In marketing industry-speak, when an ad runs over a longer period of time, or an ad campaign endures, it’s called marketing that “has legs.” Our 2018 production of Bank Rhode Island’s 30 second Broadcast and Digital TV ad is proving to be that case with executive management now focused on building it out as a campaign that drives the brand across broadcast, digital, social and more.
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As the design team at Shark was finishing some new display ads, we thought we'd take a moment to answer a common question that, as a Vermont digital marketing agency, we hear a lot: Why should I use Google display ads for my business?
Reach – The Google Display Network is made up of over two million websites, videos, and apps where your ads can appear, reaching 90% of Internet users in the world. This includes hundreds of large sites, like YouTube or the New York Times, as well as thousands of smaller sites, many of which are frequented by your target audience.
Targeting – Ads are displayed if a user searches a certain keyword, visits a website related to your industry, or meets a criteria of demographics, interests, and location. Shark works hand in hand with clients to tailor digital display ad campaigns around their specific customer personas.
Positioning – The easiest way to get into a consumer's mind is to be first. Display ads are visual, engaging messages that are geared toward gaining impressions and building brand awareness. Whether you are launching a new startup or looking to keep an old brand relevant, the Google display network gives you an entry into the consumer's mind and more chance to create a branded impression than say, plain old text ads.
Remarketing – What is remarketing? Remarketing takes place when a user sees your ad after visiting your website. Remarketing conversion rates actually increase over time, so the more a user sees your ads after considering your brand, the more likely they are to complete a sale.
Competition – Let's be honest: everyone else is already doing it. The Google Display Network is today's digital marketplace, so if the consumer doesn't know you exist, then you've already lost.
If you're looking for a certified Google Partner agency to design and manage display advertising for your business, then contact Shark today.
300x250 Google display ad design
Law firm marketing
5G is here and it's here to stay. With strong demand for 5G cell towers, it won't be long before you are streaming 4K videos and unlimited data on your smartphone.
At Shark, a Vermont digital marketing agency, we have long trumpeted the virtues of 5G, but most clients don't know much about it, except that it has something to do with Verizon and AT&T. That's true, but there's also a lot more to 5G and how it will affect daily life for you and small businesses.
"The difference between 4G and 5G is like going from a tricycle to an Indy car." –Steve Mudd, Marketing Strategy Director, Ogilvy & Mather.
If you want to be the go-to techie at your office, then read below how 5G is changing the game.
What is 5G? 5G is the fifth generation of cellular mobile communications, coming after the current, 4G LTE. 5G performance targets include high data rate, reduced latency, energy saving, cost reduction, higher system capacity and massive device connectivity.
What are the benefits of 5G for Vermont? 5G means blazing fast internet – up to 100x current speeds – less video lag, and greater support for interconnected "smart" devices. This means that city dwellers in Burlington or Montpelier can telecommute to work while Vermont farmers use 5G technology to connect their agricultural equipment with real-time precision.
How do you get 5G in Vermont? Mobile carriers Verizon and AT&T are laying the infrastructure for a 5G network across the country, from big metropolitan cities to rural Vermont farms, so you'll always be connected as soon as you step outside and away from Wi-Fi.
When can I purchase a 5G device in Vermont? Even though trial runs of the network have already begun, it will take until at least 2019 before you can buy a 5G phone or tablet.
What does 5G mean for Vermont businesses? Everything. Employee telecommuting, shorter commutes with connected smart cars, augmented reality ads in the grocery store checkout line, remote meetings with VR, and more.
The possibilities of 5G are endless, but like any digital evolution, it's important to stay at the forefront. Follow Shark on Twitter to stay on top of the latest trends in digital marketing.
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way back in the day. If I remember correctly, it was me, Jon Roberts and Lars Erick Fisk who worked on this.
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… just finished a first landing page for our “Brand fresh.” self-promo campaign.. The landing page is for Shark’s Small Biz Digital service, and next we hope to develop it further with a digital ad campaign.
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As we design and launch new landing pages for Bank Rhode Island with full-screen video as a primary strategy, we waned to offer some evidence on why you should consider using the same tactic. Studies have shown that video on landing pages can increase conversion by as much as 80% and for good reason – video is an entertaining, visual medium that allows people to connect emotionally with content and products that they otherwise wouldn't be able to with plain text. Here are a few more reasons to use video on your landing page:
Videos increases the length of time people stay on your page, giving your brand message longer to sink in. Think of video as the bait that draws people in – it's flashy, engaging, and keeps visitors focused on the page and away from the "Back" button.
Video serves as validation for your product or service. If you feature yourself or company employees in the video, the trust factor is raised significantly because you're putting a face on your business. Video is a great way to answer those initial questions that a consumer goes through as they decide between you vs. your competition.
People are lazy and prefer to watch instead of read. Humans are visual learners: it's the way we are programmed and it's the reason why TV is this generation's radio or newspaper. Keep your video short and to the point, but also make sure it's compelling to viewers.
Video is changing the web and the way people interact with it. Boost conversions and take advantage of all that video has to offer, with video landing pages by Shark. Contact us today to learn more.
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Our Vermont restaurant marketing provided some brand realignment for Allium. To recapture some lost locals and a more casual and relaxed approach to the dining experience, Allium was changed to include Allium Neighborhood Kitchen + Bar. A screen-grab from the coming website and new, clean, typographic restaurant logo design is visible below.
Shark continued BankRI’s 2018 integrated marketing campaign with its newest installation of print media – community ads. A subtle variation on the BIG theme, these ads reinforce the text overlay design concept first introduced by the digital billboard and broadcast TV ads developed by Shark at the beginning of summer. More to come!
A cute little addition to Bank rhode island's "big" campaign and designed to add support to conservation efforts on beautiful aquidneck island in narragansett bay.
Part of Shark's new integrated campaign rolling out in broadcast, print, radio, and outdoor for BankRI, our latest implementation on downtown, digital billboards.
As one of the starts of bravo network's million dollar listing los angelos, tracy tutor maltas recent divorce spurred the need for a name change and rebranding. here's a glimpse of shark's upscale and "very sophisticated" design proposed for the very sophisticated tracy tutor and her los angelos real estate office team.
Human beings are visual learners, our brains wired to select for images and videos over audio and text. Just five seconds of video can convey more information than any banner or article, and studies show that retention rates for video are almost 10x higher than written words. This is why video advertising is so effective – the ability to increase brand awareness, attract customers, and boost sales in a quick, cost-effective manner.
The landscape of online video advertising spans multiple devices and is continually evolving: tv viewers of the past are cutting cords and accessing programming online; search engines are connecting eager audiences with relevant ads, and social media’s algorithms rank higher for video than any other form of content. From in-stream to display to social, online video advertising offers a plethora of opportunities for brands looking to raise awareness and broaden the sales funnel.
Advanced audience targeting allows brands to position themselves in front of motivated consumers, building trust and driving conversions. For instance, a user may visit a website to read about designer shoes and experience a targeted auto-play video from a shoe retailer that reinforces the brand or sells a specific product. This is a prime example of the efficiency of online advertising, paired with the effectiveness of video, combining to reach key audience segments.
For 2018, eMarketer projects that cord-cutters and “cord-nevers” will represent around 20% of the U.S. population, and more than half of all television viewers will access programming online. In-stream video ads display content within a video player – such as Hulu, Roku, ABC, NBC, CBS – either before or during programmed video content. Targeting can be focused down to the city, street, household, or even square-foot level, and guaranteed impressions means that waste is eliminated.
Gone are the days of black and white, text-based social media networks: a scroll through any Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter feed reveals a stream of viral, trending videos sandwiched between video ads. Social platforms collect rich data on their users, which allows advertisers to tailor videos to user interests and target demographics. Sponsored videos are well integrated within the content users interact with and they are equipped with additional features that allow users to share, like, and discuss.
There’s an important relationship between the strength of a company’s brand and its overall success. As a branding agency, at Shark Communications, our client brand strategies often focus on supporting long-term brand success while ensuring consistency across current marketing communications. To help client marketing managers get started on their own with internal brand conversations, we've sometimes provided this brand questionnaire that was originally published two decades ago.
1. Tell us about your brand.
- Does your company have a brand identity?
- Does it market several brands?
- How important is a strong brand to your business?
2. A great brand is in for the long haul.
- Has your marketing more often focused on the short-term gains or the long-term growth of your brand?
3. A great brand knows itself.
- Does your company have a strong grasp of its identity?
- How well does it know who it is and what it isn’t?
- Does your company know how others perceive it?
4. A great brand taps into emotions.
- How much emotion is elicited by your brand?
- Has there been an emotional quality to your marketing?
5. A great brand is a story that’s never completely told.
- Does your brand have a story?
- Has the story evolved over time?
6. A great brand has a design consistency.
- How well connected are the visual expressions of your company’s brands or brand identity?
7. A great brand is relevant.
- Does your brand connect with the needs and desires of people’s lives today?
- Has your brand evolved and remained contemporary?
To understand the difference between Wordpress and Squarespace for building your next website, imagine that you want a new bookshelf for your office.
With Wordpress, the process is like hiring a skilled, finish-carpenter or cabinet maker (your Wordpress programmer) to design and build the shelving. You have unlimited options for materials (open source programming code) and the design can be completely customized.
With Squarespace, the scenario is more like choosing a contemporary, modular, shelving system from a high-end design and installation company. After reviewing a range of designs, colors, layout options and more, your shelving is specified and installed by a certified team.
To make repairs or additions at a later date, (perhaps you want to add doors or panel to cover certain parts of the shelving), with Wordpress you will again, most likely need to engage the services of a finish-carpenter or cabinet maker (your programmer). With Squarespace, the process will be similar to having a catalog of options in-hand, and you then hire the same company to install the new shelving additions, or with Squarespace’s plug-and-play functionality, you could do it yourself.
For developing and maintaining complex, multiple-language, and mission-critical web initiatives that serve as a gateway to secure applications Wordpress is our recommended platform. For companies that need a state-of-the-art website with SEO, digital and social media marketing integration, responsive display across desktop, tablet, and mobile, and some customized coding and technology, we recommend using Squarespace. Like having a customized mahogany shelving created for your office, Wordpress costs more. But if cost is a consideration and you can customize Squarespace's modular, plug-and-play components to your liking, then Squarespace is the way to go. And with less website development time, you can then get on developing an organized small business digital marketing program to build traffic to your website.
Digital TV advertising, Connected TV, streaming video advertising, it all offers a new opportunity for marketing. As Forbes put it in a recent article on Connected tv advertising... " Thanks to everything from smart TVs to mobile to connected devices (Roku, Amazon Fire TV et al), it’s a lot more digital than people realize. And therein lies the opportunity: take advantage of all that digitally viewed television..." At Shark, we're sidestepping the cost of broadcast TV for clients in metro markets with a new geotargeted digital TV media buy. Here's a redacted (six of 18 frames) look at a new 30 second spot in design and production.
Just a quick glimpse of a name change, repositioning and rebranding for Maple Tree Place. What a great test - if it fits onto a shopping bag's design and communicates value ...it works.
We found the reality of student summer living in Burlington, Vermont and then used it to entice more students to hang around and enroll in the summer. The poster, however, kept getting pulled off Univerity walls to be rehung in dorm rooms.
Just found this early bank branch marketing poster created by Shark. Turns out, that it was requested by a multiple of the Boston bank's customers who wanted it as an art poster to be hung on the walls of their Back Bay condos.
