Entitled “New Technology. New Opportunities.” the brief report is available online at www.palosheightslibrary.org/2011annualreport and includes an overview of special events and developments that contributed to a very successful year in 2011. Residents of southwest suburban Palos Heights who are unable to access the Internet in their homes are invited to visit the library where they can read the report either online or in print. Those with smart phones or tablets can also access the report by scanning a QR code that appears on a standard 4” x 6” postcard mailed to all postal patrons.

Juli Barcelona, President of Barcelona Creative Group, said “When the library told us it was critical that we find a way to produce their 2011 annual report as cost efficiently as possible, we suggested our new interactive, digital technology rather than mailing a printed piece to every resident. It’s a great way to include photographs and features that may have otherwise ended up on the cutting room floor.”

Barcelona Creative Group is a strategic marketing and branding firm founded in Palos Heights more than 22 years ago. While its original focus was on graphic design and traditional forms of media advertising, the agency has expanded to specialize in branding and strategic marketing, as well as all forms of traditional and digital media management, website development and social media engagement.

For more information on the interactive digital format utilized for the Palos Heights Public Library, visit  www.barcelonacreative.com.

It’s like I say in life, “you’ve got to have goals,” and the same goes for your marketing. If you don’t take a look at the big picture in front of you and set some objectives, how can you expect to measure the success of any marketing tactics you execute?

Let’s take a look at the 5 things that most CMO’s will want to discuss with their marketing firm this year:

1. Redefining the Brand in Terms of the Customer

Whether your business is B2B or B2C, companies are finally learning that you need to fully understand your customers, what their needs are and communicate with them in ways you may never have thought of before. For brands today, building relationships is all about creating dialogue, not a monologue. Which means, you need to get your brand in shape – if it doesn’t need a redo, maybe it’s time for a refresh.

2. Lost, Languishing and Unloved LEADS

Did you know that when it comes to leads, most touch points by prospects go complete unnoticed? It’s time to stop spending countless dollars on a marketing budget trying to generate leads without even having an accurate count of how many leads were actually generated or if there was any follow up performed. When B2B leads go cold within 48 hours, you had better have a lead nurturing process in place and it had better work!

3. Getting a Better Fix on Marketing Analytics

As John Wanamaker once said, “half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.”

Companies have always had trouble figuring this out. But, a web smart marketing firm can help you move in that direction because most analytics, including page placement, during and post campaign validation, click and conversion, audience segmentation and more are new digital. And with the demand for cross media campaigns increasing, you need to find a marketing partner that is skilled in both traditional and digital media.

4. Projecting a Global Face

Today’s marketing campaigns are universal. They can be adapted regionally or locally. When it comes to your brand, you need to do your research and take into consideration not only regulations, but also cultural differences such as language, etc.

5. Mobile: The Most Powerful Screen of All

There are 5.9 BILLION mobile phones and 1 out of every 4 mobile subscribers in the U.S. owns a smartphone more than PC’s AND TV’s combined!

Today, Americans spend more time on Facebook than they do on any other U.S. website and they no longer just watch TV, they interact with it.

In less than 5 years, mobile traffic will exceed desktop traffic. Are you and your brand ready for that? If you’re shaking your head no, you better get in the game! Enough said.

As a strategic marketing and branding partner, Barcelona Creative Group strives to help business executives navigate the challenges of today’s media and find ways to improve and market brands in ways that generate results. With our branding process, which includes MarketIntelligence™, BrandIntelligence™ and InternalIntelligence™, clients get a full 360 view into their audience, the brand and their employees.

To learn more, contact Barcelona Creative Group today!

BCG is an active member of Second Wind – an association for agencies. Some of the content in this post was written with the help of Second Wind.

The Boot Camp features a full day of speakers, seminars and expert panel discussions designed to promote Veteran business start-up and growth, as well as development of existing Veteran owned businesses. The event is free for all Veterans.

In her presentation, “Marketing on a Shoestring,” Juli shared the importance of developing and marketing your brand even if don’t have a huge budget. Businesses still need to have an ongoing marketing budget and it should be a part of your strategic marketing plan.

“If you have a tight budget for marketing, it’s crucial that you focus on identifying your target audience – know what they need from your business and how you can reach them efficiently. Social media, email marketing, targeted direct mail and inbound marketing are marketing tactics that work very well on a small budget. Create a promotional calendar identifying content and offers so you can market at various times of the year. You should not spend your entire marketing budget all in one campaign,” advised Juli Barcelona.

This is Juli Barcelona’s third year as a presenter at the Veterans Boot Camp and her informative presentation takes attendees through both traditional and digital marketing tactics, including examples of how to use social media tools effectively. To find out more about Barcelona Creative Group or request other marketing and branding presentations offered by Juli Barcelona, visit their website at barcelonacreative.com.

Barcelona Creative Group is a strategic marketing and branding firm with over 20 years of experience. BCG has a distinct ability to execute using both traditional and non-traditional tactics. They excel at building your brand, understanding your business and your customers to produce strategic marketing solutions that drive your business forward. Areas of specialization include insurance, healthcare, senior care, wealth management, banking and manufacturing.

To learn more about the marketing and branding presentations offered by Barcelona Creative Group, contact Juli Barcelona at 708-448-8077 or by email at juli@barcelonacreative.com.

A new logo was requested by senior management of First Midwest Bank, which has agreed to serve as the title (platinum) sponsor of the race through 2014. Barcelona Creative Group, a local marketing and branding firm, provided all branding and design services as part of an in-kind contribution to the First Midwest Bank Southwest Half Marathon and the Palos area. The 2012 half marathon will contribute more than $15,000 to local charitable and non-profit organizations, including the South West Special Recreation Association, American Cancer Society for Prostate Cancer and Research and Lake Katherine Nature Center and Botanic Gardens.

To vote for the logo design that you feel will best represent the Palos area and the First Midwest Half Marathon, visit the First Midwest Bank or Barcelona Creative Group exhibits outside City Hall in Palos Heights this Sunday morning or vote online at www.firstmidwesthalfmarathon.com. The winning logo design will be announced following the conclusion of voting on May 31, 2012.

Logo Design Options:

In these difficult times, when marketing opportunities change like the weather, you need to turn to a creative agency partner you can trust to not only understand your needs, but also manage your brand, direct the action and deliver measurable results.

When choosing or evaluating a creative agency partner, consider these 5 must-have characteristics.

1. The Right Services

Hiring a creative agency to just redesign your website or develop a brand collateral piece won’t get you more visitors or solve your sales problems. You need to hire a creative agency that understands what it means to market a successful brand – one that digs deep and finds the truthful promise of your brand and tells that story properly across all forms of media. You need to partner with a creative agency who understands that combining traditional advertising, digital and social media and inbound marketing techniques such as blogging, email marketing and content creation is the only real way to attract more leads, more traffic and customers. Be certain that the creative agency you choose has the capabilities you need to meet your marketing goals.

2. Creative and Fresh Ideas

It’s no secret that what clients want most from their creative agency partner are fresh ideas. When every other business in the world today is focused on evolving and becoming a “lean and mean machine”, why should creative agencies be any different? Agencies who focus on being a creative entity – demanding ideas from their entire team – are the ones who understand that producing great creativity is not limited to art and copy. They demand a tremendous amount of creativity in their media planning, strategy and research as well. Part of your criteria in choosing a marketing agency must be ensuring that great creative is part of their mission and vision.

3. A Clear Process

When you think about social, digital, traditional, SEO/SEM, it’s pretty clear that there are endless marketing options available today to tell your brand story. However, a great creative agency partner doesn’t just throw the brand out there to the masses without a sound strategy. Not all brands or consumers are alike. Smart brands do their homework – they choose a creative agency that digs deep to learn about their customers and their competitors. When knowledge is power, you must partner with a creative agency with a proven, calculated process. The real value of an agency’s involvement will be in how they put the pieces together into a comprehensive strategy that produces measurable results.

4. Strong Project Management Skills

There’s nothing more daunting than working with an agency that only focuses on the design. You may end up with a fancy creative idea, but what about the message and the execution? It can be pretty scary to be left alone to figure out how to get that creative into the hands of the right prospects. A great creative agency partner gets inside your head to determine message, strategy and proper execution. When you choose a creative agency, ask yourself if they have the communication skills and the process to make reasonable and realistic requests of you and your team. Does the agency set clear expectations around what each component will require in terms of time and resources? Are you confident that they can manage campaigns with lots of moving parts? A good creative agency will make your life easier – not more difficult.

5. An Emphasis on Measurable Results

Words like “objectives,” “goals,” “metrics and analytics” and “benchmarks” should be mentioned often from a great creative agency. When you hear those words on a regular basis, you should know that you have a true agency partner on your hands, not just a project vendor. Progress made toward your goals should be measured every step of the way, and a creative agency worth their weight will track campaigns, ask questions, change course if necessary and report on performance. You have goals and a marketing agency that helps you set goals, and meet goals, is an agency worth hiring. Your marketing agency partner should be as focused as you are on monitoring the success of a marketing strategy.

What other characteristics do you think are must-haves for a creative agency?

At Barcelona Creative Group, we rely on BrandIntelligence™ - the ultimate strategic marketing process – which helps us identify the uniqueness of your brand and translate it into a strategy and memorable campaign focused on end results. Our step-by-step approach focuses on the following 4 steps:

1. b Strategic: Recognizing that knowledge is power. Successful brands do their homework – they know their customers, their competitors and their unique qualities.
2. b Creative: Yes, message does matter. Whether its inbound marketing and website content, or brand collateral and campaigns, your marketing messages need to be consistent with your value promise.
3. b Tactical: You must be where your customers are. The truly great marketing campaigns are interactive, using traditional methods combined with new and innovative tools of engagement.
4. B Your Brand: Actions speak louder than words. You can’t just create a brand, you must also live it. Your brand message should resonate as loudly inside your business as it does in the marketing being conducted to the masses.

Gone are the days when brands could just deliver advertising messages through traditional channels and expect positive results. Claims and promises are now vetted by the most influential critics in a consumer’s world… their family and friends. Understanding your customers needs is key to creating and marketing a successful brand. This means advertising your brand has to be just as worthwhile and useful as engaging and sought-after content, such as news and entertainment.

If you are not in tune with your customer(s), what your competitors are up to and able to communicate the truthful promise of your brand, how can you expect to market your business successfully? Our strategic marketing process puts all of this knowledge in your hands. Through BrandIntelligence™, we are able to identify what makes your brand unique, develop a creative and strategic plan with real objectives and deliver measurable and effective results.

Click to download a Free BrandIntelligence™ Case Study.

Why wait… Let’s Get Started. Ready, Set, Go!

I don’t know about your favorites from this year’s Superbowl ads, but below are my Top 5. This will make 2 years in a row where Volkswagen has topped my list of best ads – last year it was that Darth Vader and this year, dog lover that I am, they stopped on top with “The Dog Strikes Back”, followed by 4 other commercials that either made me laugh or left me speechless. What was your favorite commercial this year? Feel free to comment and add a spot that didn’t make my list or vote from my Top 5! See you next year!

#1 – Volkswagen: The Dog Strikes Back

#2 – Doritos: Man’s Best Friend

#3 – Chrysler: It’s Half Time In America

#4 – Honda CR-V: Matthew’s Day Off

#5 – Skechers: Go Run Mr. Quigley!

Vote on your favorite from my Top 5!

Barcelona Creative Group
12416 S Harlem Avenue
Palos Heights, IL 60463
708-448-8077

My team members at BCG are also fans. So, when McDonald’s started advertising their Peppermint Mocha it seemed only natural that we had to compare the two – give the new comer the benefit of the doubt. You could say I went into this battle biased, but I honestly went into it open-minded. You never know, right?

I won’t lie – I am a huge fan of the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha and probably average 2 to 3 per week during the month of December. It’s my Friday treat and a staple of my holiday shopping when I need a warm up or a burst of energy. I know I’m not alone. How could you not love that combination of chocolate, peppermint and whip cream – all in a fancy wintery red cup.

The challenge was to determine which brand had the better Peppermint Mocha – Starbucks or McDonald’s. We had some team members try the Peppermint Mocha and others test the Peppermint Hot Chocolate. I can tell you that it was absolutely no contest… Starbucks Peppermint Mocha just simply ROCKS!

First, let’s discuss the packaging. In the words of Clark W. Griswald, “It’s all part of the experience Russ!” There really is no contest when comparing that winter-themed Starbucks cup to the standard McDonald’s coffee cup. I have to equate it to buying an Apple product and the fact that I have just as much fun examining and opening the packaging it comes in as the product itself (Apple never ceases to amaze me by the way – but that’s a whole other battle!)

Now, the drink itself… McDonald’s – can I please get some peppermint flavor and chocolate with that Peppermint Mocha? It was like drinking coffee (or milk) without the rest of the elements that make the Peppermint Mocha so glorious. It just didn’t measure up. There wasn’t one BCG team member who preferred McDonald’s to Starbucks. I will give McDonald’s credit for one thing – their advertising makes their version of these Peppermint drinks look fabulous and yummy, but as we all know, looks can be deceiving. And in this case, also disappointing. At the end of the day, your ads are not enough and the Starbucks experience dominated this BCG Battle of the Brands challenge!

The winner of the first ever Barcelona Creative Group #bcgbrandbattle was unanimous… Congratulations to the Starbucks Peppermint Mocha! Sorry McDonald’s, but I’d have to say that if you’re going to give your holiday treat the same name, it had better measure up. Ironically, as I write this I am enjoying my very own Starbucks Peppermint Mocha.

But, in the spirit of fair competition, I ask all of you to vote for who makes your favorite Peppermint Mocha?

Join us for next month’s BCG Battle of the Brands (#bcgbrandbattle). It’s our new thing for 2012 – we’re big on starting new year’s resolutions a little early around this office. In the meantime I wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Merry New Year!

The evolution of digital marketing is forcing marketers to think differently about building and managing brands. Marketers are now responsible for both traditional and digital marketing channels. To be effective they must exhibit skills in writing, strategy, design, web development, relationship building and countless others. Several are struggling to find the most efficient and effective ways to connect traditional marketing tactics with newer digital strategies.

Many brands have a strong traditional advertising campaign and a strong online presence but do not know how to combine the two. Social media is just one aspect of digital marking – but with 88% of companies projected to use social media tools for marketing by 2012, knowing how to integrate your social media presence with your traditional marketing efforts is crucial. The goal is to make advertising more effective by giving consumers a complete brand experience through the use of multiple channels that encourage interaction and engagement.

Traditional advertising is still is a great way to reach the masses, while digital marketing offers a more personalized, one-on-one style of communication. TraDigital advertising tactics help businesses create engaging campaigns that connect with consumers through various channels – leading to more impactful and successful brand awareness.

When it comes down to it, today’s great marketing campaigns are integrated and interactive. They employ TraDigital methods, refusing to believe that ‘old’ tactics no longer work, while recognizing that new and innovative tools of engagement can be priceless. Brands are challenged to build relationships and awareness in new ways. Learning to navigate this new world of hybrid marketing can be intimidating, but it is inevitable.

My advice is that you better get a handle on your brand and what your customer’s need are. Identifying that and translating it into powerful creative and memorable campaigns will need a good dose of TraDigital. Lucky for you I might just know a hybrid agency that can help!

Interactive efforts are now playing a huge role in how businesses attract and retain customers. Every advertising strategy aims to reach a target consumer, and traditional advertising may seem to have lost its luster. Traditional advertising, while still effective and extremely important, seems to be playing a supporting role. It should not however, by any means, be ignored. Traditional media consists of established advertising methods, including newspaper, magazine and other print ads, radio, television, billboards, and more.

The key is to integrate traditional advertising and digital advertising to develop powerful, integrated marketing campaigns. Traditional advertising is not dead. It is merely facing a great deal of competition from other forms of advertising in modern times. Like many other facets of life, advertising has been irreversibly changed by technology – consequently, advertisers have been forced to adapt. Balancing the free form messaging of social media with the control, consistency and reach of traditional media can offer the best of both worlds.

Traditional media actually forms much of how consumers interact with brands through digital media. Because of its reach, many brands are using traditional media to direct viewers, listeners, and readers to their digital marketing efforts. We are seeing this happen with print advertisements and television commercials directing traffic to the brand’s Facebook page or Twitter handle. Once there, visitors can communicate and connect with the brand to begin developing a lasting relationship.

Social media can be great for building customer relationships and spreading your brand’s message, but it does have a significant downfall. People don’t always spread the same message you would like them to. While honest opinions are user-generated, they may not fit your strategy and on occasion may even be detrimental. Traditional marketing can help create a foundation and guide the brand message through the social media community. By promoting the contents of one marketing effort, for example a television commercial, with another like social media, you strengthen the frequency, volume, and effectiveness of both marketing efforts. What a great way to maximize your marketing investment and gain more mileage out of your campaigns.