Archive for March, 2010

Vistaprint hasn’t got a chance

Wednesday, March 24th, 2010

IMPACT recently began offering print services to its clients.  After pricing our services around, we discovered that we are REALLY inexpensive compared to Staples, Kinko’s and even local print shops.

The one thing I keep hearing though is, “I get my cards from Vistaprint“…

Let me take a moment to set the record straight here.  In an apples-to-apples comparison, OUR PRICES STOMP VISTAPRINT’S!  Don’t believe me?  Follow along:

Vistaprint premium cards:

250 cards: $19.99
100lbs paper upgrade: $12.99
Color on the back: $12.99
Uploaded image: $4.99
Total: $50.96 (BEFORE SHIPPING)

Our identical cards?

$25 before shipping.  Period.

Bit of a difference there, ehh?

Now, as a bit of a disclosure, we don’t typically reccommend a Vistaprint-level product to our clients.  We can provide it, but we tend to suggest a product with a bit more sizzle like 14pt paper with rounded corners.  It’s amazing what a difference the upgrade in paper stock and rounded corners can make.

Taking it a step further, IMPACT can design and execute the most elaborate of cards with die cuts, Pantone metallics, embossing or whatever you can imagine to create an awesome custom solution for your business.

Whether you need creative or already have it, when looking for business cards and other print solutions, consider us…  and know that the “value” players online don’t necessarily deliver the value that you are assuming they do…

Some ballpark pricing is available in a past post.  However, please contact us to discuss your specific needs.

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Interactive Print???

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Modified 3/31/2010 to clarify privacy concerns at end of post.

Believe it or not, even print is interactive!

Way back in 2000, WIRED Magazine leveraged Digimarc to add watermarks to print ads.  At that point, reading the ads was only possible using a PC camera and, with the appropriate watermark software installed, would direct you to the advertiser’s web site.  Interesting, but not that useful.  Fast forward to 2010, the iPhone and much higher distribution watermarked ads and things start getting more interesting.

Much more interesting in fact…  A recent issue of Wired Magazine piqued our Creative Director Allan Godshall’s interest as the editorial proclaimed that print was once again interactive in Wired Magazine using technology from Kooaba designed for the iPhone.

Please refer to the press release from Kooaba (the company providing the technology to WIRED) and the specific release on WIRED’s site.

Using an iPhone and the Kooaba app, the ads could be “read”.  I’m not going to rehash my previous rants that questioned the value of iPhone app mania.  Nonetheless, this is pretty cool depending on what the action is on the iPhone when the ad is “scanned”.

If advertising using a tool like this, what action would you want people to take?  Would you have them do something that reinforced the brand equity?  Would you take the opportunity to grab consumer information?  Perhaps the ad would simply link to a page giving the consumer more information about the advertised product or service.

It would really depend on the strategy behind the print piece and the call to action.  Very rapidly, the capability of this technology forces clarification of the strategy and goals sections of the creative brief for that ad…  Back to the point; does this capability bring  privacy concerns to print?

Potentially.  In the age of variable printing and segmentation to a group of 1, who is to say that a advertisement’s watermarked print ad in your favorite magazine doesn’t contain YOUR subscription number?  When you click on that ad, viola, as you’re iPhone is getting directed to the advertiser’s web site, they happily make off with both your phone number and subscription number.  A quick mashup of that data and the publishers information about you and now the advertiser has something very valuable…  After all, that magazine publisher knows exactly who you are, where you live and probably a ton of psychographic and demographic information.

Considering this, are we going to see privacy statements on print ads in the future?

Despite the privacy concerns, we believe this is interesting technology.  If you’re looking to work some magic with your marketing, just ask us to bring some more IMPACT!

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Get your message out, inside

Friday, March 19th, 2010

Indoor advertising.

We’ve all seen it.  Indoor advertising hits you in the bathroom.  It finds you in the restaurant waiting area.  See it over there by the beer line at the stadium?  Indoor advertising really is everywhere you go.  Some people question its appropriateness for their brand, business or product, but no one questions the effectiveness.

According to research statistics published on the Indoor Billboard Advertising Association (IBAA) web site:

  • 98% of people don’t have a negative reaction to the placement or content of the ads
  • 84% recalled seeing a specific ad
  • 93% could name specific advertisers tested without prompting
  • 89% of those who recalled a specific ad could remember at least 4 benefits mentioned

Studies have found that indoor ads are viewed for 1.5 – 2 minutes, on average.  Compare this to the 3-5 seconds that traditional print ads are viewed and the reason for the higher recognition and benefit recall is obvious.

This is not to say that this should be the only tool in your toolbox, but it is an awful nice hammer even if it is from Harbor Freight instead of Stanley…

More than just “branding”

Most people associate indoor advertising with simple branding.  Ads typically scream, “HERE’S MY BUSINESS.”  Through the many campaigns we’ve done for our clients, we’ve found that this tool is effective on two additional fronts – PR and activation.

Consider this… you have an individual’s attention for 1.5 – 2 minutes.  You have a chance to both  educate and entertain them.  You have a chance to convince them of a benefit associated with doing something, NOW (or at least after they finish and wash their hands)…  This ability to motivate immediate action and/or educate a target audience makes indoor advertising an interesting tool.

Imagine a PR campaign to soften the image of a organization.  Considering that people are less than 2 feet away from the 8.5″ x 11″ boards from EverywhereUGo or the 11″ x 17″ boards from All Over Media, an ad has a great opportunity to deliver a story.  The ad has a great opportunity to change the target’s opinion.

In a different situation, imagine an ad containing a call out to call a number or to send a text message to get something free, register for a contest or to find out more information.  The person has ample opportunity to take advantage of the offer while they stare at the ad.

So, as mentioned above, indoor advertising can be a great addition to a larger marketing plan to promote a brand, communicate a message or drive a target to activate.  Combining this with the ability to target your audience by gender, and venue makes this a rather powerful tool.

To see some examples of indoor campaigns done with IMPACT, see our print portfolio.  If you have any questions about the effectiveness about indoor advertising or interest in setting up a campaign, don’t hesitate to contact us.

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Call me a heretic…

Monday, March 15th, 2010

IMPACT seeks the business reason or problems before proposing solutions, strategies or executions.  When formulating solutions or pondering client requests, I always take a step back and address three questions.  Will a potential solution:

  1. assist in the acquisition of consumers
  2. shorten the monetization cycle by moving prospects to consumers more rapidly
  3. save the business money through optimization

This decision tree is particularly useful when clients are pondering “mobile solutions” for their business.  Don’t misinterpret me.  Mobile is extremely important to your business if it makes sense.  In addition, everything you do should be done in a manner that doesn’t inherently EXCLUDE mobile.  However, does 100% of your site need to be mobile?  Do you have to have a TXT messaging intiative?  Do you have to have an iPhone app for that?

Perhaps, but it is IMPACT’s belief that you should answer those three questions, first, in order to evaluate the value to your business versus the cost of the work.

That said, even I was surprised by the data in this article from Wired Magazine concerning Apple’s battle over gestures.   Based upon a  Strategy Analytics study, only 5% of mobile devices have touch screens.  In the next 3 years, that number is projected to grow to 30% but right now it is only 5%…

Ponder this for a moment.  This means that less that 5% of all mobile devices are iPhones and that only 5% of all mobile devices, worldwide, have a touch-based interface.  For all the hype that iPhones and Apple’s app store gets, it doesn’t seem to me that they have that much market share…

Could it be that Blue-collar American is still worried about simply having a phone…  and the $400+ super-sexy “app enabled” phones are nothing more than an item on a wish list a this point.

Just a little something to make you go, “hmmmm”…

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Pepsi Max, meet the Burn

Saturday, March 13th, 2010

Typically, like most marketing folk, I am overly critical any ads and the first to fire cantankerous at mediocre and off-equity ads (at least among family and friends).  To this concept, I have to give props…

Driving down the road this week, I heard an advertisement for Doritos 1st, 2nd and 3rd Degree Burn chips.  The chips attribute their burn to jalapeno, fiery buffalo and habanero flavoring.  The radio ad took the cliche format of some calling into a “crisis center” with their mouth basically bursting into flames.

The rather comical, but otherwise unremarkable ad then took a turn toward ingenius.  The crisis center hotline “representative” recommended Pepsi Max Cool Burn, with a hint of lime, to quell the ailing caller’s burn.

What?  Pepsico, hats off to you!  This is probably the best example of joint product marketing I’ve ever seen.  These techniques have been around as long as grocery store end caps, but this, in my opinion, verged on GENIUS!

What are your thoughts?  Do you have a favorite example of co-branding like this?  I bet nothing has driven the sales of cross-category products as effectively as I imagine this will since some one dropped a Mentos into a 2-liter of Diet Coke…

Some other resources you might be interested in:

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Check out these kicks…

Tuesday, March 9th, 2010

It has taken us a bit, but we’ve finally gotten the first stab at our site uploaded.

Our new site leverages the latest release from the fine folks working on the CakePHP framework, a highly customized WordPress blog and it will soon incorporate some pretty cool features that leverage the Constant Contact API.

It is so cliche, but yet very true.  Even if you are the master in your field, it seems next to impossible to get your own assets created.  It just seems as though paying work and administrative duties, like most work, expand to take all available time.

Every time I work on a site, it amazes me the level of work necessary to do it well.  Unique page titles.  Relevant page descriptions.  Compelling copy.  Oh, and don’t forget the snazzy factor…  It takes a substantial amount of time to do right and leverage all of the best practices necessary to have a well functioning web site.

Actually, that is a small homework assignment for you. Do all of the pages in your web site have custom page titles that are unique, relevant and keyword rich?  Cruise through your site and kick the tires.  You might be surprised at what you find.

So, here is our first pass.  Check back frequently for updates to our site and to our blog.  We will frequently post updates concerning what we are doing for our clients and what we are thinking about the industry as a whole.  If you’re interested in actively keeping up with what is going on, find us on Facebook, follow us on Twitter or link to us on Linkedin.  And, of course, if you dig it, you can hook up our RSS feed (http://www.with-impact.com/blog/feed/) on the dash board of your favorite aggregator…

As it turns out, we have a lot to say, and we just found our microphone…

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