I recently had an intriguing conversation with Beth Lietz, SVP of Ashgrove Marketing. By the end of our call I quickly asked if she would be interested in authoring a guest blog post highlighting several items we had just covered. What became clear to me during our spirited conversation was her passion for effective “outside the box” marketing solutions. Several established brands and properties have seen impressive results from Ashgrove’s custom support; however, I also believe that some of their most successful solutions could easily be written off to close minded decision makers. I think you’ll find that Beth will be able not only to encourage the best practice of thinking outside of the box, but she offers great examples of HOW their agency has done so in a way that both properties and brands can benefit from. It’s a great application piece. If you’re looking for effective activation strategies to better brand yourself and your partners; I can assure you, this is a great read for you. - Emily Taylor
When you are reviewing your marketing or fundraising budget, what elements of it are essential? Which bits might you do away with if your budget was to fall, and which bits would you hang on to like life itself? What elements would you like to add, and are they truly less important than what you have already?
We are living in an age when we must open our minds. Funds are only getting harder to come by, and while many companies and causes believe they are ‘thinking outside of the box’ to get value, the figures sadly show that, for the most part, they aren’t. It is essential that we drop all of our assumptions and look at everything in our marketing toolkit afresh, to see the true value of each potential medium.
Let me give you an example of that happening. As a marketing agency, we have worked with a major manufacturer of prestige automobiles for many years – a globally recognizable brand. They recently decided to cut their marketing budget and it was difficult for them to decide what was going to go. After implementing a company-wide survey, it was decided unanimously that there was one element that was not to be touched under any circumstances because of the lasting brand exposure and advertising opportunities it offered in homes and offices across the US far in excess of anything else in their toolkit. It was their custom branding calendar program.
Be honest. Does it shock you that the humble calendar was held in such high esteem by such a major brand – a brand that can afford national television advertising or huge billboard campaigns? Would you give such a medium the time of day if I were to pitch it to you as your next big marketing or fundraising effort?
They think differently, and so should you.
Once you start getting into the real facts and figures, you can quickly start to justify that company’s decision. A 2010 study showed that despite the increased popularity of electronic calendars on PCs and mobiles, only 32% of Americans use such a calendar daily, compared to 80% who use a wall calendar. Despite being relatively cheap, even when custom developed with your own branding and advertisements, calendars keep working for a full year, pitching 12 different messages from inside a person’s home or office. Unlike just about any other kind of advertising, it becomes a welcomed part of their routine, an appreciated daily tool. Over 70% of people can recall the name and message of the company or cause on their calendar, and they are even prepared to pay for the privilege – the same study showed that the majority of people will pay up to $15 for a calendar if they aren’t given one as a gift. Almost 80% feel that calendars are important, very important or extremely important to their daily lives. Imagine associating your brand with something so widely utilized, functional and appreciated!
That basic product offering is why our primary tool at Ashgrove is the humble calendar, and it is one that we develop every year for a bevy of well-known national brands, both corporate and charitable. However, it isn’t just the product itself that makes our calendar programs so popular, it is also the campaign strategy that underlies them. We are a marketing company first and a calendar design company second; the reason we make so much of them is the flexibility that they offer in terms of integrating with other media and engaging with would-be donors or customers.
You can distribute them for free and cover the cost by leveraging a corporate sponsorship; sell them to local elements of your national cause for them to sell; use QR codes to drive them to web donation pages each month; place seasonal calls to action; distribute vouchers in association with retail partners; personalize them for individuals, or with the details of local chapters of your organization. We have done all of these things and more with dozens of different clients, all of which needed a different strategy, depending on their objectives.
What I propose is this: go back to your marketing budget and ask the questions again. Re-assess everything. Let nothing remain unchallenged and remain open to the chance that something you might have dismissed is really the key to future success. This kind of open mindedness could send your organization on the fast track to the next level of impact. While some established methods might work, it is dangerous to get “stuck” there without considering “unusual media” and the potential ROI it could bring. The millions of dollars we have been able to raise for various cause organizations tell me that this open mindedness not only works, but it can quite possibly produce the same results for you too.