Chicago Ad Agency

All posts tagged with

American Parkinson Disease Association National Young Onset Center Awarded $25,000 in Marketing Services from Stevens & Tate

1 Aug 2011

The American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA) National Young Onset Center is the recipient of this year’s Lend-A-Hand Marketing Giveaway from Stevens & Tate Marketing . APDA National Young Onset Center will receive $25,000 in pro bono marketing and creative services to help the non-profit organization achieve its goal of increasing awareness of Parkinson’s disease, specifically that of young onset Parkinson’s.

To support the organization, Stevens & Tate will be developing and launching a national fundraising campaign to promote personal fundraising activities for the organization. Work will focus on creating an event brand identity with logo supported by a full range of promotional materials such as email, direct mail, on-site signage and banners, and an event starter kit to simplify fundraising activities. Stevens & Tate also will offer online services including web content and website enhancement recommendations. Read the rest of this entry »

The Decline of the American Household

3 Jun 2011

An astonishing report from Ad Age, shows that the marketing landscape has changed when it comes to the American Household. Once the target for most marketers, this study shows the decline of households of married couples with children will have many marketers re-evaluating their efforts. Below is an excerpt from the article on adage.com, be sure to click over and check out the data chart that shows the glaring decline over time.

The iconic American household — married couples with children — is now just one in five U.S. households, an all-time low. It’s been a very long time, more than 50 years in fact, since we could say with any degree of accuracy that the typical American household is Mom, Pop and two kids.” The percent of households has dropped in half from 44.3% to just 20.2% while the actual number, now 23.6 million, has remained relatively flat.

The reasons for this trend are many and complex. In short, over the past half century the imperative to marry in order to raise children has gradually diminished. Since 1960 the removal of discriminatory barriers combined with huge increases in white-collar jobs meant that more women were capable of earning enough to support themselves as well as any children they might have. Every decade over the past five, marriage has became less of an economic necessity for women.

It’s more than just a function of an aging population or the number of “married, no kids” would have grown much faster. But over the past 50 years married households with no kids present only grew at less than one-third the rate of all households that were not married couples (104% vs 350%).

There have been both economic and societal consequences to this trend. From a societal perspective the acceptance of single mothers as a normal family type is about as total as it gets. In most places it is illegal to ask a prospective female employee if she is married or if she has children.

read the full article here.

No Comments
Tags: Chicago Ad Agency, Stevens & Tate, Stevens & Tate Marketing

Ray Ban Stays Brand Loyal

1 Jun 2011

I’ve decided I want to a new pair of sunglasses. And not just any old sunglasses – I want Ray Bans! Of course I do. If I haven’t mentioned it before I will now – I am a slave to packaging. I love marketing and I will buy anything that is packaged and marketed well.

Now there are things in my life that I will spend money on, but sunglasses have never been one of them. I don’t take care of them. I leave them in my purse without protection and they get all scratched up. I like different looks so I like to buy lots of different kinds of sunglasses and then toss them around.

But I decided recently that I want a pair of Ray Bans. I want the classic Top Gun, Cameron Diaz in Charlie’s Angels, 70’s style sunglasses. And why do I want these now? PRODUCT PLACEMENT.

They are everywhere! They have always been around, but recently they are in everything I watch. Now I just might be entering their demo, but I think more than that is that so many brands are now copying the style of Ray Bans and they are showing up in every magazine, television show and commercial that I see out there. And they got me! I want them.

And they are not all Ray Bans. But because Ray Ban has consistently branded this style of sunglasses to their name, I know, even if that is not the brand I am seeing, that is the brand I want to buy.

Consistency. Be true and stay loyal to your brand and you will get brand loyal customers. It took Ray Ban 30 years to get me to be brand loyal, but they have 30 more of a long time customer.

No Comments
Tags: advertising agency, branding, Chicago Ad Agency, Retail Advertising

The Power of Packaging Doesn’t Stop at the Store

23 May 2011

Make Sure Your Product’s Vessel Makes a Brand’s First (and Second) Impression

As marketers focus on using social media to create connected, highly personalized brand experiences, they may easily overlook another critical touchpoint: product packaging.

In today’s fragmented marketing environment, packaging is far more than a product’s vessel; it is the physical manifestation of a brand experience and an important part of a brand promise. As such, packaging should be a critical piece of a brand’s integrated communication strategy.

Read the rest of this entry »

No Comments
Tags: Chicago Ad Agency, package design firm

Are Agencies Getting That Lazy?

5 May 2011

I was watching Castle the other day and two commercials followed each other back to back. They were so similar in style that I thought they were the same product. Unfortunately that just meant that both agencies who created these commercials were just lazy.

The first was a Virgin Mobile Sparah ad. At first I thought it was a little cute, but quickly I found it just plain insulting. Another commercial spoofing realty tv, and not even a new show but something old and overdone already. Can’t we think of anything new?

And then Hanes came on with a spoof on morning television. Really? It’s Hanes! You have so much to work with and that’s all you can give me? From Bugs Bunny and Michael Jordan to this? Depressing.

What is the demo of Castle viewers anyway that I would get such STUPID commercials directed at me? I personally am a fan of Castle and I do not consider myself that dumb. Was this bad creative directing or a bad media buy? You decide.

Virgin Mobile Live

The Superbowl and Its Commercials Have Both Become a Big Time Event

4 Feb 2011

The Superbowl is this weekend. It has become the most-watched televised event in the United States. Are you watching it for the Packers? The Steelers? Or the commercials?

According to a recent CNN Article, 50% of the viewers watch the Superbowl for the commercials. This year, a 30-second spot will cost advertisers $3 million. At $100,000 per second, advertisers will need to make every moment of their commercials count.

Is the cost worth it? The CNN Article goes on to say that Snickers would have to sell 6,329,406 candy bars to pay for a $3 million ad. But how many remember how popular the Betty White Snickers commercial was from last year’s Superbowl? How many people would know who Go Daddy was without their Superbowl ads? What about Apple’s 1984 commercial? Adweek has put together a nice page with the last 3 years of Superbowl commercials as well as some of the more popular of all time.

In addition to the cost to air the commercial, there is a cost to make them. However, some companies are forgoing this expense and letting people submit their own commercials for judging. This year, commercials have been uploaded and are being judged for both Doritos® and Pepsi Max®. You can see them at http://www.crashthesuperbowl.com/. For Doritos®, this has been a very successful marketing campaign. Not only are very memorable commercials being played, but they are also getting exposure from all over the web by advertising the previously linked site.

Enjoy watching the game this weekend. Come back next week to find out about this year’s commercials and how they fared.

Mythbusting: The Only Type Of Links That Count in Article Marketing Are Anchor Text Links

27 Jan 2011

It you are a marketer, chances are you have come across article marketing and the myths that surround it. One of the most common myths when it comes to article marketing is that in order for an article to have link value, the links must be coming from the article body and be formed using keywords as anchor text.

Steve Shaw, an article marketing expert and founder of the popular article distribution service SubmitYourArticle.com has shared his experience and theory on that myth.

He states that with article marketing, the link to your website is usually in the resource box, rather than the article body, so you will not often encounter publishers who will allow you to link to your website from the article body.

Still, many people use article marketing as their primary marketing tool and see excellent results. Using himself as an example, Steve has been article marketing and seen his site rise from as low as the 85th ranking for a particular keyword phrase up to the #1 spot.

Certainly it is not necessary (or even allowed) to link to your own site within the article body, and yet article marketing still works.

Are Some Links More Valuable Than Others?

Yes, certainly some types of links carry more weight than others. For example, the anchor text link in an HTML resource box speaks more powerfully than a plain URL link. This is just because the link in your HTML resource box gives Google more information about what your website is about.

This is not to say that a straightforward URL link is worthless–it certainly is not. It still carries value, but just not as much value as an anchor text link.

Does Link Location On The Page Matter?

It is also reasonable to suggest that the location of the link on the page carries some weight as well. So, a link in the footer or margin of a page, or a link that is repeated on every page of a website, will not carry as much weight as a link in the main body of text on a page.

Obviously no one has access to Google’s algorithm for rankings, but it also appears that keywords that show up higher on the page carry more weight than those that appear lower down. One could therefore suppose that anchor text links appearing higher on the page carry more weight too.

To read this article in its entirety, click here.

Older Entries

Newer Entries

Erik: I don't think it's so much of an outpouring of support for the old logo, but rather a great disdain [...]

Erik: Working with the right vendors that can help develop high-profile, creative packaging solutions at a [...]

Erik: I need a clarification. It appears that you're saying that visual design of a web page will indirect [...]

Erik: These are all great suggestions. Like any successful marketing campaign, using Facebook requires a c [...]

JassiMostru: Hi Very nice and intrestingss story. [...]

M	T	W	T	F	S	S
« Apr
	1	2	3	4	5	6
7	8	9	10	11	12	13
14	15	16	17	18	19	20
21	22	23	24	25	26	27
28	29	30	31

All posts tagged with