Blog : advertising

The iPhone 15: A Game-Changer

The tech world is ablaze with excitement as September 2023 heralds the arrival of Apple’s latest masterpiece – the iPhone 15. Apple, known for pushing the boundaries of innovation, continues to set new standards in the smartphone industry with each new release. The iPhone 15 is no exception, poised to dazzle consumers with a slew of cutting-edge features that promise to redefine our mobile experience. In this article, we’ll delve into the details and explore what makes this release a true game-changer.

Apple has always been synonymous with sleek and elegant designs, and the latest iPhone lives up to that reputation. Its bezel-free, edge-to-edge display not only maximizes screen real estate but also captivates with its refined form factor and premium materials. Holding this iPhone is like holding a piece of the future in your hand.

Under the hood, the iPhone 15 is fueled by the most advanced chipset ever seen in a smartphone. Its lightning-fast processing speeds and unparalleled graphics capabilities ensure that it effortlessly handles any task you throw at it. Whether you’re a multitasking pro or a mobile gamer, this iPhone is your trusty companion.

Apple’s commitment to smartphone photography shines brighter than ever in this release. The device boasts a state-of-the-art camera system featuring a triple-lens setup with unmatched low-light capabilities and cutting-edge image processing algorithms. No matter the lighting conditions, expect stunning photos and videos with unparalleled detail.

Privacy and security are paramount, and Apple goes the extra mile in the September 2023 iPhone. The device incorporates advanced facial recognition technology, ensuring that your phone is truly yours alone. Furthermore, Apple maintains its unwavering commitment to data encryption and secure payment options, granting you peace of mind in a digital age.

Prepare to be transported to new realms of multimedia bliss. The edge-to-edge display enchants with vibrant colors and razor-sharp visuals, breathing life into every photo, video, and game. The device’s enhanced stereo speakers complement the visuals with immersive audio, making every moment a sensory delight.

Apple’s ecosystem continues to be a testament to seamless integration between devices. The iPhone seamlessly connects and syncs with your other Apple devices, elevating your digital life. The latest iOS iteration introduces a myriad of features and improvements, ensuring a user-friendly and intuitive experience.

As we eagerly anticipate the arrival of the iPhone 15, it’s evident that Apple is once again poised to redefine smartphone innovation. From its groundbreaking design to its formidable performance and cutting-edge features, this release is set to rewrite the rules. Whether you’re a tech enthusiast, a professional, or simply someone who appreciates the beauty of cutting-edge technology, the September 2023 iPhone promises to leave an indelible mark. Prepare to embark on a new era of mobile excellence.

Ready to experience the future of mobile technology? Contact Colure Media today to explore how we can elevate your brand with the latest in digital advertising, app development, and social media marketing strategies.

Unleashing the Potential of AI Chatbots for 24/7 Customer Support

In today’s rapidly evolving business landscape, setting your brand apart from the competition hinges on exceptional customer service. While conventional customer support methods like phone calls and emails are indispensable, they often fall short in meeting the expectations of modern consumers who demand rapid and personalized assistance. This has paved the way for the rise of AI chatbots, a revolutionary solution for offering round-the-clock customer support.

AI chatbots are sophisticated computer programs that simulate human conversations through the fusion of natural language processing (NLP) and machine learning. These digital assistants possess the remarkable capacity to manage a multitude of queries simultaneously, furnish personalized responses, and operate ceaselessly, every day of the year. As AI technology continues to advance, the capabilities of chatbots are expanding, empowering businesses to optimize customer experiences and augment sales.

The speed and efficiency afforded by AI chatbots are at the heart of their adoption in customer support. These bots excel at handling numerous inquiries concurrently, ensuring customers receive instant resolutions without enduring prolonged wait times. Consequently, businesses can amplify customer satisfaction, cultivate a sterling brand reputation, and foster loyalty by elevating the quality of customer interactions, all while incurring minimal costs.

Personalization has emerged as a cornerstone of contemporary customer service, further fueling the integration of AI chatbots. These intelligent bots adeptly learn customer preferences, purchase histories, and other relevant details, enabling them to deliver tailored recommendations, assistance, and promotions. This personalized approach resonates with customers, engendering brand loyalty. Moreover, chatbots bolster service quality by swiftly accessing real-time data and product information, thereby furnishing accurate responses to customer inquiries.

The utility of chatbots extends to conserving time and resources for businesses. The process of recruiting and training call center agents to provide round-the-clock coverage can be both expensive and time-intensive. Chatbots, on the other hand, can function cost-effectively with minimal oversight, rendering them an appealing alternative.

Finally, the symbiotic relationship between customers and AI chatbots drives continuous improvement in service delivery. As chatbots accumulate insights from their interactions, they incorporate machine learning to enhance accuracy and suggest tailored offerings aligned with customer preferences. This iterative approach optimizes customer satisfaction, accelerates response times, and curtails associated expenditures.

In conclusion, the evolution of AI chatbots into indispensable tools for businesses is undeniable, offering top-tier customer service, improved brand perception, enhanced customer loyalty, and streamlined operations. With their exceptional capability to provide seamless support and personalized interactions, AI chatbots stand as a transformative asset in modern customer engagement strategies. As industries continue to navigate the ever-evolving customer-centric landscape, embracing AI chatbots becomes a strategic imperative that can catalyze success. For comprehensive solutions that span from influencer marketing to digital advertising, reach out to Colure Media today. Let us help you elevate your brand through tailored strategies, including social media marketing campaigns and cutting-edge mobile app projects.

The Freelancer vs Marketing Agency Dilemma: Making the Right Choice

The Freelancer vs Marketing Agency Dilemma: Making the Right Choice

The decision of whether to hire a freelancer or a marketing agency is a crucial one that can greatly impact your marketing efforts. Understanding the advantages and considerations of each option is essential for making an informed choice. In this blog, we explore the unique characteristics of freelancers and marketing agencies, empowering you to make the best decision for your business.

Freelancers: Specialized Skills and Flexibility

Freelancers are independent professionals who offer specialized services on a project basis. With their expertise in specific areas like web design, copywriting, or social media marketing, they bring tailored solutions to the table. The flexibility and personalized attention of working with freelancers can be advantageous. However, it’s important to note that freelancers may have limited availability and might not offer a comprehensive suite of services.

Marketing Agencies: Comprehensive Solutions and Scalability

Marketing agencies provide a wide range of services, including graphic design, web development, SEO, social media marketing, advertising, and more. With their diverse teams of professionals, agencies offer comprehensive solutions to meet your marketing needs. The ability to scale up or down based on your requirements is another advantage. However, it’s crucial to consider the cost implications and find the agency that aligns with your business goals and values.

Pros and Cons: Finding the Right Fit

Hiring a marketing agency grants access to a full suite of services, expert insights, and scalability. However, it may come with a higher price tag and require diligent research to find the perfect match. On the other hand, freelancers offer flexibility, specialized expertise, and potential cost savings. However, their availability and capacity may be limited, and they may not offer a holistic approach to your marketing strategy.

Making an Informed Decision

When choosing between a freelancer and a marketing agency, it’s essential to consider your business goals, budget, and specific marketing requirements. Assessing the advantages and considerations of each option will guide you toward the right decision. Whether you decide to engage a marketing agency for comprehensive support or collaborate with freelancers for specialized tasks, aligning with professionals who understand your vision and can deliver results is paramount.

The decision between a freelancer and a marketing agency is crucial and requires thoughtful evaluation. By considering your business goals, budget, and specific marketing requirements, you can determine the option that best aligns with your needs and ensures the expertise necessary for achieving marketing success.

Unveiling the Insights: Understanding Costs and Calculations in Marketing Agencies

Marketing agencies have become indispensable partners for businesses seeking to elevate their brand, boost website traffic, and drive revenue growth. In the digital era, where consumers reside predominantly online, the role of marketing agencies has gained even more prominence. While partnering with a marketing agency entails an investment, when executed effectively, it can yield substantial returns. In this article, we delve into the intricacies of marketing agency costs, spending, and offer valuable tips for calculating your marketing expenses.

Understanding Costs and Calculations in Marketing Agencies

Defining a Marketing Agency

A marketing agency is a versatile entity that provides a wide array of services aimed at assisting businesses in promoting their products, services, or brand. These services encompass an array of tactics such as search engine optimization (SEO), social media marketing, email marketing, video marketing, content marketing, and web design and development. The ultimate goal is to enable businesses to reach their target audience, enhance website traffic, augment brand awareness, and drive tangible sales and revenue growth.

Exploring the Diverse Agency Landscape

Marketing agencies manifest in various forms, each possessing unique strengths and services. Some agencies specialize in specific domains, such as social media marketing or SEO, while others offer comprehensive marketing suites. Choosing an agency that aligns with your business goals and industry experience is of paramount importance.

Understanding the Agency Workflow

Marketing agencies typically engage with businesses on a project or retainer basis. Initially, they invest time in comprehending your business, existing marketing strategies, and objectives. Subsequently, they tailor a personalized marketing plan with specific tactics and timelines.

Once the plan is in motion, agencies implement the outlined tactics, such as launching a new website, curating engaging social media content, or executing an email marketing campaign. Throughout the process, agencies meticulously monitor and analyze campaign performance, making adjustments to achieve the desired outcomes.

Deciphering the Optimal Marketing Budget

The ideal marketing expenditure varies based on industry, business size, and marketing goals. As a general guideline, businesses should allocate around 7-8% of their revenue towards marketing. However, businesses aiming for rapid growth or in the initial stages may require an increased marketing spend to achieve their objectives effectively.

Deconstructing Marketing Agency Costs

Marketing agency costs encompass a broad spectrum and depend on the project’s scope and required services. Agencies commonly adopt pricing models such as hourly rates, monthly retainers, or project-based fees. Hourly rates can range from $100 to $300 or more, contingent on the agency’s expertise and location. Monthly retainers typically start from a few thousand dollars and can extend into tens of thousands, depending on campaign complexity and service levels.

Calculating Your Marketing Costs

To calculate your marketing costs accurately, identify your marketing goals and specific tactics necessary to achieve them. Research agencies aligned with your requirements, requesting quotes or proposals that consider factors like expertise, track record, industry experience, and level of service. While cost is essential, consider the agency’s understanding of your industry, past successes, and ability to provide tailored strategic insights and creative solutions.

Investing in Success

Partnering with a marketing agency represents a sound investment in your business’s growth and triumph. By entrusting your marketing endeavors to seasoned professionals, you tap into their expertise, skills, and industry insights to generate substantial outcomes. It is vital to carefully assess your goals, budget, and agency proficiency to ensure a fruitful partnership.

Concluding Thoughts

Marketing agencies serve as pivotal catalysts for business success in the fiercely competitive digital landscape. By grasping the intricacies of marketing agency costs and spending, you can make informed decisions and craft effective marketing strategies. Whether you are contemplating your first agency partnership or reassessing existing collaborations, meticulous consideration of your objectives, budget, and the agency’s expertise will pave the way for substantial returns and long-term triumph.

Geotargeting & Geofence Marketing: How a small company can disrupt a big market

Geotargeting & Geofence Marketing: How a small company can disrupt a big market

If you feel like social media and online marketing is shouting into the void, you’re really not alone. Many small, local businesses are told to invest in online advertising and mobile marketing only to discover that it’s really not effective for them.

Imagine if you advertised your company to every 10,000th person on earth. How many of those people would actually be able to use your products or services? Probably none of them. There are a lot of people on earth and there are a lot of people online.

Geotargeting and geofence marketing focus on hyper-local leads — so you can stop shouting and start earning.

Connect to the Customers Closest to You

It’s the customers that are closest to you that you want to connect with. It’s better to connect with 50 people in your neighborhood than 5,000 people across the world. And it’s cheaper, too. When you connect with customers close to you, you greatly enhance the viability and effectiveness of your advertising campaigns. 

How Does Geotargeting/Geofencing Work?

Geotargeting/geo fencing works by identifying where customers are inside of a broader, third-party advertising network. For instance, Google Ads shows throughout the world but can show your ads only to those who are in your vicinity. Geotargeting is broad; it just means that you’re sending your ads to those who are in your country, state, city, or even zip code.

Geo-fencing is a little different. Geo-fencing specifically defines an area, such as an area that is located in a highly-trafficked region around your business. Once individuals are inside this area, they are targeted. Geo-fencing can be used to deliver ads through PoS systems within your neighborhood, for instance, or to send ads to phones and other devices detected in your region.

The Advantages of Geotargeting

Really, the advantages of geotargeting are clear. You can spend $100 to connect with 5,000 people in the world or $10 to connect with 50 people in your area. It’s cost-effective and far more useful.

But it also enhances public perception of your brand, as you’re no longer trying to reach out to individuals who wouldn’t be interested in your advertising to begin with. Geofence marketing creates more relevant, useful advertising, as well as more profitable strategies.

Implementing a Geotargeting Campaign Strategy

To implement a geotargeting campaign strategy, you (obviously) need to know where your customers are. There are third-party ad platforms like Google and Bing, but their usefulness will actually be vanishing shortly; action is being taken to reduce third-party tracking cookies.

There are two better options: social media marketing and third-party behavioral targeting databases. Social media marketing works because individuals already provide where they live to the social media platform. Even better, they provide information such as whether they’re married, whether they have children, and even where they work and where they went to school.

Third-party databases seek to identify consumers based on their behavior and contextual information without the help of cookies or files stored on the user’s device. These third-party geotargeted databases are likely to grow dramatically once cookies become ineffective for geofence marketing.

Summary

With the right geofence marketing, your company can focus all its efforts on advertising directly to the people who are closest to you. When they look at their phone or check their email in your location, they’ll get information that relates to your business. If they’re halfway across the world, they won’t.

But this type of advertising and mobile marketing really does require that you use the right technology. Social media marketing provides some of this targeting, but mobile marketing is about to get a lot more challenging.

How to calculate an advertising budget

How to calculate an advertising budget

Every company must stake its own space in the marketplace to survive. In order to successfully interact with your customers, each business must decide on the best course of communication. This function is facilitated by your company’s marketing budget.

Each business owner is an expert in their given area of practice. Everyone needs customers, yet often, stakeholders haven’t been provided with a game-plan of how to reach those customers through advertising.

We’re providing a roadmap for your future marketing budget. The purpose is to help the business owners focus their resources for the best ROI on their investment. If you begin with a focused process, your odds of success greatly increase.

Dollars and sense

When deciding on a typical marketing budget, there is no definitive answer on the dollar amount a business should spend. How much you plan to allocate depends on a number of variables including the industry you are in, the size of your business, its growth stage, your annual revenue goals, your projected sales, your cost per acquisition, whether you are willing to spend on websites, mobile apps or some other long term project.

It may be helpful to examine some methods of determining marketing budgets and average percentages that companies use in their calculations. You need to determine your marketing budget wisely and not depend on what is left over after your business expenses are covered. We are here to give you some guidelines that you can use to determine your marketing budget.

As a general rule of thumb, Colure Media suggests that the marketing and advertising budget should be on an average 10% of the company’s overall revenue. This budget should be split between brand development costs including the channels you use for marketing and the costs of promoting your business (campaign, events, and advertising etc.). The percentage of revenue calculation should account for possible additional factors such as new product launch, new market entries, and mergers/acquisitions.

Calculate your CPA

For companies who are unsure of their revenue goals or don’t know their exact overall revenue, we suggest calculating their marketing budgets using cost per acquisition (or CPA). Using a CPA, we help companies reverse engineer their budgets by understanding their sales goals. For example, if a company wants to sell 10000 units of something and if they know their CPA, they can calculate their marketing budget by multiplying their sales goals of 10000 by CPA.

It is very important to re-examine your CPA, as this is a number that you want to optimize. Your goal is to make it lower since you want to receive a higher rate of return on every dollar you spend on marketing. Continually look around for new and more effective methods of reaching out to your target market. The use of new and improved technology can help you optimize your cost per acquisition.

If you are seeking out the development of projects like mobile applications, website development, and mobile marketing (or some other long term project), our advice is that you pull that project out of your total budget and calculate its own budget as a separate line item. The reason being is that these long-term (5 to 7 years) marketing tactics require an initial heavy investment and small investments later on. You are better off doing an initial investment of around 8 to 10% on these large projects and then 2% of your annual revenue toward web development for the next 3 years. After that, you need to put money only for updates and maintenance for the next couple for years.

These values are not set in stone

Once you have set your marketing budget, remember that it is not a fixed value. There might be times when you will be throwing in another unplanned event or campaign. The main thing is to know whether your spending is giving you your required ROI.

One of the biggest issues facing new and existing businesses is that they may not know what their marketing and advertising budget should be. Often, businesses don’t understand the process of media planning. Many times budgets are set blindly, with a number just being thrown into the air and hoping that it lands on the success outlined in their business plan (if they have created one).

There are three components to every business:

     1. Unique product/service

     2. Profit

     3. Marketing/Advertising/Sales

At the end of the day, a business with unlimited funds can spend plenty of money and time running test after test, but they may sacrifice market share to competitors (who may have inferior products/services) who are knowledgeable and have navigated these seas time and time again. Blindly throwing money at your advertisements is not the answer. Define your goals. Examine your numbers. Start with a solid plan that can be modified, with purpose, as time passes. We hope that this will help your gain a better perspective on your marketing efforts.

Colure Media is an advertising and marketing company in New York. We have advertising and marketing experts to help set up your goal with a budget, target your audience, and improve leads. If you want to discuss your advertising needs and budget, then contact us Now.

Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) Beacons Are Making Mobile Apps Smarter

Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) Beacons Are Making Mobile Apps Smarter

Advertisements today can be overwhelming to consumers. Especially in the last decade as advertising has come to focus on online consumerism, customers are constantly bombarded with popups for the latest and greatest products. The negative response to this shift in marketing has led to a need for innovative and unique technologies that avoid overwhelming consumers while still reaching an audience. Indoor location technologies, such as Bluetooth Low-Energy (BLE) Beacons, is one of these innovative designs.

What are BLE Beacons?

Bluetooth Beacons are wireless devices that draw attention to a specific location, within a finite space. A clear example of a beacon is a lighthouse: its light draws attention from offshore ships, letting the ships know their distance from the lighthouse and the shore. Bluetooth Beacons do the same thing in a virtual environment, allowing brick-and-mortar businesses to send out signals to mobile devices in the immediate area.

Bluetooth Low-Energy Beacons, also known as Bluetooth 4.0, are just as their name suggests. They do the same thing in practice while maintaining low energy consumption.

How do BLE Beacons work?

The wireless device draws attention to its location by periodically putting out a radio signal. This radio signal consists of a small packet of data, usually advertisements. A beacon at a sports store, for example, might periodically send signals for current deals on hiking boots. Compatible mobile devices within close proximity to the beacon (usually about 100 meters) would then receive those advertisements, triggering applications to prompt responses like push messages or actions.

Why use a BLE Beacon?

Bluetooth Beacons, in general, allow businesses to deliver highly contextualized and personalized advertisements to their customers. Unlike other indoor location technologies such as GPS and NFC, Beacons are hyper-localized and specified for indoor environments. This means that the customer isn’t going to get advertisements for every store in the mall, but they also don’t need to be standing directly next to a product to receive an advertisement.

BLE Beacons also cost 60-80% cheaper than classic Bluetooth Beacons (although classic Bluetooth is recommended for more complex applications). Their low-energy consumption allows them to last much longer than the classic Bluetooth Beacon. The BLE Beacon stays in sleep mode unless it is actively configuring a connection, so it can last up to 3 years on one coin-cell sized battery.

Who benefits from using BLE Beacons?

Both Classic Bluetooth and BLE Beacons can be beneficial to a company. Classic Bluetooth can handle larger amounts of data, but BLE Beacons are ideal for transmitting advertisements to applications that periodically use small amounts of data. This, in addition to their low-energy consumption and cheaper cost, means that small businesses may benefit from using a BLE model over classic Bluetooth location technology.

The value of in-store retail sales influenced by beacon technology increased by $40 million between 2015 and 2016. The benefit of being able to personalize advertisements to customers continues to appeal to businesses, and it’s expected that 4.5 million beacons will be active by 2018.

Content is the core of all media

Content is the core of all media

Business Basics

A brand’s voice and personality depend on the type of content used to craft that image. How you decide to manage that content is intimately involved in every step of the purchase decision-making process. It is the most stable mechanism for a brand promotion.

Customer engagement, which is a strong predictor of company growth and brand loyalty, is built by providing value to the consumer. This action is most often achieved through value, usually achieved through useful content. “Emotional engagement is far more important to consumers than promotional content,” thus making the quality of the content the main factor in its success.

A reputation…is it owned or earned?

While everyone recognizes the role of content in owned and earned media, it’s harder to determine if the content has a place in paid media or if paid media is rendering content useless. Owned, earned, and paid media sources are almost always used together in unison. They’re used to build off each other, but they have key differences worth elaborating.

Owned Media refers to all channels that a company manages and curates, like websites, blogs, and social media. Its main strength is the control it gives a company over their brand image. Its main weakness is its limited reach—though 89% of marketers are using social media around 16% of Facebook fans see the brand’s content on their newsfeed.

Earned Media includes all mentions of a brand on third-party channels. Sometimes referred to as organic advertising, search engine optimization and mobile app store optimization. It is the shared, the reviewed and the viral. Its main weakness, that of having no control over what is being said when, is counteracted by its main strength, the power of word-of-mouth to influence people’s decisions. The skepticism people have when viewing ads is equivalent to the trust that comes from another person’s recommendation.

Paid Media is comprised of all of the advertisements that you have paid. These include Adwords, sponsorships, and content written by others for a fee. Many times, this can appear as sponsored items, appearing in a news channel feed. Another name is “native advertising”. It is expensive, yet, far-reaching. This is a highly targetable resource. While many have frowned upon it, paid media is important to a marketing campaign because, without it, your best content might remain hidden. It is not a replacement for “true content”, but it is a valuable tool in taking owned media and pushing it to possibly blurring the line toward earned media. Competition online has made it hard to sift through information on the basis of interest alone and paid media allows one to place an ad before eyes who are searching for it.

At the core of all three strategies lies content. It is content that draws people to your website. It is content that makes people want to talk about your brand and share it with their friends. And it is content that keeps people engaging with ads even when they’re savvy enough to recognize and avoid them. Paid media will reach an audience, but it will rarely keep them watching more than they have to.

Content is what makes consumers say, “Wow, I didn’t even know that was an ad for something!” Questions for the ad industry become “Where do we draw the line between advertising and content?” and “How visible do we make that line?”

Protect your brand identity

Protect your brand identity

Your brand is the most important asset your corporation possesses. More than money, more than real estate, more than anything – if your consumers cannot identify, define, or respect you, you are dead in the water. Protecting that brand is critical to every interface your organization faces. A brand defines your values, creates an emotional bond between yourself and your customer, and it is the anchor upon which you stand every single moment.

A plethora of voices

Anyone can jump on social media to criticize your products and brand. They can write a blog posting that ranks higher in Google’s search results than you’d like. Control has left the hands of the marketer. The issue is multiplied in the service industry, where review sites like Yelp, TripAdvisor and Angie’s List – all designed to improve customer experience – can seriously threaten your brand’s credibility and identity.

The consumer has a direct voice to connect quality to value. Now branding efforts must address both macro and micromanagement strategies. Companies must be responsive to individual voices of dissatisfied consumers while focusing resources toward broader quality efforts and branding.

This is the price of doing business. Rightfully so, consumers can now put their mouth where their money is. The business community must do the same.

What can you do?

Successful companies leverage positive reviews into word-of-mouth advertising. This remains the single most effective type of advertising today.

If your company is being battered with negative reviews, what can you do? Here are a few ideas to start:

  • Find them. Use focused social media searches to discover what consumers are saying about your company. 
  • Respond diligently. Once you’ve found complaints, don’t just dismiss them. These reviews are actively read by consumers. Consumers are often more likely to embrace a review than an advertisement.  Respond to the feedback openly and solve the issue. Deal with it.
  • Improve. Don’t just make empty promises. Empty lip-service is the worst response you can provide to a complaint. If you have an issue, deal with it. If you get called on the carpet because of poor service – deal with it. If the customer is upset – deal with it. Don’t dismiss the complaint, resolve the issue. Even if it costs you a few dollars and a bit of time – solve the problem. At this point, damage from the mismanagement of a complaint only escalates.
  • Grow from your mistakes. Learn what the consumer wants. It’s that simple.
  • Take feedback. Make this an opportunity to improve your brand – your customers will thank you for it.

Contact Colure’s marketing team. Discover the art of crisis management. Learn from a team that can help you properly manage your corporate image.

Colure Media is New York based branding advertising and Social Media marketing agency. We offers comprehensive strategies and solutions to help businesses create impactful campaigns, increase brand visibility, and drive targeted online traffic. If you are interested for improve your brand awareness, Contact us now.

The power of multimedia convergence

The power of multimedia convergence

The diversity of mobile devices has increased the way information is spread across society. No longer do individuals rely on only a single device as their data source. The increasing volume of mobile devices used by any one person allows individuals to constantly want to check the latest trends, follow the latest celebrity, or look at the latest technology across all their devices. The melding of media is starting to be practiced by many.

“Simply put, media convergence is bringing together different media platforms to support one single campaign or promote a product.” – Gerhard Jacobs writing for Target Marketing

What is the power of multimedia convergence?

A vast majority of consumers are cross-device users regardless of age demographic and mobile device usage is on the rise,” according to Millennial Media. Because information is at our fingertips and individuals have to have the latest technology trends in their hands, there is no secret that multiple device users exist. In addition, individuals are more likely to choose a mobile device over a desktop to search the internet or just for enjoyment.

Millennials (Gen Ys) have definitely changed the way individuals view information on the internet. These individuals are at the forefront of the way information is received and will definitely continue to pave the way marketing and advertising companies deliver their product or service to the general public.

Great power lies in combined media sources; it allows for different mediums to display and send the same message. Because of this overlap, individuals are prone to look at multiple devices throughout the day. The question becomes “Why not streamline those messages to show similar images and branding pieces?” From the public’s standpoint, the increased convenience of information provided by converged stories makes using the media a better experience.”

Why is this such a powerful tool for marketers?

Being engaging with the audience is something that every marketer needs to keep in mind when creating content. The audience wants to know the latest, up-to-date information about their favorite product or brand. By displaying the same message across different platforms at different times during the day/week will help reach different audiences at different times in different ways.

Industry revenue resources will drive the deliverance of the messaging and will help marketers to gauge how to reach different audiences on different platforms. Of course, the difficulty will come trying to figure out rotation of advertisements and trying to figure out the best times to display those advertisements.

So marketers are faced with a multifaceted chess game – how, where, and when do place your content in a dynamic marketplace? How do you reap the greatest ROI with constantly revolving players?

Integrity in marketing

Integrity in marketing

Marketing integrity is not just a virtue; it is a driver of choice. The main role of a marketing agency is to find ways to increase brand loyalty and customer sales for any given company, but a false advertisement could lead to a loss for the company.

In today’s society where fake news is everywhere, customers will stick with companies based on integrity and loyalty. Unless it is a last resort, no client will stick with a company that has lied to him or her. Yet, numerous companies have been known to be misleading in their marketing efforts.

In 2006, more than 75% of Opinion Research respondents said they preferred to buy from a company that operates ethically, even if they have to pay more. Yet how can an agency use expert writers to promote itself or provide clients with integrity? By taking a step back and analyzing their practice with these simple steps, a company can raise their loyalty and sales:

  • Prepare ahead by informing yourself, your staff, and your clients of the importance of integrity in marketing.
  • Look for evidence that integrity is important to a writer before you hire them, and emphasize that it’s important to you as well.
  • Give the writer only facts you can prove.
  • When reviewing a writer’s work, make sure that everything they say is true. A good writer will know how to phrase truth creatively, so the message is interesting as well.
  • When you find a good writer, commend them and keep going back to them with future assignments.

In his book, John Blumberg acknowledges that a great leader will take risks in not knowing and will be grounded with a core set of values, “we don’t go running away from our values, we go drifting away. And one day we wake-up in a place we never meant to be drifting in a direction we would never have chosen.”

The greatest loss of a company is the missed marketing of an unleashed set of core values. Customers base their choices on a guaranteed product. The false advertisement could lead to problems such as government agencies that have reportedly fined the pharmaceutical industry in excess of $3 billion in the past few years because of allegedly misleading marketing and sales practices. 

According to the adage, “A leading medical-device company admitted not long ago to failing to inform doctors about a potentially fatal flaw in their aggressively marketed heart defibrillators. The company’s stock price plummeted and the firm was eventually sold and rebranded”.

This could cause potential harm to the consumer but will cause more harm for the company. Integrity marketing is based on values that companies should abide by, yet not all feel that morals matter with business.

Ad blocking: Who will pay for the Web?

Ad blocking: Who will pay for the Web?

Display advertising has long been the driving financial force behind the Internet. Ads pay for the consumer’s seemingly endless appetite for the content they consume each day. The market forces created by profit margins and the ever increasing power of market leverage are staggering. Together, they have driven advertisers to peruse an ever-evolving set of techniques and technologies to grasp either the user’s attention or information.

A growing opinion amongst users is that internet advertising is out of control. It occupies too much space, data, time, and invades too far into our privacy. Users have now been given the opportunity to block most of the advertisements that fill their screens. A critical problem created by blocking all of those advertisements is that ‘no ads equal no cash flow.’ With this new shift in power, who will pay for the web? How will the current economic model of the internet survive?

At the heart of the issue lies the following dichotomy: while practically everyone wants free access to almost all internet content, they want to yield profits from their own internet endeavors. They don’t want to have to pay, however, they do want a pay-day. No matter how you cut it – there is no free lunch. If you are on the internet, you are paying a price to someone.

With this cost in mind, several questions come to mind. What is a just and equitable compensation for ‘free access’ to content?  At that point of full and just compensation, do the data harvesting and advertising behaviors of the advertisers change accordingly?

There is no question the internet is a capitalistic environment. Publishers should be compensated for their efforts and content. The question then becomes ‘what is a reasonable price for their product?’ Should users be given a price or simply subjected to endless mining of their resources and data simply in exchange for access to content? These questions have established a blurry synergy established between the users and providers. How many advertisements are enough? At which point has the consumer fairly compensated the publisher for the content they have consumed? When has enough data been mined?

In the past few years, a growing debate has given rise to the concerns of excess. It is virtually impossible to access any online platform without being, for the lack of a better description, attacked by advertising or silently data-mined. The scary part of the equation is that while consumers are aware of the advertisements that are flashed endlessly in front of their face, they have no clue as to the nature, amount, or depth of the data about that is silently harvested behind the screen.

Bluntly, this is the price of doing business. If you access the internet, you will pay the piper.

There is a growing backlash over the increasingly invasive nature of net advertising. At the forefront of this battle are two corporate giants – Apple and Google. One corporation has built their business model upon the mining of data, the funds generated through online advertising, and content management. The other has provided the consumer with the ability to limit the access of that reach.

The recent release of Apples’ iOS 9 and OS X operating systems include “content-blocking extensions” (AKA  “ad-blocking software”). If users can now effectively remove advertisements from the ‘free web’ who will pay the bills?

This clash of titans was eloquently described in a recent posting. I’ve posted an excerpt from it here:

The central philosophical dispute over ad-blocking goes something like this: Publishers have no right to force readers to be exposed to certain kinds of ads or allow numerous third parties to collect their information without a prior agreement; readers have no right to read or view content that they don’t pay for in one form or another, be it with money or data. What is not in dispute is that if ad-blocking becomes ubiquitous (and there’s nearly every reason to think that it will be!) it will be devastating for publications who derive much or all of their revenue from advertising—which comprises most of the professional publications on the internet. When Murphy first posted about “an hour with Safari Content Blocker in iOS 9,” he asked, rhetorically, “Do I care more about my privacy, time, device battery life & data usage or do I care more about the content creators of sites I visit to be able to monetise effectively and ultimately keep creating content? Tough question. At the moment, I don’t know.” (With the impending release of Crystal, it seems he’s resolved that tension.) When I spoke with Chris Aljoudi, lead developer on uBlock, an extension that tells users how many third-party scripts are active on a webpage, and asked how sites should sustain themselves if all of their ads are blocked, he replied, “I’m not an expert on whether it’s a business model, I don’t think we need to know as developers of a tool like this.” Even if they don’t have solutions, “users need to be able to control what they are forced to come across,” Aljoudi said, using the example of nytimes.com, a website for which no known mandate of visitation exists.                                                                                                                                                                                                      – Casey Johnson writing for theawl.com

In order to provide “free access” to content, publishers rely upon heavily inserting code scripts that too often invade users space, take control of the window, or harvest an unknown amount about data about the user. Providers do this to pay the bills. A broader question for everyone is ‘how and when can equity be found for all parties at the table?’

At Colure, we are well aware of this consternation and provide a balanced approach to advertising:
The way we differ from our competitors is that we help our clients with a balanced advertising portfolio. Within this picture, display or PPC advertisements would only be a single component of the greater picture. We also recommend SEO, app store optimization, blogging, syndicated or sponsored blogging with influencers. Digital PR is critical; let us not forget our recommendations for social media with content management. At the end of the day, we move forward to find a proper, working balance between the needs of our clients and those of the public.

Communications with your client and their customer base is an ever evolving game of chess. If you would like to discuss your project needs, contact our project managers.

The Software Development Process

The Software Development Process

The Software Development Process is an organized, systematic approach to developing software. It’s an organized pathway traveled together by both the client and a software development team. The development cycle is an upward spiral that allows for discovery, new growth, consideration of new ideas, inspiration and change.

The process begins when a client approaches a development team with an idea for a new ‘digital mousetrap’. It’s critical that the software team listen to all the concerns of the client. These may include a timetable, budget concerns, support, logistics and so on. In turn, the clients must understand that the development team will do everything in their power to assist them.

During your application’s development, you will encounter numerous pressures that will divert you from your end goal. It is critical that you have a focused plan and a development team who can appreciate these concerns. A solid team will keep your project focused toward a specific goal.

The Software Development Process includes the:

  • development phase – it starts as an idea, quickly followed by an analysis; quality standards are established; specific goals are set.
  • design phase – you’ll discuss form, function and the delegation of duties.
  • implementation phase – The actual program code is written during the implementation phase.
  • testing and verification phase – after the development team has a working copy of the project, they will usually issue it out to a limited group for beta testing. Here, they gather data on what works and what can be refined. Quality standards are met.
  • documentation phase – here the data is brought together and assessments are made.
  • maintenance phase – this is the longest phase. It consists of the constant updating of the program and customer management. This phase continues long after the final release of the project.
The key to success is open communication.

The process is often met with long hours, varied opinions, and strong emotions for a project. This mixture of blood, sweat and tears is critical to the creative process. For as much as a client is passionate about the function of an application, the creative team has similar motivations. They view the project from the inside-out. Ones and zeros take on form, function and texture.

It is this marriage of visions that brings life to the original idea. Each project is more than just the sum total of the various parts. The project evolves with each new idea, inspiration, and dream. Contact Colure’s Development Team to discuss bringing your software dreams to life.

Successful Content Marketing Campaigns

Content marketing is the technique for creating and sharing free content to provide the consumer with an additional level of product interaction. It is meant to attract new customers and to encourage current customers into developing a loyal, repeat business. But, it should be more than a portion of a company or product. It should be used as a tool to engage your audience.

Four successful content marketing campaigns:

  • Birchbox – a monthly subscription service that provides an array of carefully selected beauty samples to customers. They use content marketing to enhance the online shopping experience for their customers. Birchbox features articles about personal grooming, fitness, and popular beauty products to engage its customers. This has been the key to Birchbox’s success, allowing Birchbox to create an interactive experience for customers as if they were in a store.
  • Red Bull – the energy drink maker uses its content marketing to blend in with the community that enjoys its products. Red Bull specifically chooses to be associated with extreme sports through their advertising. They provide featured videos, films and photos of extreme sports and stunts to associate high energy with the essence of its community.
  • MasterCard – the financial institution uses their content marketing to create a hassle-free, convenient way for costumers to enjoy MasterCard’s features. On the MasterCard website, MasterCard offers features such as a saving calculator and debt FAQs to assist customers with their finances. To minimize inconvenience for it’s customers, helpful videos and ATM locators are located in its “Priceless Pointers” section on its website.
  • Kraft – the international food conglomerate, mastered the use of content long before it was a popular marketing technique. Kraft’s website features recipes, tips, ideas, and videos to assist customers with their products. They understand the power of connecting with their customers. Kraft has created a forum where customers can go beyond simply sharing their recipes. Customers experience those products on a most basic human level – while breaking bread. Kraft expanded its brand from simply selling their products to forming an online community that has become ingrained in the lives of its consumers.

A company’s content marketing has to be relevant to the company’s mission, products, and services. It should allow customers to consistently learn and engage with a brand. As content marketing continues to grow, it proves to be more of a long-lasting relationship than a trend. Content marketing will continue to be a necessity for companies to grow and actively engage their customers.

Contact Colure’s team to discuss marketing strategies for your business. See how a focused approach on your project can dramatically modify your performance in the marketplace.

TD Bike Tour

TD Bike Tour

Colure’s staff participated today in the TD Five Borough Bike Tour in NYC. Great job!!! It seems impossible till it’s done!!!! Dream Big for a good cause!

TD Bike Tour

Harvard Business Event

Today Colure was invited to attend the Harvard Business event and special guest was Movado’s CEO Efraim Grinberg. He said something that I had to share!  “There are always alternatives to time and watches. But we work with iconic brands. You can close your eyes and you can see our watches, it’s design.”

 

Movado 3Movado 4

Advertising Rule of Thumb

Advertising Rule of Thumb “Advertising expenditures account for $5.8 trillion in economic output in the U.S. or 20 percent of the $29.6 trillion in total economic output in the nation. Advertising driven sales of products and services help support 19,753,994 jobs, or 15%, of the 133.4 million jobs in the United States.  Every dollar spent on advertising generates just under $20 of economic output, and every million dollars of ad spending supports 69 American jobs.”

(Source: IHS Global Insight found that in 2010)

Yesterday’s Old Phone Book

Yesterdays old phone book is today’s new “search engine”

Have you used a search engine in the last week? 95% of the searches used a search engine to find their product (67% alone on Google) 1.2 trillion – Number of searches on Google in 2012. Where is your product when your consumers search for it online? Are you truly optimized? (Source: Google Official History, Comscore)

phone book

Branding Lecture at NYU

Branding Lecture at NYU

Richard Solomon, Executive Creative Director explains branding during a speech he made as a guest lecturer at NYU:

“Most times I would talk branding and show examples. The last time I did a lecture, I walked pass the Apple Store downtown and had an idea. In class I told the students I was looking to get a new Smartphone and asked if they could give me any recommendations. They all had one – the majority iPhones some Droids. I went around and they said things like “I love it…”, “It’s the best…”, “I do everything with it, great”, “awesome”… At that point I stop and said “think about what you guys just did. You used words like, love, great, best, and awesome to describe an inanimate object that’s less than a pound and fits in your pocket. That’s branding at its best, a strong emotional relationship between a product or service and a consumer – class dismissed”