Entries Tagged as Brand / Marketing
01 February 2012
Is There Room for B2B Advertising In the Super Bowl?
By Bryn Adler, Internet Marketing Associate
It's no secret that the Super Bowl hosts the most precious ad time of the year. Companies compete to create the most compelling ad; the one that will go viral and be remembered for years to come (Apple's "1984," the Budweiser frogs, and last year's "The Force" from Volkswagen are some of my personal favorites, and I'm not alone).
But while B2C Super Bowl ads have created legends, boosted sales, and promoting brand reputation, B2B companies are left behind in the dust.
Categories: Brand / Marketing
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 12:42 PM | No Comments
11 January 2012
Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr: 3 Visual Social Platforms Poised for Branded Growth in 2012
By Bryn Adler, Internet Marketing Associate
While content is king in many inbound marketing circles, certain social sharing platforms are rising to the top to be the "next big thing" by catering to a long-held design standard: people respond to visual brand representations.
In addition to content-based social media standards like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, visual sharing sites Pinterest, Instagram, and Tumblr are becoming increasingly effective in presenting an overall brand online.
Categories: Brand / Marketing · Web / Interactive
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 2:30 PM | 3 Comments
04 January 2012
The Altruisim of Inbound Marketing
Why does inbound marketing seem to have such an altruistic
tone? Today’s marketers seek to be “partners.” They are in the business of providing valuable content that will inspire trust. Content is often something they give away – for free! The new analytic tools empower you.
Inbound marketing arrives on the heels of the Open Source movement, which began in earnest in the late 90s and encouraged technologists to give away their code to the online masses and adopt a communal attitude based on building better products through sharing IP rather than coveting it.
Once Open Source became a cultural phenomenon it gave birth to a new generation of movements empowering the individual or the consumer. Crowd-sourcing is one child and inbound marketing is another.
Inbound marketing represents the new world order as it applies to marketing. So what happened when marketers learned a better way than to push a one-size-fits-all agenda on their customers? They changed their tune and adopted a necessarily value-based persona. For better or worse, this has taken on an altruistic tone.
From what I’ve observed, this change in marketing and actually, business culture, is a hard adjustment for quite a few marketers who began their careers in the bad old days of cutthroat, competitive sales and marketing, bereft of the concept of being a partner or agent of empowerment. People who began their marketing careers before the late 90s remember marketing could often be a pretty hard boiled and highly competitive profession for which they focused their energies towards wielding every advantage they could over competitors to generate leads the sales force could convert. Sure they believed in their product or service but they were often more focused on gaining the advantage and beating out the competition.
So, it comes as no surprise that some marketing executives with whom I’ve spoken recently are skeptical of inbound marketing. My perspective is that if you don’t embrace the culture, it’s hard to embrace the practice. The “trust culture ” inbound marketing seeks to promote is at odds with the practices many marketers learned in their formative years. The only way to test the efficacy of Inbound marketing is to dive in, adopt inbound marketing best practices for six months and measure the results. Pick a pilot program, find an inbound marketing firm or practitioner and together design a campaign that incorporates content creation, search, lead generation and measurement. Like starting anything new, the first two tools you need are commitment and an open mind.
Categories: Brand / Marketing
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 9:41 AM | 4 Comments
22 December 2011
The Top 5 Holiday Marketing Campaigns of 2011
Bryn Adler, Internet Marketing Associate
Every year, companies compete for the onslaught of holiday shopping dollars by putting their best creative foot forward, creating targeted marketing campaigns that evoke the best and worst of the holiday season.
This year, the most successful campaigns weren't heartfelt or warming, but sarcastic and witty – a sign of the times? – and are memorable in their off-kilter themes. RainCastle took a look at this years top campaigns and made list our favorites of the season.
1. Target – The Christmas Champ
Target's veteran crazy female shopper is no surprise at number one, given her massive success last year and the inescapable buzz that surrounded her return this year. Striking fear in the hearts of all soccer moms, the Christmas Champ trains Rocky-style for the year's biggest sale at Target with terrifying cheer. A fan favorite is her holiday card orchestra, conducted while wearing overtly comical pearls, which is the cherry on top of a seriously scary Christmas season.
2. Best Buy – Game on, Santa
Best Buy took advantage of this year's rise in gamification by capitalizing on the theme of "games," challenging Santa to a game of gifts: with Best Buy, you can finally beat the old guy. Stressed out shoppers of all ages love watching the jovial character flounder as a Mom casually comments from the sidelines, "Aw, guess I didn't leave any room for you."
3. Old Spice – MANta Claus
Like the Christmas Champ, the Old Spice man has been a revolution in character advertising. He's the James Bond of deodorant, and his holiday messages are just as enticing as his past campaigns. Feeling that getting gifts for all 7 billion people in the world is "the least I can do," he starts with Twitter fan @beautyjunkie, and commissions a pair of heels made out of jewelry for the fan. This integration of social media, followed by a look at the 80s-style computer metrics set up to accomplish his giving goals, is the perfect pairing of old and new technology for mass appeal.
4. Ebay – Buy it Now, Buy it New, 12 Days
Ebay's Buy it Now, Buy it New campaign is centered on embarrassing family members who just don't understand. Like the popular "I don't want my grandmother's jeans" ad, the 12 Days ad features a teenage girl who takes caroling as an opportunity to pinpoint exactly what she wants and doesn't want from her list, while chastising the family for last year's blunders –"Especially from you Uncle Dave, were those acid wash jeans?" Bratty, yes, but the purpose of these campaigns is to prove that eBay is where the cool kids shop, for all of their new and used wants. Ebay's target audience will relate to the teenage sass and understand that all she wants for Christmas is an iPad, not a needlepoint pillow.
5. Honda – Happy Honda Days, Car Gift
Another shining example of character advertising, Honda spokesman Patrick Warburton serves as a voice of reason in an otherwise over-the-top holiday season. By removing Honda from the traditional family holiday push – "Are you a millionaire? No? Then you probably don't give cars to people as presents" – Warburton appeals to the average Honda customer (while, of course, highlighting that he is actually a millionaire, because the car on display is for his niece.) Simple, funny monologue-ing, at its finest.
Categories: Brand / Marketing · Web / Interactive
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 12:24 PM | 10 Comments
13 December 2011
Raincastle New Home page a Window into Integrated Strategy
November and December have been extraordinarily busy and exciting at RainCastle with the simultaneous launch of three exciting new websites: for global innovation strategy and consulting firm Innosight, public and private sector professional services firm, Tapestry Networks, and the Jewish Community Center of Greater Boston (JCCGB)
The scale of this new work plus our growth in the internet marketing space have deepened the ways we are engaging with our clients. Our new work and services are reflected in the new RainCastle homepage launched yesterday. Look for additional changes within the site in Q1, 2012.
The new RainCastle homepage boldly showcases the three new websites by providing a set of “panels” for each with thumbnail image and headline text that links to a brief story about the project, which contains a link to each site. The panels will rotate over time to feature the latest client work that highlights successful client collaborations and supports the RainCastle brand.
Beneath the main graphic panels, we’re featuring a selection of other projects in our portfolio, links to recent blogposts from our “Driving Rain” blog and an area we’re calling, “Featured Content,” which offers recent content of value to our clients and prospects. This area will grow over time and is augmented by our Resources section, which contains useful articles, white papers and videos.
Less visible in nature, but equally exciting is our continuing relationship with these clients with whom we are collaborating on additional marketing programs involving SEO, analytics lead generation and social media, as well as additional features on their websites. Over time, we will be featuring this work as well. Ultimately, demonstrating the value of the successful integration of brand strategy, website user experience and ongoing results through internet marketing is the RainCastle value proposition.
We’d love to hear your comments on the new homepage!
Categories: Brand / Marketing · Web / Interactive
Posted by Paul Regensburg at 9:00 AM | 3 Comments
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