When I did marketing for one of the riverboat casinos in the Chicago area I was told a lot of excuses for why a particular day didn’t draw as many people as they wanted. Some of my favorites were. “No buddy wants to go the casino in the winter. It’s cold and snowy. People just want to stay in.” “No one wants to come out in the spring.” “Kids are still in school and they want to be outside after being cooped up inside all winter.” “People don’t go to the casino in the summer. They want to be outside…
Read MoreArchive for the ‘Inspiration’ Category
Avoiding that Social Media Plateau
So you’ve just finished your first big social media push and you’ve gotten a good response. Then you get even more fans once your hard launch fan acquisition campaign kicks in. The thing is eventually no matter how good your social media sites are and how great your first big push goes eventually things are going to trail off and plateau. Your fan count will stop going up like it was and people won’t be talking as much. It happens to the best social media pros. Everyone gets tired of his or her new toys once after a while and…
Read MoreUsing Coupons to Boost Your Social Media Presence While Keeping Fans
As I’ve said here on The Stairwell many times, one of the keys to social media marketing is to give your fans something new as much as possible. That can be everything from new information or even just a laugh, or something to talk about. That can be okay for a bit. But if you really want to build a following and convert your social media presence into genuine customers you need to give them something concrete – either a giveaway for something real or coupons they can come in and use. A great social media giveaway accomplishes two things.…
Read MoreHow Big Deals Can Change Things for Every Business Looking to Get Online
The thing about the current social media scene is that it’s still very much in its infancy. As far as new forms of media go, it’s about what television was 5 or 6 years after it was available for the masses. Just like those early days of television things were a little chaotic. The networks were scrambling to slap together content. When ABC and Disney struck a big content deal in 1954 it completely changed the face of the medium and went a long way toward stabilizing the way people made television. Social media is still at a position that…
Read MoreCombining Social and Physical Media
A few articles back, I talked a bit about packaging and how you can tie all your different social media sites together to make them even stronger. Some companies have taken things to the next level by packaging everything together, including their print and online ads. Particularly, companies like Kraft Foods and Pepsi have started using social media to boost their print campaigns and vice versa. It’s a great thing because it calls attention to their social media while giving them a unique marketing campaign.
There are some drawbacks to using your social media along with your print media. Well,…
Read MoreAvoid Sponsored Ads and Stay Cost Effective with Social Media
One thing I’ve said repeatedly on here is that social media is virtually cost free. You can do the same things that major companies do without having a major company budget. In a lot of ways social media has evened the playing field but just like the movie theaters where they’ve put ads before and sometimes during the movies. Some companies will find a way to spend money to get their message heard louder instead of working smarter. So it’s no surprise that Facebook and Twitter took advantage of this and offered paid ads and promotional spots to people who…
Read MoreUsing Social Media to Augment Your Direct Mail Marketing Campaign
Up until now I’ve pretty much always focused on social media and digital advertising. I’ve done a little bit with direct mail over the years, but until recently I never really used it in a cross-media promotion. A lot of marketing professionals see direct mail as a dying medium and instead focus exclusively on digital marketing. As I’ve tried to illustrate over the last two weeks the best campaigns are ones that can seamlessly work in all forms of media, including direct mail. Old Spice has made extensive use of direct mailers over the years to much success. The fact…
Read MoreMedium In Flux Follow Up: Advertising a Niche Product Across Different Media
Last week we went over some of the year’s best ad campaigns. My criterion for the best of the best was, among other things, that they played well across different media. In a world where even movie theaters are getting in on the viral marketing act by showing commercials and cross promoting video games and live events, and your TV and your computer are becoming one and the same, a campaign that goes across different media is essential. One group of companies that are trying to do just that is comic book publishers. As I said last time, publishers are…
Read MoreRoad Plates game for iPhone is here!
We’re happy to announce that our new iPhone game, Road Plates, is now available for download on the iTunes App store. Everyone with a car and kids will love this new spin on a classic road trip game. Best of all, it’s free right now.
There are a lot of thanks to go around for this project, but we’d especially like to thank Omnia who largely took up the role of architect and developer throughout the process. We also want to acknowledge Steve, Ryan, Tyler, Bryant and Ted for their amazing work in all things creative.
We had a lot of…
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