Marketing Has Changed!

Marketing has changed…it’s now about building a community…

I’ve recently been working on a very large marketing campaign that I developed and have been working with various other team members on the mechanics of the roll-out. In order for the campaign to be effective, it requires a number of differing approaches & platforms to reach the maximum number within our target audience. I’m quite excited about the project as it takes on the characteristics of narrative story telling while still achieving the client’s marketing desires.

In previous years, the traditional approach to advertising & marketing was a bit more straightforward. I don’t mean this to sound as though I’m saying it didn’t require some serious creativity to develop a plan and strategy but there were very basic means by which to reach the public & deliver your content. Once a firm had developed its creative, they then proceeded to consider delivery via Radio, Television, Billboards, Magazines, etc. This definitely still required market research and strategic planning, but the ultimate result tended to be a much more direct approach with a hard sell at its backbone. Now, this wasn’t always the case, but it tended to be the typical and it worked.

Having said this, the world has certainly changed, and we within marketing must change with it. This may seem a very obvious observation, but I’ve recently been fascinated at the number of people within the industry that still hold tightly to a certain old way of doing things without allowing themselves to entertain a more modern approach.

I don’t say this to in any way insinuate that this is a bad thing at all…on the contrary, I believe this to be a great thing actually. From a creative perspective, this opens up so many doors to the possibilities of presenting a message to an audience thru more creative means. In the world of social media, it’s a culture shift…we must now present something of value rather than simply advertising if we desire to build a community which will in turn, build a larger customer base. We have to be thinking in terms of presenting content that is worthy of our demographics attention beyond just an ad or commercial. If we think bigger and develop strategies that draw people into a rich portal of valuable information or specific areas of interest, we can then propel them towards further engagement & involvement with our mission. Again, this may sound rather rudimentary considering how frequently we encounter social media, but I’m still surprised at how many organizations are not yet using this incredible platform to build a much greater following and community. So, in summary, there's certainly still a place for traditional marketing techniques and effort but we now have the opportunity to think beyond these methods and consider further options and opportunities! Well, that’s my two cents for the day.

As always, if you find any of the services we provide of interest, give us a call! We’d love to talk…

The Butterfly Effect

My previous blog post explained my reasoning behind using the word ‘creative’ in our organizations name and I also spent a little time talking about our creative process. Today, I’d like to talk about something else that’s extremely important to me. In addition to properly defining ourselves thru our name, I wanted to also add something to our identity that further spoke to who we are and the philosophy behind our approach to providing services to our clients. It honestly didn’t take too much thought to land on something that I’ve found fascinating for quite some time.

The Butterfly Effect – Small Changes Make a Huge Difference It may seem a bit rudimentary and even overly simplistic, but I suppose that’s a good portion of the reason that I find it so very compelling. The theory proposes that small changes of any kind actually have large ramifications on much around us. There’s obviously many life lessons that one could adopt based on this theory and I’ve certainly pondered this, but I also love how it applies specifically to the philosophy behind what we’re attempting to achieve at Wilt Creative. It's for this very reason that we also incorporated a butterfly into the logo.

I’ve had the privilege of working on projects within a wide range of budget amounts and based on my experience, (regardless of the budget or time constraints) I’m persuaded that every project can have an effective outcome towards the desired goal IF planned properly. I am a firm believer in extensive pre-planning directly based on the limitations. What I mean by this is that one must design the creative based on the desired outcome, but this needs to be properly tuned within the budget & needed time frame. Some may believe this to be compromising the creative, but I would strongly argue the opposite! It’s within this process of being mindful of all factors that my team can be truly effective and develop a strategy that is unique, creative and often pushing the bar, but the key factor is that what we’ve developed is actually achievable! I (along with my team) firmly believe that the sky is the limit when considering creative possibilities…I don’t believe that we should stifle dreams or ideas, but I do believe we must develop strategies based on realities so we can actually accomplish what’s needed and effectively reach as many as possible. There’s not much worse than developing something that ends up being the best keep secret rather than an effective tool for pushing people towards the desired message.

This belief also applies to the entirety of an organization, not just forward-facing marketing. The aesthetics of an attraction or experience, employee culture and yes, traditional advertising techniques all should be considered down to the smallest detail and available budget. Whether there’s dollars for a large effort or simply enough for a small strategic change, both can be highly effective if planned properly!

As always, if you find any of the services we provide of interest, give us a call! We’d love to talk…

Have A Think On Me

Good Day, I am Sam Dingus. Since this is the first of what I hope is a long line of blog posts, I wanted to take an extra moment to introduce myself. I have a degree in Business Administration as well as Marketing. I have experience in financial, retail, restaurant, real estate, and non-profit sales. I have been an efficiency black belt (six sigma) and am a Ziglar certified customer service trainer. I am passionate about common sense marketing and extraordinary customer service, but more important than all that I appreciate “thinking” people, and on occasion come up with my own unique ideas and marketing campaigns. I’d like to share with you some simple concepts to help you do it too.

I’m not here to present myself as some sort of genius and you (the readers) as mere dolts when it comes to marketing and customer service. In fact, our business model is set up to share information and ideas that you may or may not have already thought of yourself. We want to strip away the BS in our client’s minds that may be holding them or their companies back from being their best.

To that end, here is my thought of the week: Almost anyone can be good at marketing. If you’ve ever purchased anything online, in a store, or even from an individual, just think about the things that made you buy that particular product. Chances are the things that made you buy, will also make your customers buy. Did you want to check out that product because of a clever ad, a suggestion from a friend, a coupon, or did you feel that product was superior in quality than its competition for some reason? If we pay attention to why we buy things, we can begin to see why our clients buy things and that is the key to motivating them to purchase (products or services). We can also begin to analyze other company’s advertising/marketing and come up with a common-sense approach to our own advertising/marketing. We can then formulate a plan and see if we’re focusing on the right aspects of our products, our advertising, and our overall marketing strategy.

In future blog posts we will examine some things that I hope will improve your marketing results, and as always if you’d like a specific marketing plan for your specific needs, we’ll be happy to meet with you personally.

So, adjust your attitude to make it a great day, and tune in next week to have a think on me, Sam