people who said "don't trust anyone over thirty" and the people that they were talking about.

How can marketers bridge the generation gap?

WRONG

Global companies have global customers. So a customer in Bangalore should have the same brand experience as a customer in Tokyo, Paris or Toronto. And in today's increasingly fragmented media environment, demand generation can play an even greater role in your brand perception than your traditional brand building mediums such as PR or advertising. Ignore this at your own risk.

And then of course there is the matter of finances. Developing 50 different campaigns in 50 different countries each and every quarter certainly doesn't have a positive impact on EBITDA does it? You're losing all of the economies of scale benefits offered by a more centralized demand generation structure.

So why don't more companies do it?

Blogs. If you couldn't make it to Las Vegas for the show, reading blogs was the next best thing to being there. From exhibitors to editors to attendees walking the floor, it seemed everyone was posting about what they saw or heard. Pictures of booths were posted, video interviews, or just reactions to what exhibitors were saying (see below). But the blogs did more than simply give non-attendees a glimpse of the show, it also allowed attendees to share their immediate thoughts on what worked, what didn't, and what is worth learning more about long after the booths are packed up and shipped back to their warehouses. In short, blogs were the real-time eyes and the ears of the show. 

Green is the new black. From Nortel's booth enticing attendees to "Calculate your Cisco energy tax" to the show organizers proclaiming INTEROP’s aisle carpets were made of 60% recycled materials, "environmentally friendly" was the talk of the day. Granted, when it comes to network equipment, reducing power means reducing costs, so in addition to helping the environment a more energy efficient device can also help the bottom line, but there's no denying that the "energy efficiency" message is here to stay.

Show No Fear. From Nortel's jab at Cisco's energy consumption to Xirrus' "Ditch the Switch" theme and Motorola's attempt to drive home the point that wired networks are prehistoric (that's a dinosaur made out of Cat 5 cable), exhibitors weren't afraid to promote their own offering by drawing explicit, sometimes aggressive, comparisons to their neighbor.

I'm re-entering the workforce after one of life's major changes – Motherhood.  After four months of maternity leave my life is forever altered.  With the joys of Motherhood also come sleep deprivation, a new commute, new shopping habits – the list goes on and on.

Changes in your customer and prospects profiles are an important part of understanding who they are.  These insights may lead to new up-sell and cross-sell opportunities.  Changes may mean shifting dollars and tweaking messages as prospects move from a core target to secondary target and vice versa.