Agent-X » Influence Marketing http://blog.agent-x.com Agent-X Fri, 16 Sep 2011 14:13:45 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Consumers LOVE the word “free.” http://blog.agent-x.com/2010/03/consumers-love-the-word-%e2%80%9cfree-%e2%80%9d/ http://blog.agent-x.com/2010/03/consumers-love-the-word-%e2%80%9cfree-%e2%80%9d/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 20:30:35 +0000 Jill http://blog.agent-x.com/?p=404 Consumers LOVE the word “free.” Even more so in recent years. We love it so much that we go out of our way to get some freebie that we don’t even need. Free pen? Yes please. Free t-shirt? Sure! Free dessert? I’m full from dinner and really don’t need… well okay, it’s FREE!

On the flip side, someone has to pick up the tab; when paying for the free ‘swag’ companies often find it difficult to see the value in giving things away for free (rightfully so). In the past, we could only assume that our message would get out there to increase brand awareness and visibility. What if you were able to measure the number of impressions you gained to truly gauge the value of the campaign? With the addition of online forums, social venues and blogs, it’s now easier than ever to measure success and ROI even when you’re giving it away for free.

An insightful article from Event Marketer: “The ROI of Free” http://www.eventmarketer.com/article/roi-free, points out a few examples of companies who were able to get a tangible return from their “free campaign.”

You remember Denny’s Grand Slam give-away during the Super Bowl, right? Last year they gave away 2 million Grand Slam breakfasts in 8 hours, and in return they received “$50 million in news coverage, 47 million hits on their website and thousands of emails.” Little Debbie gave away one million cupcakes and in three weeks their fan base on Facebook grew from 5,000 to 50,000!

Before you just start handing stuff out, there are a couple things you need to do first:

  • Define your overall goal of the campaign as well as what will make it a success
  • Make sure the appropriate channels (website, social, etc.) are set up and monitor and track the numbers!

Now, anyone know of any good freebies out there? Post them in comments!

jill

]]> http://blog.agent-x.com/2010/03/consumers-love-the-word-%e2%80%9cfree-%e2%80%9d/feed/ 0 Word of Mouth http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/11/word-of-mouth/ http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/11/word-of-mouth/#comments Wed, 18 Nov 2009 22:15:31 +0000 brian http://blog.agent-x.com/?p=349 WOMMA

We all know the importance of viral communications in today’s world. We’re learning even more about it during the WOMMA (Word of Mouth Marketing Association) Summit this week in Las Vegas.

The WOMMA Summit is featuring brand speakers that discuss their real world WOM marketing programs from some of the top companies in the world.  They are presenting case studies and educating the audience on the importance of word of mouth and how it relates to their company.

We have been working on some great projects involving word of mouth tactics, one of which is a corporate blogger event.  What a great way to spur the spread of conversation about your brand.  Get people that are passionate about something and give them your brand experience to inspire them to write about it and share it with all their followers -word of mouth!

We’ve met some great people and have seen some amazing presentations here at WOMMA.  Tune in with us… Just go to womma.org and sign up for the live feed to see what the speakers have to say…and spread the word!

]]> http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/11/word-of-mouth/feed/ 0 Marketing is Reborn. Welcome to Communications 3.0… http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/08/marketing-is-dead-welcome-to-communications-3-0/ http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/08/marketing-is-dead-welcome-to-communications-3-0/#comments Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:48:16 +0000 david http://blog.agent-x.com/?p=140 We’re in an age of open conversation.

The Steketee Greiner Company is a global communications strategy, facilitation and measurement firm based in Grand Rapids, MI. We’re global because you are too, whether you want to be or not. It’s just the way things work now. Your job is to make sure you understand and are involved in the conversations going on about you. We can show you how. And we can do it in a way that shows you the return on your investment.

Communications 3.0
You don’t have complete control of your message anymore, but don’t panic. If you’re willing to listen, you can work with your customers to generate real efficiencies and value.

Here’s How You (and We) Do It
Quit trying to market so much, start listening, analyze the conversation, create a plan, inject a message, measure its effectiveness, tweak if necessary and repeat.

So, What Exactly Am I Buying from the Steketee Greiner Company?
Consulting Group
Research
Strategy
Measurement

Communications Group
Creative
Experiential
Digital
Public Relations

The Payoff
You can expect to know the return you’re getting on your investment, because we track, monitor and report on a regular, recurring basis to insure that you’re on strategy and on budget.

Welcome to the next wave of global communications.

Contact:

Brian Steketee/Partner
brian.steketee@sgandco.com

David Geiner/Partner
david.greiner@sgandco.com

Eric Messing/Business Development
eric.messing@sgandco.com

Phone: 616-855-6368

]]> http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/08/marketing-is-dead-welcome-to-communications-3-0/feed/ 1 The value of information http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/07/the-value-of-information/ http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/07/the-value-of-information/#comments Thu, 23 Jul 2009 12:59:19 +0000 brian http://blog.agent-x.com/?p=31 Recently I’ve had the opportunity to sit through a lot of discussions around the use and translation of market intelligence. Most of these have been focused on the usability and functionality of the various sorts of tools that grace our industry and help us “listen to the conversation” in the Social/Digital space. There are a lot of these floating around. From Radian6 and Techrigy, to PR Newswire and my new favorite, Dow Jones. Everyone is casting out lines and focusing on listening to all of the noise out there. What’s even more interesting is the there seems to be such little focus on what all the noise actually means. It’s one thing to display a pretty graph, bar chart, or impression metric, but in the end… What is that really telling you…? It gets even more interesting when you start trying to set up the knowledge paths between business functions (Legal, PR, Sales, Marketing) where you have different audiences with different needs trying to make sense of it all. In the end, the data needs to be real time and have the ability to translate into key insights for business strategies and tactics.

It’s a multi-dimensional world out there. The relational database is so yester-year.

]]> http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/07/the-value-of-information/feed/ 0 Does the "Free Market" economy make sense for Marketing/Advertising agencies http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/07/does-the-free-market-economy-make-sense-for-marketingadvertising-agencies/ http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/07/does-the-free-market-economy-make-sense-for-marketingadvertising-agencies/#comments Sun, 12 Jul 2009 05:58:23 +0000 brian http://blog.agent-x.com/?p=23 I can be a believer at times. Running a small agency over the past two years has given me a new perspective on terms like “overhead”, “profitability“, and “% of billable time”. The model really does need to be changed. Does free work here? How can we change our structure to take just a little % of a brands “win”, or ROI if you will, and still allow us to continue to innovate, share, and grow. I like the concept of the true win/win. The closer you can align your agenda with that of your clients almost ensures a strong finish… If not at least a great attempt. So how do you translate that into revenue? A small % of the total unearned/earned impressions generated from your activities? A “fee” for the number of successful conversations that you have enabled through the use of your tools, platforms, or communication medium? How about a small commission for each new product sampled, believer made, or actual conversion to purchase? I’d be happy working towards that goal. It is in effect the goal that we are always working towards. The difference is how you create a compensation structure that rewards mutual success and is ultimately track-able. Tracking keywords is one thing. Picture tags are another. I’ve seen more tools try to capture this only to not deliver the “real picture”. That picture is something that changes – with each new client and each new business objective.

]]> http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/07/does-the-free-market-economy-make-sense-for-marketingadvertising-agencies/feed/ 0 Inspiration for today's markets and economies http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/07/inspiration-for-todays-markets-and-economies/ http://blog.agent-x.com/2009/07/inspiration-for-todays-markets-and-economies/#comments Wed, 08 Jul 2009 11:18:05 +0000 david http://blog.agent-x.com/?p=6 I try to listen a lot. Although some of my employees may not agree with that statement, I have found that by following and listening to key influencers in the market is critical to keeping up with the rapid pace of technologies impact on our business. The following is a short list of those who should be heard.

Jeff Jarvis
Malcom Gladwell
Chris Anderson

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