by Lisa Wedmann | Feb 21, 2013 | Advertising, Branding, Business Success, Creative, Latest
It’s our silver anniversary!
25 years ago, the 3H Communications journey began. It was a humble start. Miriam,now Chief Creative Officer, was just helping out a couple of friends, one to advertise an airline and the other to launch a shopping center. 25 years of experience later and 3H Communications is a flourishing, cutting edge, full service, advertising and marketing agency.
Over the years, 3H has developed a process driven by our passion and dedication to understanding our clients’ products and capabilities. While every opportunity and client requirement is unique, there is an integral process we go through with clients to meet, and exceed their goals and expectations.
IDENTIFY
We arm ourselves with information. Our approach starts with investigating your company, your competitors and vertical markets. If required we initiate market research from store checks to informal panel discussions to full out qualitative or quantitative research. We assess the results. We then are set to plan and develop programs based on our identify target markets and demographics. We add to that customer analysis to develop personas based on psychographics, competitor analysis and more.
INITIATE
Leveraging our findings from research, we start the creative process. We bring out the popcorn and we brainstorm, we conceptualize and we create the story. Whether it’s blogging, digital advertising development, packaging design, traditional and social media advertising, or TV media we push boundaries to develop the right strategy, the right voice, the right channels to reach your objectives.
ENGAGE
With your Brand’s voice we start telling the brand story: how it should be told, to whom it should be told. The right timber, the appropriate messages based on personas, brand positioning and brand objectives. From science-speak, food write ups, fashion critics to pharma aids, business white papers and consumer talk, we implement the right approach and channel for your brand’s voice: web design, social media, digital media, events, print media and more.
LISTEN
We keep the momentum going…we listen, we respond, we engage…in order to build the brand relationship. By listening your brand continues learning from its relationship with brand ambassadors, which means we can create the most effective strategies to meet your objectives. We become your subject matter expert. It’s about creating a conversation, listening to their needs and requirements and we act with purpose and intent.
OPTIMIZE
We aim for effective, perfected and valuable solutions and results – and often it’s the numbers that reflect the effectiveness of an initiative. We measure each result; we get analytical. We dig deep and look at your local or global rankings, your SEO standing and your ROI. We then evaluate and take the necessary actions.
Through this method, the company has continued to grow and succeed. We are tight team that works hard and plays hard. Each member plays an integral part of our clients’, and our, success. Over the next year, we will be sharing stories about our journey, from Montreal to Oakville, what we have learned, how the advertising world has changed and all about our great team members. Keep checking back for regular updates!
To help us celebrate our anniversary play our new contest, Winfall Instant Win Contest! This is your chance to win prizes instantly, including an ipad Mini, and there a number of ways to play and win – including liking our FB page, sharing the page, liking us on Pinterest and more!
by Matina Singh | Feb 1, 2013 | Branding, Interactive, Latest, Social Media
It wasn’t so long ago that when you ran a contest the only way people could enter the contest was to take the time to fill out an entry form and then whether mail it in or drop it off in a ballot box. The Internet has made things easier, but still, the consumer has to find their way to your website. Social Media properties such as Facebook has added a layer of ease to the process: Consumers are already on Facebook engaging and talking to their communities. More importantly, consumers have join in and subscribed to contest and promotional sites such as Red Flag Deals or Contest Forums. If the promotion looks interesting enough, clicking on a link that takes the consumer to a contest landing page and asks them to fill out an online form, isn’t that big a deal.
It doesn’t make any difference what type of business you have; running a contest on Facebook is a powerful and effective approach in building awareness, and engagement as well as generating more followers. As appealing as it may seem, Facebook contests can only be effective if it is properly promoted.
Here are 5 simple ways to get the best out of your Facebook contest:
1. Timeline photo
Your timeline photo can be used to tell people about your contest. Not only is this a ‘premium’ advertising space for your contest, there will also be an update to your fans about the changes of your timeline photo. A well-designed timeline cover is a good alternative to promote your contest.
2. Promoted post
In general, only 16% of your Facebook fans see your wall posts. Facebook enrolled the Promoted Post option, where a specific post can be promoted to reach a higher audience. If you recall that caused quite a stir in the business and corporate communities. However, it is here and the fact is that it can cost as little as $5 to reach your community target to get them engaged.
3. Advocate engagement
Have you noticed a particularly engaging fan that frequently shows support for your brand? Engaging with these fans to participate and promote your contest is an effective way to instantly build buzz. It is a form of word-of-mouth marketing that we all know can be influential.
4. Cross promote
Broadcast your contest on Twitter, Youtube, Pinterest, Linkedin and any other Social Media. Your audience is everywhere, so if you do not promote everywhere else, then your contest is probably not reaching its maximum potential.
5. Choose the prize that fits
Instead of offering some big-ticket prize that doesn’t relate to our business, how about giving away one of your own products? If your business is sevice-based rather than product-based, offer the winner a free month of service. The goal of a contest is to find more people who are interested in your business, not just a prize.
That said, here is a very good examples of a Facebook contest…and how you can leverage the impact and reach of Facebook.
Being Human: The Salman Khan Foundation is a registered charitable trust set up by Salman Khan (famous actor in India) for helping the cause of the underprivileged in two main areas: education and healthcare.
The timeline photo changed before the launch of the contest:
The Teaser Campaign Approach: Get your audience curious by adding some pre-promotion. Here we can clearly see the brand is trying to get engagement from their fans by asking and not telling their consumers what the was coming. They have to wait 4 days to find out….
Build and Leverage the Momentum.
In this case, each day a new count down image was posted. The Foundation got their consumers intrigued and made them come back to see the comment, what was new and that all leads to greater engagement.
The Grand Finalé… The Day of the Draw….
Finally here! A total of 31,416 likes, 1,124 shares and 6,170 comments were received! Fans were encouraged to create an outfit for the celebrity and from those comments a 3 random people would win.
Everyday another Timeline photo was posted promoting the new clothing line of Being Human.
Closing the loop… showcasing the winners:
A perfect end to show that this was not only a promotion stunt but the winners actually got to meet the celebrity.
Do you have a favourite contest that ran or is being run right now? Share with us any other great contests that you have seen on Facebook here. We’d love to know!
by Matina Singh | Jan 23, 2013 | Branding, Design, Latest, Marketing
So your business made it off the ground, you’re generating revenue, but you’ve hit a roadblock with your growth and revenue. Perhaps it’s too niche or misleading, or tied to a geographic location – what to do? Re-branding your company requires careful consideration and planning in order to achieve a successful outcome and take your business to the next level. But this also involves a lot of risks.
Be aware of all the risks of re-branding before you start the process. As a marketer I know how quickly you can get caught up in design and other issues, just don’t let it get you! Re-branding is more than changing a logo or adding bolder images. It is also about researching and understanding the consumer, analyzing changes in target markets when exploring opportunities for brand expansion and repositioning.
Yet, even when forewarned, many still make some common mistakes. Here are the top 5 mistakes to avoid:
- Re-branding without research
Put money and time into researching the consumer’s perspective on the product or service. What do (don’t) they like, what attracts them etc.
- Wrong assumption “A brand is just a logo”
Your brand is more that just a logo. A brand integrates all aspects of your business; everything from look, feel, culture, tone, voice, product quality, customer care… leading to consumer perception.
- Getting started without a plan
Make sure you have a plan from start to finish. From research and analysis to setting up time frames, to identifying metrics for assessing results (ROI).
- Not leveraging existing brand equity
A company with high brand equity may not need to undergo a big transformation… or rather, shouldn’t need to go through a huge transformation. When you have a strong brand equity… tread softly and lightly. However you do it, make sure the current brand equity stays strong!
- Getting buy in internally prior to external.
Getting employees to understand the reason and goal of re-branding is very important because they will have to sell it to the consumers. This is equally more important in lieu of social media. Internal branding is increasingly important as each employee is a brand ambassador. In short, if they don’t believe it, neither will the consumer.
Going through a re-branding is and can be very challenging. It’s not so much setting the goal, but reaching it successfully. Having gone through a major re-branding I can only say that walking the talk is monumentally important. The re-branding that I was involved in failed miserably on convincing internal people that the change was necessary. The bigger the company, the more time is needed to make sure everyone is informed and all understand why there needs to be a change. If they understand, they will be able to explain it to the consumer. If you believe it, you will show it!
A successful re-branding requires a vision that inspires consumers, investors and others to see the company in a new light. We can learn from other companies who have gone through re-branding. This could be a successful re-brand or even a failure, if we learn from them we will not make the same mistake. Check out the 10 most successful re-branding campaigns ever. This article not only shows how they did it, it also let us know the lesson to be learned. Very interesting!
by Jenna Elberson | Jan 11, 2013 | Interactive, Latest, Social Media
Have you noticed you’ve been losing Twitter followers and you don’t know why? Did you work hard to gain your followers and find yourself struggling to keep them? Do you have numbers but a very small engagement ratio? If you’re losing followers, then there is a good chance you need to adjust some Twitter techniques to stop this from happening.
Let’s take a look at how to gain and keep more Twitter followers:
Retweet like you mean it- One way that you can build and keep more Twitter followers is to retweet posts from other people. But be deliberate about it- don’t just spam RTs down your feed. Instead, take time to spot good posts from your network and share it, retweet from the blogs that you read and other great content you find on the Web.
Send @ Replies- Retweeting and sending @ replies to people is another good way to get them to follow you back. You don’t have to be following someone to talk to them or to see their tweets (unless they have a protected feed) so a good way to get more followers and to keep the ones you have is to take time to talk with people. Comment on their tweets, something interesting you read in their profile or tweet their blog post and you will find more people following you back and those who do follow staying around longer.
Follow Friday- Although it’s been around forever and is sometimes abused, Follow Friday (#followfriday) is still a good way to gain more followers and to keep the ones you have. If a follower sees that you are recommending them to your feed, they are much more likely to continue following you.
Buy some Twitter followers- It’s not enough just to buy Twitter followers though. You need to engage with those targeted users to keep them around. Did you buy Twitter followers and then fail to do anything to boost engagement? Buying followers will only get you so far if you don’t provide something for them to interact with. Even targeted fans will grow bored if you’re not using your Twitter stream correctly.
Create a Twitter content plan- Finally, the best way to get more followers to your Twitter is to create a Twitter content plan. Sit down and think about your target audience and your goals for using Twitter. What do you hope to accomplish with your Twitter account? What will your target audience want to read about from you? What types of content can you produce and share that will be of most value to them? Spend some time researching and planning and then you will have a Twitter feed that’s full of regular followers.
Twitter is a fast-paced micro-blogging social platform. If you’re losing Twitter followers, there’s a good chance you’re just boring them. While it only takes a few minutes to type out 140-characters or less, it pays off in the long run to put some thought into what you’re sharing.
Do you have some tips of your own to add to the list?
Lisa Mason is a Twitter addict, content marketing specialist and lover of all things social. Drop by and say hi @writerlisamason.
by Jenna Elberson | Dec 30, 2012 | Advertising, Business Success, Latest
The jury is back and the verdict is in, customers are going mobile. We all kind of intuitively knew that was coming, but the reports are now verifying what we already wondered. If your business is not mobile you are missing a whole lot of customers. What do we mean when we say mobile anyway? By mobile we mean that customers are using mobile devices to track down and find businesses, both local and non local businesses. Let’s look at a scenario; customers will use a phone to perform a search for a local business when they are out and about. They will not bother going home and looking in a phone book or even using a desktop computer to find what they are looking for. They will search with mobile and act fast. Of all the searches done for businesses, 9 out of 10 people reported they reached out and contacted the businesses they found. Thos are great odds for the luck business found. If your business cannot be found on local searches then you will be missing out on a lot of people. Get your business on as many local search results as you can. Every major search engine has a local section. Google Local, Bing Local, etc. There are also rate and review sites to be found on like Yelp, AngiesList, and more. The process is not difficult to do, but it should be done post haste to start capturing the online traffic ever going mobile. This infographic will give you an idea of what can be done in terms of online search.
This guest blog was presented by: www.Vistaprint.com
