The Power of Brilliant Branding

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Our agency is headquartered in Grand Rapids, Michigan, a “one of a kind city where creative living means ‘The Good Life’” – boasts the tourism board responsible for the nationally acclaimed Pure Michigan campaign.  I’ve been both impressed by the success of the campaign and proud of the attention that the TV, radio and internet presence has brought to my state.  I enjoy seeing my friends from Chicago and Ohio announcing excitedly on Facebook, “Spending the weekend enjoying Pure Michigan!” when they visit.

I thought I’d take a moment to pay homage to the brilliant campaign that has brought so much attention to all the cities worth visiting in “the mitten.” If you’re from Michigan, hopefully you draw some satisfaction from it as well, and if you’re not… well hey, at least you can appreciate what a prime example Pure Michigan is of what branding can do.

In 2009, a $30 million budget enabled the Pure Michigan message to be broadcast nationally for the first time since its 2006 inception. The campaign highlighting Michigan’s assets was narrated by our own Tim Allen, and brought 680,000 trips to the state with visitors spending $250 million at Michigan businesses and providing $17.5 million in state taxes.  The campaign’s commercials have been viewed by an estimated 60 million Americans. And those who choose to flock to the Great Lakes State are greeted by signs and billboards welcoming them to Pure Michigan.

Since we like to talk so much about the importance of social engagement (or social media) and how vital it can be to particular markets and organizations, I want to point out that in October 2010, Michigan ranked #1 for the sixth consecutive time in Gammet Interactive’s study on ‘How Social is Your State?’  With Michigan boasting the most visitors of any state website (www.michigan.org), the active engagement on social sites such as Facebook and Twitter is no doubt partially to thank for the traffic.

Unfortunately, due to budget cuts, Pure Michigan, like many businesses, is having to face the reality that it may miss its chance to promote the winter season Michigan has to offer (which I have a love-hate relationship with…) and its activities such as ice fishing, skiing, and snowmobiling.

Seasonal gripes aside, as a marketer and Michigan native, I’d hate to see budget cuts set back the momentum the Pure Michigan campaign has gained.  I love hearing Tim’s voice on the radio reminding me of what a great place I get to call home, and without the campaign my friend’s Facebook statuses would certainly be far less witty when broadcasting their weekend visits…  For that reason, and for the good of the state’s reputation, here’s hoping for the continued success of the campaign and here’s to Pure Michigan.

Nikki Probst

Account Coordinator

Posted in Blog Posts, Branding on December 13th, 2010 | Leave a comment

Social Media Does Not Equal Social Engagement

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While I was trying to think of a great follow-up to my first post (and thinking to myself, how am I going to top that?), I realized that a brief overview of what we mean by social engagement might be a bit helpful.

As I mentioned, we see the term “social media” as a broadcast function, not something that really engenders a working relationship.  “Social engagement” on the other hand, the development of a multi-faceted conversation, is what we find most clients really want when they say “social media.”  Though I’ll be totally honest, when a client says they want to explore social media options, sometimes the answer isn’t what they want to hear. 

And while it’s slightly off topic, it’s important to remember as communications professionals part of our job is to tell our clients “no” when we don’t think an initiative is in their best interest.  Social media – or social engagement – seems to fall heavily into that category of late.

But there I go, you got me off on another tangent, you really have to stop letting me do that.

Back to engagement. 

Most social media/digital media platforms broadcast, they don’t connect.  It’s my biggest complaint about them, even though you’ll never get me off my Twitter account; though I do occasionally wonder with the amount of information flowing across it – often things that are meaningless – what’s the real value.  On the other hand, if you’re able to build a strong platform for engagement, through traditional social media or another vehicle, you’ve taken the first steps toward being more relevant than the competition. 

That’s why I’m a big proponent of purpose-built, online communities.  I think these are the next iteration in the growth of online communications and networking.  By establishing a place for people with similar interests and needs (advice, technical information, product support, peer-to-peer product reviews or whatever) and by providing a slate of activities and reasons for them to keep coming back, we’ll have created a community that will generate its own content and take on a life of its own. 

And that’s the goal of social engagement. 

I’ll often point to two communities in my day-to-day (and yes, I know this is selfish, don’t give me that look) that are evolving – The Innovation Lab and The Fox Den. 

Yes, we had a hand in building them and yes, we have a hand in managing them, but I don’t think that diminishes the message here.  Two-way…no…multi-facetted communication has to be the key to social engagement; we have to do more than just broadcast.

After all, if we’re just broadcasting information, it’s just another website. 

Patrick Kane

Director of Public Relations

Posted in Blog Posts, Social Media on December 6th, 2010 | Leave a comment

Game Changer

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Of late, it seems to me as if nearly everyone is prematurely quick to label a new product or service offering as a revolutionizing “game changer.” It may, however, not be hyperbole when it comes to the Apple iPad.

Not only has the Apple entry in the tablet computer segment gained a strong foothold in the consumer market and a predictably robust following among Apple fanatics, it has now also registered some surprisingly strong relevance for business users – this is the  trend, in my view, that qualifies the product as a game-changer. Consider some anecdotal evidence:

- A colleague who is a certified Apple Reseller (in a geographic market that HAS an Apple Retail Store) reports the product is, somewhat unexpectedly, flying out of his business…not to consumers, but in large clusters to his corporate clients

- At radio-show taping before a live audience where I noticed the teleprompters had been replaced by iPads for each performer; they scrolled through the scripts and content; and apparently also received production instructions on their devices

- The filmmaking industry is reporting that iPads are an excellent tool for storyboarding entire films; and there is an App already for mapping camera placements for shooting scenes

- A myriad of companies have begun equipping their sales forces with iPads because of the device’s capabilities to easily and dynamically showcase products and services

In the interval between the announcement/demonstration of the iPad and its availability for sale, someone observed to me, “I don’t know why this is big news, the iPad is really just an iPod Touch with a big screen.” Exactly. And we’ve now all learned a fundamental lesson (at least for display surfaces): SIZE MATTERS. The visual field provided by the iPad changes everything… what you can do, how you can do it, and how you will integrate that new capability in your life, business or personal.

Business is telling us there are plenty of wonderful ways to use the iPad as a business tool. This device is energizing an entirely new category of computing power and potential. Stay tuned to see how the game changes.

Bill Wittland

Vice President, Alexander Marketing

Posted in Blog Posts, Digital on November 23rd, 2010 | Leave a comment