Tery Spataro Resigned from Sparkrelief Board

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For more than a year I provided advise to Sparkrelief on a regular basis, I donated thousands of dollars so that people who were victimized by disaster could easily find what they needed and those that wanted to help had a place to go to provide help.

This was a tough decision for me to make considering the amount of investment I made in time, energy and money that I put into Sparkrelief and the leadership. As of August 1, 2011 I have not been involved with Sparkrelief, I can not validate the direction the organization is going.

Currently my names is associated with Sparkrelief, I asked that my name be removed from Sparkrelief, business and marketing documents, and not used in conversations.

If you need more details on why I have resigned please feel free to contact me directly.

Age & new generation of industries

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Age is a target for job discrimination among the new industries. But what some smart businesses are realizing is that age has it’s benefits to new generation of young workers. Young workers that are ambitious, smart but need help focusing.

Business leaders must realize the importance in the knowledge the seasoned professional has, how seasoned professional changes and adapts their knowledge to fit the trends. Equally important for helping younger professionals who don’t have the experience, perspective, wisdom and knowledge by leading, mentoring, cultivating, and educating them. As senior person in this very nascent industry [digital], my ambition is to motivate new talent to become the next generation of leaders, so that next generation of products/services/experiences are not narrowly focused, lacking perceptive and consideration of users. Users = profit.

Age should be a factor – in that factor the consideration of maturity, wisdom, experience, and perspective, which all have an impact on business and marketing strategy, client services, customers, production, creativity, and return on investment.

Resources to help with Digital Marketing for Regis 619

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The following are resources that will help in your exploration of Digital Marketing research. These resources include tools for web site, search, social media and mobile devices. Take some time to examine each one of these resources and put them to good use.
How to Use Internet Market Research Tools, by Inc. Staff
http://www.inc.com/guides/biz_online/online-market-research.html

Types of available digital research tools:
Web site usage and traffic analytics
Alexa http://www.alexa.com
Quantcast http//www.quantcast.com
Compete http://www.compete.com
ComScore http://www.comscore.com

Search tool for analyzing search trends:
Google Trends http://www.google.com/trends

Social Media monitoring tools:
BlogPulsehttp://www.blogpulse.com
TribeVibehttp://www.tribevibe.com/
TweetSentimenthttp://tweetsentiments.com
CrowdEyehttp://www.crowdeye.com
Trendistichttp://trendistic.com/
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/press/info.php?statistics
YouTube Insights for Audience: http://www.google.com/videotargeting/ifa/buildQuery

Mobile and digital devices analytics:
Admob http://metrics.admob.com/

Statistics for digital media usage:
Internet World Stats http://www.internetworldstats.com/stats.htm
Stats Counter http://gs.statcounter.com/

Other Helpful Sources:
Pew Internet and American Life Project http://pewinternet.org/
eMarketer http://www.emarketer.com/
Marketing Charts http://www.marketingcharts.com/
DigitalBuzz Blog http://www.digitalbuzzblog.com
Research Brief from the Center of Media Research
http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Archives.showArchive&art_ty…

Tools for Online Focus Groups & Surveys:
Ask Your Target Market
http://askyourtargetmarket.com/

TWTpoll
http://twtpoll.com/

TwittPoll
http://twittpoll.com/

Survey Monkey
http://www.surveymonkey.com/

Survey Gizmo
http://www.surveygizmo.com/

Survey Gizmo Facebook App
http://www.surveygizmo.com/facebook-survey-app/

Survey Gizmo Using Facebook to Get Targeted Respondents
http://www.surveygizmo.com/survey-blog/facebook-survey-respondents/

Zoomerang
http://www.zoomerang.com/

This great resource is from Dita Dau, Regis University.
Social Media/ Network Marketing
•     www.Namechk.com
•     www.Hootsuite.com
•     http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com (The 5 Pillars of a Social Media
Campaign)
•     http://mashable.com
•     http://ping.fm – free service that allows you to track and update
multiple social networking sites simultaneously (i.e., posting a
status to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn all at the same time)
•     www.mixergy.com Interviews with many cutting edge people in the tech
and biz world.

________________________________________

Best Practices for Writing Content for SEO
•     http://ezinearticles.com/?Copywriting-Services—Best-Practices-For-S…
•     http://www.theorganicseo.com/

________________________________________

Social Networking for B2B
•     http://www.marketingprofs.com/charts/2010/3695/linkedin-delivers-b2b-…
– Article about which B2B social networking sites get the most click-
through website visitors and which of their website links are visited
from which social media venues.
___________________________________________________________________________ ___
Photo Editing
•     www.picnik.com – free source for editing photos – very easy & fast.

________________________________________
Twitter
•     http://hootsuite.com/dashboard — a place to manage all your social
media, but especially improves on the basic Twitter dashboard
•     http://www.screentweet.com/ – shares videos, pictures, screen shots,
and images on Twitter
•     http://www.tweetdeck.com/ – Another Twitter dashboard to manage all
your social media- Twitter, Facebook, Linkin, Foursquare, and others.

________________________________________

Facebook
•     www.facebook.com/username – Once you have 25 fan page “likes” you
can change your vanity code. Need to login first in order to activate.

________________________________________
LinkedIn

________________________________________
YouTube – Viral Marketing

•     Social Media Revolution http://youtu.be/sIFYPQjYhv8
________________________________________
RSS Feeds – Content
•     Google Reader:  http://www.google.com/intl/en/googlereader/tour.html
•     http://www.google.com/ig?hl=en
•     http://netvibes.com – Another rss reader, similar to google reader,
that allows you to change your theme or personalize your reading
options.
•     http://www.smminstitute.com/blog/2010/6/2/writing-your-first-blog-you…
– Article about blogging rather than rss feed, but still helpful in
developing content

________________________________________

SEO/Google
•     http://googlewebmastercentral.blogspot.com/2008/11/googles-seo-starte…
•     http://services.google.com/breeze/webmasters/googleforwebmasters/
•     http://www.google.com/analytics/tour.html
•     http://www.seocentro.com/tools/seo-tools.html.
•     www.google.com/sktools
•     http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/
•     www.Seomoz.org

________________________________________
Interactive web design, art / design side of the business, look and
feel, usability architecture, site mapping, layout structure, color
schemes, and common trends in user behavior and navigation

•     http://www.gimp.org/ – Free image editing software
•     http://www.mobileawesomeness.com/ – Cool Mobile Sites
•     F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content:
http://www.useit.com/alertbox/reading_pattern.html
•     http://www.bigbangtemplates.com – free source for
website templates.
•     http://www.getfirebug.com –  One of the most popular and most
popular web development tool. Checks speed and suggests tweaks for web
optimization.
•     http://www.wordpress.com – One of the best web design tools online.
You can change the look of the page and download various plugins.
•     http://blog.atlas-advertising.com/?p=1214 – Article about 10 vital
principles for web design
•     http://www.poynterextra.org/eyetrack2004/index.htm – All about Eye
tracking theory
•     http://www.alistapart.com/ – explores the design, development, and
meaning of web content, with a special focus on web standards and best
practices.
•     http://960.gs/ – Grid System templates in Fireworks, Flash,
InDesign, GIMP, Inkscape, Illustrator, OmniGraffle, Photoshop, Visio,
Exp. Design to help streamline web development and layout workflow.
•     http://www.uxbooth.com/ – great resource of articles on usability,
user experience, and interaction design.
•     www.mikogo.com FREE version of software like “GoToMeeting” makes it
easy to help customers complete forms or use other complicated parts
of websites
•     www.vchecksolutions.com Software allows clients to send a check to
your business online, without having to handwrite and mail

________________________________________
Website Building
•     www.joomla.org
•     Absolute Beginners Guide to Joomla! http://docs.joomla.org/Beginners
•     www.Sites.google.com — $10/year for a basic, no-frills website.
Free for a website with URL like http://sites.google.com/YourURLhere
•     Basic HTML: http://www.w3schools.com/html/default.asp
•     Basic SQL: http://www.w3schools.com/sql/default.asp
•     JAVA script codes: http://www.javascriptfreecode.com
•     www.drupal.org – freeware web design software, very highly used
today
•     www.Shopify.com – is a quick and easy way to turn your website into
a usable store for people to purchase things and includes a mobile
technology… if you want to sell a product, go here

________________________________________
Creating an XML sitemap
•     http://www.xml-sitemaps.com

________________________________________

Trends
•     http://trendwatching.com/
•     http://mitworld.mit.edu/video/519
•     http://techcrunch.com
•     http://www.clickz.com
•     http://marketing.alltop.com/

________________________________________
Pay Per Click

•     http://adwords.google.com
•     http://www.ppchero.com
•     Parallel Path – PPC/SEO consultants in Boulder – http://www.parallelpath.com
•     https://adcenter.microsoft.com/
________________________________________

Ad Networks and Ad Servers

•     Double Click - http://adwords.google.com – The world’s top
marketers, publishers and agencies utilize DoubleClick’s expertise in
ad serving, rich media, video, search and affiliate marketing to help
them make the most of the digital medium.

________________________________________
Customer Relationship Management (“CRM”) software
•     www.Hubspot.com
•     http://www.salesforce.com
•     http://www.sugarcrm.com/crm
•     http://saleslogics.com/

________________________________________
Hosting and Domain
•     http://www.apthost.com/
•     http://www.whois.com/

________________________________________
Entrepreneurship Resources

Website templates
•     www.gavick.com Template club for Joomla Templates.
•     www.AVC.com

Online Start-up Resources
•     http://startuprockstars.com – provides entrepreneurial organizations
the vehicle to hone their presentation and pitching of their product
or service, including events to allow sharing & networking within the
entrepreneurial community.
________________________________________
Further Reading
•     What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis – how to think like the most
successful internet company
•     Waiting For Your Cat to Bark by Bryan and Jeffrey Eisenberg – how
marketing is different now
•     Permission Marketing by Seth Godin – getting permission to send your
customers advertising
•     Seth’s Blog http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/ — the blog of
the aforementioned author
•     Trada  http://trada.com/blog/ — Pay-Per-Click experts
•     The Outsourcing Company- http://www.theoutsourcingcompany.com/ –
Social media marketing
•     Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff – social media 101 and
how to make useful
•     The Four Hour Workweek – Tim Ferriss – outsourcing your life
(includes web design, seo, etc)

________________________________________
Selling Ad Space
•     http://www.workz.com/content/view_content.html?section_id=515 – info
on selling ad space on your website directly
•     http://www.google.com/services/adsense_tour/index.html — Google
AdSense, for selling ads on your site

Leadership and New Breed of Entrepreneurs 15 Guiding Principles

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My Twitter update the other day read, “I really am the professor with so much to learn about my students.” My students happen to be in the classes I teach at Regis University, those that report me in businesses I work for, and those that I advise about their business start-ups. My students are from various demographic backgrounds. Of my students it’s the new entrepreneurs that are the most fascinating to me.

Over the past 15 plus years, I’ve been advisor to some of the best talent in the digital industry. The enthusiasm my students bring is at times inspirational and exhausting. The exhausting part is trying to teach these talented people about management and ethics.

This new breed of entrepreneurs bring the hope of exciting new businesses, products and in some cases industries. But most are inexperienced in management and lacking in formal business acumen. Some even dropped out of college and never even held a corporate job. Lately some of the questions I get asked from this new breed of entrepreneurs leads me to believe there needs to be a handbook on leadership for them.

Businesses are not just about the products produced and services supplied; business is about the employees (resources) that help you attain your objectives and promise of profitability. The relationships you cultivate with your employees can best be seen by the work environment you as a leader create. A good relationship with your employees can help in achieving optimum business results.

The question always posed, “are leaders born or made?” My answer some leaders are born but great leaders are made and trained. Leadership should be an important course that undergrads and graduate students should be required to take when studying business. Some higher educational institutions offer such courses. This is a great if you are attending school but what if you opt out? How do you achieve business success without understanding the basics of employee management?

Here is some very helpful advice on shaping yourself as leader – it’s about being the best leader for your business, employees, partners and investors.

In undergrad I took, “Modern Political Theory”, taught by Philip Zampini, PhD, at Albertus Magnus College. Before doing my MBA at Regis University this course was the closest course on leadership I took. Political philosophy may not be the best way to understand business management but it certainly taught me some important lessons about the human condition and leadership.

For instance Machiavelli wrote in Book III, Chapter XXIX, “Let not princes complain of the faults committed by the people subjected to their authority, for they result entirely from their own negligence or bad example”. The lesson for leaders is simple take responsibility for your actions there can be unintended consequences otherwise. The rule of “do as I say and not as do” is unacceptable and an outdated form of management. Employees learn by example, and as a leader you are setting that example. If you want the best leader for your employees set the right example for you employees to follow. Follow the “Golden Rule”. If don’t know what this is you can get a quick education from  Harry J. Gensler, S.J.

I also learned a few things from reading Sun Tzu’s “The Art of War”. Sun Tze may not apply to modern business but some theories have valid application in today’s business world if thought through clearly. Such as, “Keep your friends/family close but your enemies closer”, I interpret this as watch your competition then buy them and consolidate.

But, it was Max DuPree, CEO of Herman Miller, offered me a thoughtful and empathic look at leadership in his “Leadership is an Art”.

Simple guiding principles:

  1. Always take responsibility for your actions – pointing the finger at your employees only means you have no control.
  2. Being honest creates less stress and doubt in the minds of your employees.
  3. Be confident but not overly exuberant. Facts can always be traced.
  4. The good for one employee, is not necessarily the good for all.
  5. Divide and conquer never works in business.
  6. Management by chaos only creates confusion and slows productivity.
  7. Transparency is important especially in a start-up.
  8. Be as strategic with hiring your resources as you are with your business strategy.
  9. Employees work for you – they are not maids, servants, friends, relatives, lovers
  10. Practicality and logic have its place in leadership so does empathy.
  11. Leadership isn’t showmanship –  leadership provides business story, definitions, clarity, creates the team environment, but it’s not a three ring circus.
  12. Find a mentor/advisor that’s a good business person someone you trust and admire and has a successful track record in running businesses, managing employees, and failing.
  13. Teach your employees to manage you.
  14. Management by objective, as Peter Drucker advises keeps your employees focused on the strategic objectives.
  15. Dr. Smith, a character from Lost in Space would say, “Yours is not to question why yours to do as I say or die” not a good way to go! Employees who ask question are the most valuable employees of all.

Over the past several years there has been so much unethical behavior in business that it would be refreshing to see the new breed entrepreneurs adopt ethical practices to reflect a new breed of business leaders.

Full disclosure I’m an atheist, who believes ethics are an important part of a successful business. When you do you right by your employees, shareholders and customers from an ethical perspective you have a greater chance of succeeding for long term. Most of my ethical training was received from Regis University’s MBA program. Each business course had ethical considerations applied to it.

In Response to Social Media Hasn’t Failed Advertising, We’ve Failed Ourselves

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Matt Morin identifies very valid points about the use of social media (channels/tactics) and impact on revenue and sales.  Traditional media separates the use of branding tactics and tactics which drive sales. For social media, in some cases the usage of these channels are not clearly identified so that the impact (brand awareness or sales) can be difficult to tracked. There needs to be clear objectives such as is creating brand awareness or creating sales – of course these are not the only objectives. Then the tactics must align to objectives. This is where strategic planning is really key of the strategy research is even more important.

 The old rules and questions still apply to social media and are used to justify and substantiate plans and budgets:

  • Why is are we doing this (objectives must have brand, business, and consumer directive)
  • Who is the target market
  • What is the message, content are we trying to convey
  • Where is the target market (are they on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter)
  • When is the best time to reach them

 

  • How do we deliver? (tactic/channel)

Measuring success is not by the number of likes but how those likes translate into sales. Marketers must not shy away from measuring the acquisition, retention, and sales this should be an important part of every strategic plan.

Marketers can be easily seduced by sexiness of new types of digital channels such as social media but remember what happened in the early days of digital…so critical thinking still applies to digital.

If we continue to throw away the things we learn from past we’ll never understand the mistakes we are making now.

Thank you @sassymikita for bringing this to my attention!

Disaster Relief Takes on a New Meaning

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Since the Boulder Fire (Four Mile Fire), I’ve been seeing an increase the use of community to help during disaster. Boulder Fire presented an opportunity for citizens to help by organizing around social media. In my research report, “Community During Crisis“, there is apparent useful factors to social media during crisis and behavior of community. Con that I point out is fragmentation occurs unless there is the ability to aggregate resources. I got fascinated by the idea of community disaster relief and aggregating needs and help. I looked at a number of different platforms, all of these organizations provide good intentions, but do not solve the fragmentation issue.

  • Crisis Commons provides acceptable form of communication using wiki
  • Ushahidi has a crisis platform
  • Google has person finder and crisis response page
  • Several others individually providing crisis mapping and information

Crowdsourcing community during a disaster is a pragmatic direction for gathering help but it must be done in a uniformed, trackable way, so that information can be found by those who need it and by those providing it. During the Boulder Fire, a team of young entrepreneurs understood the situation and quickly created a means of providing information for food, clothing and shelter. The platform, Sparkrelief, grew from a simple bulletin board system to providing the means for housing during the Japan crisis. As the news of Japan dies down, Sparkrelief continues to provide the means for people who need housing from people who are generous and caring to provide an extra room or sofa. The database of housing listings can be searched via criteria and housing providers cam easily post their offerings.

Sparkrelief is an nonprofit, that provides a means for community driven disaster relief and is working to create a platform that can be easily deployed for any natural disaster. Sparkrelief relies on donations and corporate sponsorship to help with costs of developing the platform and operations of the nonprofit. I’ve been on the advisory board for the past 6 months helping connect Sparkrelief with corporate sponsors and I also provided a generous donation to help with technology develop of the platform and operations. I believe that Sparkrelief is providing the solution to the problem with disaster relief by creating a platform that can manage fragmentation, needs of victims and those who want to help.

T-Mobile why you’re going to lose me

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Dear TMobile,

I’ve been a loyal customer since late 2003 (over 6 years) – you’ve had very few complaints from me up until I changed handsets in October of 2009 – this was my birthday present to myself. I was very excited to buy your first Android phone. I have no complaints about the Android OS or the style and feel of the phone.

BUT

For 6 months my frustration has been mounting because of an issue with the HTC battery not charging on the MyTouch Android. This is a huge issue for me because I don’t have a landline. My first call to customer service I complained of only getting 20% after charging the phone for a full 12 hours with the phone off and SIM out. We went through the trouble shooting protocols. I insisted that there must be an issue with the charger or power cord. They sent new charger. The first charge was about 85% – I thought why would I buy a phone that would only give me 85% charge?

Over a couple of weeks the battery stopped charging again – leaving me without phone. I called Tmobile customer support – they sent me a new battery.

BTW my charging behavior is nightly, because this is the only communication device I have.

I complain the MyTouch phone charges but never at 100% only lasts just about 2 hours if I don’t do anything. This means not using:

  • Aps
  • txt
  • calls
  • or other great features I bought the phone to use

After insisting that there’s something wrong with the battery or charger, T-Mobile sends me a new phone. I try the new phone I get 95% charge whoa! That was the most the battery was charged in 4.5 months.

BUT
After three weeks the battery is no longer getting 95% charge and slowing the charge is decreasing. Out of frustration I call again and plea with customer support that there’s something the matter with the HTC battery. T-Mobile customer support tells me it my phone charging behavior that I need to train the battery. Why would I ever buy a phone that I need to put so much time and effort into for only 2 hours of usage?

I’m panicking I have to be in NYC for business. I figure I would charge the phone mind you I always charge the phone off, and without SIM card. I thought I would charge it for a full 72 hours. I turned it on the night before my trip after charging for 3 days straight…there’s only 7% charge.

I call TMobile again they insist there is nothing wrong with the charger or the power cord. I asked for a different phone. Tmobile wants me to buy the different brand. That’s ridiculous, I never got the value from the phone I have. We agree they would send me yet another MyTouch phone and another new battery, but that won’t be delivered in time for my trip.

Not sure if I should laugh or cry…I plug the phone back in and hope it will charge for at least 20% that way I could copy my calendar and contacts. It charges slightly but not enough.

Now I’m on business in NYC & left totally without a phone I don’t have access my calendar or contacts. Meetings planned are for locations I’m not familiar with, cant remember the addresses nor all of the meeting times, phone numbers etc.

A friend suggests I go to the T-Mobile store at 601 9 Ave – she said she’s had great luck with the guys there. I go in explain my situation in 5 minutes he tests the power cord – its dead and the charger not working and sells me a $25 charger that charges the MyTouch in 1 hour. The guy who helped me said there are issues with the USB chargers and the MyTouch. Why doesn’t T-Mobile customer support know this? They could have sent me a Delta Charger, but they didn’t and insisted that there was nothing wrong with the charger.

I get home on Sunday there’s the package from T-Mobile with the new phone. I call Customer Support and explain that my time was wasted over 6 months for a known issue with the faulty charger and USB power cord. Customer support didn’t listen to me and insisted I talk to tech rep for additional support. I wasn’t asking for additional support. She hung up on me. My feelings arent hurt that she hung on me, though I’m angry that I had to spend $25.00 on a charger they should have sent me, but T-Mobile lost more…

Here’s the rub:

It cost T-Mobile about $645 to deal with me

  • 2 replacement phones retail value $400
  • 2 replacement batteries $100
  • 1 replacement charger $25
  • At least a dozen calls to customer support: $120

Additional loss:
When my contract is up T-Mobile will loose me as a customer = $9,600 (over next 6 years includes service and new phones.

See this customer was right from the start — but sadly you refused to listen.

DEATH the Digital Plan

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We’ve accomplished so much on digitally. Almost every business model has transcended to a digital model. But over the past year or so I’ve been thinking about one business model that has yet to really transcend digitally…though it’s almost here and that model is…Death Switch
Dead Man’s Switch
Sympathy Tree
Virtual Memorials
Asset Lock

There are even folks talking about how to manage your digital bits after you die.
And Facebook will preserve your FB page for as long as long can be, but really how long is long; how about of your life is really there, what will it be used for in the future?Women’s Internet History project. This project will help with the structure of story telling, preserve the stories of women who helped shape, provide a purpose for, and develop the internet. Join us in the preservation process @womensinternet on Twitter.

Women’s Internet History Project is dedicated to preserving the stories and contributions from women who were the pioneers of the early internet days 1980-1999. This project provides the biographies, contributions, experiences and connections shared by women who were involved with internet and digital.

DEATH

…it’s already a big business in the dirt world. Funeral services, memorials, obituaries, tombstones, even the catering business is attached to the business of DEATH.

I know you’re gasping at my focus on such a touchy subject.

My essay is an exploration of my thoughts about DEATH and potential for business plan about transcending DEATH in the digital world and what I think the future of DEATH will be. My reasoning around the subject of DEATH probably stems from my mid life, questioning who I am, my purpose and if anyone really knew me at all – sometimes this type of self absorption is a good opportunity to see if anyone is thinking in the same way if so what’s the opportunity?

Here I go: not to belabor the details of my request from my Will, I don’t want to be put into the ground & buried. I believe my human vessel should be cremated to save the planet from further waste and pollution. I believe the body is merely a vessel my personality, thoughts, dreams, feelings, hopes, desires, memories is really what makes me me and therefore the most important information worth saving. Here is where I see the opportunity in DEATH.

A slight digression, we do a great job of digitally preserving and archiving our arts, music, TV programs, movies, even our financial statements that go on in years in time, but why not the human personality?

Here lies the business I want to be in…

I want to be in the business of the preservation of personality – the thoughts and memories of the individual. Think about this instead of visiting the cemetery, you visit the digital version of your loved one. The memories, personality, all the digital bits and bytes about this person are archived so that you can relive those moments of your loved one. Therefore, in DEATH there is the opportunity for ever lasting life in the digital world.

Yes, there are several businesses that cater the digital business of DEATH already:

The list goes on…
Even searching the business of digital death [without quotes] led me to about 74 million possibilities about the subject.

I believe a lot of us are thinking about it, but I want to be the one to do something about it.

The future of DEATH could be something extraordinary. As our scientists continue to explore the possibilities of artificial intelligence [AI], the idea of utilizing existing data and information to give AI personality could be drawn from the profile of Human Archive. By utilizing your digital personality could provide you with ever lasting life.

What do you think…

My first step into this world is through a history project I’m working on with Aliza Sherman and Jen Myrunok,

Mission:
The premise of this project is to provide a platform to tell our stories, connect with one another, and celebrate the accomplishments of women in every aspect of the Internet evolution.We’re building a historical record of women in the Internet history over a 20 year span.The project is co-founded by Aliza Sherman and Tery Spataro

Are you Over or Under?

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Cottonelle-RollPoll Clark St. bus 22Toilet paper is a necessary comfort for all households. But the big debate has always been whether the toilet paper should roll over or under. This age old debate may be the cause plenty of divorces, separations, firings, and social uprisings. Cottonelle took up the cause of whether TP should be dispensed over or under by having a public vote on which way to roll.

The Cottonelle campaign rolled out a couple in celebration of Thomas Crapper Day according to Blessing Abound Mommy. I first noticed the outdoor advertising on a bus shelter. I chuckled thinking why bother…but then I took a closer look. I discovered Cottenelle made it very easy for consumers to participate in the debate by voting and voicing their option on which way to roll via the Roll Poll Throwdown.

The message that the debate is on is integrated in a number of ways creating several stragetic touchpoints:

  • Outdoors
  • Website to cast your vote and see the voting results via a US map which has comments and videos
  • Facebook, Twitter and YouTube
  • Search engine marketing (SEM)
  • PR, blogger, and twitter chatter
  • TV ads
  • Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott got into the act with Cottonelle puppies, who doesn’t love those adorable puppies?

What I really enjoyed about this campaign was the fun way to engage consumers. There was a similar campaign over the Coke/Pepsi debate but TP isn’t something consumers usually discuss in mass. This was a clever way to give consumers an opportunity to talk about the over or under dilemma gets the conversation started.

Kimberly Clark got consumers to talk about TP and engage in the over or under debate. Budget minded consumers may be hunting for cheaper TP brands or offers to offsite strapped budgets. Was the Cottonelle campaign enough to provide brand affinity for Cottonelle? Was there any thought to customer acquisition an easy way to provide coupon offering?

The Persuaders

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I love marketing. Enjoy getting into the mind set of the people I’m marketing too. Understanding who they are where they come from and selling the right product or service to enhance their lives.

Do I believe there’s clutter out their. Sure do! Do I believe we as markers need to be as creative as possible to create a bond? You bet! I saw the Frontline special lastnight “The Persuaders“. Totally enjoyed and this is my letter to Frontline:

Shall I say fascinating? We as marketers have been creating consumer communities for a long time. Ouch, did I just out myself? Though I question one that exists around a paper plate that you simply throw away. Does that a true culture make?

Yes, psychology has always been a science used to understand the true nature as well as getting to the subconscious of the consumer. I especially enjoyed the interview with, Clotaire Rapaille, very sexy; and a very creative way of getting to heart of our inner reptilian. Praise Jung! I have used him myself on many occasions. Kevin Roberts, totally loving the concept of loving the brand and those consumers, who love their brands whether is car, shoes, grill, mobile phone, or lip stick. Creating that emotional bond is truly important and so is the follow through when those products break and closing the loop on every touch point.

That insightful moment for me was the usage of market research and psychology as means to political persuasion and perception change. Arming politicians with our words, now that’s what I call deeply darn right creepy, this being said from a seasoned marketer. Even I’m now afraid that I will believe the clock is a cat or was that the other way around? When government and those who we trust with our concerns now have the knowledge to use that what they think know about us against us. That’s something to really think about or need to do something about quickly!

Douglas Rushkoff and Frontline, Thank you truly good stuff! To the Persuaders, well it’s onward and upward to our next fine art of persuasion.