This is Devlin's blog

Folks ought to approach an RFP for their website the same way they buy a car.

Be clear about what you want to accomplish and be honest about how much money you have, and on what, you want to spend your money.

I have had two frustrating encounters with TO charities in the last few weeks. Don’t get me wrong; both are great charities doing wonderful and worthwhile work. Both are charities we would love to help. Both are charities with missions close to our hearts. But neither project had a chance of coming to fruition.

Neither identified a budget in their RFP.  Neither gave any indication – which made it literally impossible to prepare an exacting proposal to suit their particular needs.

One charity, I was told, believed identifying a budget would totally skew the process – how wrong can a person be? Hello? Far from skewing the process, setting a budget guarantees that the prospective client gets exactly what they want for the money they have to spend, and they can set their own priorities. It is then the responsibility of the pitching agency to be wise and creative and present a plan for providing best value for money. It is an absurd conclusion that withholding essential information – like the budget – is the route to getting the best deal.

No one expects to buy any other product or service this way. I can’t help but think of my favourite diner. (Cut me some slack, it’s lunchtime.) If I went to The Patrician, Chris could make me an equally delicious sandwich (club, BLT, grilled cheese) at three different price points – each would be delicious, each would satisfy, each would do the trick for lunch.  I wouldn’t expect Chris to make me a club sandwich and me only pay the price of a grilled cheese.  I wouldn’t expect him to guess what I want for lunch or how much money I’ve got in my pocket. I’d tell him.

Maybe there is a better analogy.  Let’s try this. No one walks into a car showroom and says I want a car without expecting to tell the salesman how much money they have to spend. It just wouldn’t happen. Only once the car salesman knows the budget, can she make reasonable recommendations, or start with the base price of a car and then advise the customer of the available options within his budget. This is a good way of conducting business, negotiating a price and is most likely to result in a win –win for both the customer and the car salesman.  This can only be described as good customer service.

A charity’s online presence is too critical to its fundraising and the overall success of the charity and its objectives. It is too important to leave the website’s level of functionality to chance and guesswork by the pitching agency.  That’s exactly what happens when RFPs do not include budgets, rather than the charity deciding its priorities, agencies end up having to guess how to, and how much, of the charity’s hard earned money to spend. It’s nuts!

My other encounter was with a charity, which approached us and asked for a meeting in their office, as they didn’t have time to come to our studio. We agreed. We researched and prepared for the meeting and travelled across town to discuss their issues and needs. More research and time spent figuring out how to solve their problems  – a thoughtful proposal followed.  The charity then sent an email stating that they had decided to “go with the agency which agreed to do it for free”. – presumably getting it done for free was their intention all along.  Here’s the lesson for both parties: if only this charity had been straight from the get-go and called me and said ‘we have next to no money to spend, but we have a problem with our site, is there a way you could ‘give’ us advice on how to fix it’, Devlin would have done it and fixed it for free. If they were honest, they would have probably accomplished their objective with one phone call and within a week. But they weren’t honest or remotely fair.  They were duplicitous at best.  Were they fishing without any intention of paying for services? It is hard to think otherwise.  It is a crappy way to do business. It is a crappy way to treat people. It is certainly shortsighted in a town as small as Toronto.  It is hard to keep cynicism at bay when this type of thing happens.  Luckily I am an eternal optimist and I can fight the urge to draw conclusions about the sector.

Here’s the deal – no matter what the size of your budget, be clear, be honest, put your money on the table, and in so doing, you will give yourself the very best shot at getting exactly what you want and need, for your hard earned money.

I’m off to The Patrician for lunch, I’ve got $8.64 in my pocket and I going to ask Chris to make the best damn sandwich he can for my money.

Caine’s Arcade, a heart-warming story about a young boy who builds an arcade out of cardboard boxes in his Father’s East-LA Auto Shop, has become a viral sensation, garnering over 1 million hits on Vimeo and another 1 million on YouTube in just two days! Even more remarkable, the video has raised over $100,000 in scholarship money for Caine’s College fund.

Why was this video, which clocks in at nearly 11 minutes – long by social media standards – such a huge success?

Aside from the fact that it was professionally filmed by a gracious customer, it documents an honest story about a young boy’s determination to bring joy to others and himself through basic and inexpensive means. It is emotional, endearing and genuine. It is a nice change to see a viral video that is not about war, sex or politics but instead about the simple pleasures of life and old-fashioned values of hard work and integrity, which are often lost in our fast-paced digital age.

It is refreshing to see a young boy so determined and patient. As we get older, it is easy to become jaded about work and lose our sense of purpose. It is always a pleasure to see that good ideas, clever execution and passion can lead to success. This video is proof that the American Dream still exists. Building something from nothing is still possible and can reap lucrative rewards.

Caine’s Arcade also shows us how technology and old-fashioned values, working in tandem with each other, can create amazing results.  The idea of an arcade and the excitement it contains, must be experienced in person but can be promoted online and spread virally.

At first the Internet was working against Caine, by taking customers away from his Father’s shop and consequently, his Arcade.  However, once news spread through social media, the arcade and this video became instant successes.

Fortunately for Caine, traditional values and new technology worked together perfectly to bring his story to the masses and make it a true winner.

Caine’s Arcade

There are different methods and tools available to calculate the Return of Investment (ROI) of a social media campaign; the tough part is convincing your boss (if he is old-skool) of the value inherent in social media and how this can be quantified.

Old fashioned business managers do not believe that ROI can be calculated from social media. Concerned about the ever-changing nature of technology, they are unclear as to the process for determining success rates through social media channels.

If you are reading this and work for an old-fashioned business manager, (OFBM) you need to ask him or her two questions.

1) Are you interested in increasing revenue?
2) Are you interested in saving money?

Now we are talking in lingo that your OFBM will understand. Once he or she answers YES to both questions, you can explain the following:

Social media offers valuable resources to help save money by decreasing costs spent on customer service and press. Social media allows a company or brand to connect with its customers directly through a two-way conversation at their convenience, when they have decided to log on and pay attention.

This is a much more conducive environment for communicating then cold calling a customer during dinner. It is also free. Aside from the salary that your company is paying to the Social Media Manger, there are no costs for setting up a Facebook, Twitter, or Pinterest account.

Best of all, your messages are reaching those customers that are interested in hearing what your company or brand has to say because they have voluntarily “liked” or “followed” your brand’s page or account.

There are different programs available to analyze the results of social media campaigns. But, as demonstrated above, social media needs to be regarded as another communication platform, not something foreign; rather, something simple which your OFBM will understand. That is why using ROI to analyze the success of your social media campaign makes a lot of sense. It places social media on the same playing field as all your other marketing initiatives and helps keep your analysis consistent.

ROI can be determined by looking at the revenue you received from your social media campaign, subtracted by your costs to execute the campaign, converted into a percentage.

Simple right? Just make sure you understand how social media affects traditional business metrics since those may shift once social media strategies are implemented. Take a look at newspapers for example. The average newspaper reader may now be getting their news by following their favourite paper on Twitter, instead of subscribing to a physical paper. This newspaper has to recognize that it is not losing readers, just subscribers.

In fact, its readership is probably growing through social sharing and re-tweeting of articles. The newspaper has to take migrated readers into consideration when examining its overall metrics and advertise accordingly. It is much cheaper to advertise online than in print, so take advantage of targeted online advertising or free social media exposure while you still can.

Pinterest has been garnering a lot of attention recently and for good reason. The new social media website that lets users share pin boards is reminiscent of that very attractive, artsy, fashionable, new girl that moves into the neighbourhood and is instantly the most popular kid in school.

Pinterest generates more referral traffic than YouTube, LinkedIn and Google combined! It hit 10 million monthly unique visitors faster than any other independent site in history and it’s only been around since March of 2010.

Pinterest started out as a platform for fashionistas and wedding planners to gather inspiration and share their concepts. Its simple design, ease of use and collaborative appeal took off quickly. Its daily users have increased by more than 145% since the beginning of 2012!

Pinterest is now commonly used by 18-34 year old upper middle class women, the demographic that tends to do the most shopping. Brands and retail companies should pay attention and jump on the Pinterest bandwagon!

Pinterest is great for brands because it provides free targeted advertising for their product offerings. Retail companies like Barney’s, are starting to adopt a “Pin It” button which lets users pin products from the company’s website directly onto users’ Pinterest boards, for all their followers to see. Plus, when an original image is pinned, it includes a link back to the site where it came from thereby increasing the website’s search rank.

Companies can also leverage Pinterest to showcase their brand’s true identity by focusing on thematic colours, values and interests that make up their brand’s character. The Oprah Winfrey Network, for example, has different boards that feature inspiring quotes, a tribute to Whitney Houston and food that her target audience would enjoy eating. Pin boards help viewers understand a brand’s true personality.

Pinterest also lets users input prices into products that they’ve pinned which can appear in the “Gifts” section, organized by price, making it easy to find the perfect present.

Since online shopping is probably the only thing that’s grown as exponentially as Pinterest, it makes logical sense for brands to create their own Pinterest pages or have a “Pin It” button link directly to a page on their site where consumers are directed to purchase the item.

There are numerous programs that synch Pinterest with Facebook and Twitter for easy integration between different social media channels making the hobby of the consumer or job of the brand manager, much more controllable.

You can follow Devlin’s Pinterest board by clicking here!

References from the following sites were used in the creation of this blog post: http://www.mpdailyfix.com/why-pinterest-should-be-of-interest-to-brands/
http://mashable.com/2012/02/14/pinterest-daily-users-are-up-125-percent/?WT.mc_id=obinsite

Just over a year ago, Devlin wrote a brief summary explaining how QR Codes work and what they mean to marketing. Now, one year and one month later, Devlin has had the opportunity to play around with QR Codes, analyze campaigns that have used QR Codes and contemplate their effectiveness.

After little deliberation, we’ve decided that they’re a dying breed. QR Codes require effort and consumers are lazy. Users have to download a QR app (which doesn’t always work) and then they have to line up their phone over the QR Code precisely in the right position and wait.

This proves difficult in the Winter when a user wants to put his glove back on or his hand is shaky from the cold. It is also plain annoying because consumers are used to getting information quickly and conveniently.

Marketing messages should be spoon-fed to consumers, not hidden from them behind a black & white square of code that illicits no emotional response, except for frustration.

Not only are QR Codes time consuming, they can also be dangerous. QR Codes store data which can easily be manipulated by cyber criminals. Some infected QR Code applications have hidden SMS texting charges which appear in monthly cell phone bills. It is reassuring to know that less than 5% of the American population has scanned a QR Code.

So what’s the alternative?

MVS which stands for “Multiple Virtual Storage” allows users to simply take a picture with their phone of an image that has MVS technology, in order to receive more information about that product including coupons, the ability to buy the product and customer reviews. With MVS technology, downloading and scanning can become a thing of the past.

Companies in South Korea and Argentina currently allow commuters waiting for the subway to view images of groceries or office supplies which they can order and have delivered or picked up within minutes.

MVS provides instant information or instant gratification for those so inclined to learn more.

Google, launched an app last year that is similar to MVS, called Google Goggles which provides more information about an image, landmark or advertisement when a user takes a photo of this image through their Android phone or through the Google Goggles app.

Let us know about your experiences with QR Codes, MVS technology and/or Google Goggles.

Sources referenced in this post include the following sites:
http://mashable.com/2011/09/14/google-goggles-background-search/
http://mashable.com/2012/02/15/qr-codes-rip/