Justin Reynolds

12/16/2013

Going the Extra Mile to Strengthen Customer Relationships

I was in need of a break.

It snowed here in Connecticut last week. I am by no means afraid of driving in the snow, but after a enduring a harrowing experience en route to college in Vermont one winter—a taxi merging onto the highway didn’t yield to me during a snowstorm so I slammed on my brakes and 360’d across two lanes of traffic, coming to rest in a soft, snowy ditch—I try to avoid it when possible. I’m still driving that endearing jalopy of a 2001 Nissan Altima, so that day I worked from home, sights set on proving Marissa Mayer wrong. (If you’ll remember, earlier this year, after taking the reins at Yahoo, Mayer famously forbade her employees from working from home.)

As a diehard Yankees fan, I was still stung by the news that franchise second baseman Robinson Cano had opted to take his talents to Seattle, thanks in part to his new agent Jay Z seeking to make a big name for himself in his latest professional endeavor. And he did, helping Cano land a 10-year, $240 million contract, the third largest in baseball history. Continue reading “Going the Extra Mile to Strengthen Customer Relationships”

11/22/2013

How Jean Claude Van Damme Can Revitalize Your Brand

In today’s world of viral videos, marketers are put in the unique position of knowing that if they create something that’s clever and one-of-a-kind, there’s at least a remote possibility that content can spread across the Internet like a wildfire. And recently, there’s at least one video that has done precisely that.

Creating an ad to showcase the precision steering and accuracy of its fleet line, Volvo released a video earlier this month featuring Jean Claude Van Damme. The commercial starts with a close up on the 53-year-old actor’s face and torso and slowly zooms out to reveal that he’s standing on the rearview mirrors of two adjacent trucks, which are traveling slowly in reverse. Continue reading “How Jean Claude Van Damme Can Revitalize Your Brand”

10/02/2013

What Marketers Can Learn from Senator Ted Cruz’s 21 Hour Speech

The next presidential election is still more than three years away, but in today’s world of instant information, members from either side of the aisle need to raise their profiles significantly in order to have a formidable seat in the national conversation.

Following in the footsteps of U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), who held a 13-hour filibuster earlier this year to question America’s use of violent drone strikes, U.S. Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) took to Capitol Hill on Sept. 24 and spoke for more than 21 hours, urging his colleagues to support the defunding of the Affordable Care Act, commonly referred to as Obamacare.

Though not technically a filibuster—the Senate was scheduled to begin debate on a bill that would prevent a government shutdown at noon the following day, and they did—Cruz’s antics generated a ton of buzz, both good and bad, throughout every corner of the Internet and from anyone politically-connected. Continue reading “What Marketers Can Learn from Senator Ted Cruz’s 21 Hour Speech”

07/24/2013

The Healthcare Industry is Ripe for Content Marketing

No matter what industry you’re in, you need content marketing. It increases your visibility and gives you a wider reach in which to share your message and let people know what your company is all about. Furthermore, it increases the overall effectiveness of your marketing campaigns. In a recent survey, 63 percent of respondents affirmed that posting content on social media channels increased marketing success.

One industry that stands to benefit a great deal from content marketing—though they might not realize it yet—is the healthcare sector, which is in the same spot it was two years ago, according to Joe Pulizzi, founder of the Content Marketing Institute. While the industry’s remained relatively stagnant in terms of content marketing adoption—and Pulizzi attributes that behavior to the fact the industry’s heavily regulated and heavily scrutinized—there’s enormous room for growth. Continue reading “The Healthcare Industry is Ripe for Content Marketing”

06/06/2013

Dear New York Yankees, I Like You, But Please Leave Me Alone

May 12, May 26, and June 1. What do these days have in common?

They’re the only days since May 1 that I’ve not received an email from the New York Yankees informing me of super sweet deals in their virtual store, telling me who the Bombers are playing that day at the stadium or even informing me about an upcoming soccer match that’s set to take place on its luscious outfield grass.

Apparently the marketing minds at yankees.com realized those three days had elapsed without sending me any emails and countered by sending two emails many days since May 1. They even sent three—three—my way on June 3. Continue reading “Dear New York Yankees, I Like You, But Please Leave Me Alone”

05/30/2013

For Netflix, There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand

There’s always money in the banana stand.

So says George Bluth, the patriarch of the well-to-do, quirky family chronicled in Arrested Development, a sitcom which ran quietly on FOX between 2003 and 2006 but developed a rabid cult following its cancellation. In the years following, rumors of a fourth season and a movie in the works popped up time and again. Then finally, in 2011, Netflix agreed to license and exclusively distribute a fourth season through its streaming network.

That entire season’s 15 episodes were released on May 26. Continue reading “For Netflix, There’s Always Money in the Banana Stand”

05/23/2013

Why Content Marketing Makes Sense

If you had the choice to interrupt your customers or to provide them with enriching content which just so happened to capture their attention, which would you choose?

Such is the difference between traditional marketing—billboards, radio spots, television commercials and newspaper ads—and content marketing. Whereas the former aims to grab a hold of the viewer’s attention for a brief moment, the latter seeks to provide the same viewer with multiple forms of valuable content in order to help build and grow a long-term relationship. Traditional marketing is expensive and provides not much more than a distraction. Content marketing offers valuable information and entertainment which lasts longer and can be shared on social networks with ease.

In light of this, it shouldn’t really come as a surprise that businesses are increasingly looking toward upping their content marketing efforts. According to Jonathan Lister, who oversees the North American advertising sales and operations for LinkedIn, 18.9 percent of marketers focused primarily on content marketing in 2012. In 2013, that number has jumped to 34.8 percent. Continue reading “Why Content Marketing Makes Sense”

05/21/2013

Ahh, Coke’s New Marketing Campaign Makes Me Thirsty

This is the age of the mobile device. The days of print advertisements wane in the rearview as we now drive down the highways of the future.

In order to stay fresh and relevant, firms need to rethink their marketing strategies if they want to connect with and convert a target market that is always evolving.

And the fine folks at Coca Cola seem to have done just that.

I don’t even drink Coke—I’m more of a water-and-coffee-drinking guy—but there I was on a Friday afternoon, staring at a virtual paper cup bearing the soft drink company’s logo. The cup was shifting back and forth across my computer screen, and I was charged with pulling back a virtual sling shot and trying to aim a virtual ice cube into the cup in order keep its virtual contents at the perfect temperature of 37 degrees. Continue reading “Ahh, Coke’s New Marketing Campaign Makes Me Thirsty”