Who was it that said there's no such thing as bad PR? Maybe Charlie Sheen's agent. From winning to warlocks, it appears Charlie Sheen has officially lost it (thank you Jimmy Fallon). And merci, Charlie Sheen, for giving me a reason to wake up in the morning and peruse the latest rant on an episode of Sheen's Korner (sic). Then dive into Shopper Marketing Weekly.
Funnily enough, although the TV producers and writers for Two and Half Men may want nothing to do with Sheen, the media cannot get enough.
At bg, our buzz-conscious North Carolina ad agency works hard every day to deliver the right message for our clients and to build brands that shopers respect and trust – which makes Sheen's unraveling all the more interesting.
Just because an ad or a marketing ploy gets noticed, that free attention doesn't always mean it's the right message or image for that brand.
The beef scented billboard we designed for our North Carolina supermarket client Bloom has been featured everywhere from Nikkei Marketing Journal in Japan to the Today Show and even mentioned on an episode of the CBS show CSI. But to be featured in the comics – well that's when you know you've really made it.
A few weeks ago the Blondie strip above referenced the existence of a BBQ scented billboard. Needless to say this has been a pretty powerful advertising vehicle for Bloom – delivering unearned media impressions to the tune of millions of dollars. And it's also nice to be recognized by our industry peers. The Bloom scented billboard was awarded a Gold ADDY just last week from the advertising community in Charlotte.
During the holidays many people get caught up in the hustle and bustle of the season and forget to focus on what this time of year really represents. Not only do we tend to be greedy, gluttonous, envious and boastful, but we come to expect the most and forget the reason for the season.
At our North Carolina based ad agency, birdsong gregory, our client, Bloom however has not forgotten the true meaning for this holiday season. Now through December 26th Bloom has partnered with Feeding America to provide food to families in need. So while you are picking up your last minute shopping items before your great-aunt Judy and uncle David arrive, visit Bloom or donate directly to Feeding America and don't forget the reason for the season.
The creative team from Birdsong Gregory will be participating in the 2nd annual GUTS competition. This years event will be held Thursday - October 28, at the corner of Trade and Tryon in uptown Charlotte.
"GUTS is a friendly pumpkin carving competition organized and created by HAWSE, A Brand Agency in Charlotte, North Carolina with assistance from Charlotte Center City Partners. It's purpose is to provide Charlotte creative professionals can enter into healthy competition with their peers that creates awareness of the talent in Charlotte, and more importantly, raises money for Levine Children's Hospital."
Check out the site to learn more on how to donate or purchase merchandise.
A few highlights from a recent Advertising Age article that debunks the myths about penetration of pop culture hot topics...
If 10 million iPads ship this year, users will still represent less than 3% of the population.
While sales of organic foods are rising, they only represents 3.7% of all food sales.
While there are more than 100 million registered Twitter accounts, 40% of them have never sent a single tweet.
What does this mean to a North Carolina ad agency like birdsong gregory? It's easy to get caught up in the myths of popular culture. So be sure to look deep into the data and explore shopper insights to make sure marketing strategies are well founded.
A few months ago I wrote about an endeavor called Project H, which set off around the country in an Airstream Trailer to "Connect the power of design with the people who need it most". Well they have wrapped up their journey now and this article is a pretty fascinating look into what they did and where they went. Their insights into how people of different ages react to alternative designs was the most touching part for me. It was a great mission and I wish them the best of luck setting up shop in Bertie County, North Carolina.
Side Note: If you are offended by the occasional use of words that could get your mouth washed out with soap- Click through with caution!
Thats the driving force behind Project H, a group of designers, architects and builders who believe that design can be more than pretty. They are travelling the country in an Airstream trailer helping educational institutes solve their worst problems through creativity and design.
Their latest project is a year long stay in Bertie County North Carolina, the poorest county in the state. Their initiatives range from connecting the county through high speed internet to setting up a training center called Studio H. It's an inspirational cause that I'll be following throughout the year for sure.
Each year I look forward to selecting my new calendar the way school-kids look forward to picking out their notebooks, pens and pencils every fall. For designers a calendar can be the perfect combination of typography, simplicity, creativity, and visual order – and no I am not referring to the ones that feature fluffy cats or been-done aspirational phrases paired with photos of mountains or seascapes. Here are some of my favorites for 2010: Timor Perpetual Calendar by Enzo Mari, SusieJack* Wall Calendar, the fun and quirky Cats Let Nothing Darken Their Roar wall calendar, letterpress desk calendar by Snow & Graham, and always a favorite at our North Carolina ad agency the Stendig Calendar by Massimo Vignelli.
To learn how birdsong gregory can bring creativity and visual order to your biz in 2010, visit our website.
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).
If you work in an image saturated field like graphic design or advertising, then you understand the need for a more user-friendly and hierarchical way to search online for stock photography. So we were excited to see Google recently roll out their smooth flash-based image search tool: Google Image Swirl.
When you click a stack of images, Image Swirl displays a fluid matrix of photos based on a quasi relational basis, i.e., search for dogs and you get several thick stacks of dog shots, which you can then rifle through. But bugs in the search logic remain. A search for dogs also turns up a shot of machine parts. And a search for ambition returns a shot of two young japanese guys staring blankly into the camera.
It's still a fun way to hunt for that perfect visual metaphor, though. Plus the resulting patterns that develop are a loose art form unto themselves.
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.
Here's a picture of my newest daughter, Charlotte (born October 5th) as she rests on the chest of my four year old, Emma - as she watches SpongeBob Squarepants on Nickelodeon. Shameless bragging from Dad? Perhaps. But the picture also reminds me of the challenges we face everyday at birdsong gregory, as we multitask in the development of advertising and marketing communications for our Charlotte and North Carolina clients. It does take a rare breed of individual to thrive in this kind of environment. And our team fits that bill.
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.
Are you a suit or a skirt? That's just one of the many decisions you can make with MadMenYourself, a new online promotion from AMC to promote the premiere of the third season of Mad Men. Besides choosing precisely how you will look (down to the shape of your body), you'll be able to decide what accessories (including bow ties for the gents, a fur stole for the ladies) you'll be brandishing, and what scene you'll be inhabiting (office, picnic or night out?). Here at birdsong gregory, a Charlotte advertising agency, we've created an ensemble avatar.
And in a big way. Plans were announced this summer that Apple will invest $1 billion in a computer data center over nine years.
The data center is expected to have at least 50 full-time employees, although another 250 contractors could be employed to manage security, landscaping and heating and air conditioning systems. Including construction jobs, the presence of the facility could put a total of 3,000 people to work, according to Department of Commerce estimates. This would provide a significant economic boost to local communities, the state, and possibly Charlotte branding agencies and the wider Charlotte graphic design community.
The exact location is still undecided, but Apple has to build the data center in one of North Carolina’s more economically distressed counties, according to provisions in the incentives legislation. It is expected to choose a location in the western part of the state, likely between Charlotte and Asheville.
To learn more about our branding agency or the marketing, advertising, and graphic design services we offer, please visit birdsong gregory online, contact Jim Cusson at 704-332-2299, or stop by the next time you’re in downtown Charlotte.
Companies such as Zappos, Dell, and JetBlue are all known as successes in harnessing the power of social media for business. However, the aforementioned businesses sell directly to consumers. How about the business that sells products to other businesses? What if you’re a company that builds inventory software or administers group benefit plans? Is Twitter, Facebook, Ning, or a company blog going to be of any use?
In a word, yes. There are plenty of companies utilizing the social web for B2B marketing purposes. To help you make sense of it all, here are a couple of tips that our Charlotte ad agency shares with our B2B clients to help them find customers, build up a reputation, and gain the upper hand on landing the big deal. Although the Charlotte social media scene is still catching up to other regions of the country, there is a lot of opportunity for area companies.
Step 1. Build a reputation of expertise
What use is a company blog if you only have 10,000 customers, rather than 10 million? While it may be true that a B2B’s blog or Twitter is not going to be followed by as many people, it doesn’t change the fact that it will affect the decisions of your customers. Say a potential customer becomes aware of your software solution, and goes to your website to find out more about you. How can you stand out from the crowd? By building a blog with your expertise in focus.
If a potential customer comes to your company’s website and sees an active blog with insightful posts on how your company’s product helps customers, reads detailed posts demonstrating your company’s knowledge, and comes across a few case studies, they’re going to be far more inclined to come to you for their needs. North Carolina Ad Agencies need to take note.
Social media provides an outlet for displaying who you and your company are. Talking about your industry in an intelligent way via Twitter and a regularly-updated blog can raise your company’s profile and brand it as a thought leader and expert in its specific business area.
37Signals, the maker of Software-as-a-service business collaboration products, is a prime example of this philosophy in action. Their blog is regularly read by thousands of people, shared among businesses, and has even opened up another revenue stream in the form of a popular job board. Social media builds reputations.
2. Research your customers
Everyone thinks of social media as a communication tool, but not enough people think of it as a research tool. With the ridiculous amount of data produced every day on social networks, blogs, and in conversations, it should be apparent that you can learn tidbits or spot major trends by tracking the social universe.
Know what your customers are saying: If you’re trying to secure a contract from a big business, then they are probably talking to their customers via Twitter, Facebook, and more. Learn what they’re saying to their customers and read the blogs of decision makers to learn what they value and how they think.
Know what your customers’ customers are saying: Your customers don’t care about you – they care about their customers and their bottom line. If you can find behavior patterns in their customers that your product can address, your pitch will resonate more. Driving the point that their current solution doesn’t work, and then proving that with social chatter is even better.
Step 3. Ramp up your networking If you are competing with another company to land a big deal, it always helps to have connections and friendships within the company you’re trying to woo. You should always be networking, because you never know when a contact can become your advocate or even the decision-maker. And that’s where social media can help.
There are a lot of things you can do to get started on the networking front. They key, though, is that you have to reach out. Otherwise, how will people know to listen? While there are literally hundreds of ways to network with potential partners, vendors, clients, businesses, customers, and decision-makers, the truth is it doesn’t matter which tool you use as long as it is one that the other person values. LinkedIn, Twitter, Plaxo, etc. are always great places to start, but if you can network with them on niche social sites, you’ll stand out just a bit more.
Step 4. Learn from others In the end, you want to come out sharper, more knowledgeable, and better prepared than your competitors. It doesn’t matter if you have 60 or 600,000 customers, and it does not matter whether or not you sell to general consumers or Fortune 500 companies. Almost everyone is using or tracking social media and it provides you a prime opportunity to make you and your business a leader rather than a follower.
- Seek out blogs and publications in your industry and subscribe via RSS
- Network with relevant experts, including those who may only be partially related
- Follow the insights of business leaders on Twitter
- Connect with commenters on your own blog
- Make yourself very easy to find on the web – if people search for your name or your business, you should be at the top of Google’s results. Building a blog, using a Twitter, and creating a decent corporate website always helps
- Keep an open mind
In closing, don’t underestimate how much information is on the web. It’s stunning what you can learn just by reaching out. If you and your business have a strong social presence, it’s simply easier for potential partners, customers, employers, and businesses to find you. So when it comes to B2B marketing, Charlotte needs to get ready!
I came across this great video from Tim Brown, the CEO of innovation and design firm IDEO, talk out creativity and play that I thought I would share with you. Jim Cusson, Chief Strategic Officer here at birdsong gregory attended the 2008 TED conference where this speech was given, and he has tried to incorporate some of its insights into the way our North Carolina ad agency works.
It is interesting as you watch the video to think about what narrowing behaviors you've taken on as an adult, and to think about how you might step outside them to achieve greater creativity.
As I was watching the video, I found myself wondering why graphic design is not part of the core curriculum for students growing up and going through elementary school and high school.
I know there are movements out there to merge B-school and D-school thinking, but it's a lot more work to get people to unlearn old behaviors and learn new ones. How much more efficient and enjoyable would our society be if we all thought like designers engaged in open-minded, creative problem solving? And what lessons can a Charlotte ad agency
Command X: Season 2 is a graphic design reality show featuring seven up-and-coming designers who step into the spotlight and have the chance to break into the industry in front of 2,000 peers, heroes and potential employers during "Make/Think" the 2009 AIGA Design Conference. Throughout the conference, contestants will take on a series of design challenges to complete and present on the main stage within 24 hours. Although no one from the Charlotte advertising or design community was featured in Season 1, a designer from a North Carolina ad agency in Raleigh did compete and was a runner up. Way to go, Matt!
This year, seven lucky participants will show off their talent before the world's best designers. Each will receive a complimentary registration to the conference—although they’ll be hard at work on their next design challenge most of the time! The winner of “Command X: Season 2” will receive $1,000, design software and iPhone and best of all Glory.
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