Clique University

I Want to.... Give Away a Free Car

Fri, 13 Apr 2012 04:35:00 GMT

Marketing “currency” is your key to building an effective promotion that receives big attention. Win consumers, tie in with a cool brand, and engage an entire audience.

Ever wonder how can they afford to give a car away for free? As a marketer there is a tendency to think that a game-changing promotion offering away tens of thousands of dollars worth of merchandise requires a huge budget, along with huge expectations of delivery by your superiors.

It doesn’t, and it’s easier than you think to make it happen.

Lessons from the Lunch Room

Think back when you were in grade school devising a plan in the lunchroom (barter battleground central) to trade that Suzie-Q in your Mork & Mindy lunchbox for a week’s worth of Milk Duds and Mike & Ike. Suzie-Qs (and Ding Dongs & Ho-Hos for that matter) were major currency in the grade school lunchroom domain. It’s the same premise in the grown up world: you can use your media and marketing exposure as your own adult-world Suzie-Q.

Lessons from My Beagle

It happens in everyday life all around us. My beagle, Cooper, is a great companion who is stubborn as a mule but understands that the intangibles he can offer (those angelic eyes) can get him almost anything from the dinner table. Cooper’s asset is his ability to be the perfectly behaved dog at the perfect time with the perfect look. It’s his currency.

Define your currency and the approach to use it and you’ll have a great base from which to secure partner support at no cost to you.

What are You Worth?

To understand what it takes to make partnership opportunities happen for your brand, your category, or your company, do a simple audit of your assets and determine your own currency. The key is to define what is valuable within your current media and marketing efforts and place a value to each of those.

Look at your media and marketing plan and determine 1) what space you would be willing to provide to a potential partner (print, digital, broadcast, in-store, etc), and 2) the $ value of that space. You will be surprised at how realistic an opportunity it is to provide space to a potential partner, without sacrificing the real estate to your own brand, as well as the dollar-value you can offer to a partner to negotiate.

What Partner is Right for You?

Once a currency inventory and a value is determined the next step is to determine a “wish list” partner profile that aligns with your brand. Ubiquity in a partner offering (i.e. cars, electronics, etc.) is always a positive route unless you have a very specific need that requires a specific partner brand. Think big but not too big. Be aggressive in your approach but be realistic. When considering to offer up free product for a marketing initiative, most partners usually work off of an exposure-to-product value ratio - i.e. Cool Car Company may operate on a 20-1 ratio; marketing/media exposure to vehicle retail value. So as an example, Ford will offer up a free $30,000 vehicle (retail value) in exchange for a marketing and media value of $600,000 (20:1 ratio)

How Should I Approach a Partner?

Before approaching a potential partner, make sure to establish your full currency position. This includes the marketing and media asset and space to offer, but also the company/brand demographic and psychographic information, full media statistics (web hits, in store traffic, impressions and interactions, etc), and a full benefit statement for the partner to consider (the “why” statement). We also suggest compiling this information into your own 1-sheet format that is creatively designed to show the partner concisely what they are being offered. Make it easy for them to understand the opportunity at hand and not just another item on their ‘to-do’ list.

You will be surprised, not only at the volume of partners that will be receptive to your outreach, but also have internal directives (and budget) to make it happen.

Launching A Successful Promotion

And once you do land a partner (and you will!) be diligent in your efforts to monitor the promotion, measure its performance (the good and bad) and make the data available to the partner. They will immediately realize the value of the partnership. Based on how successful the program, you can use it to continue the partnership for additional promotions and increase the impact from there.

Seek an Advisor

Another good tactic is to use a go-between: a trusted third party that can work on your behalf to minimize depletion of your internal labor resources while providing an advisory role to help maximize your currency position in keeping you on track to make the right currency valuation and partnership opportunity.

Sleep Soundly @ Night

Another supposed obstacle in dipping the proverbial marketing toe in the partnership waters is the apprehension about the legal red tape that may be involved in putting together the program, both from a consumer deployment and a program liability perspective. 95% of this is a perceived obstacle and one that is overcome with the right counsel from the right advisor. Don’t be afraid to ask for advice and help - align yourself with experts in their field and you’ll sleep like a baby at night (or during the day under your desk if you are George Costanza - any Seinfeld fans out there?).

...and please, let us know when that partnership kicks off for your brand. We want to have a chance to win a free car too.

Community = Opportunity. But don't blow it.

Fri, 30 Mar 2012 17:18:00 GMT

Your customers are people, and people are using the online channels to casually communicate on a daily basis. Many digital strategies focus on "attracting customers", but aren't we really talking about "engaging people"?

While SEO, PPC, Banners, Squeeze Pages and various other digital marketing strategies can multiply the size of your business and have huge ROI, there are other conversations going on online besides customers looking for products and services. As technology has become more accessible and easier to use, it is becoming less and less of a "tool", and more of a "behavior". Businesses need to realize that people will make their own choices on how to use digital media and ultimately engage your brand, be it through a search engine, mobile device, or through one of the various social communities.

The opportunity is to have a presence where the conversations are happening.

A common mistake in this approach is abusing it. Remember, it's a conversation you are trying to enter... nobody likes a loud mouth who interrupts and won't shut up! Just like the rude person at the office, come on too strong and you'll quickly train people to ignore you at which point the opportunity is lost.

Instead, you need to bring something to the conversation that will naturally inspire engagement. You are pushing product and services into a conversation you weren't meant to be in, and people did not expect to see you in. Respect that and your chances for leveraging online communities will increase dramatically.

Clique U: The Curriculum

Thu, 01 Mar 2012 16:55:00 GMT

Change: Change is the price of survival.

Change management
Introduction to why and how we change
A Change Methodology: EPIC Process (Explore, Prepare, Implement, Consolidate)
Communicating Change
Managing Resistance
Championing the Change
Sustaining the Change
Do people really change?
Why change?
How do we change?
The four realities of change
Action planning for change

Leadership: Is there a there from up there?

Executive Coaching
Delegation
Identifying Talent
Identifying Priorities
Creating your elevator speech
The Hero's Journey
Behavioral Interviewing
Time management
Giving performance reviews
Management development
Leadership and Organizational Behavior
The High Performance Organization
Rewards and Performance Management
Organizational Culture
Teams
Leadership and Followership
Communication
Decision Making

Innovation: What is your six-word story?

Business Planning
The Hero's Journey
Web site does and don'ts
App or no app for your business
Corporate promotion 101
Creating and leveraging Facebook apps
SEO 101: “How to play by the rules and get on the first page of Google."
Why Brand design is critical for business relevancy
Ecommerce trends
Story telling in visual formats
Building a Micro sites
Building a Web site
Branding
Ecommerce trends
Going Mobile

Quality: Everything in business is negotiable, except quality.

Developing SMART Goals
Behavioral Interviewing
Giving performance reviews
Project management

Uniqueness: Not all those who wander are lost.

Business writing
The Hero's Journey
Web site does and don'ts
App or no app for your business
Corporate promotion 101
Creating and leveraging Facebook apps
SEO 101: “How to play by the rules and get on the first page of Google."
Why Brand design is critical for business relevancy
Ecommerce trends
Story telling in visual formats
Going Mobile

Engagement: The space between boredom and anxiety.

How to engaging your employees with your web site makeover
Action Planning: tips, techniques and best practices
Employee Engagement vs. Employee Satisfaction: What do you really want:
First Break All the Rules: A Book Club discussion and best practices
Employee Engagement in a mobile setting
Team Building
Managing Conflict

More Than Design

Tue, 14 Feb 2012 15:37:00 GMT

Introducing Clique University: Sometimes we teach, sometimes we learn, but we always move forward side by side.

At Clique Studios, we believe it is part of our job to be your complete business partner. Our executive team has over 50 years of international business experience working with fortune 100 senior executives specializing in increasing revenue and improving employee engagement for their companies. We want to share that experience with you.

Launched in 2011, Clique University aims to be a learning organization rooted in the concept of helping companies help themselves. By providing seminars, workshops, conferences, white papers, research, and more, we share our knowledge in the hopes that we both will benefit. In its present incarnation on this website, it will serve as a running blog of what is happening at Clique, updates on future events, course offerings, and reading recommendations. Below are the pillars for success -- we will add further light to these in the coming days. We are happy to discuss your needs, tailor our offerings to meet your demands, or create something together.

Pillars of Success

Change: Change is the price of survival.
Leadership: Is there a there from up there?
Innovation: What is your six-word story?
Quality: Everything in business is negotiable, except quality.
Uniqueness: Not all those who wander are lost.
Engagement: The space between boredom and anxiety.

We will check in on Thursday with more details on the curriculum. Until then!

2012: New Year, New Site

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:36:00 GMT

There’s an old adage that floats around our industry: you are destined to be your own worst client. For us, that’s been true for too long.

When we originally launched our business, our corporate site was all of one page; scrawled across the top was something about how we were “so busy working on our client sites that we didn’t have time to work on our own.” It had the benefit of being true.

After a couple years of that, we launched a fully-fledged site for ourselves. That did the trick for while, but we followed up by keeping so busy that the site stayed untouched for almost four years. That is, until now.

We’re happy to present you with our new site. Our hope is that it does a little better job of conveying our new direction and expanded services, while simplifying the overall experience. We’re the same company, we’re just evolving to better serve you.

Some items of note:

The services page is updated with all of the ways we can help you
Dozens of new projects were added to our portfolio
All the photography throughout the site is original and courtesy of Jeff Molitor
This here section -- Clique University -- will serve as our new outlet for updates, projects, seminars, workshops and more

We truly look forward to your feedback and thoughts on the new site. Shoot us a note, and tell us what you think.

2011: A Year in Review

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 09:19:00 GMT

As we inch closer to our ninth year in business here at Clique, a remarkable (and encouraging) trend has emerged: every year has been markedly better than its predecessor.

Keeping with the trend, 2011 has undoubtedly been our best year to date. For our clients, we are proud to report the results across the board: close to 100 successful project launches, millions of hits, great press, and millions of dollars transacted on our sites.

If you’ll indulge me, I’d like to dive into the year, lay it on the table, and do a quick post-mortem. Below are some of the highlights of Clique 2011.

New offices: We recently moved our HQ down from its previous spot at Michigan and Randolph, to our new spot a little south on Michigan in the Fine Arts Building. Built in 1884 for the Studebaker company, and overlooking Buckingham Fountain and the Art Institute, we couldn’t be happier with our new pad. We’d love for you stop by.

Our brand new promotion division: In mid-2011, we were pleased to announce that Jeff Molitor, a previous client, had signed on to become captain of our new promotions division. We made the announcement in style, launching a clunkily-named “$100,000 Promotion 2 Win a Promotion Promotion” in which we gave away a “Wilson” worth of promotional services to a deserving Chicago business. The contest was extremely well-received and featured in design galleries worldwide.

The contest was eventually won by Swingbyte, a killer new golf swing analysis tool. This was also our first (of many) successful partnerships with the Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce, who has been more than good to us in our first year. If you’re a Chicagoland business and haven’t signed up yet, do so. Seriously.

Mobile, mobile, mobile: It’s simple, folks: gone are the days of a single, controlled web experience. Potential customers are everywhere now, and 2011 saw the explosion of mobile traffic that the world was waiting on.

Leading the charge, we launched successful mobile projects for the likes of Motorola, Crate and Barrel, American Mattress, Magellan Development Group, and Genworth Financial. In August, with Chicago’s own Energy Results, we even designed the user experience for an in-store iPad app at Best Buy.

The Clique family tree grows: The year began with the addition of John Gile, our Sr. Experience Developer, and the growth of the team hasn’t slowed since. Among other additions, John Ellis came over from his previous position as Director of Software and Services for Motorola to lead our mobile charge. Phil Orlandi is laying the groundwork for our West Coast practice and Drew Fravert is killing it as an Experience Designer.

Even more significantly, both Ted and Phil both had their first child this year, and we couldn’t be happier for them.

Photography: Prior to this year, we provided photography in a variety of ways, usually calling on trusted freelancers. 2011 was the year that we brought that service in-house, with great results. Check out our Flickr page for some recent shoots.

Clique University: We launched our educational arm, designed at consulting business owners on how to properly harness new technologies to work for them. This blog will serve as our way of keeping you updated on current happenings, trends, information, and future events.

Other highlights

Worked with Superchef Curtis Duffy to unveil the name of his much-anticipated restaurant.
Designer the User Experience for Chicago-based Retrofit, an amazing new startup based on tech-forward weight loss. The new business has already received coverage by CBS, Crain’s, and more.
“Revenge of the Electric Car” debuts worldwide, including at Tribeca Film Festival, Starz Film Festival, Singapore International Film Festival, and more. Rave reviews abound, and Clique makes its first appearance in film credits.

2011 was amazing, but we’re confident that 2012 will be an even better year at Clique. We can’t thank our clients, vendors and partners (and families) enough for being a part of it all.

Here’s to another one.

Cheers,
Derek