Yaffe Tidbits

Ad of the week: Vegas "Chinchilli Day"

You've probably seen the ads for Vegas where people come up with excuses to take time off to go to Vegas. But, you may have not seen the web video companion pieces, which are far more hilarioius. I discovered them this morning and found them very funny and offbeat - perfect for the web enviornment. So, they get this week's Ad of the Week honors. Below, you'll see the extended version of the TV spot for "Excuses - Chinchilli Day" - it's a bit over the top and I think the :30 may actually work better, but it sets up the web videos nicely. The next two are web videos where the chinchillas who appeared in the ad are interviewed "Hollywood Insider" style. These are pretty funny, especially the first one.

"What's Your Excuses - Chinchilli Day Part 2"

"The Main Attraction: Interview with Chinchilla Star"

"The Main Attraction: Chinchilli Day Star Tells All"

I hope you enjoyed them as much as I did.

Mike McClure, Executive Creative Director

Here's How My LinkedIn Process Led To a Board of Directors Seat

Editor's note: this is part 2 of a guest blog by Colette Releford, President of Strive Business Solutions. In part 1 she talked about how having processes can help you grow your business. Today, she gives a personal experience example of how this has helped her.

Using a personal example I want to show how processes documentation can help you in different ways. Since I work with processes, I am always trying to think of how I can utilize them more in my business and also help my clients. One of the tools I have done this with is LinkedIn. Here is how the process I use for this tool led to a Board of Directors Position.

Step 1: I made a new contact by email after joining the Association of Professional Business Writers (APBW).

Step 2: I invited this contact to join my LinkedIn network. I do this within 48 hours of meeting a new contact so they remember me and my business. In this case it was the Director of the Association.

Step 3: Once connected I send a follow-up email to connect more and learn ways we can help each other and share respective goals and missions.

Step 4: I look to meet my new contact by phone or in person. In this case I learned Association was local so we arranged a meeting. As a result we realized the synergy with my company and its services and the growth of the Association. So I was asked to join the Board of Directors as well.

Because I already had a set documented process in place, I could focus on the opportunity at hand. This allowed me to be creative and ask the right questions. It helped me to build a real rapport and connect with a great association.

Don’t wait to start making your business better today. The environment is fast paced you don’t want to be left behind. So, get your "Ready, Set, Document!" process in place now.  It will make all the difference.

Through the use of these processes, I was recently elected to the board of directors for the Association of Professional Business Writers (APBW). The mission of The APBW is to foster business writing talent and achievement and to advance the art of business writing as it is essential to the profession.

Because of the state of the economy, many displaced or unemployed individuals that wish to enter into a curriculum of study at the APBW cannot afford to pay at this time. As a result the APBW has established a new Scholarships Fund.

If you or your company is interested in supporting the APBW or working with Strive, please contact Colette Releford directly at 301-591-0940 or creleford@strivebusinesssolutions.com

Growing Your Business is a Process: Ready, Set, Document!

Guest blog by Colette Releford, President of Strive Business Solutions,

In today’s ever-changing business climate businesses must be ready to adapt to the changing needs of their clients in order to grow. They must be willing to listen to what their needs are and be willing to meet them. I am not saying to constantly change the structure of your company but be sure you have some flexibility in your business model. It’s the ability to adapt that makes process documentation even more import especially for small business owners.

I know what some people are thinking process documentation is designed to take away flexibility and make for rigid rules and systems. It makes robots out of employee’s right and it’s a way for the company to eliminate jobs. Well if that is your view let me clearly state you are wrong. It’s a common misconception that I am working to change. William Edwards Deming creator of the Deming system of Profound Knowledge described processes this way "if you can’t describe what you’re doing as a process then you don’t know what your doing."

Processes are actually meant to allow businesses to focus on growth and can be used in a variety of ways. So let’s start changing the view and use process documentation to help you serve your customers better. When you look at some of the most successful large corporations such as McDonalds or Nordstrom’s one of the factors that makes them successful is that they have embraced the value of process documentation. They have created successful systems so that customers know what to expect. This consistency is what keeps customers coming back.

This same consistency allows a business owner to be able to meet a change in what customers want more effectively. It’s hard to make a change or tell if it’s successful if you don’t know where you started. It also will help you to empower your employees when they do not have to focus always on the smallest details from memory they can instead use their individual strengths to improve what they do and how it impacts the company both internally and externally. From a sports view think of it like this once you have the basics down pat then you can really focus on how to improve and excel at what you do. By documenting key processes you can create this same atmosphere of excellence within your company.

Let me provide a word of caution though don’t just start documenting everything with no plan in place. This decision also should be a process and focused on the key areas that take the most time, have the most turnover or will most impact your clients or final product. In other words those things that will really help your company get to the next level, be fluid, scalable and stand apart from the competition.

Editor's Note: in Part 2 of Colette's blog, you'll see how she applied her process management techniques to use LinkedIn and become a member of the board of directors for the APBW.

Colette Releford is the president of Strive Business Solutions. You can contact her directly at 301-591-0940 or creleford@strivebusinesssolutions.com Strive provides a unique set of services that focuses on three main areas of service to small and medium sized businesses. These service areas are Business Process Management, Risk Management Products and Professional Services/Consulting.

TEDxDetroit spurs opportunity thinking

Guest post by Mike Morawski, Chief Instigation Officer at Morawski & Company.

I went to TEDxDETROIT this week. It was a great mix of speakers, subjects and a nice sprinkling of musical and artistic interludes. TED is an acronym for Technology, Entertainment and Design. People give talks on any subject of their choosing. The idea then is to promote a discussion amongst the attendees during the breaks.

Wow, talk about coming away with lots of ideas! Some I’ll use immediately, others are bumping around in the back of my brain box to see what shakes out. An idea I liked immediately was a quote from Aaron Crumm, CEO, Adaptive Materials Inc. “Opportunity…Let’s go get some”. The simple joy and wide-eyed, child-like naiveté of that statement just amazes me. It’s outrageous  to think you can just go out and find opportunity. It’s as if all we simply need to do is walk out the back door and pick from the opportunity tree till our hearts are content. It would be the tree right next to the money tree.

I like this thinking, A LOT! We absolutely can make our own opportunities. I have always believed that 99% of the time there isn’t such a thing as being lucky. Rather, I define being lucky, as someone who is prepared for and able to recognize genuine opportunity.  It takes a lot of work to be lucky. Each client personnel change represents a new opportunity. Here are links to 3 recent posts with new client changes, post1, post2, post3.  Opportunity…Let’s go get some.

Oct 21 Ad of the Week: Droid

This week's ad of the week is for the Verizon Droid phone and was chosen by one of our senior art directors.

You can also read about the campaign in this PC World article. Here's why Satch the AD chose it as our ad of the week:

"This is one of the more compelling commercials I've seen recently. Mainly because of the element of intrigue. The commercial is designed to make the viewer think they are watching an "iCommercial" from Macintosh. Complete with standard type, white background and up-beat Fiest-like audio. But, after you read a few lines of copy, you begin to realize this is no Mac commercial for an iPhone, this is an "iDon't" Mac attack that really lays the smack down."

 

"The commercial pin-points several areas that the iPhone is deficient in. Then, near the end, it abruptly transitions into some neo-grunge filtered graphics that say "Droid does". We are left with a clean and clever logo with no product shot and no clear answer other than the idea that Droid does do all these things that the iPhone doesn't. And that ambiguity kind of leaves you wondering. I like the ad because it introduces a new contender into the mix of a Blackberry and iPhone dominated market. Although they never actually show the product, they come out swinging. Unlike political campaigning...smear ads for products are fun. Think Coke and Pepsi, PC and Mac, Miller and Budweiser. I like this because it also gives Macintosh an opportunity to strike back, or just address the problems pointed out in the commercial. Either way, Competition breeds a better product and a better product results in more creative advertising. We all win."

If you have a suggestion for ad of the week, leave a comment here, ping us on Twitter or our Facebook page or email it to us at info@yaffe.com.

10 Ways Twitter Changed My Life

Guest blog by Lara Galloway, mompreneur, mom business coach and BlogTalkRadio host.

This month marks my one year anniversary of being on Twitter. Little did I know when I typed my first tweet last year how things would change! For instance, I could not have predicted back in October 2008 that Twitter would become “my office,” that I would eventually get 95% of my qualified leads from Twitter, and that I would be able to achieve my status as expert and go-to resource for mompreneurs in less than a year. For this, I owe a debt of gratitude to the developers of Twitter. Thanks, Guys!

As I look back over the past year, I can see what an impact this single tool has had on my business (and my life!).  I thought I’d share with you some of the specific changes that have occurred in my business as a result of using Twitter.

1)   Immediate access to people and information
I used to go to Google when I had a question or needed to research or understand something better. Now, I tweet. And all the questions I ask on Twitter get personalized, specific answers from friends and strangers who are willing to share their knowledge and expertise with me. I’m learning so much faster now!

2)   The ability to market myself 24/7 without leaving my house or spending a dime
I’m a mom to three kids aged seven and under. I don’t have the desire or time to arrange for childcare, get dressed up, and then commute to a networking event that doesn’t particularly fit in my busy day. Thanks to Twitter, I can network and market myself all the time, even when I’m not at my computer (and instead playing with my kids), and I get to be relaxed and comfortable in my own house and on my own time.

3)   Building amazing relationships with people who have shaped my business
What a gift to be able to connect with so many people I probably would never have met! I have found mentors, colleagues, friends, teachers, JV partners and (of course) clients on Twitter. We read each other’s tweets, comment back and forth and discover that we’re a good fit for each other. Then we start talking on the phone and some wonderful relationships are born. When I think of all the influence, inspiration and role models I’ve gleaned from Twitter, I’m hard-pressed to say I learned this much in my graduate school education.

4)   Meeting and getting to know my clients in a very comfortable environment before we ever talk money
Twitter provides a comfortable, no pressure environment for my future clients and I to get to know each other. We can chat back and forth for days, weeks, months without me feeling like I’m wasting my time or that I need to put pressure to “close the sale” (which is not my style anyway). I read and RT their tweets, browse their websites, read their blogs, and am able to know more about them and the work they’re up to before we ever discuss working together. And I’m a full-disclosure kinda gal, so I share my honest thoughts, my mistakes, and my tips and advice with them on Twitter. That tends to attract people to me who are interested in my coaching, so I never have to “convince” someone to hire me.

5)   Having a pipeline full of warm leads that are steadily moving closer to hiring me
The marketing gurus say it takes somewhere between 7-10 “touches” before the average person is ready to buy from you. How hard would it be to accomplish this without Twitter? Well, it was hard enough for me that I rarely did it in my business before I got on Twitter. Now, 7-10 tweets is something I can accomplish in an hour!

6)   Being surrounded and inundated with messages from my target market and what they want from me, making it easy for me to create solutions for them quickly
Are you doing marketing research? Well, I didn’t do it at all before I got on Twitter. I just came up with an idea I thought was good and tried to sell it to other people I thought needed it. Didn’t work so well and wasted a lot of my time and energy. Now I do searches on keywords and browse tweets and the people who are tweeting them to see what my target market is talking about. I watch/listen for problems, struggles, and pain points, and then start developing my solutions. When I have a new idea, I simply ask my followers on Twitter what they think of it. Good response? I create the offering. Low/bad response? I ditch it and move on.

7)   Being approached by other thought leaders who invite me to speak, collaborate, teach, write or coach, rather than me hunting for these outlets of exposure
Really, who has time to hunt for opportunities? Thanks to Twitter and my marketing strategy that is built around it, I am no longer a hunter and am now a receiver of opportunities to do cool things with other cool people. My presence on Twitter helps other people find me, and we’re able to connect and build things together that I would never be able to do by myself.

8)   The most powerful tool I know of to build visibility, credibility and my brand
Well, enough said. Almost. Because I like to talk and write J. I have around 8,500 followers. That means that everything I tweet reaches all of these people. And then there’s the whole viral thing, which means that all the people following those people see my tweets, too. And so on. My Twitter profile is my virtual business card. How else could I get my business card into the hands of 8,500+ people (and I only have to type 140 characters to do it)

9)   Creating a single platform in which I can leverage everything else I do in my business
I can tweet about my blogposts, my podcasts, my videos, my mastermind groups, my membership programs, my articles, my info products and my BlogTalkRadio shows with just a few clicks of the mouse. Twitter is the center of my online presence, making it easy for people who are interested in finding out more about what I do to have easy access to all I offer.

10)   Feeling supported and appreciated
When you run a home-based business, it can get pretty lonely. Who even knows that you’re there, in your home office, doing great things? Who checks in on you to see how you’re doing when you’re not sitting in a big office building surrounded by co-workers? When I’m bored, lonely, or need some boosting up, I tweet about it. Within minutes, several of my friends (and even a few random strangers) send me happy tweets. When fighting kids and motherhood have me stressed to the hilt, some soothing (or hysterical) tweets from my tweeple make it all better. When I’m excited about something and just dying to share it with others, I tweet about it. I get dozens of congratulatory tweets back from my followers. This is the stuff that keeps me going!

So it’s no wonder why I’ve become a Twitter evangelist. When one simple, free tool can make such a big, positive difference, who wouldn’t want to use it? I LOVE TWITTER!

Lara Galloway
The Mom Biz Coach

You can connect to Lara through Twitter (obviously), her blog, her website, her YouTube channel or her BlogTalkRadios how or email: lara@mombizcoach.com

The Books of Brand Camp `09

If you're into branding, social media, creativity, achieving goals or just life in general, here's a great reading list from the speakers at the 2009 Brand Camp University conference in Detroit.

First of all, every attendee got a copy of The Branded YU Life by Brand Camp founder Hajj Flemings, It is subtitled, Rethinking who you are through personal brand management. Since Hajj comes from a graphic background, it's impact graphically is as good as the written word. Hajj also recommended a good book on creativity called Ignore Everybody: and 39 Other Keys to Creativity by Hugh MacLeod.

I was lucky enough to win an autographed copy of speaker Mitch Joel's new book 6 Pixels of Separation, where he talks about how we are all connected by just 6 pixels instead of 6 people in this digital age.

Our next speaker, Rohit Bhargava, has worked with a number of the world's biggest and best brands. He used those experiences to write, Personality Not Included: Why Companies Lose Their Authenticity and How Great Brands Get it Back. He also has a free eBook companion on personal branding.

Apparently, CoversationAgent.com's Valeria Maltoni didn't have a book to pitch, but she had a great reading list of her own to pass on. She suggested Mitch Joel's book (listed above), Trust Agents: Using the Web to Build Influence, Improve Reputation and Earn Trust by Chris Brogan, Twitterville:How Businesses Can Thrive in the New Global Neighborhoods by Shel Isreal, Me 2.0: How to Build a Powerful Brand to Achieve Career Success by Dan Schawbel, The New Community Rules: Marketing On The Social Web by Tamar Weinberg and World Wide Rave: Creating Triggers that Get Millions of People to Spread Your Ideas and Share Your Stories by David Meerman Scott.

And finally, there's the new book by passionate and inspiring speaker Ken Brown, A Leap of Faith: Going from Welfare to Faring Well. He randomly handed out copies of his book to the crowd throughout his presentation.

There you go, a good list of reading materials to get you through the winter (Northern Hemisphere only, Southern Hemisphere, consider this your summer reading list) and get you prepared to improve you brand, your career, your life and probably your vocabulary. Enjoy

Mike McClure. The man. The brand. The Yaffe Group Social Media Brandividual

Ad of the Week: Oct 14, 2009

Every Wednesday, we showcase some of the best work out there, past and present. Today we have two examples of new work that are interesting for different reasons.

The first one is an ad for Ford Ranger in Argentina. It's called Sun and it's a beautifully shot and edited fable about the dark times when the sun went away and the hard working people who carried on. It's one of Creativity Magazine's top picks of the week. You can find it at this link here: Ranger Sun, for as long as they keep it up.

The second is a web campaign for Wendy's brought to our attention by Satch the Sr. Art Director at yesterday's Tuesday Trend talk meeting. Wendy's is gathering up all the real person web chatter and posts and spraying them across a single site in near real time. So, different people's tweets and photos and videos float in a bubble cloud, along with the occasional offer or random piece of bacon Wendy's throws into the mix. If you want the ever-moving cloud of data to stop so you can view something better or watch a video floating through, just click on the item you wish to review and the whole thing freezes while you focus on it. You can find this site by going to Wendy's Real Time.

Well, what do you think? Good, bad, indifferent? Let us know. And as always, if you'd like to submit something for the next ad of the week, leave it in a comment here, tweet us @TheYaffeGroup, post it on our Facebook fan page or email us: fans@yaffe.com

See you next week.

10 Things I learned at Brand Camp `09

I attended the Brand Camp University event this last Saturday and it was a fabulous day filled with wonderful and inspiring speakers. It was great a brain dump of information and inspiration. There was way too much stuff to detail in one blog, but here's some of the highlights of what I learned at Brand Camp 09:

1. It's time to Grustle.  Brand Camp organizer Hajj Flemings, kicked off the day talking about "grustle" - a combination of the daily Grind (what you have to do to make a living) and Hustle (the stuff you are passionate about and love to do) The key to personal happiness is finding your grustle; working at something you love to do.

2. Harley Davidson doesn't sell motorcycles.  Speaker Mitch Joel talked about the three conversations you need to have about your brand: internal, one-to-one and one-to-many. He said the internal conversation is about "finding the real you, what you're all about, what you like and don't like." His example of a brand knowing "what the real you is" was Harley Davidson, who says they don't sell motor vehicles, they sell the ability for 43-year-old accountants to dress up in leather and ride through a small town and have people be afraid of them.

3. The world's only Museum of the Weird is in Austin, TX.  While talking about his "10 Keys to Building a Powerful Personal Brand" speaker Rohit Bhargava's #3 item was "Find your Twist." The idea wasn't just about finding what makes your brand unique, it was also about finding your niche within your arena, whether that's within your field or your geographic region. Austin is proud of it's weird vibe, has tee-shirts proclaiming the city and it's denizens as being weird. Turning a trinket shop into a Museum of the Weird was someone finding their twist. Been meaning to get down to Austin for some time, now I have to go!

4. Participation is an ecosystem. One of the things Valeria Maltoni of CoversationAgent.com spoke about is the idea that there is a whole ecosystem to the act of participating in the conversations online. In the center is your content (for instance, you're blog). The first circle around that center is the people you know. The next circle out is the people who know the people you know. Different levels of participation allow you to move through the circles and expand them as you network.

5. PETA is everywhere.  Even in a focused and limited attendance conference PETA fanatics can raise their heads. Some protester shelled out the cash to attend just so she could attack presenter Ken Brown about McDonald's chicken killing processes. It was an interesting diversion and both the organizers and Mr. Brown handled the interruption well, quickly moving on.

6. People will pay to watch you burn... and that's a good thing.  Speaking of Ken Brown, he's a very high energy and dynamic speaker. He worked the crowd without any visual or audio aid. One thing he said was 'if you find your passion, people will pay to watch you burn." That goes for personal and corporate brands. If you are very passionate about what you do, it will come across and people will sit up and take notice.

7. You can get a room full of multi-tasking social media geeks to shut up & pay attention.  Paraplegic Olympic 100m sprint gold medal winner, April Holmes, had the room in silence (except for the occasional sniffle) with her moving and inspirational story. Not a single tweet went out on the #brandcamputwitter feed during the DVD detailing her journey.

8. We're living in an age of the Rise of the Brandividual.  Ford social media guru, Scott Monty spoke on how some personal brands are becoming as powerful as corporate brands. And some of those personal brands are inextricably tied into the corporate brand. Such is the case of Steve Jobs and Apple or Richard Branson and Virgin. He said 77% of people trust big companies less than they did last year (and last year wasn't exactly a banner year). they trust people they know and trusted 3rd party experts. So, a brandividual may carry more weight and garner more trust than the company brand alone.

9. Only 3 things distinguish social media.  Biggby Coffee's CEO, Biggby Bob Fish said social media appears to be just another method of message distribution except in these three ways: 1. It gives your brand personality. 2. It allows for interactions and dialog with the consumer. 3. It allows you to consolidate your media.

10. I'm going to want to go again next year.  It was definitely worth the time and money. I learned a lot. I saw some very dynamic and good speakers. I walked away inspired. I got a couple free books and a tee-shirt (which my wife already stole). Speaking of books, there were a lot of good titles recommended. I put together a list of them in a separate post you can find here.

Mike McClure, The Man, The Brand, The Yaffe Group Social Media Brandividual

Web Video Increases Engagement & Sales

Engagement. It's one of the buzz words you hear all the time. But, it's true. With all the choices for the consumer's media time these days, you need to engage them in order to capture and keep their attention long enough to get your message. You need to give them something interesting or they will move on.

This is not just an excuse to be more creative with your marketing messages. It really works. It drives sales. Over and over again, we've seen that when we add an embedded video on our email marketing, creating an Advercast rather than a simple promotional email, sales go up. We tell everyone that we see a 34% lift in sales when we send out these Advercast emails. But, the numbers go up from there. We've seen incredible lifts in sales just by adding the video element. And we can see that we've increased engagement with these as well. The average person spends over a minute more on our Advercasts than on the promotional emails.

And you don't have to spend a lot of money to do it. It helps if you spend enough money to shoot or animate something spectacular. But you can create engaging videos for less if you get creative. Here's some of videos we created for our clients Advercasts. None of them cost more than $3000.

Video for the RoomPlace President's Day Sale email

Video for Robb & Stucky's Advercast

If you'd like to see more of our award winning web videos we've used to increase engagement and sales visit the podcast section of www.yaffetidbits.com. What other ways have you seen engagement result in sales?

Mike McClure, engaged and enthused