Now I’m not big on fast food but I have to say that I have a complete weak spot for Chipotle. I just can’t resist stopping for a quick bite to eat anytime I drive by that Chipotle Mexican Grill sign. As a matter of fact, I’m a frequent customer. Just when I thought I had it all figured out, I learned that my favorite fast food chain actually has a secret menu. At first I was confused, wondering how could I have not known about this? Then as I began to inform everyone else about my discovery, I learned I wasn’t the only one. I began to wonder what the point is of having a menu that you’re keeping your customers from seeing. I realized that these restaurants may be getting somewhere with their marketing strategies. Continue reading “The Hidden Menu to Content Marketing”
Allstate Drama!
More and more consumers are shifting their attention to online forms of advertisements. With less people actually sitting through TV commercials, marketers have a tough time getting their message across to the masses.
So, like any smart business would do… you either adapt or die.
Allstate has applied this motto and has gone forward and developed a series of teen drama episodes that can be viewed over the Internet. The series is broken up into various episodes and takes various everyday scenarios such as driving to school, teen parties, even running errands and how they can turn dangerous if the driver is not careful. It highlights the worry parents have as their teenage kids start driving and deals with peer pressure and how it can affect driving judgment. It is full of teenage drama and their volatile stressors in life which can seem trivial to adults but can really alter the way they operate a vehicle.
Do you Know the Length of Your Audience’s Attention Span?
The length of one’s attention has a lot to do with age. Think about it… if you give a 10 month old a red plastic block to play with, he will taste it, feel it, and even throw it. The block grabs his attention for a few minutes at least. If you give the same block to a 10 year old, however, he will just throw it at you within seconds! Chances are the pre-teen already knows the texture, understand not to eat it and won’t give it a second thought.
Does the same hold true for adults?
Continue reading “Do you Know the Length of Your Audience’s Attention Span?”
Don’t Forget The Sauce!
You have your shiny shoes on, crisp shirt freshly pressed, nice slacks and funky belt. She has on her silky dress, her shiny shoes and her swanky purse. You heard about a great new Italian restaurant owned by that famous TV chef and are anticipating experiencing what everyone is talking about. The talk of the town is their special; a must-have on the menu. The critics have raved about it all week. As you walk up to the restaurant it is pulsing with energy.
Squeaky Clean Content
My monthly car wash ritual is the same every time. I plan for the entire process to take 20 minutes tops, in and out. After the interior vacuuming is said and done and the wet wipe is quickly applied to the interior, the half way mark is purchasing the “new car” scented tree. The final part is easy; just pull up to the grumpy underpaid worker holding an insane amount of dollar bills, pay and tip him and I’m out. Seems simple right?
Not today. A new overly energetic college kid jumped in front of my car and skipped his way to my window to immediately inform me of the four choices they now offer. The ultimate wash (guaranteed for seven days!); the wheel blaster wash; the clear coat application wash; and the rust protector wash (or the basic water and soap wash).
Pack a Harder Punch with an Infographic
I usually take a trip up to Fairfield to see my mother at least once every week. It is not on a particular day. It is usually spontaneous and it can very well be a Monday night or Sunday all day. The one thing that stays constant is her favorite TV station ‘Caracol TV. It is full of news, soap operas, comedies, reality TV, singing competitions and the Colombian version of “Judge Judy.” It is an all encompassing station covering everything under the sun including politics, religion and, of course, sports.
Saying that she loves her Colombian TV station is definitely an understatement. It’s on when she cooks, cleans, and even sleeps. It’s even on when she isn’t home! So when I go to her house I dare not turn the thing off; there is a chance I could miss a monumental occurrence in our native country. I do, however, turn the volume down a bit as I decompress in her soft leather recliner.
I don’t particularly pay attention to the programs that run during my visit but having a background in TV post production I do pay attention to the commercials, of all things. In former roles, I wrote hundreds of on-air promos and even hired voice-over actors depending on the company’s production schedule. So for me it is something that I naturally have a pretty good ear for. I have noticed that during the commercial breaks her station uses the same voice-over actor. It doesn’t matter what the commercial is about. It’s always the same guy. His voice is smooth, monotonous and deep. It’s not a quick sell, and it isn’t overly “car salesman” hyped up nonsense. It’s instead like an older uncle talking through the television set. These types of commercials are significantly different from American television commercials, where there are way more graphics, color, volume, hype and a call to action in every other breath. So which is more effective?
The Lonely Hammer
I am no handyman. Trust me, I have tried. Once, I attempted to install a new light fixture in our spare bathroom. I proudly put the thing together; after hours of figuring out the red and black wires go here and the ground wire goes there. I was pumped up and ready to boast about my handyman powers. I flicked the switch and the only thing that kept turning on and off was the living room cable box.
It was immediately reaffirmed; I am definitely no handyman or an electrician. The problem is, I have no patience. I can’t sit there for hours and not fix something. So when my brother-in-law came over to fix the stand up shower that we had stopped using over a month ago due to the hot handle breaking off, I was very excited. What I didn’t expect is him bringing not one, not two but three different tool boxes full of neat tools I have never seen before.
April Showers Bring Fresh Social Media Strategies
Every minute, 100,000 new tweets are published and six million Facebook pages are viewed, and these numbers only represent what happens on the Internet every 60 seconds. Can you imagine what this will look like in the future? Allow us to put this into perspective for you.
Today’s number of networked devices is equivalent to our global population, and by 2015, this number of networked devices will be twice that of the global population.
Continue reading “April Showers Bring Fresh Social Media Strategies”
5 Common Content Marketing Mistakes You May Not Know you’re Making – Part One
Every business knows the importance of promoting the company brand through marketing, but as easy as that may sound, it is not. There is a very fine line between positive efforts that are misinformed. It is very easy to do more harm than good. Here are some common offenses you may not even know you’re committing.
Continue reading “5 Common Content Marketing Mistakes You May Not Know you’re Making – Part One”
How to STINK at Content Marketing
Content marketing is King. We all know the importance of it. There are countless studies, data and reports that remind us that websites feed off of the time and energy we inject into our content.
Content is the protein that websites need to make them strong, vibrant and profitable. Content Boost can help you improve audience engagement, traffic to your website and augment social media presence.
But for all you B2B, B2C, not for profit, entrepreneurs or solo-preneurs out there, who want to see how other companies effectively sabotage their content marketing strategies, please take a look at this awesome slideshow: