As some of you know, I’m a huge fan of Roy Williams and the Wizard Academy in Austin, Texas. Heck, he’s the only guy I know with cooler sneakers than me! I’ve taken several courses at the Academy, and if you’re in the business of persuasion (marketing, training, explaining, etc.), you really must go to the Academy. Go right now, or...
Here's a great article from Jeff Sexton on why most radio ads suck. Why most radio ads suck ...
At MJM, music is an integral part of our work. This post from adage.com has some great points! ...
https://youtu.be/JSS3BO0CnYA Do you feel like 90% of your marketing budget is being spent reaching the wrong audience? If you’re using ‘traditional’ media, it probably is! In most situations, mass marketing is only ‘relevant’ to a very small percentage of the mass audience. For instance, according to Polk Research, only about 6% of the Canadian public will be buying a new car in...
[embed]https://youtu.be/NANWeEgaYUc[/embed] In your company videos, you need to feature customer stories that prove you’re good at what you do. You need to engage the viewer’s emotions. Text can’t engage emotions nearly as well as video’. And it’s the audio in the video that does the engaging. So you need pristine audio. Never use the built-in camera mic. Always use a lavalier clipped...
Before YouTube, there was television. Way back in 2008, the TV show, “MTV Live” won the Gemini Award for “Best Talk Series”. In 2009, the show featured an interview with me, who the host calls “The King of Jingles”. During the segment, Paul “The Intern” Lemieux asks me to write a jingle for “MTV Live” on the spot! This 2...
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VCJSqTmp7tU[/embed] I’ve blogged several times about the importance of authenticity in marketing your brand. Of course, not all brands need to be authentic and trustworthy. Less expensive retail items like jeans or pop don’t require a big story. Typically, bigger ticket items do. For instance, when you need a lawyer, you want someone you can count on. When you buy a...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OjSUh0rmYVs In the last blog about getting Gen Y to like your brand, we discussed 6 key elements: 1. Let’s be friends 2. Don’t sell me, romance me 3. Don’t give me info I can easily search online 4. Be socially conscious 5. Show great design 6. Post shareable content Let’s continue… 7. Relevant content only please: no need to talk about retirement or long-term life goals… With Millennials,...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-Ib3e-4M_s Do you know the meaning of the acronym: YOLO? It means: You Only Live Once! As a generation, what makes Gen Y different? Two major influences are: - the economy: regular milestones (like marriage, home, and family) just aren’t as feasible due to the recession and sketchy economy - the internet: Google offers so much choice and many options for everything. It provides...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEBqsqja2mM Some people discount the use of a jingle in radio commercials, thinking it’s a cutesy little advertising technique with no real purpose. Some think their use is ‘old fashioned’ or frivolous. Here’s why those people are wrong. Radio ads are fleeting, they’re ‘in the moment’. You hear the spot, and moments later, it’s gone from your memory...
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lX8D63kcTjU&feature=youtu.be[/embed] How does video improve online marketing? According to the latest stats from research companies like comScore and Demand Metric, video is exactly what your web visitors want to see on your site. Video is preferred over case studies, white papers, demos, webinars and e-books (note that’s all things TEXT). 70% of marketers claim video converts better than other content types (Demand Metric)When...
[embed]https://youtu.be/m49FrDF0OLY[/embed] Is your radio advertising relevant to the listener? Your radio advertising is probably not relevant… at least not to everyone. Take a car dealership for example. According to Polk Research, only 6% of the general public will be buying a new car in the next 12 months. Yet car dealership spots are all over the airwaves. They’re actually one of the...
I was recently at my favourite learning institution, The Wizard Academy in Texas. It’s a school for writers, and marketers in particular. It’s the brainchild of Roy Williams, The Wizard of Ads, and what an amazing place it is! I went to learn more about “Writing for Radio and the Internet”, and one of my teachers was Jeff Sexton, a...
Great radio advertising is the most cost-effective way to get your message out to the masses. I often cite several examples of clients who initially built their brands using radio exclusively, with no other type of advertising. Brands like Pizza Pizza and Sleeman avoided print & TV, and just used radio to grow their brand and their market share. So I...
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8x3HpQ4N9w[/embed] So, who listens to more radio: Boomers, Gen X, or Gen Y, also known as millennials? According to Nielsen’s “Audio Today Report” of March 2015, millennials hold the majority when it comes to the number of radio listeners by generation. Here are the recent stats: 91% of all millennials are reached weekly by radio they spend 11 hours 26 minutes each week with...
[embed]http://youtu.be/NKdSGJ2etaI[/embed] Before choosing the right music for your video, you need to determine what emotion you want your audience to feel. If you’re creating a web video to persuade viewers to consider your product or service, chances are you need to create a sense of trust and comfort. Or you may want to convey to the audience that you’re using the...
http://vimeo.com/68695556 How do you make a product video sexy? There is no doubting the rise in popularity of product videos – according to research, consumers love to watch them, they give consumers more confidence in the product and they really sell the product; people viewing product videos are far more likely to buy than those who don’t. But how do you make a...
[embed]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T8x3HpQ4N9w[/embed] Here at MJM in the last 30 years or so, we’ve created a lot of radio commercials, for local businesses in Toronto and southern Ontario, and larger national companies. I like to think most of them were effective, and I know a few that weren’t. From all this experience in creating and producing radio ads, I’ve come up with a...
Sure, you’re constantly trying to find new radio advertisers. But you’re also aware that it’s often easier and much more profitable to go after more ‘recurring revenue’ from your existing clients. And that’s only possible if radio is doing a really great job for them. This new eBook will help you get more from your existing clients, because it’ll help them...
[embed]https://vimeo.com/116349069[/embed] Last blog, we looked at the video testimonial campaign MJM produced for Eccles Auto Service, a small garage in Dundas. Three videos and a couple of TV commercials were created around how much customers trust this auto shop. Is the campaign actually working? Let’s hear what the owner, Bruce Eccles, has to say about how this campaign affected his bottom line....
Top 10 Toronto Radio Jingles of All Time! Let me redirect you to another blog, Toronto’s own… TOBlog.com! My friend, Ed Conroy, just put together a fabulous collection of Toronto’s best jingles of the past. He’s got a great ear for the good stuff, and you’ll find his commentary quite interesting too. Of course, there are several MJM jingles in there,...
[embed]https://vimeo.com/114699828[/embed] Do you trust your car dealership and mechanic? Face it, they’re at the bottom of the ‘trustability’ list, just above lawyers. We all wish we had a repair shop we could trust. Well, relax… there is one out there: they’re called Eccles Auto Service. That’s who I trust, since I’ve known Bruce Eccles most of my life. But here’s why everyone...
Based on the book “Influence: the Principles of Persuasion” by Dr. Robert Cialdini, we can learn the SIX universal principles and how to use them to increase our ability to influence. The principles are: 1. Reciprocity 2. Scarcity 3. Authority 4. Consistency 5. Liking 6. Consensus Watch this 11 minute video to see the scientific research that was done to come up with these principles. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFdCzN7RYbw ...
[embed]https://vimeo.com/119361456[/embed] According to Forbes, there are 6 elements needed to help your video go viral:- be short and sweet – make your point in the first :60 seconds- be upbeat – evoke strong positive emotions- be timely – tap into current events or common themes- be involved – answer viewer questions and tie in related videos- be informative – surprise the...
[embed]https://vimeo.com/113107338[/embed] I was presenting our company to a law firm last week. They were quite interested in moving forward with a video production for their firm, and wanted to know how much it would cost. I do like to discuss at least a price range, but certainly not right out-of-the-gate, before finding out what their needs are. So to help them...
http://vimeo.com/111638906 According to Stanford psychology prof Jennifer Aaker, the idea of simplicity should be addressed when considering your brand personality. Brand personalities come in five different flavours; think of which best describes your company… Sincerity – your brand’s personality is domestic, honest, genuine, cheerful Excitement – meaning daring, spirited, imaginative, up-to-date Competence – reliable, responsible, dependable, efficient Sophistication – glamorous, charming, romantic, presentation Ruggedness – tough,...
https://vimeo.com/110363657 You know me by now. I’m always droning on about engaging people’s feelings, rather than making them think about logic. Dr. Eric Shoars sheds a different light on this concept in his blog “Marketing to the brain or to the heart?”. Let me paraphrase… You are a business owner or marketer: you want people to know what you do and that...
For several years now, I’ve been touting the fact that, when it comes to making buying decisions, ‘we’re not in Kansas anymore’. And since the way folks make buying decisions has changed, so must the way we market to them change. Here’s a short SlideShare presentation by best-selling author, David Meerman Scott. He’s been talking about this revolution since before it...
https://vimeo.com/107843476 A radio sales rep asked me the other day to blog about measuring the effectiveness of radio advertising campaigns. Did I know of any great ways? Of course, there are a number of ways it can be done, some fairly involved. But here’s a simple one that works: tie your radio commercials to your website; then use GoogleMetrics to monitor your...
https://vimeo.com/106827421 A recent study from the research company Ipsos shows radio commercials have a positive impact at all stages of the purchase funnel. The approach compared results from people who had listened to at least one of the stations included in the campaign with a control group of people in the same markets who had not listened to those stations. Several brand...
https://vimeo.com/106198703 In this world of online decision-making, is there any traditional advertising medium that still delivers results? Radio. Lots of people spend time alone in their car for long periods, or alone at their desk at the office. And when they’re alone, most of those people listen to the radio, either while they’re driving, while they’re working, or both. They don’t read...
https://vimeo.com/105161036 Why You Should Stop Trying to Find Customers… (and focus on helping them find you). As defined by Brian Halligan himself of Hubspot: “Inbound Marketing is marketing focused on getting found by customers". In traditional marketing (outbound marketing), companies focus on finding customers. They use techniques that are poorly targeted and that interrupt people. They use cold-calling, print advertising, T.V. advertising, junk mail,...
https://vimeo.com/102754577 Why did THREE world-class marketers once known for traditional strategies jump ship to inbound marketing? As you know, of late I’ve been touting the benefits of inbound marketing over traditional, and that’s mainly because it’s sure been working for us here at MJM! So I can speak firsthand: these are exciting times, times of great opportunity for those who reframe the...
https://vimeo.com/102035747 Inbound vs Outbound Marketing: what’s the difference? This is Part One of a trilogy of ideas surrounding inbound marketing. Let’s start with the basics. What’s the difference between new ‘inbound’ maketing and traditional ‘outbound’ marketing. As Brian Halligan, founder of Hubspot, says: “Search engines, blogging and other Internet trends have fundamentally transformed the way people and businesses purchase products. But most small businesses...
https://vimeo.com/100514593 In the modern world of sophisticated consumers who know how to find what they want and how to research the companies that can supply it, it’s now more important than ever to convince them that you are the company they should be calling. To stand out from the crowd, you need to tell people why your company is better than the...
https://vimeo.com/98755919 Do you know why your customers are loyal? (Hint: it’s not price) For their book, The Challenger Sale, authors Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson carried out extensive research, interviewing thousands of company buyers to try and discover their process for choosing suppliers. Some of the results weren’t too surprising – company and brand impact as well as product and service delivery were...
http://www.vimeo.com/96082322 According to statistics from Neilsen, “TV audience ratings have collapsed”. Business Insider says, “TV viewership has been in steady decline since September 2011.” Yet according to stats from the CRTC, radio listenership is holding its own: the average Canadian still spends 17.5 hours a week listening to radio. And most of that listening is in the car or while surfing...
http://www.vimeo.com/93400477 A few weeks back, I got an email with the subject line: “Ten Things that will Disappear in Our Lifetime”. I guess that’s a pretty vague statement, since my lifetime won’t be the same as yours. Small details aside, as I read down the list of those ten things, five had a common theme: they all involve the disappearance of...
https://vimeo.com/90998210 When it comes to the message in your radio and TV advertising, less is more. But for many marketers, the temptation is too much. Since you’ve paid for 30 seconds of airtime, you’ve got make the most of it, right? And by making the most of it, most advertisers want to cram in as much info as possible into that 30 second...
https://vimeo.com/88271194 The Three Fundamental Marketing Questions to Ask of Your Company And let’s consider them in terms of our company and your company. 1. Is the company’s product searchable online? With our company, until last year we didn’t think people were searching for our kind of product – video productions. Surely when people went looking for a video company, they just asked their friends...
https://vimeo.com/85452135 YouTube compared to TV is WAY more targeted, WAY more effective, and for WAY less cost. Here’s a quick look at YouTube by the numbers: - founded by 3 guys in 2005 - bought by Google in 2006 for $1.65 Billion - 2011 1 Trillion views - 2013 2 Trillion views It seems nowadays we’re all watching a lot of online video. Advertising starts the conversation between...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DjUAyeXejpc How to launch a new business (and get 100 new customer leads every week) Peter Mancini, owner of The Institute for Injured Workers and MyTaxRebate.ca, a legal firm that represents disabled Canadians, has been an MJM client for some years. Peter came to us when he was looking to launch a new business. MJM has produced many hard-hitting radio commercials for Peter,...
https://vimeo.com/84406608 What You Need to Know About Online Reviews How do most people make buying decisions these days? It’s not the way you think, and you may need to adjust your marketing accordingly! Harvard Business Review’s leading article in the January 2014 issue, cites recent research on how shoppers make buying decisions. They found these decisions are typically influenced by a combination of...
https://vimeo.com/78837373 Are you into self-dentistry? Have you ever thought of doing your own dental work? Like self-serve garages where you can work on your own car, what if there was a dental ‘garage’ where they had all the tools and the anesthetic ready to go! You could stop in, get in the chair, shoot some painkiller into your gum and start drilling!...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x8Q9I5Q9UhI Please note: we did NOT produce this commercial! The Top Six Car Dealer Marketing Mistakes In our three decades of experience, MJM Media has worked with hundreds of car dealers, mostly helping them to maximize their radio and television advertising campaigns by producing their commercials and jingles. We make them memorable, engaging and effective. But we have continuously seen car dealers make the...
https://vimeo.com/77525482 Lately, there’s been a lot of research proving the effectiveness of video in changing behaviour long-term. We just experienced it first hand. Every year, we produce a video for MADD Canada’s “High School Assembly Program”. It plays in everyhigh school across the country; all Canadian teens watch it. This past year, the show was called “Long Weekend”. The first half is a...
Which retirement home will you choose for your parents? Maybe not the cheapest one, maybe not the prettiest one; if you’re like me, it will be the one you trust the most! Having worked with several companies in this ‘trust industry’, we’ve found three key issues regarding retirement homes: - they’re facing stiff competition from cheaper providers and in-home caregivers- they struggle...
Albert Einstein. His was the brain that changed everything. One of the planet’s greatest scientists, most people think of him as a master of logic and a very rational thinker. But left-brain thinking wasn’t at all his greatest strength. A self-proclaimed right-brainer, Einstein himself said: “I never made one of my discoveries through the process of rational thinking”. Reading his biography, you’ll...
http://vimeo.com/56477941 Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, and Stephen Hawking all spoke about the evolutionary importance of adapting to change. Now, you can put Daniel Pink in that same lofty crowd. If you’re in business today, you should read his book, “A Whole New Mind – Why Right Brainers Will Rule the Future”. Like it or not, things have changed… again. There’s a global...
I scream, you scream, we all scream for ice cream! Especially when that ice cream brand is owned here by Tim Horton’s! So when Coldstone Creamery needed a jingle (and several radio commercials) to launch the brand in Canada, they called MJM Media. Or more specifically, they called their agency, As You Like It Marketing, who then called us! Of course,...
The Making of a Legendary TV Commercial http://vimeo.com/72424912 I’ve been lucky enough to meet some legends in my day, and one of the greatest was Johnny Cash. We were producing a TV commercial for Canada Trust back in 1983, and Johnny was hired as the spokesperson. Although it seemed a bit odd to have such an American icon speaking for Canada Trust,...
http://vimeo.com/68180098 When Cutting Price is the Worst Thing You Could Do Extensive research into consumer behavior has revealed that there is a huge, relatively untapped consumer group that price-cutting will never reach. Chris Norton and Ross Honeywill carried out research on 800,000 people in 3 countries over 10 years to discover what they bought, why, and how that changed over time. And they...
https://vimeo.com/70041457 How to market to over a million teens MJM Media started working with MADD Canada over 15 years ago, and we’ve produced many videos and PSAs to help them get their message out. Currently, we’re finalizing production on MADD Canada’s 2013 National School Assembly Program, which will be screened at hundreds of schools across Canada. Each year over a million students see...
https://vimeo.com/62189029 Why You Should Never Use Phone Numbers In Radio Commercials Saying your phone number in radio commercials is a bad idea on several levels. First, it won’t be remembered by anyone. Second, it confuses the real call-to-action, which should be to your website. Third, it wastes about 15% of your broadcast budget. Your website is your new store, so attract people...
If you're using a 'professional' to deliver your message, statistics say less than half of your audience trust your advertising. But if you use your own customers to tell your story, you instantly double the trust factor which will definitely increase your revenue. https://vimeo.com/62189030 Vlog #2 – Marketing Trust through customer testimonial videos If you’re using a ‘professional’ to deliver your message,...
Darwin said:"Change or Die". Marketing survival these days is knowing how to adapt to the new way people make buying decisions. Is your company changing to accommodate this whole new process of how we buy? Vlog 1: Change or Die: Adapting to the Way the Internet Has Changed the Way People Make Buying Decisions Marketing survival these days is knowing how to...
