It's about people!

Do you know what the average stay is for a person after they have asked for and then received a raise?...

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...Six weeks...

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...I'll say that again

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.... Six. Weeks!

I wish I could cite the source for this research but I can't, I stumbled across it half way through one of those ABC News 24 Big Ideas seminars and I found myself so completely lost in the content that in no time it was over and I had no idea who was speaking. Subsequent visits to the Big Ideas website were unhelpful in my quest.

The crux of that gem of information is of course NOT that there's no point offering people more money, which of course you should do, especially if those people are me. But at the point where somebody is finally saying "I need more money or I'm going" they have progressed so far beyond the point of money being the key driver for their level of satisfaction, they will also at that point have a gazillion job applications out in the market place as well so it's no surprise that they had an offer come in about the same time as their raise. 

No the point made by my anonymous teacher was that human beings are pretty universal in our drivers and money is not always the key motivator.

Another bit of research cited was that of workers in a developing community, some were offered BIG extra financial incentives to improve productivity and some were offered small ones. I think I am remembering correctly that the small incentive actually out performed the big one. Now that is not to say you should never give people big pay rises, especially if those people are me... but that again to further illustrate that money is not the key driver.

So what is.

The Clever Dude that was talking said it was two things:

1. Self determination and
2. Mastery of skills

These are the golden tickets to to employee satisfaction and greater overall gains for your business.

When people feel they have a level of autonomy, of control over their own destiny, they will take that on. They'll care more, they will feel more satisfied, they will OWN their successes and failures. Within my own team I am constantly doing this, my gang basically know the boundaries of the playground they work within and how much self-determination they have within it. It means that sometimes, many times, their execution of marketing campaigns differs slightly to how I would do it. I do not stop this. I encourage it. For example I have one staff members who has a long history in press, her campaigns usually have a greater press spend than my campaigns would, BUT precisely because of her knowledge they are usually more informed press spends. The net gain or loss to the campaign is practically impossible to measure, I just smile when I see her campaigns and think "Oh of course the press spend is higher". (Although she will now twig when she reads this blog!)

More tellingly however is what happens when people are denied self determination, care and attention to detail goes out the window, satisfaction levels sink and efficiency goes into the toilet as everybody queues up outside the manager's door to have even the smallest of details ticked off. 

Then there's mastery of skills, people spends hours and hours of their spare time learning to play the guitar, many badly, and never is there any sense of future financial gain in this. The satisfaction gained form mastering a skill is innate. You can see it in chimps, the hours they spend learning a new dig the termite out with a simple stick tool trick, the pay off is not just in the food (termites - yum!) but you can see the pleasure on their faces in the "YES I've got it" moment.

So WHY OH WHY does every organisation automatically cut spending in hard times? Mine did. And I bet yours did too.

Giving people scope within their role to master their skills, time to play with new tools, time to hone their writing, design skills, or play with Instagram whilst assessing its use for your business is immensely satisfying to them and comes back to your business in spades. 

When I'm asked by my team if they can purchase certain tools (software, camera equipment etc) if the cost is in the hundreds, I'm a walking yes factory. Seriously if they are keen enough to achieve whatever it is that thing will achieve why on Earth would I say no? it can only be to mine and the company's benefit in the end. (OH yeah Managers - empowering your staff to do good work makes you look better - remember this!! YOU get kudos for doing not much, it's a win-win!!)

Clever Dude had countless examples, you know places like Google that give staff X% of free time at work to work on random fun projects of their own determination. Those policies are the ultimate expression of both major points he was making. Sometimes these play moments end up making for the company major new product innovations that never would have happened under a more task-oriented work environment.

But we as managers can start more simply, with our attitudes, policies and procedures, by fighting for our training budgets and although I haven't covered it here, of course positive feedback when staff have done well, and constructive feedback when things need to be worked on (There's NEVER any need at that point to say 'BAD staff member BAD', people are bright, if they have ownership, which they will have because you will now give it to them - right? right?, they'll own that error and guaranteed it won't happen again because they care)

Well that's it for today and if you saw the speech I'm remembering or reckon you know the dude I'm talking about PLEASE shoot me Clever Dude's real name I'd love to read ALL of his stuff!

Brands with an limited shelf life

Unless it is a major musical or a touring concert act most of the products we engage with in the performing arts have a limited shelf life, in some cases maybe only a matter of weeks for the idea to be taken to market, people to become aware of it and then hopefully buy tickets.

And that's got me thinking, what other types of products do this, exist in a bespoke manner for a very limited period and then disappear.

Outside of the performing arts I can only really think of fast food special menu items and fashion as two similar examples.

McDonalds always have a new item on their menu for just a limited time, lamburgers, Angus beef, McRib (or as Homer would say "Hmmmm McRiiiib"), special slushies and the list goes on. So why do they do this? It's pretty simple really McDonalds is omnipresent, it's just always there, if they don't give you different reasons to visit there's every chance that you could fall out of the habit of going.

And how do they do it? Again really simply, they bombard you with marketing, mainly TV but from time to time social media too. With a big spend and frequency, frequency, frequency. The lamburger practically appears in your hands via some form of "message-to-matter" process that scientist themselves don't even understand. Quantum physics I think.

It is also interesting to note that McDonalds uses different media for different messages. TV sells the specials, outdoor is directional "Next Macca's 500m on the right" and radio is informational "in your market there is a 24 hr McDonalds operating", "McDonalds now has better coffee" and the like.

Trouble is all of these special short term products are the teeny-tiniest sub-brands serving the needs of a dominant overall major brand. Performing arts in most cases the show is at least the equal of the organisation on brand terms if not more important. But the lesson we can learn from Macca's is to choose frequency with your media buy when creating recognition for a product with a short term life span.

Fashion too is a bit different as the product with a short life span is not a single product but a set of products that are marketed as "this season's look". As there is usually some commonality across stores with 'looks', its a weird situation where you and your competitors are cross-selling for each other, generating a demand for a 'look' and then people select which store to go to partly out of brand loyalty and partly just as a result of browsing the shopping centres.

So the fashion analogy leads one towards brand loyalty, performing arts companies with a strong brand such as Bell Shakespeare, Sydney Theatre Company and Bangarra Dance Theatre bring with them pre-existing brand equity which means there's already a readiness to accept the 'new' offering and creates a sense of standing apart when one is surfing the net or flicking through the weekend newspaper magazines thinking about things to do in the coming weeks.

So frequency and working on a strong primary brand as two keys to launching a product/show into the market place for a short period of time. 

To this list, I would add a third, care, take the time to really nail the design and word execution around the show. If you only have a short period of time to build up a show's brand you really have to nail it, make every component work as best it can, focus on how will the show impact on the patron and do everything you can to represent that feeling or response in your marketing, if you are selling an unrequited love story then your marketing should drip with pathos. "Have you ever being in love", "For anybody who has loved and lost before" OK these are clichés but you get the drift. Put the audience into the picture, give them a taste of the feeling. 

By-the-by MacDonalds now often launch new product with cheap $3 dollar taste wraps, they give you a teaser of the full thing. It shard for us to do this in the arts but we work towards giving people as much of a taste as we can.

Anyway that's enough for now. I'll leave you and your budgets to figure out how you achieve frequency!

Do physical theatres constrain community connection?

Its more of a thought bubble this week...

Does the presence of a physical theatre and the need to manage such a resource prevent city, county/state or territory funded Performing Arts Centres from achieving everything they could achieve?

How would say the “BIG NEW SUBURB PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE” be different if it didn't actually have a BIG NEW PERFORMING ARTS CENTRE to manage and populate with shows?

Are we tying up valuable arts funding in capital expenditure when we could be using it in other ways?

What if the programming/marketing/backstage/ticketing/FOH activities that performing arts centres generally deliver to communities happened but without the constraints of having to happen within a set of fixed four walls?

Programming would be entirely site specific, education programs would happen almost universally in schools, communities would naturally be more engaged in the creation of work as it would be happening all around them and work would HAVE to be created to spec. Maybe the conversation would be less around the programming off-the-shelf Williamson touring productions and more focused on the needs, issues and interests of the community being served.

I dunno, I just find the focus on large monuments is sometimes a distraction from the real purpose of workplaces like ours…

Its certainly a distraction for politicians and bureaucrats when it comes to big picture vision thinking. It's all about getting their name on a plaque and not about achieving real results for communities.

Persuasive letter writing

Does anybody still write letters? We still do from time to time, either A. because our email list has been hammered yet we still want to talk directly to some specific patrons (I know. I know we should use better segmentation tools), B. We've made what we beleive to be a very well executed form of printed collateral and we just want to get it directly into people's hands or C. you have to craft an argument that takes a bit more explaining than you might otherwise have room for in other media.

With this in mind and noting that as it is Subs Season, lots of us are actually writing letters, here’s a quick tute on persuasive letter writing.

• Scope out on a bit of paper (Or wherever) your key messages before you start. Don't have too many maybe three, max.
• Write in the format of your end letter – it helps make sure you keep to length and are seeing it how the end reader will as you draft.
• Remember that direct mail writing is one-to-one communication not one-to-many, write accordingly.
• Write with an individual in mind that is your target audience – put their name after DEAR… I write my Subs letters to "Denise", a real subscriber that I know.
• Use Headings, Pull Quotes and PS’s – some people will only read these so make sure that read in isolation the headings etc actually carry your key messages and form a lose narrative of their own.
• Tell ‘em once, tell ‘em again then tell them what you told them. You can repeat your key selling point up to three times (Or more) just find different ways to phrase it. Heading, intro, body copy and conclusion.
• Always seek to use active not passive language. A good tip for active writing is to make sure all tenses are in present tense where possible - not past or future. don't get held up by technicalities here, effective selling copy trumps strict English boarding school grammatical copy everytime.
• The shortest way to phrase an idea is usually the best.
• NEVER precede a noun (Like "performance") with any more than two adjectives. One is best. "Smith delivers a thrilling performance.", "Smith delivers a thrilling, haunting and moving performance." - see? Trust me the shorter one is better.
• Think about how the shows you are selling will impact on the reader, don't just describe the show, paint a picture of how it will me THEM FEEL!
• A synopsis is NOT Marketing copy. It just isn't alright. Look: "Avatar is a movie about some security guards that travel to a far away jungle planet to guard a mining operation and  one of them begins to sympathise with the local tribes." This is what synopis driven marketing copy reads like to your patrons.

I think that's it from me for now. Happy letter writing!

Ricky

Tip for Managers: don't be afraid to learn from your staff

A short one this week. Just because you are a manager and are "supposed" to know it all there is no shame in learning from your own team members. Remember as a manager you will be seen as successful if your entire team is achieving beyond expectations, so it really doesn't matter who's great idea it is, if it gets accepted and goals are achieved you will be viewed as being successful, even if the great idea didn't come from you personally.

Some examples, a Season campaign many moons ago was delivered that went completely OTT on trying to show where the brand was headed and delivered a very cool Terry Gilliam inspired Brazil look and feel. A short time later a new marketing coordinator came in and reminded myself and my Director about marketing 101 ie: How does that look and feel appeal to our key audience of 50,60+ females? The answer was it didn't, not at all. I have never forgotten that lesson and it feeds into every campaign I have done since.

Another one was adopting the wireframe process from the digital world for the Season brochure, I had been pushing for a Word based solution but it was my digital marketer who said to adopt the wireframe process used by web developers in full and actually lay the copy out exactly as per the book spread just minus the graphic affectations. And he was right, the process worked so much better.

And finally, we receive great feedback on last year's season brochure but an ex-staffer took me aside and pointed out some tiny signs whereby our designers probably needed more time to do the final finessing before sending to print.Again I took this on board and highlighted the need to care for the small details and tried to work the schedule to allow for more finishing up time at the end of the design process. The end result, is that the care taken this year can be seen and felt in the 2013 execution.

So in short learn from your staff, at the end of the day a successful manager looks great when the best ideas get up regardless of who's they are.

AFL clash Jumpers and brand values

OK so it's footy finals time which means it's time for me to address my pet hate THE CLASH JUMPERS IN THE AFL.


But because this is a marketing blog, of sorts, I'll use marketing-ese to state my case.

Firstly, what is a football club? What is it about these entities that inspires such passion? (AFL is per capita far and away the highest attended sport in the world.)

If it were the players then memberships and support would drop overnight when an insanely popular player like Richmond's Matthew Richardson retires. But guess what it doesn't, and it didn't. Fans love their players, but they love next year's crop just as much as they loved last year's.

We know it's not the coaches or other officials either, it also isn't the home ground as no one except for Geelong plays at home any more.

No it is the fierce inter club rivalry that inspires passion, the tribal connection people feel to an amorphous entity known as Carlton, Essendon or Collingwood. A rich set of experiences, a shared history going back more than 150 yrs for some, and an anticipated future. And the only tangible representation of all of this is the jumper, the club emblem that the players where across their chest.

It is the quintessential brand, more than a trade mark its a love-mark, more valuable to some fans than their own wedding rings.

So what does the AFL do? they decide for purely pragmatic reasons (to more clearly identify opposing players on the field) they force clubs to trot out 'clash strips' and then for reasons only know to the clearly vision impaired bloke at the AFL that decides such matters, force clubs to wear them even when their is no obvious clash, sometimes making the clash worse!

It goes without saying that people have watched almost 100 years of the worst clash, Collingwood V North Melbourne (even on black and white TV) without ever having a major problem but all of a sudden over the last decade this has become SOOO crucial that the AFL feels it is more important than tampering with the one tangible connection a fan has to his/her clubs culture the jumper.

Look at these pictures, Essendon are RED and BLACK, it's powerful, passionate and strong - not insipid grey. North Melbourne are a vibrant royal blue it speaks to their aspirational working class culture and traditional style of play, they are NOT some Diego Maradonna Argy uniform rip off. And the iconic CFC on the old dark navy blue is regarded as up their with the All Blacks as one of the best jumpers in world sport - WTF to this light blue version!

DEAR AFL - Fans follow their club, the most tangible representation of their club is the jumper, the jumper IS the brand. it may not seem important to you but given that you slap the AFL brand on more items of shoddy merchandise than Krusty the Clown one shouldn't be surprised.

PLEASE return back to a more relaxed approach where only the absolute worst examples require clash strip and tolerate minor jumper changes such as socks and the like to achieve the desired result STOP tampering with our love-marks.

I suppose the lesson for marketers out of this rant is to think, what part of your organisation is really important to your fans? And be conscious when what seems like a pragmatic change might actually cause an unpragmatic emotional response.

Season Marketing Campaigns

Canberra Theatre Centre (CTC) just launched its 2013 Season and it pleases me greatly that the initial response to the marketing campaign has been extremely positive. Given that often debriefs are very much about what went wrong, I thought it would be nice to share a few thoughts on why I felt it went right. See the Season site here.

A clear creative brief
The concept of a work from every state and territory was one that came to CTC as part of its involvement in the Canberra 100 celebrations, as did the subtitle "Collected Works:Australia".

This gave the designers a well-defined paddock to work in, we could define for them notions of Australiana, history, travel, maps and the like (whilst cautioning against the temptation to go into cliché). We knew that we also wanted this year's effort to look like a development of last year's look and feel and as a celebratory issue, we wanted to concentrate on the fine detail and production values to make it feel a bit special.

We had also learnt last year, the value of having the look and feel reflect the audience's taste, this was achieved by the use of quality literature as a metaphor for quality theatre.

Basically if you put the time and effort into your brief, and you have good designers, you are that much closer to a satisfactory result.

Organisation
The 2013 Season is almost twice the size as CTC's usual seasons this made for a lot more work with regards to stakeholder management and the approval process. The way I deal with this is through upping the organisation, at the start of the info-collection phase every stakeholder gets an email outline the process and rough dates for sign off.  They then receive a table asking for every element required (Show blurb, images, logos, warning etc). The results of all this is tracked in a spreadsheet so that at any time, I know who has supplied what.

We also borrowed the wire-frame sign of process from the digital world for copy sign off. Stakeholders see their exact layout just minus all the designery affectations. This removes the subjective talk of heading styles and border colours from the conversation and focuses attention on to copy editing when it is cheaper to make changes.

Then of course finally all stakeholders are able to sign off on their final design page, a process that takes less time because they already know what the copy and basica page layout will look like.

The basic motto here is "when the workload goes up, you need to up the level of organisation equivalently".

A good team with clear roles and ownership
I am lucky that our marketing team is a very tight and highly performing unit. During the planning phase, different individuals are allocated different autonomous roles, our publicist 'owned' the AV filming and our marketing coordinator 'owned' venue dressing for the launch event. Obviously they reported back and kept an eye on their budgets but effectively they were given licence and ownership to make these elements happen as best they saw fit.

As a committee, CTC might never have decided upon a giant icosahedron globe of the world be mounted as a centre piece in the foyer, but our Marketing Coordinator, brought this idea to the table and because we were letting her 'own' it (and we could afford it... just), the managers involved let her run with it. The result a very motivated staff member who delivered an excellent result. It looks great BTW.

And it wasn't just these two examples, everyone involved knew their roles and executed well partly because they had a degree of ownership and autonomy.

A collaborative process where no one cares where the good ideas come from, no turf wars
There were times when non-designers gave suggestions about smart solutions to design challenges that were gleefully tried and used and examples whereby designers we involved in problem solving around copy and the booking form process. A good idea was a good idea and that was all that counted.

A willingness to play and do stuff because its cool.
CTC usually launches with a postcard, bookmark or flyer summarising each show, on a whim late in the piece I decided with the designers that it wasn't one postcard but 20! One for each show. And then instead of normal copy we'd run a stream of consciousness block of words on the back. Then we decided on a clear spot varnish on the front, and THEN we decided for no real purpose other than it was cool to do special boxed sets of the postcards with all 20 collected in a nice envelope.

None of this was pragmatic, the only thing pragmatic was each step of the way I knew I could afford to do it. Be willing to play, think differently and do stuff because it excites you, because if it excites you it will probably excite others also.

The QR code innovation, quite possibly the first season brochure in Australia to feature rich media within the brochure content, WAS driven by pragmatic concerns, the AV cost a lot and I wanted to make sure as many people saw all the videos online. That QR codes are effectively free and the media was already being made, means it really was not much extra work and even if not many typical subscribers use this technology it says something about our brand and makes an attempt to further outlay the video investment.

Know your brand and be confident
It's now four season brochures since CTC re-branded and we have constantly sought to refine how we present ourselves visually and have grown more confident with "Who we are" and how we represent that.  The brand is deliberately quiet these days, a mark of assuredness that doesn't fight with the shows, which by their nature have to be the things getting the most attention. Having a quiet quality brand allows our Season campaign to reflect much more on the patrons than on us. I have been guilty of running season campaigns in the past that have gone too far the other way, all about the internal brand and what we want to project.

The little things really DO matter
I had MANY conversation with the designers about the exact finishing on the cover of the brochure, weight of stock, and I made sure I press checked the booklet as the shade of brown on the cover could so easily stray into poo-brown territory! It really is important to care about these details.

Anyway these are my thoughts following a big week with some tremendous results for our team. Please do check out the website and request a brochure, it's really cool!

Marvel, a little deaf boy and corporate culture

OK Read this (its short)





A HEARING-impaired New Hampshire boy is now a superhero.

Marvel Comics has created a superhero called Blue Ear in honour of Anthony Smith, a four-year-old boy from Salem, who was born with a chromosomal disorder that left him with severe hearing loss.

Anthony, who has no right ear and only partial hearing in his left, wears a blue hearing aid that has enabled him to speak and attend school.

A devoted comic book fan, he told his mother three weeks ago he was no longer wearing the device because "superheroes don't wear blue ears," WFXT-TV reported.

Alarmed by the boy's refusal, his mother, Christina D'Allesandro, emailed Marvel Comics in New York City, asking for assistance.

The comic book publisher sent D'Allesandro a picture the next day of "Hawkeye," a superhero who lost 80 percent of his hearing and wears aids. The company then sent an image of its newest creation, a character called "Blue Ear," who it said was named after the boy, according to the station.

"It's amazing," D'Allesandro said of the company's response. She said her son brought the comic book pictures to his pre-school, which prompted teachers to hold a superhero week.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/entertainment/marvel-creates-new-superhero-for-hearing-impaired-new-hampshire-boy/story-e6frfmq9-1226365269279#ixzz22lFN6nvq

Now read this...(please)

I'm hearing impaired and so is my daughter, we each wear two hearing aids, so naturally I was drawn to this story.  On the surface its just a great story about some people at a large company doing something nice for a little boy, but it is much more than that. It's story about company culture and values.

When you engender a culture in an organisation that values people, that values doing the right thing, regardless of reward, you invariably find that good things come back to the organisation (I'm hoping Marvel didn't leak this story). 

It's no accident that Marvel are on a seismic roll with hit movie after hit movie and a massive purchase by the idea-bereft Disney, like Pixar before them Marvel are a culture that values people, has ideas and approaches those ideas with courage, values long since lost at Disney.

And clearly Marvel values people, their iconic creative muse Stan Lee (90 odd) continues to receive producer credits on all movies and TV shows featuring his creations even though he is no longer an active member of Marvel, he gets his cameo appearances in every movie and one would hope that he is consulted on various bits and pieces for those movies within his producer credit.

And then to this story, first look at the timeliness, within a day the company had responded with some information about Hawkeye wearing hearing aids (which I didn't know, he's even cooler now than before!) and then shortly later with the ultimate above and beyond effort of creating a dedicated character based on the boy's particular ear issues.

Too often in business we forget those little above and beyond moments in favour of "focusing on core business" without realising that it's those little above and beyond things, those things you do for patrons, co-workers and suppliers, with no expectation of a reward that make up the culture of an organisation.

At the risk cracking my cynical marketer's mask even more, could all our workplaces do with a little more "Just for the hell of it" niceness? 

What EA Sports can teach Arts Marketers

Chris Erb from EA SPORTS was a key note speaker at Ad:tech Sydney. For those who don't know EA sports is not just a giant in the gaming sector but also the global sports sector, and as a purveyor of discretionary entertainment spend there's a lot the arts can learn from them.

According to Erb, the main reason EA has become such a powerful sports brand is because it gives fans of sport serious and powerful engagement over an above the more passive consumption of a rival like ESPN. (Yes, they see ESPN as their main rival not other game developers.)

The success of EA is built on attracting known brands (NFL, FIFA) to licence them to develop games then delivering extremely well on the promise of those brands.

Some stats: EA Sports has 19 million facebook fans and 80% of users play 20 hrs per week or more - that's huge engagement.

The EA Sports mission is to build and drive connected experiences. Although the arts don't have games - what ways can we make our product more active, less passive and how can we drive engagement be it physical world or virtual?

EA does a lot work on "surprise and delight" features for instance, you can unlock a hidden passage of 3D gaming within Madden Football. But to do this you had to buy a special brand of Doritos chips to get the code and free glasses.

With regards to pricing EA stands for good value, doesn't gouge and only works with authentic collaborators (i.e. Football fans eat chips!).

They always keep the consumers at the heart of how they market their product - asking how would our gamers react if we did this?

Their BIG NEW THING currently is building offline experiences to strengthen connection with their predominately online brand. This is done by the development of themed EA Sports Bars, including ones on cruise ships and EA Sports shops in airports. The arts already is strong in the physical world, if EA is clamouring to offer physical experiences we need to realise what a strength that is for us .

EA's customer knowledge is HUGE for instance they can find out, of all of the people playing NFL Madden online last Thursday, the percentage of people who always pass to the right on the third down. The arts also has access to comparatively much more data than the usual retailer and needs to look at it with fresh eyes.

Erb also says that gamification isn't just the domain of video game makers, anything can be made into a game and many corporates are using game-type play to strengthen positive buyer behaviour - I have further notes on gamification and will expand on this in a future post.

The key take homes for me from Erb and EA were:

• Look for ways to make the arts experience more active, more two-way and less passive one-way. 
• Look beyond your niche to know your true competitors. 
• Think about surprise and delight features. (a live band in the foyer, free wine tastings, unscheduled announcement to join the cast after the show) 
• Think about real, authentic corporate relationships that make sense to your consumer. 
• Leverage our real-world strength - that people come and interact with the arts in a physical sense. 
• If you have access to rich data - even if not quite as rich as theirs - use it. 
• Make a game of it! People will do things they might not otherwise if you make a game of it. 

What Ad:tech taught me about email

The effectiveness and list management of my work's email marketing list has been a matter of concern for us at Canberra Theatre Centre for at least three years. Managing the needs of patrons versus the demands of commercial hirers is a constant challenge.

As I stated in a previous post, almost no one at the cutting edge of the digital marketing industry is taking email seriously. This could just be that it's no longer the 'cool kid' in the class room, it might also be that what most creative agencies did with email was generate viral campaigns which was very easily moved to social once these streams gained traction.

Either way the breakfast panel filled with suppliers to the industry was the only session devoted to email. Here's what I learnt.

STATS

• Microsoft Outlook still accounts for 21% of all email traffic.
• iOS accounts for 16% and growing. Think about how your emails look on mobile devices - especially Apple.
• 26% access via Hotmail 
• 10% via gmail 
• Mobile web traffic will over take desktop traffic in 2014 
• 15% of emails are read on mobile – 85% of that via iOS 

STRATEGY

Look beyond just push marketing, think about every customer touch point in your customer relationship and whether email can play a role. It may be that this medium in your business needs to shift away from being a core sales tool and more towards being a tool to influence post-purchase behaviour, re-activate lapsed client and the like. 
But to do this it means that targeting is important, looking for those trigger points, phases in a customer cycle (ie: Say the 18 month time frame where a performing arts patron might become a lapsed patron). These things are nearly impossible to do manually, so you need systems to help them become if not automated but programmatic and system driven.

It is proven that customer service emails have a high rate of acceptability, moving your email relationship to one where you are seen as a helpful friend can only benefit your business in the long term.

EMAIL MARKETING LIFECYCLE

OLD conversations – frequency of contact and design of the email
CURRENT conversations – targeted lists
THE NEXT WAVE – programmatic emails, triggered at key points of customer relationship, integrated with social media.

Some simple ways you can do this in the performing arts are: Don't just target the one broad list or even genre based start to include recency, frequency, click through, open rate, basically whatever you can to talk to your 'active list' rather than wasting money hitting the inactive not-yet-unsubscribed. 

DON'TS

• People HATE Bait email – companies like like Wotif – who you might only use once or twice in a period of time for a specific service but you have now being 'tricked' into receiving daily emails from.
• Whatever the rationale never, ever charge more for people to purchase online.

DO's 

• Creativity is still really important, good copy, nice design are important regardless of the media
• 35 characters MAX in your subject headers.
• ALWAYS Optimise for Mobile
• Test across different email systems
• Think about “images off” and how your EDM looks.
• Use Facebook to drive email sign ups and vice versa 
• Set key long term targets and get the stats to check on it. 
• Make sure your call to actions drive engagement such as check the video of this musician rather than just "Buy Tickets".

FINALLY 
ALWAYS Make your real world experience meet the demands of your online one – eg: if you have an e-bookers queue in your box office make damn sure that it moves faster than the non-e-bookers one!

The actions we are doing as a result of Ad:tech and these notes are:

• Redesigning InBOX so it reads better for images off.
• Working on better integration with our ticketing database for smarter, more integrated list pulling and better measurement of ROI.
• Putting more pressure on our technology partners about systemising things like "About to lapse" patron campaigns. Currently these would be too driven by manual list pulling and excel spreadsheet manipulation.

Anyhow I promised more detail from my Ad:tech notes. This was the email one look forward to more!

ROI on Social - a quick thought bomb

We've all heard it from our managers - "This social media thing is all well and good but what return are we getting?"

The best answer to this is "Well what return did we hope to get?"

It is amazing how often that little question goes unanswered at the very beginning of a campaign.

On a high level it is relatively easy to use even just facebook insights to track reach and engagement (virality they call it - 2% or greater per post is good). If you have the basics of Google analytics set up you monitor traffic to your website from your various social outlets and hopefully you can even go one step further and attach this to sales. (This is of course just the starting point there's a world of tools out there to help measure social effectiveness)

But in reality what should happen is you plan a campaign in which social is a factor and you say "what role do we want social to play in this campaign?" and then develop measurable tactics to achieve those aims. Often it won't be pure sales, it might be customer engagement, 'likes', reach, exposure - social for the arts is great for anticpation building and pre-show knowledge building. If you define success from the outset you will be in a much better position to justify the investment with your boss.

An interesting counter point is whether your business approaches social from a campaign by campaign basis or from an 'always on' basis. I think it is important that you have this conversation internally as they are two very different things with different benchmarks, one is quite outcomes/sales driven and the other is more about the brand and customer relationship - the need different benchmarks.

Think also about the wisdom of being always 'on'. Human relationships are not always 'on' some of my dearest friends, I may not speak with for months on end, the relationship is not weaker because of it. Natural relationships ebb and flow, start-stop and start again. As an organsiation you may not need to be posting to your "friends" every day, it might be better to only talk to your likers when you have something to say that is of interest to them.

I hope to expand on ROI further in coming weeks thanks largely to links and resources provided by @stephenellis_ and @artsoz watch this space.

Five things from Ad:tech Sydney

It has come to my attention that I kind of ramble on a bit so I'm keeping this post really short and a pointer to possible future content. Back in March (Hey I know, sooooo current!) I was lucky enough to go to Ad:tech Sydney and I've got lots to share from that experience but the five big things were really...

1. Digital Display Ads: Go big, go smart or go home.Small ads buried down the bottom of a secondary page in a website don't work, you need to think of online display advertising almost like a TV spend. You have to throw decent money at it if its going to work. The caveat is if you are a niche product and can target niche websites which are cheaper.
   
   Going smart, well it's an area I know little about but those who are big on analysis know that its about using the metrics at your disposal, learning about re-marketing and tracking your customers. By way of example we are looking very closely at the Canberra Times online. Their weekday unique visitors outstrip their daily circulation and the advertising is 100% 'viewership' rather than CPI which makes it good value. We will shortly be giving this a serious trial and looking very closely at the metrics (when I get time to skill myself up!!).
   
   If you can't afford to go for impact then it really is best to look more so at Google Adwords, Youtube and Facebook Advertising instead. Which is certainly not second best, in fact many professionals who can afford to go big actively choose not to and use these tools more often instead.
2. Optimise for mobileThe universal trend was that if you aren't currently optimising for mobile then you are already behind, speaker after speaker was ramming home this fact, 16% of all web traffic is currently done on mobile and in a year's time this will be 32%. Also mobile web traffic happens closer in proximity to the purchase, be it in time or geography (such as if the item requires attending a bricks and mortar location like a restaurant). If you aren't giving a good mobile experience you are about to not be in the game.
3. Take Part is potentially a really valuable engagement toolTake Part is a new initiative at my work, the basic premise is that the impact of the arts is magnified immeasurably when people are given the opportunity to engage more deeply with that product, learn more about the story and artform and artists, Take Part is our sub-brand for advertising these opportunities. It basically makes for more affected and loyal advocates.This basic premise was repeated in more business-like terms often throughout the conference, the Commonwealth Bank was heavily focused on using social media to herd people toward engaging with the Comm Bank at a local level at real world events. Other businesses were clamouring for that elusive path between social media engagement and real world engagement that I could see we already had.
4. No one really knows what to do with EDM'sThe agencies weren't even pitching campaigns with email components, not one case study featured the words "and then for the email we did..", even the paid-for-by-stallholders breakfast panel of EDM solution suppliers didn't really know what do say, I've never seen a more maudlin bunch!
   
   So EDM's are a bit like newspapers and faxes, yesterday's news and at the beginning of a slow decline BUT your business has all these email addresses still right ? Maybe a few less than five years ago, maybe with lower stats but it's still a powerful resource right?
   
   The best take-homes from the panel was get smart, smart, smart! Sophisticated slicing and dicing, preferably with some systematic automation to make it workable during your business day is the key to maintaining this resource. Hitting just the right customer, with the right product at the right time is the key. Having an about-to-lapse trigger, a trigger when for when X consumable would be just about empty and hit them with an offer to re-purchase. These are the ways forward, and the arts industry patiently waits for its ticketing systems to catch up!
5. This simple yet powerful brainstorm process – define the problem, define the solution then ask “what’s the magic?” and don’t stop until you find it.Dave Whittle of MC Saatchi was running this little workshop of case studies and this simple yet powerful phrase "What's the magic?" really resonated with me. He also said "Never ever start a campaign with 'what will the poster look like?'" which is so true, start with Problem>solution>MAGIC! then maybe later you'll need to design something, but first go for the magic, the idea, it may not even be a designed focused idea it could be anything. Starting with the poster constrains your thinking. 

Umm hows that? Not so short huh? Sorry will try harder next time, in the meantime keep asking yourself "What's the magic?", I know it's simple and a bit obvious but it's really powerful if you let it in.

mARTsketing: The Arts: Sell it like a service not a product (AK...

mARTsketing: The Arts: Sell it like a service not a product (AK...: I'm a big fan of taking all the big and little issues that cross my desk back to the fundamental marketing basics. "Do you think this design...

The Arts: Sell it like a service not a product (AKA: The Arts:We ain't special)

I'm a big fan of taking all the big and little issues that cross my desk back to the fundamental marketing basics. "Do you think this design works?" "Well you tell me? What audience are you after and what is the key selling point of your design and copy?". That sort of thing. But there is one marketing fundamental that arts marketers constantly seem to get wrong, and that's "What are we?".


Time after time I see 'The Arts' being marketed like it's a product - and not just any product like electrical whitegoods! Marketers publish a list of product features (IE: cast details and plot synopsis) and we expect patrons to line up and say "Awesome, I'll take five tickets thanks!". Its not really even Problem>Solution-land its "Hey I've done a play about retired ninjas finding themselves, come and buy tickets!"  which kind if an answer to a question no body thought to ask. (Actually I'd like to see a play about Ninjas, so if anyone writes one count me in)


To this day some marketers will argue that the arts IS a product, you pay your money and we give you a physical item - a ticket. Enjoy! Of course the ticket is merely a voucher for entry to the real paid-for experience. So in the interests of clarity lets break it down.


At a conference many years ago I was told that the definitive (British) legal definition of a ticket, was a short term lease of a piece of real estate (ie you purchase the ability to sit on a seat for a small period of time. Nothing more, nothing less.The show is no different to a harbour view or a flight path in a rental property, an element that affects how desirable that short term lease is.


If you accept that a show is nothing more than effectively leasing out a lot of small pieces of real estate for a small period of time it changes things fundamentally. For a start it makes you realise just how perishable our product is, like aeroplanes once the curtain goes up we can never sell that seat again, so inventory management becomes something we should study, dynamic pricing becomes important, as does efficient and courteous customer service and order fulfilment. 


Reputation becomes really important. Think about hairdressers, how do you build a top drawer hair salon? You create a nice welcoming environment to come, you answer every phone call, convert every lead,  train or recruit great talent, and you do everything you can to make sure that each chair is full most of the time. Branding becomes important, customer service too and every haircut leaves an impression that either makes people come back again and again or loses you for good. Haircuts are not price sensitive either, people will pay good money for a good haircut.


Except the performing arts is even more ethereal, at least hairdressers leave you with a good feeling AND a good haircut, we just have the good feeling.


Also haircuts are generally repeatable, each new play or dance performance is unique.So how do you get around the risk factor? Well you DO do something that the Arts Industry sometimes over-does, you really work on the brand of each individual show, you take your brainstorming seriously, you work the design and title treatment like you are re-branding facebook (on a budget!), even for a six week marketing campaign, and you latch onto to any residual goodwill, leverage the company brand, the name actor and establish credibility via awards and reviews. 


All fairly line and length, but the question is if I'm coming to your theatre for two hours to experience a service that's completely different to the last time I came here why would I do that? What problem will this service solve? If all I am left afterwards is a warm glow, what colour will the glow be?


This then leads you to thinking about intrinsic impact, which I'm sure I'll be spruiking another time.


For now I'll leave you with this, think of your arts product as a service, as incredibly perishable, and watch how that changes your approach.

mARTsketing: Ten Top Tips: Getting the most out of attending a ...

mARTsketing: Ten Top Tips: Getting the most out of attending a ...: Having had the luck of attending PLENTY of conferences in the last few years, I've noticed that some younger (and some older professionals) ...

Ten Top Tips: Getting the most out of attending a conference

Having had the luck of attending PLENTY of conferences in the last few years, I've noticed that some younger (and some older professionals) aren't really making the most out of their conference experience. Also conferences are a great way to promote your own personal brand.

Some people treat conferences like the working version of what I imagine American University 'Spring Break' is like, whilst others pretty much over-earnest the whole thing! Either way you can often not get out of it exactly what you might have hoped for. Here are a few tips
That's pretty much it, try it for your next PD opportunity and I guarantee you'll see the differences when it comes to marketing your personal brand.

1. Attend with a goal in mind (networking and building up my industry contacts either for this job or the next one, learning more about a specific area, etc). Like any activity it helps to know what you are trying to do going in you can then plan you priorities, choose the right sessions, make sure you attend the networking events etc.
2. BUT attend with with an open mind! Because I just love 'How to' guides that give you one piece of advice and then immediately contradict it. But seriously be aware of Donald Rumsfield's famous unknown unknowns - don't be afraid to hear a talk that isn't on your pre-conceived radar, it might just take you down a completely new path to unexpected opportunities. Make space for random learning, is really what I'm saying here.
3. Get over being SHY Really how old are you? You are an adult professional, and your company believes in you enough to invest in your PD. Don't tell me you can't talk to strangers, if you are really daunted by this prospect try this tip. Practice chatting with the taxi drivers on the way to and from the airport, really bash their ears, "Where are you from?", "How bad were things there before you immigrated?", "Did your family come over with you?" . Trust me by the time you get to the conference you'll be well practised in striking up a conversation and your shyness will feel very much like "a first world problem". (I know this is a stereotype but with any luck you'll get to hear on of these amazing refugee stories like I have, if not that, the great yarn I got with an ex soldier who was hours away from invading Timor under Gough Whitlam, but I digress.)
4. Don't just hang with your home-y OK so the Boss has sent two of you to the conference, make a conscious decision to separate from time to time and report back to each other. You'll see twice as much, meet twice as many people and add twice as much value back to your company.
5. Grab the delegate list By any means, some are provided, some you have to ask for, some you'll need to steal, from here you can identify exactly who you want to speak to, hopefully you can also grab their twitter handles and follow your key targets too and they'll follow you back!
6. Ask a good question early Go to the very first speech and really try to come up with a great question early, by standing up and announcing yourself as a player, others will recognise you and and people will seek you out. Placing great comments and being an actively player in Twitter hash tag land is the digital version of this. You don't have to be mister (or miss) insightful on Twitter either, just research when the speakers give examples and post links, anyone can do that, but by golly you'll get props for it "here's the link to the TVC she was speaking about".
7. Use twitter conversations to identify new people to meet. Not much else to say here, if you follow the hash tag players you can identify people you want to be your friend.
8. Seek out the speakers, usually they are here on their own and are stuck talking to earnest conference organisers all night, as cool as they are, they’ll be thrilled to meet you. Then exchange details, tweet, follow etc you’ve just made a valuable contact!
9. Type up your notes and share them with co-workers. If they are good, start a blog and post them too, you probably have five ready made posts to write straight from your notes.
10. Have fun but not TOO much fun A drink and a bit of a rage is a great immediate way to build connections, but it goes without saying that there is a world of difference between social lubrication and all night benders that could get see you miss half the next day and lead to inappropriate behaviour that could see you fired.

Arts Access - a simple "How To"

Access is becoming an increasingly important issue in society. The Australian Government's National Disability  Insurance Scheme is just the latest example of where it's currently sitting on the public policy radar. For cultural institutions, it is a good idea to not just cover the bases but to really be seen as a leader in access, pressure from government bodies is one reason, but it's also about corporate citizenship, good PR, and adhering to a vision that says the arts is for all. Another plus is done right you can build a small audience of incredibly loyal patrons.

The good news is that for the performing arts, getting a best practice access program is actually pretty easy. Here are the steps.

1. What is your legislative environment and are you up to par?
   All Councils, State Government's and Federal environments are slightly different, there's a good chance that you already cover the minimum bases - ie you have wheel chair spaces in your auditorium, ramps and lifts installed etc, however you may not and there may be a lot issues you've never even considered. The best first step is to commission an Access Audit. http://www.accessauditsaustralia.com.au/aaa_contact.aspx is one but there a few out there. You will get an independent report which you can then take to your board and argue for funding.
2. Review the report and implement what you can!
   This is really it, some things you may learn are; counter height, your wheelchair seats might not be placed in a space that allows them full access to the range of prices on offer and exactly how bad your website is for text readers.

Obviously some issues, such as installing lifts are major capital expenses but there are some cheap and even free programs you can make happen to start improving your venue/organisation's accessibility. Here are some really simple ones:

• Publish a large print version of your season brochure.
  This is just a simple copy, paste, print, bind job that anyone in your office can do. We did 25 Copies for our season launch and after the mention of our access services during the speeches all of them went that night and we had to pre-print. Check with your local vision impaired institution for benchmarks re text size, but the minimum is usually 12 point for enlarged and 16-18 for large-print. Once you've printed these off, tell your local institutions you've done this, give them copies and promote the fact on your website, at box office and via other means.
• Offer Tactile Tours and Audio Described performances
  Vision Australia provide Canberra Theatre Centre with volunteers to offer these services. You may find that your local institution offers these resources free as well. what you do is schedule a session, usually a matinee, for these services, promote the dates (and people MUST book in advance). On the day, the trained volunteers lead a discussion on stage with cast/crew members where key props, costumes and set piece are handled by the vision impaired patrons explaining their significance to the story. Then during the performance the patrons wear a special headset where audio describers give context to the spoken performance (ie "disgusted daughter walks off stage in a huff and slams a door"). The only cost of this service is a once off fee to purchase the headsets and a commitment to administer and promote the service.
• Consider loops, live captioning, FM headsets, signed performances for the Deaf and hearing impaired.All of these services are available and are reasonably affordable to implement and provide (no more than a few thousand for initial hardware and set up and specialist labor costs each performance for signed and/or live captioned performances). What technology to employ really depends on your priorities, I would argue for loop systems throughout both foyers and auditoriums as most hearing aids can tune in without needing special equipment and back up headset units for those without access to a T-switch. I would then employ a live-captioned performances throughout the year and only really consider a signed performance as a maybe once/twice a year special event (the signing Deaf being a sub-set of captioning using deaf). 
  The http://captioningstudio.com/ provide the best practice captioning service, including their world first iPhone app allowing patrons to follow the show on their own devices and there are many places including http://www.wom.com.au/ that can provide best practice advice regarding loops and headsets.

• Strobe, Haze, Smoke effectsThis needs a to be taken seriously for epileptics and those with breathing difficulties and should always be communicated when known on your website and certainly any complaint refunded. We have now adopted a process where we inform all patrons to consider that all performances may have these effects and to contact us if you have a query until such time as we know for sure.
• Carer Seats
  This is a pseudo legislative issue in Australia and basically any patron with a companion card is entitled to a free seat for their carer. Again this service really costs very little and is a cheap and easy 'win' to implement.
• Dedicated Programming
  Once you have these services in place it is easy to look for a dedicated kids show and use this as a chance to allow deaf, hearing impaired or vision impaired children to experience theatre. You may also schedule other performances such as Rain Man, which allow you to interface to autism associations and carers, it just requires an awareness within your organisations that these relationships are possible and can be used as great opportunities. Rain Man for us generated over 100 ticket sales which were used both as a fund raiser for the autism association and a shared experience for carers.
• Promote it!
  Once you have a small suite of access service generate a brochure, website, media release etc to tell people and make sure the related organisations all have copies and are on board to help promote the services. Then continue to monitor the use of these services and feedback from patrons.
• Nominate a Champion Be it self nominated or made part of a job role – it doesn’t work without a champion pushing it through and sticking up of access-imapired patrons.
• Tricks For Young Players
• Make sure any special headsets used are subject to a process of pre-show checking for battery life and are working. 
• Have a process whereby seats are set aside for people using live captions, carer seats, and the like. 
• Think about wheelchair spaces when exercising prestige pricing strategies, if not you are a law suit waiting to happen. 
• Get whole of organisation buy in especially - front-of-house, ticketing and technical.
• If using a smart phone based captioning device, does 3G work inside your thick auditorium walls?
• Respond to any complaint immediately - these are amongst your most vulnerable patrons, they trusted you when you said they could come back and enjoy the theatre and now you may have let them down.

This is pretty much it for access, take it seriously, make some innovation happen and trust me it will be one of the most satisfying projects you can undertake, especially when a patron writes in thanking you for allowing them to experience theatre once again.

• Website Accessibility Making a genuine five star accessible website is hard, expensive and you can often compromise the experience for everybody else. If your legislative overlord is not especially pushing the issue, it is best to make the issue known to your web developer in order to cover as many bases as possible such as alt tagging images with a description of that image for text readers. BUT technology is constantly improving so it is alway good to have this as a criterion in any future website tender and make the call as you negotiate with vendors.

Government Funding of the arts: Cultural welfare for the rich?

I'm really lucky that I ply my arts marketing trade in a mono-demographic environment like Canberra. Lucky in that I can justify market research showing the dominance of Type A/B demographic people making up the market space. Of course our theatre appeals primarily to A/B rich edu-macated folks, that's ALL the type of folks we got in Canberra!

BUT I dare say we aren't alone amongst Government funded arts organisations, most arts institutions would have a dominance of upper income, higher educated types making up their database, for one the arts can be expensive, you need spare time to savour it and probably some degree of quality education to help understand much of it. This is our reality and well run institutions have childrens' and education programs, populist programs (IE; MSO+Dr Who), audience development initiatives and social inclusion programs all aimed in part as broadening the audience and increasing social inclusion.

Where I get a little disheartened however is when I see Arts organisations with little interest in reaching beyond their tidy subsidised little niche. I've seen this recently with some symphony orchestra programming and it used to be the case with some opera companies and it definitely is still very much in vogue with certain theatre companies.

Without naming names a few years ago someone plying one of the above genres outlined their show show programming rationale to a small group of marketers, it went something like Blockbuster/Old-favourite-for-hard-core-fans/Obscure-stretch-program-probably-for-the-AD/Conductor's-benefit. So really in a three show season 66% percent of the programming was designed to really only appeal to hard core genre lovers. Now I know you have little flexibility in a three show season but this seemed to me to have a slightly skewed balance.

The problem I'm outlining is a particular one for those that ply what I define as heritage art forms (Boy am I gunna get in trouble for this!), but that means opera, ballet, Shakespearean and classical music, art forms where the biggest markets are for works that are very old and very well known "...and don't you dare to anything 'funny' with it". Quite simply because the repertoire is limited and the desire for the new amongst the core patrons is not just low but in some cases assertively negative.

So I've established that a lot of performing arts appeals to wealthy, educated white folk. OK no rocket science going on here then. Now, couple that with the adherence to the subscription season pricing model that ensures that the wealthiest patrons also are the ones that pay the lowest price for their ticket. I'm sorry what? Our wealthiest, most passionate patrons are paying the least? I thought us artsy types were into social justice?

Ahh so now the heading starts to make sense. To me the aligning of conservative programming, lack of audience development effort, subs season pricing and government support all lead to one summation - cultural welfare for the rich. Pure and simple. And it's not just wrong, its offensive.

And what's more telling is that decision makers are waking up to this; participation, social inclusiveness, diversity, these are all the current buzzwords in arts policy, but we need to take it further, it is now not enough for these to be satellite programs done to tick boxes, these have to move to being the main game. Otherwise what are we here for? How do we justify the public money?

The best thing I've read this year is this, http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/arts/why-opera-australia-needs-to-change/story-fn9n9z9n-1226183568035, Lyndon Terracini's 2011 Peggy Glanville-Hicks Address, in it he says it is not acceptable for a company taking $20 million in public money to continue to play to a small elitist club, and talks about the efforts of Opera Australia through it's touring arm Oz Opera (not specifically named) to reach as many people as possible up to 500,000.

So there you have it Opera perhaps the most conservative of all art forms is embracing change and recognising that they no longer have a God given right to take government money to appeal to a tiny elitist clique. It's time the rest of us moved to before someone moves for us.

Why Mazda's Zoom Zoom Zoom is the best marketing tagline ever

I love cars. I mean I really love cars. I remember the night that Dad took my brother and I into town for the local launch of the new 1988 EA Ford Falcon. From then on I was hooked, I'd borrow Wheels magazine from the library every month and read every word and state including the spec sheet at the back. And although I now buy my own, I still do!

Anyway I paused to think recently about Mazda's Zoom Zoom Zoom catch cry. They've been using it since 2000 and show no signs of getting tired of it and I think that's because it's not just good, but its great. As far as tag lines go its one of the best ever.

But why? Firstly it taps into an innate human emotion, that feeling of freedom and movement, when children run around a park with gay abandon, the feeling you get when your dad picks you up and spins you through the air, riding a push bike down a hill and of course zooming your toy cars around the room.

But more than that Mazda haven't just tapped into this feeling with their customers, they have tapped into it with their entire company, from the CEO, to product engineers, to marketers and sales staff they all embody the Zoom Zoom philosophy.

I know this because I read what the product engineers and designers say at vehicle launches, it's all about quick steering, styling that conveys movement, engines that are quick to respond to to throttle inputs and lightness. They say things like "We could have done that but then it wouldn't have been Zoom Zoom". They have literally taken the essence of Zoom Zoom and put it on the road.

And now in changing times when other car makers are pursuing small capacity, low boost turbo engines to improve economy and emissions, Mazda are saying NO, lets find another way, low-boost turbos aren't Zoom Zoom, not responsive enough they say, so what do their engineers do? The go away and invent Skyactiv a part by part re-design of the old fashioned non-turbo internal combustion engine and transmission, seeking lightness and efficiency gains with every micrometre. With the last MX5 they even weighed the rear view mirror and made a handful of grams lighter!

You can even see Zoom Zoom at work in the things that Mazda HAVEN'T been good at recently (but are fixing) - road noise, ride refinement and interior quality. Why haven't they been good at these things? Because they aren't Zoom Zoom, soft touch plastics don't make a car any more Zoom Zoom than hard ones!

So that's to me why Zoom Zoom is the best tagline ever, because it truly means something, its inherent in all of us, the thrill of movement, the thrill of freedom and no one feels this more than the people who work at Mazda all the way to the top.

The lesson for other marketers? Search for your organisation's fundamental truth, its fundamental human reason for being, express it well and then make sure that your whole company embraces it so that it shows up in the product.

OH and results? Mazda since 2000 has developed one of the most critically acclaimed car model ranges on sale today and the Mazda 3 has just become the first imported car to top Australian sales charts since the 1920's. Seems lots of other people relate to Zoom Zoom too.