Advertising, Brand•
on January 24th, 2008•
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Honda has created a Rube Goldberg style two-minute commercial for the new Honda Accord. The commercial is ground-breaking because it was shot in real-time, in one take. Supposedly, it took several weeks to produce and 606 takes to get the one perfect take, all at a cost of 6 million dollars. Everything shown in the commercial is from two real automobiles that were disassembled and not from 3D graphic animation. This spot is currently being shown on British television and, through viral marketing, making its way through email boxes in the US.
Advertising, Brand•
on January 23rd, 2008•
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Apple continues to create TV commercials that are funny and extend the brand. A recent Apple commercial, ‘Quote’, is another in a series of ads featuring the characters ‘Mac’ and ‘PC’. The spot promotes Leopard (their new operating system) and the reaction by ‘PC’.
Website Design•
on January 22nd, 2008•
In the context of marketing and advertising, words use only one of our senses, our eyes. A voice over also uses only one of our senses, our ears. It is only video that engages both our eyes and ears. And the way to capture the attention of your target audience is to engage more than one of their senses. It’s the reason that companies such as Anheuser-Busch will spend 2.6 million dollars for one 30 second spot on the Super Bowl this year. It works.
Your business can use this marketing advantage by adding video to your website. Think about creating a 30 second commercial about your business and put it on your Home page. If you have a product, demonstrate the benefits and features in a short video spot. If you have a service and it can’t be described in a brief video, break the narrative into segments like chapters in a book. Create a simple navigation that make it easy for the user to view your videos.
Because the video should be professionally produced, hire a marketing firm to identify your brand identity, write a tight script and produce your business video. There are many methods to encode and upload the final video to your website. You can also use the free services of YouTube to upload and host your business video and link back to your website. The fact is that you don’t have to spend 2.6 million dollars to create a great video for your website. Get started and get your target audience excited.
A new website design allows you to re-introduce your company. Think of a company like Apple and how they are constantly seen as innovators of their market. One method for giving your business a boost in sales is to review your existing website.
- Does your website reach your target audience effectively?
- Have you reviewed your competition’s websites?
- Does your website reflect your brand identity?
- Is your website search engine ‘friendly’?
- Does your website design look professional?
- Have you budgeted for a new website this year?
Sales does not happen in a vacuum. If you’ve done your homework by creating an effective brand, then the next step is to build solid marketing support to reach prospects, warm them up to your product or service, and make the sale. The more qualified prospects you can get into the pipeline, the better the opportunity to improve your business. And the Internet is the most exciting playing field to plant your flag. Online, the world is your oyster.
That’s not to say that you can put up an average website. Your website needs to be the best. When prospects visit, you want them to stay, review and be excited about your product or service. The goal should be to get them to call or send for more information. On low-priced items, get them to place an order online. On higher ticket items, a salesperson usually needs to make the close. In either case a new website design can dramatically re-energize your business’ sales.
Website Design•
on January 7th, 2008•
Website design is important in promoting events. The Ohio Auto Dealers Association has created a new website to promote the Greater Toledo Auto Show this month. Flash animation was used to enhance the website. The opening is fantastic.
