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We have recently been taking a look at trends, not only in design but across the board in media and branding strategy.  Pandora, (www.pandora.com) the ‘create your own radio station’ site, comes to mind immediately as a shining example of efficiency and simplicity. Mind you, simple on the front end, not behind the scenes where someone attached characteristics to thousands of songs after listening to each one. So, making note here, they spent time and much forethought on the back end before creating something that seems seamless and simple.  You go to the site, type in one name and it creates your play list in a clean, visually-pleasing screen with no fuss or confusion.    It is just efficient and I’m hooked already.  

Bill Gardner writing for Logolounge.com on the trends in ’08 logo designs highlights several styles and points out, “There’s an overall move toward cleanliness – in type, in line, in color – as if ideas are getting more and more succinct. It may be an indication of the degree of seriousness with which branding is now regarded. And less is more common: less calligraphy, less Photoshop tricks, less artificial highlights.”  (Read more at  http://www.logolounge.com/articles/default.asp?ArticleID=607 )           

So it seems, we move toward simple.  It used to be that with the onslaught of cool Photoshop tricks it was trendy to “throw all you’ve got at it” and create something complex and intricate above all, just because you could.  Though getting back to basics is not rocket science, really, who doesn’t want the acclaim of a simple swoosh, the recall factor of a golden ‘M’ or the punch factor of a little white apple. The iconic brands did not get there overnight or by chance, but they did build an empire with a simple logo. Perhaps in your design strategies this year – for logo, email, blogs, web site – think simple, think clean.

National advertisers are looking to cash in on the “green” movement, picking up on consumer research that reports 79% of consumers would rather buy products from environmentally conscious companies, with 35% of them saying they’d pay a premium price for green goods. Advertising Age magazine put together a special report about green marketing and the companies that are doing it – including the big boys of Honda, Whole Foods and others.

Locally, we have special reports on the local newscasts and a Go Green blog here at RRStar.com…but little local advertising is focused yet on companies’ environmental policies. Is your company green? Do you advertise that fact? It may be a strong selling point to consumers and the time has probably come to look at the topic as your gear up for next year’s ad campaigns. Take a look at the Ad Age special report and learn what the big brands are doing and brainstorm ways to incorporate a green message in your ads – chances are, it’ll make your bottom line more green too.

Next year, Sapporo, a Japanese beer company, will start labeling its beer bottles with the amount of carbon emissions associated with production and disposal. Japan’s is also working on standardizing how carbon can be measured and labeled on consumer products.

In the UK, the Carbon Trust, a government-funded independent company, is developing a similar scheme, set to launch in the coming months. According to their site, companies like Coors and Coca-Cola will add the carbon label.

Will this added transparency provide a competitive advantage? Are these figures meaningful to the consumer? And will people really track their carbon impact? We shall soon see.

According to the Carbon Trust’s research, reported in an Independent article, 66 percent of UK consumers want to know how much carbon is associated with their consumer goods. The UK labeling program will have a one year trial period, so we will hopefully find out how accurate that statistic is.

As KMK Media’s graphic designer, some of my time is often spent educating clients about graphic design and how it works. Design is a critical piece in any successful campaign; here are some tips about how you can work effectively with any graphic designer to make your pieces better and more effective:

1. Know your budget. The size, layout and print quality of the piece are all affected by the amount of money you have to spend.

2. Know your project. Is it a brochure, a trade show display or a postcard? Who is your target audience? Will it be mailed or handed out? All of these elements will dramatically impact your design work from the start.

3. Planning and forecasting. Work with your designer up front to discuss concepts and goals for the piece(s) and then work with him/her to set up a realistic production calendar with milestones and a “drop dead” print date. (A word to the wise – it’s often easier to build in a few “cushion” days to any print deadline you may have and be sure to count holidays, when printers and even designers are closed.)

4. Feedback…and then some. Working with a designer is the ultimate give-and-take. We need – and expect – constructive feedback throughout the process. If you don’t like something, tell us up front. It’s much easier to make a change in the early stages than the day before it’s supposed to go to the printer.

5. Final copy first. The design phase is not the time to be doing massive rewrites of copy. Make sure the copy you submit has the sign-off of all parties involved. Small text changes are OK but massive rewrites will only delay the process and likely cost you more in design fees.

6. Changes are OK…to a point. If you find yourself going back and forth with a designer more than 2 or 3 times on a project, likely it’s because you were unclear in your direction at the beginning of the project or too timid in your criticism. Design is a dialog and it only works when both sides are talking to each other. Again, more changes = more delays and higher costs.

7. Keep an open mind. Graphic designers do this for a living – be open to their ideas and suggestions. Oftentimes, we can suggest a better way to design a piece so that it gets the results you’re after.

For examples of good design, visit Creativity Online…a great source for the leading edge in advertising creative.

Not to be outdone by the Superbowl, NBC Universal is cashing in on the August 8 start of the Summer Olympics in Beijing. According to this piece in the June 19 USA Today, sponsors have already shelled out $40 million just to be part of the action and may likely spend upwards of half a billion dollars to be part of the pageantry that mark the modern-day Olympic games.

A dozen — including U.S. companies such as Coca-Cola (KO), General Electric (GE), Johnson & Johnson (JNJ), Kodak (EK) and Visa (V)— have spent about $40 million just to be top-level Games sponsors and will spend up to 10 times that to exploit the tie-in with ads, promotions and events in the USA, China and other world markets.

“It’s a lot of money but it’s got breadth and depth and will run all summer,” says Kevin Lane Keller, professor of marketing at Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. “The potential is there. It’s what marketers decide to do with it.”

Here’s an example of what to expect. Visa is going with a theme of “Go World” (at least right now).

Saw a TV version of this – narrated by Morgan Freeman – over the weekend during the diving and gymnastics trials:

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Copy-writing is a skill, a talent and, in many cases, a gift. So what can you do to turn your company’s brochure into something that makes a good impression on potential and current clients? Here are some basic dos and don’ts for writing brochure copy:

1. Emphasize client benefits. The brochure isn’t about your company – it’s about what your company can do for your client. You have to shift your point of view to that of your buyers’. Empathize with them and tell them directly how your company or product can help them solve their problems, make them more efficient and improve their bottom-lines.

2. Write for your audience. Don’t talk to engineers like they’re pre-schoolers and vice versa.

3. Headlines matter. One of the hardest copy-writing skills to hone is writing tight, descriptive and interesting headlines. Spend some time in this area; headlines will draw your readers in and get them to read further. Mention titles or specific challenges within your target audience’s realm of influence. For example, which would be of more interest to a small-business owner reading a brochure about a new service that can manage, track and store his customer contact database?

    “Announcing the End of the Spreadsheet”

or

“XYZ Corp’s Online User Interface and Tracking System”

4. Less is More. I was an English major at Rockford College, where complex sentences were the norm. Not so in advertising. Keep it short, witty and light. Break long paragraphs up with clever headlines (see above) and graphics.

5. A Call to Action. A brochure is only a first step in the sales process. Include a call to action – a phone number, a web visit, etc. – and follow up with a personal sales call or demonstration.

6. PROOFREAD.  One of the tricks I learned at the aforementioned Rockford College is to read your copy backwards, sentence by sentence. Try it – it got me through 4 years of Shakespeare, Milton and Poe term papers.

From the exuberant proliferation of blogs lately across the business spectrum locally, regionally and nationally, it makes sense for you to consider whether or not a blog would help your small business grow sales. Generally, the answer to that question is: yes, but.

The “but” – and it’s a relatively big one in the time-pressed world of small-business ownership – means you won’t see overnight success despite the amount of time you’re going to spend building and maintaining an effective blog.

Like most marketing tools that are content-driven, good blogs take time and effort to develop and start impacting a bottom line. But blogs can get you other results as well; for example, they can:

• Rank your website higher on search engines;
• Provide a forum for your customers to interact with your brand/company;
• Get you some media exposure as an “expert” in your field.

Whether or not a blog make sense for your company is an individual decision, but here are some tips for starting and maintaining an effective blog…happy reading & good blogging!

Starting Out & How-to Tips:

Is a blog right for me?

How to write killer blog copy

How to write your “About Us” page

How to get traffic to your blog

Get more comments

6 worst things to do with a blog

The assumption is that companies with high ethics, and that are able to communicate that to consumers, will profit. Certainly “green marketing,” is a buzzword lately in advertising everything from automobiles to soap. But while green claims are important, high ethical practices extend to all types of advertising.

This ad for the Argentine presidential campaign the was part of a panel discussion at the AAF National Conference, Monday in Atlanta. The session was called “Green vs. Green: Can Corporate Profit Follow Social Responsibility,” about how corporations can enhance brand loyalty and their profits by demonstrating ethical behavior and management. The panelists included Allison Arden, VP or AdAge, Katherine Benoit, GM Corporate Marketing Director, Tim Love, VP Omnicom Group and Doug Wood, Chairman, Advertising, Technology & Media Group, Reed Smith and was moderated by Wally Snyder, President/CEO of the American Advertising Federation. They discussed whether a commitment to progressive environmental practices can pay enough to satisfy shareholders as well as other ethical practices in advertising.

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/lFz5jbUfJbk" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

In one sense, it’s about karma. Do good, tell the truth and good will come back to you. As one of the panelists said he was told about ethics by his 97-year old grandmother, “You gotta meet yourself around a corner someplace.”

See Wally Snyder’s article on advertising ethics at http://www.aafblog.org/blog/?p=6

See the FTC’s Green Guides at http://ecfr.gpoaccess.gov/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=ecfr&sid=b2333ddf96abf25788ef3037ffcfb40a&tpl=/ecfrbrowse/Title16/16cfr260_main_02.tpl

Imagine a site that you frequently visit, let’s say amazon.com. Given the exhaustive amount of information you initially find that it is difficult to navigate. But over time, you realize you’re finding the Web site is easy to navigate, more comfortable, and it gives you the information you need. Almost second nature. Is this a result of you simply learning how to navigate the site? Maybe not…

Here’s an article from MIT Tech review about websites that recognize the cognitive style of visitors by the way they click around and adapt their interfaces accordingly:

“The researchers’ initial studies show that morphing a website to suit different types of visitors could increase the site’s sales by about 20 percent. While quite a few sites, such as Amazon.com, offer personalized features, many of those sites adapt by drawing information from user profiles, stored cookies, or long questionnaires. The Sloan system, however, adapts to unknown users within the first few clicks on the website by analyzing each user’s pattern of clicks.

In addition to guessing at each user’s cognitive style by analyzing that person’s pattern of clicks, the system tracks data over time to see which versions of the website work most effectively for which cognitive styles.”

MSNBC.com’s media blog – Test Pattern – is again hosting its annual “Best Of” television ad competition. It is an informal affair driven generally by user comments posted online, in other blogs and in other ways I’ve yet to formally discern. (Complete ground rules here).

It seems the Discovery Channel’s “I Love the World” promo is picking up steam this year:

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/V5BxymuiAxQ" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Last year’s winners were:

2007’s Worst Ad: Sour Skittles “Milking Man” ad

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/LG0zDltjL_o" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

2007’s Best Ad: PetSmart Bulldog puppy ad

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/BtN4GhlOyBw" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /]

Advertising moves the national conversation and, for better or worse, is one of the common denominators in our culture (How many people watch the Superbowl now just for the ads?). So, take a peek at some of the ads that are floating around and join in the conversation.

PS – Taking its place in the viral litany of add-ins, and for those Deadliest Catch geeks like me, Discovery Channel also lets you download the “Boom-di-ada” song as a ringtone, MP3 or images from the campaign as wallpaper. Check it out here.

Last week a couple of daredevils scaled the New York Times building.  Stewart Elliot, Advertising Columnist at the Times, said he was grateful for the event. Though he said he thought that only the people inside the Times offices were climbing the walls, it cured him of his writers block for the keynote speech to the American Advertising Federation luncheon yesterday.
Elliot said he wasn’t the only one suffering from writer’s block lately. Mr. Big has trouble with his wedding vows in the new Sex and the city movie. And the all male copy writing staff of the tv drama, Mad Men did too when, in one episode, struggled with an ad concept for a new client which provided a chance for a female secretary to break the glass ceiling.
Elliot pondered how Don Draper and Roger Sterling, the 1960’s ad execs, would adapt to the challenges of advertising today. Consumers are younger, mere tech-savvy, more diverse and at the same time harder than ever to reach. Then too are the new media, including user generated content, mobile marketing, behavioral adertising and environmental claims. And certainly they’d wonder why they couldn’t smoke and drink at the office.

The Mayor’s Arts Awards, presented by the Rockford Area Arts Council, are wrapping as I tap this out. The awards have little to do with advertising – the stated intention of ADwire – but are critically important to the cultural and economic health of our community. The arts affect us all and allow us to understand our world, to interpret our challenges and triumphs and are the lens through which we view our strengths, our frailties and our oneness.

As Greg Johnson from Beetcafe.com said in accepting his award for Community Impact by a Business, “Rockford has the best, most hidden, arts culture of anywhere he’s ever been.” And I concur. Without further ado, the recipients of this year’s Awards are:

• Community Impact by a Business: www.BeetCafe.com
• Exceptional Students: Caroline Chen & Emily Cummins
• Creative Cultural Event: MidTown Through the Eyes of Child presented by Zion Lutheran Church
• Individual Arts Advocate: Ald. Doug Mark (Rockford’s 3rd ward)
• Creative Inspiration Award: Anderson Japanese Gardens
• Individual Artist: Robert McCauley

(l to r) Rockford Area Arts Council Executive Director Anne O’Keefe, Individual Arts Advocate Recipient Ald. Doug Mark (Rockford’s 3rd) and Mayor Larry Morrissey

It’s not even two weeks before Father’s Day, so if you’re planning on doing a marketing push for your company, you should get on it if you haven’t already. High gas and food prices likely will take a bite out of Father’s Day gift giving; a recent survey done by the National Retailers Association (NRF) says their estimates put the loss as much as 8% versus last year, which leaves many local retailers wondering for what people are really looking for good ole Dad. Here are some promotional ideas to get you started:

• More than 40% of consumers plan on spending their time with Dad by treating him to a special outing, so a “Bring Your Kids” event or promotion for Father’s Day weekend would likely help sales. A good time with Dad at your establishment also will go a long way towards their recall of your brand and business. But, no one is having fun if the kids are bored and acting up – especially Dads on their “special” day. So remember to provide activities – bubbles, balloons, entertainment – as well as kid-friendly (and healthy) refreshments like water, juice, fruit or pretzels for the kids so they have fun with their Dad.

• Or offer a free “Daddy and Me” picture – a Polaroid in a paper frame with your store’s name and website on it, for example – to everyone who makes a purchase. This will create a concrete memory of your business that they will take home with them and, if you’re lucky, keep on the ‘fridge for months and in scrapbooks for years.

• Offer some sort of discount or gift card when a purchase is made for Dad – say, a 10% discount for July or a $10 gift card good for their next visit. Make sure it’s good for the next time the customer visits your store, however, to encourage a repeat visit.

• Donate a portion of your Father’s Day sales to an organization that supports and furthers the role of men in children’s lives…like Big Brothers, Big Sisters for example.

Once you’ve decided on your promotion, support it with paid advertising (if you can afford it), fliers and posters in your store, an email blast to your subscribers, on your website, etc.

Send a news release to the local media, particularly the photo desk of your local newspaper, who will have roving photographers out and about on Father’s Day looking for an image that captures Father’s Day locally.

If you make a donation to a local charity, try to extend your media coverage by presenting the check to the charity’s officials during a media event orchestrated after Father’s Day.

Read the rest of this entry »

So you’ve created a great email newsletter. You’ve built your email lists. You’re ready to send it out. But take a step back and consider whether you’ve offered an “opt-out” option. Not only does including an opt-out make good marketing sense but, under the CAN-SPAM Act, it’s also federal law.

We’ve been doing enewsletters for years – both for clients and for our own company – and we sometimes sign up our clients and prospects because we think they’ll find the content relevant to what we’re working on for them or where they’re at in their business. But occasionally, someone will opt-out.

And that’s OK.

From a marketing point of view, it’s better to have subscribers opt-out than be annoyed with having received it and not know how to stop them from coming.

Perhaps more importantly is that not including an opt-out option is now a federal crime subject to up to $11,000 in fines every time it happens. In 2003, the federal government passed the CAN-SPAM act, which requires all commercial emails – those email messages “whose primary purpose is advertising or promoting a commercial product or service, including content on a Web site” – to include an opt-out procedure. Read more about the CAN-SPAM act here.

Updates to CAN-SPAM – On Tuesday, May 13, of this year, the FTC updated the CAN-SPAM laws to talk about the nature of the “sender” of promotional emails. Read more here.

Moral of the story – giving clients and subscribers an opt-out option is easy and the law.

If you have ever filled out an online form you have probably seen this automatic response. My advice – This is not a practice I would recommend your organization implement. Four reasons why should suffice. First, CAPS are annoying. Second, the message tone is rude. Third, people hit “reply” anyway, and if you have “…@donotreply.com”, it actually ends up in the inbox of the owner of donotreply.com. Fourth, and most important, always give your customers a direct channel of communication with you. Make it personal.

Today’s Advertising Age published a story that shows conclusively that when it comes to advertising, a good media mix of online, television, radio and print will produce a better return than using one vehicle exclusively.

In a survey of 25,000 consumers done by national media-tracking firm Advertising Perceptions, results showed consumers were more inclined to buy products when they saw a particular brand across media channels. So effective is a mix of media that most product categories studied showed at least a 20% increase in consumers who said they “intend to buy” the products that they had seen in multiple media channels.

For example:

• online and TV viewers were 27% more likely to intend to buy beer than those who viewed TV alone
• 22% more likely to intend to buy apparel than TV viewers alone and
• 21% more likely to intend to buy consumer electronics than TV viewers alone.

Here’s a visual that is pretty convincing:

It seems clear that online advertising must be part of any marketing plan these days, along with a good mix of other vehicles. Each type of advertising channel – TV, radio, print, online – have their advantages and drawbacks, but each makes multiple contact points with your customers.

I could write on this topic exclusively every day for the next year and not cover all the nuances of media buying and placement. Long story short, mix it up in your marketing plan. And don’t just rely on one channel to carry your company’s message.