We know some of our clients get stuck on rinse and repeat when it comes to their marketing. Seems the movie studios have the same issue, turning out sequels and remakes summer after summer. It can make one wonder, are there any new ideas anymore?  We know there are in marketing, because we deliver them every single day. And thank goodness, it seems there are in film, as well. Check out this list of summer releases that don’t rely on the same old plot and characters we already know to tell a compelling story. See you in theaters soon!

K.I.S.S. — keep it simple, stupid.

You’ve heard this before, right? If not, I can bet you have been a victim of over-thinking marketing opportunities at some point in your career. I know I have. 

I get it; you want to make sure every checkpoint has been reached along your project destination (as you should). But, have you over-complicated things? 

More often than not, keeping it simple is a win-win for everyone. 

Whenever I get stuck in the marketing mud, I fall back on these K.I.S.S. principles to roll out the best possible strategy for my team and customer:  

• Does it make sense? 
  Internally, is your strategy well defined? Does your go-to-market strategy provide clear direction and understanding? What is the end goal, and will your audience get it? Don’t assume everyone speaks your language. Keeping your message concise can make all the difference.
• Make it memorable. 
  People typically remember a few items and stories. Tying in real-life scenarios to drive home your message is a great way for your audience to retain information. 
• Cut the fluff. 
  It’s said we retain approximately 10% of what we see, 30-40% of what we see and hear, and 90% of what we see, hear and do. So…get to the point.

The K.I.S.S. principle brings clarity to an often chaotic situation.

See what I did there? I gave you three simple takeaways. The K.I.S.S. principle brings clarity to an often chaotic situation. Keep this SIMPLE principle in mind next time you get stuck in the mud!

It’s officially Pride month and the 50th anniversary of the first-ever Gay Pride marches in the U.S. But if your brand is treating this powerful occasion as another Hallmark holiday you can simply glom onto to gain relevance, you’re probably doing it wrong. Turning your logo rainbow is fun and shows you’re onboard with the cause of inclusivity, but here are four more meaningful ways marketers can show their support for the LGBTQ+ community this month without pandering or exploiting the cause. 

Event Promotion

The Challenge

Our client, Tequilas & Wine, is introducing a selection of high-end Mexican tequilas to the U.S. market. As a first step in getting the word out, they created a festival to showcase over 25 Mexican tequilas not yet widely available in the U.S. paired with small plates created by over 50 of Atlanta’s top restaurants. With just three weeks until the event, they needed to boost awareness and ticket sales and turned to Yalo for help.

Our Solution

We helped promote the event with a mixed media strategy that included TV (Telemundo), radio (3 stations), social posts (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram), outdoor and a redesign of the event website to bring the look and content into better alignment with the event’s upscale vibe. We even created a geo-fenced Snapchat filter for event day, giving attendees a fun, branded way to share the experience.

¡Viva Results!

Our efforts netted a 300% increase in site traffic over the three week period, 300,000 Facebook impressions over two weeks and a well-attended, fun event.

Architects around the world regard Pei, who died this month at the age of 102, as a master who used the symbolism of form to tell stories and communicate ideas. Learn more about our Artist of the Week, his inspiration and his famous works, including Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.

Want to improve your product, and your communication? Weave art and creativity into everything you do. It’s the key to capturing hearts through your products and your communications. See why.

We’ve written recently about how brick-and-mortar retailers are working hard at creating great customer experiences in order to compete with the convenience of Amazon. But I’ve also noticed recently that online retailers also seem to be working harder to create personal connections with their customers in an effort to bridge digital and physical experiences and cement brand loyalty. Both of the examples below show the impact a personal touch can make.

Warby Parker

With just fewer than 100 physical locations in the U.S., I think many of us original fans still think of Warby as primarily an online retailer. For style – and value – conscious shoppers, it has always hit the mark and had a quirky enough personality to have a boutique feel, even as it grew. These have all been contributing factors to my feeling that it’s a “cool” brand and really my go-to for glasses for the past seven or eight years. I was already loyal. And then they upped their game.

After visiting the new store on Atlanta’s Westside (I happily would have continued to buy exclusively online had this not been so close to my home), I returned home to find that my favorite Warbys had been no match for our new puppy.

Within a few days, I had a response — not on Insta, but IN THE MAIL (which I obviously also Instagrammed).

Anyone’s social crew could have responded to my first post with a “sorry this happened” message, but these guys turned it into a great story I could share. In the process, they got a brand ambassador and an even more loyal customer, showing how a little creative thinking and a personal touch can have a big impact.

Wayfair

I recently embarked on upgrading light fixtures, cabinet pulls and a few other items throughout my home in order to give it a refresh without having to drop a ton of cash. Once again, style, value and convenience played heavily into my decision to explore Wafair and I happily discovered that they indeed had, as the jingle goes, just what I need. I spent some time searching and saving items and over the course of a few weeks ordered several light fixtures, a coffee table and some other accessories with the intention of ordering a few more once I could see how everything was coming together. I was also busy posting before-and-afters of my finds on social and happily recommending Wayfair to my friends. 

Then, one Friday night, I received a voicemail from Connor at Wayfair. My heart leapt for a moment, thinking I must have won the shopping spree I signed up for at the start of my relationship with the retailer. When I called back on Monday, there was good news and bad news. Bad: I had not won the shopping spree. Good: Connor had been assigned to be my very own personal service consultant. I have never had a personal service consultant before, but it felt very fancy! What did it mean? Connor’s job seems to be a mash-up of customer service rep and personal stylist. He’s apparently there for me (via a direct line) whenever I need help finding options for a piece I’m shopping, questions about products or my orders and can even help get me status on backordered items and more routine asks like that. I haven’t yet taken advantage of my personal in at Wayfair, but the experience sure did get me interested in learning more about their more extensive design services and gave me mega warm fuzzies about continuing to shop and and recommend the company to my friends. Adding this personal touch to what is typically a fully-digital transaction creates a great story for customers to share and provides Wafair with an easy way to upsell services and products.

So, especially if your business operates primarily online, think about how you can add a personal touch ang bring a little IRL charm into your customer interactions. Just a little effort can go a long way.

Working remotely, the Yalo Tribe is always looking for ways to stay focused and boost our creativity. One of our favorite productivity boosters is listening to music. Turns out, 76% of workers in a recent survey agree that it also helps them do their best work. Check out the recent Brilliant Sound Survey to see how respondents said listening to music affects their mood, performance, relationships and more.

As the Tribe gathers in Atlanta this week for our spring offsite, there are a few things we know we can expect: team bonding, problem solving and fresh ideas. But what about the unexpected? Turns out that in order to really get creative, people need to step out of their comfort zones and try something with an outcome they can’t predict. Science says so and you can learn more about why here. In the meantime, we’ll be reaping the benefits of stepping away from our computers, exploring new territory in and around Atlanta and interacting with team members we don’t get to see every day. Anything could happen . . .

Recruiting Campaign

The Challenge

The 139th Airlift Wing in St. Joseph, Missouri needed a bolder new look and feel for its recruiting materials and campaign to reach out to potential recruits. The goal was to portray the unit as a cool career option for young adults soon or recently graduating high school, who didn’t have plans for college, by highlighting the variety of jobs they could do (much more than just flying planes!) and incorporating local flavor.

Our Solution

We developed a campaign concept that encompassed all the reasons young men and women would want to join the unit — from things like camaraderie and helping their community to tuition assistance — in the idea of being a part of something bigger. Our campaign tag line, Be A Part of Something Bigger, took center stage, along with a graphic badge we applied to everything from ads to t-shirts and window clings. We used photography and video clips featuring local places and personnel, rather than more generic U.S. Air Force stock, to help recruits better identify with the unit and its members. The campaign included TV, radio, billboard, brochure, newspaper ad and social posts that all drove right to the recruiting office for more information.

Ready for Liftoff

Recruiting season is just beginning and our client now has all the materials they need for a successful mission.

It’s almost Derby weekend and Maker’s Mark is testing your mint julep making knowledge just in time! Their interactive quiz walks amateur bartenders through the steps to make this classic cocktail, providing video of each step throughout and a final score at the end. It’s a fun and engaging way for the brand to connect to fans ahead of the unique sporting event. Interactive content like this is one of the strongest ways brands can grab attention and widen their circle of influence, capturing the trifecta of personalization, engagement and shareability. Check out these 50 Quiz Marketing Statistics to see just how effective a tactic it can be.

How do you save the planet, boost your brand caché, win category buzz for the week and come out looking like a straight-up innovator? Look at Carlsberg for the answers.

Last week, the global brewer headquartered in Denmark announced they would be abandoning plastic rings for their beer cans. Alternatively, they’ll attach cans together by applying a glue adhesive they have been developing over the last three years. The shift for the brewery group looks to be the beer world’s first attempt to move away from the use of plastic rings or other fasteners that produce additional waste products to recycle. The move proves interesting as it touches on multiple opportunities for the brand tout its efforts:

• This sets up a great PR angle, with Carlsberg committing to the reduction of their plastic pollution output, as well as limiting the potential for their plastic to pollute oceans and harm aquatic animals — all points they can play up in social media and marketing.
• From a brand strategy perspective, the brewer now ranks as an innovator and a socially-conscious company focused on doing its part to conserve the planet, which is huge with millennials and a younger, up-and-coming audience of beer drinkers.
• Analyzing the move through a business lens, other beer providers may feel pressure to match Carlsberg’s initiative if the adhesive proves to be a reliable holder for beer cans. That means big wins for both the industry and the environment.

With some of Carlsberg’s last memorable news-making being about a workers’ strike over limiting employees’ beer drinking throughout the workday to only on their lunch break, the company is no stranger to sticky situations. This latest effort, though, seems like something everyone can toast to.  

As a creative, experiential & branding agency in Cleveland, we know a bit about sticky situations and tarnished reputations too – once known as “the mistake on the Lake,” Cleveland now boasts the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame and the 2016 NBA champs, the Cleveland Cavaliers. If a city can turn its brand around, we can surely help to turn your business brand around too. Cheers!

Whether it’s music, art, sports, movies or TV, our tribe loves it all, and we like to share our thoughts with a unique perspective and a little twist. This time it’s about crime and detective shows. Millions of Americans are addicted to shows that tell a great story, provide mystery and suspense and often explain how the crime was solved. The popularity of these types of shows are obvious when you look at the pure number of them on TV, their longevity and not to mention the number of spinoffs. CSI Toledo anyone?

Somehow Google Analytics didn’t make our top 10 favorites. That’s hard to believe when you think of all the mysteries GA solves on a daily basis. Who’s coming to your website? What content are they interested in consuming when they visit? How are people finding your site? What do people search for when they’re on your site? Do they stick around or do they just stop by and bounce? Google Analytics has all the information you need to help answer these questions and more. And like a crime story, you just have to find the clues (in easy-to-read dashboards) to help tell the full story.

All this data then allows you to build more relevant content that will draw visitors in and keep them engaged. You can customize your acquisition strategy if you know visitors who find you through particular channels convert (fill contact forms, download whitepapers, etc.) more than others those from other channels. On top of all these benefits, Google Analytics is free to use and easy to implement. All you need to do is set up a Google Analytics account, take the tracking code Google provides and insert it on your website. You can be up and running with GA and start unraveling the mysteries of your website just like that. It may not be as addicting as the first season of True Detective, but it can be fun to solve a different type of mystery. Yalo can help.

In the meantime, we polled our team for their favorite mysteries and found quite a variety. Some were stand-by, old-school shows, but we have a pretty good representation of newer shows, too. Here are our top 10 picks for current/recent crime and detective shows:

• Justified: Raylan Givens is a bad-ass Marshall empowered to eradicate the scourge of drug trade in the hollers of Kentucky. Boyd Crowder was a devious bad guy!
• The Wire: The greatest cast of bad guys vs cops ever. And greatest names ever . . . Omar Little, Stringer Bell, Snoop and Avon Barksdale! The BAD crew from land of Hamsterdam.
• True Detective (Season 1): Woody Harrelson and Matthew McConaughey are amazing in the first season. It has an incredibly well-written story and characters.
• The Night Of: This is one of HBO’s best pieces of work. John Turturro is amazing. The story is gripping, and compelling. Unlike most crime dramas, this one isn’t trying to trick you or take you down the wrong path. It’s a great story with a talented cast. 
• Law & Order: It’s the longest running crime series in history of television (20 seasons). It will only take you 19 days if you watch all 458 episodes consecutively. Another benefit is it’s always on!
• Dark: This German series (yes, you’ll need subtitles) on Netflix is a bit of a slow burner to start but has major David Fincher vibes. Here’s the formula: Stranger Things + True Detective ÷ Back to the Future + Twin Peaks x Germany = Dark.
• Mindhunter: Binge-worthy crime drama on Netflix that gives a glimpse into the early days of criminal psychology and profiling. Season 2 will reportedly follow the Atlanta murders of 1979-1981. This one also has major David Fincher vibes, because he executive produced it and also directed a few of the episodes as well. Good stuff!
• The Staircase: Some have called this the Godfather of true crime documentaries.
• Making a Murderer: Whether you believe Steven Avery is innocent or guilty of murder, the story proves that truth can be stranger than fiction. Guilty pleasure for sure.
• Killing Eve: A bored security agent gets involved and obsessed with a case involving a quirky assassin and they begin to have a complicated relationship. It’s both funny and horrifying at times. Season one is on Hulu and season two just started. 

And a few podcasts, for good measure:

Up & Vanished

The Last Posdcast on the Left

Investigation Discovery

Serial

We hope you enjoy the show!

As if opening for Death Cab for Cutie isn’t cool enough, this young trio will follow that up with Lollapalooza in Chicago this coming August. If you can’t make it to Lollapalooza, then be sure to catch them on tour at your local indie venue. See what they think about being on the cusp of greatness, then check out their Facebook page for their current tour schedule, and get a taste of their sound on Yalo’s Summer Jams playlist.

The motivation to go green has increasingly become not only a part of many companies’ corporate social responsibility efforts, but also as an aspect of remaining relevant in the future business environment. Additionally, there are more and more environmental concerns that can only be addressed through green initiatives in terms of production, servicing and manufacturing. That’s why more and more companies are continuing to “go green,” including these 17 heavy hitters. Check them out and, as we get ready to celebrate Earth Day, think about what steps your company is taking to help our planet. 

Last summer, Donald Glover snuck off to Cuba to create something — a feature film collaboration, or so the rumors had it, based on scant information other than a photo of Glover and Rihanna posed up during production of their mysterious “Guava Island” project. Eager fans were finally rewarded last week when the film was released just prior to Childish Gambino’s Coachella performance. The film, which includes many of his songs, and its release stunt serve as a brilliant way to promote his music, so much so that we’re starting to wonder if this is really Gambino’s final tour and Glover’s final creative endeavor as his falsetto-voiced hip-hop alter ego. Learn moreabout the film and check it out on Amazone Prime.

It’s that time of year again! Coachella is in full swing and while the incredible musical lineup for the festival’s 20th anniversary takes the main stage, the visual artists showing their work are also making the experience epically Instagrammable. So here’s a shout out to Sofia Enriquez, Francie Kéré, Peggy Noland, Dedo Vabo, Poetic Kinetics, NEWSUBSTANCE and Office Kovacs for providing the colorful, fantastical backdrops that help set the mood for this year’s party. Check out their work here.

“It’s crazy, to think a 43-year-old who has experienced every high and every low, and has just won his 15th major, is chasing the same dream as a three-year-old.” So goes the voiceover of Nike’s tribute to Tiger Woods released moments after knocking out his fifth Masters win. This celebration of an American favorite marks his official return to the game after personal and professional setbacks that have kept him mostly off the course for the past several years. The Nike spot tracking the star’s career is yet another evolution of its Dream Crazy campaign celebrating the athletes it sponsors. Learn more and see the spot if you missed it.

Messaging Strategy & Website Redesign

The Challenge

This innovative healthcare technology startup engaged Yalo to help them clearly articulate a value proposition that is differentiated, meaningful and memorable. This messaging would then need to be communicated to multiple audiences through a new website that positioned the company as an innovator in the healthcare technology space.

Our Solution

Through customer and prospect interviews, collaborative work sessions and extensive industry research, Yalo and GenomOncology created a powerful new messaging strategy that served as the foundation for creative work that followed. Using industry research and competitive analysis, we built a message house to define key components of GenomOncology’s marketing strategy. We also developed three distinct personas using information gathered from interviews with prospective customers.

Our site redesign focused on creating easy ways for our audiences to quickly find the information most relevant to them. Visually, we created an overall sleeker look with a tech feel that also incorporates human elements through photography to allude to the impact of GenomOncology’s solutions on the patients that ultimately benefit. See it here.

Release Party

The site launched just in time to be touted at an important industry conference and help GenomOncology wow prospects with a sleek new look and more on-target content.

So far this year, the 2019 NCAA March Madness basketball tournament has gone pretty close to plan, with the higher seeds winning when they should. The only exception has been the annual tradition of at least one 12 seed beating a 5 seed. And in this year’s case, three of the 12 seeds have beat the 5 seeds, and the fourth lost by just 1 point. So close to a clean sweep by the 12 seeds! There have also been some very close calls (Duke vs. UCF!), but that is all they were, close calls. The higher seeds have won all of those close calls. But the excitement of the Cinderella, the giant killers, the game-winning shots by lower seeds just isn’t quite there this year. I guess that means the selection committee got it right this year? Nonetheless, we are drawn to continue watching because we want to be entertained! We want to witness that thrill of an upset or the exhilaration of a game winner. But alas, the first 2 rounds did not deliver on any of that excitement.

So in lieu of the thrilling upsets, we here at Yalo have been paying attention to the promos and commercials. March Madness is kind of like 3 weeks of Super Bowl ads because it is a great place for brands and advertisers to make an impact on a very large number of eyeballs. Because so many people watch the tournament, the stakes are high for brands to perform well by getting noticed and leaving a lasting impression.

Here are some interesting things we found worth noting for their out-of-the-box thinking or their original thinking:

TBS 

TBS did a Drop the Mic promo where they actually dropped a mic on to the floor with the players in the background during a timeout of the game. It was unique because it was done live and because it was done from a low angle showing all the players waiting for a foul shot. Pretty interesting and out of the box to do it live.

AT&T

By now, we are all familiar with the AT&T ‘Just ok is not ok’ commercials that began a few weeks ago. The whole series of them are fantastic and really smart. But one of our favorites is this one about the brakes and the ‘ok’ mechanic.

However, AT&T rolled out a new series of these commercials just for March Madness with a consistent character, Phil. The first one to air was this one “Phil the player.” AT&T continues to push the edge with this campaign for ‘ok is no ok’.

Northwest Mutual

You may have noticed this commercial where a man mowing his lawn is interrupted by the daughter to get a ride to her friends. It’s a Northwest Mutual ad called “Backyard Bliss”. It’s memorable for 2 reasons. 1) Its Flo-rida “My House” theme song! 2) The girl’s reaction when her dad hesitates to take her, classic teenager reaction ‘uuuuuuh’. BUT for March Madness, there was an interesting and nuanced twist to the commercial.  Rather than the ‘uuuuuuh’, the teenager returns to looking at her phone and dancing, still a classic teenager reaction, but one that is more fun, more family friendly. The man still installs the pool and the ad continues to jam more Flo-rida. Here is the new version. Do you think the change was driven by user feedback/testing? Possibly. But memorable either way.

Capital One

If you watch March Madness every year like I do, you would have seen the series Capital One does every year that includes Charles Barkley, Samuel L. Jackson and Spike Lee. They are funny, heady, and self-deprecating. That’s what makes them authentic. This year’s series includes a couple of good ones. One is where Charles has a bird on his shoulder that he has named Larry Bird only to be one upped by the actual Larry Bird walking up with a dog he has named Charles “Bark”ley. However, the best one is where the introduce the Chuck-xedo and being invited to the “Big Nantz” (vs Dance). Clever and witty, showcasing a self-deprecating Charles Barkley makes it authentic.

We hope you enjoyed those examples as much as we did. Best of luck on your brackets!

Oh, and if you want to know how well my brackets look after the first 2 rounds, my situation can be summed up quite simply by saying that my 11-year-old daughter is thoroughly sticking it to me. She outscored me in round 1 and in round 2, and now sits well ahead of me in our poll. Oh well, there is always next year!

#theyreplayingbasketball #bracketlife

And, if you’re looking for ideas on how to be more bold and entertaining in your marketing and communications efforts, check out these other posts: