Don Francisco’s Coffee Introduces Family Reserve

“Only a fraction of the world’s coffee qualifies as Specialty Coffee. And Don Francisco’s Family Reserve Coffees represent the finest within this exclusive category. These coffees are special and so is the extra care that we put into them.” The Gaviña Family

Like all of Don Francisco’s coffees, this exclusive collection was sourced and selected by Gaviña Family members. However, the Family Reserve single-origin coffees and blends are, by far, their most distinctive. Family Reserve coffees are among the Gaviña Family personal favorites – they’re the coffees that they enjoy at home with family and friends.

We congratulate the Gaviña Family and we are thrilled for the launch of Family Reserve.

Want to see a few of the billboards? We would love to know if you have seen any for yourself and what you think!

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Accolades From the World of Public Opinion

Congrats to the One Eighteen Advertising Team and the Boar’s Head Marketing Team for working hard on executing Boar’s Head first Social Media Contest! We worked hard to make it a success and we feel that our goal was accomplished. We always appreciate feedback and even more so when it is so positive, as Angela Connor’s blog, Building community through contests: Boar’s Head gets it right. Thank you to all who supported us and check back soon for more Social Media initiatives and what is to come!

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Fashion Design Meets Social Media

I have to admit a deep dark secret – possibly my most favorite part of awards shows is the dresses. (Sometimes I refer to them as costumes because “dress” seems a little far fetched.) There are so many interesting textures, colors, and shapes – inspiring for any artist. This year’s Grammy Awards Red Carpet was no exception.

I was blown away to realize one of the dresses was a “Twitter Dress.”

Artist Imogen Heap wore a dress created in part by its own Twitter feed using the hashtag #twitdress. Not only did she allow her fans the opportunity to join her on stage, she shared their Twitter photos with the viewing world.

Don’t believe me? Read about it here: http://mashable.com/2010/01/31/grammys-imogen-heap-twitdress/

Welcome to the 21st century – where new trends blend fashion design and social media.

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There is Proof: Headlines are Crucial

As an integrated agency and given that people are fed thousands of headlines a day, it is now more important than ever to engage users in shorter bursts. In most cases, people weigh the headline and opening sentences of an article more then ever and now there is research to support this idea. Should you spend as much time perfecting the few words of your headline as on the hundreds of words that comprise your article or blog post? The answer is absolutely, yes, according to a new study by OTOInsights. Using an atypical combination of social media and neurological marketing research, the research looked at how users responded to digg entries using eye-tracking and physiological signals (heart rate, breath rate, body temperature, skin conductance) as well as more traditional survey methodology. Basically, what the readers focused on and what they mostly ignored, is what makes this interesting. The study looked at the four major components of each digg article: The “digg button” (showing the number of diggs), the headline, the description, and the image that was associated with the article. According to the study, the digg button and the number of diggs associated with each article are the least important factors for viewing and promoting the content. In the rare cases where the number of diggs reaches an extreme high (4,000+), was it considered by readers to be valuable criteria. For the majority of articles, readers spent no time considering the current number of diggs. Also, the image attached to the article was considered to be of very little value by all the readers when evaluating content. Headlines and descriptions were much more important to readers and commanded much more of their eye-tracking time. The most interesting outcome showed that all participants spent dramatically more time looking at each headline word compared to each description word. Readers were able to view their eye-tracking data and they themselves confirmed the claim that headlines were the single most important factor for influencing their Digg.com behavior. Additionally, readers identified the crucial role of headlines in setting expectations for the associated content. (Social Media for Marketing: An Analysis of Digg.com Engagement and User Behavior by Jeffrey Bardzell, Shaowen Bardzell, and Tyler Pace.) Successful headlines had some common characteristics:

• Users prefer headlines to be short, direct, and revealing.
• Underestimating the importance of headlines almost guarantees the failure of the submission.

Being an agency with our roots in more traditional media that includes writing headlines for copy and display ads, we understand this practice well and we apply the same practices to our social media campaign. However, this new data reinforces the fact that social media pros have known for a very long time; How critical good headlines are for generating clicks. The new research data provides some additional understanding of how users visually process them. Here are some tips for writing good headlines for the web:

• Is the headline message actionable?
• Does the headline as a question or invite people into a conversation?
• Does the headline convey an overall message?
• Is the headline optimized for search (i.e. specific keyword call-outs)?

Please add to the list if you have any ideas or thoughts.

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Feature on Twitter Backgrounds

We are not usually ones to toot our own horn, but we are very excited that our Twitter background has been featured on twitterbackgroundsgallery.com!

We pride ourselves on our aesthetic and design, and it is nice to see that our hard work and efforts have been recognized.

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Are social utilities replacing email?

We’re already seeing the shift away from ‘email’ to ‘we-mail’ communication.

Facebook buys FriendFeed and takes lifestreaming to a new level. Tumblr emerges as an all-in-one website and blog communication platform. Posterous enters the scene as an email-enabled blog network doing the work of content aggregator and thought sharer. Twitter, as we’ve known all along, has direct messaging – and we’re seeing a healthy transition away from the more traditional means of sending a note.

Why? Because we can. More importantly, because email isn’t an open mailbox. It doesn’t connect people. And this is the central thrust of the social web.

Now of course, there are a whole host of issues with social correspondence or ‘we-mailing’.

For one, privacy disasters have reared their ugly head. TechCrunch reported earlier this year that direct messages were being exposed through 3rd party apps. Facebook has had its own headaches filtering out viral spam from inboxes – seen those random ‘videos’ your friends have been sending you? FriendFeed is now starting to see its own skulduggery in the form of sexual deviants and internet marketing scammers.

But we haven’t seen this type of stuff before?

The value of social utilities in this regard is that they provide an opportunity to pre-screen content and endorse correspondence through ‘friends’ that are truly yours. Further, they could be the answer to the ongoing debate over IP sharing and privacy that has mostly been attributable to junk mail and spam blasts.

Think about it: by operating through degrees of conversation, we can help each other keep correspondences alive, or shut them down in an instant.

What are your thoughts on this, and what are some of the ways you see this transition evolving?

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New gaming system that talks, listens, and pushes the boundaries of “true” social interaction

The global reasoning and point of existence for advertising has always been to create interactions with one another in real time, in a real place, and to establish real emotional responses. A new Microsoft gaming system called Project Natal seems to challenge and possibly redefine what a “social interaction” really means and more importantly, it raises the question about the role we play as advertisers have when promoting these vehicles.

continue reading…

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What could possibly cause you to trust a complete stranger?

            What could possibly cause you trust a complete stranger?

            It comes as no surprise that people tend to favor others of the same in-group. What is an in-group, you ask? “An in-group is a social group towards which an individual feels loyalty and respect, usually due to membership in the group. This loyalty often manifests itself as an in-group bias.” Now that we have defined in-group and out-group, we can now move on to the core of this conversation. How many times have you instantly denied a friend request on Facebook? I know first hand that I have instantly denied numerous people for reasons unbeknownst to me. 

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Manhattan View condominium’s grand opening proved to be a success

Even in tough economic times, and a down-cycle in residential real estate, it goes to show that a little bit of smart and innovative marketing goes a long way.

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Toyota launches intriguing new solar flower marketing campaign

In Boston’s Prudential Plaza, 18-foot tall solar flowers were stationed to provide free Wi-Fi and electricity that was “partially powered” by small solar panels that are attached to the pedals and stem.

Giant Solar Flowers

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