Marketing has a teaching moment
In marketing, you rarely heard the phrase “on the job training.” This was because experienced marketing professionals were supposed to know everything necessary to perform at a high level. No questions asked. Theoretically, a full career’s worth of knowledge was gained in college, internships, graduate school, or during the first few formative years on the job. In fact, the only time on the job training was openly discussed in marketing was when a new technology platform rolled out. Most other professions already embraced ongoing education in the workplace because they accepted that change was constant. Everyone from accountants to zoologists were trained to adapt as new thinking or programs came along. Then, marketing
The ultimate New Year’s resolution
By Randy Mitchell Here's a New Year's resolution for every marketer out there: Change the world in 2023. Believe it or not, it's entirely possible. And your ideas have the power to make it happen. You simply need to share them on the right stage. That’s a promising sentiment, but where is the right stage? What account, media channel or agency has the reach and resources to unleash your breakthrough ideas on humanity? It would be natural to assume that your best shot would be to work on mega brands, like Coca-Cola, Nike or McDonald’s. They have massive budgets, devoted consumers and household brand recognition across the globe. Your ideas could really shake things up on
The stats story
By Randy Mitchell “Here’s a crazy idea
When B2B goes off the rails
By Randy Mitchell There are some moments when the world of B2B does not make sense. Thankfully, these meltdowns are few and far between. I had one of them last week and I’m still reeling. My moment of madness happened because I read the following statistics from Hubspot: 73 percent of B2B firms have increased their marketing spending in 2022 63 percent of B2B firms do not follow a formal marketing RFP process The first stat made perfect sense. The second one is stupefying. Let’s say you work at a B2B firm that’s planning a major marketing initiative like a social media program launch, website redesign, video production or full-on rebranding. What’s the first logical step
Lost lessons from the creative brief
By Randy Mitchell If you were a student in my marketing class back in 2009, I am deeply sorry. Like a fool I stood in front of you and babbled on about strategy, concepting, workflows, tactics and the emerging role of social. And somewhere in that caffeinated wall of words, I devoted 30 seconds to the creative brief. Wait, what? It may provide little consolation now, but please know that I have learned my lesson. Over and over again. The creative brief is a topic that everyone wants to discuss in depth. In fact, it has become a focal point in every class I teach, from MBA level marketing down to creative basics. We debate the creative
Journey Journal: The world’s greatest rebranding expert
by Randy Mitchell, Creative Director This summer I witnessed true genius take shape. For a few memorable weeks, the world’s greatest rebranding expert set up shop under my own roof. It was a wild, exhilarating and constantly surprising experience. In fact, I’m still trying to find the right words to capture it all, so please bear with me. Legend in our garden This unexpected story started back in early August. It was a warm, tranquil summer evening and my wife and I were catching up on our yard work. I was watering a parched garden bed when I had the unsettling sensation that someone was silently observing me. I cautiously looked up, and there
B2B Super Bowl ads: Keanu Reeves is not your strategy guy
by Patrick McAuley, President and Chief Strategy Officer This year’s Super Bowl mirrored every other in one respect – very few B2B brands invested in an ad for the big game. Squarespace was one of only two or three to buy a $5.5 million 30-second spot to reach B2B buyers. Why would this one B2B brand commit such resources to this one tactic? Might the strategy behind the bold move be worth considering for your B2B brand? Let’s take a look at the Squarespace ad, assess its effectiveness, and weigh it against other ways they might have spent their Super Bowl ad budget. In the ad that aired Sunday, actor Keanu Reeves – of
5 Questions to Ask Yourself Before Rebranding Your Business
There comes a point in the life of every business when it feels like it’s time for a change. Whether this is because the current brand has been around for a while, the business has new offerings that don’t fit with the old message, or it seems like a shakeup will bring new customers to the door, there are lots of reasons why businesses contemplate rebranding. But rebranding your business isn’t something to be taken lightly—it takes inspiration, planning, strategy and everyone’s consensus. And it’s all critical, because a poorly executed rebranding can be worse than sticking with the old brand. Here at Boomm, we recently went through the rebranding process
B2B Brand Strategy: 3 Tools to Understand What Makes You Different
What makes you stand out from the crowd? And why should a customer choose you, anyway? If you can’t answer these questions about your business, you won’t be able to convince potential customers that you offer the solution they need. An essential part of B2B brand strategy is determining your points of difference, or the compelling things that make your business unique. You can then use these points of difference as the basis of your marketing strategy, informing everything from your website design to your conversations with prospects. How do you determine what makes you different? Especially if your business is in a large city or a highly competitive industry, you may
Creating a Mood Board for a Visual B2B Brand Strategy
Does your B2B brand strategy go beyond words? The look and feel of your website, ads, and product all speak volumes to your customer, and often send a stronger message than your copy or content. In the 1940s, consumer psychologist Louis Cheskin researched unconscious thinking in customers and discovered that for most people, the package and the product are one. He called this “sensation transference”—the idea that on an unconscious level, the visual and other sensory elements of a product or brand become the product, and the mind makes no distinction between the two. If the customer found the label, color, shape, or size of the product appealing, he or