Viral advertising is a scam #bestofeverything

David Ogilvy

"Our business is infested with idiots who try to impress by using pretentious jargon."

~David Ogilvy

This is the time of year when the count down starts.  Media organizations clamber for attention in this space:  so WHAT were the top stories of 2015?  We can all decide what resonated with us when we include the hashtag #bestofeverything and start it trending, to stay at the top.  WHY?  Because it is up to the populace to decide what we think, not the media to tell us what they think we should.

The emergence of the IoT:  Internet of Things or what I would like to consider the power at the disposal of anyone and everyone who wants to make a difference.  We can decide what is best for making our world a better place.

Consider what surfaces in trending on Twitter tends to be what the people say it is.  What story resonates with people in real time?  The hashtag is now the tool for everyone to use to decide what they want to read.  It has no borders, it has no financial gain, it has no political clout.  It is simply what people everywhere, anywhere use to strengthen their position on what matters to them.

"Never write an advertisement which you wouldn't want your family to read.  You wouldn't tell lies to your own wife.  Don't tell them to mine." 

~David Ogilvy

If you're anything like me, I'm a little tired of being told what is important to me.  Thus, the creation of #bestofeverything hashtag.  I will say what songs I like, what movie is best, what charity is doing the most with the donations, what matters to me at the present day, present time.  The beauty of a hashtag is that you can go back on it and click so that anything and everything covered under #bestofeverything is sorted and appears in a sequence.  

#bestofeverything

Pretty inspiring if you think about it.  

I look back at a blog I wrote a couple of years ago called:  "Advertising boxes out Social Media"  where I evaluated the news and opinions at the time on how traditional advertising is being hung on to by the major brands.  I would endeavour to state that it was because the decision makers who plunk their money down on the roulette of response or ROI: return on investment.

"I notice increasing reluctance on the part of marketing executives to use judgment; they are coming to rely too much on research, and they use it as a drunkard uses a lamp post for support, rather than for illumination." 

~David Ogilvy

I'm a little giddy now.  It IS happening.  Brands are hiring agencies to spin stories in such a way that it fools the viral community into thinking it is a feel good story and is shared like the California Wild Fires

I called it back then, assertively calling it for what it was:  West Jet's feel good story back on giving gifts to unsuspecting recipients -- advertorial that leverages social media:  You Tube sensation and beyond.

"You now have to decide what 'image' you want for your brand.  Image means personality.  Products, like people, have personalities, and they can make or break them in the marketplace." 

~David Ogilvy

This week, I watched a story on Canada's CBC News on how West Jet is putting together another story that they hope will have the same results as before.  It was calculated, it was created and it was formulated so that people will click on it and VOILA!  They have free advertising ... in their own words.

"The pursuit of excellence is less profitable than the pursuit of bigness, but it can be more satisfying."  

~David Ogilvy

I called it back then and now it isn't surprising.  Social media gurus have been saying for at least five years, that social media has the ability to be free, explosive and immediate by reaching all corners of the sphere. As in all things remarkable, there is the good and the bad.

"Never stop testing, and your advertising will never stop improving."  

~David Ogilvy

This is where my opinion comes in:  back in the day, when I was in magazine advertising sales, and it still holds true to print media still today, that a story has a greater impact than any other form of advertising.  My first business book I read was just after high school in the early 1980s, on the eclipse of media power, "Confessions of an Advertising Man: Ogilvy on Advertising" an icon to many of that world, sharing his opinion and valuable advice that telling stories will have a greater appeal than an image or creating desire.

To the dismay of so many government bodies and regulatory organizations, they have no power over the internet.  Although print media has to have the disclaimer "Advertorial" on the top of any advertisement that appears like a story to fool folks out of thinking that they are reading a carefully crafted advertising piece.  

So, how do you distinguish the targeted, intentional advertising that has a main goal: to go viral.  They have teams of artistic, creative geniuses behind the force to create a viral hit.  The accidents will be fewer and farther between, while many folks will be fooled to think that it is a viral, feel good story.  When, in fact, it is created, written, acted (sometimes with or without employees or with hired actors), filmed, video, recorded and launched on social media:  You Tube, Twitter -- two of the greatest fuels for hashtags.  
Reader, observer:  beware.  They are trying to trick you into thinking it is an accidental capture of a feel good, or tear jerker  so that you will share, comment, and send it off into viral heaven.  

Best Online Advertising Tools

"If it doesn't sell, it isn't creative."  

~David Ogilvy

One can't help but wonder if any regulatory enforcement will be launched to force brands to tribute it as such:  advertorial.  Perhaps a warning:  "If you click on this, you will be helping this company advertise for free."

The interesting part is there are folks that can and still do launch a viral explosion without a creative machine behind them.  Will people be able to distinguish it as such?  When I commented on West Jet's viral hit a few years back, I had a lot of irate people rant at me for not appreciating the wonderful work that West Jet was doing and couldn't I just be nice and accept it as a nice story that happened to go viral because people got free gifts (including a pair of socks).  According to others, it was hailed as "marketing gold".  For what?  Tricking people?

"A good advertisement is one which sells the product without drawing attention to itself."  

~David Ogilvy

I was trying to let the cat out of the bag then, and now they're broadcasting under CBC's story on how they are putting together this year's viral hit.  I'd like to think people are more informed and savvy.  However, the rules on print media to label "advertising" as what it is should be captured by the You Tubes and Twitters of the world to only allow it if it is labeled as a "sponsored promotion".  Make the rules for those who think they are so clever to break it.

One can't help but wonder if these same airlines paid as much attention to their customers by ensuring they get frequent flyer program points they may end up in the same monetary gain.  Rather than padding themselves on the back for fooling people.

It should be labeled as advertising.  It should be highlighted as "sponsored ads" and within the rules of marketing that has been around for decades.  Or simply, people will just ignore it and they will have to chalk it up to a poor return on their investment .... or the fact that people are wiser now.

"The best ideas come as jokes.  Make your thinking as funny as possible."  

~David Ogilvy

My choice for the best print ad for 2015

A social media brand for sale: optioneerJM #bestofeverything

Hi Potential Bidder:

This is a powerful example for a post series I've started called #thebestofeverything and is even included it in my brand on Twitter, Facebook, InstaGRAM, Tumbler, Pinterest under the pseudonym @optioneerJM ??

As an experiment, I am going to be selling this brand, optioneerJM, to the successful time-stamped highest bidder by midnight December 31, 2015.  It will be based on the time closest to the time stamp require-ment and then backwards to the highest bidder.  Kind of like a "silent bid" process or "RFP:  Request for Proposal with one line required:  a bid amount sent to my email optioneerJM@gmail.com .......  I can either continue to post on a per post basis, at 10% per month of the final bid.  I have a hidden number in this post for my goal which will be $1,000,000 and $100,000 per month for posting.

I am convinced that there are people or companies out there that have not embraced Social Media.  There are others that have thought that their investment in personnel, technology compounded with marketing and advertisement is way too expensive as it is with very little, if no, ROI:  Return On Investment.

I have decided that someone will want to invest in this blog along with the optioneerJM linked with #bestofeverything #Hashtag brands with the writer behind it:  ME.   Jeannette Marshall (note #bestofeverything is not for sale but is open for use and reuse:  let the populace decide what truly is #thebestofeverything by launching this hashtag and naming who/what/why is considered #thebestofeverything dictated via social media and not by brands, media, advertisers, or networks.  That part is up to you if you include that in your daily consumption of likes, shares, retweets, reposts, repins, instaposts, tumbling, linked and beyond activity.  This is your choice for FREE!

I hope you may consider the offering and place a bid.  Alternatively, by all means, share it with someone that you've heard express the same sentiments described above (investment in personnel, technology compounded with marketing and advertisement is way too expensive as it is with very, if no ROI:  Return On Investment.)

You can earn as you learn with me by referring others to the purchase option of bidding and successfully buying "The Optioneer JM" with a Klout score of 77-79% ........ I will be assembling what one may consider the media kit, and posting it on my Blog: http://optioneerjm.blogspot.ca/ ... which is one of the central key touch points for the successful bidder on this social media persona.

Wishing you the best success in your future.  I look forward to your response and your reply .... and even perhaps your closed bid by December 31, 2015 11:59pm   If you repost and reshare this opportunity, it is then your option to negotiate a "finder's fee" with the successfully submitted bid winner.  An email could be considered the determinant factor for your agreement and finder's fee agreement.

Simply ensure you keep the "SENT" email from your submission as proof of time.

Otherwise, you can always watch what is going on by following @optioneerJM ... certainly your investment would be realized by attracting the right type of followers that have social media influence by following me and the potential reTweets #RT I am capable of posting sporadically.

Heck, this is an experiment in social selling.  Can it really be done in the truest form?  I guess, we'll all have to see.  Stay tuned, stay connected, stay interested in #thebestofeverything which is not for sale because it is by the people for the people (anything my mom wouldn't approve of will be removed).

Continued success in 2016!

                               Jeannette

Jeannette Marshall

Happy TGIF Friday

I love Fridays, and actually, get to experience one

again. It seems likes years. Understand and you'll 

see .... I've been working shift work for the first time 

in my life, going on two years.



Count me as one who works any 7 day of the week,

any morning, afternoon or evening or combination of

them all.  



There is nothing more wholesome and 

rewarding as Friday. A tradition we start in our

teens, and moving into our daring years, into our

children's lives and then all back again. 


Most important, in all of those memories are the 

friends we hold dear. Yes, I mean you. 

One who thinks to reach out every single day.





Perhaps for some that is the only brightness for their

day. You bring that to people, the world, and so

much more. I don't have to name names, for you

know who you are.

xoxo Jeannette

I wrote that last night. Rarely would I think this

reminiscing should appear on the more serious veneer

of optioneerJM. 


It does tend to fall into our twenties. Not important,

the early or late years. Your career starts to take off

somehow. You spin around, just to see everyone IS

looking at you.


You are a model citizen, responsible adult with some

post-secondary education that no matter how thick is

a foundation you can pull forward in those wondering

times. Was it work ethic, looks, personality, educa-

tion or street smarts? That won many others over and

where you were allowed to spread your wings.


Nowadays, to get a foot in the door, you have to have

heeps of experience, or make degrees and diplomas

walk out of the door. How lucky I am and even at the

time I still did. How did magical things happen to

this average ole kid.


Wait a minute. You were an average old kid? Like

does that mean when you were a kid you seemed

older, or as you got older you got hipper?


I mean average. Really? Does that mean academics?

Should you be reminded how in grade school, your

meanest toughtest teacher on record, yet you don't

even remember his name. The one who pushed you

above so many in leaps and bounds. So that the next

year, away you sat with three other boys, working on

a higher math book, not even the next, one designed

for those who may benefit. Guess that ain't ole

average.


I got on a tangent as I often do. Forcing my attention

back to the matter at hand.



The 1980s were fab-tas-tic-u-lust. Opps, was that an

accident or on purpose? I'd hazard a guess that what

makes a writer creative is the disguise he or she wears

creating characters that they could dream up while

never would dare, do or try what their characters

could.


Some call the 60s just outtasight. But wasn't it the

70s that gave us our might? Skipping along with our

brothers or sis humming or tap tap tapping like a

drum, to the music that made those a decade ahead,

who believed that peace, science and academics were

what all matters in stead.


I was born in the shadows of that rebirth, long before

greed, politics, money because the currency of luck.

After all, our immediate forefathers, young enough

and wise enough we considered as brothers.


Then what happened? We huddled behind our desks,

cozied up on our couch, watching wholesome TV

shows like Mr. Ed the horse, or the Mr. Ed before

Sullevan.

We were too young to understand all the fuss over
four young arrived on a bus, or was that an airplane?

Don't laugh too hard but when we graduated from 
High School, it was all about Disco, lights and all that
fuzz.  Agreeably, we were mostly ignorant about beer or getting a buzz.

That wasn't our scene.  Do you wanna know what was?  Going to school, then getting all gussied up like those 50s gals, except with very high heels and more conservative skirts than the 60s, yet not abandoned like the 70s.

We were a generation when it was about life
being about the basics:  having a family, going to Midnight Mass at Christmas, with newcomers at
the table because it was unthinkable, when it was not at all that new and while still authentic, for anyone 
from the neighbourhood, school or work be left alone
on the Holidays.  Funny, some folks went to church, 
more often than not, it was never a conversation at the
dinner table was a religion as a topic sought.

Yes, the 80s were rad.  You can't disagree when all
the Millinnials embrace the decade.  It was a time life
was pretty basic with much less controversies, scandals, violence in our sphere.  We pushed on and
went to school year after year.

We weren't in the years when what our peers did or thought, was more important than our home, our families, parents, siblings and such.

Now there was drugs, alcohol and permiscuaty in
back alleys not permiated by media, television, radio,
newspapers and magazines.  In fact, that is when I
read and read.  Nothing felt better or safer in bed, with a book.  Being called to set the table, dinner was
ready, would nearly break the captured imagination
just put down.  Then we skooted outside so the adults
could breathe, instead of the chatter and noise four kids bring, when turning on the TV was the very last
thing.

Whoop whoop to the 80s.  Think about it, that was
when the computer and music playing instruments 
were being revolutionized.  Ignorant were we that
it would only be a phase.

The emergence of drugs and crime started to hold us spellbound.  Theatrics and lies joined them as the norm in the 90s.

Then we hit a new century.  Brought on alongside sheer panic that we were doomed when the clock was to pass midnight 23:59 1999 to 24:00 2000.  Makes
you think, maybe we were really that lucky.

We were into our 30s by then.  Usually happily married or two times past.  Consumed with a passion
never before known:  the power of money is what did
bloom.

Whoever said "money can't buy you love" as a quote turned into a famous tune?  Wasn't really far off when
you consider how fast hatred, jealousy, terrorism, violence grew pedals and bloomed.

Our own children now in their twenties as we near closer to 2020s.  Mixed with fear, and far less optimism than we were allowed.  Where diseases as bola, violence created by religion was long before born.  

Yet they are the children of the 80s youngsters born of the 60s, wherein lies as when the basics were born.  Long before a child could ride a bike alone, and still make it home.   Long before millions became billions
..... in debt.  Where politicians, not parents or teachers, became scorned.

We were brought up in a world where politics were
faded in the background, until a corrupt President was
scorned.  Scandals were drugs, pre-marital sex was 
very private, and violence against women, even less
children was known.

The faint dew drops of that optimism allows many to soar and others to bloom.  Behind them strong parents, with morals as the main foundation was
formed.

When searching for royalty free images to enhance this Blog, I thought it ironic that The Times cover would symbolize the new century.  When the horror in Paris would mark this year approaching its end: 2015 my friend.  

Bowing my head over these keys, gives me pause as our refrugees arrive in Canada today with the belief that ours is a much safer world, with opportunity, humanity and peace.  Let us remember that "our" means our world, our harmony, our hope, our peace is not your, mine, me, or I.  It takes a lot of people to keep us from harm.

Vincent Van Gogh "Sunny Meadow"

Can we get back to the basics?  Only personally and privately we may reflect.  To help others, the poor, the fearful, to never neglect.  We have the power to make it safer again.

Sunny camomile meadow - Margaret Raven Art Gallery