Calling All Nonprofits and Creatives For Social Change
By Jessie at Omni | November 20, 2008
While recently visiting www.howdesign.com, I stumbled across an interesting post, that I thought was worth commenting on and sharing.
The Art Directors Club & Idealist, have created a partnership to bring like-minded creatives & causes together for social change. The two have teamed up to create www.DesignismConnects.org. This new site helps bring together & connect nonprofit organizations in need of advertising/creative services, with advertising/creative professionals who provide those services. On this site, a creative can narrow their search to the causes they believe in, with the skills they offer to find a partnership they would be interested in pursuing.
Both individual and organization can post profiles listing their needs or services. From national to global organizations to choose from, and projects ranging from printed collateral to a TV PSA, I urge fellow creatives to check out www.DesignismConnects.org if your looking for a cause to support! And the same goes for all you nonprofits out there in need of pro-bono talent, sign up now to post your cause projects! What better time to start with the new year approaching and the need to fill a new year’s resolution draws near!
Topics: Creative Services, Marketing | No Comments »
Marketing During Economic Downturn
By Jill at Omni | November 5, 2008
When Economic Fears Press In, Marketing Can Shine , By Jill Schuller
Show me a business that is thriving without any anxiety in this current economy, and you will find a goldmine of eager investors at the door. The truth is every industry – retail, service, commercial, manufacturing – has been impacted in some form over the past several months. Whether you believe the reactions are fear-based or real is irrelevant. What is real is that we have decision-makers reluctant to make changes or move forward into the unknown because their customers are reacting to the economic fears.
We can all admit that the downturn brings thoughts of doom and gloom to our dreams at night. However, as in any downturn – yes, even the Great Depression – there are positive changes and inspiring ideas afoot.
Fear creates only two responses (c’mon! remember 5th grade science?) – “fight” or “flight”. While a business owner can bemoan the dollars lost by ignoring the problems for so long, they should instead look at the reality of the moment, and address the necessary corrections now. For those still in the game that are fighting, the economy by now should have polarized your strategy, brought incredible clarity to what is important, and what is fluff in your business.
Topics: Marketing | No Comments »
Word Of Mouth Marketing Creates Positive Media Buzz
By Kathy at Omni | October 9, 2008
Word of mouth marketing can be defined as any unpaid form of promotion in which satisfied customers tell other people, in either verbal or written form, how much they like a business, product or service. For word of mouth marketing to be successful, the satisfied customer needs to be perceived as honest and having no ulterior motives associated with the recommendation. A recent example of effective word of mouth marketing is the publication of Charlie Stratton’s October 6, 2008 letter to the editor in the State Journal Register. His creative and compelling letter in recommendation of Darn Hot Pepper’s Habanero Honey Spread immediately caught my attention and deserves to be published once again here:
Habanero Honey Spread is work of art
Once every couple millennia, a human endeavor achieves such universal acclaim it is “owned by the ages.” A triumph of such monumental importance, its very existence allows us to gain increased insight into the human condition, to peer into our collective soul and to help us achieve a greater existential understanding. Such feats of human greatness might include the pyramids of Egypt and of Chichen Itza, the Great Wall of China, Da Vinci’s Mona Lisa, Michelangelo’s ceiling of the Sistine Chapel, the collected works of Shakespeare and others.Add to the list: Gerardo Jerry Jimeneza’s Habanero Honey Spread, which he sells at our local farmers market every Saturday. Jimenez’s chosen medium is not clay, stone or paint; it’s peppers, and he uses them like a master of the renaissance. All of the products at Darn Hot Peppers (online and at the farmers market) are great, but the Habanero Honey Spread tastes as if it were divinely inspired. It is a work of art: a perfect ying and yang of fire and sweet; two mutually correlated opposites, complementing one another. In other words: dang tasty. Watch out Diego Rivera, another Mexican artist is on his way to fame.Charlie Stratton
Springfield
This great letter effectively generated positive media buzz for Darn Hot Peppers, including an article two days later in the State Journal Register and this blog post in admiration of the successful execution of word of mouth marketing. Who knows what other rewards Darn Hot Peppers will continue to reap from Charlie Stratton’s letter, but I’m guessing the response will be substantial. So how can you generate positive results from word of mouth marketing? The answer is simple: focus to produce and deliver the best products or services to satisfied customers, who will then pitch your products or services for free! And in the “viral” world in which we now live, a satisfied customer’s recommendation can go a long, long way.
Back to Darn Hot Peppers. I headed down to the Farmer’s Market on Wednesday, October 8 at 8:30 am to purchase my own jar of Habanero Honey Spread and was disappointed to find out they were already sold out! I’m sure they are rushing to produce more right now, and I can’t wait to try it!
Topics: Marketing, Media Services | 2 Comments »
Google Is Up, Up and Away
By Kathy at Omni | September 25, 2008
Google’s share of U.S. web searches increased to 63% for the month of August 2008, obliterating the nearest competition from Yahoo! at 19.6% and Microsoft at 8.3%. 63% is a pretty big lead, that’s almost two-thirds of all searches performed. Wouldn’t you like to have 63% market share and this kind of domination in your industry? Will this upwards trend continue for Google? Only time will tell, but it’s safe to say for search engine advertising strategy and search engine optimization that Google cannot be ignored. In fact, it’s priority #1 by a long shot.
Topics: Media Services | No Comments »
Springfield Supporting Hurricane Clean Up
By Jill at Omni | September 17, 2008
Other than brand recognition of the companies represented, this blog has little to do with marketing. But I felt I should comment on an incredible scene that I witnessed this weekend. While driving back from a daytrip to St. Louis, I saw a convoy consisting of truck after truck after truck of our local utility companies and even a local tree cutting service heading down south to join forces in the clean up of Houston and Galveston.
What a sight! I had a moment of recollection after the March 2006 tornados hit Springfield, and how many out of state service trucks came here to help us. And I felt a real moment of pride as I watched our own city galvanizing our forces to help others!
People always find reasons to complain about the utility companies, or about our city services, but these people are doing what Americans do – rallying together in a time of need. Hats off to all those who are volunteering in seen and unseen ways to help out the victims of the hurricane.
Topics: Uncategorized | No Comments »
SOS for SEO (Search Engine Optimization)
By Kathy at Omni | September 9, 2008
You’ve finally embraced the new millennium and developed a website for your business along with the rest of the world, but the phrase “If you build it, they will come” doesn’t apply to your current website traffic. Just creating a beautiful and functional website isn’t enough to generate additional revenue and profits or build your brand; there is hard work involved to bring your website to the attention of potential customers. Search engine optimization is necessary, and there are simple strategies you can employ to help increase your website’s search engine rankings and traffic.
Search engine optimization (SEO) is the process of designing a website to be more “search engine friendly” and to drive a larger amount of qualified traffic to the website from higher rankings on various search engines like Google and Yahoo. The ultimate goal of SEO is to rank your website on the first page of search results generated for any relevant keyword search, because any results after the first page are likely to be viewed less frequently or possibly ignored completely. The purpose of SEO is to make a website “readable” by search engine crawlers (also known as bots, robots spiders); these crawlers are simply programs used by various search engines to continuously explore the World Wide Web and catalog and classify websites based on each site’s content.
SEO techniques include careful consideration of a website’s content, basic graphic design elements, and linking strategies. Any SEO plan should take into consideration the following elements to increase a website’s search engine rankings:
· Keywords
· Meta Tags
· Content
· Website Design
· Links
· Time
Topics: Marketing, Media Services | 2 Comments »
Omni Giant Pancake Eating Contest at Charlie Parkers Springfield IL
By Kathy at Omni | August 28, 2008
The entire staff from Omni Communications Group met at Charlie Parker’s Diner in Springfield, Illinois on August 27, 2008 for the highly anticipated team building exercise of the month: a pancake eating contest with the famous Charlie Parker’s giant pancake. Turns out the staff at Omni is a bunch of pancake lovers up for the challenge. Each giant pancake is approximately 16 inches in diameter and weighs a little over a pound at 18 ounces. (think pizza pancake) The goal of the contest was to see who could eat all or the most of TWO GIANT PANCAKES weighing roughly two and a quarter pounds total.
After 17 minutes and 10 seconds, time was called on the competition as all of the contestants were exhausted and unable to continue; no one was able to eat the entire two stack of giant pancakes. But the winner (by a long shot) securing the gold medal for giant pancake eating was awarded to . . . . . . drum roll please . . . . . . Kathy! Second place and a silver medal was awarded to Susan, and the third place bronze medal went to Dennis. There was a cheater in the competition who was eliminated from receiving any recognition whatsoever (name withheld to protect identity). All in all, it was a great time, good food and another successful team building exercise to boost the Omni team’s energy, creativity and spirits!
The Omni pancake eating contest has been well documented by video, and you can take a look here:
Topics: Marketing, Omni News | 1 Comment »
Smaller Advertising Agency Envy
By Jill at Omni | August 27, 2008
After 16 years of being in the “small business owner” category, I have had the privilege of networking with marketers who work for national ad agencies and large-scale corporate marketing departments. At first blush, the idea of mammoth budgets, access to major video producers and directors, and working with global clients seems extraordinarily appealing. It’s the kind of daydream akin to “what would I do if I won the lottery.”
What’s compelling is the simultaneous envy these very individuals have of working at boutique agencies or for themselves, their willingness to trade budget for independence. They love the idea of working with clients who really trust in marketing, and have real bottom-line issues at stake.
It gave me pause to realize just how lucky we are as a ‘small’ advertising agency. Omni is privately held – no investors to report to, no endless maze of approval processes to navigate. Management is part of the Omni team. Ideas for change are presented at will and can be tested easily without going through level after level of approval. If an idea has legs, we try it. If it fails, we at least tried; if it succeeds, everyone wins. Clients have access to the whole team – not just their main account service contact.
The other big difference I have noticed is that large agencies seldom provide newer clients or smaller clients with their top tier creative teams, but rather place their junior members in their stead, and not at a junior price.
Ask any business owner if it is challenging and if there are days when they wonder why they do what they do, and you will hear a resounding groan of “if you only knew”. But at the end of the day, despite the issues small businesses face – undercapitalization, misperceptions that they are too small to handle major business – being nimble, being close to the client and close to the team that makes all the creative magic happen far outweigh any daydreams of the grass being greener at the mega agency. Besides, emptying the garbage yourself once in a while keeps you humble.
Topics: Agency Management | No Comments »
Barack Obama in Springfield Illinois August 23, 2008
By Kathy at Omni | August 22, 2008
It’s been an eventful week at the Omni Communications Group office as the city of Springfield, Illinois prepares for Barack Obama’s visit and announcement of his vice presidential running mate on Saturday, August 23, 2008. The Omni office is located on the southeast corner of the Old State Capitol Plaza in Springfield, Illinois and offers the perfect view out the front office windows to the exact location where Barack Obama will give his speech (assuming the weather cooperates with the plan). Yesterday the Omni office received visits from the Police as well as sharp shooters, all asking questions and staking out the grounds to plan for the big event. (Sharp shooters in the Omni office!!! How often does that happen?) We’re told the secret service and the FBI may stop by as well. It is unbelievable the amount of planning and work that is going into Barack Obama’s visit to Springfield, Illinois. Sounds like Saturday is going to be a crazy day in downtown Springfield, and the Omni office is located at the eye of the storm.
A note after the event: the view from the Omni office was in fact so good that the press platform was placed right in front of Omni’s windows! Also a fence was built in front of all the businesses on the south side of the plaza prior to the event. Turns out the Omni windows were not the best view, here is a look out the Omni windows courtesy of Aaron from Omni, who was brave enough to face the crowd and the elements for the historic event!
Topics: Omni News | 4 Comments »
Product Placement as a Marketing Tool
By Jill at Omni | August 7, 2008
There is an old (really old) saying in PR that “any PR is good – even bad PR.”
Recently I saw a movie that had the now-usual product placement for a certain American brand of beer. While their brand name was visible in an enviable percentage of the movie, the result of the character’s ‘enjoyment’ of said product was someone whose life was a mess. Numerous depictions of drunkenness, inability to hold a job or properly parent their child, and disinterest in anything more than the next beer were the benefits of his imbibing. His life turned around when he chose to not partake of said product.
I am all for creative marketing and applaud those companies who figured out that product placement in movies was a goldmine, but I question the judgment of placing your client’s product where its use is portrayed negatively. While no product or service is 100% perfect, (sorry, it’s true) the role of a marketer is to highlight those attributes that are positive, and to try not to bring too much attention to the negative attributes.
On the other hand, maybe I am just too critical and the fact that the beer name was shown not-so-subliminally hundreds of times is enough to overcome any negative perception. Either way, it’s food for thought.
Topics: Creative Services, Marketing, Media Services | No Comments »