From 2005-2007, I wrote for an advertising group blog called Beyond Madison Avenue. The blog is still around, but over the years it has been redesigned several times and somehow in all the shuffling, it seems that all the posts written from those early years were lost. I did some digging and found a few of them, so what I wanted to do is share a new one of them with you each Saturday here over the next few weeks. I honestly (sadly?) think these posts are better than most of the ones I write now, and on top of that, I think they are an interesting commentary on a space that’s gone through a ton of change in just a few short years. I hope you enjoy these, and we’ll start with the very first blog post I ever wrote, from September 20th, 2005.
What a Hurricane Can Teach Us About Marketing
1 billion and counting.
That’s the current amount of donations received for victims of Hurricane Katrina, according to an article in yesterday’s Washington Post. That total doesn’t include donations from last night’s episode of Monday Night Football, during which current and former NFL players took donations for the relief effort. Some estimates have the final total approaching 2 billion. Granted, roughly half of the donations thus far are from corporations.
Still, that means over 500 million has been donated from everyday Americans in the three weeks since Katrina made landfall in Gulfport, Mississippi. When’s the last time a company released a new product to the market that had similar sales, with NO advertising?
Then again, this is a rare case where little advertising is necessary. The appeal is easy to understand: Compassion for our fellow man. The benefit of the donations is obvious: Helping fellow Americans rebuild their communities, homes, and lives. Marketing professionals everywhere can learn much from the massive giving that’s coming in response to Katrina. If you have a product that people want, that they can clearly see the benefits of, and that fulfills a basic human need, it will sell itself.
What ‘product’ is being sold here? Hope. We all need some of that.
@MackCollier Morning Mack!! What’s shaking down South?
@lttlewys Hey sweetie, it is HOT down South! How’s the East Coast doing?
@mackcollier East Coast is perfect today, not to hot, barely humid!! Loving it 😉
And Livefyre I hope the relevance of the tweets you pull into posts improves, as the tweets below prove this needs to get better 😉
@MackCollier I just read it….I like it!
@MackCollier Depends…are we talking first blog post ever, period, or first professional one? Do I need to break out the old Livejournal?
@MackCollier Mine was about gold-diggers
@MackCollier my 1st blog was about #Executive #Jobsearch skills.
@MackCollier Leadership vision and a goddess…of course 😉
@HopeLiesEternal Thank you!
@LisaPetrilli I think I remember that one 😉
Even in your very first post you were talking about the power of having a “bigger idea!” I love that, in this case, it was hope.
Well Mack, the first I wrote on my current blog was a cornerstone of sorts…setting the stage so to speak? http://noteasytoforget.com/2009/10/setting-a-cornerstone-for-my-blog/ I have always and still use this (setting a cornerstone) as a great starting point for a new blog…especially for businesses just getting started. It lets people know what to expect and it establishes a moral and ethical standard I think. Thanks for sharing this bit of your story today. Good stuff!
@LisaPetrilli Thank you Lisa for saying and noticing that 😉
@JTDabbagian First blog post ever.
Hey Mack, It’s fun to see your early work. Amy and I were living in Metairie right outside of New Orleans when Katrina hit. We really could have used Social Media tools then. It took 58 days to finally make contact with all the employees we were missing from my employer at the time.
My first blog post was an experiment on a blog I’m planning to resurrect one day. The topic was responsibilities associated with rank written in Dec of 2009. Here’s the link: http://victorcanada.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/rank/
I like the idea of you posting your original work and talking about what’s different today, etc. Also, I think it would be interesting for you to post “best of” articles from previous years from time to time.
Thanks,
Victor
@VictorCanada yes that’s a good point, I think wide usage of Facebook and Twitter could have been extremely helpful during Katrina.
And each Saturday in July I’ve be posting one of my BMA posts. Next Saturday the one I’ll post is probably my favorite blog post I’ve ever written.
@MackCollier They most definitely will 🙂 As you know, this feature is just in beta testing and we’re actively working on ways to improve the feature based on our learnings. If you have any feedback, feel free to send it my way: [email protected]; we’d love to hear your thoughts!