In order to elevate your brand, we’ve committed ourselves to innovation. Whether updates in tech, trends in marketing or everyday evolution, we will report it here for you to read. Subscribe to the Gorilla blog through our RSS feed.
This time of year, people all over the world make sacrifices, typically due to religious affiliation, and give something up for a set period of time (40 days for us fish eaters). Chocolate, candy, soda, fried foods – all items often on the list.
But brands, do they give anything up? We think they should. Here are a few things that drive us crazy.
1. “Spam”. Not the investment-opportunity-in-India spam, but the newsletter-everyday spam. It boggles the mind that companies actually think that we read this stuff. It’s too much copy. It clutters our inboxes. And it doesn’t even really offer all that much. We’re not buying the “brand-awareness” POV either.
2. Social-media cluttering. Yes, people are on Facebook and Twitter. And yes, they’re legitimate places to advertise. But, make sure you have a strategy going into it. Don’t just shoot from the hip. And beware of too-frequent updates. Like a broken window in Paperboy, this leads to unsubscribers. Bad jokes do too.
3. “CHEAP! CHEAP!” Regardless of where you’re from, we’ve all seen local advertising. It’s understood that small-businesses are often not in the market for award-winning ads. But, that being said, you can make a good, simple commercial without making me CRINGE! CRINGE! Honestly, no matter your budget, there is always an opportunity for a good idea. As the esteemed Steve Kopcha of the University of Missouri School of Journalism always points out, good ads sell stuff.
4. Txt. Unless your target market is a 14 year-old, we’d stay away from the “texting” speech. It’s not clever and, really, it just looks lazy. There are better ways to be “in” with that age group – paste Zac Effron everywhere and they’re yours. LOLz.
5. Exclamation points. Don’t use them!
6. Inconsistent brands. Yep, these drive us crazy too. One marketing piece looks like this, another one looks like that. Messaging is different from piece to piece. Please, make it stop. Reference the classic example of Apple Computer for a brand that keeps it consistent.
7. Really complicated (for the user), fancy websites. All you’re doing is hurting the brand. Simplicity is king.
Are these all of our complaints? Absolutely not. Our goal was to write a blog post, not a manifesto. There were just top of mind.
Although it’s been nearly a week since Google’s Super Bowl spot aired, we thought, being really interested in advertising and all, we’d throw our two cents in.
So… we loved it. At first sight, too.
Now we get that Super Bowl ads usually tend to lean heavily on humor. But Google’s ad was a refreshing break from the flying chips and the talking babies. Why was this ad so great?
Google…
executed brilliantly with zero talent costs
used their interface as the visual, making it about as ownable as you can get
told a story (and a timely one at that with Valentine’s Day coming up)
tapped into the emotions of viewers (little humor going on, little love going on, some surprises going on)
had an ad that resonated through literal noise (think about how many ads you couldn’t hear because people were talking at your party)
and of course, it aligned with their platform – user friendly with no clutter and clean communication
In case you didn’t see it, the spot told a love story in a nonconventional way. It was simple. It was memorable. It was ingenious.
In a cyber world, where Twitter took off, it’s no surprise that the next step after telling people what you’re doing is telling people where you’re doing it.
Enter: foursquare.
Now, I don’t know about you guys, but my mind automatically jumped to my middle school days playing foursquare. But, apart from something that your friends can join in, this foursquare is a tad different.
Foursquare is a new trend of letting people know exactly where you are, and I mean, exactly. Stop off at the local bakery on your way home? Foursquare it. Hitting the gym during the weekend? Foursquare it. It’s not just something that’s a great way for your friends (or stalkers) to know where you are, but it’s great for businesses as well – especially those with smaller marketing budgets.
For businesses, the best thing about this is that it’s free publicity. People can review, recommend and promote you all by just telling everyone where they are. It offers the opportunity to get your name out there by people who already like you. Not to mention, it has map tie-ins and all the typical bells and whistles of a consumer-review type of site.
Businesses and foursquare users can both really use this to their advantage. Not only can businesses see who their most loyal customers are, but they can also reward them. Customers who use foursquare “check-in” where they are and get badges (“adventurer”, “local”, “newbie”) and when they become “the mayor” (the most loyal of all the regulars) they are rewarded by some, but not all, businesses by getting freebies of some sort.
All in all, it’s a win-win for everyone. Businesses get their names out there and people who use foursquare, well, they can show how busy their lives really are. That and potentially win freebies at their favorite local spots. So, go ahead, sign up.
Hope your weekend is terrific. If you do anything fun, foursquare it.