Robert McIntosh

Robert has more than 20 years of experience in technology, marketing and communications. He began his career in 1986 at Kelley Advertising in Hamilton, Ontario then Young & Rubicam in Toronto five years later to manage Xerox Canada, Whitehall-Robins and Labatt's regional brands. In 1994 he joined Microsoft Canada as kids, productivity and creativity software product manager. In 1997, Robert became International Product Manager for the Geography Business Unit in Seattle, Washington, responsible for mapping titles in Europe and North America. Under his leadership, the portfolio reached or maintained the number one market position globally. He received two Ship-It awards from Bill Gates and was recognized as a best practice Product Manager. Rob returned to Canada in 2001 as a founding partner in two successful small businesses. Most recently, he managed advertiser communications for Yellow Pages Group and is now a senior carrier marketing manager for Research In Motion based in Waterloo, Ontario.

Experiential Marketing

“Experiential marketing” could easily be dismissed as an overly fancy marketing term that applies only to events and trade shows. But in reality, it’s much more than setting up a booth and making sure you have cool swag to hand out that entices folks to stop and hear your sales pitch.

Beyond the spoken word
Just now being more frequently used as a new marketing approach, it's the evolution and extension of consumer brand experiences beyond traditional advertising. According to Wikipedia, it attempts “to connect consumers with brands in personally relevant and memorable ways –experiencing and participating in a brand moment, rather than the usual disruptive, passive advertising messages we are surrounded by today.”

Let’s face it – most of us, if we admit it or not, try to avoid or block out irrelevant marketing messages whenever possible and by any means available. Thanks to Norton, Google and Microsoft, I can’t remember the last time a pop up interrupted my online experience like a telemarketing call at dinner time. I also know lots of folks (not me of course) who happily subscribe to personal video recorders that let them zip through commercial breaks.

Now, contrast this ‘blocking’ attitude with experiential marketing – where consumers happily allow brands into their world. You don’t have to look farther than leading social networking sites MySpace and Facebook to see fan pages devoted to Starbucks (73,000 fans and counting), Absolut Vodka (26,527) and even older established brands like the Marmite Food Company (68,397) and In-and-Out Burger (6,402). How can this be?

You're on the list.
In our technology obsessed world where the internet, Xbox and text messaging replace common, face to face interactions, experiential marketing gives control to the consumer, who controls (with the help of technology) who’s allowed into their universe. It’s not unlike being stuck outside a nightclub waiting to get in. You’re either on the list and, with a backward glance to the unfortunates, whisked inside. Or you wait by the front door with everyone else, hoping to get tap on the shoulder while the party is still going on.

Some great work is being done.
And experiential marketing isn’t limited to online. MAX LENDERMAN is a Chicago-based creative director of GMR Marketing, and the former president and creative director of Gearwerx Experiential Marketing in Montreal. In his new book, Experience the Message: How Experiential Marketing is Changing the Brand World he offers compelling case studies on how experiential marketing helped to launch new brands and save older ones while delivering meaningful share, revenue and profit increases:

Absolut launched a new spirits brand Cut, by leasing two bars in Sydney and Melbourne. They put on DJ sets, band concerts and photo exhibitions in these spaces. Visitors to the Absolut Cut bars got a free bottle and consumers were given a chance to contribute their photos to the exhibits, generating what Absolut hoped would be a viral element to the campaign. Instead of using mass marketing to blanket the millions in order to reach the few, Absolut chose to target the few to eventually reach the masses.

Not only can experiential marketing tactics launch a brand without mass-media support, it can rejuvenate it as well. Take Pabst Blue Ribbon beer, a brand with a 20-year span of sales declines and loss of market share. With its small marketing budget, brand managers at Pabst decided to take an experiential approach and began sponsoring sub cultural events to reach the influentials such as scooter rallies, dodge ball tournaments, and fashion shows for peanuts. After losing 90% of its volume between 1978 and 2001, Pabst was in the positive numbers in 2004 with a 15% volume lift.

Experiential marketing is an incredibly interesting field opening up to marketers. With technology as a core component, we’re learning new ways to target, appeal to and retain customers. And in order for it to work effectively, we have to acknowledge that the decision making power is firmly in the consumer’s hands – and their willingness to experience our brand. It’s really no farther away than a mouse click, smartphone or remote control.

Social Networking + BlackBerry = eHarmony.

The social networking phenomena is catching on with BlackBerry users. Why? Because it's super simple to do, it's fast and it's private. Anyone with a Pearl or Curve can now connect to groups on Facebook, and most recently BBMNATION, a social networking site devoted to connecting you to other BlackBerry customers using your PIN.

What's your PIN?
Similar to your bank card, each BlackBerry has a unique identifying code or PIN number. The technology is similar to that used in two-way pager systems. When you send a PIN to PIN message, it doesn't venture outside RIM's infrastructure in search of an e-mail server and (eventually) an e-mail in box. Instead, it stays in the RIM world and delivered directly to the recipient. And because the message is sent directly, it's the fastest way to send and receive messages.

Have friends on Facebook? On the Facebook page, meet other BlackBerry users, save their PIN and voila! -an instant network of mobile friends to take with you wherever you go.

And the most popular Facebook features are available too, like wireless access to home screen notifications — so you know right away when you have a new Facebook event like a wall post, message or poke. Plus full text messages or wall posts, new photo tags and friend requests. With photo-sharing, you simply snap a picture with your BlackBerry smartphone’s camera, then post it to Facebook with one click.

Social networking on your BlackBerry is instant fun. I can't think of a better down time distraction than writing on a fun wall waiting for my plane to take off. Yet another reason not to put it down...argh!

When's the last time you enjoyed staring at the floor?

If you were at an XBOX retail store in California over Christmas, you may have seen a digital display of a soccer field beamed onto the store floor as you walked in. Through the magic of technology, the display 'reacts' to your movements, letting you 'kick' around a soccer ball on the grassy, computer generated pitch.

A Redwood, CA based firm Reactrix Systems has developed an interactive advertising platform using infrared cameras, a projector and computer to project video images onto a flat surface. THQ, Inc., a leading developer and publisher of interactive entertainment software, partnered with Reactrix this past holiday season to drive consumers to retailers and add a powerful branding element to their newest gaming releases. Reactrix created unique, interactive game-play campaigns for releases like “Spongebob’s Atlantis Squarepants,” “Ratatouille Food Frenzy,” “Avatar: The Burning Earth,” and “Cars Maternational” to help differentiate these titles from their home video and DVD campaign counterparts.

Like Nintendo Wii for retailers.
According to Bob Aniello, SVP at THQ, "Reactrix is a perfect fit in our marketing mix, especially powerful in helping create strong brand identities for gaming titles typically associated with movies and television. Reactrix provides a branding platform where we are not just delivering a message to consumers and hoping it soaks in - we are allowing them to engage and have fun with our titles, while also driving them to locations within the mall where they can purchase the game to play with at home.”

The system costs about $5,000 to install and about $4,000 per month per advertiser to get involved. Developing the interactivity is a separate cost. Reactrix is using technology to create a compelling instore experience, driving brand awareness, consumer interest and store traffic. Worth evaluating as a long term installation for major product lines or seasonal launches.

Who knew getting people`s attention was as easy as making them look at the floor?

So what do highly efficient people do with all their free time?

The only note I had on my “to do list” during 10 days of vacation last month was to read just one book. No Blackberry, no checking emails or voice mail or reading my RSS marketing feeds. I was looking for chill time: people watching at the beach, perfecting the art of Mojito making (it's really easy!) and to not burn under the hot Florida sun.

Before heading out, I took a trip to Indigo, shopping for a book meaty enough to learn something, but light enough to get through even if I was only half-concentrating. A title jumped out at me on the business section shelf, "The 4-Hour workweek - Escape the 9-5, live anywhere and join the New Rich." The jacket cover went on to tantalize, ‘Warning: Do not read this book unless you want to quit your job.’ I was sold.

Ultra Vagabond.
The book was written by Tim Ferris who, at 30 years old, describes himself as a serial entrepreneur and ultra vagabond. I have to say, being a vagabond isn’t something I aspire to, but after reading his approaches it’s an interesting blueprint on leveraging technology, the 80/20 rules of business and outsourcing to escape the rat race and enjoy life now.

Ferris’ credentials are impressive – fluent in six languages, runs a multinational firm from wireless locations around the world, a world record holder in tango, national champion in Chinese kickboxing, on hit TV shows in China and Hong Kong, and in his spare time, dives for sharks. Just reading his list of accomplishments lounging at the beach makes me tired. But I’m also left wondering how some people get so much done every day.

The New D.E.A.L.
Main ideas in the book are explained using the acronym D.E.A.L., what every aspiring member of the New Rich (NR) should know.

Definition – explaining the overall lifestyle design recipe – the new fundamentals
Elimination – killing obsolete time management tools and learn how to develop a low information diet
Automation – Look for ways to make money on autopilot – ongoing revenue streams that don’t require you directly minding the store
Liberation – the manifesto for the mobility inclined or breaking the bonds that confine you to a single location.

The chapters have anecdotes, personal experiences and lots of web resources to help you dive deeper into subjects being presented – setting up automatic revenue streams, using virtual personal assistants, income retirement calculators and something he calls ‘setting up a dreamline.’

A “dreamline” is a timeline of monthly income required to achieve one’s life goals and ambitions. You list out your life goals and estimate how much they’ll cost, chunk them down to a monthly cost, and then figure out what you’ll need to earn every month to cover them.

If you’re not ready to retire or think you’re already organized, the book is still worth picking up. Tim Ferris offers great pointers to help identify time draining activities and the online resources are very helpful. Bottom line - if one of his approaches helps you leave the office earlier every week (like it’s done for me), it is well worth the $25 cover price.

Microsoft!

The last time Microsoft spoke publicly about its annoyance with Google and plans to wage war against Big G was back in September 2007.

Eager to challenge Google`s internet advertising and search empire, they hired Brian McAndrews from aQuantive as MSN general manager to draw up battle plans. “We are hell-bent and determined to allocate the talent, resources, money and innovation, to absolutely become a powerhouse in the ad (and search) business,” said Steve Ballmer, Microsoft’s chief executive, at the company’s financial analyst meeting back in July. Rest assured since then, they've been very, very busy.

So it came as not a shocker 10 days ago when Microsoft announced its intention to purchase Yahoo! for $44.6 billion in a decisive bid that, if effective, accelerates its marketing efforts tenfold growing web based services and advertising share.
Well timed overtures.
The bid is well timed to take Yahoo! under its wing. Even after recent management shakeups, the company is still lethargic with slow growth, a poor quarter and weak share price. So the 62% premium over the $13 stock price is a sweet deal indeed.

According to a letter sent to the Yahoo! board of directors, "while online advertising growth continues, there are significant benefits of scale in advertising platform economics, in capital costs for search index build-out, and in research and development, making this a time of industry consolidation and convergence. Today, the market is increasingly dominated by one player who is consolidating its dominance through acquisition. Together, Microsoft and Yahoo! can offer a credible alternative for consumers, advertisers, and publishers."

Faster PCs mean less software CDs.
While Microsoft has a lock on computer software, including Windows on 90%+ of the world’s computers, the reality is people are changing how they interact with PCs as they spend more time on the web downloading free applications and services to run. Services that also include Google`s free web based word processor and spreadsheet programs, Google Docs.

Further proof of online migration can be seen at any Future Shop too. The software CD section is now a tiny footprint of its former self.

Armchair quarterbacking the play.
In Canada, although way too early to tell what impacts will be (even if passes the US Justice’s competitive smell test), the deal could affect Rogers Communications and their customers the most. That’s because they have a deep partnership with Yahoo! for content, advertising and web services. Will that partnership end? Will they align with someone else? It’s pure speculation of course, but wondering about the possibilities is way more fun than wondering what’s next for Britney.

If I were Google, I would subscribe to a MSFT newsfeed and keep both eyes focused on this new, combined competitor. In short order Microsoft could own the most popular website on the planet. And with a track record of dogged determination and winning at all costs, nothing says ‘IT'S ON’ like an exclamation point at the end of their name.

Update: The latest news from the Yahoo! camp is they plan to rebuff MSFT's advances, citing the offer as too low and are holding out for a $40 price per share - a whopping 109% premium on the current share price. The last time their stock traded at this level was more than two years ago. Most industry analysts call the Microsoft bid "reasonable and fair."

This is getting more interesting by the minute.