Ray Ban: Ambermatic Instagram

February 27, 2013

Filters are common throughout smartphone photo applications but Ray Ban has used this to their advantage. By using the Ray Ban app, people can send their images to the “ambermatic machine” and will be sent back a version of their image seen through the lense of the new Ray Ban Ambermatic sunglasses.

Ray Ban Ambermatic Instagram

Ray Ban Ambermatic Instagram Video

Ray Ban is using the marketing technique of letting consumers try out their product for free before purchasing the actual sunglasses. This camera filter method is creative and useful as it transforms the camera lens into the sunglass lens by understanding the similarities of this experience.

This concept is also useful for brand awareness and advertising as it makes consumers download the Ray Ban app and become involved with the Ray Ban community before they are even a buyer, giving more of an opportunity as a customer. The “hype” of this app also allows spreading this new feature and the new sunglasses themselves through “word-of-mouth” and physical view, especially if these Ambermatic images are shared through social media.

Girl Scouts of America App: Leaving No One Left Without A Cookie

February 25, 2013

Mobile integration allows businesses to market audiences in a whole new realm. This method opens up many doors of opportunity allowing customers on-the-go to access your business as well. With the Girl Scouts of America Cookie Fundraising program, it is necessary to actually meet and speak with a member of the organization. As these popular cookies have been sold for over a hundred years, the Girl Scouts of America application allows for people in the community to see what kind of cookies are offered as well as find out where and when they can be purchased.

The girls use Sage, a mobile payment device and application similar to the Square or Paypal Here. These payment devices allow smartphones to access and process credits cards instantly on-the-go. These devices are also connected to essential tools online that track the activity, time and money of sales. This allows invoicing each customer and records a full sales history for each Girl Scout. By using your mobile device for sales, the doors of opportunity are always open when customers are present.

In 2012, nearly 40,000 Girl Scouts were able to accept mobile payments. This allowed for the a great increase of sales including cookie sales rising 27% and a 14% increase in sales-per-girl in Ohio. In Fresno, CA sales transactions averagely increased about $80 in 2012.

The convenience of this application is what makes it so useful to both the community and the Girl Scouts themselves. The Girls can’t make it to every single retailer but surely, there are many people who would love to purchase these cookies and this app helps them to find what they are looking for during the season. With the increasing success of 2012, this year is sure to have an positive outcome for Girl Scout cookie sales as well.

KLM: Giving the People What They Want

February 22, 2013

There are millions of advertisements everywhere and what makes the difference is the ability to capture the attention of one’s audience. What’s the key to making this happen? The answer is simple: “Give the people what they want.” Think about the things you wish a business could do to make your life easier. KLM Royal Dutch Airlines seeked out the necessities of a traveler and created this great campaign for their customers.

Check Out The Video: KLM — Must See Map

Through social media, friends can add places to go and things to try out onto your map. This product allows customers to create a personalized map of their destinations with their friends’ trustworthy reviews. After a map is finalized, it would be sent to KLM to be printed and sent to you for FREE! What’s better than getting what you want for free? You probably can’t think of anything because there isn’t anything better than that!

KLM used so many great marketing tactics including finding something people subconsciously want, incorporating customer advertising into their products and giving out what they want for free! They also paved a way for opportunity with a limited amount of free maps according to the countdown on the website. This idea helps to get customers involved with customer trials, social media referrals and hopefully a new client base for this new product. KLM did a great job with “Your Must See Map: Made By Friends” to stand out amongst others in the industry.

Stand Up NY Launches New Website: A Sleek and Modern Revolution

February 20, 2013
NEW YORK, NY — Since 1986, Stand Up NY has paved its way through warming the hearts of its audience through performances and laughter. With its open doors to the Upper West Side, it stands as one of the oldest comedy clubs in Manhattan.

“Stand Up NY as a comedy club and brand is looking forward to transitioning into the next stage of our evolution by embracing new media by giving comedy fans access and easy ways to share funny and original content. Van West Media was able to translate my vision into a beautiful deisgn and user-friendly interface.”
— Dani Zoldan 

Van West Media has created a new and improved look for Stand Up NY to represent the different aspects of the company. As we turn away from the old-fashioned gold and black palette as well as the dated typeface, we characterize Stand Up NY as refined through our new modern and clean-cut look. Through this change, we steered towards a new red and black color palette, as these colors are bold and stand out in a crowd. These colors represent the performers at Stand Up NY and how the company strives to find upcoming talent. A great feature we included that correlates with this idea is the “Open Mic” page, which allows performers to get noticed easily as they express their talents.
Not only is this look and feel of the site aesthetically pleasing, but the navigational aspects are also more user friendly. The simplified menu allows for easy navigation with self-explanatory links and pages. By placing the calendar on its own page rather than the home screen, the company is able to highlight specific acts, giving more attention to those that are presenting soon. The slideshow feature for the upcoming acts also allows users to understand that there are more artists. Users can also easily find out about acts and purchase tickets through Laughstub. Through this integration, comedians can get noticed through personal profile pages as well as show lists with tickets for audiences to purchase on the site.
Another prominent improvement we made involves social media. By integrating social media through the site, we allow the audience to feel more connected to the performers at Stand Up NY. These widgets give quick blurbs of the performers’ thoughts and ideas as well as teasers to give an idea of what’s to come for their shows. By engaging with their audience, both Stand Up NY and its performers can hear feedback from the people they wish to positively entertain. Visit the new Stand Up NY website and follow Stand Up NY on Instagram and Twitter to see for yourself!
For more information, contact Shad Mohammad at 1-718-288-2463 or info@vanwestmedia.com.

E-mail Segmentation

February 18, 2013

Customers like feeling special, like they are getting something different and better than everyone else in the world. It’s because of this that companies have steered towards personalized email, using customer names within their newsletters. E-mail segmentation appeals to clients as well as the industry itself as it sends certain information to the direct market it’s made for. By using segmentation, the customer retention rates grow as the sender understands the interests and needs of the consumer. These are some examples of e-mail segmentation companies can use to their advantage.

Source segmentation is the most straight-forward track as it tracks where and how you met your customer. By analyzing location, interests and analytics, you can check what information to send them through e-mail. If the client went to a page about web design on your site, you can send him offers you have or articles about web-design that your company comes across. This method brings consumers and marketeers closer as they show a shared interest, which makes customers feel closer to the business.

Geographic segmentation relates to the sales and trends of an area. If you are advertising heavy coats, you can weed out an audience in a hot area such as California or Las Vegas as they won’t have a need for your product. Send them e-mails about bathing suits or shorts instead and the customer retention will significantly grow. When people receive e-mails that do not pertain to them at all, they feel like another number in the world that you are trying to advertise to. Don’t make people feel that way and only send things that matter to them.

Role-based segmentation is great for B2B marketing. By sending e-mails to customers of a specific role such as sending new Photoshop information to the designer of a company will be more successful than sending it to the technician. This method is effective because more views and downloads will occur if what you have to offer will affect them, especially in regards to their jobs.

Content-interest segmentation separates existing customers from new ones. Existing recipients have more knowledge and information about your product and offers beforehand wouldn’t need a “starter guide” and would enjoy having “exclusive member access” to parts of your website. By differentiating these types of consumers, that “special” appeal is preserved and “click-through rates” will increase and lead to more conversions.

By building up several e-mail lists, each customer will receive e-mails that are relevant to their lives. Though there is no “correct” way to segment your e-mail list, each of these ways have an advantage in their own way. Just like all marketing techniques, e-mail segmentation requires testing. By experimenting through these different segmentations, your business will find the most ideal way to reach out to your audience.

 

5-Point Content Optimization Guide

February 15, 2013

Marketing for a mass audience on the web stands among an even larger competition-base. Because of this, user acquisition tactics are of utmost importance to the success of your business. Every business‘s website produces content, but few take the necessary steps to optimize their site for long-term success. Here are some steps to help you stand out among others in the industry.

1. User-Intent Keyword Relevancy. User intent is what should drive keywords, as it guides us to understand what users want and what they would search for. People usually search sites for three uses: informational, navigational and transactional. Informational uses would involve answering questions and concerns while navigational uses would involve looking for a certain brand, product or something in the similar field. Transactional uses have the specific intent of purchasing something and may transition from the informational or navigational uses. Transactional uses are what marketeers try to steer their audience to. It’s important to involve sites that cover all three of these types of users to gain the highest potential amount of users.

2. Data-driven Selection. The most common types of data are “fat-head” and “long-tail“. “Fat-head” data involves broad subjects without any terms suggesting location, type or any other kind of specificity. This type of data provides major exposure and high search volumes, which lead to higher drives of traffic. “Long-tail” data involves smaller markets that are specific to your business, meaning quality traffic. This data is riskier to use as people may not search for such specific things but is much easier to maintain against competitors. They are also cheaper to achieve and diversify on Search Engine Optimization (SEO). It’s important to involve both types of data as “fat-head” searches can lead to a traffic and search foundation while “long-tail” searches lead to more sales for your site.

3. Compelling Headlines. People don’t like reading a whole bunch of text unless they have to. Headlines and titles give way to what each page or section on a site is about. It’s important to keep these brand-focused, interesting and action-oriented. The brand or business name or product should be included especially if you provide several services. You should also be creative to stand out on search engines. This doesn’t only involve keywords for the search engine, but for terms and phrases or effects that would catch the eye of the users themselves. The best headlines are ones that elicit a response from its audience. Action words or any verbs in general usually fall into this category as it gives users opportunities to satisfy their wants, needs and desires.

4. Internal AND external links. Many businesses only focus on themselves and present links that direct users to a different page on their domain. This is important for providing navigation and information throughout the site but there are advantages to including external links and/or third-party sites as well. Both users and search engines love this as it establishes trust. While you may lose some visitors, other sites with supporting evidence and data benefits your audience and shows search engines that you are taking user-experience seriously. This disregards your advertisements as spam and can guarantee trust from your audience. Third parties may also refer you in return, creating a larger trusting community that users see as a strong backbone.

5.  Fostering Distribution & Conversion. Distribution involves opportunities to get information in front of users. It’s important to know what information to publish and where to place it to give it to the market that wants it. Content marketing brings in more potential buyers and converts visitors into customers. Through these customers, your brand can build referrals and create awareness of what you have to offer. Your aim is to make your products and services so irresistible to your audience that they have to give in to what you’re providing.

Once you associate your site to this optimization guide, your site and business would become more successful. The opportunities provided through these steps are endless as your audience, search engines, other similar businesses in your market and your own business give you an advantage in the industry. With such a competitive field, it’s important to have allies in the market and on the web to help you get ahead and maintain a successful business.

Content Marketing Formula of 70/20/10

February 13, 2013

The 70/20/10 model is common through business in an educational sense with the curriculum and in the innovative sense with business management. This same model should be used through marketing as well. Through analyzing leading brands such as Nike, Coca-Cola, Red Bull and many others, this distribution of editorial workflow has paid off with great success.

70% of content should be low-risk, including basic marketing and “proven content”. This majority should speak to your audiences top needs and display your business‘s core expertise. The “core” content should center around what your business is all about in regards to their purpose in the community. Factual information informs the people what they they are missing out on and what you can offer them to make their lives better. However, a business can only talk about themselves informationally for so long.

20% of content should involve “premier content”, which optimizes and innovates off of the 70%. This information aims to lead audiences down the sale funnel by responsively advertising the core ideas of the business. Short-term opportunity maximizing brings in audiences even more. These ideas involve more time and effort in hopes to gain sales. Examples include monthly newsletters, ebooks and webinars, which get the audience more connected with the business. These advancements further your audience’s understanding of your business and may intrigue them to get more involved.

The last 10% of content is relatively new in the marketing system. It’s for things that can’t be planned for. These are considered “experimental content”, where risks are taken but space is made to test out new ideas. This can include offering short-term advantage situations to reflect upon an audience’s reactive desire. By taking steps into unknown territory, businesses can ignite the unrealized passions of their audiences and gain a new sense of community to market to.

Content marketing is one of the most innovational formulas as it leads to long-term success through participation and interaction. Although this model is static, the variables within this formula are amorphous. The 10% can become a grand idea that turns into the 20% or even the 70% as innovative ideas will pass through a business to adapt with its audience’s fluctuating desires and needs over time. As a company gains success and a solid backbone audience, they may also their increase chances of risk and eventually, the 10% and the 70% may switch to give them more opportunities. Through this 70/20/10 concept, a business will be successful in the long-run as it can change through several variables but also stay consistent in determining goals for the industry.

How to Win the Grammys Through Social Media

February 11, 2013

The Grammys and other award shows are signs that show artists really “made it” to be the best out there. However, there are techniques to become what fans see as “the best” and in this day and age, it’s through social media advertising.

Mumford and Sons goes through the most inbound marketing as they are active across almost every social media channel. They are one of the few artists with a live blog that is regularly updated. Messages from Mumford and Sons are also personal as they incorporate first name usage in their emails. On top of that, discount merchandise is also offered in welcoming messages for new subscribers. By acknowledging new fans and continuing constant communication with current fans, Mumford and Sons paves their way through social media marketing and come out on top as the most involved artist in the media.

Frank Ocean should also be applauded for his social media tactics towards his Grammy. His clear channel of communication with his fans is through Twitter as he sent out 52 tweets in the last month with fun. following him at 20 tweets in the celebrity twitter charts. Twitter is a channel that shows one’s inner voice and uses one’s own social persona through digital marketing. This channel helps fans feel connected to an artist on a personal level as it is clearly straight from the artist to his fans. By establishing this connection to all the fans who follow his Twitter, Frank Ocean was able to brand himself through who he really is to a large audience.

Jay-Z has made a statement through digital marketing without the use of constant communication with his fans, but through a great inbound marketing system. Although his social output has been low, he was able to gain 6 million viewers for his Youtube channel by having SMS subscriptions with updates and invites to things he has to offer his fans.

Through social media and other online channels, artists have the chance to really get in touch with their fans to become the best that they can be as entertainers. Fans look up to artsits and value what they have to say over everyday people. It’s important for artists to understand the influence they have and take advantage of that. By getting in touch with their fan base and promoting themselves on their own rather than through advertising agencies, their success will last in the long run with a strong fan base. That is truly what makes an artist stand apart from the rest and is worth a personal Grammy.

 

How the Media Helped New York Fashion Week Take Over

February 8, 2013

As February 7th hit, fashionistas from all over tuned in on every mediabase to get a look at the new Fall/Winter 2013 trends for Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week. From Twitter to Facebook to Youtube, New York Fashion Week (NYFW) has taken over. With advertisements on every social mediabase, people everywhere can see what there is to offer in the great New York City in regards to fashion.

Designers, PR representatives and celebrities have the chance to engage in the highly exclusive runway shows for NYFW. With the limited amount of seats, fashionistas of all kinds rush to the web in order to be a part of this epic week. By following tweets, reading Facebook statuses and livestreaming on Youtube, everyone has a chance to stay connected.

Through this technological generation, people can stay in the comfort of their homes wearing pajamas and stuffing their faces as they watch these runway shows up-close and center. They can also easily go on to the designer’s website and look at the collection from there to see fine details, materials, colors and pricing for whatever looks they see. This advantage gives access to what everyone truly wants: instant gratification.

As everyday people see celebrities in the world of paparazzi and fathom over their designer gowns, they can see the “Ready-to-wear” looks by those same designers and feel connected in a sense. Through the knowledge of the social media boom and realizing what people “actually want”, NYFW has become one of the greatest success stories over several different platforms as a great business for designers all over the world. This analyzation is one that every business should look for. By looking at the desires of one’s audience, a business can become successful through easily handing over what they want.

Although viewing streams and social media posts are “free” to browse through, the advertisements and profits made through the designers become a large payoff in the end. This is important for businesses to understand: realizing what is necessary to give away in order for people to come back and be willing to pay for.

Brand Marketing Through Storytelling

February 6, 2013

Regardless of age, storytelling captures the hearts and minds of an audience. Whether it’s real or fictional, the concept of brand marketing through storytelling creates room for opportunities. This approach correlates to the booming growth of social media over the past few years. Storytelling is a method that has been used for years in the marketing field but what makes the difference is the art of “writing” it. Creating a story is challenging but here are some key points to help you along the way.

Be truthful about your product. Although the storyline may be fictional, what your business can accomplish must play out the way it does in reality as it did in the story. Many marketeers use the “opportunity” approach in this method to avoid this problem while telling a creative story. They show how a consumer may use their product but don’t necessarily expect them to use it in such a manner. However, what’s expected of the business should stay consistent so consumers can expect to be pleased with the product or service offered. No one should be confused about what you have to offer.

Integrate personality into your story. Brand stories are not meant to be written as advertisements or sales pitches. They should be written in a sense that can relate to customers through experience, emotion or, in the best cases, both. A certain persona should be presented to narrate the story. If customers can’t relate to the story, it will appear boring. By incorporating a character in the story that people can root for and relate to, people will place themselves in the character’s shoes and experience what you have to offer vicariously.

Leave some mystery to the audience. By using the method of perpetual marketing, each piece of the story will feed off its previous part, leaving the audience wanting more to come. Leaving call to action at the end of the stories will instigate customers to go to the website or social media network, leading them to landing pages that may produce more sales.

Brand stories create new experiences for your consumers. It gives them a chance to participate through observation and hopefully, leave them wanting more so they purchase what you have to offer. Several stories gives consumers different ways to experience your product or service. By surrounding yourself with customers, you create several paths for them to come in contact and acknowledge your business.