Category: Marketing
Digital Communities are Modern-Day Convention Centres
A Recognizable Marketing Scenario The convention hall buzzes with the excited voices of eager attendees. Laneways are packed as vendors vie for the attention of thousands of passing strangers. The largest of the booths attracts droves of visitors as faces washed in neon gaze longingly at idealized works of plastic and innovation. Booth attendants skip between convention-goers, striking small conversations, collecting emails to add to their growing database. Days later, when the bright lights of the convention go dim for the final time, as bags of free merchandise pile in the empty halls, vendors scurry back to their desks and […]
The Pursuit of Excellence in Creative Advertising Campaigns
The father of advertising, David Ogilvy, once said, “In the modern world of business, it is useless to be a creative, original thinker unless you can also sell what you create.” He couldn’t be more right. At Brand & Mortar, we consider ourselves lucky for working at the intersection of creativity, business and technology, doing what we love the most: selling our client’s brand by creating original advertising campaigns and marketing strategies.
Tell a Better Brand Story with Content Marketing & Social Media
Let’s not kid ourselves. Telling a compelling story about your business or brand on social media is exceptionally difficult. Social media posts—with their character restrictions and limited screen real estate—are not ideal for expressing brand promises, values, and philosophies with any real detail or emotional impact. This is why many marketers supplement their social media strategies with a content marketing strategy as a means of including long-form content. Thankfully, the major social media platforms recognize that this issue exists, and have taken strides to incorporate content formats that are optimal for telling better brand stories. This article will discuss three […]
How Brainstorming Improves Creative Problem Solving
Brainstorming sessions are frequent happenings at marketing and advertising agencies. Poor brainstorming can lead to weak ideas and wasted time. Practicing proper brainstorming techniques is crucial for marketing agencies to produce top-of-the-line content and ideas for clients, and that is exactly what we do at Brand & Mortar. In general, brainstorming is a creative problem-solving technique that requires the spontaneous contribution of ideas from all members of the participating group. There are three key factors that help the brainstorming session head in the right direction, which include: A clearly defined question The right resource group Divergent and convergent thinking
Timed Advertising
Facebook advertising can be tricky. With so many targeting options and so much data to analyze, for the uninitiated it can be a difficult puzzle to solve. Luckily there are a few things to make your journey into the advertising and marketing business a little easier. Facebook offers a number of preloaded and selectable behaviours to target. For example, if you’re designing a campaign for a travel company you may want to target people who have recently used a travel app. And guess what, Facebook allows you to do just that. Combine this with broader targeting and you have […]
Snapchat Lenses: An Advertising Goldmine
Snapchat is becoming extremely popular among celebrities, tech-savvy moms, and teens who need another social media account to keep them occupied. But, Snapchat has been on another level lately, as they are sending their app to an alternate dimension in the world of marketing. Recently Snapchat lenses have exploded, and face swaps and rainbow tongues are becoming viral content across other social platforms. Snapchat lenses are really revamping the boring selfie we’re all sick of. Yes—we get it, you’re a good looking model on Instagram…*sigh*. But, Snapchat lenses turn your selfies into face-altered characters, creatures, and comedic videos. Boring model […]
Finding Love in an Ad-Free Place: Ad-Blockers & Your Brand
Ever since the internet was young and innocent, advertisements have cropped up as a way for brands and marketers to get access to the huge amount of people logging on every day. The pop-up has served as the bane of many an internet user’s existence, popping up in more and more frustrating situations and in greater quantities. Nonetheless, users have revolted and used ad-blocking softwares to dispel the efficacy of “traditional” internet marketing — namely, the pop-up window. The era of the pop-up advertisement is all but dead, and it has everything to do with ad-blockers. What is ad-blocking? Simply […]
Why Are Snapchat Geofilters so Addictive?
Chances are if you’ve been on Snapchat in the past year, that you might have noticed the opportunity to scroll (left or right) on your ‘snap’ and add filters — images which lay atop of the image you’ve just taken, often designating where you are, events in your area, or general advertisements. What are geofilters? Snapchat geofilters were originally released in July 2014, and since then they have gained a significant amount of popularity. Snapchat actually crowdsources the submissions for prospective geofilters, allowing users the opportunity to ‘rep’ their neck of the woods. This approach emphasizes the ability to design, contribute, and witness […]
Influencer Marketing and Your Brand On Vine
The concept of influencer marketing isn’t necessarily new; brands have been using celebrity endorsements for years to convince people to buy their products (think Stephen Curry on a box of Wheaties, or Matthew McConaughey driving a Lincoln). The recent twist in this landscape is the rise of various social media channels, and the influence they have on a company’s brand strategy. Sites like Facebook, Instagram, and recently Vine are being used to target consumers and promote products and services through more nuanced influencers. A site like Vine is the perfect example for a more complex influencer landscape. The nature of the […]
Career Tips from the Social Sphere
The Young and Aspiring Career advice for young aspiring digital marketers is like a gourmet block of fine cheese imported from France for mice. As more graduates enter the work force each year and digital marketing is moving at the speed of light, often the roles that new graduates are applying for are redefining their qualifications and needs every day. As a young digital marketer myself, working in the industry has really made me appreciate those who are always challenging the landscape and coming up with new and inventive ways to make our industry even cooler. Lately I have been […]