4 Lessons Marketers Can Learn from Local TV News Reporters
This post was initially published on BostInnovation on July 28, 2011. To read the original post there, click here. Today – thanks to social media, smartphones and other new digital communications platforms and tools – what the savviest of consumers are asking of their favorite brands is almost as much as they’d expect from their best
The Importance of LinkedIn Recommendations
Given my outgoing personality, my obsession with the latest news and the fact that I’ve always been an early adopter of new communications tools, it’s no surprise that I’ve been enamored with social media from the get-go. I can’t tell you how excited I was to launch my own blog in early 2004, where I’ve written nearly 100,000 words
10 Ways to Succeed as a Copywriter, Parts 1-10
If you’ve been reading this blog for the last few months, you know I’ve been writing a series of posts on copywriting. Similar to the approach I took with my series on social media, I’ve looked at copywriting from a 30,000-foot level, focusing on the principles you need to be mindful of if you want to succeed in this
10 Ways to Succeed in Social Media, Parts 1-10
If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you already know about the ”10 Ways to Succeed in Social Media” series of posts I started writing on January 13 of this year and recently concluded on April 5. But what you wouldn’t know is how much I’ve been looking forward to stringing these posts together into one exhaustive guide
It’s Easy to Fall Silent Amidst the New Din of Agency Blogs
April 13, 2006 
Bob Cargill 
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
A New Marketing Commentator Wins NEDMA Gold
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.
Tags: blog blogs blogging Bob Cargill NEDMA New England Direct Marketing Association direct marketing copywriting Children’s Hospital Boston
Please Sponsor Bob’s Boston Marathon Run for Children’s Hospital Boston
Less than two weeks from now (April 17), I’ll be running yet another Boston Marathon (it’ll be the eighth time I’ve made the same journey, the fifth time for charity), and I can’t tell you how much I’m looking forward to this very special day.
I’ve enjoyed running since I was knee-high to a grasshopper, so for me, no matter how many times I’ve gone the distance, running Boston is still the thrill of a lifetime, a childhood dream come remarkably true.
I’m lucky, though. Some children’s dreams are mercilessly dashed due to dread, debilitating diseases and disorders that you and I can’t even begin to imagine. Their challenge isn’t a marathon – it’s life itself, one difficult day at a time, courageously contending with poor health, waiting for a cure, hoping to prevail despite seemingly overwhelming odds.
It’s for these children that I’ll be running the Boston Marathon this year as one of the few, proud members of Children’s Hospital’s Miles for Miracles Team Boston, raising funds for one of the best pediatric hospitals in the country.
Hailey, 7, My Children’s Hospital Boston Patient Partner
I’ll be running Boston for children like my patient partner, Hailey, a cute, little girl living with osteogenesis imperfecta (OI), a rare genetic disorder – characterized by bones that break easily, often from little or no apparent cause – for which there is not yet a cure.
Imagine, Hailey is only seven (she was born on May 26, 1998), but she’s already suffered 51 broken bones and undergone a number of serious surgeries. Thanks to Children’s Hospital Boston, however, Hailey’s OI is under control, and she’s living her young life to the fullest.
Your sponsorship of my run will mean a great deal to me, but it’ll mean even more to the doctors, nurses and staff at Children’s Hospital Boston – and the patients, like Hailey, in their care.
Give Now and Get a $5 Olive Garden Gift Certificate
This time around, I’ve committed to raise a minimum of $3,500 for Children’s, and I’ve received 65 donations (from 65 kind souls) so far for a total of $2,919. So I really do need your support if I’m going to reach, if not exceed, my fundraising goal. Every dollar counts, especially in these last few days leading up to the big event.
Please help me help make dreams come true for more boys and girls. Please sponsor my Boston Marathon run with a gift of $25, $15, $50 or more to Children’s Hospital Boston. I’ll be so grateful for your support.
As a small token of my appreciation, I’ll mail the next six people to contribute to my cause a $5 gift certificate redeemable at any Olive Garden Italian Restaurant. (Olive Garden was kind enough to donate these certificates, so the next time I take my family out to dinner there, I plan to thank the manager in person.)
To make a secure, online donation to my Children’s Hospital Boston fundraising campaign right here and now, simply follow these instructions…
1. Go to www.chtrust.org/bostonmarathon.
2. Click on “Sponsor a Runner/Give Online” on the right-hand side
of the screen.
3. Enter my name, “Bob Cargill” and/or my Profile ID (CB0022) in
the “Search for a Runner to Sponsor” fields.
4. Click on my name, “Bob Cargill,” under Search Results, in the middle of the page.
5. Donate to Children’s Hospital Boston.
Of course, if you prefer, you may write a check – payable to Children’s Hospital Boston – and return it to my attention at 33 Oakwood Avenue, Sudbury, MA 01776.
Me and Hailey, the day before I ran the Boston Marathon last spring.
Whatever you can do to help support my Boston Marathon run for Children’s Hospital Boston – and Hailey – please do it today. I’ll appreciate it. The hospital will appreciate it. And, most of all, the children will appreciate it. It is on their behalf that I just can’t thank you enough.
Note: To read about the other four times I’ve run the Boston Marathon for charity (in ’96 for the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, in ’02 and ’03 for The Home for Little Wanderers and in ’05 for Children’s Hospital Boston), click here, here, here, here and here.
Tags: fundraising pledge-based fundraising Boston Marathon Bob Cargill Children’s Hospital Boston Miles for Miracles running marathon running for charity
Lose the Vowels, Gain a Following
I suppose I could change my name to BB CRGL.
And as for my blog, that could be reinvented as NW MKTNG CMNTTR, or some other such cryptic arrangement of letters, sans vowels.
That, at least according to an article I read in the March 19 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe (“Merchants X out A, E, I, O, and U” by Jenn Abelson), would make me hip to what the author characterizes as “a phenomenon that stems from the growing acceptance of shorthand in text-messaging, communication that encourages users to get as much said in as little time and space possible.”
The article begins with the following…
Vwls R so ystrdy.
From Motorola’s SLVR phone to Levi’s DLX jeans, merchants are unveiling new products with compact names that feature as few A, E, I, O, U’s as possible. Vowel free, apparently, connotes cool and modern, and the race to capture that Zeitgeist, marketers say, has spawned Flickrs and Delivrs and even a Broadway show, “Bklyn: The Musical.”
Of course, if you’re an English teacher or a grammarian, I could see where you might look at this new, so-called “phenomenon” as yet another sign that the apocalypse is upon us.
But if you’re a marketer trying to reach young people, I’d look at this as an opportunity to talk to them on their level and wouldn’t hesitate to at least experiment with dropping the vowels in some way, shape or form in one of your campaigns – soonr rathr than latr.
To read “Merchants X out A, E, I, O, and U” by Jenn Abelson (from the March 19 edition of the Boston Sunday Globe) in its entirety, click here.
Tags: marketing direct marketing advertising copywriting branding
Ted Demopoulos on BusinessBlogWire: The Four Types of Business Blogs
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
Sports Illustrated: “Start Your Own Blog”
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
