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"Until we discover matter to energy conversion, this might be the closest we can get.” - Microsoft Can Now Turn Any Space Into The Holodeck

8bitfuture

Here’s a blast from the past: Facebook’s homepage, at launch in 2004.

Maryann Murphy, an Account Executive for Marden-Kane, wrote this timely post on Halloween contest ideas. It’s not too late to run a promotion for this year! Contact us and we can get you launched before Halloween! Saying goodbye to summer (and beach weather) can be difficult, but fall has officially arrived and you know what that means: time to break out your sweaters, drink some apple cider, and start planning your Halloween costume! Here are a few Halloween themed promotion ideas to help celebrate the new season: Pumpkin Carving Photo Sweepstakes: One of my favorite fall activities is to … Continue reading →

#halloween contest ideas #halloween sweepstakes #scary marketing

There is no short answer on how to get your customers to create a lot of quality user generated content (UGC). But what we see over and over again in our client promotions is that if the bar is set too high, you may only get a few entries. Set it too low, you may get a ton of entries but not a lot of quality or even eligible, entries. What do we mean by setting the bar too low or too high? Think of it this way: the more you ask of your customer, the more likely they are … Continue reading →

#ugc contest #user generated content #quality vs quantity

We have seen many a contest go awry because the sponsor did not put a few safeguard in the official rules to protect themselves. Here is our short list of restrictions you should have in place: Don’t allow copyrighted materials. That means no music, copy or images of anything that isn’t original. And sometimes you have to further spell it out in the FAQs – no trademarks on your clothing or in the background of your video or photo, no TV, radio or music playing in the background, and no quotes or song lyrics from other people in your … Continue reading →

#contest planning #contest criteria

The beauty of the ice bucket challenge is that it was not conceived in a conference room by high paid creatives trying to think of what the next big viral thing would be. The ice bucket challenge started with a few people dumping water over their heads for charity and challenging others to do the same – and the concept went viral all on its own. No big ad buys. No incentives. No big splashy video production or costly photoshoot with celebrities. So when, over the course of the last month, people in the ad business that our clients … Continue reading →

#next big thing #promotion planning

Katie Blaney, Marden-Kane Account Supervisor, contributed this blog post about one-of-a-kind, budget-minded trips to award as prizes. Americans love vacations but more than half of them who do not plan on taking a trip this year say it is due to a lack of funds. So why not give them a chance to win it? Trips as prizes allow winners to explore sights, food, and cultures they would typically never experience on their own. For a small investment on your part, a unique travel package can garner huge interest in your brand’s promotion. When coming up with destinations you … Continue reading →

#prizes #trip ideas

fastcompany

Inbox zero is a myth, an urban legend relayed by merry pranksters who want you to go crazy trying to respond to every email you ever receive. At least that’s how I feel.

Just when we thought we were starting to enjoy the summer, the school bell starts ringing. Ding-dong. Time to plan your back to school promotion. So what trends should you know about as you plan for this back to school season? Here is where it’s at for kids, tweens and teens this year: Snapchat. Snapchat is the app of choice for today’s teens. This mobile app allows them to share photos with their friends without mom or grandma having to see (or worse – comment). There are ways promotions can be run on Snapchat. Check out our blog article … Continue reading →

A research study by Nielsen Marketing* considers the 76 Million Baby Boomers to be “the most valuable generation.” From a dollars and cents perspective Boomers today account for $230 billion in sales of consumer package goods alone. In the next 20 years it’s projected they will control 70% of the nation’s disposable income and stand to inherit $15 trillion. A Nielsen executive commented that “Boomers are going to force the (marketing) industry to think more about marketing customization and marketing to specific needs.” Promoting products and services to a massive older group of consumers (who don’t consider themselves old) … Continue reading →

Since responsive web design is all about affecting the appearance of a website, viewing a site that uses it well will help tremendously in understanding it. To see an example, launch Microsoft’s website in a new maximized window in any recent browser on a desktop or laptop computer. Now resize the window and slowly decrease its width, and watch how the site adjusts as the viewable area decreases. Images get smaller but continue to scale correctly. The site layout generally becomes more vertical. Various elements are reorganized, are replaced by different versions built to fit in a narrower space, or … Continue reading →

fastcompany

This Architect Is Wearing His Wi-Fi Signal

There are invisible energy fields all around us. Now, one architect has invented a tool to introduce some of them to the spectrum of visible light. Luis Hernan’s self-portraits show the artist and Newcastle University researcher dancing in a cloud of colorful Wi-Fi signals.

We have clients frequently ask how we can make their campaign go viral. They want their program to be shared on all of the social channels and spread like wildfire. They want media attention. And to be on trending lists. And to get celebrity attention. And to make money. But how realistic is this? Unfortunately, not very realistic at all. Even with the best creative, and a healthy budget behind it, your campaign may never take off. So what will make it go viral? You must have all of these three things: An emotional appeal. A good story with … Continue reading →

Nicole Wilson was a 15-year-old beautiful young girl from Plano, TX that passed away on May 3rd, 2014 from complications from Type 1 diabetes. Nicole attended Camp Sweeney, a diabetes camp in North...

#SingForNicole

azspot

Be aware that anytime today when you read something, hear something or see something you should take a second to remind yourself that the odds are it is a fabrication, one that is either so brazen and titanic in its scope that you cannot believe anyone would expect you to fall for it (thus giving it a weird kind of credibility) or so plausible in its larger details that you fail to notice that certain less significant aspects of it are full of falsehood. These lies, both large and small, aim to take advantage of the innate trust we are all born with as human beings and somehow maintain even as we wend our way through a world riddled with deceit and prevarication. They use our basic decency as a Trojan horse, and once they are welcome inside our heads they do what they can to manipulate us, to make us follow the rules they give us and buy the things they want us to buy and go about our miserable lives without the hope or realization that everything could—and should—be better. Do not forget: Every single thing you see today is a lie. Also it is April Fools’ Day, so there’s gonna be a lot of other stupid shit cluttering things up too.

Everything You See Today Is A Lie (via azspot)

Tired of the Same Old Spring Promotions? Stop Crying and Try One of these Fresh Ideas.

http://www.mardenkane.com/articles/easter-promotion-ideas-beyond-jelly-bean-count.html

What is Consideration? Why does a Sweepstakes need an element of Chance? http://www.mardenkane.com/articles/consideraton-sweepstakes.html

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