Archives for Business
Top 5 Office Pranks in Pop Art History
We work pretty hard at Pop Art. There are late nights, and there are late nights. Booze sometimes takes the edge off, but where to turn when sobriety is your only friend, and there’s stress you need to relieve? Laughter is the best medicine, and it’s best enjoyed at a co-worker’s expense. 5. Jello Stapler VP of Client [...]
Geolocation; localized content hits home
The online user experience is becoming more localized and we expect to see major growth in the coming years as AT&T, Google, Yelp, Foursquare and others get into the action. We already have geo-targeted ads, segmented content and social search serving content in a more personalized way. But now, we are seeing the emergence of [...]
Web Analytics
Marketers have always used analytics to measure consumer behavior and ROI. However, we now have more insight than ever before thanks to the internet’s ability to offer limitless measurement and analysis opportunity. The web analytics industry which had been fledgling in past years, now takes center stage in today’s global market place. There are several [...]
2010 and Beyond; Beam-Up Your Brand
Lisa Skube & Timothy Deal Most of us were reeling over the transition from the 20th to 21st century. Accelerating at the speed of fiber optics, here comes a new decade. If the last ten years are any indication of the web’s impact on the world, what lies ahead promises to take all of that to [...]
Help yourself by managing up
If you have ever felt at odds with your manager or like you just are not reading from the same page, you might consider developing the skill of “managing up.”
Great Clients make for Great Campaigns
A friend once told me that behind every great campaign is a great client. Of course, what they meant was that a client who trusts you take their brand in new directions will likely be a collaborator in the creative process. This could not have been truer than in the case of the latest online [...]
Did You Really Think This Was a Good Idea?
Technology that Failed, and Hard Since man first used a stick to dig under some roots and accidentally caused a tree to fall on him, humans have been doing stupid things with technology. Since the invention of the microprocessor and instant mass media, this has only become that much easier. Thankfully 2009 is gone, and with it one [...]
Just Good Food
Like junk food versus a nutritious snack, web content quality is the stuff that either fuels your brand to satisfy your audience or puts weight on your brand with little value for the caloric indulgence. Value in this sense meaning optimizing return on your investment whether that effort takes form as an offline advertisement, a new application, [...]
I say potato, you think Vichyssoise. Let’s talk.
In my 10+ years of managing projects, teams and client expectations, I’ve come to the conclusion that the most common threat to the success of relationships and projects is simple lack of communication. Why simple? Because usually the simplest misunderstanding at the outset of an engagement is where it all starts to skid downhill. For example, [...]
So, You Asked for a CMS
In my position, I get to respond to a bunch of RFP’s. If there’s a marketing/brochure web site involved, you can make a reasonable bet that the RFP includes a content management system (CMS). These solutions are super easy to build and deploy, but organizations are often unaware of the entire bargain. The promise of a [...]
The Jargon Problem @ Interactive Agencies
This blog post was originally published as the feature story in the Portland Advertising Federation VOX Newsletter on 11/3/2009. Given the current economy, we took it very seriously when a prospective client accused us last week of using too much marketing jargon in our sales pitch. Given a tough problem, we immediately did what any great agency [...]
Thanks USAA!
My bank, USAA, is better than your bank. No, they don’t have any branches, except for that one in Texas, but they do have: Awesome online banking Free ATM withdraws (no matter which one you decide to use that day) An iPhone app Check deposit at home (on your scanner or iPhone) Customer service that can’t be beat. This is [...]
Trust, but Verify
Greg Hughes, one of the rock stars I had the pleasure of working with on a gig has a nice phrase that he likes to whip out from time to time: trust, but verify. Greg didn’t coin the term. Wikipedia says Ronald Regan used it and others before him. The term indicates you should trust what [...]
Content Marketing is not what it used to be
For the last 15 years, I have made my living as a content developer. I started off as a photographer documenting and telling stories through static images. At first, this was a pursuit in art and process related to photography but these explorations opened the door to many other mediums. Along this journey I bridged [...]
How to Do Something You’ve Never Done Before
As a technologist, I’m often asked to do something that I’ve never done before and have no specific competency in performing; tasks which I’m completely unqualified to execute. The more palatable way of saying the same thing is: As a consultant, technical lead, solutions engineer or a business analyst, I’m given challenges that require me to identify [...]
Making Amazon More Actionable
I’m an Amazon junkie. I’ve bought everything from books to power tools on Amazon. I’m a prime member, meaning I pay $70/year for the ability to get items shipped to me in 2 days or less, every time, rather than paying for express shipping every purchase. Suffice to say, I use the site a lot. [...]
Interrupting Makers with Meetings
There are two types of people in your office, Makers and Managers. And scheduling a meeting with Maker can kill that person’s effectiveness for the day, according to Paul Graham. I find one meeting can sometimes affect a whole day. A meeting commonly blows at least half a day, by breaking up a morning [...]
Open Letter to PortlandOnline Refresh Committee
In May, one of the largest interactive firms in Portland announced it was closing its downtown Portland office, and that its staff would begin “working from home.” In the last 12 months, nearly every web development firm and design firm in the Portland area has laid off staff (thankfully, a situation Pop Art has avoided), [...]
I Work with a Bunch of Smartasses, Part IX
I threw out a question I couldn’t remember the answer to: “the difference between 14 percent and 11 percent is how many basis points? Three or three-hundred?” Andrew tells me 3, then later IMs me: Andrew Hay: and by “three”, I mean 300 http://www.investorwords.com/434/basis_point.html Thom Schoenborn: Look, are you married to a math teacher or not? a STATISTICS teacher, no [...]
Portland Bike and Marketing Freak Out
Local web analytics powerhouse WebTrends recently rolled out a new transit ad campaign to demonstrate their ability to measure offline and online sentiment and conversation using the question, “should cyclists pay a road tax?” Kablooie. Cyclist meltdown and freakout. I’d chalk this campaign up as a “near miss.” WebTrends did a great job of getting the [...]
Quick Shopping Cart UX Tip
Most web checkout forms collect credit card information in this order: Card type (e.g. Visa, Mastercard) Card number Security Code (three digits on the back) Expiration Date Name on Card (e.g. DAVID R SELDEN JR) If you go through this process, you’ll note that steps 1, 2, 4 and 5 require information from the front of your credit card. The information [...]
“Consumers will have these conversations anyway”
Stumbled across this interesting article about the mobile marketing, teens, and conversational marketing, and loved the following quote from Jeffrey Cole, Director of the Center for the Digital Future at USC: “Advertisers are terrified of [conversational marketing]. In their hearts, many really don’t want to interact with customers because they are afraid that either there will be [...]
Interactive Shopping: Nordstrom’s 2: Macy’s 2
Interactive Shopping, Social Media and Customer Service — these topics are closely related, because the most critical elements of success for a brand are: Relevance: Do you matter to your customers? Can your product or service create superior value for them? Engagement: Do you reach out to your customer? Do you have methods and platforms for marketing, [...]
Leading with Interactive Starts at Home (or Work)
Like good manners and learning to read, it has been said that positive behaviors start in the home. At Pop Art, where our mantra is Lead with Interactive™, this principle holds true. The way we approach online interactive begins in our offline work space. The 3rd floor of Pop Art is an open floor [...]
Use Loyalty Programs to improve your Net Promoter Score
The Net Promoter score is very popular in business and marketing circles these days. Proponents of the Net Promoter scores claim that it is a better metric than customer satisfaction. The thesis is that satisfied customers aren’t good enough. In an increasingly networked world, you need customers who are brand evangelists – customers who refer their [...]
