Mel Carson Archive

One thing I was most proud of during my time at Microsoft were the videos we created at Advertising Week and the Cannes Lions Festival of Creativity.

For about four years I’d travel to these events with a plan to bring them alive for people (as my former boss Jenny Leahy used to put it) “outside the room.”

The videos were then used to promote our presence, be repurposed for other marketing activities and really expand the reach of Microsoft Advertising’s investment in those industry get-togethers.

Recently, the guys from Bing Ads asked me to create one for them. This time I did much of the filming and photography myself and we crowd sourced the rest of the content from other Microsoftees on the ground at the event.

The footage was then sent to my go-to video people >> Cherry Media << in the UK who we worked with in New York and Cannes.

And this was the resulting edit:

You do have to invest in good equipment and editing to create great video, but it doesn’t have to cost the earth. With experience you can start to pick up techniques and visualize how an end edit might look as your filming content at events.

Make sure you check back to the Delightful Blog in a couple of weeks when I’ll be giving some tips on what to look for when filming events for social media amplification.

Thanks for reading/watching!

Mel

Representing Majestic SEO in the US as their Brand Ambassador, I not only get to work with some of the smartest minds in internet technology, big data extraction and actionable analytics, but I get to keep my hand in one of the oldest disciplines that exists in web marketing.

SEO (or Search Engine Optimization if you have stumbled upon this post in error but are still reading) has brought to my professional career some of the best conversations and most endearing relationships I’ve ever had. So when the chaps at the SEO software company, Linkdex, asked to interview me for an eBook on the state of SEO right now, I leapt at the chance to express some of my thoughts on where we are with SEO and what I’ve learned from those conversations and relationships, and what I’ve picked up over the last 18 months through client interaction at Delightful Communications.

You’ll hear not just from me, but read wisdom from people like Danny Sullivan, Bruce Clay, Marty Weintraub, Dixon Jones, Andrew Girdwood, Cedric Chambaz, Eric Enge, Marcus Tandler, Sara Clifton, Rhea Drysdale, Josh Braaten and Aleyda Solis to name but a few.

It maybe 300 plus pages but the insight you’ll glean from its pages will carry your understanding and effectively equip you to navigate SEO for the next 300 years (well almost).

Download the SEO NOW eBook……….NOW!

In 3 weeks time I’ll be in New York for ClickZ Live, the digital marketing conference programmed by digital marketers.

I’m teaming up with the fabulous Erin Zefkeles from Bing Ads to give an expo theater presentation:

Personal Branding – How to Stand Up and Stand Out as a Digital Marketer

The internet is not just crowded with brands vying for consumers’ attention at every turn, it’s jam packed with gurus, experts and aficionados who claim to be “AdWords Obsessed” or “Social Media Divas” who promote themselves as the thing you need to take your business to the next level through digital marketing. In this session, Mel Carson from Delightful Communications and Erin Zefkeles from Bing Ads, will explore why taking care of your personal brand is so very important in the digital age, and how you can position yourself as an authentic, educated and trustworthy source of advice to your clients and potential customers. There won’t be a whiff of snake oil, we promise!

The session will definitely be different by focusing on how individuals can enhance their personal brands through digital, and in turn help the brands they work for.

The ClickZ Live team are a valued client of Delightful’s, and Erin and I are grateful they’re so enthusiastic about letting us bring this kind of wisdom to their audience!

Learn more about how to register for the event here, follow ClickZ Live on Twitter for the scoop in the run up to this awesome event and do check out what Delightful offers in the way of personal branding services.

Spotted this from Gal Borenstein on The Hub Comms where, ahem, I write an article every couple of weeks.

Sums up a few of the ways I’ve been persuading CEOs and senior executives they need to be thinking.

It pains me when I get pushback from exec comms people who say, “he or she just doesn’t have time”!

We all make time to listen and learn and, in my opinion, industry leaders need to lead this understanding from the front.

Relying on trusted advisors is ok for detail, but not understanding the general landscape or being oblivious to the latest trends in your industry is corporate suicide, when those trends change daily!

One great thing about my wife still working at Microsoft, is the odd invite we get to a sumptuous party.

Just before Christmas, we went to her team’s holiday soiree at the Bellevue Art Museum where there were a number of funtivities going on as people mingled with wine and started winding down for the year.

We made a beeline for the crew from Paint By a Girl who do all sorts of airbrush art and even create custom Ugg boots!

I handed over my business card with the Delightful logo on it, and this is what happened!

We had the best Saturday morning this past weekend. My father-in-law suggested we take our daughter, Maggie, to the Home Depot Kids Workshop in West Seattle and we had a blast.

Maggie is actually smiling in this photo!

The idea is that, for a few hours on a Saturday once a month, parents can take their children to their local Home Depot DIY store and make something cool using wood, real hammer and nails, glue and even get to paint their creation.

On Saturday they made a little desk calendar which used wooden blocks, and next month it’ll be a little racing car.

One of my new year resolutions is to really enjoy the small things in life, and this little outing was first on my appreciation list.

Not only did we have a fun morning, but it struck me what a genius marketing initiative this was to use creativity to get families into the store at no expense to them, have children start understanding the importance of woodwork, craft and DIY, and have them start seeing having a good time making things they can be proud of synonymous with the Home Depot brand. What was also apparent was the amount of families that then wandered off into the store to buy stuff, so they must make a few additional sales of the back of the program.

My only tiny grumble from a social point of view, was the lack of social activation. There was no hashtag on any of the collateral and I would have thought, given the rise in “sharenting”, that the store is missing a trick by not nudging proud parents to share their little ones’ creations on social channels.

Do you know of any initiatives like Home Depot’s that resonate like this? Let us know in the comments below.

Following on from their hilarious “Ship My Pants” video that has generated over 20 million views this year, US retailer Kmart has released a Christmas version using characters from Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” who talk about shipping their trousers!

As you can see from the link map from Majestic SEO below, the original ad was very popular in the UK and Europe, and I expect this version will see a similar pattern!

Majestic SEO Heat Map – Click to Enlarge

Great stuff from a store I have always associated with Dustin Hoffman’s underwear!

Love This Post? Then Please Share It >>>

Some of you might know that one of my many Delightful hats is actually more of a crown.

A Majestic SEO crown.

For over a year now, I’ve been lucky enough to act as Brand Ambassador for Majestic here in the USA, and speak at conferences about their incredible “big data” toolset.

My remit is to help broaden the audience for the brand and get other digital marketers enthused about getting smart with link data and using it for more than just SEO (search engine optimization).

I’ve done a couple of presentations this year and a couple of blog posts too about how best to use what Majestic has to offer, and on Friday 6th December at 9.30am PST (5.30pm GMT) I’ll be delivering a webinar on how businesses can use their tools for influencer discovery, digital PR and competitive analysis.

If you’re interested in hearing some top tips, feel free to register for FREE below:

Beyond SEO – Loving Link Data for Social Media Digital PR and More

If you know anyone in PR or social media that you think might benefit from a talk like this, please share this post!

Played this stunning video in a presentation I did last week for AXA Wealth at a gathering of their partner independent financial advisors last week.

When trying to explain the power of digital and the necessity of businesses to really start infusing into every nook and cranny of their organisation, I often use extreme examples to provide an audience with inspiration.

I’m obviously not saying that the relationship between the IFA and consumer is as strained as that of India and Pakistan, but if you listen to some of the voice overs in the final minute, there are a number of keywords that mirror what consumers want from brands in this increasingly social and mobile age.

Take a look and let me know what the video says to you in the comments below.

Starbucks have launched a cool new way to gift a friend a skinny latte via Tweet a Coffee.

This morning, I’d just sparked up my laptop and logged on Twitter to find a very clever surprise from my friend Kelley Myers.

Kelley, who is a friend and former colleague from Microsoft who now works in digital marketing at Starbucks, is jolly generous (as well as smart), so I clicked on the link and kaboom:

To set it up and Tweet a Coffee, you have to connect your Starbucks account with your Twitter account and Tweet.

That’s it! Genius?

Love how more people are getting creative with Twitter.

What will we see next? Tweet a Pizza? Tweet a Hug? Tweet a Beer?

Might have to put a bigger order in for some of those Twitter shares!

Oh…..and thanks Kelley!