Author: Kelli Richards

Is Mobile Advertising Over Before it Began? One or Two Standouts Still in the Game

Kelli Richards August 1, 2011

Unlike social media marketing, social advertising seems to be taking a big hit from the never-ending recession we find ourselves in as a nation.  I say this because it seems that the newest golden egg in advertising, Mobile, had hit a new low before it ever reached any kind of high.  And if you look deeper, what it’s really indicative of is click based marketing overall.

It’s been interesting to watch mobile marketing come to life.  I worked in this space with Virgin Mobile several years ago; and at that point it was more of an evangelism exercise trying to educate major brands and media companies about what this was all about. Now it’s an evangelism to get them to stay the course and build an audience.

How does this all play out in the new digital age, if audiences and ROI aren’t born overnight? With 56% of Fortune 500 marketers dissatisfied with or simply not using click-based mobile advertising, it’s possible that only a few strong companies will be able to ride the wave, approach smaller marketing businesses, provide a good service at the right price, and hang in there until the economy turns.

One of the few standouts who seem to be weathering the storm and getting it right is Augme Technologies. Augme has created what they call the “AD LIFE™ Ad Network” to help marketers engage with their best consumers. Basically, by using sophisticated targeting options, Augme reaches 100+ million unique visitors (and 9+ billion impressions) each month. It’s the targeting that makes this unique and successful, with options that range from region to behavior to platform and device, as well as a huge array of demographic combinations.

If you follow the old-adage that the best customer is one you already have, then the mobile marketing industry should first be able to count on repeat business from established clients before creating a trajectory of higher profits.  In this case, it doesn’t look like that will happen, not at the present time anyway. But having an example of a company that’s navigating these new waters successfully does give some hope.

With Smartphones taking over the mobile industry at a phenomenal rate, the mobile advertising world should look like a wide open field of opportunity, but right now, the numbers just don’t support this.  A recent survey showed that although 93% of marketers would move further into mobile ad spending – 43% of that group cites a low return on investment as a block to continuing with the platform.

Another statistic worth mentioning is that the most effective mobile ad campaigns were email based, where consumers had signed up and chosen to participate. Just a note, this is something that social media marketers have known for over a decade.

“Signup ads are native to mobile advertising,” said Zephrin Lasker, CEO and co-founder, Pontiflex, one of the largest players in the mobile ad field. “People have a new sense of control and meaningful experiences with brands.”

In the end, this forum also demands a new level of creativity, collaboration and UE, user experience.  If Angry Birds can become a phrase and experience that 78% of mobile phone users know and have participated with, then Angry Birds who drink Dr. Pepper makes perfect sense.  

 

Kelli Richards, CEO of All Access Group

For more information on Social Media Marketing, especially in how it affects the Music Industry, grab a copy of my new eBook: “Taking the Crowd to the Cloud – Social Media for the Music Industry.”

The music industry has turned into a very complicated space, and marketing was NEVER easy to begin with.  Written by industry insider, Kelli Richards, “Taking the Crowd to the Cloud – Social Media for the Music Industry” raises the bar and demystifies social media marketing, helping musicians, agents and anyone in our industry to THRIVE – it empowers and transforms the marketing mindset.  Featuring TEN top social networks for musicians, this eBook maximizes your social media to build (and keep) your audience. It holds the key to eMail Marketing, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and several hot secrets in Social Media. (It even covers how to port your MySpace contents to Facebook Music.) For $37 this is easily the million dollar choice.

 

Tech + Media – The Honeymoon Between GoogleTV and Logitech Ends, but the Marriage Continues

Kelli Richards July 28, 2011

The marriage of tech and media is definitely a rocky one at times, and Web TV is no exception. Despite all promises, like all relationships, things are always evolving – and sometimes they work, and sometimes they don’t. The latest tech / media couple in trouble appears to be Logitech and Google. With the rocky start to Google TV, Logitech is also hung up in every way possible. Why? They supply the tech end of GTV with the Revue Google TV set-top box.

Google TV is a pretty cool product – and quite possibly the future of ALL TV – or at least a glimpse of it, providing access to live TV, on-demand programming, recorded shows, pay TV, online video clips and, of course, the web.

Will Web TV replace regular TV any time soon? Probably not. But don’t count Google (or Logitech) out of the running. Someone’s going to nab the real estate on Web TV, and for their part, Logitech is willing to continue the union. In fact, they’re lowering the price to make the hardware accessible to almost anybody.

Losing the market share before one is really created is obviously not an outcome that Logitech will go for. In fact Logitech’s Chairman, Guerrino De Luca, was quoted this week as saying: “There was a significant gap between our price and the value perceived by the consumer.”

Right now, market share is the moral of the story for both the data and the technology side of the equation. Any day now Google TV should be accessible by Android, and with 130 million Androids out there, that is a big deal.  In order to not lose face until then, Logitech has chosen to bite the revenue bullet and get more customers. That means a lower price in order to boost the real estate for Google.

It’s hard to imagine Apple or Sony supporting the digital music industry by lowering the price of hardware to encourage market participation, but if this is an indication of what might work, then Blu-Ray may actually still stand a chance.

Kelli Richards
CEO of The All Access Group

Spotify ….Finally

Kelli Richards July 25, 2011

Well, after all this time, what’s left to be said???   Except let’s give credit to the artist.  Tallulah by Tobias Norberg

 

Social Media Wars – How Wide Do We Open the Kimono? Google+, Facebook, Etc.

Kelli Richards July 21, 2011

By now, you may have heard the name Michael Lee Johnson.  He’s a young web developer who recently tried to promote his presence on Google+ by taking out a Facebook Ad.  What’s wrong with that?  According to Facebook’s terms of service, only everything.  And while I don’t agree with Facebook, simply because of my personal and professional stand on Gerd Leonhard’s Friction vs. Fiction, they are, of course, simply protecting their market share.

It is very easy to see why they don’t want to do battle with megalith Google over anything more than ad sales. One has to wonder, however, where the users come into play.  Although diligently trying to evolve every single day, there’s absolutely NO guarantee that Facebook will not become the MySpace of tomorrow.  (Meaning that they become a great neighborhood that nobody lives in or even visits any more – sort of the Three-Mile Island of Social Networks.)  Simply building walls and creating friction will not protect them.

This isn’t the only example of what I might call “random” censorship either.  Meetup.com is notorious for ripping down local Meetup Groups that don’t fit their user terms (which change at will if you’re of a certain political slant).  The bottom line is that social networks are NOT democracies.  They are autocracies, and your participation is permitted and censored, at will, by the owner of the club.

So where does this leave Google+ ???  Growing. By leaps and bounds in my estimation.  Why?  Because it addresses all of the issues Facebook created – over exposure, brand and personal comingling, general insanity and finally, the issue of demographic. (And right now, it’s a hotbed for techies.)

As I addressed in my recent Social Media eBook, the problem with ANY network is that you can only reach THAT network’s users.  So while you can break demographics out further, you can only operate within the umbrella of users actually ON Facebook, for example.  Who are THEY?  Mostly, on Facebook at least, they’re people with free time.  Yes, I have a ton of “friends” on my Facebook Page, and I value them!  But I think Google+ and it’s Circles concept will provide a segregation which will eliminate having multiple Pages, Profiles, Groups, etc., etc. that ALL have to be updated.

Another service worth watching which addresses this, on the opposite side of the spectrum (the personal side), is Proust.com.  Proust is a social network designed to connect MORE intimately than Facebook (as if that were possible), by connecting close family members and allowing them to commemorate events and share life stories.  With the boom in genealogy that’s been created by the digital revolution, this is an idea that just might take off.

Final thoughts:  We have seen some extreme reverberations to the social media age (which is a subset in itself of the digital age).  Facebook overtaking MySpace (almost to annihilation) is only one example. There will be a backlash to the autocracy though, you can guarantee it.  Because the internet may be a place of freedom – but social networks are NOT.  A good example of this backlash is hacker group Anonymous. Even THEY are starting a social network (called “the Revolution”).  Their platform?  No censorship.  This might seem to lean toward the shadow side of things we might all like to avoid … but in reality, is it the Michael Lee Johnson’s of the world and a simple Google+ banner ad that we protect?  A question well worth consideration, at least.

Kelli Richards
CEO of The All Access Group

3 Best Practices for Working with a Coach

Kelli Richards July 15, 2011

#1. Find the RIGHT Coach.  

This is an easy task to throw out there and probably one of the toughest decisions we can make at any given time.  The notion that the right teacher will show up at the right time in our lives is only partly true.  We have to actively participate in our search with a clear picture of what we want in order to attract the right people, no matter what role they are to play in our lives – and also to be open to them when they appear.  Having a crystal clear image of what you need in a coach – what their area of expertise is, how they resonate with who you are & your vision, and how they work with their clients are all vital ingredients in your process.  And while it’s important to check references or take referrals from colleagues you trust or leaders in your arena, don’t underestimate your gut when it comes to this one.  If your best instincts are that someone is right – or wrong – for you, that’s a really important part of your personal, internal guidance system and should not to be aside.   The right coaching relationship can be hugely impactful.

#2. Set your Goals about the Coaching Process.

Once you’re working with the right coach, be sure to be as transparent with them about what you WANT from the process as possible.  Here are the ABCs to remember:

*Absolutely define your most important work and inspirations that you’ve created so far, so your coach can know who you are, and what your value system is

*Benchmarks and clear objectives should be defined as early as possible so you both have a clear path toward your goals, and finally

*Create a set of priorities that will clarify and focus your efforts and maximize your coaching time together.

#3. What would it take to become fearless?

Nobody goes into coaching because they want to stand still.  Once you’ve set your goals, ultimately you’ll want to define — and then BECOME fearless about reaching them.  Fearless people not only live amazing lives and achieve great heights; fearless people take on projects that the rest of us would run from. They challenge the status quo and create change. One of the key goals of working with a coach is to define that deepest desire or goal you have and then to outline a plan that either rises above or sidesteps the roadblocks and fears that get in your way.  And once you’ve done all of that, one of the most important questions to ask yourself is, What would it take to become fearless about this project, right now?

Here are my personal coaching manifestations and intentions for each of you.  Feel free to use this as an affirmative dialogue to have with yourself as you set about to find the right coach for your life and work, right now. If you’d like to inquire about working with me, personally, please visit my page on Coaching under Services on my web site at www.allaccessgroup.com or simply reach out to me directly at info@AllAccessGroup.com

You will have balance in your life. You will manage your time and energies so that you run your business, your projects, and your life without selling out or losing your way. You will discover the Power of Affiliation and Collaboration. You will step outside your comfort zone and take on projects that you once considered impossible. You will get past limiting beliefs, states of mind and behaviors that have been holding you back. You will feel true satisfaction and fulfillment that will spill over into all areas of your life. You will create a momentum for your work and life that is unstoppable. You will have more balance and energy.

An Intimate “Fireside Chat” with Million-Dollar Coach and Author, Alan Cohen

Kelli Richards July 10, 2011

This is an excerpt of Kelli’s Q&A with Million-Dollar Coach and Author, Alan Cohen. Alan Cohen is a respected keynoter and seminar leader for professional meetings in the fields of personal growth, inspiration, holistic health, human relations, and achievement of a work/life balance. He is also the author of 24 popular inspirational books and CD’s, including the best-selling The Dragon Doesn’t Live Here Anymore, the award-winning A Deep Breath of Life.

His work has been featured on Oprah.com and in USA Today and The Washington Post. Alan’s radio program Get Real is broadcast weekly on Hay House Radio, and his monthly column From the Heart is featured in magazines internationally. (To hear this entire interview, please visit the Resources Page on my Website.)

Kelli:   Welcome Alan! Talk to us, if you will, about All About U., which has been described as a university without walls, dedicated to higher learning for the higher self.

Alan Cohen:  It’s a course that I’ve developed for people who would like to grow from the inside out.  It’s an online course with personal coaching and teleseminars that invites people to look within to tell the truth about where their passion is and where their vision is and what would make their life worth living and what would make you want to get up every morning and want to go to work. It’s really very intensive and yet very gentle and loving course that calls people to step into their own shoes and walk in their own magnificence. It’s a lofty goal, but I wouldn’t settle for anything less.

Kelli:  Alan, Let’s talk about that work and how you support other coaches to clarify their purpose, their goals, and their direction and niche.

Alan Cohen:  I love coaching because it’s a really fast way to make progress. When I work with coaches, I find that each one has a unique passion, talent, interest and vision.  Half of the game of becoming a coach is telling the truth and getting in touch with where your unique path lives… for you, you’re an expert and master in connecting people and in the media – nobody else does that like you.  We have another guy in one program, who has had difficulty with bipolar, so he focuses on coaching bipolar people. There are people focused on relationships. The process of becoming a coach is the same as being coached, you have to find that sweet spot of where your joy and your passion live, and after that, doors begin to open.

Kelli:  For coaches, finding the right clients and marketing effectively is always a priority.  Could you give one or two insights on how coaches attract clients who are in alignment with their vision, skill, and interests?

Alan Cohen:  Well, the first step is being very clear on the clientele you desire.  You can always tell what you believe by what you’re getting.  So if people either aren’t getting clients or are getting clients who don’t want to pay or are getting clients they don’t like or who don’t show up, it usually points to a call for clarity on your own vision.  That’s why I work with coaches so intensively to be very clear on who do you want to coach.


To learn more about Alan Cohen and his upcoming programs, including his “How Good Can it Get Seminar” and “Life Coach Training – Better Your Life by Helping Others Better Theirs,” offered in September, 2011, visit his website at https://www.alancohen.com/programs/programs.php

 

 

Facebook + Skype = Hyper-Connectivity …. Or Virtual Un-Reality?

Kelli Richards July 6, 2011

What does it mean that Facebook has partnered with Skype to offer video calling?  Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook, has focused on the “social infrastructure” that’s been created by the Facebook team (and other social networks) and the Orwellian openness that’s become our lives (which he calls sharing).  Is he right?  Is he wrong?

In my recent interview with Jason Benlevi, the author of “Too Much Magic, Pulling the Plug on the Cult of Tech” I asked the author about his book, and the pros and cons of what has become new normal.

“Too Much Magic is the story of how venture capital, media moguls and marketeers use digital magic to distract us, invade our privacy, corrupt democracy, distort our human values, and sell us things that we don’t need.  It looks at all aspects of our emerging digital lifestyle, how it is changing us, and who it is that really benefits.”   Zuckerberg has a completely different view, of course. “Sharing is growing at a fast exponential rate — twice the amount of stuff the world would have shared this day a year ago.”

So how does Skype fit into this equation?  With over 750 million users a day, Facebook seeks to maximize its “free” network’s reach, building more and more features to offer it’s users, who are every moment sharing and actively using Facebook more often than their cell phones at this rate.  So video chat seems like the perfect next step.  Not only will users be able to participate in live video chat – but they’ll also be able to join group chats.

“A few months ago, we started working with Skype to bring video calling to Facebook,” said Phillip Su, a Facebook engineer working on the video calling team, in a post to Facebook’s official blog. “We built it right into chat, so all your conversations start from the same place.

So is new normal reaching even more connectivity – or dividing us further and further, replacing real life with virtual life more and more?  Are we taking the Crowd to the Cloud — or are we in danger of just drifting away?  For thought leaders in the digital space, this is definitely a marriage (um, merger) to watch closely.

Kelli Richards
CEO of The All Access Group

You can sign up for an advance copy of my ebook, “Take the Crowd to the Cloud,” at https://allaccessgroup.com/services/  (just click ebooks when you get the confirmation).

 

Best Practices for the New World of Live Music

Kelli Richards June 22, 2011

In my ebook on Social Media for the music industry (Take the Crowd to the Cloud), I begin with the following statement:  The landscape of how audiences are built has completely, thoroughly changed in the last decade – in fact, it has redefined itself more than once.  Being malleable enough to “grow” with the flow can mean the difference between big successes or devastating failures in the music and digital arenas.  All of us, whether we’re artists or authors or thought leaders, must recognize that, in order to succeed, we must also think and act like CEOs and marketing mavens.

That idea, however, of becoming marketing mavens, must be tempered by a deep understanding of where your fan base is – not only insofar as location, but also where they’re at economically.  Of course, this specifically refers to live music, digital music and digital distribution are a different issue, and one that I address often.

If your next live gig is in Los Angeles or New York, then have at it, your ticket buyers are at least in a city that has jobs to offer, giving them a fighting chance at a healthy ticket price.  But if you’re playing in Rhode Island or Flint, Michigan, you have to seriously consider what the market can bear.  A lower ticket price doesn’t have to mean you’re eating PB&J for a week either, it means you have to get creative, so that those who want more contact or have more expendable income, can choose to participate on a higher level.  Consider a paid meet & greet before you go onstage, or an after party with some free merch to go with the separate ticket price.

Whatever you do, you have to do what Bob Lefsetz recently shared in his newsletter, the Lefsetz Letter: You have to align yourself with your fans.

Kelli Richards
CEO of The All Access Group

You can sign up for an advance copy of my ebook at https://allaccessgroup.com/services/ (just click ebooks when you get the confirmation).

 

An Intimate “Fireside Chat” with Hollywood Producer, Gary Goldstein

Kelli Richards June 14, 2011

An excerpt of Kelli’s Q&A with Hollywood Producer, Gary Goldstein, an inspiring voice in the film and music industries. Gary Goldstein produced one of the most iconic cultural expressions of the last generation: Pretty Woman. He has gone on to mentor many of the leading creative voices in music and film. He is an accomplished film producer, an author, a speaker, an innovator, a philanthropist, and a great guy. This is definitely one of the best fireside chats yet. (To hear this entire interview, please visit the Resources Page on my Website.)

Kelli Richards: Gary, put on your consultant’s hat for a moment, if you will.  When you look forward at the entertainment industry, what do you think is the biggest challenge we face, and what kinds of solutions do you see down the road?

Gary Goldstein: Very few people understand – artists and everyone haven’t really been taught — business literacy.  They don’t know the meaning of it.  The value of your intellectual property is so precious that to give it up for a royalty after expenses… well, the landscape is changing.  Make it your mission to find out what works for YOU.  Get engaged, get involved in these conversations.  Become joyful and excited about learning the marketing piece – the business of your art.  That’s never going to be less than central to your success. You know, Lady Gaga, she didn’t invent innovative marketing in today’s sandbox.  But she and her team simply mastered it better than most.  Her talent’s evident, sure, but her unspeakable, astonishing success is the stuff of brilliant, innovative marketing.

 

Kelli Richards: That’s because she herself does that.  She has a team around her that’s wonderful, but she herself, makes it a point to understand and to harness the power of social media and technology.  She actively embraces it, takes it on, leverages it to its fullest – and for example, understands the power of mailbox money with royalties in her retirement years, so she doesn’t give up her publishing rights.

Gary, What do you think are the DISadvantages of artists running their own content, if you see any – are artists at risk of becoming SO independent, that they won’t lean on the amazing knowledge base and expertise out there in the entertainment industry?

Gary Goldstein: Yes, I think that is the risk.  I think the risk is … the deficit is the education gap that we have suffered up until now.  And we have a learning gap.  There are a lot of folks who really don’t know or forget that they do need to become master entrepreneurs, marketers, business people and get excited about that.  Not get so intoxicated just with your music or your website that you forget to get that result, to really drive that relationship with your audience.  So to do that, yeah, don’t forget to seek out more successful people in the space.  Get mentors.  Surround yourself with collaborators who know what they’re doing.  …get noticed, get referrals, get access. …

….Get thee to multiple mentors.  Get thee to five-minute mentors, lifelong mentors.  Get thee to anyone who really has wisdom.  Not information, not data, not opinions.  Someone who really deeply has some wisdom, some success.  Get their counsel.  It will help you become fearless and humble at the same time.  It will help you believe in the possibility of your goals.  So you get out of your cubicle brain and into your joyful, young brain that loves everything new.  The cool thing is that it becomes a deeply personal time and journey.

Kelli Richards: And everybody will benefit from a guide on that journey.  There’s no reason to do it alone.  And the reality that there are people out there like you and I who are such mentors and coaches and guides, and we have a lot to offer those kind of people who are looking for us, who are seeking that support. …

 

Gary Goldstein: Here’s the beautiful thing about being stubborn enough and hanging out long enough and having a little age on you.  For me, the past is a gift but I don’t live there.  For me, everything is about where I’m going.  The stuff ahead of me, I’m so excited about.  Using every learning, every piece of wisdom, every strategy, every relationship that I’m blessed to have in my life.  Tribe Hollywood is a great example of that.  Instead of me  mentoring people one at a time, I want to mentor them a thousand, two thousand, three thousand at a time.

 

 

To hear this entire interview, please visit the Resources Page on my Website.) And to learn more about Gary Goldstein’s latest project, Tribe Hollywood or to sign up for his “5 Things I Wish Someone Would Have Told Me About Hollywood” go to https://tribehollywood.biz.

 

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