Facebook Wants You

In the movie about Mark Zuckerberg and his partners founding Facebook—The Social Network—cofounder Eduardo Saverin is portrayed as pushing for the site to sell online advertising, which, in the early days according to the movie version, Zuckerberg apparently wanted nothing to do with. “We don’t even know what it is yet,” the Zuckerberg character says when Saverin continues to push his agenda.

Times have changed and Facebook sure knows what it is now.

Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg has announced she’s planning a strategy similar to one she employed while VP of global online sales and operations at Google. Reports are that the largest social networking site in the world will begin offering $50 advertising credits to as many as 200,000 small businesses as early as next week. Why? Because just as at one time you probably didn’t even know what Facebook was and now you check your page multiple times a day, the brass at Facebook recognize that people’s obsession with Facebooking opens up a whole new advertising opportunity.

Word is Facebook will set you up with an ad that racks up a cost per click—say 5 or 10 cents—and spot you the first $50. According to Sandberg, that’s enough for a typical small business to target everyone it needs to at least once, recognize that the concept is a viable way to generating ROI, and create the latest addiction among Type A business owners—obsessing over their Facebook ad campaigns while sipping their morning coffee.

No word yet on how Facebook is going to divvy out the credits, but we’ll certainly keep our ear to the keyboard for you. Because even if you can manage to keep the cyber monkey off your back and not renew after your initial credit is gone, $50 is $50, and a lot of businesses are liable to get in line fast once the program is launched.

So Saverin’s idea wasn’t such a bad one, it seems. Just his timing was off. Maybe if he’d waited a few years to push for Facebook advertising, he’d still have his 30 percent stake in the company. But, hey, maybe with a few of your advertising dollars thrown into the mix, Eduardo won’t be living out of his Bentley for too much longer.

What makes a logo cool?

So much has been written about what makes an effective logo—simple, memorable, timeless, versatile, appropriate (trustworthy, loyal, helpful, friendly, courteous, kind obedient, cheerful, thrifty, brave … whoops, nope, that’s something else)—that you could blog about the subject indefinitely. But what makes a logo cool? “Coolness” is in the eye of the beholder.

One of the concepts we at RWA believe contributes to a logo’s coolness factor is a little hidden something that blows by most people. And, no, we’re not talking about the controversial subliminal advertising stuff. We’re talking the hidden symbols intentionally incorporated into logos that give the image a little extra oomph and may just work on a subconscious level to some extent.

This first one has gotten a lot of press, so you may already know about it. But it’s cool nonetheless. See the arrow imbedded between the orange “E” and “x?” It reinforces that “express” message.

 How about this one? Refocus your eyes from the tree to the white space that captures the likeness of a gorilla and a big cat face to face. Pretty cool, huh?

C’mon, this logo for Le Tour de France is epic. See the guy biking?

This one is a little tougher to see as well as to get. If you look closely, however, you can see a bear on the left side of the Matterhorn standing on his hind legs. The candy hails from Bern, Switzerland, a city, as the story goes, named after a bear.

Here we have a simple acronym for the London Symphony Orchestra. Or is it so simple? Upon closer inspection, you’ll see that it’s also a conductor with a baton in his right hand.

There are countless other examples in corporate America, but we thought showing you a few might get your thirst going for finding others on your own. At RWA, we crank out logos for small- to mid-sized businesses all the time, and while they don’t all contain hidden symbols, they’re effective and pretty darned cool—at least that’s what our clients and peers say.

So whether it’s time for a total rebranding or you’re just thinking about freshening up your image, RWA has the creative team to make your logo memorable and your business 

Tips for Boosting Fans on Your Facebook Business Page

Whether you like it or not and use it for your business or not, Facebook is the real deal. Statistics show that 90 percent of consumers trust recommendations from people they know and that the majority of consumers spend more after a friend’s recommendation than they do shopping on their own. The key to spreading your business gospel is acquiring an ever-growing audience—your Facebook fan base. Here are some tricks of the trade.

1. Determine if Facebook is, in fact, a good fit for your business.

It is possible that your customers don’t participate in social media. If your market is the senior crowd, for example, your efforts might be better spent elsewhere. However, a Facebook page is free and there are some seniors who are savvy to social media. In addition, seniors have children and grandchildren who do use the medium and can help you connect indirectly with your market. See, you’re not really off the hook.

2. Engage with your fans.

Unless the information you provide is consistently entertaining or useful, if you don’t engage in conversation with your fans, sooner or later they’re going to fall off, which leads to them forgetting about you, which leads to fewer sales and fewer recommendations. Thank your fans when they compliment your service. Apologize when they criticize. Talk to them about everything in between.

3. Offer your fans incentives to stay current with your page.

Statistics indicate that the majority of Facebook business fans are so to begin with for the incentives: discounts, coupons, contests to win products or services, etc. Give your fans reasons to keep up with your business other than simply the social aspect of the medium. Along these same lines, offer incentives for becoming a fan. Again, coupons and other discounts work well but also newsletters and email blasts promising those same discounts work too.

4. Take advantage of the social aspect of the medium.

There's no stronger recommendation than one from a personal friend. Add the “Share” button to every post you make, and, again, if it makes sense, offer incentives to fans for sharing your post.

5. Advertise on Facebook.

As incredible as this sounds, Facebook is fast on the heels of Google and Yahoo for the most visited site in cyber space and is expected to overtake them both within a year or so. That doesn’t mean that people are using Facebook in the same way they use search engines. But it does mean that Google will likely not be the largest potential pool of new and existing customers forever. How you market to that pool via Facebook, of course, differs than how you market to them via the giant search engine. But take advantage of the audience. Again, it’s free.

6. Consider creating a landing page for your Facebook fan page rather than the run-of-the-mill comment threads that comprise most business pages.

New visitors and fans can easily click through to the comment threads, but a landing page is a great way to offer additional information about your business as well as create a call to action or highlight discounts, coupons and contests, etc.

The technology of social media is evolving incredibly fast and there’s a school of thought that Facebook might peter out in the not-too-distant future and be replaced by … who knows what. But at Ryan William’s Agency, the consensus is that it ain’t happening this year, and likely not next, and probably not the year after that. So, in the meantime, what other marketing and advertising vehicle have you got that potentially can reach the numbers that Facebook can, and for free? Even if you’re one of the believers that there is an end in site for Facebook, there’s still a whole heck of a lot of gravy left in this train before the theoretical demise of its usefulness. And at Ryan William’s, we can show you how to squeeze every last drop out of it.

Subtlety Sells in Online Marketing

Ever know someone in a social situation who constantly talks about himself or is always working some angle for his benefit at your expense? It usually doesn’t take too long before you begin avoiding a person like that. While you expect a salesman during a sales call to try to sell you something, most people aren’t fond of getting sold by friends or acquaintances.

Social media is largely the same way. Individuals follow on Twitter, friend and fan on Facebook, read blogs, watch YouTube videos, etc. mostly to be entertained and to garner information. If you try to hard sell this audience, it takes only a click for them to make you go away and there are thousands of others ready to take your place.

The key to social media is that it’s social. You must engage your audience in conversation. As tempting as it is to tweet about your sale or tell that person on LinkedIn to call you because you’re an attorney and can help him with his issue, don’t. Simply talk to your audience like you would an acquaintance at a cocktail party. Here are some more tips to getting your message across without hitting anyone over the head.

Offer value.
Rather than selling that person on LinkedIn your legal services, post a link to some information that pertains to that person’s issue. The more useful information you provide through social media, the more people will remember you as the go-to source for help.

Respond to negative and positive comments.
Don’t delete negative comments; respond to them thoughtfully and apologize. Deleted comments are likely to get louder somewhere else. On the flip side, thank people who post praise for your product or service. This kind of positive reinforcement makes your audience feel good and keeps the praise alive for an additional period of time.

Entertain and surprise.
Followers of social media love to be entertained and surprised. Both are great vehicles to elicit fans and followers of your message. Think of an author or pundit on television, etc. who you regularly look for to hear what he’s going to say next. You can become that person or entity to a great many individuals.

Ask questions
By posting questions, you’re inviting conversation, which keeps your message alive and stimulates your audience. One-way information is fine some of the time, but mix it up occasionally.

Be transparent.
Nobody likes a fake and that goes for businesses as well as individuals. The more you share, the more your audience will believe you and look forward to your next post.

At Ryan William’s Agency, we’re regularly tweeting and blogging and posting on Facebook and the like for a number of clients who recognize the importance of social media, but are busy running their companies, and we do it for our agency as well. It’s one of the keys today of running a successful business. (Subtle, huh?)

Learning to be creative

We’ve all heard someone who’s being tapped for a little creativity say, “but I don’t have a creative bone in my body.” And we usually take them at their word and move on without much rebuttal to the more lampshade-wearing types in the room. It’s almost as if we believe creativity is a natural born quality—like red hair—either you got it or you ain’t. Even in the advertising industry, we tend to compartmentalize people into artsy, quirky, techie, salesy, etc. and assign in our head whether somebody is creative or not and, if so, where his creative strength lies—as in, “Sure, Juan can whip out a creative solution to a difficult website architecture in his sleep, but he doesn’t get a single ‘chicken crossed the road’ joke.”

While it’s true that some folks are creative and others aren’t, to just accept that you’re not is a copout. Anyone can learn to be more creative if they want to and here’s how to start:

To be creative, you have to first believe you are creative.
Positive reinforcement. Your inner voice. Mentally picturing yourself making the big play as opposed to dropping the ball. Everyone has the ability to be creative, but if you don’t believe you do, you won’t be. It’s no big secret. Just hold the creative vision.

Ask creative people about their process.
At Ryan William’s, we have weekly brainstorming sessions with the entire agency to hatch creative for new and existing clients. Some of the crew write down words and phrases and play with them on paper to get the juices flowing. Others sketch or doodle. Still others surf around on their laptop or smart phone. We’ve even got one guy who closes his eyes and looks like he’s nodding off, and then all of a sudden out will come an idea that rocks the room. These folks may not even realize that what they’re doing is a creative process, but indeed it is. Try them out and see what feels comfortable and natural.

Change up your routine.
Listen to a different radio station or watch a different show on television. Eat something you normally wouldn’t or eat at a different time of day. Hang out with someone new. Take a class. Read a new blog. Go to a stock car race if you’re an opera fan. You get the idea. Change is stimulating and promotes not only fresh individual concepts, but links those seemingly unrelated ideas and builds upon them.

Stay ready to be creative.
You never know when anything from a seemingly inconsequential fleeting thought that might come in handy later to an utter brainstorm is going to pop into your head, so you want to stay ready. Carry with you a pen and pad, smart phone or mini-recorder, etc. to immediately note these ideas when they come. It’s likely that a great many strokes of genius came and went in the middle of the night because there wasn’t a paper and pencil on the nightstand, but we’ll never know for sure, will we?

Take the learning process a step further.
A lot of data suggests that deliberate exercise of the brain—word games; learning a new language or musical instrument; solving riddles and brain teasers or any of hundreds of methods—improves overall brain function and helps develop creativity. Pick one and try it. Who knows, you may find yourself moving from the accounting department over to marketing, and although we’re sure we’ll hear about this from our right-brained followers, marketing and advertising is WAY more fun than accounting.

Looking to the future. Does your ad agency have a bright one?

One of the biggest challenges of the advertising industry is keeping pace with the many changes that span all types of media. Almost all advertising mediums undergo constant evolution as technology improves and creative teams find new ways to get more creative. However, with the onset of advertising and marketing through social media, not only is this exciting new medium itself evolving at light speed, but its influence on traditional advertising has effected more change in just a few short years than we’ve seen in probably half a century.

In an industry where speed records are being broken on a daily basis, is your agency keeping pace with this change? More importantly, is your agency equipped to adapt to future change that promises to come at a furious rate?

As the internet and mobile technologies continue to shape the future of the industry, advertising agencies must decide what they are going to be when they grow up. Some agencies will opt to stick with more traditional mediums, continuing to provide strong strategies and messaging in print, outdoor, direct mail, television and other long-standing media channels. Staying with the tried and true is fine, but any agency must recognize the power of the many new mediums whether or not they choose to offer marketing within them as part of their service offerings.

If you decide to venture into social media, mobile marketing or any other evolving medium, it is important to know that your current agency or a new firm you might be interviewing have a grasp on where the industry is today and where it’s likely going. Blogging, tweeting, posting on Facebook and YouTube, optimizing your website for search engines, or marketing via mobile phones not only takes a lot of time and know-how; like any other medium, it takes solid strategy and execution to succeed. The right choice for a marketing partner is a company that can combine the traditional aspects of marketing planning and strategy with the cutting-edge power of the latest technology.

Creativity, of course, is essential and awards for print ads, brochures, truck wraps, radio and television spots and more are great indicators that your agency can draw some attention to your business, but great creative in traditional mediums doesn’t always translate into the more interactive new mediums. Whether you’re using QR codes or mobile messaging, your agency must be able to marry provocative creative with a unique user experience to make a campaign successful. Tools like Twitter aren’t just for following Ashton Kutcher around Hollywood; they’re tangible marketing tools that if implemented and maintained correctly can raise to the first page of Google, right under “Dell Computers,” some one-man garage operation in Ocala, Florida, selling computer parts on EBay. An exaggeration? Okay, maybe a little, but you get the idea.

This isn’t to say that your ad agency has to have a team of ex-Google engineers running your social media or mobile campaign. Many concepts are more time-consuming than they are difficult to master, and although a lot of what’s going on in this arena is fast becoming common knowledge, it takes a lot of concerted effort to pull it off correctly.

The bottom line is that these new marketing mediums are powerful stuff that virtually every business needs to be doing now, in some way, shape or form, either itself or through an ad agency. If you do choose the agency route, however, we know just the one to get you well on your way to turning those virtual online messages that seemingly just flit around in cyber

Got a smartphone? Google knows how you use it.

No, this isn’t another editorial about smartphone tracking. This is a little on the lighter side … or is it? Google recently commissioned a survey to determine what smartphone owners primarily use their phones for and how they use them in terms of consumer searches, online shopping and response to mobile advertising.

Here’s the gist of what the market research firm, Ipsos OTX, found and what the Google spies uncovered:

1) Smartphone users are talented multi-taskers. Here’s the gruesome truth about what else they’re doing while using their phones.

a.72% of smartphone users use their phones while consuming other media.
b.70% use their smartphones while in a store.
c.33% of smartphone users use their phones while watching TV.
d.39% of users admit to having used their smarpthone while going to the bathroom.

2) Smartphone users are looking for you on their mobile devices.

a.95% of smartphone users have looked for local information.
b.88% of users who seek local info take action within a day.
c.77% use their phones primarily to search (57% of whom search primarily for news; 51% for dining; 49% entertainiment; 47% shopping; 32% technology; 31% travel-related info; 26% finance; and 17% automotive).
d.61% of those seeking local info were searching for a phone number to call a business.
e.59% of those seeking local info were searching for an address to visit a business.
f.45% use their phones to help plan activities.
g.44% of those seeking local info were searching to actually make a purchase.

3) Smartphone users use their phones to purchase the things they want.

a.90% of those who use their phones to search have take action as a result of a mobile search, with 53% leading to a purchase.
b.24% of users have recommended a brand or product to others as a result of a smartphone search.
c.79% of the survey respondents use their smartphones to help with shopping.
d.74% of smartphone shoppers wind up making a purchase.
e.35% purchase via their phones.
f.27% of smartphone purchases were made through a mobile website.
g.22% of smartphone purchases were made through apps.

4) Smartphone users will become customers in-person and online.

a.76% purchase conventionally in the store.
b.59% purchase online via a computer.

5) Smartphone users respond to traditional and mobile advertising.

a.71% of users search on their smartphones because of an ad they saw, whether from traditional media, online ads or mobile ads.
b.82% of users notice mobile ads.
c.42% of those who notice mobile ads click on the ad.
d.27% of those who notice mobile ads contact the business.
e.35% of those who notice mobile ads visit the website.
f.49% of those who notice mobile ads make a purchase.

6) Smartphone users LOVE their phones.

a.20% report that they’d give up their cable TV in order to keep using their smartphones.

So what does this all mean for your business? Well, these are only the results of a survey, but the trend is clear and certainly impressive. Coupled with what we reported in an earlier blog—that smartphone ownership has tripled in the last two years and that by the end of 2011, it’s expected that nearly a third of all U.S. cell phones will be smart ones—the argument for mobile-friendly websites is nearly inarguable, or will be soon.

Smart marketers are looking at how to reach their customers on smartphones. Just sayin’.

Online marketing that targets children: What do you think?

Marketing to children—particularly food items—is nothing new. Athlete and celebrity tie-ins, product placement in movies, commercials during cartoons, kid-friendly packaging, toys with purchase, placing product on the lower shelves in grocery stores, etc. are effective strategies that have been in place for decades. Now, however, there’s an advertising medium that captures its audience—children—for as long or longer than one of those time-share sales pitches that you have to sit through in exchange for a free trip to the Bahamas: online games.

General Mills, for example, has a game in which “BuzzBee,” the Honey Nut Cheerios mascot, can be dragged and dropped into cartoon panels to create custom kid comic strips, which then can be emailed to friends. There’s also a BuzzBee spelling bee game. The games are designed to reach children and advertise products, according to the companies that design them, in a fresh and new interactive platform. Those opposed to using the web in such a way, however, say the technique is just a click or two away from subliminal advertising.

The concept of mixing church and state—i.e. blurring the lines between editorial and advertising—is also nothing new. We’re bombarded with print advertising designed to look like editorial and editorial that’s becoming so stylish that it resembles advertising. There are television pundits with their own agendas who are projected into our homes under the guise of objective news shows. There’s Google pay-per-click versus websites that are found organically. Even blogs may offer objective and useful info, but many times are connected to websites selling products or services.

The difference, however, is that, as adults, most of us have judgment enough to recognize when we’re being marketed to versus when we’re being handed objective information. We take in the two forms of information with separate filters. Kids, for the most part, don’t because the frontal lobe of the brain—that part that controls judgment—doesn’t fully develop until the mid- to late twenties. This is why there are many laws and restrictions regarding advertising to children.

As a whole, the staffers at the Ryan William’s Agency don’t believe the BuzzBee games and those like them are evil. They’re creative, centered around learning and represent a new avenue in which to advertise. In fact, similar forms of online advertising are currently being used in the adult arena. Zynga, the Cali-based social gaming company that has developed campaigns for the likes of American Express, Nestle and McDonalds, currently awards players of Facebook’s “Farmville” who build their farms to a certain size a Farmer’s Insurance blimp. In its game “Café World,” you can win free Coca Colas. Prefer “Mafia Wars?” Loot from the movie Green Hornet is up for grabs in that popular game.

It’s an interesting time for advertising. Businesses now have far more options about where to spend their ad dollars, and it doesn’t look like the race for creating new ones is going to slow down anytime soon. As an advertising agency, we’re excited at the prospect of the creation of new venues for communicating business messages. However, we’re also well aware of the legal and social concerns attached to each.

We’d love to hear what you think about companies using online games to advertise to children. We invite you to post your comments as a parent, as an advertiser or just as yourself.

We’re a little slow to respond to the advent of QR codes, but they’re coming.

QR codes—those funky looking matrix bar codes you see in magazines and on business cards, signs and direct mail, etc.—have been around for a while and are quite popular in some areas abroad. But stateside we’re still catching up with the phenomenon. QR, which stands for “quick response,” technology was developed in 1994 by Toyota to ID new cars, and the technology quickly spread to practically every industry under the sun, from publishing to dry cleaning.

Why? Because, when scanned by a smart phone with a QR code reader installed, this tiny block can link your Internet browser to all kinds of information, whether text, URLs, images, you name it. So, if you’re a magazine publisher, for example, and have a 5,000-word feature story about Barbados and only room enough in your publication for 1,200 words, you’re in luck. You put the additional 3,800 words on your website, along with the 500 photo outtakes, a “Win a Trip to Barbados” contest, lists of the island’s top hotels and restaurants, banner ads and links to the websites of your top travel-related advertisers, and voila, your modest magazine story is now a Library of Congress-sized wealth of information.

Maybe you run a boutique and in your display window you have a few pieces of sculpture by a popular local artisan. The three pieces you do have in stock are nice, but not quite what the window shopper had in mind. A quick scan of the aptly placed QR code instantly reveals not only the artist’s bio and images of his extensive line of sculptures, but also that you can have any one or more of the pieces drop shipped to the customer in one day. Hmmmm, suddenly this odd little block, peppered with dots and squiggles and doodads, is becoming increasingly clear.

Too space-age progressive to even contemplate now for your business? Think again. According to a recent study by Arbitron, smartphone ownership has tripled in the last two years, and by the end of 2011, it’s expected that 31 percent of all U.S. cell phone users will own a smartphone. There was a time when businesses “did just fine” without email and the Internet too. Ready or not, here it comes.

Getting creative with your brainstorming. Hey, what a Great Idea!

Last week an RWA staffer was chatting with a colleague who was commiserating about a shipping problem at her company. ‘How big of an issue can a bit of mail be?’ vaguely crossed our staffer’s mind. Well, apparently this was a doozy, involving three separate departments that were now at odds within her company. The issue wasn’t black and white and so the staffer, thinking creatively, suggested she hold a brainstorming session with each of the departments concerned.

“This involves shipping perishables cross country,” she said, “not generating creative advertising concepts.” Our staffer went back to sipping mojitos and let the matter drop, pondering the question of why this particular friend was… well… so darn pigheaded.

While brainstorming isn’t new, a lot of managers think the concept is reserved solely for creatively inclined businesses. It’s not. Brainstorming can yield creative solutions, certainly, but the type of issue about which the ideas are generated is practically irrelevant. The key is in the process. Successful brainstorming needs to have some structure, however, or your participants might get lost in a downpour of new ideas and lose focus of what the original brainstorming was about.

Here are a few tips on successful brainstorming:

1. Put someone in charge. Brainstorming involves a facilitator to conduct the meeting and keep the group on task—although an effective facilitator knows when to let the group run in order to encourage the free exchange of ideas and maintain a relaxed, freeform atmosphere.

2. Remember the golden rule: there are no bad ideas. Humor, off-the-wall concepts, impossibilities, even wishful thinking—to a point, of course—are all in bounds during a successful brainstorming session. Because while one member of the team suggests adding eight more hours to the 24-hour day, another is taking that impossible cue and molding it into a more realistic idea that might never have come about if not for the clowning of the original team member.

3. Make sure the brainstorming group is varied. Ten board directors brainstorming about a shipping issue wouldn’t be nearly as effective as a mix of employees from shipping clerk to company president because each will have a unique set of concerns that the other might not have even considered. The size of the group also may vary, but generally more is better than less—again, up to a point.

4. Time your meeting for maximum creative brainflow. Brainstorming at 9:00 a.m. on a Monday when folks are still shaking the cotton candy out of their heads or at 4:00 p.m. on a Friday when they’re chomping at the bit to get to happy hour is not recommended. Also, letting the participants know what the session will be about a day or two prior to the meeting is a good tactic. The phrase “sleep on it” is a very real concept as the subconscious is constantly working even when we’re not deliberately thinking about something.

5. State what the issue is at the outset of the meeting. Explanation should be as detailed as possible, but not lead to any particular solution that may already be under consideration. The group may have questions to further clarify the issue, answers to which may not be known and so become part of the process.

Lastly, if you Google “Brainstorming,” there are lots of guides and rules for the most effective way to run a session, and some of them might be quite useful in your particular situation. At RWA, we tend to fly by the seat of our pants. But, hey, we’re creative people and we do rein it back in if the subject turns to space aliens or if staffers’ attention shifts from the meeting to their smart phones. That’s when we bring out the rubber chickens. We’ll blog about that later.

Happy brainstorming!

Advertising jargon: Is what your agency saying Brilliant or just B.S.?

Last week the RWA team attended two seminars on marketing with Social Media both conducted by advertising professionals. Although the topics were the same – how to get better results with social media – the presentations couldn’t have been more different, leaving us to wonder were these two companies talking about the same thing?

Herein lies the conundrum with social media. Everyone’s talking the talk, but half the time you can’t figure out what they’re saying. It sure sounds impressive, but is it Brilliant or just a bunch of B.S.?

Our first seminar was a phone seminar with two hosts: one an advertising professional, the second a client who had used this professional to build his business through social media. They spoke very conversationally about their social media strategy, execution and results, then gave some great tips for boosting social media results. At the end of the presentation, they fielded questions from callers – many of them not advertising professionals – and answered them directly, patiently explaining concepts that those new to social media might not fully understand. They took the time to reiterate key items such as integrating keywords into everything you put out there and creating as many backlinks as you can. We “walked away” thinking it was an hour well-spent.

That evening, our RWA team also attended a cocktail party where another group of advertising professionals spoke on the same topic. We were the only advertising people in the room; the rest of the crowd was made up of business owners and managers. Shortly after the presentation began, I watched the eyes of these business professionals slowly start to glaze over. Yes, the two men at the front of the room were talking about social media, but with the amount of industry jargon being thrown their way, the audience could not decipher what they were saying. Even our RWA team that works in the social media sphere on a daily basis had a hard time following the trail of buzzword breadcrumbs. At the end of the presentation, the presenters asked for questions, but the audience was simply too intimidated to ask any. This may have been the strategy all along, though. Their presentation was peppered with “If you need help, call us” comments. Subliminal advertising at its best.

Like all industries, advertising has its jargon, those fancy-dancy words that we like to sneak into conversations just to make ourselves sound impressive. After all, we are in a creative industry; you have to expect a little razzle-dazzle. But, when your advertising agency starts speaking in tongues and things get lost in translation, you might want to look elsewhere. After all, it’s not brain science. It’s just advertising.

West Palm Beach’s creative professionals share picks and pans from Super ad pool

If you’re like most of America, you watched the game last Sunday for… well, the game last Sunday. We creative folk, on the other hand, watched the game for something even more super. While you were running for another beer during commercial breaks, we were riveted to our television screens to see which of this year’s ads really “got game.”

Here are the top picks from our Ryan William’s Agency’s team of West Palm Beach ad pros:

Valerie Staggs, Head Person
Volkswagen “Black Beetle”
“The music is hip and new and draws you in from the start. I love that you don’t know what the spot is for, but you want to watch because the beetle is having so much fun. Great imagery.”

Mel Montes, People Person
Chevy Cruze “Misunderstanding”
“I used to live in Boca. I can totally relate.”

Sabrina Glover, Creative Person
Doritos “Finger Lick”
“The finger lick is so unexpected you can’t help but laugh. In one quick move it clearly delivers the message of “cheesiness.” Yum!”

Tammy Fazio, Production Person
Doritos “Finger Lick”
“I couldn’t stop laughing!”

Jason Upright, Copy Person
PepsiMax “Love Hurts”
“The wife is such a… well… you know… and you so expect her to get hers in the end. I like the unexpected twist when someone else gets it instead.”

Ryan Staggs, Ad Person in Training
E-Trade “Time Out”
“The baby is soooooo funny!!! I laughed my butt off!”

So which spot did we hate? Ryan William’s Agency staffers all agreed…

CocaCola “Heist”
“Um… huh? Somebody watched a little too much Avatar.”

Ryan William's Agency adds Social Media Marketing to advertising agency services

We're thrilled to launch a new division of Ryan William's Agency. Our Social Media Marketing division will assist clients in promoting their brands and driving sales through Social Media channels such as YouTube, Facebook, Twitter and Blogs.

With more and more sales being driven by the internet, every business should have a social media presence. If you don't, your competitors will so get out there and socialize.

Or, call us.

Blog, blog blog. Tips for getting more traffic to your blog.

You have a lot to say and you set up a blog so you could say. Problem is no one seems to be reading it! Well, just because you built it, doesn’t meant they will come. You’re going to have to work a little bit harder to get more bang for your blog.

Start using these helpful tips and you’ll be well on your way to getting more traffic to your blog.

Blog Tip #1: Blog Blog Blog
To have a successful blog, you must blog regularly. Daily is ideal, but if you can’t manage a daily update, at least shoot for every other day. Search engines look for fresh content so the more your post, the higher your rankings will go. Your followers will also enjoy fresh content. If every time they check out your blog it’s the same content they already read, they will stop coming.

Blog Tip #2: Use Your Keywords
Check out the top keywords in your industry and use them regularly in your blogs. If you haven’t already looked at your keywords, it’s easy enough to do. Just use Google’s Keyword Tool. It’s easy and free.

Blog Tip #3: Be Creative with Your Blog Title
Think of your blog like a magazine or newspaper article and make your headline intriguing. There’s a reason women pick up Cosmo at the supermarket. Who can resist “The 10 Ways to Make Your Man Crazy in Bed”? Tips, lists and how to’s are great headlines for blog posts.

Blog Tip #4: Go Tell it On the Mountain
Don’t wait for them to come to you! Every time you post a new entry in your blog, announce it. Send an E-mail to your registered readers. Post it on Facebook and LinkedIn. Tweet about it. Let the world know you’ve got some more good information.

Blog Tip #5: Market Your Blog
Link-backs are a great way to drive traffic to your blog and increase rankings with the search engines. Posting comments on other blogs and online forums then linking back to your blog are great ways of getting more traffic.

Blog Tip #6: Conduct a Survey
Surveys are a great way to get more interaction via your blog. You can create a quick survey of your own asking for user to post their opinion or use online survey software for a more extensive survey. Be sure to keep it short and interesting though. People like to voice their opinions, but not if it’s going to take the all day.
Blog Tip #7: Tell the Search Engines Where to Find You
Don’t wait for the search engines to find you. Go directly to Google or use a bookmarking site such as digg.com to catalog your blog site.

Now that you know how to do it, get blogging!

Seattle's Best's New TV Campaign is the Best!

Love Seattle's Best's new TV ads. A good cup of coffee can sure make all the difference.

Did your marketing mix put on a few extra pounds last year?

A new year always holds lots of promise and lots of promises of things you are finally going to do. According to a poll conducted by LiveScience.com, at the top of people’s lists for 2011 is the eternal battle of the bulge. In fact, losing weight beat out second and third place resolutions - Being Happy and Saving Money - by almost a two-to-one spread.

Although business resolutions are generally much more varied than those of the general public, weight loss should probably be at the top of the list among companies as well. What company couldn’t stand to shed a few extra pounds of underperforming marketing efforts?

One of the first questions we ask a new client is what their marketing mix looks like currently. Is the company using television advertising? Do they have a social media campaign? What magazines or print publications are a regular part of the advertising campaign? Are they using SEO or SEM?

After getting a good idea of what advertising vehicles are in their marketing mix, we then ask how each of them is performing. At this juncture we are oftentimes magically transported to a deep, dark forest where the only sound we hear is.. crickets.

Advertising in any form needs to get results for your company. Results translate into a ringing cash register or a busy service staff or an influx of sales leads. Your company can and should determine what sort of results you need and expect from your advertising and drill that down to each form of advertising you are using to determine if that print publication or that television campaign is really paying off.

If not, it’s time to trim some fat. Carrots anyone?

Try it, you might like it... or not.

Our agency recently received a referral from an existing client. The new client, a retail store, is next door to our existing client. The new client, Jane had seen the success our marketing efforts had achieved for her neighbor. She wanted what he was having.

After an initial meeting of fact-finding, we returned with a strategic marketing proposal in hand. In it, were the keys to her success: goals, challenges, target markets, competitive research, and a marketing strategy with specific initiatives.

Jane was impressed and, after we fielded several questions, she nodded her head. We were sure Jane was sold. Then, just as we were getting ready to present her with our contract, she delivered those deflating words every agency dreads.

"We'll give it a try," she said with a smile. Back into the briefcase went the contract.

With the possible exception of "fine," I doubt you can find a word packed with more underlying connotations than "try."

Let's face it, when a friend says, "I'll try to swing by your party later," he knows right then he's not coming. Or, when a co-worker says "I'll try to get to that paperwork today," you can bet your job is being shuffled to the bottom of her inbox without a second thought.

"Try" provides the universal excuse for failing to do something without incurring any personal responsibility for whatever is left undone. "I tried to make it to work on time, but all the inconsiderate drivers on I-95 wouldn't let me by." Who can blame me?

Giving advertising a "try" is sort of like giving marriage a "try." Promising to "try to love, honor and cherish 'til death do us part" isn't quite the same as committing to it. Either you're in it for the long haul, or you might as well get off at the next exit.

Jane's neighbor, a client of 12 years, is in it for the long haul. For 12 years we have been consistently marketing his business through local radio advertising and it has paid off. New customers regularly come into his store saying they heard him on the radio. People who have never shopped there know the name nonetheless. The success that Jane was seeing next door was the result of a long-term commitment to advertising. She wasn't going to achieve the same success by giving advertising a "try."

Jane did sign the contract and we're moving forward, albeit tentatively. She's trying hard to keep the word"try" from sneaking its way into our marketing strategies. The honeymoon stage is going well. With any luck, we won't be serving divorce papers before our first anniversary.

Is your media rep seeing your clients behind your back?

I called a client the other day about some updates on his website and he casually mentioned that he just signed an annual deal to advertise on a local television station.

"Really?" I say, thinking it was only a couple months ago that I proposed TV advertising to this very client only to be shot down by the budget torpedo.

"Yeah," he says happily. "The station gave me a really good deal. There's even free production."

"Why didn't you ask me about it?" I inquired, trying hard to keep the petulance out of my voice.

He pauses, then reluctantly says,"They told me it would cost more if I went through an agency."

I don't recall exactly how the rest of the conversation went although I did successfully convey the fact that a) free production is normally part of an annual deal, b) the fact that the station says it is "#1" doesn't mean it is "#1" among the people you want to reach, and c) a prime rotator usually means your spot will rotate into a show that gets fewer rating points than daytime soaps.

I must confess that I feel a bit a jilted. I just had lunch with my rep from this station and over arugula and penne pasta she told me how much she loved working with my agency. How could she? I thought our relationship meant something.

In the past, I have tried to cut media reps some slack. After all, I was one of them for five years so I know the importance sales managers place on direct business. But, lately I've begun to question the cost this "sell direct" mentality has on agency relationships with the media.

No doubt the media would rather keep their 15% instead of doling it out to agencies, but they more than make up for it by cutting their reps' commissions on agency business. No harm, no foul (unless you're the media rep with the puny paycheck).

I just can't figure the rationale for this system. Let's see... the media pays their reps bigger commissions on direct business. This encourages them to sell more direct business. By and large, direct business represents substantially fewer dollars than the business that comes through agencies. So, by focusing on direct business rather than agency business, media reps can actually make more money by selling less.

Hmmmm.....

Economics was never my strong subject, but you don't have to be Warren Buffet to figure out that this is probably not the best plan. It's the only plan they've got though and darned it they're not going to keep using it.

As for my adulterous media rep, I'm completely over her now. Next time, I'll know better. I'll order dessert with my penne pasta. She can pay for it with all those direct commissions she's earned.