Tag: Strategy

Navigating the Seas of Modern Marketing: Strategies for Success

by adventureadagency, posted in Uncategorized

In the ever-evolving landscape of commerce, marketing remains the cornerstone of business success. Whether you’re a multinational corporation or a budding startup, the effectiveness of your marketing efforts can make or break your venture. As we sail through the digital age, the rules of the game continue to shift, demanding adaptability, creativity, and strategic finesse from marketers worldwide.

Gone are the days of one-size-fits-all advertising campaigns plastered on billboards and television screens. Today’s consumers are inundated with a myriad of options and information, and capturing their attention requires a more nuanced approach. Here are some key strategies to help you navigate the seas of modern marketing and steer your brand towards success:

  1. Embrace Digital Domination: The internet has transformed the way we do business, and digital marketing has become non-negotiable for any serious player in the field. From social media platforms to search engine optimization (SEO), digital channels offer unparalleled opportunities to reach and engage with your target audience. Invest in a robust online presence, and leverage data analytics to tailor your strategies for maximum impact.
  2. Content is King: In the age of information overload, content marketing reigns supreme. Create compelling, relevant content that adds value to your audience’s lives, whether it’s informative blog posts, entertaining videos, or interactive infographics. By establishing yourself as a thought leader in your industry, you can build trust and credibility with potential customers, driving long-term brand loyalty.
  3. Personalization Pays Off: Generic marketing messages are quickly becoming obsolete. Today’s consumers expect personalized experiences tailored to their individual needs and preferences. Leverage customer data and advanced targeting techniques to deliver highly personalized content and offers that resonate with your audience on a personal level. Show them that you understand their unique challenges and aspirations, and they’ll be more likely to choose your brand over the competition.
  4. Harness the Power of Influencers: Influencer marketing has emerged as a powerful tool for brands looking to connect with their target audience in a more authentic and relatable way. Partnering with influencers who align with your brand values can help you tap into their loyal fan base and amplify your message across social media platforms. Just be sure to choose influencers whose audience demographics align with your target market, and prioritize authenticity over follower count.
  5. Stay Agile and Adaptive: The only constant in marketing is change, and successful brands are those that can quickly adapt to shifting trends and consumer preferences. Keep a close eye on emerging technologies and market developments, and be willing to pivot your strategies accordingly. Agility and flexibility are key to staying ahead of the curve in today’s fast-paced business environment.

In conclusion, the world of marketing is as dynamic and challenging as ever, but with the right strategies and mindset, you can navigate these turbulent waters and steer your brand towards success. Embrace digital innovation, prioritize personalized experiences, and stay agile in the face of change. By doing so, you’ll not only survive but thrive in the competitive landscape of modern marketing.

Advertising Agency

Small Agency Versus Large Agency: Is AAA is right for you?

by advwpman, posted in Advertising, Blog, Marketing

You may have heard the phrase bigger is better, but in fact, bigger is NOT always better. Depending on your business, a personalized experience with a smaller advertising agency may better fit your businesses needs than a large agency.

As a business owner or as a decision-maker for your company, it can be challenging to determine whether a small agency or a big agency is right for you. You are faced with making so many complex decisions in the day-to-day of your business that worrying about your advertising may be the last thing on your mind. It can be particularly challenging is marketing and advertising is very different from your core business. 

To help you make the decision about whether or not to choose a small agency like Adventure Ad Agency to manage your advertising or to take the leap to a bigger agency, we have compiled a list of a few of the biggest differences between small and large agencies.

Small Agency Versus Large Agency

Personalization. Flexibility. Innovation.

First, one of the biggest and most obvious benefits of a small agency is the personal touch and customization that naturally emerges. At AAA, we are able to give a high quality, hands-on experience for our clients. 

Because the people meeting and working with the clients are the same people working on the advertising materials and campaigns, the results of our work tend to both be more inline with client expectations and to perform more successfully than they otherwise may have. 

Additionally, this close relationship with our clients allows us to better understand their business. This enables us to better market their specific brand identity and value proposition, as well as allows us to better anticipate their needs. 

Small agencies, like Adventure Ad Agency, are constantly thinking of new ways to help their clients. Since small agencies are not as constrained as big agencies, they have more flexibility to innovate and think outside the box for their clients.

Resources. Connections. Diversity.

At the same time, large agencies have many benefits as well. Most notably, large agencies have more resources than small agencies. However, that is not to say that small agencies do not have a fair amount of resources. The main difference is small agencies will rely more on partnerships with freelancers whereas large agencies have most everything they need in-house from photographers to graphic designers.

In general, large agencies simply have more people, more money, and more connections. For example, if you are looking for endorsements from professional athletes or partnerships with the hottest celebrity, large agencies are the best fit for your business. Expensive and high profile strategies like this do not tend to be the focus of small to medium sized agencies.

Finally, with more people and more resources can come more creativity and diversity. Small agencies can provide consistent, dynamic and both diverse and creative advertising for your business. However, it is not as easy to find a small agency that can provide that year after year. We are constantly working to stay on top of the latest trends and to innovate for clients. Bigger agencies though, with their greater resources, larger talent pool, and bigger staff, often can easily bring more diversity and more options to the table.

Is AAA right for your business?

We would love to help every client who walks through our door, but we also understand that a small agency may not be the best fit for every business. It’s not about size. Adventure Ad Agency works with small businesses to large corporate organizations.

It’s about your business needs, your culture, and your style of doing business. 

Adventure Ad Agency is right for your business if you …

  1. Want a hands-on relationship with your agency
  2. Are a small business or a large organization
  3. Require flexibility and value customization of your advertising strategy
  4. Are looking for out-of-the-box ideas that deliver high ROI
  5. Want no worry, full service management for all advertising OR want help with a particular project or campaign

If you’d like to learn more about if Adventure Ad Agency is right for your business, contact us here or call us at 1-864-400-9920. To learn more about the latest advertising trends and strategies, check out more of our blog.

Still unsure about whether a big or small agency is right for you? Keep investigating and don’t settle for a “lukewarm” advertising strategy. Don’t just take our advice. Ask your peers and business partners how they feel about their agency situation. Check out this great Forbes article on choosing an agency! And if you choose an agency and discover it’s not the best fit, do not be afraid to make a change.

CTV

Incorporating OTT/CTV Advertising into your Digital Strategy

by advwpman, posted in Advertising, Blog

Taking first place by a landslide, OTT easily wins advertising trend of the year. However, actually defining OTT and incorporating this powerful new tool into your strategy is much harder to decide.

What is it?

The acronym OTT stands for “over-the-top” and refers to streaming media services that reach viewers directly over the internet instead of through traditional cable. Connected TV devices such as Roku, Amazon Fire Stick, or even your XBOX game console provide OTT streaming through well-known services such Netflix, Hulu, and Prime Video. 

For example, watching Netflix on a smartphone app or even in an app on your smart TV counts as OTT. Connected TV devices then are often the medium through which viewers reach OTT services.

Among Netflix and Hulu, there are numerous other streaming services, such as fuboTV and Sling TV, that already exist. However, companies like Disney, Comcast, and more are all introducing their own streaming platforms. With many of these existing and new OTT services, advertisers are presented yet another medium for reaching viewers. 

If you are wondering if advertisers have already begun advertising on OTT platforms, the answer is a resounding yes, and the number of advertisers is only growing. 

In the first quarter of 2019, Roku’s platform alone double the number of ad impressions served on their platform as compared to the prior year, and Roku announced that it predicts revenue for the year to be over $1 billion with about two-thirds of this revenue coming from ads, according to AdAge.

The Growth of Cutting the Cord

Every day, more and more advertisers are adding OTT to their marketing mix. This shift is occurring not only because OTT is a powerful advertising tool. It is also fueled by advertisers’ premium target audiences moving off cable.

This trend has effectively been labeled cord cutting as many viewers are “cutting the cord” with their cable provider in favor of the ease and experience of OTT services. According to eMarketer, the number of cord-cutters in the US, defined as “adults who have ever cancelled a pay TV service to continue without it,” will grow by 32.8% in 2019 to 33 million. At the same time, the number of subscriptions to OTT video services will rise to 170 million. This is qual to 51.7% of the US total population. 

Additionally, the audiences on streaming platforms and CTV devices reach Millenials and Gen Zers. These two groups tend to be harder-to-reach and more sought after demographics for advertisers.

According to Nielsen, “out of total day viewers watching content aired across five networks on live TV, 7% are between the ages of 25 and 34, while 19% of connected device viewers are in the same age bracket.” 

Both the audience quality and the popularity of these services are major factors drawing advertisers and brands to OTT advertising.

Traditional TV Advertising Versus OTT Advertising

Naturally then, advertisers have adopted OTT advertising as an integral part of their digital advertising strategy. The advanced analytics and captive audiences in OTT presents a fantastic opportunity for advertisers, and while OTT ads tend to be shorter than traditional TV ads, the ability to provide targeted dynamic ad insertion and advanced analytics such as geolocation, demographic data, and device information are attractive for businesses looking to advertise to specific viewers.

Often the biggest question advertising agencies get from business and brands is, “Should OTT replace my traditional TV budget?”

The simple answer is no. It is more about finding the right channel at the right time. Traditional TV advertising is still a powerful tool to reach your target consumer. However, OTT is a powerful addition to your digital advertising mix. When done well, it is a perfect compliment to a strong traditional TV strategy. In fact, 2 in 3 viewers consume content across both linear and digital platforms, according to Xander’s latest white paper.

To learn how “over-the-top” advertising can be incorporated into your advertising strategy, reach out to Adventure Ad Agency. If you want to learn more about the latest trends in Advertising and more useful information, check out more of our blog or contact us!

Facbook Ad

Secrets behind Effective Facebook Ads

by advwpman, posted in Advertising, Blog, Social Media

These days it seems like the internet is oversaturated with content. From text to pictures to informational videos, information is every where, and Facebook is no exception.

Every time you go onto Facebook you are bombarded with information and advertisements. The problem for advertisers is with so much out there, how can we be sure that our Facebook ads are effective and actually reaching the attention of our viewer.

Step 1 – Use unique and engaging images for Facebook Ads

A simple Facebook text post with no images is not going to cut it in todays day-in-age. People respond best to images, especially images that show people. When people are in images, it is easier for people to relate and respond. These images will also show emotions which draw people in to your advertisement.

Next time you go to choose an image for your Facebook post consider adding people. Also, choose an image that actually demonstrates or shows your business’s or product’s value proposition. However, there are other ways to get peoples attention. People love to see bright, contrasting colors. Also, people love to laugh and be surprised, so an image that is “out of the ordinary” might just be perfect for catching your audiences attention. For more help creating and choose effective images for your Facebook advertisements, check out this article.

Step 2 – Create content you want to engage with

A simple rule of thumb is do not post content you would not want to see on your Facebook. One way to test this is to ask, “would you be willing to share this business post on your personal account?” If not, try something different. In fact, it benefits to actual ask this to yourself and other employees. From this collaboration, you can gain valuable feedback that may help improve it.

Another great ideas is that you should like your business’s Facebook ads and encourage other employees and friends to do so. In fact, when people in a business start liking their own ads, the posts engagement almost always increased.

Step 3 – Don’t be afraid to try different strategies

We have all heard the expression “stupid is doing the same thing and expecting a different result.” If you aren’t getting the results you want or need from your Facebook advertisement, change your settings! Change your budget. Change your target audience demographics. Just change.

You may actually think you have chosen the ideal settings, but unless you are a well-seasoned professional you may not know correctly what those settings are. If you check out this article by Hootsuite, you will see a number of tips for how to improve your Facebook advertisements and also how to play around with and change change change your settings to optimize your advertising campaign.

For more information on social media and advertising, check out our blog or contact Adventure Ad Agency.

Have you heard of Experiential Marketing?

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Marketing, Social Media

Have you heard of experiential marketing? If not, this blog post is for you. Don’t worry if this is your first time hearing about it. You have probably already experienced it in your life.

While it’s been around for a long time, marketers have finally created a name for it. Experiential marketing is a marketing strategy that engages with a consumer in a real-life, hands-on manner. This can be giving a consumer an opportunity to try out a new project, or this can be awarding possible customers with the experience of a life time such as a trip out to headquarters or a luxury vacation.

If you are finding it hard to picture what experiential marketing is, just think back to the last time a grocery story gave you a food samples or had a booth set up to teach you how to cook or use a product. This is experiential marketing at a basic level.

Be careful not to mistake this with event marketing, which is very similar. Experiential marketing is less focused on events such as fundraisers or concerts, and it is more focused on allowing consumers to come in contact with your brand or products. Plus, this strategy can work not only for Business-to-Consumer brands, but also for Business-to-Business brands.

If you are not sure about the value of experiential marketing, it is important to know that it is not just about the value the experience creates immediately, but it is also about the buzz it builds and dialogue it creates overtime. According to an article on HubSpot, 71% of people share these experiences. This is extremely valuable when we think about the power of social media in marketing and advertising. A lot of times hashtags and social media is incorporated into these experiential marketing strategies.

To learn more, check out this article on the best experiential marketing campaigns or reach out to us at Adventure Ad Agency.

What is SEO?

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog

You may be wondering what does the acronym SEO mean. Turns out, those three letters stand for search engine optimization. While that phrase sounds nice, what does it actually mean? What is search engine optimization?

Search engine optimization or SEO for short is the process of using concentrated strategies and methods in order to obtain a high ranking page placement on search engines in order to enhance traffic to a website. This kind of direction of traffic to sites through search engines is called organic traffic, whereas typing the url of the website you want to go to directly in is direct traffic.

All too often the first thing people do when they have a problem is Google it, and sometimes the winner of who gets the business is simply the first person to come up as a search result. Since so many people use search engines then, optimizing search engines or optimizing your rank on these platforms is critical for businesses.

However, how do people affect their rank on search engines? The website Search Engine Land provides a great video explaining SEO in even more detail and also goes into the different factors that affect your page rank. The creative way they highlight these factors is in their “Periodic Table of SEO Success Factors, as can be seen below.

This table simply highlights the many different factors these search engine algorithms take into consideration when determining page rank. The overarching categories of factors are content, architecture, HTML, trust, links, personal, and social. From there, these categories look at all different types of things from speed of service and answers and quality of content to number of links and the trust associated with the website.

Controlling all of these variables may seem like an immense tasks. However, by increasing your rank in search engines, you can directly increase business with zero to small amounts of money spent. The goal should be to start with enhancing one or two of these aspects, and when you finish, simply move on to two more.

For more information about SEO, see our informative infographic on the new versus the old SEO that explains why SEO is so important.

Top Advertising Must-Reads of 2017

by adventureadagency, posted in Advertising, Blog, Marketing

While so many of us prefer to pick up our laptop, tablet, or cell phone to get the latest in advertising and marketing news, there are some worthwhile books out there that can help big or small businesses to better understand their audience and to improve their advertising strategies. If these books aren’t on your list for 2017, they should be.

  1. The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell – This book may not be your typical advertising read. However, this non-fiction book uses illustrative examples and stories to explain human behavior in an engaging and dynamic way. Reading this book will change the way you think about ideas and marketing products.
  2. Steal Like An Artist by Austin Kleon – A fun, short read, “Steal Like An Artist” is a step back to the basics. It is a reminder of how good, innovative ideas are born. An inspirational read this book is the perfect boost you need to keep your ideas fresh and exciting.
  3. Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This: A Guide to Creating Great Ads by Luke Sullivan – New to the business scene and looking for a starter guide to advertising, but you find all the other how to advertising books boring? Give “Hey, Whipple, Squeeze This” a try! In a fun and imaginative way, the author will bring you into the narrative while also teaching you useful information about advertising.
  4. Positioning: The Battle for Your Mind by Ries and Trout – Straight-forward and all about advertising, this book will teach you the fundamentals on how to position your business, as well as your products or services. From learning to harness your competitive advantage to understanding how to forge ahead in the industry, this book is a basic.
  5. Caffeine for the Creative Mind by Stefan Mumaw and Wendy Lee Oldfield – A slightly different type of book, “Caffeine for the Creative Mind” is a practical workbook filled with exercises for you brain. Feeling sluggish and out of good ideas. Try these mental workouts. As a result, you will better be able to approach problems by considering new perspectives. Your advertising will improve as you reconsider your approach and strategies.

Are Social Media Scheduling Platforms Worth It?

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Social Media

As more and more businesses jump into social media advertising, the more work it seems needs to be done. While Facebook provides the great service of allowing you to schedule your posts, other social media sites such as Twitter, Instagram, or even LinkedIn don’t. While it may seem simple enough to hire a social media manager or two to take on the extra workload and schedule posts throughout the day, the workload does not actually need to be as heavy as it seems.

Many different platforms have come out to allow you to schedule your posts through their application and it posts to social media for you. The major player is Hootsuite, but there is also other platforms such as Social Booster, Buffer, Sproutsocial, and more that are more or less similar to Hootsuite.

Some of the different services include management tools for managing several different social media accounts on one screen, post scheduling, detailed analytics reports, and help with social media campaigns and promotions. While it may seem easy enough to do it all yourself and not spend the money on a social media scheduling platform, here are three simple reasons we think it might be worth it for your business.

  1. Increased and more engaged viewership. The time of day that you post can have a big effect on how many people see your post and how many people are actually paying attention to the post. There have been many studies done on exactly what is the best time and day of the week to post on the different social media outlets. Through platforms such as Hootsuite, you not only can schedule the post to make sure you hit the perfect time for your audience, but also the Hootsuite software can actually autoschedule the post for you in order to reach the most people.
  2. Time is money. As the old saying says, your time might be worth the money. How much time are you spending making sure you’re staying up to date on social media that you could rather be using to improve another area of your business or even to have more time with your family? Do you have a big project you keep pushing to the backburner? If this is the case, the money might be worth it. Honestly, with the help of platforms such as Hootsuite you can cut your time about in half just by not having to log in to each account before you use it and constantly flipping back and forth.
  3. Other features actually make your social media better. Many of these platforms provide additional auxiliary services that will actually make your social media better. For example, social boosters providers 24/7 customer support. Hootsuite provides education videos and assistance in launching a social media campaign. In fact, simply having a platform I have found encourages me to do more with social media, to be creative, and to see how I can improve my posts day by day. Not only will the programs teach you, they will force you to grow and grow your business.

At the same time, social media platforms are not for everyone, and different platforms are right for different business. The best thing you can do is to take a look at the various plans and consider what effect it would have on the daily operations of your business and the effect it would have on your personal life.

Over the last few months, Adventure AD Agency has decided to try out Hootsuite to assist in managing all of our clients social media accounts, and thus far, it has been an exciting and rewarding process. If you don’t want an advertising agency managing your social media, perhaps consider a social media platform instead.

Hootsuite: Top 3 tools to take advantage of this year

by adventureadagency, posted in Blog, Social Media

The most recent development in social media advertising is to use social media platforms such as Hootsuite, Social Booster, Buffer, Sproutsocial, and more to help manage the social media workload placed on business and to better schedule posts. For 2017, Adventure AD Agency has decided to try out Hootsuite to assist in managing all of our clients social media accounts.

From scheduling posts on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn and beyond to providing  management tools such as the ability to examine several different social media accounts on one screen or to providing detailed analytics reports and help with social media campaigns, Hootsuite has provided us with some exciting new capabilities as a business. While we are still learning about all of the different services Hootsuite provides, here are some quick tips and tricks we have already found helpful.

  1. Use the autoschedule feature. When you are going to publish a post, you can either publish it immediately, schedule it to be posted later, or let Hootsuite determine the best time that day to schedule your post. Many studies have been done to show the best times and days of the week to post on different social media outlets. Unless you plan to dive deep into this research, you should probably let Hootsuite take over that job for you. Using the autoschedule feature should not only get your post seen by more people, but also it should target viewers that are more engaged with your content.
  2. Explore Hootsuite Campaigns. One of Hootsuite’s services is a campaign function. In a few simple steps, you can set up a contest, galleries, or sweepstakes for your social media channels in this section of Hootsuite. Even if you have never done one of these before, check it out. It might give you some great new content ideas for you social media accounts and push you to be better online.
  3. Watch the educational videos. Another great part of Hootsuite is the multitude of educational videos and resources it provides. In the tools section, there is an entire section dedicated to education and improving your social media savvy. These resources include free online training videos and other certifications. The website also has a blog full of helpful ideas and guides for how to better make use of the Hootsuite software for your business. You can get even better tips and tricks from them then you can get from us.

If you are considering using a social media scheduling platform, you should consider all of the different pros and cons, as well as how it would personally affect your life and business. Most important though is that once you decide to pay for this service make sure you are getting the most out of it. These three tips are just the beginning.

Enhancing User Experience

by adventureadagency, posted in Advertising, Blog, Marketing

The one essential design principle that spans across every platform of communication is usability. Consequently, user experience can make or break an advertising platform.

Any time you are producing content, you are communicating a message, and the ability of this content to be used and understood is absolutely essential to getting your message heard and remembered. This is why the user experience of everything from your website to your social media posts to your business card is arguably one of the most important design elements.

User experience is understood as how your audience experience or processes the information being given to them. For example, a website has its own unique user experience. From the way you navigate the page to the emotions your feel as a result of the pictures to the ease of finding the company’s address, you are having a user experience.

Despite the fact that user experience is essential to the success of communicating messages, enhancing your user experience is not very hard. In fact, it builds almost entirely off of the principles of segmentation discussed in the last blog post.

Therefore, the first step is to enhancing user experience is segmentation. This is identifying a target audience and understanding their needs wants and desires. Once you understand this, you can create a custom user experience strategy for your audience. After developing a strategy, there are three main steps.

  1. Define the information or message to be communicated. In this step, it is important that you decide what content needs to be included. This is when you need to take a serious step back and cut you thoughts down to the bare minimum. Be simple. What is the most important thing my audience needs to know? What information is required?
  2. Decide on and organize a delivery platform. After deciding on the content, the next step is deciding how you want to share that content. You need to combine your knowledge of your content and your knowledge of your audience to choose a platform that will provide the best user experience for your audience. For instance, if you wish to share news about an upcoming event, what social media site provides the best user experience for sharing it with friends and organizing an event? Is it Twitter through tweets and messaging or Facebook through posts and creating a group? Clearly, you would choose Facebook due to the marriage of user experience with content helpful to organizing a group
  3. Execute your plan. This is when you go ahead and create your graphics, images, text, etc. that supports your message and platform.

An important key to user experience is making your content purposeful and relatable. Following the process steps above will help make your content more purposeful by focusing in on segmentation and the specific needs of the audience. However, the actual final content created needs to be relatable and reflect this audience as well.

Through all of this process, it is important you follow the golden rule of user experience: don’t make things complicated. The more difficult it is to understand a message, the less the audience will be willing to engage with it. In a world of ever-increasing technology, people want things faster and easier. Be simple. Don’t overthink it.