The Tagline Tarpit
By Randy Mitchell The place: Prehistoric Los Angeles The event: The very first marketing meeting A small group of Paleoindians is gathered around a rock. They are locked in a heated debate over a timeless marketing question: “What should our tagline be?” The meeting drags on and on. It’s an epic decision and consensus seems eons away. Before they realize it, the meeting’s momentum begins to fossilize. Literally. Our intrepid marketing ancestors have been entirely engulfed by thick, black goo. I cannot confirm that this actually happened in ancient La Brea. However, I have empirical evidence to prove that the tagline tar pit is real. Agencies and clients frequently disappear into the primordial ooze of trying to
Want the best work from your agency? Use the Magic Document.
By Randy Mitchell You’re a reasonable marketing professional: smart, productive, and you have great taste in blogs. You work for a reasonable company: they have important programs, big plans, and they were wise enough to hire you. So, when your company’s leadership team makes the all-important decision to bring in a marketing firm, it’s only reasonable to expect the agency’s best work. But will that expectation truly materialize? Far too often the answer is no, particularly when it comes to B2B marketing. The relationship starts well enough. Everyone seems to connect, and the agency promises a quick ramp up and real progress. “They actually get it,” growls the company’s tough CEO, and everyone is smiling. Then
B2B marketing trends among friends
By Randy Mitchell What are your go-to resources for the latest B2B marketing trends? Popular options include HubSpot, Digiday, Forbes, the ANA and LinkedIn. But those industry experts only represent the top level of available insights. If you truly want to dive deeply into emerging B2B marketing trends, there is a data deluge just waiting to wash away a few hours of your day. For the sake of brevity and your busy schedule, I’m proposing an entirely different approach to trendspotting. Let’s call it: “B2B marketing trends among friends.” That title is appropriate because the driving forces behind these particular trends are our clients and contacts, and all of the topics we’ll cover are
The marketing elephant in the room
By Randy Mitchell It can crush budgets, trample timelines and smash strategies. It has a nasty habit of monopolizing planning meetings, status calls and your lunch hour. It packs about 13,000 pounds of angst, and it just landed squarely on your shoulders. What is it? The marketing elephant in the room. Every B2B marketer has one. I’m talking about the massive program that gets assigned to you as coworkers sigh audibly and avoid your glance. From that day forward, your pachyderm of a project will follow you around the office, onto the bus, and sometimes, it even comes home with you. Maybe your elephant is a social media program. It can be a beast to develop
4 B2B video questions that will make you a hero
By Randy Mitchell For many years, my title included the word “producer.” I quickly learned that the unwritten rule for any successful B2B video producer was “be prepared.” When you are prepared in advance for any eventuality, the production should be seamless. The cast, crew, creatives and client will all appreciate the extra effort. You might even come in under budget. In short, you will feel like a hero, and deservedly so. However, if there are any unresolved issues going into production, your B2B video could quickly spiral out of control and infuriate everyone involved. And the budget will balloon with every revision and retake. How do you avoid that scenario? Ask the right
Reimagining the quadrant
By Randy Mitchell Boomm works with many diverse technology companies. Some are clients others are partners. They come from multiple practice areas, including data management and marketing automation. And they range in size from startups to industry leaders. However, despite their many nuanced differences, these technology companies have one trait in common. They all dream about getting their platforms into the Gartner Magic Quadrant. If you’re not familiar with the Gartner Magic Quadrant, let me do my best to give you a creative person’s rudimentary definition. The Quadrant provides a graphical representation of where companies and their tools rank on a simple Cartesian grid. The Quadrant is influenced by key criteria such as “ability to
Reinventing foodservice, one bite at time
By Randy Mitchell Driverless delivery. Ghost kitchens. Takeout everything. What in the name of Ray Kroc has happened to the world of foodservice? The industry is emerging from its most challenging year with remarkable resilience and some amazing innovations. An operator friend who owns a neighborhood café put it best: “Foodservice had a full-on freak out. But we found ways to make it work. We always do.” Here are a few quick content bites that illustrate her point. Bite #1: Driverless delivery Houston is famous for launching astonishing technology into the heavens. Recently, it also became the test site for rocketing pizzas to hungry Earthlings via driverless vehicles. Who is behind this stellar idea? A technology
Three secrets behind the best webinars
By Randy Mitchell There are far too many webinars in the world right now. In the last year alone, the use of webinars grew by 69% according to HubSpot. Chances are, you have two or three B2B webinar invitation emails in your inbox right now. On the flip side, there are far too few excellent webinars to satisfy our content-hungry world. We don’t need a data point to prove that one. If you recently wasted an hour enduring a bad B2B webinar, I’m afraid you will never get that time back. Which brings us to the question marketers everywhere are asking: How can we rise above the noise and create a webinar that people will
3 creative awards that actually matter
by Randy Mitchell, Creative Director Creative awards season is looming. You know what that means. Agencies and clients alike will compile a shortlist of their finest work, compose “can’t-miss” entries, and fantasize about winning more shiny trophies than their competitors. The whole pageant might seem silly to outsiders, but the marketing world loves its awards more than ever. In fact, a recent Google search for “marketing awards 2019” produced 577,000,000 results. This year you can enter competitions for interactive marketing, digital marketing, content marketing, event marketing, influencer marketing and countless other disciplines. At first, the endless list of awards shows seemed a little overwhelming, but as I scrolled through them all a wild
How to identify the winner before you ever send your B2B marketing RFP
by Randy Mitchell, Creative Director “RFP stands for really frustrating process.” That’s an opinion voiced by clients and agencies alike, and their vexation is understandable. The marketing RFP process, particularly the on the B2B side, is an inexact science. It’s a complex, time-consuming, high profile assignment that is initiated out of necessity. In many cases, it’s also an uncertain path with loosely defined parameters. However, it is critical to get every aspect of the process right, because an ineffective B2B marketing RFP can lead to the wrong marketing agency, wasted time and lost revenue. Here’s a radical notion: Let’s eliminate the guesswork from your B2B marketing RFP and choose your agency right now. Simply