The Art of Marketing :: Mitch Joel

Notes from Mitch Joel on How to Reboot Your Marketing in a Connected World at The Art of Marketing Conference in Chicago.

When Google wanted to explain online marketing to the top brands in the world, they brought Mitch Joel to the Googleplex in Mountain View, California. Marketing Magazine dubbed him the “Rock Star of Digital Marketing” and called him, “one of North America’s leading digital visionaries.” In 2006 he was named one of the most influential authorities on Blog Marketing in the world. Mitch Joel is President of Twist Image – an award-winning Digital Marketing and Communications agency. He has been called a marketing and communications visionary, interactive expert and community leader. He is also a Blogger, Podcaster, passionate entrepreneur and speaker who connects with people worldwide by sharing his marketing insights on digital marketing and personal branding. In 2008, Mitch was named Canada’s Most Influential Male in Social Media, one of the top 100 online marketers in the world, and was awarded the highly-prestigious Canada’s Top 40 Under 40 (recognizing individuals who have achieved a significant amount of success but have not yet reached the age of 40).

Joel is a Board Member for the Canadian Marketing Association and an executive for the National Advertising Benevolent Society of Quebec. He is also a former Board Member of the Interactive Advertising Bureau of Canada. He sits on the content committee for both Shop.org and the Web Analytics Association, and is on the advisory council for many businesses and charitable organizations.

Joel speaks frequently to diverse groups like Wal-Mart, Starbucks, Microsoft, Procter and Gamble, Hewlett Packard and has shared the stage with former President of the United States, Bill Clinton, Anthony Robbins, Tom Peters and Dr. Phil.

Joel is frequently called upon to be a subject matter expert for Huffington Post, BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Marketing Magazine, Profit, Strategy, Money, The Globe & Mail and many other media outlets. His newspaper business column, New Business – Six Pixels of Separation, runs bi-monthly in both The Montreal Gazette and Vancouver Sun, and his monthly column, Ultraportable, is featured in enRoute Magazine. His first book, Six Pixels of Separation, named after his successful Blog and Podcast is a business and marketing bestseller.

• We live in a crazy world of “now what…?”
• Control + Alt + Delete
• How are you going to reboot your marketing to make it work in this connected word?
• WTF?
• What you do now is the real opportunity.
• People look at this with a “glass half empty” mindset. Really, the glass is overflowing.
• You will never see an opportunity like this again.
• What will you do with this moment?

5 Movements.

1 – Direct Relationships

• Never before in the history of business has a business had the opportunity to have  a direct relationship with their customers.
• There is a war between brands and their partners.
• If you don’t have a direct relationship with you customers, your business will be lost.
• Think about everything you do from this day forward as a consumer.
• How often are we competing with our partners for a direct relationship with our customers?
• Facebook owns the direct relationship with our customers on Facebook.
• There is an arm race for “Likes.”
• The value of direct relationships has changes everything.
• You should be in control of all of your direct relationships.
• You have to fight to have the right to have the direct relationships.
• The individuals are ahead of the marketers today.
• You have to be empowered to have the direct relationship.
• Kickstarter allows you to have the direct relationship.
• The chasm between having an idea and starting a business is wide.
• People aren’t looking for intermediaries they are looking for a direct relationship.
• Pebble Watches. 
• Last year, over 75% of projects started on Kickstarter shipped.
• Kickstarter raised more money to start businesses than the National Endowment for the Arts.
• Citizens vote with their dollars today.
• We have amazing power to have direct relationships.

2 – Have Sex with Data

• Move beyond customer intimacy and get down to the good stuff.
• Imagine what happens when the worlds collide.
• We have to do a much better job at educating consumers.
• There is a massive abuse of the word privacy.
• In most cases, it’s an issue of personalization. We have to do a better job of making it work.
• When you ask a customer what type of advertising they want, they will tell you they want it to be personal, highly targeted and relevant.
• Consumers think if we are following them we are infringing on their privacy. We need to do a better job of communicating that you’re trying to build what they want.
• Example: the Amazon Price Check App. Amazon is learning our buying and shopping habits.
• We comply because it’s awesome.
• The world of big data is bigger than you can imagine.
• Fab.com was started by 2 guys who wanted to start a social network for gays and lesbians.
• They realized that Facebook did the job just fine. So, they became a flash sale site.
• They focus on cool, contemporary products. Everything they do is driven through social commerce.
• They are able to curate products because they know how you buy and are able to see the entire sphere of who the consumer is and who they are connected with.

3 – Utility (or Death)

• The most valuable real estate you have is your retail space.
• The most valuable real estate is on your iPhone.
• Do you work for a brand that could earn the right to be on the homepage of people’s iPhones?
• 25% of branded apps are only used once.
• All of those apps suck, that’s why they don’t get used.
• We use apps that are awesome all the time.
• Can brands shift from being narcissistic to utilitarian?
• Example: Charmin Sit or Squat app.
• They provide you with utility.
• If toilet paper can do it, what’s stopping you?
• The idea of real estate has to shift. It’s not a location anymore.
• LEGO recognized the value of having a direct relationship by creating retail stores.
• Example: Lego’s digital box.
• Create something that’s a utility.

4 – Passive vs Active

• When it comes to social media, “whatever.”
• What we need to focus on is what social media has brought to the rest of media.
• The digital channel brought an active media form.
• There is a push for interactive media.
• TV, radio, newspapers, etc are a passive media.
• Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are active media.
• The real value of any platform is when you get active with it.
• Banner advertising is a passive media that was injected into active media.
• Take a step back from everything.
• Look at your consumers. Are they active or passive?
• Why do we have an obsession with making everything interactive?
• Start looking through the eyes of your consumers.
• Be careful with your media. Plan around your customers.

5 – One Screen

• We talk about the four screen world: TV, mobile devices, computers, and tablets.
• The only screen that matters is the screen that is in front of your consumers.
• What are you going to do to make your connections even more valuable?
• Today we have auto-synchronous technology… you can read a book in your Kindle, iPad, or mobile device.
• All of our screens don’t matter.
• Children today will grow up in a world without a keyboard or a mouse.
• Sales of personal computers is dropping.
• The iPad to outsold every other PC manufacturer last year.
• Smartphone sales blew past PCs sold last year.
• They’ll be nearly twice PC sales this year… this compares to 360 million PCs and 1.8 billion mobile handsets sold globally…
• In 1999, there were 39 million broadband users worldwide.
• Today there are 1.2 billion people getting broadband Interenet access on their phones.
• How does your website look on mobile?
• How long do you think it will be when you’re interacting with your mobile device as you are with PCs today?
• The ways in which we use the web today will be mobile in under 2 years.

• That’s the reality of our world today.
• This isn’t a fad or a trend.
• People aren‘t going to forego technology tomorrow.
• The movement has happened.
• This is your opportunity to move forward.
• Example: Square. Square’s mission statement: No more cash registers.
• We are experiencing dramatic shifts.
• We need to look at these differently because of exponential growth.
• What happened with the iPad was exponential, not lateral.
• Everything you are seeing in our modern world is driven by exponential growth.
• Look at your communications exponentially.

Closing

• Consumers became hyper-connected and are completely untethered.
• We are the Matrix, they are Neo.
• What are you doing to build powerful direct relationships with your customers?
• Are you competitors or partners fighting you for them?
• Start having sex with data. Leverage the information you have and bring it together. There’s amazing value there.
• Utilitarianism marketing. Be active with media. You have to become a publisher. Don’t forget about passive media. Invest in active media.
• Remember we live in a one screen world. We are unprepared for the one screen world. What are you doing to connect with people regardless of what screen is in front of them?
• These movements have happened. They are trends they aren’t projections. They are the future.
• Buying attention is no longer the name of the game.
• We are part of narrative.
• We can tell stories.
• People hate and skip shitty advertising.
• People love great advertising.
• A great ad is a great story.
• We are in the storytelling business.
• You don’t need an intermediary to tell your story.
• Create the story.
• Use your platforms to tell your story in new and creative ways.

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Were you at The Art of Marketing? What were some of your favorite quotes from this session or key take-aways?