Social Media Spreads DOMA Nation

March 29, 2013

Gay marriage has been all the hype in politics lately but what has pushed the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) is the interaction of social media. Many have wondered why red boxes with a pink equal sign or some variation of this symbol has been taking place of Facebook profile pictures. By placing the image as your profile picture, you are showing support for gay marriage as a believer of marriage equality for all.

Social media networks such as Facebook and Twitter bring up all the hype in what’s going in the news. From who fell at the Oscars to who is at war to who is allowed to get married, social media prevails in spreading the word to friends and family onto other circles of people. With this social media campaign direction, people who you never even thought cared about gay rights or politics are expressing their opinions to the public about these issues.

What makes a campaign successful is the ability to instill an idea or movement in those who never thought about participating. Through these DOMA icons all over Facebook and other social media outlets, gay people have found the support they need to gain their rights for marriage.

Thinglink: An Interactive Image Platform

March 27, 2013

People are more likely to engage with communication through imagery, especially through interactive images. From social media to regular web pages, it is observed that images embedded with videos, annotations or links have a 50% larger clickthrough rate than regular images.

ThingLink, a Finnish-American provider of image interaction tools allows people to engage with photos in a whole new way. It transforms static images into a navigational platform that enhances viewer knowledge and experience. Advertisers use ThingLink to share links, drive traffic and create image-based campaigns.

Interactive imagery is capable through ThingLink’s “rich media tags”. These tags allow people to add content and functionality of other sites and social media platforms directly into images. This method allows responsive design and brand photo placement in tweets, statuses and other photos. By making digital images more interactive, engaging and sharable, photos are transformed into a content-discovery platform.

This method allows better ads that leave out the clutter of useless text and delivers viewers what they are looking for instantly. Viewers only want what they are interested in looking for. ThingLink easily delivers wanted information and helps both advertisers and audiences through interactive imagery.

Showrooms Hindering Marketeers

March 15, 2013

Are consumers taking advantage of what marketeers are offering at stores? Are showrooms hindering or helping sales? Statistics show that 60% of consumers go to retail stores to physically interact with the products in the showroom and then go online to purchase them for lower prices on sites such as Amazon. This data shows that although showrooms do encourage people to purchase the products but don’t increase sales in the stores. What are your takes on the idea? The breakdown of the situation is presented below.

Helpful Advertising: Y&R for Hurricane Sandy

March 14, 2013

Although Hurricane Sandy was months ago, there are still many families and communities suffering from the aftereffects of the catastrophe. Through social media sites like Pinterest, Y&R started a collaborative Pinterest called “Helpin” as a Hurricane Sandy relief effort.

This is a collaborative project that allows families to pin the things they are in need of for  others to purchase for them in the dire situation. The pins each link to an Amazon registry for the family to make an easy transaction. Each family can have their own Pinterest board stating what necessities they need. What’s great about Pinterest is the community aspect of this social media source. People can pin things onto their board and their followers will see them and so on in a chain effect. This allows the news to spread and find more people to help the cause.

This kind of advertising makes the industry seem more human and emotional. It shows that businesses do care about the people and wish for the best for all audiences. It’s important to instill this thought through the minds of others so that advertisers few more relevant to their clientele.

Louis Vuitton: Interactive Advertising

March 12, 2013

By using an activity common throughout an audience, the French luxury brand Louis Vuitton has found a way to incorporate their brand into everyday life. “The Art of Packing” is an interactive experience by Louis Vuitton that allows the brand to present not only its luggage collection, but it’s apparel, shoes and many other products.

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“The Art of Packing” Video

The interactive site allows the audience to see what is necessary for a fashionable trip with instruction as to how to pack in a smart way. The site gives people a step-by-step procedure to packing including the order and placement of certain things. It also shows how certain pieces of clothing should be folded to be the most space efficient.

fold

By allowing users to engage in the products interactively, people are able to see how the products look with other everyday things. They can also see how convenient certain products like make up bags and luggage compartments are to convince users to purchase them. The 3D aspect of the products also give users a feel to what the items look like as a whole as if they were looking at it in person at a store. Interactivity is one of the most sought after forms of advertising as people have fun using the products before even purchasing them.

OREO: Conquering the World Socially

March 8, 2013

OREO won the “Social Media Bowl” by shooting out their instantaneous “Dunk in the Dark” ad through Twitter during the blackout. However, this wasn’t the first time OREO conquered through social media. For the popular cookie’s 100th birthday, the Oreo Daily Twist made numerous ads from June 25 – October 2, 2012 (100 days) incorporating the cookie with current news.

Oreo Daily Twist Campaign Video

The first Oreo Daily Twist Ad fell on “Gay Pride Day”, a day when supporters and members of the LGBT community could participate in the Gay Pride Parade held in New York City. OREO showed their support through the rainbow creme cookie ad shown above. This ad was followed by many creative ads that were spread throughout the web on all social media networks leading to a wildly popular campaign. The campaign was so popular that after October 2, people were begging for more ads when the 100 days were over. This lead to a demand for OREO advertising that they never imagined.

The quirkiness of these ads are what captured audiences and lead them to spread the news to those around them. The success of the Oreo Daily Twist campaign shows what an impact creativity and social media can have on the public.

Marketing is Content

March 6, 2013

The key to successful marketing is to have your content geared for your audience. There are several key components to achieving the “best” there is to offer for your customers.
GHO presents a chart explaining the different ways for your business to capture the attention of your audience in the long run.

Some businesses make the mistake of focusing on just one of these aspects and either disregarding or barely focusing on the rest of the areas. However, when you think about it, what good is a beautiful site or product that doesn’t doesn’t evoke a purchase or participation with people? What does something so full of impact do for others if it can’t be accessed on mobile devices and spread throughout? These are important questions to consider when advertising for your business. By taking a little bit of each area, you can advertise a great campaign for what you have to offer.

Let us help you achieve the best marketing at Van West Media. As experts in the field, we are sure to help you reach out to audiences and maintain a successful business.

The New Black: A Color, A Brand, A Symbol, An Idea.

March 4, 2013

Black. What does that word evoke in you? Is it just a color or does it have more meaning than that? Colors are a sense of language that exceeds any other. They are universally known yet each color can evoke different emotions and reactions from an audience. The color black is the most used in the world and is the most versatile as well. It can stand for both absence of light in science or a mixture of all colors in art. This project shows that an idea or brand can be conveyed through anything including a color.

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The “New Black” Video

Nick Black, 22, a Mason Gross of the Arts graphic design student at Rutgers University New Brunswick developed a collaborative project based on the usage of art and design. Through this “New Black” campaign, the color will be conveyed through the combination of what it means to everyone. It transforms “black” into a crowd-sourced custom color, giving everyone an opportunity to present their ideas and messages to this color campaign. As the color black is involved in every area including science, art, and history everyone has a stance on what this color means for them.

because black

This campaign represents how design impacts audiences and how messages can be conveyed through art. The design and development of this campaign takes a simple idea that resonates through audiences all over and creates something special for everyone to hold dear as they participate in this collaboration. The “New Black” campaign is a great way to bring others together, create art and help those who underestimate the power of design to understand how it can define everything around us.

Help turn this idea into something even bigger.

CTA Through Social Currency

March 1, 2013

What better way to gain participants than to give them something in return? Many businesses are using their audience to create and stir up call-to-action (CTA) by giving them discounts for participating. Social media is one of the quickest ways to spread messages through a large audience and businesses are taking advantage of this sales method.

“Tweet shopping” brings people to send specific hashtags in their tweets with their own personal message in order to gain advantages for shopping. American Express (Amex) created a campaign to tweet and hashtag certain promotions to @Amexsync to get discounts on their credit card statements.

AmexSync Video

Businesses aren’t only taking advantage of this for profitable advantages. They are also using this for humanitarian advances as well. The Generous Store, opened in Denmark, is a chocolate store that brings a new way to spread the word about their business with the cost of being a good person. When purchasing the chocolate, the price tag would state what good deed would need to be accomplished. The products would be checked out by placing the “promise of a good deed” for chocolate from The Generous Store on the person’s Facebook page. This is a great campaign that would bring people together and make for happy audiences.

Generous Store Purchase Video

These campaigns are making a statement with the people and this is what advertising should do. Make your business stand out and make people want to become your customer and be involved with what you have to offer. Through this method, your business will gain success and stand out amongst the others.