And then Budweiser Canada farked it all up for me and went and made one of the greatest Superbowl commercials of all-time. I’m already a Bud Light Lime freak and then this happened.

For the 3 people that don’t know, hockey is life in Canada. I don’t even play and it still holds a special place in my heart. You don’t even have to like the sport to love this. When I saw this video today, it connected on a level that most brands try but never ever reach.

You want people to share your brand? Do something awesome like this:

The look on the guy’s face sitting on the ice at the end made me tear-up. This was made for a Superbowl commercial in Canada, but will out last the game itself. That should be the goal of any campaign: make it so awesome that it achieves word-of-perpetual-mouth-motion.

For those that may miss it, these guys play recreational hockey. They aren’t in a pro league, there are never any fans at their games, they do it for the love of the sport.

I was told about the video by a Twitter friend Ameer Khan who was one of the players on the ice! I asked him what he thought of Budweiser now, his reply:

Now if that isn’t a testimonial to a success for a brand, I don’t know what is.

Well done Budweiser Canada, you win the Superbowl and the Internet.

http://www.facebook.com/budweisercanada

https://twitter.com/budcanada

+UPDATE+

Many people have commented and tweeted that this is a direct copy of the Improv Everywhere video from 2008:

So, what do you think? Does it change the impact of the new one?

I’ve had campaigns ripped off from past client work, and I hated it. I just hope Budweiser threw them some money, or a truck-ton of beer.

Hopefully someone from them or their agency can comment.

+++UPDATE #2+++

I reached out to ImprovEverywhere and Charlie Todd got back to me and said:

“Thanks for updating your post to reflect our original version of this idea in 2008.

To answer your question, no we were not paid by Bud.  They did not reach out to us at all.

Not the first time a brand has heavily borrowed one of our ideas.  It’s always irritating, but imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.”

Here is the link to the video and all the awesomeness that went with it.

How about it Budweiser? Send those guys a case of beer or something? Would be a great gesture to wrap this story of awesome in a pretty bow.

There are countless blog posts online about how out of touch PR people are with trying to reach influential bloggers/social media types. From mass-emailed blind press releases to not understanding how social media really works.

I finally have a story that is the opposite.

Many of you have heard of, or even read the story about Tassimo’s campaign in Canada in my book, (great post about it from Erin Bury here) and how they spread the word about the coffee maker by giving machines to influencers instead of a TV campaign.

It was pure genius on many levels, and so much of it had to do with Duri Al Ajrami, the Director of Social Marketing – Senior Partner at OgilvyOne Canada.  It was his ability to connect with me and many others that made us even open to the thought of this campaign. He emailed us after doing his research, met with us and understood how it all works, being the beloved go-between for their client and us crazy social media/blogger entitlement types

Fast forward to a month or two ago: I have been approached hundreds of times since by PR/Communication folks to try out their stuff and in return I can give them free exposure. For the most part I don’t even blink. It’s like they just went from blindly faxing reporters to blindly emailing bloggers. Then Duri drops me an email and explains that Magnum Ice Cream is launching in Canada and they want me on board, I’d hope it was because of my rugged good looks and boyish charm, but mainly because I have a platform.

He said all the right things: I only had to tweet/blog if I wanted to, only talk about it when/if I wanted to. He knew I wasn’t going to post a blog on UnMarketing as a “sponsored” post to say how yummy their ice cream is. His main concern was that I did anything that I was comfortable with and my audience would be too. We high-fived, they shipped me a case of ice cream in dry ice, I ate most of it in a 2-day binge, reflected on what went wrong that made me eat a case of ice cream in 48 hours and then decided to record this video (I haven’t even gotten to the awesomest part yet, keep reading):

I thought it was a fun way to talk about it! I even titled it “Magnum’s False Advertising”, which I’m sure made the client throw-up a little. I talked about how the box said the flavour was “Double Chocolate” even though there are actually four layers of chocolate, and I demanded it be changed to “Quad Chocolate”. Duri loved it, I enjoyed making it because I was my smart-ass self, and my friends liked it. They didn’t even mind that a lot of people who watched it wouldn’t be able to enter the contest since it’s only open to Canadians. Perfect. All good, everyone’s happy, let’s go home and eat ice cream?

Think again.

Duri just showed up at my house (he emailed first, relax) and said “I have a gift for you!” And handed me this:

Are. You. Kidding. Me?!?!

If you didn’t catch it, look at it again.

They loved the video so much, they “whipped up” four custom boxes of the ice cream with my new flavour description. And these aren’t stickers slapped on, it’s four real boxes, with the ice cream bars inside.

I literally lost it in the driveway, ran upstairs and am typing this right now.

Just because you’re in an agency, doesn’t mean you can’t be awesome.

PR doesn’t have to stand for Press Release. It can still mean Public Relations.

When you do awesome things, it makes people want to share the awesome.

It wouldn’t matter how much they paid me, I wouldn’t use this blog to promote ice cream.

And now I just did. Because of the awesome.

Well played Duri and Magnum, well played indeed.

Has anyone outreach/agency really blown your mind? Share it in the comments.

+UPDATE+ Duri mentioned in the comment below “To be fair to all … The idea of the box was a team effort lead by the the AWESOME Mark Forward and Jamie George (two amazing Ogilvy folks) who planned this and blessed by our amazing clients Gina Kiroff and Joyce Kim who always drove us to think out of the box. I just delivered Thank you all for your great words … we’re still learning”

Another great PR/Business lesson: Give credit where it’s due.

I’m such a spaz that I don’t think I could handle the lack of immediate validation and/or rejection.

I’ve been amazed since UnMarketing came out. The immediacy and coolness of tools has blown my mind. Waking up everyday and reading tweets in real time about people reading the book makes me smile. Every. Day. It’s the passive conversation our readers are having with each other that was untappable (my new word) previously.

Twitter mentions

And sadly most authors aren’t even listening to their readers:

And it’s not just on Twitter. Blog reviews, and other mentions can happen under our radar. Setting up a Google News Alert for your book title in quotes will keep you on top of most mentions online. I’m also tacking Trackur for a spin. I’ll update this post to let you know how it goes.

Kindle

I was initially a little miffed at the Kindle version of UnMarketing because they made all my saucy/sarcastic footnotes into endnotes, and people wouldn’t click on them, thinking they were real citations and other ridiculousness, but I now LOVE the Kindle version for many reasons:

1. Immediacy – I’ve had people buy the Kindle version during one of my talks as they’re in the audience. This blows my cranium. The drawback of being an author who speaks is when people leave the session, they rush off to the next one and forgot to purchase your awesome book. Or worse, there is no bookstore on site and if you think that they’ll rush to the bookstore when they get home, you’re sadly mistaken for the most part. The immediacy and ability for your audience to buy your book on their phone/laptop/reading device in real-time is epic. If you’re even a half-decent speaker, the highest moment of intent to purchase your book is during your talk. And people can buy it. Brilliant. (this isn’t unique to the Kindle, you can also grab them on the fly as iBook, Nook, Kobo, etc)

2. Digital loaning – I freaking love this about the Kindle. You can loan your copy (link explains it) to someone else for up to 14 days. All you need is their email address. You can only loan a book out once, and can’t read it while it’s out on loan. I believe it’s only available currently to USA based purchasers, I’m not sure why they hate Canada but nonetheless this is great for spreading your content, especially to those that can’t afford all the books they want to read. The author/publisher also  has to agree to it. I learned about it when I saw this tweet a few days ago:

I saw the tweet and retweeted it. I received a large amount of responses that people were impressed I would retweet that, since it doesn’t create sales. I say why wouldn’t I? I want people to consume the book. To love it. That’s our job as authors as far as I’m concerned. It’s not just to write it or talk about it or even sell it. It’s to get people to devour it. Jim wanted to read the content but didn’t have the means currently and I wanted him to read it. And now he is

Heck, if you’d like to get a loaned Kindle copy, leave a comment below or if you have the Kindle version and are willing to loan it to someone, leave a comment too. Then simply reply if you have or want it to the person. And Shazam! We have an UnLibrary!

3. Free R&D – This actually made me say out loud “WOW!” which was awkward since I was sitting by myself in a coffee shop, but I digress. Kindle lets you highlight parts of a book. That isn’t the cool part. Kindle also takes the data and tells you the most popular highlighted lines from your book. Check out the UnMarketing ones! This is R&D for an auther/publisher and tells you what is resonating with your readers. (I just said YA! out loud. I’m going to get thrown out of this place.) Another great thing to do is to take these and make them tweets. You already know it clicks with people. Bring on the retweets!

Here is a sample of mine:

That’s gold Jerry!! You don’t have to guess what’s working, it’s right there in front of you! You can go and check it out for any Kindle book, not just yours. Just click over here. And you can also see the top highlighted books. Just click on the book title and it will show you the highlights. Amazeballs!

4. Track Sales – Using Amazon Author Central you can login as an author and see sale info that used to only be available to your publisher. It allows you to track where it’s selling and in what medium.

Click to enlarge the chart

Digital books are gaining traction. Do not ignore them. It doesn’t matter if you like to read in that format or not.

And this is only a fraction of what is being done and accessible out there to authors and their fans. Did I mention I did an entire 30-city UnBookTour planned through Twitter without any cost to myself or my publisher? Ya, that too.

What have you seen out there when it comes to books that excites you when it comes to the 2.0 book world? Leave a comment below! Or let me know you want to loan/borrow the Kindle version of UnMarketing!

Scott BC (before coffee)

I have a morning ritual that I know many of you share. Coffee around here is a bit like a religion. You choose your brand, you pick your favorite, and then you stick with it. In the Toronto area, Tim Horton’s is the church of coffee. It is a part of the culture up here, part of the vocabulary. When you say you’re going for coffee you go to ‘‘Tim’s’’ or you’re going to go to ‘‘Horton’s’’

I’m sure you have your own coffee chains in your area that have the same kind of following. They become a part of our routine. This has to be the ultimate goal for a business, whether it is service- or product-based. Work to become a part of somebody’s routine. If you can, it is worth an incredible amount of money. The lifetime value of each and every somebody who spends $2 a day with your company is incredible. Think about that for a second—$2 a day equals more than $700 a year. Over 10 years you’re looking at more than $7,000 in revenue from one person. Companies have a vested interest in making sure you become a ‘‘regular’’ and you should be working hard to make your customers lifelong clients. Unfortunately, just like many personal relationships, when you become used to one another you take each other for granted, and companies do this far too often with loyal customers.

Tim Horton’s had me. I was loyal as could be. But recently I have done something I never thought I would do. I changed brands. Being a loyal Tim Horton’s customer, almost every day I would go and get my coffee from them. I didn’t even think about it—that is just what I did. When any other coffee company came into the area, they were an afterthought. No way a new company was going to change my habit.

Slowly something happened. I started noticing cracks in the armor of my habit.

One misstep or one small issue will not lead to somebody changing a day-to-day habit. But when you begin to add up enough of those small things you open up the door to your competition. It is not usually extreme customer service issues that drive people away.

So here is the story of the small things that led me away from Tim Horton’s. First, the servers wouldn’t stir my coffee. The coffee was inconsistent, a small thing, but one that I know my fellow coffee drinkers out there will understand.

When you buy your coffee at the drive-through and start to drink it after you’ve pulled a mile or two away and find that it was not made or stirred properly, the experience is hurtful. For people like me who take three sugars in their coffee and order the same coffee every day, I really do notice the difference when it isn’t made properly. Similarly, when there are mistakes in the order, when I can taste cream instead of milk, when there is sweetener instead of sugar, your customer will notice. These are little things. Mistakes happen, of course, but when they start happening more and more your customer begins to wonder if this is how service will always be. Then the customer begins to doubt the quality of your service or product. This doubt creates a space where your customer is open to try something new.

Got gap?

Picture the image of a gap. It starts as a tiny crack. Your loyal customer has always been happy with your product or service and then slowly small doubts add up and cracks begin to form. Until one day, the experience gap grows just big enough for one of your competitors to get through. The experience gap is the space between the best experience your customer has had with you and the worst. Ideally this gap doesn’t exist or is as small as possible.

Businesses need to make buying their products easy. This was another issue with Tim Horton’s that led me away from being a loyal customer. The company does not accept debit card payments. So their customers cannot pay for their coffee and doughnuts with a bankcard. This is rare today. As a matter of fact, the only reason I would ever take money out of the bank was so I could buy coffee from Horton’s. (I think the only two businesses in the world that do not accept bank cards are Horton’s and drug dealers. Although I think some of our local drug dealers here will take checks.)

Now the extra inconvenience of taking out cash was okay when my coffee was perfect, but adding this to the frequency of mistakes in my order was getting to be too much. Add in some other things I put up with in the name of my favorite coffee, such as the cumbersome lid that was impossible to open while driving, and the long wait times, and I was really open to the competition. I had been a loyal customer for 20 years. I figured that over the past 20 years I have spent upward of $15,000 with the company. I was at that point where all of these small negative experiences had come together, the perfect storm point, and I was open to give something else a try. It takes a lot for somebody to change anything, let alone change a part of their daily routine. I didn’t really do it consciously, it just happened. All that it was going to take for another company to earn me as a new customer was quality that matched what I was used to and that gave me more convenience.

Enter in McDonald’s.

I was already a McDonald’s fan. The company didn’t have to begin at the start with me or get me to buy into its brand. But I didn’t buy coffee there. My first real job was working at McDonald’s when I was 15. As far as I could see back then, the only people who bought coffee at McDonald’s were senior citizens at six in the morning. But now McDonald’s was on a mission to prove that its coffee was worth buying on its own, a bold task considering the market already included heavy competition from Horton’s and Starbucks.

A few years ago I wouldn’t have even thought of trying the McDonald’s coffee let alone of switching over to it, but I had gotten to the breaking point as a customer. I was willing to at least try something different. Tim Horton’s was taking my business for granted, but McDonald’s was working for it.

McDonald’s had a promotion to launch its coffee and it was giving out free coffee to anybody during certain a certain time. So this was going to be the time I was going to try it. Unfortunately the lineup of people to try the coffee when they found out it was free could have rivaled lineups for rides at Disney World. So I decided to hold off on giving it a try. A few weeks later I finally went in and tried it.

Compared with Tim Horton’s, McDonald’s had the same, if not more, drive-through locations, just the kind of convenience a lazy man like myself was looking for.

At this point the quality was important—no matter how much convenience or customer service I got, at this point if the product wasn’t of the quality that I liked I wouldn’t switch to it. This is really important to note, quality is always important! No matter how much marketing or UnMarketing you do, it doesn’t make a difference if your product or service doesn’t stand up. So I order the coffee and go to pay for it and the server takes my bankcard! I am allowed to use my bankcard to pay for the coffee—McDonald’s earned one bonus point.

I get the coffee and I see that the coffee cup is double walled— meaning I don’t have to put a sleeve on it! I don’t have to ask for a second cup! McDonald’s execs have spent some time thinking about their products and their customers and thought, ‘‘Hey, coffee is hot, people don’t like to burn their hand’’ and come up with a solution—a double-walled cup. Genius.

I went to open it in my car and the lid was amazing. You can open it with one thumb and it pops and locks open—no mess, no burned fingers, and another bonus point. The ease and convenience of the cup itself really improved my experience.

The location near my home also has a secret weapon. His name is David. At the Iroqouis Shore Road location, in Oakville, Ontario, David is the guy you talk to in the morning in the drivethrough. He’s kind, considerate, happy but not the ‘‘in your face’’ that makes you hate him in the morning. Heck, he even makes the add-on suggestion of a muffin a pleasant occurrence. It’s gotten to the point that I will go out of my way in the morning to have David serve me. Great service and a great new product. I never would’ve even known if it hadn’t been for the ‘‘dropping of the ball’’ from the where place I was loyal.

This is exactly what your company does not want. You do not want your long-time loyal customer be dissatisfied too many times and now in the hands of the competition and very, very happy. I then tasted the coffee and it tasted great.

I get no reimbursement from McDonald’s to say that I am not their affiliate. In all honesty, the coffee tasted great, even better than what I was used to. That did it. And now I look for McDonald’s when I’m wanting a morning coffee or on the road. I may be just one customer but my lifetime value is $20,000 or $30,000. How many people will it take for Tim Horton’s to realize that understanding the needs and wants of the marketplace is a good thing to do all the time?

You need to know if your customers are happy, and if they aren’t you need to know why and how you can change it. You need to know where you stand in the eyes of your customers. Are they happy, are they ecstatic, or are they just there holding on until someone better comes along? You do not want your brand to be in that zone with current customers where the experience gap has left a space for the competition. You cannot be complacent or inattentive leaving your hard-earned market ripe for the picking.

Do you have any stories about switching as a customer because you felt taken for granted? Add it in the comments below!

And if you pre-order UnMarketing: Stop Marketing. Start Engaging” now for 34-37% off you’ll also receive, at no extra charge, two hugs, 3 fist bumps and a high-five!

(Fellow Canadian/Horton’s folks can pre-order here )

Long hair can help hide a huge cranial circumference

Fast forward to the present day: The encyclopedia has been replaced by Wikipedia, The Big Book is now called The Internet, and the Yellow Pages are called Google. Yet, many businesses and phone directory sales reps continue to use these big hunks of paper and try to justify it.

I’ve had this debate with many people about businesses using tools like the Yellow Pages. Most people say it’s a great door-stop, booster seat or a thing to beat people with when they don’t pay up on a gambling debt (@EricaDurst inspired use), but let’s look at the case that most people say justifies using them: “They work in some markets! People still use them! Like old folks, shut-ins and people who are still locked into AOL contracts!”

So let’s roll with that: people who still potentially use them. I have a few issues with this way of thinking…

1. You’re aiming at the bottom of the barrel: No, I’m not saying people who use them are the lowest of the low, it’s that they’ve gone through every other resource that influences them to potentially buy before pulling out the directory. Have a look:

This is the Hierarchy of Buying I came up with 5 years ago after surveying a thousand or so people on how they hired a service provider. So your potential customer doesn’t already have a provider, doesn’t know anyone who could perform the service, doesn’t know anyone who knows anyone and hasn’t even heard of anyone in the field. So no relationships, no word-of-mouth. Nothing. (I should really make a new one, since Google would rank above Yellow Pages.)

2. Paper spam: Email spam works on the premise that if you blast it to a million people, a fraction of a fraction may be in the market for the product and a fraction of that may even click. Phone directories work on this same premise. 1.6 billion pounds of paper per year are used to produce the 500 million directories that go out in the United States every year in the hopes that you may be in the market for one of the 2,000 categories of businesses that are listed. It’s spam at its finest. You didn’t opt-in, the majority of people don’t use it, many not even taking it out of the plastic. Instead it ends up in landfill, might get recycled or thrown at random phone company trucks that drop them off. Sadly I don’t see them ever going opt-in, since like most things in the print industry, they charge due to bloated “circulation” numbers and I estimate the number of people who would actually ask for it at 14, give or take 12. Makes you want to go out and hug a tree and then go here to opt-out of them!

3. Price/Competition Sensitivity: The lower down on the hierarchy of buying you are, the more you’re up against lowest-price seekers and competition. It becomes a competition of who can have the most AAAAA’s in their legal name, just to rank as the first in their section, or who can put the biggest ad beside the rest of their competitors. It fascinates me that businesses pay good money to be listed next to all of their local competition. Since you have no clout/trust with the potential customer, the first and main question usually revolves around price. You instantly make yourself a commodity.

4. Lack of updates: Since they come out from a provider once a year, once you place an ad, that’s it for the next year. No testing on which ad converted to leads better, unless you do it on a year-to-year basis. That would mean to do a proper test, using three different ads, it would take you years to get any relevant comparative data. That’s like walking to Los Angeles from New York to see how your product is doing.

5. A dying market, literally: Through my totally non-scientific opinion, I’m gonna go ahead and guess that the amount of people who use a phone book to look for a service provider goes up with the age demographic. Hell, even seniors are ditchin them to jump online. According to Pew Internet & American Life Project, 45% of seniors over the age of 70 are online. Even 27% of those over 76 are surfin the Interweb tubes. Since the average life expectancy is around 80, I’m not sure who you’re aiming for. Those over 80? Go get em! Just make sure you buy the big ads with large font.

I understand there is still a lot of money to be made by businesses that aim for the bottom, when people have exhausted every other resource, but even those people are using Google at that point, and you can track your clicks, and have a concrete ROI on it.

What do you think? Let me know in the comments!

Some other great posts about this:

Dear YellowBook: Why? – You must read this one, not just for the post, but the angry comments that were later found out to be actual employees of the YellowBook. Craptastic. Go get em Nicole

Yellow Pages Suck – Great post by Jim Brown (no, not that Jim Brown)

We Still Use Old Media – This picture sums it all up. Also made me snot laugh. Thanks @ShaneGibson

Do the New Rules of Marketing Apply Worldwide? – Great video by David Meerman Scott

Fast-forward to today. It’s happened. I signed the book deal and even have a potential cover that may also double as a guide on how to market to the United Nations.

So here we are. This dream is about to come true. And I’m scared sh#%less. I’m not scared because I don’t know what I’m talking about, frankly I’m over-confident in that. I know my stuff, I know it works. Neither am I scared that 60,000 words are due by January 15th and I haven’t started (Ok, may have just changed my pants because of that, but I’ll get it done).

So what is it? What am I scared about? I’m glad you asked, my beautiful reader (I also add Rational Thought to each section to show what I “know” about that stated fear, yet it still lingers):

1. Leaving something out: I can see it now. I get my copy from the publisher and say “Nooooooooooooooo! I forgot the section about riboflavin! (of course it won’t be about riboflavin, but if I knew what section I was going to forget, I wouldn’t be forgetting it. Stick with me here)

Rational thought: I’ll never write a book that contains everything, it’s a snapshot. Plus when it goes New York Time Best-Seller, I’ll put that stuff in the sequel “UnMarketing 2: If you believed the first one, wait until you get a load of this crap!”

2. Leaving someone out: I could probably fill 10,000 of the words with people I need to thank for helping me along the way (Holy Thundercats! I may be on to something here. Only 50,000 words to go now!) No one gets to any point in business or life without being influenced by others, nor are any ideas 100% original. It scares the mustard out of me that I may forget someone. From bloggers to people on Twitter, friends, co-workers, colleagues, jackass PR people from Vegas (ok, just one) and my family, leaving out one of them would do a great disservice to everything you all have given me.

Rational thought: No one would go “The Shining” on me if I didn’t mention them. Although my assistant has earned that right to break through my door with said axe if I leave her out. She has to put up with me daily. You don’t show appreciation by putting them in a book section, you do by giving back in different ways to them what they’ve given to you.

3. I’m not a writer: At least, not by trade. I have the highest respect for “real” writers. You know, the ones that do it as a craft. The ones that when you read what they wrote, you get goosebumps, or a “WOW” when you read it. I’m a hack at best when it comes to the craft. I’ll write this blog post, publish it, then wait for someone to tell me about a spelling error or how to write it gooder (see what I did there? I lol’d writing it) I admire great writers. When I read something that Jen Wright has written, I’m in awe how it reads. I mean she could write something about muffins and their impact on the end of the cold war and I’d be all over it like a kid on a candy cane go kart.

Rational Thought: I was signed by the publisher because they saw something in my style, my brand and my audience reach. More importantly one of the reasons people read what I post/tweet/rant is because of my style. Admire others but don’t try to be them.

4. No one is going to buy it (note to Shannon, my editor at Wiley, please don’t read this part) My fear back from the music business days is what if we book a show and no one comes? What if I write this book and no one buys it? Sure, mom will buy one, I’ll buy 10 copies just to make it’s an “Amazon Best-Seller” under the sub-category of “Books-> Business-> Marketing-> Canada-> Toronto-> Yiddish” but really, what happens if this bad-boy just flops? I do the UnBook Tour of tweet-ups around the continent and it’s me and the bartender?

Rational thought: People really connect with the topic of engagement, of authentic marketing and this book is being written at the right time by the right guy. (Please don’t ask for my advance back Shannon, I already spent it)

5. Writing it: Ok, I lied. I have to write 60,000 words in less than a month. What if I get sick? Writer’s block? Why am I writing this post instead of the book?

Rational thought: Finally, last week I sat down with Karen (my assistant of awesomeness) and wrote every topic on post-it notes. Concepts were on blue ones, good examples of the concept in yellow, bad in green, tools in purple. Then I put it on a MindMap (click it to see the full version). I used FreeMind to make it.

What do you think? Anything on the mind map missing? Have you had these fears writing a book? Please leave a comment! And of course if you want to stay up-to-date on the book progress, subscribe to the blog updates/UnNewsletter, top-right corner of this page!

UPDATE: My man, and fellow under-the-deadline author, Jim Kukral mentions in the comments “One of the reasons I love the Web so much is that when you make a mistake or want to add something, you can go in and change it.”

Bingo.

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