How We Think

Here at KHJ, we are always looking for ways to improve campaign performance. We look to optimize message, channel, creative, and even timing. Day-part strategies are nothing new, we’ve been buying broadcast against our target audience’s daily schedules since the beginning. Want to get people to come into a restaurant? Buy evening drive-time radio. Looking to boost sales of coffee? Morning news is your friend.

But what do banks do when they want to target financial decision-makers?

We’ve all been there: you’re trying to come up with a big idea, but nothing’s happening. You just sit in your chair beating your head against the wall, combing through old award books, desperately willing an idea to come. Meanwhile, the deadline is looming. Other teams working on the same assignment seem smug, cocky. You sense they have the goods, and a little piece of you dies.

Once when I found myself in this situation, an art director I was working with suggested we go for a walk.

There’s a lot of banking in the community, but how much community is in the bank? Today, people are seeking brands that demonstrate a commitment to the community. So to banks that are pushing product to prove their value, we ask: what’s your community strategy?

What exactly do we mean by a commitment to the community? I am not just talking about your CRA obligation, which belongs in the realm of “need to have.” I am talking about your authentic commitment to community that will make a meaningful difference and get people talking.

Each year the Diagnostic Marketing Association (DxMA) hosts its creative communication awards ceremony recognizing the best of the best in diagnostics advertising, marketing and promotional programming. This year, KHJ has once again won bragging rights by placing:

An alarming statistic was published several weeks ago by Gallup: only 33% of fifth through 12^th grade students surveyed felt they were success-ready. When breaking down the factors that lead to success, Shane J. Lopez, Ph.D., suggests hope, engagement and well-being. Also telling about student attitudes today: they were asked to imagine a ladder with zero at the bottom and 10 at the top – 10 is the best possible life and zero the worst. Not only did students feel unprepared for success, but their “life ratings” also diminished from fifth through 12^th grades.

Let’s put aside how gut-wrenching it is that we are failing the next generation and focus on what Lopez suggests can be done. Survey results show that those students with teachers who make them excited about their future show higher percentages who feel hopeful, engaged and thriving.

One of the principles KHJ Brand Activation was founded on almost three decades ago and that we have lived by to this day is the need to tie marketing into sales… the idea that marketing exists only to support the sales effort – whether to build awareness and precondition the market; to open the door for the sales force; or to provide the sales tools needed to have a successful conversation, nurture the relationship and drive revenue.

Seems like a “duh!”? Well, not for everyone unfortunately. Too many agencies or marketers operate in a silo, not meaningfully collaborating with their sales team to truly understand “voice of customer” pains and needs. That leads to the “broadcast” of marketing messages and communications that are not in tune with the market … and to the creation of tools that the sales force has no use for (and doesn’t use – we know because we ask them).

If this is a no-brainer for you and you are there already, well done. But as a marketer, how closely are you working with … your human resources group?

Content marketing is one of the digital trends that have been emerging in the past couple of years. As in many other aspects of digital marketing, the largest players in the financial services space have been ahead of the rest of the business world. For example, the OPEN Forum launched in the mid-2000s by American Express is a large-scale content strategy that uses a combination of proprietary and user-generated content to engage and market to small businesses. And in the banking space, Wells Fargo provides on its website a broad range of educational materials to deeply engage visiting customers, including My FirstHome^SM, an interactive tool that educates first-time buyers. The tool requires buyers to subscribe, which provides Wells Fargo with a point of contact.

This month KHJ is rolling out phase two of a brand campaign we created for Commonwealth Care Alliance, a not-for-profit care delivery system that provides patient-centric solutions for beneficiaries of Medicare and Medicaid. As I think back over the year since we first began working together to bring their brand to life, I continue to be struck by the sameness of the healthy, active people featured in typical health care advertising and can’t help but start to hum that old R.E.M. song, “Shiny, Happy People.”

A friend and fellow General Mills alum recently commented on an Ad Age article titled “How General Mills Is Creating a Content Factory” featuring General Mill’s CMO, Mark Addicks, who gave the keynote speech at the recent Ad Age Digital Conference focusing on the importance of content creation. While I agree with my friend’s assessment that Mark is a brilliant marketer, as are most of the folks at General Mills, I am not quite sure I agree that content creation is a particularly new idea.

When I was at General Mills in the late 1990s, we celebrated Betty Crocker’s 75^th birthday with various promotions and the unveiling of a new portrait. For those who aren’t familiar with the story, Betty was“born” in 1921 to offer personal answers to consumers’ questions about baking. In 1924 she introduced the country’s first radio cooking show, called “The Betty Crocker Cooking School of the Air.” In 1950 she introduced her big red cookbook, officially named the “Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook,” which can still be found in most kitchens. I know I have one I use regularly. In the more recent past, she not surprisingly launched her own website, www.BettyCrocker.com.

With the Affordable Care act gaining traction as current data suggests as many as 9 million Americans have signed up for health insurance through exchanges, hospitals across the country are preparing to take a hit. With a new paradigm for healthcare delivery that has fewer patients needing hospital care at the same time hospitals must be staffed and ready to care for anyone who needs specialized hospital care, organizations are squeezed. How can a hospital negotiate lean balance sheets and lean staff with the requirements to provide safe, cost-effective care that assures optimal outcomes and patient satisfaction?