Dahle Communication

Are the Belgians Trolling American Beer Drinkers?

I know it's been sometime since I've posted here (is a 3 year hiatus a bad thing...) but I've been wanting to get back into writing more consistently, so why not talk about beer. And not just any beer, but America!

In case you haven't heard, this summer, Budweiser is changing it's name to America until the end of the election in November. No I'm not kidding. This is a real thing that is happening.

Why would one of the most ubiquitous names in American beers need to change its name? When it comes to marketing, if you have a strong brand identity, you don't usually change your name. However, Budweiser apparently felt differently. Apparently they made the switch "to inspire drinkers to celebrate America and Budweiser's shared values of freedom and authenticity." Seems like an interesting idea.

I have a better theory though. I'm pretty sure that Americans are being mocked a bit and we don't even know it. Perhaps its slipped your mind, but the most American beer out there (which if you asked most people, which beer would you identify America with, Budweiser would be in their top 3 picks with 80% placing it first) is actually owned by a Belgian company named AB InBev, head-quartered in Leuven, Belgium. 

Could this be just a slight mockery of America and the state of our elections this year? We do have a reality TV star who's never been elected to any political office and who's announcement was followed by the New York Post publishing a picture of him as a clown and his campaign is currently viewed by many as a circus. I wouldn't put it out of the realm of possibility.

Regardless if you agree with Trump or not, a good portion of the world is wondering what in the world America is doing right now. Perhaps, just perhaps, the Belgians, who own the most American beer of all time, wanted to tap into some patriotism of the election year to try and cut down on the rise of craft beers that have been eating into their profits for several years now.

If there is one thing I do know though it is this: I'm not motivated to drink more Budweiser then I already do. Which honestly is only when I'm at someones house and they offer it because its the only thing they have. I'm going to make a fairly educated guess that a lot of you won't be putting down your Sam Adams, Boulevard or Shiner's anytime soon due to the change. But, it did get them into the news - and me back to writing - so all in all, it has already had some good impact.

Dr Pepper Ten - is it manly or offending?

Maybe its because I'm the only guy in a house with 3 other women or I'm just secure enough of a man, but I just don't get the whole "manly" advertising of some companies. The latest attempt at advertising directly to men is Dr. Pepper Ten. When I first saw this commercial it just made me laugh. The overt machoism and sexism is way over the top. Which I guess is what Dr. Pepper is going for. But what are they really communicating with this ad?

First off, they are saying that most men are so insecure about being a man that they can't drink diet pop because its too feminine. Which is exactly what their research told them. Really guys. Look, I don't drink diet pop, not because I'm afraid to, but I just can't stand the taste of it. Not sure why guys would be afraid to drink diet pop if they were okay with the taste, but insecurities are a good way to market products - at least that is what Dr. Pepper thinks.

Secondly, Dr. Pepper is communicating that they really don't mind about being sexist, at least when it comes to this product. Interestingly, they said that they did a test market in several areas and about 40% of those trying Dr. Pepper Ten were women because they "got the joke." I wonder if they watch SNL's mocking of the Shake-a-weight when thinking about getting the joke. 

What I would be concerned about as a business is offending 50% of my potential client base. So, we'll have to see if people will look at this and just laugh about it or if people will get offended.

I would mostly like to see soft-drink companies make a diet soft drink that doesn't taste aweful. Maybe Dr. Pepper Ten did - so maybe I will try it...

 

 

Effective use of Twitter by businesses

I've spoken a couple of times about the importance of using Twitter correctly over the past couple of years and while some people have not learned that lesson, others are starting to.

Yesterday I swung by a Casey's General Store gas station to get a bottle of coke and there in the cooler were glass bottles of coke with actual sugar in them (instead of the usual corn syrup that is used today in place of actual sugar). So when I tweeted that I found my new favorite gas station, mentioned the coke and included a picture of the Coke bottle I didn't expect anything to happen except for some of my friends to maybe make a comment.

What I was surprised by was what happened next. First, Casey's replied to me and said "Thanks Travis!" I thought that was cool. Just a simple, thank you. It didn't surprise me that much, but it was still neat to see someone was at least using twitter to be an interactive voice for a gas station.

What happened then just made me chuckle and I thought was great on their part. The Gas Stop decided to join in on the discussion by responding to me with "Retro Coke is available at The Gas Stop at 57th and Western—on sale for 59¢ each!"

So, they are not just saying hey come and buy from us - they saw that I loved the fact that Coke with real sugar is what I liked, they informed me that they also have it - and it's on sale for 59 cents!

Great job by both sides. While the Gas Stop threw in some advertising, they were making it personal by saying - 'hey, we've also got retro coke and its on sale." Needless to say, I'm going to swing by there today and check it out.

Super Bowl Ads Just Ain’t What They Used to Be

The following is a guest post by Brett Duncan of Marketing In Progress. I love Brett's stuff and he has been gracious enough to do a guest post here.

 

I must be getting old, because I find myself looking back on the “good ol’ days” at a much higher frequency than ever before. And I’m about to spring it on the ads for this year’s Super Bowl.

Much like the NBA dunk contest, I think it’s time to face a simple fact: Super Bowl ads had a nice run, but their time has gone. Today, things are different. These ads just ain’t what they used to be.

Or maybe we just aren’t who we used to be.

Regardless, I was simply disappointed in this year’s ads. Yeah, there were a couple of nice spots, but overall, I was left wanting more. And not in a good way. Not in the way the last episode of The Sopranos left us wanting more.

With that said, here are some simple observations from this year’s Super Bowl ad lineup, along with my favorite commercials from the pack. In all honesty, I haven’t read a single post on the ads; I wanted to give you my untainted opinion of them. You can view all the commercials at FoxSports.com/ads. I’d love to hear if you were as disappointed overall as I was, and which ones you liked the most.

●     When did Eminem become such a model spokesperson? First for Brisk Tea, then for the city of Detroit, via Chrysler. I mean, whoda thunk Eminem would be such a hot grab to represent big brands? It’s not like he’s Peyton Manning. Oddly enough, I kinda liked both of these commercials. The Brisk ad was a throw-back to their old campaigns (“That’s Brisk, baby!”), and the Detroit ad was pretty well thought out.  

●     Lots and lots of movie trailers. I can’t remember seeing so many movie trailers during the Super Bowl. There were a ton of ‘em. And then it hit me: movies may actually be able to justify the $3 million per 30 second spot. I mean, they’re essentially getting 100 million people to watch their theater trailer. I gotta assume at least a 1% conversion rate, meaning 1 million people buying a $10 ticket (that’s $10 million) at the theater more than covers that cost of the ad for the movie company, I assume. Everything else is gravy.   

●     Doritos made me laugh the most. For pure entertainment value, give me the Doritos campaign. The ad of the guy licking his friend’s fingers made me laugh and throw up a little all at the same time. The “healing chips” was clever and funny. And I actually think the kooky commercials built the Doritos brand. I mean, who hasn’t had Doritos? It’s not like we need to be sold on their “features.” But we do need to be reminded of what we already know: there’s nothing like them.

●     I like what Audi’s doing. Audi is taking on the luxury big dogs like Mercedes Benz with lots of gusto. If you want to know what a “marketing position” is, watch these ads. It not only tells you what Audi is, but it also clarifies what they aren’t, as well as the parts of their competition we should hate. Very smart.

●     The Motorola Xoom commercial is brilliant. Forget cheesy jokes and puns. This commercial is pure literature. And just like you can only do so much to explain the greatness of The Fountainhead, words will fail here. But I’ll try. First, keep in mind how crazy everyone’s always been about the Apple 1984 commercial. It was revolutionary (or at least it’s become revolutionary). This Xoom commercial is expanding on it to actually position Xoom against Apple (the iPad, specifically). They’re trying to prove that Apple has now become the bandwagon. From all the people wearing white and white earbuds, to our hero walking against the grain on the stairs, to watching the girl pluck the white (Apple) earbuds out and coming to life, the Xoom is making a statement: don’t buy an iPad just because everyone else is. I don’t what it will do in terms of sales, but kudos from a mere writing and theatric standpoint.

●     Teleflora - what else can I say? So freakin’ funny. The “unreal rack” quote to Faith Hill is epic. And what guy hasn’t been in that situation when you don’t have a clue what to write, and the encouragement to just “write what’s on your heart” doesn’t seem to be the best advice?

That’s about it for me. I also thought the Cars.com campaign was OK. But, again, the whole lineup was sub-par across the board. In addition, I’ve just completely lost touch with what Coke is trying to do. I know they’re a huge brand and all, but I feel like I should be dropping acid rather than sipping a soda to truly get their commercials.

I also struggle with the $3 million pricetag per 30 seconds. The easy criticism is that’s a lot of freakin’ money, and most brands could do a lot more with that money to make a dent. On the other hand, if you insist on sticking to the interruption marketing philosophy of conventional TV ads, then is there ever a more captive audience?

What do you think? Are Super Bowl ads worth it?

Brett Duncan (@bdunc1) shares his marketing ideas and tips at his blog MarketingInProgress.com. He also just launched a free ebook with the help of 32 other amazing marketing minds (including Travis Dahle himself). Download Rock Your Business: 33 Mind-Blowing Ideas from Today’s Top Marketers now.

Know Your Audience - IBM marketing should read this article

An important feature when speaking is knowing who your audience is. This is one of the most vital pieces of information you need to have if you are going to be successful. However, this is not just for public speaking. With any form of advertising or marketing, you need to know your audience.

I was reminded of this when my wife came home from work one day with a pen from IBM that was sent to her office. It is a $150 pen in a very nice box that was sent with a letter. The letter talked about how they have done their research and feel that they could help improve her employers bottom line. Sounds like a great deal right? One problem - the company she works at has been bankrupt since last year and is closing its doors on Wednesday.

So, they clearly did not do their research. They probably did some research - maybe they looked at some old data and looked at a couple of key things - but they clearly did not know their audience.

Make sure you have done your research. Make sure you have prepared yourself for your audience. Fine-tuning your speech based upon your audience is so important it cannot be ignored. Take the lesson from IBM to heart - if you can do this, you are going to take one step closer to being a successful speaker.

Stop Advertising and Start Communicating

One of the things I like about social media is that it is getting businesses and people to communicate with each other. Twitter is a great example. On Twitter, I can have a conversation with someone or several people. It is not a normal conversation where there is an immediate feedback on what you have tweeted, but it is a long-term conversation. Sometimes there is immediate feedback with the RT's and DM's, but for the most part, it is a long-term building process.

Old media is nothing like this. Businesses who use old media advertise at us instead of communicating with us. They interrupt us. Commercials, ads in newspapers, billboards, radio ads, etc. all interrupt what we were doing. We were constantly being interrupted when watching a program on TV, reading something in a paper or listening to the radio.

Unfortunately, some people have not realized that social media is NOT old media. It is not something that should interrupt my day. This morning when I opened up TweetDeck to join in on some conversations I was being interrupted by old media types. Reading things like "3 steps to Make More Money - $125 in 24 hrs Guarantee" or "Who's interested in working part time to earn a few thousand to several thousand dollars a month working from home?" and "I just become a member of this AWESOME site that gets you TONS of followers." I felt like I was reading my junk e-mail inbox!

To those of you doing this: please stop! Stop using social media to promote yourself this way. All it makes me do is un-follow you. I want to be in a conversation with you, not be a target for advertising. Trust me when I say I am not the only one. Brett Duncan at Marketing In Progress has also talked about this in his post "Stop Shouting on Twitter." Johnathan Thomas of Presentation Advisors also posted about it and did a great job of tying it to giving a presentation (which I didn't realize until he added his comments - thanks John!).

 

Our advice is simple: start communicating and then we'll listen to what you have to say.

Travis

Research if you want to do it right!

Over the past couple of weeks Dahle Communication has been working on a pretty big project for a client. Without getting too deep into the details, we're working on helping them create a core message for their clients. Being fairly intelligent people, we started out by discussing what we thought might be those core messages and had a great brain storming session. However, what we came up with instead is going to be far more effective - we decided to go straight to their clients and ask them.

Over the past week or so, we've tried to talk to as many of their customers and potential customers as possible and get their thoughts and perspectives. This has really increased our knowledge base of what the message can and should become. Because of this, the message itself is going to be stronger and it will impact more people. In the end, our client will be a lot more satisfied with the end results because of it.

Make sure you do this when working on your speeches. Make sure you do your research when you are preparing. Does that mean you have to include all of that information in your speech? No. In fact, I would argue that you shouldn't because people are more likely to follow emotion then logic (which is another post for another time). What it will allow you to do is make sure that you are creating the most effective message that will appeal to more people so you will be more successful.

Can you put together a good speech without a great deal of research? Sure. Would we have done okay without as much research? Probably. However, as I stated last week - don't let good be enough - it is the enemy of great. Do the research and be great.

Travis

Articles you should have read

Instead of delving into something new today, I wanted to highlight some of the great posts and articles that I have found over the past couple of weeks that I felt needed to be discussed more. With so many posts out there, it is sometimes hard to find the good articles and a lot of times someone will post a great blog and for whatever reason, it is just missed. I'm not saying this happened with these posts, I just wanted to highlight a few of those that I really enjoyed and want people to check out.

1. Audience on the Stage - Duarte Blog

Chris Iufer of the Duarte Blog talks about getting the audience to participate and helping Nancy Duarte prepare for the Web 2.0 Expo. They wanted people at the expo to be able to answer questions without having to shout out the answers. They looked at Twitter, SMS Polls and a Chat room. Its an interesting discussion looking at the feasibility of using Twitter in your presentations.

2. Lessons for 6th Graders (and us) - The You Blog

John Windsor has a great article about working with 6th graders and giving them advice on how to prepare slides for their presentations on the Incas, Mayans and Aztecs. If you have ever had to give a presentation to middle schoolers you will relate to John's post - and even if you haven't, you should still read this. 

3. 1. Experience the world instead of talking about experienceing the world - The first of 21 Principles from Metacool

Diego Rodriguez is putting together quite a series on his blog Metacool. He is going through 21 principles that you should follow. The link above will take you to the first one and as of this post he was on number 9. These are not just one or two sentences of advice either. He goes into a lot of detail to talk about them.

4. 27 Visualizations and Infographics to Understand the Financial Crisis - Flowing Data

If you have never read Nathan's blog Flowing Data, this is the perfect post to start reading. I like statistics and numbers, but being able to see those numbers placed visually and in a compelling manner is even better. If you have had a hard time putting your numbers into a presentation in a compelling way, take some tips from Nathan and attempt to do what he does.

5. PowerPoint make-over artist tricks for newbies - Slides that stick

One thing I love about this blog is that it is usually concise and is updated almost everyday. This means that I will usually learn something or have something make me think on a daily basis. This post is really good if you are just getting started with presentations.

6. Ashton Kutcher, CNN and the Twitter Celebrity Effect - Marketing In Progress

Brett Duncan has some great thoughts on Twitter and its impact as of lately. He also adds some great points in the comments section about the future of Twitter. A great start to a blog that will have you looking at marketing in a new way (and yes I stole this idea of putting together a few of my favorite links from him...thanks Brett for the idea).

How do you communicate with someone you disagree with?

Seth Godin posted an interesting blog this morning title "What do you call things you disagree with?" Well, since he doesn't have a comments page to discuss what we would call it, I figured I would post about it here and if anyone wants to add to the discussion they are more than welcome.

What I think is most obvious in Seth's post is his comment that when we get annoyed with something or afraid of something, we "lose eloquence and start calling things names." Evidence of this can be seen every single day if you watch any type of news commentary, read blog posts on politics or marketing or listen to AM talk radio. When people disagree with something, they get angry and just delve into name calling. While I think he is talking more about marketing, I see it more often than not in politics.

For me, I call things that I disagree with by their names. If I disagree with someone, I don't delve into name calling and trying to degrade them. What I try to do is see things from their perspective, analyze it and then disagree with them in a civilized manner. Unfortunately, people forget that they are talking to another human being when they are arguing with them and they are passionate about something. This is one of the main reasons why I got out of politics.

It is also one of the reasons that I love teaching debate. It forces students to learn how to see things from both sides of an issue and be able to defend both sides of that issue. This is also why I want to extend my knowledge and teach people that communication is about talking to another human being. They are not someone who you should throw names at and try to disparage them. Disagreeing with someone is a necessary component of our democracy...calling them facists, left-wing radicals, communists, socialists, right-wing bigots or anything in-between doesn't solve anything. All it does is create more hatred in this world.

As Seth Godin says, "there's never a shortage of boogy men available to the people in the community that you're frightening." This is true. But don't get sucked in with them. Raise above it and try to engage them in an intellectual discussion. Be civil. Most importantly, remember that they are just someone who disagrees with you...and that's okay.

Travis

Creating a Following -- Chris Isaak's New Album 'Mr. Lucky'

I am a big Chris Isaak fan.  I have loved his music since the early 90's.  One of my top 10 albums of all time would have to include his album 'Forever Blue.'  After a 7 year wait between studio albums (he released a greatest hits a couple of years ago with two new songs) he has finally released his new album 'Mr. Lucky.'  I am enjoying the album as I am typing this blog and it is quite good.  If you like Chris Isaak's music, you should check it out.

What does this have to do with communication you may ask?  Its all about creating a following.  We are all trying to do this.  Whatever business you are involved in, each one of us is trying to be a rock-star -- we want people to come back to our products or services whenever we have something new to offer.  This is what musicians do, what artists do and what successful businesses do.  So are you creating a following, or are you just making noise?  

Sometimes it takes some changes to get that following.  Most people know who Chris Isaak is from his video 'Wicked Game.'  In the video, he is on a island with Helena Christiansen, who is dressed rather suggestively, and they are kissing and running around on the island.  Needless to say, the video was successful.  What a lot of people don't know is that there was another video for Wicked Game before they produced the one everyone knows.  The video and song was not doing well and the CD was not selling.  They knew that the song was good and could be popular, they just needed an effective way to sell it.

Now, I am not saying that you need to add sex appeal to your products.  What I am saying is that if you are struggling with getting your name out there or getting a new product launched, take a step back and see if the problem is the message.  Are you conveying it in a way that is building a following?  Is there something different that you can do?  Just by changing something, you can create a long-term success instead of dragging your feet and constantley struggling.  This is what Chris Isaak was able to do.  He knew that he could be successful, and with a change in his advertising, he was able to develop a large following.

Travis

The New York Post - Images gone awry

Using images in your speeches and presentations is an important feature that can help you deliver your message in an effective manner.  As the saying goes 'A picture is worth a thousand words.'  However, you want to make sure that your image portrays the CORRECT image.  As with most things, people can interpret the image or picture that you use in a different manner then you intended.  If you haven't heard, the New York Post is experiencing some negative feedback from a cartoon that has been interpreted a lot differently than the cartoonists intended.

Supposidly, the cartoonist and the paper are saying that the cartoon was an implication that the people running congress and our country are a bunch of chimps.  If you are thinking in these terms, it reminds me of the Career Builder commercials where the monkeys were running everything and the one human kept getting irritated by them.  In this sense, it is a pretty benign cartoon.  However, what most people are interpreting it as saying that the money is President Obama and it is a racist cartoon that should never have been run.  A Huffington Post column talked about the cartoon and at the time of this blog, there were already well over 5,000 comments.

Whether or not you think the image is benign or you think it is a racist cartoon, there is something very important that you can learn from it -- make sure you use an image or picture that is not going to be misinterpreted in a negative way.  While there is no way to ensure that 100% of the time 100% of the people are going to understand why you used a certain image, just being aware of the possibilities is a good thing.  Additionally, have a couple of other people look at it and get their reaction.  If anyone brings up a concern, take that into account.  

Are you going to be using something like the New York Post cartoon?  I doubt it.  However, being congnisent of the possibilities can never hurt and getting some feedback on the images that you use is always a good thing.

Travis

Combining Music with Imagery -- The Watchmen Trailer

I am not a big comic book fan.  I've bought a few here and there as a kid, but I never got into it.  The same thing with Graphic Novels, it just wasn't my thing.  However, a good friend of mine gave me 'The Watchmen' graphic novel about a year ago and I was amazed at how good the design, the literature, the imagry and everything about it was.  On 3-6-9 (hopefully) they will be releasing the movie version of the graphic novel.

If you haven't seen the trailer that is posted above, watch it and pay attention to the music that is used from about 1:20 into the trailer right up to the end.  The song, from one of my favorite bands Muse, was edited perfectly with scenes from the movie.  The combination of the visual and the music is very powerful and it makes me want to see the movie even more than I already did.  Having parts where the video is slowing down with the type of music playing, the phrase "You'll Burn in Hell" being repeated in the song with the images of fires being started and a mushrome cloud in the background and how it just stops before the last line is the perfect combination of video and music I have seen in a movie trailer for some time.

What does this have to do with communication you ask?  Good question.  What I want people to think about is this: are you effectively using your resources in your presentations?  While the trend has been going towards being as minimal as possible, there are times when an image or a combination of pictures and video or music can put an emphasis on your project.  Is it going to be movie trailer worthy?  No, and it doesn't have to be.  But think about when you are presenting, that sometimes you need more than just simple text and simple graphics.

I will say to be very cautious -- don't go overboard just to be flashy.  It's a thin line to tread, but it is definately worth looking at.

Travis