I had a chance to meet and speak with Mark Burnett, the creator of among other things, Survivor and The Apprentice. THREE things that he said INPARTICULAR, stood out in a BIG way.

1) He credited the success of Survivor (a top 10 show for 2/3 of the past 16 seasons) to following a very systematic storytelling process first documented by Joseph Campbell in A Hero with 1000 Faces.
I have since read this and it is a must read for anyone trying to influence others.
2) When trying to move others to his way of thinking…while in his office, he uses dim lights, music and scent…so as to trigger all SENSES…utilizing a multisensory affect to influence
3) He simply WANTS deals to get done MORE than the other party DOESN’T want to get a deal done.

I have since employed each of these techniques to recreate a marketing product that was previously owned by CBS. We have secured more brand dollars in 3 weeks than CBS did in a year.

VERY powerful indeed. Thank you very much Mr. Burnett.

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Marketing methods continuingly change with technological advance and consumer behavior. Some assume marketing expenditure is down, even though we know strong brands such as General Mills are spending more. The question on everyone’s mind, is what is the future of advertising?

Tim Leberecht, CNET News, wrote an article titled “The Permanent crisis of marketing”. Leberecht argues that effective marketing is dead. Problems with the expansion of the definition of marketing to include personal branding and online media apparently confuse marketing professionals. In reality, marketing and advertising is simply evolving.

As technology shifts online, mobile, and consumers behaviors change, marketing strategy adjusts. Brands marketing today have a variety of venues and methods to utilize. In-flight and venue based marketing is growing. TV advertisements, though many argue are ineffective today, still compromise the majority of a marketing budget.

Leberecht writes, “Marketing is indeed in an existential crisis as it faces unprecedented challenges to its conventions. But I would argue that it is accompanied by new, unprecedented opportunities. Companies have to radically rethink how they do marketing – marketing can no longer be viewed as a collection of programs, but instead as way of behaving in a networked economy of “market communities.”

Successful brand managers and marketers need to look at a variety of advertising methods. Include social media, targeted media in at new venues, and maintain a bit of the proven tactics simultaneously. It’s the goal of what leberecht calls “radically rethink how they do marketing.”

Yesterday I had the opportunity to speak with one of our clients from Procter & Gamble. There are many things that are remarkable about P&G, aside from the fact that they are the world’s largest advertiser. The thing that always strikes me is the quality of their marketers…especially at the assistant brand manager level. These are the people that are working on the brands day to day…and often the ones targeted with reaching consumers in new ways.

He reminded me of a mantra that was often repeated by their chief marketing officer, ‘Brian, I want to reach my target audience when and where they are most receptive’

Really powerful when you think about it.

One of the first things that came to mind to me after saying this phrase aloud was, of course, the internet. I am most receptive to information when I am searching for it. Obvious. But as we spoke, we concluded that while that is an optimal time, it is ACTIVE. Meaning we have to be actively searching for something.

What about when we are not? Not actively searching for information. When and where are we most receptive.

Well one time most certainly, to borrow a phrase from Stephen Covey, is when we are experiencing ‘dwell time’. Time when we are waiting, traveling, commuting. Time that is in between what we have planned. If that makes sense.

That is why I am so excited to have obtained the exclusive advertising rights onboard American Airlines for their in-flight entertainment systems.

For the past 10 years, CBS has had the rights. Now we have them and NBC is our content partner.

This is the epitome of Dwell Time and I CANNOT wait to measure the results that our brand partners achieve. If the tests are indication…they will be THRILLED!!

More and more companies are turning to Trial. Getting the consumer to experience, touch, feel, taste, smell the product or service. Why?

For one thing, the product performance is better…significantly better. Take a look around, massive improvements in the quality of products & services in every category across the board. The end benefits that the products deliver are remarkable. Consumers and retailers are demanding more and corporations have responded.

Secondly, the consumers respond. Nine out of ten consumers say they would purchase a good or service if they experienced it and were satisfied. Further, 6 out of 10 said that ‘if a brand wanted to convince me to buy its product or service, experiencing it first-hand would be the most effective way to get me to purchase’.

Lastly, in today’s society, having the ability to touch, taste, feel, talk…these are truly remarkable or worth remarking about to others. Technology has brought us so much, but it has also robbed us of authentic experiences. Cellphones, Blackberries, email, virtual tours and the like have isolated us from one another. We crave authentic experiences now more than ever. We are turning towards an AdverTRYING era.

The reality is that the use of the product itself has never been a tool that the most trusted partners of a brand have ever been given, namely the advertising and media agencies themselves. Product or service experience is often incorrectly assigned to the most junior person on the brand…only to have him or her rotate off after 12 months…to then have another junior manager come onto the business and kill what was done before…after all we all have to make our mark.

I have been in hundreds of meetings with trusted agency partners where the subject of utilizing the product itself comes up and I routinely hear, “That’s not us, but I would love to know more about what the client is doing…can you help us.” What? You are investing $100 million dollars of their money and developing the words and images that are the product, but yet you haven’t been given the most powerful tool in the chest…the product, the service itself? It’s like going to test drive a car without the keys.

AdverTRYING represents an opportunity for agencies to reclaim the one tool that they have not been given. Seize it and your clients will sing your praises.

One of the greatest challenges facing corporations today is deciding where to invest their marketing dollars at a time when there are more choices than ever.
In a quest to get the most out of their investment and be ahead of the proverbial curve, marketers and their agencies are searching for new ways to profitably persuade consumers to buy. In this quest, some have found the answer lies in the product itself.

With so many unproven new tools and the reexamination of traditional ones, a company must adopt a philosophy of adverTRYING.
What is averTRYING?

ad•vert [ad-vurt] – verb
1. To turn attention
2. To call attention to

try•ing [trahy-ing] – adjective
1. To taste, sample, or otherwise test in order to determine strength,
effect, worth, or desirability
2. Trial

advertTRYING is getting a scalable number of target consumers to experience the product or service in a measurable way that delivers a significant return on investment.

What avertTRYING is NOT
It is not product sampling. It is not event marketing.

Product sampling frequently will focus on the distribution of the product, not the trial or experience of the product. This is a significant difference because it is not uncommon for 60% of product samples to go untried.2

AdverTRYING is when you reach 1 million target consumers in a week with a nighttime analgesic placed on beds of resorts throughout the U.S. with a note that says, ‘We know how long you’ve waited for this vacation and we know how much you want to catch up on some sleep…enjoy.’ It’s reaching the consumers at a time of need, WHEN they are most receptive.

Event Marketing…I have asked no less than 100 senior marketing leaders to define what it is and not one of them gave me the same answer. That’s the problem. Event Marketing has become a catch all for sponsorship activation, stunts, someone handing out a razor in a crowded bar. In more cases than not the initiatives are not measurable or scalable. This is why so few are renewed.

Event Marketing is placing a ‘brand ambassador’ inside a retail store next to your display of appliances to hand out pamphlets to 50 consumers

AdverTRYING is allowing millions of consumers to try each of your appliances in a showroom setting. They can do a load of wash, bake cookies even hear a dishwasher run to see if the noise level meets their needs. Its Live Media…bringing the unique selling proposition to life.