Creative Advertisement for Inspiration

Some Extraordinary billboards

15 Tips To Build Communities

1.  Focus on the people.
2. Invest in people first, business second.
3. Quit measuring your success by only Facebook likes.
4. Your influence and ability to build community is more important than your Klout score
5. Focus on value to the community.
6. Empower leaders.
7. Don’t depend on Klout and other influence scores to determine who should be in your community.
8. Don’t follow your competition.
9. Come out from behind the logo and avatar.
10. Treat me as a human being
11. Learn more about me than teaching me about you.
12. Provide structure but let the community organically grow.
13. Be innovative.
14. Quit asking me to like you.
15. Share yourself and your brand with me.

Falling short of ideas? Organize an Idea Party

Ever happened with you that you are sitting in from of your laptop struggling for ideas. Or is it Sunday night and you have just 12 hours to submit your copy to your agency guys. Organize an "Idea Party", a new concept..Want to want how to do it...Well, keep on reading .....


Whom to invite?

I suggest inviting types of people like:

•“I Live to Brainstorm”
•“I Don’t Say Much But When I Do The Room Stops”
•“Life Should Have a Tagline”

You may NOT want to invite:

•“It Will Never Work”
•“Find a Fault in Anything”
•“Let’s Turn the Conversation Around to Me”

 How to hold an idea party?

1.Send out invites to 15-20 of your favorite crazy thinkers
2.Invite them to bring a dish to share, or provide crackers, cheese and beverages yourself
3.Find a comfortable spot where you can throw flipchart paper around, lay down, sit up, stand up, dance and eat
4.Provide Post-it (TM) flip chart paper, colorful pens, crayons, post-it notes and good music
5.Have a couple of linked up laptops handy for Google searches
6.Fire up Evernote or equivalent to capture ideas
7.Introduce your key idea party topic, like “New killer product for 2012” or “My Epic Business Book“
8.Hand the flip chart pen to the most artistic and skilled facilitator
9.Invite your participants to go crazy with ideas
10.Film, document and party to your heart’s desire
 

Social Technographics Ladder

One page Check out- Some examples

Just like the supermarket, online shoppers are looking for the shortest line. But unlike the supermarket, customers can leave your store with a click of the mouse, making the checkout process critical to your sucesss. That's why we pioneered the ecommerce industry by releasing the one page checkout.

The benefits of one page checkout are clear:

• Boosts sales conversions
• Reduces abandoned shopping carts
• Enhances user-friendliness
• Streamlines customer experience

 

Even more, our checkout process lets your customers purchase without creating an account. This option removes privacy concerns and diminishes abandoned carts. On the other hand, you can also gather valuable customer information with custom checkout fields. Talk about flexibility!

Each step of the buying process is critical – rest assured that your online business is covered from start to finish. Below mentioned are few examples which will help you to undertsand what I am talking about.

EXAMPLE 1

EXAMPLE 2

EXAMPLE 3

EXAMPLE 4

EXAMPLE 5

Mobile Marketing Opt-ins or Permission Marketing

Opt-in Marketing Defined

Traditional opt-in marketing, often called “permission marketing,” requires marketers to get explicit permission from consumers before they can deliver marketing collateral to them. This approach contrasts with “interruption marketing” where consumers receive messaging from a brand without giving consent (which, when done badly, reminds us of a certain meat product).

How Social Media Opt-ins Differ From Traditional Opt-ins

On social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, users give brands permission to submit communication to their digital identity by simply clicking a like, follow or plus button. You’ll never see a social media “double opt-in;” i.e., “Are you sure you want to like this page?”



How Mobile Opt-ins Differ From Traditional Opt-ins

Mobile opt-ins operate more similarly to traditional channels like direct mail and email than social media opt-ins. Brands request a point of contact from consumers, which, if given, effectively grants the brand permission to message consumers directly. This point of contact for mobile is, of course, a mobile phone number, which brands can use to send voice, text (SMS) or other mobile messages.

For mobile marketing channels like mobile web and mobile apps, opt-ins possess both social and mobile elements. On the mobile web, brands can direct consumers to a mobile landing page with clickable links, radio buttons and/or write-in fields.

With mobile apps, brands interact with consumers when they download an application by requesting push notifications or location-based information. In addition, apps mayuse a sign-up process to enable direct communication.

Strategy Behind Opt-Ins

Opt-ins provide brands a huge benefit: privileged access to consumers.

With this access, brands can drive purchases and respond by drawing consumers with alternatives (“Try it our way!”), attacking (“Their way stinks!”) or compelling content (“Our way is better!”).

Incentives are how brands give back. Every opportunity to like, follow or sign up in exchange for discounts, points or rewards demonstrates a key emphasis for an opt-in strategy.





Once brands obtain consumers’ points of contact, they then have to provide relevant and interesting information to keep consumers engaged.

Enter the idea of database marketing, where brands target messaging to consumers according to certain characteristics (e.g., gender, age, purchasing history) in order to establish a more intimate brand-consumer connection.

Non-coincidentally, database marketing explains in large part the social and mobile explosion, as immense amounts of self-reported data are available to marketers using these channels.

Technology Behind Opt-ins and Compliance

Brands need technology to message consumers in order to sell more products. Consumers need technology that delivers communication only from those brands connected to them.

But the actual implementation of technology introduces a slippery slope of complexity.Consumers who don’t have sufficient technical acumen may struggle to opt in. Brands respond by automating the opt-in process after purchase. This causes consumers who strictly guard their privacy to complain, as they may not know that one purchase may constitute ongoing access to them.

So brands adjust and only message after two purchases. But then consumers miss out on a promotion after only purchasing once and demand more frequent updates… and so on.

Various social and mobile technology solutions exist to address these issues. One example is the “like-gate” for a Facebook page, which requires that a consumer like a page before viewing its content. In addition, social media privacy policies inform consumers about what goes on behind the scenes after an opt-in.

 For mobile, carriers and the Mobile Marketing Association monitor and decide how technology should manage opt-ins. Texting a keyword to a short code (either manually or via QR code) and entering a phone number into a web form both qualify as legitimate opt-ins as long as consumers receive a compliant confirmation message in real time. Premium content (e.g., ringtones and services charged to a wireless bill) requires a double opt-in, where consumers have to reply again to the confirmation message.

Social vs. Mobile Opt-ins

Given this understanding of social and mobile opt-ins and their strategy and technology, which should marketers select? Let’s see if we can find the answer by comparing them.

With social media, consumers opt in by clicking a button online; brands communicate to consumers generally via status updates. Consumers benefit from one-click access to brands if they are signed in online, but miss out if not online or engaged via offline media like radio or signage. Brands benefit from social networking effects, but have to depend on a third party for their subscriber lists and data.

With mobile, consumers opt in by texting, scanning or submitting information to a mobile website or app; brands send direct communication to consumers via mobile messaging. Consumers benefit from immediate information, but may be hesitant to give out their mobile phone number. Brands benefit from a direct connection to consumers, but miss out on the immediate data social networking sites provide.

Hmm. I’d say inconclusive at best, as neither seems like a clear winner. But without selecting between social and mobile, how can you design an opt-in digital marketing strategy?

What It All Means

The answer is straightforward: with digital permission marketing, you can have your cake and eat it too. Just as consumers communicate with each other via social and mobile media, so should brands and consumers. Brands can integrate social and mobile, effectively reaping the benefits of both while sidestepping their drawbacks.

Consider a campaign with a QR code call to action offering a 25% off digital coupon code that sends a consumer to a like-gated Facebook page. Once liked, consumers have to enter their mobile phone number via a sign-up widget in order to receive the digital code. Marketers get both opt-ins and engagement across both channels and consumers spend less money. Now that’s powerful, cross-channel marketing.



An example of a Simple Link Wheel

Some Nice Print Ads - II

Comparitive Advertising- A good example

Example 1

Example 2

BMW vs Audi - Advertising Wars

Thanks to BMWBlog (and Juggernaut Advertising) a very interesting advertising war has been captured on the billboards of Santa Monica, CA. This is actually a continuation of something that started between the two in 2006 and indeed an inherent rivalry even before then. The latest round though was started by Audi, in the ad you see above.



That ad was followed by this ad, across the street no less. Clever, huh? The interesting thing about it is that while the Audi appears to be from direct from corporate Audi’s advertising department, the response is by a local dealer, Santa Monica BMW.

Work on the advertisement was done by the intrepid Santa Monica, CA based Juggernaut Advertising. I’ve got to hand it to them, this is brilliant! Both the advertising idea itself and the way of going about it. After seeing the Audi ad, the company identified an advertising spot just on the other side of the road. It’s a prime spot as the area is highly-trafficked.  The BMW response ad is within the same sightline as the Audi ad.

After finding the space (which is owned by CBS advertising rival ClearChannel), Juggernaut Advertising approached Santa Monica BMW, who said “When we heard the idea, we loved it and couldn’t resist going forward”.

There they are, just across the street from each other! The last round of the Audi vs. BMW war was started by BMW back in 2006 and resulted in a back in forth between the two over “Car of the Year” Awards. BMW’s ad said “Congratulations to Audi for winning South African Car of the Year 2006….from the Winner of the World Car of the Year 2006″.

Audi, responded with the same congratulations but fired back “From the winner of six consecutive LeMans 24 Hour Races 2000-2006″.

Subaru found itself convienient to jump into the fray as well, with it’s own ad congratulating BMW and Audi on winning the “beauty contests…..from the winner of the 2006 International Engine of the Year”.

I love stuff like this! It’s cool to see the companies go to head to head against each other in public things like this. Let’s see more of it!

Making of Zooo zooo- Photos

Good ad by Britania Low fat cheese

9 Tips for Optimizing Your Website for Mobile Users

#1: Simplify. Then Simplify Again. And Again

#2: Plan Your Site Layout

#3: Match the Branding Elements From Your Standard Site to Your Mobile Site

#4: Utilize White Space

#5: Avoid Flash or Java

#6: Reduce the Amount of Text Entry Necessary

#7: Do Not Use Pop-Up Windows

#8: Use Mobile Redirects

#9: Allow People to Visit the Full Site