So unless you’ve been living under the same rock that allowed me to miss the whole Book of Eli thing – what a great movie, why didn’t someone tell me – you’ve by now seen the Old Spice Man commercials. The buzz around them is how much “free” exposure this campaign has received. But here’s the thing. They actually spent a ton of money and effort to prime that pump.

Almost every client I speak to is lured by the potential of free internet marketing. “I’ll just build a Facebook page and my business will go through the roof” is involved in nearly every conversation I have these days in one form or another. And while Facebook and YouTube were critical to the success of the Old Spice Man, it didn’t happen the way our local businesses think it can.

Here’s some comments from someone I respect to which I’ll add our local spin for you.

When Old Spice, W+K et al, made the decision to produce extremely rapid custom content based on the popular character, they changed the very way we will look at advertising going forward. The big question for everyone is: What does it all mean? Here are a couple of thoughts.

1. Creative and production matter (still)! It seems that the death of high-quality content in the advertising world has been greatly exaggerated. With the Old Spice Man, we saw that a great creative concept and high quality production work can still trump most challenges facing advertising.

Since the local advertising bar is much lower, you can leap over your competition with just a little extra effort. (more…)

There’s a huge trick available to you to ensure that your advertising – both online and in traditional media – is more successful in 2010 than it has been in some time.  The trick is… to stop looking for tricks!  I know, I just blew your mind right?

It’s true though.  Consumers (and search engines for that matter) have reached a point where they are sophisticated enough to see through your tricks.  So they way to leap back ahead of your competition as we slog up and out of the recession is to get back to the basics.

Which, in a way, makes me sad.  You can count on me to be interested in every new trend to come along – at least to look anyway.  When somebody builds a better mousetrap – particularly if this gizmo makes my business run smoother – you can bet I want to be there to jump on the bandwagon.

So feel free to join me in my mourning, and then let’s move on to the mood swing that accompanies the feeling of finding something “new” to work with - the stuff we knew we should have been doing all along. (more…)

“I have a Facebook page.  My sister told me this is all I need in order to make LOTS of money from the internet.”  If I had a nickel for everytime I heard this, I’d have retired young by now.

Don’t get me wrong.  Facebook can be a valuable part of your internet strategy.  (Heck I might even sign up one of these days.)  But if you truly want to be found on the internet by more than your friends and family, I’m going to recommend you reach a little further.  This chart is the best explanation I’ve found so far to show how things fit.  I’ve lost the info on the source, so if you know, please let me know so I can give credit where its due.

What it explains is that Facebook and other social media (Twitter, Linked In, etc.) make up the top of your pyramid – kind of like the sweets in your grade school food pyramid.  It’s fun, it tastes really good, but too much will give you an upset stomach.  In this case, the crumblies come from too high of expectations.

Facebook may be the best (more…)