Posted by
Amy Xiong on Tue, Feb 21, 2012 @ 10:28 AM
What have you found to be the best advertising solutions for your company? How do you know these are the best? Are you testing and changing and testing again? Are you primarily focusing on just print media or digital? Are you trying to reach your ideal customers through a variety of mediums through an integrated approach?
We recently met with Marv Danielski of Frank N. Magid Associates who shared his knowledge and research on what they have found to be the best advertising solutions for their clients. It all starts with keeping the consumers in mind.
Your brand’s relationship with the consumer should be the driver of the media mix. Magid and Associates have found through research that audiences respond best to well executed ad campaigns. These campaigns have central themes that provide a sense of message continuum, familiarity and show the brand values. For example, Apple has been consistent in their approach in striking a “difference” and making emotional and visual style in their ads.
Be clear and concise with your writing and the messages that are directed to your clients. You should have a ‘positioning’ statement which defines the product value and the company’s value. This statement speaks to your consumer’s needs, desires and wants.
In addition to this, integrated marketing will help your company reach its consumers through all touch points. The changing technology allows consumers to interact with your products and brands in a variety of ways through television, radio, print and digital. This makes it more difficult for brands to handle their mediums and maintain their position, but those who are successful with this can gain and develop loyal customers. Having an integrated marketing campaign allows you to reach your customer through the best medium for them. Your brand will be on their mind and easily accessible to them effortlessly. They do not have to go out of their way to search for information about your company and the products/services you offer.
Don’t get lost in the mix of different mediums for reaching your consumers. Explore different marketing avenues to reach your consumers through the best means possible at the right time and track your measurable findings. Remember, the consumer is the driver of the media mix. If your ideal target group is senior citizens reaching them only through tablet advertising and mobile advertising is not the best solution. You don’t have to use all vehicles, but you do need to find the right mix for you and your company’s goals.
Comment below to share some the best advertising solutions that have worked for you.
Posted by
Amy Xiong on Mon, Feb 20, 2012 @ 12:00 PM
– Mediaspace Solutions deals with hundreds of newspapers every day, and what we read about the industry and what we have experienced are two different things. The Blue Sky News newsletter has been created to give a different perspective on the newspaper industry. Mediaspace Solutions is an advocate for publications and the newspaper industry.
Mediaspace Solutions is a leader in facilitating national, regional and local newspaper, magazine and digital buys throughout North America and Canada. For more than 11 years Mediaspace has delivered unmatched media placement services to advertisers and agencies willing to challenge their assumptions.
“In Blue Sky news, we focus on all the great things about newspapers, including interesting people, technology, and other special sections,” said Scott Jagodzinski, CEO at Mediaspace. “The word ‘Blue Sky’ is an internal term we use for innovation; it’s about possibilities.”
“The biggest challenge facing the newspaper industry today is all the speculation from people outside the industry,” said Jeff Griffing, Chief Revenue Office of StarTribune. Griffing was featured in the first edition of Blue Sky News and shared his insight on the newspaper industry. The Shatter the Status Quo Interview series features business leaders who go against the grain and push limits and boundaries every day. This interview series showcases how they do this in their personal and professional lives to arrive to where they are today and will be a regular feature in each quarterly edition of the newsletter.
To join the Blue Sky News mailing list send an email to Scott Olson at solson@mss-mail.com and indicate your preference for the hard copy or digital version.
Ever wonder how companies such as Apple can continuously be one of the most innovative companies and largely successful at the same time? The answer is not as complicated as you might think. It does not involve hiring the budget busting techie or purchasing the most up to date programs. The answer is simple: develop an imperfect product.
According to For Successful Innovation, Sell Imperfect Products, by Larry Popelka, many companies take the MVP, or minimum viable product approach, eliminating large upfront research and development costs towards new ideas. The thought behind MVP is to find the fastest, most cost-effective way to create a market-ready product that delivers on your general idea and provokes a reaction from potential buyers. Though many people may not buy the product, using this technique generates feedback on the product’s features and ultimately provides a blueprint for the final design. Creating the imperfect product and introducing it to the market allows you to test the water, get feedback, and build an even better product that is more likely to succeed because you have already collected research.
Masters of this practice include Starbucks, Nike, PowerBar and Coca-Cola. Starbucks, for example, uses this method for nearly every new product. The concept is tested in a few stores while the idea is still new. Timely testing leaves competition in the dark and gives Starbucks one up when they officially go-to-market.
Starbucks is a prime example of the CANI effort and results. You must constantly be improving your process, products, and overall customer experience. Is innovation an indication of your future? Absolutely. Without it, your company cannot grow, you will never beat out your competitor, and you will have extremely dissatisfied customers.
There’s a saying that if you’re not constantly creating new ideas, introducing new products, and improving what you currently offer, someone else will. In the video below, Simon Sinek gives us the perfect example of the Wright Brothers. They beat out their well funded and well supported competition because they worked for something they believed in rather than working for the sake of success. This mindset allowed them to be more innovative when producing model after model before developing a final product that worked and took flight.
How do you ensure you’re always improving your offerings and fostering an environment of innovation? Let us know in the comments section below.
Posted by
Amy Xiong on Tue, Feb 14, 2012 @ 08:49 AM
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The average user receives 147 emails a day
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People spend about 2.5 hours checking their email
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In less than three seconds 80% of emails are deleted
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The average person writes about 40 emails a day
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There are 12 messages we receive that will take more than 90 minutes of our day
There’s a lot of talk about email and its effectiveness. Some think the medium has lost all ability to communicate a message while others still rely heavily on its ability to send information to a targeted group. If you’re with us in the second group and still believe in email’s ability to communicate your message, the infographic below highlights ways you can be sure your email remains in the effective bucket.
For starters, the text in your email should NOT contain the following words: confirm, join, assistance, speaker, press, social or invite. Some words to include in your subject line to get a better response or to get the emails opened are: apply, opportunity, demo, connect, payments, conference and cancellation. Email users are also more likely to read your email between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. or around noon while most people are on their lunch.
Once you get someone to actually open your message, be sure the call to action is located on top. For example, if you’d like someone to click on a link put that link on the top line. You should also make your email message concise. Bullet points help get your point across and make it easier for the reader to scan your email message.
What tactics do you use to get your emails read or responded to? Are you still using email to reach your targets? Tell us about your experiences in the ‘Comments.’
Move over desktop and web, mobile and apps are here and they aren’t leaving anytime soon. According to Mobile By The Number information in March of 2011, there was a whopping four billion mobile phones in use in the world. Of that four billion, just more than one billion are smartphones and more than three billion are SMS enabled. Moreover, on average, Americans spent 2.7 hours per day socializing on their mobile device.
What does this mean? The next large platform in internet marketing will be mobile. Here are some reasons why:
- Demand is on the rise
- Location-based marketing is increasing
- Real-time bidding produces mutual value for buyers and sellers
- Rich media is significantly increasing ad quality and consumer connection
- Mobile private exchange is changing the way premium publishers and developers buy and sell
Should mobile be a part of your marketing budget? Yes. But is it the end and be all? No. Like any medium, especially an emerging one, it should be utilized in an integrated marketing plan. Don’t go putting all your eggs in one basket hoping to reach and engage your entire audience. Though mobile does reach consumers, you can never be sure if that individual will see your ad, act upon what you are offering or retain the information. If you want results, you need to be present in a variety of media.
Where does mobile fall in your integrated marketing plan? Let us know in the comments section below.
For more information on 2012 being the year of mobile advertising, click here.
Posted by
Amy Xiong on Tue, Feb 07, 2012 @ 12:30 PM
What kind of culture does your company embrace? When an organization has a strong culture, it keeps their employees actively and passionately engaged. A strong culture impacts the values and norms of an organization. It creates and supports the mission, vision and values. The type of culture you have influences your financial growth, internal communication, level of risk-taking, and innovation. Your culture determines what your clients expect from you and if you are the type of company they could get along with. A successful company takes more than just great products and a big bank account, a strong culture is also essential.
A lot of companies talk about culture and as Fast Company blogger Shawn Parr puts it, ‘It's one thing to have beliefs and values spelled out in a frame in the conference room. It's another thing to have genuine and memorable beliefs that are directional, alive and modeled throughout the organization daily.’
Your culture has to be yours and you need to be loyal to it. One thing to recognize: it won’t fit everyone. Every person will not fit in every organization. Some organizations are built on plain jane’s and order takers happy to make their to-do list, check it off and go home at night. Others are built on rule breakers and risk-takers who get after it and do whatever it takes the get the job done right and done well. Can you guess which companies grow faster or are more successful long-term?
At Mediaspace Solutions, our culture is spelled out through the acronym AFIRE [Aggressiveness, Fun, Innovative, Results, Excellence]. But we didn’t just create it, frame it on the wall and forget about it. We live it daily. You can see it through our website and social media. We have a work hard and play hard mentality. When you walk into our office you can see a wall of employee photos that immediately gives you a feel for our individuality and personality. From there you’ll be invited into the pub room. This is where we create our success and then celebrate it while sipping beer from our three taps.
Your culture needs to be evident in everything you do. It starts with hiring great people who fit your culture and then setting them free to meet client needs, develop products and services and deal with the challenges they face, all while your culture emanates from everything they do. We use our culture to guide how we approach everything we do.
Whether they know it or not, our clients hire us because of our culture. They don’t always tell us that’s the reason; but because the way we do business is a reflection of our culture it delivers the results they desire.
It comes down to this: like the great philosopher Bill Cosby once said, ‘I don’t know the key to success, but the key to failure is to try to please everybody.’ Identify your core values (real, not imagined), and instill these in your employees. This will lead to your strategies being focused and ultimately, more effective.
What does the culture of your organization promise your clients? Tell us in the comments.
To learn more about the importance of building a strong culture, check out “Culture Eats Strategy For Lunch”
How many to-do lists have you made within the past week? A majority of us have made at least one if not multiple lists. Of these lists, how many tasks have been completed? You have most likely checked off the obvious, easy tasks that take no time to complete and have left the bigger, uglier tasks for another day.
To-Do Lists Don’t Work by Daniel Markovitz offers some reasons why our to-do lists become ineffective:
- Too many choices
- Varied difficulty
- Varied priorities
- Lack of framework
- Lack of commitment tools
Instead of writing a useless to-do list, Markovitz suggests taking each individual task and putting them in your calendar allowing you to estimate how much time it will take to complete each task. Markovitz says deciding which task to tackle when allows you to overcome the five reasons mentioned above. In addition to overcoming these obstacles, putting tasks in your calendar allows you to better determine whether or not you have the capacity to take on a new project.
Do you find yourself more productive using calendar tasks versus to-do lists? Let us know how you stay organized and own your time in the comments section below.
Posted by
Amy Xiong on Tue, Jan 31, 2012 @ 08:57 AM
Here are a few tips to effectively advertise on tablets:
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Start with a strong strategy and concept
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Content should be easy to read and accessible
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Make it simple and quick
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It should look like an app
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Take advantage of the tablet’s multiple cameras, touch screen interfaces and GPS
Tablet ad should have strong context and be very targeted. Try to get your ads to be placed with articles that are relevant to your product. This helps the consumer's experience be consistent and strong from the beginning to the end. It should be easy for the consumers to be able to connect the dots as to how your products affect their life and what they can do to get your product.
iPads are the dominant player in the tablet category holding more than 70%. The iPad also has unique capabilities not available on other devices. Take a look at some tips to effectively advertise on iPads. And keep in mind as technology changes these tips will, if they don’t already, apply to other tablet devices:
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Design for portrait and landscape
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Be more engaging with video, photo galleries, hot spots and the accelerometer
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Preload ads for offline viewing
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Adhesion ads provide prominent, persistent placement above-the-fold
How are you taking advantage of the opportunities tablets present for advertising? Let us know in the comments.
Check out our other blogs about tablets such as: Industry Review: Tablets, Magazines and Newspapers. Oh my!
Noticed anything different lately on the Internet? Chances are some of your most frequently visited websites had a ‘blackout’ last Wednesday to protest the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
What does SOPA entail exactly? Great question. The new bill, introduced to the United States House of representatives in October 2011, will allow the U.S. Government to block Americans from visiting certain websites. In detail, it increases the ability of copyright holders and U.S. law enforcement to battle online trafficking in copyrighted intellectual property and counterfeit goods.
How this may affect you:
- Sites you frequent daily could be blocked
- Email providers may be required to censor certain links you send or receive
- The links and content you share on social networks will be carefully observed and potentially censored
SOPA support and opposition is coming from several different industries and individuals. In fact, more than $2.5 million has been spent on SOPA support and opposition funding so far. To see a breakdown of who is for and who is against SOPA, click here.
For more information on SOPA and what you need to know, check out this infographic.
Which side are you on? Let us know in the comments section below.
Posted by
Amy Xiong on Tue, Jan 24, 2012 @ 08:25 AM
The combination of newspapers being in both the print and digital realm has led to the continued evolution of print and digital subscriptions. Publications are doing their best to cater to both audiences. They know the print subscribers are looking for papers that are more accessible and easier to read. At the same time, publications are working to monetize the digital space through paywalls and tablet applications. Forward-thinking publications recognize the need for change and are embracing the new opportunities presented to them through their growing digital audience.
One of the ways that newspapers are evolving is by changing the newspaper size. It is not uncommon for newspapers to change their sizes, and there are a variety of reasons why publishers choose to do this. For example, in October 2011, “The Columbia County News-Times” started producing a thinner print model and combined that with a website that had more content. They chose to make this change for the very simple reason their printer was upgrading and only willing to produce the industry-standard narrower paper width. The smaller sizes also allowed them to save more money.
One of our newspaper partners, “Columbus Dispatch,” has plans to make a size change later this year. They did quite a bit of research through focus groups and have found their readers preferred papers which were easier to handle, more convenient for reading, had a better overall appearance, and used color and photos. Their new format will also allow for more sections than what is currently offered to readers.
Check back next week for our STSQ interview with Jeff Griffing, Chief Revenue Officer of the StarTribune and learn why that publication was ranked the #1 regional paper by Ad Age.
