Dear Reader,
Happy Mardi Gras!
First observed in the US in 1699, Mardi Gras was signed into Louisiana law in 1875.
With major celebrations in Venice, New Orleans and Rio, Mardi Gras dates back to pagan spring and fertility rites.
While early Christian leaders in Rome chose to ignore these festivities, they became a pre-Lent tradition before Ash Wednesday. It became known as Fat Tuesday or Carnival because people binged on the remaining meat and other fatty foods in their homes before the season of fasting and abstaining from meat. (Source)
Table of Contents | Volume 11, Issue 8
- The Lede – Mardi Gras’s Financial Impact on the City of New Orleans
- Marketing Lesson of The Week – What’s In Your Promotional Calendar?
- Content Communicates – Presidential Writing Lessons
- Marketing Reads – The Spring New Book Season Has Begun
- Mark Your Calendar – Upcoming Events
In New Orleans, Mardi Gras traditions include:
- Wearing Mardi Gras’s trio of colors, purple to symbolize justice, green to symbolize faith, and gold to symbolize power.
- Eating king cake. It’s a braided cinnamon brioche slathered with purple, yellow and green icing and adorned with a baby doll.
- Riding or viewing floats created by krewes. These New Orleans clubs organized the first parade with floats in 1857. Membership to the Comus, Momus, Twelfth Night, Rex and Proteus clubs was limited to wealthy white people until a 1991 bill required them to integrate. By law, you must wear a mask or face paint to ride on a float.
- Throwing or catching beads from Mardi Gras floats since the late 1800s. The beads represent health and prosperity.
- Wearing costumes and disguises inspired by the ancient Roman feast of Saturnalia to have fun and indulge in mischief. (Source)
► Mardi Gras’s Financial Impact on the City of New Orleans
A 2009 New Orleans study found that consumer spending during the 12-day Mardi Gras celebration period generated $145.7 million in direct economic impact. Since the celebration attracts visitors to the city all year long, the study estimated the celebration brought in an additional $322 million in indirect impact.
Despite increased costs for police, clean up and other services, New Orleans receives a $2.89 direct impact return on every dollar it invests and a $4.48 indirect impact return on every dollar it invests in Mardi Gras. (Source: NOLA 2009)
But marketers beware:
- While Mardi Gras sounds like a great promotional opportunity to reach residents of New Orleans and tourists alike, it’s illegal to make the holiday commercial in any form based on a city ordinance in Orleans Parish. Krewes and riders must pay for the event’s expenses. (Source)
Recommended Reading
Actionable Marketing Lesson
- Figure out how to transform the physical location of your business into a destination by giving people a reason to visit it.
► Location-based Marketing Case Study
To build real-life relationships, Jessika Phillips of Now Marketing hosted Social Media Lima, a week-long marketing conference attracting hundreds of attendees.
In the process, she turned her small, little-known hometown of Lima, Ohio into a social media destination.
Check out how small Lina, Ohio is.
More importantly, she’s created a strong community that exists online all year and looks forward to the shared live annual experience.
While Jessika doesn’t make a direct profit from the event, it has an indirect impact on her business. For example, it has reduced her client churn rate, allowed her remote employees to get together, and created a year’s worth of social media content. (Source: Belonging To The Brand by Mark Schaefer, pages 38-43)
Recommended Reading
Marketing Lesson of The Week
► What’s In Your Promotional Calendar?
The 3-day President’s Day weekend celebrates both Abraham Lincoln and George Washington.
For many businesses, this holiday translates to a reason or hook for a promotion, most often in terms of price cuts.
Having run and tracked the results of many promotions, I learned firsthand that:
If you continue using the same offer, your results will erode over time.
Why?
Because customers get accustomed to receiving discounts so they expect better deals.
Additionally, how you word your promotional matters A LOT!
Translation:
Always test new offers with a statistically valid sample of your overall promotion where possible without discriminating against any one identifiable group.
Promotional factors to test:
- Headlines. What works as a headline for content may not work as well for a promotion.
- Creative design or presentation. For example, using photos of real people versus AI-generated likenesses.
- Offer wording. Based on long experience, direct marketers know that “Buy One, Get One Free” always beats “Get 2 For The Price of 1”.
- Images used. For example, stock photos versus actual customers. (BTW, your audience can tell the difference!)
- Platform or media used. Test the same promotion on social media versus owned media.
- Landing pages. Where possible, use a different landing page for each promotion and continue the same creative elements so prospects know they’re in the right place.
When using A/B testing, only change one element for each test. Otherwise, you won’t know what caused the difference in results, option A, option B or a combination of the two.
Recommended Reading
Get more detailed insights into marketing offers with charts and examples:
Actionable Marketing Tips
- Create an annual promotional calendar. As a rule of thumb, run one promotion per month. Where appropriate, coordinate your promotion with your other marketing elements, especially your content marketing.
- Include tagging or UTMs to ensure measurable promotional results. Check that your analytics can track them.
- Track the promotions your competitors, others in your industry, and major players like Amazon run. Monitor the buying options available to your prospects and customers. Realize that, as an outsider, you’ll never really know the true impact due to their internal thinking and processes.
Recommended Reading
Content Communicates
► Presidential Writing Lessons: Move Words Out of Your Head And Onto Paper Soon!
Contrary to popular belief, President Lincoln began writing his thoughts about Gettysburg soon after the July 1863 battle. Before giving his Address on November 19, 1863, the President continued to edit and rewrite several drafts of his speech, some of
which still exist. (Source: Constitutional Center)
Trained as a lawyer, Lincoln chose his words with great care. To make his case, he examined each issue as if it were a chess match.
To dedicate the Civil War Cemetery on November 19, 1863, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address presentation lasted about 2 minutes. In this tightly written piece, he tied the Civil War to the principles outlined in the Declaration of Independence. Specifically, he referenced abolishing slavery and maintaining representative government.
The full text of the Gettysburg Address
“Fourscore and seven years ago our fathers brought forth, on this continent, a new nation, conceived in liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal. Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived, and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battlefield of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place
for those who here gave their lives, that that nation might live.
It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.
But, in a larger sense, we cannot dedicate, we cannot consecrate—we cannot hallow—this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it far above our poor power to add or detract.
The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here.
It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us—that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they here gave the last full measure of devotion—that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain—that this nation, under
God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.”
► Contemporary Writing Advice
Lincoln’s approach to writing his Gettysburg Address aligns with the advice of current writers and artists.
To capture creative ideas when you get them, Austin Kleon recommends:
“Here’s something that will cost you 50 cents and might save you that $1,000,000 idea: keep a dry-erase marker in your bathroom so you can make notes on your bathroom mirror.” (Note written on July 5, 2007, so prices are probably higher now.)
Author of The Completely Revised And Expanded Everybody Writes, Ann Handley advises you to “Barf up TFUD (Draft 1).” More specifically, she writes:
“So embrace The First Ugly Draft. As painful and depressing as it might be to write badly–you’re writing! You’re getting the mess out of your head and onto the page! Then when you get back to it, you can start shaping it into something more respectable.” (Source: Page 45)
Actionable Writing Tips
- Capture your ideas when you get them. Many writers and artists carry small notepads or use their smartphones to capture their thoughts immediately wherever they are.
- Get your TFUD (or The First Ugly Draft) onto paper without worrying about how good it is. The true quality of your writing emerges as you edit multiple drafts.
Recommended Reading
► Use Live Events, Videos And Photographs To Attract Attention
Given the ever-increasing consumption of videos and photographs, provide information in these formats to attract audience attention and improve their comprehension.
Even better, make your presentation to a live audience whenever possible. Also, share photos and videos from the event afterward.
President Joe Biden understands the importance of real-life person-to-person connections to make his point of view clear to the world. To observe the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, President Biden took a train to Kyiv to meet with President Zelensky.
Shown across global media outlets, the photos and videos of Biden’s trip underscored America’s support for Ukraine. Context matters because the image of the two Presidents together in Kyiv conveyed more information than any speech could.
In an era of content glut, select and curate your images and videos with care to ensure your story attracts attention in a memorable manner.
Actionable Content Marketing Tips
- Chose the best images and videos to tell your story. In a digital era where it’s easy to keep snapping shots or, worse, only take a single image, select the best one to achieve your goal.
Recommended Reading
Marketing Reads
► The Spring New Book Season Has Begun.
Marketing books provide you with deep knowledge about how the field is changing as well as to improve your skill set. Even better, you get ideas to apply to your current marketing plans.
Read these 4 new books by some of my favorite marketing colleagues:
📖 Wharton Professor Jonah Berger’s Magic Words: What To Say To Get Your Way
Recommended Reading
📖 Godmother of the Metaverse, Cathy Hackl, Into The Metaverse: The Essential Guide To Business Opportunities Of The Web3 Era
📖 Godfather of Content Marketing, Joe Pulizzi and Brian Piper, Epic Content Second Edition: Break Through The Clutter With A Different Story, Get the Most Out of Your Content, and Build a
Community in Web3
📖 Mark Schaefer, Belonging To The Brand: Why Community Is The Last Great Marketing Strategy
Plan Ahead: Mark Your Calendar
► AI And The Future of Digital Experiences – February 23rd at 11 am EST. Free Webinar – Registration Required
Discover the future of AI-powered CX. Join Christian Ward & James J. Ward as they delve into zero-party data, generative AI, and more.
► Podcamp – March 11, from 9 am to 4 pm in Philadelphia, PA
A PodCamp is a BarCamp-style UnConference dedicated to digital and social media. (Note: I’m excited about this event since it’s been ages since I attended an UnConference.) Hat tip to Chris Penn for announcing this in his Almost Timely News newsletter.
► Social Pulse Summit: ROI Edition – Online, March 16, All day
Attend this free, one-day event to get today’s winning strategies for driving and measuring real business results from organic social media.
► Project Voice 2023 – April 24 – 28 in Chattanooga, TN
The number 1 event for Conversational AI / Voice tech in America
► Creator Economy Expo – May 1-3 in Cleveland,
OH
If you run a content-first business this is the event to be at!
Use the code AMG100 to get $100 off any pass. I’ll be there along with Jesse Cole (Savannah Bananas), Joe Pulizzi, and other inspiring creators.
► CX Connect– June 13–15, Online via Zoom
Customer experience, CRM, customer service, and speech technologies are more critical than ever to the success of your organization. CX Connect will feature three days of thought-provoking presentations from the leading experts in customer experience.
► The Conversation Design Conference – July 24th – 25th in London, UK
bringing together the leading thinkers and doers in Conversation Design
Organized by VUX World.
► Are you hosting an event that you’d like us to add to the Marketing Calendar?
If so, let us know by using our Contact Form with the Subject Line:
Event For AMG Newsletter Calendar.
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Happy Marketing,
Heidi
P.S.: Want Heidi Cohen to contribute a quote or other commentary to your next article, presentation, video, research, or book? Then hit reply to this email and ask.
P.P.S: Did you miss last week’s AMG Newsletter? Previous newsletters can be found in the AMG Newsletter Archive.
Photo Credits:
Venetian Mask via Pexels (cc zero): https://www.pexels.com/photo/traditional-carnival-mask-in-shop-window-4059502/
Mardi Gras Float in New Orleans via Pixabay (cc zero)
https://pixabay.com/photos/new-orleans-mardi-gras-float-1184291/
Retail Sale on Fifth Avenue by @HeidiCohen
Photo of President Abraham Lincoln:
https://www.loc.gov/resource/ppmsca.19301/ cc zero
Photo of Austin Kleon Mirror Doodle: https://austinkleon.com/tag/whiteboard/
