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The QR Code Menu And Covid-19

Peter · October 25, 2020 · 4 Comments

Digital Acceleration Baby: The QR Code Menu And Covid-19

This post is about the increasingly ubiquitous QR Code menu as an indicator of digital acceleration in the time of Covid-19. There are few things I personally dislike more than mobile phone usage at the table. However, your mobile is now a critical element in the restaurant experience.

First, a bit of Nike. A few years ago I had a really depressing meeting with my long-term client Nike about the use of a graphical QR code on their worldwide packaging. I gave Nike a very doable idea about what I absolutely knew was a brilliant, low cost, and potentially powerful global marketing mobile experience. Simply embed a QR code into every Swoosh logo on every box that found its way into every house in every country. Turn every dumb box into in-house 24/7 mobile marketing. Bring Jordan into the home.

Yes, QR codes can be graphical. The digital watermark QR code idea was developed by Digimark, another agency client. The idea was to replace the funky black and white code with an interactive logo, picture, or word. I am talking about having an interactive Swoosh mobile marketing tool hand-carried into millions of homes. Easy, cheap, doable. And why the fuck not? Did Nike buy this idea? No. They just stared at me – “Why would we want to send a digital experience into homes vs. our current “dumb, do nothing paper box?’ I was like. “Are you kidding me?” That was the day I decided after giving really smart ideas to clients over my 30-year global advertising career, including winning programs that delivered lots of EFFIES, that I was done with owning an agency. Frankly, it felt like pearls before swine. Am I being harsh? Sure. Read all about the experience and see the Nike presentation here:

Nike Made Me Sell My Advertising Agency.

The QR Code Menu As Indicator

I first noticed the use of QR codes in Tokyo in the early 2000s. I was standing on a street corner in Shibuya and saw some teens pointing their phones up at a QR code on an outdoor board. I went over and saw that their aiming triggered a digital experience appearing on their phones. Whoa!!!

I said, we gotta have some of that.

Cut to like 8 years later and my advertising / digital agency started working with the tech leader Digimarc which owned the patents for digital watermarking. That is how I came to the idea of creating an interactive “smart box”.

Restaurants. Way back in 2018 there were over 600,000 restaurants and 54,000 hotel properties in the USA. All of these businesses are barely touching the opportunities embedded in mobile marketing.

Why just a menu? Digital check-in? Why not more remarketing? Diner or guest data? And, on.

Covid-19 As Accelerant

Cut to 2020. What more can be done?. Covid-19 is acting as a digital accelerant. More people are buying online, ordering food delivery, communicating with brands online, and now using their phones to read a digital menu. We are studying more online and getting digital healthcare, using exercise apps, ordering in.

Less touching and breathing all around.

As more and more people of all ages are becoming even more slavish to their Androids and iPhones… shouldn’t we be seeing more and more uses of the handy mobile code as a marketing tool?

Side note. China, as an example of the future, has gone like 100% mobile. You even scan and pay by phone for the low-cost bao bun on Shanghai’s food street Fangbang Road. We, MAGA focussed Americans, will get there sooner or later.

Your Digital Agency & The Code, And Big Ideas: GO!

OK folks. Your agency should always be looking for new ideas to excite your clients. What can you do with THE CODE?

Advertising, mobile events, packaging, in-store, on the street… For Burger King or your local pizza chain?

Should I send this blog post to Nike? Adidas, Amazon, any brand with a box at a time when in-store interactions are down?

OH!!!! Maybe your agency should!!!

Should Your Advertising Agency Podcast?

Peter · June 24, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Does The World Need A New Advertising Agency Podcast?

The big question… Should an advertising agency create and publish a podcast – now, in 2020? Read this before you launch your new advertising agency podcast. I’ll try to get to the heart of the decision – using me as an example. Here are my first eleven episodes. I did these in a bit more than three weeks.

Check out my Advertising Stories podcast list.

Back To 2006.

My first podcast series was launched in 2006. I was a bit early. Ya think? But, the podcast did support my advertising agency’s brand and helped us to market the agency. After all, it showed the world of prospective clients that we were ahead of the curve.

The podcast was The 360 View, the agency, at that time, Ralston360 (‘360’ = very 2006). I interviewed a range of people including an AOL exec; Rob Walsh the podcasting genius from Podcast 411 (now of Libsyn); a Saatchi & Saatchi president; a major agency search consultant and an ADWEEK editor on what was coming in digital marketing. I also included me just talking about marketing. The show was professionally produced. I’ll be adding a couple of the old audio shows to my new series. Nice to take a look back to what people were thinking in 2006.

Oh, I added the copy from a 2006 show on podcasting, the white paper version, at the bottom of this blog post. I admit it, a good history lesson.

Another podcast history lesson is for you to listen to my two 2006 interviews with podcasting world leader Rob Walch – now of the major podcasting publisher Libsyn. These interviews are informative and have insights that are relevant 24 years later.

My New Podcast – Advertising Stories

Advertising Stories, my new podcast series launched three weeks ago. Go here to see what Advertising Stories will be talking about.

It is 2020 @home-style… No more “professional” production as I am recording myself by myself from my home office in my Mexican house. I am currently getting listed on all of the podcasting platforms (that takes up to two weeks) and I am recording a bunch of early series episodes so I launch with some bulk.

More on what it is and the launch later. However, my personal activity does bring up the question:

Should advertising agencies podcast? Which brings me to this…

Should An Advertising Agency Podcast?

Advertising Agency Podcast Guide

Peter · May 6, 2020 · 2 Comments

I launched a new advertising podcast = Advertising Stories (you can listen to it everywhere). So, why not create a quick advertising agency podcast guide based on my research? Here you go.

FYI: My last podcast series which, I did for my own Portland Oregon agency, faded away in 2008. Ya think I was too early for the podcast market?

Advertising Stories is designed to be entertaining and filled with teachable moments. The keyword is entertaining. Entertaining for you advertising and marketing folks – and, frankly, anyone that just likes a good story from the good old days (or today).

Oh, if you do not get my email newsletter – sign up on the left and you will automatically know when I launch my podcast.

A Quick – Advertising Agency Podcast Guide

There are 213,000 results for the Google search “Podcast Guide” so I am not going into big detail here. I’ll just point you to some of my thinking and the resources I’ve found. [Read more…] about Advertising Agency Podcast Guide

Three Must Have Social Media Content Strategies

Peter · March 8, 2020 · Leave a Comment

Repeated For Effect: Here are three important social media content terms and strategies to add to your advertising agency’s 2020 marketing plan.

The world of social media “content” (what a strange, and a bit anti-descriptive, term) is going through major changes and increasing challenges. Getting seen is muy difficult. Example: there are now over 500 million blogs. There were 150 million in 2010. Instagram addicts upload over 95 million posts and 400 million stories every day. Given this content and brand attention-seeking barrage… How does one stand out in an overrun world of social media content?

I could give you more stats that show how difficult it is to break out from the clutter. I won’t here. All you have to do is a quick search to see lots of websites that list stats for every corner of the social media landscape.

So, back to the question… “how do you stand out?”

Three Social Media Content Terms and Strategies You Should Be Thinking About Using.

1. Omnichannel.

Today one has to think through getting past a one or even two-channel strategy. Too often I see advertising agencies concentrate on one channel. Examples… blogs or LinkedIn or Facebook or Twitter – or you name it. Simply put, in a world of serious customer ADHD, you and your sales prospects will use Youtube, Netflix, multiple phone apps, maybe a blog, and on — today. The way to get out in front of this craziness is to go Omnichannel. Just do it, use more than one channel in your marketing. Here is a Wikipedia definition.

Omnichannel is a cross-channel content strategy that organizations use to improve their user experience and drive better relationships with their audience across points of contact. Rather than working in parallel, communication channels and their supporting resources are designed and orchestrated to cooperate.

2. Content Sprouting.

For years I have been advocating what I have called content amplification. [Read more…] about Three Must Have Social Media Content Strategies