What Marketers can Learn from the Circus

Posted on June 17, 2011 by Sabrina

I just finished reading the best seller, now box office hit, “Water for Elephants“. The novel chronicles the life of Jacob Jankowski, a traveling circus veterinarian, and the time he spent with the Benzini Brothers Most Spectacular Show on Earth during the Great Depression. Other than reigniting my childhood desire to be an acrobat, the book got me thinking about the lessons that marketers can learn from the circus:

1. Set yourself apart

In the days before social media, the internet, TV and radio, advertising a circus was a bit of a challenge. To stay ahead of the competition, circus owners had to create a strong brand name that would not only be recognizable to repeat patrons, but also showcase features of his show that set it apart from the others. This same lesson applies to marketers of all types today. Having an effective branding strategy helps to bring awareness to your business and drive customer demand. Setting yourself apart and creating that sense of individuality is one of the greatest benefits of a strong brand. Make sure clients and customers can easily differentiate you from your competition.

2. Connect with your audience

A good circus show really engages its audience. Every act, from the gravity-defying acrobatics to the up close and personal animal stunts, is choreographed to evoke emotion and draw the audience in. With social media, we are able to have more direct and intimate relationships with our consumers. Social networks are a great forum for two-way communication and dialogue between businesses and consumers in a different way than they are used to. Businesses can now interact directly with clients and customers on a unique and personal level, by providing exclusive content, special promotions, or even just answering and troubleshooting questions in real-time. By allowing customers to interact with your brand on a regular basis, you are doing yourself a favor by ensuring that you stay at the forefront of their mind.

3. Continuous Training

Animals and circus performers aren’t the only ones who need to be trained to do their jobs. Marketing and advertising professionals need continuous training to stay ahead of the game in an industry that quickly changes and evolves. “What’s a Twitter and how do I get one?” is NOT an acceptable question these days. Keep up with industry news by reading blogs and news sites, industry publications, or attending local marketing and advertising events.

What else can the circus can teach marketers today? Let us hear your thoughts!

Bring out your dead! (marketing tactics, that is)

Posted on March 25, 2011 by Dominique

Finally, someone explained it. Listen up world, as we tell the sad, sad story of the last advertising agency on earth – courtesy of FITC, which is, oddly, an advertising agency.
<a href="http://www.vimeo.com/10251808">http://www.vimeo.com/10251808</a>

Why this video? Well, currently we are hard at work putting our new SMB platform to the test and each member of Team Dukky has a part to play. My main duties have been in assisting new small business clients to draft out their campaigns and put them into action. Small business owners on a whole are a pleasure to work with. Most are eager to dive into the social media integration and live analytics feed our product provides. However, from time to time I’ve been hit with one particular question – why should I have my campaign set up as a share-to-win promotion? Will social media help me at all?

While the answer seemed obvious to me, I have come to realize that many small business owners are operating under the rules of the old guard of advertising. This, my friends, is a mistake. Television and print ads alone are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Consumers are tired of having marketing messages dictated to them. They’re tired of having no control over what sort of messages they’re bombarded with. With the growth of internet capabilities, smart phones and the ever expanding reach of social media into every aspect of our lives it’s no wonder that traditional marketing tactics are failing to work. Think about it. How many people do you know that sit and watch cable television anymore? They don’t. They have Tivo and DVR. They record their shows, watch them on their schedules and, if you’re like me, relish in the fact that they can fast forward through the commercials. That’s right, I work in marketing technology and I hate television commercials. In fact, I don’t even have cable. Why pay $60 a month when I can snuggle in bed with my beloved Hulu? Sure, there are commercials (count em, 3 per episode) on Hulu shows. BUT they allow me to tell them if the commercials are relevant to me or not and then customizes what ads pop up during my shows. Most are even interactive. Hulu listens. Hulu learns. Hulu, is my new best friend.

Consumers do not want to be pandered to. Our lives are too busy these days. We need smarter marketing. This is where digital and social media, with their ability to take traditional marketing further, have taken hold. When I log onto Facebook I don’t see ads for arthritis pills, Dora the Explorer or hockey gear. Why? Because those things aren’t relevant to me or my life. It would be a waste of money for a company to pay to put those ads in front of me. I’m never going to buy Scott Turf Builder. I let the landlord worry about the lawn. Facebook and other social media sites allow advertisers to filter the people their ads are visible to based off their searches, likes, posts, tweets and comments. So when I login to Facebook I see ads for local New Orleans music performances, my beloved Saints (Who Dat!), sales at Anthropologie and discounts at Starbucks (yep, I’m that girl).
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Dukky takes PODi Best Practices Award for its Direct Mail Marketing Case Study

Posted on January 5, 2011 by Dominique

Team Dukky is proud to announce it has won the PODi Best Practices Award for its case study of client Chick-fil-A’s direct mail and viral marketing campaign. We couldn’t be prouder!

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The 2011 Marketing Strategy: Engage –> Motivate –> Reward

Posted on December 27, 2010 by Renee

There’s no better time to refocus and redefine goals and strategies than at the end of a year and start of a new one. New beginnings have a way with easing the growing pains of transition making them a bit more acceptable. Dukky has learned a lot in 2010, along with our customers. Each campaign provided us valuable data to better execute and equip resellers and clients with the tools that ensure success in each campaign.

I’m a big advocate of learning from other’s mistakes and successes in life. I do not need to have a first-hand experience to recognize the real value of the lesson from that experience. We try to keep this practice as a vital part of our business model in order to equip our clients and campaigns with their maximum potential by keeping track of the great, the good, and the not so fabulous. So, what did Dukky learn this past year? Take a gander.

The Lessons of 2010

1) We are reaching an interactive audience. Consumers are active and engaged. We saw a continuously increasing level of engagement from consumers across industries throughout various campaigns this year. Businesses that fostered their online life and presence and added sharing technologies to their outreaches saw an overall growth in numbers to lead generation, customer database, sales, and ROI. All by harnessing the power of their active audience.

2) Influencers are your greatest assets. Identifying the influencers in campaigns was not only a way to generate more leads but a way to build community and increase customer retention by placing value on those who are able to carry your message to their peers. This year our clients have not only identified their influencers but developed loyalty programs from their new list of valuable customers. By uniquely engaging and rewarding their influencers, it resulted in increased reach, customers, and conversion.

3) Cross channel marketing took on a whole new meaning with the ability to funnel all mediums into one portal (microsite) for enhanced tracking and analytics. Being able to watch consumers interact and engage with brands and offers has redefined the expectation of results for our clients. In successful outreaches and in the campaigns that did not succeed, it was the ability to see which mediums brought in customers and converted clicks to leads that was vital to planning future campaigns.

4) Analytics do not lie and businesses wanted the proof that their dollars turned into customers and sales. What do your numbers tell you about your campaigns, investments, and ROI? 2010 revealed the do’s and don’ts for our customers. Having access to analytics that covered campaign statistics, demographic information and breakdowns, poll results, sharing activity and lead list provided answers and results in real-time.

5) With the ability to engage consumers through various marketing outreaches (direct mail, email, digital, etc) and motivate them to action through offers and sweepstakes our clients learned a valuable lesson about rewarding the customer. Tell the consumer the value of your offer and what they need to do to get it. When they engage….respond back. Reward them for sharing the offer or being an influencer, thank them for participating in the campaign, remind them to come in-store to redeem the offer, etc. Campaigns that were successful from start to finish did not just start off strong but the marketers were active throughout the life of the campaign, taking a proactive approach to fostering the leads that were generated.

At the end of 2011, we want to fill our review with endless success stories from our resellers and large and small business clients. To start your year off right here are few more tips to take with you into 2011.

Customer retention is just as important as lead generation.
Don’t be afraid of viral campaigns. When your customers multiply your sales increase with it.
Keep your marketing consistent across channels. Don’t separate direct mail, email, and digital into different departments and strategies. It’s one marketing message with multiple channels to drive customers to the same place.
Above all else engage and interact with your customers.
If it isn’t working, change it.

Here’s to starting off 2011 with the tips and tools to taste success from the beginning!

Dukky Featured Campaign – The power of teamwork (cont.)

Posted on December 17, 2010 by Dominique

Recently, Dukky was lucky enough to work with some pretty great fashion and beauty companies who teamed up to bring their customers amazing opportunities to win big (all the while promoting their brands virally). As advertised in People StyleWatch magazine, users can visit the Holiday Cliques website and enter to win loot from Smashbox Cosmetics, Express, Lord & Taylor, Tory Burch and Vince Camuto. We love this campaign so much we’re featuring it on our blog, our Dukky Promotions Facebook page and Twitter @dukkytweets. Be sure to check out the campaign and enter to win! Best of luck to everyone!

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Disney reaches 100 million fans on Facebook. How did they do it?

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Renee

Around 8pm PT on Saturday night, the Walt Disney Company reached a milestone definitely worthy of celebrating with 100 million Facebook likes over its 200 active pages. Pretty amazing. They compiled a video to say thanks with some high points about their journey to 100 million fans which they have posted on their Youtube channel and their Facebook page. Continue reading →

Dukky loves Small to Medium Businesses. American Express does too.

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Renee

American Express OPEN, the small business unit, declared the first Small Business Saturday to be the Saturday after Thanksgiving in effort to give small businesses a more prominent part of the holiday shopping weekend. With strong statistics from Civics Economics showing that for every $100 spent at a local business, $68 returns to the community, and the Small Business Administration reporting that for every year in the past decade, 60-80% of new jobs were generated by small businesses, it’s clear to see why it’s important to support these local businesses.

American Express provided incentives of statement credits for cardholders who participated, gave the first 10,000 businesses to join a $100 Facebook credit to advertise, and made donations based on the number of supporters garnered to Girls, Inc. In just over 3 weeks, Facebook members grew to over 1,000,000 supporters, and is already nearing 1.2 million supporters as of this morning. You can view stories and ideas from participating small business owners on the Small Business Saturday Facebook page. Based on the response from this past weekend, American Express has just released it will be extending the offer to give any card member a $25 statement credit if they join and shop at a small business from now till 12/31/2010. Continue reading →

Target prepares for Black Friday shoppers with Tweet Tidings on Twitter.

Posted on November 22, 2010 by Renee

I’m a sucker for a good slogan or phrase, so when I read about Target’s new social media marketing plan in preparation for Black Friday, I was completely in love. Target’s Tweet Tidings campaign is in my opinion…brilliant. Its simple goal is to spread some holiday cheer via their Twitter account and use customers and followers to do a little marketing for them. What’s better than interacting with customers on a positive note a few days before one of the biggest shopping days of the year?

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