Odds and Ends for the Official End of Summer
It has been a gangbuster summer with the country opening up, planes full and people enjoying family and friends again. This is my last blog before the official beginning of fall. So here are 10 key takeaways to remember from 2021 so far:
You brand story is not your mission statement, list of awards or the years in business. A story has emotion. Awards do not.- Content marketing should be more like a conversation than a speech.
- Zoom meetings are efficient and effective. We just need to improve the show — which a Zoom meeting is.
- People are still watching traditional TV.
- Direct-to-consumer is growing at every level.
- If your industry has not been disrupted yet, it will be. Watch Carvana sales for 2021.
- Search optimization is important for websites, Amazon titles and resumes in an AI world.
- YouTube is the second-largest search engine in the world. First is Google, which owns YouTube.
- The NFL is creating a new era in streaming.
- Do cows like to be branded? No. And neither do humans. Treat your brand and the people you are trying to brand with respect.
Fall is coming, and the marketing landscape will change. Stay flexible, nimble and smart. And optimize the hell out of everything you publish. The robots are watching. Happy Labor Day.
Mark Mathis III is chief creative & strategy officer, partner and cofounder of AMPERAGE Marketing & Fundraising.
Mark Mathis
Mark wrote his first direct-mail fundraising letter in 1981 for the University of Iowa Center for Advancement. The effort raised a few million dollars in undiscovered wills and legacy gifts. From that day forward Mark discovered a love of the big idea that moves the needle.
After 12 years at KWWL, Mark became a business owner as a co-founder of ME&V — rebranded as AMPERAGE in 2015. After 25 years of leading creative teams in video production, graphic design, PR, writing and web development, Mark transitioned out of ownership in 2021. Today he serves in an employee role as special projects consultant.
He is creatively ambidextrous — son of an artist and engineer — and famous for distilling complex ideas down to a few words and a few visuals. Mark is a writer. When he found that many nonprofits struggled with complex branding puzzles, he wrote the book, “NonProfit-NonMarketing .” He also wrote a novel called “Reenactment.”
Mark is an active blogger OneMinuteMarketer® with nearly 1,000 readers each week on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter. One of his most popular YouTube videos is on “How to Look Good on Zoom.”
One of Mark’s fondest business memories was being named to INC 500 two times and attending the INC 500 conference with other winners. Mark is considered by some a Civil War expert (and that explains his novel). Mark also served as an adjunct professor in the business and in the communications departments at Wartburg College.
Mark is a graduate of the University of Iowa and is currently vice president of the University of Iowa Journalism and Mass Communications Advisory Board.
Mark is married to state Sen. Liz Mathis, and the two love to travel, even when it means being trapped by a volcano in the Czech Republic for three weeks.