McDonalds CMO Mary Dillon on Music and Authenticity

The official Day 1 of MPlanet was excellent. You can see some pics and a complete wrap up on the MPlanet Blog. At lunchtime Mary Dillon, the global CMO for McDonald's sat with a small group of invited bloggers (will put up the list of bloggers this morning at some point) to chat, learn and discuss what we wanted to know and what we could add to her experience at MPlanet. The conversation waved from moms and health issues to transparency in their subjects to McDonald's view on Social Media and where they stand.

I tried to focus around Gen-Y and youth culture and thought going the music and authenticity route was a good way to get a conversation brewing. My question in a nut shell was

"how does McDonald's deal with authenticity in music for their commercials?"

Mary came back saying that McDonald's has moved away from celebrities in the U.S. to push their products because they don't have to anymore. She also noted that they search for undiscovered talent and use an agency, Leo Burnett, to discover and develop relationships with that talent.

Check out our video below and then 2 commercials Mary showed us during her keynote that deal with subjects from my question.







I hope you guys enjoy and I do want to thank Mary for granting some amazing bloggers and thinkers her time to chat with us and discover that blogging is an influential way to get their word out.

More from MPlanet coming soon!

-Greg Rollett
(I apologize to those that sent in questions via Twitter, we ran out of time quickly but I did use some of them to form the basis of my question and some of the authenticity issues that came up in general conversation covered some of the questions as well - I will get the full video up sometime this week as well so you can see that and dissect it!)

Gen-Y is NOT Your Average Blogger

photo by: new-york-city

Are you surprised? I am not sure that I am. I think the targeted demographic of most blogs is focused on attracting the Internet savvy Gen-Y consumer base, however, eMarketer says the median age of bloggers is a precise 37.6 years old.

Yea, this is 2 straight posts mentioning eMarketer, but the stats and research they provide is awesome. It also lends to topics that make people think. Including me.

Upon reading this I took a look at my RSS Feeds to see who most of the authors were. I took out all the Brazen Bloggers for this study, sorry guys.

I won't go through the whole list but will show some of my favorites and my guess of their generational demographic (and for those bloggers that I make fell old, call me out, it's just a guess)

Brazen Careerist (Career Advice) - Gen-X
Cheezhead (recruiting information and SEO for HR) - Gen-X
Derek Sivers (CD Baby, Music Marketing) - Gen-X
Evolvor Media (Digital Music Marketing) - Gen-Y
Florida Venture Blog (Dan Rua, Florida VC Celebrity) - Gen-X
HypeBot (Digital Music News) - Gen-X
Mashable (All things Social Media) - Mix of Gen-X and Gen-Y
Matt Cuts (Inside the mind of a Google Genius) - Gen-X
Instigator (VC, Entrepreneurship and Social Media) - Gen-X
ProBlogger (Blogging Tips) - Gen-X
Rock For Hunger (Hunger and Homelessness Awareness) - Gen-Y
Scobleizer (Internet Celebrity) - Gen-X
SEO Moz (SEO tips) - Group of young Gen-X'ers
Seth Godin (Marketing Guru) - Gen-X
yPulse (Gen-Y Marketing) - Written by Gen-X with a new Gen-Y assistant writer

Number of Brazen Blogs in my Reader = 8

Assumptions that can be made, which is in no way official, is that Gen-Y may not be ready to lead or give advice for a larger audience. The authorities on the web are the people who have the jobs that Gen-Y wants.

We do not have the experience that most people in those shoes have. The Gen-Y and Millennial leaders who are reaching out with their voice to an influx of people are the ones who either:

• Have worked under a great Gen-X leader
• Work for a great Gen-X leader
• Work with a great Gen-X leader
• Have some great mentors, internships, etc with successful people and business professionals in Gen-X

This is not to say that Millennials do not have a voice that can impact change. It's just that most of this generation is not ready to be a leader. Gen-Y cannot bark out commands, hold crowds, be inspirational with their words, nor lead teams without the experience of working with those that have been there before us.

Yes, the business landscape is changing. Yes, Mark created Facebook at 20 or something close to that. But as a businessman, Facebook is NOT making money. Great ideas do not always equal money in the bank.
Great ideas + a great business strategy + great leaders = possible success.

This is why Gen-X is the median age of a blogger, because they are in a position to teach us something. They are in a position to share their experiences, failures, successes and so on. And we listen. In the eMarketer article it showed that 55% of millennials (ages 13 to 24) surveyed read a blog. We want to know what the leaders of today know so that when our time comes we will be educated and prepared.

Gen-Y will change the world, but Gen-X is changing it right now.

If you are Gen-Y, who are you learning from? Gen-X'ers, who do you want to teach, better yet what can you teach? We want to learn!

-Greg Rollett

Stop Being Lazy, Start Creating Content

photo by dead_squid

I have set up a few blogs for friends, clients and family. It is my number one recommendation for people looking to get ahead in their filed, make some beer money and generate connections that wouldn't exist without the internet.

The number one problem lies in the Field of Dreams quote,

"If you build it, they will come."

Sorry folks it doesn't work like that. Most clients give up after 2 or 3 posts with minimal hits, no comments and no additional sales. Just a big fat bill from the mean old social media marketing guy (thanks G-Ro for nothing, and try to get me Twittering either!).

Where they fail is in the "build it" portion of the quote. It is not just about throwing up a Blogger or Wordpress template and slapping up a post about your products. And while I make that perfectly clear, they think that all the hoopla surrounding blogging and Social Media will draw thousands of new users to their site tonight, or maybe in the morning.

The build it part requires the following parts:
1. Consistent, interesting and compelling posts and content.
2. Engaged conversations on your site and outside of your site.
3. Link building
4. Reputation Management (Google Alerts = free and easy)
5. More content that your clients, fans and customers want to read.

For some people, coming up with content on a regular basis is not the easiest thing to do. For artists, musicians, extreme sport athletes and other creative types this should be an easy task. For students or experts, I am sure your field has enough interesting and breakthrough material to keep you going for a long, long time. I've seen blogs on everything from laundry techniques to sneakers.

Content isn't all about writing novel sized posts with crazy research. It's about engaging your readers. Photos from your night on the town, last show and your fans is a great conversation starter. Videos of your latest trick you landed or a videoblog with a joke of the day will keep people coming back for more and hitting the subscribe button.

The problem with all of this is that your marketing team cannot hold your hand and make the content for you. It needs to be authentic. It needs to be thought out and come from the maker. It needs to take time. But I guarantee that it will be time well spent.

Blogs are an amazing source of inspiration, great place for information, networking and resources. But they are also a place to keep eyeballs glued into your brand, your company or your industry. You just need to start posting, commenting and building your audience. Patience pays off for a great blog.

What do you think? How did you get over the hump of minimal readers and inconsistent engagement? We've all been there.

Greg Rollett

(additional photo by daysies)

New Day, New Site, New Blog, New Possibilities

It's Monday. The start of a new work week. The sound of an alarm going off too early. The thought of knowing you are going to have some good lunch due to the fact that you went grocery shopping on Sunday.

For me, today, Monday, January 28th, 2008 is a date that embraces change, possibility and, well, a lot more work to do.

You might have noticed some things have changed here at the blog. What you might ask? The domain for starters. I'm back on Blogspot for the time being. Not a huge fan of this but I am having troubles setting up an effective blog page over at the new site. (Open to suggestions) I have also changed this blog to reflect on me and not my company. Therefore the new title is Greg Rollett, a Blog About Music Marketing, Social Media and Millennials. The content won't steer too far from what was being produced here, and will continue on a frequent (hopefully daily) basis.

The biggest news is that we have officially launched RollettMarketing.com. There are still some glitches and some pieces are missing, but with all the client meetings and the office move in date approaching, we had to get it up.

I would love for everyone to go and check it out, tell me what you think about it and what you think needs improvement (i.e. what sucks) and how it functions. My team is filtering through it today and we have found a few glitches with both the text and the images.

As I mentioned above, the move in date for the new office downtown is now Friday, February 15th. Desk shopping at IKEA Orlando was unsuccessful, but we did get some great ideas.

We are looking for funding. I am not going to be shy about it. We are a music marketing firm that would love some start up cash. I have some great ideas for applications and resources that will require funding and a great developer to come into reality. In the meantime, we are here for our clients and the indie music scene and will continue on this track.

We are really excited and really tired. I am back at the 9 to 5 today and tonight head to the 6 to 12. I'm putting it all on the table and say that I am shooting for July 1st to be the day we go full time in the Music Marketing Business.

There's lots to do, lots to learn and (hopefully) lots to earn. The key is to be in tune to the music industry, the social media world and the needs of bands and music industry related businesses. We have a long road ahead of us and like Ryan Healy said this morning, its time to stop planning and start doing. That doing my friends, starts today!

Here's a quick sneak peak of the site:


Oh and I did get The Skateboard Sneakers CD online at Last.FM. The full post will be up tonight.

-Greg Rollett

Social Media For the Job Seeker

As promised (only a few hours late) I am posting the slides and notes from yesterday's presentation at the Tampa Bay Workforce Alliance.

| View | Upload your own

If you are looking for help, here are my profiles on the mentioned sites:
Myspace
Facebook
LinkedIn
Twitter

Blogging Platforms
Blogger
WordPress
LiveJournal

Job Board Social Networks
Health Career Web
Jobster
Careers in Gear

If anyone that was at the presentation, or anyone viewing this now, has any questions please put them in the comments or email me directly at rollettmarketing [at] hotmail [dot] com.

-Greg Rollett

Recap of AD2 Orlando's Future of Advertising Event

Just got home from AD2 Orlando's Future of Advertising at Citrus on Orange Ave in Downtown Orlando, pretty tired. But I want to get this out there and rehash some of the things I picked up and learned. Im going to go through this session by session. So here she goes.

Guerilla Marketing Session led by Forest Young of PUSH


-High respect + no love = brands (customers b/c we have to be)
-Low respect + high love = trends (newest movie, cd, etc)
-High respect + high love = lovemarks (Apple-brand ambassadors)

-Need disruption and cause a wow factor
-Hopscotch is the ultimate viral brand
-Have volunteers act as the promotion for the event (hand made signs and promo)
-Homemade grassroots signs and promo, hold rally, put campaign into action, celebrate the event that you are being a part of
-Thank you cards for volunteers. Make site with all the pictures of the volunteers, use internet to amplify th results
-Go to high visibility, trafficked and media driven sites
-Guerrilla works best with integrated forms of marketing and media
-Future is profits, profits, profits with minimal financial investments
-Sweat vs financial equity
-Do the right thing. Ethics vs intrusive
-Works best when amplified
-Future of advertising is now, what are people doing now?! Pay attention to current trends


Erik Hersmon from Zungu


-Social Web is who you are and what you do
-Unorganized and un-centralized, you have no control
-2 scenerios a) oh crap, what do we do? and b) how do I call attention to myself
-Story about Dell. Last year their customer service sucked and their customers let em know. 50% of conversations online about Dell were negative. They created 3 sites (blog, idea storm and forum). Now they are at about 23% negative, still not good but much improved!

5 TIPS TO THINK ABOUT
1. Have a blog strategy
2. Leverage customers
3. Start conversations and start listening
4. More real PR and less advertising
5. Internal Champions

B2B E-MAIL-MARCELLE TURNER (MINDCOMET.COM)


Challenges of deliver ability:
-Bounces on the rise
-Anti SPAM rules getting tougher
-Only send useful, relevant emails to people that ask for them

Stay current and competitive
-Test
-Double opt in and easy opt out
-Report SPAM link
-Send from dedicated IP address

Viral E-Mails
-Broadcast outlets multiplied
-Analytics are measurable
-Low cost
-Dynamic content
-List build

RYAN FRAZIER- FUTURE OF OUTDOOR –CLEAR CHANNEL


Problems with old billboards
-Turnaround times
-Production costs
-Limitations

LED TECHNOLOGY ALLOWS THEM TO:
-24 HR Turnaround
-No Production Costs
-Unlimited possibilities
-Unlimited color
-Basically a flat screen on the highway
-1250 Spotsper day per advertiser
-Target specific people at different times of the day
-Community dialog
-Only 13 markets now but they will be everywhere

WAGNER BUCCI DOS SANTOS-EXPERIMENTAL MARKETING


-Tell me I'll forget, show me I may remember, involve me and I will understand!
-Consumers market-how do we connect with them?
-Much more competitive and crowded today
-Consumers are in control

EXPERIENTIAL MARKETING
-Bridges the disconnect between consumers and brands
-Persuades comsumers emotionally
-Every major brand has a experiential campaign
-Has become more than just impressions, we need to see ROI
-Impulse buying is based on emotion, this is where we try to hit them
-Creates a viral approach if done right

They wrapped the day up with some Q and A, a few beers and some great connections. Very excited for this event and it didn't disappoint. It's been a wild week already and shows no signs of slowing down. I'll post more thoughts on the event tomorrow. Till then, enjoy and feel free to steal my notes!

-G-Ro

Morning Thoughts on BlogOrlando

As I sit at Panera during the lunch break for BlogOrlando I find myself thinking about more than my little old brain can contain. Is WordPress really the God of blogging platforms? I dunno, but I'm willing to give it a shot, even though the reasons for making a switch weren't really to convincing for what I do.Mark Jaquith speaking on WordPress

A big thing that has transpired is my knowledge of how knowledgeable Orlando is in terms of blogging, SEO and Social Media. Now I never claimed to be the only guy doing this locally and never will be, but there is a talent pool of extremely bright and outgoing individuals who are making great strides, changes, improvements and innovations in social media.16 Year old Judson Collier from MacTeens

The craziest thing might be the globalization of Social Media. Kids in Kenya connecting with VC's in Silicon Valley. Chinese government's intervening with China citizen's right to blog.

Keynote Presentation by Shel Israel

More to come folks, more to come!

5 Reasons Tattoo Shops Need to Blog

Jumping into Web 2.0 strategies can be as easy or as difficult as you make it. For the technology stumped individual, a blog may be one of the easier ways to get your tattoo shop online. You can set up a generic blog for free, with free hosting. In the beginning, it is very easy to just write up posts and keep it current. As your strengths and comfort online get better, there is a world of opportunity to get great traffic to see your shop and more importantly your artwork!

So here goes 5 quick tips or reasons your tattoo shop should enter the blog world!

1. To create an online journal or portfolio of your work. Blogs do not have to be super long, boring rants about a break-up or bad service. A post can be as simple as a picture of a finished piece, or maybe a new addition to your shop, or before and after work. Maybe you have a unique story about how the artwork came about or a client’s personal situation. If done regularly, you can create a huge online portfolio and time line of your work.

2. Using 3rd party widgets like Twitter, you can post instant updates about openings in time slots, or maybe a party your shop is having in real time, from your computer or your mobile phone.

3. Build relationships and create a network. Use your blog to advertise other businesses that have helped you out, write posts on other blogs and get people to guest post on yours. Musicians that have gotten ink from your shop are great people to network with and almost always are willing to trade banner links or general links. It’s free publicity! Building a network of people and readers has never been easier.

4. Money: Can’t beat that right! Sign-up for advertisements like Google’s Adsense or Kontera’s in-text advertising. This won’t help you quit your day job, but could give you an extra $100 every month or two. E-mail me for more information on how to set this up and who some of the better companies are and how they pay out!

5. New traffic. The more you post, and the more keywords you use, (location, styles, etc) the more frequent your blog will show up in search engine results (google, yahoo, ask, etc). Search engines love blogs for their fresh content and the amount of quality link trading. The more traffic your site receives, the more clients you have an opportunity to meet up with. Also, more traffic results in more individuals seeing your advertising, which equals more money!

There you have it. Putting together a blog for a tattoo shop is easy and makes you an even better expert in your field. Talk about your work, what separates you from your competition, your clients, etc. Have fun with it and it will become fun for you to write and keep current.

If you have any questions or would like our assistance is setting up your blog, please contact us at rollettmarketing@hotmail.com. Keep up the great artful expressions!