Early in my career, when I first had the responsibility of hiring an employee, I spoke with a colleague who was a longtime HR director. His advice? Look for attitude above all else. Skills are important, he said, but can be acquired or enhanced on the job to some extent. Attitude, on the other hand, is tough to change.

In today’s economic climate, folks are either struggling to maintain their businesses, grateful for the job they have or anxiously looking for work or clients. It’s not an easy environment for a great attitude, I know.

Having a positive outlook is like jet fuel – it provides you with lift and can take those around you up a level as well. A good attitude inspires energy and enthusiasm on the job on the good days, and it keeps you moving toward higher ground when times are tough.

Think back to your first week at a desirable new job – you were excited to be there and eager to contribute and learn, remember? That’s the attitude that we should strive to keep. This is the backbone of working toward a common good with colleagues and clients alike.

What creates a good attitude?

• Enjoy what you do. If you need to revitalize your career, find something new to learn, whether it’s through a book, a webinar or a colleague. If you need a change, look into other options – action steps will improve your view of the current situation.
• Keep the team going. Work diligently and creatively. Be liberal with praise when it’s due. And if someone drops a ball, help them toss it back in the air.
• Find the silver lining. Even the worst situation will bring something positive, even if it’s only a lesson or new insight.
• Maintain a sense of humor. Laughter is a universal bond, and it keeps good energy flowing through the day.
• Balance confidence with humility. It’s important to believe in yourself and your skills, as long you don’t ram your accomplishments down everyone’s throat! Be aware for opportunities to assist the common good.

In the world of marketing, advertising and PR, a good attitude is essential since it transmits to a much wider audience. It eases collaboration in the creative process and keeps you flexible and patient through each round of edits or press pitches. And it’s absolutely mandatory in social media conversations. Remember that your words may be floating on the Web for years! Your thoughts and opinions are important but use diplomacy when sharing them.

So what’s the big deal about attitude? Everything. It’s something you carry with you, from day to day, job to job, person to person.

What do you think makes a good attitude on the job?

The thing that I’ve seen consistently raise eyebrows when presenting marketing communications strategies to clients is the idea that social media programs do NOT have to live in their own isolated bubble.

“Wait, you mean the intelligence that I gather through my email campaign can be used in my PR/Facebook/Twitter/SEO programs (and visa versa)?!”

Yes.

Each medium does have its own challenges. You can’t treat people the same over email as you would over Facebook. It just doesn’t work. BUT, the information you gather from how your audience best responds to email campaigns to what keywords they search and have alerts set for to what types of blog posts they are most likely to “like” on your Facebook fan page has no boundaries (other than extrapolating to unrelated audiences).

Audience behavior intelligence is universal.

Don’t just collect all that information and stare at it. Use it! Understand the way that your audience behaves on Twitter/Facebook/YouTube/Linkedin/Google so that you can be exactly where they are, in ways that they want to see you while encouraging the behavior that you want them to express  (phone calls, link sharing, blog post publishing…).

For a lot of marketers, social media technology itself still seems pretty foreign, but let’s not forget that behind (most) of those Twitter accounts is still another human that has the same basic needs and desires as any other person.

Because when you break it all down, your Twitter followers aren’t all that different from your Facebook fans and your YouTube channel subscribers. They just choose different channels to engage with your brand and the content you produce.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/wackystuff/ / CC BY-NC 2.0

With every brand, big or small, clawing to create some tangible value out of all the buzz around social media marketing, let us not forget that traditional media is far from dead.

After yet another year of being declared buried and forgotten, television, radio and even newspapers are still alive. Sure, newspapers weren’t exactly in great shape before the recession. Yes, they’ve been hurt like every other business and yes, just like every other business they’re refining their business model. But before you write up a death certificate for traditional media and leave them out of your marketing  plan, consider this:

• Television: 99 percent of video viewing was done on a television in the past year; less than 5 percent of TV viewing was DVR or TiVo playback. (Source: Ball State University’s Center for Media Design)
• Radio: Broadcast radio (free AM/FM radio) has the largest listening audience of all audio platforms (satellite, iPod, CDs) with 122 minutes of daily use, while CDs are at 72 minutes and portable audio players (iPods/mp3 players) are at 69 minutes. (Source: Ball State University’s Center for Media Design)
• Newspapers: 74 percent of adults read newspapers both online and offline. In addition, 82 percent of households with incomes of more than $100,000 read the paper online and/or offline and newspapers are starting to successfully attract 18 to 34 year-olds to their Web sites. (Source: Integrated Newspaper Audience Report from Scarborough.com)

Traditional media isn’t dead, its role is simply evolving as new technologies emerge and the competitive universe grows increasingly crowded.

Photo Credit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/steeljam/ / CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

Tired of hearing about how the next big killer application is going to turn your business into a gold mine and make life easier for you?

Yes, we all know that mass media habits have changed and that we’re now a wired society, dependent on our computers and iPhones for information. But that doesn’t necessarily mean that something new equates to something better for your business.

As we become mesmerized by and inundated with new technologies, we tend to forget about the one deciding factor when purchasing a service or product from one company over another: human trust.

A stroke on a keyboard, an e-mail or a tweet will never replace the experience of meeting someone, shaking a hand and engaging in a conversation. When that happens, there’s trust and with trust comes customer loyalty. Optimizing for better ranks on Google will help bring people to your website and posting your updates on Facebook and LinkedIN will help connect you with more people, but there’s no replacement for meeting prospects in person!

As the holidays approach, we urge you to try the next big thing in marketing – human trust.

From the October 5th, 2009 New York Times:

“On Monday, the F.T.C. said it would revise rules about endorsements and testimonials in advertising that had been in place since 1980. The new regulations are aimed at the rapidly shifting new-media world and how advertisers are using bloggers and social media sites like Facebook and Twitter to pitch their wares.”

So the jig is up. Advertising claims and the people who love them are once again under the microscope.

While I’ve used some pretty bodacious adjectives and gussied up a few product shots to bring out the best in my clients’ offerings, I’ve always tried to live by the slogan of one of my previous employers: truth well told.

Truth well told was originated by McCann-Erickson at a time when many products were making some pretty questionable claims. Even big companies were guilty: a 1914 ad for Ford’s Model T featured the headline “Buy it because it’s a better car” and suggested the reader get the particulars from a Ford dealer. Um…okaaaay….

Fast forward about a century. Laws and guidelines are in place to protect the public from misleading advertising claims and fuzzy endorsements. And generally speaking, I think the ad world does a pretty good job of policing itself as well. But, thanks to the anonymous nature of the internet, we’ve taken a few steps back.

I think the general public will always be wary of advertising but let’s get back on track. Let’s put our clients’ wares out there in the most honest, best possible creative light we can.

Let’s try the truth well blogged.

CCA recently received the honor of joining the 2009 Inc. 5,000 list as one of the country’s fastest growing privately held companies. After a rigorous vetting process, we are very proud to announce that we have been named to the prestigious list for the second time.

While we are proud of our accomplishment, it is our valued and respected clients that entrust us to build their brands—along with the talented team at CCA—that enabled us to not only be in the Inc. 5000 list in 2007, but again in 2009. Our thanks and gratitude go out to all of our past, current and future clients for your commitment to our brand of marketing and client services.

Especially in a time when marketing teams are constantly forced to defend their investments, we couldn’t be more humbled by this accomplishment. We are truly lucky to have such an amazing stable of companies that we view more partners than clients. It is these valuable partnerships that have allowed us to grow even under the toughest economic conditions.

Thanks to everyone to has helped us make this accomplishment possible. It has been a true team effort.

The challenges presented to all corporate marketing directors is: How do we accomplish our new business goals with the current budget? With so many opinions on how you reach your target audience, it has become increasingly more difficult to put a strategic media, direct mail or internet marketing plan together.

Image Credit: ALOFBRID

Keeping every opinion in the plan does not work.

Trying to wrap together everyone’s opinion and favorites spreads the budget and plan out to a point where, in most likelihood,  the plan never gains enough awareness or continuity to achieve any level of recall or response.

Putting a marketing plan together is not a popularity contest. It needs to be focused and based on solid research and experience. As a marketing strategist you need to  be confident in your decisions and hold the ground rather than giving in to popular consensus.

How many times have we all heard “Why isn’t this publication, web site or radio station in the buy?” It seems that to many decision makers are jumping on the “what is the flavor of the day”  media choice, looking for the holy grail of leads generation.

It does not exist.

How much share of eyeball does any consumer or potential client have? The deluge of media options and social media sites (even this blog) has transcended into a conundrum of who, what where  do you invest time and budget to reach out for new business.

Make well informed decisions and stick to the plan. Stand up and defend the thinking. As marketers, your opinion and expertise needs to be re-enforced and presented with competence and confidence. Do not try to spread out the plans tactics. Allocate the budget to the best of your capabilities to deliver the target audience with intelligent recommendations, not consensus executions built to simply please everyone.

Budget jugglers seldom attain the set goals.

Decision makers build brands.

“Unified Marketing” was a term that had been stuck somewhere in the “theorosphere” for quite sometime. It was a concept and a practice we had been testing at CCA but I had never expressed it publicly until October 15, 2008.

I was a guest speaker on a panel discussion for Boston’s Social Media Club. The event was held in one of the luxury suites at Gillette Stadium with a terrific view of the field below. The topic for the evening was, “Corporate Responsibility in the Digital Age”. My colleagues on the panel included Peter Prodromou, Executive Vice President of Racepoint Group and Jay Welz, Assistant Director, Online Marketing, Jimmy Fund / Dana Farber Cancer Institute.

I must say that speaking to a SoMe savvy audience like the Social Media Club is a very different experience than presenting to any other audiences because everyone is so busy tweeting and writing blog posts on their laptops while you are talking. I soon realized that if people were looking at me, it is likely that I was not doing very well. If, however, I touched on something that was interesting to them, they would immediately look down at their mobile devices or the computer balancing on their laps and begin pecking a message to the world.

The first few times people stopped looking at me while I was saying something and suddenly started typing, I felt inclined to stop speaking and the sound of clicking keyboards filled the room. Realizing that I did not understand the protocol of this crowd, the moderator stepped in to ask me a follow up question, which let me know that it is okay for me to continue even if I was speaking to the top of everyone’s head.

One question posed to the panel was pertaining to the marketing mix and how should someone integrate social media together with traditional marketing tactics. As part of my answer, I spoke a little about the long standing need for measurement and a marketer’s tendency to put different tactics or channels into silos. This is often because marketers do not always know how to integrate their marketing effectively.

That’s when the tangent happened… and I said, “If you think about the word ‘integration’, regardless of what you are trying to integrate – whether it be people of differing persuasion, animals of varying size and appetite or, in this case, marketing tactics – ‘integrated marketing’ is quite difficult to execute successfully and nearly impossible to measure.” I continued saying, “At CCA, we are a web-centric marketing and advertising firm and rather than employ the ‘integrated marketing’ approach of yesteryear, we prefer to call it, ‘unified marketing’.”

At that moment, everyone started tweeting again and I realized that while we were still building our first case study for these principles at CCA, I had just introduced an important new philosophy which is now at the very center of every engagement with our clients.

While it has been especially quiet on the CCA blog during the last few months, I promise that this is a poor reflection of all the great client projects and creative brainstorms that have been flowing through these walls since our last post.

One of our main focuses over the past few months has been bringing our idea of “unified marketing” into reality. While many have already written volumes on the power of “integrated marketing” we believe that “unified marketing” is distinctly different, and deserving of its own place in business communications. Our aim is not simply to integrate the distinct PR, digital, advertising and marketing silos, but to release them from those silos all together.

Image from Flickr via Stuckincustoms

Each distinct discipline is driven by the same mission, the same overall purpose, the same passion to drive tangible results for our clients. Why not tear down the walls entirely and build a much more collaborative environment where everyone shares the same overall challenges and celebrates the same achievements?

What all of CCA has in common is that we are all positioned to create, distribute, analyze and measure content and place it in context for our audiences. It is simply the tools, anything from direct mail to blogger relations, that each one of us at CCA uses that differs.

But I know what you are thinking, the last thing that marketing needs is another buzzword. Trust me. I hear you. While we are already hard at work implementing the underlying principles behind unified marketing with our clients, most importantly, we are taking our own medicine and working on bringing together the creative advertising, PR, marketing and visual design minds of CCA together under this exact principle of unified marketing.

As we test our ideas, tweak our methods, learn what works and what doesn’t, we will be the first ones to know.  With that, we are really looking forward to sharing everything that we learn about what we believe is where marketing communications is headed in the very near future.