C’mon LeBron – show the love, show the loyalty

Written by Kelly · Monday, 28 June 2010 15:15

To persuade LeBron to remain a Cavalier, many Clevelanders have turned to the Web and social networking websites to show their appreciation for beloved player. There are hundreds of websites, YouTube videos, Twitter accounts and Facebook pages all dedicated to persuading LeBron to stay in Cleveland. To give you an idea of how Clevelanders are enticing LeBron to stay, we evaluated several blogs and social networking websites that were created to keep LeBron in Cleveland. Here are just a few that you might enjoy:

Website

Two Kent State students developed this site to support their campaign, "Please Don’t Leave 23" which is “dedicated to keeping LeBron James in Cleveland for the betterment of all Ohioans.” On the site, the students promote their iPhone app, Witness Mobile Petition and YouTube video that features Cleveland fans begging for LeBron to stay. It’s definitely portrays a heartfelt message to LeBron, “Please don’t go!”

Blog

What would you do to keep LeBron James in Cleveland? That’s the question daredevil Brandon George asks after every challenge. So far, Brandon proved he would do just about anything to keep LeBron in Cleveland including, getting slapped by 23 women and brushing his teeth with hot sauce. The best part? It’s all on video on his blog at www.InLebronWeTrust.com.

Facebook

Michael Symon. Iron Chef. Cleveland Restaurateur. And, soon to be LeBron’s personal chef? On June 1, 2010, Symon made LeBron an irresistible offer. Symon wrote on his Facebook page a sincere note to LeBron that promises LeBron, his family and friends an Iron Chef meal once a month, only if LeBron decides to stay in Cleveland. Wow! LeBron, have you tried Symon’s Mac & Cheese lately? It’s beyond amazing.

YouTube

Cleveland kids show how much LeBron means to them during the "Fans for LeBron James” flash mob that took place at Tower City on June 17, 2010. The Boys & Girls Clubs of Akron and Cleveland along with the Shaker Dance Academy performed an incredible dance routine to the songs "Holding Out for Hero" by Bonnie Tyler and Usher’s “More.”

Twitter

With more than 55,000 followers, the @LeBron2010 Twitter account was created to raise awareness and interest for the “Keep LeBron in Cleveland Billboard Campaign.” The tweets encourage Cavs fans to share comments, info and website links about LeBron’s free agency rumors, Cleveland Cavs news and support for LeBron.

Then, there are Cleveland fans that would rather stick to Cleveland’s legacy as a city known for having losing sports teams. Plain Dealer reporter John Campanelli narrates his reasoning why, in his YouTube video, "Quit begging LeBron James to stay; our legacy is at stake."

Do you think these Internet sensations will persuade LeBron to remain a Cleveland Cavalier? Share your thoughts on our Facebook page.

How much does Mitchell Allen rock?

Written by Kelly · Thursday, 24 June 2010 20:52

The weirdest thing happened to me yesterday at work. My computer and desk started shaking and the painting on my wall was moving back and forth. For a moment, I thought I was in la-la land, or some sort of time warp. I walked into Jason’s office and he also felt the floor beneath him tremble.

To confirm that we weren’t sipping on some magic syrup in our coffees, we turned to the Internet to see if there was any buzz about an earthquake in Cleveland.  I checked Twitter and he checked USGS.gov. Instantly, we both discovered that Canada experienced an earthquake and we were feeling its aftermath. It’s truly amazing how the Internet can inform, communicate and connect people. Click here to see some interesting stats on social media activity regarding the earthquake.

Creating Facebook pages that attract the Millennial Generation

Written by Kelly · Friday, 04 June 2010 11:07

Using inbound marketing techniques to create effective and targeted Facebook pages

Similar to how the Baby Boomer generation can remember The Beatles invading the U.S., I can remember the exact date when I became a member of Facebook. It was my freshman year (2004) in college and one of my friends encouraged me to create a profile. So, I did and everyday, several times a day, I searched for new friends to add to my network. For most of my college career, Facebook was the most popular Internet tool for college students to create, develop and monitor an online social identity.

It was a bittersweet moment for students when Facebook allowed anyone and everyone to join. We could now connect with our high school friends who didn’t attend college and our…mom, or anyone else, and even businesses. It gave employers an opportunity to pre-evaluate potential candidates and marketers another outlet to promote products and services to a diverse audience.

Because of this change, many of my fellow Millennials adjusted their privacy settings so that they are unreachable. As a result, outsiders are unable view their profile or even search for them on Facebook, which can be troublesome to marketers. How can marketers penetrate this generation on Facebook? Try simple inbound marketing techniques and an understanding of the Millennial generation.

The Millennials are creative, wholesome young adults with an edge and are constantly keeping up with the latest trends. Joshua Glenn, former writer of the Boston Globe’s Ideas Section wrote a piece in 2008 entitled “The Millennials, 1984-1993” in which he evaluates the Millennial generation by exploring historical events and pop culture that have influenced this intriguing group. He describes the “admirable generation” as “ethical, sweet-natured, hard-working, thrifty, and public-spirited.”

With everything at their fingertips and the intrinsic ability to navigate the information superhighway, Millennials actively seek opportunities that are of interest to them. As a marketer, if you have a product or service that is interesting to this generation and it has its own Facebook page, they will find you and explore your offerings. However, some marketers need to seal-the-deal and get this generation to “like” their page. By doing so, marketers can apply simple inbound marketing techniques to create a page that specifically targets this generation and their interests. Consider the following inbound marketing techniques to attract the Millennial generation:

Present an incentive. Offer anything from a free t-shirt to a new iPad for “liking” your page. Millennials are young and often times poor – anything will be an attractive prize.

Create an exclusive page. Some Millennials miss Facebook’s initial uniqueness, a website created for just the college crowd. Make your page exclusive by using verbiage that Millennials use, explore their interests and encourage conversation.

Advertise your page on other sites. In addition to advertising on your own site, advertise your Facebook page on the sites Millennials often visit such as PerezHilton.com, CollegeHumor.com and YouTube.com.

Make your page interactive. Lots of videos, images and meaningful messages will hit home with Millennials, as they will be more likely to engage in conversation.

Creating a Facebook page and indirectly marketing it to Millennials will help get your business’ message across effectively and precisely. Remember, Millennials are extremely good at surfing the web, discovering new websites and setting trends. Just like in Field of Dreams, “If you build it, they will come.”

Can you hear me now? Good. The best-ever advertising taglines according to Forbes.com

Written by MAG · Wednesday, 02 June 2010 20:51

Forbes.com recently unveiled the top 25 best-ever advertising taglines and well, we couldn’t agree more. A group of 10 CMOs, advertising experts and Forbes’ “ad-watching” editors judged the best advertising taglines from the past and present. The judges deemed these taglines timeless because their message and relevance can be understood by all generations. The brands with the top advertising taglines include BMW, Nike and American Express. View Forbes.com’s best-ever advertising taglines.

People love shade and nobody makes it better than Tri Vantage

Written by Kelly · Friday, 21 May 2010 19:28

Mitchell Allen's "Squint!" video gets attention and generates excitement for Tri Vantage products at the 2010 HD Expo

The Hospitality Design Exposition & Conference (HD Expo) is the premier trade show for hospitality design professionals. It's where the buyers meet the industry's newest and most innovative products and services. Our client Tri Vantage was an exhibitor at the show this year and we developed their booth's messaging and promotional pieces. With the assistance of Glazen Creative and fellow Clevelanders, we created a tradeshow video that promotes the benefits of shade and Tri Vantage's products.

Successfully integrating online and offline marketing

Written by Mike Thursday, 01 April 2010 18:50

Thoughtful integration of all of your marketing efforts – both online and off - will produce better communications and deliver better results.

You can greatly enhance your marketing success by effectively integrating all of your marketing communications efforts – including both online and offline activities. Integrating traditional tactics in a marketing program has long been recognized as important if not critical. Today, the array of tactical choices continues to grow as online and interactive communications continue to expand and evolve. Carefully crafting and coupling your offline tactics with your online elements, can significantly enhance your results.

The key starting point is an encompassing strategic approach that is the basis for all of your selected activities, with a clear focus on your target customer. It’s critical to dig in and dig deep to understand your customer, and from a marketing point of view, their communications vehicles and channels of choice – what they like, use, accept, trust and respond to.  Where and how do they get information?  What do they read, what events do they participate in, what Internet sources do they value? What do they believe in? By gaining this understanding you’ll be able to select the combination of online and offline vehicles that will broadly and effectively reach your target.

This understanding will also help you put together messages that will resonate with your customer audience.  Most marketers have a handful of core messages that are essential to get across – by coordinating them within and across multiple delivery mechanisms you create a coordinated, unified “voice”.  Keep in mind that with the hundreds of messages that your customer sees every day, you compete for attention in a very noisy environment. Coordinating your messages increases the chance for your customer to connect the dots and remember yours. You do have to make your messages creative and attention grabbing to stand out, but also quickly and easily grasped and believed. Recognize that your customers are all individuals and that what is effective with some won’t necessarily be effective with all. Therefore you need to make your tactical mix as broad as you can to get the greatest reach. And don’t forget that communication is a two-way street – sending and receiving – so build response opportunities and mechanisms in as you put your messaging in together.

Online efforts such as e-marketing, digital advertising, search engine marketing and social media can be seamlessly integrated with traditional offline efforts such as print and broadcast advertising, direct marketing and event marketing. The key is to take full advantage of what each tactic uniquely offers, so that the messages and concepts are not simply mirror images that repeat the same things in different deliveries, but rather unique deliveries that embellish the central theme and expand the messaging. A couple examples: effective print ads deliver tightly focused but 2-dimensional messages – the more concise the better – but can also steer readers to websites and landing pages where the core message is expanded with additional detail, as well as digital and interactive imagery; social media provides a great platform to communicate, position and promote events and related activities, and can be easily fed by other advertising, promotion and publicity efforts. Online activities offer additional opportunities to enhance messaging through interactivity and the ease of connecting to additional online vehicles, through embedded images, videos and links. Events and trade shows offer a wealth of pre-show, at-show and post-show integration opportunities, by utilizing and integrating nearly every other tactical element in your mix.

The benefits of integration remain essentially unchanged: better and more coordinated delivery, greater reach and more memorable messaging, greater ultimate connection with your customer base. And the new, evolving tactics provide more effective ways to dramatically bring your messages to life.  Taking advantage of the interactivity afforded by new technologies and delivery mechanisms - along with the traditional – combined with thoughtful and creative integration can help you get the most out of your marketing efforts.

Why chose a small agency?

Written by Judy · Wednesday, 03 March 2010 16:54

It’s really important for clients and agencies to find the right fit. (I know, I’m preaching to the choir.) Clients are looking for marketing solutions, creativity and the best value for their money. Agencies of any size, large or small, are looking for relationships where the chemistry is right to be a marketing partner.

That said, why choose a small agency?

I like to think of the small agency as similar to a small, hip, non-chain restaurant. It’s usually the chef’s talent and passion that’s drawn the customers there. The staff is there because of the one-of-a-kind bistro environment, versus the often-impersonal chain approach. An intimate experience, tables are few and close together. A special night out…not everything for everybody.

This is pretty much the same for a small agency. The talent that founded the agency has a passion, just like the chef. This passion attracts and fuels the other talent. The small agency folks are averse to the large agency "system". They take pride in being more personal, nimble and responsive. A non-chain restaurant.

This culture means that the small agency prides itself and feeds its ego by becoming an extension of the client. To work best, they like to assume a role as your business partner, not just a vendor.

The biggest failure

Written by Jason · Wednesday, 17 February 2010 10:15

I was watching a lecture by Sir Ken Robinson on TED (click here to view, it is pretty interesting) on how our education systems kill our creativity. He made a statement that has been a recurring theme in my creative life, "If you’re not prepared to be wrong, you'll never come up with something original."

In this world of tight deadlines, client demands, pressures of faster, quicker, cheaper, and just the fact that this is a business first and foremost, we creatives from time to time find ourselves playing the safe card just to get through. It is a sin we all commit. Unless we are diligent we will take the path of least resistance. We have to make conscious decision to push our ideas away from the typical.

So today I'm just reminding you all. The biggest failure is never failing.

It’s going to take some guts

Written by Judy · Wednesday, 14 October 2009 16:23

To do their jobs and conscience right, marketing folks are going to have to dig deep and push back to their corporate rule that now more than ever is the time to focus on strategy. The marketing plan and strategy with measurable goals should be the all time priority right now during this doom and gloom. Not the low hanging fruit tactics which folks quickly and easily latch on to. It’s going to take some backbone. Marketers like everybody else, are in fear of losing their jobs. So saying “Why do we do it this way…” is going to take some guts. But in the end it will benefit their company and their careers.