'Groundswell' Gains a Following - Advertising Age - Book Reviews

Here is an intereting article in Advertising Age about the aptly named book, "Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies," which serves as a "guide to (often misguided) marketers about how to go about setting up a groundswell strategy, they offer up the acronym POST:

• People. Are your customers interacting with social technologies? Which ones? How do they use them?
  
• Objective. What does a company hope to accomplish with a groundswell strategy?
  
• Strategy. How will those objectives be achieved?
  
• Technology. Which vendor or technology can help accomplish the goals?

Read the full article here:
http://adage.com/bookstore/post?article_id=128179

The book also has an accompanying blog here, which I found pretty well designed (which should not be surprising, considering the topic of their book):
http://blogs.forrester.com/charleneli/

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NGOs Need Advertising Aimed at the Advertiser

Noelle Weaver writes in Advertising Age about the typical advertising agency exec's perspective on working with non-profit clients: "Nonprofits and foundations are still treated like orphan children in the advertising and marketing industry."

Sounds like non-profits need to do some improved marketing to the marketers!

Some ideas on how the non-profit sector can improve its branding in the minds of the brand-builders:

1. Send them a copy of Breakout: Social and Cause Marketing: Creating Value, Building Relationships - PRSA 2007 International Conference Blog
   
2. Point them to the successful relationship between The Richards Group and the Salvation Army
   
3. Recruit advertising execs to join our boards and form "branding committees" that are empowered with real budgets and decision-making authority;
   
4. Integrate branding as a core component of our strategic plans;
   
5. Take our brands as seriously as we take our work. The way our brands are perceived in the marketplace is directly related to how much money we can raise, how effectively we can lead advocacy efforts and more.

I would be very interested to hear your reactions to this. Please share your stories and suggestions!

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