Three Dimensions Grab Attention Better than Two...

Lookin' like a rock star in my CR-Z 3-D glasses...

It’s every advertisers’ dilemma: trying to stand out in an increasing soup of media clutter. As engaging the consumer’s attention continues to shift toward the web and social media, print advertising has all but been written off as so last decade. While declining revenues at magazines and newspapers back this theory up, print ads still have their place.

When a new magazine arrives, crisp and unwrinkled in my mailbox, the first thing I do is rip out all those annoying little cards. You know, the ones that advertise a two-year subscription for the price of one, mail in now for half-off Viagra—that sort of thing. In my April 2011 edition of Motor Trend I discovered a perforated insert that was a little different, however.

Seeing the world in the third dimension is all the rage now. Step aside 1080p LCD high-def television set; the techo-geeks are all after 3D TVs now, even if the full experience requires Buddy Holly glasses. So in the latest Motor Trend there was a pair of tear-out 3D glasses. One cellophane lens is blue, the other is red. They are for viewing 3D photos in an article about the 2012 McLaren MP4-12C. On the glasses themselves Honda bought some advertising space followed by a two-page spread for the new Honda CR-Z hybrid hatchback. The ad—you guessed it—is in 3D when you put on the glasses and hold approximately three feet from your head while viewing at a 30-degree angle.

How did it work out? In a word—awful. The blurry mishmash of blue and red lines visible to the naked eye doesn’t suddenly drive off the page when the wonder shades are put on. I can’t stand to look through colored cellophane for more than a few minutes before I get a headache. The ad, like any good advertising today, redirects viewers to a special website to watch a video in 3D and get more information on the CR-Z. The third dimension actually comes to life a little better on the computer screen (when wearing the glasses) than it did on the printed page. An intearactive app is also available at the iTunes store and on the webpage.

My point? It’s still possible to be relevant in print advertising, but it’s just a small tool in an ever-crowding toolbox. Honda’s team did a great job in combining print, web, and social/mobil media into a cohesive package. And while the print 3D viewing experience was lame, I think this one accomplished its purpose. It makes print interactive right off the page. It gives readers something to physically play with—a hook to really grab their attention—and it proves that there’s still a place for print advertising, even if just to ultimately send the consumer into the realm of new media.

"Social Media Marketing for Dummies" - A Review

We’ve come a long way in five short years. As a college sophomore in spring 2005, I finally joined the latest E-trend to be sweeping campus: Facebook. Back then, Facebook was open only to college students, and this was enforced by requiring a .edu email address to register.

My communications professors kept informing us that advertising, public relations, and marketing (collectively Integrated Marketing Communications) were evolving into a two-way model. That is, consumers were utilizing various channels—mainly digital—to communicate both with each other and with the movers and shakers behind their favorite brands. What consumers are saying ultimately drives tactics, objectives, and strategies in contemporary IMC.

Today YouTube, Twitter, MySpace, Helium, LinkedIn, Facebook, and plenty other social networking sites dominate the internet scene. Marketers have taken notice and are actively engaging consumers on this level. I “like” quite a few of my favorite brands on Facebook and follow their feeds regularly.

So I asked myself, do I really understand what new media is all about and where it’s going? Do I really grasp the concept of marketing through digital dialogue and downloads? I decided to find out.

Shiv Singh’s Social Media Marketing for Dummies seemed like a good place to start. The book cites data from winter 2009, making it structurally still relevant, even if social media has evolved quite a bit since then. The book is in the usual “For Dummies” format, meaning easy-reading, blocky paragraphs; relevant tables, charts, and visuals; and plenty of stupid “5th Wave” cartoons.

Singh turns out to be quite an IMC guru, and how he applies that knowledge to the evolving media landscape is quite helpful for anyone asking, “What are Facebook, MySpace, Twitter?” and, “How in the heck can they further the bottom line?” Personally, I discovered that I understand social media marketing concepts better than I thought I did. That’s not to say I didn’t learn a lot from this book, particularly in campaign metrics, mobile communications, and social media to further corporate internal communications. The text is heavily peppered with hyperlinks, those of which are “hot” when reading the E-book on a WiFi-enabled device.

Overall, Social Media Marketing is a good read 'n reference. It contains a wealth of information and trying to employ all of the treated topics at once could be overwhelming. But as a marketer builds a social media campaign, I envision him returning to this book.  It contains a lot of info that will become necessary as a social media campaign grows.  If there was one disappointment I had with the book, it was the number of glaring typos. 

Singh closes out the book with a final chapter dedicated to previewing several blogs that deal with social media topics. Bloggers range from social media gurus, to AdAge, to Singh’s own blog. Excellent way to end a book that potentially was turning obsolete before it rolled off the presses.

DELIVERY FORMAT

I purchased Social Media Marketing through Sony’s E-reader Store. Previously, I’ve used my E-Reader for library E-books and lengthy PDF documents. The credit card transaction was fast and easy as buying and downloading a song on iTunes, and I was reading in minutes. However, a book like this I’d still rather have on my bookshelf. It’s something I’d envision being a reference point, at least for a year or so, until a more current version comes out. Visuals were a little bit hard to see at times, too. The electronic format was, however, useful for allowing clickable hyperlinks within the text.