What do in inbound marketing and Barack Obama have in common?

Here in Boston, this man (Marc Maron) is talking about interviewing President Barack Obama. In his garage. That's Marc's, garage, not the President's.

For Australians, Marc is a comedian, performer and hugely successful U.S. podcaster. And the White House called him, not the other way around, to do this podcast with the President.

Before we go too far I should explain I'm at Inbound15 soaking up all the free marketing intelligence I can from some of the world's best marketers, thanks to the good folk at Hubspot.

What can I share with you?

First, it's overwhelming. I have chronic first-timer's syndrome: brain is full, not sure what to do with it all but know I have gold in my swag.

Secondly, it's both personal and professional. Seeing Brene Brown live, listening to Marc talk about Barack Obama might well be once in lifetime experiences.

Third, this is real. The marketing revolution is well underway. And it's now completely accessible to any individual, small or medium sized business or large corporate.

How do I know?

Because we are IN it: we and our clients, and all 10,000+ people here today, are already doing much of what we've heard.

Why?

It works. It generates attention, traffic, leads, influence. It drives revenue and business growth.

And that is a thing of wonder. Not that long ago we and our clients were all sitting around, scratching our heads, experiencing patchy success but not yet seeing the full benefits of our efforts.

And partly that's because we've done a lot of "yak shaving", as Seth Godin calls it. A lot of blogging, social media, content, public relations and speaking that led absolutely nowhere commercially. That's just BlueChip's marketing over the last six years, but it's fair to say a lot of our clients' efforts have also been less than clearly commercially successful.

It's the old story: I'm wasting half of my marketing, I just don't know which half.

David Meerman Scott opened the conference, and introduced Seth Godin. These two men alone, both marketing prophets, foretold where we'd be now. Many of us read their predictions over the last ten years and hedged our bets - trying to move into social, integrated, content-led marketing but held back by stodgy corporate culture, lack of the right tools and strategy and the biggest barrier - fear.

Or we took their advice and simply didn't get enough of a return on our efforts. Measurement and attribution were hard or impossible, many of us were just addicted to activity (traditional marketing) not outcomes, or we simply didn't know where and how to start.

The good news, and the overall message from INBOUND15, is that the blueprint for marketing success is now well developed, available to anyone with a laptop, and can reliably deliver commercial outcomes.

AMEN.

In this new world The President of the United States, Marc Maron, Brene Brown, BlueChip and all financial services brands are now content producers and inbound marketers.

Brand & communication: top 3 things that matter most in investment management?

Greenwich's Rodger Smith had some absolute pearls on offer today. 

Pearls, that is, if you work in asset management / funds management marketing or communications.

Probably the best of the best, and with most direct relevance to the audience, were his points about brand.

The top three things that matter most, as judged by Greenwich research, are these:

1. Strength and reach. This includes attributes such as "is a high quality manager"; "has a strong heritage"; "has a strong presence in the industry"; "offers a broad range of investment solutions" and; "has expertise in global markets"
2. Innovation. To do well on this you must leverage technology; stay ahead of changing needs; challenge conventional thinking in the industry and; provides critical thinking and analysis
3. Client focus. One of the key attributes here is "are you there for us, your client, in good times and bad?"

You can't do everything well says Smith. So don't be a mile wide and an inch deep - choose your territory carefully on which to compete. Unless you're Blackrock or PIMCO you just can't do it ALL well. 

I am attending the 2012 PAICR conference #paicr2012 for BlueChip Communication on the 10th & 11th of September in New York. During late 2012 and early 2013 I will be providing summaries and presentations to clients and industry colleagues. Please let us know if you'd like to hear more.

#PAICR2011: Being the best we can be

The Professional Association for Investment Communications Resources (PAICR) opened today in New York with a 'can do' Englishman exhorting his mostly US audience to stay positive.

What is the new normal? Whatever we think it is, claims Andrew O'Donoghue, the opening speaker.

His bottom line for those in asset management communication is this: look at things differently. Just because we feel we've seen it all before doesn't mean this time IS the same. If our perceptions shape our reality then we'd better take extreme care to get perspective.

Perspective that might enable us to yet again do more, with increasingly less.

Sound familiar?

If current market instability is leading to yet more resourcing cuts, then perhaps it's time to radically rethink how we do what we do.

Certainly the conversations I've had in Sydney, London and New York in the last week strongly suggest global asset managers are shaping up for more cuts - as global markets smash the value of funds under management, revenue also drops. And with revenue under pressure, expenses have to come down.

So yet again those of us in financial services have to do more, with less.

Crushing for some, and not exciting for most. But there's a perception-altering mind game O'Donaghue suggests we play with ourselves.

It's simply to be kind to ourselves. To stay positive. To rise above self-limiting beliefs we've been conditioned to hold - whether through family influence, media, peers or government.

To aim, each day, to be the best we can be.

Not perfect, mind you. Just our best.

What does that feel like?

Motivated. Happy. Confident. Organized. Resilient. Unstoppable. Calm. Enthusiastic. 

So get there, says O'Donaghue. And stay that way.

Because what we do matters immensely to the people who rely on us - our teams, our clients and more importantly our families, our friends and ourselves.

Yes, we are all faced with challenge - personal and professional. But we all have a choice about the attitude we bring to those challenges.

We can choose to be negative, to make excuses, to blame. To see what can't be done. To impose limits.

Or we can choose to be positive. To take responsibility. To challenge our existing beliefs - to ask 'how can I?' and to believe that perhaps more can be achieved.

Our beliefs about our life, regardless of whether they are right or not, will determine our reality.

So give it your best shot, says O'Donaghue. Doing less is simply letting ourselves, and others, down.

BlueChip Communication, Australia's leading financial services communication firm, is attending the PAICR conference in New York for the fourth year.

Just how fast can PR deliver business results?

Recently we were engaged by a client who was well into a particular campaign. Sans PR. Which is fine...unless that campaign needs PR support.

Swiftly after our appointment (days, not weeks) our client asked where the positive media coverage was.

Ouch!

Here's my take on that, and a short version of the conversation I had with our client. I should disclose, our client had ample, positive and on-message media coverage less than a fortnight after our appointment. Or course it's not always that fast, and here's why...

Good public relations results usually take time to deliver.

Time to plan, to create good quality materials and to judge the implementation timing so it hits at just the right time.

Lead time can be days...or weeks...or months...or even years.

The true value of some public relations programs we've implemented for financial services clients can sometimes only be measured years after our appointment - and after years of persistent, consistent action directed at a clear goal.

Years to build a reputation, and minutes to lose it, says Warren Buffet.

Regardless, sometimes you need a PR or media results NOW.

So what can you do to set yourself up for the much needed, but hard to get, quick win?

1. Tell your PR firm the truth - the whole truth, not just the version you'd like to see in the paper. Treating them like mushrooms won't help you get the outcome you want, but it may well put limits on their care factor. You can be frank and still be clear about what should, and should not, make it into the public domain. In any case it's good practice to make sure you have a non-disclosure in place and that all final materials are properly signed off. But beware: as in all things, if you put garbage (the edited truth) in, you'll mostly likely get garbage out.

2. Give them some time to deliver. The time needed to delver an outcome depends partly on how hard it is to get the result you want. If you see effort for a few days or weeks, without the outcome you're seeking, perhaps ask yourself if they've done everything you could reasonably expect...and whether their 'smarts' suggest those efforts were in fact high quality. If you have smart PR people working for you and there are no (or lacklustre) results in, say, the first 90 days then by all means start to second guess your provider. If it's been a few days and you're wondering where the positive media coverage is, perhaps second guess your brief!

3. Be clear. What matters most to you? Consistent coverage in financial services trade media? A big article in the Australian Financial Review? Or a microsite that's direct emailed and achieves high return visits or viewer engagement/dialogue? Pick your goal, and brief your PR consultant accordingly if they didn't ask "what matters most here?" before you got started.

4. Hire smart. Selecting the right PR firm doesn't have to be rocket science, or labourious. But it should be based on clear criteria. So what sort of criteria might help if you are looking for a quick win? Someone who's done engagements like yours before, and ideally very recently. A firm who perhaps have capacity right now i.e. an established team with a good track record. Perhaps if you need a quick win you also need a strong leader in the public relations firm to be on call for you for a short period of time. Fine - add it to your criteria and consider that might add cost. And of course if the quick wins you seek are in media, you need a firm with great relationships with your target media.

Finally, the firm who delivers the quick win may, or may not, be the firm you need for the long term engagement. Long term success requires all together different criteria - a topic for another time!

How to show you genuinely care about all 1 million customers

Many moons ago, in the years leading up to the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games, my then employer, AMP ran one of THE most successful financial services advertising campaigns of the decade.

Enter Vicki Williams, a customer service staff member from AMP in Perth. Vicki was the winner of competition conceived by the agency (Leo Burnett) and run among AMP staff to produce the star of the big budget TV ad.

And Vicki certainly became a star.

It helped that she really did care about AMP's clients. It also helped that Leos had her plus-sized frame in a bathing suit and cheery face in a frilly bathing cap. And of course the media spend was considerable.

One of the reasons the ad was so well remembered had to do with the context of the time. Banks had a lot of bad press for shutting down branches. The other insurance and funds management companies arguably lacked AMP's strong local representation of financial planners who were part of their towns and cities across the country.

People remembered the funny, warm smiling face of Vicki Williams because she was real. The genuine item. And it showed, even when she'd done that shot a million times.

Vicki gave out as many autographs as Olympians - she was LOVED. She may not have sold many policies or superanuation funds, but she was (briefly) adored by thousands.

Then there's "the AAMI girl" as she's known. I'm not sure if there's a picture in the attic of the woman in that long-running TV ad, or if they update her every 5 years. However she's probably been the best known and most liked face of general insurance in Australia for years.

The point?

People connect with people.

Especially when it comes to money (trust matters) and the really boring stuff they'd rather not have to think too much about.

Like insurance and super.

Ads used to be a good way to provide a human proxy for the personal touch.

As branches have closed down and technology has replaced people we've seen all sort of replacements for humans. Interactive voice systems, online banking, ATMs, online share trading.

We've also seen a far greater reliance on public relations or custom content to generate media coverage for financial services organisations. Both communication tools are far more credible ways to get people back in front of customers again, without the multi-million dollar spend or the big geographic footprint of a national staff.

So if you, just like many other financial services organisations with shrinking staff numbers who want to grow their retail presence, think about how you're going to get a credible, friendly and mass-produced human in front of the humans who matter most to your business.

Staff, customers, clients, channel partners, even business partners.

We're all looking for that person who really cares.

Does your brand have one?