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Sprint: The Last Emoji [Background Movies]

“The Last Emoji” is a sculpture made from a junkyard wreck that warns Miami drivers of the dangers of texting and driving.  Created by Coconut Grove, FL based ALMA.

Branded Integration Survey [REPORT]

Online survey among US adults ages 18 and over who work full-time in the marketing/ advertising industry. To qualify for the survey, respondents had to be decision makers/ representatives for a specific brand, or work for an agency that is responsible for making decisions on behalf of brands.

Why the customer experience matters [PODCAST]

A company’s relationship with its customers is about much more than improving product ratings or decreasing wait times. Understanding the customer journey is about learning what customers experience from the moment they begin considering a purchase, and then working to make the journey toward buying a product or service as simple, clear, and efficient as possible.

Marketers’ Analytics Strategies Extend to the C-Suite

Data and analytics capabilities have become a top priority for businesses, with many organizations using the discipline to help gain a competitive advantage and improve the customer experience. In fact, many organizations place such high value on data and analytics that primary responsibility for the function lies with the company CEO.

First-Time Moms, Experienced Moms – Speak Their (Different) Languages

Motherhood stages are not created equal. I find it troubling when the term “mom” is all-encompassing and when “moms” are viewed as a singular unit. The transformation from when I had my first daughter 10 years ago to my son two and half years ago is astounding. As a first-time mom I made all my baby food, nursed until she was 12 months and took sign language classes. Conversely, my third child was bottled-fed, ate jarred baby food and his only sign language has come from watching “Sesame Street.” And I’m okay with it.

Best Practices In Experiential Marketing — Making Brands The Event

We have a saying at our agency that goes, “Don’t just take brands to the event, make brands the event.” The first time you read it, it can feel like the sort of silly too-clever marketing lyricism that most people roll their eyes at when it comes from anyone but Don Draper. But the truth is, there’s a good deal of sincerity behind it. Today’s consumers — call them millennials, if you really, really have to — value doing over owning. That is a conclusion reached time and time again by esteemed publications and universities alike.

Leading Global Media Agency Dismisses Effectiveness Of Digital Media [INSIGHT]

Last week, Group M released a report called “Interaction 2016”. In it, GroupM shares a laundry list of issues with digital media that we have been debating here at the Online Spin and elsewhere for a very long time. Group M shares global numbers it collected concerning ad blocking, fraud, viewability and a whole range of related issues. And with regards to the growing budget share of digital media, Group M questions “the effectiveness of these investments.”

Digital Video Ad Spending Soars, Budgets Coming Mainly From TV

Ad spending on original digital — both desktop and mobile — programming has more than doubled since 2014, and those budgets have come primarily out of television, according to findings of a survey of advertiser and agency executives released this morning by the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Television Advertising and Online Shopping [REPORT]

Media  multitasking  competes  with  television  advertising  for  consumers’  attention,  but  may  also  facilitate immediate and measurable response to some advertisements. This paper explores whether and how tele-vision advertising influences online shopping.

What Race Are Hispanics? [INSIGHT]

Writer Richard Rodriguez calls Richard M. Nixon the inventor of Hispanics.  His logic? In 1972, Nixon signed a federal mandate called Statistical Directive 15, establishing the current system of classifying Americans into five racial or ethnic groups: White, African American, American Indian / Alaska Native, Asian / Pacific Islander, and Hispanic.  In Rodriguez’s words: “I have traveled throughout Latin America and I have looked for Hispanics. Everyone tells you there are no Hispanics there. Essentially, the whole category of the Hispanic is in fact an American fabrication.”  By David Morse / New America Dimensions

Astroturfing. So you thought grassroots is always greener on social media, huh? Think again.

By Gonzalo López Martí    – Creative director, etc.   /   LMMiami.com

  • Would you accept it if, say, your advertising or PR agency offered you an astroturfing campaign?
  • I’m sure you’ve heard the pitch.
  • It goes somewhat along these lines: “… we have a team of influencers ready to open the floodgates and plug your product, service or brand. Just say the word, write the check and we’ll pull the trigger.”
  • According to the British daily The Guardian* “astroturfing is the attempt to create an impression of widespread grassroots support for a policy, individual, or product, where little such support exists. Multiple online identities and fake pressure groups are used to mislead the public into believing that the position of the astroturfer is the commonly held view…”

The Rising Cost of Consumer Attention: Why You Should Care, and What You Can Do about It [REPORT]

Attention is the allocation of mental resources, visual or cognitive, to visible or conceptual objects. Before consumers can be affected by advertising messages, they first need to be paying attention. As Thales S. Teixeira writes in this paper, the quality of consumer attention has been falling for decades. Consumers have lost interest in the information content of ads because they can access more and better information on‐demand on the Web.

Breaking into the Brain: How Mobile Brings Brands Closer to Consumers

People tune out messages that do not connect with them emotionally, according to Dr. Thomas Trautmann, certified neuromarketing instructor and business partner at SalesBrain, a San Francisco-based marketing agency that uses psychology to figure out the best way for brands to convey their message. eMarketer’s Sean Creamer spoke with Trautmann about how brands are leveraging mobile to elicit emotional responses from their audience.

Seven ways to humanize your brand through content marketing

Some content is so flat and boring that it can be hard to read.  No one wants to be faced with an article that is corporate, uninspiring, and feels like it has been written by a robot.  Behind every brand is a human being that is passionate about the industry they work in and is driven by their area of expertise.  But how do we make the human side of a brand come across? Being authentic in your content marketing efforts is key.

Introducing Creating Cultural Value

So if brands started out as labels for ‘stuff’ and now it’s becoming apparent that we’re generally into less ‘stuff’, what do brands need to do to keep thriving? Are they now redundant or do they have a new role to play? We went about finding out with a five phase study: Creating Cultural Value.

The Brand Service Framework [INSIGHT]

Every brand has a generalized framework for approaching consumers or customers. It usually goes something like this: First, assess the landscape, then define the prospect (“Who”); figure out what we want to say (“What”), and determine the best ways and means to communicate that message (“How”).  ATL, Who, What, How. Pretty standard.  This framework is so pervasive, so robust, and so fundamental that no one ever questions it. It has worked for a long time. You might ask, if it’s so great, why is brand advertising having so much trouble?

U.S. Hispanics More Likely to Use Smartphones While Driving

U.S. Hispanics are more prone to smartphone distracted driving than the general population, according to AT&T* It Can Wait research. 83% of Hispanics admit to using their smartphones behind the wheel. That compares with 71% of Americans as a whole.  

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