The Importance of Marketing on All Fronts
I heard something very interesting in a recent phone interview that I conducted with Craig Huey (pictured left), the publishing entrepreneur and longtime SIPA member, who just this summer lost a close election for Congress in Southern California. (The interview will be out this week in the September Hotline newsletter.) That something also comes across from the personality-driven, insurance company Geico. Let me explain.
Huey completely surprised pundits by finishing second—out of 16 candidates—in California’s, new, all-parties-in primary, putting him into the final runoff where he lost by just 9% of the votes. So given his background, it’s quite fair to assume that Huey knows precisely how to get the word out. Basically, he reaches people on all fronts.
“We used advanced online marketing; the best practices of direct mail, dominated online marketing, radio—all with a much smaller budget [than his opponent],” he said. “We did immense work with Facebook; it was a huge part of the campaign. We also had a Twitter campaign. “It took a lot of time and effort. [But most importantly,] you still have to do direct marketing right. The media changes but human nature doesn’t.”
The Geico connection hit me a couple times recently. Of course, we’re all used to seeing and hearing their many clever television and radio commercials, be it with celebrity interpreters, geckos, cavemen or falling trees in the forest. They’ve also been a sponsor of the racing presidents at Washington Nationals home baseball games and featured tennis great Billie Jean King on caveman commercials. Their many sports ties are to try to reach more men, whom Geico’s vice president of advertising, Ted Ward, has previously said are heard to reach. “[Sports has] proven to be an effective piece of our overall mix. We’ve been pretty aggressive,” Ward said.
I received a couple direct mailers last week from Geico (that were much more straight and direct than the commercials). And then I’m sitting at the Delaware beach and a Geico ad comes flying over attached to a small plane. They were definitely hitting on all sides, even from above. “I thought we might be able to build a deeper relationship if we built on multiple fronts,” Mike Hughes, president of The Martin Agency, Geico’s now-famous ad creators, has previously said.
Huey is also very intent on including all forms of marketing in his campaigns. In addition to Facebook and Twitter, he mentioned Google paid searches, web ads, direct mail, email marketing, and a Bring-a-Friend (to a conference) campaign that he promoted in many mediums. “Those that try to eliminate [any methods of marketing], their growth is stagnant or not aggressive,” he said. Interesting that Huey also uses the word aggressive; it’s pretty clear that most successful marketing needs to be aggressive. “Everything is accountable these days. Everything can be tested. If it can’t be justified, don’t do it. It’s a huge mistake if you don’t do [direct mail].”
For Huey, it’s a matter of building communities and reaching people in all sorts of ways. For Geico—obviously on a much bigger level—it’s about making that emotional connection to consumers and establishing a brand. For both, it involves using every medium, model and channel available to them.
“Marketing is the umbrella,” wrote freelance writer and marketer Carrie Schmeck from Redding, Calif. “Publicity, PR, advertising and social media efforts are pieces of marketing. Done alone, none will work at maximum efficiency. Good marketing requires effort on all fronts.”
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