Spotify Wrapped is Ingenious Marketing

Spotify Wrapped is Ingenious Marketing

Marketing
Spotify Wrapped from Spotify is ingenious marketing. Users receive a ridiculously awesome visual presentation of the songs and artists they listened to most during the year. Along with this information comes a great deal of additional data including total minutes of listening time (my number was 47,878 minutes), top artist listened to (mine was HarryStyles), how many songs played (I played 3,598 songs on Spotify), etc. It is all such impressive data, if you ask me, data that users are inclined to share with their own respective online networks, amplifying the reach - exponentially - of Spotify's brilliant campaign. I explain a lot more how how strongly I feel about the ingeniousness of Spotify Wrapped in the video accompanying this blog post.
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Carhartt: A Great Brand in More Ways Than One

Carhartt: A Great Brand in More Ways Than One

Branding, Marketing
Workwear. Work clothes. Work gear. All of the above is what Carhartt makes. All of it is very high quality and very popular. Popular because it is so good-looking and long-lasting, but also because the brand itself is just so damn cool. I mean, I feel like I'm always seeing the logo somewhere on what people are wearing, from complete strangers on the street to the college students I teach to my own two sons. And now I'm proudly displaying it on a new hat I recently bought. Now I'm one of the cool kids. My point is this. Carhartt may say what they have to offer is for the tough and hard working among us, but I'm sure they know that their stuff is being bought for its looks…
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Attracting the Attention of your Audience

Attracting the Attention of your Audience

Advertising, Branding, Business, Marketing
If you don't attract the attention of your audience in advertising and marketing, you won't have any customers and clients. It's that simple. And in this day and age, it's more difficult than ever to stand out among the competition and clutter, to get people to notice what you have to offer them. However, I couldn't help but notice a truck recently that was conspicuously parked in the huge, empty parking lot along Sudbury Street outside of Mill & Main, the old, historic mill complex in Maynard. Bull Spit. That was the name on the truck. Bull Spit. Catchy name for a business. Right? Attention-getting to say the least. Both the double entendre of the name of this brewing company and the fact that this truck was so strategically parked…
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Making My Book with Maria Antonia Silva and Morgan Hume

Making My Book with Maria Antonia Silva and Morgan Hume

Blogging, Business, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing, Social Media
In this episode of my podcast, Bob Cargill's Marketing Show, I talk with Maria Antonia Silva and Morgan Hume about the making of my new book, Twenty Jobs, Twenty Lessons - a Long, Strange Career in Marketing, from Junk Mail to Social Media. Maria was the designer of the book and Morgan the editor. Both of them are recent graduates of Suffolk University in Boston, where I am an adjunct professor. I can't thank them enough for their skills, talent and support. To purchase your own copy of my new book via Amazon, click here.
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Hosting Live Conversations on Twitter Spaces in the Classroom

Hosting Live Conversations on Twitter Spaces in the Classroom

Marketing, Media, Social Media
Big THANKS to NU Media's Sudha Mathana Gopalan for writing a ridiculously awesome article - which you can read here - on the Northeastern University College of Professional Studies graduate-level course I taught this past spring on social media. As a student in this graduate-level course, Sudha participated along with her classmates in a series of three Twitter Spaces I hosted during class. In these Spaces, we talked amongst ourselves - albeit publicly - about our educational learnings as well as with an audience comprised of like-minded thought leaders who had an interest in the same topics and issues. Sudha also put together the video you see here during which she asked me to talk about Twitter Spaces and why it's such an excellent way to build a community of…
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My New Book is Available NOW on Amazon

My New Book is Available NOW on Amazon

Advertising, Branding, Business, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Marketing, Social Media
My new book, Twenty Jobs, Twenty Lessons - a Long, Strange Career in Marketing, from Junk Mail to Social Media, is available NOW in the Amazon Kindle Store here. It is a story for young professionals with bright futures in front of them and senior executives who have been there, done that. It may be my story, but it could be your story, too. See for yourself. Read it today.
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Twenty Jobs, Twenty Lessons – a Long, Strange Career in Marketing, from Junk Mail to Social Media

Twenty Jobs, Twenty Lessons – a Long, Strange Career in Marketing, from Junk Mail to Social Media

Business, Copywriting, Direct Marketing, Fundraising, Marketing, Social Media
Adjunct professor, marketing consultant, social media specialist and copywriter, Bob Cargill, has written and published a new book called Twenty Jobs, Twenty Lessons – a Long, Strange Career in Marketing, from Junk Mail to Social Media. Based on his career in the marketing industry since 1983, this book, according to the author, is about marketing, advertising and social media, but also business in general. Cargill offers advice to readers on how to pivot in the face of a big obstacle, how to bounce back from defeat and how to succeed against the odds. “It is a story of climbing the corporate ladder only to fall. It is a story about ambition, determination, success and failure. It is a story for young professionals with bright futures ahead of them and senior-level…
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The Six Ps of Retail Marketing

The Six Ps of Retail Marketing

Branding, Business, Customer Service, Marketing
There are four Ps of marketing...product, price, place and promotion. All are equally important. When it comes to retail marketing, though, there are two additional Ps, presentation and personnel. How you execute with regard to all these Ps can make a difference between success and failure for your brand or business. Many retailers are struggling in this day and age. Are they focusing enough on the two additional Ps, areas where they could possibly establish a competitive advantage over the competition? Amid COVID and a marketplace in which the only constant is change, nothing is easy today for brick-and-mortar stores. That's one reason why we're seeing more and more empty store fronts on main street. That's one reason why more and more retail is going etail.
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Social Media is Unique

Social Media is Unique

Branding, Marketing, Social Media
If you're using social media the way you use your other marketing channels, you're making a big mistake. Social media marketing is a two-way street where you should be engaging with your audience members, listening to them and even making them the center of attention, not your products and services. The more they see that you care about them as human beings, not customers and prospects, they'll be more likely to trust you and - when the opportunities arise - do business with you.
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