Why would you try to sell children’s cereal with zombies?

I’m not sure either.

Kellogg’s Corn Pops recently debuted a new spot parodying old horror movies. As an adult, I’m not really in the target audience for the cereal so I never even noticed the ad and likely would have never given it a second thought except for one important reason: the ad scares my six-year-old.

My son is very much a member of the target audience for Corn Pops, especially given his love for sugary, sweet, and otherwise nutritionally lacking food. And he has no problem with monsters—he loves Godzilla and is a fan of the sci-fi series Doctor Who, which has its share of scary monsters and aliens.

The Corn Pops spot titled “The Spooning,” however, isn’t giving him a fun scare. Even before the commercial gets past the first few seconds, he pleads for us to change the channel. When he first did this, I asked him why he didn’t like the spot given that he never has reacted this way to any advertising. When he told me there were zombies in it, I frankly thought he had to be mistaken.

He wasn’t. There are. Zombie milkmen apparently, but zombies nevertheless. (more…)

Continuing our discussion about integrated campaigns with members of LeapFrog Interactive’s Interactive Marketing team (you can read part one here), the team talks about the importance of a good website to an integrated campaign and offers an example what can be achieved as a result of a well-run integrated campaign.

Integration seems to be the key. So if you are not committed to it, should rethink your marketing strategy?

Amberly Stitzel: No, I just think those clients who don’t integrate don’t get the full benefit of an agency approach by doing that.

Stephanie Stokell: You could go out there and do PPC for your site but if you don’t have the content on your site with the integrated SEO you will be paying more for each click and won’t be realizing the conversion rates that you could. And if they wander on to your site, even if it’s great website, if the only way they’re getting there is by happening upon it, then a great conversion rate doesn’t provide enough return because you’re not getting the traffic that you need. Everything works together to not only bring them in but to complete the whole cycle. You really have to have the whole shebang.

Christy Belden: It’s also the design of and copy for the site all integrated into the marketing of it. You have to have good design and relevant copy to drive the sale and support the SEO. It all has to match.

Amberly: So having the copy and the design for an effective website should be put first before you would even start your campaign. We can drive people to your site but if the site isn’t set up to convert then you’ve wasted marketing dollars.

Stephanie: It’s the house metaphor again. You would be sure your house is clean and straight and well-decorated before you invited anyone over.
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We sat down seven members of our Interactive Marketing team—SEO Specialist Christy Belden, Media Coordinator Emily Carroll, Interactive Marketing Coordinator Miranda Mattingly, Interactive Marketing Manager Amberly Stitzel, SEO Copywriter Stephanie Stokell (who chimes in during the second part of this two-part discussion), SEO Assistant Krista Thompson, and Social Media Specialist Emily Van Winkle—and asked them for the lowdown on integrated interactive marketing programs. From how to start one and what to include to why an integrated campaign is better than running separate interactive efforts, they filled in the gaps and offered a new way to consider interactive marketing “real estate.”

If a client wanted to run an integrated program, what should they start with?

Amberly Stitzel: First thing to do would be to ramp up SEO, perform PPC at a high budget, and then crisscross them.

Miranda Mattingly: You would start PPC at a higher budget because it’s an immediate thing, and can get immediate results while SEO might take a while to get your site up to the first results page.

When does social media come into play?

Emily Van Winkle: Social and SEO are very intertwined because a lot of the social efforts have SEO optimization. Social is going to help SEO efforts and vice versa. Often we would recommend social media be engaged when we start SEO. It does involve a lot more research, a lot more time, and a lot more development.

Amberly: Other programs take a while to ramp up. Even with e-mail, you have to build your list before you start to see significant results. With SEO, you’re going to have to get your code set up and start talking at social outlets. It’s also going to take a while for link building because you can’t do a 100 million links at one time.

Emily Carroll: With display advertising, you have to have a brand in place before you can build out your display images and decide how you want that to look, who your target audience is, and where you want to reach those people.
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KFC recently announced a marketing campaign that is both unique and helpful. The Colonel’s corporation plans to offer to fill potholes in several cities as a means to promote its “fresh” brand marketing. Each filled pothole will be topped off with the words “Re-freshed by KFC” in street chalk that will then wash off on the next rainy day.

Personally, I wish more brands would follow KFC’s example and help out the community.

Particularly, my community. (more…)

Keeping clients happy isn’t just an aspiration at LeapFrog Interactive; it’s a way of doing business. To discuss how LeapFrog keeps good client service front and center every day, we’ve gathered a roundtable of Client Services’ finest: Account Managers Trish Pendleton, Heather Radford, and Lauren Pate, and Lori Druen, Vice President of Client Services.

How do you keep service a priority?

Trish Pendleton: It’s something that’s always top of mind. Staying in touch with our clients as much as we can. Replying to e-mails right away, even if they don’t require a response, by sending a simple thank you. Making sure our clients know that we’re constantly thinking about and working for them. These are just some of the ways we can give our clients that something extra.

Heather Radford: I think knowing your clients’ business or industry and educating yourself about what they do is important. That way, when they have questions for you, you can answer them correctly in regards to their industry. It also helps to try and make a connection with them, even on a personal level, to help build a relationship.

Lauren Pate: It’s really easy for service to be a priority for us because it’s our focus and what we do all day, every day.

What makes what we do here at LFI different from other agencies in terms of providing client service?

Trish: I think that at LeapFrog client needs are handled with more personal effort. We’re more likely to bend over backwards to accommodate our clients than some larger agencies that I’ve worked at or heard about. This extra effort comes from how we feel about our clients. We consider them our partners, and their success is just as important to us as it is to them.

Lori Druen: We actually practice what we preach. We’re committed to providing a high level of service, and anything less than that isn’t acceptable. We are available to our clients whenever they need us. We don’t shut down our accountability at 5 PM. (more…)