Buzz, Balls & Hype

The Ad Man Answers #90

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

This week we bring you Part Two of our Q&A with Stephen Parrish, long-time blogger and debut author of THE TAVERNIER STONES (Midnight Ink).

Part One of our conversation can be found here.

In THE TAVERNIER STONES, Stephen married his love of foreign travel –- he currently lives abroad in Germany -– with cryptology, cartography, and gemology.  And to promote his book launch, Stephen incorporated those elements into an online, armchair Treasure Hunt… with the Grand Prize of a real life 1-carat diamond. 

Back to our chat!

Stephen, if your publisher suddenly came up with $50K to support your next release, how would you want it spent?

Dramatically reduce the price of the book, or at least the first few thousand copies.  Price is the greatest obstacle to impulse buying.  I want my Kindle version, when it becomes available, to sell for $2.99.  Less, if possible.  I also want the Cubs to win the World Series.

 

 Do you feel like you have to be more creative with your book marketing because of your overseas residence?  Would you even embark on a US book-signing tour if you could? 

I don't think my overseas residence has hampered me at all, because I'm as close to potential readers as anyone else with an internet connection.  I keep hearing from friends who do book signings and spend three hours selling four copies.  Nevertheless yes, I would go on tour, all over the country, coast to coast, in a camper van, for the sheer joy of it.  I just wouldn't expect to finish the expedition in the black.

Social media websites like Facebook… valuable or time suck?  How about book club speaking engagements?

Valuable AND time suck, all of it.  I spend about two hours a day online, or preparing something to post online.  It gets in the way, no doubt about it.  But my online friends, none of whom I've met face-to-face, came through for me when my book launched.  And not just by purchasing copies.  One example is author Mark Terry, who I'm sure you know.  If not for him you wouldn't be interviewing me right now, if not for him I wouldn't have gotten my most recent review (at Bookgasm), if not for him I wouldn't even be published.  And that's just Mark Terry.  Social networking most certainly pays off.

Earlier I mentioned planting seeds.  A pop star once told me her story (all right, there were 9,999 others present in the audience when she told it, but I felt as though she were speaking to me).  She was a grade school teacher who wanted to be a singer.  She made demo tapes (on cassette back then) and sent them everywhere.  Naturally to record companies first, but eventually to anyone in the entertainment industry.  Even Clint Eastwood.

Turns out Eastwood was making a movie and needed some background music for a particular scene.  The movie was "Play Misty For Me" and the song on the cassette was "The First Time Ever I Saw Your Face."  Roberta Flack went on to become one of the most popular recording artists of the seventies. 

And no, I don't buy the argument that such events are extraordinary and rare.  I think they're commonplace.  We might not know what the mechanism was, but every success story in the entertainment industry, publishing included, contains at least one instance of a seed finding its way to fertile ground.

You have a blog and a microsite around your contest, but not a traditional author homepage.  Is that something you plan to create in the future?  Or for your next book release, do you plan to create another unique, themed microsite?

I don't know what the answer to the second question is.  As for the first, oh yes, once I can afford it I'd like a website people talk about.  Something that would qualify as a "single, bold stroke."  Remember Miranda July's site, in which she used the top of her refrigerator like a white board? Suddenly everyone knew who Miranda July was.

 

Do you feel like the Internet – and blogs like “Newbie’s Guide To Publishing” – gave you a leg up before you ever got published?  Any big surprises in the process after becoming a first time author?  Do you feel like you now have an honorary marketing degree?

Joe Konrath should be nominated for sainthood.  Miss Snark too.  Both lent me a virtual hand when I was floundering.  The big surprise after becoming a first-time author was the depression I had to overcome in the weeks following publication.  I wonder if others experience it and just don't talk about it.

Something I'd like to suggest, before we close, is that a good cover is more important than the industry seems to realize.  We don't like to admit that we judge books by their covers, but we do.  A striking cover will make a reader pluck the book off the shelf, read the jacket copy, maybe sample a page or two.  A striking cover will place a book at the head of the line.  If publishers are looking for ways to increase sales, I suggest they hire very talented graphic designers and give them a single mandate: "Make it breathtaking."

 As for the honorary marketing degree, no, I feel dumber than ever.  And ready to make even more mistakes than before.

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Thanks again for the time, Stephen!  Now where did you say I could find that hidden diamond??

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, AAA, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #89

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

This week we continue our Advertising Q&A series with Stephen Parrish, long-time blogger and debut author of THE TAVERNIER STONES (Midnight Ink).

For his novel, Stephen married his love of foreign travel –- he currently lives abroad in Germany -– with cryptology, cartography, and gemology.  And to promote his book launch, Stephen incorporated those elements into an online, armchair Treasure Hunt… with the Grand Prize of a real life 1-carat diamond. 

Show us the bling, Stephen!

When asked about your marketing philosophy, you’ve previously quoted the Ries/Trout Theorem:  “History teaches that the only thing that works in advertising is the single, bold stroke.”  Clearly that played out in your decision to give away a diamond.  So, has that hidden stone been found yet? 

No, but it will be found within the next couple of months, because I'm  going to begin releasing additional information on my blog.  The diamond was to be awarded to the first person who deciphered and ordered a sequence of clues.  The clues reveal a web address where an image of a diamond is hidden.  Contest participants have been emailing me, telling me of their progress, and as of now all clues have been solved---just not by the same person.  I want to wrap this up and take advantage of any remaining publicity while my book is still in the stores.

 

How has the response been to your contest?  Do you feel like it also energized folks outside your core readers:  publisher, booksellers, librarians, etc?

The response was perhaps a little disappointing.  I'd always planned on increasing the size of the diamond incrementally, making it as large as I could.  However, doing so would have required corporate sponsorship, or a large advance on a second novel, or some other windfall that didn't happen.  I planned for all scenarios, though, so I'm not personally disappointed.  Most of the reason I designed the treasure hunt was for fun.  Did it energize industry folks?  Not that I could tell.  But again, no regrets.  If you're not failing, you're not trying.

 

 Do you have statistics of how many readers got involved in the armchair treasure hunt?  What kind of lift in book sales / website traffic did you observe after the contest launch? 

My best guess, interpreting site visit stats, is a few thousand people worked on it, mostly in the U.S., England, and France.  Unfortunately I'm not able to identify any correlation between their activity and book sales.  Whenever I see the Amazon rank bump up, or Borders or B&N restock one of their stores, I wonder who's buying the book, and why.  I haven't yet received a royalty statement so I'm still pretty much in the dark.

Who funded the diamond and contest microsite – you or your publisher?  Without getting into specific dollar amounts, did the entire contest cost more or less than a used Toyota Yaris?  Based on estimated ROI, would you repeat a similar strategy in the future?

I funded everything.  My total expenses, diamond included, far exceeded my advance.  But again no regrets.  I don't think a first novel is about making money, I think it's about establishing a presence.  Would I do this kind of thing again?  Yes, if someone else funded the prize.  Designing treasure hunts is a blast.

 

I notice that you did several blog interviews and sponsored a short-fiction contest (Clarity of Night) around The Tavernier Stones.  What other advertising efforts did you attempt during your book launch?

This interview represents my 40th online appearance promoting the novel (Tavernier was published May 1st).  In addition I participated in the Goodreads giveaway and recommend everyone do so.  It's pleasant to watch a thousand or more people sign up for a copy of your book.  My friends put together an online launch party, which was a lot of fun.  Guest posts, interviews, solicited reviews, discussions, I tried everything.  Anecdotal evidence suggests some things worked better than others, but in general I just wanted to plant seeds as widely as possible and hope at least one of them sprouted.  Hollywood called, so maybe one did.

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Stay tuned next time for Tarp Wot (that’s an elaborate word scramble) of our conversation with Stephen, where we discuss Time Sucks and his love of Miss Snark.

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, AAA, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #88

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: Pixar/Disney has this new movie, TOY STORY 3.  Cue the tie-in.  We see Woody and Buzz at McDonald's, at the post office, at the food store.

It seems a win-win situation.  People see the characters on products unrelated to the actual movie and decide to make the purchase.  People see the characters on products unrelated to the actual movie and remember to go see the movie.

Since everybody seems to win, in what direction does the advertising money flow?

I've always wondered about this.  :)

Stephen
http://www.stephendrogers.com

A:  After working on a Fast Food account for 5 years, The Ad Man can tell you the money absolutely flows from Restauran --> Movie Studio.

In fact, from 1996 through 2006, McDonald’s paid $100 million dollars in royalties for their exclusive partnership with Disney.  I can recall several franchisee meetings with restaurant owners grumbling about the expense, complaining their TV budgets were hijacked into advertising movie tie-ins instead of hamburgers.

Yet the practice continues. 

Why? Because during that same 10-year period, McDonald’s netted over $1 billion dollars while promoting Disney flicks, even ones as mediocre as “Treasure Planet.”

When a fast food franchise throws their weight – and marketing budget – behind a movie, the extra advertising boosts the movie’s awareness level and bottom line. 

In return, the restaurants receive something even more valuable… the “nag factor”:

Happy Meals were introduced in the late 1970’s to promote McDonald’s as a restaurant for families, specifically those with smaller children. The first toy / movie tie in was Star Trek in 1979. And the rest is history.

From a parental perspective, Happy Meals are a pain in the ass. Kids can nag you for days about a certain toy that they must get to complete the set. You buy the meal and the kids get their toy, which either breaks or is lost within 48 hours.

Fast-food marketers have proven time and again that kids can and will drive meal decisions.   And few Happy Meal purchases are made in a vacuum… Dad’s ordering a supersized Quarter Pounder with cheese, Mom’s trying to be good with a yoghurt parfait, but splurges on a large fries and Diet Coke, etc.  Before you know it, one Happy Meal has resulted in a $22 total bill.  Now multiply that by millions of daily transactions and you see the appeal.

McDonald’s is hardly the only one bellying up to Hollywood’s bar.  Last year, Burger King signed on with a trio of Paramount tent-poles:  “Star Trek,” “Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen,” and “GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.”

Summer movie tie-ins have considerably boosted its sales, Burger King has said in the past, and as a result, the company has aggressively pursued more high-profile releases.

"All three of these feature films boast a huge loyal fanbase and have carved out a permanent place in pop culture," said Russ Klein, Burger King's prexy of global marketing, strategy and innovation.

That’s not to say that every movie-tie in is a natural fit and flawlessly executed.  Here’s a list of some recent duds.

But the greater lesson here is that when it comes to co-branding, the power is on the side of the content creators.  

As authors, it should be comforting to know that IF your book is lucky enough to get optioned for film, and IF the movie studio can line up advertising support months before the release, then 3-inch, Chinese-made likenesses of your imaginary characters could wind up in the ketchup-stained hand of an overweight tweenager who whined to his parents for days until getting his plastic prize.  And you, as the original author, might make a few more sheckles on the side.

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, AAA, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #87

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

And now we bring you Part 2 of our chat with Mark Terry, author and blogger, who balances a fiction career with being a writer/editor for technical journals.  

Mark’s latest release, THE FALLEN, is the third in his series featuring Homeland-Security troubleshooter Derek Stillwater.  

For Part 1 of our Q&A, link here.

Mark, in your blog, you've been very frank about book contracts, royalty statements, Kindle sales figures.  What's been the overall reaction by the author community / publishers / agents to you "opening your books" while discussing the real financial challenges to making a living as a full-time writer?

Feedback I get from my current publisher about the blog is positive. I suspect my last publisher didn’t like my candor at all. I’m more careful now to not criticize the publisher on my blog (and in all honesty, I don’t have any particular criticisms of my current publisher, they’ve been great, and I’m not just saying that). I think writers generally appreciate it, although some have accused me of being a Debbie Downer because I don’t slap on the rose-colored glasses and start spewing rainbows and unicorns. If my agent has an opinion, she’s kept it to herself.

From my perspective, publishing—in particular, book publishing—is a business, and a tough business at that. Fiction is an odd business in the 21^st century—there’s probably way too much product in a shrinking market. In the 1980s or so publishers started pushing away from the notion of having 10 authors that each sold 5,000 copies to a single author selling 50,000 copies… or 500,000 copies. Large conglomerates and media companies started buying the major publishers, pushing back at the bottom line and demanding profit margins consistent with other media, something book publishing struggles to do. The returns policy is, at the very best, weird, and at the very worst, archaic and destructive.

An industry that always realized it would typically take 4 or 5 or 6 or more books before a novelist could develop a readership and develop some sales momentum, started dropping writers if their books didn’t sell well enough after 2 or 3 books. Computerized bookstore inventory and sales data allowed bookstores to track which authors did better regionally, but created the “3-book death spiral”—if they order 10 copies of the author’s first book and it only sold 6 copies, they only order 5 of the second book; with fewer copies in the store and less “shelf real estate”, they may sell even fewer books, or if they do sell the 5 they ordered, they don’t order more; then the computer indicates a declining sales trend and they order even fewer or no books for the third book and pretty soon the authors are out of business. So the first book has to do really, really well, which can be tough in a superstore with several hundred thousand books to choose from… book publishing is not for wimps.

How many people do you have on your newsletter distribution list?  How often to you reach out to those fans?  Can you estimate what percentage they contribute to your new book sales?

You know, I really should double-check those numbers. I don’t know. A couple hundred. I try not to “spam” my readers, so I try to only use the e-newsletter when I have something to announce, like a new book coming out or a launch party. Things have changed over the last 5-10 years in terms of e-newsletters and I receive so much email myself—well over a hundred a day—that’s work-related or book-related that I have an itchy delete finger, so the content had either be something I’m interested in or interesting.

You've embarked on a Kindle self-publishing experiment with a couple of unsold titles, and blogged about it here:

Are you seeing any new traction on your eBook sales?  Has THE FALLEN been released on iBookstore yet?  Are you thinking of creating an alternate author website for your YA eBook titles?

When I wrestled the e-rights to the 2 previous Derek Stillwater novels back from my previous publisher, THE DEVIL’S PITCHFORK and THE SERPENT’S KISS, I commissioned new cover art and got those up on Kindle. Those two have been far better sales than my other e-books sales right from the get-go. I don’t have sales figures yet for the Kindle version of THE FALLEN and won’t until sometime in 2011. I was just told by my publisher that it will soon be available on the iBookstore.

That’s an interesting idea about the alternate author website for the YA e-book titles. Haven’t really thought about it. It would be nice if those books did well, but in some way I just didn’t want those 2 (there’s another one, maybe I’ll publish it) stories languishing in a drawer. I hoped at the very least my kids would read them. I’m undecided how much marketing time, money and energy to put into the kids’ books. Still up in the air.

But in answer to the basic question, yes, I think sales have picked up in the last month and each month seems a little better.

Let's do a philosophical math exercise.  In your blog, you've quoted a 1-2% response rate for direct marketing campaigns... i.e. as a mid-list author if you spend $1,500 sending an e-mail to 500,000 people, with a 1% response rate you can realistically expect your message to resonate with 5,000 people.  Of those 5,000 people, only a fraction will go down the purchase process to actually purchase your book, let's say your conversion rate is 5%, so 250 actual books sold..  The apparent ROI would be 250 book sales vs. $1,500 spend... you're spending $6 in marketing per book sold, which is probably more than your author royalties. 

As someone who currently works for a direct marketing agency, The Ad Man wouldn't necessary dispute that math.  But to play devil's advocate, let's say of every 250 people who buy your book, you create 50 new fans that go into your back catalog for additional purchases, or talk you up to their friends.  Do you believe in "lifetime value" of fans, or sparking "word of mouth" conversations?  Should that not go into the equasion while estimating the ROI of marketing campaigns?  Have you noticed a long-tail effect of previous marketing efforts?

I’m glad you bring that up, because I think it’s a really important topic. I haven’t given it a lot of thought. Why? Because my own book sales history has had so many stops-and-starts to it. DIRTY DEEDS was, technically, the first novel (CATFISH GURU came out a couple years earlier, but it’s a collection of novellas and its publishing history is less traditional than the others), and the publisher didn’t have very good distribution and spent so long making a decision about the follow-up book that my agent and I got them to revise the contract so we could market it elsewhere, but weren’t able to place it. In the meantime, I got the first 2 Derek Stillwater novels published, but after THE SERPENT’S KISS came out, Midnight Ink dropped my contracts. So I then went a couple years before getting another book out, THE FALLEN, and by the time it came out, THE DEVIL’S PITCHFORK and THE SERPENT’S KISS had both gone out of print until I brought out the e-books.

So with that kind of a mess playing around in the background, it’s been hard to market my backlist, such as it was. Now that there are e-books and the new publisher seems willing to publish a book a year and seems pleased with the publishing progress to-date, then I think there might be more value in marketing of that type—and, in fact, it would be foolish not to take advantage of marketing the e-book backlist as well as some of the self-published e-books at the same time. I’m not sure there’s a long-tail effect yet—but I think there will be.

You've kept up a solo blog, This Writing Life, for over 5 years as your peers have gravitated to group blogs like Murderati and Hey, There's a Dead Guy In The Living Room.  Have you been tempted to give up your author blog?  Do you feel like the benefits still outweigh the time-commitment?

I was peripherally involved in a group blog with Midnight Ink authors, but once MI and I parted ways, although the publisher didn’t organize or sponsor the blog, I felt less inclined to take part in it. There are some group blogs that I’d probably be thrilled to be involved in if given the opportunity.

That said, mostly I enjoy it. Maybe I just like writing about myself. I like the community aspects of it and have made some real friends through my blog—one of them currently lives in Arizona and when I was down in Phoenix for a business trip she came up and we spent the day driving around the state checking out Montezuma’s Castle and Montezuma’s Well, and there are a couple other writers, in particular, that I’ve met through the blog that I’ve talked to on the phone and routinely email off-blog that I would definitely call friends. I don’t know about the marketing benefits of blogging—I’d say they’re real, but probably not as significant as we’d hope—but I think the social and creative benefits are both real and significant.

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Thanks again for the insights, Mark!  

Next column, we’ll handle a reader question about movie tie-ins and Happy Meals.  Come on back, y'hear!  

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, AAA, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #86

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Over the past few years, the Ad Man has interviewed multiple ex-Advertising professionals that have crossed over to the world of fiction. 

Now we’re expanding to authors that didn’t come from the Advertising world, but have embarked upon their own marketing adventures.

We begin with Mark Terry, a terrific and prolific author and blogger, who balances a fiction career with being a writer/editor for technical journals.  Mark’s latest release, THE FALLEN, is the third in his series featuring Homeland-Security troubleshooter Derek Stillwater.  He currently lives in Michigan with his wife, two sons, and a chocolate lab named Frodo.

So, Mark, before your fiction career, your background was in microbiology and public health... do you now feel like you've earned an honorary marketing degree?  Was the pressure to publicize and self-market your books something you anticipated before selling your first novel?  Do you approach that aspect of the business with excitement or resignation?

 I suppose I do sort of feel like I’ve earned an honorary marketing degree. Certainly I’ve read — and written — a lot about marketing over the last ten years or so. In addition to everything I’ve learned about marketing my books, I’ve written many, many articles about marketing, most of them aimed at physicians and how to market their medical practices. There’s a fair amount of crossover, so it’s been an education. 

Although I suspect all writers, or most writers, think they understand the pressure to market their own work after it’s published, I think when the reality sets in they find themselves in over their head. I’ve worked with a couple different publishers now and with different publicists, some in-house, some I’ve hired, some hired by my publisher, and I’ve done a lot on my own, and I can safely say that everyone’s skill level and enthusiasm varies a lot.  What can be puzzling is sometimes the publisher’s marketing people don’t seem to do much.  Sometimes they do.  My suspicion is they’re all overworked and understaffed and the amount of promotion you get tends to reflect the publisher’s overall support of you — so if you aren’t getting any, they may not be all that supportive or optimistic about your work.  And that can be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

I’m afraid I tend to approach self-marketing with resignation rather than enthusiasm.  Granted, resignation now is a vast improvement over how I used to approach it.  I accept now that it needs to be done, plus I’ve tried a lot of different things and I have a better idea now of what works (for me) and what doesn’t.  Also, when you have a publisher who’s really willing to help you with this, it becomes a lot easier and more effective.  And that’s where I am with my current publisher, Oceanview Publishing.  They’re terrific.

You've experimented with book signings, direct mail, public speaking, eNewsletters, contests... which effort do you feel had the best ROI on your book sales?  

Probably the blog tour, in terms of my own efforts. It exposes you to a lot of different readers and if they’re interested, they visit your site or even take a link directly to an online bookstore.  I still think positive reviews make a huge difference.  The publicist for my current publisher was very aggressive in getting review copies out to reviewers, particularly for online review sites, and reviews have been pretty uniformly glowing for THE FALLEN, and as a result, sales have been positive.

 

What other media forms -- like online banners -- have you not tried, but would give a shot if upfront cost wasn't an issue?

I think there’s some real potential for ads in program books at book conference events — like ThrillerFest, Bouchercon, or Mystery Writers of America events. I’m not sure how much impact going to those things has on marketing — I generally have a much better time if I go to enjoy the cons and hang out with writers — but if you’ve got 2,000 rabid readers in one place and you advertise your book in a program that they all see a million times a day for a couple days, it’s bound to make some sort of impression.  And I think banner ads on the ITW Report might make a difference, too, although it’s hard to say without any metrics at my fingertips.  Banner ads have changed the world of advertising, but an awful lot of people ignore them and don’t click through.

 

If your publisher gave you $20K to create your own book-marketing campaign, how would you break out the budget? 

 Hmmm.  I’d have to really think that through in detail if it actually happened, but I think I’d put a fairly good-sized chunk into a travel budget for a fairly focused book tour.  That is to say, okay, Michigan’s fairly easy.  Now, what metropolitan areas could you visit and do a lot of booksignings at that wouldn’t eat up all the money?  New York City area?  California?  East Coast?  Or would I want to try going on the road ala JA Konrath and just visit as many bookstores as I possibly could over a specific time period. With that kind of money to pay for gas and motels, etc., I could probably hit several hundred bookstores in the Midwest over a fairly short period of time.  I’d want some of it to go to at least one con plus an ad, as mentioned earlier.  For my last release, my publisher sent out a lot of review copies.  I think it might be worthwhile to expand that, to getting several hundred review copies and press kits out to reviewers at major markets.

 

For your last release, THE FALLEN, you embarked on an online blog tour.  How many blogs did you visit during the launch period?  What impact did you see to your website traffic, book sales, Amazon ranking, guest-speaker requests, etc?

I visited over 20 blogs and it boosted my website traffic significantly.  I started the tour in late March and saw a huge jump over February’s page loads.  In April I had 18,135 page loads with 6,855 unique visitors.  In May, when the tour was basically over, it dropped a lot — 10,049 page loads and 5,282 unique visitors — but May and June sustained at higher metrics than before the blog tour.  July appears low because this report was pulled during the first week.

 

I don’t have any metrics on book sales or Amazon ranking.  I used to obsess over Amazon ranking, but I got over it.  A sale of 2 or 3 books in an 8-hour period on Amazon can make your ranking jump about 30,000, so it’s hard to get a handle on how meaningful it is.  It depends a lot on who else is being sold that day.  Most bestseller lists, but especially the Amazon lists, have more to do with sales velocity than sales volume.  That is to say, if you sell 10 books in one day you might be a bestseller on an Amazon list, but to get onto the New York Times Bestseller List you might need 5,000 sales (or orders, which is a different topic) over a week spread out over a whole slew of bookstores.  But overall I’d say the blog tour had a major impact.

 

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Thanks, Mark!  Next column, we’ll return with Part 2 of our chat where Mark talks about eBooks, blogging, and being an accused Debbie Downer.

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, AAA, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #85

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q:  How do I break into advertising?

 

A: The Ad Man was just at a weekend wedding and asked this question by a guest.  This blog focuses on book marketing, but let’s step back and give props to advertising as a great way to pay bills while honing your writing chops.  As an added bonus, you’ll be learning skills and making contacts that will assist in marketing yourself as an author down the road.  

So how do you become the next Don Draper?

 

(1)  Understand that ad agencies consist of more than the writers and art directors creating the final product.  There are whole departments devoted to media buying and planning, client services (often called AE’s for Account Executives), studio production, art buying, strategic services, human resources, quality assurance (proofreaders), accounting, and traffic.  The traffic department, for example, is in charge of routing projects through the agency, meeting deadlines, and making sure the correct ads are sent to the media outlets.  Very few have the temperament to succeed in traffic because they get shit on by all sides – the client pushing for unreasonably short turn-around times,  the AE’s panicking about the wrong radio commercial airing in Poughkeepsie, and the creatives who can’t possibly focus on revisions until they’ve had their double lattes.  On the plus side, if you’re hyper organized and have a thick skin, the traffic department is a good back-door into larger agencies because they’re always hiring fresh meat.  

Coming up through the ranks as an advertising copywriter has worked for some authors – like Chris Grabenstein and Stuart Woods – but you run the risk of overtasking your creative muscles.  It’s the equivalent of an avid fly fisherman taking a full-time job on a commercial tuna boat… after a while you might just decide to go vegan.  

 

If you want a glimpse into an advertising creative department, instead of watching "Mad Men," track down episodes of TNT's now-defuct "Trust Me."  It was so close to modern ad agency lingo and workplace dynamics that I almost couldn't watch because it created a double-dose of job stress.

 

(2) We don't care much where you went to school, what you studied, and whether or not you made the Dean's List.  Advertising degrees are overrated -- any diploma from a 4-year college will get you in the door -- and I know tons of colleagues who majored in sociology, psychology, biology, even keg standing.  It's honestly more about who you know and how you present yourself in your interview.  If you have a second cousin that works for an ad agency, send them your resume and have them hand-deliver it to the human resource manager.  It can bump you to the top of the pile when entry-level positions open up.  If you don't know anybody in advertising, sign up for LinkedIn and search for friends-of-friends in the industry.  You can also use LinkedIn to cross-reference employees at big agencies with your college, high school, hometown... make a connection and send that person a nice, introductory note.  

Once you get asked for an interview, don't worry if your resume is light on advertising experience.  Show up with a suit, tie, polished shoes.  Don't be overly cocky, don't be a ditzy, don't be a douchebag.   For entry level positions, most hiring managers are looking for people willing to put in long hours with a smile, handle grunt work like conference notes and sorting media kits, all while being trained on the fly.  The one unifying trait for most advertising folks is "likeable."  It also helps to spend a couple hours researching the agencies' client roster and creative work.  That way during your interview you can ask questions like:  "I noticed your outdoor campaign for Tasty Mike's Chicken Hut all over town, is that something you're going to be continuing next year?" instead of "So what do y'all do again?"

(3) If you're an aspiring advertising copywriter, art director, graphic designer, or photographer, then ignore that last piece of advice.  For you, getting in is all about "your book."   In this case, "your book" refers to your portfolio, which if you haven't been employed before, should be filled with "spec campaigns" to show off your skills.  See this and this before developing your portfolio.  Like being an author, no one cares if you have a degree in writing as long as your work stands out.

(4) Often the best way to break in to any agency is through Internship and Apprentice programs.  Our department's last full-time hire was a gal who worked 2 months under the MAT program.  Initially, she was paid less than the building's janitors, but she kept a great attitude, took on everything thrown her way, and we snapped her up before her program ended.  If you don't qualify for that kind of program, offer to work as a low-paid freelancer, or free for a month-long internship.  Like California farmers, we're a sucker for cheap labor.

(5) Understand that hiring is cyclical.  When the economy is tanking, many agencies go into "hunker down mode" and freeze new hiring.  It's not personal, just corporate mandates. Often, the best time to break in is 1Q when budgets are refreshed, or 4Q when most agencies are in "planning mode" for the next calendar year, and desperate for additional hands.  Don't give up hope, just hang on until the next thaw.  The #1 website for new advertising job postings is now LinkedIn, and if you do a search for "advertising recruiter" you'll get a ton of people who place employees in the field.

(6) If you don't get hired, call the HR manager afterwards.  Thank them for their time and politely ask if they would be willing to give you constructive criticism on your interviewing skills.  It might hurt to hear, but use their advice to craft your approach for the next one. Repeat.

 

(7) Learn digital.  If you know the difference between SEO and SEM, you already have a head start over some senior executives.  People who understand how to buy and plan campaigns for mobile platforms, behavioral networks, social marketing efforts, etc. will be in heavy demand for the foreseeable future.  So if you're striking out at agencies, try getting an entry level sales job with an advertising network or online start-up.

(8) You don't have to be in LA/NY to break in.  There are great agencies in Dallas, Portland, Chicago, Minneapolis, Miami, Denver... learn the ropes somewhere that may have a more favorable job market, then use that experience to re-locate when you're ready. 

 

(9) When all else fails, you can spend $6 on Google and land your dream advertising job.

 

Good luck and happy job hunting!

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, AAA, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #84

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

The dog ate my homework.

Or, in this case, The Ad Man's Q&A with YA Fantasy author Garth Nix.  It was a most excellent two-part chat that touched on Nix's marketing strategies, and how his author website brims with branded content:  video mashups, games, eCards, interviews...

But then Nix's UK publisher unexpectedly pulled his website down for an overhaul.  So all the website links are being re-directed, causing our Q&A to be on hold until further notice.

So instead of getting to know Mr. Nix, today we will peer 10 years into the future.  

As Kindles and iPads gain traction, it's important to remember those pieces of hardware are not just eBook delivery systems -- but a stepping stone to a future with easily accessible and manipulative information.

As an author, your end product is not just a hardback book.  It's information and content creation.  

AOL is the latest to recognize the importance of those facets, as they just announced the hiring of hundreds of journalists, editors, and videographers:

"Our mission at this company is to be the world's largest producer of high-quality content, period," David Eun, president of AOL’s media and studios division

So authors, how are you preparing for the future?  Are you ready to have your carefully-crafted intellectual property streamed into someone's retinas -- then whisked away with the flick of a finger?

The following column comes to us from FlowingData's Nathan Yau.  In particular, I recommend the video "Microsoft Office Labs 2019 Vision Montage."

Enjoy!  

--------------------

Data Life of the Future

via FlowingData by Nathan Yau on 6/3/10

It's fun to imagine the future. Every few months, someone takes a stab with a concept video or a proof of concept prototype, providing a glimpse into human-computer interaction and data visualization in a decade or two. What will it really look like? It's anyone's guess. But if people's imaginations are any indication, the future will be filled of data displays and 3-dimensional holographic objects projected into physical space.

Embedded Data

If there's anything uniform across all the ideas, it's ubiquity. In the future, computers won't feel like computers, and data will not just flow alongside the physical world. Instead, data will intertwine with your day-to-day like threads in a fabric.

Most recently, Frog Design, came up with some of their own concepts(which accompanied a fine series of articles on Life in 2020 in Forbes).

In this one a girl sees a jacket that she likes on someone else. She is able to look it up instantly.

Next, a man grabs a meal at his favorite fast food burger joint. A display pops up that tells him that he is fat and needs to exercise more. He feels sad. He later enjoys his burger and fries, accompanied by his American-sized coke.

Finally, in the the third, a married couple, Andrew Kendel and Jenny Daniels, sit down for a nice cup of coffee. They both feel smug because they have way more friends then Mandy Monroe and Maggie Jones behind them. April, however, who appears to have the same profile as Jenny doesn't seem to be all that excited to be hanging out with the lesser Mandy.

I kid, I kid. April doesn't actually mind.

Okay, so your first thought is probably that the world would be a very cluttered space with floating displays on top of everyone's head. The premise here though is that you'd wear something to augment your vision or simply see the data on your mobile. The main points are more about linked data, virtually unlimited resources, and data embedded in the everyday. People aren't going to actually walk around with projectors in their bags.

We've seen this before.

Microsoft has a boatload of concept videos for what they've envisioned for 2019. Here's the main one. The rest are variations of this, but for specific application areas like construction or medicine.

Fantasy World

How about taking it all the way to the extreme, where, uh, no man has gone before?

Create an entire world virtually with holograms you can manipulate, but make it real in your mind - and someone else's.

Of course we can't talk future data interactions without making a reference to the Minority Report scene. John Anderson sifts through images and facts as if he were conducting an orchestra.

We saw something similar in Iron Man 2, but kicked up a notch. Tony Stark creates a completely new element. Fancy that. There were 3-dimensional projections flying every which way and things imploding and exploding with a clap of a hand.

Let's not forget that just about every surface of his house and lab was interactive and functioned as a single unit.

Looking Ahead

Crazy stuff. Are these ideas really that far fetched though? Crazy as they may sound, sometimes it's funny how life likes to mimic the imagination. We already have visual related-image search, social networks are finding their way into the real world, and data collection has gotten super easy with advancing mobile technology. Skinput takes the interface out of the device, and uses your body as the input surface. We've even got Minority Report style interfaces popping up.

So how much of these concepts will actually come to fruition in the next decade? Like I said, it's anyone's guess. Whatever it is, it's going to be fun.

What do you see in the year 2020? Let your imagination run wild.

   

The Ad Man Answers #82

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Last time, we put together a little reader contest to brainstorm creative marketing ideas around Marshall Karp’s upcoming CUT, PASTE, KILL.

Here’s the Ad Man’s entry: 

From the creative brief, we established that Marshall’s mysteries combine humor with wicked plot twists.  So a good marketing campaign would reflect those sensibilities.  Also, we established that Marshall has limited budget, but potential access to camera equipment and actors.

Instead of a traditional, 60-second book trailer that attempts to summarize the plot of a 304-page novel, the Ad Man envisions a viral video shot in the style of a local news segment.

The video opens on Eduardo, a smarmy reporter with cheesy Geraldo Rivera mustache.  He’s in a large auditorium, surrounded by craft booths and smiling, middle-aged women.

Eduardo:  Sharpen your scissors, Chantilly.  From WCTY, this is Eduardo Gilberta reporting on-location at the Great American Scrapbooking Convention.  There are 33 million scrapbookers in the world… so what do they do behind the closed doors of Northern Virginia’s EXPO Center?  Is this a sweet, innocent gathering of photo archivists, or a boot camp for [dramatic pause]… murder? 

The screen fills with an over-the-top graphic:  “SERIAL SCRAPBOOKERS – KILL, KILL, KILL!”

Cut to series of interviews between Eduardo and good-natured conventioneers.  Dramatic background music and skewed camera angles turn the wholesome setting into something ominous.  Every time there is a (snip), it’s clear words have been amateurishly edited out.

Eduardo: If you were to kill (snip) somebody, who would you choose?

Scrapbooker #1: My brother, (snip) he really needs to go.

Eduardo:  What brought you to the scrapbooking convention today?

Scrapbooker #2: I’m here to practice my blade-work.

Scrapbooker #3:  What can I say?  I just love cutting things up.

Scrapbooker #4:  One of the biggest challenges is getting rid of your (snip)dead.

Scrapbooker #5:  One way I torture (snip) is with (snip) acid. 

Scrapbooker #6:  When you get to my age, you know lots of people who deserve to (snip) die.

Cut to a workshop session with tables full of scrapbookers.  The instructor raises an Exacto knife over her head and plunges it into an unseen object.

Instructor:  That’s right, thrust it in. ladies!  Make a clean hole, cut out those eyes.

Eduardo:  (Back on the convention room floor)  So there you have it… an army of knife-wielding sociopaths, hell-bent on global annihilation.  If you missed this weekend’s Great American Scrapbooking Convention this weekend, count your blessings… and lock your doors.

Cut to WCTY news studio, where Eduardo is sitting across long table with well-coiffed weekend Anchor.

Anchor:  That’s your report?

Eduardo:  Yep.  Chilling stuff.  Barely made it out of there alive.

Anchor:  You’re already on probation for this.

Eduardo:  I don’t know what you’re talking about.

Anchor:  We pulled the original footage, Eduardo.

Cut to the previous series of interviews, this time with all the (snip) words included:

Eduardo: If you were to kill time at a mall with somebody, who would you choose?

Scrapbooker #1: My brother, he ’s so fashion-challenged, he really needs to go shopping.

Scrapbooker #4:  One of the biggest challenges is getting rid of your old magazines.  Personally, I’m dead set against a messy craft room—

Scrapbooker #5:  One way I torture my husband is with all the piles of acid-free paper I leave around the house. 

Scrapbooker #6:  When you get to my age, you know lots of people who deserve to be memorialized in a scrapbook before they die.

Cut to the same scrapbooking workshop, where the camera stays on the scene longer, pulling back to reveal the Instructor is hacking into a pumpkin.

Instructor:  Make a clean hole, cut out those eyes.  And that’s how we bring together our entire Halloween theme!

Back to WCTY studio.

Anchor:  This is a serious breach of conduct.

Eduardo:  So I cut and pasted a few words, but c'mon, they’re scrapbookers… it’s like a homage.

Anchor:  I just got word that you’re to clean out your locker immediately. 

Eduardo:  This is the fourth convention you nimrods had me cover this year.  Can you fault me for spicing it up?  Besides, who cares if I tweak a few old biddies—

Eduardo suddenly grimaces, and keels onto the desk.  The camera pushes in to reveal scissors stuck in the middle of the reporter’s back.  The Anchor screams like a teenage girl as blood spurts onto his tie.  Pandemonium on the set for a split second then cut to slate with Marshall’s cover art.

Anchor V/O:  CUT, PASTE, KILL by Marshall Karp.  Available at booksellers everywhere on June 8.  Sharpen your scissors.

------

Remember, folks, it’s not enough to create entertaining content.  You also have to find avenues to distribute it.

So if Marshall were to create a mock news report, how could he get it out into the world?

·      * Home page of his website (free)

·      * YouTube (free)

·      * MySpace (free)

·      * Facebook (free)

·      * Funny or Die (free)

·      * Internal distribution to Minotaur sales staff (free)

·      *  Blog advertising thru Authorbuzz (paid)

·      * Outreach to non-traditional outlets, like Michaels’ craft stores, which may be interested in carrying rack of books (potential co-op)

Marshall could also help spread the video by having a website contest, where fans who pass the video to 5 or more friends are entered to win a prize.

While the Creative Brief said that Marshall had slim to no external advertising budget, it may be worth contacting “Scrapbook Advertising”, a digital network that links websites like Scrapbook.com, Scrapjazz.com, Scrapbooks.com, Scraptutur.com, and ComputerScrapbook.com. 

With over 600,000 monthly visitors, they may be of assistance with seeding the video in the scrapbooking community.

The Ad Man wishes Marshall the best of luck with his marketing efforts… and take it from someone who’s already read CUT, PASTE, KILL cover-to-cover, you won’t be disappointed with this book (unless you’re Eduardo).

To reader Elysabeth… you’re the winner of a signed galley.  Please send your mailing address to [email protected] and it will be on its way before you can say “Lomax & Biggs.” 

Stay tuned next week for the first of two-part Q&A with bestselling YA fantasy author Garth Nix!

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, AAA, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #81

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Over the past couple years, the Ad Man has brainstormed marketing campaigns for published authors and up-and-comers.

Now it’s your turn.

Marshall Karp – author of the Lomax & Biggs’ mysteries and himself a former Ad Man – has a new release CUT, PASTE, KILL (Minotaur) scheduled for June 8th.  Marshall’s currently hard at work co-authoring a standalone thriller with James Patterson, but he’s agreed to take time from his writing schedule to judge our reader contest.

Your challenge:  Come up with a marketing idea around CUT, PASTE, KILL.  This could be in the form of an online banner campaign, viral video, PR stunt, contest, outdoor execution… let your mind roam.  We’ve got some creative thinkers frequenting ‘Buzz, Balls & Hype’, so I’m confident you can channel your inner Don Draper.  Extra points will be given to campaigns that fit within the framework of the creative brief, as opposed to “You should run a funny commercial in the Super Bowl, dude.”  Once you come up with your campaign idea, be sure to mention the environment of where you’d place it.

How to enter:  Leave your campaign idea(s) in the comments section below.  For examples of previous book-marketing campaigns, see these for M.K. Hobson and Katherine Howell.

Contest closes at midnight PST on 5/10, with our winner announced in the next Ad Man Answers on 5/13.

The prize:  A signed galley of CUT, PASTE, KILL sent to your house before the hardback is released.  Marshall has his own ideas about how his book should be marketed… but if he likes your idea enough, you may find a character named after you in his next Lomax & Biggs novel.

 

Your Creative Brief

Book description:

When Eleanor Bellingham-Crump — a socialite responsible for the death of a ten-year-old boy — turns up murdered on the bathroom floor of a Hollywood hotel, Lomax and Biggs are confronted with a crime of artistic brutality. Along with the scissors sticking out of Eleanor’s lifeless body, the two detectives find a meticulous scrapbook documenting a motive of vengeance in lurid detail.

As more bodies are discovered, each one connected by the intricate scrapbooks left at the scene, Lomax and Biggs go on the hunt for a vigilante stalking unpunished criminals. They must race to decode the meaning behind the scrapbooks before the crafty avenger has time to cut and paste the story of another kill.

With laugh-out-loud humor and crackling dialogue, the chapters hurtle toward a killer finale in the most thrilling Lomax & Biggs adventure yet.

See link for the first two chapters of CUT, PASTE, KILL.

Target Demo: Marshall’s hard-core fans tend to be crime fiction readers of all ages (more women than men, as women buy and read more books).  Based on past experience, the author feels there’s a good chance that once they read this fourth book in the series, they’ll go out and buy the first three. However, due to the subject matter of CUT, PASTE, KILL, Marshall believes there’s an opportunity to market to the scrapbooking community,typically women between the ages of 30-50.

Geographic Area: No particular geographic restrictions on any marketing ideas.  Bricks and mortar bookstores tend to be found in densely populated areas, but because of Amazon, E-books, and local libraries, Marshall also hears from many readers in small-town America.

Anticipated Publisher Support:  Minotaur will be providing galleys, trade advertising, and co-op support around the hardback release June 8.

Author Budget:  Slim to none.  Just because Marshall’s Lomax & Biggs series is in development for TV, doesn’t mean he is exempt from the usual author budget challenges.  Thanks to his history in advertising and entertainment, Marshall has access to camera equipment and actors on the cheap, so that’s a plus if you have an idea for a video executions.

 Author Positioning:  Marshall is difficult to position.  His mysteries are suspenseful and filled with clever twists, but his reviews and his fan mail most often focus on his strength as a character writer, and the laugh-out loud humor laced throughout his books.  James Patterson has said: “Marshall Karp is the only writer I know who can get big laughs out of murdering someone.”  Since few other writers juxtapose humor and suspense, his Lomax & Biggs books are outside of the traditional mystery genres.

Current tagline for CUT, PASTE, KILL:

THERE ARE 33 MILLION SCRAPBOOKERS IN AMERICA.

SOME ARE PASSIONATE. SOME ARE COMPULSIVE.

ONE IS HOMICIDAL.

I have to say, this is a damn fine tagline, because it outlines the massive size of the scrapbooking community (thus legitimizing the hobby and subject matter) while indicating to the reader it will be a “needle in a haystack” search for the killer. 

Think you can do better?  Give it your best shot.  The judges will be watching.

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, AAA, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.

The Ad Man Answers #80

Thursday + Gregory Huffstutter = The Ad Man Answers

Q: Is Illeana Douglas trying to sell me an IKEA sofa?

A:  Yes, but not directly.  The Emmy-nominated actress has created a series of webisodes  –  “Easy To Assemble” – where no IKEA products are discounted.  No Swedish announcer screaming “THIS WEEKEND ALL KRAMFORS AND INLOPPS ARE 40% OFF!”  

But in the IKEA-sponsored “Easy To Assemble,” the furniture outlet is just as much a star as Illeana Douglas.  This is a throwback to the first “soap operas,” which were funded by detergent manufacturer Procter & Gamble. 

And it’s no wonder brands find themselves drawn to the early days in advertising.  How many times does it take paying $100,000 for a Network TV spot – then have viewers TIVO past your carefully-crafted commercial – before saying “Dammit, if I’m going to spend this kind of money, I want to own the surrounding environment.” 

Nowadays, marketers call this “Advertainment” or “Branded Content.”  Essentially it’s a fusion of advertising and content into a single product intended to be distributed as entertainment.

Here’s some basic tenants of Branded Content, as described by Advertising Age’s Joel Lunenfeld:

It must be an experience that could only be brought to you by the brand in question.

In order to promote its new lineup, the Cartoon Network created a series of videos known as "The Wedgies," which featured the characters from the show. The videos were developed around stories involving individual characters from "The Wedgies." Individual episodes were specific to the brand that each character represented. They were successful in promoting the show, and viewers were able to share their thoughts of the videos with their friends through posts and social media.

The brand or product must play an integral role in moving the story forward.
You can have 100-plus product placements in a new movie, but unless your brand is somehow tied to the hero or storyline in a meaningful or authentic way, you're just background noise. Though almost a decade has past since it made its debut, BMW's groundbreaking online film series from then-agency Fallon, "The Hire," remains a classic example. The plot was simple: The main character, played by actor Clive Owen, as a mysterious BMW-driving chauffeur, provided transportation to various people in different episodes. The cars were crucial to the storyline. Without the cars, the story did not move forward.

Your brand has to have the right to create this content.

The show "It's Everybody's Business" would not have worked if just any businessman was involved. Former General Electric chief Jack Welch, an authority in the business world, created the show and shared the spotlight with Microsoft throughout the branded-entertainment web series. The premise was that Jack and Suzy Welch would help different businesses solve problems in order to operate more efficiently. This show would not have worked with just anyone. Because Welch is a legend in the business world and famous for his problem-solving strategies at GE, he was able to create a show that was believable and real.

The content must leave room for speculation, co-creation or interaction.
Holiday Inn Express' "The Smart Show," a web series that humorously portrayed the challenges of traveling, did a great job at integrating different mediums to continue the conversation with the audience. Holiday Inn launched "The Smart Show" website, which provided information for travelers including deals of the week and travel tips based on that week's episode. It also created a blog allowing the community to communicate directly with one another about the episode, experiences they had and other travel queries. Because the conversation continued long after the episodes had aired, the series was a success and the brand continued to grow.

The content must be entertaining, informative, interesting or useful whether a brand is present or not.

The "Life Without HP" series is a prime example of interesting videos that have a storyline outside of the brand's involvement. The short videos are entertaining and appealing regardless of Hewlett-Packard's presence. The featured products are secondary to the storylines at hand, creating a memorable experience for the viewer and one that they are more likely to talk about and pass on to their peers.

Here's some other recent examples of Branded Content:

AXE Vice’s “Naughty to Nice”

AXE Dry’s “Gamekillers,” which crossed over from YouTube to MTV

Hidden Valley Ranch’s “Garden Party” with 90210 alumnus Jennie Garth

Geico’s "Cavemen", which became a short-lived ABC sit-com before doing a Super Bowl ad mocking their failure

So, how could Branded Content work for an author? 

It would be difficult, because this is a different beast than the traditional book trailer.  First, it would help if the author was popular enough to be an identifiable brand (a certain Mr. Patterson comes to mind).  Second, there would have to be real entertainment value in the execution.  Third, it usually requires an additional advertising investment to alert people to the content being available.  For example, after Hidden Valley Ranch created “Garden Party,” they followed it up with advertising mentions on NBC properties, iVillage, iTunes and other video-on-demand platforms.

Here’s one way it might work.  Intrepid thriller writer Robert Gregory Browne is having his novel KISS HER GOODBYE being developed into a TV pilot for CBS.  From his website and Twitter feed, we already know he’s visited the set to observe filming.  In fact, the first on-location pictures have already been leaked on the web.

How about if Robert was able to convince CBS to allow him to return to the set with the express purpose of filming video shorts?  Instead of doing the traditional “Behind The Scenes” observations, what if Robert could get the actors, like Michael Rapaport, to monologue about the freakiest thing they’ve ever witnessed in real-life, especially if their story has a paranormal angle?

Ideally, the videos would serve the mutual purpose of teasing the CBS pilot and it’s relationship to KISS HER GOODBYE, but executed with an eye for entertainment, not an official trailer.  But if the network does pick up the pilot for their fall schedule, CBS has a myriad of properties where these videos could be distributed.

It should be noted that Branded Content rarely achieves the mass reach of a traditional TV commercial.  BMW’s “The Hire” attached directors like John Frankenheimer and John Woo, yet each episode averaged about 200,000 views on YouTube (sounds like a lot until you consider one commercial on American Idol can bring in 30 million eyeballs).

“Easy to Assemble” was the most-watched sponsored web show in its second season, with a total of over 5 million total views.  But if you look at the stats, most episodes only had 20,000-30,000 views. 

Still, if you’re an up-and-coming author and could expose 20,000 people to your brand, you’d take that, right?

 

Gregory Huffstutter has been punching Ad Agency timecards for over a dozen years, working on accounts like McDonald's, KIA Motors, Suzuki Automotive, AAA, and the San Diego Padres. His first mystery, KATZ CRADLE is on submission while he's working on the sequel. The first 100 pages of his novel are linked here. For general advertising questions, leave a comment or send e-mail to katz @ gregoryhuffstutter dot com with 'Ask The Ad Man' in the subject line.