Branded Content is becoming more and more common. What is it? Branded Content is something made by a content producer, like a podcast host or a youtube channel, and instead of just being sponsored by a company, the content is shaped around the advertiser’s branding or product.

Branded content is becoming more and more common because traditional advertising is becoming more and more difficult to do. Our society has become more and more immune to traditional ads. Ads in a newspaper or on radio are generally clearly marked and easy to ignore. Even banner ads and youtube pre roll can be ignored fairly easily or even blocked with some of the most common ad blocked software available online.

Branded content is great for two reasons.

1. It allows advertisers to get their message out in a way that fans of the content produced will consume. Branded content subtlety puts in product placement in a way that is almost an endorsement by these personalities. It directly targets the audience that a produce already has and is engaging with. This is a great value for a brand.

2. It pays content producers! As ad revenue continues to dwindle things like branded content will be one of the ways content producers can pay the bills. Normally I would put a rant in here about ad blockers but I will just leave it to this: It costs money to produce content. Using ad blockers is a way of stealing the content. Because this system is not working it forces content producers to create more content that is branded. An alternative to this are platforms like Patreon.

Branded content is bad for two reasons:

1. It is hard to do well. Working a brand into content without seeming forced or salesy is hard. It is best for brands to find content producers who align closely with your company to keep it from being forced.

2. It is a little sneaky. Sometimes branded content tries to fly in under the radar and this may seem dishonest to some consumers. This is especially ethically sketchy if it comes from a journalism organization. In the case of entertainment producers, I think this public sentiment will change as our society becomes more use to branded content and product placement.

That all being said, recently I saw one of the better examples of branded content in a spot by Dude Perfect. Bass Pro unleashed them on their new flagship store at the Memphis Pyramid. This was a good partnership for the brand and a good video by Dude Perfect, check it out:

The internet can be a dark place. Not because the internet is inherently dark, but because it is populated by humans who can hide behind anonymity.

This most recently reared its ugly head when Microsoft launched a twitter account managed by an artificial intelligence platform. Tay was a test by Microsoft to find something to interact with millennials and generation z. (Read more about Tay here.) Artificial intelligence learns by observing and interacting with the community it is put in.

When this was released, the internet went to work quickly. Within 24 hours of launching, Microsoft had to shut down the twitter account. The internet had taught Tay to be racist and sexist. With tweets like this:

Microsoft brought Tay back online a few days later and this was the result:

But at least they could turn off the account. In England they recently ran an online vote to name a new 300 milion dollar research vessel. The winning name: Boaty Mc Boat Face.

Oh internet, this is why we can’t have nice things.

New Facebook Page Layout on some mobile platforms:

Facebook has once again changed the way its Facebook Pages display on mobile for iPhone 5s. Although the popularity of the iPhone 6 is huge, the 5 models still maintain about 33% of the market. Here is kind of how they used to look and still look on the Pages Mobile App:

The cover photo is a crucial piece to any Facebook page’s visual identity. It has always been a struggle to get a cover photo that looks good on mobile and looks good desktop. This latest change makes it harder adding a third option for displaying.

And here is how they look on the Facebook App for iPhone5’s :

Before the change my tag line fit nicely into the the space provided but now it looks to small to fit properly. This new look leaves a lot of dead space around the tag line.

But the plot thickened this morning when I looked at a colleagues phone. Besides him not having liked my facebook page, the iPhone 6 displayed differently. It looks more like the traditional view we are used to. Here is a screenshot from an iPhone 6:

It still looks the same. It might be time to experiment to find a happy medium between the two models. It is also a little odd to me that Facebook would have this display differently based on the model. A reader, Jonathan Spotts, owner of Spotts Professional Computers sent in a screen shot from his Nexus 6 and it displays like the iPhone 5s.

There are a few people in my co-working space that are huge Gary Vaynerchuk fans. I have never been one. I did follow him on Twitter because supposedly his social media knowledge was top notch. So early one morning, like 5:20 in the morning, right before I got on the treadmill, I saw a tweet from Gary about looking for reviewers for his new book. I like free stuff and learning, so I figured why not make a pitch for a copy of AskGaryVee:

I openly stated that I was not a huge fan and Gary thought that angle would work well. A few weeks later I received the proof copy in the mail.

Here is the setup for the book: Gary hosts a video show where he takes questions from the online community and answers them on video called AskGaryVee. He does these videos regularly, at the time of writing they are up to episode 191. This book is a summary of some of the best questions and answers of the show. I have never seen one of these shows so all the content was new to me. If you are an avid follower there maybe some repeat content for you.

Gary covers a lot of ground in this book, everything from family to work to the New York Jets. Mean Green aside, the content in the book is great. This may end up being one of the more important books for modern marketers to read. It joins Seth Godin’s Permission Marketing on my list of seminal books for marketers to read to be prepared to do business today.

The Good in AskGaryVee:

This book is easy to read. It is cut into short sections grouped by a larger theme. You can read two questions and answers and have a good stopping point.
Contains great up-to-date information. All the content in this book is fresh for Spring 2016. This makes is valuable as the social media landscape is always updating.
It gives a look inside Gary Vee without being overpowering. Gary Vee has a strong personality on camera. This can turn some off. I had this same experience with Dave Ramsey. When I learned more about Dave’s story and heard his heart, I was able to listen to him with a different ear. This book has given me a bigger framework in which to read and enjoy Gary Vee.
It made me a better marketer. Hearing Gary breakdown some of his techniques and thought processes helped me get even better at my job.

The Bad in AskGaryVee:

Some extra info: There are a few sections that are fun to read if you are a fan, but are not very valuable if you are not a fan. Keep in mind, the extra stuff is like 2% of the book, but just a heads up.
Up-to-Date Info will be out-of-date soon. This is the nature of the beast, but the up-to-date info will also be yesterday’s news in no time. But if you are trying to make your living in social media you are always have to keep up with the latest.
If you are a fan some recycle: If you are already following Gary Vee and watching his videos, there maybe some repeat material. Not saying you shouldn’t hear it again, but just a warning.

BOTTOM LINE:

If you are a marketer and want to be good at your job, this a great book to read. In the beginning of January I was not a fan, but now I am a Gary Vee fan. Check out this book!

A few weeks ago, I found myself a fast food chain in Nashville. This red headed fast food chain will remain unnamed, but when I entered, it was beautiful. It was the nicest and most modern looking fast food restaurant I had ever stepped foot in. It was clear that they had recently remodeled and spent a lot of money doing so.

This set my expectations really high! I see this is a trend that McDonald’s started by rennovating to make their restaurants feel classier, in the face of many people moving on from eating fast food. This restaurant chain had even added a fancy line of teas that claim to be very truthful, to help encourage this appeal to a new customer base.

But with all things, if expectations are set higher the experience can hope to meet you have been set up for failure. To match up with the expectations that were set, I would have had to have a great customer experience. But the reason that this is becoming a blog post is because, it wasn’t.

The bathroom was dirty and the service was extremely slow and uninformed. I tried to redeem a coupon from a local sports franchise and it was met with stares and to many questions. The issue was resolved when, i kid you not, a redheaded manager came and reluctantly gave me the item. Fortunately, I do not live near this restaurant but if I lived near it, I would probably not return to this restaurant.

I would have been more forgiving if they had not set a super high expectation based on the appearance of the restaurant. Instead of this remodel being an investment, it really has become a cost because the customer will expect a better experience then they will receive and have a much worse experience.

That money would have been better spent on improving the team and investing in staffing to ensure a great customer experience. [bctt tweet=”A new coat of paint fixes nothing. “]

Google dropped some huge data information after the Superbowl this year. Mobile already is and is increasingly the most important platform for media. Our phones not only contain all of lives, it also is our gateway to the world. If your brand is not thinking about mobile, you need to a new marketing plan. “For brands, that means a presence on the big screen isn’t complete without a strategy for the small screen, too.”, wrote Google in its report.

Google measured a 40% increase of people searching for brands during the super bowl. Imagine if your brand couldn’t be found online or accessible on mobile!  You would be missing lots of “micro moments” as Google describes them. A micro moment is when a thought crosses someone’s mind and so they google google a product or service. Google search ads and high seo allow you to capitalize on these Micro Moments.

Search is not going away. Mobile is not going away. What are you doing to be ready for them? Will you be found?

I would love to have known what the results were for Red Lobster.

Read more of Google’s Report.

You are given two ears and a mouth for a reason, so that you listen more than talk. That is what we are told as a kid and something we should be reminded of as an adult.

For those of us who have gotten by on the strength of our opinions and are even getting paid to give them, sometimes listening can be difficult. I recently completed a logo for a client where I was struggling to get the design right. Because of the concept the logo was based on, visual balance was an issue.

This issue was resolved by listening. I went back to the client’s design brief and thought about the design. I had decided, in my infinite wisdom, to shorten the client’s business name. Now this effort was not misguided out of bad motive, in fact, it was in an effort to make the logo more sleek.

When I went back to the brief, I retried the logo design with more of the businesses name and it fixed all of the balance issues. Listening is one of the most importants of a marketer’s business or of a consultants business.

This was a good and clear reminder that listening is sometimes more important than doing.