Steve Olenski

Known as The CMO Whisperer for both his close relationships with many CMOs of the world’s biggest brands and his marketing acumen – Steve is a true unicorn having served in roles ranging from agency creative director to senior marketing roles in companies such as Prudential and Oracle to a contributing writer for Forbes where he established himself as a highly-influential journalist in the marketing, advertising and branding space. The views expressed here are Steve's alone and do not necessarily reflect the views of Oracle.

Mobile Marketing Remains A Largely Untapped Opportunity For Marketers

Ok, I am ready to come clean. I paraphrased the title of my article directly from a quote I read recently. It was so dead on and spoke directly to how I’ve felt for some time now when it comes to the topic of mobile marketing that I just had to “borrow” it. Why do you think I wrote an article last year entitled Mobile Marketing – The Elephant In The Room For Marketers?

As I wrote then and will write again here, the fact of the matter is that mobile marketing – despite all it’s continued hype and promise has been severely under utilized by marketers of all shapes and sizes.

The aforementioned quote, the one I “borrowed” comes from Jim Yu, CEO and founder of BrightEdge, a global leader in Enterprise SEO. The full quote is “Despite rapid and continuing growth, mobile remains a largely untapped opportunity for marketers.”

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What Twinkies Can Teach Marketers About Comebacks And Social Branding

Box of Twinkies

Those who know me well know that in addition to being severely over-caffeinated, I also possess one of the world’s best sweet tooths. So when I heard of the return of the Twinkie, well let me just say a certain Forbes contributor of Polish & Italian descent did a nice happy dance.

Of course, in addition to wanting to fulfill my sugary desires, I was also very intrigued from a marketing, advertising and branding perspective.

This was a big deal, right?

I mean we’re talking about an iconic brand here.

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When A Brand Promise Backfires

Like every other marketing-related word or phrase, the term “brand promise” has its fair share of definitions. The one I like best is one that I think captures the essence perfectly for it speaks to the relationship marketing aspect.

It was written by Jean Wilcox, one of the authors of the book AbuLLard’s ABC’s of Branding: “A brand promise is the statement that you make to customers that identifies what they should expect for all interactions with your people, products, services and company. It is often associated with the company name and/or logo.”

Wilcox also believes a brand promise is also the tagline for a given brand – and she’s right.

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How NASCAR Uses Relationship Marketing

Nascar

I am the first to admit I am not the biggest NASCAR fan – by a long shot. I am however, a huge fan of any brand that uses relationship marketing to better engage with its fans.

Such is the case with NASCAR, who recently re-launched their digital platform. Seeing the need to engage and relate to their very large and impressive list of fans, they entered into an agreement with Livefyre, the leading provider of real-time social software which allows fans to have conversations in real-time across NASCAR.com, whether it be on a PC, tablet or mobile device, to discuss everything NASCAR from the latest in-depth news to live action on the race track.

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Is The Social Media Slumber Finally Over For Big Brands?

Perhaps it is because I am the father of a 13-year old daughter but whenever I hear the word “slumber” I immediately think of the phrase “slumber party” – which then conjures up fun, unless of course you are the host parent of said party.

However, if you’re a big brand, say on the level of a Fortune 500 brand, your “state of inactivity” – AKA your slumber – when it comes to social media, may finally be over. At least it may finally be over for some as that’s the indication one gets from reviewing data from a recent study from the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth Center for Marketing Research.

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MLB And Free Credit Score Team Up For This Year’s All-Star Game

I don’t know about you but I happen to love the MLB All-Star Game. I can remember as a kid watching and listening to the likes of Joe Garagiola and Tony Kubek call the game.

Nowadays I am as much interested for what happens on the field as I am off. Much like the Super Bowl I watch to see what the marketing and advertising folks have in store for the viewing public. Always fascinating to me to see which brands will try and take advantage of what is normally a very captive audience.

But there’s also a very fond memory I have as a kid that deals with the All-Star ballot. Who else can remember trying to poke the little holes next to your favorite player on the rectangular-shaped ballot? Of course that was then and this is now, AKA the digital marketing age and while paper ballots are still being used, one would suspect most fans would cast their votes via the Internet.

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How Johnson & Johnson Is Using Social Media To Save Lives

Those who know me know that I am passionate about a lot of things when it comes to the world of marketing, advertising, branding and social media. From the latest campaign for Brand X to the latest techno-advance, I want to know about it, learn about it and in some cases, write about it.

But perhaps what truly gets my passion meter on the rise is when I hear of a brand doing something for the betterment of all of us; to truly  have a profound and positive impact on we humans.

That is why I am here today. To tell you of a phenomenal campaign that seeks to do good for the world – in a big way.

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New York Times Bestseller On The Perils Of Social Media

Back in April I wrote an article about the ill-timed and extremely insensitive Tweets put forth by a brand: Epicurious Uses The Boston Marathon Tragedy To Cross That Line. It was of course not the first nor the last example of social media gone bad in the context of a brand and those entrusted with the marketing of it.

Today, however, I want to talk about when social media goes bad from a human perspective. You do remember humans, right? Oh sure, there’s autobots and other techno-related gizmos that will Tweet, post and Like on we humans’ behalf – at least I think there is?

Cover of "Crucial Conversations: Tools fo...

But at the end of the day it is we humans who are traveling the highways and biways of social media on an ever-increasing pace.

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Irrefutable Proof That Inbound Marketers Need A Major Reality Check

Now I don’t know about you but being the sports fanatic I am, I am often in need of a “reality check” for sure. I think most sports fans need this from time to time as too often we get caught up in the hype or hyperbole of a given athlete or team.

It would appear that those who live, play and dwell in the inbound marketing world need to be “reminded of the state of things in the real world.” At least that’s the conclusion I drew from reading the findings of a study conducted by InsideSales.com which revealed that one sale lead after another is essentially being wasted as far too many in the position to respond to those leads – AKA sales folks, simply are out of tuch when it comes to reality.

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Vonage Takes Generosity To A Whole New Level

No matter where we come from or where we’re headed or who we are, we could all use a little more generosity in our lives, right? Wouldn’t the world be a better place if more people had “a quality that’s a lot like unselfishness — someone showing generosity is happy to give to or share time, money, food, or whatever with others?”

Those of us who live, work and play in the marketing, advertising and branding world would love to have consumers look at us and our clients as being generous, yes? How priceless would that be? In today’s relationship marketing world, especially.

voncupWell one national brand is doing something that they hope will convey their message of generosity in a somewhat “crazy” way.

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