Eric Kallman

Eric Kallman is executive creative director at the relatively new agency, Barton F. Graf 9000 (www.bfg9000ny.com), headed by Gerry Graf and based in New York.

Prior to joining Barton F. Graf 9000 (BFG), Kallman was a copywriter at Wieden+Kennedy in Portland, Oregon, where he worked with Craig Allen on cam-paigns that included the Old Spice campaign, “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.” Kallman was partly responsible for game-changing Skittles and Starburst campaigns during his tenure at TBWA/Chiat/Day.

Before going to ad school and joining TBWA, Kallman studied journalism and was a local NPR host in California.

The following excerpt is from my interview with Eric for Advertisers at Work.

Tuten: What led you to advertising as a profession?

Kallman: In college, I studied journalism. I went to college thinking I wanted to be a sportscaster. First, because I love sports and [second,] because sportscasters seem like they have a ton of fun. I was kind of like, “Yeah, that Craig Kilborn, he used to be an anchor on Sports Center, and then he got the show after Letterman.” It seemed to be a little more entertainment or comedy infused than in most journalism. So, anyway, I wanted to be a sportscaster. I went to college and I worked like nuts. I interned at NPR, and I interned at NBC Sports.

Then after college I landed an awesome first job. I was the local morning host for NPR’s Morning Edition in Santa Barbara. I did that for a while. But I guess what I was learning, throughout all my internships and then my job, was that journalism was not for me. I’m not trying to get over the top about it, but, really, when you broke it down, instead of doing something with your own life, you followed other people around all day and talked about what they were doing with their lives. When I interned at NBC Sports, I realized it I guess for the first time. I love sports, but I quickly realized that the job meant talking to other people about what they were doing—and what I wasn’t doing. I hope that doesn’t sound horrible. It was just important for me to do something with my life.

In the class, we examined how pioneering corporations are using social media to build digital web and marketing strategies, and identified techniques and frameworks to generalize these pioneering practices.

During the event, I spoke with the Global Marketing Network about how the climate of the web is changing our lives. (You can view the clip here.  I explained that because of digital technology, our personal networks are expanding to include people all over the world, but that the potential threat to our physical lives as a result of our online presence is very real. In fact, even during the session, I saw many people using digital technology to communicate with their online networks when the opportunity to listen to wonderful speakers from around the world was available to them in the very same room!

The event itself was a wonderful success. With over 100 participants, including brand managers from Audi, Mercedes, Mattel, and Seimens, I encountered advertising professionals who were eager to learn about digital marketing and social media, and was thrilled to watch them soaked up the material. What impressed me most, however, was the basic human kindness present in everyone in attendance.

The first part of our session began at 9:30 AM with an introduction to online advertising. I covered models relevant to digital advertising, setting online advertising objectives (with consistency given integrated Marketing communication strategies), design of online advertising, campaign integration and the role of online advertising, and sourcing, selecting and managing marketing services suppliers.

After lunch, I explained the role of search engine marketing in digital marketing strategies and how to design search engine optimization (SEO) tactics to support digital marketing strategies. I also touched on ethical considerations relevant for SEO plans.

The final bulk of our day was spent covering social media marketing. During this portion of the event, I described and elaborated on the zones of social media marketing, (as outlined in my text Social Media Marketing,) including the roles of social communities, social publishing, social entertainment, and social commerce. I also highlighted the importance of using social data for consumer research and measuring the effectiveness of social media marketing strategies.

Delivering “Digital Marketing and Social Media Masterclass” in Athens, Greece, as part of the Global CMO Masterclass Series, was both an honor and a pleasure. Does this sound like something you’ would like to be a part of? Click here for upcoming Boussias Conferences, and here for more on the Global CMO’s Masterclass series for today’s marketing leaders.

Were you in Athens for the masterclass? I’d love to hear your feedback!

Craig Allen

Craig Allen is a creative director at Wieden+Kennedy (www.wk.com) in Portland, Oregon.

He earned fame and recognition as an art director, working for the last several years with partner Eric Kallman on accounts such as Old Spice’s “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like.”

Allen’s early work in the industry was at TBWA/Chiat/Day in New York, where he (with Kallman) became known for their innovative work for Skittles. In 2010, Allen and Kallman were named among Creativity magazine’s top 50 creatives in the industry.

The following is an excerpt from my interview with Craig for Advertisers at Work, which can be found at Amazon.com.

Tuten: How do you stay up-to-date on what’s happening in the industry? All of the things you need to know to be current?

Allen: If I have a recipe for success—if that even exists—I read a lot of ESPN Longhorn football blogs and then I follow that up with celebrity news web sites for some reason. I’m not proud of that. And I also like funny viral videos. I try to do this every day. I come in and catch up on what’s going on. I don’t watch a lot of TV, but my wife watches a lot. For me, just living and being outside and getting out a lot matters for soaking up what’s current. I try to keep in tune with as much stuff as I can, but I by no means watch a ton of television. I hate reality television, so that’s probably the main reason.

Tuten: Do you have a ritual that’s important to your ability to create? Something you use when you are ideating?

Allen: As far as how I create, I wish what I did sounded “cooler” but sadly, my process is just sitting in complete quiet until I think of a good idea. When Eric and I would go into concepting sessions, everybody would always say it looked like we were sad or fighting with each other. For our sessions, we would basically just sit in a room, staring at each other in complete silence until we had something funny to say. I wish it were cooler. I’d love to tell you that we just turned on some good rock music and played ping-pong to get our creative juices flowing, but that doesn’t work for me as well.

Yeah, for me, concepting means sitting there in a quiet space and going through everything in my head. When I was younger, this process took much longer than it does now. As you get older and more experienced, it becomes easier to run through the ideas and shoot holes in them on your own. Before we even share concepts, we can be running through things in our head, thinking “Ahh, that’s not good because of this or that.” Even as a team, there’s a lot of pruning that can happen before we share with each other.

The following is a guest post from Amanda Steeley, President and Founder of Know Your NetWorks. You can read Amanda’s blog by clicking here or follow her on Twitter @AmandaSteeley.

Google Reader Is Going Away

A friend of mine who knows how much I love to aggregate content using Google Reader sent me an editorial cartoon breaking the news. The cartoon has a woman running with a burning stick and yelling….

“Avenge Google Reader!” (You can see cartoon, created by @robcottingham as inspired by @awsamuel by clicking here.)

Why? Why is my content aggregator going away? We’ve shared such great memories. Together we have created folders for various target markets and clients, and then built our collection of blogs and websites by adding URLs and searching keywords for only the finest caliber of content.

Maybe this is just a hoax? Nope. According to Alan Green, Software Engineer for Google, on July 1, 2013 the sun will set for Google Reader.

Why We’re Saying Goodbye To Google Reader

Apparently, Google doesn’t have time for Google Reader.

Google, whose resources are nothing short of googol, doesn’t have time for Google Reader?

Not according to Green:

“There are two simple reasons for this: usage of Google Reader has declined, and as a company we’re pouring all of our energy into fewer products. We think that kind of focus will make for a better user experience.”

Out of all of Google’s products, I use Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Reader more than any others. Are you with me? Did we just get dumped, as Alexandra Samuel so eloquently put it?

What’s after Google Reader?

Another friend of mine, who originally introduced me to the wonders of Google Reader, recommends Feedly.com. “They seem to get the best reviews & apparently we can migrate Google Reader subscriptions to it,” she says.

Although you can’t add it to your Google Reader, you can read her inspiring blog on being self employed by clicking here.

Will you be watching the live coverage on E! to be certain of seeing celebrity arrivals and interviews AND — *who* they are wearing?

This is where I get giddy – I won’t be watching on E! I will be watching live. That’s right. Brandacity is going to the Oscars.

Today will be different.

I often times present to other educators on how I use social media in my role as a professor. I teach both face to face and online. In both modes, I find social media enable me to extend my contact with my students beyond the classroom.  I use Twitter, Facebook, Diigo, Paper.li, YouTube, and this blog to share content, collaborate, and engage with my students. I also use these tools to continue relationships with my students after they leave my class. I am fond of reminding my students that “once I am your teacher, I’m always your teacher.” Little makes me happier than a Facebook message or tweet or email from a former student sharing a work story related to class.

When I present to other educators on using social media, I am regularly asked how I draw the line in terms of being too accessible. They ask whether I am uncomfortable with this level of contact with my students. My answer has always been no.  In fact, I am grateful for what social media has brought to my life as a teacher.

This week, I had reason to question my view. I experienced a case of cyberstalking from a former student with potential physical threats. My life was turned upside down as I worked with the appropriate officials to identify safety guidelines and as they worked to get help for the person in question. Without going into the details, I had to ask myself if this week’s trauma should bring my social philosophy into question.

My answer is no. Of course I use good judgment with location based check-ins and other social behaviors which could put one at risk. Beyond those basic safety practices, the benefits of social media from my perspective are totally worth it.

Cisco Systems recently launched an advertising campaign using the slogan, Tomorrow Starts Here.  You can view it here.

Sense a problem?

ECU has since filed a lawsuit against Cisco Systems for the unauthorized use of its federally registered trademark. Trademark law covers the use of marks, which could include words, phrases, symbols, and slogans, to identify the source of goods and services. In other words, trademark law is designed to protect registered brand marks such as the slogan, Tomorrow Starts Here. When another brand infringes upon a brand’s registered mark, there is the potential for consumer confusion. The Lanham Act gives registered mark holders the right to sue the infringing parties in order to protect its mark and to prevent the dilution of its brand.

Sounds straightforward enough. The complicated issue though is judging how likely it is that consumers would be confused by competing use of the same mark. Experts may assess likelihood of confusion using consumer surveys designed to gauge confusion based on the usage of the mark in question. They might also assess the situation using factors applied in two of the most cited cases on trademark infringement –  the Polaroid Factors (Polaroid Corp. v. Polarad Electronics Corp., 287 F.2d 492, 495 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 820 (1961)) or Dupont Factors (DuPont de Nemours & Co., 476 F.2d 1357, 177 USPQ 563 (C.C.P.A. 1973)). Based upon these cases, the courts identified several factors which can be applied to assessing the likelihood of confusion.

In this blog post, I will offer my own opinions regarding the ECU vs Cisco case using many of these factors.

In Polaroid Corp. v. Polarad Electronics Corp., 287 F.2d 492, 495 (2d Cir.), cert. denied, 368 U.S. 820 (1961), several factors were used to determine likelihood of confusion. Therefore, my analysis included examinations on the following: 1) strength of the mark, 2) degree of similarity between the two marks, 3) proximity of the products, 4) bridging the gap, 5) actual confusion, 6) good faith indicators, 7) quality of the defendant’s product relative to the plaintiff’s, and 8) the sophistication of buyers. My analysis and opinion are in parenthesis following the listing of the respective factor.

1. Strength of Mark. Gauging the strength of a trademark requires an examination of the inherent distinctiveness and the degree to which the mark is distinctive in the marketplace. Mark strength may include consideration of the type of mark, the mark’s ability to identify the goods sold under the mark as coming from a particular source, commercial strength, third party usage, and commonality (Cusson, 1995). East Carolina University has been using its registered mark for more than a decade across much of its branded content. Thus the mark is affiliated with the brand source and ECU has invested in associating the mark with its brand through many forms of advertising and promotion. Further, the mark was registered after evaluation by the US PTO suggesting that its investigators deemed the mark to be distinctive.
2. The degree of similarity between the two marks as to appearance, sound, connotation, and commercial impressions. In my opinion, both organizations are using an identical mark. Further, the marks are used with identical connotations – that the future begins with what the respective organization is doing, researching, and offering to its customers and community. In my opinion, this test criterion suggests that there is support for the claim of likelihood of confusion.
3. Proximity of the products. There is the potential for confusion based on the nature of the organization’s market. Both organizations support research in the technology field and have a history of bringing such products to market. Cisco is a corporate venture while East Carolina University is a state-funded institution of higher education; yet both organizations produce innovations which come to market. In my opinion, there is a similarity in the types of products offered by the two institutions.
4. Bridging the gap. The court will also assess whether it is likely that the offending company will “bridge the gap” to compete against the mark’s owner in other markets in which it competes.
5. Actual confusion. To assess actual confusion, we might conduct a survey to assess likelihood of confusion or assess anecdotal evidence that prospective and actual consumers have been confused with respective to the mark. At this time I am not aware of any actual confusion.
6. Good faith indicators. The court will seek to assess whether the defendant acted in bad faith, to leverage the value of the plaintiff’s registered mark. In my opinion, this is possible given that it is quite simple to search protected marks in the USPTO system or even to search using a search engine to identify possible uses of the slogan in question.
7. The sophistication of buyers. Confusion is thought to be more likely when the buyers of the products in question lack sophistication. In this case, because the two institutions work in the realm of cutting-edge technologies, it is likely that the average viewer of the promotional materials in question would lack adequate sophistication to differentiate between the marks. In my opinion, this supports the plaintiff’s charge of likelihood of confusion.

It is my opinion, after reviewing the Polaroid factors that there is support for the plaintiff’s claim of likelihood of confusion. The marks are identical and used in the same connotation. The strength of the mark is high given the length of time it has been used, the extensiveness of use, and the amount of promotional investment made by East Carolina University to associate the mark with its brand. The two organizations’ areas of competition overlap in the fields of technology and technology research. Both organizations promote themselves to business partners, the public, and general consumers, who are likely to be confused due to their lack of sophistication in the technological arena.

Outside of working for the plaintiff as a faculty member, I am not involved in this case. Further, I haven’t conducted a thorough analysis. But I found it interesting to apply my knowledge of trademark infringement as it relates to consumer likelihood of confusion. And now we’ll see what happens. I’ll post updates here.

We advocate for marketers to be relevant to customers in communications and specific offers. Yet, drawing upon some events can create anger and mistrust, as in this week’s actions by American Apparel. You can read more about it here. American Apparel sent out an email blast announcing a 36 hour sale for customers located in areas affected by Hurricane Sandy, noting that customers might want to alleviate the boredom with shopping.

Consumers didn’t take the sale lightly and the backlash took off on Twitter, amplifying the mistake to mammoth proportions.

That’s the thing about  social media… just the things you wish could stay quiet can spread like wildfire. Now we’ll see whether American Apparel is equipped with a social media crisis plan.

I have a special treat to share in this post – a guest post from Steve Bayley. Steve is an MBA student at East Carolina University and a former graduate advertising student in my class at ECU. Recently, he completed training in account planning with Miami Ad School. His team outshone the others and he agreed to share the winning strategy for client, Red Envelope.

The Marketing Objective

Red Envelope approached Miami Ad School with a mission to revamp their digital and social media strategy.  Although they had a few basic core competencies covered well, particularly SEO, they lacked integration across social media platforms and brand cohesiveness.  They needed best practice recommendations for each platform, which would be most appropriate for their brand, along with a clear explanation of how to maximize the utility of each.  For each platform chosen, the client requested a short list of KPI’s to measure.  The last deliverable required was some sort of gamification strategy. In addition to the digital strategy, RedEnvelope requested a traditional consumer planning journey.

The Challenge

The first challenge we faced was to rectify a fundamental disconnect between who the client thought their target was, and who they actually were.  A second challenge was to bring them back to earth about how unique their product actually was.  They spoke during the client brief about a curated selection of gifts, and the consumer profile they laid out painted the picture of a coastal dwelling 1 percenter, with a HHI > 350K.  Simple desk research and a trip to Google Analytics revealed she was just as likely to be from Oklahoma or Kansas, as New York or California, and although solidly middle to upper middle class, probably had a HHI closer to 120K than 350.

Typical RedEnvelope gifts range in price from $30-$200.  They are nice, and high quality, but lack the uniqueness the client perceived to be their distinguishing characteristic.  Much of the uniqueness argument rested on the ability of customers to personalize and embroider the products with names and monograms.  Rather than seeing this as special, customers viewed this as a cheap way to turn generic and boring products into personalized and boring products.

Research Highlights

One customer we surveyed described RedEnvelope as a place she got “good enough” gifts for people she wanted to thank sincerely, and let them know she spent some money, but didn’t know them well enough to get them what they probably really wanted.  She described RedEnvelope as a “safe bet” and compared it to a “decent bottle of wine.”  When pressed further for the last time she bought a RedEnvelope gift, she mentioned two occasions. The first was for a professional acquaintance she was introduced to by a mutual friend, and the second was as a leave behind for the owner of a beach house sublet she never met in person.

Planning

It was clear that the task for our consumer planning journey was to make RedEnvelope live up to their brand promise of creating memorable experiences through gift giving.  One of the best engagement points that RedEnvelope had in place was an extensive review system on their website.  Both gift givers and receivers rated their gifts on a 5 star scale and with written reviews.  There was about a star and a half difference between the ratings the givers gave the products and those of the recipient.  Rather than tell RedEnvelope to blow up their whole catalog and start over, our first recommendation was to shift the focus away from the products and to the relationship between the people involved in the gifting.  This thinking led to the consumer insight and strategy.

Insight

People remember their pasts and write their futures with gifts.

Strategy

Create opportunities for people to share stories through gifts from RedEnvelope.

RedEnvelope Manifesto 

We took an unconventional extra step and worked with our copywriter to formulate an outward facing rendition of the strategy delivered in a more poetic form to let the customer know what RedEnvelope is all about. This piece of communication will live on the site and in the catalog and is called the RedEnvelope Manifesto.

“It’s not what happens before the gift.  It’s what happens after. We search high and low to find products as unique as you and your loved ones, because we know a gift isn’t a formality.  It’s the first chapter of your story.”

Digital Strategy

Present Perfect (Digital & Mobile Optimized)

Present Perfect is an online and mobile platform that does the research for you.  It recommends products based on your gift recipients publicly displayed interests on social networks.

Guess What’s In The Red Envelope (Facebook, Gamification)

Quick and simple engagement tactic designed to catch attention and generate clicks.  Weekly items highlighted from a content calendar with winners chosen from a pool of correct entries.  Recurring format builds familiarity and loyalty and stimulates non-seasonally based traffic to the site.

Weighted Review System (Gamification deliverable)

Frequent reviewers are awarded points based on the number of product reviews they post on the site, as well as sentiment toward their reviews from their fellow shoppers.  Scores are categorized and based on a 1-100 scale, similar to a Klout score.  The Weighted Review system Capitalizing on what they do well and highlighting it, while at the same time tactfully steering the client away from apps and angry birds and broadening their horizons from pure gamification to Game Mechanics.

Social Conversion (Facebook through Moontoast)

Traditionally social media has been a place for engagement, brand building, improving organic SEO, and sentiment analysis.  New technologies are emerging that finally facilitate conversion directly through social channels.  Moontoast is a product that allows shoppers to click and on a featured product within their Facebook feed, and takes them directly to the shopping cart on the clients website, skipping the middle step of the website completely.  Inclusion of this technology in our strategy was a significant point of differentiation for our team.

Pinterest Strategy

RedEnvelope products are a natural fit for Pinterest.  Prior to our social media audit Pinterest was the only social media button on the RedEnvelope.com home page.  The problem was the brands lack of page strategy within the platform.  We recommended organizing gifts not by product categories, or by simple demographics such as Gifts for Her, or Gifts for Baby, but by personality characteristics and interests of the recipient, such as Gifts for the Entertainer, Gourmand, or Scholar.

Analytics & Effectiveness

Social Media Platform Roles

Platforms were organized into three categories: Sentiment, Engagement, and Conversion.  Each social media was evaluated and implemented according to its utility.  More robust platforms like Facebook had roles in all three buckets, while others like Pinterest were only employed for single tasks.

Social Media Integration

Specific KPI’s were chosen, and best practice recommendations for each were implemented.  Platforms were divided into three groups; Specialized Tasks, Broadly Functional, and Conversion Opportunities.  In addition to platform specific analytics, we spotted an opportunity to use Media Equivalent Value in combination with Weekly Active Users to recommend a cutoff point for physical catalog mailings, limiting them to Daily and Weekly Active Users.

The Complete UX

The Result

The client chose this campaign over 5 competitors and will be implementing the recommendations ahead of the 2012 holiday shopping season.

The Team

• Steven Bayley – Digital Strategy & Account Planning
• Lloyd Johnson – Digital Strategy & Account Planning
• Temnete Sebhatu – Copywriting
• Jeff DeGeorgia – Art Direction