Last time I wrote about viral marketing, using the Conan O’Brien fiasco as an example. I barely scratched the surface then so I figured I’d go more in depth about it this time. (and probably a few more times, if you please) To be fair, a lot of people don’t like the phrase viral marketing, mostly because, as ad wizards ourselves, we try and stay away from negative comparisons like viruses. I’ve heard some people prefer things like “word-of-mouth marketing”. But the term ‘viral marketing’ works well enough; it’s memorable and somewhat descriptive, which ultimately is what you want in…
Read MoreArchive for the ‘Marketing’ Category
Leno, Conan and the Flashfire Influence of Viral Marketing
Pretend for a moment you have never watched TV past 10:00 PM. Now go on Twitter or Facebook and type in “The Tonight Show.” (more) Just from seeing that, would you believe that guy was forced out of his show because of low ratings? The Internet was covered in Conan paraphernalia and he was one of the top trending topics on Twitter for almost the entire month of January. What could have gone down as a career low point for a cult comic on the level of The Chevy Chase Show, The Magic Johnson Show and a dozen other forgotten forays…
Read MoreUsing Search Engine Marketing For Local Advertising
When I was working as a freelance copywriter for a particular ad agency a few years back, we worked with an office supply company in California. This company had a great looking website that I would guess cost them a solid $20,000. The only problem was that no one was going to it. No one was going to it because no one could find it. No one could find it because the name of the company was…Office Supplies. That name, along with being a good subject for an old time comedy routine, is a really bad name for a company…
Read MoreThe LUSH Life: Interview with Chicago’s LUSH Wine & Spirits’ Rachel Driver
Two years ago I studied abroad in Florence, Italy where the wine is cheaper than water, and certainly cheaper than Italy’s version of my usual drink of choice, Coca Light. After four months under the Tuscan sun, I returned home somewhat plumped from copious servings of everything and teeth, to my dentist’s disdain, tinted purple from habitually making the more economical choice of hydrating myself with the house vino—a thrifty decision in terms of saving Euros. And the more fun one.
Part of this wine-drinking four month rendezvous can be attributed to the fact that I was enrolled in my Italian…
Read MoreSocial (social) Media (media) Echo (echo)
I have growing doubts in this the advent of social media that this constant production of, and then echo after, of information rattling around the corridors of the Internet is an entirely positive thing.
Could an animal survive and thrive if it had extremely sensitive ears but couldn’t discern where the sounds were coming from? Perceiving the sound is only part of the equation. Answering the follow up questions in a split second is the other part. Where did the sound come from? When did it occur? What made it? Should I take action?
I’m sharing this observation because it seems like…
Read MoreHaystack is here! Our initial thoughts…
Well, Jason Fried, the President of 37signals, announced the imminent release of Haystack on his Twitter page in October, and now it’s officially here – Haystack. Haystack is similar to a job posting board, but is engineered to allow design agencies to post themselves in a single destination and hopefully get located (like a needle in a haystack) by prospects all over the country or in their city.
This is a good idea for 37signals (the company behind the product) as it potentially places them squarely in the middle of that intersection where design agencies and companies in need of interactive services…
Read MoreThe Bottom Line on Creating Website Content
The online world is all about content. What brings people, whether consumers or business clients, to a website? The obvious answer is: new ideas and information that solve their challenges and needs. Print, TV, radio and online ads can drive traffic to a website all day long, but what good is it if they get to the site and are bored or unsatisfied with the breadth of information and leave.
Or for that matter, what if they come once and like what they see and read, and then come back a week or a month later only to see the same…
Read MoreGod is in the details – so is credibility
This is just a reminder to our readers and clients that one of the most critical pieces of building a great brand and great web site rests with copywriting. It is the single greatest persuader on any web site despite all the advances in multimedia, social networking, etc. As an example of how things can go terribly wrong, I’ve grabbed this site from an able competitor in UK and highlighted some of the problems they’ve created for themselves that impact their credibility.
My first point is that they should be especially careful when proofreading their display message on their home page.…
Read MoreWeb Marketing Association Awards Billups Design
This is indeed something to celebrate! Billups Design has been once again recognized by the Web Marketing Association Awards for 2009, earning the Consumer Goods Standard of Excellence Award. We are excited to receive this award on behalf of Nike and the Nike ID Custom Shoe Builder application launched earlier this year. More exciting yet, the project was hailed by Nike as a major success and they have now designated Billups Design a preferred agency. Thank you to all the usual suspects – you’ve done it again!
Read MoreBillups Design wins prestigious Horizon Interactive Gold and Bronze awards
Though the official announcement isn’t due out for a few days, we’ve learned that we took home two big awards this year at the Horizon Interactive 2009 competition. markshale.com won Gold in the eCommerce / Sales category and may win more honors. And Hyatt’s hotelvictorsouthbeach.com won the Bronze in the Travel Industry category. Thank you to our talented and brilliant team here at BD. And thanks to our innovative and ambitious clients who inspire us to do our very best work for them.
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