Bringing Innovation Back to advertising

We’re a creative agency made up of a network of award winning marketing innovators, strategists and creative entrepreneurs who work diligently to create community and ROI driven campaigns for our brands.

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SXSW TAKEAWAYS - MAXIMIZING THE NETWORKING EXPERIENCE

Last Sunday marked the end of the ten day long SXSW Festival. SXSW is a marketing mecca that brings together creatives of all types from the realms of film, interactive, and music. EDGE team members were lucky enough to experience the festival and interact with some extremely talented people and some of the brightest minds in their respective fields. However, it takes more than business cards to make meaningful connections with these high caliber festival goers. Here are some of our most helpful tips and takeaways for the right way to network successfully at SXSW or any multi-day event:

1. Plan Ahead

Not every single second you are going to spend at an event needs to be planned out, but it is helpful to do some research before making your way through the festival crowds. It is always a good idea to first identify your goals for even going to an event like SXSW. Are there current business contacts that you need to connect with? Set up meetings with these people ahead of time. Are you working on a new project? Do your reasearch on when events will be that are related to that topic. That is a great way to get more information about what is most important to you, and undoubtedly meet similarly like minded people who would be future assets.

2. Connect Online

There is so much information available online even before the festival starts, and it is really helpful to check out Facebook groups, Meetups, or even Eventbrite events to check out all of the things that you might be interested in attending or the people you potentially want to meet. It is also a great way to instantly connect with people in your area who are headed to SXSW. For example, there was a members only Facebook group called New Yorkers at SXSW. Joining this group gives you the opportunity to socialize online with others from your area, and easily get a hold of them when you are all back on your home turf.

3 Don’t Over Plan

While it is good to plan some things out ahead of time, you should not have every second of your time in Austin planned out before you even get to the airport. You never know who you will meet at a party or who you might share a cab with and planning too much in advance might cause you to miss some of this serendipity. There are so many great, and helpful people that are not at the panels or industry parties that you should be bumping into. It’s great to plan a few things, but definitely leave a portion of your schedule open so as not to squash any new opportunities.

4. Talk To Everybody

What makes SXSW so great is that there are so many amazing people there in such a small space. This is not the time to be shy. There are people to meet everywhere, whether it be in line at restaurants or the person next to you washing hands in the bathrooms. With the rare fusion of film, technology, marketing, and music all coming together in one you never know who you will meet, so make sure you speak up and take the time to chat with as many people as possible.

5. Ask Uncommon Questions

Like I said above, SXSW is so great because there are so many amazing people there. But because there are SO many fantastic people, it is easy to get lost in the crowd. You need to stand out and make a connection with people. Even though your end goal may be business related, many people have heard the business schpeel a million times already. Making a common ground connection or venturing off into unrelated, but still interesting, topics is a sure fire way to get this connection to place your business card at the top of the pile.

6. Pay It Forward

SXSW is in Austin, TX so it is no surprise that a little Southern hospitality goes a long way. Kindness is certainly not lost on what people could perceive as a usually uptight industry crowd. Sharing your umbrella in the rain or offering up the extra seat in your cab (because goodness knows someone will desperately need that cab) is a great way to make friends and ultimately meet people in an unexpected way.

7. Follow-Up

When I returned from SXSW, I had stacks of business cards, and I know just as many of those people had mine. Even if you were the most interesting person on the panel or at the party, your card can easily get lost in that stack. Immediate follow-up after the show is crucial to building meaningful relationships and fostering potential business opportunities. A quick phone call, sending an email, or even connecting on LinkedIn is a great way to make sure that your SXSW networking efforts have the best chance to succeed outside of the festival.

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3 Industries Geared For Innovation in 2014

It’s nothing new that technological advancements are reshaping just about every industry and in turn entrepreneurs everywhere are looking for opportunities to disrupt just about anything. As a matter of fact, a friend of mine recently overheard a conversation in San Francisco where someone had quoted, “We’re disrupting the kail industry". Well, while it’s yet to be known where vegetables and technology are going, here are 3 industries that are developing advancements and technology faster than we can say “innovate”.

  Music

This is a given, I speak about this quite often. The same tools that destroyed the music business are in the process of rebuilding it for those that are willing to pay attention and participate in the music tech movement. Spotify isn’t even a fully global platform yet and it’s about to launch an IPO, not to mention it has shifted how we target and reach consumers based on listening habits. Pandora’s stock price has recently risen and a new wave of imitators and innovators are coming out of the wood works to capitalize on streaming music in a way that leads toward profitable results while being able to still listen to really good music.

  3D Printing

It seems as if I hear about a new 3D printing shop opening up just about every week now. This new innovation is shifting product development and product sustainability in the process. Why more people are not jumping on the bandwagon I don’t know, soon a good portion of our materials and resources will come from 3D printing, so jump into it now and ride the wave.

  Health Care

No one likes health care, there isn’t anything sexy about it and the companies leading the charge are archaic and hard to navigate. But there are few industries out there that have as many opportunities as health care. Its old systems and practices are in the process of being redeveloped by entrepreneurs who are putting the good of the people before the profit, but walking away lucratively in the process. If you’re smart, jump in a find a way to participate because the concept of health care innovation is ripe with opportunities and what feels “better than helping people get better”.

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Why Instagram Is Essential For Both Brands And Marketers

Three years ago, Instagram was just another iOS app that gained popularity with Millennials due to its photo filtering effect. #NoFilter

became common language in social sharing conversation, and thus the social photo sharing app gained a small, but devoted following. Fast forward to April 2012, when Instagram was suddenly thrust into the digital spotlight when it was acquired by the ultimate social networking platform, Facebook. At the time of the acquisition, Instagram had 27 million users on iOS alone, beginning to position itself as a social network in its own right and not just a photo sharing app. Suddenly, consumers, brands, and marketers alike were beginning to take notice of Instagram and brainstorm the ways it could be use to drive traffic to and promote awareness for a specific product or brand.

Now, a little under 2 years after the acquisition, Instagram has over 150 million users and has grown this audience twice as fast as Twitter. These users are not just digital voyeurs - quite the opposite in fact. According to research by L2 Think Tank, Instagram’s community boasts 15 times more engagement than its parent company, Facebook, and more than Twitter or Google+.

The questions remains though, with all of these engage users, how can brands turn Instagram posts into marketable and quantifiable campaign results? Read on to find out why instagram is so important for all marketers and some easy steps that can help to your brand into an #InstaCelebrity:

1. Reaching a Wider Audience

As mentioned above, in just 3 years Instagram as grown an extremely loyal fanbase of 150 million highly engaged users users. 150 million may be a far cry from the 1 billion active Facebook users. However, unlike Facebook, Instagram is a real-time social platform. This means that there is no algorithm filtering out content or picking and choosing what your followers can. So posting a picture to instagram means that it will live in your follower’s Instagram feed forever and they have a much greater percentage of seeming the content that you are creating.

2. Mobile is King

According to research published in January by the GlobalWebIndex, Instagram is the fastest growing of all social media sites worldwide, increasing its active user base by 23% in the prior six months. This rapid growth is due in large part to the fact that Instagram was made for mobile, living only on smartphones and tablets. A web version of the site is available to users, but for viewing purposes only where users are unable to post photos. According to the same study, mobile handsets are now the most popular form of access to social networking services, with 66% of users saying they use mobile devices to access them. Having a visually pleasing and easy to use mobile platform is something that many sites struggle with, but Instagram was made with mobile in mind and already is one step ahead in the mobile marketing game.

3. Visual Commerce = Conversion

The reason that Instagram users are so engaged is because accounts are offering users a behind the scenes look of brands with incredibly beautiful pictures, while still keeping the conversation rather casual. This friendly conversation coupled with enticing pictures for many brands translates into sales. Take for example, luxury retailer Coach. According to Forbes, the retailer soared during the depths of the recession, smartly capitalizing on its affordable luxury accessories and investing in the celebrities of Instagram, Style bloggers. Coach started the #CoachFromAbove hashtag. Users everywhere were encouraged to share shoe shots with the rest of the world and include the branded hashtag. That campaign resulted in a 5-7% lift in conversation rates and 2% boost in the average order value.

4. Sponsored Capabilities  

In November of 2013, Instagram introduced sponsored posts followed by direct messaging capabilities in December. There is no hard data available to the public yet as to just how successful these brand ads are, but Instagram itself has said that the ads have definitively worked in boosting reach, recall, and awareness among beta users of the ads including Levis, Ben & Jerry’s, and GE. Other early adopters who were studied were found to have similar results.

To highlight a few of those results from studies by L2 and Olapic, Michael Kors saw his follower numbers increase tremendously adding 34,000 within 18 hours of posting their first ad on November 1st. Macy’s had a big win with ads around Thanksgiving, increasing follower count by 15% and engagement rate continued to impress at a whopping 1285 throughout the following month.

5. Personalization

Customers are a brand’s greatest advocates and are a great way to tell an authentic company story through the eyes of the consumer. When an brand posts a picture taken of or submitted by a customer or brand advocate, they are in essence showcasing what their brand stands for and their values while highlighting customer experience. Featuring customers in Instagram photos helps a brand improve the connection that they are building with their audiences and gives them the power to control the one they already have. Customers want a personal experience with a brand that is relatable and that they can engage with easily. Instagram allows users to do this in real time and offers a much different and more visual experience than any other social media platform.

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How twitter images and video will change ads

Let’s be completely honest here, images and videos rule the world in the digital ad space. They just flat-out command attention. Go ahead and log into your Twitter account from desktop or through Tweetdeck, and you’ll notice numerous image and video previews as you scroll. Now, what’s more important than seeing them, is resisting the urge to click on every single one of them. I know I do.

Guess what? Twitter is banking on this behavior to, well, make bank. Like Facebook, Twitter realizes that native ads are their biggest revenue stream especially from two sources: small businesses that are targeting their local or regional market, and larger brands looking to capitalize on a new product or service. Either way, the dependence of rich media will separate the ones that are successful, from those who aren’t.

As marketers, the objective remains the same, and that’s to make sure we sell. For Twitter ads to work effectively and to drive clicks, targeting and creating engaging content is the biggest priority. Twitter gives the option of targeting through keywords, interests of followers, television, and a tailored audience. Use these wisely, and what I mean is, know your audience and what their interests are. Targeting is important, but what makes a post stand out is putting something interesting enough in the preview that will make users want to click it. Those brands who have mastered this combination of great copywriting and an interesting captions have increased purchase intent by 53% for people who engaged with the ads, according to a Twitter-monitored study.

Twitter ads are the best real-time content a brand can put out. The biggest advantage in how ads can operate on Twitter is that tweets can go viral very, very fast if a brand can catch users in the right moment, as opposed to Facebook, where content can take a while to trend. Sometimes that won’t even require a paid ad, but taking advantage of promoted posts or accounts gives brands a guarantee that tweets will be seen. Brands can also benefit from looking at tweets that received higher engagement and then putting some money behind those tweets.

Twitter ads presents tons of opportunities to get exposure, and that’s the core of what we want ads to do. The future of these ads are bright, now will you take advantage?

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How brands can use music to engage their audience

The intertwining of brands and music is nothing new. It’s been around since jingles we’re used on the radio, or maybe even earlier, when traders had to lure people to their carts.

The formula is simple: connect good music with a product, tell a story by doing so, and sell. However, we as marketers know that we only have a fraction of a second to capture someone’s attention and music might only add another fraction longer. How can we spread a message in that little bit of time? That’s where the addition of emotion comes into the fold.   

Before we go into examples of the brands that have been using this technique very well, let’s first divulge into what music is supposed to accomplish. In a previous blog post, we stated that the end goal for music and brands is that it is supposed to bring out emotion. This point is further hammered home by Steve Olenski’s Forbes article, in which he states “Music creates the value that brands need to win the war for attention and develop a genuine connection with their consumers.” Music is there to guide the emotional journey of a listener while somehow making the product that’s being offered a necessary part of that experience.

Let’s take a look at Apple’s 2013 holiday commercial, where a version of Judy Garland’s “Have Yourself A Very Merry Little Christmas” is playing slowly to show the inattentiveness of the main character. The lyrics start halfway through, and it draws the emotion of the the viewers during the holidays, while also showing how the product can heighten that experience. The outcome from viewers is that they can see themselves in the same situation most likely because they’ve experienced the same thing with teenagers in their family. This is a simple example of how the song, which reminds people of the holidays, brings about memories of the season.

What happens when a brand decides that music will be the cornerstone of who they are?

Well, let’s take a look at an emerging wine brand named Dead Bolt. They have decided to literally make a soundtrack of who they are from posting photos and videos of emerging bands. Take a look at their Instagram page. By aligning themselves with great musical experiences, Dead Bolt lets the artists consistently bring out the emotion of their followers through their music, while casually inserting themselves into the fold without being too pushy. You can listen to every performance they’ve been a part of Also, it tastes great!  

These brands have done an exceptional job of storytelling with music. Have you seen any other examples of great marketing through music? Share with us and chime in.

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What Marketers Can Learn From Entrepreneurs: Do The Right Thing

Years in entrepreneurship can teach you a lot, years working in a corporate atmosphere and environment, might even be able to teach you more. Thankfully for me, I’ve worked through both: rugged startups fighting to make a difference in the world, and corporate giants struggling to keep their stock steady.  

Through each I’ve learned key valuable lessons and principles that we here at EDGE believe if harnessed will help the other not only overcome adverse situations, but in many ways “thrive”.  This particular post is a reflection around the concept of “justice” what it means in the entrepreneurial world and how that can reflect on our day to day lives in marketing and advertising.

What “just” means to an entrepreneur

To entrepreneurs, the concept of “just” usually is a selfless expression. An entrepreneurs’ skill is the ability to realize a problem or area of concern and then come up with “just” solution. You see, to an entrepreneur the concept of “just” refers to more than just the individual; it refers to the community as a whole and how a series of solutions might be able to solve a single problem.

What “just” often means in a corporate environment

In a more organized environment with history, politics can be powerful and often get in the way of seeing the bigger picture in situations with serious dilemmas. In this case we’re automatically programmed to protect ourselves from un-just situations and not the community as a whole. When this happens we dilute culture and negatively impact an environment that was once created because an entrepreneur was trying to come up with a solution for society as a whole, no just the individual.

  “The difference between “just” and “justifying”

At EDGE we focus diligently on bringing integrity back to innovation. For us, this means sometimes putting aside the politics so we can focus on the dilemmas at hand that impact our clients potential for business growth and opportunities within our own market for innovation. There is a rise in entrepreneurship taking place across the globe and for all of us to succeed and have a better vision for the future that facilitates real creative solutions, we have to stop justifying self-actions and rather explore how to solve real unjust situations. If we can focus on how to do this as a unit we’ll on only solve the bigger dilemmas for our clients but also strengthen the culture we’re trying to build by cultivating a problem solving community.

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How one product can change the game

Every morning while I am getting ready for work, I turn on my computer to play music as I start my day.

On my subway ride to the office, my phone plays music into my headphones that allows me to keep my daily soundtrack going. As soon as I sit down at my desk, I open my laptop and continue the party with a different musical playlist. We all have these different access points to music throughout our day, but it was not always like this. It was the launch of one small product 13 years ago that would change the music industry forever. When Apple introduced the iPod in 2001, it transformed the way we consume music and ultimately live our lives.

When the iPod first debuted, it was small enough to fit in a pocket, and had enough space to hold hundreds of songs. The iPod came paired with a new music platform called iTunes. Industry analysts paid little attention to the device and its software counterpart as they concluded that it had no commercial potential. At the time, they were somewhat right as the iPod was only compatible with less than 5% of US computers at its time of release. However, this pocket-sized piece of tech was the first step in creating a musical revolution and its partner platform completely altered the way music is sold, played, and created, giving way to the rise of digital music.

The iPod and iTunes are two small products that had enough impact to turn the music industry on its head and completely changed it forever. After the iPod was released, traditional record sales dropped quickly and by 2009, they had dropped by more than half to less than 400 million. In this same period, individual digital track sales went from 0 to 1.2 billion.

There are now over 500 legitimate online music services in 78 different countries. People are able to create playlists with songs from multiple different artists and even share that music with friends online. The iTunes music model has been adopted by many streaming music sites like Spotify, Pandora, and Beats Music which have taken the music away from the desktop and allow people to listen to their music from mobile devices or straight from the web.

From the iPod and iTunes, to digital tracks, to streaming music - the last decade has ushered us into a musical revolution, and we are excited to see where the beat will take us next.  

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Music shines light on good causes in Super Bowl 2014 commercials

Music has been intrinsically rooted in emotion.

Merging emotionally-guided music with your brand can create powerful commercials that lead not only to an increase in sales and awareness for your brand but can also contribute to donations for a good cause. A few brands saw the Super Bowl as an opportunity to do just that. 

We picked three of our favorite commercials from that event to showcase how they made an emotional connection with their audience which propelled them to react and take action for a positive cause. 

1. Chevrolet

Chevrolet had the Norwegian singer, Ane Brun, sing some heart-warming tunes to shine attention on the World Cancer Day which was on February 4th. By simply asking people to change their Facebook and Twitter profiles to purple, Chevrolet announced that they would donate $1 to the American Cancer Society for every one who participated. With 100 million people watching the Super Bowl, it only took 1% of the viewers to participate to reach that goal. They easily meet their goal of raising $1 million dollars

2. Bank of America

Bank of America teamed up with U2 and the non-profit organization, RED, which was founded by the rock band’s lead singer Bono. For 24 hours after the commercial aired, viewers could download U2’s latest single, “Invisible”, for free on iTunes. Bank of America also donated $1 to RED for each download until it reached its goal of $2 million. With 1 million downloads after only one hour, Bank of America agreed to keep donating even after reaching the set benchmark and ended up generating $3 million to the NGO.

3. Coca-Cola

Even if Coca-Cola didn’t encourage their viewers to donate to a good cause they still shun light on an important topic; diversity and acceptance. “America the Beautiful” was sung by American children in different languages. Unfortunately, a large online community critiqued the commercial for being “un-American” but Coca-Cola stood by their commercial. Which goes to prove how one song can have such strong reactions, for good or bad.

In the end, it is not only for technology brands to take advantage of the power of music to target their audience. As long as you know how to merge music in your marketing without compromising your brand image you will tap into a market that will expand your target audience as well as shining light on a good cause. 

There’s more than just including an artist to sing a song that’s featured on the Top 40 charts in a commercial. The brands listed above used music to successfully build an emotional bond with their audience while simultaneously contributing to a better cause.

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What you need to know about this year's Super Bowl Ads

On Sunday, Super Bowl XLVIII will kick-off between the Denver Broncos and the Seattle Seahawks, and along with some great football, lucky viewers will also get the chance to see some of the most creative TV ads of the year in the form of the coveted Super Bowl commercial. Media buyers have said that Fox Sports averaged around $4 million for 30 seconds worth of ad time during the game that will air Sunday, February 2nd on the network. It seems though that a few million dollars is still not enough to turn a simple commercial into a full blown ad campaign.

Over the past few years, the Super Bowl commercial has evolved into much more than a half minute spot in between plays. According to a new marketing study released by Unruly Media, 60% of the most successful Super Bowl campaigns were actually launched before the big game on Sunday, allowing advertisers the chance to be much more strategic leading up to the Super Bowl and stretch their marketing dollars far beyond the final whistle.

The trend to promote ads digitally before they even reach the TV is more than evident in YouTube’s Ad Blitz gallery, where several major brands ads’ are able to be viewed publicly so that people can watch, vote, and share their favorite 2014 Super Bowl commercials before the game even airs. In addition to Ad Blitz, big name brands like Axe and Jaguar, are choosing to upload their ads directly to YouTube to accumulate pre-game views online. Hulu, the popular streaming video site, has also updated their annual Ad Zone channel that includes ad teasers from Priceline and Intuit. YouTube calculated that fans and consumers alike spent over 3.2 million hours watching Super Bowl ads in 2013, which is the equivalent of “800,000 Big Game broadcasts.” They also found that searches for "Super Bowl commercials" have doubled compared with the same time last year, suggesting people are more and more expecting to watch Super Bowl content before the game's kickoff. With the rise of viral videos and the need to socially share content, it looks like 2014 will be a record breaking year to watch Super Bowl ads online both pre- and post-game.

So what do all these online ad views mean for advertisers? Marketers have strayed from older strategies that meant Super Bowl ads needed to stay under wraps in anticipation for the big reveal on game day. Social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Youtube allow brands and advertisers to more easily reach consumers rather than just on game day, and it also levels the playing field for smaller brands to enter into an ad space once strictly reserved for power players.

“There’s one critical thing we’ve learned: This has become the social bowl,” said Loren Angelo, director for marketing at Audi of America. “Social media can help make the story much bigger than the spot itself,” Angelo added. “The more people are talking about you, the more they’re engaged with your brand; we want that ‘share value’.”

It is that “share value” that has lead brands, both big and small, to release teasers, previews, and even mini versions of their ads online before they air, in hopes of generating buzz around their ad. More importantly, in doing this companies are trying to create a level of engagement with their brand. In the social age, content may be king, but engagement is queen.

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Why innovations in new music matters for marketers

We’ve been hearing a lot over the last few weeks about streaming music, with everything from Google Play, to Revolt TV, and now the new Beats Music, what do we as marketers need to know and why does this matter for our marketing strategies in 2014? 

Allow us to be a guide, we’ve provided a simple guideline below that should give you enough detail around what’s going on, why it matters, and what you need to know going forward.

What’s up with all this talk about streaming music?

Streaming music is simple, it’s the ability to create set lists, share music with friends, and do it all through one (or many) platforms.  Interesting right? Wasn’t this the same thing that tore down the music industry?  Yes, but it’s also the exact same tool that’s rebuilding it. With streaming music capabilities (and under a little more regulation) consumers have the ability to listen to just about anything they want, whenever they want, at little to no costs.  While this definitely puts a ripple in the music business model, it also opens up new doors.  Artists big and small now can use these new platforms to have wider reach and multiple outlets for music distribution, opening new pathways to how music is distributed and how consumers interact or engage with it.  Taking the lead, is Pandora and Spotify, which we’re all relatively familiar with- but on the radar on new competitors such as Google Play, Beats Music, and others looking to take advantage of the new wave and leverage to create new business models in music.

Why should this matter to us advertisers?

Because the consumers have spoken and their response is streaming music, as advertisers we have to respect this and go to where the consumers are and right now it’s in streaming music.  For example, Spotify has over 30 million users and is growing incrementally everyday. This signifies opportunity for the marketer that’s looking to target such consumers and engage them around their brand.  But there’s more than just Spotify, think about Google Play, Songza, Shazaam, and the list goes on.  These platforms offer an array of opportunity for the marketer such as targeted advertising- having the opportunity to target consumer via strategic ad placements based on demo and geographics but now also by the music they listen to. While this isn’t such a factor for probably many P&G product, this is a big differentiator for brands that have products such as speakers and headphones.

The mediums to reach consumers have changed, and have become more specific, like these music communities. We as advertisers should always know where a consumer is in order to cater a message to them. Music platforms are a space that presents a myriad of opportunities, but it’s up to us to make sure our messages stands out and is precisely targeted.

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Our favorites from CES and what it means for marketers

In the recent Golden Globe winning film “Her”, the main character, Theodore Twombly, receives a customized operating system, voiced by Scarlett Johansson, based on his personality and needs. The operating system became so intertwined in his life that she was able to react to his tone while he talked. Without giving away the main plot, let’s just say things got a little bit carried away with their infatuation with one another. 

Even though we’re not yet at the level of a computer-speaking-like-Scarlett-Johansson, from what was seen at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, it’s not hard to believe that this personalized approach is the future of technology. Wearable tech was all the rage as manufacturers displayed products that could monitor everything from your fitness or social activity on a daily basis, to medical devices that track your heart rate that can then be sent to a physician. These are just a few examples of the products that manufacturers are hoping will intervene themselves your everyday routine.

Time will tell if these products become adopted, and it’s our job as marketers to make sure they do. What can marketers do to get past that “cool” factor that products at CES usually have, and create a demand for them from the everyday user?

  Besides the functions that a wearable might provide and the talking points within it, marketers will be tasked with creating stories for these products that show the overall ways it can benefit a user’s lives.  It’s also important to look at related industries and how they can mutually promote each other.  No pairing of a product with another industry, or rather, a celebrity, was as blaring as SMS Audio and 50 Cent at CES. It’s a simple connection - music artist and headphone company - but yet their stories are so intertwined, that it just makes sense for it to happen. Why wouldn’t doctors want to be the spokesman for health products, or gamers for virtual reality? We’re definitely not saying to make the connection of tailoring a product to an obvious audience, because this would undermine the creativity of marketers, but instead to root it towards the ones who would benefit it from the most. 

Wearables also present unique opportunities for ad buying. With all the data collection that will be acquired through personalized tech applications, targeting should become as simple as following a user’s path and inserting a visual or interactive ad. For some apps, there are also circumstances to pair with other technologies as evidenced in Pizza Hut’s $1 million worth of sales through their app on Xbox 360. 

The personalized, super-specific approach is the future of advertising. Marketers will have to work with the space, platforms, apps, wearables, and devices that are presented before them to master these unique opportunities, that is, until Scarlett Johansson’s voice encompasses our every move. 

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5 new trends to look out for in 2014

It’s that time of the year again, the time where we take a step back to reflect, observe, and then do our best to define what new trends evolved out of 2013 and have the ability to shape how we do advertising and marketing in 2014. 

After much internal discussion, and a few days here at CES in Las Vegas, here are 5 emerging trends catching heat at the beginning of 2014 and something to consider as you roll out your marketing initiatives.

Integrated Marketing 

Gone were the days of isolated divisions and marketing departments, social media and new innovations in digital have made it more necessary than ever to ensure that marketing divisions across all verticals (Display, OOH, Social, Email, Etc) are integrated as units activating toward single goals and multiple objectives.

Content Advertising

Customers don’t buy what you do, they buy why you do it, which is why in a congested market space it will be more relevant than ever for companies big and small to tell a larger story around their brand across channels that reach, educate, and engage. This was originally referred to years ago as “transmedia” – that term never really took off in my book, the point is “you can’t sell if you don’t have a story to tell.”

Emphasis on Experiential 

In your face marketing, there’s no other way to put it, is going to be huge this year and those who have the ability to pull off both big and small events will win. Event marketing and street team marketing is becoming more evolved and thanks to mobile, companies are finding larger opportunities to engage customers offline in a way that drive real time positive sentiment. More on this later, but I have also found that smaller agencies recently are finding ways to pull of grassroots events under a small budget for big name clients, delivering a higher return on a lower price point. This year alone, about 25% of the activities that went into our clients marketing programs were experiential events.

Lifestyle Customization

This is the buzzword at CES. Companies, big and small, are recreating their stories and in many ways the products they’re building to accompany the consumers lifestyle. The customer is king, so why not treat them like one. Instead of releasing a new show, release with it an entire suite of applications and products so that when they wear the shoe they can learn how to run faster, do it with new friends, and measure their progress as a result. 

Music Will Make a Comeback

Marketers, pay close attention, music is back- iTunes, Spotify Songza, Pandora, and now “Beats”. Readjust the ad spend, look at the new influencer, because new technological advancements in music technology is reshaping the industry for better or worse and opening opportunities to create new revenue streams for both the consumer, the advertiser, and the company they’re looking to market.

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Storytelling in the Digital Age

Meaningful branding stories have been a part of most Millennial’s lives as long as anyone can remember, even infiltrating something as seemingly playful as Saturday morning cartoons. As kids, we all wanted to be as strong and as brave as Popeye the sailor man. As we attached ourselves to the television in the morning, we all became aware of how Popeye gained his strength, as he was constantly eating spinach that allowed his muscles to grow to three times their normal size. And if the visual of eating spinach was not enough, Popeye’s very own theme song let us know how to get big and strong just like him as it rang out with the words, “I'm strong to the finish, cause I eats me spinach.” Along with spinach eating Popeye, another Saturday morning staple was everyone’s favorite crime fighting dog Scooby-Doo. Lovable Scooby joined his friends as they followed clues and solved mysteries, and the powerhouse pup was rewarded with a Scooby Snack that was again endorsed in the theme song  to the show with the lyrics, “'cause Scooby Doo when you come through you're gonna have yourself a Scooby Snack.” The heroes of Saturday morning cartoons like Popeye and Scooby were the first official spokespeople to market to Millenials using visuals to advertise for their brand along with catchy jingles that we remember even now.

Today, the way brands communicate their message to Millenials has evolved from Saturday morning cartoons to social media. In the digital age, social media platforms are the fastest way to reach Millenials and the best way for a brand to effectively tell an engaging story that ultimately will connect different people from all over. Fast growing social platform Snapchat, which according to the Wall Street Journal has increased daily ‘snaps’ from 200 million in June, to 350 million in September, unveiled their “My Story” function which will feature a rolling compilation of snaps from the last 24 hours that your friends can see. This is different from anything Snapchat has introduced before because unlike a conventional “snap”, a created story does not disappear and allows people to watch it over and over again. Brands have started to tap into this large user base of Millenials to reveal sneak peeks of upcoming collections or announce new products, and the new ‘My Story’ feature simply extends the time that brands are able to be seen by and engage with potential consumers.

Twitter also recently changed the way Twitpics, a picture uploaded directly to Twitter, are viewed on main feeds which mean more engaging visuals and more compelling ads. Brands have the ability to communicate with Millenials through stimulating ads, but the new Twitpic view also allows brands to tell a completely visual story on their own timeline and connect with consumers in way they never have been able to do before. Gone are the days of scrolling through text that you may never read because your eye is now drawn to those bold images.  

Only time will tell if brands will really be able to use these changes in social media to effectively tell their story. However, if brands are able to tap into social storytelling then the possibilities seem to be endless. 

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YouTube Holds First Online Music Award Show

The YouTube Music Awards at Pier 36 this past Sunday was a monumental event never attempted before by a streaming video website, you can even call it a pioneering moment within its category.

The performances were reenacted music videos, streaming live on YouTube’s website. Through social media, the performances were reviewed and the winners were critiqued. 

YouTube managed to incorporate everything that attracts Millennials, such as the power to make live decisions, showcasing artists that they support, and being a part of new creative ideas. The YTMAwards represent how today’s consumers digest music videos. By incorporating the shift from viewing it on TV to consuming it online, YouTube’s Music Awards recognized what’s important to a Millennial. 

The most obvious example of this shift would be K-Pop artist Psy, who would most likely not be as famous in the US if we only had the chance to see his video once in a blue moon on television. As far back as only 10 years ago, TV channels would decide when and how often the video would be aired, controlling its outreach to an audience. However, because of YouTube and other music platforms, his video went viral and he exploded internationally. 

The show also demonstrated the shift in power. Today, the public decides what will go viral. We can credit Psy’s billion views of “Gangnam Style” with introducing K-Pop music to Americans and perhaps this opened the door for K-Pop band Girls’ Generation to take the “Video of the Year” award.  

The YouTube Music Award show was spontaneous and anything was possible. During a live “short film” performance in which Avicii’s music playing in the background (Avicii was played by the actor Michael Shannon), the ending was determined by the audience, and they were given the choice to decide between a happy ending or in a dramatic double suicide. 

Surely there were a few bumps on the road, such as technical issues with the live streaming. Also, there were more negative tweets than positive. However, YouTube’s award show generated more tweets than the Billboard Music Awards with their 336,161 tweets within a three hour window. For being their first show ever, that is not too bad. 

Interactive, spontaneous, social media oriented and where the voice of the public was the loudest, YouTube succeeded with their first award show ever, and perhaps changed the game for all future Music Awards to come. 

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5 Marketing Strategies For Halloween

Today is Halloween, the unofficial kick off to the holiday marketing season. Seize this opportunity to show your audience that your brand doesn’t take itself too seriously and use this time as a testing period.

With the rest of the holiday season fast approaching you can evaluate your content and advertising avenues to determine what resonates with your audience and how you can make the most of the rest of the holiday season. Try these five marketing strategies for this, and the rest of the holiday season, to keep [insert brand name] relevant to consumers.

Decorate Your Social Channels

Store fronts everywhere are decked out in Halloween garb to get you in the mood to think ‘holiday’ and you should do the same to your social channels. Change your Facebook & Google+ cover photo, profile pictures and Twitter header image. Embrace the voice of your brand and how they translate the holiday in their unique way.

Launch a Special

Who doesn’t love a good deal? Discounting your product during a holiday can increase your social media engagement as well as your sales. Just like your social channels, dress up your discount in holiday attire.

Get Employees Involved

The best part of Halloween – besides the candy – is stalking the various costumes. Showcasing your employees and their past and present costumes is a fun way to engage your community. Be careful though, keep your brand’s strategy in mind.

Digital Ads

Creating holiday specific banners and Facebook ads can boost your reach during a time when the bandwagon is full and brands are fighting for their share of consumers cash. Make them catchy, exciting and unexpected and most importantly on brand.

Take It Down

The most crucial part of marketing for the holidays is to make sure you remove all your profile images and banner ads quickly. Be prepared with regular content or Thanksgiving content, come November 1st change your marketing materials out of their Halloween costumes.

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Since Drake is playing in NYC tonight we are dedicating this Monday playlist to our favorite Drizzy tracks. What are some of yours?

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Top 4 Music Platforms Brands Can Use To Reach Millennials

Within the last year there has been a surge in brands looking to reach millennials through music.

Everyone from Pepsi, to Absolut, to Red Bull are using these popular mediums to leverage new type of influencer and reach a new type of demographic.  However, with the influx of new innovations in social media and technology, where can marketers start?  Here at EDGE we specialize in helping brands reach a younger demographic, especially in the music space, and based on learnings and case studies we’ve found these 5 platforms to be great options or at least areas for brands to start.

1. Myspace

Yes, we know what you’re thinking here, but with a member count of 50 million, it’s impossible to ignore. With the ability to create their own personalized page, brands can take advantage of creating content that is specific to a certain genre of music or audience.  Consider Myspace a one-stop shop for music, videos, and photos all housed on a customizable layout.  It’s difficult to get tired of this network with everything that it offers. 

2. Spotify

The power of Spotify and its 30 million users exists within the power of their playlists. Brands can use this platform to share customized playlists that are geared towards a niche audience. These playlists can be constantly updated to reflect an audience’s changing tastes.  Another avenue for brands is Spotify’s interruptive ads that can’t be skipped, just do the research and make sure they’re worth watching.

3. SoundCloud

SoundCloud and its 20 million users are often referred to as the “Twitter” of music platforms because it allows users to share other’s music onto their own timeline. SoundCloud can send tracks into virality just by being seen on a number of influencer’s timelines.  Like Spotify, SoundCloud lets its users select tracks to be made into an album or playlist.  

4. Rdio

Rdio’s (20 million users) biggest advantage is highlighting what’s currently trending in your friend’s social sphere. Their “Heavy Rotation” tab allows users to see what’s popular between the people and brands that they follow.

If you’re a brand that wants to be more in touch with a millennial audience, then creating a strategy around one of these platforms is a good place to start. 

Other platforms not mentioned here but worth checking out: Shazaam, Revolt TV, and Vevo.