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December 21, 2007
Heard the one about how Starbucks refused to donate coffee to our brave servicemen and women in Iraq? According to an e-mail we just got, the Seattle-based corporation supports the troops, but not the war. So no coffee. (And, the e-mail suggests we return the favor by boycotting Starbucks immediately.) Of course, this whole thing is a hoax. (And so is the one about Oscar Meyer, in case you're wondering.) But talk about a successful viral marketing effort. People are so outraged by the thought of Starbucks being an ungracious corporation that they just forwarded this message to their friends without a second thought. And as a consequence, Starbucks had to play damage control – even though they didn't cause any damage to begin with!
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December 21, 2007
A recent article on MSN.com titled "One Holiday Cookie Recipe, 25 Ways. Create different & delicious treats with just one dough" seems like a pretty good idea – if you're a wannabe pastry chef. But when it comes to marketing, this strategy is actually brilliant. It's comparable to the ol' trusted messaging matrix. Invest the time and effort it takes to develop the overall message, then use the matrix to create different (and maybe even delicious) spins on that messaging specifically targeted to each key audience(s). That my friends (here comes the cliché) is a recipe for marketing success. And who says marketing can't be yummy?
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December 21, 2007
Just when you thought web marketing couldn't get any awesomer, Facebook introduced Beacon – 'Social Ads' that tell you all about the products and companies your friends are buying and supporting. Turns out, having their habits and information spread throughout their online social network didn't delight Facebook users as much as advertisers expected.
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December 21, 2007
Watermarks, scrolls, trailers, crawlers, billboards, snipes, bugs, pop-ups. When will it stop? The debate is on regarding invasive, interruptive on-screen and online advertising. Screen-clutter, as it's called, is growing at exponential rates, keeping viewers on their toes. From informational and educational "news" dumps and tickers to blatant product advertising and programming scheduling alerts, it's rare these days to watch TV or view your computer monitor with just one information source on-screen.
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December 21, 2007
I recently flew to Oregon on Frontier Airlines for my brother's wedding. While waiting for the plane to load and the passengers to take their seats, all of the little TV screens play ads and promos for Colorado companies. As I was ignoring the especially unpleasant young man seated next to me, I saw an ad for the Colorado Film Commission. Their tagline at the end of the ad was absolutely perfect "Everything but the Ocean." It's amusing, it makes sense, and it encapsulates everything about Colorado's assets perfectly. So often taglines don't actually make sense for the brands they're supposed to highlight. But this one was one of the better one's I've seen out there. So simple, and so just right.
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December 21, 2007
We're all guilty of it. We take one look at a logo, an ad, or a brochure and immediately judge the quality of its design based on our own personal tastes and biases. But none of us are experts%u226 how do we know what good design is? How, exactly, can we determine if something qualifies for that distinction? There may never be a good answer to that question, but I thought these attempts at a definition might help us to take a step back and think about good design from a broader perspective. Food for thought. "Good design is the process of doing well what must be done anyway."
Louis Danziger, Graphic Designer and Educator "Good design is design that not only achieves a desired effect, but shapes our expectation of what the experience can be."
Astrida Valigorsky, Manager of New Media, Museum of Modern Art "Good design today requires more vision (a larger point of view versus the single brilliant idea), more consistency (a deeper underlying structure of language and form versus the simple, uniform application of visual elements) and more patience (persistence over time versus creative authoritarianism)."
William Drenttel, Partner, Jessica Helfand/William Drenttel Design Firm
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December 21, 2007
Recently, we worked on a Flash project with an accordion menu to display a list of files on a CD. We used a purchased control that allowed for only one level. When the client came back with revisions to the menu structure, they rearranged the menu into multiple levels. A quick search yielded no accordion menus that supported multiple levels, so we had to make our own. And since it's the holiday season, we're sharing our code with you. Click here for the zip file containing the fla project, xmlfile, and the needed classes.
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December 10, 2007
For fans of this blog, we wanted to let you know we'll be away for the holidays starting December 22. Fortunately, we have someone who will obey your every command while we're gone - our virual account rep.
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December 10, 2007
Do you want us to let you in on a little secret? Sometimes laughter is the best strategy for getting PR results. What started out as a joke at the coffee maker a few weeks back, morphed into a pretty darn good idea for a press release. As we were poking fun at a few recent announcements from across the pond in which outrageous sums of money were spent on mediocre creative, it dawned on us that our business could build a new revenue stream, without even trying very hard. You have to make a formal announcement about that, right? As it turns out, we guessed right. Not only did we accomplish our goal of providing some levity to the press that Friday morning, but as an added bonus, reporters from the Rocky Mountain News and Fort Collins: Now saw value in our glowing prose. Either that, or it was a pretty slow news day. I suspect the latter. Click here and scroll down to the subhead "High-priced slogans" for the story in the Rocky, or here for the coverage in Fort Collins: Now.
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December 10, 2007
Brandweek shows that viral campaigns are getting personal. Go ahead, put yourself (or an avatar) into an ad campaign or video. Just upload your picture and the computer does the rest. Aside from Elfyourself, you can also become a Simpson, a chipmunk, a football player, or just show off your pets. B.J. Bueno, author of Cult Branding, said the attraction of these campaigns runs far deeper, "It appeals to the narcissistic nature of the mind. [Consumers] are in love with their own reflection and voice."
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December 10, 2007
I have no idea how this would sell more office products, but it's a fun thing to do while at the office. In fact, it's absolutely hilarious and totally viral too. I set it up with my kids' pictures and forwarded it to my friends and family. Then my neighbors and friends did it to their kids and sent it to all of their friends and so on and so on... Cheers to OfficeMax.
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