After more than 26 months and 62,000 words, I’ve decided to give this blog a rest.

It may not be the end for A New Marketing Commentator, but it will be at least a short hiatus.

Thank you so much for your support, love and friendship. As much as you’ve given me, I hope I’ve given you even more in return.

Bob Cargill
Copywriter and Creative Director
May 10, 2006

Bob’s Bio and Contact Information
Bob’s Work History (Resume)
Bob’s Speaking History
Bob’s Commercial Portfolio
Bob’s Nonprofit Portfolio
Bob’s Interactive Portfolio

Tags: Bob Cargill copywriter creative director copywriting creative direction blogger direct marketing advertising marketing A New Marketing Commentator

Two days ago, I wrote here in this space about word of mouth marketing, the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and BzzAgent. Today’s post is a continuation of that same article, in which I write about my own personal use of word of mouth marketing on behalf of BzzAgent and its client, Atkins Advantage Bars…

On more than several occasions, I chose to Bzz on behalf of Atkins Advantage Bars by sharing the product with others.

I gave a bar to the computer technician who was kind enough to make a house call when my laptop almost crashed.

I shared two – the Caramel Fudge Brownie and Chocolate Chip Granola bars – with my 17-year-old step-daughter, Sophie (who liked the latter flavor better).

I gave bars to a couple of my running buddies from the Greater Framingham Running Club (just prior to the start of our longest training run of the year, a 21-mile sojourn from the Hopkinton Common to the top of Heartbreak Hill in Newton).

And I brought a few bars to a conference planning committee meeting I had with two of my friends from NEDMA, an activity that I documented and submitted to BzzAgent in the form of the following BzzReport…

My BzzReport on Atkins Advantage Bars

I had an informal business meeting at the restaurant, T.G.I. Friday’s, and I thought this would be a great opportunity to share my Atkins Advantage Bars with others. The setting was right, a place where food and drinks were being served amidst a relaxing, enjoyable atmosphere. And given that my dinner companions were two fellow marketing professionals, I had a hunch that my Bzz would go over well. And indeed it did, as my colleagues, Ben and Craig, were as much excited about the concept of word-of-mouth marketing as the free samples I was about to distribute. I gave each of them a bar to take home with them that evening (and the next day I sent them a brochure explaining the nutritional advantages of Atkins Advantage Bars and a coupon worth a dollar off any two Advantage bars). I also offered one of my bars to our waitress, who scoffed it down in the kitchen and came back to our table with a rave review. I couldn’t help but find it more than a little ironic that I had my entire table talking about such healthy, nutritious snacks as the Atkins Chocolate Chip Granola Bar, Chocolate Peanut Butter Bar and Caramel Fudge Brownie Bar when all around us people were being served plates piled ridiculously high with French fries, onion rings, potato skins, cheeseburgers, chicken wings and spare ribs. Nothing against the restaurant (because I really do like the food there), but maybe T.G.I. Friday’s should consider adding Atkins Advantage Bars to its menu.

The Future of WOMM

Clearly, I’m bullish on the prospects of word of mouth marketing. And given the fact that I’m such a dyed-in-the-wool direct marketer, beholden to measurable response rates from day one of my career, I suppose that may surprise some people. After all, the benefits of WOMM are not necessarily easy to quantify.

But my partiality is due in large part to the fact that word of mouth marketing is not that far removed from what I’ve been doing so frequently over the course of the last couple of years in the blogosphere. Every time I write and publish a post, I’m hoping to build at least some degree of buzz on behalf of a particular point of view, if not a product or service. Such activity – word of mouth anything – comes naturally to me. And I’ve enjoyed some of the rewards.

The bottom line is that word of mouth marketing seems to lend itself well to today’s new marketing landscape, which has businesses and organizations placing greater stock in consumer opinion and actually involving them in the sales, marketing and public relations process. As just one tool of our trade (among many), WOMM certainly has my endorsement. However, time will tell just how many others in my field pay it anything more than lip service.

Note: This is part two of a two-part article on the author’s experience with word of mouth marketing and the company, BzzAgent. Part one was posted here on A New Marketing Commentator on May 3, 2006.

To learn more about BzzAgent (which even has a free program for qualified nonprofit organizations), click here.

Tags: word of mouth marketing Word of Mouth Marketing Association BzzAgent Bob Cargill Atkins Advantage Bars word of mouth direct marketing marketing advertising public relations

After more than 26 months and 62,000 words, I’ve decided to give this blog a rest.

It may not be the end for A New Marketing Commentator, but it will be at least a short hiatus.

I’ve spent between five and ten hours a week since February of 2004 in the blogosphere, most of those hours researching and writing original posts, and my gut tells me it’s time to pause and refresh.

I want to concentrate fully on my search for new work and free up more time to spend with my family and friends.

I also need to measure the benefits of independent blogging for me at this point in my career and give careful consideration to expending such creative energy – sigh – in other areas instead.

Please stay tuned for at least two more new posts this week. My plans are to then sign off – perhaps just temporarily – until I can be absolutely clear and conclusive about the future of A New Marketing Commentator.

Wherever I land, whatever I do, I’ll at least keep this blog up as is — as my own personal archive and as a resource to others — for the foreseeable future.

Thank you so much for your support, love and friendship.

Last Friday, I was invited by my friend, Leslie Dangel, to deliver a guest lecture to a class of marketing students she teaches at Stonehill College in Easton, Massachusetts. She’s asked me on a number of occasions in the past, and I always enjoy the experience.

This time around was no different.

I first spoke about running the Boston Marathon for charity and the five different fundraising campaigns I’ve conducted – on behalf of the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute (’96), The Home for Little Wanderers (‘02 and ’03) and Children’s Hospital Boston (’05 and ’06) – as part of the Boston Athletic Association’s Charity Program.

I then showed the class a wall calendar we used as a self-promotional, lead-generation piece when I worked as a creative director at Boston’s Yellowfin Direct Marketing. It was a great example of using both creativity (each month included a tip on how to “take your organization’s direct marketing initiatives to the next highest level”) and printing technology (each individual calendar was highly personalized, featuring the recipient’s name in big, bold letters) to capture your audience’s attention.

But what seemed to interest the students most was when I talked about blogs and suggested that blogging is a skill that just may help them land that first job out of college. In fact, one student, Daniel P. Viens, seemed especially enamored with the topic. So much so, apparently, that he launched his own blog just two days later, in which he wrote…

I recently had a speaker in a marketing course I am taking who spent a portion of his time discussing the value of blogging in business and the growing importance of blogs in the professional community. Mr. Bob Cargill’s enthusiasm about this form of online expression was exiting and definitely the catalyst that finally led me to take on the endeavor of creating/maintaining my own website/blog.

The fact that my remarks resonated so much with Daniel is why I’ve never hesitated to say yes when asked to speak before a group of students. It’s not everyday you get to have such influence over the next generation.

Of course, the fact that blogging is so appealing to Daniel and so many other young people is another takeway from this story altogether. If you’re still not taking blogs – and other new media – seriously, take a look at how college students are using technology to communicate today. Then ask yourself how fast things are going to change in just a few years once they’ve fully matriculated into the workforce — and society at large — and the communications habits, preferences and skills they’ve brought with them have reached critical mass.

Now would be a good time for us to prepare.

Note: The author of A New Marketing Commentator, Bob Cargill, is an award-winning creative director, copywriter and blogger who is currently available for hire as a freelancer, consultant, contractor or employee. In fact, Bob’s services – satisfaction guaranteed – have recently been put up for bid on eBay. You can contact Bob – anytime – at Email Bob Cargill.

Bob’s eBay Ad

Bob’s Work History (Resume)

Bob’s Speaking History

Bob’s Commercial Portfolio
Bob’s Nonprofit Portfolio
Bob’s Interactive Portfolio

Tags: Bob Cargill blog blogs blogosphere blogging student blogs advertising marketing direct marketing

Going a long way towards validating all the time more and more ambitious professionals are spending in the blogosphere, the most recent edition of the Boston Sunday Globe lists eight reasons blogging helps your career.

“Blogging is good for your career. A well-executed blog sets you apart as an expert in your field,” writes Penelope Trunk in a front page, above-the-fold article in the BostonWorks section of the newspaper.

According to Trunk, one of the reasons blogging helps your career is that it “creates a network…”

A blogger puts himself out in the world as someone who is interesting and engaging – just the type of person everyone wants to meet.

To read this article (Blogs ‘Essential’ to a Good Career” by Penelope Trunk in the April 16 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe) in its entirety (including all eight reasons blogging helps your career), click here.

Tags: blog blogs blogging blogosphere careers

So many advertising, marketing and public relations agencies are dipping their collective toes in the blogosphere lately that unless it’s the likes of Hill Holliday or Edelman we’re talking about, it’s not really big news anymore when any single one of them takes the plunge.

That was certainly not the case as recently as just a few months ago, but blogging has finally eclipsed the tipping point and suddenly everyone and his or her brother wants to get in on the action.

Understandably so.

Given the paradigm shift toward transparency and immediacy that’s now underway in corporate communications, the benefits of business blogging – as long as you do it right – far outweigh the costs.

As I wrote here in this space back in December of 2004, “a blog is tailor-made for storing and managing your intellectual capital. It’s a centralized repository for experience and expertise, an incredibly easy way to disseminate key, timely information to an audience of readers who are already interested in what you have to offer. The cost to set up and maintain a blog is practically nil. And the dividends – for those on either side of the equation – can be priceless.”

Given all the activity of late in the blogosphere, however, even the most noteworthy organizations are managing – whether they like it or not – to blog under the radar screen and, in some cases, wasting gallant efforts.

Sure, if you want to launch a blog softly, this is your opportunity. So many are already out there that the chances are any fledglings won’t attract much attention and you can bide your time on the long tail (if you’re lucky to be on it at all).

On the other hand, if you want the best returns possible on your investment of precious time and top talent, you’re going to have to work hard to attract a meaningful, loyal following. If you don’t post regularly, link liberally and promote the heck out of your new initiative, your blog will make about as much noise as the proverbial tree falling in the woods with no one around to hear it. And in no time at all, you’ll be back to square one.

Tags: blog blogs blogging blogosphere advertising marketing direct marketing public relations Hill Holliday Edelman

I’ve been blogging for more than two years now, and I can’t say there haven’t been days when I’ve wondered if all the time and energy I put into A New Marketing Commentator is worth it.

But last Thursday wasn’t one of them.

That was when the 25th Annual New England Direct Marketing Association’s Awards for Creative Excellence were handed out, and this blog was honored with gold.

Yes, this labor of love of mine was the first blog ever to win a NEDMA award, and that award just happened to be first place in one of the Interactive categories (Other Interactive, B-to-B: CD-ROMs, Videos, Interactive Kiosks, Blogs).

How cool is that?

Not to toot my own horn, but I was also fortunate to receive three awards for the direct mail campaign I conducted last year when I ran the Boston Marathon for Children’s Hospital Boston. For that initiative, I took home a silver award in the Best Copywriting category, a gold in one DM on a Shoestring category (Budget under $2,500, Consumer or B-to-B) and a bronze in another (Cheap for a Good Cause, Non-Profit).

Of course, it felt great to be on the receiving end of such flattering accolades. I can only hope to find myself in the same beautiful place next year — but not simply as a sole practitioner, as just one member of a whole new team.

Bob’s Work History (Resume)

Bob’s Public Speaking History

Bob’s Bio

Tags: blog blogs blogging Bob Cargill NEDMA New England Direct Marketing Association direct marketing copywriting Children’s Hospital Boston

Ted Demopoulos (public speaker, consultant, blogger and co-author – with Shel Holtz – of the book, “Blogging for Business” ), guest posting on Business BlogWire, writes about the four types of business blogs…

1) Internal blogs: Internal blogs are used for internal company or project communications, and are not available on the Internet.

2) Problogs: I call blogs started primarily to make money, for example through advertising and affiliate programs, problogs.

3) Company Blogs: These are blogs started to help support an existing company or product.

4) Independent professional blogs: These are similar to company blogs, but are written – and owned – by individuals.

About the latter type, Ted cites two examples of independent professional blogs, Steve Rubel’s Micro Persuasion and my blog, A New Marketing Commentator. And I must say that I’m flattered just to be mentioned in the article, never mind in the same sentence with one of the most illustrious among us here in the blogosphere.

Tags: blog blogs blogging Bob Cargill Steve Rubel Ted Demopoulos business blogs blogosphere

Writing in the March 27 issue of Sports Illustrated, Chris Ballard notches a refreshingly candid, thoroughly modern story about his online brethren: the journalists, columnists, reporters and, yes, just plain bloggers who cover sports on the Web. From the lead-in…

The Internet is changing sports coverage. Columnists who seldom leave their couches hold forth. Athletes break their own “news” on their personal websites. Rumormongering is rampant. Don’t like it? Get rowdy. Start your own blog.

An insightful overview of how sportswriting has evolved over the years, this article is worthy of high praise and much attention not as much because – ironically – it’s published offline, in a magazine (what the snarkiest and most cynical among us might refer to as a dead-tree medium), but because so much of what its author has to say is relevant well beyond the realm of sports coverage.

Read it yourself and tell me if you don’t think it’s further validation that corporate America has taken notice of the blogosphere and the changes it’s already wrought on the way people like to receive their news and information.

On a personal note, I was delighted to see Ballard cite my idol and inspiration, ESPN’s Bill Simmons, as “a pioneer in the online sports community.” In the late ‘90s, when Simmons wrote for AOL’s Digital City Boston under the moniker, Boston Sports Guy, I read him religiously, and to this day I credit him as my motivation – indirectly, of course, and certainly from afar – to enter the blogosphere.

To read this article (”Writing Up a Storm” by Chris Ballard, Sports Illustrated, March 27, 2006), click here (free access to the complete story for magazine subscribers only).

Tags: blog blogs blogging blogosphere Chris Ballard Sports Illustrated Bill Simmons online journalism

A little more than five months ago, I wrote right here about Union Square Ventures, an early stage venture capital firm that had shed its Web site entirely and instead staked a claim in the blogosphere.

That was them. This is Hill Holliday we’re talking about now. Yes, not just one of the best known, but one of the best — period — ad agencies in the country has apparently gone the “all-blog format,” which is how Adrants’ Steve Hall recently characterized HH’s exciting, new Web presence, adding…

The beauty of this approach, what many agencies still need to discover, will catapult Hill Holliday into the “conversation” about advertising. The site will get natural Google love, Technorati love and proliferation throughout the blogosphere’s link-fest, something a static agency site can never achieve. And, most importantly, potential clients will get to know how HH thinks rather than how well they write website copy.

To view the new Hill Holliday Web site, er, I mean blog, click here.

Tags: blog blogs blogging Hill Holliday advertising direct marketing marketing