Social media have become an essential part of the marketing toolkit and must work in tandem with other media to help you achieve your overall marketing objectives. Endless choices make it difficult to make the right decisions. Companies frequently get lost in the clutter of social trends, leading to the elaboration and separation of social objectives from the overall “big idea.” Getting started can seem like an obstacle, but once a social strategy is under way the hardest part is over.
Have you ever had those projects – or clients – that seemed to shift or change direction every few days, regardless of how hard you tried to stick to the original roadmap? Projects where the client kept making suggestions or changing their mind, kept adding to the scope (though not to the budget or the schedule), and missed deadlines – and then asked you why their website hadn’t gone live yet? This is a problem for many small web design and development firms.
With its ability to target consumers based on their actual shopping preferences, behavioral advertising has become a very popular tool among marketers and retailers. And the behavioral targeting trend shows no signs of slowing down, being applied not only to traditional online marketing campaigns but to mobile marketing as well. That’s because behavioral marketing has proven to be more effective than non-targeted advertising, converting consumers into buyers at more than two times the rate. It’s also more profitable, generating 2.68 times the revenue per ad than non-targeted advertising, according to the Network Advertising Initiative.
So what does that mean?
In order to stay relevant, designers, developers, and clients need to start thinking about the Web in a whole new way.
There are three specific catchphrases that are going to help usher in this new era: HTML5, Progressive Enhancement, and Responsive Design. These are the foundations upon which Web design and Web applications will build their future. Bold statement? Sure is. Keep reading—I’m full of them. And on that note, feel free to contradict me; I’m willing to learn. More
“So where do we start?” This is a good question to ask before jumping into social media. Many companies have already started without knowing it, and others are so paralyzed by the fear of exposure or lack of control that they never get out of the gates. More
If you’re like me, the week after Labor Day feels like the start of a new year. We’re done with vacations, the kids are back in school and a new season is just around the corner. September’s all about new beginnings – it’s a launch pad for fresh ventures and adventures, and Loewy Design is ready with key additions to our ground crew.
In the past few months we’ve grown our lineup to reinforce our talents in technology, design, strategy and account management. Our core team – David, Donald, Marc, Selina and LeAnna – is proud to welcome new faces and assets on board.
On the technology side we’ve added Senior Developer Nitin Menon as our tech lead. Nitin’s expertise and skill sets include application development, e-commerce and content management systems. He specializes in PHP, MySql Databases and Cold Fusion. Nitin brings with him over 8 years of experience from interactive agency Big Buzz.
We’ve tapped Executive Producer Angela Florie to manage our internal and external growth as our client roster continues to expand. Angela hails from TMP Worldwide, an interactive agency specializing in online marketing and communications. Angela provides strategy, marketing and account management and helps us stay on track and on budget.
We’ve strengthened our design team with Senior Designers Casey Bartholomew from Big Buzz and Ryan Barresi from NBTY. Both top web designers with diverse talents, they provide strategy, information architecture, design and front-end development. We’ve also hired new programmer Ellie Roepken, who specializes in PHP, content management systems and front-end development, and designer/front-end developer Jason Friedberg.
We’ve been working hard this summer on many exciting startups, redesigns and online marketing campaigns – and also on building our group and fine-tuning our process. Now, we’re thrilled to kick off fall with the right team for what’s next, fully powered up to do what we do best – offer complete online branding and marketing solutions.
Your flaky freelance designer has abruptly closed up shop to go backpacking across Europe, leaving you without any assets or files from your business collateral or website.
After partnering with a new, reliable agency, you need to track down your favorite stock photos used in all of your business collateral–but how?
A social media strategy is almost a requirement at this point for any commercial brand. For most, the common combination of a Twitter and Facebook account fed with frequent posts is usually enough. With every tweet your followers are reminded of your existence, and if you are lucky enough, they may even click through to any links you provide. But harnessing the power of social media in a carefully orchestrated campaign utilizing all the major platforms? That’s an entirely different proposition – and quite a feat if it can be pulled off. Despite the challenge, that’s exactly what the creative team behind Old Spice did.
Having a blog has become as essential as having a website. Everyone from the housewife down the block to the Fortune 500 company on Fifth Avenue has a blog. According to BlogPulse.com, there were 126 million (and counting…) blogs in 2009. This sudden burst of blogs has been made possible with applications such as Wordpress, Blogger, and Tumblr—which allow novices to whip up their own blogs in minutes.
However, not all blogs are created equal. If you don’t keep up with blogging trends, and think in a smart way about your blog, you may be lumped into the 126 million (and counting…) blogs and go totally unnoticed—and that would be a bummer!
Here are some tips to make your blog more intelligent:
I have always had the belief that design was a utopian endeavor to be undertaken by the smartest people in the world to solve problems. That designers were by nature helping the world evolve toward better, more beautiful, more sustainable, and more useful artifacts and services. I believe in my soul that this is true, but I also know it’s not enough. More
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