September 2008 :: Paradox: McCain Doesn’t Use Email, Obama Texts Supporters
Labor Day 2008 was marked by the usual events: Family, friends, cookouts, and cold beverages.
Vacations are winding down and the last days of summer are moving into the photo albums alongside fond memories of years’ past.
Fall always seems to bring a refreshed perspective in our business of financial services. The final assault on 2008 sales numbers is in full swing beginning again this week. Budgets for 2009 are in full planning.
What is your plan for marketing in 2009?
Specifically, how will you use New Media to your competitive advantage?
Before you tune out and think I’ve gone techno geeky on you, consider that at the core of Memorability is the requirement to stay out of the sea of sameness; to be heard above the noise.
For the right client, prospect, employee group or audience, the proper use of New Media will do just that.
Just as John McCain admits to having no email literacy, so too are your late boomer clients. They 
undoubtedly prefer the snail mail, let’s talk in person, and leave me a message on my ‘answering machine’ approach.
Similarly, like Obama, your under 50 crowd is dipping their toe, in fact some are neck deep, into the new media universe.
As the first decade of the new century winds down (amazing), the opportunities to communicate have never been greater. The use of blogs, micro blogging, social media, and podcasts is accelerating at an unprecedented rate.
To define the sandbox, New Media is meant to cover all of the following and more:
• blogs
• social networks
• streaming video
• micro blogging
• streaming audio
• podcasting
• interactive user website interfaces
• mobile presentation and computing capabilities
• CD and DVD media
• telephone and digital data integration
• live Internet broadcasting
• person-to-person visual communication
• one-to-many visual communication
How are you or your firm capitalizing?
Case Study:
In Knoxville, Tennessee the University of Tennessee Federal Credit Union made a pivotal decision that they were going to leverage New Media.
Their head of Marketing, Melinda, and their Interactive Technology Manager (got one of these?), Brandon, decided to overhaul their legacy website presence and add New Media to the mix. As a community and university based CU they wanted to appeal to the traditional member base and to the college student population.
In order to achieve this, they not only revamped the site for a fresher aesthetic look, they also introduced an interconnected ring of New Media connectivity:
• Dedicated website: UTFCU Rocks: This site is specifically geared to the college student population.
• Blog: UTFCU’s blog consists of posts that are written in the voice of, and topics of interest to, the student body
• Twitter: students may ‘follow’ UTFCU for the latest updates
• Flickr: a photo sharing site to capture digital images of events held by the CU
• YouTube: includes video of promotional events as well as educational video including tutorials on when to use credit vs. debit and the difference between banks and credit unions
In speaking to Melinda she said that they “really wanted to use New Media to reach a market segment that had not been most effectively reached through traditional methods.”
“After the launch and campus promotion of the new site we have experienced more visitors to our site in one week’s time than all of last year,” said Brandon.
When I asked Melinda whether this approach was best reserved for a younger demographic, she emphatically said no.
She reminded me that as professionals most of us are carrying Blackberries, many of us have iPhones, and virtually all of us are outfitted with laptops/desktops from our firms.
No matter your political preference, you have a choice to make regarding the fast approaching intersection of New Media with traditional forms of communication. Individuals and firms that embrace and leverage the appropriate elements of this wave of connectivity will stand out as the traditional forms of mass communication are minimized in importance.
If you do not choose to follow the emerging opportunities to create Memorability through creative communication, you risk being left in the dust.
