One of Rhythm Interactive’s clients, ARZU STUDIO HOPE , is an innovative model of social entrepreneurship that helps Afghan women weavers and their families break the cycle of poverty by providing them steady income and access to education and healthcare by sourcing and selling the rugs they weave. Their target audience is mainly women between the ages of 32 to 65 years of age. With women and families being at the core of the ARZU brand, Mother’s Day is very important to the organization and marks an opportunity for increased brand engagement.

One Mother’s Day, ARZU launched a contest to engage users by allowing them to enter to win an amazing prize - an ARZU rug valued at $3,500. This marketing strategy met the primary business goal of increasing brand awareness with a secondary goal of increasing online rug sales by offering a discount on rugs purchased within the contest duration.

Rhythm designed and developed a custom microsite where contestants submitted an image coupled with copy about why their mom/grandma/aunt/wife/etc. should win an ARZU rug. A voting feature was integrated for people to vote on their favorite entry and social sharing played a vital role to help contestants gain more votes.

The campaign was promoted via the ARZU website, campaign-specific emails, PPC ads on search engines and social platforms, PR efforts and more. Overall, the campaign was successful in meeting ARZU’s business goals and was very popular among ARZU’s audience.

In the first post, we examined The Relevance of Traditional Advertising in the Digital World. As much as you hear about the death of traditional models, it’s interesting to consider, and important not to forget, all of the methods and principles of sound communication.

The next post in the series provided a brief analysis of Why Bad Ads Happen—a question that has undoubtedly confounded each of us at one time or another. Knowing the reasons can hopefully help some of us avoid them in the future.

The third post outlines impossible-to-argue-with principles, dubbed as “Advertising’s Ten Commandments”, that serve as invaluable criteria to help you judge the quality of your ideas for ads, and help you avoid costly, and potentially embarrassing mistakes.

We then go on to provide some guidance around Strategic Planning for Advertising, focusing particular attention on the need for a good Creative Brief and how to write one.

This month, we provide Tips for Creative Execution and Getting to the Big Idea - packaged nicely in an entertaining white paper you can have at no cost (all we ask is that you share it with your friends).
Download this free white paper now.

Now that you have the content, what steps can you take to promote your content? What can you do to share this content with those most interested and generate new leads?

There are many things you can do. Here is a checklist you may find helpful. Print it out and pin it somewhere front and center. Hey, share this post (valuable content) with others who may find this checklist helpful.

Social Sharing
___ 
Include Like button, Google +1, LinkedIn share, Pin this and other social sharing buttons where the content lives. Make it easy for people to share.

___ When you publish a new blog post, whitepaper, video, radio show, etc., tell people about it on your social channels. Link back to the content.

___ On LinkedIn, share the content with groups who would find this content relevant and valuable.

___ Pin your content to an appropriate Pinterest board. Pin visuals/videos and in the comment area make sure to include hashtags like you would in Twitter (hashtags are searchable in Pinterest). Also make sure to include the url to where visitors can find additional resources/content.

___ When you post to Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn, ask people to share. A little ask doesn’t hurt.

___ Tweet it out. See how you can leverage trending topics to gain more visibility.

Emarketing
___ Share new content produced with your subscriber list. Design a weekly or monthly email (depends on how much content is being produced) that features all your new content. Ask subscribers to share your email.

___ Create an internal email to educate all employees on new content produced. Encourage them to share this content with the customers they work with directly. For example, sharing content can serve as another touch point between sales representatives and customers.

___ Connect with organizations/networking groups that target similar audiences that would find value in the content you produce. See if they produce email newsletters that you can publish/advertise within.

Paid Media
___ Create ads in LinkedIn or Facebook that target groups that would be interested in your content.

___ Did you create a webcast that is archived? Promote this webcast with paid ads.

___ Develop Google AdWords and PPC campaigns. Bing is still a player too.

___ Purchase ads promoting content within relevant publications.

Internal Employee Engagement
___ Let internal employees know about the new content produced and talk to them about the value of sharing this content.

___ Update email signatures to include links to new and most-viewed content.

___ Provide sample tweets, Facebook posts, LinkedIn updates, etc. to employees - basically, make it easy for them to share content.

___ Run contests that incentivize employee sharing. Maybe a monthly free lunch for the employee who provides the most suggestions for blog post topics or free vacation time for the employee who shares the most on social platforms.

These are just a few helpful suggestions surrounding ways to share content. At Rhythm, we work with clients on their content sharing strategies and we make sure that they have the technologies in place to generate the greatest reach for their content. If you need help in this department, give us a shout today at 949.783.5000.

Instagram is a photo sharing app that launched just two years ago on the Apple app store. More than 27 million iPhone users had registered under the Instagram platform alone and the company just launched their Android version. A simple photo-enhancing and sharing app meant to run on mobile devices has just been valued and acquired for ONE BILLION DOLLARS . Yes, I’ll say it again and write it out differently - $1 Billion Dollar$$$$ . Check out this history of Instagram [INFOGRAPHIC].

So here we go again. Get ready for a ride on the mobile tsunami. I’m certain more deals will follow as investors flock to other mobile-based services. But is this for real? Is mobile ready for prime time? I say yes, thanks to the new style of smartphones and tablets (thank you Apple and Steve Jobs). The technology is ready for mass adoption, it’s ready to change the way people work, play, socialize, and just live and get through the day. If you’re skeptical, then chew on this for bit…

• More than 55 million homes in the U.S. house at least one iPhone, iPad, iPod or Mac computer, according to CNBC’s All-America Economic survey .
• By December 2012, mobile devices will account for 25 percent of all paid-search clicks and 23 percent of search budgets according to Marin Software.
• Research firm IDC predicts 106 million tablets will be sold in 2012.
• Nearly half of U.S. mobile phone subscribers now own smartphones, according to information released earlier this year by Nielsen Mobile Insights. That’s up from 36 percent last year.

I could go on and on but the writing is on the wall. The early adopter stage is over and we are now in rapid growth mode. The world and the times are changing and we’ll all be watching it take place through our connected smartphones and tablets. Are you ready for this change? Is your company? How are you adapting your business to mobile media consumption? It’s time for all of us to get with the program.

About the Author
Craig Cooke is CEO and Co-Founder of Rhythm Interactive - an integrated marketing agency with a digital core that focuses on creating effective brand experiences for clients.

So, how do brands build effective engagement strategies and where should they begin? In this rapidly changing media and marketing environment, there are numerous opportunities for brands to position themselves and engage with their target audiences. Ultimately brands are looking to create “the total experience” across all platforms and mediums. But, before brands start to put the pieces together around what that “total experience” looks like, they must determine right from the get-go what their business objectives are and the conversions they wish to achieve. Next, brands need to take time to listen and learn from their current, past and prospective customers to really dial in to what their needs, wants and desires are. Take some time as well to evaluate the competition in your space. What is your competition doing well and what can your brand improve on? Once you have established your business objectives and have taken time to listen and learn, then you can really start to engage and build mutually-beneficial relationships with your customers through the “total experience”.

Create Compelling Content
If you took time to listen, you should know what your customers and prospective customers are looking for. Creating valuable content that delivers upon what your target audience is looking for is crucial. We’ve all heard it before, but it doesn’t hurt to be repeated over and over again…CONTENT IS KING.

Determine Engagement Strategies & Channels
The opportunities here are endless. Again, think about where your current and prospective customers are and where they get their information. Be there. Think about ways in which you can provide them more value and make it happen. Basically, build “the total experience”.

Your Website
For many, "the total experience" starts at the hub, or the brand’s website. Make sure your website effectively communicates who you are as a brand and what products or services you provide. Make sure it is easy to navigate and is optimized for mobile. Make sure that any and all campaigns, promotions, contests, etc. are promoted on your website. Don’t forget to optimize your site for search engines - SEO should be a top-priority for all your marketing and engagement efforts.

Google PPC/AdWords Campaigns
With Google PPC and AdWords campaigns, you can effectively drive people to your content. Are you pushing a new contest or launching a new product? Build an AdWord campaign around this. Think of all the keyword search terms customers are using to find you and consider the terms your competitors are using.

Press Releases
Keyword optimize your press releases and get the word out online.

Mobile & Traditional Advertising
Again, think of where your customers are and be there. Communicate with them where they want to be communicated to. Personalize your marketing and advertising to these channels.

Social Media
Are you engaging with your customers and prospective customers within social channels? If not, you are missing the boat. When running a contest on your site, run the same contest within Facebook, YouTube, Pinterest. Promote this contest via Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+. Use these channels as a listening and learning tool. Truly connect and respond to your customers.

Email Marketing
Email still plays a huge role in engaging with your customers and prospects. Make sure to incorporate email into your marketing campaigns and encourage sharing and ways to drive your customers to take action or engage with your brand.

Mobile Applications & Games
What other ways can you engage with your customers and prospective customers? Would it make sense to create an app that would provide them with an additional value beyond what they can find and engage with on your site or via your social activities? Maybe an interactive game that encourages sharing would help you connect to other potential customers and brand ambassadors.

Develop Thought Leadership
Maybe it’s a blog. Maybe it’s video tutorials, webinars, digital whitepapers, etc. Provide extra value to your current and prospective customers beyond what they expect. This not only establishes credibility and proves expertise, but again allows your customers to engage with your brand.

The offshore firm was represented by a friendly gentleman who seemed very knowledgeable and there were no apparent communication barriers. He had approached Rhythm Interactive several months prior explaining that he represented and worked for an offshore agency and acted as the U.S.-based contact and project manager. The fact that the company offered development services for a mere $10/hr (typical costs in the States ranged from $50 to $75 an hour) with a dedicated local project manager seemed to good to be true so we decided to give it a whirl.

When giving something a whirl you are always hoping for a positive outcome, but this experience turned out to be more of an out-of-control whirlwind. Initially, the project started off on track, however, when it came time to review the first deliverable, the offshore firm was late and we couldn’t reach our “dedicated” project manager for more than two days. The deliverable was not just an internal milestone, but something that our client was expecting to review as well. This did not make for a good situation as we were in the dark and did not know what to tell our client.

This was the start of the end. From this point on the project went badly as deliverable dates were consistently missed, proper QA was not performed and the quality of the code was extremely poor. To compensate and save ourselves huge embarrassment with the client, we routinely had to perform user and cross-browser testing, and reject deliverables that by the offshore firm’s standards were considered final and bug free, slowing the project to a crawl. When the project was finally completed, the entire experience presented a huge cost rather a significant savings for the following reasons:

• We spent five times what was budgeted for regular project management.
• We had to have our programming team perform code reviews and verify/reject code.
• We found that commenting within the code was not done in English and had to be translated.
• We found bug after bug during final testing, which took four times what we budgeted for.
• We spent four additional months working on the completion of the project, which kept us from beginning new projects and managing existing accounts became more difficult.

All-in-all, outsourcing was a deplorable experience for Rhythm Interactive. The reason why I’m writing about an experience that took place 10 years ago is that to this day, outsourcing continues and in my opinion has not improved. We have clients that have tried outsourcing project work including web development, SEO, app development and more only to have similar horror stories to share. In fact, clients often hire Rhythm to rebuild entire websites that were developed by outsourced firms and never completed properly. As you can imagine, the cost to try to build something for less that never gets completed correctly and has to then be rebuilt, is in the end twice the cost.

The moral of the story is this: There’s no place like home. Good old American ingenuity, thinking and work ethic is where it’s at. If you want it done right the first time, hire local talent and pay for what you want, as that’s what you’ll get.

The content that each user is drawn to may be different, but the focus and attention placed on these mobile devices is phenomenal as they not only engage the user, but also provide a level of security, a sense of attachment in a familiar or unfamiliar place. Your mobile device goes wherever you go, hand in hand. In what world can someone pay their bill, listen to music, surf the Internet, connect with friends, check in at the airport, and buy the perfect pair of shoes all at the same time through one device?

Mobile is not going away, in fact, it’s our future and here to stay - whether in our pocket, our purse, or our hands, it will always be with us. It’s the first thing we check in the morning and the last thing we turn off at night. We feel naked without it.

For a corporation, or small company, a website is one of the most valuable marketing tools. By not taking advantage of the direction mobile is going is a lost opportunity - a downright tragedy. People are searching for you on their mobile devices, whether you realize it or not, so why not make their experience optimal when they get there? Create a mobile-friendly website where the user’s path is optimized on this device. For instance, a standard healthcare website may provide options to research an illness, find treatment or find a doctor within an area of specialty. However, on a mobile device, most users won’t spend as much time researching these items, but instead use it in a less intimate way.

Different healthcare mobile site engagement strategies could include:
1. Stuck in traffic on the 405, but still plan to make your doctor appointment? When users pull up your mobile site they can easily find their doctor’s phone number to notify them that they are running a bit late.

2. Your friend just posted to Facebook that their newborn has arrived. Access the hospital’s mobile site where you can easily purchase a cute teddy bear from the hospital gift shop and have it delivered straight to your friend’s room.

3. Your kid broke their arm skateboarding? Quickly find the nearest urgent care center via the mobile website.

The website could be optimized to detect that it is being viewed on a mobile-friendly device, displaying a different user experience.

During Rhythm’s discovery phase with clients, we assess your audience and learn how they engage with your website today, and how they could be engaging with it in the future. We develop strategies for mobile and determine the technical requirements necessary for any interactive tools or other engagements on the site. The world of digital is ever-evolving, impacting our behaviors and actions, so don’t get left behind and lose an opportunity to engage with your clients and experience positive ROI. Your loyal customers expect you to cater to them and speak to them through any device, so listen and exceed their expectations. Go mobile.

As I received my complimentary beverage on my American Airlines flight, I was handed a napkin with the words: “Get More Mobile”, promoting their new mobile site - http://www.aa.com/mobile. This validates that not only is mobile following us everywhere we go on land, but even in the mobile-friendly skies.

A great ad, with few exceptions, begins with a solid plan. Several people spanning sundry skill sets need to come together in harmony to produce great advertising, and harmony is better achieved if everyone is reading off of the same sheet of music, so to speak. Without that, time and money are wasted, quality invariably declines and results suffer. This post reviews some good practices to consider when planning for your ad campaigns.

The Creative Brief
For the best possible, most consistent results, always work from a brief. Without the brief, everything is a moving target. Even if you think you’ve got it all in your head, take the time to get it all down on paper, in a consistent format that has proven to work well for your organization. Faithfully following this practice ensures that you aren’t missing anything and that expectations are leveled with all team members and stakeholders.

Traditionally, the account planner or account exec writes the brief, but it’s my contention that everyone on the team should know how to craft one. Designers and copywriters benefit from this skill because they can’t always count on a good strategy to be handed to them, and at the very least, they should be able to back-check the briefs supplied to them. Anyone else involved in the process will be able to provide more focused and relevant feedback if they are intimate with the process of writing briefs.

Many ad planners and marketers have their own preferred flavor of brief. I will take you through mine, which was derived in part from Jon Steele’s format , in part from my advertising mentor Alan Hayes of The Hayes Company , and in part from my past studies with the Design Management Institut e .

Before I touch on each section of my creative brief format, I can’t overemphasize the importance of keeping it, well, brief. Mark Twain had a famous quote about wanting to write a shorter letter, but not having the time. Granted, it’s difficult to communicate clearly, with as few words as possible, but a great brief should do just that. Hence the name. With that, following is a quick description of each section in my creative brief.

Section 1: Background/Overview
In this opening section, explain the situation. Who’s asking you to do what, and why? Why are you advertising at all? It can also help to quickly describe the ad media, placement, and timing in this section.

Section 2: What are the objectives of the communication?
Objectives can be thought of in so many different ways. I’ve found it most helpful to list the high-level business objectives here, in measurable terms if possible.

Supposing Dyson was running an out-of-home brand awareness campaign, one way of answering this question may be to say “raise brand awareness”. A better way may be to say, “Persuade our audience to consider Dyson as the most innovative makers of vacuum cleaners and take the time to learn more.” People learn on their own terms in all sorts of different ways that aren’t always measurable, but some mechanisms can be built into the ads that can be tracked such as friendly urls and QR codes.

Section 3: Who are we talking to?
In describing the target audience, there is an inclination to stop short after listing a few simple demographics. Good briefs go beyond that to include a certain mindset, situation or intent on the part of our audience that helps us narrow our focus. For the Dyson brief, we may say something like, “quality-conscious, design-minded adults across the United States that are in the market for the best vacuum cleaner that they can get.”

Section 4: What do we know about our target audience that will help us?
This is one of the most important sections of the brief because great ads should speak directly to prospects’ preconceived wants and needs. Below is a quick checklist to help you fill out this section. I’ve included examples in italics of how each item may be answered for the Dyson brief, from the prospect’s perspective.

• Describe prospects’ preconceptions of the product category. “All vacuum cleaners are garbage. They are heavy, clunky, and hard to move around. I’m tired of them getting clogged and losing suction.”
• Describe prospects’ preconceptions of our product in particular. “Dyson’s products look well designed and they claim to have innovative, proprietary technology that prevents them from ever becoming clogged.”
• List prospects’ preconceived wants and needs from the product category. 
“I want a well-designed, high-quality, light-weight vacuum cleaner that works fast on my expansive floors and won’t clog. I don’t care if it costs more, I want it to work, and last a long time.”
• Highlight which of those we can legitimately meet with our product. 
All of them, however the light-weight model may not provide fast coverage of large floor space.

Section 5: What is the main idea that we need to communicate?
These are key messages that you want your prospects to absorb. They should achieve business goals while speaking directly to prospects’ preconceived wants and needs. It is best to give the ad focus—
don’t try to say too much in your main message. For the Dyson brief, here we may say “Dyson vacuum cleaners don’t clog like all others do.”

Section 6: What is the best way of presenting the idea?
This section should be high-level. Don’t try to solve the creative problem here. Dyson’s brief could say:
A simple, clever, memorable print ad that gets the main point across and conveys a sense of high design.

Section 7: Why should they believe us?
This is where you want to list any and all supporting evidence that could be used in the ad to drive the main idea home. Even if these proof points don’t explicitly make it into the ad, by listing them here, we will know that our claims can be backed by facts. Dyson’s brief could include patent info, results from controlled studies, etc.

Section 8: What action do we want them to take?
Not including a suggested next step in the purchasing process or customer journey is almost always a waste. In the Dyson brief, we would want them to go to dyson.com to learn more. A friendly url that is unique to the ad, like dyson.com/noclog, would allow Dyson to track traffic to their site that originated from the campaign.

Section 9: Design imperatives.
In this final section, list any important constraints or must haves. Examples can include things like: comply with brand standards, extend the creative from another campaign, show a particular image of the product or some other mandate - perhaps put forth by the client. The Dyson brief may remind the designer to include a beauty shot of a certain product model, continue the black background theme from the other campaigns that ran the same year, etc.

Socializing the brief
Once the brief is drafted, it’s important to share it around with the team and get their buy in, because one of its most important functions is to serve as a contract between all stakeholders. Once the brief has been approved, then the team can be held accountable to centralized success criteria and anyone providing feedback on creative ideas will need to rationalize their opinions against the mutually agreed upon strategy described in the brief.

Don’t forget to check back soon for the next post in this series where we’ll be getting into the fun stuff: Creative Execution and Getting to the Big Idea!

Download a Sample Creative Brief

But, from a social sharing standpoint, Pinterest is a solid player when it comes to getting your brand in front of millions in a unique way. Recent findings prove that Pinterest has driven more referral traffic to websites and blogs than YouTube, Google+ and LinkedIn combined. By just entering into this pinning party, you can connect with new, potential customers or maybe even explore new business opportunities all together. And, by taking some real time to craft your board descriptions with keywords and promote your boards through other social channels, you can cash in on the SEO benefits this community has to offer (Pinterest SEO tips ).

Pinterest is not only helping people like myself plan the best baby shower ever, but it is saving marriages and helping couples plan their dream wedding .

But, what are big brands and nonprofits doing on Pinterest? A lot. And in really creative ways too. Most are not pushing their products and services, but they are really trying to engage with followers to create more of a lifestyle and culture around their brand that elicits a connection and establishes strong relationships that lead to brand loyalty.

Take a look at what Whole Foods has done via Pinterest and see how 10 nonprofits are using Pinterest to gain support around their missions.

Here are some other great resources to help you get started with Pinterest. Have fun, but please be cautious of your time spent pinning. You don’t want your family to have to organize a Pinterest intervention.

26 Tips for Using Pinterest for Business

How To Use Pinterest

250+ Brands on Pinterest