AIGA—Shift.Option.Talk.

Carol Sogard
Visual Think
Associate Professor, University of Utah

On Tuesday, January 20th, S.O.T. features Carol Sogard. Carol, an associate professor in graphic design at the University of Utah, has been successfully managing her design business, Visual Think, since 1992.

Shift.Option.Talk is a series of informal, roundtable conversations with local designers in the SL community. Featuring a different location and host-designer every event, it’s the best way to relax, meet other creative-minded designers and just shoot the breeze.

Shift.Option.Talk is a free event but participants cover their own lunch. Space is limited to the first 25 who register. RSVP by Monday, January 19th.

Tuesday, January 28th, 2009
Time - 1:30 PM
Location - Caffe Niche
779 East 300 South, SLC
www.caffeniche.com
Admission - Free (Participants pay for their own lunch)

To RSVP or for more information, click HERE.

Posted by John Dye under Advertising, Business, Design, Marketing

Sage words from Thomas Jefferson

“The man who stops advertising to save money is like the man who stops the clock to save time.”
- Thomas Jefferson

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In these difficult economic times, it is important to keep your economic engine running by continuing to plan for and carry out effective integrated marketing and advertising strategies.

Many companies are cutting back; most do not realize advertising has a cumulative effect, with each medium and campaign building on the previous and creating a stronger foundation for the next.

Do not be tempted to trim the fat and end up accidentally cutting into the muscle of your organization’s branding and awareness efforts. Keep your campaigns and programs consistent, steady, and strong, and you will weather this rough storm of economic uncertainty.

Posted by John Dye under Advertising, Branding, Business, Clients, Marketing, Promotional, Sales

YouTube scraps 10-minute time limit

Big news!

YouTube used to have a time limit on the length of video it would allow. Gone are those days . . .

Now you can upload larger files and they will have full episodes of some of the series from the 70s, 80s, and 90s to keep people at YouTube and away from network sites and other places like hulu.

Stay tuned, the video wars will continue . . .

For more, click here.

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Google-owned YouTube has tossed aside its 10-minute-video limit rule. It is running full-length episodes of TV shows, starting with a test of three CBS-owned shows: Star Trek, MacGyver and Beverly Hills, 90210. The moves are a response to competition from sites offering full-length videos including Hulu, Veoh and blip.tv, which are gaining traction with viewers.

“YouTube is a clip culture,” says Jordan Hoffner, YouTube’s director of content partnerships. “But we saw that there was a demand for longer form, and a market that’s growing, so we decided to try it.”

Posted by John Dye under Entertainment, Marketing, Viral Marketing, Web 2.0

We want to hear how you currently advertise . . .

There are a million different ways to expose your company to the public eye—we are interested in what you have done in the past to promote your product and/or service in an attempt to capture the public’s eye! Take this short survey on advertising—we’ll post the results on our blog.

Posted by Jim Killian under Advertising, Branding, Business, Clients, Design, Marketing

Growing Your Web Presence And How To Do It Right

The web has seeped into almost every aspect of our lives. I wake up in the morning and almost the first thing I do is check my email. Just like most people at Fluid, I come into work and sit in front of a computer most of the day. If I need to do some research or find inspiration for a project I almost instinctively come to the web. When I get home I try to get away from a computer for a while but that doesn’t last long. I’m feeling like a movie so I pull out my ipod and check what’s playing at the theater down the street.

It’s all connected. I use the internet because it is the fastest way to get what I need. In the time it takes me to go down to the library and research a paper on astrophysics I could have easily researched written and proofed my paper with help from my friend the internet. It is an awesomely powerful tool and a lot of businesses don’t treat it with the respect it deserves.

What is web presence? Web presence can be described as being present on the internet in multiple places to promote and strengthen your name or brand in positive way. Most of us do this in one way or another already. Very few of us however do it in a focused and well thought out way. I’m here to tell you that this is a shame because if you do it right you have an extremely powerful tool at your disposal.
Click here to read more

Posted by Jim Killian under Branding, Design, Marketing, Web 2.0

Building Business Through “Cross Ruff”

“Cross Ruff” is a simple technique based on leverage.  Here are the steps to “Cross Ruff” that many agencies have found effective.

1. Take a current client’s product and think of a joint/co-promotion with other companies compatible products (generally a company that is not currently your client).
2. Put the co-promotion in rough form.
3. Call the other companies in the co-promotion.
4. Introduce yourself as the agency of record for your client and present the rough idea of what you have in mind for the joint promotion.

Most companies you call will already have an agency of record, however, studies show that one third of companies who are currently working with agencies are unhappy and open to discussions with other agencies.  Companies who have used this technique of “Cross Ruff” have found that most of the phone calls they make turn into face-to-face meetings and companies are very impressed with the co-promotion opportunity offered by the agency.

So, get with your creative department and concept a “Cross Ruff” promotion.  Hey, it definitely beats cold calls

Posted by Laura Hoskisson under Advertising, Business, Clients, Design, Marketing, Sales

How Companies Use Twitter to Bolster Their Brands

This article, taken from BusinessWeek, shows one way that companies are implementing Web 2.0 tactics (specifically Twitter) into their brand building strategies.

“The real control of the brand has moved into the customer’s hands, and technology has enabled that”

Lane Becker, President of Get Satisfaction

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Posted by John Dye under Blogs, Branding, Business, Clients, Marketing, SEO/SEM, Social Networks, Web 2.0

Advertising for Office

http://www.livingroomcandidate.org/

With both the Democratic and Republican National Conventions concluded or underway, I thought this site was particularly interesting. It shows how media has impacted Presidential elections and messaging to the average voter. As the site mentions, “Ads on TV and the Internet have become the dominant form of communication in the modern presidential campaign.”

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“Television is no gimmick, and nobody will ever be elected to major office again without presenting themselves well on it.”
Television producer and Nixon campaign consultant Roger Ailes, 1968

Posted by John Dye under Advertising, Marketing, Promotional, Web 2.0

Retailers Stepping Forward to Assist in “Going-Green”

Several retailers are stepping up to assist their customers recycle and “go-green”.  Here are a couple of retailers who in my book, get an “A” for their programs.

SHOPKO

Recycle and get Rewards — follow the below link, and get Shopko gift cards for your trouble!

(excerpt from their website)
Shopko and GreenSight have partnered to provide you a safe and easy way to dispose of your unwanted electronic equipment. Help the environment, and get rewarded. By following GreenSight’s simple recycling process, you can exchange your old equipment for Shopko gift cards.

For information go to :  http://www.shopko.com/RecyclingandRewards.aspx

HOME DEPOT

Do you have CFL bulbs that are burned out? Don’t throw them away! They may save energy, but they also have harmful chemicals inside that can harm the environment. Take them to your local Home Depot Store - they will recycle these for you! For more information - please check out their website at: http://www6.homedepot.com/ecooptions/index.html?

Posted by Megan Morris under Advertising, Business, Marketing

Breaking ground with unique vehicle wraps and graphics

One of the unique things we do at Fluid Studio are unusual wraps and vehicle graphics (see article below).

In 5+ years, we have helped design and arrange installation for over 20 trucks similar to the one below.

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Mixer truck promotes UM athletics

Stan Dugdale, general manager of LS Jensen of Missoula, and the new Griz concrete mixer truck

Private businesses in Missoula already have stepped forward to promote The University of Montana with a beverage truck and semi tractor-trailer painted in UM themes. Now a concrete mixer truck has been added to this growing Griz armada.

The truck, recently purchased by LS Jensen Construction & Ready Mix, will turn heads with UM logos and pictures of four outstanding University athletes: Kevin Criswell, John Edwards, Katie Edwards and Scott McGowan. All are shown in their respective sports uniforms.

“We just wanted to be part of the Griz Nation,” said Stan Dugdale, general manager of the LS Jensen branch in Missoula. “We thought this would be good marketing for both our company and UM.”

The $170,000 mixer truck is a 2007 Kenworth that can haul 10 yards of concrete. The truck weighs about 28,700 pounds when empty. Dugdale said the truck’s fiberglass drum has been decorated with an $8,000 vinyl wrap created by Fluid Studio of Bountiful, Utah, located near Salt Lake City.

“It’s probably 50 or 60 pieces of vinyl stuck on there,” he said. “They print it out and then heat it with a propane torch to put it on.”

Dugdale said the idea for the truck came from Utah, where mixer trucks already sport Weber State and Brigham Young University themes. Helena Sand & Gravel, LS Jensen’s sister company, also recently decorated a mixer in honor of Carroll College in Helena.

Dugdale expects the truck to be used in parades and for special UM events. However, it will be a working truck, and it poured its first load of concrete June 21. “But if they want it at Grizzly events, we’ll shine it up and bring it down,” he said.

“The truck has received an awesome response from the University and local community,” Dugdale said. “We drove it through town the other day — down Higgins and Broadway — and it was awesome to see people sitting in their cars going, ‘Whoa, look at that!’”

Dugdale said his employees are excited to help market UM, even though the company employs several engineers who, like himself, are graduates of Montana State University in Bozeman.

LS Jensen, part of Oldcastle Materials, has locations across the United States and has expanded its Missoula operations in recent years. In fact, the company now employees about 100 people locally.

“We are pretty excited and proud of this mixer,” Dugdale said, “and we are proud to be part of the whole Griz thing. Our company is gradually trying to become a bigger part of Missoula.”

http://www.umt.edu/urelations/mainhall/0606/0606.htm

Posted by John Dye under Advertising, Branding, Business, Design, Marketing, Promotional, Vehicle Graphics