Advertising Archives

Crisis: It Can Happen to Anyone. Take Burger King, For Example!

Contributed by Rachel Vick

We saw a prime example today of the need for big brand crisis communication. That’s right; Burger King was hacked on Twitter earlier this morning. Nothing like an Internet hacking to threaten a company’s reputation and put them directly in the spotlight!

Burger King’s hackers tweeted around 11:00 am that Burger King had been sold to McDonald’s. Burger King’s Twitter profile was also changed, including the profile photo (which was changed to the McDonald’s logo) and company information, which stated: “Just got sold to McDonald’s because the whopper flopped.”

The hackers continued to tweet for about an hour with obscene statements and false accusations, such as Continue reading “Crisis: It Can Happen to Anyone. Take Burger King, For Example!”

Marketing Strategies: Facebook Campaigns

I came across two photos the other day with some ordinary people doing some extraordinary marketing campaigns, and generating phenomenal results via Facebook. Continue reading “Marketing Strategies: Facebook Campaigns”

The Three C’s to Cementing Your Brand in the Minds of Your Market: Coca-Cola Style

“Creativity has been and always will be at the heart of our brands. It fuels our business – with consumers, customers, fans, agencies and partners all over the world,” says Joseph Tripodi, Executive VP, CMO and CCO of The Coca-Cola Company.

Branding Magazine as well as other companies and people around the world consider Coca-Cola as one of the most recognized brands. In addition to ensuring a high quality product and positive consumer experiences across multiple touch points, every year, Coca-Cola spends billions of dollars on creative, hilarious, and inspiring advertisements. Branding, as we’ve discussed extends far beyond the logo and company colors. However, those elements are key in connecting with consumers over time and keeping your name front and center–and recognized!

Coca-Cola’s simple, colorful design, has done just that. It’s proven to be extremely effective in making connections with consumers to market the company, and its products, literally around the world.

So how do you cement your brand in the minds of your market as Coca-Cola has? Follow these three C’s. Continue reading “The Three C’s to Cementing Your Brand in the Minds of Your Market: Coca-Cola Style”

Getting #Personal: How Engaging Social Media Visitors in Conversation Can Boost Engagement

A good place to keep your clients, customers, and employees engaged is online. Interaction is key, and a critical element of keeping people engaged and interested. You can do this on social networks, blogs, emails, and websites.

Here’s an example that comes from an intern of mine, who reached out and tweeted to a company that makes an interesting Mac app. Continue reading “Getting #Personal: How Engaging Social Media Visitors in Conversation Can Boost Engagement”

Small Businesses and Local Advertising

Should small businesses use local advertising? While this is one of those questions that can quickly be responded to with “it depends…,” if the market is a local one I do tend to believe that local advertising makes sense. And I’m not alone. Consider the increase in local online advertising among many marketers. Local online advertising was predicted to surge by 18 percent in 2012 to $18.5 billion

, according to paidContent.

The bigger the world gets, the more opportunities to leverage a small circle of influence I think. Just as when generating followers, friends and fans through social media Continue reading “Small Businesses and Local Advertising”

Does PR Matter in the Internet Age? Duh!

I monitor a variety of online forums and recently was engaged in a thread that addressed the question of whether PR (public relations) is still relevant. I was surprised by the question because, in my opinion, PR is more relevant today than ever and is rapidly supplanting the value of advertising.

The difference between the two: Continue reading “Does PR Matter in the Internet Age? Duh!”

Small Businesses Avoiding LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest: Are They Missing Out?

A recent survey by VerticalResponse, a marketing software company indicates that while 90 percent of small businesses are on Facebook and 70 percent on Twitter, they’re not as eager to embrace social media sites like LinkedIn (only 4 percent!), Google+ (3 percent) or Pinterest (1 percent). Wow! (An infographic provides more detail.)

Personally, I’m a huge fan of LinkedIn, find Pinterest to be a very interesting concept (and have an article coming out soon in EContent about some unique ways content providers are using Pinterest), and don’t really “get” Google+, but my personal opinions really don’t matter here and, IMO, neither do these survey results. Continue reading “Small Businesses Avoiding LinkedIn, Google+ and Pinterest: Are They Missing Out?”

Markets Can’t Really Tell Us How They’re Influenced

I’m a proponent of marketing research and the use of data to drive business decisions at every level and in every aspect of organizational performance. I recognize, though, that sometimes the predictive value of research can be questionable and that it can be most useful to evaluate actual behaviors to support future decisions.

Advertising efforts are a good example of this. Continue reading “Markets Can’t Really Tell Us How They’re Influenced”

Copywriting Tips Anyone Can Use

Whether you’re writing copy for a brochure, a newspaper ad, a radio announcement or a blog for your web site–or even a resume–there are some tried and true techniques that can help you make sure that your copy gets the results you’re looking for.

Think about writing copy as making a sales pitch to some target audience. Your goal is to persuade that person to do something – most likely to purchase your product or service. Here’s how: Continue reading “Copywriting Tips Anyone Can Use”

Talking Baby Ads Working, but E*Trade Not So Much – How Does That Work?

I recently read a very interesting–and puzzling–article in AdvertisingAge about E*Trade’s recent management shakeup. The company is apparently searching for a new CEO after unexpectedly parting with its current CEO in August. The article goes on to talk about the company’s stock slump and general poor performance. The surprising part, to me, is that Continue reading “Talking Baby Ads Working, but E*Trade Not So Much – How Does That Work?”