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A Funny Billboard

June 28, 2010 Advertising / Design / Marketing
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I was driving home from work the other day and I laughed out loud when I saw a billboard for Gay Lea Spreadables. I had to pull over and take a picture of it! Take a look – who hasn’t had this happen to them? Too funny. I was curious and checked out their website gaylea.com. They have a sponsorship program on now which supports the Daily Bread Food Bank – a non-profit, charitable organization that is fighting to end hunger in our communities. You know, it’s not the first time I’ve been impressed by a billboard on my way home from work.

Print media isn’t just limited to the office. Out-of-Home products such as posters (or billboards), superboards, transit shelters, wall murals, bus, subway and streetcar advertising are all powerful ways of reaching today’s consumer. CBS Outdoor is who we send all of our outdoor billboard designs. For information on any of the products they have please visit cbsoutdoor.ca

I remember one billboard in particular that proves the effectiveness of strategic planning when it comes to choosing a location. A few months ago, McDonald’s was advertising FREE COFFEE when Tim Horton’s had their “Roll Up The Rim” contest on. The billboard for the free coffee was located right across the street from a Tim Horton’s. I thought that was genius! Needless to say, I went to McDonald’s for my coffee those two weeks (and maybe a couple of lunches). I even went onto their website and was reading about their nutrition information and community involvement, and I now have a better opinion of the restaurant chain. Tim Horton’s has similar information on their website, and the Gay Lea website has an environmental sustainability report available to view. It’s nice to see large business caring about their community.

Billboards speak to each consumer differently. What I find funny, or smart, might seem silly to someone else. That doesn’t matter, however. The fact remains that the billboard DID speak to me, and I’m still thinking about it! Have you seen any unique billboards lately? I’d like to hear about it.

If you’d like to see the billboards Engine has designed, you are welcome to view our portfolio online.

—Kathy

Square: bringing us closer to a cashless society.

June 25, 2010 ecommerce / Marketing / Uncategorized / Web
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Okay, so honestly how many people really carry cash on them anymore? I mean sure, we all keep maybe twenty bucks on us for coffee, parking or to pay back a friend for lunch, but do we really pay for most things with cash? Of course not! We have become so accustomed to the convenience of the swipe-and-go world we live in. We pay at the pump, auto-charge bills to our credit cards online, and I know everyone of us has swiped a credit card for something under 2 dollars at least once! In 2008 VISA alone reported $90.2 Trillion dollars of spending worldwide.
We are almost a cashless society, except when we are paying other people back for things. Usually we have to run to the ATM and get cash. Thanks to the development of Square last year, all of that is about to change.

Square was first announced in late 2009 but as of last month it is has been released to the public and is fully available to all consumers. (within the US)

It is official, now debit and credit transactions are easily accessible to everyone right from their android-powered phone, iphone, or ipad. Within seconds you can turn any of them into a cash register. Cash can be exchanged with any individual, right from your phone. This is an application that is targeted to individuals and small businesses more so than large corporations. All you need to do is download the Square application, plug a small device into your headphone jack that reads the magnetic strip on a debit or credit card, and you are ready to go. The phone acts as a credit terminal, sends an email copy of the receipt to the buyer, and logs the transactions for the seller on their phone. Along with all of this Square also maps out the location of the transaction. The possibilities of this type of technology are really endless.

After I get over imagining the endless possibilities, my first thought is, how do I know what other people are doing on their phones. It seems like this concept is amazing, but perhaps needs more development to really be a practical way to exchange money with strangers on a day-to-day basis. How hard would it be for someone to figure out how to copy my debit or credit information right onto their personal phone.

There is also a lot of concern that this application will be highly attractive to people who are unable to get standard business accounts because of a bad credit history or fraud.

I am not sure what to think about the security risks, but I do think square is a great development that we will see becoming more and more common in the near future. In the mean time I think there are a lot of security kinks to be worked out.

Check out the promo video for Square

— Sandra

What are Microformats and why should you have them?

June 23, 2010 Marketing / Social Media / Web
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Here’s my tiny explanation of Microformats, how to use them, and how they can help futureproof your website.

To understand how Microformats work I’ll use an illustration; a website is like a recipe containing instructions on how your web browser should build and display the website.  This is written in a language called HTML.  Microformats are a subset of HTML that tell the web browser what type of information is on the page instead of just displaying the information.

Think of it like a recipe inside of a recipe, like a pizza recipe that contains a complete recipe for pizza crust inside of it.  If it’s marked clearly enough, you could easily pull that pizza crust recipe out from the pizza recipe and use just that if you wanted.

What microformats are most popular?

The most popular Microformats are Address cards, Calendars, Product Reviews, Resumes, and Tags, and they’re all relatively easy for a professional to add to your site.

Why should you use them?

Microformats have existed for a few years now and so many large websites (Google, LinkedIN, Twitter, Youtube, Wikipedia) are already slowly adding support for them.

When we revisited our recipe pages on FoodNetwork.com a few months ago, it was one of our priorities in Front End Engineering to embed hRecipe. We knew that it would be only a matter of time for tool support to come along to utilize our recipe data. As Front End Engineers, we have real control over what are pages output, and we have a real opportunity maximize the amount of data that a tool like Google can glean from our markup. It would be a poor practice to not take advantage of microformats when something as powerful as Google recognizes their importance.

Says Mark Wunsch, a developer for Foodnetwork.com, read the rest of that article

At the same time people are slowly extending web browsers or adding support for Microformats to web services.  If you’re a business then your location will be far easier for web-based services to find you if you contain your business information in an Address card (hCard).  Some web browsers and web browser plugins can already detect any Microformats on a website and allow you to pull them out of the site and save the information on your computer or add it to your Address Book.

Sooner or later everybody will be using Microformats and you too will have them on your site – but if you’re the first of your competitors to embrace this technology then for a while you’re far easier for people to find – isn’t that reason enough?

Who can make Microformats?

You can, if you have an understanding of basic HTML. Otherwise any web designer worth his salt can make one for you; it’s not difficult and doesn’t take too long to do it properly, but the advantages (especially right now if you’re an early adopter) are well worth the investement.  It’s always easiest to hand-craft your microformats, but go ahead and check out the free tools available at microformats.org/code-tools

Where can I find out more about Microformats?

The home for all discussion of Microformats happens over at microformats.org

—Tom

What is Geolocation Anyway?

June 17, 2010 Design / Marketing / Social Media / Web
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Hello! Today I’m going to tackle a trend I see emerging with new technology: location-aware web browsing (geolocation).

As more people are browsing the internet on phones and mobile devices (many of which have GPS also) there has begun this challenge of finding ways to insert your geographical location into the online world (where location until now has been irrelevant) in a valuable way.

Most modern web browsers (i.e. everybody but Internet Explorer, unless you’re using Google’s ‘Gears’ plugin to add functionality) have support for geolocation already, so how will we leverage this technology in the future to shape web design? A better question is; how would knowing the geographic location of a web user allow you to serve them better?

Here are five simple ways I can see that could immediately be incredibly useful and provide tremendous value to the user

Location-Aware Websites

Suppose you were planning a trip to Bermuda and using a location-aware web browser.  With this technology I could provide information about my resort and how to contact us, for those visiting my site from outside bermuda, but if I knew that the user was in Bermuda I might offer a schedule of the activities at my resort and information that a person not on the island wouldn’t have use for.

Perhaps a shopping mall website could feature a list of the stores and services they represent on their home page when you’re away from the mall, but the moment you step inside the mall their homepage could simply become a map of the mall itself, and then provide links into the rest of the site as a secondary navigation feature.

Location-Sharing Services

This one already exists in its nascent state with services like Foursquare and Gowalla.  Right now we’re checking in at places of business (but not yet temporary events like concerts or conferences) and tracking the movement of our friends, as well as leaving geo-aware tips for the public.

At my most frequented sushi place, I left a note for the public to try certain menu items – even if they’re not my friend or if I’m not there.  Yes I might not know the person who sees this, but I could just as easily have bumped into them in person at the restaurant.

By adding geolocation to websites and sharing your location with the public allows you to ‘bump into’ strangers in your town at the places you visit and can help foster new friendships – now that is truly social media.

Directions to Places of Business

This one is simple, but incredibly useful. We’ve all seen websites that have maps that provide the location of a business, but if the browser knew your current location at all times it could provide the quickest route to that place of business, and would continue to update for you on their website as you view it and change your location.

Never see a ‘Find a Store Location’ page again; supposing the website you’re going to is a franchise it could detect the location nearest you and display that by default.

Default Language Selection

Here in Canada we live in a country with two official languages, so many sites will provide their content in the language they feel best fits their audience and provide a link to the other language.  With location-aware browsing you would be able to target the default language displayed based on the user’s location (still providing them the chance to switch languages at any time later of course).

Lets assume you’re a large corporation serving many countries; you could target your site to German language people if they are browsing from Germany, but display the default language as Chinese if they visit your site from China.

Locally Tailored Content

There is an unhealthy excess of news sites online, and many news sites fall under the same media conglomerate and simply provide an outlet for local news for one region.  Imagine if instead of your local news website, you went to the main media company website and it promoted local stories near your location, as well as national and international news.  That way everybody would be visiting and writing for the same main news website, and more money could be spent raising awareness of that one website across the country – yet the delivery of the content would be the same as your local news site.

Oh, and one added benefit – you *could* search and find local stories from anywhere because they’d all be in one location, where now they’re split up on hundreds of different local news sites even though they are from the same media company.

So there are five simple examples of how knowledge of the users geographic location can help shape the web, and allow you to serve your users better and more intuitively – and at the same time empower them in their own environment and foster development and growth of offline relationships.  This is an exciting time to be a web designer, but an even more exciting time to be alive as all this technology can be put to use right away to improve our lives.

—Tom

The Basics of Social Media Success: A Focus on Relationships

June 1, 2010 Marketing / Social Media / Uncategorized / Web
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The following is a part of our One For the Creative Types Series. We are looking to help people transform their web presence from “starving artist” to “social media savvy entrepreneur.”

The Basics

When people hear the term “social media,” they immediately think of tools like Facebook, Twitter, etc. without actually considering what these tools are all about.  Using these social networks has become so ingrained into our everyday lives that many have never stopped to think – what is social media?

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Social Media is Functional

May 24, 2010 Marketing / Social Media / Web
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It may seem a little overzealous on my part, but I’d argue that social media is changing almost every aspect of our society.  I have previously discussed how technology is leading us towards a more open society, as well as the privacy issues associated with this evolution. There is no doubt that social media is changing the way we do business. I think Brian Solis says it best:

“Social Media is not only changing how we communicate, we are also changing the culture of business from the outside in and from the bottom up.”

Let me elaborate. Social media is starting to impact nearly all functional areas of business, including: marketing/sales, human resources, customer services, research and development, finance & accounting, and administration/IT support. I will provide you with an example for each:

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Questioning Your Marketing Vision

May 20, 2010 Marketing
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Being in the marketing business, I question myself daily as to what makes me tick. What motivates me to buy a product, use one service over another, or donate to this or that non-profit? All of our clients have competition within their industries, the local market, or even on an international level. In the simplest terms, our challenge is to identify why someone would want to use their service/product over the competition’s, and to capitalize on those features using the various tools in our marketing repertoire.

Sometimes this challenge is easily overcome. Other times, you’re faced with a bigger issue. Today, I had a bigger issue.

Whenever I need a jolt of creative inspiration, I go to my favourite website, TED.com. TED is an amazing database of lectures by some of the world’s most famous minds in fields as diverse as marketing, nuclear physics and religion. This site has everything. This morning, I found myself trolling it’s categories once again for a spark of genius that would lead me to my eureka moment. And guess what? I found it!

In his TED talk entitled, “How great leaders inspire action” Simon Sinek challenges traditional marketing theory in such a brilliant way that I found myself bouncing out of my seat in excitement. Not very professional, I know. But on the plus side, I found the answer to my bigger issue, and my client will be better positioned to reevaluate their vision and positioning within their market.

As Sinek says, traditional marketing theory states that people want to buy a product, or an end result. This simply isn’t the case; it’s not how the brain works.Biology teaches us that the human brain is wired to be purpose-driven. This means that selling potential members on the vision of the organization is the key factor in motivating people to buy what you’re selling, so to speak.

People don’t buy what you do – they buy why you do it. ~ Simon Sinek

This rule is exemplified in the Apple computer brand. Apple makes good computers, but so do many other manufacturers. But Apple sells them differently. Apple doesn’t just sell a good computer – it sells an ideal. It positions itself as challenging the status quo. Anyone who wants to do the same should buy an Apple. Apple sells to innovators, to creatives; it speaks to the, “Why?”

My question to you is: Are you asking “why” about your brand?

As luck would have it, I also stumbled across an organization that’s doing this right. World Vision Canada’s Five for 5 initiative is doing a great job at communicating the “Why?” to their target audience. Here’s a video example of what I mean.

What other organizations do this right? Have you questioned your marketing vision lately?

Finding your Voice

April 19, 2010 Marketing / Public Relations / Social Media / Uncategorized
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Last week I promised to provide you with a questionnaire to help give you insight into who you are and exactly what you are trying to achieve. You can find the questionnaire here.
The Questionnaire

The questionnaire is by no means all-encompassing. The sole purpose is to get your ideas flowing about how you should go about spending your time in the social media space.  In the end, time becomes your largest constraint.  There is a method to my madness! Answering the questions will allow you to reflect and establish your voice accordingly.

Picture_FindingVoice copy

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Why We Should All Be a Little More Like Steve Nash

March 2, 2010 Marketing / Public Relations / Social Media
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nashI’ll admit, I’m not a huge sports fan. I think Sunday’s match up between Canada and the USA in Olympic Men’s Hockey, was the first time I’ve watched a full, televised game…Ever. But before you start throwing sweaty gym socks at me, I have to admit that I really, really enjoyed it. How could you not?! I can finally understand why sports is such big business.

Hockey aside, I’m not totally ignorant as to what happens in the world of professional sports, and who the players are. One name that’s always stood out is Steve Nash. I know he’s an amazing basketball player. I know that he didn’t even start playing basketball until he was in eighth grade, and that at a mere 6’3″ he beat the odds in terms of making it big. I even know that he’s a five time All-Star and two-time NBA MVP with career per game averages of 14 points and 7.6 assists. That’s right.

But when I picked up February’s Fast Company Magazine and saw him on the cover, I was intrigued. What business lessons could I learn from an NBA player?

It turns out that there aren’t many lessons we can’t learn from Steve. This reluctant “anti-brand,” household name, holds up in his off-court ventures as well as he does on the court.

Here are my Top 10 reasons we should all be a little more like Steve Nash:

1. He gives 100% – No one can call Steve a slacker.

2. He focuses on opportunities rather than setbacks – The man plays pro basketball despite the odds against him, namely height and a serious back injury.

3. He trains hard – Whether physically prepping for his day job, or becoming an intern at a marketing firm for the summer to understand this side gig, Nash isn’t afraid to get his hands dirty.

4. He’s not afraid of failure – He improvises on the court, and off. The man isn’t afraid to take risks.

5. He gives back – Remember when we were talking about corporate social responsibility a few weeks ago? Steve takes “giving back” to heart. The Steve Nash Foundation is a prime example of this.

6. He’s action-oriented – Rather than simply waiting for others to do the work, he takes on jobs himself, like writing scripts for commercials, and producing his own videos. He does it all. (See #4.)

7. He embraces change – Despite his reluctance to become a “brand,” he assumed the role with zeal when he saw how much good he could accomplish by doing so.

8. He’s a new media pro star – Production company (Meathawk Productions)? Check. Viral videos? Check. Twitter account? Yup. If Nash is doing it, maybe you should too.

9. He’s humble – With so many people feeling the need to “be somebody”, Steve exudes a reluctant celebrity status, marked not by the need to impress, but to make a difference.

10. He plans ahead – He knows he’s not going to play basketball forever, and has already assumed other roles to plan for this future. Staying innovative counts.

Steve is changing the game of business by making his own rules, and forging ahead with intent and creativity. How are you changing your game?

Cause Marketing

January 20, 2010 Marketing
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Spread the word! Cause marketing is good for your business.

Spread the word! Cause marketing is good for your business.

It’s hard to bring things back to business as usual when the world is suffering in such plain view. There are always causes to support, funds to be raised, and people who will be in need. But this morning Haiti was rocked again by aftershocks, and the rest feels small to me again.

I mentioned  last week that I had planned to be on a plane to Haiti for two weeks of humanitarian relief work, as of January 27. That trip has since been cancelled. I’m not going to talk a lot about me here, but since I had told you last week, I thought I would update the status of said venture.

But let’s bring this back to you. Why should your business care about Haiti, or any cause for that matter? Because it’s good marketing strategy.

Wikipedia says:

Cause marketing differs from corporate giving (philanthropy) as the latter generally involves a specific donation that is tax deductible, while cause marketing is a marketing relationship generally not based on a donation.

Yesterday, Kerry gave a great example of cause marketing (although you might argue that because a donation was involved it wasn’t pure CM). Lou’s Cozy Grill in Belleville, Ontario ran a promotion to raise money for Haiti relief. The benefit is two-fold: money raised for a good cause and great PR for Lou’s. Who doesn’t like a win-win?

I’m loosely classifying this under “cause marketing” because even though it wasn’t strategically executed, I love the fact that they gave it a shot. I don’t know how much money they raised, but I’ll remember their effort, and I’ll swing by to grab a coffee. While I’m there, I might buy a sandwich, or grab breakfast–whatever. The point is that consumers want to know that the brands they align themselves with support a vision beyond their own bottomline.

A clearer example is found in the actions McDonald’s restaurants implemented to support and promote the World Wildlife Fund’s Earth Hour initiatives. For example, all Canadian McDonald’s restaurants turned off their roadside pole signs and roof beam lighting to conserve energy for Earth Hour. The support wasn’t monetary–it was action driven. McDonald’s was trying to build a reputation as  a socially responsible organization, and both McDonald’s and WWF benefited from increased awareness. That awareness translates into dollars. It’s an indirect root to acquire sales and revenue, but it’s good business.

And that’s where you step in. Does your marketing plan allow for cause marketing initiatives? What organizations do you align yourself with? Are you maximizing these low-cost opportunities for PR?

If not, we can help. Contact Engine Communications today to shift your marketing plan into high gear.

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