Either you’re already following the Bailey Gardiner troops on Twitter, or you’re tired of hearing about it. Chances are if you know what it is and you’re tired of it, you’re not on it. So to simplify the trial and error process, here are a few steps to get you started. I promise it will take no more than 10 minutes. Need some convincing? Here’s 12 reasons to join Twitter.

1. Go to http://www.twitter.com. Enter your chosen user name, and I recommend making it something easily recognizable. So, if for example your name is Jon Bailey, I’d recommend using the name “JonBailey.”

2. Let twitter search your contacts to start you out with some familiar faces to follow. Spare your friends and skip the invite to those in your address book who aren’t already on Twitter. It’s like AA, they’ll get there when they’re ready.

3. Now you have an official account and it asks you, “What are you doing?” Don’t answer that. Nobody cares what you’re doing. Give us something good, like a helpful link, a comedic realization, a timely piece of news.

4. Write something! First note that your name is no longer “jonbailey”. It’s now, “@jonbailey” and I’m “@lizzied.” So if you want to say something to someone in particular, you write just that, “Hey @lizzied, nice blog post - look I’m on twitter!” Remember, you only have 140 characters per post.

5. Follow and be followed. What does it all mean? The great thing about twitter is that you don’t get littered with info you don’t want. You pick who you want to receive info from (follow) and others choose to follow you. So everything you post is visible to only those who follow you and those who search you. Use the search tool to find people talking about your interests. Find people in your industry and look at who they’re following and who is following them - go ahead and snag a few of them for your own. If you want to be followed, just write some interesting things and consider your key words if you want people with common interests to find you. Chances are once you follow someone, they’ll return the favor.

6. Try a direct message. Being that anyone can find you and read what you’re posting on the World Wide Web, if you want to say something private, follow this format, “d jonbailey Don’t tell jamieortiz that I put all her office supplies in jell-o molds.” Because of the “d” no one but @jonbailey will get that message.

7. If you’re unlike me and you sometimes leave your computer, consider clicking the “settings” tab, followed by the “devices” tab to set your twitter account to your phone. You’ll only receive direct messages to your phone, but you’ll be able to twitter your messages through text message.

8. And my best tip of advice for getting started: Go to http://www.twhirl.org and download the time-saving platform that feeds your twitter feeds into an Instant Message-like platform, eliminating the time it will take you to continually check the twitter website.

Now you’re tweeting, but you’re a novice. In the words of @samirb, “Once you set up a twitter account, remember there’s a short learning curve, like going from a PC to a Mac.”

Have no fear, I’ll be back with some best practices in a following post.

What questions do you have? Don’t ask me what that picture is, you’ll figure it out on Twitter.

Recently I was at a Halloween party. It was Halloween, coincidentally, and into my buddy’s basement-turned-dance-club walks Colonel Sanders with a bucket of chicken, offering it to everyone. At the time I remember thinking, “wow this guy is seriously costume committed.” The costume was spot on. It looked as if the Colonel himself had risen from the grave. So having started my third beer, I did what anyone else would have done and grabbed me a delicious piece of extra crunchy deep-fried yum-yum.

That moment, I smelled something besides the Colonel’s secret recipe. What I smelled was marketing in disguise. Here’s what made me suspicious:

KFC is hardly doing cool enough advertising right now that somebody would roll into a Halloween party dressed as such. The Colonel is certainly an icon, but most Halloween getups are based on what’s current i.e. Sarah Palin, Joe the Plumber, Michael Phelps and what have you. Maybe I’m wrong. Maybe that guy just really liked KFC and wanted to be the Colonel for Halloween. I guess I’ll never know.

What I want to believe is that KFC had this awesome guerilla idea and executed it to a tee. My buddy lives in a house with four other dudes. They sent out a massive event invite on Facebook and half of San Francisco attended this thing. How easy would it have been for KFC to go onto Facebook, find a bunch of big Halloween parties and send Colonel Sanders out to them to give away free chicken?

Later I mentioned the encounter to my buddy and asked him what he thought. Neither of us knew the guy, but we both agreed it was pretty cool that someone would come as Colonel Sanders handing out chicken.But if we had come to find out that KFC paid for the Colonel’s attendance that night, it would have been instant lame. Why? Because true guerilla marketing occurs when the target doesn’t know they’re being advertised to. It has to be sneaky. The advertiser’s cover can’t be blown.

You hear “guerilla” used all the time now to describe marketing tactics that are unconventional. And while unconventional is a big component of effective guerilla marketing, we need to remember to keep incognito because now more than ever no one wants to be caught by advertising.

When your client is Chick-fil-a (a fast-food chain based in Atlanta that serves lots and lots of chicken entrees)…you present a campaign featuring nothing but cows.

Can you imagine the look on that Marketing Director’s face? How about the awkward silence that followed the presentation? Believe it or not, the best campaigns are the ones that are so different, they make you feel uncomfortable. They make you think it could never be done. They aren’t what everyone else is doing. What makes it a great campaign is just that — they are so unconventional that they actually spur a response from the consumer you are trying to reach.

The Chick-fil-a Cows have been in circulation for over a decade. They are a team of cows that joined forces to encourage people to eat chicken rather than beef (aka a hamburger at competitors).  The campaign is genius, differentiating Chick-fil-a from its fast-food rivalries like McDonald’s and Burger King. A truly guerilla effort on the cows’ part, they hold signs that are misspelled and often have local messages. The cows have reached all types of media including TV, outdoor, events and sponsorships.

Hindsight, the campaign seems like a no-brainer. A funny, tongue-in-cheek way to get attention. However, it probably wasn’t that easy from the beginning. There was probably some squirming. Some doubt. Some push back. But lo and behold! Creativity prevailed! Hats off to you Mr. (or Ms.) Marketing Director, for going against the grain. For letting your agency give you a great creative direction that has spanned a decade!

Marketing Director Moral of the Story: Do something different. Albert Einstein’s definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different response. Can we really expect consumers to respond to us if we keep feeding them the same thing over and over?

Agency Moral of the Story: It is our job to make our clients feel uncomfortable. To make them rethink the way things are done. To make them step outside the norm. It is our job to make consumers pay attention.

A couple of months ago while the agency went through a brand redesign and web redo, our Executive Creative Director sprang a doozy on us. “I know this may sound a little weird,” he began, “but I want to put a Love page on our site.” Huh? As he explained it, every agency on the planet lists its past client experience. What about the clients you want to work with? The clients you would LOVE to work with?

Thus the Love List was born. We selected a few of the brands we love the most. The ones we would climb mountains to work with.  He figured, maybe it won’t work. But what if it did?

And you know what? It did.

A couple of weeks ago we got an email from the interim CMO at Aptera, a very cool new car concept being born right here in San Diego, that is on our list. Someone at Aptera is plugged into the Internet, cause they found us. And they’re coming to the agency this week. Isn’t that cool?

Often marketers ask their existing (or potential new) agency how much things cost, and that is one of the hardest questions to answer.  What does good creative advertising, design, public relations, social media, interactive marketing cost?  We end up in these stand-offs, playing the game of “you first, no you first” and everyone walks away from the table frustrated.

Fact is, good marketing is not cheap.  Just like anything else in life, you get what you pay for — and quality has its price.  We have the good fortune of working with some incredibly high quality clients whose products are synonymous with the finest in their categories — Tiffany & Co., Brookfield  Homes, the Setai San Diego Hotel, The Mark — the list goes on and on.  If you would not skrimp when purchasing the best solataire diamond money can buy (yes, it comes in a little blue box) then why would you cheat yourself with low quality marketing?

Most agencies like us price themselves fairly — you can check around and see our fees are all pretty comparable. After all, we are in San Diego and although we’d all love to get away with Manhattan agency pricing, there’s a reason we’re not there.  And a reason why we don’t charge those kind of fees.

But here’s the thing I really don’t understand.  Since creativity costs money, and good creative requires a decent budget, why ask agencies to produce champagne campaigns on a beer bottle budget?

Now, I think we’re pretty darn good at wringing every last morsel of power from each dollar of our client’s budgets.  We painstakingly take into account every opportunity to provide the lowest costs we can, so that these savings can be passed on to the client — resulting in more dollars to spend on their marketing impact.   We negotiate with media and vendors to provide fair and reasonable bids, and pass that savings on to our clients.

It’s our job to manage the budgets efficiently and productively, and we excel in this area.  Even when costs must be cut, we partner with our clients to figure out how and where to eliminate dollars in a way that still supports the brand efforts most effectively.

In this current economy, we have had a couple of clients tell us of their need to reduce marketing spending.  Go figure.  Although it’s not fun for either party, what’s been rewarding is our clients’ approach to our partnership with them.  They ask for our opinion and participation in the budgeting process, allowing us to help them identify cost cuts that make sense for them and are not knee-jerk, arbitrary measures.

So, if you are finding yourself in the uncomfortable position of cutting marketing budgets, here’s a couple of things to consider as part of your process:

• Use your agency partner as just that — a partner.  Have them help you decide the best places to cut.  If they are truly the trustworthy and credible resource you have hoped you hired, then they can be trusted to help you decide how to manage a smaller budget.  And without self-serving motivations.
• Determine what things in your budget are nice-to-haves, and what are must-haves.  Prioritizing your line items based on what will bring you the most sales or revenue is going to help your decision process.
• Consider shifting dollars from broad, far-reaching campaigns to ones that are more directed and targeted.  These should allow you to measure results more effectively, and prove up ROI.
• Take it more slowly.  Maybe that “big bang” campaign is no longer possible, but you can still use the creative materials and launch on a multi-phased schedule.
• Don’t throw the baby out with the bathwater.  Just because the budget may be smaller, it may not be smart to stop programs completely — especially if you have invested dollars in creating programs upfront.
• Don’t compromise quality for quantity.  It doesn’t work with cars or clothes, and it won’t work in marketing either.

Creativity DOES cost money.  But that money can be spent effectively, efficiently and productively if the client and their agency talks openly and plans together in partnership.

These economic times will change — they always do.  But creativity never goes out of style.

Amazon recently teamed up with Fisher-Price to change the packaging on 19 of their best-selling products.  Instead of the typical packaging designed to provide shelf-appeal, they are offering the same products in an easy-to-open, recyclable container that uses no excess packing materials.

Here’s a comparison of the Imaginext Adventures Pirate Ship packaging:

As an aspiring do-gooder, I’m struck by how much sense this makes.  So let me get this straight.  It’s the same exact product.  I don’t have to break out grandpa’s pocketknife to get it open.  And I’m doing less harm to the environment.

Is there anyone out there who would pick package #2?

In the marketing industry it’s hard to sacrifice aesthetics when we’re trying to do good work.  Sometimes, though, we may want to think about doing good instead - especially if doing good is what our target market values.  They will understand the environmental benefits of purchasing the brown box over the mountain of plastic.  And they will understand we had them in mind when they experience the ease of use.

The ad below ran in USA Today Main News on November 5.

On the surface, the ad seems like a smart concept.  But the ad fails to account for the psychology of the American public the day after the historic day.  As such, it falls under the category of “Clever” but does not fall under the category of good.  

Where does the ad fail?

Over 64 million people voted for Barack Obama.  Ostensibly, most of those people were attracted to Obama because of his 21-month-long message that  “We are not a collection of Red States and Blue States — We are the United States of America”.  I was one of them who drank the purple kool aid.  I woke up on November 5 excited about the mere possibility that a new less-partisan political age was upon us.  66% of people under 30 years old voted for Obama.  I would imagine that The Sopranos’ sweet spot is in that demographic.  The ad turned me off on a day I was ready to embrace a new political landscape that at the very least is less devisive than it has been.

Does the ad resonate with the almost 57 million McCain (who also touched on a message of coming together) voters that woke up November 5 disappointed?  Maybe.

And maybe McCain voters are more likely to enjoy The Sopranos than Obama voters.

I think that even most McCain voters felt proud of the country for rallying together and electing the first black president–regardless of political affiliation.  The news of the day certainly was not about partisan divide.

The ad would have been more appropriate for 2004 when there was not such a message of unity from both campaigns.

Last night, post election results, I was reading the latest Seth Godin book “Tribes” and was struck by the similarities between what Godin was saying, what some of us have been saying about social media, and how Obama and his team ran their campaign. I believe this was one of the most successful examples of a political social media program in history and there’s a lot to be learned from it.

In Tribes, Godin writes that to turn a group into a tribe you need two things:

• A shared interest
• A way to communicate

Obama presented a consistent message that resonated with people who shared an interest (whether they realized it at the time or not).

The campaign then executed a sophisticated social networking program that is unprecedented in any  marketing campaign - political or not (this is the ‘way to communicate’ part).   This week AdAge named Obama Marketer of the Year, and clearly he (and his team) earned it. From email to online banners, from blogging to Facebook, from Twitter to texting, this campaign used it all. And then the tribe took over.

Godin goes on to say that “a leader can help increase the effectiveness of the tribe and its members by

• transforming the shared interest into a passionate goal and desire for change;
• providing tools to allow member to tighten their communications; and
• leveraging the tribe to allow it to grow and gain new members.”

The Obama website provided just the sort of tools a passionate tribe member would want by first asking how you wanted to get involved and then matching the resources to your desire. Ask yourself what your customers really want and then give it to them. They will reward you with loyalty.

Godin writes: Every Tribe Is a Media Channel.

Never was this more true than watching the Twitter streams and reading the blogs about Obama. The tribe was on its way and sharing their feelings and passion was a daily adventure. People like Erin Kotecki Vest, whose blog is Queen of Spain, spent two years as a passionate media channel. She was a tribal leader, no doubt.

Certainly, with all the challenges our new president will face, there may be some mistakes along the way. Godin has a short chapter called “How to Be Wrong” and it reminded me of something that we at BG have believed for a long time. If you don’t make mistakes, you aren’t taking enough risks. Just be sure that you learn from them. Godin says the secret of being wrong isn’t avoidance, but being willing to be wrong and realizing that wrong isn’t fatal.

And finally, Godin writes about hope. “Leaders…have hope.” If there was one thing that the Obama campaign hammered home month after month, it was the message of hope. It’s a powerful thing and in marketing it’s part of the emotional connection you have to make with your customer.

Our client Vet-Stem sells the hope of a healthier pet. Del Mar Racetrack sells the hope of walking away a winner. And beautyencounter.com sells the dream of a more beautiful you. Thinking about what your brand promises leads to the hope you sell.

Whether or not Obama was your candidate, there are a slew of social media and branding lessons to be learned from this campaign that I think will be studied for years to come.

Seaport Village’s Ben & Jerry’s locations are giving away free ice cream cones on election day from 5-9 p.m. as an “Election Confection” celebration.

In-the-know coworker, Callan let me know that Baskin Robbins was also doing some great work with the elections, so I checked it out. Not only are they doing great work with the elections, but with social media and branding overall. It’s a natural fit; people like to talk about stuff they love, and who doesn’t love ice cream!?

Check out The National Flavor Election Flavor Debate ’08. The Republican “Straight Talk Crunch” flavor vs. the Democratic “Whirl of Change” flavor. If you look to the cold and creamy to make your election decision, it looks like Obama will be running the country thanks to peanut-nougats, chocolate-covered peanut brittle and a caramel ribbon.

More importantly, Baskin Robbins and their Flavor Debate made all the right moves.

• Their Facebook page has 54,996 fans and they’re interacting with the brand through hundreds of wall posts and pictures.
• I took 2 minutes to type “Baskin Robbins” into monitter and people are talking! They weren’t talking casual mentions of BR either. They were talking about the Flavor Debate ’08 – exactly what BR’s smart PR folks wanted them to talk about!
• They’re represented on Flickr
• They’re talked about on Youtube
• They run a twitter account
• They’re saved on delicious
• And – they have a strong Wikipedia page

Ben & Jerry’s isn’t doing so bad themselves. With similar social interaction as Baskin Robbin’s and a heated debate on ice cream’s involvement in politics (2 subjects I never thought I’d combine in one sentence) their Facebook page has 287,819 fans!

So what are you doing to become one of these fine examples of successful social media campaigns?

I’m reading an interesting new book by Martin Lindstrom called “buyology” I learned about in a Newsweek article.  It’s pretty quick read and highly worth the time investment.  His premise is one that I have believed for most of my marketing, advertising and branding career — that people lie about what they say they want.  Their brains behave differently than what their mouths tell you.  It’s sociology, psychology and common sense all rolled into the emotional componentry of the branding process.  Lindstrom calls it neuromarketing.

Lindstrom did a study where he tracked people’s brain scans as they answered questions about their purchase behaviors and response to brands.  What he found was quite interesting — that our brain circuitry attracts us to certain brands because of emotional cues inherent in that brand.  These cues may have nothing to do with our need for the product, but simply our wiring tells us we relate to that brand’s attributes.

Like my unnaturally strong attraction to Apple.  But that’s another blog post.

One of the most interesting (and scary) examples in buyology focuses on smokers, and why the Surgeon General’s warnings mean absolutely nothing to their brains.  In fact, their wiring is somehow attracted to those warnings, and what was meant to deter them from smoking actually attracts them to it.

Emotional bonding in the branding process is not new science.  But what Lindstrom brings to the equation is a cool scientific approach that actually proves up what we branding strategists are always telling our clients:  create brand attributes that connect with your customers on a human scale.

When we take a client through the branding process, one of the exercises we employ is a “personality assessment” of the brand. We ask the participants to think of their product as a person, and then name that person’s traits:

• Is this person warm, friendly, strong, believable, honest?
• Is he a leader?
• Does he make you feel hip, trendy, and carefree, or instead is it safe, secure, nurtured and pampered?

Whatever the set of attributes you attach to your product or service, they are the truest representation of how people will emotionally bond (or not) through your marketing.

From there, we can devise a strategic marketing plan that taps into your customer’s emotional bond, helping them to become more likely to purchase.  They are drawn to your brand because there is something vaguely familiar tugging at them to do so.

Fascinating. And  I always thought I would make a crappy scientist. Who knew?