Arbys and a not so meatless monday.

I know they were really just poking fun at vegetarians but I am disappointed in Arby’s. Arby’s positioned it self to do one of the more daring marketing moves I have seen: They were set to offer all their normal menu, without meat, for the same cost as a regular sandwich for Leap Day.

What a gutsy move! Well it would have been had they followed through with it. The two Arby’s locations I visited both had the meat on the menu. Here is video of my visit:

 

Arby’s I hope this was an error but if not I am disappointed in your false advertising. Lots of free press for nothing.

Superbowl and Mobile Use

micromoments-01

 

Google dropped some huge data information after the Superbowl this year. Mobile already is and is increasingly the most important platform for media. Our phones not only contain all of lives, it also is our gateway to the world. If your brand is not thinking about mobile, you need to a new marketing plan. “For brands, that means a presence on the big screen isn’t complete without a strategy for the small screen, too.”, wrote Google in its report.

Google measured a 40% increase of people searching for brands during the super bowl. Imagine if your brand couldn’t be found online or accessible on mobile!  You would be missing lots of “micro moments” as Google describes them. A micro moment is when a thought crosses someone’s mind and so they google google a product or service. Google search ads and high seo allow you to capitalize on these Micro Moments.

Search is not going away. Mobile is not going away. What are you doing to be ready for them? Will you be found?

I would love to have known what the results were for Red Lobster.

Read more of Google’s Report.

 

 

Client Spotlight: From Fluff to Fit

One of the things I love about working at theCO is the relationships that you make with other entrepreneurs. Bria Pittman is a member at theCO and the Fitness Coach/Owner at From Fluff to Fit.

Bria is on a mission to help people become healthy with the motto “progress not perfection.” While we met and talked about her business, I saw this motto as a truth that she embraced not only with her own life but also with her clients.  Being healthy is not about being super skinny, it’s about being active, taking care of oneself, and making good health choices more often than bad ones. I knew that the motto needed to be included in the logo.

When we got started Bria had one direction: Use this certain blue. So I went to work.

There were a bunch of versions of this logo but after many…many hours and attempts, I came back with a logo that Bria loved and we felt would communicate her brand to her target market as well.

This is the From Fluff to Fit logo by Adelsberger Marketing: frommflufftofit2-01

If you want to talk about getting a great brand for your company, send me an email.

 

Social Media Win or Fail: Red Lobster

Super-Bowl-50-Logo-Large-1
Super Bowl 50’s biggest loser was the Carolina Panthers. But the public didn’t fair too well either, there were no brilliant ads ands let’s not even talk about whatever this thing is:
6QLh1XXq
This months social media win or fail is probably a win with just a touch of fail.
Red Lobster got a ton of free publicity when Beyonce was singing her new single, Formation. She mentions Red Lobster during one of lyrics. “Mentions on Twitter 42,000 times in just an hour and trended for the first time ever.”  However, Red Lobster took 8 hours to react. Posting this:
Screen Shot 2016-02-09 at 11.40.58 AM
It took them 8 hours to tweet that. Fairly creative considering their name was used in a line referencing sex. They managed to contextualize the name of their biscuits. Now to be fair they were not expecting to be featured in the Super Bowl. But what are the chances that a Red Lobster marketing team member was not watching the Super Bowl or phone didn’t start lighting up when twitter caught fire about them. They missed an opportunity to really capitalize on this mention!
On the other hand Budweiser took just a few minutes to react to Peyton’s awkward ‘unplanned’ product placement. Budweiser is a little more use to using sporting events to their advantage.
Screen Shot 2016-02-09 at 11.49.03 AM
Reportedly Red Lobster has had a 23% sales spikes since the incident. So it was not all bad. But if the team had been more reactive they might have been able to increase that percentage.
Biggest lesson learned. If you are a national brand, or a local brand with a high publicity event happening, make sure someone is watching the mentions and is prepared to respond. Work life balance can exist, but a social media manager should be ready to respond with 2 hours time, if not sooner.

Sometimes just listen to your client

Screen Shot 2016-02-08 at 4.08.31 PM

You are given two ears and a mouth for a reason, so that you listen more than talk. That is what we are told as a kid and something we should be reminded of as an adult.

For those of us who have gotten by on the strength of our opinions and are even getting paid to give them, sometimes listening can be difficult. I recently completed a logo for a client where I was struggling to get the design right. Because of the concept the logo was based on, visual balance was an issue.

This issue was resolved by listening. I went back to the client’s design brief and thought about the design. I had decided, in my infinite wisdom, to shorten the client’s business name. Now this effort was not misguided out of bad motive, in fact, it was in an effort to make the logo more sleek.

When I went back to the brief, I retried the logo design with more of the businesses name and it fixed all of the balance issues. Listening is one of the most importants of a marketer’s business or of a consultants business.

This was a good and clear reminder that listening is sometimes more important than doing.

Social Media Win or Fail: Pasta House

While the lottery is now over, there were a few businesses that took advantage.

This months social media win or fail is the Pasta House. The Pasta House is a small chain of Italian restaurants in the St. Louis Missouri area. This month they scored a win because of their campaign around the lottery.

The offer was simple, like our page, like and share this post, and we will split this ticket with you if we win. Simple premise. Fantastic results.

Screen Shot 2016-02-02 at 7.33.14 AM

This post took off like wild fire all around their region. What was the investment? It was not a sponsored post so just the cost of the ticket, which is a few dollars at most. The return might be some of the highest ROI i have ever seen.

According to some the Page Watching tools that Facebook provides they had 200% growth in their page fans and engagement. They picked up 1000’s of fans for literally a few dollars.

This was gorilla news jacking at its finest. What a win!