A Michigan-based grocery chain have recently implemented a marketing strategy to increase customer satisfaction and furthermore retention, by offering consumers a free in store GPS system, that informs shoppers of where to find a turkey, tomato or the toilets.
There will be no need to flag down store employees anymore at Meijer retailers, as the find-it app solves all queries, despite this however, consumers may find this app to be overkill, not needed, annoying to use and/or time consuming, so it will be interesting to see how this kind of app will play out in the marketplace, and whether other large chains will take on the technology.
For those of you on the Gold Coast, you would have no doubt heard about the new stadium being developed at Carrara by now - probably seen the artist impressions too. You probably even driven past the ground and seen the huge stands be constructed. The Gold Coast Suns have just release a 3D fly-through sneek peak of the corporate facilities that will be on offer and they look pretty impressive. Modern, bold and colourful. So for those of you in the local business community, along with introduction of the Gold Coast Suns into the AFL next year, the new state of the art stadium will provide you with a range of exicting new opportunities for networking and entertaining clients from next year onwards.
There's a great range of coporate hospitality packages being put together so is certainly worth looking into and you can submit your interest now.
We met Nick while working with Brothers Neilsen a few years ago. He is about to embark on an East Coast road trip exhibiting his arts and surfing along the way... Dont we all wish we were him right now...have fun Nick!
An Airline with a sense of humour! Kulula Airlines is a low-cost South-African airline that refuses to take itself too seriously. The company has set the industry a-spark with their range of uniquely designed aircrafts. Plus, taking their brand even further, staff seem to reinforce this alternative attitude and opt to adopt their own standards for regular business practice. It has been reported that in-flight commentary is both unexpected and entertaining. Some nice examples of this feature below:
On a Kulula flight, (there is no assigned seating, you just sit where you want) passengers were apparently having a hard time choosing, when a flight attendant announced, "People, people we're not picking out furniture here, find a seat and get in it!"
On another flight with a very "senior" flight attendant crew, the pilot said, "Ladies and gentlemen, we've reached cruising altitude and will be turning down the cabin lights. This is for your comfort and to enhance the appearance of your flight attendants."
After a particularly rough landing during thunderstorms in the Karoo, a flight attendant on a flight announced, "Please take care when opening the overhead compartments because, after a landing like that, sure as hell everything has shifted."
Most vodka brands are usually positioned in a similar fashion and its hard to distinguish a true innovator in the segment besides maybe Absolut, who have gained strong market share on the back of frequent and clever marketing & advertising strategies. Yet now a brand has come along which has one strong value proposition for its target market, drinking our vodka is cooler then yours, and the people behind the brand have ensured this is ideal is reinforced when they recently launched the Kanon brand of vodka in the US and in Sweden. Kanon was launched with a massive mid-summer pool party in the Hamptons with alot of people in the know attending. The Kanon website has also featured blog articles and features by people including Yvan Rodic/Facehunter, Connie Wang/Refinery 29, Jessica Hart and many more to get the buzz rolling. It’d be great if Kanon was here for the Gold Coast summer which is getting ever closer. ayyyeewwwww!
KFC recently celebrated their 70th birthday by taking back the crown of the biggest bucket of chicken in history. The bucket of chicken weighed a carb fueled 2400 pounds and was over 8 feet tall. This Louisville based publicity stunt, was one with wings!
Again the guys at Cookie Composites are leading the way - this time with their new G2 skydiving helmet due for release next month. The new helmet is a follow on from the successful GAS model and is the first to bring motorocycle helmet visor technology to skydiving.
We've worked with the guys on a new product logo as well as a range of international print ads for Parachutist (USA), Blue Skies (USA), ASM (AUS) and Paramag (France) to announce the development and launch this new helmet onto the market. With a little help from their friend Bruno we are able to get the French ads translated to make sure we get the message across clearly.
So if you like throwing yourself off things from a great height then chances are these guys have something for you. Checkout the ecommerce website we built for them - offers a 'buld your own' function, multicurrency transactions and international shipping www.cookiecomposites.com
Tailgating of trucks by motorists on the Colorado state freeways is a dangerous practice that has cost many lives. In an effort to stop this the state police launched a campaign that includes traditional billboards, radio, trucks wraps and brochures. The billboard however grabbed us the most attention, this high profile 3D billboard simulates the collision between a car and a truck in a way that actually impacts the billboard itself – complete with the crash of metal and wood. Very innovative and huge impact!
The latest issue of the Safe newsletter is out now. Tusk have been working with the Gold Coast based company and it's various divisions (including Gold Coast Laboratories, Safe Fertilisers etc.) since 2008 - developing a new brand along with their range of product sub-brands. Although only one of a variety of projects we worked on with them - the newsletter forms an integral part of the their marketing strategy providing information and advice via the articles from their qualified nutritonists and naturopaths.
Safe membership is completely free and will give you access to wholesale prices, bulk sizes and free naturopathic advice - if your interested you can get more info from their site here
You can view a small selection of the work we completed for them here . No product packaging has been uploaded yet but we will have some examples soon, although you may have already exmaples of this in stores as we work through the roll out.
There will be no need to wait for a full moon to go for a night surf anymore. The Night Stalker is the brain child of Bill Stewart from Stewart’s Surfboards. The new concept is specifically designed for night surfing and features LED lighting in the crafts tail fins and spotlights on the nose.
The Night Stalker is having it’s worldwide debut tonight at the San Clemente Pier in California. Then the board will be promoted at various trade shows and then auctioned off with the 2010 SIMA Humanitarian Fund. Since the invention of the thruster, nothing has really taken the surf market by storm, some have gained momentum like the fish and the stand up paddle board, but with proper marketing and branding strategy, this product could take off as a solution for surfers who are time poor or trying to dodge the daily crowds.
Barack Obama recently stated that the BP oil spill is the worst oil disaster in World history, and a number of companies have used this to their advantage by designing ad campaigns that take a hit at the large oil giant. Spirit Airlines is one of these companies, the brand has launched a humorous print campaign which incorporates bikini clad women on various American beaches which are matched with the tag line “Check out the oil on our beaches”. The ads also include a bottle of sunscreen named, Best Protection with “B” and “P” in bold. It will be interesting to see how this campaign plays out because of course it is an extremely sensitive subject at the moment. The campaign will either disgust viewers who are passionate about not giving the oil giant any coverage at all, positive or negative. The other way it could swing, is that a large camaraderie could emerge as people band together to support the the airlines hit at BP. Nonetheless, The ads' imagery perfectly matches the copy for the campaign.
We are very pleased to announce that the website we designed for The Lake Restaurant | Cafe | Bar is now live for your viewing pleasure. We at Tusk start our day at Lake, ordering a coffee to get through the morning but the family run establishment is also enjoyable to visit at any time of the day or week, the attention to detail of this venue is evident, as the food, interior design and staff are all spot on. Visit the Lake’s page today to get to know a distinguished Gold Coast dining brand.
Coming up with content on a regular basis for your brands Twitter account can be difficult, and the 140 characters doesn’t make it much easier. Here is some ideas for updates to help drive engagement and buildup your followers.
RT (ReTweets): This is a great way to build followers. Retweeting someone is a great way to get them to follow you.
Quotes: As long as they represent the brand and image you want to promote.
Company info (new features, clients, etc.).
Newsletters and blog articles.
Facts / Stats: People love quick stats and these have been found to be the most frequently shared offline as well as online.
Conversational @ replies: This builds the feeling of community and reminds your followers that there is a person behind the brand.
Questions / Polls: Helps drive engagement and sharing.
Stuff you love: Sharing interests etc.. which in-turn helps to build the personal connection.
Giveaways / Special Offers: The number 1 way to attract new followers and drive high engagement
Customers / Clients / Partners: All great sources of content and retweets.
So there is just a few....let us know of any others to add to the list!
Letting people know about a new product or service can take the form of a number of different strategies, many of these have been discussed in prior postings, for example there are traditional forms of communication like TV, radio, billboards which continue to work very effectively for some companies and there are more contemporary forms of communication like the use of iAds in the previous blog post, youtube advertorials, and of course social media platforms like facebook, twitter and blogs. If done correctly, all of these methods will assist in your brands success but often there are large costs to contemplate.
The following is a breakdown of how Cindy Gordon and a counterpart developed a strategy on a low marketing budget to promote the “The Wizarding World of Harry Potter” theme park before it’s opening.
The strategy was reliant on word-of-mouse to spread the story
The news of the new theme park was going to be told to a select bunch of rabid HP fans (Mugglenet). Warner Bros, JK Rowling and Gordon hand selected 7 people who are behind the biggest fan sites in the world to attend a private webcast event at the HP studios.
The private meeting was conducted to bombarde the 7 fans with information about the new theme park.
The 7 fans then went and blogged about the theme park and it’s micro webpage continually over the months leading up to 2010, allowing bloggers to go to town.
These 7 fans got a combined +350 million hits. Not bad for a small budget and simple strategy.
Gordon reckons it would have been an insult and a cause of backlash to let traditional form’s of communications like the NY times introduce the new attraction, rather then an insider fan site.
The iPad certainly is the topic of the moment. Due to the non-flash compatability some of our clients have chosen to update their sites so there is an alternative to the flash that shows when viewing on an iPad/iPhone and this has worked well. But how else can you appeal to iPad users through your marketing strategies. Here are a couple of ways you may like to consider...
Branded applications
There is no doubt about the popularity of branded apps on the iPhone, I have many as do most users, and everyday there are more and more available. The iPad is no different and the application choice will continue to grow rapidly.
Games are one way to appeal to iPhone and iPad users, but some brands have appealed to mobile users through more useful and practical apps like banking, news, radio and even barcode scanning to produce content. The key is to make it appealing and useful to users. A branded game may appeal to more users but it will not necessarily deliver the engagement and frequency of use of an app that is more useful.
Email marketing
Like the iPhone, users can access their emails quickly and easily once they have set their accounts up on the device. Email is easy to view and read on the iPad’s interface, so it offers an excellent experience for the user, who is likely to spend more time reading emails as a result. Email marketers need to think about how they will tailor emails for iPad users. Since it is a touch screen device, placement and size of links and call to action buttons need to be large enough for users to select. The lack of Flash on the iPad means that marketers will need to ensure that any landing pages are free from Flash and optimised for the device.
Display advertising
Whether delivered via the internet, or through apps, the iPad is well suited to display advertising. This may be the biggest opportunity for marketers targeting the iPad, as advertisers can create attractive and compelling ads, while the device allows users to quickly interact with ads. Add to this that Apple debuted its iAd mobile advertising network on 1 July.
iAds combine the emotion of TV advertising with the interactivity of Internet advertising, giving advertisers a dynamic and powerful new way to bring motion and emotion to mobile users.
Here is an example of a magazine on an iPad as well. Magazines and thus their advertising will become more interactive and engaging...
These are just a few and there are many other options you can consdier to add to your marketing mix. One thing for sure is you need to look to these devices and the necessary changes required to your current marketing to ensure you are capturing your audience.....as they are, or will be very soon, using them!iAds combine the emotion of TV advertising with the interactivity of Internet advertising, giving advertisers a dynamic and powerful new way to bring motion and emotion to mobile users.
Our talented graphic designer Daniela trekked to Brisbane on saturday to witness the spectacle that is Ron Mueck. It was the last weekend of the showing at the Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA) before the organization makes room for the Valentinoexhibition. The popularity of the show was evident, and lucky for Daniela she pre-booked tickets, the line up was out the door and filling the streets at 930 in the morning! Ron Mueck has had a very colourful history working on an Australian TV program, as a model maker and puppeteer, a movie voiceover, a prop maker specializing in animatronics for the advertising industry and now a famous sculptor. D said it was an amazing exhibition, and definitely worth seeing it if you get the opportunity.
The king of cool Pharrell Williams has collaborated with iconic American brand Harley Davidson to design a bike that executes his idea of you guessed it, a classic American bike. Celebrity endorsements have grown in popularity over the past decade, as they are linked to positively influencing purchasing decisions and increasing a companies brand image. I don't know how effective this collaboration will be with die hard all American bikies but it's cool none the less.
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Coming up with content on a regular basis for your brands Twitter account can be difficult, and the 140 characters doesn’t make it much easier. Here is some ideas for updates to help drive engagement and buildup your followers.
