Why Solar Needs To Win Marketing And Advertising Awards In 2014?

What do we want? Sales!

When do we want it? Yesterday!

Well, if you had met or exceeded your sales goals then you wouldn't need me. Am I right? I'm here to disrupt the industry with award winning work and provide new compelling reasons to lease Solar in 2014.

If 'moving the needle' is truly the objective then it's time to do something different according to where your Solar business is on the adoption curve. See below:

Based in the number of customers most companies currently have, my estimation is that all Solar Companies in the US are in between the early adopters column and barely into the early majority. After years of following the teachings of Geoffrey Moore, author, speaker, advisor, best known for Crossing the Chasm, I am absolutely clear that Solar needs to get more strategic in digital marketing and mobile advertising. 

Mr. Moore's teaching are simple: As you maneuver thru the adoption curve, the compelling reason to buy is not the same bewteen early adopters, the early majority, and the late majority. So what's my solution to do kick sales into overdrive?

Peanut Butter and Jelly:

Marketing solar in 2014 needs to achieve a clear cut "peanut better and jelly" moment where plug-in electric cars and solar are sandwiched together in an effort to create context of: saving lots of money everyday! Context is King in 2014 and branded content needs to drop the hard sales pitch. Once context is established, targeting electric vehicle owners to adopt solar will lead to setting sales records. 

Why electric car owners? With US plug-in electric vehicle sales up 84% in 2013, that means there's movement within the early majority (also known as "Pragmatists in pain") who've discovered their compelling reason to adopt. In fact, InsideEVs.com and the Detriot News have both report:

“In 2013, automakers sold nearly 49,000 plug-in hybrid vehicles — up 27 percent over 2012 — and 47,600 electric vehicles — up 241 percent, according to data complied by Ward’s Automotive.”

And guess what American City is the epicenter of plug-in electric vehicle adoption? Sunny San Diego

San Diego Now Has More EVs Per Capita Than Any Other US City: http://t.co/AV4ap44fOa

Why San Diego? Um, well... Maybe because we endure some of the highest gas prices (high cost of living) in the country, and the majority of drivers commute less than 50 miles per day. In fact, several plug-in owners acquire a second electric car within a year or two after there first purchase after realizing the money saved on a daily basis. San Diego Gas and Electirc estimates there are roughly 5000 plus plugin hybrid, electric vehicles currently on the road in America's Finest City and 2014 is the watershed for pragmatists in pain.

The definition of Pragmatism alone explains why marketing solar in 2014 must adapt: ^[1]Pragmatism is a rejection of the idea that the function of thought is to describe, represent, or mirror reality. Instead, pragmatists develop their philosophy around the idea that the function of thought is as an instrument or tool for prediction, action, and problem solving. Pragmatists contend that most philosophical topics—such as the nature of knowledge, language, concepts, meaning, belief, and science—are all best viewed in terms of their practical uses and successes rather than in terms of representative accuracy.

What's the silver bullet to target electric vehicle owners via advertising? Mobile and Native advertising... Duh!! Fact: the majority of all electric vehicles owners also own a variety of mobile devices and use apps on a dialy basis related to their vehicles especially charging. This also includes news apps. 

Now, I'm not going to give all of my secret sauce away, especially my advertising concepts, however pay attention this year to who's doing what and when because I'm determined to win  lots of these (below) for solar in 2014:

Follow myself and Geoffrey Moore on Twitter. My handle is @frshprnzcleantc. They don't call me the Fresh Prince of Cleantech for nothing!

Geoffrey Moore is a Venture partner at MDV. Chairman emeritus of The Chasm Group, Chasm Institute, TCG Advisors.

Add Shot - BigBike Group revs up San Diego's Mobile Scene

It's no secret to anyone who knows me that I love my Starbucks and especially adding a shot of espresso when I want to get something done right then. Using that metaphor, San Diego based businesses have much to accomplish in 2013 and require an "add shot" to their marketing and advertising plans. As Creative Director, I want to run all of the best campaigns in San Diego County. As a visionary, I see where the solutions are and because I have the gift of research, I can execute like nobody's business.

My Partner's Work

Let's face it. Mobile is where it's at. Not tomorrow. Right now! I purposely coined "Add Shot" to not only serve as my agency's term to pitch the Mobile trifecta, which takes aim at the Mobile website, the Mobile app, and Mobile advertising, but also a brief manifesto of what's to come and the effects on my Client's bottom line.  I'm an agent of disruption, so at the risk of appearing wonkish I promise to drop data to support my claims.

By the way, how does your site look on an iphone or android? Does in conform to appear clean, clear, and legible like this (pic left)? While every other agency spends all year pushing for responsive web design that automatically adjusts to the users adjusts to fit the users screen resolution (which is really for blogs), BigBike Groups runs against the gain on this debate. One of our top focuses in 2013 is to release the best mobile specific websites with separate content to dramatically improve load time and feature API keys to improve brand connectivity and sharing. Why does this debate matter? A 2011 Compuware article titled "What Users Want From Mobile" states if your site does not load with 3 seconds 60% of them will leave and never come back. Mobile is an art. Companies selling products, food, and services deserve better.

Windows Phone

As Creative Director, getting the right mobile website matters for me to focus on #goodvertising and for my mobile ads to matter and produce the results that show my clients the money! Seriously, creating rich media ads including video ad units, gifs, and interstitials are challenging enough and they commanded a greater click through rate of 1.1% in 2010. So wasting a better CTR and that potential customer's trust on a slow loading site makes no sense to me and serves as the first opportunity to save the client money.

It's also apparent that device makers are fully aware of the culture influence on society their toys have and so do the users. Yet, did you know 2/3 of our time on mobile phones are used for non-communicative activities with the average American spending 94 minutes per day utilizing mobile apps vs. web-based consumption? Mashable called 2012 The Year of Mobile Advertising and the Atlantic covered the national acceleration of mobile advertising accurately.

BigBike Group Mobile Ad Campaign

As for popular apps go in San Diego, there is a rush for publishers to develop and launch to appease their subscribers and not lose ground on readership, however San Diego is so diverse. From the craft beer scene having an app to the local tourism app to the County Parks app, and everything in between, there's a niche for advertisers to fill and not worry of competing with 5 other ads of the same page. It just takes a good eye and a skilled firm to lead the way. Thus developing an app should also be no light conversation either. I believe a brand selling a product or aiming to increase employees engagement or creating a loyalty program or wanting to increase demand with a game, they  should have a Mobile app.

Also, did you know San Diego was dubbed the "Wireless Capital of the World" over Silicon Valley by Forbes Magazine just last year? It's true. Forbes tech contributor Mark Fidelman's June 27th piece pointed out the concentration of wireless employees in San Diego is 484 per 100,000 residents, compared to Silicon Valley's 375 per 100,000. Plus Novatel CEO Pete Leparulo's quote lends our mobile industry some credibility when he said, "San Diego for wireless technology is an amazing place. It's what I image Detroit was like during the heyday of inventiveness." Not bad, but what about San Diego's mobile market?

Well, besides the thousands of high wage employees of telecom companies that either carry a smartphone and or tablet device (just ask any Qualcomm employee), San Diego County has 3.1 million residents, 4000 square miles—and an ultra conservative estimate of 500,000 mobile devices in adult households according to Scarborough Research's *outdated stats from 2007, or closer to 1.5 million compared to National estimates of 52% released at CES. Yes, the range is wide, however the evidence is self evident.

I also believe its "The Year of The eWallet" for San Diego and advertising to the ewallet user will pay off in huge divided ends. I think there's clout here since Scarborough ranked San Diego as one of the top tech savvy cities in the country and the swipe of the mobile to pay for food, drinks, products, and more just completes the rave review.

Now, I'm not going to discuss my firm's strategies of how I present all of this and pitch, so that some young ad executive at a competing firm looking to prove something can turn around and copy me, but I will say to those who could be potential clients reading this... let's meet for coffee soon.    

Email me at yevesperez [at] gmail [dot] com or tweet me @frshprnzcleantc.