Archive for the ‘Technology’ Category
The true magnitude of digital growth.
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Interactive, Technology, social media
This is a must-watch powerful video on the magnitude of digital and predictions for its growth. Our world is changing, and our agency is prepared.
The Social Revolution 2
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Interactive, Technology, Tips and Trends Series, social media
T+L’s Top Travel Apps 2010
Posted by Charisse Gallagher | Filed under Technology, Travel, social media
Travel & Leisure has “scoured the virtual aisles of the Android, Blackberry, iPhone, Palm, and Windows stores for their 53 favorite travel apps”. How many do you have?
http://www.travelandleisure.com/articles/tls-top-travel-apps-2010
We Feel Fine.
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Interactive, Technology, Uncategorized, social media
In 2007, Jonathan Harris developed software that pinged blogs around the world to determine our collective feelings. This software found all the occurrences of the phrase “I feel” or “I am feeling”. This is amazing research to understand how people feel and perhaps target your message to them.
About this talk
Jonathan Harris wants to make sense of the emotional world of the Web. With deep compassion for the human condition, his projects troll the Internet to find out what we’re all feeling and looking for.
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.
Brand Stewardship: Who Are You?
Posted by Lynn Kaniper | Filed under Advertising, Media, Technology
In today’s frenzy to gain business, keep costs low and make owners happy, have you lost who you are?
These days, everyone is heavily concerned with driving ROI and maximizing the bottom line. We’re all looking for more cost-effective ways to spend our dollars. But in doing so, have you lost your brand? Do you still know who you are? Does your audience?
Organizations that want to thrive in today’s marketplace must have greater concern for upholding the higher values that support their brand’s promise and preserving a distinctive relationship with their markets. They must accept responsibility for ensuring that their brand stands for value, service, quality and the other attributes that matter most—over the long term—to the people they serve.
The question is: How should you move forward while staying true to your identity?
Answer: Introduce innovation to stay ahead of the game.
You have tight budgets, so you need to act smart. Have you been putting off your marketing plan or reduced it so much that it’s lost impact? If so, think about utilizing low-cost social media marketing. It has become huge in speaking the voice of a brand, and it can help sell your product while building brand value.
Essentially, it’s all about the brand, and communicating through multiple channels is key. Surround your target audience with online, offline and social media, as well as public relations and word of mouth. If you focus too much on any one area, you may hinder your efforts.
Your goal should be to drive action, not just push readable content. More than simply creating and parking, brands must engage their targets, promote interest, feature great offers and share them across all channels.
And don’t rely solely on social media either. You can form a large fan base on Facebook, but you may be left without pertinent data to collect for your own lists. Build your lists and reinforce what works for you. The aim is to drive action over short periods of time and then integrate it into a fuller program.
It is important to manage and grow a list of go-to people that will help fill need periods and become advocates for your business as well. Without control of such a list, and without the ability to integrate your email outreach into your social media, you will lose a big asset in terms of expanding the effectiveness of your efforts.
Above all, a brand implies a promise. This promise is to remain dedicated to the level of quality people have come to expect. Brand loyalty boosts sales, and maintaining a strong and consistent expression of your company’s brand is critical to fostering credibility, authenticity and loyalty.
This is why the great brands are those whose organizations act as stewards of the brand relationship. This means communicating the vision and what the organization stands for, even at times when you need to promote value or run specials to fill occupancy. Think about how you do that now… At these times, do you stay true to who you are?
If the brand message is not easily conveyed and readily understood, chances are the brand or its strategy is flawed. It may be time to reevaluate your brand stewardship:
- What does your brand promise?
- Does it appeal to your primary audience?
- How does your current identity undervalue or undermine your brand?
- What are you doing well or need to work on in terms of branding?
- How do you position the brand so that it’s more effective?
Finally, a brand must have the depth to adapt and grow with the changing times. The world is unpredictable, and change is constant. To move forward and get ahead, it is essential that you know exactly who you are, that you communicate a consistent image of your brand and that you engage your customers to keep them coming back.
Learn more about partnering with Dana to become a steward for your brand. Contact lkaniper@danacommunications.com.
iPhone 4 | Sharing Moments
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Hospitality News, Interactive, Technology
The latest iPhone was introduced to the public today. It is certainly the model that was leaked about a month ago and features all that was mentioned then. There is one feature that I didn’t hear of then that I really like. This is the one tap video calling from Facetime. Individuals with the new and improved model will now be able to video conference with a tap of the screen. Very cool. Watch the video on the Apple site for more details.
Facebook: Like it or Leave it? What are you going to do?
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Interactive, Technology, Tips and Trends Series, social media
Today Mark Zuckerberg will be announcing Facebook’s new privacy controls. Within the past few weeks there has been serious dissatisfaction within the social network. Glitches, Inbox confusion and the introduction of Open Graph has really led people to rethink their status. The folks at Mashable surveyed just over 5,000 users and asked, “Why are you planning to leave Facebook?”
The results taken from this survey and pulled from the Mashable website are graphed below.
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.”
Gary Vaynerchuk: Do what you love (no excuses!)
Posted by Eric Welsh | Filed under Advertising, Dana News, Interactive, Media, Technology
“Do what you love (no excuses!)” At Dana, we really think about these things. If you’ve ever met any of our leaders you know that they love what they do. Our Media Director, Mark, is more passionate about SEA than he is about breathing and coffee. Just watch him perform at a new business presentation. Lynn, our Executive Creative Director, is more passionate about the quality of the product that we deliver to our clients and the people in this building, that everyone wants her advise professionally and personally— we are second only to her own family. Jared, our VP of Strategy, will question our methods (to the point of exhaustion) to insure we’re thinking in the clients best interest. But he is ALWAYS willing to go to bat for OUR big idea. And finally, our President, Bob, makes at least 100 calls per day. They all start with, “How’s the family? How’s your game? Great, now let’s make you some money…”.
That is our brand equity. Passion and performance.
Please feel free to watch Gary eloquently explain brand equity. He uses some foul language, but don’t we all from time-to-time?
About this talk
From Ted.com:
At the Web 2.0 Expo, entrepreneur Gary Vaynerchuk gives a shot in the arm to dreamers and up-and-comers who face self-doubt. The Internet has made the formula for success simpler than ever, he argues. So there’s now no excuse not to do what makes you happy.
