Monthly Archives: March 2015

The Mobile Home

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No, we aren’t talking about a trailer.  We’re talking about your actual home. Our homes are getting smarter and smarter with the introduction of technology like wifi enabled lighting and thermostats, and universal voice activated remotes.  Now, there’s even a doorbell that acts as a security system, motion detector and video camera. Most of these advancements have one thing in common: they are controlled by apps on our phones.

The Ring™ Video Doorbell allows you to see whoever is ringing your doorbell via an HD video camera from your smartphone, even when you aren’t home. It also allows you to receive notifications to your phone through the Ring app when someone rings your doorbell…kind of like missed call notification. 

What Sparks our Fire: An app that redefines the limits of “Caller ID”

Leave Your Brain At The Door

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Every year, the ADC Festival brings hundreds of creatives together from the fields of advertising, design, photography, illustration, digital and motion graphics to celebrate their inner artist. Featuring hands-on workshops, networking lunches, and poolside cocktail parties, the festival provides both aspiring and established industry folks a place to learn about our industry and some of the key movers in it. 

This years festival is bringing together heavy hitters like James Victore, Jessica Walsh, Timothy Goodman… just to name a few.  Sign up and get ready for a great line up, including: “No Brains Allowed”, led by Rich Tu, an award-wining NYC based artist. This workshop “is geared toward unsettling your creative brain and reigniting the initial spark that brought you to where you are through different creative interactions”. James Victore’s workshop is all about getting to know yourself as a designer and tapping into the roots of your creativity, thus unleashing your best work.

What Sparks our Fire: A great program, put together by our friends over at The Art Directors Club.

The New Age Of the Millennial

Screen Shot 2015-03-20 at 10.24.11 AMOver the past few years, brands have made huge investments to target the tech-saavy, authenticity craving, youthful millennial audience.  But what’s up next for one of our favorite target audiences?

A new study published by Google and Millward Brown Digital brings to light the changing nature of Business to Business marketing. By mirroring a study published in 2012, this study (which was conducted in 2014) was able to capture the B2B decision making landscape two years later.

One of the most notable changes captured in the study is the demographic shift of decision makers and influencers. Almost half of those researching and making decisions are now between 18 and 34 years old. With an astounding 81% of non C-suiters now having a say in the decision making process, millennials’ influence will only increase as their presence increases in the workplace.

The study also uncovered the changing process in which information is being found by purchasers. While online search continues to be the purchaser’s #1 resource, what the purchaser is searching for is changing. In 2014, 71% of purchasers searched with a generic query. Researchers and decision makers are now learning more about B2B products and services before learning about the associated brands. This poses new challenges for B2B brands, requiring them to market their products in new ways before the researcher even reaches their website.

Based on these trends, there are two important considerations that B2B brands should be making when marketing their products. First, millennials are driving the adoption of mobile as a space to search for their B2B needs. Brands must begin to consider their mobile presence and it’s appeal to the millennials who are increasingly conducting their research on mobile. The second consideration is the increasing value of video. According to the study, “seventy percent of B2B buyers and researchers are watching videos throughout their path to purchase.” With that many influencers watching videos, it’s important for B2B brands to understand the value that their videos bring to them.

Read the study here.

What Sparks Our Fire: The need to redefine marketing tactics and strategies to reach the maturing millennial audience.

The Value of a Tweet

As social media continues to integrate more deeply into our lives, many of the outlets are finding ways to support their own profitability, but they aren’t the only ones turning a profit. Users are now learning how to leverage their personal brands to extract value of their own on these social media websites.

SPK Austin Patch

Earlier this week, Sour Patch Kids opened it’s second house dedicated to hosting traveling musicians. The “Austin Patch” is Sour Patch Kids’ attempt to generate buzz at this year’s South by Southwest festival. For just the cost of a tweet or Vine video, musicians are able to stay in Austin for free during one of the most important festivals of the year.

Klout

Klout is a tracking system that calculates a user’s influence across the internet by analyzing their social media accounts. Simply by being active and receiving engagement (favorites/retweets/etc.), users can increase their influence. Once users have a high enough score, Klout will offer them “perks” based on their interests. Books, beauty products, alcohol, and even electronics are just some of the free “perks” of tweeting in an amplified way.

Yuya

On YouTube, a handful of active beauty vloggers have turned their respective personal brands into lucrative careers. In preparation of the Digital Content NewFronts, Outrigger Media estimates that top beauty vlogger Yuya— with over 9 million subscribers– is able to make over $50,000 a month off of her YouTube videos.

What Sparks Our Fire: Brands recognizing the value of social media customer-ambassadors

How Far Is Too Far?

tinderWe’re all for connecting brands directly with their consumers, but are some spaces just too sacred? Dating apps create spaces where the user is incredibly vulnerable, and while that might be an enticing time to make an appeal, it is nonetheless a very risky move.

At this year’s South by Southwest festival in Austin, an intrusive– if not innovative– ad for sci-fi thriller Ex-Machina has been the most buzzed about. The film used it’s star’s photo and her character’s name, Ava, to create an account on the dating app Tinder. Once a person initiated a conversation with Ava, she would ask personal questions and continue the conversation, and then eventually provide a link to her Instagram account– an account for the film.

Those who reached the Instagram page felt deceived and tricked, and have since voiced their outrage on Twitter. This stunt raises questions about the boundaries that brands must consider when trying to target audiences in sensitive spaces.

What Sparks Our Fire: Raising important questions about the future of our industry