The Stairwell

Harry & David Harvests 70% Higher Average Order Value Using Billups Design Ecommerce Ad Campaigns

May 15th, 2013 Posted by in Business, Digital Advertising, Findings, News, Technology, Uncategorized

For this article as it appears in Wall Street Journal Market Watch, go here: http://on.mktw.net/10dsfvT

CHICAGO, May 9, 2013 — Billups Design announces the results of extremely successful Fall and Holiday ecommerce campaigns for Harry & David, and being picked as the lead digital creative agency for Harry & David’s 2013 ecommerce ad campaigns.

Harry & David ads combined branding with dynamic headlines tailored to specific customer behavioral segments and real-time product carousels to produce a 70% increase in average order value compared to 2011 Holiday campaigns.

Harry & David dynamic remarketing ads performed exceptionally well producing an 83%

…

Streamy Awards Highlight Talent Making It Big On Small Budgets

February 21st, 2013 Posted by joshuasinason in Awards, Business, News

In the last few weeks I’ve written a lot about how YouTube has attempted to drive original content on their site and begin to operate like a real TV medium, a genuine alternative to traditional cable outlets. Those attempts have had some stumbling blocks, but it’s been a huge boom for content creators, some of whom have build entire companies out of their YouTube channels.

Starting a few years ago The Streamy Awards began highlighting a few of these companies to show just how much new media has made, even if some of the major content generators cannot get it

…

Facebook vs. Google: Clash of the Digital Titans

February 8th, 2013 Posted by joshuasinason in Business, Digital Advertising, Search Engine Marketing

Working with Google SEO has become an ever-changing task. One minute you’re working on keyword integration and the next thing you know, they’ve merged Google Places and Google Plus into something and you find yourself working on a social media site. In Google’s ever increasing attempts to establish for all intents and purposes a monopoly position in search engine marketing, they’ve ruffled the feathers of many big agencies and others, the biggest amongst them being Facebook.

Google’s initial attempts to compete with Facebook have had less than encouraging results. Google Wave and Google Buzz failed to obtain any foothold within

…

The Relics of Mass Market Marketing

January 25th, 2013 Posted by joshuasinason in Business, Digital Advertising, Marketing

I spoke to a gentleman who was still using newspaper ads. He listened to all the people who told him print was dead. He was a smart guy and he had a pretty good print media strategy, but the fact was that instead of paying for a newspaper ad that reached a wide demographic, he could spend less and target his exact audience. In response, this smart older guy told me that he liked newspapers because he reaches the widest possible audience.

This not a wrong statement, well it actually is… but there was a time when that idea represented

…

The Cable Cutters Continue To Rise And Revolutionize Your Advertising Dollars

January 16th, 2013 Posted by joshuasinason in Digital Advertising, Marketing, News, Technology

There is an old saying amongst marketers working for casinos and the entertainment industry. When I worked in the marketing department of a casino during some of the worst economic times they referred to their business, along with movies and television, as “recession proof.” They thought, as others have believed since the days of Sullivan’s Travels, that entertainment and media would make money in any economy. Ultimately people will find the dollars to be entertained. Many of the same media strategists figured this old adage would extend to TV. However, based on an increasingly large culture of people looking

…

Twitter and Neilson Start Tracking Television Views For Ad Revenue

December 26th, 2012 Posted by joshuasinason in Business, Digital Advertising, Marketing, News

It seems on a week to week basis there is a different Social Media site trying to work their way into the television industry. Whether it’s YouTube pushing for original content and exchanging funding for ad revenue or Facebook hinting at their own TV App that lets you surf what your friends are watching, the world is inching closer to using social media as the main source for entertainment and multimedia ad revenue. This week Twitter entered the game by announcing partnership with Neilson (the company that provides the TV ratings your favorite shows live and die by) to create

…

YouTube Channel News

November 29th, 2012 Posted by joshuasinason in Business, Digital Advertising, News

YouTube made huge headlines in April when they announced they were funding content for over 1,000 YouTube channels with the caveat that it’s used to create original content. This funding lead to brands such as, Redbull, THNKR, Geek and Sundry, and The Nerdist receiving huge worldwide exposure. Recently, Chris Hardwick’s The Nerdist sold for millions of dollars based largely off the content showcased on his YouTube channel. Some people thought funding these channels was a mistake on YouTube’s part saying that they were actually funding their own competition, considering a lot of these content channels were run by companies working

…

How The Penguin/Random House Merger Affects Digital Publishing

November 14th, 2012 Posted by joshuasinason in Business, Digital Advertising, News

According to some, for almost a decade Amazon has been an evil empire casting a huge shadow over the publishing industry, while for others its been a great means to get content not available from the mass market retailers. Amazon’s business model has made careers and has broken them. They’ve also revolutionized SEO in the process.

Amazon has been wreaking havoc on the brick and mortar retailers. Retailers such as, Borders, have fallen in their wake, becoming the Tower Records of the modern era. Other stores have used the Amazon model to their advantage. Retailers such as, Anderson Booksellers, has

…

Filling The Vacuum: Finding A Four-Quad Demographic Medium In The Digital World

October 25th, 2012 Posted by joshuasinason in Business, Digital Advertising, Marketing

Some time ago, I wrote about the fall of the family-friendly radio drama in the 60s and how that gave rise to the need for a new medium to reach all four major demographics (men over 30, women over 30 and young boys and girls in a nutshell). The need was filled by Saturday Morning cartoons, which peaked in the 80s and 90s. Now, with the rise of at least five different cartoon channels running all hours of the day, some designed only for niche markets (there are currently three transformers cartoons on the air and only one is geared

…

Erasing Your Off-Season With Social Media

October 5th, 2012 Posted by joshuasinason in Business, Digital Advertising, Marketing

One of my first social media marketing jobs as a fresh-faced, young freelancer was working for a movie theater chain. Back then, social media didn’t have all the analytics and market watch software in place just yet, therefore, it was a little more fly by the seat of your pants. One thing I was surprised about, in a meeting regarding the fall outlook they said what amounted to, “Don’t worry, fall is never good for us. It’s our off-season.” Again, I was a little bit surprised. I figured the point of having a business was to make sure there were

…