A bun and napkin become a metaphor for the appropriate time to chow down on a burger, in this smart print ad for McDonald’s, out of DDB Stockholm.
The agency has previously done some pretty delightful work for the fast-feeder, including this cute print ad that showed how easy McDonald’s might make your crazy mornings.
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Mobile applications and mobile websites – the debate between the two might be getting more complicated with continuous rise in the demand of mobiles, but it is not what it seems to be… to some extent! Let’s find out why.
Pew Research Center’s Internet & American Life Project has been continuously trying to assess the future of the Internet and according to its most recent report, “smartphone traffic will grow to 50 times the size it is today by 2016”. Google’s Android and Apple’s iOS will both witness immense growth, according to the study. You might be expecting all this – so was I, before I came across this research.
While browsing the Internet, we come across several websites having different looks, functionality and content. Websites are viewed differently in different devices. A mobile website is essentially the lite version of its desktop counterpart – in the sense that the content fits into a smaller screen size, responds to touch-screen gestures and has lesser links but ample and relevant content (you can compare yahoo.com with m.yahoo.com).
Mobile applications are downloadable apps that can be installed into a mobile device and run without Internet facility too. Mobile apps do not necessarily require browser interference and can be collaborated with the mobile camera and the database. Native apps are platform specific. App stores of smartphones give a complete database of the downloadable applications, giving compatibility details and other specifications.
Development of an app or a mobile website requires investment of time and money and thus it is important to understand why you should go for one and leave the other. Depending on your end goals, you will have to build an app or go for mobile websites development. If you want to give more content to your target audience, a mobile website is obviously better since you get to update the content as and when required. However, if it is a game you want to launch or some other entertainment module, an application will work to your advantage as the controls of it will be with user and they can access it anytime they want.
Since both mobile websites and mobile apps have their own advantages, it is ultimately a matter of choice and a careful study of the market that can lead to a final decision. According to this infographic, based on the data found on Alexa, comScore, Yahoo etc, users spend more time on mobile apps than on websites accessed either from the mobile or the desktop. On an average, it was found that by the end of 2011, a user had spent 94 minutes on an app compared to 74 minutes on web browsing. While there are certain work areas where websites are preferred to apps, the opposite is also true. For example, people use website for shopping, searching for information and entertainment while they resort to mobile apps for managing tasks and data, navigation, connecting with friends and for accessing information.
Considering the diversifying use of both mobile websites and mobile apps, it would be wrong to put preference of one over the other. Before you streamline into any one of them, you have to understand your long-term goals, the need for the app or the website, the cost involved and only then decide for one.
It should be remembered that the cost of development of a mobile application is much more than a website. Nowadays it has become easy to develop responsive websites that allows one design for all devices. This process, though highly technical, cuts down on cost substantially. Moreover, websites do not need to be approved by the smartphone developer to be accessed on any phone. The cost of development of an app is very high as in most cases apps need to confirm with the specific demands of each smartphone’s operating system. An app is available only through an app store thus it needs to be approved by the smartphone development team. Upgrading an app poses its own sets of problems as simply making the update available on the app store will not suffice. The user will need to be informed about the app updates and be made to download the latest version. This is a difficult job for apps that are still making their presence felt.
It should be remembered that you should go for mobile website when you have a more market-driven objective and want to focus on promotion. On the other hand, if you want to create a niche for yourself and want to go more interactive, a native mobile application will suit your needs perfectly. It will not be apt to put one above the other, thus it has to be remembered that both have their own advantages and utilities and ultimately it is about your business goal.
FrontPage Image: Young Man with mobile phone via Shutterstock
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We can all agree that graphic design and illustration was a male dominated profession at the outset. Or can we? Volume 1 of Advertising Arts & Crafts, Eastern Edition (Lee & Kirby, New York, 1926), a 446 page index of hundreds of designers and illustrators from Chicago, Boston and New York, listed close to 30 percent women. On the “General Listings” “W” page alone there is Clara Elsene Williams, Lorena Wilson, Regina A. Wineburgh, Mrs. Earle B. Winslow, Alice Beach Winter, Aage M. Wise, and Elizabeth Tyler Wolcott. And that’s only one page of “W”s. There’s also Evelyn Wilber, Anita Wilcox, and Florence R.A. Wilde on another.
A healthy number of women were letterers, poster designers, fashion illustrators, editorial illustrators, layout artists, retouchers, and some did “Allegorical, Figure, Heads, Historical Subjects, Portrait, Black and White, Charcoal, Color, Crayon, Oil and Scratch board.” Some were anonymous but many signed their work.
So, where are these women in the history books … or in the cannon itself? Women began to make their names known in the late 1950s but only in the 1980s do they break the gender barrier. Still, who is to say that these women who advertised their talents in AA&C are not deserving of a place in Meggs’, Hollis’ or all the other recent history texts?
The excuse has long been that women did not promote themselves or get promoted. They did their work, went home at night and took care of the family. Well, these promotional ads (below) by only a few of the women represented in AA&C just may have been originators not followers. They may also be the lost women of graphic design history.
Provided by The Daily Heller
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At its most basic level, display advertising means banner ads displayed on web pages. When display advertising first began, these weren’t exactly works of art.
However, as the online industry has grown, display has come to include the many newer, more interesting and engaging digital ad formats you can find on the web pages you visit.
These include:
See original post at advertising.com
I’m sitting at my desk wearing something unusual (for me, anyhow): a sport coat, Oxford shirt, dress pants, and (good grief!) a necktie. I’m not even cheating below the camera’s eye—I’ve put on the same shoes I usually wear to formal client meetings.
I’m dressed like this for a web conference, but not with a prospect or client. Today I’m meeting with my freelance “accountability buddies.” I have to wear corporate clothes because I didn’t do all the marketing tasks I committed to do last month.
Oh, how great is my shame.
I started scheduling a monthly web conference with two colleagues last spring. We met through a recent CFC and one of Marketing Mentor’s Marketing Groups. We don’t have huge results to report yet, but all three of us are more focused and motivated when it comes to self-promotion than we were a year ago.
It’s especially handy if you’re trying to stick to the Marketing Plan + Calendar or a plan of your own.
If you need accountability, struggle with getting your marketing work done, or have something else you know you should be doing, maybe it’s time for you to try “The Buddy System.” Here are a few tips to get you started.
Most of the time, business owners don’t get to talk frankly with others about the challenges they struggle with. To get the most out of this experience, you’ll want to be in it with people you’re not afraid to be a little vulnerable with. Choose someone you’re comfortable with, and consider testing the waters with just one person at first unless you already have a close-knit freelancer tribe. If you’re not sure where to even begin looking, come to CFC 2013 in San Francisco, June 22-24. You’re sure to find plenty of potential buddies to choose from there. (Early Bird Deadline ends March 15).
You’ll get a lot more out of buddy interaction if different perspectives are in the mix. Our group has a copywriter, a graphic designer, and a PowerPoint guru. We live in different parts of the country, specialize in different markets, and have contrasting personalities. That’s great, because when one of us has a challenge to discuss, the other two see it from a different angle.
You and your buddies are likely to have different work habits and insights. While you shouldn’t tell each other how to run each other’s businesses, don’t discard a buddy’s suggestion out of hand just because it’s dramatically different from your usual process. Alternative options suggested by outsiders might be just what you need to turn a thorny problem around. Be willing to experiment outside your comfort zone, even if you only test new ideas.
Respect your buddies during your time together by giving them your full attention. Turn off your email, stay off social media sites, and set other distractions aside for the duration of your call. Most of all, listen when it’s the other person’s turn to talk. Successful buddy relationships always work both ways.
Your buddy group should be a source of support, not a contest to see who can outdo the others. While it’s not essential, you can help keep buddy relationships friendly by choosing people who don’t overlap your market, your skill set, or the part of the world you do most of your business in. If you find that you have conflicts of interest, it might be best to shake hands and find someone else to fulfill the buddy role with.
Each time you have a buddy meeting, whether it’s in a coffeehouse or a Google Hangout, finish up by stating exactly what you plan to do between now and the next time you get together. Make your goals specific and quantifiable. For example: “I’ll have lunch with one client or prospect each week in the coming month.”
Start your next meeting with a recap of what you accomplished and what you didn’t. You’ll be amazed how much more motivated you become when you have to report back to someone else.
If you need extra motivation, build a “forfeit” into your buddy system for those who fall short of their goals. In my group, we have to dress in full corporate regalia. (The mere threat of lipstick and panty hose is enough to motivate one of the women in my group to great efforts.) If you need stronger medicine, pledge to donate a small amount of money to a cause you like…or better yet, one you oppose. Don’t make your forfeit so stressful that it outweighs the benefits of your buddy group, but give it enough teeth that it inspires action.
Don’t go out on a limb to impress your buddies. The goals you set need to fit within your schedule and accommodate your workload. One of the women in my group started out by setting an extraordinary goal for the number of client meetings she wanted to have in a single month. You’ll quickly discover how much you can handle in a particular period of time. You may not be satisfied, but be prepared to increase your efforts gradually—don’t burn yourself out by trying to do everything at once.
This article is the last of four “buddy goals” Tom N. Tumbusch set last month, so he gets to wear casual clothes to the next meeting! He’s a regular contributor to the CFC blog and publishes a free writing tips newsletter each month. His tiny solar-powered corner of the Internet can be found at www.wordstreamcopy.com.
You’ve likely heard or read that Facebook Page Reach has plummeted and EdgeRank is to blame. EdgeRank is an algorithm used by the Social Network to organize the massive amount of activity generated by people, pages, and apps and decides what is shown to whom. Whether the numbers have truly plummeted, is (and likely always will be) up for debate as you can plainly see below.
This does not mean it is time to give up on your digital marketing efforts and swear-off Zuckerberg forever. But, it is time to strengthen your outreach and keep the interests of your target-audience in mind.
There are now 4 ways that EdgeRank is sorting what you and other users see and miss out on.
• If you have interacted with the posts of the Community/Business Page (Liking, Commenting, or Sharing), Facebook will show you more from that page. This explains why we tend to see plenty of posts from pages that we comment on and less and less from the pages that we ignore.
• The reactions of others also play a role. If people ignore a post by not interacting, Facebook is less likely to show it to others. It may not be a bad idea to Like the posts of your business page with your personal page and encourage co-workers to do the same. Since you cannot individually invite all of your fans to Events, you should Like or join these, as well.
• Did you Like a similar post recently? If you have a tendency to interact more with pics than you do with simple text-only posts, Facebook will push more in your direction. This explains all the memes I’ve been seeing lately.
• If the post or even page making the posting has received a lot of complaints in the past, you’ll be less likely to see its future posts. This became much more commonplace as of September. Keep posts positive and upbeat. Keep in mind how your target-audience would react to that unclothed Ethiopian kid dancing.
These factors cover more than just community/business pages, they cover your personal posts and updates, as well. For instance, just the other day I learned an old friend from high school recently became engaged to be married. I mean, I actually heard it with my ears rather than from a Facebook update. Later that day, I went to his profile and sure enough there it was with 40+ Likes and even a couple Shares. But, how did this get pass me? I’m always scanning through
my feed. It didn’t get pass me, Facebook simply omitted it, because our Facebook interaction has not been that strong recently. Goes to show that Factor 1 is alive and well, which leads me to believe that 2, 3, and 4 are up and running also.
Again, there are no clear statistics as of yet. Just keep up the good work and don’t get too frustrated when that amazing Facebook Status doesn’t get as many Likes as you feel it should.
See post at Thomas Marketing Consulting
Elizabeth Resnick has been an fervent advocate of graphic design as a tool for social and political agitation. She’s documented a wide range of material and organized three exhibitions on complementary themes over the past decade. The most recent, Graphic Advocacy: International Posters for a Digital Age 2001-2012, is set to open tomorrow at the Stephen B. Paine Gallery (click here for online gallery) , one of MassArt’s premiere display spaces. Steven Heller of Print Magazine recently interviewed Resnick for the exhibition brochure about the work, the response, and how these shows have already and will continue to impact designers and others.
-Written by Steven Heller, Print Magazine
Have you ever looked up and seen a billboard for an automobile and then used your imagination to see it flying off and landing on the street in front of you? Your Smartphone can make that a reality, well, an augmented reality. Augmented Reality (AR) is a combination of a real-world, physical environment and computer-generated data. You simply use the camera on your Smartphone, tablet or webcam to view the environment in front of you and you will see it come to life with graphics, sound, video or GPS data.
AR works by utilizing the video-camera, GPS and graphics on your Smartphone to recognize what you are viewing an enhancing, or augmenting your perception. AR differs from Virtual Reality (VR) because VR replaces the real world with a simulated, computer-generated reality. AR doesn’t replace the real world, instead it just enhances it with computer-generated sensory data. AR is not that new, it has been around since the 1990s, but it has progressed exponentially to where it is now the future of marketing and advertising.
Volkswagen released AR advertising billboards in Canada to promote the new 2012 Beetle. A consumer could download the AR application to their Smartphone or tablet and then view the billboard through their device and the advertisement will come to life. The app recognizes patterns in the advertisement and then it starts augmenting reality by showing the Beetle punching through the billboard and driving toward you and punching into another billboard. A second billboard, when viewed through a Smartphone shows the billboard moving back and a ramp coming out with the new Beetle driving up and down the ramp. Volkswagen released commercials to promote their AR billboards because AR is still so new that many people have never heard of it. Volkswagen says they want “the advertising to be as impressive as the car” so, the commercial tells consumers to download the app, “and let the show begin.”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=KRA0SZhKNyo
Billboards are not the only way AR can work for advertising, it can also digitally enhance packaging as well. LEGO was one of the first to use AR with their packaging. A consumer simply views the LEGO package through their Smartphone and a 3D image of the finished product appears to be floating on top of the box. Other toys companies are following suit such as Bandai with their Thundercats toys. Just view the package through your phone and a 3D image of the toy will appear and come to life. Red Bull has a mobile gaming app called Red Bull Augmented Racing. With this app you can create your own custom racetrack with your Smartphone and cans of Red Bull. You scan a Red Bull can with your phone to start the app and then you arrange other cans on the ground and trace the tops of the cans with your phone to design your track anyway you want. You can upload your track to their website so others can race on it and you can race on your friend’s tracks. What is so genius about Red bull’s app is that the more cans you have the more twists and turns your track can have, enticing the consumer to buy more Red Bull.
http://www.redbullusa.com/cs/Satellite/en_US/Red-Bull-Augmented-Racing/001242961393131#/page/home
Other ways AR can work for advertising is with print ads, t-shirts and business cards. Just read a magazine through your tablet and the ads will jump off the page. Look at your friends t-shirt through your phone and watch the logo come to life. If you want more information on your business card for potential clients, but you don’t want to make your card too busy with clutter just tell them to scan it with an AR app. When they scan your card they could see directions to your office, examples of past work, or even your resume. AR is the future for advertising because it is interactive advertising for the consumer. This technology is still so new and constantly developing, but the potential AR has for advertising in this digital age is very exciting.
-Dennis Myers
As the dust settles on the heavily anticipated Facebook IPO, the critical reviews and press releases read like the depressing movie reviews of an over hyped would-be summer movie blockbuster. Adding to general dissatisfaction, cries of foul play have started to surface. These allegations have been leveled at the major power player investors that initially supported and then drew back on their estimations of the glory that would follow Zuckerburg’s foray into the public marketplace.
Massachusetts Secretary of Commonwealth has gone so far as to subpoena Morgan Stanley for reneging on their initial projection of Facebook’s revenues, during their second quarter, just mid-way through the IPO roadshow. When financial giants pull back their initial projections so dramatically in such a key stage of a company’s public debut, there is no doubt that new insider information has surfaced. This information however was not decimated to the public and could lead to dramatic financial losses to a not-so-privileged consumer marketplace. Massachusetts’s commonwealth is obviously not going to take this seemingly inevitable loss lying down.
Their subpoena of Morgan Stanley is only the first cry for blood that has come from Facebook’s lackluster performance. The villagers are sharpening the pitchforks. The metaphorical torches are being lit and the initial disappointment over Facebook’s IPO has bred the desire for a villain. Morgan Stanley issued the statement, “Morgan Stanley followed the same procedures for the Facebook offering that it follows for all IPOs. These procedures are in compliance with all applicable regulations.” One major problem has arisen from Morgan Stanley’s unpredictable change of projection.
It seems bitterly ironic that Facebook’s troubles may lie in the heart of their “privacy controls.” Information that should have been disseminated to the general population seemed to be only available to select “friends list.” Surely Zuckerburg wouldn’t mind reaching back into this timeline and writing a few timely posts that would have certainly earned him a few more “likes” at the end of his day of trading.
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