Cyrus is president of Astoria Communications, a New York City-based PR consultancy serving clients in financial/professional services, technology and real estate. His clients include law firms, legal organizations, technology companies and several non-profit organizations. Before opening his PR consultancy in 2004, Afzali worked at several New York agencies as an editor and as a writer at several media outlets, ranging from small, daily newspapers to CNN Financial News.
You may also find articles by Cyrus at the TalentZoo.com website under Marketing Moxie.
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By all accounts, we're heading into difficult economic territory. Credit's tightening. Advertising spending in the traditional spaces isn't predicted to increase as it has in years past.
What's a marketer, ad agency, or advertising rookie to do? I think the current situation calls for C+D+B+C.
Last week we debuted "Conversations About the Future of Advertising," co-sponsored by the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and the Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association, with an insightful presentation called "Dada.Data.Alpha.Beta" by Jan Leth, Vice Chairman, Global Digital Creative at Ogilvy & Mather.
From my point of view, Jan's presentation offered at least two keys to surviving the economic storm: Data and Beta. To those I add Curiosity and Community.
Curiosity. It's about learning to adapt.
When asked why he practiced so much, the saxophonist Branford Marsalis said something to the effect of, "If a storm comes and washes the bridge out, I want a bunch of different options for getting home." How many different marketing solutions are you prepared to discuss and deliver? I'm an old school TV and print creative. I'll admit to being less than curious about the intricacies of Search in year's past. I'll also cop to being foolish. The (as of 2006) $9.4B allure of search engine marketing isn't subsiding. It's gaining in marketing priority faster than ever before. So what am I doing with my free time now? Playing around with Facebook's Social Ad program, operating a Google AdWords account and absorbing as many insights as I can from the smart people. And if I already was a Search expert, I'd likely be very curious about live-casting, social network development or mobile. In difficult times, it's time to get curious about how marketing works outside your comfort zone.
Data. The new key to storytelling.
We're talking about the effect of numbers. Jan argues one intriguing result of data is the opportunity for better storytelling. I agree. If you haven't already, I suggest making data your friend, especially when budgets tighten. Buy lunch for anyone who can run you a report from Nielsen NetRatings @Plan or comScore. Use Social Ads to discover, for example, just how many of your target audience exist on Facebook (i.e. "out of 19,708,060 people on FB in North America, 6,120 people 18+ are interested in Marketing, while 4,940 are interested in Advertising"). It's not just about making the case for your ideas. Data can often reveal hidden connections and insights that lead to more compelling and more useful ad ideas. Need proof? Read The Davinci Code. I believe an understanding of, and familiarity with, data -- how it's generated and how to leverage it -- will define the success of advertising strategists and creatives in the future.
Beta. As in, "always in..."
Jan's third element is all around us. Being "always in beta" means being flexible, dynamic and always listening and reacting quickly to your customers. It means you believe in and empower conversation. Being "always in beta" is a distinct departure from advertising practices of old, affecting financial systems, traffic/project management and HR. Is your agency or client relationship structured around rigid, finite systems born from decades of producing for rigid, finite media? That model is too slow and inflexible when time and money are in shorter supply. A recession should encourage greater investment in and reward for innovative budgeting, staffing, creative development and the ongoing management of creative ideas. Instead of ratcheting up heavily-focus grouped, high-dollar production that goes off-the-air or off-the-newsstand almost as soon as it starts, shift your messaging and production to forums that continue the conversation.
Community. Who’s got your brand’s back?
Who can you turn to when the costs of acquiring new customers goes out of reach? In a clinical sense, I'm talking about CRM. But "Customer Relationship Management" sounds too clinical and too controlling. In a recession, we're all suffering together, right? It's communal. So it's not about "managing" relationships so much as encouraging and enabling them. It's about nurturing conversations with your brand's evangelists -- who know more about your brand and how to sell it to their friends better than you ever will. It's about listening. If it were my budget, I'd be heavily invested in developing and participating in communities and social networks related to my brand right now. I'd be engaged in listening more than speaking. Because if your friends can't or won't help you, no one will.
Practiced together, practiced well, Curiosity, Data, Beta and Community provide a form of marketing arbitrage in difficult times.
That's my two cents. I'd offer more but times are tight.
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Digital Signage: Let it Do it –no Way!
By: David Little | 02/12/2008If you truly want your organization to succeed with digital signage, ignore the do-it-yourself instinct of some IT professionals and focus all of the individuals in your company on their core competencies.
Pormotional Electronics Items Jump Start Your Marketing
By: Amy Jo Garner | 01/12/2008A great way to tell others about your business is through promotional items with an electronics edge. Use small items such as a USB Flash Drive or a MP3 player to advertise your business at a tradeshow. Or give away radios, clocks and cameras as prizes. All you have to do is have your company name, logo or motto imprinted on the item to get instant advertising.
Marketing Tips on Starting Your Internet Business
By: Albert Fang | 29/11/2008We will briefly share the steps you must follow to conduct a successful online marketing business. We have simplified these steps in few words to save you the time on reading a thousand word article. The steps will include where to start, when to start, and more basic information. The tips are guidelines you must follow to guarantee a happy sale. Information that includes what your page must have, what works best, what the customers are looking for, & more. We will explain all that now.
Marketing Cash Gifting – the First Marketing Steps for New Cash Gifting Users
By: Brad Smith | 28/11/2008So, you have just signed up with a cash gifting program. Now what? You were promised thousands of dollars in cash, but so far your web-site stats show only one visitor – you. In the world of the online, where there are millions of websites competing for users’ attention how can a small cash gifting hopeful find their audience?
Selling Public Relations' Value in a Downturn
By: Cyrus Afzali | 21/11/2008 | Public RelationsMost independent PR practitioners and, even leaders of larger, established agencies, will tell you with a fair degree of certainty that we're in the midst of an economic slowdown. While that affects most every business, it presents an even-greater challenge for PR professionals.
The Lost Art of Writing and Its Impact on Public Relations
By: Cyrus Afzali | 19/09/2008 | Marketing TipsWe've all been writing from an early age, starting with thick pencils and writing tablets that later gave way to word processors and computers. But as technology has made the mechanical process of writing much easier, something entirely different has happened to writing itself.
How to Effectively “sell” PR
By: Cyrus Afzali | 19/09/2008 | Marketing TipsEven the most talented public relations professionals need one key ingredient before they can work their magic: A company willing to trust the PR pro with their program. Getting to this crucial point isn't always easy, and the way PR has traditionally been sold has a lot to do with it.
What Will a Downturn Mean to Pr?
By: Cyrus Afzali | 19/09/2008 | Marketing TipsA raging debate is on as to whether we're currently in a recession or about to enter one. As far as public relations is concerned, however, the answer to that question doesn't matter as much as does the fact that selling public relations gets unquestionably more difficult during troubled economic times.
Newsletters: Pr's Biggest Overlooked Strategy
By: Cyrus Afzali | 19/09/2008 | Marketing TipsIf you were to ask most potential, and perhaps even current, PR clients about the strategies that are involved in public relations, most would give an answer that in one way or another involves media relations. While that's certainly the cornerstone of the business, it's not the only valuable tactic by any means.
Determining Social Media's Value Can be a Difficult Proposition
By: Cyrus Afzali | 18/09/2008 | Social MarketingEver since the first blog went live, PR pros have been trying to figure out how to capitalize on the medium on behalf of clients. And while social media is in many ways no longer an experiment, determining its actual value largely still is.
Do-it-yourself PR Isn't the Value it May Seem
By: Cyrus Afzali | 18/09/2008 | Marketing TipsAnyone who practices public relations has probably run into a business owner of some type who started chatting them up about a new, “do-it-yourself” book on public relations that makes PR out to be something almost anybody can do with only a little reading. If only it were that easy.
When it Comes to Picking Clients: Stick With What You Know
By: Cyrus Afzali | 18/09/2008 | Marketing TipsOne of the trials and tribulations of being a public relations practitioner is building and maintaining a client base. Everybody who enters the field on their own has to roll that proverbial boulder up the hill; however, how you answer the challenge of finding and maintaining client relationships will have a long-lasting impact on your business.