Popup shops used to be the domain of seasonal stores selling cheap costumes or tacky holiday gifts but the ever changing world of retail and shopper marketing has turned that on it’s head. Popup shops (where a company takes over an unused space for only a few weeks or months and then closes) have now been used by companies all over the world. Cheap chic retail king Target opened up popup shops for their collaborations with both Steve McQueen and Anna Sui. Likewise, eBay opened it's own popup shop showing off some of the things you could find on the site.
These shops are great for testing a new area or launching a new product but their real strength lies in creating buzz around a brand. Giving a consumer an amazing shoppping experience along with a smart product is the ultimate way to earn loyalty and trust. So if you think your brand or product could benefit from a well designed and executed pop up shop, I know a Charlotte Advertising Agency that would be a perfect fit!
Brought to you by birdsong gregory's favorite computer/application/smartfone/digital lifestyle company – delivered in their own fun, clever, rapacious flavor of brand personality.
And from all of us here at our shopper-centric Charlotte agency, have a safe, peaceful, meaningful end of the year and a bitchin' Yuletide.
Hey. They're not exactly British. And they certainly don't sound like us bacon-eating, gun-toting Yanks. Yet shoppers in New Zealand have a lot in common with shoppers in Charlotte, NC – birdsong gregory's traditional stomping grounds.
NZ or USA: we can spot similar retail channels, the same consumption patterns, and a good trend marker of how today's shoppers are generally integrating their online brand experiences with the traditional trip to a bricks n' mortar touchpoint.
As any good graphic designer knows, the look of a typeface can determine how readers perceive a word or phrase, a brand, or a company. And to fully understand how type works to communicate a marketing message, it helps to know the history of printed characters.
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, American and European type foundries – where type was designed and cast for commercial and industrial use – churned out thousands of eccentrically decorative typefaces and typographic ornaments, most of it bought by printers.
Back then advertising was a burgeoning industry, and the more outlandish display styles were conceived in equal measure to attract the public’s eye and to distinguish one merchant from the next.
TYPE: A Visual History of Typefaces and Graphic Styles, Volume I, 1628-1900 is a new TASCHEN collection of exquisitely reproduced pages from an array of lusciously printed vintage foundry specimen books that were used to promote type fonts to commercial printers. Many quirky specimens in this compilation predate the mid-1800s, but most were produced in the second half of the 19th century, when fierce competition among foundries fostered an abundance of smartly designed and ludicrously gaudy faces.
From this week's Advertising Age: In an effort to build buzz in select urban markets this holiday season, Target plans to unveil three pop-up stores modeled after a fast-food joint.
Target to Go stores will be open in New York, Washington and San Francisco (hmmm no Charlotte, NC?) from Dec. 11-13 and will stock 50 popular gift items that shoppers will order by number.
"The design is reflective of where guests are at now," said Shawn Gensch, VP-marketing at Target. "They're time starved, so this is a quick experience that gives them great products at great, wallet-friendly prices."
The shops are meant to attract attention in urban markets where Target doesn't have a significant presence, said Mr. Gensch, adding that the success of the stores will be measured based on traffic levels, sales and buzz.
Stay abreast of the latest trends in advertising and marketing by subscribing to our blog. And to learn more about how birdsong gregory can help you with social media, branding, advertising and marketing, visit our web site.
There was a great article on page 1 of the NY Times business section last Sunday that explored the wild success of Apple's App Store. Featuring tens of thousands of applications that run on an Apple's iPhone and generating increasingly large amounts of both popularity and opportunity, the App Store, as this article points out, is compelling for several reasons. It generates as much as a billion dollars a year for Apple and the legion of third-party developers who create, code, and market apps. And the wide range of available applications means there is a potential market for anything, from a silly game to a sophisticated brand touchpoint for a company looking for a fun new viral marketing channel, a potential new revenue stream. Or both!
Here at birdsong gregory, our Charlotte marketing agency has both programming resources and a couple of good ideas about how help the right company extend it's online persona into the rapidly developing smart phone ecosystem.
Designers are color obsessed by nature and our birdsong gregory team knows how important color is to a successful brand. Thanks to the extensive line of Pantone accessories Charlotte graphic design professionals can now color code not just their professional works, but also their personal lives. Luggage tags, wallets, messenger bags, coffee mugs, pepper mills, key chains, cufflinks and iPhone cases are just a few of the ways you can define your own personal color brand.
Some of the luckier folks here at birdsong gregory, a Charlotte branding agency, scored coveted tickets to the Neko Case show at the new Knight Theater – which adjoins the still unopened Bechtler Museum of Modern Art. The theater is on the left, museum on the right, but from the second floor of the Knight lobby a wall of glass lets the Warhols and the Giacomettis join the party.
Designed by Thompson, Ventulet, Stainback, and Associates, the Knight Theater is a 1,150 seats theater that will be the primary venue for the North Carolina Dance Theatre, and will also feature performances by Opera Carolina and the Charlotte Symphony, as well as plays, lectures, films, and epic performances by bands like the notorious Deer Tick (who opened for Neko).
Advertisers watch out ... at least if your products are sold in San Francisco. A recent story from the Examiner details how San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sent a scathing letter to Kellogg Co. for claiming that Cocoa Krispies and other of its “sugar-laden” breakfast cereals will help boost children’s immunity to illnesses.
In the letter sent to the company’s president and CEO, Herrera expressed “serious concerns” about the large font printed on the Cocoa Krispies cereal box that reads, “Now Helps Support Your Child’s Immunity.”
The city attorney says that is likely false advertising, a potential violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law. He has asked Kellogg’s to prove its child immunity claims within 30 days. If the company fails to respond within that time, the City Attorney will “seek an immediate termination or modification of the advertising claim,” the letter said.
The claim is also printed on the Rice Krispies, Frosted Krispies and Jumbo Krispies cereal boxes. The products began appearing on shelves in San Francisco stores in recent months, Herrera noted.
I'm not sure how many parents are scooping up Cocoa Krispies for their health benefits, but this case does highlight the scrutiny that all advertising agencies and their clients can expect when making controversial claims for their products.
Stay in tune with the latest headlines from the worlds of advertising and design by subscribing to our blog feed. birdsong gregory is an innovative Charlotte advertising agency providing creative branding and marketing services to clients throughout North Carolina.
Timed with Microsoft's new Windows software launch, Apple has begun to air a series of pretty creative videos poking fun at the failures of Windows past. This advertising strategy seems to be working. Mac sales are well ahead of the pace of PCs and from a branding perspective, the Apple logo has become synonymous with innovation. At birdsong gregory our clients may not include Apple (yet) but our advertising strategies and branding initiatives are helping Charlotte and North Carolina companies prosper.
Although technically still in the food business, supermarkets now find themselves increasingly looking at their operations from the perspective of a media company. Why? Because sixty percent of all in-store purchases are unplanned, according to James Maskulka, associate professor of marketing at Lehigh University in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. This means our snacky impulse purchases can be influenced by a variety of in-store marketing communications: everything from coupons and end-of-aisle displays to digital cart screens and networked kiosks. Even better, a grocer's in-store marketing efforts can be accurately measured for ROI and efficacy, unlike traditional print advertising or TV spots.
To find out more about how our Charlotte, NC branding agency can help your company bring harmony and results to today's increasingly competitive retail environment, please call Jim Cusson at 704.332.2299.
For a Charlotte, NC branding agency, we like think we're wide open when it comes to using viral craziness to promote a product, service, or good cause.
Remember the guy who said he’d get a tattoo if 25,000 people joined his Facebook group? Or the lady Well at least that was entertaining (and novel) for the time. Now, however, people are starting to plumb the depths of bad taste and internet-fueled excess. Yes, a man is offering to name his son Batman if he can get 500,000 people make him their Facebook friend.
There are currently about 486,000 fans, so chances are he’ll have reached his goal by now. This questionable parent is also encouraging fans to give him their e-mail addresses so that he can e-mail him the birth certificate once his son is born.
Sounds to me like the “media” company behind the whole thing just wants 500,000 e-mail addresses.
A flash mob is a large group of people who assemble suddenly in a public place, perform an unusual action for a brief time, then quickly disperse. The term flash mob is generally applied only to gatherings organized via telecommunications, social media, or viral emails.
It's a new form of spontaneous group performance art, but it’s easy to see how this type of viral event could be used to promote a brand or marketing event (the famous T-Mobile Liverpool Street Station flash mob in London)
If you don't get it, please call our Charlotte ad agency and ask to speak to Jim.
Since 2003, Roger Federer has sported a monogram on all tennis-related clothing. But now the intertwined “RF” is back. It’s big enough to be legible in photographs. And it’s everywhere: on Roger Federer’s shoes, his duffel, his jackets, his racquet cases. Forget all the subtle functions a monogram used to perform – discreetly personalizing a gentleman’s wardrobe, helping the servants sort the shirts. What three years ago seemed a plausible, if affected, style on the part of an athlete has now transformed this international tennis superstar into a master of personal branding.
Along the way fans and the media have speculated that the idea for the monogram had been his all along or whether his primary sponsor, Nike, made him do it.
The font – a slightly redrawn version of Bodoni, which with its cousin Didot, has been the basis for logos for Vogue, Giorgio Armani and Louis Vuitton – is a signifier of fashion at the high end, and here at birdsong gregory, our Charlotte branding agency is glad to see the stuffy old monogram emerge as clean, modern logo with loads of branding potential.
Have you always wanted to know the difference between a pictogram and an ideogram? Or where America's first advertising agency opened its doors? (FYI: it was Philadelphia in 1841). Then check out www.designhistory.org. This wonderfully illustrated site begins with the origin of symbols and type before moving through the various cultural movements (Bauhaus, Arts and Crafts, etc.) that influenced and eventually evolved into the modern digital state of design and advertising.
Here at birdsong gregory, the graphic designers and branding gurus at our Charlotte ad agency are always looking for ways to sharpen their craft and deepen their knowledge of this creative, mercurial industry. So to that end, this site is a helpful collection of facts, faces, and inspiration.
When the economy is troubled and dollars are tight, we continue to see companies invest in expensive traditional media, including digital banners and television spots. These companies are missing an opportunity to interact with their audiences. At birdsong gregory, our Charlotte ad agency, we strive to build brand awareness and engagement around content and community where the target audiences of our clients live. And all things considered, we believe advertising agencies in Charlotte can generate more effective and higher-quality impressions at a much lower price than traditional online and offline media.
Want to find out more about the ways we're helping our clients get more bang for their marketing buck? Simply give us a call.
Here at birdsong gregory, our boutique Charlotte ad agency, we specialize in the lost art of simplification and clarity. So as the world's obsession with social media deepens, we've taken it upon ourselves to translate this exciting and complex new landscape into a client-friendly version that doesn't raise more questions than it answers. Here you go . . .
Social media is as simple as its component parts – social interaction meets media – the sites, events, communities and resources that enable people to share with each other, collaborate, communicate and reinvent.
Social media marketing is harnessing that media to drive conversation, build awareness, and spark word of mouth around a brand, individual or particular subject matter.
The big take away? If you company is headquartered in Charlotte, social media can deliver a global audience.
Want to find birdsong gregory on the web? Search for Advertising Agency Charlotte, Branding Agency Charlotte, Charlotte Graphic Design or even Charlotte Social Media. These are just a few of the keyword phrases we try to optimize against because we recognize when prospective clients hit Google to research potential agency partners, it's what they'll be searching for. The more competitive or broad the phrase, the more difficult it is to win. For instance North Caroilina Advertising Agencies is one we continue to pursue, but it's a long haul.
Are you on page one for your company's keywords? If not, give Jim Cusson a call at 704-332-2299 or visit our site at www.birdsonggregory.com
Though recent high-profile media coverage suggests that a large percentage of the US population participates in online social networking and microblogging, more than half of Americans (51%) do not use Twitter or participate in either of the two largest social networking sites – MySpace and Facebook – according to a recent Harris Poll from Harris Interactive. This gives a Charlotte marketing agency or a Charlotte ad agency something to consider.
The survey finds that just under half (48%) of US adults have either a MySpace or Facebook account, and that only 16% update their page at least once a day. Usage statistics are much lower for Twitter, with only 5% of Americans saying they currently use it, Harris said. And as expected, Harris reports that there are substantial differences in who is and who isn’t using these selected social networking sites:
Three-fourths of those ages 18-34 (74%) have a Facebook or MySpace account, but this quickly drops off the older people get. Just one-quarter (24%) of those ages 55+ have an account.
Tweeting is also slightly more prevalent among the young, but not by much; only 8% of 18-34-year-olds use Twitter, while 7% of those ages 35-44 use it, 4% of those ages 45-54 and only 1% of those ages 55+ use it.
While men and women use Twitter at the same levels (5% each), women are more likely to have a Facebook or MySpace account (52% vs. 45%).
There is an educational difference in usage of MySpace and Facebook. Two in five people with a high school degree or less (40%) have a Facebook or MySpace account, compared with 55% of those with some college and 52% of those with at least a college degree.
To learn more about how our Charlotte advertising and marketing agency can help you create a measurable, unified online brand, please visit birdsong gregory or contact Jim Cusson at 704-332-2299.
From this week's Advertising Age: In an effort to build buzz in select urban markets this holiday season, Target plans to unveil three pop-up stores modeled after a fast-food joint. 
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