I have always been a fan of the work by David Meerman Scott, and I consider him an online friend as we have connected many times over the years. Several years ago he generously featured one of my case studies in his book ‘World Wide Rave’.
We have never had the opportunity to meet in person although we have connected virtually, and his is one of the few blog feeds I see in my email box and eagerly await reading his articles.
David is a master storyteller and what I also appreciate about his work is that he can create an alternative and memorable point of view of how brands, products, services, events – in fact almost anything – can learn advanced marketing strategies from extraordinary situations.
I was aware of the latest book David had co-authored with Richard Jurek but had not really paid much attention until I had the opportunity to watch David’s keynote that he delivered for a conference for B2B marketers. You can watch the video below, and of course you can invest in ‘Marketing the Moon‘ on Amazon or other online and offline retailers.
I thought I would distil what I took from the video of David’s keynote about ‘Marketing the Moon’ below – all images are courtesy of David – from his Twitter account or screen grabs from the video on YouTube unless otherwise referenced.
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1. Create memorable stories to engage your audience founded on what you are knowledgeable and passional about
One of the things I discovered whe watching the video of the ‘Marketing the Moon’ keynote is that David is an avid collector of all things related to the Apollo space missions, and he has authored a blog since 2007 called Apollo Artifacts.
It is incredibly clever that he has turned his personal passion and obvious expert knowledge of the Apollo space mission into an engaging story that we can all learn from.
How can you take something you are passionate about and that will be relevant and interesting to your audience and use that the frame your marketing story? For example there are a lot of marketing authors but I doublt there are any that have the knowledge, expertise and passion of David and Richard about the Apollo space mission which makes their book unique.
2. Integrating Public Relations is essential for your marketing success
David shared a statement made by Wernher Von Braun who commented that withough public relations the campaign to land a man on the moon would not have been possible.
In my experience engaging assistance from your PR and communicaitons team can make a significant difference to the success of a makreitng campaign be that to engage with traditional media or online influencers. And if you do not have in-house expertise work with an agency to support you.
3. Have courage and build visibility through relevant real time marketing
You may be concerned about the risk of social media and real time marketing, but so were the NASA public relations team, however there was sufficient lobbying and support to counteract this position which meant that as a result in July 1969, ninety-four percent of American televisions were tuned to the live coverage of Apollo 11’s mission to the Moon.
You might have thought that news jacking and real time marketing by was from the digital age such as the the example of Oreo’s from 2013. But David shared how we can learn from the example of the “It’s ugly but it gets you there” VW ad from 1969 by Doyle Dane Bernbach Inc which was published the day after the Apollo 11 moon walk.
4. Create engaging stories through brand journalism
Consumers, customers and prospects are more likely to engage with your marketing if you weave in engaging storytelling. David shared how NASA had a small communications and marketing team so they hired journalists to create compelling content as part of their campaign.
He also shared examples of how organisations such as Boeing at the 2013 Dubai Airshow and Raytheon today are using brand journalism and real time marketing.
5. Enable your organisations leading experts and authorities to bring a human face to your campaign
David did not cover this in the video explicity, so this is my interpretation.
Through the Apollo space mission campaign NASA used bylined articles and radio and television features. But in addition, the American astronauts had exclusive agreements with Life magazine and became the ‘face of the programme’.
Today the equivalent in your B2B campaign is helping your subject matter experts become employee ambassadors showcasing their expertise though blog pasts, online video and enabling them to represent your organisation as their personal brand on Twitter.
6. Use infographics and technology to help influencers understand campaign
David shared examples from the NASA 1960′s campaigns to help the journalists understand the complex data relating to the space missions through visual marketing. Today’s equivalent are the web and mobile apps and infographics that you might create for the media and online influencers to understand your story so that they can go on to share it to their audiences as part of you marketing campaign.
David remarked on the power we have in our pockets with smart phones today and shared some personal examples of how smart phones and mobile platforms are changing the way we can engage with others around a cause or campign and how they can help in education and have a positive influence for rural communities.
7. Your campaigns need to be part of a bigger vision
David commented in the keynote that it is important to think beyond your immediate campaign. He stated that the reason man has not landed on Mars is because we didn’t know what came next, and the Apollo space programme was focused on the goal of walking on the moon and not what came next.
You can get people engaged and excited about your immediate campaign, but how does it fit into the bigger picture and where do you navigate to when you have fulfilled the objectives and reached your goal?
As he rounded off the keynote, David invited people from the audience to join him for a selfie which he then shared on Twitter. I am not a huge fan of selfies, however done well, integrating selfies in your visual marketing can be highly effective.
I think the way David introduced the selfie in his keynote was an elegant way to bring togehter some of the concepts from his speech including the use putting real people in your marketing campaign, the power of technology and real time marketing.
And a final thought for all authors reading this article.
I have in effect written a book review of ‘Marketing the Moon’ which was as a result of David using online video to share his keynote. If you want to increase visibility and sales of your book, have you created and made freely available a keynote linked to your book. This is not the first book I have been enticed to purchase as a result of an author sharing their knowledge in a YouTube video, webinar or Google Hangout, but I see it too infrequently.
Not sure where to start building your own personal brand through online platforms? Then watch this space as I will have a new opportunity I will be sharing soon, but if you can not wait you can contact me.
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