Patients no longer start their healthcare journey on your website. They start with ChatGPT, TikTok, Reddit, YouTube, and AI searches. And AI doesn’t just give them generic answers. It offers them ostensibly personalized answers and advice! Trying to ignore or even fight this trend is futile. But you can strategize how you're going to optimize it.

Here are four key strategies to begin implementing today.

1. Personalize Everything
Why? Because Dr. AI knows me. It remembers my symptoms and history. If you're still serving up the same homepage, emails and ads to everyone, not only will you be weakening your differentiation, you'll be threatening their trust. It's critical that you create content that's specifically targeted to reflect their conditions as well as their stage of care. 

2. Be Everywhere They Are
You'll say, "but we're on Meta and YouTube"…well that’s not enough anymore. Consumers and patients are on TikTok and Reddit and even text and DMs. They expect your brand to show up where they are. Remember if Dr. AI answers everywhere, you need to also! But when you connect through each of these different channels, acknowledge the environment you're in, then reinforce your expertise by guiding them how to evaluate the information they're being served up. 

3. Create More Micro-Education Content
I don’t mean a 2- to 3-minute video, I mean 15-30-second video shorts that are quick, easy to understand and teach me something I didn’t know. Condition explainers, “is this normal?” symptom videos, wellness tips, shorts, reels and TikToks are the new exam rooms. Remember, if you aren't educating patients, Dr. AI is...and your clinicians would much rather their patients come in informed by your expert guidance, than just ChatGPT's standardized responses.

4. Train Your Employees on How to Treat AI-Informed Patients
Your employees also need guidance on how to deal with patients who come in informed, as well as mis-informed, by all these online pre-consultations. Offer them short video modules as well on how to respond to likely questions, assertions, and challenges in a way that feels reassuring and helpful—rather than defensive and dismissive.

We'd love to help you strategize actionable steps you can take now to optimize the experience for your patients— as well as the trust in your brand — in this new age of AI-assisted healthcare consultations. Please feel free to contact me directly at reem.nouh@adamsknight.com or (860) 676-2300, x 116.

There is no paid media strategy that allows for better data-driven targeting, more cross-device reach, and greater access to an array of media outlets than programmatic media buying. But there is still a lot of confusion over what programmatic media is — and how prevalent it is becoming. Here are five key misconceptions we’d love to clarify. 

1. Programmatic media buying is NOT limited to “banner ads.” Today, we can buy ads on almost any marketing channel utilizing the sophisticated targeting capabilities of programmatic media — including TV, audio, and out-of-home advertising. In fact, the only marketing channels we can’t buy programmatically yet are the walled gardens of search (Google) and some social media channels (Meta). We anticipate that we’ll even be able to buy ads on AR/VR platforms in the not-so-distant future.

2. Programmatic DOES give you access to most streaming services. Already, Max, Hulu, Netflix, Disney+, Paramount, Amazon Prime, and other major streaming services offer ad supported subscription tiers. This is only going to become more common as these platforms look for more ways to monetize their increased inventory availability.

3. You CAN ensure your programmatic ads show up on certain websites, media outlets, and out-of-home boards. Savvy media specialists leverage a variety of ways to control placements. For example, through “site whitelisting,” we can deploy bidding strategies that win placements on your targeted list of desired websites. Our programmatic buyers can also make direct deals with publishers to guarantee a certain level of impressions on specific sites. We can even negotiate programmatic deals with outdoor providers for individual out-of-home billboards.

4. You CAN ensure brand safety in programmatic media buys. Expert programmatic campaign managers leverage a variety of tools and strategies to ensure quality placements of all your ads. Filters from leaders like DoubleVerify and IAS help us deliver ads only through reputable, verified publishers. Our programmatic buyers also deploy Authorized Digital Sellers (ads.txt) settings for a further layer of inventory verification. Best of all, we review site-based performance metrics daily to drive meaningful real-world actions. That’s why we prefer deeper KPIs like site visits, on-site actions, or conversions over metrics like click-through rate.

5. You do NOT need big budgets to place media programmatically. The targeting in programmatic is so data-driven that it tends to be one of the most efficient digital channels, so even small budgets can have an outsized impact in terms of reaching a brand's target audience and driving results. A savvy programmatic partner will be able to assess your target audience and marketing goals — and recommend an efficient and effective campaign strategy for almost any budget level. 

We hope this is helpful! Let us know if we can answer any other questions about programmatic media.

There is no shortage of strong opinions on artificial intelligence these days, especially in the creative world. One person's "this is amazing" is another's "this is going to replace us." And then there are the ethical debates over whether using AI means losing authenticity and humanity, most recently seen in the controversy over how AI audio tools were employed in the film The Brutalist to improve the Hungarian accents of the lead actors.

At Adams & Knight, especially within the creative department, we're no stranger to these debates — we've been informally having them ourselves for the past couple of years. And the push and pull and trial and error has led to how we're currently using AI: not replacing anyone's creativity or skills, but enhancing them, allowing us to do more than we ever have.

Better envisioning the end results.

One way we've used AI right from the start: helping both ourselves and our clients better envision concepts that ultimately are created without AI. Before the director's boards...before the test shoots...and before the final photo shoot or filming, AI-created images are a great way to help everyone involved better picture what the final results may look like. And just like any tool or technology, that involves learning how to use it, through well-crafted prompts. (But that's an article for another day.)

Improving and innovating existing assets.

When it comes to the final creative product, we actually use AI more for removing elements than creating or adding them. AI tools within programs like Photoshop have been invaluable time savers, enabling us to erase or change unwanted distractions in photos. It's something we could have done before, but what would have taken hours with "traditional" methods now takes only seconds or minutes...letting us spend more time being creative in other ways. Another bonus: When the budget dictates using stock rather than original photography, AI now allows us to quickly change those visuals and make them more unique to our project and client.

Bringing the impossible to life.

In just a couple cases so far, we've used AI-generated images and animations in the final deliverable, for the simple reason that they allowed us to create fantastical, otherworldly visuals that wouldn't have been possible otherwise, at least for the time and budget we had. And even then, the AI imagery was secondary to the main focus of the creative — human actors who delivered the true emotional impact of the campaign. Even the best AI is still only a shallow, uncanny valley reflection of true human depth and emotion.

It's not the end of the world. Just a different one.

Artificial intelligence is powerful, game-changing technology that's opening up new worlds of creativity, and it certainly deserves the scrutiny and skepticism it's drawing. But ultimately, at least in our field, I think it's going to be less destructive and more constructive — just like other industry disrupters that have come along, like Photoshop, CGI, digital video editing and more. We just need to make sure we're using it wisely and responsibly.

As web designers and developers, we've tried some experiments, chased some trends, and fallen into some habits. Let's identify a few of the outdated web design practices that simply need to be abandoned.

1. Unsolicited "subscribe" popups

You've experienced this moment. You're reading an article online, and it's good. Maybe it's interesting, and nothing more—or maybe it solves a specific problem you were having. Either way, you're glad the article exists…

Until the act of scrolling triggers a popup that interrupts your reading. "SUBSCRIBE NOW!!! For more great articles like this one."

If that popup brings you joy, then you are utterly unique among the eight billion people on this planet.

There are better ways to encourage users to keep coming back. A paragraph or callout at the end of the article is perfectly appropriate. A subscribe button that only triggers when the user chooses to click on it should also be appreciated. And links to your social media accounts—where you are promoting your new articles, right?—will give visitors another way to stay aware of you.

2. "Scroll down" arrows

The World Wide Web became mainstream in the 1990s. This is the fourth decade in which it's been a part of daily life. If you meet someone today who is still unaware that they can scroll down when they visit a web page, you have every right to be astonished.

By adding a "scroll down" arrow to the page, you risk coming off as pushy or condescending to your visitors, in service to a population of non-scrollers who, as far as we can tell, don't exist.

There are better ways to get users to scroll. Best of all is to make your content engaging right from the beginning. Or, if you have a large "hero" area at the top of the page, you can take care to keep its height slightly smaller than the viewport height, so that some of your down-page content peeks into the initial view, showing the visitor that there's more to see.

3. Carousels

Carousels present a host of accessibility problems for users with visual impairments, motor disabilities, or cognitive issues such as attention deficit. They often fail to play well with assistive technologies such as screen readers and keyboard navigation. And they’re sometimes built to auto-advance—moving a slide out of view right while the visitor is in the middle of reading it.

Just as important: research consistently shows that users don't engage with carousels, even when the carousel is the most prominently positioned element on the page. A carousel is an effective way of putting information into a page if you want that information to be ignored.

The reasons why designers use carousels usually have nothing to do with serving the visitor.

Perhaps a site has a large amount of content, and narrowing down which content to feature on the homepage is difficult. So, to avoid the hard work of making a decision, we surrender to mediocrity and try to include all of the content at once.

Or perhaps a business has numerous stakeholders who all want their content to appear on the front page, whether it belongs there or not—so we appease them by burying their content inside a carousel. Now we can tell that manager they're on the front page, but the visitor will never have to notice.

There are better options than a carousel, nearly every time. If the content matters, then allow it to be seen. Try putting it in a grid, or a list, or a subsection of its own, or a separate page. And if the content doesn't matter to your audience, then try omitting it from the page.

4. Hyperlinking phrases like "click here"

It's a small thing, but good hyperlinks tell you something about the page to which they point. We know that users skim more than they read, so making a link meaningful is a good way to keep them oriented. In addition, meaningful link text will tell search engines something about the page you're linking to, which could make the page that much more discoverable.

So let's all stop writing, "To learn more about our philosophy, click here." A better approach is to write, “We’d love to tell you more about our philosophy."

5. Forcing all links to open in a new tab

The usability legend Jakob Nielsen writes, with some justification, that "opening up new browser windows is like a vacuum cleaner sales person who starts a visit by emptying an ash tray on the customer's carpet." It's an aggressive choice that prioritizes the marketer's desires over those of the user.

Users who want to open a link in a new tab already have the ability to do so, using a modifier key, a right-click, or a browser preference setting. By forcing that behavior, you take the choice out of their hands—demonstrating how little you care about their wishes.

In addition, though you may hope to prevent the visitor from leaving your site, your choice to force a new tab disables their Back button. Some users won't even notice that a new tab has opened. As a result, they'll be confused and frustrated when they try to use the Back button and find it grayed out. The best guiding principle is to let the user retain control of their own browsing experience.

6. Unlabeled form fields

The placeholders you sometimes see inside a form field are meant to serve as examples of the content that a user might enter in the field. Inside an "Email address" field, for example, you might see "john.smith@email.com" as a placeholder. But using placeholders as if they were field labels poses accessibility and usability problems.

If a user has an older browser that doesn’t support placeholders at all, they might see your form as a series of blank, unlabeled fields. But even for a perfectly abled user with the latest browser, it's inconvenient to click (or tab) into a field and have the name of that field disappear from view. Users might have to click out of that field again, just to remind themselves: Was this supposed to be Company Name, or Job Title? It's a better practice to keep the labels outside of the form fields, so you aren't increasing the cognitive load on your users.

There’s always room to improve our habits as web designers and developers. By evolving beyond intrusive design patterns, prioritizing clear communication and accessibility, and respecting user autonomy, we can build more satisfying and effective web experiences that serve our users and our own business goals.

As much as AI is affecting how we do things, it still hasn’t perfected the art of judging what’s worth doing. So, here are four non-AI-generated priorities to consider focusing on for 2024.

1. Lead with purpose, not “positions.” This past year, too many companies got tangled up in speaking out about polarizing issues — many of which had little to do with who they are or what they do. No doubt, we all need to leverage the power of our platforms wisely. But brands don’t need to post about every issue!

Especially as we move into this election year, let’s make sure we’re all crystal clear about our organization’s purpose. Refine a concise, consistent answer to two key questions: why does your organization exist and how do you truly provide value? Then use those answers as a screener to determine which conversations you should enter — and when. Don’t feel compelled to say anything unless you’re actually doing something to make the world a better place.

2. Create a 3D brand. Your brand isn’t defined by just how your customers perceive you. It’s also shaped by how your employees feel about you, why your donors support you, even what your vendors say about doing business with you. But unlike the advice dispensed by a recent webinar I listened to, that absolutely does NOT mean you need a customer brand, an employee brand, a philanthropy brand... You need a cohesive, three-dimensional brand.

Brand building is a team sport. So, bring your departments together to hone an overarching brand platform that is consistent at its core, yet flexible in its execution. Then, to build brand trust, ensure every type of communication to every stakeholder of your organization ladders up to this overarching brand platform. In business, as in life, we trust those who are true to who they are — no matter who they’re talking to.

3. Drive performance with better creative. It’s beyond time to stop delineating between “performance marketing” and “brand marketing.” They’re not mutually exclusive. They’re literally inseparable.

Of course, we need good data to optimize targeting and drive efficiencies. But if you truly want to move the needle, you first need creative approaches that move your audience. So don’t just deify analyzing the data. Synthesize it to glean truly meaningful insights. Then, use those insights to energize your creativity. No one pays attention to bland brands. Now more than ever we need fresh strategies, scroll-stopping visuals, and mind-changing copy to develop marketing that stands out — and pulls people in.

4. Diversify the media mix. We talk about marketing as a strategic investment. But too often we still act as if it were a game of buying the winning tactics. (“We need to be on TikTok…we should cut direct mail…”) Our media strategies should be as creative as anything else we’re doing, carefully considering not just where we could reach our audiences, but where they’ll want to engage with us. That will help us develop the right mix of tactics — and creatively connect the dots between them.

There are more tools than ever in the marketing toolbox — and more reasons than ever to be excited at the possibilities they present to engage your audiences and market your business. But as data-obsessed as marketing has become, we need more creative thinking about how to act on that data and drive meaningful results.

Remember when social media was the next innovation of integrated marketing communication? So many new opportunities, so much promise. Then, out of left field, comes a new way to capitalize: influencers.

“Influencers.” It’s not a new term. They’ve been around since the early to mid-2010s, when platforms like Twitter and Facebook took off. But influencer marketing is growing exponentially, with spending expected to hit $7.14 billion by 2024. Crazy, right?

Adams & Knight’s Senior Public Relations Specialist Caci Cosenzi delves into what makes a relationship with an influencer strong, effective ways to determine appropriate influencers for the brand, and more.

Major misconceptions remain on the topic. Caci explains, “People underestimate how much goes into establishing these relationships. It’s not something that can quickly be turned around or should be. It’s a process in and of itself to identify the influencers you want to work with, evaluate their audience, and build a thoughtful content strategy.”

She recommends forming an initial connection, which opens conversation before any discussion about partnership or a long-term campaign.

Let’s discuss how you can make the most out of influencer marketing…

The Key Points:

Never discount research. Influencers become an extension of the brand, so make sure you know if they match brand values and voice. Research allows you to streamline how the influencer works and doesn’t work, because the last thing the client needs is a partnership with a sellout. We’re looking at you, Scott Disick.

Confirm active engagement. Sure, someone may have 1 million followers, but how many of those followers are engaged? Impressions alone don’t net website traffic and conversions. A small but dedicated fanbase is far better than a massive following with people who aren’t actively involved. This gives the creative team more freedom to craft something unique for both the brand and influencer.

Provide baseline tools. This isn’t talked about as much, but it’s just as important. Influencers are primed to make better content with better tools. A media kit, for example, helps the influencer understand what the brand’s message is and how they say it. Past work samples from the client may spark concepts from the influencer that results in a more collaborative, two-way workflow.

Evaluate for the future. It doesn’t matter if you plan on working with the influencer again or not; it's the same with the client. Every experience has a lesson. This goes back to research — it never stops. It’s a continued effort before and after hiring the ideal influencer. However, this time, feedback from the influencer may present new strategies that make the content creation process more efficient.

Take a full listen to our podcast, What’s the Big Idea About Influencers? If you have your own insights or ideas related to influencer marketing, connect with us. We love to keep the conversation open.

In the world of travel and tourism, effective marketing strategies can make all the difference in attracting and engaging potential visitors. Here are 11 data-driven insights that can elevate your marketing efforts. From understanding target audiences to leveraging user-generated content (UGC), these can help drive success in this competitive industry.

1. Tailor messaging to family status. 

   Research shows that people without children prefer not to see tourism activities involving kids, while those with children actively seek out family-friendly options. Tailor your messaging to each group separately to maximize engagement and avoid alienating potential travelers.

2. Lead with content marketing. 

   Content marketing reigns supreme in the tourism industry. Utilize a wide range of tactics including PR, organic and paid search, email campaigns, and content seeding to distribute your content effectively and reach a larger audience.

3. Test and learn with written content. 

   While video content is popular, starting with written content is often more cost-effective and allows for quick testing and optimization. Written content also aids in organic search visibility, making it easier for potential visitors to find your destination.

4. Update your existing content.
   

   Your content's lifespan extends far beyond its initial publication. Updating and refreshing older work helps it remain relevant and increases its chances of being discovered through search engines. By maintaining and updating content, you can attract new readers even years after its initial release.

5. Leverage UGC. 

   User-generated content, particularly imagery sourced from platforms like Instagram, offers an abundance of authentic and high-quality visuals. By incorporating owner-approved UGC into your marketing materials, you can enhance authenticity, reduce costs, and connect with your audience on a deeper level.

6. Use local identifiers. 

   Images play a crucial role in tourism marketing, capturing the attention of potential travelers. However, providing location information alongside images adds an extra layer of appeal, enabling viewers to see themselves there while driving their desire to visit.

7. Be timely with drive markets. 

   Drive markets, where travelers can reach your destination by car, tend to respond swiftly to marketing efforts. These markets can yield visitors within a few days or weeks after exposure to your content, so consider the timing of your campaigns accordingly.

8. Include OOH in your media mix. 

   Despite the challenges of measuring its impact, out-of-home advertising like billboards has proven highly effective in boosting overall marketing efforts. When used strategically, out-of-home ads can generate significant lifts in engagement and conversion rates.

9. Plan ahead to overcome seasonal challenges. 

   Capturing seasonal experiences for marketing campaigns can be challenging. To address this consider faking the season, leveraging user-generated imagery, or retouching existing visuals to create the desired seasonal appeal.

10. Segment your audience. 

    Segmenting your target audience based on specific interests, rather than simply age or demographics, can yield powerful results. Tailoring messages to niche segments, such as pet owners or particular interest groups, enhances engagement and drives conversions.

11. Create for the LGBTQ+ community. 

    When marketing to the LGBTQ+ community, relevance and inclusivity are essential. Customizing your messaging and imagery to resonate with this audience can lead to exceptional responsiveness, loyalty, and action.

In the ever-evolving landscape of tourism marketing, incorporating data-driven insights is crucial for success. By understanding your target audience, utilizing content marketing effectively, leveraging user-generated content, and embracing segmentation, you can elevate your marketing strategies to attract and engage travelers and drive real, impressive results.

Hear our head of tourism marketing, Felicia Lindau, further explore this on What’s the Big Idea About Tourism Marketing? and connect with us to leverage deep insights to spark great impact.

If you’re a marketer, you already understand why interactive content is twice as likely to engage a visitor as static content. It enhances points along the customer journey with experiential branding. With technology always moving forward, it’s important to keep tabs on the trends. Here are three best practices to get your brand’s current interactive design up to speed this year, and three ways to stay ahead.

“Digital trends are reflective of emergent tech and people’s evolving needs. We’ve seen some really interesting use cases for our clients that make integrating new tech very exciting.” says Eric Truntz, Chief Technology Officer at Adams & Knight.

On the podcast What’s the Big Idea about Interactive Trends? Eric and his team dissect what makes brands technically stand out today. Here are key takeaways.

3 ways to keep up.

If you’re already assessing your brand’s platforms on a regular basis, great. Be sure to include these in your review to stay current.

1. Clean up outdated websites. User attention is fickle and should be cherished, so make the user experience something to talk about. Look for opportunities to improve load speeds; question whether aggressive pop-ups are really working before pushing people away from your content; and importantly, is that content up to date? Chances are that anything written years ago is no longer timely – update or get rid of those pages. Keeping your brand’s site current ensures you don’t detract from the messaging.

2. Design for standardized browsers. There used to be a lot of variances between browsers and what capabilities they had. Today you can count on more standardization, meaning Google and Firefox users alike can appreciate the cool features you build, extending your audience. Designing for both dark mode and light mode is a good way forward for example.   

3. Assess new analytics tools. Leveraging customer data for a competitive edge is crucial but it’s no longer about having all the data. Rather knowing what data to look at gives you power. With Google’s switch to GA4 poised to leave a gap in previously available insights, now is the time to consider what key metrics are going to drive success for you and find programs that suit your needs.

3 ways to stay ahead.

Knowing these three tips can give an advantage when creating interactive content for your brand.

1. Design for mobile accessibility. Developers have been designing for mobile responsiveness for years, but there’s more to consider. Phones are getting bigger and bigger, and your thumb only goes so far. Make sure the key navigational points on a phone are reachable to users. More and more brands are paying attention to these types of details, and you should too. 

2. Use Artificial Intelligence as a launchpad but remain creative. Access to popular AI programs threatens a sea of sameness because they pull from the similar available data and online information. This is placing increased value on quirkiness in branding and website development.  AI is a great starting point for efficiency, though brands must balance inquiry results with personality and humanity to deliver the most creative results.

3. Get to know Progressive Web Apps. Consider PWAs as an enhancement to or extension of your brand’s website. They are web applications that implement behaviors using device-specific features like location and cameras. Brands using PWAs are creating mobile and desktop experiences triggered by geolocation resulting in augmented reality, engaging exhibits, and interactive maps. Benefits of PWAs include low development and maintenance efforts, and the opportunity to nurture the customer journey with data acquisition, push notifications and access to device features when offline.

Hear our in-house interactive team further explore this on What’s the Big Idea About Interactive Trends? and connect with us to learn how we can help make your brand technically stand out.

It is always bittersweet to see our interns off at the end of the semester. Their enthusiasm to get in on the action during client meetings, attend shoots, and present their work symbiotically benefits both them and the agency. After weeks of immersive interning, we asked this collegiate team to share their top 3 lessons learned to help future students make the most of their internships.

“I loved my experience at Adams & Knight. Right away, they encourage you to reach out to different departments because they want you to learn about what you are interested in and grow.”

- Matthew Paquette, Travel/Lifestyle Marketing Intern, University of Connecticut

Matthew's Top Lessons

1. Don’t underestimate company culture. I hear all the time in my classes that workplace culture can be the most important factor in a successful business. I could tell quickly there were a lot of nice, talented people at A&K. Being so welcomed energized me, which made me want to give back the same energy to others. 

2. Get ready to apply programs to real world use. In school I have learned a lot about digital media programs, but once you put them to use it brings a whole new perspective. It was so interesting to use real-time consumer insight platforms for our clients and learn about how different programs work together to manage campaigns and provide data. 

3. Small tasks have meaning. Even conducting a short research project leads to big results — a task from my first day turned into a full content campaign! On any project, do not underestimate small details as they can add up to a great experience for clients and consumers.  

“Working in a professional environment exposed me to different ways of working. I was able to observe the daily operations of a successful business and try out new ideas that further developed my problem-solving skills.” 

- Shanice Rhule, Integrated Marketing Intern, University of Connecticut

Shanice's Top Lessons

1. Ask for experience across teams. One of my favorite parts of working with A&K is the fact that you’re introduced to every department, and that you’re actually encouraged to work with them. If you feel that you want to try something new, take that leap! You might discover something you really love.

2. Bring new ideas to the table. You’re here because your perspective matters. If you have a little free time, take the initiative to jumpstart your next project! Do some background research before writing and presenting to your manager so that they can better understand what you're trying to convey and can support you. This extra effort shows.

3. Take time to self-reflect. Self-reflection is key whether it’s a month into your internship or your last day. Think about what projects you liked and disliked, how they made you feel and what you’d do differently. This allows you to plan your next steps moving forward.

"Adams & Knight truly embodies passion throughout the agency and functions as a true collaborative entity. The entire team here is incredibly welcoming, helpful, and amiable, making my time here a remarkable and rewarding experience.”

- Gabriella Casturani, Healthcare/Education Marketing Intern, Western Connecticut State University

Gabriella's Top Lessons

1. Take the opportunity to get to know your fellow interns on the first day. Starting your first day in an agency setting can be daunting, but what really helped ease my nerves was introducing myself and establishing connections with my fellow interns. Despite being on different teams, we cross paths several times a week, eat lunch together, and help each other out with any questions! Meeting such awesome fellow interns during my time here is something that I am truly grateful for.

2. Collaborate with team members. During my time here, I have observed that Adams & Knight truly exemplifies collaboration. It is impressive to witness how numerous projects and campaigns necessitate distinct contributions from each team. Attending internal meetings with representatives from each team and seeing how each team has a role, which all effortlessly interlock, is neat. Knowing that every aspect, whether it be social, creative, or media, is essential to the final campaign or project truly demonstrates the agency's integrated nature.

3. Maintain connections with your colleagues and the agency beyond your time here. I highly recommend establishing connections with your fellow interns, managers, and other colleagues on LinkedIn. This not only shows your support for the agency and the time you spent here, but also assists in promoting what is new and happening at the agency or personal passions of team members. Be sure to share this information with your connections because you never know who might benefit from it among your network. Networking is critical as you prepare to enter the workforce!

Want to work with fun people in an inspiring environment? If yes, let’s talk. Learn more about our internships and submit your resume, cover letter and a writing/work sample to internship@adamsknight.com.

Healthy company culture is no longer a nice-to-have. Today, it's a must-have for attracting and retaining­ talent. A Columbia University study shows that the likelihood of job turnover at an organization with high company culture is just 14 percent, while that of low company cultures is 50 percent. Leading organizations are already building and implementing employee engagement marketing strategies. Do not get left behind!

“Employee engagement is especially critical to service-oriented organizations,” says Reem Nouh, SVP at Adams & Knight.

“Fact is, it’s an integral part of branding, recruitment and retention, customer experience and overall corporate culture.”

From a marketing perspective, this is a way for organizations to craft something on par with regular brand messaging, in a way that's about the people who make it all happen. Employee engagement can help transition a transactional employer/employee relationship to a transformative one where both sides see the benefits of one another.

Implementing such a strategy also serves as an opportunity to put diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEIB) efforts into action through representation, ensuring people feel recognized.

The 5Es of employee engagement

When translating this vision into action and results, dividing the journey into thoughtful stages improves the likelihood of success. This proven framework of five actions can enable a successful culture transformation:

1. Envision success. It's essential to begin with the end in mind. Rally your stakeholders and work together to build consensus around what success will look like for this initiative and your organization — and how you're going to measure it. When your team agrees on where you're going upfront, they'll be able to more effectively collaborate along the way.
   
   
2. Engage a diverse array of key stakeholders. Employee engagement isn't just an "HR" goal or a marketing campaign. Pull in leaders from a variety of areas of your organization, including operations, customer experience, and technology as well as HR, communications and marketing. Partnering with leaders across other areas within an organization is essential for nurturing more engaged employees.
   
   
3. Evaluate your current internal and external messaging. Be honest with yourselves about what is — and isn't — working now. Knowing what you can build on, and what needs to be rebuilt, is critical to establishing tangible steps for moving forward.
   
   
4. Express your truth in a way that will truly resonate with key audiences. Don't write platitudes that "sound" impressive but ring hollow. Do write clearly, conversationally, honestly, authentically. Transparency is critical to building a strong company culture today, thanks to social media and review sites like Glassdoor. It is critical to get your messaging right.
   
   
5. Evolve your messaging. This is not a once-and-done initiative. So plan upfront for the ongoing resources it will take to continually evaluate, adapt, and expand your employee engagement plan.

Hear our in-house team dive deeper into this topic on What’s the Big Idea about Employee Engagement? and reach out to learn how we can help you get started with a custom strategy to boost your branding, recruitment and retention, customer experience and overall corporate culture.

If you’ve listened to a podcast in the last year, you’re not alone. Right now, there are at least 464.7 million podcast listeners worldwide with 28% of the U.S. population listening to podcasts weekly. Brands are taking notice of this widespread popularity. From Trader Joe’s to American Express, companies large and small have launched podcasts to capture the attention of audiences old and new.

“Podcasting gives brands the opportunity to speak to a captive audience for a dedicated period of time,” says Sophia Alfieri, host of the agency podcast What’s the Big Idea? and Senior Social Media Specialist. “It’s great for establishing brand authority and is proven to drive brand awareness over other media channels.”

This growing medium meets customers where they are and moves them through the marketing funnel. In fact, 69% of podcast listeners agreed that listening made them aware of a new product or service. If you’re ready to get yours started, here are a few things to think about.

Considerations for your branded podcast

1. Assess your brand's mission and goals and how your podcast can amplify them. “Before you hit record, know what you want out of your podcast,” says agency podcast producer and Senior Content Director Amanda Driscoll, “This helps set clear KPIs so you can optimize as you go.”
   
   
2. Studies show that consumers are open to advertising if branded content provides a compelling narrative, a great interview, or helpful tips. So, build a content strategy that is relevant to your audience.
   
   
3. Don’t have an in-house podcast production operation? Find a production partner who knows the space, has experience in the medium, and the skills to get your message across. Agency podcast editor Allison Butler says, “Thoughtful editing is critical to provide a seamless listening experience."
   
   
4. The customer journey rarely stops at the end of each episode. Podcasts have a full funnel impact from consideration to brand affinity. Design a distribution plan built on analytics to reach the right ears and successfully promote your brand.

If you’re ready to start a branded podcast of your own, Adams & Knight can help. Record in our state-of-the-art sound studio and work with our team of experts. Listen to our in-house team dive deeper into this topic on What’s the Big Idea about Podcasting? and reach out to learn how we can help leverage podcasting opportunities for your brand.

By Amy Urso — originally written in 2018

On every personality questionnaire you describe yourself as “creative.” You secretly light up when your professor tells your group to brainstorm. You’re “the idea guy” in your marketing classes.

Now just one semester away from graduation, I am just like you. I wanted more than anything to intern in an advertising agency. Well, there’s hope… I did! After about four months at Adams & Knight, I have tips to share from my side of the table.

Expect creativity — always.

It often seems that college students aspiring to work in the field of advertising fantasize about working with big name, flashy clients … and only those. From my time interning at an ad agency, it’s become clear that the opposite is true. Truthfully, there are no “boring” clients – this is advertising!

In the words of Harvey Danger, “if you’re bored then you’re boring,” and there’s no room for that in this field.

You can feel just as much of a creative rush designing ads for a company that sells thumb tacks as you can for one that sells glow-in-the-dark jet packs (not that I’ve done this before) – and if you do not, perhaps you need a new angle. No matter what, making ads requires innovative thinking, storytelling, and ultimately captivating your audience… which is always rewarding.

Connect all the dots.

No one lives on their own island here. The creatives don’t have their own separate camp far away from PR or account management. Everyone and everything is incredibly integrated.

Your secret weapon as an intern? This: the power of asking. You’re there to learn, to expand your understanding of the field … and of yourself. If you like what you see happening on the other side of the room, ask to try it out! Don’t just connect with those in your own department – link up with everyone you can and make this experience your own.

Don’t fret about writer’s block.

Though you don’t want to hear it… you will get stuck. Your pen will be prancing on the pad, you’ll swear someone tied balloons to your heart, and then out of nowhere, your momentum will slow. You might tighten up, you might walk to the bathroom eight times to get your mind flowing, or you might scour your bag for something to help a headache. You also might convince yourself there’s somehow more pressure as an intern – that’s not the case.

Like greatness in anything, you usually don’t start out as good as people who have been doing this longer than you’ve been alive. When you get stuck, get inspired instead! Look at successful campaigns and figure out just what makes them so interesting. Sometimes all you need to get back in the groove is a little insight.

Find somewhere to belong.

Find the agency that’s right for you. While that’s different for everyone, I will say this: unless you are desperate to get your foot in the door with a specific company, try agencies that want to help you. If you get the vibe that your job description is mostly getting coffee and making copies, I’d probably explore other options.

While there is value in paying your dues, I have gained a much better understanding of my own career path by interning at an agency that desires to help me discover it. Heck, I’ve had the CMO offer to get me coffee. While this probably won’t be the case at most agencies, find somewhere that will actually give you the learning experience you’re looking for.

Do your homework.

Before interviewing, do your research – on the company, I mean. Know who their clients are, what they do for them, and especially why you fit in. I know you investigated your college roommate’s Facebook page before move-in day (admit it), so why wouldn’t you do the same with your future company? Besides, you don’t just want them to feel like you fit in, you want to feel that way too … genuinely!

An Update:

Now in 2022, I have good news to share – my internship led to a job. The connections I made at Adams & Knight eventually helped me land a position (my goal position!) as a Creative Copywriter.

For the past two years, I’ve had the opportunity to create ad campaigns, play a major role in TV spot production, write social posts and content marketing pieces, work alongside seasoned art directors, and ultimately see my ideas come to life.

So, one last piece of advice? When you find your passion… go for it.

Adams & Knight Internships

Ready for your shot? Adams & Knight offers internships year-round in a variety of departments. Explore our opportunities today!

Every year, Super Bowl ads are the same in many ways: over-the-top, celebrity-strewn and for the most part, silly and forgettable. (Go ahead, try to name your favorites from just last year.) But each crop also differs from the previous one, too, in themes that emerge based on current events. What to expect this year? Look for these three trends:

A pandemic-free world.

Even if advertisers wanted to create a COVID-related Super Bowl spot (they don’t), ever-changing variants, case numbers and guidelines make it almost impossible to concept and plan for a commercial weeks or months in advance...which is when most Super Bowl ads start to take shape. And of course, no Super Bowl audience wants to be bummed out by such topics anyway. So expect most if not all of the Super Bowl ads to pretend we’re living in a world unfamiliar with such things as masks and social distancing.

Themes of resurgence and resilience.

While ads may not directly bring up COVID, it’s likely we’ll see a more subtle approach and themes of getting back on your feet, back in motion, brighter days...you get the picture. Advertisers will still try to capture the national mood without bringing up the pandemic, on a day when everyone wants to escape it. We’ve already seen one of these spots — Budweiser released theirs early, featuring their iconic Clydesdale suffering an injury and struggling to get back to galloping through amber waves of grain.

Diversity, inclusion and community.

It’s never been more important for brands to show consumers that they’re committed to equity and diversity — not to mention community and connection. And there’s no better way to show that than on the world’s biggest stage. So look for lots of feel-good anthems about coming together, helping one another and being true to yourself.

Today 30,000 websites will likely be hacked. Same tomorrow. And the next day after that. Worse yet, that rough estimate probably dramatically understates the issue, given how many hacks are kept quiet.

So, the issue isn’t whether your site will be hacked—but when. How do you make your website secure? And how capable is your site at detecting and deflecting attacks?

If you’re responsible for creating, maintaining, updating and/or monitoring your organization’s web properties, there are so many potential vulnerabilities you could worry about. Injection flaws. Authentication weaknesses. Cross-site scripting. Exposed data. Security misconfigurations. And the sleep-robbing list goes on and on.

If you don’t have the specialized knowledge to assess all these threats and make your website secure, it’s critical that you ensure your website partners do.

No longer is creating a website just about eye-catching imagery, an engaging user experience, great SEO-friendly content, conversion-motivating calls to action, and an easy-to-use CMS. Yes, all those are important, but your website partner needs to be as adept in developing a battle-ready website—and in monitoring, updating, and making your website secure over time.

While there are countless details involved in security-focused website design and monitoring, those details can be categorized under four major checkpoints that we integrate into every web development project. We call them the Adams & Knight Four Ss of Web Security.

1. SECURE endpoints.

In the simplest of terms, a website “endpoint” is the doorway that lets someone connect to your website. For many of your site visitors, these access points are the URL of your website, your customer portal, or other destination/landing pages through which people can access your information through the internet. But your site also likely has many other connection points. For example, if your developers used APIs to allow for the exchange of information from your site to another, that’s a key endpoint. Say you have a lead generation form on your website that directly integrates into your Sales Force application. That’s an endpoint.

Technically, all these endpoints need to be secured, so you can prevent people from maliciously intruding and altering your site’s data from any of these access points.

2. SCREEN traffic.

A huge part of securing your site involves screening its traffic. How will you detect if a hacker is trying to access your website code or underlying data—or is using your site to gain access into other connection points? Who will be notified and how? How automatically can you stop them? How quickly can you block or at least mitigate any damage? You’ll need to make sure your website developers are building sites that are both intuitive to use and impervious to intruders.

3. SAFEGUARD users.

Not only do you need to prevent the wrong people from getting into your site, but you also need to protect the visitors you’re welcoming in. If your prospects or customers are being asked to enter data through your site, how are you ensuring that their data is secure? How will you prevent others from accessing or altering their data once submitted? Just as you would if you were welcoming them to your physical location, you need to ensure your visitors’ safety when engaging with your online properties.

4. SUSTAIN vigilance.

Every day hackers are honing their techniques. So, every day you also need to be continually reviewing your online security posture and bolstering your defenses. That means staying abreast of the latest trends affecting online security. That requires constantly reassessing and upgrading the software, tools, and techniques you use to detect and mitigate threats. And that necessitates automated and “eyes-on” monitoring of your sites’ security status—patching vulnerabilities as needed in the short-term and even rebuilding your site periodically.

These Four Ss of Website Security are seemingly simple objectives addressed by often complex, detailed processes that are proportional to the complexity of your online communications. Simple, straightforward sites can leverage the security features provided by established managed hosting providers. But more complex systems may dictate distributed endpoint protection and device management agents, and AI-based email protection with consolidated log analysis—all monitored by a managed Security Operations Center (SOC) in real-time.

Regardless of the complexity of your site, by ensuring your internal and external resources are attending to these four key areas, you can determine how to make your website secure, and in the process, protect your organization’s data—and your brand’s reputation.

For more insights on how we build secure websites, contact Eric Truntz at Eric.Truntz@adamsknight.com.

Performance marketing is a major focus for driving lower funnel goals to propel business forward. Here’s a quick breakdown of the key trends and what they mean for successful marketing strategies.

Think first-party data, well, first.

Marketers realize that the best source of data is their own. So, whether you’re looking to cross-sell products, create loyalty for your brand or build look-alike pools for marketing, collecting first-party data on your customers and targeting consumers will no longer be a nice-to-have, but rather a need-to-do. Retailers, for example, are already looking at ways to capture more data at point-of-purchase or upon entry to locations as part of these first-party data sets.

Segmenting the data you collect will also be key for successfully developing and reaching out with personalized messages. Knowing what a user has purchased, signed up for, or requested more information on should help define them as a target and allow you to build a stronger relationship with them.

Make it personal.

Personalized experiences aren’t just becoming the norm. Consumers will come to expect that messaging aligns with their specific wants and needs. So, consider improving the purchase experience on site by collecting data and building one-to-one informed suggestions of what shoppers want to see next and where they are in the buying cycle.

As part of this move, email marketing will be necessary. Build out strategies to test personalized emails to measure performance and acquisition and define parameters like frequency and messaging.

Listen to the podcast (data).

Thanks, in part, to quarantining during the pandemic, consumption of podcasts surged. And so did ROI. A recent survey by Podsights, an attribution company, found that podcast campaigns delivered an average return of $2.42 on ad spend.

Since this trend is likely to continue, marketers must create strategies that will leverage advertising opportunities with this type of media and integrate them into marketing strategies to optimize results.

Fall head over heels with OTT.

OTT is also a trend worth watching. Since marketers are now able to attribute engagement, leads, and sales from OTT ads, it is likely to put pressure on the connected TV space. So, developing a strategy that not only looks at awareness, but also accounts for lower funnel goals will be key for building out OTT marketing plans as well as traditional TV strategies. 

Move forward with agile content marketing.

With our ever-increasing digital world, the need for agile content marketing is becoming greater. The ability to get messaging in market in a timely manner that not only aligns with customer wants and needs but is also in sync with the current environment is key. Brands need to do a better job of anticipating the conversation and getting messaging in market on a proactive, not reactive, basis.  

This means:

Build an increased presence on social media. Create shorter, readily consumable content that resonates with target audiences to help fill the marketing funnel and create more touch points with core audience targets.

Test different types of content to see which ones drive greatest engagement. Leveraging tech to get the right content in front of the right individuals quickly and efficiently will help drive lower funnel goals.

Optimize media plans for multi-channel attribution.
Optimizing media to follow either a last-click or last-touch model continues to be the norm. Unfortunately, that approach only assigns credit to the final channel that drove the conversion. It does not account for all the others that had a hand in getting consumer to that point. So, although it can drive slightly higher conversion rates in the short-term, it will eliminate the pool of prospects and limit success over the long term.

Instead, leveraging a tech-based attribution solution that allows for marketing mix modeling will be uber important moving forward. Despite the added cost and time, this approach allows for the most concrete picture of what is driving sales and how each portion of the marketing funnel is working together. Specifically, it:

• allows for a much more complete picture of what is driving efficiencies and provides insight into economic conditions, competitors and anything that could be influencing consumer behavior.
• provides a clearer picture into things like profitability and LTV, allowing for optimization around products and places that are driving highest engagement and profit.
• is key for clients with several marketing channels, online and physical locations, and a diverse selection of products.

For more insights on how you can leverage performance marketing for more strategic planning, contact Tommy Shaw at tom.shaw@adamsknight.com.

As the COVID vaccines usher in more promise for a return to normal, H.O.P.E. is the theme for healthcare marketing. Here’s why it offers both risks and opportunities in 2021:

H.

Health Equity is not going away. In fact, many gaps were exposed during the pandemic. In the new year, show what your organization truly stands for . . . and how it cares for EVERYONE in your community.

THE RISK: Ignoring ways to improve health equity will leave you behind as consumers choose healthcare brands that stand for what they believe in.

THE OPPORTUNITY: Health systems must show how they are helping to close health equity gaps in their communities.

• Optimize technology tools that increase access for all patients.
• Develop multilingual communications and campaigns to help reach diverse audiences.
• Shine a light on these efforts to define and refine your brand purpose so it not only rings true but also forges stronger connections with consumers.

O.

Omnipresence of digital innovation. The past year taught us how important it is to leverage digital, “contactless” tools to add value to consumers, employees, patients, etc.

THE RISK: Slow or no adoption means they will look for other brands that do offer digital access to services, advice and connections through telemedicine, virtual care, etc.

THE OPPORTUNITY: Find ways to be where consumers are before they need services. Look to increase access to healthcare services digitally through social groups, education, etc. If you haven’t already:

• Review your patient journey in a new light to uncover more and better ways to connect and interact.
• Leverage your health system’s reputation as a “hero” to continue building trust in your community and reinforce credibility for your top treatments, doctors and medical services.
• Explore social channels and support groups to educate and add value on topics like disease management and/or new treatments; provide access to relevant resources your hospital offers.

P.

Patient Experience is no longer about “how long I sat in the waiting room.” As 2020 painfully showed, it’s about the overall, and exceptional, experience that a health system offers . . . at every touchpoint.

THE RISK: Without positive patient experiences, it will be difficult to restore volume and revenues lost in 2020 due to the widespread cancelation of routine medical care and elective surgeries.

THE OPPORTUNITY: Health systems should find ways to excel at the patient experience in the digital world. Healthcare marketers can help them by looking to:

• Develop improved communication and connection with consumers. For instance, take an objective look at your patient portal to see how you can:
  – step up the experience for scheduling appointments, communicating with doctors, accessing test results, paying bills, etc.
  – incorporate chatbots and AI to expand digital care.
• Serve up helpful, valuable content that consumers can use to manage their health needs.
• Partner with organizations that are not only nimble, but also agile enough to marry the latest innovations in technology with ongoing marketing strategies.

E.

Empathy from inside out. Frontline healthcare workers have spent months caring for all those infected by COVID and risked their lives doing so. As surges continue, they’re not only under constant pressure to treat even more patients, but they’re also expected to bounce back to staffing elective surgeries and procedures once COVID subsides.

THE RISK: With so little relief, frontline heroes run the risk for a real side effect: burnout. Not at just some hospitals, but all across the industry. Possibly triggering a second healthcare crisis.

THE OPPORTUNITY: Health systems should find meaningful ways to engage, appreciate and support healthcare workers and caregivers. Internal communications teams must work together with hospital administrators and human resources to develop strategies to:

• Check on every employee and remind them how vital they are to the organization, so they genuinely feel appreciated.
• Leverage the right channels to reach all employees. (Tip: Sending out an email blast isn’t enough.)
• Ensure a consistent and relevant tone that resonates with everyone, not just clinical staff.  
• Communicate available resources, like counseling, suicide prevention lines and 24/7 support, to help your staff deal with the enormous stress they’re feeling.

It’s getting harder to track online consumer behavior.

In recent months, major browsers like Firefox, Apple’s Safari, and Google’s Chrome have intensified efforts to prevent tracking and respect privacy rights of consumers online. To do this, they are limiting the information collected by third-party party data trackers like Google and Facebook embedded in almost all websites.

Now as consumers point and click their way across different websites, ads and digital properties, it’s more challenging for these third-party trackers to identify users and connect their activity over time and across multiple websites.

Tracking prevention is nothing new to browsers. Apple introduced their first version back in 2017. But 2020 has seen additional efforts by vendors to escalate the movement against intrusive tracking.

The most notable change is Google’s commitment to limiting third-party cookies, the most common way to track a user’s cross-website activity. While Google has traditionally benefitted from this tracking, the company recognizes the need for consent and transparency when collecting online user data.

What this means for marketers
Unfortunately, many digital marketing campaigns use online ads and retargeted ads which need tracking data in order to work. For instance, if you were looking to target potential new car buyers, previously you would be able to utilize data of online shoppers who have displayed car-buying behaviors compiled from various third-party data providers, like Oracle, Acxiom or Lotame. But now, without the cookie-based data, you can’t target these audiences based on actions they have taken across the digital universe.

Here are some other ways these changes will impact your campaigns:

Your analytics. If you are relying on a solution that uses third-party cookies to track return visitors, your analytics can be impacted. A user who visits a website twice using Safari may now be seen as two separate users in Google Analytics because the third-party cookie identifying them has been purged by the browser. As a result, they could be misinterpreted as newly acquired traffic when they are actually return visitors. 

Ad attribution. If the click time on an ad is separated from the purchase time by a few days, the attribution of the purchase to the original click may be lost. That’s because the mechanism relies on cookies to identify the user. This may negatively impact ROI calculations on the ad.

A/B testing. Many A/B testing solutions use cookies to identify users. Without that cookie in place, they may be unable to effectively prevent a single user from seeing the A test, and then the B test later on. 

Steps can you take now
So how can marketers pivot away from this reliance on cross-site data collection and still execute results-driven digital marketing strategies? Here are a few ways:

Examine how your website handles cookies. Tracking protection may purge all cookies set by Javascript after seven days. So even within your own site, cookie handling should be carefully examined and preferably sent by the server, not Javascript.

Return to contextual ads. One of the primary tactics deployed through programmatic is behavioral advertising, which relies on third-party cookie data. Although advertisers can still include programmatic strategies, they will need shift their focus away from behavioral and more to contextual advertising, which use content categories and/or keywords to target messaging against a prospective audience on various web pages.

Make site-direct media buys vs. programmatic. There’s no question, programmatic in its true form brought efficiency to buying display. However, with the focus on protecting privacy, site direct buys will move more to the forefront as an alternative strategy to replace audience-based display advertising.

Consider targeting strategies that do not rely on cookie data. Targeting specific audiences for campaigns will still be able to utilize first-party data, IP addresses, and other forms of offline data sources (e.g. voter registration, property records, surveys, purchase transactions, etc.) as these all do not rely on cookie data. Investment in capabilities, technologies, and partnerships will help spur innovation and creativity in this space.

Stay informed. It seems that with each passing month, another internet browser announces that it is limiting the ability to see who is engaging with online content to comply with privacy rules. So it’s important to remain up-to-date on any actions that could potentially impact your campaigns.

Part of executing successful digital marketing campaigns relies on accurately analyzing data.

Now more than ever, it’s important to partner with experts who understand the digital ad landscape, can analyze your strategy and results, and guide you on how to best structure your campaign moving forward.  

Digital marketing will become even more critical — and more complicated — in 2021. Here are just five of the biggest trends — and their most likely implications — that you’ll want to keep in mind as you refine your advertising, content marketing, paid media, video marketing, and social media plans for 2021.

Trend #1: Moving to a “cookieless” environment
The data privacy movement is driving a “cookieless” environment — and that will dramatically impact the way you’re targeting audiences through digital channels. Right now, a lot of data used to target digital advertising is gathered through cookies, e.g., what sites you’ve visited, what you’ve purchased online, and what you’ve searched for. 
Implications: While cookies will still be around in 2021, already sites are asking people’s permission to gather their data and more people are “opting out” of this collection. Eventually, without this cookie-gathered data, you’ll need to consider the following shifts. 

• Pivot from behavioral to contextual targeting — so that rather than targeting the type of person you want to reach, you’ll need to leverage new strategies for placing ads amidst the type of content those prospects are likely viewing.
• Consider more site-specific digital advertising — returning to the practice of buying space on sites directly from their publishers.
• Factor in new ways to use your own customer data and explore offline targeting options to build an online audience.

Trend #2: Leveraging 5G networks to expand mobile advertising options
The shift from 4G to 5G will create a new spectrum of possibilities for mobile marketing — as this technology will move data 1,000 times faster.
Implications: With this faster technology, your team will be able to:

• Create/test more interactive ad units that are more engaging/differentiating.
• Create/test more short-form videos that are in high demand.
• Improve ad performance on mobile given reduced lag times. 

Trend#3: Satisfying the demand for more robust, varied content marketing
Both B2B and B2C audiences are opting out of ads and leaning in for more relevant and authentic content. 
Implications: This means marketers are going to need to shift to more opt-in than push-out methods of communicating. Here are just a few steps you may want to factor into your plans:

• Use more native advertising to contextually target our audiences in environments that matter most to them.
• Build an even more robust content marketing engine to fuel and feed digital channels with relevant content contextually or natively placed.
• Increase mobile advertising given how much more time people are spending on their smart phones and mobile devices.
• Continue to leverage site-direct digital channels where audience consumption has grown, and you are able to pinpoint your audience’s interest and align appropriately.

Trend #4: Personalization = differentiation
Personalized experiences are no longer a nice-to-have, they’re a must-to-create. In fact, eighty percent of digital audiences are more likely to take action when they are presented with a personalized experience.
Implications: Consider options for personalizing your outreach.

• Build more detailed audience personas based on real insights about your customer preferences, interests and behaviors.
• Dynamically tailor what your audiences see based on where they’re coming from, so they see different messaging depending on the ad or content that is driving them to take action. 

Trend #5: Video consumption is growing with no end in sight
The increased adoption of video-based communication and 5G advances in smartphones, tablets, streaming services has resulted in a new era for video marketing . . . punctuated by giant leaps in consumption.  
Implications: Consider both traditional and emerging means of maximizing your video distribution.

• Reconsider how you’ll use video in every stage of your marketing funnel — and what information you’re currently conveying through words can be better communicated through video.
• Rethink your mobile advertising to take advantage of the fact that there will be new opportunities mobile in-app ads.
• Plan to distribute more short-form video through social media as a way to stand out in the expanding social ad universe and take advantage of the popular story ad format that has been adopted by SnapChat, Instagram, Facebook, WhatsApp, LinkedIn and YouTube. For B2B, consider that 31% of professionals are now watching LinkedIn Live videos for learning opportunities, a trend that has grown during COVID.

These key trends will certainly pave the way for new digital marketing opportunities in 2021. We’d love to help you leverage these new opportunities for your brand! 

These days, with so many original photography budgets being slashed and just as many brands and agencies searching the same stock photo libraries, how can you still use visuals to capture attention, support your message, and provoke a reaction...and action? Is a picture still worth a thousand words? Or even better, a thousand views?

It can be...and there are five ways you can stand out in today's world of stock sameness: 

1. Keep it real.
You know it when you see it. "It" being fake, artificial or staged scenarios. Your subconscious can just tell when a photo's not authentic. So do whatever you can to keep everything and everyone feeling 100% natural. Instead of going into a shoot with a very specific, static, posed idea in mind, take a cue from the improv world and build yourself a looser box in which anything can happen. In this case, we let a pediatrician interact with a young patient just the way she normally does. And then, captured all the magical — and real — moments. 

2. Combine...and redefine.
Here's a case where two wrongs actually can make a right. Instead of limiting yourself to a single, standard-issue stock photograph, is there a way to bring two or more together in a far more distinctive way? Sometimes, that can take the pressure off finding that one perfect picture. And in this case, it can help capture and empathize with the pain felt by people suffering from digestive discomfort — far better than a stock (or even original) photo of someone grimacing could.

3. Create your very own world.
Nobody said photography has to be used "as is." If it's not working the way you want it to, change it up...or build something from scratch. That's what Photoshop is for — not to mention the many specialists who know how to use it and other easily accessible tools to create completely unique, imaginative and amazing things that aren't going to look like anything else out there. For this series of print ads, we partnered with a visual effects artist to give our client a strong, gritty aesthetic that felt both unique and worthy of the brand and its attitude.

4. Set a mood. And stick with it.
One way to ensure you stand out is to make sure your communications and visuals have a consistent look, feel and mood that's easy to spot across different platforms. It's easy to fall back on the "well, this is all I could find from stock" excuse, but even then, is there a way to make different visuals come together more cohesively? Here, we wanted to amp up the confident, competitive attitude of the Connecticut Sun's star players, so we shot them not in action but dramatically lit...in a way that showcased their drive and determination.

5. Evoke an emotion. 
As we tell clients, we turn emotion into motion. If you want to get your audience to act, you first have to get them to feel. And photography is one of the best ways to do that, whether you're tugging on heartstrings or tickling the funnybone. Always look for a way to make your visuals not just attract eyeballs, but elicit a real human reaction that's connected to the benefits you offer, not just features. This ad got a chuckle to get parents thinking about college savings.

With so many communications platforms calling out for visual content, it's not easy to stand apart from everyone using the same, often clichéd photography resources. But with the starting points above, your brand can rise above the rest...and so can your results.

In a disconnected world of social distancing, online shopping and virtual experiences, brand connection is everything.

With consumers being exposed to over 10,000 digital messages a day, brand voice is critical to establishing and maintaining that emotional connection to your brand. And the worst thing brands can do right now is to be tone deaf.

Here are three key tips to help you find and fine-tune your brand voice. 

1. Tune-in or they’ll tune you out. It’s critical to start by simply assessing how your customers or prospects may be feeling during the current environment via quick pulse checks and social listening. 

2. Check and fine-tune your brand voice. Do a quick audit of all your messages to understand what tone you’re currently portraying and don’t be afraid to pivot based on your audience’s current sentiment. Look to balance what you want to say with what your customers want to hear! Also monitor the competitive landscape to see what are other brands saying and doing. 

3. Listen, respond, but keep your brand voice TRU. There’s nothing distant about social or digital channels. Your customers will let you know how they feel. Listen and quickly respond to let them know their voice is heard. And, while your brand voice may need to be flexible during this time, it should always be true to your brand. 

The bottomline is make sure your brand voice is True to who you are, Relevant to your audience, and Unique among your competitors.

With much of the world’s population homebound and trying to handle business as usual during the COVID-19 pandemic, livestreaming on social media has taken off.

-The number of U.S. users watching live videos on Facebook has risen 50% since January. (Bloomberg)
-Streaming’s share of total TV time for the past four weeks is up to 23% of U.S. TV households.
-Netflix, YouTube, Amazon and Hulu saw increases in total streaming minutes per week as of March 16.
-People watched 156+ billion minutes of streaming content during the week of March 16. (MediaPost)

Not only does livestreaming let marketers in different sectors continue engaging with their audiences and consumers, it allows them to turn what were normally “live” experiences into virtual ones. For example:

• Musicians and music venues are using it to broadcast concerts
• Theaters are leveraging it to offer “living room” performances
• Zoos and aquariums are posting live cams of animals and sea life
• Teachers and libraries are posting virtual activities, like story time
• Parks are posting live feeds of natural wonders, like waterfalls
• Fitness and wellness studios are sharing exercises and relaxation techniques
• Broadcast studios are using it to film interviews from home offices

As it stands, Facebook and Instagram Live appear to be the most popular and widely used platforms for streaming. So whether you use these platforms to broadcast concerts, give product demos, provide instruction, or share a live feed, keep in mind these tips to maximize quality and efficiency before, during and after you film.

Before you start broadcasting: 
__ Promote your livestream in advance of going live to give audiences a heads-up
__ Source questions in advance to keep content relevant with your audience
__ Clean your camera lens so it’s free of dust and smudges
__ Write a compelling description for the livestream
__ Choose a well lit location for your livestream; remove clutter and anything that could distract viewers
__ Set the camera on your mobile device to the back camera lens; choose portrait or landscape 
__ Make sure you have a strong connection so that your broadcast is as clear and high-res as possible.

When you’re ready to go live: 
__ Click the screen to focus on the main subject and to adjust the lighting
__ Use a tripod to keep the stream steady
__ Choose a quiet spot and insist on everyone being quiet so the audio is not interrupted
__ Engage your audience by asking questions and responding to them.

Once you’re done:
__ Post your reply and save the video to your feed or share via email.

With these tips, you’ll be well on your way to producing professional-looking videos. And that’s something your audience is bound to appreciate—and engage with.

“Can everyone see my screen?” “You’re still on mute!” “Is anyone else hearing an echo?” “Why am I the only one with my camera on?”

Video conferencing. Previously considered an alternative to in-person, on-site travel, it’s now become an essential tool for working Corona-style

No wonder why Teams is Microsoft’s fastest-growing application, currently downloaded at hundreds of thousands of companies all over the world.

Are you up-to-speed on how to use this technology to collaborate with co-workers and meet “face-to-face” with clients, albeit remotely? Looking for ways to get the most out of the platform?

We asked a group of Teams gurus how they maximize this platform’s ability to help them manage projects. Here were some of their tips.

Create sub-channels for projects and title them with a consistent identifier, like a job number. This not only helps you easily sort and reference, but it will also ensure that you can keep track of the time you spend on each project if you do job-cost accounting.

Turn on notifications in both Banner and Feed for any channel you need to stay updated on. This way you can be alerted or “pinged” whenever someone posts or shares an update for that channel . . .and ensure you don’t miss any important details.

Tag teammates to make sure they’re notified when you reach out on the platform. Simply use “@ [teammate name here] when you send a message.

Add ‘go-to’ project artifacts – like project schedule, estimate, brief, diagram, communications plan, status report, issue log, drafts, etc. to team/channel “files” for easy access and version control.

It looks like remote work and virtual conferencing will be the norm for a while. Share these tips with your team to make the transition a little easier...and more productive.

There are some things you can always look forward to from the latest crop of Super Bowl ads. Celebrity cameos. Big production values. Lots of food, cars and beers. But what else might we expect during Super Bowl LIV? Keep an eye out for these three trends:

Advertisers aiming for the sweet spot of "funny meets feel good." In today's hyper-divisive, almost apocalyptic-feeling world, nobody wants to be confronted with issues-based commercials aiming to provoke controversy. So brands will be looking to entertain. And while anyone can go for cheap laughs, and most will, the few ads that manage to amuse while also adding in some real emotion will be the ones that get remembered.

Getting political. Of course, not everyone is going to pay attention to that first trend. Especially Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg, each of whom has announced plans to run campaign ads during the Super Bowl. It's not yet clear whether other candidates will follow, but what could be a better idea than dropping a few polarizing political ads into the middle of a crowded Super Bowl party full of loud, rowdy, well-lubricated football fans?

Brands boasting about doing good. Purpose-driven advertising is nothing new in the past few years, but expect even more of it this year. Brands will attempt to win over socially conscious consumers (helloooo, Millennials!) by aligning themselves with important causes  . . . everything from empowering women to reducing environmental footprints. But mainly in a positive, uplifting way that's not dark or scary.

No brand wants their ad to be the Super Bowl bummer.

On average, people have about 80 mobile apps installed on their phones.

Yet, they only use about 10 percent of them on a daily basis. 

But given the amount of time, energy and resources it takes to create one, how can marketers make sure their app doesn’t become a one-and-done phenom and actually delivers the desired results?

This is the question we recently posed to our staff of marketing specialists, who work across a range of marketing fields from search and digital marketing to marketing technology and analytics. Indeed, all shared a common point of view that effective apps:

• offer a value or benefits that mobile websites don't.
• offer ease and convenience to all kinds of personal information stored on your smartphone.
• provide easy access to it even when there’s no internet connection.
• foster brand loyalty and seamless consumer journeys by literally keeping people connected to your organization.

They also suggest that marketers ask these questions to evaluate whether their business really needs an app and whether that app will expand interaction with their brand:

Does the app fill a need or strengthen the relationships with clients or prospects? 
Will the app provide an extension of your service, or convenience or sense of ownership/privacy that is not possible on the web? Health brands that offer training/weight loss apps, for instance, allow users to track their progress/record workouts while also providing a "sense of privacy” and ready access to trends and history.

Does the app leverage capabilities that are not possible from a website? Like integration with other devices, such as iWatch or FitBit? Some of the best apps out there are those that have good reason to access your mobile device’s hardware capabilities like the camera, GPS, etc. A good example would be banking apps that now let customers take pictures and deposit checks via mobile or using your specific GPS location to serve up offers. All of which can only be served from mobile.

If your idea for an app, doesn’t meet this criteria, you may want to consider a progressive web app (PWA) instead of a native app, which is essentially a feature-rich website built to look, feel and function like an app.

Would a new app provide a function or content that your current site/experience doesn’t offer? If the idea for the app doesn’t bring added functionality or convenience, then it probably would not be a great investment for your brand. Some banking/investment apps, for example, provide quick access to account info, transactions and modeling . . . tools and information that are not always accessible through a website.

In addition, there’s no inherent search/SEO value with an app. That means creating content specifically for it isn’t as valuable as putting it on your website.

Does the app give customers a reason to come back on a regular basis? This is critical to success…because recent studies suggest that as many as 25 percent of apps that are downloaded are used once and then never again.

Is there a commitment to maintaining the app? As people install your app on a myriad of devices, support issues are likely to arise. And as device OSs are updated and the ecosystem around the apps evolves, chances are very good that your app will need regular attention. In fact, very often, the cost to update an app can equal what it cost to develop it in the first place. So make sure there’s a plan and resources allocated to update the app right from the start . . . to maintain functionality and ensure an ongoing positive user experience.

Are there resources to promote and market the app? Just because you develop an app, doesn’t mean your audiences will flock to the App Store to download it. In a sea of 2.2 million of apps, you will need to promote and market your app so that potential users find it . . .and use it. And that will cost extra beyond the initial development.

When properly planned and executed, mobile apps can extend brand loyalty and provide conveniences that websites can’t. Answering “yes” to these questions will make sure it’s worth your effort. 

Recently, a client called concerned that the press kept pulling in outdated, not-so-flattering images of their destination whenever it ran a story. She surmised that they were just pulling these images off of Google.

“Isn’t there something we can do to control what photos come up in a Google image search?” she asked.

Great question. So I threw it out to our team of SEM/SEO specialists, website developers, and digital marketers. And although there is no way to actually tell search engines what image to display for your destination, product or organization, there are ways you can influence Google image optimization.

Many of the best practices outlined below can help make your images more “findable” by the search engines, thus enabling them to rank more prominently and to displace less desirable options. Other suggestions below can help you simply spread the imagery you wouldn’t mind others using when referencing your attraction, town, city, product or organization.

#1. Upload images as JPEG or PNG. File formats do matter to the search engines. JPEGs, in particular, are SEO-friendly and are ideal if you post larger photos or illustrations because they can offer good color/clarity with a relatively small file size. However, if you want to preserve a transparent background for a logo or image you are using online, use the PNG file format.

#2. Use target keywords in your image file name. You can also influence what images come up when people are searching for specific keywords by including those keywords when you name the image files you use on your website or provide for other digital marketing purposes. For example, an image of Stamford should be titled stamford-connecticut.JPEG, if one of your brand’s keywords is “Stamford.”

#3. Add SEO-optimized alt text. When posting your images online, take advantage of the opportunity to add alt text. This will help ensure your images get correctly categorized. It will also show descriptive, searchable text if the image can’t be displayed, like when a user has “turned off” images.

#4. Create an image sitemap. Just like you can submit XML sitemaps to Google to help make your website more search-engine friendly, you can also submit an XML sitemap for your images. This can help increase the chances that they can be found as well as alert Google to images uploaded through JavaScript that it might otherwise not discover.

In addition to listing your image files, an image sitemap can include a title, caption and geographic location for each image. Not only does this information provide more content about your images, it lets you indicate images that you want the search engines to crawl and index in search results.    

#5. Create a page to serve as an image gallery. You may also want to consider including an image gallery on your website. This would allow you to try to rank that page in text searches for photos, not just in image searches.

#6. Submit your photos to a stock photography provider. Often reporters and freelance writers rely on stock photo houses, not just search, to source copyright free photos. If you own photos with all the appropriate people and location releases, you could consider making them available through a stock photo house. For example, photographers can contribute their own work to Shutterstock, a popular photo resource many publishers use. If your brand, destination, town/city has a collection of photos and is legally permitted to license them, then they can make these photos more accessible to all kinds of potential users through stock photo houses.

In a recent survey published by eMarketer, 62 percent of millennials said they want the ability to search by visual image as part of a customer-buying journey. Even more motivation to optimize images and gain more control over the visibility of your brand!