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.

American Apparel’s Hurricane Sandy Sale – Brilliant or Boneheaded?

November 1, 2012December 21, 2014 by Steve Olenski

It’s not often I have cause to quote this person but in this particular article in this particular context, something this person said (and in fact wrote a book with the same title) seems quite appropriate, at least depending on which side of the American Apparel Hurricane Sandy debate.

The quote is “There is no such thing as over exposure” and it was of course uttered by one Donald Trump.

Now if you’re in the Trump camp, so to speak, you won’t have any problem with what American Apparel did recently in trying to capitalize on the fervor and interest in Hurricane Sandy. And perhaps the word “capitalize” is the operative word for we do live in a capitalistic society, right?

Blitz Package: My One On One With The CMO Of The Philadelphia Eagles

September 14, 2012December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Another season of NFL football is upon us and I for one could not be happier. Living in the northeast, Philly to be exact, I always love feeling that cool, crisp fall air on a Sunday afternoon as my beloved Eagles gear up for battle. Makes me want to suit up myself.

Well, not really but I do wear a jersey on game day. Hey, I know I’m 46 years-old but I can’t help it. I just love football.

But I also love marketing and advertising and as such I decided I want to go behind-the-scenes and pull back the astroturf to see what goes on in the marketing department of a professional football team. So I reached out to Tim McDermott, the Chief Marketing Officer of the Philadelphia Eagles. I wanted to pick his brain to see what it means to market and promote a professional football team in a city where a) the fans are very knowledgeable and yes, fanatical and b) there are three other major sports franchises all competing for the same piece of the sports consumer pie.

As you will see the marketing of an NFL team has its own unique set of challenges but you will also notice that a lot of the same logic Tim and his team use is applicable to any business or organization wanting to build a strong brand.

SO: What are the biggest challenges (overall) in the marketing of an NFL team?
TM: One of the biggest challenges we face is that we don’t have nearly as much control over our product as we would like. In other words, we can’t control wins and losses. A restaurant chain can control the atmosphere, the ingredients in their food, the taste of their food, the lighting, and so on. A customer has a set of expectations, including consistency that the restaurant tries to meet/exceed. As marketers of a professional football team, we can’t control the outcome on the field.

Therefore, our job is to manage all of the other variables that impact satisfaction in order to create an incredibly strong brand so that when the team is successful we are able to maximize success. Obviously winning helps. But I believe you can and must create successful brands independent of on the field results.

SO: How has the marketing of an NFL team changed over the past 3-5 years?
TM: The explosion in digital media has created new platforms, new ways to engage fans, new commerce opportunities, new ways to communicate. It really has created a complete shift in allocation of resources (where we spend ad dollars, how we allocate internal resources, etc). In nearly all industries, power, information, and control has shifted to the consumer. Consumers want transparency and authenticity. They have a voice and want to be heard. We set up a digital department so that we could dedicate resources to the exponentially growing digital revolution.

The staff in this department are thinking about new media every day and the ways we can leverage it. Meanwhile, two years ago, we also established a 35 person season ticket holder advisory board. We meet eight to ten times a year and discuss a variety of topics. The idea isn’t just to create a glorified focus group, but rather they are to be extensions of our marketing department. In other words, we don’t just want them to tell us what we are doing wrong, we want them to help us come up with the solutions. That sort of dialogue with our consumer has been invaluable to improving the fan experience.

SO: What impact, if any, does the fact that there are 3 other major sports teams in the city of Philadelphia have on you market the Eagles?
TM:Philadelphia is an incredible sports city. In fact, it has to be one of the best, if not the best. Everyone in this city breathes and lives sports. Sports matter here. This is a four for four town. People root for all four teams. In general, I think the better each team does, it helps all of us.

At some level there is friendly competition with the other teams. I think it makes the marketers at each team strive to be the best we can be. We each want to innovate, to create new programs, to offer our fans the best experience. And when we see something being done well by one of the other teams there is respect and admiration.

SO: (follow up) Do you think it would be easier, harder or about the same to market the Eagles if there were NOT 3 other major sports teams in the city?
TM: I think having all major sports teams represented is part of the core identity of this city. I love the fact that there is hockey, baseball, football, basketball, and soccer. It provides the foundation to having many strong sports media entities in newspapers, blogs, TV networks, and radio stations. And when you have so many great sports media outlets talking about your product, it helps continue to fuel the passion for your team.

SO: What impact, if any, does the success of the team on the field have on what is done off it re: marketing?
TM: Winning certainly helps with off the field business performance. When teams win, there typically is some positive correlation to other KPIs. But it’s hard to quantify the level of correlation between winning and off the field success. And I would never let team performance dictate who or what our brand is or be an excuse for off the field performance.

Named one of the Top 100 Influencers In Social Media (#41) by Social Technology Review and a Top 50 Social Media Blogger by Kred, Steve Olenski is a freelance copywriter/blogger looking for full-time work. He has worked on some of the biggest brands in the world and has more than 20 years experience in advertising and marketing. He lives in Philly and can be reached via email,Twitter, LinkedIn, or his website.

Bah Humbug – Lack Of Mobile Integration Means Not So Happy Holidays For Brands

September 7, 2012December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

You know, there are some things in life that never cease to amaze. For instance, how is it after all these years of marriage (we’re approaching 20) I still somehow manage to do exactly the opposite of what my wife really wants me to do? You would think during the course of my marriage I would do onething the way she intended it to be done, yes?

Um, no.

Another thing that never ceases to me amaze me, as we approach the holiday season in the year 2012 is the fact that so many brands, still are not integrating their offline with their online marketing strategies.

“A report from global interactive marketing provider ExactTarget found more than half of America’s fastest growing retailers have yet to fully connect online and offline shopping experience, leaving shoppers unsatisfied with their shopping experience.”

The live above is from a press release I received recently. The headline of the release was even more ominous: Research Finds a ‘Mobile Chasm’ Between Retailers, Consumers Heading into Holiday Shopping Season.

Wow. Anytime you throw the word “chasm” into a conversation and use it to describe any type of gap or hole, you know instantly that said gap or hole is as Mike Myers might say, friggin huge!

Jeff Rohrs, ExactTarget’s vice president of marketing research and education says as they gear up for the holidays, marketers need to “consider how consumers use their mobile phones while shopping,” adding “shoppers are turning to their phones for coupons, promotions and discounts, and marketers have a never-before-seen opportunity to transform these interactions into ongoing conversations that drive sales and repeat purchases.”

The press release also makes mention of a Forrester report from earlier this year which, among others, reported that:

Twice as many consumers compared to last year are researching products for purchase using their mobile device
More U.S. mobile phone owners are downloading applications and receiving SMS/text alerts compared to last year

Should any of this surprise or amaze you? If it does, it’s time to think about a career change if you’re currently in a marketing or advertising related position. Seriously, if you don’t already know of the impact of Mobile Marketing, I would like you to draw me a picture of the rock you clearly have been living under.

It should also come as no surprise that the lack of online and offline integration is “leaving shoppers unsatisfied with their shopping experience.”

Last July I wrote an article titled Shoppers Want Integration, Retailers And Marketers Not Delivering It in which I made reference to two separate reports/surveys which revealed that integration, along with convenience and service are what consumers want most but find most retailers and retail marketers don’t deliver.

From the reports/surveys:

Integration (consistency) – What Consumers Want

85% want an integrated shopping experience
72% want an integrated marketing approach

Integration (consistency) – What Consumers Currently Get

50% get an integrated shopping experience
39% get an integrated marketing approach

Looking at the gap in percentages between what consumers want vs. what they actually get may or may not qualify as being “chasm-worthy” but make no mistake about it, there is a major disconnect for sure. And it’s not as if marketers don’t want to deliver an integrated approach, either.

From another article, this one titled aptly enough Marketing Integration: What Every Marketer Wants For Christmas:

The article was written last December and the above is a from survey conducted by Webmarketing123. You’ll notice that marketing integration outscored search engine marketing, PPC, even social media when it comes to what marketers want to learn. Yes Virginia, it even outscored social media.

So why then does integration continue to be The Eleven Letter Word That Continues To Elude All CMOs And Marketers?

Can’t we find a couch and Chuck Woolery and make a love connection between offline and online marketing strategies? Can it be that difficult?

This past May I made a trip back to the future of sorts, looking at Integrated Marketing Communications – Then And Now. I made reference to something that was written all the way back in the year 1999 in the The Journal of Marketing Communications: “The need to strive for greater integration is considered inevitable by many, although the means by which such integration may be achieved is uncertain.”

Seems the inevitability has come to fruition where the means is still something many are still seeking.

When Taglines Go Bad – The Best Buy Saga

August 31, 2012December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

So there I was minding my own business when I came across an article on Fast Company entitled What Every CEO Can Learn From Best Buy’s (Continued) Branding Mistakes. Written by David Brier, who I know to be not only a great writer but also a branding expert, the article made reference to the new tagline the much-maligned Best Buy recently trotted out after what was surely an exhaustive 18-month odyssey. Truth be told the 18 months was spent “working to reframe the retailer’s brand proposition” and the new tagline was one item that came out of said reframing.

The new tagline for Best Buy is, wait for it “Making technology work for you.”

In his article Brier refers to the tagline as “not only tired, it is a death sentence that is bland, old, worn, uninspired and not reflective of a single strand of your customer’s aspirations.” He also, quite correctly I might add, says the tagline “reeks of “marketing speak” and “committee-itis.”

He goes on to talk about branding in general but I want to focus squarely on this horrifically bad tagline.

Three Of Four CMOs Say Social Media Impacts Sales

August 24, 2012December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

Not long ago I wrote an article on the use of social media among CEOs and how many often talk the social media talk on behalf of their brands/companies but very few actually walk the social media walk for their own personal use.

Today comes results of a survey conducted by Bazaarvoice of 100 members of The CMO Club. Now while I realize the sample size is small (100) it is worth nothing that 56.1% of the brands represented have more than $1 billion in annual revenue while another 36% have $100-999 million in annual revenue, and just 7.9% have annual revenue of $0-100 million.

Entitled “Chief customer advocate: How social data elevates CMOs” the survey and subsequent white paper ”reveals the results of an online survey of 100 members of The CMO Club, which includes CMOs of business-to-consumer and business-to-business organizations.”Key findings include:

Social (media) data impacts decisions for nearly all CMOs. Almost half of CMOs have used social data to make predictions or forecasts, and nearly nine in 10 say this data has influenced their decisions.
CMOs use data to drive smarter decisions beyond marketing. While marketing teams and agencies most often uncover the data itself, insights are used in product development, customer experience, sales, and C-level discussions.
CMOs believe social reveals consumer sentiment and improves brand awareness. CMOs are most confident in social data analysis of product/service sentiment, and in its impact on overall brand loyalty and awareness.

As for the impact CMOs believe social media has on sales:

While I’m not sure why the folks behind this survey/white paper decided to “water down” the confidence quotient, if you will, by inserting the word “somewhat” in the subhead in the chart above, especially when they did not use the word in the headline – but regardless the fact that so many of the CMOs surveyed identified social media as having such a profound impact on sales, as well as brand awareness and loyalty speaks volumes.

It speaks volumes in that CMOs, perhaps unlike their fellow C-suite residents (CEOs), realize that social media is here to stay – yes there are those still on “it’s a fad” bandwagon, and that it can have a significant impact the things that matter most, AKA the bottom line and brand loyalty.

It would also appear that CMOs realize that social media is a direct reflection on the world around them – the world where consumers live, work and play. While not crazy about the use of the word “somewhat” again, the graph below shows that a large number of CMOs surveyed believe that social media is effective for identifying discernible trends among consumers with the word “discernible” being the operative word for sure.

The graph also reveals how CMOs believe that social media does a great job at reflecting consumer sentiment.

CMOs Are “Customer Champions”

Erin Mulligan Nelson, CMO, Bazaarvoice used that term in discussing the findings of the survey, saying “In a consumer-obsessed C-suite, the CMOs are the chief customer advocates and social (media) data is their ultimate weapon. Social data lets CMOs truly know their customers and predict consumers’ future needs before they even have them. Nearly all CMOs now use this data to drive decisions. As the business world re-centers around serving and delighting consumers, social data is turning CMOs into customer champions — and heroes within the C-suite. And as an industry, we have just started to tap into the potential of social data.”

She is dead on when she says that we have just started to tap into the potential of all the social media data of course as we are just now beginning to realize the sheer magnitude and power and scope of the mounds of data. Given the fact that we as consumers now create as much information every two days as we did from the dawn of civilization to 2003, I would say Acxiom CMO Tim Sutherwas correct when he referred to it as a ”tsunami of data” in an article I wrote back in February entitled How To Rein In The Riches Of Big Data.

The aforementioned article also speaks to the inherent dangers brands and businesses face when deciding what to do with all this new found data and the possible legal ramifications therein.

Sources: CMO.com, Bazaarvoice, The CMO Club

Did The Penn State Brand Get The Death Penalty?

August 15, 2012December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

There are no shortage of definitions for the term “brand equity.” You probably have your favorite. This is one of mine, especially in the context of the Penn State brand: “A brand’s power derived from the goodwill and name recognition that it has earned over time, which translates into higher sales volume and higher profit margins against competing brands.”

The reason I like this particular definition when it is applied to the brand of Penn State is because of words like “goodwill” and “name recognition” and “earned over time.”

Clearly the Penn State brand, with Joe Paterno at the helm for over 45 years, wielded the power that came from goodwill while garnering name recognition, which in turn lead to higher sales and higher profit margins – that in the university world translates to an increasing level of enrollment and an increasing level of monetary donations from alumni. All of which makes the competing brands green with envy for sure.

At its peak, which for all intents and purposes was anytime right up until the world found out about Jerry Sandusky – the Penn State brand possessed a tremendous amount of brand equity.

Yet as we now know, this once seemingly invincible and impenetrable brand, has been reduced to a mere shell of its former self.

CEOs On Social Media: Do As I Say, Not As I Do

August 5, 2012December 20, 2014 by Steve Olenski

As a parent I of course have tried to instill a set of rules for my children to adhere to as a means to teach them as they move along the growth ladder. All parents instill their own set of rules and values and so on to help guide the instruct their children, right?

Well let’s say that when my kids were younger, say around 3, I hung up a sign in the kitchen that read: “Don’t Touch A Hot Stove.” I made the sign big, bright and bold so they could not miss it every time they walked into the kitchen. And they followed the rule and never touched the hot stove.

Now let’s say one time they walked into the kitchen and there I was touching the hot stove, burning my fingers, screaming in pain.

“Daddy, you told us to never touch the hot stove. Why did you touch it?”

“Um, well… it’s different for grown ups.”

“Oh, I see… you want me to get mommy so she can take you to the hospital?”

While this may not be the best analogy the point is very clear that when it comes to social media and the use thereof, far too many CEOs are telling their employees – and the rest of the world for that matter that they know their company needs to be “doing it” yet simply do not practice what they preach.