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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Today, it’s not enough to have a well-designed website or a secure e-commerce presence. You need people to actually go there and interact with your online brand. And if you are a member of the branding Charlotte or marketing Charlotte, NC communities, you know you have to pay to play.
Pay per click search engine marketing is a form of online advertising where the advertiser pays to be listed in the sponsored link section of the search engines. When you launch a PPC advertising campaign, you pay only when someone clicks on your ad. Of course PPC ads, also called sponsored links, are related to the searches made by the users. You have to buy keywords using an auction feature that determines the Cost Per Click (CPC) of a given keyword, this bid also has an influence on your position among the other ads on the page.
You then set a maximum budget for your campaign. That means that if you set a $500 budget for a $1 keyword your ad will virtually be printed on search pages until five hundred users have clicked your ad and landed on one of your website’s pages.
Charlotte, NC advertising agencies please take note: PPC advertising is one of the most effective marketing methods used on the Internet. According to some experts, online marketers will spend more than 5 billion dollars on PPC campaigns by 2010. Consequently the competition for keywords is likely to get tougher and tougher as time goes by, making the optimization of that process ever more necessary for North Carolina advertising agencies, from Charlotte to Raleigh.
What do you call it when advertising agencies come together . . . to advertise themselves? How about Minneapolis.
Local agencies up in the frosty Gopher State are setting aside their usual rivalries to join forces for the promotion of the state’s biggest city, Minneapolis, as a place for anyone in advertising to work and live. The centerpiece of the effort — to be called MinneADpolis, the City of Advertising — is a website scheduled to start this week. Take a look here
The site will include samples of campaigns produced by Minneapolis agencies, video clips of employees discussing why they like the market, information on events and careers and even a virtual tour of the town that can be taken with personalized avatars called advatars, which can be dressed in skinny jeans, flannel shirts and other signature outfits of the creative class.
This an interesting idea for Charlotte ad agencies and branding firms to consider. How can we do a better job of letting the rest of the Southeast (and the country) know about the local creative talent we have right here in the Queen City engaged in marketing in Charlotte.
At least one of us, anyway. As president of the Charlotte chapter of AIGA, the professional association for design, I’m excited to visit über-hip Portland and learn what designers from across the nation have been working on within their own local Chapters. The retreat is an opportunity for the organization’s leaders to meet together, compare notes, and discuss the future. This year’s leadership retreat is particularly important, as we will be discussing the findings from a six-month process of ascertaining what board members, chapter leaders and members believe is the appropriate course for AIGA as we approach the organization’s centennial in 2014.
Called “Sea Change,” the 2009 retreat will be held June 4–6 in downtown Portland, Oregon. I will be one of five members representing the Charlotte graphic design community. There will also be some folks from Raleigh advertising agencies there representing our neighboring Raleigh Chapter. I’ll take plenty of pictures, sample the craftmade beers for which Portland is famous, and be sure to report back on what trends are developing for AIGA and the future of brand and identity design.
It’s hard to work in marketing in Charlotte and not be a NASCAR fan. This fun, fast, ubiquitous sport is a major tourist draw and revenue generator for legions of businesses here in the Piedmont. It’s also a source of inspiration to more than one North Carolina ad agency.
On that note, Jeff Burton, who drives the #31 Caterpillar Impala SS car, met with members of the media at Lowe’s Motor Speedway and discussed this weekend’s race, the Carl Long penalties, how racing 600 miles at Lowe’s Motor Speedway has changed over the years and more.
On the eve of the 50th anniversary of the Coca-Cola 600, here’s a bit of what he had to say:
“Well, certainly last week was not a good weekend for us. We didn’t run very well and ended up breaking an engine. I feel like we learned an awful lot. We used it kind of as a test and tried some stuff that didn’t work out very well so we’ll come back and try again. I feel pretty good about what we’re coming in here with. It’s a pretty cool race. Fiftieth anniversaries are always cool and the trophy is quite spectacular. It certainly would be cool to win it.
When Microsoft decides to imagine the future, it never fails to impress. Not only do you have some of the smartest people envisioning what’s possible, but they also invest so much into communicating these ideas through sights and sounds – with production values that can be compared to most blockbuster sci-fi films.
In February 2009 at the Wharton Business Technology Conference, Microsoft’s Business Division president Stephen Elop unveiled the latest production from Microsoft Office Labs called 019, starring men, women and children playing with the next-generation of communication, collaboration and production technologies. How will this vision of what lies ahead impact the efforts of North Carolina advertising agencies? Here at birdsong gregory, a Charlotte integrated branding agency, we have our own ideas of how to help our clients take full advantage of new trends and technologies.
Some of the new technologies showcased include a “transparent wall” between two classrooms around the world, animated drawings, realtime conversation translations, surface displays, electronic boarding cards, transparent displays, and mini projectors among many others.
The U.S. Department of Commerce reported that retail sales dropped 0.4 percent in April, compared with the previous month. The decline was a little more than expected, but less than the revised March drop of 1.3 percent. The recent two months of decline followed unexpected increases in consumer spending in January and February. What does this mean for companies here in Charlotte? And what does this mean Charlotte ad agencies.
Retail Forward, a Columbus, Ohio-based consultancy, posited that there's been a change in the way shoppers shop, women in particular, at least for now. According to a recent survey by the company, eight of 10 women have changed the way they shop for clothing, accessories and shoes. Respondents said they are both cutting the amount they buy, and "trading down" in terms of brands.
On the other hand, two-thirds of those women surveyed -- it was a group of women in about 4,000 households nationally -- expected that retail penny-pinching strategies not to be permanent. However, the length and depth of the recession, which is still an open question, could conceivably move more shoppers into a more permanent budget mentality. This year's response to job-loss nervousness and cut credit lines could echo down the years.
So if your company's sales are down and you're looking for way to reverse this trend and boost retail sales, now is a good time to reexamine the relevance of your brand and marketing strategy given the prevailing consumer sentiments of value, frugality, and restraint.
To learn more about the online and offline branding, marketing, and advertising services our agency offers, please visit the birdsong gregory website, contact Jim Cusson at 704-332-2299, or stop by the next time you’re in downtown Charlotte, North Carolina.
Here at birdsong gregory, our Charlotte branding and advertising agency always counsels clients about the effective use of social media marketing, and we recommend they first speak to their target audience and figure out what messaging (and channel) would appeal to them.
I’m not sure if the manufacturer of Motrin followed our marketing advice, but judging by the enormous backlash the company faced in the fall of 2008 over it’s new Motrin “Mom-Alogue” video, I suspect they didn’t speak to a single mother (at least, they didn’t speak to any that use Twitter and baby slings). Creative Charlotte please take note.
Within hours of pushing this video out into the global social media stream, indignant "Momma Bloggers" began to punish the Motrin brand with vituperative tweats. Apparently, women still enjoy carrying their babies monkey-style, and resented Motrin's implication that offspring was a painful burden to bear.
What can the rest of us learn from this? Never assume you know your target audience. Never assume that just because you’ve created something “viral” that the sentiment will always be positive. And, always build your social media campaign with some input from those who represent ALL your target audience. As more North Carolina advertising agencies began to offer social media marketing services, there will be the increased danger of viral content going bad . . . so please think before you publish.
You always hear about NASCAR’s legions of female fans and all the clever cross-promotional ideas and licensed products, but a recent Sports Illustrated article pulled it all together for me.
According to a pair of recent surveys, of NASCAR’s 75 million fans 40 percent are women. For every two new NASCAR fans, one of them is a woman. Women will spend $250 million on NASCAR-licensed products this year, and 68 percent of those women say they’re only going to become bigger NASCAR fans. And according to Nielsen, women are more likely to flip over to a NASCAR race than any sport outside of football.
Because I’m not in the NASCAR fan base myself, willing to buy $200+ shoes with logos and pink track apparel, I am all the more fascinated. What is NASCAR’s key to such incredible success with women?
The brand has not done backflips to find “women’s” angles. Rather, they have just delivered on their 50-year promise: viewing excitement and a growing and passionate community of like-minded people, with celebrity drivers who don’t stray too far from the fan base.
There’s a particular profile of men who become avid racing fans, and they are at the center of the NASCAR market (of course). Their enthusiasm is infectious. Their closest male and female friends/loved ones start to wonder... “hmmm, I’d like some of that in my life – let me check this out.”
Those people then start to watch it on television and maybe attend a race or two in-person. What they find is that NASCAR is (in theory) more than greenhouse-gas spewing cars going around a track in the hot sun. Apparently, it is a lifestyle with hundreds of thousands of people who love, follow, and enjoy talking about the sport - making it a central part of their lives.
Infectious enthusiasm is the name of this game.
The lesson for North Carolina advertising agencies? Don’t worry about marketing to women as a separate effort. Instead, build up a client’s brand among its passionate core and let the enthusiastic fan base sell the experience for you. When pink t-shirts and stiletto heels with logos develop “organically” – they are meant to be.
To learn more about the online and offline branding, marketing, and advertising services our agency offers, please visit the birdsong gregory website, contact Jim Cusson at 704-332-2299, or stop by the next time you’re in downtown Charlotte.
A trademark is any phrase or symbol that functions as a brand, that is, it tells the public that there is a particular source or manufacturer for products or services (e.g., “Mattel” is a trademark for the toy company; the Apple logo is a trademark for the computer company). The scope of what can be a trademark is very broad — words, images, sounds and colors can all function as trademarks. Even packaging and promotional concepts for products or services can be protected as “trade dress,” which is another form of trademark rights (e.g., Apple’s iPod ads).
So North Carolina advertising agencies take note, trademarks must be distinctive, which means consumers recognize the mark as a designation of source, rather than just a phrase or decoration. Unfortunately, what makes a mark “strong” from a legal standpoint may be the opposite of what Charlotte graphic designers and their clients might think of as a strong mark. Under trademark law, marks that describe or suggest some feature of the goods or services are “weak.” For example, “Apple” would be a weak mark for a bakery that sells apple pies. Other food businesses would be able to use Apple marks without infringing the bakery’s trademark rights.
The strongest trademarks are made-up marks, or words or images that don’t suggest the goods or services. Xerox is a classic example of a made-up mark. Apple and the Apple logo for computers are also strong marks.
Today, it’s not enough to have a well-designed website or a secure e-commerce presence. You need people to actually go there and interact with your online brand. And if you are a member of the branding Charlotte or marketing Charlotte, NC communities, you know you have to pay to play.
Pay per click search engine marketing is a form of online advertising where the advertiser pays to be listed in the sponsored link section of the search engines. When you launch a PPC advertising campaign, you pay only when someone clicks on your ad. Of course PPC ads, also called sponsored links, are related to the searches made by the users. You have to buy keywords using an auction feature that determines the Cost Per Click (CPC) of a given keyword, this bid also has an influence on your position among the other ads on the page.
You then set a maximum budget for your campaign. That means that if you set a $500 budget for a $1 keyword your ad will virtually be printed on search pages until five hundred users have clicked your ad and landed on one of your website’s pages.
Charlotte, NC advertising agencies please take note: PPC advertising is one of the most effective marketing methods used on the Internet. According to some experts, online marketers will spend more than 5 billion dollars on PPC campaigns by 2010. Consequently the competition for keywords is likely to get tougher and tougher as time goes by, making the optimization of that process ever more necessary for North Carolina advertising agencies, from Charlotte to Raleigh.
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