HSMAI Honors Dana Communications with Four Adrian Awards at The 2011 Gala
Posted by Lynn Kaniper | Filed under Dana News
Dana Takes Home Two Silver and Two Bronze Awards for Winning Entries
NEW YORK, NY (February 28, 2012) – The Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International (HSMAI) presented Dana Communications with four Adrian Awards last night at a black-tie gala held at the New York Marriott Marquis. In its 55th year, the Adrian Awards event showcases industry achievers and ROI-producing materials from this prestigious international competition.
Dana’s winning entries included two Silver Awards, one for the Turning Stone Resort “Turn Around” Campaign, a Dana effort to build regional awareness of Turning Stone’s upscale resort offerings and increase package bookings, and one for the Fiddler’s Elbow Country Club website. Dana redesigned this club’s existing site in a fresh, modernized way, showcasing its features, complementing the brand, boosting usability and optimizing for new web traffic.
In addition, Dana was honored with two Bronze Awards. One went to the Turtle Bay Resort “Wedding Wars” Campaign, a strategic partnership with VH1 to create and air a reality show of engaged couples competing to win a dream destination wedding. Dana executed a 12-week campaign to promote the message that the resort is a wedding destination worth fighting for. The other Bronze was awarded for Dana’s work with StarwoodPro Westin. To motivate travel professionals to learn and sell Westin Hotels & Resorts to their customers, Dana executed the “Wrap Yourself in Westin & Win!” campaign, inviting agents to view a 3-minute learning burst and answer brand questions to claim a Westin gift and enter to win one of 25 Westin FAM trips.
Dana’s award-winning entries were picked from numerous submissions from around the world and judged by top executives from all sectors of the industry. To learn more about the 2011 Adrian Awards competition and gala event, visit www.adrianawards.com.
About HSMAI
HSMAI is the hospitality industry source for knowledge, community and recognition for leaders committed to professional development, sales growth, revenue optimization, marketing and branding. With a strong focus on education, HSMAI has become the industry champion in identifying and communicating trends in the hospitality industry, and bringing together customers and members at annual events, including HSMAI’s Affordable Meetings®. Founded in 1927, HSMAI is an individual membership organization comprising more than 7,000 members worldwide, with 40 chapters in the Americas Region. For more information on HSMAI, contact the Hospitality Sales & Marketing Association International, 1760 Old Meadow Road, Suite 500, McLean, Va. 22102; (703) 506-3280; fax (703) 506-3266, or visit the website at www.hsmai.org.
About DANA COMMUNICATIONS
Dana Communications is a leading hospitality and travel lifestyle marketing agency with offices in Times Square, NY; Princeton, NJ; North Carolina and San Francisco, CA. To learn more about Dana Communications, visit www.danacommunications.com or contact Lynn Kaniper at (609) 466-9187.
Website Layouts 101
Posted by Chris Buckelew | Filed under Interactive, Trends
Fixed? Fluid? Elastic? Responsive? Which website layout is best? This is a question often asked by our clients, and one we ask ourselves when producing a new website. All are valid layouts in modern web design, and each has its own set of pros and cons. They are all part of what is know as a website’s presentational layer. This means that much of the usability and accessibility relies on proper usage of the underlying mark-up language and proper rendering by the specific browser. Following is an explanation of each layout as well as the benefits and obstacles unique to each one’s application.
Fixed Layout
This is one in which the main content area is set to an unchanging width regardless of the user’s display resolution. It is common for the width of the content area to be slightly smaller than the width of the average user’s display resolution. The content area is also typically centered within the browser to split the external whitespace.
Pros:
- Easiest layout to design and translate into a site, resulting in less development time and lower costs.
- Greater control over the placement of content elements.
- Most predictable and consistent user experience across different resolutions.
Cons:
- Designed for the average user and may not be ideal for all users.
- Users with resolutions smaller than the chosen width will end up with a horizontal scroll bar.
- Users with exceptionally large displays will see excessive amounts of white space on either side of the content area. This may disrupt the “divine proportion,” the “Rule of Thirds” and other common design principles.
Fluid Layout
A fluid layout uses content areas whose widths are set to a percentage of the user’s screen resolution. As resolution increases or decreases, the content areas will resize to maintain their proportion. A grid layout may be used, with each column of the grid representing a percentage of the screen, and content containers spanning one or more columns.
Pros:
- Makes the most of available screen real estate. Content can be displayed to the edge of the browser window.
- Can be more user-friendly, as it adapts to the user’s setup and allow users some window resizing freedom.
- If designed well, can adapt to almost any resolution, making it a universal solution and eliminating horizontal scroll bars at lower resolutions.
Cons:
- The designer has less control over the placement of design elements from device to device.
- More difficult to create, increasing development time and costs.
- The design must be reviewed across multiple resolutions; otherwise, issues may be overlooked because the site appeared differently on the designer’s specific resolution.
- As content areas grow to match resolution, text copy may flow into a single, long line, reducing readability.
- At exceptionally large resolutions, excessive white space may be created between content containers, diminishing aesthetic appeal.
- May cause issues with videos, images and other media when scaled to large.
- Sites containing elements fed from another source (i.e., banner ads) may not be able to resize those specific elements.
Elastic Layout
These are similar to fluid layouts. The layout measurements used for elastic layouts are relative to some internal part of the design. This is usually the font size of the main copy and is typically measured in EMs.
Pros:
- In general, exhibits the pros of both fluid and fixed designs.
- Offers greater control than a fluid design.
- More stability and predictability than fluid designs.
- When implemented correctly, can be very user-friendly.
Cons:
- Much more difficult to create, requiring more development time and cost.
- Requires a greater understanding of the relationships of the design elements and the math to make them relative.
- The additional bit of usability gained may not make the additional cost and time worth the effort.
Of course, combining the different layouts to create a hybrid layout is also possible. For example, a fixed/fluid layout may use a fixed width on the main content area and a fluid width on a background image for the site. Or a fluid/elastic design may allow the content to resize within a set minimum or maximum width.
What about Responsive Layouts?
A responsive layout may employ one or more of the layout principles explained above, but in reality, it goes beyond being just a design layout. By utilizing technology, such as browser detection or media queries, different layouts, and even different content, can be served depending on the device, browser or screen resolution. Responsive layouts are currently quite popular because of the explosive growth of Internet browsing on mobile devices.
Pros:
- Greater control of layout across a variety of display conditions.
- Can serve device-, browser- and resolution-specific content.
- Eliminates the need to create separate mobile-specific sites.
- Embraces the concept of “design once, display everywhere.”
Cons:
- Requires additional technology that may not be supported on older browsers.
- Requires additional development time and cost.
- Possibility of serving optimized images to smaller resolutions.
Overall, it is important to choose the right layout based on the content being served, the audience demographics in terms of device, browser and screen resolution, and the time and budget constraints.
To learn more about which website layout may be best for your business, contact cbuckelew@danacommunications.com.
Red Hot Topic #14: Sidestep the BIG MISTAKES in Business Blogging
Posted by Mark D’Amico | Filed under Red Hot Topics, SEM, SEO
A great blog brings attention to your business, wins new customers and creates a fan base for your brand. Whether you’re already blogging, or just thinking about getting started, avoid these five mistakes. Your blog will thrive, and readers will keep coming back for more.
Mistake #1. Pushing too much product content
Focus on thought leadership rather than on your products and services. Blog about trends in your industry, data-driven topics and issues that will educate and encourage feedback. Share the task of writing your blog with colleagues to introduce new voices and opinions. Your blog will attract attention, get shared and rank higher for search.
Mistake #2. Presenting instead of conversing
Think of your blog as engaging in a conversation. While your ideas should be interesting, every topic doesn’t have to be totally developed, every challenge doesn’t have to be completely solved. Invite your customers to join the conversation by adding their ideas and opinions. You’ll soon create a community of engaged and loyal followers.
Mistake #3. Not optimizing or analyzing
Making sure your blog is found by search engines will increase your keyword rankings and organic search traffic. Your Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategy needs to identify the right keywords and integrate them into your blog content. In most cases, it makes sense to integrate your blog with your website, not publish it separately. And take advantage of free services, like Google Analytics, to track how your blog performs and how users find you.
Mistake #4. Ignoring the power of social media
Building your social media presence is a surefire way to share content with readers who will find it interesting. Encourage sharing of your content with prominent buttons on each post for services like Twitter, Facebook, Digg, Reddit and StumbleUpon. This makes it easy for your readers to share content they like and will drive more traffic to your blog.
Mistake #5. Writing that’s not up to par
There’s a LOT of content out there. Make yours so enticing that people are compelled to read it. What’s your passion? Your unique perspective? Tap into those and write about what sets you on fire. And while this may seem obvious, sharpen your wordsmithing skills to create readable content that’s free of spelling, grammatical and punctuation errors.
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Best Website Awarded to Westminster Hotel
Posted by Dana Communications | Filed under Awards, Dana News, Interactive
Dana Communications’ Web Development for Westminster Hotel Results in Global Recognition
Hopewell, NJ, January 31, 2012 – Westminster Hotel in Livingston, NJ, was recently honored with the Best Website award at the WORLDHOTELS 2012 Global Annual Conference held on January 13-16 at the Royal Garden Hotel in London. Designed and developed by Dana Communications, WestminsterHotel.net was one of only three sites acknowledged at the annual conference, out of a portfolio of over 500 world-class properties.
Dana designed the site to reflect the hotel’s newly re-imagined appearance and uniquely chic corporate identity, while incorporating enhanced ease of use, search engine optimization and improved booking systems. The agency developed a sitemap that restructured the existing information effectively, supplemented it with important new features and boosted exploration options with cross-promotional navigation and internal linking.
When designing the website, Dana wanted to expose Westminster Hotel for what it truly is: a distinctive luxury hotel that’s both inviting and inspired. Taking full advantage of a bright and brand-new photo library, Dana cast a spotlight on the hotel’s exceptional accommodations and public spaces, seductive Strip House Restaurant and amenities for work and play.
A rotating feature on the home page band gives an opportunity to underscore new and ongoing promotions throughout the hotel. Users also receive a sense of place and style with large revolving photos and instant entry to the photo gallery, email subscription system, new booking engine and reservations availability check. These features all provide immediate awareness and access that drive bookings immediately upon visiting the website.
Dana also incorporated more interactivity, including quick ways to connect with the hotel via Facebook, Twitter and TripAdvisor. For users planning a meeting or event, the website provides easy-to-complete, detailed online RFP forms that are sent directly to the sales team for follow-up. Spa and dining reservations can be completed with built-in Open Table and SpaBooker applications.
In order to help meet the goal of fostering a sense of community, Dana designed an extensive section featuring area attractions, a Community Calendar, an interactive map with directions and a list of business partners. Numerous PDF downloads of brochures, preferred vendor lists, capacity charts, floor plans and menus offer users up-to-the-minute details they need in a take-away format that is also a secondary marketing tool.
The Westminster Hotel website is a sophisticated and fun alternative to those of other hotel, restaurant, day spa and meeting and event venue websites in the marketplace. The focused effort on integrating the hotel—and the guest—into the surrounding community adds touches of personalization, comfort and belonging not found in other websites.
In praise of the work performed by Dana, Michael Polese, General Manager at Westminster Hotel, said, “Thank you for all your hard work to help us create a special site that has been well received by our clients, partners and peers from around the globe. It’s a great honor for us.”
A leading lifestyle marketing agency, Dana Communications offers interactive services that provide a seamless online identity to enhance awareness, communication and sales for its clients. Dana also specializes in creative brand strategy and both traditional and interactive advertising. The company celebrated 30 years in business in 2010 and maintains offices in New York City, Hopewell, New Jersey, North Carolina and Los Angeles, California. For additional information about Dana Communications, visit www.danacommunications.com or contact Bob Prewitt at bprewitt@danacommunications.com or 609.466.9187.
How I Became a Harley Brand Champion
Posted by Guest Author | Filed under Advertising, Travel Marketing
A special post from Jack Schmidt, Regional Director of Sales and Marketing, The Carolina Inn:
I’m a marketer by profession—and a loyal Harley enthusiast by passion.
Recently, I attended a session on branding (one of the many in my career), and unsurprisingly, the Harley Davidson brand was used as a shining example, as it often is. All was good until the presenter, a branding specialist (versus a Harley Davidson enthusiast), asserted that the H-D brand was so strong that people were willing to pay a premium price for a vehicle that doesn’t necessarily perform that well.
That was a defining moment for me. The marketing guy in me took a back seat, the brand loyalist went underground and the brand militant popped up like Rambo to defend Harley Davidson. I had a brief but spirited exchange with the presenter, correcting his direct attack on the reliability of MY BIKE—well, all three of them, actually—drawing from 15 years of intensive personal experience.
I took the opportunity to explain my reasons for buying a Harley: my trust in the product and my love of the H-D community. Needless to say, I drew considerable attention to myself, my passion and my belief in a product I love. What an adrenaline rush! And what a lesson on brand loyalty—to both me and the rest of the participants.
At the conclusion of the session, I was asked why I chose to defend the Harley brand. After little needed thought, I explained that H-D had made good on every promise made to me during the last decade and a half. It welcomed me into a very special community bound by the love of the experience. It safely guided me through my re-entry into the bike world, and it delivered a reliable, fun vehicle to feed my passion.
Every H-D purchase I’ve ever made—from the first bike to the customization of each one, including the safety gear, the advice, the apparel and every little gadget I’ve bought—has met or exceeded my expectations. Where in your life does this happen consistently over a period of many years? Exactly.
That’s why it was so easy to defend the brand I love. Yes, love! It was about the emotion inspired by a trusted relationship with a good friend who wasn’t in the room to defend himself. And in my opinion, that’s the brand lesson to be had.
Jack Schmidt is the Regional Director of Sales and Marketing at Destination Hotels and Resorts – The Carolina Inn. He has worked in the sales and marketing discipline for over 30 years, primarily with luxury and upscale independent hotels, resorts, casino hotels and conference centers. Jack was an active Board Member of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International for nine years, and President for two. His broad range of expertise spans independent property sales, marketing and operations, property pre-openings, conversions, transitions and repositioning, as well as e-commerce, customer relationship management, advertising, public relations, financial management and the creation of innovative cost-effective solutions.
Red Hot Topic #13: Cardinal Rules for Brand Perception Surveys
Posted by Shawn Carter | Filed under Advertising, Red Hot Topics
Recently, in her post Breaking Down Brand Barriers, Tracy shared Dana’s principal philosophy. It bears repeating: “…like a real person, a brand builds relationships based on its characteristics and reputation…(it’s) a collection of perceptions and beliefs that live in the hearts and minds of your customers.”
That got me thinking. When planning marketing strategies, it’s easy to focus your attention on attracting new customers. But what about existing customers? After all, they’ve already formed their perception of your brand, whether through one or repeat experiences. Failing to account for their feelings could be a surefire way to alienate fans—your core customer base—and miss out on the best opportunities to improve your brand image.
So what do they really think about you? What brought them to you in the first place, and what makes them come back for more? For the fiscally minded out there, what motivates them to close the deal?
There’s only one way to find out. Ask! Conducting a brand perception survey provides you with an invaluable understanding of how your brand is currently viewed, what it is actually delivering (and what it could) and how you can strengthen its reputation and better impact your bottom line.
But your brand awareness market research is only as good as the way you stage it. Presenting our key tips for crafting meaningful, high-quality brand perception customer surveys:
Lure them with treats.
An enticing incentive can work wonders to encourage participation. Be sincerely grateful with your thank-you gift (think exclusive offer or giveaway), and your customers will be that much more motivated to pitch in.
Anonymous all the way.
For better or for worse, allowing your customers to remain nameless grants them the freedom to be totally truthful. You’re more likely to receive constructive criticism and reap the benefits of a far more effective survey.
It’s a survey, not a second job.
Therefore, it should be quick and easy. Respect your customers’ limited time and their willingness to help, and be up front about how much time is involved. Surveys should take only several minutes to complete.
Don’t be boring.
To get the full picture, ask engaging questions designed to provoke thoughtful responses. Limit surveys to top-priority, focused questions, and omit any that are irrelevant or less important to your immediate goals.
Honesty is the best policy.
All in, or all out. It’s not doing your brand any good to skew the results to what you prefer to hear. Open up the dialogue, keep it real and let your customers do the talking.
Assess your brand identity, and start building a more powerful brand. To sharpen your brand survey strategy, contact jgurtman@danacommunications.com.
Red Hot Topic #12: Breaking Down Brand Barriers
Posted by Tracy Stottler | Filed under Advertising, Travel Marketing
Every great brand has a personality. And like a real person, a brand builds relationships based on its characteristics and reputation. That is why defining the elements of your brand is essential. A brand is not simply a logo, a symbol or a tagline. A brand is a living entity—a collection of perceptions and beliefs that live in the hearts and minds of your customers. It’s the basis of communicating who you are.
But before you can work on building your brand, you must carefully analyze the possible barriers to its success. Certain market conditions can hinder your effectiveness, so it’s vital to identify and avoid those barriers early on. We urge you to consider the following in your own analysis.
Competition
Understanding what is available in the marketplace and potential consumer desire is essential to brand positioning. It is important to compile a list of your competitors, areas of benefit not currently claimed by them, any possible weak positions and ways in which your product shows superiority over the competition. This will put you at a distinct advantage in developing plans and creative concepts that garner results.
Positioning
To be effective, a company’s position in the marketplace must be unique, desirable, believable, deliverable, integrated and consistent. Work to establish brand positioning based on these criteria in order to develop successful marketing plans.
Location/Targeting
In the world of marketing, it’s about defining and redefining the targets. You need to know who your customers are before you can craft and deliver a message that speaks directly to them. It’s vital to have the resources necessary to mine the most accurate data and identify the high-quality sources that provide the best-qualified leads.
Timing
Is there a demand for your product or service at this time? Are there seasonal or time-sensitive considerations? By identifying exactly when the planning and buying are happening, you’ll be in a better position to build marketing delivery at a time when people have an interest in your brand.
Internal Buy-In
A brand cannot thrive simply by putting your logo everywhere. It’s about attitude, which starts with your senior leaders and staff. Your organization needs to understand your core brand values and live and breathe them every day. You need internal advocates that are your spokespeople, who demonstrate what your business stands for. Without this support from the ground up, a brand rarely succeeds.
Cost
Investing in getting your brand right is critical to laying the groundwork in any future marketing activity. You wouldn’t build a house without a foundation, and you shouldn’t build a marketing plan without solid branding in place. Most effective branding efforts can be costly, so unfortunately, it’s the step that is most often missed or, worse yet, cut from the strategic planning process. Finding the time and resources to get the right branding in place is the most important thing you can do.
Take control of your brand with the proper investigative and analytic approach, and be sure to stay current on market trends by subscribing to industry publications and newsletters. For more information about how you can crush your brand barriers, contact jgurtman@danacommunications.com.
Cover Your Bases
Posted by Michele Clerici | Filed under Advertising
I was once compared to a baseball umpire. As a professional proofreader, it’s my job to make the calls on the rules of language and accuracy. When I do my job right, no one notices. But if I make a bad call, I’m bound to have an angry crowd to face.
The reason why I like this analogy is because it perfectly illustrates why proofreading is vital to any successful brand. You’ll always hear about the obvious tenets of building a strong brand, like research, strategy, design, analysis, etc. But what about the importance of quality control?
We say that a brand is not a logo, a symbol or a tagline. It is a living entity—a collection of perceptions and beliefs that live in the hearts and minds of your customers. We say that a consumer should experience your brand in every facet of your product or service—from the hotel front desk to the company Facebook page. It’s in the way you design, the way you sell, the way you decorate, the way you speak, the energy you show and the tone you take. Whether you realize it or not, all of these elements contribute to how people perceive your brand. And unfortunately, so do your mistakes.
If you want consumers to trust your brand, you must show them your trustworthiness. If you want them to rely on you for their needs, you must show them your reliability. And no matter what your intentions, if you produce flawed creative and informational output, people will see your brand as flawed too.
Quality assurance is paramount to effective marketing. Just like a proofreader’s job, it may go unnoticed by your audience when done right, but you can bet that it will be front-page news when it’s not.
You have a limited opportunity to capture—and keep—the loyalty of consumers. If you want to win their business, you’ve got to play the game right—and that means taking the proper steps to ensure flawlessness in your brand messaging.
It’s batter up, and all eyes are on you. So be sure to step up your game with star quality!
Red Hot Topic #11: Will Twitter Brand Pages Take Off?
Posted by Chris Buckelew | Filed under Advertising, Red Hot Topics, Social Media, Trends
Sure, Twitter attracts Justin Bieber and Lady Gaga fans in hordes (16+ and 17+ million followers respectively), as well as last-minute deal hunters (think JetBlue Cheeps). But can the micro-blogging site compete with other social media platforms in building brand awareness?
In December, Twitter announced a redesign of its website and apps, making the start of 2012 the ideal time to rethink Twitter’s role in your marketing plan. Dana investigated and found four features of Twitter’s redesign worth noting.
- Easier to use: The redesign attempts to move the growing interest in Twitter to actual engagement—especially for social media beginners. A big change is demystifying those Twitter symbols; for example, replacing “@” and “#” with “connect” and “discover.” “Connect” lets you see who is followed, mentioned or re-tweeted, while “discover” offers follow suggestions based on your interests and location.
- More brand-friendly: The addition of business profile pages allows Twitter to compete with other social networks (read: Facebook). These brand pages (now available to a select group of companies like American Express, Dell and JetBlue) will make a bigger impression through more prominent logos, customized headers, embedded media and the ability to keep a specific tweet at the top of the timeline. Currently, customizing your company’s Twitter page is limited to the background, which is usually covered up by the timeline.
- Beyond the 140 characters: Twitter’s Promoted Ad Tweets let you extend your message with embedded video, images and more. Basically, the 140-character tweet becomes your caption.
- Better filters: Twitter now separates @ replies from mentions. The new filtering feature will allow brands (especially large ones with a lot of activity) to monitor messaging.
So what’s the takeaway on the Twitter redesign (in 140 characters or less)? Contact Dana for information and insights about using these new features to keep your brand on top—and follow us at twitter.com/danacomm!
Google PPC – Using Ad Extensions
Posted by Chris Rak | Filed under Interactive, Media, Trends
About a year ago, Google introduced a new AdWords advertising feature called Ad Extensions, which provides space for pay-per-click advertisers to include up to four links to their websites, underneath their sponsored listing.
Ad Extensions makes it uber easy for advertisers to update existing ads on a continual basis, refresh and promote various or seasonal offerings. They can be changed as often as the advertiser would like, making it possible to keep each ad up to date for current sales and marketing efforts.
This feature also expands the sizing of sponsored links. Advertisers need to bid appropriately to ensure that their sitelinks appear in the first or second position on the search engine results (a Top-2 position is required for the ad extensions to appear). However, there is no additional cost to running them. It’s just the cost-per-click, capped by the max bid amount.
There are five main extensions offered by Google:
- Location Extensions: Link your Google Places page to your ad campaign.
- Product Extensions: Link your product pages to your ad campaign, to display product pictures and prices within the Google search results.
- Sitelink Extensions: Direct users to more specific, relevant pages within your website.
- Call Extensions: Add a phone number to your campaign, and mobile users can click directly on it to call you.
- Social Extensions: Link your Google+ page to your ad campaign.
The results are proven as well, since ad extensions provide fantastic click-thru rates. While a standard text ad can expect an average click-thru rate of 1-2%, early results of ad extensions are showing 30% increases in click-thru rates for marketers, year over year. Sellers are noticing a 15-30% increase in brand PPC sales year over year.
At Dana, we are also seeing strong results from the ad extensions. Amongst our active campaigns, call extensions receive a click-thru rate ranging from 2.85 to 18.5%. Sitelink extensions are producing clicks at a rate of 8.5 to 22.7%, and location extensions are garnering a click-thru rate ranging from 5.4% to 18.1%.
Given the proven effectiveness of Ad Extensions, as well as its set-up simplicity and the expansion of on-page space on the search results page, we strongly suggest that every advertiser use some form of Ad Extensions in any ongoing Google paid search campaign.
