14 reasons why you should launch a pop-up store
A growing trend in the past few years has been that of the pop-up store. They often appear out of nowhere on our high streets and in shopping malls before vanishing into the ether.
Pop-up stores are popular with artists and designers, who create temporary boutiques and galleries, but they’ve also been used by big name brands such as Levis, Adidas and Nike, as well as retailers like Target, JC Penney, and Gap.
Pop-ups have also been set up by various online pureplays, such as lastminute.com and The Foundry. For these companies it is about experiential marketing, as much as anything, but they can also be used as sales channels.
Five ways to drive interest in your tweeting
Advice for using Twitter to build an army of engaged followers is prevalent. Less is suggested for the ways to drive awareness of your Twitter presence using other communication channels.
If you apply the basic logic of acquisition and retention, you can use Twitter innovatively to engage your current followers but if you do nothing to tell others, how do you grow this channel?
This blog looks at six practical steps to pushing your Twitter presence. It's not rocket science but good ideas shouldn’t be complicated...
Q&A: Dominic Jacquesson on how eReaders can change the media landscape
Dominic Jacquesson has been running offline and online publishing and marketing businesses for the last 12 years, and now runs digital publishing consultancy Ink on Dead Trees.
I've been talking to Dominic about the eReader market, the Kindle, and how he expects the technology to impact media and marketing over the next few years...
[please enter subject line]
This article covers what I've learned from working with hundreds of customers on improving the results that they get from email marketing by optimising the subject line.
Whatever software you use for your email campaigns, these tips are worth reading...
The workaround: technology strikes back
People have been finding workarounds for poorly designed systems for many years. Although both the technology and the workarounds have become more sophisticated, the problem, and its solution, remains the same.
Many years ago, before web-based interfaces, we were asked to investigate why an online ordering system wasn’t delivering the promised productivity benefits. Our research, which involved videoing staff dealing with telephone orders and then interviewing them about the process, soon revealed the problem.
Online advertising is the 'new normal' for small businesses
The recession may have cut advertising budgets, but at least for small business owners, more of their dollars are going online.
According to new findings from research firm The Kelsey Group, small businesses are spending more money on online advertising than traditional media for the first time ever. But while they're spending more online, they're spending less overall. And that's not going to change. Dollars lost to the digital space won't be returning when the recession ends.
Congress subpoenas web loyalty firm
How much disclosure is enough online? Congress has issued a subpoena to online marketer Vertrue for making unauthorized credit card charges online, and regardless of how it turns out, the increased exposure should prove bad for the business of blind credit card transactions.
The request by the Senate marks the Commerce Committee's first major subpeona to get documents from a private company since the 2002 Enron scandal.
Committee Chairman John Rockefeller wrote in a July 28 letter to Vertrue Chief Executive Gary Johnson that consumers are struggling to get by during the recession, and "allegations that your company is making this situation worse by charging consumers for services they do not want or use are extremely troubling."
Vertrue maintains that it has not done anything unlawful. And said that it requested the subpoena because the Senate was asking for information that could "include personally identifiable information about the consumer." Meanwhile, Vertrue has failed to disclose email, financial documents and other internal communications and has been accused of "slow walking" the investigation.
When did advertising become more important than published content?
An incident happened last week — I tweeted a caustic expletive directed at DoubleClick knowing that only my tribe would read the invective. What realization occurred that would have me throw political correctness out the window? It was the moment when I realized DoubleClick behaved as if their advertising was more important, perhaps more desirable, than the actual published content that I had clicked to experience. Or, maybe the ad platform/producer just isn’t aware of how their technology rubs up against other technologies...
Thinking outside the box and other bad advice
Earlier this month I opened CREATE 2009, a forum for academics and practitioners to share creative and innovative ideas for human computer interaction (HCI).
The conference's theme was ‘Creative inventions and innovations for everyday HCI’ so to start things off I outlined my four step approach to help designers find more creative solutions to their problems.
Facebook Fan Box and what it means for brands
Facebook has just launched Fan Box, a new widget. This is great news for brands wanting to grow a Facebook fan page. But it's probably going to drive traffic in the wrong direction for most brands.
Social media: the best and worst of 2009
Email marketing: six steps to improving customer engagement in 2010
Web 2.0
Graham Charlton
Strategy & Planning
