Marketing Update : ad strategies, food trends, direct mail, making money and more

We talk about marketing, pr and advertising and while they are closely related, they each serve a distinctive function. Both pr and advertising come under the marketing banner -- and if your marketing strategy is on point, then the other two will follow. But as Leo Burnet once said, advertising without a marketing plan is empty space. Maybe that's true, but as the world becomes more complicated, marketing is getting more and more difficult. This week's update hopes to shed some light on your marketing strategy :

  • Unblock Those Ads With These Five Compelling Advertising Strategies
  • 8 Food Marketing Trends You Need to Know About Right Now
  • How to increase customers and business via direct mail
  • Tomorrow's trends in leading edge creativity today
  • How Does Pinterest Make Money?

CAUTION Beware, all of these sites employ screen spam. Some have pop-up ad splash screens and stalker links. Be careful where you click August 22, 2016

Advertising Update : Native ads, Programatic ads, mobile woes, SERPS and more

The school start season is behind us, and soon we'll be rushing into the holiday buy season and most market / advertising plans are about to burst into full steam -- if they haven't already. Ad blockers have taught the rude ad hucksters a few lessons, so now everyone's talking native ads. Funny how things cycle around -- we're advocated native advertising from the very beginning! If it wasn't so miserable, it would be funny. Enjoy this week's advertising / marketing update . . .

  • Stand Out by Blending In: Making Native Advertising Work on Mobile
  • Small agencies have yet to embrace programmatic advertising
  • Top 4 Tips For Combining Native and Programmatic
  • All Hail the Rise of Native Advertising
  • Paid Advertising Dominates Local SERPs
August 15, 2016

Marketing Update : Prince's death, Coachella, strategy, franchisees, Surveys and more

We haven't had a Marketing Update since the first of the year, and it's about high time since marketers are beginning to dig out from winter. Keeping in the know of marketing is a vital need for graphic designers -- if you know where it's going, you can design for it! Follow long . . .

  • Four Years After #Linsanity, Hornets PG Jeremy Lin Quietly Thriving On Social Media
  • Social media responses to Prince's death spark debate in local marketing community
  • Marketing at Coachella: How brands stake claims amid the bands
  • 3 Key Elements Your Content Needs to Break Out From the Crowd
  • Effective marketing communications strategy is crucial
  • Smart Marketing Strategies That Attract Franchisees
  • Do We Need Formal Surveys Anymore?
  • The Hard Truth About Social Media
May 3, 2016

Advertising Update : 2015 trends vs 2016 trends, myths, Super Bowl, GIFs and viewability

So, this is the issue where we look at the advertising trends predictions. I guess you may have already seen my 60-Seconds on Logo Design Trends, so you know how I feel about predicting trends. So let's see what the industry is up to now, and what you should be aware of if you're involved in any form of advertising

  • Are Digital Media Budgets Meeting Industry Viewability Standards?
  • Why Ad Tech Is the Worst Thing That Ever Happened to Advertising
  • Marketers Predict Hottest Trends in Super Bowl 2016 Advertising
  • 13 Media and Advertising ‘Trends’ in 2015 That Never Happened
  • 10 Behavioral Trends Guiding Advertising In 2016
  • RIP millennials: Marketing will be 'age agnostic'
  • Are GIFs the future of advertising
  • Digital media trends for 2016
January 20, 2016

Advertising Update : Brand Advertising, Ad Blockers, McWhopper, McDonald's craziness

There's a growing push-back for digital advertising ... while all the traditional forms are fully supported. You can do all kinds of futuristic marketing in print without ruffling a single feather. But if you send an advertising email, you're going to the spamcops! Let's see where we are . . . November 11, 2015

Advertising Update : Mobile, Video, Ad Injection, Yahoo, Facebook, Google and ad madness!

Here we are at the end of 2015 and it looks like mobile devices are taking over, but advertising is getting more and more difficult. Since the ad industry shot itself in the foot, I've been preaching and warning about this for over a decade. The advertising purveyence industry has a dirty secret: they're screwing the publishers AND the advertisers! But don't take my word for it . . .

  • Video viewability is key to engagement, revenue opportunities
  • Ad Injection: Yet Another Challenge for Online Advertising
  • Is Facebook Becoming the Apple of Digital Ad Sales?
  • Mobile Advertising Has A Measurement Problem
  • Mobile To Dominate Digital Ad Spend In 2016
October 27, 2015

Marketing Update : marketing hacks, marketing sins, marketing myths and more and more

The title of today's Marketing Update just about covers it all! Like the good, the bad and the ugly, we've got the myths, the hacks and the sins! The big cheese is a piece on Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner that makes some pretty stiff statements. Are they true? You decide for yourself.

  • 5 Content Marketing Hacks: A Cheat Sheet for Content Brainstorming
  • Audience Research Needn’t Be Costly or Time Consuming
  • Forget campaigns: Build your marketing stack
  • How to Execute an SEO Content Marketing Plan
  • The Seven Deadly Sins of Digital Marketing
  • Making Personalized Email Marketing Easier
  • 3 rebranding lessons from Caitlyn (Bruce) Jenner
July 1, 2015

Marketing Update : List marketing, content, analytics, the new news media and more and more

Last time we went on about marketing sources and action but today we're zeroing in on content marketing and then working with analytics and looking at the real target of the marketing. Hang in there, it looks like it's going to be a busy summer!

  • Pitfalls and Profits of Using Rented Lists: The Devil is in the Details
  • Measuring The True Value Of Audience Engagement Across Digital Media
  • 3 Tips to Maximize the Synergy of Social Media and Content Marketing
  • How analytics provide a dose of logic to your marketing decisions
  • How to Approach Digital Marketing in 2015
  • How Millennials Consume the News
June 24, 2015

Advertising Update : broadcast vs. print, Sensory Marketing, Facebook will screw you, reader attention, not clicks

The ad industry has been screwing their clients ever since the first online ad was served in 1995. The ad industry prostituted itself so badly they got the cost of ads to almost nothing or free. So to back peddal, they've had to devise all kinds of contorted ripps to make money while still sticking it to the publishers. All that is about to get worse as they bring in attention advertising.

  • Broadcasters appear to have won -- as newspapers see few gains in ad spending
  • Sensory Marketing Is the Next Frontier in Mobile Advertising
  • Why native advertising won't overtake traditional ads -- yet
  • Selling advertisers on reader attention, not clicks
  • How Facebook plans to control digital advertising
  • . . . and more!
April 2, 2015

Advertising Update : Brand-Protection, cookies, digital ads, ad strategy

We've screamed through the winter and spring is rolling by -- next thing you know it will be summer and back to school time! Your spring marketing sense needs to focus on the coming close of schools, graduation and summer vacations. Your clients should be ready to market strong!

  • Five Questions to Help You Decide Whether You Need a Brand-Protection Tool
  • Will Facebook force advertisers to forget about tracking cookies?
  • A new pricing scheme will change how digital ads are sold
  • Programmatic buys 'make sense' for industry
  • Planning your next ad strategy
  • . . . and more!
March 26, 2015