When Is A Project “Good Enough?”
HM&P Creative Director, Billy Barnes, sits down with local photographer and creative blogger, Charles Gupton, to discuss his take on the creative process. Specifically knowing when it’s time to put the pencils down. Read the post here >
HM&P Speaks at NCTA Meeting
Our own Scott Piggott, Shavette Purvis and Mariana Pinner recently spoke at a North Carolina Technology Association luncheon. The audience was comprised of marketing professionals who work in the technology sector.
Scott opened up by talking about the marketing funnel – influence, engagement and transition – and how social media is apparent at every part of that funnel. Mariana provided a primer on social media, providing tips as well as real-life examples of companies using different social media techniques successfully. Shavette gave an overview of digital analytics, as well as how and when put tools in place to be able to properly measure online the activity and impact of online efforts. It is important not to forget to track the effectiveness of social media and other digital tactics.
It was a great session where everyone seemed to walk away learning something new about the ever-changing on-line world, which relies so heavily on social media and digital analytics.
Real World Search Engine by Dodge
Recently, some people at the agency came across an innovative, fun, and engaging campaign. I was immediately captivated not even knowing much or having experience with the brand. Cutting through the clutter to reach consumers is always a tough job for ad agencies. I thought I would take time to highlight one campaign that successfully did this.
Dodge developed a bold campaign to promote the new Journey by hiding three of them across the US and making fans of the Dodge brand search for them. You find one, you keep one! The company put out a serious of TV spots for each of the three locations. In these commercials, the promotion of the new Journey was the focus. However, there were hidden clues in every frame as to the location of the vehicles. The campaign started on September 12th and ran through September 27th.
As soon as I heard about this campaign, I wanted to get involved. Who doesn’t love a good treasure hunt when a free car is up for grabs? My boss and I were immediately engaged and waiting for the release of the first video. We tried searching for the hidden clues in the commercials that were posted on Dodge’s YouTube channel. Too bad we didn’t get to the car first. I would have greatly enjoyed having a brand new car!
Take a look at the campaign for yourself. Its unique approach really got people to interact with their brand. I think it is safe to say their campaign was successful in increasing brand awareness. After all, it worked on me and I have never owned a Dodge car.
Weekly Wrap #5
1. 22 Eye-Catching Ways to Create QR Codes
You’ve seen them. The small little squares with geometric shapes at the bottom of advertisements, direct mail, or even receipts – QR Codes. By simply downloading an app on your smartphone, users have the ability to snap a photo of the code which will then take you a website, video or even coupon for a particular product. But not all QR Codes are just pasted on print ads. Businesses and agencies have begun to incorporate other mediums to develop these codes, using food, spray paint or even grass to help catch a person’s eye. SimplyZest.com posted the top 22 most eye-catching ways to develop a QR code. Take a look and see which one is your favorite!
2. Who Needs Brushes?
When working at an advertising agency, you are constantly surrounded by creative ideas, concepts and artwork. Several of our own team members at HM&P even have been gracious enough to share and display their pieces in our café gallery. When a fellow co-worker shared a video about a Toronto-based artist named Amy Shackelton, I was shocked to see her secret aesthetic, she doesn’t use paint brushes! Check out this video of Amy working on one of her newest urban landscape pieces, “Terraced City”.
3. Facebook’s New Auto-sharing Features Could Expose Your Online Activity
Mark Zuckerberg’s Facebook update announcement last week has generated a lot of buzz among users and the media. From the redesigned profile page to the new timeline feed, the majority of users will end up adapting to the new updates and continue to check their profile. However, users should be aware of the new auto-sharing feature that automatically shares what you’re doing on Facebook-connected apps. Instead of having to “Like” something to share it, users can click “Add to Timeline” on any website or app. The app will then have permission to share your activity with your Facebook friends including news articles you read online, viewed videos or even the music you listen to. Learn more here about this new feature and how you can adjust your privacy setting to help protect you from sharing your online activity with your fellow Facebook friends.
4. Study: PR is the second-most-caffeinated profession
In honor of yesterday’s National Coffee Day, I thought that this article from PRDaily.com was perfect for this week’s Weekly Wrap Up. As my fellow PR companions can attest to, there is never a dull moment in the life of public relations executive. That’s why I wasn’t surprised that a recent study from Dunkin’ Donuts and Career Builder ranked PR/Marketing professionals as the second-most-caffeinated profession “who need coffee to get through the daily grind”. I guess that’s why there was a 20+ email chain going around the office about the new Starbucks opening around the corner from our office?
5. UC Berkeley Scientists Reconstruct Brains’ Visions Into Digital Video
Last week, UC Berkeley reported a breakthrough that paves the way for reproducing the movies inside our heads. There was a lot of discussion around of office about this new report. Here’s what our COO and SVP of Media Assets, Donna Mercer, thought about this new technological advancement:
“Yes, a lot of us are movie/video producers. We do it all day long; take in information and rewrite it into our own personal stories that potentially look nothing like the input. While we want to believe we are totally rational in the way we see and interpret our world, we are in fact emotional creatures that take in bits and pieces of input and reconstruct it for our reality. While the research addresses applications for stroke and coma victims, just to mention a few, I wondered if the technology could be made cheap and accessible enough to work for the field of marketing and communications and what might it tell us? Possibly it could give us the opportunity to see if our communications actually get into people’s heads, then we might see how the input resides in their mind movie. How distorted or clear is the reprocessed imagery and how does the imagery translate with different demographic audiences.“
To learn more about this new system, click here.
Cross Platform Targeting – The Next Phase of Digital Media
I was sitting in a mobile advertising meeting a few weeks ago and we chatted for awhile about mobile targeting techniques. As you know, advertisers can target by geography, demographic, content, etc. You can even “geo-fence” which means drawing a radius around a particular location or event to serve your ads. Most Mobile vendors own or are part of some type of network to reach a mass audience through mobile website and application banners. We do a lot of retargeting here at Howard Merrell to prequalify our clients’ audience based on their visit to the landing page other industry trade sites. This subject brought up a great question which I couldn’t wait to explore. Is it possible to serve an ad to someone on their computer and then serve an ad to that same person on their phone or iPad? After a little research the answer is Yes. New technology companies have been popping up across the country within the last few months that do just this. Exciting!
So now that we know it’s possible, how does it work? The linking is done through your home modem. Right now companies are able to link your personal devices through your home internet connection. For example, if you access the internet via your iPhone, then use your laptop, these companies determine that both devices are owned by the same person and then serve you ads based on your user profile.
This in turn opens up a whole new world of brand frequency across the internet. Searching for shoes online? Visit Zappos.com, browse around a bit, get bored and move onto local news. There’s a Zappos ad! A few hours later, you’re on your iPad looking at reviews for restaurants in the area, and you see another Zappos ad. This is no longer a coincidence. This of course does spur some questions. What if a user connects to multiple modems throughout the day? What happens if you connect to a public Wi-Fi service at the coffee shop? The technology is still being flushed out and as of now this process has some holes. But all-in-all it’s the future of digital. Some say its “Big Brother”, I say its smart advertising!
Mouse Hovering and Heat Mapping
I came across this killing the click article two weeks ago. The gist of the article is that heat-mapping metrics seek to eliminate engagement rates measured in clicks. Attribution by source is difficult enough (last click attribution etc). There is nothing wrong with banners; at least Google provides exposure to conversions reports that allow you to how impressions and clicks contributed to a conversion. Moat now claims that people looking at ads is a viable metric without providing any measurable action.
Engagement is not a conversion; throughout the article conversions are never mentioned. For all online marketing campaign there needs to be some sort of measurable action. Heat-mapping is simply a metric with a Cost-Per-Engagement (CPE) pricing model.
Heat-mapping doesn’t distinguish between interest and disinterest, and likely counts a lot of false positives. While hovering is a way to detect links, this strategy does not work with banner ads, as everyone knows ads have links. The heat mapping metric is only a valid metric when you are looking to discern call to action effectiveness, for example click here or learn more. The article does not provide any insights on how mouse hovering will work on Smartphones or Tablets.
Why introduce a new metric that doesn’t scale to the fastest growing devices?
Heat-mapping is not a new technology, we’ve been using various tools to track heat maps for several years. Just because you add color to a map doesn’t make new technology.
See…
Original Picture
Heat-Mapping Picture
New Account Executive: Kayla Bourgeois
We have a new addition to the Account Management department, Kayla Bourgeois. In her role as an AE, she will develop and implement marketing strategies as well as manage the day-to-day advertising and communications activities for several clients, including Georgia-Pacific Professional and Barton College.
Kayla brings with her comprehensive experience in project management and digital media – a great combination. Before joining the agency, Kayla served as a project manager at Centerline Digital where she gained extensive knowledge across all media. She also worked as a broadcast technician at WRAL-TV and a video editor and quality assurance engineer at Oasys Mobile. Most recently, Kayla developed an initiative called “Rebuild Raleigh” to help raise money for the rebuilding efforts of Raleigh after the April 2011 tornadoes.
Please welcome this Appalachian State grad to the Howard, Merrell & Partners family! Check out the release on Kayla.
The Sports Fanatic’s Daily Deal
Let’s be honest, how many daily deals are you ever truly interested in purchasing? Today, I opened up my inbox to find a discount on salon services, custom framing and horseback riding – not my cup of tea. While some people find themselves impulse buying from their inbox, others struggle to justify buying something they don’t need just because it’s cheaper than usual.
Well, here’s an idea that just might catch on: a daily deal with a niche focus. I recently stumbled across Crowd Seats, the sports fan’s dream daily deal.
Crowd Seats offers deals on sports tickets and is featured in select cities. Its founder and CEO has plans to expand to all major cities in the United States. Is this a daily deal that you would consider subscribing to?
Here’s an infographic from Tech Crunch on the business premise behind this new kind of daily deal:
Read more about Crowd Seats and learn how this deal might be the next big thing!
Adweek: The Ad Agency Bloodline
For all the advertising nerds out there (and if you’re reading our blog, I bet that means you!), Adweek published an article on what they’ve dubbed “the mother of all advertising infographics.”
Take a spin through advertising history, and while HM&P doesn’t show up on the timeline, we were part of The Interpublic Group in the early 2000s.
Click the image to view it larger. It may open in a reduced size in your browser, but you should be able to click to expand it.
Interview: Role of the Creative Technologist
Check out this video of Edward Boches, Chief Innovation Officer at Mullen, interviewing Scott Prindle, VP / Executive Creative Technology Director at CP+B, on the role of the creative technologist at Making Digital Work 4 in Boulder. In this blog post, Boches posits that the role of the Creative Technologist is the most important in advertising.
