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 

You too can YouTube

While pretty much everyone but the stuffiest among us agrees that Facebook, Twitter and certain blogs, etc. can be a lot of fun, no one can deny that YouTube videos hold the most potential for side-splitting entertainment. (And if you do deny it, reference “stuffiest” above and consider opening a LinkedIn account.)

Yes, it’s true; companies and individuals post videos of many stripes other than humorous ones. Anything from reconstructive dental surgery to personal political diatribes are fair game. But who doesn’t like to laugh? And a recently completed unscientific study by Ryan William’s Agency found that “a whole heck of a lot more” funny videos went viral last year than any other genre, except music and maybe those peeks inside the reactor cores in Fukushima, Japan.

The point is, however, that humor sells. And even if music as well as pain and suffering do as well, who has the budget to hire Lady Gaga and do you really want to associate your product or service with catastrophe? But for the cost of a video camera that you probably already have in your smart phone or digital camera and a little creative thinking, you have the potential to spread your business message perhaps worldwide.

A great example of this is Blendtec, manufacturer of the “world’s best blenders,” and the company’s tongue-in-cheek “Will it Blend” videos. Company founder and engineer Tom Dickson blends up everything from cell phones to golf balls to illustrate the power of his blenders in this hilarious series. While his blender stayed intact, his videos exploded on YouTube and so did sales. You can view them on his website at www.blendtec.com or dial them up on www.YouTube.com.

Miracle Whip is using YouTube on a grander scale, creating the “Miracle Whip Not for Every Relationship Contest” where the company is awarding $25K to the best 60-second video depicting how Miracle Whip either caused couples to marry or divorce. The promo video alone (http://tinyurl.com/3gt2hwm) is hysterical.

“Yes, I understand the marketing power of YouTube,” you say, “but I can barely keep up with the day to day demands of my business, let alone produce videos.” And that’s okay. The production of videos can be outsourced or you can start yourself small-time and infrequently. Eventually, however, when you realize the value of such a strategy, the likelihood of a video campaign eventually becoming integral to your business’s advertising mix is quite high. Think about it. Then give us call if you have questions.

The evolution of the creative team

Once upon a time, there were only a handful of mediums in which a business could advertise: newspapers, magazines, radio, television, outdoor, direct mail, etc., what we loosely define as traditional advertising. In just a few short years, however, the explosion in technology has not only created a slew of new advertising options—from social media to QR codes—but the industry’s evolution now requires agencies practically to have to employ Google engineers to understand the new mediums and maintain the complex mix.

This means the traditional copy writer/art director creative team has evolved as well. Effective copy for Twitter, for example, must be 144 characters long or less. Oh, and to be an effective Tweet, the message mustn’t hit the reader over the head with sales speak and instead subtly coax with independent entertainment or information. Effective website copy must be written for the Google indexing spiders as well as for the market for whom the site is intended. As for effective design, it must now work when viewed in mediums ranging from print to tiny smart phone screens to stories-high projected signage in Times Square.

But the evolution of the creative team is more than just a copywriter adapting his words and an art director her design to fit the new mediums. Because of all the ways in which a business can now advertise, there are a multitude of concerns and issues far outside the realm of words and pictures.

At Ryan William’s Agency, the typical brainstorming meetings to create a new ad campaign involve everyone in the agency because of the complexities involved. A “simple” website build, for example, which is just one small facet of big campaign, requires input from a number of unrelated professional areas—photography, copy writing, layout and design, programming, SEO, the list goes on.

Topics during our meetings can range from who’s going to clean and prep a client’s truck before a wrap is installed to the pros and cons of buying targeted or untargeted Facebook fans to jump start a social media campaign. We discuss the virtues of building a website using a content management system versus custom programming; how to address positive and negative website business reviews; the fact that Google customizes its search results based on what an individual has searched for and clicked on in the past, yielding search results that Google “thinks” you want. The variables are complicated and any one decision has a ripple effect throughout the campaign.

Today’s creative team is no longer simply the wordsmith and artist because the meaning of “creativity” in advertising has evolved to include science as well as art. Is the Google Analytics expert creative? Are website meta tags sexy? Perhaps not in the traditional sense. But, in today’s world of advertising, these are critical parts of the creative mix and, for the team at Ryan William’s, at least, as flashy as a double-truck four-color add in the Palm Beach Post. And if your creative team is having a hard time getting jazzed about Tweeting or tagging, you might want to find someone who finds these new mediums just as exciting as the old ones.

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?)

Has Newspaper Advertising Become Obsolete?

There’s no doubt about it: With the advent of the Internet, newspaper readership, in general, is dramatically waning—especially where dailies are concerned. Many papers around the country have folded and the remaining players have staffs and newspapers that are likely a fraction of their former size. However, there still are benefits to newspaper advertising and situations when buying display space makes sense.

When making your advertising decisions, think about the following to help determine if newspapers might fit into your campaign.

* A newspaper ad is tangible, and concepts read from a hard copy versus other mediums, especially electronic, are often easier to understand and remember. That’s one of the reasons why, still to this day, most anything created electronically that absolutely must be free of errors includes a round of proofing on paper.

* A newspaper ad tends to hold the reader’s attention longer than some other forms of advertising. Sure, you can always turn the page, but electronic media encourages taking in smaller bits of information faster than the concept of reading a newspaper. A new Web page or television station is just a click away. People tend to take time with a newspaper.

* Studies indicate that newspaper readers are generally an older, better educated and more affluent demographic, which, depending on your product or service, can be a real advantage.

* An upside to the newspaper industry shrinking is that there are fewer ads against which to compete, so you can expect better exposure than in the past.

* Consider where very large companies—those who likely know best where to spend their ad dollars--advertise. Online? Of course. Television? Radio? Certainly. However, open your daily paper and you’ll see they are there as well. Why? Because given the right timing, display size and a product or service suitable for a newspaper’s primary demographic, newspaper ads pull.

Sure there are a lot snazzier, sexier medias to advertise in these days, but don’t count newspaper out of your media mix. Print can still play a very effective part of your company’s marketing plan given the right message aimed at the right audience. Not sure who or what that is? We know some people who can help you with that.

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

Subtle Sex Sells Too

We’ve seen splashier advertising, but once in a while something comes along with just the right blend of humor, sophistication, sex appeal and simplicity that it deserves its 15 seconds of fame. And, thanks to www.adweek.com/adfreak, we think this billboard advertising Kraft Macaroni and Cheese is one.

This brand of tasty creativity is akin to a Bill Cosby standup routine versus an Eddy Murphy gig. During their prime, each would leave you with a little pee pee in your shorts. But while Murphy’s brand of comedy involved language that would have death row inmates turning their heads like dogs deciphering Latin, Cosby could get across risqué concepts without using words any darker than … well … “pee pee.”

Is one a higher art form and the other lower? That’s a discussion for a different day. But in today’s world of advertising, there’s room for both kinds as well as for every shade in between, depending on your product and market. Sometimes, however, with all the obvious wordplays and creative advertising brainstorms that are generated today, we can forget how powerful a tool subtlety can be. Thanks for the reminder, Kraft Macaroni and Cheese. We’ll keep that concept on the back burner.

How much should you spend on advertising?

Ahhh, the age-old question, and when the answer is being provided by an ad agency, you might feel a bit suspect. Wary or not, however, there are guidelines to advertising expenditures; the numbers are tangible and the concepts behind them more black and white than you might realize.

While there are, of course, many variables—including industry, business size, growth rate desired, etc.—both the Counselors to America’s Small Business (SCORE) and the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) define an adequate small-business advertising and marketing budget to be between 2% and 10% of sales.

Sound like a lot? It is. And frankly, most companies under-spend, believing that not to spend is to save. Unfortunately, this strategy can backfire. You’ve heard the old adage “you have to spend money to make money” right? Well, when it comes to your advertising and marketing efforts, the money you spend does directly affect your revenue. It’s a tough concept to swallow, but during lean periods like the recent economic downtown is not the time to cut back.

Too often businesses estimate their annual sales, subtract overhead and inventory, etc.
and then allocate anything left over to pay for advertising. When you consider that you must advertise to generate those sales to begin with, you can begin to see why this strategy may not be such a good plan after all. A better strategy is to consider your advertising or marketing a fixed budget item on the front end of your accounting, not a number that waxes and wanes depending on how business is going.

The key is to spend your money wisely and carefully tailor your campaign to fit your market and fulfill your goals, and that’s where your ad agency comes in. We can’t determine your budget. But we can, based on your budget, your market and your goals, determine the best way to allocate your marketing dollars to keep those sales high to pay for all that great advertising!

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.

New G.E. Sock Loss movement puts great Experiential Marketing spin on long-time brand

Ever wonder where those missing socks go after you throw them in the dryer? The mystery remains, but dryer-maker G.E. is bringing the problem to the consciousness of society with a fabulous and funny new campaign.

Under the persona of L.O.S.S. (Laundered and Orphaned Sock Society), G.E. has launched an innovative website (www.sockloss.com) where users can report a missing sock, view videos of protestors outside laundromats, join the laundry reform movement and, oh, register to win a new washer and dryer.

Kudos to G.E. for a new spin on an old brand.

Now, if they could just find my missing socks.

What makes your brand unique?

Call it what you will – a brand proposition, unique selling point, brand personality, brand image; it’s the thing that makes your brand truly unique. The operative word here is “unique” and too often a brand’s proposition, USP, whatever, is really not unique.

Case in point: in our first meeting with a new client we pose the question “What makes you stand out from your competitors?” The client 9 times out of 10 returns an answer of “Our customer service.” Hmm, we think. We’ve heard that before. Their competitor is probably saying the same thing. So we delve a little deeper and ask “If I were to meet your brand at a party, shake hands with it and chit chat a little, how would you want me to remember you?” A stare. A head tilt. Crickets.

One of advertising’s pioneers David Ogilvy wrote about brand image in his book Ogilvy on Advertising.

He used the example of Jack Daniel’s whiskey as a brand with a clear brand personality. If you met Jack Daniel’s at a party, you would most likely walk away thinking “There’s a real quality guy. Down-to-earth with old fashioned values, yet classy.” Now, ask yourself how you would describe Old Crow whiskey.

Marlboro didn’t promise good service in its 25 plus year campaign featuring the Marlboro Man. Cowboys don’t care about good service and what guy doesn’t want to be a cowboy? Well, maybe not now, but back then the cowboy image made Marlboro the number one selling cigarette.

Defining your brand’s image is not easy. Just like people, brands can have complex personalities. But, before you spend valuable marketing dollars marketing your brand, take some time to define what it really is. The clearer your image of your brand the better impression you will leave on all those partygoers who will mix and mingle with it now and into the future.

Ryan William’s Agency recognized in 2011 ADDY Awards Competition

The dresses weren’t as elaborate as the Golden Globes, but the “who’s who” of South Florida advertising all came out for the 2011 ADDY Awards Competition this past Thursday night. The American Advertising Federation’s annual competition recognizing creative excellence, the ADDY Awards are our industry’s equivalent to the Golden Globes, minus the diamonds and designer ballgowns.

We were thrilled to be recognized not once… not twice…, but NINE TIMES for work Ryan William’s Agency completed this past year.

We took home two Golds and two Silver ADDYs for Downtown at the Gardens projects including window graphics, posters and displays for Downtown’s new carousel.

We also took home Gold for work completed for Carpenter’s Roofing and Sheet Metal, Seacrest Services and even our own stuff!

Once a year at the ADDY Awards we get to enter campaigns that we thought were great, but never saw the light of day. The judges thought our pitch to the South Florida Fair was as good as we did and gave it a Gold ADDY. Maybe next year Fair board?

5 tips for picking a West Palm Beach advertising agency

Years ago the top minds here at RWA decided to take a page out of our own book and formulate a marketing plan for ourselves. Part of that plan required analyzing our competition. Sure we knew the handful of West Palm Beach advertising agencies we bumped into on a regular basis (some harder than others). So we expected to see them on the list of advertising agencies registered in Palm Beach County. What we didn’t expect to see was a list of 331 registered advertising agencies in the County.

331? Geez. How’s a business supposed to decide who to pick from that many choices?

If you’re considering hiring an advertising agency to help your South Florida business, here are five handy tips for picking the right agency.

1) Question the retainer. Most agencies charge a monthly retainer as part of your contract. While this is standard in the industry, the services covered by a retainer are not. Ask your potential agency what services are included in your monthly retainer fee. If the answer is not clear, look for another agency.

2) Don’t choose solely based on industry. Clients often look for advertising agencies that have experience in their specific industry. While experience can be very helpful, it can come with a downside. Agencies who handle a lot of clients in one specific industry can often provide a cookie-cutter approach, recycling ideas from one client to the next. An agency that has less experience in your industry can often offer a fresh approach that will differentiate you from your competition.

3) Look at impressive results not impressive credentials. A lot of South Florida agencies boast resumes packed with high powered positions in larger advertising markets. Let’s face it, Madison Avenue gets less enticing in the winter so a fair number of ad professionals head south to join the ad game in Florida. Just because the ad guy you’re interviewing produced a spot for a multi-million dollar client doesn’t mean he can get you the results you need on a less-than-million-dollar budget. Ask for examples of clients the agency has handled that are similar in size and budget. What results was the agency able to produce for them?

4) Take a tour of the agency. Different agencies have different personalities. Make sure your agency’s personality fits with your business’ personality. Choosing an agency is sort of like choosing a spouse. You will have to spend a fair amount of time together. You better like each other or you'll be headed for divorce.

5) Remember that size doesn’t matter. Good ideas can come from anyone. A big staff does not always mean big ideas, nor does it mean a better level of service. Take the time to interview smaller and larger agencies. Then make the decision as to which one works best for your company’s needs.

You have a lot of advertising agencies to choose from in West Palm Beach. Take your time and find the right fit for you. Happy hunting!