Olympic Guidelines for Business Promotions
The Olympics is a very tempting time for marketers to offer competitions and promotions loosely aligned to the games… but beware!
Thanks to the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act (2006) and the Olympic Symbol (Protection) Act (1995) any such use is not a civil matter (as is usually the case with copyright infringement etc.) but a criminal one – your competition could be breaking the law and there is a team of LOCOG “Brand Police” who are very actively seeking infringing adverts, events and promotions.
We’ve produced a simple set of guidelines, based on the LOCOG brand guidelines, to try and help*
Read MoreUsing You Tube for brand building and marketing
The popular video sharing website and social network YouTube has recently released what you could describe as a book of ‘Commandments’ for what the team at YouTube believe are the most successful and effective ways to help its users generate better quality content and drive more traffic to their channels.
This extensive guide dubbed the ‘Creator Playbook’ gives YouTube users a distinct structured list of the best strategy to maximise the potential of their online videos. It also explains how to promote your marketing material through other social media networks and is designed to be accessible to all users, mapping out a tick list agenda to optimise the opportunities that Youtube offers.
So, just what is it that makes the largest online video destination and second most used search engine such a valuable brand and marketing tool? One reason I can think that video marketing is so advantageous and so powerful could be linked to the fact that 90% of our day to day communication is non-verbal. This implies that messages are most likely to be understood when given out and received usingbody language and self-expression. Unlike written words in printed media and websites, and spoken words in radio advertising, video and television marketing have the additional messages which are transferred by eye movements, visual cues, and overall body language, which makes YouTube a great channel to add more depth to your brand strategy.
You can download the YouTube instruction ‘bible’ here:
http://youtube.com/creators/playbook.html
While you’re waiting for it to download I can give you a few of my own ways to use make the most of your ‘home generated’ content which are often overlooked.
Firstly, it’s important to take an honest and value based approach to using YouTube to raise awareness of your business. The direct selling route is not always necessary. Ultimately if your videos are interesting, informative, innovative or humorous then your audience are more likely to value them and share it, spreading awareness of your brand without any legwork from you. If a key factor to your video strategy is sharing then make your videos focussed and simple with a more subliminal marketing message. People are unlikely to share your video if they think they are being pitched to!
Make use of the close integration that YouTube allows with other social network sites such as Facebook and Twitter. Before you know it you can quickly and effortless have your video posted across platforms and embedded in your website and emails. YouTube video’s are viewed for an average of 2.9 billion hours a month so make sure you get a look in and use it as part of your overall strategy.
Customise your own YouTube channel (Like ours here: http://www.youtube.com/user/rtmediauk) to compliment your branding and to set up playlists with your personalised content. No lack of equipment or technology should stop you from producing original, creative content for your YouTube channel. Consider interviewing clients, or experts on a variety of topics which are relevant and authentic, and make sure an element of your brands personality shines through and reflects what your all about. You should maintain communication with your audience with regular updates and new posts.
Be Tag savvy. Remember…search engines like Google can only determine the content of your video if you tag it and your YouTube channel. Think carefully about the words and phrases you use for titles and descriptions. Link your social media accounts and make sure they are on your own website as well to encourage sharing and remind people to subscribe.
Check out RT Media’s You tube channel here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/rtmediauk
Read MoreMobile Devices and You: Application vs Web
The term mobile device, while propagating quite quickly through our current cultural zeitgeist, is almost a misnomer. If we take the phrase, in context, at its most literal it would essentially mean any operating platform, which we can carry around with us. Laptops have been around for decades now, and yet they are lumped in with the personal computer market and not the mobile device market. Ultra portable might be closer to the mark, but even that is not quite there yet.
When the conversation turns to ‘mobile devices’, most people are probably talking about things like mobile phones such as the HTC Desire or iPhone and tablet devices like the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. It’s these devices we are concerned with. Current phones and tablets, while advanced, are still behind when compared to your typical laptops and netbooks; limitations are generally processing power, RAM, storage space, compatibility with things Flash and Silverlight and, as with the iPhone, the lack of a transparent and accessible file system. When developing for these platforms a lot of stuff has to be taken into consideration, and on top of that you also have a decision to make:
Do I need an app, or a web application?
This is something an awful lot of people will be asking themselves right about now. A mobile optimised interface for connecting with visitors and customers is becoming more and more important as the platform evolves. A mobile presence can build value for your brand in the eyes of the consumer and put you a step above the competition, if it’s done right. The difference between the two may not seem obvious; below you can find a list of the features and relative benefits of each approach.
Read MoreMobile advertising: key benefits and features
It’s been around for a while now, but only recently has it really become a valid avenue of exploration for the online advertiser. Mobile advertising is the practice of displaying ads in content designed specifically for mobile devices, such as websites, search results and, most recently, mobile applications. But what exactly can it offer over traditional display and search advertising?
- Unlike in previous years, there is currently a high device penetration rate for mobile advertising. Operating systems such as Android, RiM, iOS and Symbian all support fully featured mobile web browsers which are capable of displaying mobile optimised web pages. Introduction of tablets such as the Apple iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab have contributed to the spread, and the number of capable devices is only going to increase as the market (and the technology) devices.
- A whitepaper conducted by research firm YouGov for the annual Tamar Search Attitudes report shows us there has been an increase of no less than 246% in mobile search traffic in the UK in the past year. (Source)
- The nature of a mobile handset opens up the possibility of anywhere, anytime searching. Consumers who are out and about can now find what they are looking for regardless of their location.
- In addition to this, with modern cellular devices now equipped for location services (such as cellular triangulation or via GPS satellites on more high-end devices) it’s now possible to tailor both search results, content and advertisements based on these parameters, allowing advertisers to deliver location targeted and relevant ads such as “Papa Johns Pizza, Winton”. These are often more accurate than IP based location targeting.
- This type of targeting can also be applied to specific carriers, for example Vodafone or Virgin ads that are targeted for the sole purpose of tempting customers away from O2, delivered straight to the O2 provided device. An amusing, but effective, means of finding potential customers.
- Most modern mobile operating systems are capable of recognising not only text formatted like an email address, but also telephone numbers and Skype usernames. This means that with a simple click of an ad, marketers can direct potential new customers not just to a website, but to direct contact to the company via a phone or VOIP call.
- Most importantly, from some perspectives, is the ability to place ads not only on web pages and search results, but framed into downloadable apps from the Android Market, App Store or OVI store. This has given rise to a number of app developers releasing full, but free, ad supported versions of applications they would normally charge for. On Android especially, where statistically users are more likely to click on in app advertisements, this has left the vast majority of apps being available for free, such as the internet sensation Angry Birds. On the iOS store this costs £1.99, on Android you can download the full game for free with a small ad inserted to offset the costs. As you can imagine, this gives your marketing a rather large reach across many networks, countries and demographics.
These are just a few of the benefits and features available to marketers should they decide to tap in to the ever growing world of mobile advertising, and there is much more to it than the points listed above. What campaigns work best, how to target your audience, and the most important factors leading to campaign success are key things you’ll need to know in order to run a successful mobile marketing platform for your business. To learn more, get in touch with us today and find out what mobile advertising can do for your business.
Read MoreWhat elements has your brand forgotten to touch?
We had a moment last week in auditing our own brand and found that our website error pages were the standard ones setup on our server… Of course we set the team to rectify this terrible situation and create some ‘in-brand’ ones.
This means they got our brand treatment, that’s our language, tone, style and everything that is important to us here at RT. We feel they help to convey more about us, which all helps to build the context of what makes us as people and a team tick.
If you have also missed ‘branding’ your error pages perhaps we can help create them in your brand style? Here to help as always. The RT Team.
Take a look at our error page designs here:
See RT Brand Communications Agency – error pages image
If you want to see more of our error pages follow these links!
ErrorDocument 400 http://www.rtmedia.com/errors/error_400.htm
ErrorDocument 401 http://www.rtmedia.com/errors/error_401.htm
ErrorDocument 403 http://www.rtmedia.com/errors/error_403.htm
ErrorDocument 404 http://www.rtmedia.com/errors/error_404.htm
ErrorDocument 408 http://www.rtmedia.com/errors/error_408.htm
ErrorDocument 500 http://www.rtmedia.com/errors/error_500.htm
ErrorDocument 501 http://www.rtmedia.com/errors/error_501.htm
ErrorDocument 502 http://www.rtmedia.com/errors/error_502.htm
ErrorDocument 503 http://www.rtmedia.com/errors/error_503.htm
Facebook Privacy Settings: What’s Going On?
It’s everywhere, inescapable. In every news outlet, in every country of the world (sometimes as a front page story), Facebook privacy settings are changing once again. That fact in itself is practically a landmark in the importance of social networking sites, but that’s a different blog post.
So you may be thinking, as I’m sure quite a lot of Facebook’s almost 500 million registered users are, what exactly is going on?
Not so long ago Facebook changed their privacy settings to allow users granular access to their privacy settings, to control exactly who can see what, when, where and in what context. Personally I thought this was a marvelous idea, and the first thing I did was set everything to private. Job done, straightforward and spelled out for you there in black and white.
Unfortunately this spelled trouble for people who found the level of control to be overwhelming and confusing, and after a few privacy gaffes (including a few choice comments from Mark Zuckerberg himself) and millions of users threatening to delete or abandon their accounts, Facebook have caved to the pressure and are rolling out a simpler, one click approach to privacy controls. But what exactly does this mean?
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