Not Sorry, Reese’s Halloween Win!

Reese's Candy Converter

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?

Website Content – Where Do You Start?

Brainstorming Session

We’ve said it before – websites are no longer an optional part of a business. They give you the unique opportunity to present information to your customers and potential customers when they research and compare you to your competitors. Without stellar content, the time your potential customers spend on your website could be a waste.

Creating awesome website content is a process that starts with a good plan. Whether you are creating a new website or updating an existing website, you should complete an evaluation of your organization before digging in and composing your content. Each time we meet with a potential new client, and even when we recently updated our own website, we start with these five questions.

Recently, we worked with ASPELL Recovery Center here in West Tennessee and began with this same process to find out what information was crucial to include on their new website. We also have a number of other new websites in development, so keep an eye out for those launching in the coming months.

Do you know your organization?

  • What is your company’s history? To clearly communicate who you are to others, you need to know who you are. Spend time with your management teams and employees talking about your past, present, and future as an organization.
  • Do you have a Mission or Vision Statement? If you do have one, make sure these statements identify who you are as a company. If you do not have one, consider crafting one before launching or relaunching your site.

What makes your organization unique?

  • What do you do, that others don’t? Why would you be chosen over your competitors?
  • There is always something that makes us unique from others. It is essential to identify that in order to show your customers why your business is the better choice. Once you know this aspect of your company, you are ready to tell the world!

Who are your competitors?

  • Name your top competitors – those whom you compete directly with for business on a daily basis.
  • Competition drives us to be better. Knowing your competition helps you better determine your strengths and weaknesses. You are also better prepared to make your company stand out, instead of blending into what everyone else is doing.

Who are your customers?

  • Is it a busy, working mom? A retired couple? A College student?
  • By knowing who your customers are, you can clearly understand and communicate what you do to make their lives better. That message needs to be conveyed immediately. Don’t make your customers search for what you do!

What is the goal of the website?

  • What do you want your customer to do?
  • Make sure to develop a clear Call to Action (CTA). People need to know what you want them to do on your website. Do you want them to buy something? Do you want them to schedule an appointment? Make it clear and make the buttons easy to find and click.

Anyone can put up a website, but one with carefully planned out content that is relevant to your industry, up-to-date, and easy to navigate is a different story. Taking the time to do this will always have you a step ahead of the competition. By spending time on quality content, your website will be at the top of search pages without spending extra advertising dollars.

Ready to conquer a new website but need additional guidance? Make sure to download a copy of our Digital Marketing Checklist and then schedule a meeting with one of our experts here at Adelsberger Marketing. That’s what we are here for. Click below and we’ll get started.

Email Us

 

Client Spotlight – JCVB Video

JCVB Tourism Video

Video projects are pretty varied. Sometimes you show up with a little idea of what you want to shoot and allow the location and subject matter to direct you. Sometimes, however, you have to plan every shot out ahead of time. This was one of those times. With Paige from the Jackson Convention and Visitors Bureau, we planned out every shot of this video. Part of the reason this was so important was the goal. We used motion tracking to display statistics in places all over the Jackson area.

This meant going to several locations and filming very specific shots. Then, we combined them with music to give them a unified feel. Using the motion tracking abilities of Adobe After Effects, we were able to insert the explanatory text and numbers into the different scenes. We also used ‘practical effects’ (noncomputer generated effects) and incorporated numbers that were already in use at locations when we could.

Three great examples of this:
1. At the Old Country Store, we used the practical effect of shaped mashed potatoes (Sculpted by JXNTNWKND Host Paige Keith) in combination with digital effects to leave words on the table.2. At ComeUnity Cafe, we used the practical effect of a hand-lettered (Hand lettered by Renae Adelsberger) number with a digitally placed explanation for clarity. This was done to match the style of the menu used by Comeunity Cafe.3. At Rusty’s TV and Movie Car Museum, we were able to use the existing number of the General Lee to illustrate a point with digital words next to it.

It was also fun using real music for a video! Most of the time, we use stock audio. That can be bland sometimes. LoLo, a local Jackson artist, allowed us to use her song “No Time for Lonely” for this video. Using that song added a great beat and excitement to the video!

Here is the video:

Visit Jackson Tourism Stats Video from Kevin Adelsberger on Vimeo.

 

 

Is This the Best Example of Branded Content?

Jack Ryan

Not a clickbait title. I think this might really be the best example of sponsored content I have seen. Amazon Prime Partnered with Vice News to do a series of videos promoting the new Jack Ryan series. My favorite of the series is entitled: Cheated Death with a Former CIA Operative – Inspired by Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan.

In this video, Vice News does it what it does best- tells stories in a real and gritty way through the video. They tell the life story of a former CIA Operative, Nic McKinley. I imagine their target audience for this campaign is men who like action, military, and adventure movies. So hearing from a CIA operative is a great way to catch their attention.

This video has a lot going for it:
1. Great production value. It has good quality and a variety of shots to help keep the viewer engaged.
2. It’s not overwhelming in its promotion of Jack Ryan. A few brief mentions but is very much about Nic McKinley.
3. Thrilling Stories. Nic does a great job sharing exciting stories from his career.
4. Behind the Scenes: Nic talks about his life as CIA and the bad side of his life as a CIA Operative.
4. The pivot. Near the end of the video, VICE News turns the story to talk about Nic’s current life in which he is fighting human trafficking.

The pivot at the end is what sealed the deal for me. Amazon allowed VICE to create a promotional piece that stayed true to who they were AND help promote a great mission that Nic is running in his post-CIA life. You can watch the piece below, let me know what you think about the brand integration:

 

Client Spotlight: West Tennessee State Fair

West Tennessee State Fair

The West Tennessee State Fair just concluded and we had the pleasure of helping them promote the Fair! We attacked promotions on a few fronts: video, photography, and social media.

Since we were not able to film at the last Fair, we recorded the first night of the Fair and released two videos on the following afternoon. Here they are:

 

We headed back on other nights to get additional photos and videos to use in the future. This will allow us to augment the videos from this year to use prior to the next Fair. Here are a few of those photos:

 

 

We also leveraged the things people love about the Fair as content for social media. We promoted each band that played and encouraged people to tell us what is their favorite Fair food. People love Fair food. We garnered 41 comments on this post.

State of the Camera Gear 2018

Camera Equipment

One of the bad things about being in the photography and video industry is that there is always something new to buy! So here is a glimpse into the equipment we use on a daily basis:

Photography:

Nikon D500

Favorite Lenses:
Nikon 50, 1.8
Tamaron 70-200 2.8
Tokina 14-20 F2

Lighting:
Vivitar On-Camera Flash
Godox Ad200 Flash
Apurture LightDome 36 inch softbox

Video
Sony A7SII (x2)

Favorite Lenses:
Sony E 50mm f/1.8 OSS Lens (x2)
Sigma 30mm f/2.8 DN

Lighting:
Apurture LightStorm
Dracast LED500 Silver Series Bi-Color LED Light

Sound:
Sennheiser MKE600 Shotgun Mic
Sennheiser ew 112-p G3 Camera-Mount Wireless Microphone System with ME 2 Lavalier Mic

Stabilizer:
Zhiyun-Tech Crane v2

Facebook’s Newsfeed Principles: Part 2

This is the second blog as we discuss Facebook News Feed Principles. If you missed the first one, start here.

This is a continued look at the Facebook News Feed Principles. These are drawn from the Facebook website and I am going to talk about them to help them make more sense for you!

Publisher Principle 2: People on Facebook Value Accurate, Authentic Content

In other words, people don’t want Fake News. But do they really?

I think this point might be more aspirational than reality. People really like whatever happens to align with their world view, it’s a phenomena called “Confirmation Bias.” “Confirmation Bias” is that our brain sees things in the world and makes special note of the things that line up with what we already thought. It notices and engages with things that confirm our biases.

Facebook seems to be focused on being sure people do not share content that is misleading or “click bait.” Click bait is a style of content that that has an intentionally misleading title in order to get people to click on the story. Once someone arrives at the page, the content is not related to the title that got them to click. The title is used as bait for the user.

But on a positive note, if we focus on making authentic content, I believe people will be more interested. Authentic content could include your real staff instead of models. Food actually served at your restaurant instead of stock photos. Make your brand the feature of these programs rather than stock photos.

If you are posting links or sending people to landing page, make sure people are seeing what they would expect. You know, treat others like you want to be treated, do not treat them like you are a marketer.

Facebook’s Newsfeed Principles: Part 1

Over the next couple of weeks we are going to look at the Facebook News Feed Principles. These are drawn from the Facebook website and I am going to talk about them to help them make more sense for you!

Principle 1: People on Facebook Value Content that’s meaningful and informative.

Facebook has to say it; but we should already know it. Facebook users (really all internet users) want content that is informative and meaningful. The reason they have to say this is people want to treat it like traditional advertising. Let’s just post our boring sale message on the Facebook page and expect people to interact. While that is easier, it’s not how the internet works.

Facebook can tell if people are interacting with your content. This is good and bad for folks. It is bad for people who do not work on creating good content for their pages. It is bad becuase if you do not put out good content, Facebook knows this and restricts your organic reach even further over time. It is good becuase if you are willing to invest in creating useful content, Facebook will help you distribute it better over time. It is also good because we know the rules of the game.

You can monitor your own success by reviewing your page’s insights. This will help you look to see how many people were interacting with your media on Facebook.

Within this principle, Facebook also suggests you try putting different types of content out. Using different types of content will help you engage different customers and re-engage old customers.

How can you create this content? Start by making a list of your customers’ reasons for coming to you or buying your product. Use this list to help generate ideas for content. Brainstorm a few different ways to help your customers over each of their pain points.

This is one of the reasons we write this blog! We want to help you get better and at the same time help you think, if I need help, these are the people to call.

Election Season 2018

We had the pleasure of working with four different campaigns this election season. Each campaign showcased a different personality and, as a result, each had different needs for their work. We are very selective of the groups we work with in this arena and I (Kevin) was glad to work with these four people not only as clients but also as friends.

  1. Jay Bush for State Representative.
    We did a lot of work for Jay Bush. We launched a website, created a campaign video, recorded testimonials with the community, took photos of families supporting Jay, and ran social media ads.
  2. Shannon Stewart for School Board:
    The “Shannon for Schools” branding needed to match the bright personality of the candidate. We went with an untraditional angle for the signage and branding. We also took some family photos to use during the campaign.
  3. Shawn Daly for School Board:
    Shawn is a fantastic candidate for school board. We created a traditional brand and landing page to help him introduce himself more to the community.
  4. AJ Massey for School Board:
    AJ’s branding colors are modeled after his favorite school, Ole Miss, and have an athletic flair (I mean the guy did play college football!). AJ ended up not having an opponent in the election so we didn’t have much additional work for him.