Banner Ad Project for School

     Every now and then we are asked to post our work on a personal blog.  I have designed some banner ads for a mock company that I have been asked to place here on my blog.  This is the same fictional company that I created the video for in one of the posts below.  Please feel free to give me any feedback on my banner ads.  Whether the feed back be for design purposes, call to action, or even how to tweak for banner real estate.

Supposed to be 729x90

Supposed to be 300x250

Supposed to be 200x200

and finally

supposed to be 120x600

     All the sizes have been altered to fit into the blog space.  Hope you like it.  Let me know what you think.  Remember feed back is invited, criticism is screened.  Thanks!
-Chris

Quick Case Study

In the world of home improvement can you tell me the first store that comes to mind?

If you are like many people I've talked to, the first thought that comes to mind is Home Depot or Lowes.  Then I ask is there anyone else, and at this point if there is going to be a response it is usually after a few moments of thinking,  ACE Hardware, McKay's,  and K-mart?  Really, K-mart?

Anyway so I recently discovered that ACE hardware has been making some pretty interesting strides to start pulling ahead in the home improvement industry by pairing up with Microsoft Mobile to accomplish four specific tasks.

The Task:
1. Engage loyal on-the-go customers
2. Use new media to enforce Neighborhood appeal
3. Drive in store traffic
4. Increase it's share of it's maintenance market

The Target:
Men the ages of 25-54

The Delivery:
Banner Ads
   Hotmail
   Mobile MSN weather
   Verizon News and weather

The Action:
The first deal offered was getting a chance to come in and put items in a bag.  Then upon check out you were eligible to receive a 20% discount on all items within the bag,

Next was to impress upon the holiday enthusiast that Ace has everything for you to prepare for the holidays.  This was their Tis the Season Campaign.

Then they wanted to deliver a specific campaign for after Thanksgiving sales.  This isn't too unusual because many people have a big black friday sale.  But it's better to tell people about it that to assume it's there.

Finally, There was an in store campaign that established Ace as the "Holiday Place".

Each of these strategies coincide "surprisingly" with their goals.  So What Happened?

The Results:
Ace was able to raise brand awareness to the target of males 35-54 y/o by 60%  When expanding those results into the 25-54 y/o range they raised awareness by 101%

In the 35-54 age range the in store attendance for those who had seen the ad increase by 8%.

Then in any ad campaign you want to know the customer's Click Through Rate (CTR).  Interestingly enough the CTR for this campaign raised as high as 11% in the areas in which it was tested.

It was easy to see from these results that ACE Hardware made some good moves to market better themselves and their services.  That is important to do, seeing how they are still relatively small compared to some of their big competitors.  But like sailing a ship on the ocean.  Bigger the ship the harder it is to change course unexpectedly. Ace being one of the littler ships can make these marketing turns so much faster than most of their competitors.

I think that I would expand their grasp of mobile advertising to text interactivity.  Possibly run seasonal ads when needed.  I feel they might be able to increase their customer retention with a mobile customer loyalty program.  Every now and then where the customer hasn't been in for a while, send them a text message with the reward points they are able to spend with some ideas of how to spend them.

Just some food for thought.



Resources:

Tsirulnik, Giselle. (February 11, 2010). Ace Hardware mobile ads drive 60 percent increase in brand
     awareness. In http://www.mobilemarketer.com. Retrieved February 20, 2011, from
     http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/5365.html.

NA. (NA). Mobile Marketing. In http://brandedcontent.adage.com. Retrieved February 20, 2011, from
     http://brandedcontent.adage.com/mobile10/network.php?id=3.

MOSTERT, ETTIENNE. (NA). Has Mobile Marketing Changed the Game for Advertisers? . In
     http://www.heavychef.com. Retrieved February 20, 2011, from http://www.heavychef.com/has
     mobile-marketing-changed-the-game-for-advertisers/.

Mock Landing Page

Now that you've seen our video be sure to check out Camping For All for an exclusive offer!

Claim your Special Gift Today!


(Blog post intended for school use)  Click through anyway to see our example landing page!

Camping For All Viral Marketing Campaign

Below is a viral marketing concept for the VMK class at Full Sail University.  I would explain it right now but I want you to watch it first then read the explanation below.  Once you've seen it and have read the explanation, comment below it you had the same impression I was trying to portray, and give any ideas following the same marketing idea.  What other ways can we develop the idea of making Camping For All your portal to the great outdoors?



The concept behind the video is a child wants his technology savvy father to take him to the great outdoors for some one on one father son time. The father is so wrapped up in technology he doesn't realize that his son is doing something nearly impossible. The tent is set up in the backyard and once the father get's in the tent is magically transported to the great outdoors. The original idea was to take the tent and set it up in a completely secluded location. Unfortunately due to time constraints and weather conditions we were unable to film on location and had to use the studio.

Did you get the same impression?

What other scenarios can we make that would further the concept of Camping for All being the "Portal" to the great outdoors.

Leave your funny or interesting comments in the comment section BEEELLLLOOOOWWWW!


P.S.  A big special thank you to Dean and Rueben for acting in the film!

T-mobile's Viral Marketing Success

I'm not a T-Mobile user but I frequently find myself impressed with their marketing ability.  All State insurance has been been supplying us with some entertaining and quite humorous commercials with their Mayhem campaign, and Geico has been dazzling us for years.

Despite their marketing successes, T-Mobile has been able to dwarf them with their Life's for Sharing viral marketing campaign.

Take a  moment and see for yourself.



If you are unfamiliar with the concept of a flash mob, simply take a lesson from the phrase flash flood.  An area gets flooded from a quick burst of water, and can disappear as quickly as it came.  A flash mob usually begins in a very public place, many times serious and fast paced.  I've seen Flash mobs in Grand Central Station, and even Times Square for example.

Suddenly music begins and one person starts singing and dancing. They are quickly joined by other and that number quickly multiply's until virtually everyone in the area is singing and dancing.  They looked in the beginning to be unassuming and very boxed into their own little worlds when suddenly, they are all participating in something you'd expect to see on Grease or Hairspray, but never in real life.

In this video T-Mobile has arranged a series of songs from different composers in the theme of traveling and being away.  A singing woman approaches a young couple who look like they've been apart for some time.  At one point the girl looks as if she asks her bo if he arranged the event which it appears he denies it. LOL  Then a gentleman takes over accompanied by a vocal orchestral (no instruments were harmed in the making of this video) This gets taken over by the "return of the Mack" tune by Mark Morrison.  Suddenly another man claiming to be "The Traveler" takes over and demands that the crowd Sing It.  Suddenly half the terminal breaks out into song and vocal instrumentation.  This continues until every person is involved whether they were intending to or not.  All of this shenanigans ends on a song welcoming all of the travelers home.  Emotional, and captivating this video has had over 2.2 Million views since it was uploaded a little over a week ago!

T-Moblie has been successful in this area of Viral Marketing.  When I mention Successful I'm merely explaining they get views on Youtube and other Viral media sites.  Whether this form of marketing has lead to the conversion of customers I don't know.  I was moved to feeling a sense of humanity and (don't tell ANYONE) I even got teary-eyed near the end. LOL  I was impressed that the unity of everyone involved sent such a positive message.  You can find people who were so moved during the time of the recording, they posted videos taken from their cell phones.  It's a wonderful thing to be able to reach people at a level such as this, and is one of the reasons it became so popular so quickly.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR

     As a marketer it is important to understand the difference between traditional marketing and internet marketing.  Many "guru's" will try and teach you the tricks of the trade when it comes to marketing online.  Many claim the "Have the secret formula" or they "know the full proof method" of increasing your online sales.  Many times, however, it is an invitation for you to learn the secret black hat methods of marketing of even just an elaborate scam filled with general knowledge you could have found for free on Hubspot. 

     Fortunately for us there are real guru's of the internet who actually teach solid internet marketing principles.  The only problem is many people don't know where to find them.  That's the whole reason why we created The Marketers Library; to help those who are looking for real advice from the real experts.

     One of those experts I'm talking about is David Meerman Scott.  David is a dominant thought leader in the world of internet marketing.  He spends his time teaching seminars that educate people about the New Rules of Marketing and PR, and for those who don't know, David has published an awesome book called The New Rules of Marketing and PR.

     During my first semester in college The New Rules of Marketing and PR was actually the textbook for my Introduction to Internet Marketing class.  I found it so fascinating that by the time I had finished reading the book I spent the entire winter break searching for any materials I could find about internet marketing and what I need to do to become successful.  From David's book I learned:

- Marketing techniques have changed over the last 50 years and If you don't learn The New Rules of Marketing and PR, you'll lose your customers to the competition that has.

- The importance of blogging and monitoring the Blogosphere

- How podcasts and viral videos have the potential of greatly increasing your viewership and thereby increasing your sales in general.

- What thought leadership is and why you would benefit from becoming a thought leader

- How to reach your buyers directly

- and soo much more!

     How relevant would I say this information is to the aspiring internet marketer?  I would place this book as a 9.5 on a scale of 1-10.  If the leading media school in the nation regards what David is teaching as important enough to use it as their text book then I am not the only person who feels the same way.

David Meerman Scott's Blog

Is Wordpress or Joomla Right For You?

     In the early days of the internet, if you wanted to create a webpage, you needed to know HTML.  HTML (Hyper Text Markup Language) was the foundation where by all websites we're built and mastery of this language made you the Lord of cyber time and space.  Knowledge of HTML is still the basic requirement for web development but as time has moved on, so has the usability of content management systems.

     Content management systems like Word Press, and Joomla make it easy to organize your content online and the best part is, they are free!

     Wordpress is a blogging software that uses PHP as it's structure.  The software is easy to manipulate and you can easily build professional looking websites with no prior markup language knowledge.  Originally designed for blogging, it is search engine friendly and gives you easy access to different plugins that you can add-on with just a few clicks.

     Joomla is great for webpage structure.  It's a little more complicated than Wordpress but once you get the hang of it, you will know it has legions of components, plugins, and interactive tools.  I personally use Joomla because I like the feel of it.  I can easily teach my clients to add their own content to it after the structure is in place.  Both Wordpress and Joomla can offer you a great low cost start, and a great professional looking site!