How to market to university students

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips Tags:

As the Millennial and Generation Z demographics age, creating new ways to market to the younger crowds are critical to being successful. University students, most of who fall into the Generation Z demographic, are an untapped resource that marketer’s should be very interested in, as they will be buying products and services for years to come. These are the kids that are going to be buying computers, dishwashing detergent, groceries, cars and everything else that they need and ignoring them is at the marketer’s peril. But just like shopping in thrift stores and wearing their grandparent’s styles, university students are looking for a more old fashioned experience.

The NEW KIDS don’t know a world without Social Media

While Generation Z doesn’t have a specific date range, most reports suggest that anyone born from the mid 90s to the mid 00s fall into this demographic. And they’re interesting from a marketer’s perspective for a number of reasons – most of them don’t know a world before the Internet, grew up on social media and are more tech savvy than anyone in Justin Beiber’s entourage. But this makes them perplexing, as more and more of them are opting to find a genuine experience from brands and going offline to seek them out. To market to university students, all marketing channels – traditional and online – should be utilized for optimal results.
Read More >

Meaningful Marketing With Ana Chung

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips Tags:

Wednesdays are generally referred to as “hump day” – but at our office, we replace “hump” with “share”. It’s SHARE DAY in the boardroom, when one lucky member of our team shares what has been inspiring them from around the world of meaningful marketing.

Our Communications Director Ana was up to the plate, decked in a refined grunge motif. Wearing her best plaid and swoon-worthy ankle boots, she was set to ROCK N’ ROLL. I’m not sure if it was just coincidence or a clever plan on her part, but her ensemble perfectly matched with her selected inspiration: the FOO FIGHTERS ROCKIN 1000 viral video.
Read More >

Be Memorable & Inspirational: Experiential Marketing Strategies

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips

People love being involved with a brand’s campaign, especially if they’re highlighted (and featured on Instagram!) This makes Experiential Marketing an effective strategy but experiential marketing is not just giving out samples of your products. It’s designing a unique, memorable and inspirational experience. After all, a unique experience can fuel word of mouth on and offline, and change the perception of your brand.
Read More >

Meaningful Marketing with Akihiro Nomura

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips Tags:

Another Wednesday means another opportunity to find out what our team has been inspired by. This week, it was Aki’s turn to take centre stage and share what he considers ‘meaningful’.

Lights off, projector on, GO TIME.

Trisha Prabhu was only 14 years old when she took the stage for her very own TEDTalk. In 2013, she had come home to discover that a girl, even younger than Prabhu, had taken her own life due to cyberbullying. However, Prabhu didn’t just get upset about it – she decided to take action and really do something about it.

Read More >

Honest Marketing vs. Global Citizenship

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips

Marketing’s newest trend is honest marketing but is it enough just to be honest?

There’s a fantastic slideshare by Velocity out there that talks about the importance of honest marketing, which is essentially being transparent and vulnerable with your shortfalls. The idea is that by being honest about your product, you can win over customers because it seems more authentic and therefore, more trustworthy.

Hans Brinker Budget Hotel takes its Honest Marketing very seriously

We can do better

Honest marketing is a great practice, but you have to go beyond just being transparent. You have to have integrity and your marketing should provide value. Integrity, in essence, is not being forced into honesty but offering it up first. Take for example the McDonald’s Our Food. Your Questions. Campaign. This campaign gained a lot of praise for its courage to answer the critical questions their trollers were using to defame their brand. Their goal was to take horrible claims, such as the McNuggets are made from pink slime, and show that their products weren’t as bad as these trollers made them out to be. While their effort to be transparent is appreciated, it came off as being more defensive and in that sense, dishonest about its intentions. The sole beneficiary of this campaign is McDonald’s not its customers.

Read More >

Meaningful Marketing with Tyler Savoie!

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips Tags:

This week, Tyler took to the boardroom to share with us what he felt was “Meaningful Marketing”. The lights were dimmed, the projector was on – and lo and behold, a Clairol ad from yesteryear streamed across the walls. Some of the script is a little dated, for example “She looks faded, unattractive.” But in 1957, this ad made big impacts on women all across North America.

(Let’s all take a moment to celebrate that most ads don’t opt to outright call anyone faded and unattractive nowadays)

You see, in 1957 it was largely frowned upon when a woman would openly colour her hair.  Hair dye was reserved for “tarts”, if we’re going to keep in the decade’s common vernacular.  And if  a woman did dye her hair, she likely worked in the theatre or possibly the streets. But Clairol’s ad changed that. It took colouring your hair out from beneath its shame blanket.

Read More >

iOS Adblock 2015: Reimagining the INTERNET behind your iPhone

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips

Marco Arment, an iOS and web developer threw a curveball earlier this week when he made the decision to pull his AdBlock app – despite the fact it made it to number one in app rankings. “Peace required that all ads be treated the same — all-or-nothing enforcement for decisions that aren’t black and white,” explained Arment, “If we’re going to effect positive change overall, a more nuanced, complex approach is required than what I can bring in a simple iOS app.”

Adblock has been all the buzz as of late, but it’s no n00b. While the conversations surrounding Adblock had been mostly segregated to the tech-savvy – that is quickly changing. With Tumblr co-founder, Arment, making the decision to pull his smash hit Adblock app, I wanted to explore both sides of the coin… the good, the bad, the debatable.

Read More >

GETTING THE GIRL

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips

How you can captivate the next generation without raising your voice.

Marketing is forever evolving along with our species, much like a thinking ape. As the Millennials are beginning to take over the market, you have to keep in mind the way that your audience is absorbing your message is changing.

Nowadays, people are forever in motion with their eyes directly on their smartphones, tablets and their thumbs are furiously flipping through the endless amount of instant content that is crashing in at all sides. You don’t have to sit through commercials anymore, we now have PVR – and even if a commercial is on, what is to stop us from turning our attention to our phones and checking out something else or playing another rousing round of Angry Birds?

Read More >

Small Business Growing Pains

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips

ISSUES WITH EXPLODING INTO THE STRATOSPHERE

Young, hip and fresh out the gates, a local media company was carefully thought into existence. Despite it’s small size and lack of reputation, it ventured outwards poised to compete with the biggest media moguls who claim a monopoly in print and online media. That’s no easy feat – really, it’s a classic case of David and Golliath.

And who doesn’t love that story?

Just as in legend, with heart and determination, the initially small website began to build it’s momentum. It gained a following, a reputation, and slowly it became a go-to source for local happenings in Vancouver. David.ca had arrived and with fortitude and stamina, over five short years, nearly all the locals know it, follow it, and associate it with their social media feeds and daily updates.

Read More >

Is It Worth It to Invest in a Website?

No comments
Category: Marketing Strategies & Tips

Designing a professional website for your business can be expensive, and you may be wondering whether it’s worth the cost. The truth is that a well-done website can provide your business with a huge pay-off. A website helps you to improve your service to your customers and bring in more sales, and the cost is significantly lower than older methods of marketing and sales. This means that a well-designed website is always worth the investment.

Read More >