Top 5 Biggest Changes of 2009
As a blogger, one of the prerogatives of the job is that you get to pick the scope of what you write. I mentioned in my last post (My Favorite 5 Marketing Bloggers) that the “top 5 biggest changes of the year” was coming. But, it’s a broad and unclear title. Was I referring to the top 5 biggest changes at JumpStart? The top 5 in marketing in general? The top 5 in the world of entrepreneurship? I decided to identify the top 5 of all those: the top 5 things that seem to me to have the biggest impact from my (marketing) seat and hopefully, in some way, from yours. Here it goes:
5. Pepsi drops Super Bowl advertising for online program. Since the early 2000s, I’ve been waiting for this — the pivot point when TV advertising finally loses its dominance to online marketing. While the isn’t exactly that point, the decision that Pepsi won’t be advertising in the 2010 Super Bowl for the first time in decades is big news (remember the Cindy Crawford ads?). It’s also big news that they are using the investment for an online program that invests in cause-related marketing, specifically, community-based projects proposed and selected by consumers. If anyone doubted that consumers now have the power instead of brands and businesses, that the recession has made big glitzy events a little unsavory, and that online marketing will eventually overtake TV advertising as a percent of marketing investment, that doubt is absolutely gone. Like Pepsi on the Super Bowl.
4. More media vehicles for early-stage companies. This isn’t about social media, although of course the importance of participating in those media vehicles — if on-strategy for you — grew in 2009. Instead, this is about the launch of many other media vehicles in Northeast Ohio. With the addition of MedCity News, hiVelocity, and NEOtropolis (in addition to existing marketing partners such as the Plain Dealer, ABJ, Crain’s Cleveland, WCPN, WKSU,WKYC, Cool Cleveland, and other bloggers, broadcasts, and publications), there have never been so many places for good news about the region’s early-stage companies to be heard. The fact that these folks — new folks — can grow a business out of telling the stories of the region is exciting.
3. The launch of two “new products”: The Social Innovation Fund and the Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation. Here I’m making a choice sort of like the Nobel committee did, given for the start of something this year instead of results already accomplished. All marketers launch new products/services/solutions to address needs, and the U.S. Government is apparently no exception. In May, it announced the Social Innovation Fund ($50 million to go to the nation’s most effective non-profits to expand their footprint) and in September, the Commerce Department announced its new Office of Entrepreneurship and Innovation (which will help guide efforts to connect ideas to their commercialization). What better way to give visibility and credibility to entrepreneurship than putting money where the mouth is? Thank you to these policy leaders for the boost to entrepreneurship and job growth that these “new products” will provide in the coming years.
2. Videos as a critical marketing tactic for early-stage entrepreneurs. Despite the fact that YouTube is 5 years old and creating videos easily isn’t new either, the prevalence and importance of them accelerated this year like wildfire. Consumer goods campaigns are all over the internet, which allows consumers to participate in brands by submitting videos to be used for advertising, or submitting other types of marketing ideas through videos. I wrote a blog earlier this year about how Richard Branson’s VC pitch event was accepting pitches via video. As JumpStart has gone from almost no video to a video in every JumpStart Connect newsletter in a matter of a year (often, more than one video per issue), we have see the videos vault to the top of our content in popularity. And perhaps most importantly, we have seen the impact with entrepreneurs. As one recently said to us, “ever since you have promoted the video of my elevator pitch, I’ve received several potential investor and customer phone calls”.
1. The year of getting to the point. I went to a club a few months ago and the live band only played the chorus of popular songs, moving from “song” to “song” in about 1 ½ minutes. Watch YouTube or Hulu and you’re more likely to see the edited version of movies or skits than the long version. Even with the written word, you better get to it. While 140 characters messages were around, Twitter’s enormous surge in usage and publicity this year dramatically accelerated the impatience with reading much more than 2 lines. With all the devices which allow us to fast forward, skip, move on, or leave, the time to send your message has gotten dramatically shorter. I am positive I never thought we’d have so little space or time. And with that, I’d better shut up. You’ve already moved on.
Cathy Belk is the Chief Marketing Officer of JumpStart. She specializes in branding, marketing communications, and business management. She brings 16+ years of experience in a variety of marketing and business roles, but gets her energy from working daily with entrepreneurs and their growing companies.
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