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by Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer

Anyone that knows me knows I’m a big Clint Eastwood fan. By far, a favorite movie quote of mine is from Magnum Force: “A man’s got to know his limitations.” It’s an important quote in marketing because a brand has to both stretch its potential and also know its limitations. I love to push clients to try new things and take a chance, but you also have to be realistic about who/what your brand is, who your clients are and the perception equation between the two.

As an example, iTunes has the soundtrack for The Hangover (Yes, the quality movie where Ed Helms loses his tooth and a baby is found in a closet) available for sale — But, only for sale as a complete album. Consumers cannot purchase individual songs.

Apple knows the limitations of this soundtrack. Frankly, it’s not that good. But, it has some quality tracks on it from the movie. Songs custom from the movie that you can’t get anywhere else. Chances are fans of the movie will go ahead and drop the $9.99 to get the full album. However, if the individual tracks were available, it’s virtually guaranteed those same fans would only buy a couple tracks.

That’s smart marketing due to knowing the limitations of the product. Ideally, if you recognize the limitations, you try to better the product. If that’s not an option though, a business needs to make the best with what they have and not fool themselves by putting on blinders about their product(s). In the end, working with your limitations is always better than ignoring them.

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by Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer

They weren’t “350 million” — as in the number of people currently using Facebook worldwide. Neither were they “50 percent” (number of users who are regional network members) or “remove…completely” (Facebook’s plan to entirely get rid of networks).

No, the two most important words were: “or everyone.”

As in, you can choose to share your info and updates with only your friends, friends of your friends, “or everyone.”

Mark Zuckerberg’s letter is positioned as an update on how Facebook is dealing with its expanding user base and protecting the privacy of that user base. However, couple the two words “or everyone” with the recent news about Facebook’s impending homepage redesign, and you can start to see that these two feature changes make Facebook more competitive with Twitter’s feature sets.

Here’s how it will work: 1) Users can share their content with everyone, 2) Other users can search this treasure trove of status updates, link sharing, etc., and 3) Everyone starts to be able to share and find content more broadly, much as is being done on Twitter. No doubt Facebook will open up additional APIs so other sites can tap into this content as well.

How does it work now? Do a search via the Facebook search for the term “Zuckerberg Open Letter.” There will be results for Groups and, at the bottom, Posts by Friends where you will find Zuckerberg’s open letter. Now, go to Twitter and do the same search for “Zuckerberg Open Letter” via the Twitter search. Your results are filled with all the commentary people are making about the open letter, links to the open letter, etc.

Imagine the Twitter level of search results, but fueled by the level of activity going on in Facebook. Keep in mind Facebook has 350 million users and Twitter is estimated to have approximately 35 million…

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by Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer

With tentative optimism, I looked forward to Black Friday and Cyber Monday this year. Not because I love shopping, but because I was eager for our customers like Western Digital, DTS and Bandai.

You see, I judge the economy not by CNBC, the Wall Street Journal or some other pundit. I use taxis and airports. And, things looked good.

We believe strongly in social media at The Buddy Group, and taxis and airports are truly real world social media conversations. Nowhere, other than online, can you get a better cross-section of people from places across the country. If the airports are busy, it means businesspeople are willing to spend money to make money. If taxi drivers are happy (as happy as they can be), it means consumers are spending more.

In fact, just last week a (more honest than normal) cab driver told me business the last couple months was back to normal levels again. He said many people were coming into the city to shop. They weren’t spending large amounts of money, but they were coming in larger volumes. This jives with data from the National Retail Federation released Monday that said 23 million more consumers shopped Black Friday weekend than the same weekend last year but the average consumer spent $343.51, down from $372.57 last year. See the full report here.

So, I encourage those of you that travel to ask your cab driver and flight attendant: “things been busy lately?” Remember, flight attendants will always be a little more optimistic because it’s their job to make you feel good, and cab drivers will always be a little more pessimistic to get a sympathy tip!

And, from all the online social media talk we’ve seen the last few days, we expect some pretty strong numbers from Cyber Monday, too. If taxis and airports are good prognosticators, then social media should hold especially true.

So, happy travels – both online and offline! From my conversations, things are starting to look up out there. But, I’d love to know what you are hearing. Hit me up on Twitter at @bboettger.

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by Bryan Boettger, Chief Creative Officer

Yeah, I’m a Wheel Watcher. I’m not a card-carrying member or anything, but when I got the chance to audition for the show last week, I wasn’t about to pass it up. Chances were high they wouldn’t pick me (TV shows typically don’t like Ad People getting on), but there was no way I was going to pass up the behind-the-scenes look. Plus, weren’t the chances good that I’d learn something?

Lo and behold, I certainly did learn something. Five somethings, in fact.

Lately, we’ve been getting more and more client requests related to promotions, contests, talent auditions, etc. at The Buddy Group – especially in the social media space. Wheel of Fortune (WOF) helped reinforce some of the more important parts of a good contest because, after all, isn’t an audition nothing more than a talent contest?

1. HOPE FOR THE HOPEFUL, HELP FOR THE HELPLESS
The last thing you want is someone calling you out for being unfair, impractical or impossible. This is especially true in the “I’m gonna tell my closest 5,000 friends how much you suck because I feel wronged” Internet.

So, make your requirements very clear!

When I received the email inviting me to audition for WOF, they made it very clear that it is hard to get on (“Be honest with yourself. Don’t spend time and money coming to the audition if you will not be able to show us your enthusiasm!!!”) and that you would be disqualified if you met certain conditions (“You are not eligible to play Wheel of Fortune if you work for or are related to anyone who works for Sony Pictures Entertainment Inc., Sony Pictures Television Inc., …”).

Most people can handle being passed over for something. Conversely, hardly anyone can handle finding out they don’t qualify after putting their time, energy and money into something. If someone doesn’t have a chance, it’s best to communicate that up front. At least then the helpless know they are a long shot and the hopeful know what it will take to win. Don’t feign inclusiveness if there is legitimate challenge to what you are asking.

2. CLEAR DIRECTIONS, AN EASY-TO-FIND LOCATION
In the WOF audition invite email was a simple, one-page Word doc with directions from all four points of the compass, directions from LAX and a map. I really had to work hard to get turned-around (which I did since I was on a business call while driving). But, simply pulling out that one-pager, I found my way again.

Make sure people know exactly where to go and provide them easy directions on what they need to do.

Your lawyers will require pages of rules when you do a promotion or contest, but that doesn’t mean you can’t boil the most important points down to a few bullet points. And, you might market your contest in a dozen places, but you should have one go-to location where people can find all the info they need. Once again, make it easy to find! Embedding your contest in Facebook? That doesn’t mean you can’t still purchase a vanity URL for your contest and redirect people automatically!

3. MAKE PEOPLE PROUD JUST TO BE NOMINATED
From the moment all of us walked into the audition room to start solving puzzles, we felt like we had already won. Music was playing, people were sharing stories and a miniature version of the wheel was up front. From the beginning, we wanted to win but knew we’d be happy no matter how we walked away. The experience was the cake and winning was the proverbial icing.

Make it fun for people to participate and give them a good story to tell.

There’s no fooling anyone, you do promotions and contests to get people thinking about your company and talking about it with others. Embrace it. Do a contest that’s fun for people to put together their entry. Make your own energetic video to get people excited about participating. Leave people proud of their experience so they tell others about it.

4. A SINCERE THANK YOU IS THE BEST PARTING GIFT
I can still remember the host of the auditions (no, Vanna and Pat weren’t there) sincerely telling everyone how much everyone’s time was appreciated, what a great job everyone did and, tongue in cheek, saying he hoped the people that didn’t get on would “still watch the show once in a while.” That last line reminded us all that we loved the show and, no matter what happened, we could still play the show from our couch.

Tell the non-winners they are special and remind them that they think your company is special, too.

Your company is made or broken by the same people who participate in your contests and promotions. Make sure to give them a proper thank you when the contest is over. Let them know how they can still interact with your company now that the promotion is over. Have a coupon code, upcoming sale or special new insider info? Let the contestants be the first to know about it – And, let them know you are giving them the inside scoop.

5. THE END OF THE CONTEST ISN’T THE END
Here’s the one place I feel WOF dropped the ball. The audition ended, but that wasn’t the end of the story. The story ends when the people I auditioned with get on the show. It was a shared experience and I would love to see my fellow auditioners when they get on the air. I would have enthusiastically given WOF my email address if they promised to email me when someone in my audition class got on the show.

Give people a chance to see the winners, how the prize affected them and share in the emotions of all involved.

Sure, you are going to announce the winners. But, are you going to tell the story of the winners? Whether you hire someone like The Buddy Group or purchase a Flip Mino to shoot video yourself, make sure to capture some of the emotion of the winner. You could just mail the prize out to the winner. But, how much marketing value will you get from filming the winner being prized?

You might not have the following of a Wheel Of Fortune, but with a little extra effort, your promotions and contests can have all the flair of a Wheel audition. And, you too, won’t even need to have Vanna or Pat there.

Prologue:
• Unfortunately, no, I did not get picked to be on the show.
• Proudly, yes, I did solve the puzzle when I had to play against other auditioners.
• Sadly, no, I didn’t win any actual money.
• Ironically, yes, all I got was a free shirt for solving the puzzle.

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