New marketing stats revealed during Advertising Week XIII showed some amazing findings regarding Social Media, Mobile and even Television Networks. Social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Google, and Snapshot for example, are growing significantly on mobile devices. The data regarding Television was compelling as well:

Via adweek.com

There was also no shortage of numbers revealed during the New York event affirming the impact of television—and yet, even the networks are embracing mobile more than ever.The ad business, noted Carolyn Everson, Facebook’s vp of global marketing solutions, isn’t just getting into the game. “The shift to mobile,” she said, “has already bodybuilding-life.com happened.”

Advertising Week XII Reveals Amazing Marketing Stats

Without a doubt, these marketing stats prove that the only thing that is certain these days…is change. In times like these it’s more important than ever to stay on top of the latest trends. That includes doing what it takes to successfully market your product or service online and on mobile.

Tips to Staying On Top with New Media

Millennials are driving much of the growth in the overall economy. They spend their time across a lot of different kinds of media, so to reach them effectively consider being a jack-of-all-trades.

To start, you need a strong, diversified advertising plan. This plan should include a mix of traditional advertising, along with some ‘new’ media. Then you combine this with some engaging online marketing programs and popular social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat and Instagram.

This will give you a recipe for success in the ‘new’ marketing and media landscape that consumers live in today. And then when the latest marketing stats are released, you will find yourself leading the trend – instead of being somewhere in the back, or left behind.

I recently had lunch with an old friend. During the conversation he begin to talk about a new business he was starting. He was excited about the process of establishing his business and the process he and his team had to undertake to get started.

The conversation soon turned to the cost associated with starting a new business– business license, certifications, office space and more. All total he had, very willing invested over $20,000.

After hearing all he had done I asked, “Do you have a budget for marketing or a logo design?” Of course, like most business owners he had not and wanted to know how much a logo design would cost?

It’s subjective… like how much does it cost to build a new house? Or how long is the string? Where are you in your business and brand journey? Are you just starting out, making decisions, changes, and revisions? Or are you solidly established and in need of a complete logo redesign or brand update? The answers to these questions will help you decide on a budget, and select from the logo design options below.

You could run a contest, ask a friend or relative, or contact a local school with a design department and propose a class project. I don’t recommend any of these, but I know it happens, and sometimes people get decent results. But more often than not, the quality of the results is reflected by the price. This type of request is often called spec work, where logo design submissions are requested with no guarantee of compensation. Most professional graphic designers refuse to do spec work. Can you blame them?

Read the full story here

How Much Should I Spend on a Logo Design?

So what’s the answer to “How Much To Spend On A Logo Design?” The budget should be in line with the industry you are in or entering and the image you want for your company and only you can determine that.

My advice, seek help from a graphic design professional. One with a proven track record and work with them to create the desired image for your company. Set a budget, a reasonable budget, for your industry and expectations. You may even want to look for any logo design you like and reach out to them to see if you can determine what their budget was.

The bottom-line, set a budget that you can be comfortable with, work with the best possible resource for that budget and be comfortable with that. And keep in mind, as your business grows or the industry changes you can always have it redesigned.

With few constants we find ourselves dependent on simple things that give us a sense of stability. Even though the average person is exposed to upwards of 5,000 brand messages per day, the consistency of those brands give us a sense of normalcy. So when that changes too, we don’t like it.

Last week Google unveiled its redesigned, mobile-friendly logo, which updates the font from a crisp, sharply defined san serif wordmark, to a blockier, rounded sans-serif. Despite its cutesy introductory animation on Google’s homepage, the new logo made me uneasy. On some days it’s my one constant, and while that sad fact should probably unsettle me more than the subtle logo alteration, Googles move threw me nonetheless.

Despite its cutesy introductory animation on Google’s homepage, the new logo made me uneasy. Both at work and outside it, I’m dependent on Google’s search-engine. On some days it’s my one constant, and while that sad fact should probably unsettle me more than the subtle logo alteration, Google’s move threw me nonetheless. I wasn’t alone. “I hate it,” my friend announced over Gchat. “It looks like the scribbling of a child.”

An informal Ad Age poll showed that most readers were also against the shift, and the reaction on social media – which, to be fair, tilts toward negative reviews – was decidedly underwhelmed.

Check out the full story here…

Ahh, change. It’s often a four letter word (Actually it’s six letters, but work with me). Unless someone is a seasoned designer, experienced marketer or advertising pro chances are they won’t be able to express exactly why they do or don’t like a new logo design. They just know how they feel when they see it. More correctly stated, “When they don’t see the logo they have become accustomed to seeing.”

Need a New Logo or Logo Redesign?

If you are looking to have a new logo created – or perhaps just want to update your existing logo – consider working with someone who specializes in logo design or logo redesigns. They will be able to help you avoid many of the pitfalls that come with branding or re-branding your company or product.

However, even working with someone to create a professional logo design is not a guarantee that everyone will immediately like the new design. They may even write articles or blogs about just how much they and their friends “Hate it!”

But don’t worry, with one more ingredient, “Time”, change will begin to shift in your direction as your logo begins to be accepted as the norm and starts working in your favor.

Snickers Replaces Brand Name with Friendly Insults in Creative Packaging Roll-out

Popular candy brand Snickers continues the trend of personalization by actually replacing it’s very own brand name with new creative packaging that features 21 humorous hunger symptoms.  Continuing with it’s current “You’re Not You When You’re Hungry” campaign – these “Hunger Bars” are meant to be shared with friends who are not quite acting like themselves because they haven’t eaten.

While some bars will retain it’s original packaging, here are some of the names you’ll see emblazoned on the wrapper instead of the familiar “Snickers” logo:

• Drama Mama

• Curmudgeon

• Ornery

• Whiny

• Testy

• Grouchy

• Irritable

• Complainer

• Feisty

• Rebellious

• Princess

• Goofball

• Confused

• Snippy

• Cranky

• Loopy

• Spacey

• Forgetful

• Sleepy

Oh, the hilarity that will ensue when you give one of personalized Snicker bars to someone who really deserves it! Or when someone gives one to you!

Read more via Adweek:

As part of the campaign, the brand has released this online spot from BBDO New York, starring a loopy goofball of a hotline operator who takes calls and dispatches bike messengers to deliver the insulting candy to those in need. A percentage of bars will remain in the original packaging. Print advertising for the campaign launches later this month.

“We believe the new bars will inspire people to not only quickly identify their own symptoms and satisfy their hunger, but give them a new, fun way to call-out friends and family on who they become when they’re hungry, too,” says Snickers brand director Allison Miazga-Bedrick.

https://youtu.be/pT6PlWjuXw0

Extending Your Brand Through Creative Packaging

Bravo to the team at Snickers for taking their marketing strategy and creatively extending it to their packaging in order to better engage consumers. That’s a bold move that many may assume is not possible in their own situations. In reality, there are all kind of ways to achieve similar results – that may or may not involve changing your packaging.

First – Like Snickers, you must partner with a creative marketing company that will take the time to truly understand you, your brand, and your targeted customers. They should also have proven experience; perhaps with brands even larger than yours – to know exactly how to market your product to create the buzz, excitement, and measurable results your brand deserves.

In a brilliant bit of branding coup, Oscar Mayer has created and released an actual dating mobile app that aims to bring together like-minded people who share a deep and abiding love for…bacon!

Proving once again that “there’s an app for that” – this free iOS app called “Sizzl” aims to give dating apps like Tinder a run for their money and match up people nearby based on your preferences.  This is how it works:

Via adweek.com

You download the app, specify your bacon preferences in a customizable profile, upload photos and start swiping your greasy digits through pics of local fellow bacon lovers. Depending on how “Sizzl-ing” they are, you can message and meet up with other Sizzl users, based on a mutual-matching system, for what Oscar Mayer is calling “bacon-wrapped dates.”

“In love, as it is in bacon, it’s important to be discerning when selecting your perfect match and to never settle for less than the best,” Eric Dahmer, marketing director at Oscar Mayer, says in a statement. “We passionately cure our bacon for 12 hours, and lovingly smoke-house it for another 12, making it the true bacon for bacon lovers. With the launch of Sizzl, we’re thrilled to give our true bacon lovers the chance to find each other and potentially meet their soulmates, in life and in bacon.”

https://youtu.be/Vh3RuV-xoZc

This Sizzl app from Oscar Mayer is a great example of what you get when you take a pinch of strategy, mix in 3 parts creativity, add a bit of branding – and package it all in a custom developed mobile app cleverly designed to engage your core and desired target audience and generate buzz.

Very clever indeed!

If you want to check out the Sizzl app for yourself – it’s only available for download for the next 6 months – and exclusively on iOS, for iPhone 5 and up (sorry Android and Windows users).

When it comes to technology, facial recognition and emoji’s are two trends that have made great gain in popularity recently. Quick to capitalize on this is global advertising leader Coca-Cola, who just released a “Coke-moji” interactive ad campaign in Sweden that consists of a digital billboard that actually winks and smiles back at you when you do!

Few tech trends have exploded as fast in recent years as facial recognition and emojis, and now Coca-Cola is bringing them together for an interactive billboard.

While facial-recognition software is probably going to be fairly commonplace in public spaces someday, right now, the technology certainly still has a “wow factor,” and Coke’s ad shows that the implications of facial recognition can go far beyond mobile and social.

Read the full story via adweek.com

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2gvKrfZTAU

This is a great interactive ad execution – and shows just how far you can go when you blend technology with creativity to create effective advertising that strategically and literally engages with your target audience.

What’s most interesting about the feat is that Snapchat has reached this milestone after clocking 2 billion video views per day in May this year and 3 billion just five weeks ago. The numbers clearly indicate the rapid growth of the company and its potential to help businesses reach more customers.

Implications for Businesses/Advertisers

There’s a bit of controversy however, regarding the 4 Billion daily views comparison with Facebook. Facebook counts a view when someone watches at least 3 seconds of autoplay in it’s News feed. Whereas Snapchat counts it upon click – and the experience is very different – with Snapchat grabbing the viewers attention by playing the video Full-screen, and for only 10 seconds. This makes for much stronger engagement with the viewer.

For businesses and advertisers, this validates that the views are likely real – something that they would pay more for (vs. Facebook). In addition, the ability to set a time limit allows you to create a unique call-to-action that creates true excitement.

The growing popularity of the app is motivating both Snapchat – and tech savvy businesses – to come up with creative ways to make the platform even more effective and engaging.

This incredible 4 Billion daily view achievement by Snapchat is catching the eye of all those businesses and entrepreneurs sitting on the sidelines thinking about or planning to develop a mobile app and capitalize on what could be just the beginning of another profitable run in the social messaging mobile app space.

There’s no denying that technology has made a definitive impact in our lives. In looking back over the last 10 years at the world of Advertising specifically – those of us in the business have witnessed the way that it has forever changed the how, what, when, where, and why of effectively communicating with our targeted audience.

Lizzie Wedhelm, Pandora’s senior vice president of ad product and strategy, shares her perspective on the the Top 10 major changes in advertising over the last 10 years :

I’ve witnessed many dramatic shifts in the past decade, both in our company’s evolution and in the advertising industry. I’ve compiled my own list of the 10 significant things that have changed in advertising throughout this period of time.

1. Mobile Mania
2. Data-Driven
3. Quality Matters
4. Bite-Sized Content
5. Multi-Layered Media: The Attention Economy Is Here
6. Internet of Things
7. Keep It Simple
8. Connected Kids with Real Money
9. Offline ROI in Fewer Than Three Clicks
10. Consumers are the New Spokespeople

Check out the full story here

…And just think, we’re only getting started.  If you’re not prepared, it’s enough to put you at your wits end.

So as technology continues to evolve at lightening speed – so will the consumer – and the way that we engage and interact with them will radically change.

Often day-to-day. And in Real-Time.

Coca-Cola is dipping into it’s archive of ‘classic’ advertising to bring back one of the most iconic commercials in history.

Technically called “Early Showers”, the 60-second Mean Joe Greene spot will air during the Nascar Darlington Raceway Southern 500 race in South Carolina.

As many remember, in the 1979 ad Pittsburg Steelers Hall of Fame and four-time Super Bowl Champion “Mean Joe” Greene is seen after a game walking back to the locker room – when a small boy stops to offer him a refreshing bottle of Coca-Cola. After first refusing, Greene accepts the Coke and finishes it in one big gulp.

And the rest of the spot of course, is history – when Mean Joe and the kid turn to go their separate ways – but Greene has a change of heart and throws the kid his jersey.

In an exclusive interview with Adweek, Greene provides his perspective on the power of the spot:

via Adweek

“Prior to the commercial I was known as a mean guy. Not just ‘Mean Joe,’ but as a mean guy,” he said. “But afterward, I remember prior to a ball game, leaving a hotel on a road trip, a little kid came up to me and asked for an autograph. I tend not to give autographs, and I kind of snarled at him, and he just looked at me and smiled and said, “That’s ‘Mean Joe.'””I have been told over the years that it was a pivotal point in bringing black athletes to the national forum,” Greene added. “I wasn’t aware of it, but I guess people in the business have said that, and if that’s so, I think that’s a good thing.”

“I’ve been truly blessed to be a part of it,” Greene said of the ad. “It’s a good thing; it’s not aggressive. I wouldn’t say it’s passive, but it’s a conversation between a kid and and adult, a black man and a white kid during that time. It wasn’t really about either of us, but about the product, and we just happened to be talking about it.”

And here is the classic Coca-Cola TV spot. Enjoy!