Advertising Ideas: WWE Delivers Message Of Branding
Show these images to most Americans and they will immediately tell you that is Dwayne “THE ROCK” Johnson and the World Wrestling Entertainment Logo. It wasn’t always like this as wrestling for years was looked down upon and the crowds they attracted were looked at as being less than desirable. Then it happened Vincent Kennedy McMahon started to formulate ways to take the genre to another level and made his brand appealing to the mainstream. The WWE has capitalized on the popularity of their characters and the appeal of their events to record record earnings and record TV Ratings. Some would say that The WWE is a publicity machine. This publicity machine did not grow to the mamouth proportion it is today simply by putting up a ring and announcing that there will be matches locally, no their leadership sat down and put together a business plan that was very extensive outlining everything that they wanted to accomplish. Today The WWE is a publicly traded company whose stock as of today was trading at $8.55 a share you have $855 you can have 100 shares. It is estimated that it will trade at $10.50 a share by the end of the year.
The WWE has become a champion in the sports entertainment industry by branding itself and aggressively marketing itself. Despite filing for restructuring under the chapter 11 bankruptcy laws The WWE continues to have a following and continues to grow. With It biggest event Wrestlemania, now in its 29th year, The WWE continues to build a fan base and gain revenue as they capitalize on knowing what their fans want. Recently their TV Show Monday Night Raw went from 2 hours to 3 hours and has beaten The NBA and NCAA in the ratings proving that if you appeal to the general public and you market yourself you will be successful. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: WWE Delivers Message Of Branding
This Sunday, February 3, 2013 millions of people will be gathering for Super Bowl Parties across the country. Have you created a way that you can leverage The Super Bowl to drive business to you this week? Have you planned a strategy to capitalize on people’s love for The Super Bowl? Every type of business be it life coaching, personal training, a restaurant, a dry cleaner, a doctors office, etc. can benefit from doing some type of promotion revolving around The Super Bowl and thus creating more brand recognition and more revenue. Think about it you are a life coach and seeking more clients, how about an ad campaign that revolves around the theme Score A Touchdown In Your Life With Life Coach _______. Begin a program by 2/3/13 and recieve $50 off of your program. You are a personal trainer you could do a campaign with the theme Hoist Your Own Lombardi Trophy when you enroll for a fitness and wellness program with________________. You have a restaurant and you can run a campaign Score An Extra Point With Our Desserts, receive one FREE Dessert with purchase of an entree. You are a dry cleaner your campiagn can be Look Like An MVP with __________________. You are a doctor’s office you can do a campaign Let Us Be The QB For Your Health. As you can see if you come up with a creative theme and then put advertising out there you will leverage The Super Bowl.
As a business you can leverage The Super Bowl by participating in POINTS FOR THE CURE!!!! The way it works is you have your clients/customers/patrons choose either The Ravens or The 49 ERS and they agree to donate $.25 (25 cents) per point that the team scores and then after the game they visit http://main.acsevents.org/goto/jdogglederman and make their donation mentioning your business in the comment area. You as a business then do a media release about how you and your clients/customers/patrons participated in POINTS FOR THE CURE and raised money for The American Cancer Society. You then do a thank you ad as part of your print campaign and thank everyone for supporting POINTS FOR THE CURE and helping to raise money for The American Cancer Society. When you leverage an event like The Super Bowl you can strengthen your brand and increase revenue. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Leveraging The Super Bowl
Advertisement Ideas: Adevertising Expense or Investment?
Investment Expense
In all my 20 + years of advertising sales and design and developing advertisement ideas I have always pondered the question of is advertising an expense or an invetment? In many cases it depends what side of the table you are on, are you the one selling the ad or the one buyimg the ad? It all so depends on your mindset about about business. In many cases when businesses are slow they cut the marketing and advertising budget looking at it as an expense when that is the time to increase the budget and strengthen your brand and look at advertising and marketing as an investment because you can measure the results. If you run an ad with a specific tracakable number you can see haw many calls it generated, if you create a unique link to get to your website from the ad you can track visitors and the actions they took. The key is to look at all the advertising choices and determine if I invest in this type of marketing will it increase my brand awareness, will it create a buzz, will it drive business. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Advertising Expense or Investment?
Advertisement Ideas: How To Make Strategic Partnerships Work!!!!
I first learned the value of Strategic Partnerships back in 1989 as I was assisting with The Coral Springs Jaycees Spreading The Joy Program, which provided needy families with A Thanksgiving Food Basket and then took the children from those families on A Holiday Shopping Spree. The chapter didn’t have much money in the treasury at the time to fund the project. As a new member I spoke up and said “Have you ever done Strategic Partnerships,” they asked what they were and I explained that is when you ask those you do business with to support your charitable efforts. The answer was no and I said let’s start. They said you can try. I said okay and in 2 weeks I had formed 10 partnerships and secured over $3000.00 in in-kind and cash donations. I then took it to another level when I leveraged our relationship with the local KMART when I asked the manager about collecting in front of the store. The manager said yes and we collected for 21 days and collected another $5,000 in donations. That year we took 64 children on a holiday shopping spree. Those that supported our efforts saw The Jaycees return the favor as we supported the businesses that helped us. KMART saw the value of The Strategic Partnership and The Jaycees kept working with KMART until the store in Coral Springs closed. The question that I am asked often is JDOGG how do I make Strategic Partnership Work? Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: How To Make Strategic Partnerships Work!!!
I walked by a few businesses that I had once approached about advertising when I worked at Forum Publishing and then when back to them when I left Forum to see if they were doing any advertising.These businesses were so busy finding reasons not to advertise that they are now boarded up. Why is it when sales are down the first thing that a business wants to cut is advertising? If people do not know who you are and you are not promoting your business you will eventually go out of business. In today’s market place a business has many chances to advertise and those that choose not to advertise choose to die a slow death. I have seen this cycle happen many times in the last 2 years. I approached a local yogurt shop about advertising and marketing their business and was told I don’t have a budget. Hello the first thing to think about after opening a store is to think how am I going to get the people to come to me and spend money and then come back to me. This yogurt store ran an ad for 1 week in a local community paper expecting an influx in business well guess what a one time ad is not going to work you need frequency and consistency. The key is to have people see you and get to know your brand. Advertising needs to be proactive and not reactive. Think of what is coming up and how you can capitalize on upcoming events. You Know from The Day After Thanksgiving until December 23 that the consumer will be geared toward buying and that is a great time to run an ad wishing everyone a Happy Hanukkah, A Merry Christmas, and a Happy New Year with some other incentives to shop. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Advertise or Die!!!
Advertisement Ideas Finding and Capitalizing On PR Opportunities!!!
I have posted this question before as I ask it on several occassions as I speak to people who may want to work with me and put my knowledge and expertise in this field to work for them. I have been developing ways to maximize messages for several years and I am always astounded by those who are not taking advantage of Public Relations Opportunities. This past weekend I had the opportunity to attend The Women of Faith Conference on Friday Night (10/26/12) in Sunrise, FL I was very impressed by World Vision and their presence at the event, I stopped by The Liberty University Booth to learn more about them. All the while I was loaded with literature about The Addict’s Mom (one of my clients) to hand out as I knew many of the 6,000 women in attendance may know a mother of an addicted child and may be seeking assistance for that person so I made it a point to talk to people and promote www.addictsmom.com.
As I left the Women of Faith Conference I began to think how many businesses missed out on an opportunity to promote themselves because they did nor know about the event or were so busy blaming the economy and other factors that they missed out on an opportunity to build their brand and strengthen their business. I then cam up with the idea to encourage everyone to visit www.womenoffaith.com and to see when one of theses events is coming to your community and how it can be a benefit to you and your business.
On October 27-28, 2012 I had the pleasure and honor of being The Public Address Announcer at The Sean Taylor Classic, The SUPER BOWL for Youth Football. As I announced the sponsors I began to think how many businesses could have benefitted from being part of this event if they had known about it. In two days over 2,000 people came through the gates to watch youth football. I had the opportunity to cut a video with the help of Generation Next and I immediately put it up on face book. As I have often said if make videos when ever you are at a special event and share them.
Advertisement Ideas: How To Find and Capitalize on PR Opportunities?
I am often asked JDOGG how do you find and capitalize on PR opportunities? Here are a few strategies that I have utilized to do just that.
1: Be aware of what is going on in your community and see if it is synergistic with your business and your message.
Look on the internet for special events in your area, talk to you customers about things they may be involved with and how you can be of assistance. Many times it is just being in tune and having a presence at events that will build your brand.
2: When you attend an event be prepared to do a quick video like this one.
3: Take photos and create a story to send to the media. For example the photo below with a brief story.
JDOGG Lederman Honors Community Leaders and Creates A World With Less Cancer And More Birthdays.
On March 24, 2012 The Unity Church Fellowship Hall was buzzing with joy as JDOGG Lederman hosted The Spiritual Entrepreneurs Visionary Awards, honoring outstanding community leaders for their service to the community. Proceeds from the event went to The Reaching Out To Cancer Kids Program of The American Cancer Society. 50 community leaders were honored and treated to a very special lunch provided by Subway and deserts provided by Chocolate Luxuries. The day consisted of fellowship and speakers on a variety of subjects. For more details about supporting events like this call JDOGG at 954-254-8227.
4: Find ways to provide products and services for events or how to capitalize on existing programs. For example The American Cancer Society has a program for Relay For Life, Stars and Moons, where merchants sell the Stars and Moons to customers/clients and the merchant displays them in their business. You can take a photo of the Stars and Moons with a caption (Insert your business name here) supports The American Cancer Society Relay For Life Program and recent raised (insert dollar amount) to help with research, education, advocacy, and services. “Our reason to participate in this program was driven by the fact that many of our customers have been touched by cancer and we felt this was an excellent way to give back while helping those affected by cancer,” said (insert name here).
5. Use your social media platforms to engage people and ask about ways you can be of service and value. Post how you are being of service and value to others.
Public Relations is not something that is done once in a while it is something that can be done everyday.
Every day you have something noteworthy happening in your business it is imperative that you share and capitalize on public relations. For example a local Dentist is opening up his practice from 8 PM – 10 PM on Halloween to x-ray candy, it is a shame that this has to be done. The dentist has been written about in several local papers, featured on the local news, and interviewed on the radio.
This chart will help you to find and capitalize on PR opportunities.
Advertisement Ideas: Forget The Salesman Approach!!!
When discussing sales people I often hear they are pushy, full of themselves, and will say anything to make the sale. This perception has led to many people programming themselves to say I am not interested from the first interaction. Sales is an integral part of any business be it a sole proprietorship or a large corporation a brick and mortar business or a home based business and mastering sales is a key to success. I have found that over the years it is important to overcome the perception of being a salesman because of the misconceived notion that sales people are sleazy and out for themselves. The best way to avoid being perceived in a negative way is to forget the salesman approach and become more interested in the people you are interacting with.
The first thing you are instructed to do in sales is to make cold calls. I believe this is the wrong approach as you can see from the chart that most people are not receptive to cold calls. Cold calls can be a part of the process, however there is an art to the cold call. In my 20 plus years of experience in the for profit and non-profit sectors I have found that when cold calling it is best to simply do your research and find out who the decision maker is, this can be easily done by google searches or using sources like The Hoover’s Guide To American Businesses. Many times know who to ask for will get you past the gate-keeper. I also suggest you get the gate keepers name and make friends with him or her so next time you call they will put you through. After you get to the decision maker do not begin your pitch right away tell them that you chose to contact them as you are looking to assist businesses like theirs and would like to set up an appointment to show them what you are offering. The appointment can be done via phone or in person if they are local. The key is to begin a relationship as we all know people will do business with those they know, like, and trust. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Forget The Salesman Approach!!!
Advertisement Ideas: Hey Mitt and Barack Stop The Mudslinging!!!!
This blog entry was brought on by the amount of people I hear complain about all the mudslinging going on in politics. I think it is time we put and end to all the mudslinging not only in politics but in all aspects of our society. Imagine if all politicians and all companies began to stand on their own merits and espouse the value and benefit of electing them or the using their product. The mudslinging has trickled down so much that it has created a problem in schools and other activities as it has now become normal to bad mouth people. I have found that successful people do not need to bad mouth others. Successful people are able to build themselves up and show how they are of value and service to others. Part of the problem is that the general public begins to accept the mudslinging as normal and they become desensitized to it. Imagine id these two candidates came out and stated what their accomplishments were and what their plans are instead of bashing each other what would happen? This will not happen as the general public has bought into the idea that this is the way things are done. As a result IBM who makes a good product and Apple who makes a good product decide to tear each other down in their respective commercials and they both lose market share. We have seen this with Samsung as well poking fun at the competition with their commercials. Locally the mudslinging has trickled down to Home Depot and Dolphin Carpet and Tile as they now are both airing commercials that are negative. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Hey Mitt and Barack Stop The Mudslinging!!!!
When doing your story the important question to ask is are you media worthy? Most entrepreneurs have a great back story, however they forget to tell it and thus miss out on the media exposure as they may not believe it is media worthy. Every story you have to tell is media worthy. Remember it is not what you say but how you say it. The steps to make your story media worthy are:
1: Frame Your Story – Like a picture you want to make sure your story is relevant, entertaining, and resonating. For example October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month, I lost a cousin and an uncle to breast cancer(yes men get breast cancer), I am involved in The Relay for Life, I have raised over $8,000 in the last 8 years, and in 2008 was awarded The Hope Award from The American Cancer Society South Palm Beach Unit. This year I implemented a fundraising program called Points For The Cure. Now I have framed the story.
2: Have A Catchy Headline With Keywords – After you frame the story you want to come up with a catchy headline that includes some keywords so when you put it out it will get picked up and looked at online and offline.
3: Write Your Story With Keywords – As you begin your story make sure you have keywords in the first sentence and through out the story so it will be ranked high in search engines as most publications now have digital versions online.
4: Proof the Story and Begin to Post Throughout All Your Platforms- Once you finish your story and you begin to post it you will see the results and you will begin to increase your worth in the eyes of the media. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Are You Media Worthy?
Advertisement Ideas: Community Service As A Public Relations Tool
As I watched The NFL games on Sunday October 7, 2o12 and promoted the idea of Points For The Cure, where you pledge 25 cents for every point your team scores and then you visit http://main.acsevents.org/goto/jdogglederman and make your donation, for example The Giants scored 41 points so you would go to the site and donate $10.25, I began to think how community service can be used as a Public Relations Tool. I started to think how beneficial the relationship The NFL has with The American Cancer Society is as they have partnered to promote mammograms through The Crucial Catch Program and how many fans attended a game knowing that a portion of the ticket was going to help their local American Cancer Society. I also began to think about the increased merchandise sales as fans would want the football or lapel pin or other items commemorating Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This becomes a great public relations tool as people have a good feeling about The NFL and are more apt to buy tickets and merchandise. You might be saying but I don’t have the budget of The NFL to do all this. Well you do not need a very large budget to us Community Service as a Public Relations Tool. Continue reading Advertisement Ideas: Community Service As A Public Relations Tool
