Category: Drew’s Articles

Marketing isn’t Brain Surgery

Posted on by Drew Neisser

My absolute favorite New Yorker cartoon is the one that shows a gaggle of brain surgeons crowded around an operating table scalpels in hand when the head doctor declares, “Hey, this isn’t marketing!”  And as much as I love to see our profession elevated, the truth is that even with the complexities introduced by social media, creating marketing programs that cut through just isn’t that hard especially if you follow these six (relatively simple) steps.

1. Do your homework
Sounds like a no brainer right?  Who the heck would launch a marketing campaign without taking a close look at the category, the target and the brand?  Well, don’t get me started.  Fortunately, Renegade clients know better.  One such client Akamai ADS recently took the time to interview customers, prospects and industry experts, helping them to uncover a significant opportunity in their digital media marketplace.

2. Solve a problem
Unlike our brain surgeon friends, marketing is rarely a life or death situation but rather a simple function of solving a problem for a particular target.  In the case of Akamai ADS, the problem identified by their research was that digital marketers were becoming increasingly dependent on remarketing to drive online sales and in the process were having trouble expanding their user bases.

3. Use your marketing to provide a service
Blah. Blah. Blah.  That’s the sound of most advertising.  Mere messaging that falls on deaf ears 98% of the time.  However, if you turn your marketing into a service, minds, hearts and pocket books open up.  The service need not be complex as long as it solves a problem.  Akamai ADS did this by creating an online calculator that helped digital marketers figure out how much incremental revenue they could generate by expanding their customer base.

4. Have some fun
While none of us want a funny brain surgeon, people do business with people they like and the same holds for brand selection.  Brands that don’t take themselves too seriously often end up generating serious sales and long-lasting loyalty.  To introduce its Brand NU Game campaign, Akamai started at Shop.org’s Annual Summit with a crane claw game that visualized the act of gaining New Users.  All players received “New User Bait” gummy worms and a taste of things to come on www.brandNUgame.com.  Winners were posted on Akamai’s Facebook page to extend the fun.

5. Stay focused but don’t rely on one channel
Surgeons increasingly aim to minimize the size of their incisions hoping to dramatically speed up recovery times.  Marketers can benefit from this kind of focus as long as they don’t rely too heavily on one particular channel to engage their target.  In addition to the trade show activity, Akamai ADS created an experiential direct mail program and highly targeted digital media, all designed to help online marketers learn about the “NU Math” behind the “Brand NU Game” calculator.

6. Size up and sharpen
No self-respecting brain surgeon would walk away from a patient without plans for several post-op evaluations.  Given that marketing by definition is a continuum, marketers must have benchmarks in place to track success and make adjustments as necessary.  For Akamai ADS, the metrics are plentiful, from hard measures like site traffic and leads generated to softer ones like brand awareness and favorability ratings.  While it is too early to identify adjustments, their Brand NU Game campaign is well on its way to cutting through.

As always, if you enjoyed this post, feel free to leave a comment and/or subscribe to TheDrewBlog.  

Redefining Your Brand Part II

Posted on by Drew Neisser

This is the second part of my interview with Lisa Fawcett, VP of Global Marketing at CooperVision.  Lisa went through an 18-month process that resulted in redefining CooperVisions promise, purpose, values, voice and ultimately their logo and packaging.

Drew: Where was your management in your rebranding process?
They were with us every step of the way.  When you’re talking about a corporate brand it involves everybody.  The team in manufacturing are just as vested in the company’s success as the R&D team and commercial team.  This is about what the company stands for across the board – by function and region.    This project was spearheaded at the highest level of the organization.  It may have taken a bit longer given all the constituents, but by having all the groups involved it paved the way for success. You won’t have consensus but you will have input.

Drew: So how did you make the ultimate decisions?
There were two executive sponsors that were truly the final decision makers in the process.  I think it was important to have this role as part of the process. The process allowed everyone to be heard and different ideas to be included, but in the end the final decision boiled down to 2 people; the president of CooperVision and the Executive Vice President of Commercial Strategy.

Drew: Where did competitive evaluation fit in?
As part of the research we included the competitive set.  The  contact lenses market has four truly global manufacturers, many of them speaking with the same voice.   Customers think of CooperVision as a company that brings different ideas to the table, and is very approachable.  What we realized was we were not verbalizing our uniqueness to the marketplace.  We realized we were speaking just like everybody else, we were acting like everybody else, we were talking like everybody else. It was time to change.

Drew: So this must have been a big moment. 
Absolutely.  We are bringing to the forefront the things that globally we already get credit for and it is relevant to our practitioners and lens wearers.  Our promise is ‘We bring a refreshing perspective that creates real advantages for customers and wearers’.

Drew: So how did you define your purpose?
Again, the purpose is different than our promise.  The promise as I mentioned is how we differentiate ourselves in the market.  The purpose had to be a rallying cry to employees, why we come to work each day. Our purpose is ‘we help improve the way people see each day’.  We spent a significant amount of time with the Siegel+Gale team, the executive team and working with the employee base to get this right.  The segment about ‘ the way people see each day’ is not just the literal aspect of seeing each day, it is also about perspective.  We wanted something to be scalable no matter where you were in the organization.  So this is to be taken very literal, ‘you bet, we make contact lenses, we help people see each day’.  And the statement also holds a meaning on perspective in terms of ‘how’ you see each day.  Even the ‘each day’ was an important aspect to the statement because it also ground us in the every day.  It’s literally talking about every day coming to work and giving your best.

Drew: Interesting.  It’s aspirational and down to earth at the same time.  
That is what we like about it. It really does a nice job for employees of defining who we are – down to earth and aspirational.  It ties to our promise –‘we bring a refreshing perspective that creates real advantages’, because within the company we are down to earth and aspirational too – it is how we can live up to our promise

Drew:  Do you think your 7,000 employees could actually recite some aspect of the new brand?
Yes, actually it’s been quite fun. We just did an employee survey.  And what was very cool is that people are aligned, they could repeat the brand promise, they could tell you the values, and they understood what we are doing as a company.  And not only could they repeat it, they were engaged. People are sending me their new hire forms that are highlighting the values of the organization, their meeting minutes that indicate they are talking about the brand promise. It has been thrilling to watch it take hold so quickly. The other day, I was talking with a senior manager from our distribution center.   They were interviewing people and they had two really good candidates.  As part of the decision making process he asked, which one of these candidates best reflects the company’s values – that is how he made the decision.  Impressive.

Drew: So where do changes of your visual identity fit into all of this?
If you do all the foundation setting with the correct promise, values, voice, and purpose and no visual change, it can take a long time for people to begin to see a new brand has been created. Changing the visual identity after the foundation has been built becomes a catalyst to employees, customers and contact lens wearers that an updated company story is being told. One of our biggest touch points with eye care practitioners and contact lens wearers are the contact lens packages we ship to offices every single day all around the world.  So updating our packaging is important to signal an updated story is being told. I’m happy to say, that by the end of this year all of our key brands will carry our new packaging.

Drew:  Congratulations by the way.  You must feel great about this.
Yes. This has been one of the more satisfying initiatives in my career. It was a great process that yielded great results.

Drew: So talk to me a bit about how you are tracking this over time?
As we chatted about, we are taking 3 items into account. Employee satisfaction, brand tracking and allocation of resources.   I love the phrase the VP of Commercial Strategy echoed throughout this process.  ‘Brands are built from the inside out’.  Hence our big focus on employee engagement.  I am happy to say we have received our first employee satisfaction survey and the results were outstanding.  We have a highly dedicated group of people at CooperVision, and we are all now ‘marching to the same drum’.  As it pertains to the brand equity tracker we are getting ready to field our first follow up survey since the launch of the brand.  We know this will take some time to move the needle as brand scores don’t change overnight.  Lastly we are including our brand promise in our long range strategic planning.  The initiatives we are developing for the organization are ‘pushed up’ against the brand promise to make sure we are staying true to who we are as a company.

Drew:  Have you seen any sort of tangible movements as a result of this brand transformation?
What I can tell you is, our share continues to grow. And in fact we hit the billion-dollar mark, which was a cause for celebration. As I mentioned at the beginning of the interview, we didn’t embark on this journey because we had a problem, we were and are a growing company. Updating the brand ensures we continue to be relevant and credible to our customers and lens wearers so we can continue to see that growth in the future.

Drew:  So what are the key lessons here?  
First and foremost, do your homework with all your constituents. Get a good understanding of what the company’s perception is in the marketplace as well as the perception of the competitors.

Second, if you want the entire organization to embrace it, you have to involve the organization.   They need to feel vested in the approach. Lastly, you will need a senior executive on the team as the final decision-maker.  If you have those aspects of the initiative outlined then it will set you up for success.

Drew: Any other words of advice for marketers about to begin a rebranding journey?
You have to be open, you have to listen to everybody’s opinion. People need to feel like they’ve been heard. You also have to be comfortable people will not be happy as everyone’s feedback will not be implemented. Finally, have a strong partner in the process, for us it was Siegel & Gale.  They need to be able to ‘push back’ on you, especially in terms of the end deliverable. It is their  job to help keep you on track. It won’t be easy but it will be rewarding.

NOTE: You can find the article that this interview spawned on FastCompany.com.

 

 

Redefining Your Brand Part I

Posted on by Drew Neisser

I had the pleasure of interviewing Lisa Fawcett, VP of Global Marketing for CooperVision, a few months back about her rebranding journey.  CooperVision, by the way, sells over a billion dollars worth of contact lens’ annually around the world and as a result of their rebranding work (by Siegel+Gale) ended up in a truly distinctive place.  Not being a branding expert, I found the whole thing quite enlightening and turned this interview into an article that will appear shortly on FastCompany.com.

Drew: Could you give me some background on your rebranding journey?
Sure. The branding journey at CooperVision,  wasn’t something that was taken lightly. It had been part of the strategic planning process for the company identified with other major initiatives.  Establishing a strong corporate brand was one of the key elements to the strategic plan

Drew: Was there a specific trigger?
The organization embarked on this for a handful of reasons. First, unlike some companies that embark on this journey, the organization was growing and doing extremely well, there wasn’t a problem we were looking to fix. Our business had changed over the last five years, and the marketplace had also changed.  We wanted to make sure we continued to evolve so we maintained our relevance for the future. Secondly, CooperVision had grown by acquisition, purchasing other contact lens companies, and recent growth had been fueled by developing and launching new products. . It was time to make sure the organization was all aligned under a single corporate brand. All key stakeholders – customers, consumers, employees, shareholders understood what CooperVision stands for and the value we bring to the contact lens industry.

Drew Neisser: I’m hoping that you will be able to define what in your mind establishes strong corporate brand.
Sure, it revolves around what we define as our strategic framework.  It has four components. First is our brand promise, that differentiation we bring to the contact lens market. It defines why customers want to do business with us, that’s the center of the hub.

Drew: Okay that’s one. What’s next? 
Then we started to define a purpose, why do we come to work every day, what makes us get out of bed.  It’s the promise that defines how we compete in the market and why customers purchase our product. The purpose statement is why employees come to work every day.   They are two different components of the branding puzzle.

Drew: What are the other components?
The other two components were establishing a set of core values for the organization and developing a corporate voice.  The values govern how we behave, how we talk to one another, et cetera.  The voice is defines ‘how’ we speak to the customers, contact lens wearers, employees, and other key stakeholders, it defines our ‘tone’.    These 4 components; promise, purpose, values and voice brings us to the last stage of this journey – visual expression of the brand.  It can be a tendency with branding projects for people to get caught up with the visual expression of the brand, developing new logos and images, without identifying the strong foundation of the companies promise, purpose, values and voice to go with it.

Drew: Where does visual identity fit into all of this?
One of the reasons we were very interested in working with Siegel+Gale is we knew a brand is more than just its visual expression. Siegel & Gale knew that too. You really need to understand what makes the company different in the marketplace, how its values govern its behaviors, how it speaks to the marketplace, and how employees are engaged on a day to day basis.  Only after that heavy lifting is done can the organization develop a visual expression of the brand.

Drew: Did you have a sense from the beginning how you were going to measure success?
We had 3 items that were the ‘acid test’ for measuring success.  First, employees feel CooperVision is a great place to work and we are aligning our resources around a common mission for growth.  Second, our customers and consumers, believe we provide differentiation that creates real value. We found white space CooperVision could own and was relevant to our customers.  We want to continue to track our brand to make sure we are living up to that differentiated promise in the market.  Thirdly, if we truly defined our differentiated promise to the market it would allow for streamlined decision making and allocation of resources.  Projects or initiatives would either live up to the promise and we say “Yes”, or they don’t and we say “No.”

Drew:  What kind of timeframe are we talking about?
From start to finish it was an 18-month process.  Primarily it was an 18-month process as there was significant research  upfront.  We spent time with our main constituents, employees, contact lenses wearers, eye care practitioners and retailers all around the world. We needed to truly understand their perception of CooperVision as well as the other manufacturers. We always felt we approached the market differently and that contributed to our success, but did our stakeholders feel the same way?

Drew: Why were employees so important to the process?
If we’re going to make a promise to the market, it can’t be 12 executives sitting in a room deciding what the company is to be.  Ultimately, the employees are the promise keepers, so need to be vested in what the brand promise is to the market.  We went to great lengths to make sure employees were able to express their views about what the company was  good at, what areas the company  needed to improve upon, what they felt was important to the marketplace.  We then matched those views against what our customers and lens wearers told us globally. This collective effort became the underpinnings of the branding work.

Drew: Were there any surprises that came out?
Given we are a global company we are fortunate enough to sell our product in very unique markets.  The conventional belief is our customers and consumers would be vastly different given the unique cultures and markets. Are their differences among contact lens wearers and eye care practitioners globally?  Absolutely.  Are they ‘vast’ differences? No. What was nice is through this research we were able to ‘unveil’ some common-ground to focus on. It helped the organization align on a promise that could meet the worldwide needs for our business.  I realize that is often not the case for other companies.  What was nice for CooperVision was we were able to circle in on a few things that really resonated, and were relevant and credible on a global basis. That is very powerful.

NOTE:  This is part 1 of my interview with Lisa.  The 2nd part will appear in the next day or so.  If you found this interesting, feel free to subscribe to TheDrewBlog;-)

How Networks Should Use Social TV Apps

Posted on by Drew Neisser

At MediaPost’s Social Media Insider Summit last week, there were a number of informative speakers.  Among the best was Kristin Hersant of Echo, who provided real world examples of social TV apps which seem like a brilliant way for the TV networks to reverse the “I’ll watch it later” time-shifting trend.  In fact, AMC credits their recent “Breaking Bad” social TV app for helping to improve the shows ratings!  I hope you enjoy this interview as much as I did.

DN: First, can you give me a quick overview of what Echo does?
Consumers are flocking to social networks in record numbers because they want to receive relevant news and information about their favorite people, topics and brands in real-time. This results in declining traffic trends for major websites… according to Webtrends, the number of visitors to Fortune 100 websites declined by an average of 23% from 2010 to 2011.

Echo helps businesses make their websites and mobile apps as addictive as leading social networks by creating real-time social experiences with their own content. We do this through the Echo Platform, a collection of web services that enable developers to rapidly build and deploy real-time apps.

Echo customers can either buy pre-built apps through our App Ecosystem, bring other apps to be “echo enabled” or build their own apps in-house. Every app built on the Echo Platform works seamlessly with the others to transform websites and mobile apps into branded destinations that increase website traffic, build brand loyalty and drive user behavior.

DN: You mentioned some pretty interesting statistics about the overlap of social media & TV watching—can you share them here and offer insights on the implications?
According to Neilson, 88% of tablet owners and 86% of smart phone owners are using their second screen device while watching TV. That offers an unprecedented opportunity for networks, and the brands that advertise on them, to engage directly with their viewers – effectively turning the belief that watching TV is a passive activity on its head.

Networks and brands turn to Echo when they want to own that conversation and build social experiences that drive a specific business KPI or user behavior. Our platform is behind the Social TV apps for ABC, AMC Networks, ESPN, NBC News, Showtime, USA Network and WWE and we were recently awarded Best Whitelabel Solution at the 2012 Social TV Awards.

DN: I really enjoyed learning about the app that AMC Networks developed for Breaking Bad.  Can you give a quick synopsis of what was created for that show?
AMC Networks has developed a series of Social TV apps using the Echo Platform that are available for AMC, WE tv and IFC. The backbone of these experiences is a stream of real-time conversation where viewers of each episode can participate in live, real-time chat on their network websites as they’re watching each episode, building a strong sense of community and engagement with the storyline of each show. This is augmented by a Story Sync app that injects real-time polls, trivia, and quizzes into the viewer stream as viewers are watching the show. The Story Sync is formatted to work on a tablet and is promoted on-air leading up to and during each live broadcast.

What were the key metrics for this program and how did it do?
The purpose of these apps is to enrich and enhance the viewing experience for each live broadcast. This is because in order for a show to get credit for a Nielsen viewing, it must be watched within the first three days of its initial airing. In the age of the DVR, it can be challenging to drive live show viewership, however AMC’s integrated social strategy appears to be making an impact. For Breaking Bad specifically, AMC saw a 605% increase in social engagement for the 2012 season premiere over last year and a 14% increase in ratings. Not all of that can be attributed directly to their social tv strategy, but the general sentiment is that it’s working very well for them.

DN: I bet a lot of people don’t realize that Nielsen ratings only include those watching the program live and not later via DVR.  Do you thinking social apps like the ones that AMC built with Echo can get more people to watch shows live (versus time shifting)?  
This strategy has already proven effective across a number of our customers. Most of them see large spikes in social activity during their live broadcasts, however one of the challenges that every social TV program has to deal with is “spoiler alerts,” when multiple people are co-viewing and chatting with each other from different time zones. AMC currently syncs their experiences to the East Coast and West Coast airings and we are building functionality into a future version of the Echo Platform that will specifically address this issue.

DN: Are these apps making TV watching more of a communal experience?  
Absolutely. Consumers love engaging with each other around their favorite sporting events, characters, shows and content.  I recommend that you try the AMC apps next time you’re watching your favorite show on AMC… The Walking Dead live discussion is particularly entertaining because of the zombie killer subject matter.

DN: Can you provide one other example of an app that has improved TV ratings?  If so, please tell me about it.  If not, just give me one other example of an effective app?  Thanks.
AMC is the only customer who has made their rating increase public, however there are number of other Echo Enabled Social TV apps that are driving viewer engagement through the roof. WWE was able to permanently double the number of page views on wwe.com after launching their new website and USA Network has grown their monthly unique users from zero to 700K in one year for their popular Character Chatter application.

Final note: for more on what i gleaned from the conference, please see my FastCompany.com post: The 6,224-Foot View Of Social Media. Finally, if you like what you’re reading, feel free to subscribe to my blog if you’re not already!

Making the Most of Your Facebook Database

Posted on by Drew Neisser

Jeff French, Founder and Chairman of Louddoor spoke at MediaPost’s recent Social Media Insider Summit way up in beautiful Lake Tahoe.  I thought he had a lot of really interesting things to say about social media data mining so I followed up with this interview.  Louddoor’s secret sauce is that they have a 50 million strong Facebook user database that gives them terrific insights into user behavior that marketers can then leverage–I think you’ll find what Jeff has to say quite enlightening.

DN: Give me the 10,000 foot view on Louddoor?
Louddoor is the leading market research and audience targeting Platform for brands and agencies on Facebook.

DN: Tell me a bit about your Facebook user database?
Our database is 100% opt-in and represents data shared by participants in our various market research studies.

DN: Have you all been able to calculate “value per like” and if so, how?
Yes. Value per Like is different for every Page on Facebook. To calculate what a fan is worth you have to establish a control group of similarly situated customers that are not fans and compare their behavior and spending habits to a statistically relevant sample of fans. It’s important to gather a full census of your fans. If you post in the newsfeed to recruit your panel you might as well throw the results in the trash can. Everyone knows that being a Fan on Facebook correlates to higher customer value but our goal is to isolate the causative effects of being a fan and that takes a well executed double blind study. This is the data marketers need to make more informed decisions. It’s not easy to get but it can be done if you have the right partner.

DN: Why is value per like such an important metric?
Its one of many important metrics but having a Value Per Like benchmark can help a brand marketer spend on Facebook with more confidence. When you know what a fan is worth you can make better decisions all around. We’re also in the nascent stages of constructing regression analysis to better understand long term fan value. Everyday we learn something new that gives brand marketers and their agencies more confidence in Facebook Advertising.

DN: You did some interesting user modeling for Hornitos uncovering “mudders” as a passion—tell me about that process?
We conducted a detailed market research study where we surveyed over 25,000 Facebook users about their tequila consumption habits. We found an incredibly strong correlation between users who frequently drink tequila straight (shots, neat, rocks) and the various “mud race” events like Spartan Race and Tough Mudder. We used these findings to target the “mud race” audience for future activations and were able to deliver outstanding results for the client.

DN: How do you allay Facebook user concerns about privacy given all the data you’ve gathered?
First, we never share any personally identifiable user data with anyone (including our clients). We clearly disclose to our users that the data provided on our Platform will be used on an anonymous basis to construct better ad targeting and analytics algoritms for use on Facebook. Users understand that ads keep Facebook free and when you get right down to it they want these ads to be more relevant to them. Mark Zuckerberg himself puts the user experience on Facebook in front of everything else. We believe strongly that our research is improving the Facebook user experience for brands and consumers by creating more relevant ads. It’s a true win-win and we’ve never had a single user complaint regarding a privacy issue.

DN: Can you share another example of how you’ve helped marketers by analyzing Facebook data?
Audience Segmentation is a hot topic right now for our clients. Facebook recently released new functionality to let brands better target posts in their fans’ newsfeed but we are going far beyond these capabilities and using Facebook Sponsored Stories to deliver the right message to the right fan at the right time with laser precision. For example, most brands have customers that respond for different reasons. Some may be more influenced by product quality while others are discount motivated. We are able to slice a client’s fan base with this level of granularity and when we deliver relevant sponsored stories powered by this data the results are simply incredible. We are literally seeing engagement results 5-10X greater than un-targeted sponsor story units. You can’t spend engagement but it’s the first step towards driving sales and measurable results.

8 Smart Plays for CMOs

Posted on by Drew Neisser

With a 40,000-person strong waiting list for season tickets, you would think Tim McDermott, CMO of the Philadelphia Eagles, could pull back a bit on his marketing activities.  On the contrary, explains McDermott, with whom I was delighted to meet through The CMO Club, “We don’t want to be naïve and think that it can’t go away.” As a result, he and his 40-person team are busy, even in the off-season, doing everything within their power to grow the Eagles brand.

After being named “Global Sports Team of the Year” in 2011 and ranked 7th among all 32 NFL teams by Forbes in terms of franchise value, there can be little doubt that Eagles brand is a strong one.  A closer look at how McDermott and his team tackle marketing regardless of the on-field performance of the team, reveals an eight-part playbook that should inspire marketers in just about any field.

1. Listen Up—Create a Customer Advisory Board
Lots of brands pay lip service to listening to their customers.  With a 35-person season ticket holder advisory board that, according to McDermott, acts as “an extension of our marketing department,” the Eagles are doing just the opposite. Instead of inviting the typical slew of complaints one would expect, this open-door approach “help[s] us create the solution.”

2. Go Long—Develop Your Next Generation of Customers Now
Few brands think long-term when it comes to developing their customer base.  Since 2004, the Eagles have targeted kids in various ways, including a TV show, a website and a club that McDermott says is “the largest kids’ club membership of any sports team in the world.”  Acknowledging that these activities are more brand-building than revenue-generating, McDermott has his eye on “future fans” and the promise they represent.

3. Fans First—Think of Your Brand as a Public Trust
Imagine the impact of more marketers acknowledging that their “fans are the true owners” of the brand.  McDermott believes that a fan-centric approach takes a lot of the complexity out of the business of marketing and brand building, remarking, “If you think this way, you simply do what is right for the fans.”  He adds, “With social media, there’s more fan voice in the marketplace,” marveling  “how much power the consumer has now.”

4. Tune In—Dedicate Expert Resources to Social Media
Recognizing the need, most brands these days are looking to expand their in-house social media team.  McDermott started this process when he returned to the Eagles in 2010. “We needed people who were 100% dedicated to evaluating, understanding and determining how to use all of the new digital media technologies,” he recalls. Now staffed with social media coordinators, his team is “speaking as the Eagles and engaging consumers.”

5. Do Good—But Stick With It
Only dabbling with social responsibility programs is like calling a time-out after every play.  On the other hand, since launching its “Tackle Breast Cancer” campaign back in 2004, the Eagles have shown the long-term commitment it takes to truly benefit the cause and the brand.  After selling 32,000 pink hats in its first year, the Eagles have gone on to raise nearly $2 million over the last eight years in donations for breast cancer awareness.

6. Think Big—About the Business You Are In
Business history is strewn with the carcasses of brands that defined their category too narrowly.  This is not a problem for McDermott, who sees the Eagles as more of a media company than a sports team, “aggregating millions and millions of impressions.”  As such, McDermott expects “you’ll see us acting and executing more like a media company, producing and distributing content.”

7. Think Broad—About Your Marketing Department
Unlike most marketing departments, McDermott’s doesn’t stop with the folks who create and monitor communications. Calling this approach “myopic,” McDermott prefers to define marketing as “everything that isn’t happening on the ball field,” which is why his “marketing team” also includes a TV production group and all of the merchandising staff who sell Eagles gear online and off.

8. Look Ahead—Leave Some Time/Money For Experimentation
With budgets always tight, it’s harder than ever to test new approaches. McDermott sees experimentation as essential, especially in the digital world.  “I’m fascinated by some of the augmented reality concepts,” notes McDermott, who is excited to see how these concepts can scale and recognizes that the PR alone could make them worthwhile.  McDermott imagines A/R could bring “tickets to life” or drive a virtual store that pops up during tailgating parties at the stadium.

Final Note: The Eagles finished with an 8-8 record and without a Superbowl ring in the 2011-2012 season, leaving their notoriously passionate fans underwhelmed and McDermott eager for a fruitful draft, which by all reports they achieved.  As such, expect more excitement from the Eagles next season, and in the meantime, please see my extensive interviews with their super CMO on past posts here on TheDrewBlog.com.  (If this article seems familiar, that’s because you saw it first on FastCompany.com).