Posts by Cliff Callis
Insights from OUTdrive Guests
OUTdrive Episode 61 | Solocast OUTdrive has been airing each week for over a year now with this being the 61st episode. In every episode, I ask guests to share something they think others would find interesting or beneficial, and their responses are always insightful. In this episode, I chose to revisit each episode and…
Read MoreBehind the Scenes of OUTdrive
OUTdrive Episode 55 with Sarah Arnett Communications professionals are riding the growing wave of nearly 2 million podcasts across audio streaming services. In this episode of OUTdrive, I visit with Sarah Arnett for a behind-the-scenes look at what it takes to produce a quality podcast. Sarah is a Marketing Coordinator at Callis and is a…
Read MoreYou Never Know | Managing the Sales Funnel and Strategic Planning
Recognizing Opportunities and Nurturing Relationships OUTdrive Episode 44: Solocast with Cliff Callis Not too long ago, in Super Bowl LV, Tampa Bay totally dominated our favorite, the KC Chiefs. All season, KC had found a way to win as the Buccaneers slowly built up a really strong team. Coming into the game, I was feeling…
Read MoreStaying the Course
Forward Progress Through Challenging Times OUTdrive Episode 9 Today is the primary election day throughout America. As we jump into our topic of Staying the Course, I want to encourage you to get out and vote. It’s our constitutional right and responsibility as citizens of the United States of America and our country needs your…
Read MoreAct Like a Boy Scout and Be Prepared.
Many of us kids who grew up in rural America were Boy Scouts. If we didn’t learn it on the farm, it’s where we learned how to tie knots, camp, shoot and canoe. It’s where we honed skills that became lifelong habits. It’s where we learned how to be prepared for whatever might come your way. Certainly however,…
Read MoreYou Never Know
When writing this, I’m in between a trade show and a plane ride home and wanting to share a nugget dug out of my last couple of days’ experiences. My nugget from the show is…you never know. My planning for the show started a couple of months ago when we started scouring the list of…
Read MoreSimple Message. Perfect Targeting. Great Execution.
Every now and then, an ad comes along that just makes you feel good. Maybe it’s the imagery, or the product and the way it’s being used or maybe it’s the music. In Ford’s new TV commercial, Tow It, it’s all three, and that doesn’t happen every day. Ford F-150 TV Commercial, ‘Tow It’ When…
Read MoreOne Little Word
It is amazing how one little word can change everything. Recently, I was coming out of a public bathroom and read the sign on the inside of the door, which said – Before you leave, turn off the light and close the door. Think about it. If you would follow the directions and do exactly…
Read MoreThe Buyer Wants to Buy
In the ad agency business, no one is going to hire you just because you pick up the phone and ask them to. (If there is someone like that, send me your number and I’ll give you a call.) Same holds true for most every other product, category and industry too. People today want to…
Read MoreShould I Change my Creative Approach? 5 Indicators that Now is the Time
The best explanation of what makes great advertising or messaging was given to me a long time ago but it still holds steadfast today. The most effective way to deliver an advertising message is to do so in an unexpected way. Why? Because you don’t see it coming so it is powerful and sticks with…
Read MoreFootball & Marketing Agencies – What Could They Possibly Have in Common?
It’s football season and for many people, that means lining up tailgate parties, picking fantasy league teams and making plans for Homecoming (which by the way started in Missouri at Mizzou). Whether you like football or not, we find that it’s a great analogy for our agency and how we service clients. It helps our…
Read MoreWhere is Voice Search Heading?
Recently we added Alexa to our home sound system. Although she sits inconspicuously in a couple different spots in our house, she stands ready to assist to play music, find recipes, adjust sound levels and serve up any little tidbit of information we desire. What a woman! I’ve been using Siri on my iPhone for…
Read MoreLet Data Drive Your Marketing Decisions
Recently, I watched the movie, Moneyball, again. In case you haven’t seen it, It’s a very entertaining baseball movie based on the concept of tracking everything and making decisions based on what the data tells you. In the movie, the concept proved very successful. But it’s the movies, right? In the old days, baseball managers…
Read MoreManaging a Content Marketing Team
If you’re managing a content marketing team you are likely well aware of the importance of content, and not just content, but really good content. But how can you lead your content marketing team to consistently and efficiently hammer out new, really good content? There’s no doubt this is a challenging question and I’m guessing…
Read MoreMarketing Insights: A Business Mindset
I’ve been thinking about writing about a business mindset for some time now. In fact, I’ve visited with my team about it on multiple occasions. But I’ve been holding off until I really had a day to remember. Monday was that day. Business is Like a Roller Coaster Let me start by saying that when…
Read MoreWhat Happens if Facebook Goes Away?
I was at a CMO conference this past week for the outdoor industry and a very provocative question was posed to the group. What if Facebook goes away? Hmmm. Interesting. Do you have so much invested in building out your social media channel on Facebook that it could become disruptive to your marketing efforts if…
Read MoreAre you Overmarketing?
Recently, a prospect used the word “overmarketing” in a new business call when describing what one of their marketing challenges was. I hadn’t thought about overmarketing for a while, and it intrigued me, so I did some reading just to freshen up. One article I read asserted that Overmarketing implies the fundamental difference between selling…
Read MoreTis’ the Season…to Win with Email Marketing
Even though Black Friday has come and gone, research shows that the remaining weeks of the year are still some of the best email marketing result producers…especially for last minute holiday shoppers. Even though there might be preoccupation by outdoor brands to think about the upcoming show season and year, a final push through December…
Read MoreEmbrace Online Forums and Foster Online Communities
The conversation is going to happen with or without you. This is a fact and is also my standard response when people say they are afraid to get too aggressive with social media or want to avoid online forums. Outdoor brands are almost always followed and talked about extensively online because they draw enormous passion…
Read MoreMaking Sense of Real Time Bidding/RTB
Real Time Bidding, also called “Real Time Buying”, or “RTB” is an ad industry buzz phrase that’s been around for a few years now. If you haven’t figured out what it might mean to your business, you’re not alone. The concept is confusing, but it’s probably time to get your head around it. The Basics…
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