October 2009
'peeps creative & Zapis Capital Group Announce Strategic Partnership
by Leslie Sutula // 10.30.2009'peeps creative announces a strategic partnership with Zapis Capital Group of Cleveland, Ohio. Under this agreement, 'peeps becomes the creative arm of Zapis' Symphony Publishing group and will begin an immediate major overhaul of the Symphony digital properties. Read the Press Release here.
Does the World Need Digital Strategy?
by David Sutula // 10.24.2009Over at House of Naked, there’s a post about whether the world needs digital strategists. The post says, in general:
Identity and logo design trends for 2010
by Phong Nguyen // 10.23.2009To stand out and be different at any and all costs - that's the message for 2010. Designers have become far more sensitive to historical design movements and styles than they've been before. They're going to be revisiting those roots more in 2010 - while they mix in a little bit of everything that has gone between. All in all the energing identities, logos and design in general will be more informed by generations of designers past.
Shaping Public Perception on the Web
by Xing // 10.17.2009Wouldn't it be wonderful if you had the power to convince people that your product or service was exactly what they needed, and as a consequence your in-box was filled with inquiries and your e-commerce site was stuffed with orders. Wouldn't that be great? And isn't that exactly what you want to achieve with your website?
Postured for Position
by Leslie Sutula // 10.14.2009On one hand, positioning couldn’t be a simpler concept: a brand’s position is directly tied to its ultimate success or failure. If you’re poorly positioned, you’ve taken the first steps toward failure. If you’re positioned well, you’ve at least got firm footing. The rest is up to you (and maybe us if the stars align just so).
There's something about print
by Brad Istnick // 10.13.2009BERNERS-LEE v. GUTTENBERG
the biggest media-weight title bout of the last 500 years
Make no mistake, we’re committed to the digital revolution, but if we had to pick sides in a real match between Berners-Lee (inventor of the internet) and Guttenberg (moveable type), we’d pick Guttenberg because at least he’d be able to hit his opponent with a physical object.
Custom publishing penetrates message clutter
by David Sutula // 10.12.2009According to Consumer Reports, the average American encounters over 3000 messages per day – another one every 20 seconds or so. Most of these messages are ads that whiz by unnoticed because humans deal with clutter the only way they can: by blocking it out. The stuff that penetrates that defense line is either inundating every channel or its standing out with clever, useful, interesting or otherwise stimulating content.
Like Roger Sterling, we're always looking for a good bar.
by David Sutula // 10.10.2009Sterling Cooper knows bars, that's for sure. But the ones that Roger Sterling is most familiar with are not as productive as the ones that Don Draper has mastered. (Read this article in it's entirety and then check out Don Draper pitching to Eastman Kodak)
What is a 'peep?
by David Sutula // 10.09.2009According to the 'peeps creative New World Dictionary:
peep (n) 1. A style of women’s footwear, especially a pump, in which part of the toe, but not the entire toe line, is exposed through a wedge-shaped or rounded opening. “Typically, Sally wears flip flops to the sea shore, but today she’s wearing a new pair of polka dot peeps to show off her pedicure.”
Trendspotting in Design Aesthetics for 2010
by Xing // 10.09.2009Design aesthetics is what I call the general; prevailing trend that will inform, to some extent, every discipline within the larger macro-discipline known as design. From our point of view, 2009 has been a year of transition. Minimalism is still the fashion but it is waning. The stark and clean designs that have represented minimalism are now supporting 'maximal' elements.
Design matters
by Brad Istnick // 10.07.2009We would argue that perhaps the #1 most important thing in business is design. When we talk about design we’re talking about the very concept of design—not just about how something looks, but how it works, how it sounds and how it feels. Everything from a website user interface to the way a customer or prospect interacts with the brand over the phone is ultimately a product of design. What does opening the box feel like? What does the packing material say about the product?
Mobile Media: Hitting a Moving Target
by David Sutula // 10.06.2009What can you do when your audience is a moving target - literally?
Mobile is an emerging channel that utilizes cell phones and other mobile devices to increase brand awareness. It can be a powerful element of integrated marketing campaigns right now and will become indispensable as time and technology march on.
SEO ain't just the first three letters in SEOUL
by Jordan Starcher // 10.05.2009SEO is a mystery to most. The good news is that there are really only four secrets to mounting an effective SEO strategy:
Creative Manifesto
by Lenny Vella // 10.02.2009Pardon the length, but this is our creative manifesto, and like all the best manifestos, it's long...
We founded this company not because we love the work.
Agency-Speak.
by Xing // 10.01.2009Does this email sound familiar?
Begin forwarded message:
From: Ima Relationshipmanager (ima@thereallygreatagency.com)
Date: October 01, 2009 3:21:35 PM EDT
To: Mia Biggestclient (mia@imas-breadandbutter.com)
Cc: M. Presed (imasboss@thereallygreatagency.com)
Subject: Reconnect?
Mia:
I’ve been out-of-pocket so let’s circle back and jump on a con-call for a braindump before we get too off-strategy on these phase 2 deliverables.