Platforms, Channels, Distribution, Oh My!

I have been in a deep study of all things digital. Not alone I am certain.
There is so much to absorb about how delivery is constantly reshuffled as the "toys" beget new "toys." Now I am designing sites that have to please not only 50% of the computers on the planet, but also mobile access and now tablets.

I am such a visual consumer and I would like to dwell more often in the "pretty." Yet, I have disciplined myself to be driven by data. Data is our best friend as long as it is localized and accurate. Social Networking gives us the catbird seat on confirming the accuracy.

I have crafted a new definition of the infernal use of "ROI."
I now call it "Running On Intelligence."
We all have such access like never before to localized Intelligence. As you can see, I am a big fan of meeting the consumer where they live, online, at home and work. With the increase of mobile, tracking satellite tower pings will be essential to qualify analysis. GPS and Foursquare are only the beginning of our tether.

There is no Christian discount from my shop.

I do things for free when I want to.
Sometimes even when I am running on fumes.
Now that is what I call faith.

You know who you are, you are just a face in the crowd. You represent all of those, of our flock that are willing to exclude themselves, magically in your head that you are somehow exempt from paying for that which is what the real work is about.

I don't do things for free when "You" want something for nothing.
The day I see a Christian Business offer me a contract with real world $ attached to it will be the day, I go to be with the Lord. I would rather fight tooth and nail to earn a living in the "World" than get a song and dance from a Sister or Brother in Christ. They know better and its shameful that they are oblivious to it, time and time again.

I do good work, I do great work.
Please pay for good work, work that is necessary and will keep you competitive.

Praise be to God, I can take care of myself. I owe Him for the "spirited" way that I look at life. He kept me breathing here for a reason and I will be kicking the Truth in our brethren's face all the way to my final rest.
I will Brand, until I can Brand no more.
Next stop, Heaven!

A Social Networking "NOT"

I received a solicitation today from Lookville, an invite only Fashion Social Networking site.

They said that they liked my blog design and content.
1. As you can see my blog has NO DESIGN.
2. My content has NOTHING TO DO WITH FASHION.

Please do not fall victim of hiring a staff and interns that just goes blindly through the internet and blogger contacting people that do not align with your brand. This is the #1 Social Networking Mismanagement problem today. You might as well just throw your start-up money out the window.

Social Networking has to be based on a specific long tail strategic plan. Everyone you have on your team has to be awake, aware and not bored.

I also googled Lookville and have read negative after terrible after awful reviews about the lame tactics being deployed. Yes, Beta is Beta for a reason. That is a way to make mistakes and fix them, but the errors that are being made are those of a naive uneducated folly. No, this is not a business here, this is a Hobby Accident in Progress.

Are you a Business or are you a Prostitute?

I actually said that to a colleague the other day when discussing a potential client! In all the years working in the B2B sector, I am still amazed when I encounter so many people that call themselves entrepreneurs and when in reality they are scared to death. Scared to actually sell what God gave them. Those amazing talents and skills that makes them unique and to take a stand in front of everyone to say, "Yes, I am a Brand."

"What happens when I do all this stuff and spend the money and nothing happens?" Well, if you are asking that question, you are not ready to work with me and you are still to afraid to work for yourself. Get out of your own way!

Both of these thoughts have the same thing in common, FEAR! I died 5 years ago from Stage 4 Hodgkin's Lymphoma and yet I am still here to inspire clients to get out of their own way. The best thing about a "near death" experience is that you don't care any more what people think or really what they are afraid of for themselves. I don't advocate having a near death experience to get over your fears, I just think that its a good thing to get out of your own way and get on with what you are here to do. Thank God, I had that happen to me and now I can help you. That is if you want help.

Holiday Worldwide is officially a "No Fear Zone." We take calculated and educated risks. All of our guidance is documented and based on precedent, with our own clients or from diligent research.

Definition of "Wrong" or What does the Cannes Film Festival, the Iceland Volcano, Electrolux and American Idol have in common?

Today, I woke up to realize that I had neglected to place the Cannes Film Festival on my calendar. This was prompted by the Daily Variety proclaiming how they were recovering from the effects of the volcano in Iceland's ash on the red carpet.

Just for giggles and grins I journeyed over to www.festival-cannes.com to get my first impression of the festival's digital passport to the event. Let me tell you, such a lot to see and do, almost too much even for me. I did stop a moment and chose to watch a very self satisfying visit with Johnny Depp and Tim Burton. Now that is a statement of unusual proportion. They did not disappoint, the whole thing was a poorly executed inside joke which Hollywood is well known for. I did my best to not run screaming from the site and did complete the video. The best part was seeing a still taken from an appearance on the Arseneo Hall show (actually a taping in May of 1991)that was slapped on the very end.

Better yet, I noticed that an amazing sponsorship sales agent had gotten Electrolux to support the Fest. Now who could have known that they would need vacuum cleaners on the Croisette when they signed on? This takes "Stunt Marketing" to a whole other level. Stranger things have happened. This was just the most clever redeemer I needed to see, a nod to intelligence in my industry like no other. So I decided to click through the Electrolux icon and WHAM! Holy #$%&. Let's just say, heads should roll at Electrolux. There is no mention of their Cannes sponsorship on their home page! This is the perfect example of what happens when "The Departments" of a mega company do not communicate. What I found actually was even worse than the lack of synergy....American Idol co-bands the "Find America's First Ever Mom Idol" Contest. PLEASE! Again, why? This is so over already. Even Malcolm Gladwell is turning over in his grave and he isn't dead. The tipping point of this idea has tipped so long ago that it is a mercy cry for what they have decided is a no risk investment.

Sigh, one of my big disappointments for our industry is that there are so many fabulous creative people (hint, hint) that are available with genius ideas ready to connect the dots for a company all the way to the bank. Yet, someone decides to play is safe? Or what they think is safe. Safe never get's you in the ROI history books.

Today I can say that I rant not just for my own entertainment, but to acknowledge companies like Electrolux that should receive the Palm d'Or (the Oscar of the Cannes Film Festival) for a brilliant product placement integration campaign in Cannes. As for the disconnect on a major obvious opportunity to brand your product, globally, all the back home to the states, I say "Vive La Difference!"

Who ever you are that didn't get the email/memo that you have to combine all of your creative budgets and team members because you will miss an astounding opportunity to leverage obvious consumers, You're FIRED. I say the best punishment for these folks would be to send them to France and like so many people that were in travel hell back from MIPTV, have them figure out how to get home because of the volcano ash. Also, lets loose their luggage just for fun too. Next time, just pick up the phone and hire me.

Ouch! Dont' worry this happens all the time to the nicesr people.

It all started when I was sent a copy of an invoice that was being used as a contract to build a website for a client for review. For some reason, but all the wisdom sprites joined hands and encouraged me to share the wonderful stream of advice that I had been accumulating for some time. Don't worry the names have all been changed to protect the innocent, but let me tell you, the guilty and you know who you are will be judged at the pearly gates after you pull your last scam.
Please enjoy.

....I am typing everything out here because it is so hard to read the graininess of the invoice. This is not a real contract, its an invoice of which you need to get out of ASAP. The reason I say this is, every agreement I have ever seen for a responsible legit company with real legal contracts have at least 4 pages single spaced with lots of legalese.

Engaging a website designer involves your trade marks and basically means you are entrusting your legal entity to someone. Here is how it would be in the medical world,

"I, the Dr. will have possession or your body's health for x amount of months, now give me your money and don't ask any questions."

When I was an agent I wrote and negotiated contracts, so when it came time to evaluate contracts for the internet I was primed and ready. I am attaching a few here so you can see.

This document is Dated 2-1-10,so that means that they have had your money for 3 months and the site is still not working.
You gave them $1k, but are expected to pay a total of $5,580.

-Website Program 36 months
> I am not certain what they mean, unless they call "this" a website program? You should pay for a website to be built $1k for a simple billboard/pamphlet website (no bells and whistles) is fine for the whole site that you can maintain yourself. The 36 months doesn't make sense? Once they build it and it works,you can have a minimal hourly maintenance fee if you don't want to anything yourself. But as I explain later, they are all being built now for you to do them or have an intern update them, like leggos, that simple.

-Takeover Domain Hosting
>Takeover from where and why?

-Purchase 3 additional URL's
>Why? Did they explain that to you? More URL's, more websites for your brand to be spread over and more and more upkeep? I don't agree. URL's only cost $10 each a year if that much, so I am not certain where they are doing their math on this part.

-Monthly updates/offers
>A website has to have new content added on a regular basis...remember me writing a manual. I learned that if the website is created by Joomla, wordpress, drupal software, very common and easy to use....you can upload the content yourself with very few instructions. A blog, best case scenario is updated every other day...you need not write more than 2 paragraphs, is the best spider bait. Monthly updates are a death sentence.

-Complete website- copy and photos
>A complete website to me should be
>a template-$75. That is the framework, the boxes that make up the pages.
>Customizing it to fit your brand and uploading initial content $120 an hour.
You provide the content,
>Photos-professional/celebrity photo shoot for photographer, hair stylist, make-up artist, photoshop touch up frugal $1,500-$2k depending on how much each of them are paid. Remember the product of the photo shoot, the photos are used well beyond the website, (press kit, EPK-Electronic Press Kit-you pay a graphic artist to lay these out-maybe $500), posters, ads, magazines, newspapers...I recommend doing a shoot once a year.
>Articles, blog entries, white papers, you should be writing some of it, otherwise you get a writer to do it for you, priced for each job.

-3 months of SEO
This would cost you $1,500 from a pro, SEO folks usually just do SEO because it is specialized.

$1k deposit due 4-27-10
2nd payment of $1k due 5-29-10
Starting 6-1-10 charge $145 per month for 24 months.
>For what? They need to explain what they are charging you for. Since you charged it on your Amex, you can get the money back anyway.

You need
1. A website developer/programmer. They are the tech folks that build the machine and keeps it, the website running. Like a computer, they build it , we use it and if it breaks they fix it.
2. The SEO guys, are paid to provide an ongoing service to keep your site "findable" on the search engines. They keep you plugged into the electricity or current of the internet circuitry of systems. Without SEO, you are a sitting duck and you can say, "I have a website, isn't it pretty." But it is not a business tool.
3. Social Networking gal, finds, harnesses, connects you with all the social networks online that are "brand2brand," "brand2consumer," "brand2consumer2consumer".
4. Online Advertising network, they have assembled the most likely places, groups of websites for you to be found by people who need your services. You pay them to place your ad, you pay someone to create the art to be placed. This is an ongoing cost, just like SEO. Prices ranges and are very competitive. The best part about advertising on the internet is you can be very specific about where you want to be seen and why. The other part of this is you can track everything.

BTW-They did not mention anything about Data, Analytic's, Traffic, Reports, Ranking? How do know how everything is working? You can't just look at the number of patients that are coming in the door right away as there is no right away, remember my 90 days? The internet is about 90 days + 90 days + 90 days+..........

SEO+Social Networking+Public Relations+Marketing+Advertising+ a website that works/is functional is never ending, it is ongoing and interconnected.

+ The internet is a river, going somewhere whether you are in it or not.
+ Your website is your raft, you have to build a good one and maintain it so you don't drown.
+ SEO is your guide, tells you where the best rapids are to where you want to be found, gets you there and keeps you there.
+ Social Networking understands how the internet, your website, SEO, online advertising and all of the users/consumers/patients of such interact and how to use it to your advantage.

Well, that was fun. I have no idea why I got into rivers and rafting....I would break a nail and it would be all over. The internet, no problem, bring it on. Any questions?

Trapped in "Tradition"

Yesterday, I encountered a person that was trapped in what they had decided was the definition of what I do for a living, my brand. Actually this happens all the time. I call this "Trapped in Tradition."

Branding is like that. The best part of my job or I call it "My Joy" is to constantly reinforce that I am only defined by what brings me joy. I do the same thing for my clients. No matter the sector, I am dedicated to knowing what brings joy to people, the consumer and how they convert to your brand.

In the early days of becoming a brand, I would wear my brand definition like a badge, uniform and shield. Now, when uninformed people are being held hostage by their assumptions, I shirk the feeling that they are putting me in a straight jacket.

So the next time you hear, "Oh, I am looking for a "Traditional XYZ" remember that they are being held hostage to a myth. This experience is actually proof that your branding is working to your advantage. There is no help for this type, no conversion here. No matter how hard you try. They are costing you money. Don't spend the time to conquer their sacrament.

Onward, to sharing the joy with those that truly have will benefit by your brand.

Branding By Age is Counter Intuitive.

"Branding by Age" is counter intuitive to what the consumer has been trained forever to believe. We, in our lifetime, will not see a consumer who wants to be the age they are. Face it, companies have spent gazzilions of $$$ to brainwash us to want to be younger. Guess what? It worked. Don't buck what is, use it to your advantage.

When I see marketing, advertising and PR that blatantly targets a consumer's age I am dumbfounded. This represents everything that a consumer doesn't want to be associated with, but also goes against their advertising DNA.

Niche branding/marketing is great and necessary. But don't target an age by labeling it the "Age/number." My guidance to my clients has always been to "be" and "show" through their "brand life" that their brand values are ageless and evergreen. This is one of my empirical beliefs.

I am a "Social Networking Whisperer."

A "Social Networking Whisperer" is someone that connects to the consumer by means not common to human senses. Either by one's own personal experience, studying consumer behavior or just being gifted.Yes, I have added a distinguished entry to my resume. For some time now, I wondered where my insatiable curiosity, endless hours of research, detailed observation, consumer stalking and the never ending pursuit of the answers to

1. Who buys what?
2. How much will they pay?
3. Where do they buy it?
4. Why do they buy it?

I have found the answer. All of my many years of working with start-ups, brand revivals, product launches, individual campaigns or unique interventions, I have finally cracked the code. I have always believed that "Branding" is about ROI (Return On Investment) on every level and at every stage of development.

I have attended countless seminars, trade shows and presentations just to be blown away when I finally raised my hand during the call for questions to ask,

“And how many did you sell?”

The ballroom is silent and everyone turns around to see where the voice had come from.

Then the sea of heads whips back to the front of the room and the presenter, creating a Category 5 Hurricane winds, anticipating the answer.

“I don't know, that wasn’t part of my job.”

Ok, that did it…. I am not attending one more seminar, trade show or presentation until companies wake up and realize that each and every one of their employees has a responsibility to be a part of the sales process. Yes, I include the janitors too.

My approach to branding is that of the “Special Forces.” Elite, highly-trained creative, analytical and tactical strategies that conduct specialized Branding operations. These include working with your internal management, external Ad & Digital Agency, Marketing, PR Firm and your Media Buyer to enhance the investment. We can start from a blank slate or dive into a raging battle.
Make Them Yours for Life

Exactly How I do Business and Why.

I just wrote this e-mail to a prospective client and I really think it is exactly the best way to define how I do business.

Dear Prospective Client,

You need to make an investment in your brand business. That is what every business does in the corporate world. Experts get paid for their experience from the start.

Think about it. If I wanted to hire you to get me in better shape and to eat healthier, would you give that to me, for free, based on the "possibility" that I would use your advice?

To your questions, I am "not like the others," nor are my clients. Over time and with much experience in the entertainment, communications, publishing, corporate and small business worlds, I have found it right to make my own rules and ask for what works for me. That is my approach with and for my clients. It is wise to know the history and traditions of as many business cultures as possible. This has led to my success and that of my clients.

The best example of this dynamic thinking I learned early on in my agency days. A client was being offered a job at AFTRA scale by one of the top TV syndication companies. I told the business affairs executive that I was aware of what AFTRA scale paid, but that didn't keep me for asking for more $.

Guess what? The business affairs executive was very impressed with my statement. Not only did she pay my client what I asked for, but from then on she would always tell me the amount that was the most $ allowed in the budget to pay my clients for each job we negotiated. Now that is not only favor, but a miracle in any business.

That is what I call the benefit and reward of "not being like the others."

The tradition of the entertainment, communications, publishing industry is if you already had offers in the form of a contract, in hand, then "they" would gladly take a %. That is all they do, negotiate the contract.

As for getting paid for getting jobs for you, per CA law, I can't put in a contract. So that nullifies the comment about getting paid for jobs I get you and not getting paid for jobs I don't get you. That goes beyond custom and tradition.

My contract reflects years of knowing that no one client ever is without a need of significant amount of work to be done upfront. I provide a paid service to get that client to the place that will give them their best opportunities.

The polish that you need to accomplish can be well done within the initial time of my consult for the $ I request. I can show and tell you everything you need to do, but if you don't do it, then I have been paid for services rendered.

Additionally, you will need to budget for:
1. Hair & Make-Up Artist
2. Wardrobe
3. Website programming/developing/optimizing
4. Photographer
5. Printing
6. Video
7. Supplies and tools per your expertise

After the initial polish, the % you pay me is for continued guidance and fruits of said guidance. We can design our plan together.

I look forward to speaking tomorrow.

Blessings,

Angelica