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Street Smart Marketing with your host, Sean Tracey,
episode one, what happened to my marketing budget?
Hi, I am Sean Tracey, founder and creative strategist at Sean Tracy Associates.
This is the first of our series of video,
white papers called Street Smart Marketing.
Our team recently returned from attending and sponsoring the New England
Financial Marketing Associations,
that’s Nfma for short fall conference in Newport, Rhode Island.
We met a lot of great marketers.
We heard some very insightful presentations and had a number of conversations
focused on similar questions.
We’re following up with this series offering answers and solutions to what
we heard. Were on the minds and agendas of these bank marketers,
but we know the same issues are coming up for our clients in other verticals,
including healthcare, higher education, and even retail sales.
Question number one was,
how do I work effectively with a smaller marketing budget?
Uh, okay. Before we get started, uh,
a couple things I’d like to go over in the budget.
Do we have anything in the budget today? No, I don’t think so.
Well,
you’ll find if you tune into this series that many of the questions and answers
are interrelated. Like this one,
keep an eye out for one of the next episodes about creating brand consistency
because achieving brand consistency across marketing channels and platforms,
we’ll extend your budget or even save you money.
I would like you to crunch those numbers Again, it’s programmed.
There’s no such thing as just crunch ’em. Just crunch ’em. Please
Crunch.
Did it help?
But my first suggestion to work with a smaller budget is to take a hard look at
all the things you’re currently doing that cost you time, resources, and budget.
Are they still working? What’s the ROI on each of these?
This scary black bar is what you spend on things that no one
ever, ever needs, like multiple magic sets, professional bass fishing equipment.
How did
You do this so fast? Is this PowerPoint?
Here’s a take on that from FDA’s media planner, Laura McBrien.
I think a a a lot of,
especially financial clients have become complacent in some of
their strategies.
Things that worked 20 years ago aren’t necessarily working today.
Some solutions that were prevalent or still are maybe not
delivering the awareness or campaign goals that you’re looking to achieve.
So it’s important to introduce new mediums, whether it’s digital,
but you can’t discount the power of traditional media. And I,
I do believe they compliment each other.
So we strongly recommend that even if you have a digital campaign,
that you compliment that with, uh, other more traditional forms of,
uh, media.
Thanks, Laura.
My next suggestion is to make sure you’re not doing something that costs you
time and money just because your competitor is doing it at the NEMA meeting,
Jason Devey, co-founder and CEO of Bytes said,
don’t bother to collect email addresses if you don’t intend to use them to sell
them something and only track what can make you money.
I totally agree. Who cares how many Facebook followers you have?
What is that doing for you? Here’s a great example.
I had one super smart CMO client who we helped do a competitive analysis
and she pretty much eliminated everything that used the same tactics and
channels that her closest competitors were using.
That’s 180 degree thinking and it worked.
So do something that differentiates you.
Their success is related to standing out, not fitting in.
It’s a fad. Paint ’em a picture. Uh,
something like one wants to be the needle in the haystack,
not a haystack.
You can’t stand out if your ads are bumping up against everyone else in your
market saying the same thing. That is,
unless you have something really different to offer them. But unfortunately,
we know that in the banking world especially most banks have similar products
and similar rates. The next tip is create and produce two year budget.
It’s better to do a great job on an achievable creative idea than to under
produce an idea and it ends up falling flat because you don’t have the budget to
produce the concept properly.
And my final suggestion for working with a tight budget is to make sure you have
a great big idea that will cut through the clutter.
This allows you to spend less money on media, but still be seen and remembered.
Here’s one of my favorite examples.
A tiny media placement for a steak restaurant with a huge and memorable story.
It reads, how good is our steak? Last week,
a customer’s choking on a piece and refuse the Heimlich maneuver.
Now that’s brilliant advertising. That’s it for this episode.
Thanks for watching.
Keep a lookout for the next in our street smart marketing series. Thank you.
Thanks for watching Street Smart Marketing with host Sean Tracey.
Street Smart Marketing with your host,
Sean Tracey, episode two.
How can I have good video content?
Hi, I am Sean Tracey, founder
and creative strategist at Sean Tracey Associates.
And here’s another episode in our series of video,
white papers called Street Smart Marketing.
We’re answering questions my team heard at recent marketing
conferences they apply to most marketers,
so we’re sharing them with you.
One question that came up a lot,
how can I have good video content?
First thing to know is who is your audience?
What’s their style? What are
their interests, their pain points?
What would they like to see that you can tell them
or show them about your branded product?
Would they be more convinced
and motivated by client testimonials and explainer video
or footage of your product in action and in use?
My second suggestion is to optimize your video
for each different platform you’ll use.
If it can play with audio on your website
or be posted on social media,
it’ll look different than it will on Instagram
or distributed as a pre-roll video.
And make sure to use the hashtags
and keywords whenever you can.
Hey, how’s your daughter? Hashtag real talk. She’s great.
Actually, we play a lot of games. Hashtag patty
cake, hashtag peekaboo.
Hashtag got your nose. Hashtag. Speaking of I got your Nose.
I think somebody played that with Lord Voldemort.
Hashtag Just watch, prisoner of ban hashtag Get my wizard on
hashtag Professor Snape hashtag Hurry
Pop. Now
another question we’re always asked is,
how long should my video be?
Well, you can’t expect people
to watch a pre-roll video longer than 15 seconds.
Remember, they probably didn’t ask for it,
and it’s served up to them
because they searched for something
else that was related to that.
So for that platform, your video needs to be short,
powerful, and image or graphics oriented.
Now, if your video will be primarily on your website,
that’s another animal
because people who are on your website are more likely
to be interested in your brand or product.
So they might even prefer a longer story
and more information.
In fact, use any length you want.
You’re not restricted to a 10, a 15, or a 32nd story.
It could be 18 or 34 seconds if
that’s the time you need to tell your story.
Well, I thought it was a very lovely story
and you tell it so well.
It’s such enthusiasm,
But like I used to tell my digital storytelling students
at Emerson College, use whatever time you
need, but not more.
Be as brief as you can be.
And to make a long story short, too
Late, here’s a take from Brad Solomon, president
of SC Digital who spoke at the recent NEMA conference.
Good video can, can crush, right?
Uh, bad video just disappears into the abyss.
Uh, we do find that having a mix of video and photo
and graphics, um, can really enhance the overall campaign.
Like, like now with social media like Facebook ads
and Instagram ads and so on.
You know, they really want you to have
5, 6, 7 creatives at a minimum.
Really, they want you to have 10 creatives at a minimum
and every single one of your campaigns, um,
to really be able to maximize the algorithm’s ability
to fit the right creative with the right person.
If it’s a good video, it tends to get a lot more views
because the platforms want to share it with more people
because they want to keep their viewers enticed
and on the platform.
Um, and they just show you.
They just tell you this ad is performing well.
That’s one of the nice things about the digital advertising
side is it just gives you all that intel.
Thanks, Brad. That was great information.
Another question we heard is what’s the best platform
to use your video on?
The answer is all of them.
Share your great content on the web, in social email,
newsletters, blogs, industry events,
conferences in your lobby, point of purchase in stores
or anywhere and everywhere that your customers
and prospects are.
If you’ve ever heard me speak at a
conference, you also know that.
I say telling a good story is the most important thing
that you have to do in your video
When you’re, when you’re telling these little
stories, here’s a good idea,
Have a point.
It makes it so much more interesting for the
Listener.
So make sure your story has a strong and narrative arc
and don’t skimp on production value
that’ll reflect badly on your brand.
Use great music to underscore the video.
Hire great voiceover talent if you need one.
Have a clear call to action, something
for an interested prospect to do, like subscribing
to your email list
or using a clickable link, visiting your website
to learn more and follow that CTA through with a way
to purchase if appropriate.
People are impulse driven today.
You never know how many people will just buy now
unless you give ’em a chance. Has
Anybody ever told you you have a
Serious impulse control problem?
Finally, track
and analyze the performance of your video content.
Wherever you can see what’s working
and what’s not, fix any issues, make improvements.
Don’t just set it and forget it. Maybe AB test.
Two different creative messages.
It’s easy to get data from your website
and digital marketing, although it’s tougher
to get data from a TV buy
nonetheless, I’ve had clients embed codes into the call
to action so they know for sure
what video message is driving sales.
That’s it for this episode. Thanks again for watching.
Keep a lookout for the next in our street
smart marketing series.
Thanks for watching Street Smart Marketing
with host Sean Tracey.
Street Smart Marketing with your host, Sean Tracey,
episode three, what’s in a name?
Hi, I am Sean Tracey, founder
and creative strategist at Sean Tracey Associates.
We are answering common questions that we get from clients
and prospects and we’re offering some tips and advice.
Here’s a topic that we love to dig our teeth into.
It’s naming or renaming a product or an entire business.
Our agency has named banks credit unions, checking
and savings accounts, money markets, cashback programs,
hospitals, physician practice groups,
urgent care facilities,
and even a hamburger
that sold internationally at colleges and universities.
Currently, we’re renaming 170 5-year-old bank
and a Canadian whiskey.
The bank wants to expand beyond its current market
and its name is geographically specific.
Where are you from? Nowhere. No one’s from nowhere. Ja.
Alright. That is pretty much nowhere.
We focus group tested their current name and other markets
and it’s definitely hindering their
movement into new territories.
The whiskey we’re renaming currently retails at $90 a
bottle, which the company knows is underpriced.
The multiple international awards
that it’s winning recently tell us
that this spirit punches well above its weight class.
They have a truly amazing product
that warrants a price point, probably north
of $130 a bottle.
Unfortunately, their current branding fails
to communicate the quality that’s inside the bottle.
So to realize the full market potential,
we’re crafting an evocative new name, a sharp logo,
and a richer backstory
so we can reposition the product in the minds of consumers.
The whiskey speaks for itself.
This is a spirit that it can hold its own
with top shelf offerings.
We simply need the externals to relay that.
Upgrading the aesthetics
and narrative to underscore its pedigree should enable
charging a higher price point
that’s well deserved, but think about that.
The whiskey in the bottle won’t change,
but they’re gonna charge 50% more
because of a better name logo and well-written backstory.
That’s the power of branding.
What’s this? That’s the good stuff.
Here’s the good stuff. May last a long time.
So what’s in a good name and how do you dream one up?
Now, I’ve done naming for over 25 years. It’s a process.
It’s repeatable, it’s even a bit scientific.
There are naming principles that we follow,
but maybe you should think first, what kind
of name will best serve the brand or the product?
What type of name will resonate
with your prospects and your audience?
Here’s a take from Monica Han, a bank marketing SVP
that we worked with to name a newly merged bank.
Well, I think an, uh, a new name
and a new brand re-energizes an or an organization.
It is a fun process.
It is like birthing a child
and if everyone’s involved, they’re, they’re proud of it
and it just, it breathes new life.
One of the most challenging name changes
for me was the change to Bay Coast Bank.
So Citizens Union Savings Bank.
Some people thought that we were a credit
union, which we were not.
Um, it’s a mouthful. It’s um, it had a very old logo.
The bank was founded in 1851
and so it just wasn’t contemporary.
It wasn’t penetrating the minds of consumers.
The new name was immediately accepted,
and so there was quite a bit of buzz created
around the new name.
And so I would say that the brand awareness jumped.
It didn’t go down at all.
Funnest part of the process was working together with all
of the employees in a creative capacity
that, that makes it fun.
You do have diehard customers who are loyal to the old name
and you have some diehard employees who are loyal
to the old name and they don’t like change.
And so it’s,
it’s not gonna be a kumbaya moment for everyone.
And so you should just be prepared for that,
but you’ll get over it.
You’ll get past the hurdle.
Thanks Monica. That was a really fun
project to work on with you.
So here’s a few of the principles that we use.
The Juliet principle is an empty vessel
or an arbitrary name that has no meaning, like Tide, Nike,
apple, Starbucks.
Arbitrary names may be more easily trademarked
but take longer and cost more to give meaning and relevance.
The choice principle, suggestive names
that use phonetic symbolism
to convey meaning names like Cheerios,
Oracle, and Microsoft.
These are slightly easier to give meaning to
because they may remind you of the brand or the product.
Then there are descriptive names.
Now, as you might think they describe
the brand or the product.
These are names like Bank of America, general Motors
and Digital Equipment Company.
They’re easy to explain, people immediately get it,
but they’re much more difficult to protect legally.
Then there are global, regional, and local names.
These are all geographic in nature.
Names that relate to colors, person-based names,
associative names and acronyms.
Now, personally, acronyms are my least favorite
because I think that they’re completely emotionless.
Hey, did you know that Haagen-Dazs is a
completely made up name.
It was designed to make the ice cream sound expensive,
decadent, and foreign,
but it was created by a guy in New Jersey out of thin air.
Here are some of my rules
or tests for what’s in a good name.
It is gotta be positive.
Does it make you feel good to hear it? Is it emotional?
Does it make you feel good to say it or think about it?
Make sure it’s memorable.
Easy to spell, easy to say and pronounce.
It should trip off the tongue. Make it meaningful.
I always like to have a good backstory for a name
and how it relates to your company,
your brand or your product.
Even if it’s a made up name,
you can make up a story about how it applies.
People love a good story.
Be sure it’s unique and distinctive.
It’s gotta stand out from your competitors
and make sure it’s ownable.
It’s absolutely no good to fall in love with a name
that you can’t protect your trademark.
And of course, one of the most difficult things today is
that you’ve gotta have a great simple.com URL for the name.
So how do you come up with these names?
Brainstorm, use lots of brains and don’t edit yet.
Evaluate, refine, and combine is the next step.
But make sure you have at least five
names that you could accept.
Then you’ve got to vet them.
Check with the US Patent Trade Office
for conflicts and availability.
But I always use a trademark attorney to do the final check
to often find conflicts that you cannot
make sure a good URL is available and snatch it up.
ASAP. Lastly, or firstly, get experienced professional help.
Lemme make one thing clear to you,
rabbi, I need professional help.
Well, that is for damn certain
and I’m glad you can admit it
because generally that’s the hardest part.
We’ve done naming for companies
that unfortunately have failed on their own for months
or even years now, it’s not their fault,
they’re not experts, they don’t have a process,
but it’s more expensive to have to do it over again than
to do it right the first time.
That’s it for this episode.
Have fun with your naming project.
Call us if you need us, and thanks again for watching.
And keep a lookout for the next in our street Smart
Marketing series.
Thanks for watching Street Smart Marketing
with host Sean Tracey.
Hi, I am Sean Tracy, founder
and creative strategist at Sean Tracy Associates.
And here’s another episode in our series of video,
white papers called Street Smart Marketing.
We’re coming to you today from an exciting TV shoot
for one of our best clients.
The spot we’re creating announces the renaming
and rebranding of 170 5-year-old community bank.
Watch for its debut on our channels or call
or email me for a copy or link.
In this series, we’re tackling questions that come up
for my team, and I’d like to share the answers with you.
One question that comes up a lot is, why do we have
to be consistent or why can’t we change our design
and ad styles more often?
Well, when you’ve been working with one brand
for many years, often we see that the brand
or the client marketing team gets bored with their own ads.
They want to change the style
or the messaging often, I think mostly
because they’re bored. We
Want something else, we want something.
But think about it, they’re seeing these ads
or executions over
and over in the development stage, the production stage,
and then when it’s running, they seem thousands of times,
but the consumer sees them once,
twice, or if we’re really lucky,
One more time, And have a media frequency on a channel
that the customer uses daily, maybe three times.
So the customer is probably not bored with your ads.
It’s the opposite. If they’re good ads,
if they move their emotions
or of interest to them, they even welcome
seeing them more than once.
It’s reassuring.
Consistency is the one strategy
that markers have but seldom use.
But think about McDonald’s arches in their catchy jingle.
It’s like a brand tattoo on your brain.
I bet you knew it when you heard it.
Well, McDonald’s doesn’t even have to print these words
and you sing it in your head.
That’s Sonic branding
and it consistently appears in every one
of their commercials reinforcing the real estate
and the brand equity that they have
established in our minds.
But consistency goes beyond logos and jingles.
It’s about creating a unified experience
across all platforms.
From website colors to social media posts,
everything should feel connected.
So why does consistency work?
Well, if a company consistently appears with the same look
and the same message, our brains think I know them. I
Know you. I know you.
I can trust them. It makes your brand instantly
recognizable and builds trust.
But the messaging matters too.
Our job as marketers is to develop a clear, consistent voice
that resonates with our audience, a voice
that speaks their language.
Are you the friendly expert or the bold innovator?
Speak with one voice across all your marketing materials
consistently and your ROI will.
Thank you. Nike’s just do it.
Campaign has conveyed a message of determination, winning,
and drive for decades.
They haven’t always used all those words,
but the message of inspiration
and innovation to every athlete in the world has
to be be in every ad that they do.
Here’s a take from one of our longtime
clients and collaborators.
Thank you for inviting me. I love this topic.
My name is Mary Lauren ura
and I am the Senior Director
of marketing here at Bigelow ti we are continually trying
to tell our story, and that story doesn’t change.
The history doesn’t change. Our values do not change.
The importance of making the best possible
product does not change.
So there is no story to change. That is who we are.
We wanna make sure there’s a comfort and a familiarity
and connection with who we are as a brand, who we are
as a family, who we are as a product.
So those things don’t really change. We evolve.
We evolve with the consumer.
We understand what the trends are and the flavors
and ingredients that, um, are, are part of that trend,
but we wanna make sure that that fits with our consumer
and our brand and again, who we
Are. Here’s another
thought. Frequency is your friend.
Be consistent with your media appearances too.
Show up regularly on your chosen channels
to keep your brand fresh in customer’s minds.
Studies show that it takes a minimum of seven impressions
of a message before your audience even recognizes it.
Seven impressions. 7, 7, 7. Wow.
In today’s media saturated world, that’s a lot to achieve.
So are you ready to unleash the power of consistency?
Take a critical look at your marketing efforts.
Are you presenting a unified image and voice?
Do you show up for your audience regularly?
Does your customer sing your music theme for you?
We’ve been lucky enough to warm our way into many
of our customers’ prime targets brains
with effective musical marketing.
Research has proven it. Remember, consistency is the key
to turning a good brand into a great one.
Get your prospects singing your song.
That’s it for this episode.
Thanks again for watching,
and keep a lookout for the next in our street
Smart marketing series.
Thanks for watching Street Smart Marketing
with host Sean Tracy.
Hi, I’m Sean Tracy, founder
and creative strategist at Sean Tracy Associates,
and I’m excited to say that in this episode
of Street Smart Marketing,
we’ll be hearing from Joe Campanelli, who’s the president
and CEO of Needham Bank.
He’ll talk about being authentic
to your brand and its values.
In this series, we’re all about unlocking the secrets
to marketing that connect, build, trust,
and drive real results.
And today, we’ll dive deep into the heart
and soul of our personal equals profitable methodology.
It’s called the authenticity engine. Be
Yourself.
So it’s not about your brand’s horsepower.
What truly separates your brand in today’s crowded
marketplace is your heart power,
The power of Your authenticity.
Think about it, we’re bombarded every day
with generic messages,
artificial intelligence from faceless corporations.
But what we crave is genuine connections.
That’s where authenticity comes in.
If you’re being authentic, you can’t pretend
to be something that you’re not.
It’s about embracing your real brand values
and speaking the truth in everything you do or present.
Tell me, does it
Think about Harley Davidson,
they’ve embraced their authentic message as an outlaw.
They defy convention and their customers love that.
If they released a campaign that portrayed them as,
let’s say, a sympathetic caregiver
or a pay it forward, do-gooder,
no one would believe it. It’s just not them.
That’s not you. All super successful brands have
embraced their authentic self.
Times May change, but some things remain timeless.
Feel how much softer and smoother dove leaves your skin?
Dove is one-quarter moisturizing cream.
I’ve been using Dove Beauty Bar more than 25 years.
Patagonia embraced its explorer message.
Disney embraced their magic persona.
The power brands have one thing in common. Authenticity.
Take a look at your brand values. They are your compass.
They define who you are and what you stand for.
So don’t be shy. Use every platform at your disposal
to showcase how your values align with your audience.
This is more than just a tagline, it’s your soul.
One of the best examples of living into your brand promise
and doing what you say is Joe Campanelli, president
and CEO of Needham Bank.
Our agency worked with Joe and Karen Marriott, SVP
and Chief marketing Officer,
and their team on a rebrand that launched
during the early days of covid.
Can you believe that? Well, Joe and Karen persevered
and rolled out a very significant marketing program
throughout the pandemic and came out winners.
So now I’d like to introduce you to Joe Campanelli
to tell us all about it.
When you talk about authenticity, it really starts
with the individual who you are
and with the value systems, you’ve, uh, you,
you cherish the most, always be true to yourself.
And, you know, that kind of starts a leadership progression
and those types of things that have stayed
with me my whole life, really.
You know, from day one, I’ve always said culture matters.
Values matter. How do you build a long-term relationship
with anyone in your life?
Whether it’s on a business level, personal level,
if you’re not authentic, it’s not who you are, what you do.
And so, for instance, when PPP hit you with us
and it was, um, you know, speed, uh, finding a person,
people panicking, we didn’t know what was gonna happen.
Uh, you know, people were on respirators.
It was an unknown that, you know,
that the world had never faced something like that.
And when it came to small businesses, you know,
these people spent their life
and, uh, you know, focusing on building something
that now is in jeopardy.
And so putting yourself in their shoes,
they want to talk to people.
So we made sure that we had the phones banned.
Uh, you know, every, every call mattered.
We processed every application as quickly as we could.
Uh, regardless of size.
I know we had a little bit of debate.
There was a $1,200 application.
And so and so that’s not important.
I said it is important to them who we to decide
what company makes it and which one doesn’t.
Uh, we wanna help all companies.
Uh, they’re important to our community.
Uh, they may be, may not be a direct, uh, customer of ours,
but they certainly are, are part of our community,
and it’s incumbent upon us to serve as them.
Thanks, Joe. Not only for being a great client,
but a friend Joe
and Karen called me personally
during the early PPP days offering to help me
with my application.
And they turned it around in a day.
That’s a commitment to small businesses.
So I’d like to show you a clip from some
of the work we did with Joe Karen.
And for Needham Bank,
authenticity is the engine
that underscores FDA’s personal equals
profitable marketing strategy.
By showcasing your company’s values, celebrating your story,
and embracing transparency, you’ll build trust
and forge genuine connections, the result,
a loyal customer base that champions your brand.
Alright, that’s it for this episode,
but we’ve only scratched the surface
of our personal equals profitable methodology.
Stay tuned for more insights on how to craft marketing.
That’ll truly resonate.
Thanks for watching Street Smart Marketing
with host Sean Tracy.