by Lisa Wedmann | Dec 19, 2013 | Latest, Social Media
According to Socialnomics, 40% of Canadians were using Facebook or Twitter by 2010. By 2012, almost half of the population had joined social media sites. In 2013, it is established 2/3 of Canadians now use social media. These are facts to be considered when strategizing for a brand launch.
These are numbers that brands just can’t ignore. They realize that they need to be on social media. So, without a lot of thought or planning, they decide to go all in. Next thing you know, they join Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, LinkedIn and Google+.
Then, reality sets in. Social media is not easy. Before jumping in, with both feet, brands need to take a step back and set up a clear brand launch social media plan.
Here are just a few of the steps that companies need to look at before jumping into the social media world in their brand launch!
Research
Who is your audience? What platforms do they use? When do they use them? Why do they use them? The more informed you are, the better the decisions you will make about platforms and content.
Objectives
Just as important as the research, you need objectives. What are your goals, short-term and long-term. Where do you want to go, and how does social media fit into your overall plan.
Create an Editorial Calendar
Plan out the year, then month and eventually the week. Include blogger campaigns, contests and posts. Then layer in all marketing plans since social media give you a chance to amplify promotions, from coupons, to charity campaigns to in-store promotions.
Be Social
Unlike traditional advertising, social media is not simply about putting a message out there. It’s all about the relationships! This means you need to engage, share and respond in a timely fashion. Being present will build the basis for strong relationship. It’s not just about the number of followers, it’s about the level of engagement!
Listen
And if we want to grow those engagement numbers, we can’t just keep talking. It’s important to listen, and really hear what your audience sharing and asking about. What are they concerned about.
Tell a Compelling Story
Social media allows you to tell a story that will create interest, engage your audience and build brand loyalty. Stories are compelling, and will draw in followers and allow consumers to connect with your brand.
Last, but not least, you need Patience! The followers and engagement, will come. But it will take time. And content. Lots of it! What is the one thing that you have found to be most important when launching a brand on social media platforms?
by Miriam Hara | Dec 16, 2013 | Advertising, Latest
It really goes without saying that star power builds awareness. However, utilizing celebrities as part of a brand’s advertising campaign can be a double-edged sword. The more obvious reason is that stars themselves, especially in today’s landscape, are brands in their own right. They aren’t just actors or athletes, they too are responsible for their own brands and propelling it forward. As such, it is difficult for a brand not be eclipsed by the star’s own brand… and to stand apart from the star’s own persona. But it can be done:
No brand utilizes star power as well as Chanel No 5.
Chanel No 5 has always used star power to propel its brand forward; to constantly reinvent itself and to evolve with the times. In fact, star power is at the cornerstone of Chanel No 5’s brand persona. The 2013 ads for Chanel No 5 featuring Brad Pitt were very well thought out. It was a novel approach featuring a man’s perspective on Chanel No 5. With Brad Pitt, Chanel No 5 spoke to women on a totally different level than the ads that featured Nicole Kidman and yes, even Catherine Deneuve (1979 Chanel No 5 ad). Brad Pitt spoke to Chanel No 5’s target – women on a purely fantasy level.
Now, one year later, Chanel No 5 advertising, just in time for the holiday season, features the legendary star Marilyn Monroe. What a beautifully executed, thought-provoking and emotive concept. It speaks to women on so many levels — although I would say with confidence, it equally speaks to men!
From a design and purely conceptual level, the current Marilyn Monroe is no trend, embracing the retro trend. The film footage in black and white is beautiful to look at and the audio track adds nostalgia to the sexy persona that is synonymous with Marilyn Monroe. Highly emotive, the ad playing on every woman’s sexiness. With that one simple testimonial, “I wear Chanel No 5 to bed” unlocks the inner woman in every woman. What woman can’t relate to the idea of this self-indulgent concept, celebrating her independence and self-love!
So kudos to Chanel No 5… Much to my chagrin, I must say, “step aside Brad Pitt!”… after all, Marilyn Monroe provides to women something that Brad can’t offer: a feeling that is easily attainable. All they need to do is wear Chanel No 5 to bed!
by Belinda Lui | Dec 16, 2013 | Business Success, Latest
Productivity means making active steps towards accomplishing something — not thinking about what we have to accomplish. What are we “putting down” when we “put it down on paper”: a current of thought, a torrent of emotions, the first incisions of a decision Flannery O’Connor said that she writes in order to discover what she knows. And as research into writing shows, the act of tracing your thoughts across a page can make you more productive, more emotionally aware, and a less irrational decision maker.|
If we spend less time trying to remember what we have to do and spend more time figuring out how we are going to do them, this will result in increased productivity and efficiency.
Here’s why…
1. Writing clears the clutter from your mind
TED speaker David Allen emphasizes that your mind is for processing, not for storage. Storage of information, after all, can be outsourced in any number of ways, including writing down your to-do list on a pad of paper. The insight underlying this is that attention is a finite resource, one that gets depleted over the course of a day. So if you’re walking around thinking about what you need to do next–rather than thinking about how you’re getting to get it done–you’re misspending your neurotransmitters and letting your productivity suffer.
2. Writing assists in retaining a bank of knowledge
Productive people take better notes: if somebody is dropping knowledge on you, writing down what they say allows you to commit your attention to next insight–rather than trying to remember the last one. Like the Chinese proverb says, you can trust the faintest of ink more than the strongest of memories . As you take more and more notes on awesome things said and read, you can amass an awesome bank of knowledge.
3. Writing helps with realizing growth
Journaling in particular helps you see how you have grown. Harvard Business School research director Teresa Amabile has discovered that people feel more engaged, more productive, and have a greater sense of meaning in their work when they record even the most miniscule of accomplishments within their days. She calls this the Progress Principle: the more you’re aware of your progress, the more involved you’ll feel in making it continue to grow–productivity is making use of this learning.
4. Writing helps you understand your life
University of Texas psychologist James W. Pennebaker has found that writing about their lives helps people to organize their thoughts and find meaning in their traumatic experiences–from people diagnosed with HIV to Vietnam veterans. This is crucial, since the more meaning you find in your difficulties, research shows, the more resilient you’ll be in over-coming them, which reminds us of how the happiest people often have the hardest jobs.
5. Writing helps you become more wise
The last reason to write about life: it helps you study your emotions, which makes you wiser, faster.
“What we construct as wisdom over time is actually the result of cultivating that knowledge of how our emotions behaved,” says USC neuroscientist Antonio Damasio, “and what we learn from them.”
This reinforces Nobel Prize winner Daniel Kahneman’s recommended first step for making better decisions: buy a notebook
(Information from: Fast Company)
How has writing helped you in terms of productivity? Tell us in the comments.
by Miriam Hara | Dec 15, 2013 | Interactive, Latest
Over the last 4 years, at Christmas time, retail gurus have been stating that online retail shopping has been increasing exponentially. The fact is, we all do it. At the speed of life and the demands of maintaining that speed, what’s easy and quick is what we gravitate to. Last year during the Christmas season, retail online shopping increased by 14% from 2011 in the U.S. alone. This year the predictions have obviously been higher. I have always wondered what will be done with all these gigantic shopping malls once the trend goes completely towards online. Can the premium that real estate demands for retail store frontage be a thing of the past?
Who says that retail online shopping has be to done on a computer?
This Christmas season, retail online shopping has taken a new perspective and a very interesting one, thanks to Walmart and Mattel. In Toronto, while many commuters were waiting for their train to get back home, Union station converted its enormous concrete poles into mini shopping areas. All it took was some high quality printing showcasing high quality pictures and a QR code that led the shoppers to the online shopping site. Commuters were able to browse the photos, identify the toys that they wanted and point and scan. The gift was then delivered to a shopper’s home. Not bad! Multitasking has never been easier…. nor has Christmas shopping!
This year, the Toronto Go-train, with the help of Walmart and Mattel, took it one step further. It has converted 2 of its train cars into “virtual mini shopping destinations”. Commuters may now browse and shop in the luxury of their commute time! All this is still well within the definition of retail online shopping…. but it’s still a retail online shopping experience.
As Toby Desforges so eloquently stated, “Online sales are replacing retail sales. Consumer goods companies invest massively in sales and distribution via traditional retail. The continued growth of these channels is no longer universally assured. New online channels and indeed retailers are likely to grow rapidly in the coming years. This will put sales teams under extreme pressure, not just as they struggle to create new skills but also as they wrestle with the demands of bricks and mortar retailers in decline.”
This has led me to think about the new retail shopping destinations. All that will be needed is concrete… converting concrete poles into vritual shopping areas! How cool is that…or is it?! I have visions of a Shopping Park. We will all be casually walking through nature, with all the tree trunks being hosts to retail goods and QR codes….yikes…I’m shuddering!! Think about it… taking a walk through nature will never be the same.
by Belinda Lui | Dec 13, 2013 | Latest, Marketing
In today’s society of instant gratification, people have short attention spans: They want the news in 140-character snippets, they want to shop with the click of a button — and they want infinite information accessible at their fingertips via smartphones and tablets. It’s easy for businesses to lose potential customers with a complicated, slow or inefficient mobile website. After all, if your business doesn’t have a viable mobile marketing strategy, chances are that one of your competitors does, and that stiletto-hunting customer will go to them.
In an increasingly mobile world, there’s more than one reason why it’s crucial to keep an eye on your website’s mobile traffic. Below, we take a look at some of the most common reasons why this metric is an important piece of your overall analytics efforts — and
What you can do to optimize your mobile marketing strategy with this knowledge.
There’s a Reason “Responsive” Is the Buzzword of 2013
Responsive design is increasingly becoming the go-to solution for businesses seeking site optimization across the mobile board without entering the daunting world of developing a full-fledged app for each device.
The need for a responsive site depends upon your specific business or website, as well as budget. It may well be worth it to “go responsive” if your site is heavy on visuals, videos, products or “m-commerce” — and mobile traffic analysis can help you make these tough decisions. On which devices are users accessing your site? Which operating systems are the most common among your site traffic? Are more users visiting your site on smartphones, or on tablets? What is the overall ratio of mobile to desktop traffic? You can glean much of this information through analytics software or programs.
“Understanding devices and associated technology features is necessary for design purposes. We determine what our sites and our emails need to be designed for from a size, browser and operating perspective. [Mobile reports] allow us to provide the right experience for our consumers,” says Cathy Gribble, associate director of digital analytics for Team One.
That being said, responsive isn’t always the end all, be all of mobile strategy. In-depth analysis and understanding of customer behavior is another factor to consider.
Consumers behave differently on smartphones and tablets, which have differing functionalities and capabilities. Marketers need to analyze behavior and experiences across the entire purchase funnel to understand the best move for web or app design.”Responsive design doesn’t allow for such deep testing of every single experience within a brand’s website or mobile site,” says Blumenfeld. “That means marketers must be cognizant of the different layouts and circumstances surrounding consumers’ use of websites and mobile sites.”
In summary: Take a multi-faceted approach to responsive design. Perhaps not all businesses need to invest in a site that flawlessly translates across every device on the market — but with 17.4% of all global web traffic coming through mobile (a 6%+ increase since 2012), it’s surely a major consideration.
(information from: Mashable)
What other benefits can you think of in executing an effective mobile marketing strategy?
