Endeavour Marketing & Media, LLC.

Okay…I don’t get enough time as I would like to keep up with the wide, wide of sports (maybe 30-minutes of Mike and Mike in the Morning each a.m.) and while I’m not a golfer, you have to live under a rock to not know about the world’s best golfer being on the sideline with a healing knee.

Anyhoo…saw a blip on an ESPN crawler where Tiger was going to try and play in some “scrub” open this week.

That made me think….what is he doing rushing the comeback and possibly hampering the rehab…and possibly the carefully cultivated “Tiger Brand?”

Take your time Tiger….the sport’s world and the sponsors will wait!  What else are they going to do?  Build a campaign around other golfers, thug NBA players, in-haitus NFL players, bowlers, etc.?

There are simply few sport’s figures with your halo-effect on the products you endorse or the recognition you have around the world.

Plus…if you wait, you open more options!

People care, no doubt, about how the rehab is going BUT nobody wants to see a Tiger at 40% on the links.  They want to see a dominant champion.  Dipping your toes into the rehab waters makes you mortal and Madison Ave. doesn’t want mortal…if they wanted that, they would go with Phil Mickelson or some other pug.  You’re Tiger, act like it.  I know you’re getting pressure from the PGA, event staff and sponsors to get out there but don’t rush it.

What would be better than anything?

I’ll tell you…(and I hate Golf but I would tune into this), a Tiger “Rocky” themed comeback campaign.  Complete with a devoted social networks so people could keep up with the recovery.  Hey, people keep up with the comings and goings of much-less heralded people like celebrity bloggers, cracked-out singers, etc. Wait till you’re healed and then comeback with a branded-campaign that can rally people around you.  Your sponsors (and you) will be counting money in your sleep!

This would allow you to pick up even more sponsors, expand you’re brand-Tiger awareness (if that’s even possible) to even more people all while rewarding the sponsors you already have.

Who wouldn’t tune in?

My advice, for what it’s worth, hold off – recover fully and come back with a branded-campaign vengeance.

Nobody wants to see a half-speed tiger, Tiger.

Okay, my mother will love this post because she is a huge fan of black cats and this article shows how they can possible “earn their keep” on the farm.

Anyhoo…Warner Bros. wanted to capitalize on the notoriously superstitious day (Friday 13th) to promote a video game launch in London.

Read Article Here

Hey Warner Bros.- I’ve got two black cats you can use in any stateside promotion and I’ll even throw in a couple more for free.

Great article from AdAge below:

Click to read article

Great little nugget below from B2B Marketing Confidential Blog on Microsoft’s new tag platform:

Read Blog Post

Could Microsoft be back in the “innovation” game and out of the “here’s more crappy upgrades for our already crappy applications” game?

In the midst of the Instant Coffee Wars (Starbucks, you’re an idiot for even going here! Your brand is high-quality and you’re diluting it here) we love what McCann-Erickson has done with the Nescafe campaign (smart as the Nescafe brand has significant brand equity in the “instant” category!)

Click to watch the video

Even though the application is great for breaking news, frequent promotions by a retailer or anybody with 5 or 6 stalkers, some of the staffers at Endeavour have Twitter accounts and have convinced us to put the agency on Twitter. We’ll try to update frequently….

Visit us on Twitter

…it is quite addictive, I we must say.

For all of you reading about Tweet and still don’t know what the heck it is why anybody would use it, here is an interesting experiment that Tom Martin from Advertising Age, is engaging this Mardi Gras:

Click For Article

For the Twitter-uninitiated, I would urge you to try it, you’ll be hooked!

We have prospective clients engage us all the time about email campaigns. Quite naturally, they hear about the good things about effective email campaigns, like higher-ROI, sophisticated tracking, quicker turnaround times, etc. More often than not, they state that they have access to a voluminous database that somebody in some department has been keeping for gosh knows how long and how if we just start blasting away with emails, good things will happen. There is a lot that goes into successful email campaigns (and gosh knows nobody gets it right all the time) but one to start with regarding your list (s) is segmentation. We’ll talk about “hygiene” and other important list integrity considerations in later posts.

Segmentation is the process of slicing and dicing your database(s) into chunks that have different identifiable qualities that you can market (pander) to. For example, you may want to segment your list into such sections a “purchase price,” “geography,” “frequency of purchase,” etc.

Now, you can segment your lists a hundred different ways but make sure that it makes sense. This is where the “targeting” comes in. Target only the segments that are going to be profitable to you. Time and effort is valuable so forgo developing an entire campaign on females, aged 35-42, who have purchased within the past month if there are only 20 in your whole database. Remember the Pareto Principle, 80% of your business will come from 20% of your customers so find those large profitable chunks and go after them.

Position your communications to your segment. That is, promote products, pricing structures, etc. that they have shown a purchase decision towards. Don’t send a campaign to proven “monster power tool buyers” about your new selection of “landscape items.” Don’t send a campaign of “items under $20” to proven buyers of items “over $2,000.”

Customers appreciate it when you take the time to get to know them and send them information they care about. You’ve only got a precious few opportunities to communicate with your customers before it gets annoying so don’t waste their time.

Interesting article in today’s Advertising Age about the online social network, MeetUp.com

Click to read article

Okay, we’ve all either been on the giving or receiving end of the classic break-up line “It’s Not You…It’s Me,” but if you reverse the line, it will give you an idea of how to think when trying to communicate with your customers in tight times.

I was having lunch with a colleague (non-client) the other day at one of our favorite dive-hangouts and they proceeded to tell me about how they were directing their 3-person marketing department to gear up for a big announcement regarding an acquisition they had just made.

Naturally, being interested in all things marketing, I inquired further and they, knowing my addiction for the dark arts, proceeded to enlighten me.

They were going to integrate the news throughout their website, develop a public relations campaign, share the news with their current customers and prospective customers. They were even doing a short video to spread the good news.

“That’s wonderful news, congratulations,” I said, not wanting to dampen their spirits.

How is this acquisition going to be beneficial to your current customers and prospective customers?

A pregnant pause and then the response I knew was coming, ”it will show them that we are serious players in the category and it represents growth, I mean who doesn’t want to be with an up-and-comer?”

“That’s great but how does it help your customers,” I said trying not to deflate my friend (I hope we’re still friends after they read this!)

Now don’t get me wrong, there’s nothing wrong with tooting your own horn every now and then as credibility is a premium in any business but in difficult times, who really gives a rip!

Too many times, you visit websites or peruse corporate materials and its all about them, them and them. You sit there wondering, what can they do for me. It’s a natural inclination to define yourself as thoroughly as possible and there is a time and place for that, but when customers are losing their healthcare, their nest eggs and homes, do they really want to know about a bunch of awards you’ve won?

During difficult times like this (and always for that matter, but especially in difficult times) focus your communications, promotions, etc. in how your business, service, product will be beneficial to the customer. You can relay this through price, quality, selection, service, etc.

I told my friend (we’re still friends right?) to tout the acquisition but figure out how it is going to positively affect their customers. Will it result in more competitive pricing structures? Will it improve selection? Turnaround times? That is what the focus of your publicity should be.

Remember, it’s about the customer not you