Anchor: A quick way to get into podcasting

Most people have not heard of Anchor. Anchor made a go at being the audio only social media a few years ago. It worked but it was a little clunky and I a lover of podcasts wrote it off. I thought Anchor was dead. But then Google bought it. Google does nothing halfway.

Anchor was reborn a few weeks ago as a podcast creator in your pocket. The new anchor was designed to allow you create and edit podcasts quickly from your phone. They have music for you to use as transitions. They also allow you to record differnt parts of your podcast in segements. This can allow you to focus on each section and create someting worth listening too.

But the most powerful part of Anchor is that it distributes podcasts instantly. There was a time when hosting a podcast cost money and submitting to the different feeds took some time. Now Anchor does that automatically and for free. Record a podcast with Anchor, or upload it to their website, and it will be automatically distribute to major podcast outlets.

Renae is even using this to distribute audio for an Alexa Flash Briefing. Check her out by searching for Daily Women’s Devotional on the Flash Library.

Anchor is making it easier than ever to great audio content. How can you make use of this and become an expert in your own field

 

Client Spotlight: BizTech Roadshow

If you haven’t heard by now, Adelsberger Marketing and theCO are in the middle of a 15 county tour of West Tennessee with Kevin getting a chance to speak at all the stops and theCO bus showing off the latest in technology. We have had great turnouts so we wanted to take a look at the components that have gone into making the event successful.

  1. Cool Branding: Katie Howerton of Our Jackson Home and theCO put together a great brand to make the tour folks look cooler than we really are. This brand has been implemented across all of our components to give a unified feel to the marketing. 
  2. A great place to find out more: We created a simple but branded website to help direct people to find out more. BizTechRoadshow.com has a video explaining what the tour is and provides information about each of our tour stops that are open to the public. We chose to leave the details off there to help make the site more streamlined. We put the details on Facebook events that were created for each county that was open to the public.
  3. Facebook Events: We created Facebook events for each of the stops. We really like using Facebook events because it helps create a reminder system that people are native to. If you RSVP for an event on Facebook, it opens you up to additional communication from us. This means we can send you reminders and notes about the event. Facebook will also send reminders the day of the event which will help people to remember.
  4. Facebook Video: We created videos for almost every stop on the tour, depending if they are open to the public or not. We did this in a way that allowed to us to use some parts of the video multiple times to cut down on editing and shooting time. Each of these videos is specific for the county that we are visiting so our local partners are able to share a video that is talking about their specific location. It was worth the extra time to do custom videos because people like to feel like they are being talked to specifically not generally.
  5. Facebook Ads and Retargeting: We have run a good amount of ads for each location on the tour. We have been able to target folks via Facebook based on interests that they have in Entrepreneurship and Social Media. Additionally, we target folks who have shown interest in the event with messages saying: “There is still time to RSVP.” These have been effective.
  6. Local Partnerships: The most important part of the tour is the local partnerships to execute these events. Having these events with a local entity, mostly chambers, gives us added credibility as we go into a town to talk. We are also providing in demand content which in turn helps the chamber seem more valuable to their members.  It is a win-win for sure!

We have a few more stops left and we hope to see you come out to the BizTech Roadshow!

Client Spotlight: First Presbyterian Church

We recently completed a website for First Presbyterian Church of Jackson Tennessee. The staff and lay folks felt it was time for an internet Facelift so we went to work!

They already had a strong brand so we just needed to give the website an updated look. This included writing new copy, doing a photo shoot on a Sunday, and recording a new welcome message from the pastor. It also led them to work on a new system to stream and log their services. This component was done in partnership with Cody Cunningham.

First Pres takes their history seriously so we worked that into the new site. We also worked to streamline the menu navigation and bring a responsive element to the site which had been lacking. We also built the site on WordPress to make content updates easy for the staff as they continue their progress into the future.

Check it out here. 

 

Book Review: End of Advertising

For Christmas, my little brother gave me The End of Advertising by Andrew Essex.

I would recommend this book for someone who has worked in the advertising world for a long time or whose thoughts on advertising stem from years ago.

As a digital native and Gary Vaynerchuck fan, the concepts in the book are preaching to the choir. But I am regularly surprised by people I speak with that are way behind the times when it comes to advertising.

To Andrew’s credit, he is a storied and successful advertising man. But he is wise enough to see the changes coming and is writing this book, I think, to help awaken his colleagues to the modern realities of today.

One of the core concepts that most people to figure out is that appointment TV no longer exists. What is appointment TV? It’s TV that people watch at certain time every night/week and, therefore, are there to watch the commercials, too. But with the exception of live sports, almost no one watches live tv anymore, and almost no one watches TV commercials. (With the huge exception being the SuperBowl, even Gary Vee says that it is one of the best deals in advertising!)

This applies also to banner ads and increasingly all forms of digital marketing. Interruption-based marketing, as Seth Godin would refer to it, is becoming less and less effective. Most large companies are just riding the Titanic down to the bottom.

The second thing I loved about this book was the case study of CitiBike. Here is a link to an article Andrew wrote that gives a shorter version of the account in the book.

The big point is here: the next generation doesn’t want to watch your interruption ads. How your company deals with that will determine a lot about how your company succeeds in the next 40 years.

Behind the Scenes: Jackson Chamber Carpool Karaoke

This was a fun one!

 

The Jackson Chamber is one of my favorite clients. They like to have fun, are pretty laid back, get me the information I need, and let me be creative with our projects. That makes for a great combo of traits. When we got together to talk about ideas for this year’s annual celebration staff video, Alexis and Jill decided they wanted to go after one of the trendy styles – a Carpool Karaoke video.

We started with research. I googled and googled how James Corden films his videos and came across this great video from the Met Film School with some excellent tips.  We then set a date to record and I went over to LensRentals.com (A Great Tennessee based Firm!) and had 3 GoPro Hero 6s and suction cup mounts sent over for the shoot.

Normally with Carpool Karaoke, Corden and a guest(s) sing different parts from a lot of songs. This is great if you have two celebrities who are ready to ham it up on camera. We saw it as a weakness during research. If you do not have Adele and Corden, sometimes it can drag a bit depending on the guests. To counteract this, we decided to have everyone sing the same song, which would allow us to use the most entertaining bits of each group, to help keep the video funny and fast moving.

 

Disclaimer: I did not pick the song. But the choice worked out great. It was somewhat ironically funny and had enough vocal parts that people could get into it to add some hilarity to the shoot.

We shot in one afternoon. Starting at lunchtime, we borrowed the executive director’s SUV and set up our 4 cameras. I had a GoPRO Hero Session which we mounted on the sunroof to get a good view of the folks in the back seat. (This turned out to be important because 4-Runners are built like tanks and you can’t see the back seat from the front.) GoPros provided the right size and camera abilities for this task, and the Hero6’s got pretty good audio. (I did have an H4N recording but something went wrong and it failed me, which has happened on a few occasions.)

Each group went through and we had a fun time.

The editing was tricky. I needed to put four cameras in sync and then edit all 8 different groups into one final video edit. To accomplish this, I synced the four cameras based on the 8 groups. I could usually do this by finding a clap or a door closing as my match point. Then, I found each song start in the car and synced it to the audio track. I then had all 8 groups synced to the audio at the start of their own timeline. This allowed me to see approximately what time I made each cut to bring a group into the main timeline and make the next cut at the same time spot on the timeline on a different set of people. This made editing take just 4-5 hours instead of probably 8-9.

I believe in content marketing. With a shoot this intricate and fun, I decided it would be worth the investment to have someone there to take photo and video of this event for Adelsberger Marketing. The photos throughout this article are from Ricky Santos and the behind the scenes video is from Brooks Neely.

Here’s the video:

 

Behind the Scenes: Carpool Karaoke with the Jackson Chamber from Kevin Adelsberger on Vimeo.

Here is the Carpool Karaoke video:

Social Media Win: Burger King Explains Net Neutrality

I always find it interesting when a company takes a stand on a social issue. Even more so when these social issues don’t seem to directly effect them. Recently, Burger King released a video attacking the repeal of Net Neutrality. It would seem, based on emails I received from my Congress people, that Burger King understands how the internet works and how important net neutrality is to business growth for everyone, not just for a few telecom companies.

The great thing about this is how social the video went. Because it was a hot social topic, news outlets and the vast majority of the internet who supports net neutrality, latched onto this great description of how to explain Net Neutrality to people.

 

It also led to long comment discussions which is great for the Facebook algorithm. So without an insane level of production or without spending a lot of money on advertising, Burger King dominated social media for this and created a huge win!

Client Spotlight: La Petite Boutique

Queen Bees

A few months ago I had the opportunity to do a photo shoot for La Petite Boutique. La Petite is a start-up boutique here in Jackson and we believe they are going to be around for a long time. We love taking photos for places that have customers who like them enough to be in the photos! 

This shoot took place at the at White Oak Farms, which provided a great location to work with these ladies. Tabitha, the owner, came prepared with multiple outfits for each model. The number of models and outfits allowed us to constantly be shooting as others were getting ready as the shots were being taken.

The natural light did us some favors. The White Oak Farms has some great windows and the grass was still green then! Golden hour is the best. Tabitha had these photos to use on social and in her print ads at the end of the year as she was ramping up for holiday sales! 

 

Introducing Ricky Santos!

At the beginning of the year, we welcomed Ricky Santos onto the Adelsberger Marketing team! Ricky had been working as one of the interns at theCo and his graphic design skills in particular caught our attention. 

Ricky was born in Divinópolis, Brazil and spent his four years of life there. In 2000, he and his family moved to Jackson. His father opened a painting company and Ricky helped every summer. But Ricky felt like painting wasn’t his career goal.

In high school, Ricky thought he would pursue a career as an engineer because he wanted to do a lot of problem solving. But he soon realized that math was not well suited for him. So he began to search for another career option that involved both creative and practical problem solving.

He found both of these items in the graphic design world. Ricky said, “I’m excited to work with Adelsberger Marketing because it will give me a chance to work with so many businesses in the local community and help them grow their business.”

His favorite projects at work involve creating motion graphics like gifs and branding companies. In his free time, he enjoys playing video games, drawing and dabbling with 3D modeling on the computer, and watching Netflix with his wife. Over the next year, Ricky plans to continue to expand his skills and develop more of the soft skills that are required in the industry.

Ricky and his wife, Patricia, welcomed their first child, Roscoe, into the world in December. Ricky is a Senior at Union University studying Graphic Design. His family attends Poplar Heights. And, in the words of Ricky, “I own more gray clothes than any one person should.” We’re glad to have Ricky working with us.

Book Review: Crushing It – Gary Vee

“Let me define discipline: it’s backing up your ambitions with your actions.” -Gary Vaynerchuck, Crushing It

Gary Vee is back with a new book. Crushing It is a quick read that packs in the value. Gary covers his pillars of how people can create a digital presence and a future of making a living doing what they love. The book breaks down into two main sections.

The first section is the pillars. He walks through how each pillar can push you to build the platform that can potentially give you the audience to make a living by following your passion.

Gary also walks through each of the major platforms for how to create that content. One of the things I think is significant is that he casts a vision about how you could find success using each of the platforms. But one of the good things about Gary is that he does not make it sound like you would find success as a social media influencer in a few weeks or months; he points out that it takes years.

The second major element to this book is that he walks through actual success stories of folks who took the first book, Crush It, and used it to become successful. Gary showcases success stories of different sizes and different industries. Each of these gives us a picture of how hard these folks had to work to become successful.

If you have any interest in being successful in the digital world in our age, this is a book to pick up and read through.

Superbowl LII Ads Quick Take!

Superbowl Ads seemed to have a better year than last year on the success rate. “Success” in this context means drawing positive attention to a brand and especially getting view count after the game online.

My two favorite ads this year did a fantastic job of surprising and delighting the audience.

    1. NFL. The NFL is running ads to try and get people excited about its sport that has been slipping in the ratings some recently. What started off as an innocuous practice scene from the Giants very quickly turned into a jaw-dropping, I can’t believe this is happening, moment. They capture the star power of Odell and Manning really quickly and kept people in longer by introducing the music 10 seconds in. The music sets off such an odd tone for a football commercial, it did a great job of keeping peoples’ attention. The dirty dancing tribute is the kind of thing that will live a long long life in the minds of fans!
    2. Doritos. While they also upset a bunch of folks by suggesting “a Lady Dorito” that didn’t crunch as loud, they did rock the Superbowl with a great use of celebrities. So funny, in fact, a friend made me watch it at dinner last night (I missed it during the game). This ad gets going a little faster than the NFL one and that gives it a social media advantage. Peter Dinklage is going to catch peoples’ attention very quickly and the first kicks in at 4 seconds which is going to help keep peoples’ attention. Great use of pop culture icons and geniously made to break into two separate 30-second spots to get even more mileage out of them!

And one loser.

Dodge.

Dodge decided to hijack the words of Martin Luther King to apply to a truck commercial. Seems in bad taste. To save the idea, they could have taken trucks out of it and just put a small dodge label at the end. The motivational talk by Dr. King is great, some of the visuals are great, but the very clear insertion of the trucks repeatedly was enough to cheapen it. Then to top it off, they decided to irritate every Vikings fan in existence with this one: