Archive for the ‘community marketing’ Category

Launching the Rainier Advisory Group

Posted: September 7, 2010 in Ascentium, Closed Loop Marketing, CMO, community marketing, Customer Engagment, customer lifetime value, enterprise marketing platform, integrated marketing, Marketing Strategy, online marketing suite, Rainier Advisory Group, SDMA, Strategy, web marketing
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After nearly 5 years, I’m leaving Ascentium and starting my own consultancy, Rainier Advisory Group specializing in helping companies navigate the complexity of the marketing technology landscape.

I’m very proud of the success I’ve had growing Ascentium from a small technology consulting firm into the 5th largest independent digital agency according to AdAge and being called out with the highest customer satisfaction scores in the country by Forrester Research in their 2009 Forrester Wave® of Top Interactive Agencies.

Now is the time to move on and focus on my real passion of mastering cross-channel customer experiences through the integration of the technologies that are helping transform the marketing landscape from search to analytics, lead management to CRM and everything in between. With the maturation of cloud-based services, today’s marketer is faced with a myriad of choices and almost no one to help navigate not only the applications and services themselves, but how they fit into an integrated cross-channel strategy, Forrester calls Digital Brand Orchestration.

I believe that my combination of executive experience on the client side for Lufthansa, T-Mobile and Gateway, agency consulting experience working with companies like Microsoft, Intel, Lexus, and Ford as well as start ups like Marketfish, Quasar, and Surveyanalytics as well as my thought leadership and speaking engagements for organizations like Forrester Research, the DMA, Digital Hollywood, Mirren New Business, The Integrated Marketing Conference and MarketMix, position me well to provide the strategic consulting services needed by leading companies, marketing service providers and advertising agencies.

Please feel free to reach out to me if you’d like more information or if you know of any firm in need of my services.
I will also be devoting time to my commitment to our industry in my capacity as past president of the Seattle Direct Marketing Association, incoming president of the Pacific Northwest Business Marketing Association chapter as well as lecturing on digital marketing at local institutes of higher learning.

Most of my contact information remains unchanged, with the exception that I can now be reached at john@rainierag.com or jkottcamp@gmail.com . Today I have also launched my new company website, www.rainierag.com . Farewells are always sad, but new beginnings are even more exciting. I continue to wish everyone at Ascentium continued success and I look forward to sharing new stories with each of you in the near future.

It’s Hard to digest everything I heard at BMA Engage, but I think it’s all about Authenticity

Posted: June 8, 2010 in CMO, community marketing, Customer Engagment, integrated marketing, Marketing Strategy, social media
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Flying home last Friday from the BMA Engage conference in Chicago, I was taken by the fact that my head was reeling from so many great keynote presentations. I attend and speak at a lot of conferences and while most have a lot of good content and networking opportunities, it’s rare that I find a set of keynote addresses that impress me, move me and most importantly, give me something I can act on when I get back to the office that will make my business better.

Several good cyber-journalists have already done a good job at recapping the entire event. Check out Barrett Sydnor’s “Top Ten Things I learned (or relearned) at BMA Engage 2010” or Sima Dahl’s “Personal Engagement: Bringing It Home” as well as exploring all the great content available on the conference site, www.bmaengage.com.

But at risk of contradicting my own first paragraph, it really wasn’t any individual keynote speaker or presentation that struck me, it was the underlying theme that permeated the entire event. From the body of work presented by Tom Stein of Stein Rogan & Partners, who won the B2 Agency of the Year award and Eduardo Conrado and David Srere’s “Engaging with Purpose” all the way through to Chris Brogan’s “Trust Advisor” and Jeffrey Hayzlett’s “Emotional Technology”, the single clear message I heard was that companies, brands and all the people who tell their stories, have to be honest, authentic and set the bar as high as possible in order to survive, succeed and prosper.

Eduardo Conrado, Motorola’s CMO, told us to throw out the mission and vision statements and get down to the heart of the matter that concerns both customers and employees, purpose. What is the purpose of the company? Why do they do what they do? This was echoed clearly by Jeffrey Hayzlett, the CMO at Kodak, who clearly stated that Kodak’s purpose is not to sell film (whose sales have dropped from $15B to $200m in the last 5 years), but to create memories. He showed videos of customers who said that in the case of a home fire the one thing they’d run back into the house for, would be family photos.

The highlight of the conference for me was Chris Brogan’s presentation from his book, Trust Advisor. His next to last slide was a simple illustration on the back of a blank sheet that says “Human Business”. To be successful, you need to focus of building the relationship first, “be there before the sale” and my favorite line of the entire conference, “bring wine to the picnic.” What could be more authentic than that?

Jury Trials and Social Media: They’re not so different after all

Posted: September 16, 2009 in Blogroll, Closed Loop Marketing, community marketing, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, social media, social networking, Uncategorized, Web 2.0
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I was on jury duty last week. I won’t go into all the details, but suffice it to say it was a criminal case and we ended up finding the defendant guilty. He will probably go to prison and it’s sobering to realize that you may have had something to do with sealing his fate. Choice does matter, though sometimes more than others.

So what do juries have to do with marketing and what is the connection between jury trials and social media? Well there’s the obvious, that a jury is just like any other audience and the lawyers are like competing brand marketers trying to spin their narrative so that you will choose one side over the other. But I think it goes a little deeper than that. Being a juror, I was not only a member of the target audience, but also a key influencer on the decision of the rest of the audience; the jury.

The attorneys did their best to convince us, from their opening statements where they each painted vastly different scenarios, through the presentation of evidence and down to their closing arguments where they tried to make the sale. But, back in the jury room, we saw right through the manipulations of “facts” and in the end pretty much discounted everything the lawyers said and relied on our own judgments and the perceptions and persuasiveness of our fellow jurors. We believed each other because we knew we had no vested interest in the outcome, except for making the right choice.

Again, what does this have to do with social media? Well, to my mind, the lawyers were like traditional advertising. They sure looked sharp when they were presenting, but after you got out of the room, their pitches went right out the door. What prevailed was the common sense and back and forth examination of the evidence and intelligent choices made by consensus. To me, this is a perfect embodiment of what social media is all about. Social media gives us the opportunity to reach out to our fellow consumers (jurors), listen to each other’s arguments and through discussion and interaction, reach a conclusion that results in a choice being made. In this case, the choice was guilty or not. For consumers it may one brand over another.

I left the jury room feeling I had made the best choice I could have and I was supported in that decision by my fellow jurors. I only hope I will feel that way next month when I start looking for a new wireless carrier.

Social Media, forget the hype and forget the technology

Posted: August 26, 2009 in community marketing, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, SDMA, social media, social networking, User-generated content, Web 2.0
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There was a full article in the Seattle Times this morning about social media. It’s amazing that a major media outlet either just discovered social media as a topic or there wasn’t enough new news to fill the dwindling number of printed pages. But let’s not get on the subject of newspapers and why most journalists seem to be more afraid of social media than taking steps to become the leaders of it.

What I want to talk about is not newspapers and not about what social media is, isn’t or what its good for. I don’t know and I’m supposedly an expert on the subject for my agency Ascentium. What I do know is that I don’t want to see, hear, blog, tweet or otherwise spew about the definition of social media and how it’s going to change the world, or at least our way of thinking about the world. Been there, done that.

It’s time to focus on the reality, not the potential of social media. Look at what Twitter is being used for politically around the globe. See how the Huffington Post has already redefined journalism. And as marketers, let’s start talking about the work we’re at our companies or for our clients. Let’s see what is working and what isn’t. And let’s define success, not at the nebulous level of “building brand awareness” or “increasing reach”. Let’s apply real metrics to determine the ROI of a very broad array of activities, campaigns and applications that we lump under the category of social media.

As president of the SDMA, we created an editorial calendar of the coming year’s series of monthly events. The kickoff event, to be held on 09/09/09 at the Bellevue Hyatt was listed in our working calendar as social media. From there, we went about selecting a speaker(s). It was easy to find some really smart people who could pontificate on social media. In fact, last week the Seattle Social Media Club had a great presentation on “What the f**k is Social Media?”
But we’ve tried to set the bar higher. Our moderator, Blake Cahill, of Visible Technologies, a social media expert in his own right, reached out to his considerable network and looked for marketers who were actually using various social media techniques and asked them for examples of what is and isn’t working in the very real world of corporate marketing.

The result is a great panel representing brands including Alaska Airlines, Comcast, REI and PCC Natural Markets who are willing and able to talk about what they have learned about social media.

So if you’re interested in going beyond the hype and seeing what social media can really do when applied by top marketers, come join us on Sept. 9, 2009 at 5:30p at the Bellevue Hyatt for the kick off event of the season of the SDMA.

Socialnomics Video – a fun “shift happens” style video for social media

Posted: August 20, 2009 in community marketing, Customer Engagment, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, social media, social networking, Uncategorized, User-generated content, Web 2.0
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I just looked at a very good short video making the case for the importance of Social Media in today’s world. it’s done ala the Shift Happens videos of a couple of years ago and you have to dig into the blog to find the sources of the some of the statements, not all of which appear to be as documented as I’d like to see. However it still is a good way to spend 4 minutes of your day and puts social media into a context most people haven’t grasped yet. check it out at
http://socialnomics.net/2009/08/11/statistics-show-social-media-is-bigger-than-you-think/

Forrester Research features Ascentium among the top Interactive agencies

Posted: June 9, 2009 in aQuantive, Ascentium, Closed Loop Marketing, community marketing, Customer Engagment, customer lifetime value, ecommerce, integrated marketing, Interactive Agency, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, microsoft, social media, social networking, Strategy, User-generated content, Web 2.0, web marketing
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On Friday, Forrester Research published its Forrester Wave™, Interactive Marketing Agencies – Web Design Capabilities, Q2, 2009. Ascentium was covered for the first time along with other top digital agencies including Sapient, imc2, Razorfish, IconNicholson, IBM Interactive, Organic, Blast Radius, iCrossing, OgilvyInteractive, Resource Interactive, and Rosetta, Critical Mass, Molecular, R/GA, VML, Whittmanhart and Arc Worldwide.

In addition to just being favorably reviewed among such a great group an agencies, we take pride in that Ascentium scored the highest out of all the agencies in the category or customer satisfaction. We credit that in large part to emphasis we have given to growing customer loyalty and constantly measuring it with tools like Net Promoter Scores.

When I joined Ascentium almost four years ago, we were primarily a technology consulting firm with strong Web development skills and some good design talent, but we hadn’t yet made the commitment to become a true full service digital agency. But we got together as a team and agreed that the future was in leveraging technology to advance marketing and to move from advertising to engagement.

Three years and a roster of blue chip clients like Microsoft T-Mobile, Dell, Cisco and Random House, later. We have garnered the attention of the likes of Forrester Research and have grown from a local Seattle-based firm to an agency with offices across the country and internationally as well.

It’s been a privilege to be a part of this journey and to have helped nurture it along the way. It wasn’t always easy teaching technologists and marketers to not only get along, but to actually work synergistically, to create a new model for what Forrester has called, the agency of the future.

So congratulations to all the other agencies featured in the Wave, thanks to all the analysts at Forrester who have seen value in what we’ve created and well done to each and every employee I have the privilege of working with at Ascentium. Just wait for what we have in store for you next.

RFIDs for People, it’s finally here

Posted: April 1, 2009 in Closed Loop Marketing, CMO, community marketing, Customer Engagment, customer lifetime value, ecommerce, enterprise marketing platform, integrated marketing, Interactive Agency, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, microsoft, online marketing suite, re-marketing, social media, social networking, Strategy, User-generated content, Web 2.0, web marketing
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Chipmaker, BrandChip Inc., announced that they have perfected a RFID chip that can be embedded in jewelry, watches or other personal items commonly worn by average people. This chip will contain opt in personal information regarding the wearer’s tastes, shopping habits and brand preferences. Participating retailers will be able to access the information whenever the wearer comes into the store and can then automatically generate a special offer via mobile phone.

This is the ultimate in one to one marketing. Don Rogers of Peppers and Rogers fame has been quoted as saying he’ll sign up as soon as he can and looks forward to getting some great offers from The Sharper Image. Google is figuring out how to offer a stripped down version for free and Microsoft is said to be studying it and should have a beta in market by 2015.

I applaud these efforts and look forward the next generation when they won’t even need the mobile connection. You will be able to get the offer straight from the chip.

Oh, and by the way, have a great today, April 1, 2009

The PI is Dead, Long Live the PI – Let’s mourn the paper, but not the news

Posted: March 18, 2009 in Ascentium, community marketing, Customer Engagment, Marketing, social media, User-generated content, Web 2.0, web marketing
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Today was the last day I will get the Seattle Post Intelligencer on my doorstep in the morning. The 146 year old newspaper has run up against a failed business model and ceased being a traditional print based newspaper today. As of tomorrow, it will exist only as an online news site and it’s unsure what the experience will be.

First, let me shed a tear for nostalgia. No I’m not being trite. I have a lot of respect for what has gone has on before me. The Seattle PI has been a great local paper, although its history has lots of less than Pulitzer prize winning stories (remember the Pulitzer prize is named for one of the worst of the Yellow journalists of his day). That’s a long way of saying I hope the big revolving globe atop the PI’s headquarters continues to spin. I also shed a tear when the giant pink toe shaped “toetruck” was hauled away and was saddened when the twin tepee restaurant (horrible food) was torn down. All were symbols of Seattle and a loss to our popular culture.

But, I am less worried about the state of journalism in Seattle. For every professional journalist whose investigative reports protected us from corruption and misdeeds, I have had to put up with a thousand articles about non-news or yesterday’s news. I’ve also gotten way too used to having to read syndicated articles written thousands of miles away, purporting to speak to issues like employment, real estate and culture that have nothing to do with my local world.

Citizen journalists are far from perfect, but the same can be said for professionals. So let’s hope that citizen journalists will fill the void left by the loss of the PI and let’s hope that we can live without opening the morning paper, sipping a good cup of coffee and learning about man biting dog.

High ROI Marketing Strategies for a Down Economy

Posted: February 6, 2009 in Ascentium, Blogroll, Closed Loop Marketing, CMO, community marketing, Customer Engagment, integrated marketing, Interactive Agency, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, social media, social networking, Strategy, Web 2.0, web marketing
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high-roi-tips1Last night I had the opportunity to moderate a great panel discussion on the topic of High ROI Marketing Strategies for a down Economy, held in conjunction with the Seattle Direct Marketing Association, SDMA. monthly dinner meeting.  The panel consisted of Andrea Schwarzenbach from Alaska Airlines, Andy Cotton,Yahoo, Jamie Lomas, AdReady, Brian Ratzliff, WhatCounts and Michael Williams, Williams-Helde.

The was a great turnout of about 85 marketing professionals from all over the Puget Sound and the discussion was both lively and thought provoking.  The overriding messages were; don’t be afraid of the economy, now is the time to try something new and pay more attenpation to your customers.

I had asked each panelist to come up with 1 tip that they could pass on to the attendees and we put all the ideas together in a short deck.  Take a look, download it or pass it on to a friend.  We all got a lot out of the evening and I hope you will as well.

B2B Recommendations for Turbulent Times

Posted: November 22, 2008 in Ascentium, Blogroll, Closed Loop Marketing, CMO, community marketing, Customer Engagment, integrated marketing, Marketing, Marketing Strategy, microsoft, social media, social networking, Strategy, web marketing
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I spend a lot of time with our clients figuring out the best strategy, the latest measurement tools and how to cut through the noise. But lately many of the questions have been around should B2B marketers be doing in times of economic turmoil, when no one is sure how far it is to the bottom and when we will start coming back up. So I carved out a little time and tried to come up with a few key best practices that might give at least a little direction. I’d really like to ask for everyone else’s thoughts. And maybe together we can chart the right course.

First, as the old saying goes, the best time to fix the roof is when the sun is shining. And while the weather metaphor may not match the current financial outlook, the lesson should be heeded by every marketer and by B2B marketers the most. Success in B2B focused businesses comes as a direct result to the quality of the relationship between companies. Traditionally this has been primarily the province of the direct sales force. But in an increasingly more online world, the quality of the relationship is measured by the quality of the online experience, which is most often managed by marketing rather than sales. So in hard times, when B2B purchasing is put on hold and buying cycles lengthen considerably, it is up to the B2B marketer to use all the tools at their disposal to nurture the relationship so that when the recovery comes and the buyers have money in their hands, they turn to those with whom they already have a relationship.

Second, in today’s world, the selling of technology is becoming a larger share of B2B transactions and the process of buying and selling technology is changing rapidly. IT purchases used to be the almost exclusive realm of technology professionals. They would recommend new technologies, deploy them and have complete responsibility for their support. And to many business users, how that technology worked and how it worked together was a mystery that went well beyond both their expertise and their interest. Now however, approaching the end of the first decade of the 21st century and when Gen X types are approaching what we used to call middle age, the roles are in flux. The rapid growth of Software as a Service and even Software plus Services, especially in the enterprise space, is testament to the fact that business owners are no longer willing to completely delegate technology to the IT department. For this new generation of business leaders, technology is not just the plumbing that runs behind the scenes, it is often the measure of innovation and a key differentiator in their business. For the B2B marketer, this means that technology can’t be packaged just for the geeks and promoted by the proverbial speeds and feeds, it must be presented to the business decision maker and must demonstrate the business value it delivers. It’s solution selling at its most basic.

Next, it’s not only that technology is moving out of the server room, it’s also being taken home. According to a recent survey of online adults, 77% used Microsoft Word at home as well as 58% used Microsoft Excel, once an exclusive business tool. What does this mean to a B2B marketer? The line between B2B and B2C customer is becoming blurred as the line between our work and our home lives fades. We are taking traditionally business applications like Word and Excel home and we are bringing Facebook and Twitter into the office with us. This is especially important as consumer products lead the innovation race and it’s just as likely that a business will be clamoring to get the latest B2C products and services, but use them in a business context. So the B2B marketer has to recognize that their audiences may be interested in their products as a consumer and that their companies are competing against consumer products in the business arena.

Finally and perhaps the most important tip for today’s B2B marketers comes from one of my favorite analysts at Forrester Research, Laura Ramos. She’s been posting a series on Forrester’s marketing blog entitled, “B2B Marketing Obsolete, Really?” And one her best messages is, “For marketing to evolve, we need to learn to listen more than we talk.” The world of Web 2.0 is no longer an abstraction. According to the most recent data I’ve seen, 75% of online adults in the United States participate in some form of social media. And that number is fairly consistent across most age groups. It’s not just a bunch of tweens on MySpace. Companies are being talked about on the Web, B2C and B2B alike. Business people are seeking out their peers to research and rate products and companies alike. And if you are not reaching out to find out what they are saying, where they are living online and who they are listening to, you can bet your competitors are.

Bottom line, despite the economy, there’s a lot B2B marketers need to be doing now and its not just this quarter’s sales that depend on it. The future of their companies may depend on how they step up to the plate.

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