“I’m not a cat,” said Rod Ponton in the now-viral clip of him stuck with a cat filter on during his court Zoom meeting. From school to work and even the courtroom, Zoom meetings are becoming the new normal. So how do face-to-face meetings translate to virtual world etiquette and expectations? Follow these strategies to navigate Zoom meetings in the most professional way possible! Read more
For the second time in Pantone’s history, two colors were selected as “Color of the Year”: the neutral Ultimate Gray and vibrant Illuminating Yellow. “It’s a combination that speaks to the resilience, the optimism and hope and positivity that we need, as we reset, renew, reimagine and reinvent,” said Laurie Pressman, Vice President of the Pantone Color Institute.
For over 20 years, fashion designers, home furnishing curators and everyone in between look to the Pantone Color of the Year for inspiration in the following year. So, a lot of time and thought goes into selecting just the right color. The Pantone Color Institute combs through a variety of industries looking for trends that could inspire the year’s color. Influences might come from socio-economic conditions, upcoming sporting events, art collections, you-name-it. Overall, the color sets the tone for the following year and after a year like 2020 we could all use something to look forward to!
Leatrice Eiseman, Executive Director of the Pantone Color Institute stated, “The union of an enduring ultimate gray with the vibrant yellow illuminating expresses a message of positivity supported by fortitude, practical and rock-solid, but at the same time warming and optimistic, this is a color combination that gives us resilience and hope. We need to feel encouraged and uplifted; this is essential to the human spirit.” Yellow, the most luminous of all the colors, captures our attention more than any other color. Gray, however, is the color of complexity–everything that falls in between absolutes. Gray is easily overlooked, but it’s quite a fascinating color if you look a little deeper.
One of our favorite jobs as a hotel marketing agency is telling a brand’s story. How? Selecting the right colors and patterns are just one piece of the puzzle. If Ultimate Gray or Illuminating Yellow fits into your brand, or might work for an upcoming event, let us help you incorporate it!
When pandemic hit, many marketers across the globe were forced to hit pause on existing, strategic campaigns as businesses shut down and quarantines set in. Months later, these same marketers are experimenting new ways to generate interest and interaction, without hosting yet another Zoom conference. Enter: T-Mobile’s Go Farther Campaign.
This year, T-Mobile, Chinese smartphone brand OnePlus and marketing agency The Bait Shoppe teamed up to promote T-Mobile’s extent of 5G coverage. Before the pandemic, this group probably would’ve held a massive launch event, inviting consumers to see the new tech. Instead, the team had to figure out a way to blend both a physical and digital, or “phygital” experience.
The group captured the essence of “phygital” experiential marketing perfectly with their pop-up store scavenger hunt concept, Go Farther. In short, three T-Mobile/OnePlus illuminated sites were placed in hyper-remote locations across the United States (to emphasize the vast reach of 5G coverage), photos of the mysterious sites were splashed all over social and fans were asked to guess the locations and submit their guesses via a custom microsite.
It actually was pretty successful. The campaign generated excitement and plenty of curiosity. Over seven days, the site received about 1,900 guesses per hour and 41,000 guesses per day. Globally, the site averaged 1,035 users per minute. In the end, this group found a unique way to promote their new service, while still keeping everyone safe at home – the ultimate goal these days.
Ready to convert your own marketing ideas into successful digital marketing experiences? Give us a call or shoot us an email to get started!
You may be thinking to yourself, “Did I read that right?” The answer is yes, you did. However, we’re not talking about your average, flesh-eating, monster.
Along with the 100+ problems facing business owners in this day in age, a new threat emerges from inside the company – the zombie employee. Zombie employees have been the result of just one too many paper cuts (think: forced to use outdated tools, working under ineffective managers and getting zero feedback from coworkers). They are not to blame for their newly found classification; however, they are pretty easy to spot. These are the employees that are killing ideas, not contributing to innovation and simply “eating” productivity within the organization.
There’s good news though! Unlike your typical Walking Dead zombie, business managers have a cure. If you’re slowly turning into a zombie employee, or you have coworkers that have taken a turn for the worse, use these steps, created by AdWeek, to do something about it.
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As 2020 is creeping toward a close, the travel and tourism industry will have had the most challenging year any vertical has seen. And as you’re probably aware,Q4 means budget season is underway. Many sales and marketing executives are carefully trying to decide where they can allocate their marketing budget to see the best return on investment.
According to an article written by eMarketer, the travel industry digital ad spend will amount to just $3.24 billion at the end of 2020, an astonishing decrease of 41% year over year. Most of which has been spent towards search ad spending. Search engine marketing spend (think: Google, Bing, etc.) will account for almost 60% of the travel market’s digital budget, compared to other industries where search engine marketing makes up around 40% of their budget.
Want us to audit your SEO health for you? Contact our Director of Business Development, Jake, for a quote.
If you were trying to hit a target on a shooting range, wouldn’t it make sense to aim with a rifle rather than a shotgun? Similarly, digital search advertising precisely targets potential customers in search of your service and greatly increases your likelihood of success, rather than shooting in multiple different directions and hoping to hit your target.
According to Google, there are 3.5 billion searches made by users per day and the volume of Google searches increases by approximately 10% each year. 92% of these users will pick businesses found on the first search engine results page (SERP). Digital ads, when used effectively, will seamlessly integrate into your target customer’s internet browsing experience. The ads can then be personalized to maximize relevance toward your target audience, making it more effective than other mediums.
The increasing importance of digital search ads coupled with the current leisure “staycation” travel trend makes for a perfect blend of social and search advertising to warrant maximum success. Social advertising will give you the most reach with the lowest dollar and search advertising will allow you to most easily target your ideal customer. So, what do you do now? Ensure that going into 2021, digital advertising holds a large portion of your marketing spend. We’re hopeful for the revival of travel in 2021 and want to provide our friends with the tools to make it happen.
McConnell Marketing would be more than happy to help curate an effective and efficient digital marketing strategy – feel free to email Jake VanDerkar (our Director of Business Development) with any questions you may have.
