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Chicago advertising company
20 Years Later, Start Up Lessons From a Chicago Ad Agency
Category: Ad Agency|Advertising agencies Chicago|Advertising agencies Naperville|Advertising agencies Oak Brook|advertising agency|b2b marketing strategy|Chicago ad agencies|Chicago Ad Agency|Chicago advertising agencies|Chicago advertising agency|Chicago advertising company|Chicago advertising consultants|Mark Beebe
11 Jun 2012Typically when you start a new business, you have no idea what you are getting into or the curves along the way. Being in this position today and having survived 20 years, I feel this list will help any new business start-up.
1. The manager is incompetent
Most small businesses fail because the owner does not have the knowledge to run a business properly.
Solution: Go to a business class before you open your doors.
2. Finances are not in place
Solution: Write a business plan or get an accountant to assist you. Cash is king and without proper funding even the best idea will fail.
Social Media Marketing: 5 Ways Social Media Can Improve Client and Customer Interaction
Category: Advertising Agency in Chicago|Advertising consultant|B2B Ad agencies|Chicago Ad Agency|Chicago advertising agency|Chicago advertising company|retail marketing|Social Media Marketing Agency|social media marketing companies|social networking consultant|Stevens & Tate|Stevens and Tate
21 Oct 2011All organizations strive to earn their clients by providing a good product or service. The next step in the process is to provide exemplary customer service. They recognize that once you have a client, you can lose them if you aren’t able to maintain a relationship.
True commitment to customer services comes from the top down. You can’t expect your employees on the front line to offer the best service when they know that the executive suite isn’t backing the effort.
Social media can be the key to building this relationship. It can also be the way to finding cracks in your organization on who says they want to provide good service but doesn’t truly have the customer’s best interest at heart. Read the rest of this entry »
Visit Author's Google+ PageSocial Media Marketing: Facebook Just Shifted From Scale to Engagement
Category: Chicago advertising agency|Chicago advertising company|Chicago advertising consultants|Social Media Marketing Agency|social media marketing companies|social networking consultant|Stevens & Tate|Stevens and Tate
21 Sep 2011There are three things you need to be thinking about as a marketer on Facebook:
1. Building for connections
Gokul made a very elegant point. You don’t want to just build connections. It’s not about the number of fans you have. It’s about what you offer them and it’s clear that the company’s focus has shifted from growth to engagement.
You need to publish content and experiences that people care about. Don’t build around your business. Build around your customers’ interests. If you sell cameras, focus on pictures and not your products. If you sell stoves, focus on the food and not your steel products.
Put content out there that becomes a part of users’ identity. The question you need to ask is: how can you build experiences and publish content that consumers will put into their Timelines and make their own? Focus on stuff that adds meaning to people’s lives and not distract their lives.
Think lighter versions of the Nike+ running application. The app focuses on running and not shoes but Nike gets the credit for adding value.
The key metric going forward will be closer to how many people added your content or application to their timeline than how many connections you have. This is a radical shift to actions and engagement and away from reach and impressions, though they are tightly aligned. Read the rest of this entry »
Are Agencies Getting That Lazy?
Category: Ad Agency|advertising agency|Advertising Agency in Chicago|advertising and marketing agency|Chicago Ad Agency|Chicago advertising agencies|Chicago advertising agency|Chicago advertising company|Chicago advertising consultants|Chicago marketing agency|media strategy|Stevens & Tate|Stevens & Tate advertising|Stevens and Tate|Stevens and Tate Advertising
5 May 2011I 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.
How Google Adwords Can Help You
Category: advertising and marketing agency|Chicago advertising company|Chicago advertising consultants|seo consultant|seo consultants|seo consulting|Social Media Marketing Agency|social media marketing companies|social networking consultant|Stevens & Tate|Stevens & Tate advertising|Stevens and Tate|Stevens and Tate Advertising
25 Feb 2011Google Adwords allows you to create and run ads for your business quickly and simply. Even better, you’ll only pay when people click your ads.
According to Google Adwords, the ads are displayed along with search results when someone searches Google using one of your keywords. Ads appear under ‘Sponsored links’ in the side column of a search page, and may also appear in additional positions above the free search results. That way, you’ll be advertising to an audience that’s already interested in your business.
Some of the Adwords terminologies you should know are as follows:
- Keyword – these are the terms or phrases you want to “trigger” your ad to appear.
- Campaign & ad group – accounts are organized into campaigns and ad groups. You start with one campaign, which has its own daily budget and targeting preferences. As you expand your advertising, you add more campaigns or ad groups, which are sets of related ads, keywords, and placements within a campaign.
- Click – If a customer sees your ad and clicks on it to learn more or to do business with you, it’s recorded in your account as a click.
- Cost-per-click (CPC) – you pay only when someone clicks on your ad.
- Impression (Impr.) – the number of times an ad is displayed on Google or the Google Network.
- Clickthrough rate (CTR) – the number of clicks your ad receives divided by the number of times your ad is shown (impressions). A keyword’s CTR is a strong indicator of its relevance to the user and the overall success of the keyword.
- Average Position – a statistic displayed in the “Avg. Pos” column in your AdWords account. It refers to the position on a search results page where your ad appears for each of your keywords.
- Networks – Ads can appear on Google’s Search Network, Display Network, or both.
- Quality Score – a measure of how relevant your ad, keyword, or webpage is.
- Conversion – occurs when a user completes an action on your site, such as buying something or requesting more information.
Of these, the most important are Clickthrough rate (CTR) and Conversion. A good CTR with conversions means your search engine marketing program is doing well.
Visit Author's Google+ PageWhen is a Facebook page better than a website?
Category: Chicago advertising agency|Chicago advertising company|Chicago marketing agency|Graphic Design Agency|Social Media Marketing Agency|social media marketing companies|social networking consultant|Stevens & Tate|Stevens & Tate advertising|Stevens and Tate|Stevens and Tate Advertising
22 Feb 2011Can you really wave goodbye to a traditional website? What are the pros and cons of going solo? iMediaConnection poses this very interesting question that we ourselves go back and forth on with our clients. There is no denying that Facebook fan pages are a wildly popular and effective means to reach your audience. But as the article goes on to point out, there are only certain situations where this may be a better solution than a full blown website. Do you need to build up your search engine ranking? Do you want detailed analytics of your website traffic? What if Facebook changes the template of fan pages?
Read this article and come back to share your thoughts. Have you considered solely relying on a fan page for your next project? Or have you always thought you needed a microsite to tell your story and didn’t realize how effective Facebook can be? Either way, we’d love to know your opinions after reading.
Visit Author's Google+ PageThe Superbowl and Its Commercials Have Both Become a Big Time Event – Part 2
Category: Advertising Agency in Chicago|b2b marketing strategy|Chicago advertising agency|Chicago advertising company|Chicago marketing agency|marketing communications|retail marketing|Stevens & Tate|Stevens & Tate advertising|Stevens and Tate|Stevens and Tate Advertising
10 Feb 2011The reviews are in, the numbers have been tallied, and winners and losers have been announced. Did your favorites do well?
The USA Today Ad Meter had a tie for 1st place. Since a Doritos® commercial was one that was tied for 1st, it earns the amateur filmmaker a $1 million prize. Doritos® also took 4th and 14th. Pepsi Max® did well by placing 5th, 7th and 24th. Bud Light® was the other 1st place winner.
The Ad Meter wasn’t the only source for commercial rankings. If you wanted to know which commercial did well in the social media arena, Alterian has it all calculated. A good place to get an overview of many of the major sources is at this NY Times blog article. There are numbers calculated for Kelley Blue Book searches, numbers for commercials replayed on TiVo, and numbers showing the most-watched commercial. With a record number of viewers this year, advertisers do look at these figures.
What types of commercials aired? Auto commercials took the most spots. Who doesn’t like the Star Wars themed commercial from VW? Movie trailers were also big on advertising this year. Cowboys and Aliens, Transformers, Thor, Captain America, Pirates of the Caribbean, and Rango were all some of those who shelled out the $3 million pricetag to promote their movie. There were drinks, snacks, .com, and more.
Let us know what commercials you liked and/or hated.
Doritos® winning commercial
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