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From Bolzano to Silicon Valley; a life-changing experience

Aug 2014/in , /by

This post was written by Fjorela Dardha our Marketing intern from Bolzano Italy through the M31USA, internship placement program:

I am Fjorela, a student of Masters of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at the Free University of Bolzano in Italy. As part of a project funded by the European Social Fund, I was given the unique opportunity to visit Silicon Valley for six weeks in order to get an insight into ways of doing business in the world leading hub for high-tech innovation.

In particular, I had the chance to do a month-long internship in the Marketing department at FirstRain. From the very beginning, I was warmly accommodated and walked through the team’s overall responsibilities and upcoming projects. What really impressed me was how much people cared to make sure my experience in this start-up would be as beneficial as possible. They involved me in different meetings and group activities and were always asking about what I was doing in Italy, curious to hear about my impressions on the differences between European and American culture.

FirstRain is characterized by a very flat organizational structure and the team appears to be enthusiastically committed to a common goal while making the working environment a great and fun place to be in. I felt that particular attention was given to diversity, which is seen as a valuable component and is reflected in the team composition. I was unexpectedly invited to celebrate the end of their financial quarter, which offered me the unique opportunity to witness how much passion and love people can feel for what they are doing while still finding time to have fun among colleagues. During the party, I had the chance to eat and drink with the whole company, getting to meet people from all over the United States. I even got involved in a Sumo Wrestling match! “It’s an intern tradition” – they said…

Overall I consider this experience to have been extremely valuable and positive both from an educational and personal perspective. I had the opportunity to learn new tools such as Salesforce, which may turn out to be useful for my future career, and got an extensive picture of how start-ups work in the Bay Area. Moreover I was able to get some insights and real life examples of management in highly innovative environments as start-ups tend to be, where the decision making process is very quick and people have to constantly adapt to new circumstances. I consider myself very lucky for having been part of such a great and motivated team and for having had the occasion to create contacts and discover potential future career opportunities.

 

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Give Your Marketing A Boost: 3 Novel Marketing Ideas

Feb 2014/in /by

Don’t fall into a drab routine with your marketing efforts. While they may be working just fine, if you’re in a rut, you’re sure not inspiring anyone. Rev up your promotional game this winter and introduce some creativity into your marketing campaigns. Customers need a little extra to keep them going, so by making their day more interesting, you may improve sales productivity as well.

Start Out with Some Research

Don’t pour too many resources into a new campaign without doing some customer research first. All good promotional initiatives start with customer intelligence. Plug back into your potential buyer’s market and see what’s going on. What social networks do your ideal customers tend to frequent? Is there a big event that you can use for some timely content? Do the legwork and you’re likely to come up with some great ideas for how to swing a new campaign.

Throw in a Cartoon

Cartoons are incredibly engaging. According to Stu Heinecke for Salesforce, studies demonstrate that cartoons tend to be the most memorable part of a publication. Using cutting humor, a one panel cartoon can say a lot about a product or service. In addition, they can be fantastic tools for engagement, as The New Yorker consistently demonstrates with its caption contest. As of April 2011, 502,416 individuals had submitted 1,595,506 captions, according to The New Yorker. And the contest is still going strong. Not only is the competition fun, but it increases engagement with the publication. Heinecke also says that using a cartoon in an email campaign can double open rates. This is a relatively easy way to spice up a campaign, so why not give it a try?

Try Out Vine

Vine is no longer brand new, and it’s arguably a dying art now that Instagram does videos. On the other hand, Vine still integrates better with Twitter than Instagram does, which makes it an excellent tool. Even better, vines can be embedded in blogs, which makes them easy to share on all kinds of platforms. What is Vine? It’s a six-second video that loops infinitely. This all may sound very strange to the uninitiated, but just like Twitter, the space limitation has made it a unique medium for creative types to play around with. Because it’s so short, it’s also ideal for marketers. Show your creativity with stop-motion animation, or just demonstrate what’s going on behind the scenes at your company. The short length almost guarantees that people will watch it, and you’d be surprised what you can do in that amount of time. If you don’t believe me, check out Econsultancy’s list of the best branded vines from this month.

Get Experiential

Business to consumer companies have been all about experience-based marketing for a long time. However, as social media becomes a greater influence, marketers are looking for ways to involve the consumer in marketing once again. B2B enterprises don’t always have the same opportunities to be face to face with potential customers in the sort of playful environment that’s conducive to this kind of marketing. However, trade shows are a great place to try out some innovative ideas. According to B2B Marketing, one of the key ideas is creating an immersive experience. Show potential buyers something they’ve never seen before. With new technologies, this is easier than ever. For example, a corporate car distributor sent executives on a cruise in a 19th century ship, without ever leaving shore. Using 180 degree projection screens, the company created an alternate reality where the visitors appeared to be inside the ship watching the sea.

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