Blog posts

posted by Roger Halligan on Thu, 03/28/2013 - 15:44

Marketing March Madness

Leave it to Americans to find a way to turn a college sporting event into a huge revenue generating entity. Every year during the month of March, the “best” 68 teams in college hoops enter into a tournament that causes such hoopla throughout the nation that it is duly branded, “March Madness.”

This time of year it seems everyone is tuning in or logging in to see the latest scores or catch the game highlights. Millions of people spend hours and initiate unusual rituals to pick their projected winners.

However, March Madness didn’t start out causing so much madness. In fact, from 1908 to 1982, the term “March Madness” was exclusively used to nickname an Illinois' statewide high-school basketball tournament.

So what changed this college game, into the billion-dollar industry that we see today? You guessed it, marketing.

Robert Walsh and the Seattle Organizing Committee branded the NCAA Tournament celebration while he served as Executive Director of the Final Four Host Committee in 1984. Since then, “March Madness”, has generated yearly increasing revenues of billions of dollars and represent for 80 percent of the NCAA’s total yearly earnings.

March Madness remains one of the most lucrative sports franchises on TV.

According to new research from Kantar Media, the annual three-week hoops tournament is the second biggest postseason sports showcase for advertisers, out-earning the Major League Baseball playoffs and World Series, the National Basketball Association playoffs and Championship Series, and all 35 college football bowl games.

Over the course of its 29th consecutive March Madness tourney, CBS in 2010 took in $613.8 million in ad sales revenue, marking an increase of 4 percent from the prior year’s haul of $588.7 million. Last year’s take nearly surpassed the all-time high set by CBS during the 2008 tourney. Closing out with Kansas’ 75-68 win over Memphis, the 2008 dance brought in a record $643.2 million.

Do you believe that March would still be this “mad” in the NCAA if Bob Walsh hadn’t put his brand on it?
posted by Roger Halligan on Thu, 03/21/2013 - 09:52

The Power Of Media Testimonials - Sometimes You Just Need To Ask

We recently had the opportunity to compete against other PR agencies for some significant new business from a client that we have worked with for many years. Among the key advantages we had in pitching the new business was our long-time experience within the industries served by this client and very strong relationships with all the key trade magazine editors.

As we started developing our presentation, one of the questions that came up was "Should we ask the editors with whom we've collaborated for an equally long time to share their thoughts on working with us over the years?" On one hand, you might hesitate to ask anyone for a testimonial about your expertise as it could strain the relationship because you don't know what they might say. This is especially true of editors with whom you are in frequent contact and who don't hesitate to tell it like it is.

On the other hand, we have such strong, long-term relationships with the editors that we felt it wouldn't hurt to ask if they would like to comment on working with us over the years. We made it very clear that we understood if they preferred not to comment and that it would not be a problem. We also made it clear that if they chose to provide a testimonial, they should feel free to write whatever they wished to say.

The response was truly humbling. We received glowing testimonials from all of the handful of editors to whom we reached out. They addressed specific strengths and attributes that are very important to clients, and they said it better than we could have written it ourselves. These testimonials were not only a very important part of our new business presentation; we will also use them in new business e-blasts and in future presentations.

Which gets us to the point of this blog - are you using testimonials from the media in your marketing efforts? If you are with a MarCom agency, the benefits are obvious. If you are on the corporate/client side, media testimonials about good community or charitable work your company is doing can be powerful endorsements to your customers.

I know many of us hesitate to ask others for their opinions about the work we are doing - but sometimes it is a good question to ask.

Click here to view a selection of our editor testimonials.
posted by Roger Halligan on Wed, 03/13/2013 - 13:40

Even 'Shakespeare' Benefits From Mobile Marketing

Rich media messaging via mobile devices is one of the most exciting and effective marketing tools available to MarCom Pros. The following article from Mobile Marketer magazine is based on a case history of how Iris Mobile – a marketing partner of H+A – helped the Chicago Shakespeare Theater generate some very impressive results.

Chicago Shakespeare Theater used rich media messaging to engage opted in audience members with a campaign that helped bring a famous painting to life and drive awareness for an upcoming performance.

An artfully crafted campaign

The campaign was developed to build awareness for an upcoming production of “Sunday in the Park with George.”

To kick off the campaign, the theater group held a live performance by actors from the musical at the Art Institute of Chicago. The actors performed in front of a life-sized replica of the famous painting by George Seurat, "A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte," which depicts a variety of people engaged in park activities and is the basis for the musical “Sunday in the Park with George.”

The replica was missing key figures from the original work of art and after the performance, the audience was encouraged to join a mobile messaging campaign to discover the secret of the missing characters. Opted-in audience members received a video explaining how the missing characters in the painting have come to life in Chicago Shakespeare Theater’s new musical and encouraged them to buy tickets to see the performance.

The theater group used (RMM) to send opted-in audience members exclusive video content on their mobile devices that could be shared on Twitter and Facebook, driving viral awareness of the upcoming production. More than 14 percent of opted-in users shared the rich content they received on their Facebook page while more than 17 percent agreed to receive future updates from Chicago Shakespeare Theater.

“Rich Media Messaging offers the most intimate and direct form of communication when compared to other mobile touch points,” said Cezar Kolodziej, president and CEO of Iris Mobile, Chicago, IL.

“The behavior developed by mobile users with mobile messaging is such that we open and read virtually every message, not like email or other channels,” he said.

“Now, with the ability to send rich content, any company can push trailers, previews and last-minute announcements to share the latest news with audiences in a visual rich format that is directly delivered to their mobile devices anywhere and anytime.”

Are you using mobile marketing?
posted by Roger Halligan on Fri, 03/08/2013 - 14:25

It's That Time Of Year Again!

The ubiquitous awards season is in full swing! Beginning in mid-January and running through the end of spring, it seems every association and organization in the world is conducting its awards program.

Most people are familiar with the famous Academy Awards and Golden Globe awards programs, but there are numerous other, more obscure, awards we never hear about. There's the Outstanding Pork Producer Award, the Smart Monkey Awards, the Reinvent the Toilet Challenge Awards, and even the awards industry has its own awards!

For those of us who are MarCom Pros, there are dozens more awards to choose from. Many of us are familiar with the ADDY, Effie and the Clio awards, but there are many other national and local MarCom awards most of us have never heard of. Many of these awards recognize creativity, innovation, engagement and a variety of other outstanding capabilities.

We have been fortunate enough to win several of these industry awards and we always feel very honored that our peers have recognized us for our efforts. This recognition also underscores our value to our clients, and let's face it - it's a nice ego boost as well!

However, there is one MarCom award that is truly meaningful to the winning organization because it measures what effect it has had on the bottom line. I'm referring to the REGGIE Awards sponsored by the Brand Activation Association (BAA). Now in its 30^th year, the REGGIE Awards program is renowned for identifying the most outstanding U.S. brand activation campaigns across a variety of marketing categories. The winning campaigns must build brands and ‘make the register ring’, by increasing a brand’s market-share, profits or volume.

What makes the Reggie Awards truly meaningful and coveted is the benefit of going beyond simple bragging rights and providing exposure that show up at the cash registers (hence the REGGIE name). The winners of the Gold, Silver or Bronze awards receive extensive publicity in the trade and business media and are featured on the electronic billboards in NY’s Times Square. The top REGGIE winners become eligible to be considered for a Globe Award, a global competition among more than 25 participating countries honoring the world's best marketing communications programs.

Every year, the list of REGGIE winners reads like a "Who's Who" of the world's leading brands - Coca Cola, McDonald's, American Express, Disney, Kleenex, Ford, Dupont, Pepsi, Nestle and many others. However, winners also include smaller brands that are doing some very innovative marketing.

So from now on, when I think of MarCom awards that are truly meaningful, I'll think of the REGGIE awards. Not just because BAA is our client, but also because it truly measures the ROI of the marketing efforts.

Just out of curiosity, what do you think of award programs and how many do you enter?
posted by Roger Halligan on Fri, 02/22/2013 - 09:07

Who Will Be The ‘Real Winners’ Of The 2013 Academy Awards?

Did you ever think about what makes a film truly successful? Is success measured by the amount of box office ticket sales? Is it the amount of award nominations it receives? Is it the amount of awards brought home, or is it the net profit it turns.
Success must be measured with a very contradictious eye. It is a commonly shared belief that more often than not, critically acclaimed films are box office busts. With exception of movies like Lord of the Rings and Titanic, the foremost complaint was that the Academy Awards ignore box office hits to instead focus on prestige pictures that relatively few people see. That was until 2012.
This year, seven of the nine ‘Best Picture’ nominees did not have huge marketing budgets compared to the expensive blockbusters, but still did very well at the box office. Movies like Argo, the Iranian hostage film that is set to gross over $140 million. Even with the uncertainty of audiences’ acceptance of musicals, Les Miserables is set to clear $150 million.
Quentin Tarantino's Django Unchained also joined this list grossing $165 million along with Lincoln"($90 million), Zero Dark Thirty (soon to reach $100 million), and Life of Pi ($115 million in the United States and a remarkable $670 million worldwide). Even Oscar nominated films such as Beasts of the Southern Wild and Amour made a profit. Although the last two films mentioned will make approximately $12 million and $11 million respectively, they were extremely cheap to make and profit will soar pass budget. For example, ‘Beasts’ returned 12 times what the film cost to make.
So, what caused the change in the box office success of smaller budgeted films? Could it be that moviegoers are beginning to appreciate more artistic movies or that marketing people are getting more effective? Perhaps it is a combination of both?
One theory of the recent success of these expressive films is that producers are tapping into more strategic, multi-faceted marketing campaigns that are similar in style but more cost effective than those of the big-budget campaigns used to promote blockbusters. Let’s also hope it means peoples’ taste in good movies is getting more sophisticated.
The artistic movies may not always be able to compete with blockbuster films featuring explosions, killings, and scantily clad actors, but at least for one year, they are in the running.
Who are your picks to win Oscars?