In early November, our co-worker Terese Erdelen, experienced an unexpected heart attack. Fortunately, she is on her way to recovery and back at work. This event has given Terese the encouragement she needed to give up smoking.
In a recent article on stltoday.com, Terese tells her story and motivation to give up a life-long habit. Way to go, Terese!
Will Twitter’s new redesign, announced today, really streamline the “user experience” and help people discover more relevant conversations? Will Twitter ever catch up to the popularity of Facebook, or get to that coveted 1 billion users mark?
I find Twitter a little cumbersome from a personal user perspective. Taking off my social media manager’s hat, Twitter only fills one purpose for me, and that’s mostly an industry related one. I follow mostly social media and advertising on Twitter. I’m starting to branch out a little, but really, that’s what I have Facebook and Pinterest for.
It seems everything these days can be associated with a celebrity in one way or another. Who’s the first celebrity that comes to mind when you think of Twitter? You’re probably thinking Ashton Kutcher. For discovering acts on YouTube most people probably think of Ellen.
How about a web browser? Yes, you read that right – a web browser. Have you ever associated your Google Chrome with a celebrity? You’re probably thinking, “No, nobody would do that,” right? Wrong.
Well that didn’t take long now did it.
Ferrari and Neiman Marcus teamed up this year to offer a special “present” in their 2011 Holiday Catalog. For the low low price of $395,000, you can be the proud owner of an exclusive 2012 Ferrari FF. You know, in case you need drive 200 MPH and have matching luggage. They sold out all 10 vehicles in less than 1 hour!
Busy when the phone lines opened? Not to worry, they’re also offering a Neiman Marcus Edition Hacker-Craft hand built speedboat for only $250,000; and a custom built Assouline library filled with 250 books for that home addition you’ve been thinking about.
Our Vice President of Client Services D.W. Cole on the Rise of the QR.
The United States now has about 82 million smartphone users, which is about 42% of the whole mobile market. Some 87% of smartphone owners access the internet or email on their handheld; including two-thirds (68%) who do so on a typical day. When asked what device they normally use to access the internet, 25% of smartphone owners say that they mostly go online using their phone, rather than with a computer. As smartphones are becoming more accessible to the general population, smartphones are a great way for advertisers to reach this new audience. Over the past few years, Quick Response codes (QR codes), are becoming a viable option for a message impact.
Logos are closely associated with the brand they represent and allow a business to communicate through a single image or sound. If customers feel positively about the brand, they will have positive feelings when they see the logo – and vice versa.
When it comes to retooling a logo, care must be taken so that any ground gained from the current logo isn’t lost. When a company changes its logo, it’s usually fairly modest. Extreme changes might confuse customers who are used to shopping by sight, looking for the familiar logos they love. This happened to Tropicana when it redesigned its packaging. Attempting to look modern and simple, Tropicana instead transformed itself into a generic brand and lost customers who were looking for the famous orange-with-a-straw on the carton. According to AdAge.com, sales plummeted 20% after the new design was launched.
Malcom Gladwell series
The Tipping Point, Blink and Outliers – 3 books that I regularly reference and recommend to our staff. There are some real-world applications here that you can use every day as a marketer.
The Tipping Point: This book provides an insightful perspective on what factors help create epidemics. In most every epidemic or contagious event there is a ‘tipping point’ that is reached when a behavior or activity goes from being shared by a few to being adopted by the many. This ‘tipping point’ is the result of the persuasion of influentials (Mavens, Connectors and Salesmen), ‘sticky’ content and environment.
“Person of Interest” has quickly become my favorite new show from the lineup this fall. My interest was piqued after watching the preview (http://truemediablog.com/2011/06/cbs-fall-previews/) and I’m happy to report that the show has not disappointed. This show is fresh and timely, and the episodes end in vindication for the innocent.
Topics such as 9/11, Wall Street, and the feelings of our returning soldiers are openly discussed in a way that makes me feel patriotic just watching it. It is a story of a machine that was invented to protect our country from further terrorism – and with the help of Mr. Reese, it is now protecting everyday citizens as well. With surprising twists and glimpses into Mr. Reese’s former life sprinkled throughout the show it quickly shot to the top of my TV viewing list.
Emily Ann Brown, one of our newest bloggers, has an opinion on three of the shows we discussed during our TV Panel.
We’re now in the thick of the new TV season, so it’s time to see how we did with our picks from earlier this year, when we received the upfront previews from our TV partners.
Here’s some of the shows that we discussed, how we thought they’d do, and how they actually did. So far it seems like we were pretty much on target. Some of the pilots were not as good as we’d hoped but we have faith that they’ll work out the kinks.
