There is something special about working with a legacy brand. A brand whose color and logo invoke a feeling in most everyone who sees it. A brand whose products have been consumed by almost every individual in the United States and in most every country in the world. Of course, we are talking about Coca-Cola.
Coca-Cola in America is distributed by regional companies. In the Jackson, Tennessee and Northern Mississippi areas, that company is called Corinth Coca-Cola. We were excited to get a chance to submit a proposal for this project and honored to be selected to create this new home on the web for this great company.
Corinth Coca-Cola has been in operation for over a hundred years and is owned by the same family that started it. That statement alone is filled with so much awesomeness that you could almost forget to talk about the wonder they were to work with. The family team behind Corinth Coca-Cola are committed to their company, their community, and their employees. They also were great customers (which any creative service company will tell you are things that are automatically connected.)
One of the interesting aspects that surfaced during the brainstorm portion of this project was the unique audiences that Corinth Coke needs to speak with. Unlike most businesses we work with, there is an entire global culture built around Coke fandom. We needed to build in part of the website to service those fans. We also needed to feature their biggest community event in the Corinth Coke 10K and their museum. It was an honor to work with such a classic brand and such a great family!
I have never believed in New Year’s Resolutions. I am not opposed to goals for oneself, in fact, due to my Best Self Journal, I do quarterly goals throughout the year. But a few years ago, listening to one of my favorite podcasts, Cortex, they talked about the concept of a yearly theme. Themes are not pass-fail activities like a resolution. They are ideas that help direct your choices throughout the year. One year that was particularly successful for me was a theme of “Infrastructure in the Business,” which timed up incredibly well to help me survive the introduction of multiple children into my life.
Margin is something that is needed in my life in a few different ways and I wanted to take a moment to break those out and encourage you to think about a theme for 2020.
Margin in:
Profit- For my business to go to the next level and to be the best place to work in West Tennessee, I will need more profit margin in my business. An increased profit margin will allow us to build more space between projects or allow us to spend more time on projects by adding team members or taking on less “small” projects. This should lead to a better team experience. Additionally, in seeking to do awesome things like the Ramsey Solutions Christmas activities (massive party and $1,000 shopping spree for employees at the shopping mall), a healthy profit is required. To be the company I want us to be, we need to not only be profitable (which we have been), but we need to be more profitable than we have been.
Time- I regularly pack a lot into days. I do not think this is going to change, but how I pack things into days will probably change. Besides being more present in whatever task I am involved in at the time, I need to create a margin. Margin in my time will allow me to spend more time with my family and it not be detrimental to my work. And when needed, spend more time with my work and it not be detrimental to my family. To accomplish this I will need to seek efficiencies and extra help in my business over the year, which will likely be attached to part one of this theme.
Mental Space– I am listening/reading/watching, things basically from the moment I wake up to the moment I go to bed. I want to seek more mental space in my daily life. This may mean less time on Twitter (how I love the Tweets) or choosing to not turn on the news in the car, or listening to music instead of a podcast, or not listening to anything at all. In addition to this, I need more mental space to work ON my business instead of just IN my business. The last year has been so crazy personally and professionally that not much time was spent working on things but rather instead working in them. Finding time to be still or just less distracted will be good for this year.
Waistline- And to round out all the areas of my life touched by this theme is my health. I need more margin in my waistline. Are there goals I would like to meet? Yes. But in general, I would like to lose some weight and get healthier. I also want to be better at moderation. I am an “all on” or “all off” kind of healthy eater and want to get some margin in my weight so that I can find balance.
So margin is the theme. Over the course of 2020, I will be working on building more margin. One of the nice things about themes is that it can change over the course of the year. Kevin today might not value the same exact things as Kevin in July. Even with that being the case, I think margin will still be important.
Typically, when you think of advertising and marketing, you think of spending money. But before you carefully plan out a marketing budget, make sure you are fully utilizing the free marketing options available to you!
One of the most effective free marketing options available is the Google My Business Listing. When you search for a business on Google, results will display address, map, phone number, website, photos, reviews, business hours, and more. With 5 billion searches on Google for restaurants, 3 billion searches for hotels, 1 billion searches for clothing stores, 600 million searches for hair and beauty salons, and 5 million searches for coffee shops, as a business owner, you need to have control over this information. An unflattering photo of your location coupled with incorrect business hours is not a good combination for a potential customer!
You can strengthen your local search result rankings by ensuring that your business profile is complete and updated. High ranking local searches reassure customers that you are a legitimate and relevant business. By posting photos, up-to-date offers, temporary business hours, and other appropriate information to your profile, you instantly boost the visibility of your business to your customers.
Don’t overlook the simplest details. Take your city and state as an example. If you’re a tree service in Jackson, Tennessee, you don’t want to waste your day receiving phone calls from customers in Jackson, Mississippi.
And consider your business hours. Are you closed on Mondays? Be sure to include that information! Few things are more frustrating to a customer than showing up at your location and discovering it’s closed. Since most of them googled you first, be sure to include an accurate listing of your hours of operation.
The Google My Business listing is 100% free – so if you haven’t claimed your business listing, drop everything and claim yours by visiting https://business.google.com/ or by finding your location on Google Maps. You won’t regret taking the time to set this up properly.
Are you ready to conquer even more aspects of digital marketing? Click below to schedule a meeting with one of our experts at Adelsberger Marketing.
One of my favorite parts of my job is helping people tell their stories. This year the United Way of West Tennessee‘s First Ladies Luncheon chose to focus on a story from an organization they support – The Scarlet Rope Project. Tiffany was kind enough to share with us her story of survival and the life-giving work of Scarlet Rope.
We also worked with the United Way to create a promo to help let men know they were invited to the First Ladies Luncheon. This was a fairly organic project. It evolved as we shot it with board members and the fantastic Becky Fly, who was a great sport about the whole thing!
F8 is Facebook’s mostly annual conference that often announces new features. The conference started as an 8-hour hackathon. It has developed throughout the years into a 2-day event for developers from around the world to network, attend in-depth mini-sessions, and enjoy product demos. This year’s F8 was held April 30-May 1st in San Jose, California. 2019 marked Facebook’s 10th F8.
A Recap of The Keynote
Privacy. Privacy. And more privacy. Not only that – but a bold statement that “The future is private.”
Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged they don’t have the strongest reputation on privacy right now. The only way you’ve missed this drama is if you’ve been left in the quantum realm. If that’s you – go ahead and read Wired’s article which recaps the past year and a half.
Zuckerberg continued by saying they are “building a privacy focused platform…privacy gives us the freedom to be ourselves.” He then made certain to mention that his team is going to play a more “proactive role” in making sure all services and partners are using their tools for good.
He continued his theme of “The Future is Private” by listing the next chapter for their services. This vision is based on 6 principles:
Private interactions
Encryption
Reduced permanence
Safety
Interoperability
Secure data storage
What This Means for Facebook & Messenger
Facebook
Zuckerberg has nicknamed this update “FB5.” And it’s more than an icon update (have you noticed the slight gradient to the blue?)
If the overall theme was “privacy,” I’d say that the Facebook theme was “connection.” The app will now downplay the News Feed as the central point of connection. Instead, Facebook is pushing Events and Groups to center stage.
Communities and Groups now replace Friends as the central focus. You can now share to your groups the same way you share with friends and family. The Newsfeed still exists – and a feature I particularly like – will allow you to save your spot so you can pick up where you left off.
Here’s where some serious changes start happening: relationships. Facebook is now in the business of actively connecting people – be it dating relationships, friendships, gaming communities, or even job searches.
With Facebook dating you find matches based on things you have in common like shared groups and events. Your dating profile is separate from your personal profile.
This is currently live in: Colombia, Mexico, Thailand, Argentina, Canada, Philippines, Vietnam, Singapore, Malaysia, Laos, Brazil, Peru, Chile, Bolivia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Uruguay, Guyana, Suriname
End of Year: US
Facebook is also introducing Secret Crush. In this section, you create a private list of friends you might be interested in. And if your friend also puts you on their list, you match. If not, no one will know you even opted into Facebook Dating.
They are also adding new Business Tools which are considered to be “plug-and-play solutions.” The goal is to make it easier for businesses to drive in-store traffic, generate leads, and provide customer care. Two of these new tools include an appointment-booking function and a lead generation template built directly into Ads Manager.
Messenger
One of the most exciting changes to Messenger is size and speed. It is going from 127 MB to under 30 MB with 1.3 second cold start time. Keeping with the privacy theme, the Messenger app will be end-to-end encrypted by default.
And we once again see the increased focus on connectivity. Messenger will allow you to call and message friends and family not just on Facebook but also Instagram and WhatsApp.
The goal is to make Messenger the place for your closest friends and family to keep in constant contact. You can even watch videos together directly inside the app.
They are also launching a brand new Messenger desktop app for both Windows and macOS.
How This Affects Your Marketing Strategies
If nothing else, hear this – Facebook believes they know what their 2.7 billion users want above all else – not necessarily shiny new objects, cheaper prices, or gimmicks!
They want to use their technology to gain meaningful human connection.
People don’t want to feel spammed by your ads. They want to feel connected to your product and brand.
Your customers want to feel certain that their information is secure. That your brand is trustworthy. And that you aren’t going to take advantage of them.
F8 2019 celebrated their global community and how technology can bring people together both personally and professionally.
The trends for 2019 in digital design are bright, bold, and fun! These trends are helping big companies and small businesses alike. Here are some of the most relevant trends that you can utilize for your business.
BOLDER and More Colors:
The purpose of digital design is to send a message to the viewers. In an age where there is information thrown from every angle, there has to be a way to break through all of the other messages. That is where big and bold design excels. This trend is seen in both typography and in the use of colors. Here are two examples.
Branded Illustration & Gifs
Gifs have made a huge impact in the world – but so much so that their impact have lost its strength. A way that makes a gif impactful is by using gifs that are made specifically for your brand. These don’t have to be full production quality but instead can even be gifs made with apps like Boomerang for Instagram.
Branded Photos
Same as Gifs, the availability of stock photo markets have flooded our pages with generic photos. One way to break through all of those photos is to have photos taken for your brand that are well thought out. Just like gifs, photos are a way to show your audience who your brand is and what it is about.
Have you ever bitten off more than you can chew? When the first few pitches for the 2019 Jackson Chamber Annual Celebration video were left on the cutting room floor, one day remained. Being the genius I am, I suggested that we put the Chamber staff into old movies that revolved around the event’s nautical theme. Below I am going to do a breakdown of the process behind pulling this video off (this was a bit of a step up in difficulty over last year’s hit Carpool Karaoke).
1. Plan plan plan. We spent several hours planning out the video. This was key because we needed to find the right videos. It would not be as easy as selecting any scene from any nautical themed video, we needed certain scenes. What we discovered was that after a certain year of movies, the camera motion had gotten so loose, that it would be difficult to “green screen” people into movies. This limited our selection greatly and we were able to come up with just one scene more than was actually used in the project.
After we selected the scenes and received approval from the Jackson Chamber, we then went to work doing a scene breakdown. Each breakdown involved light placements, sound design, camera angles, costumes, props, dialogue, and scripting. Brittany Crockett on our team did a fantastic job of sourcing much of our costume work and props. She also worked with the Chamber staff on their dialogue.
2. Having the Right Equipment. To pull off this level of green screen project well, it took a lot of lighting and the appropriate green screens in addition to decent cameras and a space to work in. We even bought chroma green duct tape for the project!
3. Details, details, details. On the shoot days, we needed to be sure we got as close as we could to match the movement of the character in the scene, the camera angle, and the lighting. Though we had covered much of this in preproduction, it is another thing to make it work with actors on set. The Jackson Chamber staff were great sports during the entire process and we all had a good time. Particularly humorous was the Free Willy jump scene where Brittany got to spray me and Hannah with a hose while I moved an inflated whale with a broomstick taped to its back over Hannah’s head.
4. Time and After Effects. After the filming was done, the remainder of the work fell to team member Ricky Santos who spent a large amount of time in After Effects keying, scaling, content-aware filling the Chamber staff into these old movies.
As Will Farrell as Harry Carry made us all aware: Hotdogs are items of deep mystery. If you were a hotdog, would you eat yourself? Is a hotdog a sandwich?
I want to tip my hat to Oscar-Mayer . Here’s a shoutout for a very clever marketing idea. On National Sandwich Day, Oscar-Mayer launched a (sadly) 24-hour hotline for people to call to talk about whether hotdogs were sandwiches or not.
We know what’s true… But we’re gonna give you 24 hours to change our mind. Call to tell us why you think a hot dog IS NOT a sandwich. #ChangeOscarsMindpic.twitter.com/mhUoHBmnre
People got a little heated and even other brands got involved. Jimmy Johns took up for sandwiches. In general it was a very fun promo, some folks had strong feelings about the issue:
How often does a brand stir controversy while keeping it family friendly and not a PR disaster? Almost never. They got people talking about their product and brand in a fun way and no harm was done. I think the part that made it really work was the inclusion of the “hotline.” A low cost but brilliant solution to help give people some fun way to engage!
Things get a little spooky at Medina this time of year at the farm in Medina. This community event is created by the Medina Lions Club and has been going on for 40 years. Since it is run by a civic group, all the scarers are volunteers and all the funds go to support local charities. We did a number of things for this project but the primary piece was the video.
Shooting a video at a farm and in the woods in the dark away from electricity was a bit of a challenge. Luckily, we have invested in the Sony A7SII line of cameras that are renowned for there excellent low light capability. We also brought several battery-powered lights with us for the shoot. The ‘hero’ image of Pennywise walking through the forest was achieved with a battery-powered 120D and two Dracast LED panels and a fog machine. (The most unnerving thing of the whole night was that Pennywise didn’t break character even when we were shooting this scene.)
The scarers were all super great about being filmed and did a great job of working with us. While the production was tricky, everything was taken to the next level in editing. Editing to music helped make the scary footage even more terrifying.
This video had amazing organic results! With over 100 shares and 15,000 views in the first couple of days, it spoke to a few things:
1. The Community is invested in this project. It takes lots of folks from lots of different groups of people to put this on, which connects the project with lots of different tribes around the area. It is also entering its 40th year so that leaves a legacy to connect to.
2. This is the first year they have promoted the farm in this way. There is a novelty to this video. People seemed to really enjoy that.
3. The production value of the video made people excited about the farm. If we had shot this on a cell phone, people would not have been as interested in the content. The high production value makes it worth watching!
Reese’s Cups, as we all know, are the greatest candy made! Their marketing team came up with a great idea this past Halloween. During a season where they probably sell some of their highest amounts of product, they were not inclined to sit on the sideline. They introduced the Reese’s Candy Converter.
The Reese’s Candy Converter was stationed in NYC and was loaded with 10,000 Reese’s Cups. Children (and probably several adults) were able to bring there “junk” candy to and exchange it for Reese’s Cups.
The free press generated on this is huge – with over 5K shares generated on their twitter account alone. This helped bring Reese’s to the mind of lots of people on the internet if they weren’t already thinking about getting Reese’s on Halloween.
They also positioned themselves as THE candy to have at Halloween. Usually, I feel like arrogant claims of superiority are bad for a brand, but when they come in such a fun way, it is hard to argue with!
The novelty of the idea and the expert execution of the concept made for a viral social media darling that is becoming more and more rare. My only question is, where did all of the traded-in candy go?
The scarers were all super great about being filmed and did a great job of working with us. While the production was tricky, everything was taken to the next level in editing. Editing to music helped make the scary footage even more terrifying.