Miller Lite's new ad

I was going through my reader today and came across this little gem from Hoosier Beer Geek

"Unless you've been living under a rock, there's a good chance you've been subject to Miller Lite's newest ad campaign, in which they state that Miller Lite is "triple hops brewed". While the statement is true, it doesn't mean much, and might be a little misleading.

Imagine you're baking up a batch of cookies for sale to the public. You'd like to say you make a quality chocolate chip cookie, but you've only got 3 chocolate chips per cookie. You're starting an ad campaign for your cookies, in which you'd like to differentiate your brand. Your marketing team comes back with the follow options:

1) Don't mention the chocolate chips, and don't try to sell your cookies as chocolate chip cookies. Sell your cookies as a good time with attractive women. This has worked for you in the past, but not well enough to gain the sort of market share you'd like to have.

2) Mention the chocolate chips, but also mention the flour and eggs used in the making of your cookies. Don't mention that everyone uses these ingredients. Also don't mention that in 1982, the Center for Science in the Public Interest reported that your cookies contained propylene glycol alginate (a seaweed extract), water, barley malt, corn syrup, chemically modified hops extracts, yeast, amyloglucosidase, carbon dioxide, papain enzyme, liquid sugar, potassium metabisulfite, and Emka malt (a food coloring). I'm still taking about cookies.

3) Mention that you added chocolate chips to the cookies THREE TIMES. Which you did, technically. You might even say your cookies are "TRIPLE CHIPS BAKED".

So, cookie salesperson, which campaign would you prefer your brand run with?"

This was GREAT! I love beer and love advertising and felt the need to share with you...

But the greater question that needs to stem from this amusement is whether or not you're doing the same with your brand or brands? How often do you spin a number or two to fit what you are talking about? How many times have you said you offer this, when really you offer that, which is something that could become this. (are you confused yet?)

The truth is, there must be a level of ethics coming back to the marketing stage. I struggle with it just like everyone else. We want our product to appear to be the best, after all we feel like it is, so it must be!

If your product is good enough, it should be able to sell itself right?

Neoti Launches Nomad - our new Mobile Digital Signage!

Today, Neoti launched NOMAD. It's a 9'x12' mobile LED that rises up out of a trailer and can be placed nearly anywhere, and play anything!

Neoti will have three and is taking them all over the country!







Here is the official release:

Bluffton, IN – April 13, 2009. Today, Neoti introduced Northeast Indiana to it's latest product, Nomad. Nomad is a 9 foot by 12 foot mobile LED screen that raises up 8 feet in the air and is housed and transported in a 20 foot trailer. The Nomad, powered by Neoti, can be taken nearly anywhere and is able to broadcast any type of signal from static images to live video 'crowd cams' at sporting events. Nomad runs on its own diesel powered generator for up to 28 hours.

Neoti owns three Nomads and uses them primarily for major festivals and high-traffic events such as the Three Rivers Festival and the Indianapolis 500. Festivals are encouraged to rent Nomad to highlight their event schedule and key sponsors. Neoti will also rent the Nomads to area businesses for daily rental.

“Nomad is our latest commitment to providing high-quality, low-cost community oriented advertising to our region,” says Matt Murray, Director of Sales. “We're really excited about our partnership this year with the Three Rivers Festival and being able to provide use of the Nomad.”

Neoti is introducing Nomad to the Fort Wayne market in a roaming campaign this week. The Nomad contains a similar level of community commitment providing free advertising for the Red Cross, March of Dimes and the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. The roaming campaign schedule is as follows:

Monday - Moe's Southwest Grill on Jefferson Blvd
Tuesday - Northeast Indiana Red Cross office on Coliseum Blvd
Wednesday - Connolly's Do It Best on Dupont Rd
Thursday - King Gyros downtown on Jefferson Blvd

The Nomad has already received nationwide recognition and has been booked for events around the country.

Brand Monkeys

This philosophy grew out of something a college professor talked about multiple times in different classes. The idea was that each student, each staff member, each faculty, each administrator all of us were little PR-engines that carried the image of the university with us wherever we went.

The professors that were presenting at conferences or publishing papers demonstrated that it was an institution full of academic fervor. The students that participated around the community and around the world in missions activities demonstrated that it was also about serving God by serving others. The administrators demonstrated that it is a sound business investment for philanthropists around the world.

Honestly, the PR office of at that school really didn't manage the brand of the university at all! The brand-monkeys did. The students, faculty, staff and administrators carried the image of Taylor University with them wherever they went. It's not the snazzy stuff that the school sends out that attracts new visitors...its everything else.

So how does this equate to a business today? Every employee, from the janitor to the president from the administrative assistant to the chairman of the board...all of them carry the brand of the company on their backs.

Earlier I wrote about my thoughts on hiring interns and how they should clean up their online image. I wrote that as a precursor to this post, that when I hire an intern, they are a brand-monkey. And not just while they work for Neoti, but when they go back to their schools or move on to different jobs they still carry the ability to tear down or lift up the brand of Neoti. THAT is why I seek out who they are.

I can do everything in the world to develop a strong image of who Neoti is. The truth is, as more and more marketing becomes viral the less and less control we have over the mechanics of our brand.

Instead, we have to invest in PEOPLE.*

We invest in our customer service representatives who interact with customers on a daily basis, we invest in our custodians who, if they're happy, will keep the company's interior and exterior shining like new. As we build our brands, we have to realize that it is people that make the difference.

Everyone who works with Neoti is a brand-monkey, honestly you could go so far as to say clients carry a brand-monkey patch on their sleeve. After all, media buyers talk to other media buyers, business owners talk to other business owners...never leave one out in the cold. Chances are you left two or three or even more.


*I should note that I am not suggesting only investing your people, only that we need to invest more.

Tips to college students wanting a summer job...

I now accept all internship applications and coordinate our efforts to grow that part of the company. And I've taken in about 40 applications and a few have interested me enough to seek them out online.

Now, some might argue this isn't totally kosher. A friend who is a recruiting specialist feels that it's not ethical to seek out this information, I disagree. I believe everything you put online, you put online for the world to see. Resumes are no longer just sheets of paper, but they are your facebook, your twitter, blogs etc. Social media has opened up the hiring process to really find out who you are.

Sure, people may worry about discrimination and such, but the truth is as a hiring professional, I am looking for people who not only can do the job they're hired for, but someone who will fit into the company's environment, who will offer a great deal to the company and who I trust with being one of my little brand-monkeys. (Yea, anyone that works for the company is a brand-monkey...they are your brand so make sure they're good....a post on that later).

So on to the tips!

- Change your profile pictures. Employers don't want to see your latest binge drinking weekend with your frat buddies. We don't want to know that you are not quite 21 and drinking...we don't want to see you grinding up with a member of the opposite sex. That's not appealing to us. Put something up you would be happy to show your grandma or your priest.

- Clean up your 'About Me'. You can't modify what your friends say on your wall, but you can modify what you say about yourself. In the off-chance the employer can see your full profile (which should really be protected) you need to rework your profile to be good. Nothing profane, nothing that would make grandma shriek into the night.

- Other pictures. Maybe you should un-tag yourself from pictures that may not be the most flattering. Maybe that picture of you partying on spring break should be taken down for a little bit. I'm not saying get rid of it...but don't connect it with you.

- Spelling. Finally...the things that you choose to leave up...make sure you spell them correctly. I will already assume you can use text speak...show me you know how to use the English language. Oh, and its Sophomore, not sophmore, not Soft more, and definitely not south more.


I'm finished with my rant. Next, we'll talk about brand-monkeys...stay tuned.