Archive for the ‘Design’ Category
How’s Your Image?
Posted by Jamie Smith | Filed under Advertising, Design, Tips and Trends Series
Creating a library of impressive images is challenging, exciting and ultimately rewarding. The creative services of an experienced Art Director will help you every step of the way and insure your investment pays off in striking images that showcase your property.
Select Your Photographer
- Start with the websites of photographers who specialize in travel and hospitality. Look for photos that show what’s unique and express a mood—do you see the romance of a ballroom, feel the challenge of a golf course?
- Ask your Art Director for recommendations. Over the years at Dana, we’ve developed relationships with photographers who don’t just create incredible photos—they’re also great to work with and make the process efficient.
- Decide which photographers’ creative and working styles are the right “fit” for your property, then contact those to discuss your project in depth.
Prepare for the Shoot
- List the interior and exterior shots you want, together with the services/amenities you want to communicate about each.
- Schedule a site visit or scout with your Art Director and photographer, if possible, so they can take quick snapshots and work through any questions or concerns.
- Discuss the “housekeeping” checklist. Thoroughly cleaned rooms and public areas are a given, but you may also need to spruce up other areas, like landscaping that will be seen through windows, for example.
- Decide whether you’ll feature people or not. It’s a complex decision. Using them can attract your market segments, like couples, but can also “date” your shots. Your Art Director and photographer can suggest subtle ways to bring people and emotion into shots without dating them.
Stay Involved During the Process
- Understand that getting the right atmosphere—with perfect lighting and props—requires patience and long days. Smooth the process by allocating staff to help move furniture, prepare flowers, etc.
- Expect that timing and schedules will change (depending on the sun, property traffic, etc.) but try to stick close to your initial schedule to keep the pace moving.
- Stay flexible so your photographer can bring inspiration to your shot list. An image reflected in your spa pool may be unexpected but perfect.
- Collaborate and share your opinions. If you think the sky over the terrace isn’t quite bright enough, say so. While you can’t change the weather, your photographer can use techniques and editing software to enhance your images.
Let Dana Communications assist you with everything from creative direction to the fine points of negotiating a contract with your photographer. We invite you to enjoy the results of Dana’s recent photo shoots below. Our clients love this work, and we are proud to have helped make their image shine.
Twitter Sneaker — Follow or Unfollow?
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Design, social media
We are certainly involved in the hospitality community here at DANA. But, several of us are also into fashion, sneakers, time pieces and so forth.When I came across this custom designed Nike sneaker from self-proclaimed “Sneaker Freaker” Daniel Reese I had to share.
Do you have to always get from point "A" to "B" in 140 steps?
Margaret Gould Stewart: How YouTube thinks about copyright
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Design, Technology, Tips and Trends Series, social media
Margaret Gould Stewart, YouTube’s head of user experience, talks about how the ubiquitous video site works with copyright holders and creators to foster (at the best of times) a creative ecosystem where everybody wins.
The Pantone Hotel—For the Designer in ALL of Us.
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Design, Hospitality News
At Dana we live in a world of luxury hospitality, rich images, decadent cuisine and fantasy golf courses. And we love it all. But every once in awhile, deep down inside, we secretly wish we could be involved in a project that is uber-stylized like this one, The Pantone Hotel. It’s not for everyone, my parents would never stay here in a million years (my father is color blind). But it does offer an alternative to the traditional offerings one would look for in a weekend retreat in Brussels.
And that alternative is oh so colorful.
“Designed by Michel Penneman and Oliver Hannaert, The PANTONE HOTELTM, Brussels showcases the color of emotion with a distinctive hue on each colorous guest floor. From vivid to subdued, for business or leisure, our unique boutique hotel perfectly suits your savvy palette and colorful imagination.”
Which Department Owns Social Media? — via Mashable
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Design, Interactive, Technology, social media
At Dana, this is a partnership between the media department and the interactive department. Of course, often times it falls heavier on one side or another. For instance, the interactive department handles all of the social profile development and the media department runs ad placement on those particular channels. Seldom do we partner with a PR firm. Not that we wouldn’t or shouldn’t. In fact, it makes perfect sense to. The responsibilities that social media create are often time based and those that have the time to handle do.
Christina Warren @ Mashable has written a great article about this.
“In its November 2009 report on Social Media and Online PR, Econsultancy found that of the companies surveyed, 35% of companies managed their social media resources under the digital marketing team. PR/communications departments managed 21% of respondents, with 19% saying that social media was managed by a cross-functional team.”
Spaghetti Sauce and the “Long Tail”
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Design, Interactive, Technology, Tips and Trends Series, social media
Tipping Point author Malcolm Gladwell gets inside the food industry’s pursuit of the perfect spaghetti sauce –
and makes a larger argument about the nature of choice and happiness.
Keep in mind, this was taped in 2004. That is pre-social networking days. Certainly, prior to Twitter and the community concept. But Malcolm asserts, “By embracing the diversity of human beings, we will find a sure way to true happiness.” Now, we aren’t saying that social media and understanding the long tail marketplace is the key to finding joy or anything like that. However, we do agree that the pursuit happiness and perhaps success is diversity in what you do and whom you do it with.
Digital Transformation and Social Media: Notes from Boulder Digital Works
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Dana News, Design, Media, Uncategorized, social media
This is a really interesting presentation given by Ed Boches, at the Boulder Digital Works conference. The folks at DANA greatly appreciate his willingness to share with the digital community to further our collective understanding. Please scroll through the presentation and feel free to comment!
[slideshare id=3735846&doc=bdwfinalcopy-100415085609-phpapp01&type=d]
Battle of the Big Three
Posted by Lynn Kaniper | Filed under Advertising, Design, Interactive, Media, Tips and Trends Series
Which of these three mediums is the best strategy in today’s marketing world: traditional media, digital media or social media?
If your answer is any single one of these choices, you’ve definitely missed the mark—because a strong and successful marketing strategy must integrate all three.
Since the rise of the digital and social networking age, there has been much discussion about which type of agency can ascertain the most effective results for clients. Digital agencies might argue that traditional agencies are outdated and unable to adapt to today’s market. Traditional agencies might argue that digital agencies aren’t focused enough on the solid creative imagery and messaging that grab people’s attention. And social media agencies may dismiss both by asserting that neither quite understands the power of word-of-mouth.
But ultimately, integration is the key to survival in the marketing world. Let’s face it, marketing mediums are ever changing, and so are your individual needs. Good strategy means staying in the know and up to date on every channel of marketing, so you can apply a multi-faceted plan to each campaign. That is why working with one shop–one that is capable of utilizing all the available channels of communication–is more apt to carry out your vision in the long run than dispersing your jobs piecemeal to agencies that focus on one specialty alone.
Dana has always believed in integration, which is why our team comprises a plethora of talented professionals in multiple areas of marketing expertise. Often, various mediums can overlap one another and work in tandem to form a consistent, solid campaign that reaches the target audience with the largest number of impressions in many different forms. Our animated model of marketing capabilities shows how all the strategic avenues (traditional, digital and social) work together to cultivate a strong brand. Click here to see for yourself.
Think of your marketing strategy in terms of a jigsaw puzzle. You need all the pieces to fit together so your consumers can see the full picture of your brand. If you separate the pieces for different groups to assemble individually, they may be able to fit their own together, but they’ll still be disconnected from the rest. Your brand image will lack cohesiveness and your consumers may mistake the pieces for the whole.
Don’t limit your marketing reach by relying on disconnected pieces of the puzzle. Learn more about integrating your marketing strategy to garner the best results; contact jzech@danacommunications.com.
Pink Socks & Pocket Protectors
Posted by Bob Prewitt | Filed under Advertising, Dana News, Design, Interactive, Media, Technology, Tips and Trends Series
Marketing in the Age of the World Wide Web
Marketing has always been a combination of art and science. There have always been creative types and account types. Just watch Mad Men.
But today, with the explosive growth of interactive marketing (the Web), there is a huge distinction between creative brand development behavior (Pink Socks) and web engineering behavior (Pocket Protectors).
Both behavioral types are necessary to the development and execution of a successful marketing operation. But you need to pay special attention to managing the interaction between the two because, often, they don’t relate well to one another.
Dana participated in a speaking engagement at this year’s PCMA Annual Meeting, and we addressed this very topic. The presentation defined the marketing process that must be employed in the current age—one in which marketing is dominated by the World Wide Web. We identified situations in which you should be utilizing Pink Socks, as well as those in which Pocket Protectors are needed.
Our attendees came away from this event with a basic understanding of the marketing vehicles available through the web (PPC, rich media, optimization, behavioral tracking, etc.). They gained an understanding of the conflict that can exist when Pink Socks and Pocket Protectors are brought together to create marketing communications.
Your marketing efforts don’t have to be obsolete or out-of-touch just because marketing thinking has changed so quickly. But you do need to have a basic understanding of the radically changed and still-changing marketing scene.
To learn more about making Pink Socks and Pocket Protectors work for you in today’s interactive age, contact bprewitt@danacommunications.com.
Tell Us Your Favorite Things!
Posted by Lynn Kaniper | Filed under Dana News, Design, Interactive
Dana is taking a break from tips, trips and trends to remember what makes the holiday season bright. Take a look at a few of our favorite things—then share your own—at danacommunications.com/favorite. Do you celebrate indulgent pleasures or innocent joys? Are your merriest memories naughty or nice? (OK, not too naughty…) For every post made, we’ll add to our donation to the Community Food Bank of NJ. Have fun!
