Build your BrandBuild your OrgMike Leon mleon@brandheroes.ca

1.416.543.5292

Let’s be honest!

We want our recruitment efforts to yield this…

But sometimes the process of getting noticed feels like this…

And while we’re at it…

Marketing and HR Sometimes feels like this…

Instead of like this…

Your HR Branding Survival Pack

But first a little about you and a bit about me…

Who am I?

•President and Chief Brand Hero of Brand Heroes

• Integrated Marketing Consultancy• Brand Strategy and Design

• Marketing Communications

• Branded Content

•MBA and BBA Branding Instructor @ WLU

•BBA Social Media Instructor

A Little Shameless Self Promotion

The Skinny on Rock Star Branding•Origin, Opportunity, Values

•Brand like a networker

•Use your stars• Both in and out of the organization

•Make your content matter and make it big!• It’ll cost less than you think

•Say it loud, but don’t you be the one to say it!• Find your greatest influencers and get them to speak about you.

Origin, Opportunity values•Origin: What’s your brands origin story? Why do you

exist? Why do you need to? There’s an interesting and relevant story here

•Opportunity: What opportunity are you offering your customers? How is that opportunity different from any of your competitors

•Values: What’s important to your consumers. How do your values align with theirs?

Example: Bentley

Example: The Dollar Shave Club

Use Your Stars

•Find the folks who best relate to those you’re targeting and show their stories

•Their story first, your story second

•Show them in their element doing exactly what it is you’re selling

Example: Freshbooks

Example: My SLC

Contest Video: http://youtu.be/AIrnnSBzo4E

Campaign Videohttp://bit.ly/10j8d1M

Market like a Networker

•Think about what’s in it for them, not you.

•Don’t just advertise yourself, otherwise you run the risk of turning your campaigns into:• A flat, one-way marketing channel that simply copies existing

content from your brochures, rather than generating anything new and interactive.

• Unauthentic, boring content that actually serves to erode and destroy brand credibility rather than grow and re-enforce it.

• Simply advertising, rather than engagement.

Market like a Networker

• Instead think about what makes them tick

•What’s important to them and how can we show, not tell them, that our opportunity is meeting those needs head on.

•Example:

Highlighting the calibre of select employees

Leverage Employee Testimonials

Emphasize the power of your culture in your job descriptions

Make Your Content Matter and Make it Big

• Provide on-going industry and subject matter thought leadership.

• Provide an on-going 2-way communications channel that puts your consumers in control.

• Provide real-time info on what people are saying about you and insights on how this can impact key business decisions.

• Provide competitive differentiation and an on-going, interactive source of company engagement that can boost employee recruitment as well as business development.

Example Coke:

Or even give them an ability to influence your offerings:

Say it loud but Don’t be the One to Say it• Find your greatest influencers and get them to speak

about you. Ideas include:

• Guest blog for major influencers

• Include re-postings of your blogs

• Pursue customer testimonials that you can post on several social media platforms

•But don’t stop there - find creative ways to get your customers to tell your stories.

Example: The Fiesta Movement

The Program•A grassroots social media campaign to promote the new

Fiesta model

•Placed Fiestas in the hands of 100 social “agents” and had them promote Ford’s new vehicle through Twitter, blogs, videos, and events

...all without spending a dollar on traditional media.

Results After 6 Months- 4.3 million YouTube views - 500,000+ Flickr views- 3 million+ Twitter impressions- 50,000 interested potential customers, 97% of which didn’t own a Ford at the time

- Sold10,000 units in the first 6 days of sales

•38% awareness by Gen Y about the product, without spending a dollar on traditional advertising

•New chapter - http://www.fiestamovement2.com/

Summary

•Know who you are, but keep checking in with your consumers

•Empower and reward your raving fans

•Find your opinion leaders and empower them to spread the good word

•Re-think “Viral.” • Think hard about the role you want Viral to play. Is it necessarily the

right tactic for what you want and are set up to do?

Thank You!Mike Leon

(416) 543-5292

mleon@brandheroes.ca

brandheroes.ca

@brandheroes