North American TV airwaves are blasted with an estimated 60 billion hours of advertising each year, three-quarters of which employ music in some manner.

The reasoning is fairly simple: We remember tunes and lyrics more than we do unaccompanied narrative.

The right music, even more than strong visuals, can make a commercial memorable. Which brings me to the catchy Citibank commercial that’s been around for a few months.

If you watch any television, you’ve probably seen it, too: Two climbers scaling a large rock in what appears to be a very mountainous area somewhere out west. (It turns out, believe it or not, the footage is of a real couple rock-climbing in Utah). Toward the end of the commercial, a very catchy song plays, which had me searching high and low for the artist and song title.

For the next few weeks I found myself singing this 10-second segment of a song, though I had no idea who it was by or what it was called. I was so curious that one day I used the Shazam app on my iPhone to discover who the artist was and the title of the song.

It turns out I wasn’t alone. This commercial was a huge success for Citibank, creating a buzz that has blogs and forums blowing up in an effort to locate the artist and title of the song. Whatever the cost, it was worth it.

— Anthony Salerno

Earlier this month, Behan Communications entered the world of infographics to support an industry group with a compelling — but complicated — story.

Infographics are a hot trend, and with good reason. With an informational graphic, complex concepts can be explained in an easy-to-follow, visually appealing format. Fast Company, a magazine big on innovation and design, has been a proponent — and heavy user — of infographics for a while now, and explains why here.

We wanted to tell the important story of biomass energy. Biomass energy is renewable, but it is not as well known (or well understood) as other forms of renewable energy, such as solar and wind.

Biomass is the organic matter in living plants, including trees and agricultural crops. Ever since humans began burning wood for heat, biomass has been a source of energy.

The New York Biomass Alliance, a coalition of individuals and businesses dedicated to educate and advocate for the role of biomass in reducing fossil fuel reliance and meeting local and national energy goals, continually looks for ways to tell the biomass story. In working with the Alliance and one of its members, ReEnergy Holdings, we decided to create an infographic to describe the many positive attributes of biomass energy.

I don’t need words to tell the story. Our infographic, masterfully designed by our Chief Creative Officer, Troy Burns, tells it all.

— Sarah Boggess

Have you incorporated mobile marketing to your marketing mix? Chances are, you should. Here’s why:

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Like it or not, mobile phones are a huge part of everyday life. How many people do you know who don’t have a smartphone or tablet? A new report by Cisco, “Global Mobile Data Traffic Forecast for 2011-2016,” indicates that by 2016, there will be more than 10.3 billion mobile-connected devices worldwide. Considering there are only 7 billion people in the world, it’s a very significant number. The same study also reveals that mobile data traffic is expected to increase 18-fold by 2016, revealing the continuing significance of smartphones in our everyday lives.

The Definition Keeps Expanding

A common misconception is that mobile marketing is all about text messaging. According to the Mobile Marketing Association, mobile marketing is defined as “a set of practices that enables an organization to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device.” As a marketer, you should figure out how your consumers are using their smartphones and target accordingly using social media, mobile-ready websites, daily deal websites, web-adapted e-mails and mobile apps.

It’s Engagement at Its Best

The key to mobile marketing is real-time engagement with consumers. Smartphones allow people to instantly read reviews, check facts, get contact information and make purchases on the fly. Engage with your customers through existing social media channels — Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Google+ and others — to help your brand gain instant online and mobile credibility. By optimizing your social media channels with company branding and key message points, your company will be one step closer to mobile-readiness.

People Will Look for You

People often search the web using their smartphones. It’s quick and easy, and allows for real-time fact checking. Take a minute to search on your phone browser for your company, or search using some keywords that an average person might use to find your company. Like what you see? If not, develop a targeted mobile search plan to make your website more web friendly for mobile users. Create mobile-friendly copy, along with mobile call-to-actions that allow users to “click-to-call” or “click-to-text.”

Jump in with Both Feet

Mobile marketing will only get more daunting if you wait, so there is no time like the present to get your mobile marketing strategy started. Still feeling apprehensive? Set aside the mobile component and approach it the same way you would a more traditional marketing channel. The same marketing principles apply. Figure out where your customers are and what they’re doing — and meet them there.

If you haven’t already planned for mobile marketing in 2012, don’t wait. Mobile marketing really does matter.

—Brooke Manrique

Behan Communications Inc. again has been ranked the Number 1 PR firm in the Capital Region in Capital District’s Business Review’s 2011 survey based on annual billings.

No one in our firm will tell you we are not excited about the ranking, but we are prouder still of our long-time association with leading clients in manufacturing, energy, environmental affairs, health care, financial services and other sectors.

Our team comes to work each day knowing the people we admire and respect have entrusted their work to us and are counting on our ideas, our energy and our execution to enhance their brands and reputations. It is an awesome responsibility that we embrace and will never take for granted.

Great clients inspire and invigorate us with challenging work every day, year after year. Service is the core of our business, and it is our privilege to work on their behalf. And when the work is finished, the relationships we have built carry on; for that we are truly grateful.

The Capital Region is blessed with a broad range of first-class communications and marketing talent. We thank our clients for choosing us.

— Mark Behan

Management guru Patrick Lencioni, in his book “The Three Big Questions for a Frantic Family,” pointed out that many of us spend a lot of time and energy developing strategic plans for our businesses, but fly by the seat of our pants with our families.

A similar phenomenon takes place within businesses. Many organizations plan tirelessly for how to best engage their external audiences: customers, investors, media, analysts and community members.

Often, they forget their most important constituency: Their employees, the people who have the most control over the future of the organization.
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The Public Relations Society of America, the association for PR professionals, just completed almost a year of research and four months of stakeholder engagement to create a modern definition of public relations.

This was wordsmithing by committee. On steroids.

The PRSA worked on this (you can see the most popular words submitted for the definition in the word cloud at right) with 12 allied organizations:

• the Public Relations Student Society of America;
• Chartered Institute of Public Relations;
• Arthur W. Page Society;
• International Association of Business Communicators;
• Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management;
• Institute for Public Relations;
• International Association for the Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC);
• Canadian Public Relations Society;
• National Association of Government Communicators;
• Word of Mouth Marketing Association;
• Hispanic Public Relations Association; and
• the National Black Public Relations Society.

The groups even had a one-day “Definition Summit” back in September. There were 927 definitions submitted over a four-month period, and the groups whittled it down to three and conducted a vote. This was the winning definition:

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.

The New York Times covered the news on the day of the announcement.

The definition seems fine to us here, although we think the word “publics” is hilariously awkward. Certainly the new definition is an improvement from the previous definition, which was crafted in 1982: Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.

At Behan Communications, Inc., we like to “Start With Why,” as Simon Sinek advises in his popular new book of the same name. Yes, we engage in strategic communications processes to build mutually beneficial relationships between our clients and their stakeholders, or constituencies. But more compellingly, we exist because we believe in the power of words, images and ideas to enlighten, to inspire, to build understanding and to create opportunity.

— Sarah Boggess

All those moving vans headed south and southwest? They might just want to turn around.

Two Hudson River regions — Albany-Schenectady and Poughkeepsie-Newburgh — made the top four on Forbes’ national list of Best Cities for Jobs. New York City came in sixth.
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Yes, I think there are a few business lessons the rest of us can learn from the Miami-based hip-hop artist Flo Rida, AKA Tramar Dillard.

I first noticed Flo Rida’s new hit song, “Good Feeling,” because I heard it all the time at my kid’s youth hockey games. It’s a catchy, modern update to “We are the Champions” — a perfect song for sports.

The song took over the Top 40 airwaves, and I realized last week that it’s a great song to play right before a business pitch: “Woke up on the side of the bed like I won. Talk like a winner, my chest to that sun ….”

So I did a little research on 32-year-old Flo Rida, pictured at right, and discovered this: His hit song samples the late Etta James’ 1962 song “Something’s Got a Hold on Me.” The ear-catching “Good Feeling” chorus was taken from a phrase at the beginning of James’ song, so Flo Rida’s 2012 hit features Etta James’ voice from 50 years ago.

It turns out Flo Rida’s dad, also a musician, was fond of Etta James’ work, so Flo Rida grew up listening to — and appreciating — Etta James and other greats.  As Flo Rida recently told Rolling Stone magazine, he thought using James’ voice would perfectly combine a “very classic sound” with something “new-age.”

So here are the lessons I take from Flo Rida:

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Everyone is an expert in marketing, or so they think.

Your boss is an expert, your colleague is an expert, even your brother is an expert. Marketing is a field plagued with personal preferences, tastes and opinions.

And yet most professional marketers will tell you that marketing is so much more than the latest commercial airing during the American Idol auditions or the glare of a digital billboard.

Effective marketing involves extensive research, experience in the field, thoughtful planning and solid execution. The culmination of these efforts is a cohesive marketing strategy that advances a corporation’s overall business goals.

It all begins with understanding the market dynamics, target audience, stakeholders, competition and industry. It involves rigorous research into why your customers make certain decisions and an honest assessment of your company’s strengths and weaknesses. Then, and only then, can you determine how your company fits into the marketplace and start to highlight your competitive advantage.

Take, for instance, the ongoing popularity of the Kia Soul hamsters. The furry critters are memorable, the tunes are catchy, and the campaign is oh-so-polarizing. With a goal to “share some soul,” the hamsters rap and dance their way into the hearts of potential buyers. Read more »