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How Brands Are Becoming the Media (and Why Your Brand Should Probably Do the Same) by Gordon Plutsky
The hottest trend in brand marketing right now is the very thing that has fueled traditional advertising's ongoing evolution: Brands are bypassing traditional media outlets in favor of creating their own private media platforms. That's right, brands are becoming the ...
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Ten Ways to Drive Consumer Action With Online Video by Bud Rosenthal
There's no question that online video is fast becoming a favorite of Internet users around the world. But the hit-or-miss nature of viral video, the brand quality considerations of user-generated content, and the general disdain for television commercials online have ...
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What Every CMO Should Know About Music by Ruth Simmons
Sir John Hegarty, the man behind the Levi's jeans and Lynx deodorant ads, once claimed, "Music is 50% of an ad's success." Yet even today very few metrics are regularly applied within the planning and creative processes to measure the ...
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How to Capture Your Company's Essence in 15 Words by Kathryn Roy
As a B2B company, you may never air a 15-second message on NPR. But distilling your company description to its essence is a powerful goal. It will force you to jettison the jargon and superlatives. And your message will resonate ...
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'The Open Brand': How Brands Can Thrive in a Consumer-Driven World by Sean Howard
"The Open Brand" is a power-packed framework and guide for how brands can thrive and participate in a world where the consumer is the creator. Here's a Q&A with one of the authors.
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Advertising Is the Price You Pay for Not Being Creative by John Rooks
We are at a unique place and time. The crossroads of environmental and economic crises provide agile companies with the ability to capture market share in a down market by cutting their media buys and engaging their fan base in ...
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Ten Steps for Creating a FANtastic Facebook Fan Page by Mari Smith
Facebook offers many features for strategic networking and generating visibility for your company.
Among them, Facebook fan pages are (currently) the only feature fully indexed by Google. By inserting keyword-rich text throughout your fan page and updating regularly, you can create ...
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Marketers: Don't Just Buy Media—Earn It! by Ben Straley
Want to get started with an effective earned-media marketing program? Here are three tips for launching, measuring, and monetizing a low-cost earned-media program that will drive a surge in online word-of-mouth traffic about your brand.
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Live Together, Suffer Alone: Understanding the Cross-Channel Mix (and Why Yours May Not Be Working) by Keith Kochberg
Today's marketers are challenged to implement multiple techniques—from search to affiliate to media advertising and more—to achieve different results. Each channel has its own set of rules, its own potential results, even its own manager (whether outsourced or in-house) to ...
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'Hypey' Copy That Converts, and How to Write It
by Barry DensaHypey copy is like a fine wine. It has great legs, a fine body, and a rich nose.
Hype excites the emotions, stimulates the buying glands, and ultimately converts better- than-dull; drab; "only the facts, Ma'am" marcom-style copy.
The challenge, of course, ...
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What's the Color of Your Personal Brand? by William Arruda
Color is powerful. It's an important personal-branding tool, so use it wisely and consistently to support your personal-branding activities. To make the most of your color, follow these five rules.
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Six Steps to Forging Customer Relationships at Tradeshows and Conferences
by Kimberly SmithTradeshow and conference sponsorships don't come cheap, but they do bring prospects face-to-face with your company and brand. In doing so, they offer a unique opportunity to establish stronger, more-personal connections with potential customers, which can, in turn, generate solid ...
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The Tao of Green Marketing by Irv Weinberg, Carolyn Parrs
Consumers have begun to suffer from "green fatigue." It's not hard to understand why when you can buy organic gummy bears and free-range beef jerky nestled between the six-packs and the rolling paper in a convenience store.
For your green message ...
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What Banner Ads Can Learn From Billboards by Kim Stearns
Banner ads are tried-and-true forms of advertising that can deliver great results while driving a return on investment. So why are advertisers so hesitant to use them? Maybe it's because they have been overrun with cheesy, annoying, misleading, and downright ...
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Six Smart Tactics for Dealing With the Economic Downturn
by Michael BarrThis is no time for business as usual. To keep the customer and win the sale, a marketer has to outsmart the competition. But how do you motivate your customers to spend their marginal purchasing dollars on your product instead ...
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Why Gen Y Is Passing You By
by Kimberly SmithWhat works in enticing a new generation of buyers? Here's why some of your efforts to reach this demographic might be going amiss.
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Sweat the Small Stuff: A Counterintuitive Approach to Professional Success by Linda Kaplan Thaler
It might sound counter-intuitive, but "sweating the small stuff" is actually a recipe for success. In fact, it can be one of best weapons in your business arsenal.
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The Pursuit of ROI: Will It Lead You to Rags or to Riches? by Sharan Jagpal
It's no secret that the business world is slow to change. Sure, it has made the evolution from typewriters to computers for word processing, and from snail mail to email for written communication. But in regard to the core of ...
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To Sell During a Recession, Shop a Mile in Their Shoes by Jenny Schade
Harnessing the power of customer insights throughout your organization produces a powerful, ongoing interactive connection with key constituents that competitors can't duplicate. Beyond the clever words and attention-getting visuals, the connection with the customer truly engages. When the product has ...
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Secrets of Viral Video: Three Keys to Launching a Campaign That Resonates
by Kimberly SmithVideo viewing is way up, but so are video postings. These days, it takes more than a dancing baby to attract eyeballs and gather viral momentum. Here's a straightforward guide for netting your audience's attention, with advice from organizations that ...