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A Thank You To Our Clients
It’s been an exceptional 2011 and we’re looking forward to all the new projects lined up for 2012. But first I want to thank all my clients for their support this year. Thank you for pushing us day in and day out with your creative and challenging projects. Thank you for getting us excited about subjects that we knew very little about like hand soap, hardwood floors, green cleaning, and classic cocktails. Whether it’s a brand new idea on innovative marketing, design and technology or if it’s an upgrade that’ll step up our game with an on-going campaign, we feed off of your excitement and drive. We are truly lucky to have such a great group of clients to help inspire and motivate us.
Innovation in the Hospitality Industry
On March 3rd I had the opportunity to attend LINQ360′s innovation center’s grand opening in Las Vegas. The event brought a lot of press coverage and even the Mayor (Oscar Goodman) and Governor (Brian Sandoval) came to take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony. The innovation center, powered by Microsoft, brings together thought-leaders from all sectors of the global hospitality technology market. This is where truly integrated solutions can be developed and demonstrated for the benefit of world-class hospitality brands.
Is Any Press Good Press?
As you may have seen, my last post was on the Dominos advertising campaign. We had a great discussion on this campaign’s strategy and how social media and peer-to-peer communication have altered how companies advertise. So it’s interesting to see the same agency, Crispin Porter & Bogusky, in the lime light for its latest Super Bowl advertisement with Groupon. Crispin Porter used a preemptive apology in the Dominos ad with great success, then they go and create an ad that caused Groupon to have to apologize after the fact.
Domino’s Ad Campaign of Shame
The message I get from the new Domino’s advertising campaign can basically be summarized as so:
I know you think our pizza tastes like robots made it from shitty tomatoes, but look it’s not… Just tastes like it.
Not the best message to take away. However, the overall strategy isn’t a total whiff. It’s more of a home run. Actually, it’s an excellent example of how new mediums are effecting big brands these days.
Marketing with Mobile Tags
Who says you can’t track print campaigns? The biggest complaint I hear from my clients is that you can’t track the investment of your print campaigns. You can mail out a million brochures, but you don’t know if your recipients are reading them. With digital marketing our clients can track their investment and see quantifiable results. Print campaigns lack this measurement and it’s hard to integrate them with digital campaigns. That’s why here at Hardly Square we’ve been working with Mobile Tagging. It’s an exceptional way to integrate offline and online marketing campaigns across web, mobile and print media.
Suggested Reading for Graphic Designers
In my book, these are some of the best assets to have in your library. They are a source of information and inspiration for me. I’ve gone to this shelf multiple times to help me get ideas and solve problems. I’ll add to this list as the months go on, but I think this is a great starting point.
• A Smile in the Mind
• The Art of Looking Sideways
• Cognitive Surplus: Creativity & Generosity in a Connected Age
• A History of Graphic Design
Succeeding with New Strategies
I recently read an article on Read Write Web touching on many of the points I wrote in my previous piece called Stay Nimble: A Successful Design Philosophy. Those points were primarily the strategy of creating at the speed of the Internet and trusting your creatives. These will be two huge strategies we’ll see a lot of in marketing campaigns moving forward. This article in particular…
Stay Nimble
It’s imperative to know when the time has come to stop planning for what may work and really find out so we can ship. Sure, it’s a balancing act, but the world isn’t waiting for you. This is why responding to the dynamic of Internet evolution is more important than following a strict plan. Being able to adjust and tweak your project as you stay aware of new breakthroughs of internet technology, as well as old ideas made new again, will add an edge of modernity and know how to your project. Sequestering yourself in your office, diagramming out a perfect first run with blinders on will only leave you behind the curve.
The internet is fast. We must remain nimble.
Hardly Square Teaches MICA’s Flex Studio
This spring semester Devin and I were honored to teach Maryland Institute College of Art’s (MICA) Flex Studio class. We were very proud to have the opportunity to give back to the student population and help foster environments of creativity. Our main objective was two fold: 1. give our students as close to a real world experience as possible 2. genuinely listen to their unique…
Apple Has Its Head in the Clouds
The way we interact with our computing devices is changing. Computing devices are becoming simplified, more natural. Where are the clouds? They’re in the sky, naturally. Where are my photos? They’re in the Photo App. On our iPhones we don’t drag and drop a photo into the Photo App. The photo files are all automatically sent to the Photo App as soon a we snap that picture. Where are those files located on my iPhone’s hard drive anyway? Who cares… I just need to easily be able to look at them, email them to my friends, or post them to Facebook.