Tag: Creative

Trending from G/L: Debating Like A True Marketer

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Debating Like A True Marketer

Creative

These days it seems like there is a debate about something new EVERY DAY.

Some of the topics can be a little, well, trivial in the grand scheme of things, but nonetheless are discussed in fervor on social media.

Are women’s pockets inferior to men’s? Yes, yes they are.
Is St. Louis the microbrew capital of America? Well, no…but we are near the top!
Are hit songs starting to sound a little similar? Yeahhhh.

These kinds of topics can generate some pretty strong opinions that inevitably circulate through our culture. But typically, there’s a decided shortage of facts to backup our claims. That is, of course, what makes these debates more of a matter of opinion. But now, The Pudding is here to shift the conversation from online shouting to in-depth sleuthing.

The site The Pudding has taken these entertaining cultural debates and put an actual answer to them. They conduct their own research and collect original data. Then they showcase their findings in a creative and super digestible way.

They use the “emerging form of journalism” called visual essays to tell their findings. Every essay on the site has interactive graphics to highlight the research and data in a way that is accessible to everybody.

Browsing through, you’ll see that the available essay topics are relevant and intriguing too.

The Pudding has tapped into something our culture didn’t even know we needed. Someone to help us FINALLY settle those debates you and your friends have over drinks on a Friday night.

How’s this relate to advertising? What The Pudding does and what those of us in the marketing world do are in essence one in the same: effectively communicate the truth about a particular topic. Getting to the bottom of what truly makes a brand or product unique and telling that truth in an engaging way is the key to good marketing and advertising. Imagine the latest debate is whether or not to purchase your brand or product. Is a shouting match of “buy” vs. “don’t buy” on social media going to be effective? Probably not. But how about a well-researched campaign that connects the essential truths about your brand to the people who will most likely value those truths? Now you’re talking. That’s what Making It Mean Something is all about, and it’s what we do every day here at G/L.

Great creative work is backed and inspired by great research. When you’re ready to discover the essential truths of your brand and make those truths mean something to your audiences, give us a call.

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Trending from G/L: We are All Going To Die

Dave Geile
Creative Director Managing Partner

Trending from G/L: We are All Going To Die

Brainstorms

If trending products like this one continue to be invented, we are all going to die of muscle atrophy. I present to you the Honda U3-X Personal Mobility device. Personally I would feel ridiculous riding around on this thing. But if someone doesn’t put their foot down (pun intended) and take a stand, this kind of lazy contraptions will become the norm – and life as we know it will be extinguished.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t8IoQoprBXk

Don’t get me wrong – I’m all for technology and I admire this technology a great deal. I suppose I’m more upset in how it is presented and how it’s major contribution to mankind is demonstrated. In this new product video, we see perfectly healthy, capable people mounting their personal mobility device to get together to go over some office information. They wave at each other as they pass in the hall or admire and discuss art in a gallery. Huh?! The video even touts the benefit of being hands free so you can carry stuff! Here’s a news flash: walking allows for the same benefit!!!

More info on the device:

Honda’s U3-X was cleverly developed by pursuing the concept of “harmony with people” and with its size and weight, it will clearly mix comfortably with pedestrian traffic, though Honda will be conducting extensive testing in a real-world environment to verify and refine the practicality of the device.

The design of the U3-X places the rider on the eye level zone of other pedestrians so that it as friendly and non-threatening to fellow footpath users as possible, while also making it easier for the rider to reach the ground from the footrest without stretching.

Like the Segway and Hands Free Transporter, the U3-X’s speed is adjusted by shifting body weight, though the U3-X adds a whole new dimension in that it doesn’t just go backwards and forwards – it goes sideways, thanks to an ingenious omni-directional wheel system which Honda has dubbed its “HOT Drive System” which is short for Honda Omni Traction Drive System.

Foot reconstruction, knee replacement, hip surgery…now ya got me. But the inability to get off your health butt and move across the room is not what Honda should be broadcasting. If this trending item is our future destiny, we are all going to look like the Wal-Mart people shopping from a mobile cart. Not because of their inability to walk, but because of their crushing weight!

Sorry to be so upset about this…I need to go sit down. I just wish I could go get a cup of coffee while doing so.

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Healthcare Marketing Blogs

Dan Diveley
VP of Business Development

Healthcare Marketing Blogs

Advertising

At G/L, we’ve worked on a variety of healthcare marketing projects. Through our years of experience and research, we’ve become something of an expert on the subject, so we’ve compiled all of our relevant insights of the healthcare market in one convenient location. Just click on the headline to view the blog.

Be Disruptive In Everything You Do – Especially Your Healthcare Marketing

When your company brings something unique to the table, it can disrupt the status quo of an entire market. Discover how one of our clients, Metro Imaging, managed to do just that by offering a little extra transparency.

How Effective Healthcare Marketing Can Limit Patient Outmigration

It happens time and time again in the healthcare industry: patients are leaving local hospitals behind for what they (mis)perceive as greener pastures. We take a deeper look into why patients are migrating from their local hospitals and hone in on how hospitals can limit patient outmigration with the right message.

Marketing Accountable Care Organizations – A New Approach

As Accountable Care Organizations trend more towards the mainstream, patients now have a choice for more affordable healthcare solutions. But with a shift in organizational structure comes the need to re-optimize your marketing. If you’ve recently become an ACO or are considering making the jump, we offer you our insights for a clean transition.

Real Price Transparency in Healthcare – I’ve seen it! 

With high-deductible medical insurance on the rise and patient satisfaction falling due to unaddressed price concerns, there’s never been a better time to offer your patients transparency. We examine how much patients value price transparency in healthcare (hint: it’s a lot) and show you how offering true transparency can make your brand stand out.

7 Key Components to Developing a Strategic Healthcare Marketing Plan

Planning ahead for next year? You should be! Here are a few key components you should focus on to maximize your marketing efforts in 2017.

Consumer Engagement: Think Your Marketing is Tough? Try Selling Heart Attacks.

Anyone can make a burger and fries look appetizing or sell you a new sports car. But marketing heart attacks? That’s a whole different animal. Our very own Dave Geile gives his insight on how healthcare marketers can produce viable messaging, even with such serious subject matter.

Creating Effective Healthcare Messaging

Getting the right message out at the right time for the right audience is key for your brand’s success. But how does that translate to healthcare marketing? We take a closer look at what patients are looking for in healthcare and translate their needs into more effective messaging. 

Increasing Patient Volume Requires Thinking Like a Patient

You know the old phrase: “You can’t truly understand someone until you’ve walked a mile in their shoes.” Well, that’s true in healthcare marketing too. We explore what it means to think like a patient and translate that insight into optimized messaging.

Programmatic Buying: How Media Is Changing

The media landscape is ever changing. Are you keeping up? It’s okay; we’ll fill you in.

Healthcare Marketing Includes Understanding the Cares of Patients 

Tired of marketing that just keeps missing the mark? We break it down for you right here, with our own research and insights into healthcare marketing trends and unique solutions. Grab a snack and get comfortable. It’s a longer read, but well worth your time.

Inbound Marketing

Your Digital Budget: How Much Interactive Do I Need? – A G/L Executive Brief

Move over, traditional advertising! The digital world is expanding at an incredible rate, so how much should you spend on marketing in it? We have you covered.

Integrate Inbound Marketing into your next Website and Social Media campaign 

Inbound marketing helps keep the conversation going between you and your target audience, engaging them in a way that traditional advertising just can’t. It’s relatively inexpensive and any company can do it­—we’re doing it right now! Check out how inbound can work for your company’s website and social communications.

A Step-by-Step Guide to implementing an Inbound Marketing Program

So you’re thinking about implementing a little inbound, eh? Lucky for you, we have an easy, step-by-step guide on creating an effective inbound campaign. What are you waiting for? Let’s get the ball rolling!

Target Audience

Example Personas to Improve Messaging

Marketers deal in general target audiences all the time, but sometimes it helps drive the message home if we can put a name and face to that audience. That’s where personas come in. We humanize our target audience by showing them as real people with real dreams and aspirations. See for yourself how your messaging can improve with your own personas in mind!

Why Target Audiences Don’t Work

Your target audience is more than data and research; they’re real people. To get messages that resonate, you have to see them as more than a bunch of numbers.

5 Tips to Remember When Marketing to Moms

We love moms. Our moms, your mom, any moms. They’re all great in their own way! And they’re huge decision makers in their homes, according to our research. So here are 5 tips on how to show them some love in your marketing efforts.

Key Elements to Creating Personas

Personas help make your target audience feel a bit more personal than charts, graphs, and raw data. We feel that creating personas for our target audiences is an integral part of our creative process, and we give you the rundown on how you can incorporate them into your marketing efforts as well.

The Importance Of Personas in Shaping Targeted Messaging

You know what sucks? Getting treated like a number. You know what rocks? When advertisers see you for who you really are! Try using personas to create messaging that hits home with your target audience as a person, not a dataset. [snark: It’s so important to us, we wrote four whole blogs on it!]

Internal Branding/Communications

Minimize Medicare Penalties with Internal Communications

Show of hands: who likes paying Medicare sanctions? Anyone? Yeah, that’s what we thought. So what if we told you that your hospital could reduce their risk of having to pay Medicare sanctions with the brand messaging, both internally and externally? Read on and save!

6 Steps to Building a Brand from the Inside Out

Putting your brand on display for the entire world to see is great, but it means nothing if you ignore one vital ingredient: your people. As we discuss here, a great brand is backed by people who truly believe in the brand they represent on a daily basis. Make it a full team effort!

Healthcare Case Studies

Hannibal Regional Healthcare System – “Guiding You to Better”

We talk a big game about our expertise in healthcare marketing. Fortunately, we have the results to back it up. Check out the work we’ve done with Hannibal Regional Hospital. 

Metro Imaging – The Clear Choice 

Our client, Metro Imaging, has a few innovations up their sleeves that could disrupt the healthcare market, and they wanted us to help show them off. We were happy to oblige.

Have any questions? Contact me (Dan) at [email protected] or fill out the form below.

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Trending from G/L: Time Travel Maps

Ben Schwab
Creative Director

Trending from G/L: Time Travel Maps

Brainstorms

How bored are you right this second? Do you currently find yourself tossing pencils upward in an attempt to harpoon the office ceiling? Maybe you’re on the couch binging this year’s Yule Log on Netflix for the second time while scrambling to complete last minute online gift shopping. In the midst of these activities you may begin to wish you had the ability to time travel and control time and space at your will. I’m happy to announce that this holiday season the power described has now been granted to you…sort of.

Since 1984 there have been annual mosaics painstakingly stitched together from satellite imagery of our earth’s surface. The public now has full, interactive access to these maps thanks to the work of Carnegie Mellon University’s CREATE Lab and their Time Machine Library, along with the dedicated effort put forth by the team at Google. Together they have managed to painstakingly transform this immense, static archive of imagery into a user-friendly and navigable tool for exploring the face of our dynamic earth. The resulting images are visually striking and breathtaking in their intricate detail and scope.

It took the folks at Google to upgrade these choppy visual sequences from crude flip-book quality to true video footage. With the help of massive amounts of computer muscle, they have scrubbed away cloud cover, filled in missing pixels, digitally stitched puzzle-piece pictures together, until the growing, thriving, sometimes dying planet is revealed in all its dynamic churn. The images are striking not just because of their vast sweep of geography and time but also because of their staggering detail. Consider: a standard TV image uses about one-third of a million pixels per frame, while a high-definition image uses 2 million. The Landsat images, by contrast, weigh in at 1.8 trillion pixels per frame, the equivalent of 900,000 high-def TVs assembled into a single mosaic.

Along with the obvious novelty inherent in watching your hometown expand outwards over the course of three decades in less than three seconds, this tool also gifts us an opportunity to reflect on how we have and continue to impact our planet.

See anything cool recently? Have you figured out other ways to time travel? Send us a note using the form below:

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Trending from G/L: Thanks Canada for telling us we’re great!

Mary Sawyer
Vice President of Public Relations

Trending from G/L: Thanks Canada for telling us we’re great!

Branding

A couple of weeks ago, Ken Bone, a debate audience member, emerged as an unlikely hero to Americans weary of political negativity. Someone referred to Mr. Bone as a “human version of a hug.” With a week to go until Election Day now, we keep looking for positive moments to keep us sane.

Now, our neighbors to the North in Canada are sending us virtual “hugs” and positive affirmations via a social media campaign called “Tell America It’s Great,” complete with a hashtag, a Twitter account and a series of YouTube videos.

Seems America could use some cheering up right about now. As their closest friends and neighbours, we thought we should take a minute to help remind them that no matter how bad things might seem at the moment, there are lots of reasons why we think they’re still pretty great.To paraphrase the Stuart Smalley character from Saturday Night Live, the campaign tells we Americans that, “We’re Good Enough, We’re Smart Enough, and Doggone It, People Like Us.”

Designed by workers at a Toronto creative agency to make positive statements as a response to the depressing American political setting, the campaign is not selling anything. Its motivation is to be remind us that the world sees us as great.

The Canada campaign comes at a time when most Americans are desperately looking forward to the end of the election cycle with all of the sniping and accusations. We do need to take a breath and think about our national parks, our contributions to music and the countless other American innovations and characteristics that are admired by people throughout the world.

Many Americans are showing their appreciation to this campaign through a reciprocating “TellCanadaThankYou” campaign.

It is nice to receive a group hug from our kind Canadian neighbors. Maybe their goodwill and civility will inspire us to feel better about ourselves, as well as acting nicer to one another. Eh?

Have you seen any politically-focused messaging that stood out for its lack of, um, toxicity? Please share it with us using the form below.

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Trending from G/L: Spector typeface tool is coming soon to a creative near you

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Spector typeface tool is coming soon to a creative near you

Advertising

Designers and other creative folks find inspiration out in the wild all the time — whether it is a cool package typeface at the grocery store or a unique leaf color they see while walking the dog. They snap a picture on their phone in hopes of figuring out that typeface or sampling that color for a later project. However, it’s usually difficult to accurately identify and recreate these inspirations once back at the desk.

Enter a creative’s new best friend — Spector.

Spector is a handy, working prototype tool designed by Fiona O’Leary that she describes as a “physical eyedropper”. All you have to do is place Spector over whatever you wish to identify and press a button. This tool then cross-references type with a font database to discover its’ name and reads the color to create a RGB and CMYK value. The results are then connected to InDesign for you to use — no more time wasted trying to uncover that mysterious font! Spector even recognizes type size, kerning and leading. Even more time saved when you are trying to achieve a certain layout look.

Check out this video to see Spector in action.

Everyone at G/L was super impressed by Spector. Any tool that increases productivity while also increasing our “visual literacy” is a must have in our book. The only not-so-awesome thing about Spector — you can’t go out and buy it right now. This is a working prototype that can only recognize a handful of typefaces so far. O’Leary does plan on integrating with a much larger database someday. Hopefully we will see Spector on the market in the very near future — we will be first in line tacking anyone who gets in our way!

Have any thoughts? Shoot us a note here and we’ll get right back to you!

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Trending from G/L: Why Ili Means You Wasted Your Time on Rosetta Stone

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: Why Ili Means You Wasted Your Time on Rosetta Stone

Brainstorms

Joining the travel agent, newspaper editor, and Blockbuster clerk, the professional translator may be the next to find themselves searching the classifieds, thanks to a new innovation in the field of multicultural communication. The Logbar ili is a new, soon to hit the market wearable translator, the next evolution in translation technology.

One of the first capable of voice recognition and verbal translation, it relies on its own self contained operating system, rather than having to be built around an existing platform like current and unreliable phone applications are. About the size and shape of the original iPod shuffle (and arriving almost a decade after), the first generation ili is currently capable of translating between Chinese, Japanese, and English, facilitating nearly instant multilingual conversation between any combinations of the three. Version two will add French, Thai, and Korean, and version three will add Spanish, Italian, and Arabic.

Without a current list price or the ability to pre-order one, it’s tough to say when this device (and others sure to follow soon) will begin to diffuse through any number of cultures and languages, but the process of instant and accurate translation from a wearable piece of technology is essentially priceless to those in both the business and personal world.

Though currently limited in dialect and surely far from peak efficiency, the ili exemplifies improvements to and enforcement of the current trends in personal technology, being both wearable, and accelerating the ever more important idea of a “glocal” mindset. Like the first run of any groundbreaking technology, I won’t rush out to buy one.

While the concept is exciting and the uses seem infinite, this seems to be a stepping stone in the field of global communication technologies, paving the way for a world with seamless and universal conversation, one, which I can’t be the only one looking forward to.

Have any thoughts? Shoot us a note here.

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Trending from G/L: A Report On Millennials that stands out

Geile/Leon Marketing Communications

Trending from G/L: A Report On Millennials that stands out

Creative

Articles about millennials are truly a dime a dozen. If you do a Google search for “millennials” and just limit so you only get results from the past week, you’ll still see a lot of immediate bold proclamations:

“For Millennials, (Bernie) Sanders is a grandpa who gets them”

“Millennials Avoid Taking Care of Sick Relatives”

“Three Ways to Get Inside the Head of Millennials”

And that’s just page one. Lots of generalizations, lots of simplifications and a whole lot of blanket statements posed as facts. It’s head-spinning stuff.

So when our team gets “insights” about Millennials behavior, we tend to be a bit skeptical. A recent report by Goldman Sachs tells a much richer story backed by data, useful categorical info and enlightening takeaways.

Instead of one large thought-piece from one person’s perspective, the interactive guide shows key touchpoints on how millennials were raised and why they view the world the way they do.

Digital Natives

One of the narratives that gets thrown around frequently for millennials is that they’re more socially connected than Generation X and Baby Boomers. While that may be true, the gap is closing rapidly:

Social Millennials

Some platforms, such as Facebook and Twitter in particular, are seeing incredible usage jumps from Gen X and Boomers as Millennials move onto newer portals. So while millennials may be ahead of the curve on this trend, they’re not running away with it. It’s ideas and data like this that cut through the clutter and provide newer insights.

Love and Marriage

Another intriguing one:

Millennials Marriage

It’s an interesting nugget or information on its own. But the report dives deeper into the reasons behind it, including job mobility, home ownership and financial standing. Instead of simply saying something like. “millennials must hate commitment,” the information provides a story that highlights what’s important to people in this age range.

Brands and Retail

Another good section highlighting the ways different groups feel about the brands they use and the way they make purchases. Certainly, millennials seem to be leading some of the charge with regards to online retailing, but we also see growth from other segments in a short period of time. Also, learning why millennials buy what they do is a strong indicator of what kind of products will succeed.

Millennials Buying

All around, it’s a fascinating read that’s definitely worth your time to explore more in-depth. If you have any questions or would like to hear more of our insights from the info presented, contact us using the form below and we’ll get back to you.

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Giving back with Children’s Home Society

Tim Leon
President/Brand Strategist

Giving back with Children’s Home Society

Branding

In the spirit of Making It Mean Something for the holidays, Geile/Leon staff took the afternoon of Wednesday, November 25th to create a 2016 campaign for our client Children’s Home Society of Missouri.

After spending the morning discussing strategic direction with the CHS team Leslie Tucker and Ashley Humphrey before lunch, G/L staffers went to work on a campaign for CHS, who will be celebrating its 125th anniversary in 2016. Children’s Home Society of Missouri (CHS) has been a leader in providing a wide array of support services to at-risk families and children since 1891. In just one afternoon, we were able to develop a number of 125th anniversary concepts including logos to be used on multiple communications throughout the year.

Children's Home Society Children's Home Society Children's Home Society

In addition to the logos, we were able to compile a digital marketing outline, a targeted press release, fundraising mailing campaign concepts, among other creative brainstorming pieces. It’s the least we could do for an organization that has truly touched so many of our team members.

We’re thankful to our employees for giving their time to Children’s Home Society and we’re thankful to this client for the valuable work they do for providing children a better foundation, a better life, and a better future.

CHS provides a comprehensive array of services including community mental health services, education and training, family support services, residential and respite care for at-risk families and children, who in many cases, have nowhere else to turn.

This Giving Tuesday, we encourage you and your organization to seek out opportunities to give back to the community. We are so incredibly lucky to be able to create work that we love every day. As the end of the year approaches, we’ll continue to look for chances to help on the local, regional and national level. It’s the very least we can do.

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Trending from G/L – Snickers enters the personalized branding game

Luke Smith
Senior Account Executive

Trending from G/L – Snickers enters the personalized branding game

Branding

Thanks to Coca-Cola, the idea of personalized branding isn’t necessarily a new thing. Coca-Cola rolled out their personalized cans with heart-warming messages like “Mom”, “Friend, “Love”, and more. Coke even took it a step further by giving consumers the options to personalize your can of Coke through select specialty machines. With Coca-Cola’s success in creating a personalized consumer experience with product, other major brands are following suit.

When Snickers launched the “You’re not you when you’re hungry” campaign- it was met with resounding success. It featured opinionated celebrities with attitudes subbing in for regular people. Richard Lewis complaining about being a lumberjack, Betty White playing football, Danny Trejo playing Marsha on the Brady Bunch and slamming an axe on the table when she gets upset. Once they eat a Snickers though, they return their normal self.

The list of spots goes on, and they have all been hilariously executed. While Coca-Cola sticks with warm and fuzzy, Snickers is taking a different direction when it comes to personalization. Instead of endearing terms, they are replacing the Snickers brand logo on their packaging with 21 very specific symptoms of hunger.

personalized branding

Of the 21 customized packages, a large number of them are rather blunt. For example, you can give friends bars featuring the words Cranky, Grouchy, Confused, Irritable, Impatient, Complainer, Whiny, Curmudgeon, Ornery, Testy and Snippy. Those 11 are balanced out by 10 other bars that are slightly less offensive—Rebellious, Feisty, Sleepy, Loopy, Goofball, Forgetful, Drama Mama, Dramatic, Princess and Spacey.

Snickers also rolled out a new online spot starring a hotline operator advising and coaching callers on which bar to give their friends, dependent on the mood they are in.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pT6PlWjuXw0

Snickers Brand Director Allison Miazga-Bedrick stated, “We believe the new bars will inspire people to not only quickly identify their own symptoms and satisfy their hunger, but give them a new, fun way to call-out friends and family on who they become when they’re hungry, too.”

With so many competing products, personalizing the experience just bridges a greater connection with consumers. Does a personalization strategy fit within your brand strategy? Contact us and we can explore opportunities for your brand.

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