Jamison/McKay

Can we review advertising better than a 5-year-old? Off the bat, we’d say no. However, after listening to the commentary of famous logos by the 5-year-old daughter of Cincinnati-based designer Adam Ladd, we’re tempted to agree. This kid slashes through the clutter with awesomely cute, hyper-literal bon mots that reveal how early some commercial marks—and brand identities—take hold in the collective consciousness. This is adorable. And not just because she says of the Pepsi logo: ‘it’s the pop’ (but that helps). Check out the YouTube video here.

Any effective brand strategy starts with taking a hard, unflinching look at your product and being honest, not only about what it is, but what it isn’t. You can’t successfully market a brand simply by focusing on what you wish your product was.  Product launches are a completely different animal and offer enormous opportunities to deliver the brand message you desire. Launches aside, most relatively mature products maintain at least a moderate level of success for a reason. They’re providing something of value to the consumer. Finding what that value is, is an important first step. Without a legitimate place to start, it’s hard to build.

A tagline is a phrase or slogan, usually situated under or alongside your logo, that succinctly (typically seven words or less), memorably and descriptively sums up a company or product. Often, the tagline appears in close proximity with the company name and/or logo; in some cases it is ‘locked up’ with the logo so that graphic and phrase form a single visual unit.

A memorable tagline can be used to articulate your company’s vision or unique position, convey essential qualities of your brand character, emphasize a compelling customer benefit, and align your brand message with an intended target market.
As an extension of your company’s brand, a tagline should say something essential about who you are, how you’re different, and why the world should care. It should express an enduring idea that reveals the crux of your brand message and illustrates the value of doing business with you. Ultimately, think of your tagline as a final point that wraps up your 30-second elevator pitch.

A tagline can be concrete or abstract, amusing or serious and still serve your brand equally well. You must evaluate the suitability of a tagline by asking yourself the following: what is the most effective way to amplify my central message, reach out and grab my audience, and fulfill my branding objectives?

Here are a few types of taglines:

Descriptive: Describes the brand or product: what we do, who we are, product features, product uses, product benefits.

“We try harder.” –Avis
“The happiest place on earth.” –Disneyland
“Melts in your mouth, not in your hands.” — M&Ms

Motivating: Commands action directly or indirectly, usually starts with a verb:

“Think different.” –Apple
“Don’t leave home without it.” –American Express

Stimulating: Frequently aims to motivate the audience to think about something, implying that some action should follow.

“Where’s the beef?” –Wendy’s
“What’s in your Wallet?” –Capital One

Abstract: These express almost nothing concrete about the company. Instead, they abstract tangible customer benefits or brand values into an emotional state or abstruse metaphor.

“Just do it” –Nike
“I’m Lovin It” –McDonald’s

Let’s face it. Social media has reinvented marketing, communications, and the general dissemination of information. More and more, businesses worldwide are adopting social media as a marketing tool, only to end up using it in wholly ineffective, or, worse, inappropriate ways. The ‘rules of engagement’ of social media are somewhat vague, but it’s pretty simple to figure out if you just apply a little bit of common sense.

Here are just a few…

SET GOALS
Without a clear understanding of what your goals are, you’ll find yourself questioning whether or not social media is the right channel for your business. If it’s just web traffic that you’re after, no problem – but be sure you have analytic software installed on your site. Same goes for conversions.

LISTEN
To be a better marketer you need to be a better listener. Have you ever had a relationship that ended because the other person never listened to you? That rate is 10 times higher in social media because it’s easy to click & un-follow.

ADD VALUE
Provide value, insight and direction. If you’re helping people learn, build their business, do their jobs, solve problems or understand something better—then you’re adding value. Remember the 80/20 rule of thumb: 80% of your conversations should be about general topics relevant to the business and/or your own experiences, only 20% should be about the company’s products or services.

ENGAGE
Traditional marketing is a monolgue but social media marketing is a conversation.  Engagement allows you to build the image and brand perception you want while handling customer service issues at the same time.

RESPOND
When it comes to social media, you’re not just sending out a message, you’re inviting a response and yes, sometimes the response you get might not be quite what you’re expecting. A quick response to the response is more important than ever. Thanks to search tools, alert apps (i.e. Google Alert) and other services, it is possible to achieve. Don’t be a dam in the conversation flow.

The renaming of Netflix’s dvd service to Qwikster is so profoundly dumb that if there were anything for the company to gain from it – we’d think it was staged.  I mean – why let a little thing like 13 years of brand dominance stand in the way?  They’re dumping a great brand and beginning all over again with one that starts with absolutely no value whatsoever. It’s also hard to pronounce and spelled stupid.

Look. We understand why, from the company’s perspective, it makes sense to split the DVD and streaming businesses into two separate companies: They’re different businesses, with different cost structures and different delivery, marketing, licensing, and management challenges, and they will be easier to run better if they’re managed separately. And we understand that the company is just looking to a future where all movies will be streamed and DVD rental will go the way of the dodo.

However, the way the price hike bomb-dropping of an announcement and the renaming was very customer unfriendly. So far, the market has responded by splitting Netflix’s stock price in half. Will it turn around? Only time will tell.

Have you ever noticed how certain logo designs stand out from the crowd?

Take, for example, the logos for companies like Coca-Cola, Microsoft, IBM, Kellogg’s and Nike.

It’s no secret that each of these Fortune 500 companies devotes millions of dollars each year to develop their brand and promote their corporate identity.

But, by themselves, these corporate logos also have certain innate qualities that make them more memorable and easy to distinguish from other corporate symbols. These qualities are based in the designs themselves and in the techniques and research used in developing them.

Here is a list of these qualities and short descriptions as to how they work together to create a logo design that’s both original and unforgettable.

1. Simple
A simple logo design allows for easy recognition and allows the logo to be versatile & memorable. Good logos feature something unique without being overdrawn. Busy, crowded logos with designs featuring many intricate details, elaborate images or pictures are distracting to the viewer and tend not to be as well recognized.

2. Proportional
Ideally, a logo should function as a discrete unit with a width not much greater than its height. Remember that a logo design should work well on anything from a business card to a billboard, and logos that are too long or too tall become difficult to read when reduced or enlarged.

3. Small Color Palette
It is no coincidence that 80% of the world’s most widely recognized logos use either one or two colors. Truth be told, few good logo designs use more than three colors; this is because using more than three colors usually turns a logo to mud. A basic color palette of one to three colors (which may or may not include black) keeps things simple and allows the selected colors to clearly convey a mood or emotion.

4. Easily Legible Fonts
Creating a logo design in elaborate script fonts may look classy, but what good is a logo if nobody can read it? Your best bet is to choose a font that is distinctive but still easy to read.

5. Appropriate
A logo should be appropriate for its intended purpose. If we’re designing a logo for children’s toys store, it would be appropriate to use a childish font & color scheme. A childish font & color scheme wouldn’t be appropriate for a law firm.  A logo design should clearly express a company’s identity – who they are, what they do, how they work, how they want to be seen by the world.

Whether you’re running a mobile advertising campaign or you’ve simply noticed that many of your users are visiting from smart phones then you’ll have much to gain by following some of these basic tips for mobile landing pages:

1. Don’t Use Flash
This shouldn’t need an explanation. Most phones (smart or otherwise) don’t support Flash and those that do likely don’t integrate it as seamlessly as a desktop browser. Avoid the big ugly box with a question mark in it and just don’t do it.

2. KISS
Keep it simple (stupid). Use a clean design. Avoid unnecessary images and don’t use bulky navigation bars. using contrasting colors with readable fonts will make your page much easier to look at if it’s sunny out or if the user has a crummy screen.

3. Use Lists and Rich Formatting
Smartphone users are usually riding the Muni, waiting for a coffee or sneaking a peek during a meeting. They’re notorious skimmers. Give em the straight facts in easy-to-read list. Bold important terms and don’t bombard them with irrelevant links.

4. Optimize Load Times
Keep the load time light and quick and be sure to load essential info first. Make sure the important stuff pops up on the page quickly—and if you must include images and other graphics, make sure their absence or tardiness doesn’t hinder the user experience.

5. Click to Call
Most smartphones have a handy “click to call” feature that automatically converts phone numbers into speed dial links. Take advantage of this.

6. Avoid Pinching, Scrolling and Zooming
Make sure your page doesn’t require any zooming and very little scrolling. Sure, phones can zoom in and out and scroll up, down, left and right, but it’s much easier on everyone if they don’t have to—especially if the user only has one finger at their disposal.

Keep these handy dandy tips in mind when crafting your mobile landing pages. And, as always, test them out on a variety of phones and places. Try em at home and at the office. Try em on the Muni and on the highway. In essence, test on as many phones in as many places you can—except with your mobile landing page.

Finally, Burger King’s creepy King mascot will creep no more!  Read more about the fast-food chain’s decision to pull the Burger King mascot in this Forbes article:  http://www.forbes.com/sites/marcbabej/2011/08/19/burger-king-decapitates-its-king-mascot-about-time/

ADDENDUM:

http://www.adweek.com/adfreak/burger-king-leads-time-list-creepiest-mascots-134447

We’re definitely going to lose weight after watching this new Subway television  spot – not because their sandwiches are healthier, but because we just finished puking up everything we’ve eaten! Check it out here on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=0bLFCjUtrAw

Search Engine Optimization (SEO) & social media are separate entities with one being concerned about search engine rankings and the other used for conversational or ‘social’ purposes (that probably shouldn’t be seen by the general public). When you combine your SEO and social media marketing, you’ll create a much more powerful and comprehensive online marketing strategy and a bigger online brand presence than you could do alone

Here are three examples of how social media and SEO work together:

1. Social promotion of content generates natural links
According to Twitter, around 25% of all Tweets contain a URL. In fact, Twitter sees 35 million Tweets every day with a link in em. By publishing your content and promoting it on Twitter, you’re encouraging your followers to not only check out your content, but also pass the link along to their network in the form of a reTweet. The more your content is shared, the better it looks in the eyes of the search engines.

Likewise, on Facebook, when someone shares your content by posting it to their Facebook wall, they’re telling their network of friends (and the search engines) that the content from this source is valuable. The recent Facebook-Bing integration pulls this information into the search results when a user conducts a search and affects the SERP based on what that user’s social network has to say.

2. Social networks drive traffic
One of the main goals of SEO is to drive targeted traffic to your site. Social networking is about connecting with your audience. When the two work together you’ll see a steady stream of well-targeted and engaged visitors coming to your site. A well-optimized social profile should encourage visitors to check out the main site for more information. Think of your social profiles as the gateway into your site. Someone checking out your social profile has already pre-qualified themselves as a well-targeted consumer. Driving them to your site by including snippets of blog postings is the next logical step in getting them to convert.

3. Social networking increases online brand presence
Chances are good that when you search for your favorite company by name in a search engine, their Facebook page and LinkedIn profile will also show up in the results. Just like any other business profile, social networking profiles can rank in the search engines, increasing your company’s online brand presence. The new Google +1 also shows who in your Google network recommends links.