Youtube Marketing

Recently, I've been reading that Youtube is a great venue for Indirect SEM (Search Engine Marketing). When using Google, it's impossible to ignore the fact that on the first page provided for any give search, there is roughly a 90% chance that one of those top 10 results will be a relative Youtube video, and why not - Google owns Youtube.

With this in mind, I've decided to begin testing the waters with Youtube as a viable SEM tool. Now I'm not naive, I do realize that Youtube is in fact used by million for marketing purposes, but I'm specifically interested to see if and how well the Google Freshness Algorithm will rank new videos.

I Am Not Impressed

I recently saw this old school ad… I laughed, and this is why.

The site authors seek to impress us by showing how well they can get a site to appear on the first page of Google. They want you to believe that because they can show first page search results that their service is valuable. However, the terms used in the sample video were obscure and had low competition values. In some cases there was no exact phrase match for the term used. What does this mean… any living creature with fingers and able to type could get the same results. Let's look at an example.

Let's say that you live in a tiny town like Collbran Colorado with a population of 388 and decide that you want to rank #1 for a search phrase like Collbran Law Firm. A quick check on Google will show you that there is a total of only 2660 pages that contain the three terms in our phrase. An exact match search using quotes around the phrase will reveal just 1 search result. This is because just one page out of 63 billion web pages contain those three words in order. So of course you can quickly rank on the first page of google for that search term just by having that phrase on your page.

What's missing from many of these videos is the keyword research conducted before video production, KW research designed to find extremely obscure or easy terms to rank.

Competition value is important to guys like me that perform the work relating to affordable SEO, this is because some terms are extremely competitive and next to impossible to rank, we prefer terms that have fewer competitors yet still have a decent search volume in order to keep new visitors coming into the site.

Search Volume? Search volume is the number of times any given phrase is searched for on the web. Obviously competition matters little if there no one is actually searching the web using your chosen search phrase. So sure, anyone can rank for a low competition phrase that contains no search volume, but if you want to impress me, then show me ranking within a competitive market or niche, and show me some search volume to match it.

That's my 2 cents, keep the change.

Graphic Design Orange County

Hello, I am an intern at a graphic design Orange County company. Today was my first day interning at Enlarge Media Group. I think it went well and I enjoyed the projects that I worked on.

Pulte Homes Signs: The signage uses graphics, logo, and color scheme provided by the client. Standard grid template was used.

Business Cards: Klen is a company that specializes in clothing and accessories made from Bamboo and other bio-based fibers.

Design 1: Modern: Uses the box image/graphic as part of the existing Klen logo to create a texture background graphic for the front side of the card. This would appeal to a modern audience and has connotations/reference to designer/fashion patterns that may be appropriate for this clothing brand. Bright greens and yellows are used to make this card design dynamic and eye catching reflecting the unique merchandise.

Design 2: Natural: Uses a brush stroked image of bamboo shoots in the background. Browns and greens are pulled from this image to match within the corresponding type. Unity is achieved with the same green and graphic on the back informational side as well. This graphic design would appeal to an eco-friendly green or even older audience in its more traditional format.

Design 3: Graphic: This design uses greens and browns just like the other designs as reflective of the products sold by Klen. The images on one side of leaves and bamboo shoots has a graphic approach that is more likely to appeal to a younger audience. This card is clean and simple yet still visually interesting.

More[*+ OC graphic design samples.

CBS Outdoor Makes it Easy

CBS Outdoor will launch a new website next month for businesses searching for billboards. It will contain "plug in" options for various small business owners who don't want to pay for design. Just plug in your contact info and have the same billboard as another funeral parlor in Kansas. CBS Outdoor never wanted it to be this easy. It was always very complicated, required a professional agency, and cost was based on some ridiculous matrix. Now that times are tough, they have decided to go a different direction. Sorry professional agencies….. CBS is going a different direction.

The end result……………..not only do we have to look at stupid billboards, now they will be designed in Word and lack all professionalism.

by Rob Kee

Commentary By Jay Brown:

That is a really wack idea… The entire fill in the blank w/ your company name and cookie cutter advertisements are played out and are definitely NOT the future and Mobile Billboards as an advertising medium have a much better performance rating. Obviously the economy is in shambles right now, but it isn’t the ad agency fees that are out of line, its companies like CBS and other outdoor billboard rental companies that have ridiculous rates. This is an open your eyes event that is happening across the board for all sorts of advertising agencies. Corporate media giants are trying to push the creative minds out of the loop. The best part about it… These hungry acts of lame corporate narrow minded ideas is exactly what will end there market share of outdoor media.
DON’T BITE THE MOUTH THAT FEEDS YOU CBS….or you might get bit back!

The Orange County Dentist Directory

I recently worked on an ad for The Orange County Dentist Directory, networking their services to people of all ages to come and take on a more inviting experience to the dentist. The idea was to promote "making people smile everyday" to ensure every new customer that they will leave these places with the best possible dentists that work hard to make every person happy and left with a smile. Many of us have fears of going to the dentist or have had a bad history, The OC Dentist Directory seeks to bring comfort to all. Also, the ad makes it easy for people to contact a local dentist in the orange county area by simply going to their website http://orangecountydentistdirectory.net/.

Going Out Of Business In 09

Going out of business sales are spreading like an economic virus through the country. It’s amazing how the public reacts. One day these stores have barley anybody lining up at the registers to purchase their goods, then the next day after hearing the buzz on the streets, these retailers are forced to hiring additional staff to help them sell off or liquidate the retail stores. It’s a pretty simple formula for an Advertising Consultant. Put the word out to consumers that you are closing the doors, and “Everything Must GO!”… and they’ll be swarming like a mad pack of hungry sharks towards the parking lot looking for the best deals. It just so happens that this year lots of these retailers are closing down and winding down right into the holiday shopping season. This is a win for everyone out there that has been unwillingly affected by the latest credit crunch and economic meltdown and allows them to still go out and shop a little bit at discounted prices and still put gifts under the tree.

The Mitsu Statement

Mitsuishi wanted to create a Creative Graphic Design print ad to promote their new 2009 Galant to target a younger audience such as collge students such as myself. first i started to think of headlines that relate to students and college life. After that, i thought about the image that would go in the right direction along with the headline. After finding the right graphic, i came up with the body copy to go along with the headline, and the graphic. once i had everything in place, it was decided that the headline font could be edgier to make it pop. So i went to fontspace.com and found a cool font that matches up with the style of the car a feel that would set that tone for the ad. I also added a tear at the bottom to make room for the placement of the logo, tagline, and other important information. Overall, i am pretty pleased with the results of the ad, and would be a good piece for my book.

Article by Mike B,
Graphic Design Intern

Mazda Advertising

Here are some Billboards I worked on with Jay. The Creative Graphic Design advertisements are about the new 2009 Mazda Lineup. The target audience was the car racing drifting audience, ages 16-25. After researching I found out that my target market was more in the hip hop culture. So I wanted to relate to this culture with significant colors and fonts. My first idea I wanted to have a good looking girl on the side of a Mazda car with the driver inside the car. I wanted to give that idea that the girl was there to start the race, like in The Fast and Furious movies. And the tag line follows " Catch My Drift", kind of playing the double meaning catch me if you can, and also catch my idea. It's not really supporting illegal street racing, but the target audience understands that idea. Then it says 2009 models have arrived, playing that the model could be the car or the attractive girl. The second idea is about speed and drifting. It's simple, but less is more. Here are the ads.

~ Article and Art by "Ace",
Graphic Design Intern
EMG

Camel's For Kids

The following article was submitted at: 17 Oct 2008, 10:07 -0-700
By: Leora DavalosLeora Davalos

Department of Family Medicine, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta 30912.

OBJECTIVE Little is known about the influence of advertising on very young children. We, therefore, measured product logo recognition by subjects aged 3 to 6 years.

DESIGN Children were instructed to match logos with one of 12 products pictured on a game board. Twenty-two logos were tested, including those representing children's products, adult products, and those for two popular cigarette brands (Camel and Marlboro).

SETTING Preschools in Augusta and Atlanta, Ga.

PARTICIPANTS A convenience sample of 229 children attending preschool.

RESULTS The children demonstrated high rates of logo recognition. When analyzed by product category, the level of recognition of cigarette logos was intermediate between children's and adult products. The recognition rates of The Disney Channel logo and Old Joe (the cartoon character promoting Camel cigarettes) were highest in their respective product categories. Recognition rates increased with age. Approximately 30% of 3-year-old children correctly matched Old Joe with a picture of a cigarette compared with 91.3% of 6-year-old children.

CONCLUSION Very young children see, understand, and remember advertising. Given the serious health consequences of smoking, the exposure of children to environmental tobacco advertising may represent an important health risk and should be studied further.

PMID: 1956101 [PubMed - indexed for MEDLINE]

This week I have been calling Dentist’s offices to talk to them about Affordable Web Promotion for their practices and several of the doctor’s don’t advertise at all. I think this is a poor business choice. Advertising or more specifically logo recognition and branding are invaluable tools. I found a very powerful example of this in a study conducted to find if a cigarette company was targeting children. The findings are astonishing. Just imagine if how effective good advertising could help sell anything to adults.

Brand Ambassadors

What exactly is a brand ambassador and why are they so damn important to companies these days? Brand ambassadors are organized guerrilla marketing teams.

Nearly all companies and corporations have their fair divide of directors, presidents, CEO's and VP's of marketing and so on…. When it comes down to it, the guys that symbolize you outside of the stuffy little cubicle mazes can be very affective to your bottom line. It's the brand ambassadors that get their hands dirty and get the job done.

I'm talking about on a street level, for the "in-your-face times", it's the brand ambassadors (also known as street teams) who will generate your buzz marketing and get the word out about your products and image.

They're typically dependable for mobile marketing and stirring up buzz around your brand. This includes everything from hand to hand flyer distributions, setting up on street corners or within large crowds handing out propaganda or collateral about new products, to even orchestrating a word of mouth movement surrounding a new brand, and so on. It's very important to include the grass roots street level type of marketing within your budgets.

Guerrilla Marketing & Grass Roots Advertising 101

Try to maneuver yourself away from the traditional methods and strategies of mainstream advertising and marketing ideas. It's a good idea to be unique and diverse from the same old ways of going after consumers. Try to be diverse when promoting your ideas, Different is a good and attracts a better crowd and a more fascinated audience. Setting yourself apart from the rest of your competition will gain you more respect within the industry and ultimately create a better result and outcome. Be a leader not a follower.

Kobe Goes Viral

Have you seen Kobe jump the Aston Martin? What about the pool of poisonous snakes? If not, check you tube. Nike has officially entered the world of viral marketing with Kobe Bryant, and their new shoe “Hyperdunks”. With the popularity of Youtube, and growing viral video marketing segment, it is no surprise the big boys, like Nike, are jumping in. The videos showcase Kobe Bryant (if you don’t know who he is you live under a rock and shouldn’t be reading this), Recent NBA MVP. Kobe is seen performing death defying stunts, even if they are fake. He also shows the camera his new shoe and repeats the name several times. It is a commercial. Just the same as you might see on TV, only it is for the internet. Just another example of how internet marketing and viewer controlled content if effecting advertisers. These videos caused quite a stir, even ending up on the 24 hour news networks. (Something tells me the Publicists had something to do with that)

Will they sell more shoes? I won’t be surprised if they do. The shoe is definitely getting noticed.