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.

Using Branded Content In Your Content Marketing Arsenal

Regardless of what mediums are in your content marketing arsenal: mobile marketing, social media marketing, email marketing, direct mail, outdoor, and on and on – “branded content has the ability to create brand differentiating by bridging the gap between TV’s emotive power and digital media’s efficient reach.”

The reason for the quotes is that line comes directly from a recently-released Forrester report entitled How To Build Your Brand With Branded Content.

Penned by Forrester Research Principal Analyst Tracy Stokes, the report is chock-full of valuable insight and while stating, as mentioned previously, that branded content offers brands the opportunity to differentiate themselves – “marketers are struggling to build content at scale — to get the right message to the right consumer at the right time.”

Read more

What Is Programmatic Advertising And Is It The Future?

I am by nature a very curious person especially when it comes to the world of marketing, advertising and branding. Be it the latest mobile technology or the newest social media platform or whatever, I am usually instantly drawn and my curiosity piqued.

So when I heard about “programmatic advertising” I knew I wanted to learn more. As I began to delve into it, I learned of some very interesting statistics related to it and specifically real time bidding (RTB). According to the IDC, “spending on real time-bidded display advertising will accelerate at a 59% compound annual growth rate through 2016, making in the fastest growing segment of digital advertising over the next few years.” 

Read more

More Proof That Television Advertising Is Alive And Well

Ok, ok, quiet down everyone. All those who have predicted the demise of television advertising raise your hand. You know who you are, the ones who have forecast doom and gloom for television advertising in the digital age for years  now. You’ve been predicting that social media, mobile advertising, online advertising and digital advertising in general will spell the end of our near and dear friend – the television when it comes to advertising.

Television

This article is directly squarely at you or as we say in Philly – at yous. (Yes I know the grammar police will be after me but please pardon my brief colloquialism if you will.

If television advertising is on its death bed how do you explain the fact that almost two-thirds (62.4% to be precise) of all advertising dollars spent by the major media buyers was spent on television advertising?

Read more

The Oxymoron That Is Digital Marketing

A recent report revealed that while budgets for digital marketing are expected to increase across many specific channels, including email marketing, SEO and mobile, one major component of digital marketing is decreasing and has in fact been falling steadily since 2010.

Digital-Marketing1

The report, a joint effort between Econsultancy and Responsys (full disclosure: the latter is my employer), highlights the findings of a survey conducted of more than 800 company and agency marketers.

Read more

Chevy Proves Long Form Content Marketing On A Mobile Device Can Work

When it comes to content marketing the prevailing thought among marketers is that the longer the content the less likely it will be used on a mobile device. The thought being that people will not engage with long form content marketing on a mobile device thus that type of content is best served on a PC.

Well based on the results of a recent joint campaign between Chevy and mobile media company Zumobi, marketers may want to rethink long form content marketing and its potential use on mobile devices.

Read more

Pulling Back The Curtain On Text Message Mobile Marketing

Ask 100 marketers if they use direct mail, email, social media, TV, radio, and/or outdoor in their marketing strategies and campaigns and the majority of them will respond in the affirmative.

Now, ask them if they use any mobile marketing tactics and they’ll tell you that mobile marketing comes right after taking a magic marker and drawing an ad on a bathroom wall in terms of priorities and hierarchy. Am I the only one who finds it amazing – utterly amazing mind you, that despite it’s rapid rise in usage and popularity, mobile marketing – especially text message mobile marketing, remains a mystery and enigma to many marketers?

I am surely not the only one who thinks this way, right?

Read more

SlideShare: The Quiet Giant Of Content Marketing

Marketers and advertisers the world over are constantly trying to find the “next big thing.” The one thing that will allow them to stand out from the crowd. Back in the day of course it was TV, radio and direct mail or email for example. Then came the digital revolution and mobile marketing and social media marketing took center stage – and rightly so.

Today, it’s content marketing.

While all the aforementioned mediums remain and always will be key players in any integrated marketing communications campaign, clearly content marketing is the next big thing – at least for right now.

And a major tool in the content marketing arsenal may be one that many of you have heard of and visited, but perhaps have not used to date – SlideShare.

Read more

Six Business Mistakes You Should Never Make Twice

Failure. It’s a word no marketer, business owner, entrepreneur wants to hear, but it can be a valuable lesson. Earlier this year, I wrote about the one mistake retail brands make when it comes to Twitter: not engaging with customers on a regular basis.

That’s one big failure.

Alan E. Hall has seen many related mistakes during his 40+ years as a serial entrepreneur, angel investor and venture capitalist.  Like most of us, he’s made his fair share of foolish business mistakes along the way. Some even caused the end of a venture.

He’s watched others make mistakes in their businesses as well, some very visible.  Fortunately, Hall learned something powerful and vital from each mistake, no matter the outcome.  Big lesson learned: Don’t make them again.

Read more

How The USPS Decision To Stop Saturday Mail Delivery Will Affect Marketers

By now you’ve all heard the news I presume. The news from the United States Postal Service that they will stop delivering first class mail on Saturdays (packages will continue to be delivered six days a week) starting this August. Whether this means an increase in other channels such as email, mobile, radio, and so on, is obviously not known, yet.

Rest assured though marketers across the country, those who currently included direct mail as part of their integrated marketing strategy, are busy making plans for the switch.

USPS

At least they better for be for August will be here before they know it.

A little over a year ago I wrote a piece entitled Direct Mail: Alive And Kicking. In that article I touched on survey conducted by Target Marketing magazine, the channel that delivered the strongest ROI for customer acquisition for B2C marketers was direct mail. Direct mail also scored the highest among B2C marketers for customer contact and retention.

Read more

How One Brand Won And Lost During The Same Super Bowl

The Super Bowl is now two days removed but most assuredly it is still a topic of discussion among sports fans and marketers alike as we discuss the highs and the lows from the play on the field and off it on their mobile device, via social media and of course around the good old water cooler.

For the record I did predict the Ravens would beat the Niners in Super Bowl XLVII. I had the final score at 31-27 but hey, I was close enough. And no, I had no great insight, I just figured the Ravens would find a way to win, which they did.

NEW ORLEANS, LA - FEBRUARY 03: Ray Lewis #52 ...

So while the sports fan in me would love to write a piece about the game itself and specifically why I think the Ravens won, in this forum and in this context, the name of the game is branding and advertising. I’m sure each of you have your own personal favorites or perhaps you’re like me and were not “blown away” by any one particular spot

Before I get to the one brand I think both won AND lost in Super Bowl XLVII, let me not-so-gently remind everyone that in reality we don’t what spot won or lost and we won’t know for some time.

Why?

Read more