To get more clients, you often have to offer up some value, which means giving them something first. Advertising agencies should be offering their expertise in creative design for business organizations where decision makers gather, like business associations. By demonstrating and raising awareness about what great creative design looks like, association attendees (potential clients) will begin to put two-and-two-together. Before long, one member will say, “If the advertising agency does work like this for my association, they must understand something about my business too!”

Add to the mix a third tried and true saying, “Play it forward.” Once one business becomes a loyal client, they tell ten people, who then tell ten more people, and before too long that pro bono expense is living up to the saying, “Give and you shall receive!” Besides, great design lifts our spirits and makes us happy. Just like my new iPad—the subject of my next blog post.

To see how Scales Advertising provided great creative for the tech geniuses at Minnesota’s High Tech Assoc. (MHTA) go to www.tekneawards.org.

It is a two-dimensional bar code, designed to be read by smartphones. Thanks to error correction, artists do have some freedom to add embellishments, like these:

They can be created in any color (as long as the contrast is more than 55%) and can link to:

• A website
• A service (Android, BlackBerry® or Apple® app store, Disqus, Facebook, Flickr, Foursquare, LinkedIn, Tumblr, Twitter, Yelp, YouTube)
• A vCard (a digital business card that allows folks to add all your contact info to their address book with the touch of one button)
• SMS to Phone Number – send a text message to a phone number
• Google Places / Map – it will call up the map app on their smart phone
• Email address
• Phone number
• SMS to short code (i.e. when someone prompts you to Text Football to 72404 for latest football news.)
• RSS feed

Best of all, you can track tons of data, including:

• Total views, scans and clicks
• Percentage of mobile and desktop views
• Where and when the scan took place
• What devices people are using to scan your QR code

Here are just a couple ideas for uses: business cards, surveys, invitations, virtual tours, coupons, product advertising, feedback/reviews, support for a product, social media, etc.

As to sizing, the recommendation for print codes is to make them no smaller than 26 x 26 mm, excluding the quiet zone (the clean border around the code). This will ensure your code can be read by 90% of the phones on the market. If you want to ensure your code can be read by all phones, you’ll want to make it 32 x 32 mm. The latest camera models, which have improved macro capabilities, can deal with QR Codes that are less than 10 mm (0.4 in.) wide and high. For signage, the recommendation is 37.5 x 37.5 cm, though this will vary based on the distance folks will be scanning your code from.

The quiet zone should be at least one module thick, though four is the official recommendation. (A module is one of the black pixels in the QR code – see us in interactive if you need clarification).

The Five Golden Rules are:

1. Serve a business objective. Don’t just make one for the sake of making one. What’s the strategy behind it?
2. Add value. People will scan the code if they can get something out of it – a discount, a song, etc. will get you more scans.
3. Add contextual assistance. Tell them why to scan. If they don’t know what they’re going to or what they’ll get out of it, they are unlikely to act.
4. Ensure the codes are scannable on all devices. Test, test, test on actual mobile devices. We’ve got some up in interactive. Come see us before you send anything to the printer and we’ll ensure you’re good to go.
5. Make sure you’re linking to mobile-friendly content. If you’re linking to a video, make sure it’s not Flash. If you’re linking to a site, try to link to the mobile-friendly version – one with a single column and large buttons will be the easiest for your mobile users to navigate. And reduce the number of clicks/fields as much as you can.

If you’ve got the space, you’re also going to get better results if you:

• Help direct them to a reader. Though the uses have gone up considerably, there are still many people who don’t know what that little symbol is or what to do with it. Help them out and they’ll thank you for it.
• Provide a bar code alternative, i.e. Text YES to 23424 to get coupon

Questions? Concerns? Want to get started? Contact our interactive team.

A good rule of thumb is to have files contain only what’s needed and hide or delete the extras. For example, although text in Photoshop has come a long way, the general rule is to keep it in InDesign or Illustrator, unless you can’t avoid it. The notable exception to this rule is text that needs to contain specific effects that can only be done in Photoshop, such as bevels or masked type. If you’re placing .psd files (as opposed to flattened .tif’s) in your projects, you’ll also need to be certain fonts in the Photoshop file will be collected for final output.

Another basic guideline for Photoshop files is to include only what you need to see and name your layers! Deleting or hiding extra layers is especially important when files are transferred between artists, so the next artist can confidently collect files for output. It’s highly recommended that any unused layers be deleted, or moved to a bottom-most layer under a layer of white fill, to be certain they will never print.

Job reprints can be quite costly! A little upfront planning with Photoshop files can save a lot of headaches down the road.

The physical package structure can have the same efficacy on the product’s positioning. A back card with a heavy shrink film will convey the imagery of a cost-effective, industrial product that will do the job for which its intended, while a wooden presentation box, a decorated tin or special glass container will convey a more upscale, expensive product. When trying to convey the upscale message, a more costly packaging structure may be the key to selling the product at a higher price point.

Packaging is not only the message sent to the consumer by the photos, words or other imagery seen on the structure. Overall communication is ultimately reinforced by the package structure. It is important to consider both elements in combination as the design objectives for a packaging project are being addressed. Finally, it is imperative to have the structure tested and finalized, with an electronic die available, before beginning the production art.

Walt Larsen, Scales’ resident marketing expert, tells his clients to keep it simple and consistent. He often councels brand managers and company owners to stick with a winning slogan, even if they become tired of it. Try to keep in mind the infrequency in which your customers come in contact with your brand. In other words, if it is working for you, stick with it. A great example is Walt’s slogan for YETI Coolers. “Wildly stronger! Keep ice longer!” It tells the customer what she needs to know in five powerful words with crystal clear simplicity.

Think of a brand that is all about saving money like Wal-Mart. Surprising research shows that consumers exposed to the Wal-Mart name might actually spend less than those exposed to the store’s current slogan, “Save money. Live better.” This curious finding was replicated with other stores and slogans by a team of researchers from Miami, Hong Kong, and Berkeley.

The experiment divided subjects into two groups. Half were exposed to brands associated with saving money, like Wal-Mart, Dollar General, Sears, Ross, etc. The other half were exposed to the brands’ slogans only, like Sears’ current motto, “The Good Life at a Great Price. Guaranteed.” When asked to visualize a shopping trip and describe how much money would be spent, the brand-exposed group spent an average of $94 vs. the slogan group, who spent just about twice as much: $184.

A second study found that exposing consumers to a “savings” message caused them to spend more than when they saw a “luxury” message. The authors of the paper, published in the Journal of Consumer Research, found this counterintuitive and perhaps worrisome:

Companies may be trying to attract customers with slogans associated with saving money, but in fact, this strategy may make consumers spend more money than they would if they had not been exposed to the slogans.

Consumer behavior is a major factor in brand positioning. When it comes to slogans, less appears to be more.

SOURCE: http://www.neurosciencemarketing.com/blog/articles/slogans-brands.htm

But don’t you also just hate it when you find out that after all that work and expense, some necessary legal communication points were missed, or—if they were in place—were later determined to be legally too small, and/or not in the proper location on the package?

We’ve found that many design firms today are creating packaging art without realizing that consumer packaging is governed by laws which require certain communication points be placed onto the art. The main problem with designing in this vacuum is that those legal elements then have to be retrofitted into the design after it has been finalized, often adversely affecting the communication and read-through of the original, agreed-upon design. The basic laws regarding packaging are covered under the Fair Trade and Labeling Act. These laws are found in the Certified Federal Register in 16 CFR Part 500, and can be reviewed here.

Keep these rules in mind and include them as communication points when establishing your design objectives. That way, any creative work your design firm presents will not only meet the marketing expectations with greater effectiveness, it will remain intact to the very end, given that the effects of the Fair Trade and Labeling Act were considered in the development phase.

One of our clients is in the middle of the zombie craze. Birchwood Casey has just created a new line of zombie targets and we’ve launched one of the coolest sites I’ve worked on in recent memory — DarkoticTargets.com.

Check it out — but not with little kids in the room.
It has some simple but surprisingly scary animation that leaves the content on the home page SEO-friendly. You’ll appreciate it even if you’re not a zombie-lover or a target shooter. This example is one of our in-store posters. It’s our solution for retailers who say, “It’s been so dead in here.”

Sorry.

Hayward Flow Control "George" Ad

One of our ads for Hayward Flow Control was awarded Best Overall honors for, “effective and original presentation” in Water Environment & Technology (WE&T) magazine. We like to hear that.

“George” was selected as the year’s Best Full-Page-Or-Better ad — from July 2010 to June 2011 — by a panel of judges and volunteers from the WE&T Editorial Advisory Board and the Manufacturers and Representatives Committee.

“This is a first for us,” says Dave Stewart, Director of Marketing for Hayward Flow Control. WE&T is the premier magazine for the water quality field. It provides information on cutting-edge technologies, innovative solutions, operations and maintenance, regulatory and legislative impacts, and professional development.

This one- or two-day paddle starts at the Coon Rapids Dam Regional Park in the north metro and finishes at Grey Cloud Island, south of St. Paul. This is a one-of-a-kind event that offers a rare chance to paddle the urban stretches of the river. View both downtowns and areas so pristine you’ll forget you’re in the heart of the Cities. The two-day paddle includes an overnight campout at Historic Fort Snelling. Explore the fort, enjoy an evening of live music, food and beverages. Registration is still open! To learn more visit www.MississippiRiverChallenge.org.

Show the Human Side

Over the past five years, the word that’s come up in almost any conversation about social media is transparency… and recently, the lines between social media and more traditional websites have started to blur – that word is now prominent in web discussions of all kinds.

People don’t buy from websites, they buy from people. They look at the reviews from real people to decide if yours is a good product. They click on the “about” page far more often than you might think. They want to see who runs the company and who hides away in the server room. They want to ensure you’re not destroying the world with their money. And if they find out you’ve been misbehaving, they will jump online and do their darndest to ensure it goes viral.

So talk like a person, not a machine. Show photos of your building, your staff, the people you’ve helped. Include information about community service efforts and success stories with details and photos. People want to support great businesses and the people behind those businesses, so stop hiding online – just because you’re not face-to-face doesn’t mean it has to be impersonal.

Integrate Everything

It’s no longer a viable option to work in only one medium. Mobile has opened up infinite possibilities for tying the real and online worlds together. If you place an ad in a magazine, include a QR code that allows them to download a free song. If you’ve got a blog, make a contest asking people to photograph all of your billboards. There’s no longer any excuse to leave Facebook, Twitter, etc. off your homepage – there are tons of gadgets out there to help you integrate and endless tools for using Facebook likes, etc. within your actual site. And best of all, most of it is free or inexpensive. You’ll get more out of that ad or billboard with a QR code and be able to track a portion of an audience you could only guess at before. It’s an exciting new world – play in all of it, online and off.

Be Specific and Tell Them Why

You need to have strategy behind everything. If someone clicks on an ad featuring someone biking, don’t send them to a page about runners. Keep with the biking theme – by clicking on your biking ad, they’ve told you something about themselves. Don’t let that lead go to waste by sending them somewhere generic like your homepage. Create targeted landing pages featuring specifics about what you want them to do when they do arrive and make a very clear call to action – a form, a download, a share button. When you’re creating a campaign, define your audience very specifically and decide what you want of that specific group.

And don’t forget the Why. If you have a QR code or ad or Facebook page, tell them why they should scan or click or like you. What are they going to get out of it? If you’re just sending them to your homepage, they’ll likely not bother. Add value – like a free download – and you’ll see your campaigns becoming even more successful.

Stop Making Excuses and Get Online

Social media is not a fad. It’s not a department. It’s a multi-channel component of growth and innovation. How your brand is being lived out there is now what counts. It’s a free tool available to everyone – an invite to the party, where customers wait with the potential to go forth as brand ambassadors for you. So if you’re not there, you need to be. Stop making excuses and start.

Come up with a policy laying out the obvious rules – Best Buy has made theirs public if you need inspiration – and dive in. No one is going to remember your first tweet or post, so don’t dwell on it – just try something, then try something else. In a month, go back and look at what got retweets, likes or replies and try to figure out why. Adapt your strategy, try something, and try something else again. Social media is an endless game of guess and check. Everyone’s making it up – even those with millions of followers… promise. Start following other people to see what they’re doing. Retweet or share what others are saying. (And don’t forget the transparency piece from #1 – be human, don’t just share links. Share something human like an opinion too).

If someone asks you a question or comes to you with a concern, don’t be scared. Just deal with it in the same way you do offline – empower a customer service representative to engage directly with that client on behalf of the company. You’ve been running your business successfully for years – only now it’s 140 character press releases, customer service 2.0 and free branding. Stay transparent, respond in a timely manner, apply your business sense online, and you’ll be just fine. Really.