Here’s a wonderful children’s book/Slideshare from Mash+Studio in NYC about why your brand needs to produce content that is relevant to your customer. When you just talk about yourself, you lose.
I’m a Taurus who enjoys rainy Sunday afternoons, open source technology, and unicorns.
Of all the brands out there, who woulda thought that Lowe’s would be the one to show brands just how to use Twitter’s 6-second video platform, Vine?
Under the hashtag #lowesfixinsix, the home improvement superstore (with the help of BBDO/NY) is tweeting out little lifehacks to make your life easier.
Stripped screw? No problem, just use a rubber band. #lowesfixinsix #howto vine.co/v/bU61aqq2YOp
— Lowe’s (@Lowes) April 21, 2013
Clean your cookie sheets with baking soda and peroxide. #lowesfixinsix #howto #stopmotion vine.co/v/bx9iEFdwvJ0 — Lowe’s (@Lowes) April 30, 2013
I’m a Taurus who enjoys rainy Sunday afternoons, open source technology, and unicorns.
Tax season is thankfully over, but chances are you drove past several places in early April where someone was holding a sign or dressed as a Statue of Liberty beckoning you towards a bigger refund. Most of the time you just drive on by, but once in a great while, you’ll see someone who makes you smile because he or she is just having a blast spinning a sign. And isn’t that what you want your brand to do when it works its way into someone’s brain? Make them smile?
Well, it starts with how well you communicate with the first ambassadors of your brand – your employees.
Cheryl Burgess had a nice post on CMO.com this past week about how companies have to establish strong internal communications BEFORE speaking to their consumers, called “Branding from the Inside Out.”
As we explain in our book, if a brand cannot communicate internally, then it cannot communicate externally. Skilled social employees act as brand ambassadors through their social channels. To ensure it is sending out a unified brand message through its employee channels, companies must establish a strong framework of communication in-house before ever reaching out to the public.
“This goes back to managing the brand from the inside out,” said Dana Williams, Southwest Airlines’ Director, Integrated Marketing and Communications. “We’ve got to take care of our employees first so they can take care of their customers and tell them what’s going on.”
All of this prepares workers for a reality that is already fast upon us: Your employee is your brand. Whether a brand is B2B or B2C makes little difference.
This hits the bullseye for every engagement we have with our Clients.
You may hear creatives talk about “polishing a turd” or “putting lipstick on a pig” if they are working on a less than stellar brand, but at Creative Department we think how stellar your brand is starts with how well you communicate with your employees. Marketing is in the product AND the people. The people who represent your brand ARE your brand.
Once you establish a solid framework for communicating with your internal customers – your employees – your can rest assured they have the tools to communicate effectively with your external customers – consumers.
As Ellen Degeneres remarked in the video above, she had no idea what the sign spinner was advertising, but he was SO good at it that she wanted to learn more. And then, what did she do? She hired him to spin a sign advertising her show.
What does your company do to make sure your employees are the best representatives they can be for your brand?
I’m a Taurus who enjoys rainy Sunday afternoons, open source technology, and unicorns.
Facebook’s Graph Search finally hit my wall this week. The new tool lets you FINALLY look up anything you’ve shared on Facebook AND find stuff your friends have shared with you. Great idea, right? Well, like every new feature the social network rolls out, this too comes with a whole new slew of privacy concerns.
People who like Focus on the Family and Neil Patrick Harris
As technologist and Internet gadfly, Tom Scott, pointed out in late January, Graph Search ALSO lets you search EVERYONE else’s Public profiles on Facebook, too. So, if you don’t want the world to know that you like two seemingly contradictory things (Vegetarianism and Bacon?), you may wanna skedaddle over to your Privacy Settings and do some tweaking.
If you don’t know HOW to do this, check out Time Magazine’s great How To Facebook Privacy Settings Guide»
I’m a Taurus who enjoys rainy Sunday afternoons, open source technology, and unicorns.
If you are thinking about upgrading your smartphone to the new Samsung Galaxy S4, what are you going to do with your old phone? Throw it out? Throw it in a drawer with all of your old cellphones dating back to 1997? Well, that phone from 1997 probably is the size of a drawer, but you get my point. Technology moves so fast these days and when we upgrade our electronics – whether it be to a new LED Flat Screen TV or a new Macbook Air – we often just throw the old one into a closet and forget about it. Or worse, throw it in the garbage.
Whatever you do, do NOT throw away old electronics. These products can contain lead, cadmium, mercury, and other hazardous wastes and every year nearly 80% of this material ends up in landfills. That means they can pollute the air, contaminate soil, and even leach into our water supply. And, plus, you don’t want some stranger getting your bank account info off of an old laptop or Mom’s number off of an old flip phone.
Nearly every electronic and its parts can be recycled and reused and companies like Middletown-based Cohen offer solutions that ensure your electronics won’t end up in a landfill and your private data won’t end up in the wrong hands.
Cohen has over 20 Cohen Recycling Centers in Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee and this week they are teaming up with the Cincinnati Zoo and the Cincinnati Reds to make recycling your electronics even easier.
Party for the Planet at the Cincinnati Zoo
Thursday, April 18, 2013
Zoo visitors are invited to drop off their old or unwanted electronic equipment for recycling during the the 4th Annual Party for the Planet Earth Day celebration. For every item donated, Cohen will make a donation to the Zoo’s Conservation Fund. Admission to the Zoo is FREE after 5pm.
Players for the Planet with the Cincinnati Reds
April 19-21
Visit one of four convenient area locations to recycle your old electronics and you’ll get the chance to meet current and former Cincinnati Reds players AND receive free tickets to a game at Great American Ball Park.
I’m a Taurus who enjoys rainy Sunday afternoons, open source technology, and unicorns.