Blog

Apr 30

Strategic Thinking

Posted by pattie / April 30th, 2012

Things have been busy around here … that might be the understatement of the year. Busy is a good thing. No, it’s a great thing. We are fortunate to have a lot of really exciting and interesting work every day.

But lately I’ve found myself glued to my desk chair, plugging away at all of the details, barely take a break to rest my tired eyes or stiff fingers. The majority of my time has been focused on the day-to-day details of a lot of different projects, managing the nuts and bolts and just getting stuff (for lack of a better word) done.

Then late last week I started to work on a few fresh, new projects and I had to take a step back, pull my head up out of the details and get myself back in Strategic Thinker mode. So what did I do? I went online for some inspiration and found a great article that reminded me what it takes and what it means to be a good Strategic Thinker.

The full article, 6 Habits of True Strategic Thinkers by Paul J. H. Schoemaker can be found here, but I thought I’d highlight a few key points.

Great strategic thinkers and strategic leaders do several things really well. Specifically:

  • Anticipate: Look at not just what is coming next week, next month, but what is coming next year.
  • Think Critically: Challenge conventional thinking – including your own.
  • Interpret: Don’t make rash decisions. Hold strong and review information from many sources before forming a viewpoint.
  • Decide: Strike a balance between speed and quality.
  • Align: Foster conversation and build trust.
  • Learn: Celebrate success and failures that provide insight.

It’s clear being a truly great strategic leader and thinker will not happen overnight but is more a process of trail and error and continuing to seek out educational opportunities to fill-in the gaps and become even more proficient.  Here’s to trying at least!

Apr 19

How to Make $1 Billion in 18 Months

Posted by leann / April 19th, 2012

Ever wonder what big idea you could come up with to make it big?  Apparently the answer can include building a company that never makes a dime.  Just look at what happened with Instagram last week.   If you haven’t heard, Instagram is a free photo sharing application that allows users to take a photo, add filters, and share it either thru the app itself or thru other social networking services.  The product confines photos to a square shape, similar to Kodak Instamatic and Polaroid images, rather than the typical aspect ratio used by mobile device cameras.

Launched in October, 2010, Instagram was initially supported on iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch and has been distributed through the iTunes app Store and Google Play. With approximately 14 employees, Instagram claimed to have 30 million users earlier this year.  And, with the recent roll out of supported Android camera phones the company said it was on track to have 100 million users by the end of the year.  However, on April 9, Facebook announced it would acquire Instagram for approximately $1 billion in cash and stock.

And here’s the kicker.  Instagram had zero revenue. Characterized in the press as a company having “lots of buzz but no business model”, they never made a penny. While photo sharing may have helped make Facebook the leader it is today, $1 billion for Instagram compared with the $35 million that Yahoo! paid for Flicker in 2007 is a pretty big leap by any measure.

Obviously Instagram investors are happy.  But what was in it for Facebook? Based on Facebook’s size today, their business model must be focused on adding revenue rather than simply adding users.  But in the online marketplace, dozens of companies have learned that monetizing online photo sharing can be a very elusive goal.  Current Instagram users worry that Facebook might have just seen it as a competitor and will just close it down, change it to put ads into their photo streams, or use it to compile more of their personal information.

To allay these fears, Facebook has announced that Instragram is here to stay and will remain available as a stand-alone app.  Only time will tell what happens further down the road, but the question is still out there – how will this purchase make money for Facebook?

Apr 13

Brand Recognition in the Wake of Tragedy: The Trayvon Martin Case

Posted by chea / April 13th, 2012

I’m sure we’ve all heard many, many details about the Trayvon Martin murder by now. While the case continues to unfold each day, one unlikely component has been receiving widespread attention.

On February 26th, Trayvon Martin was gunned down and with him he had two products we all know well – Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea. The New York Times has reported that sales for Skittles have gone up after the shooting. It’s safe to assume that given the social connotations, Arizona Iced Tea has also profited.

Like the hooded sweatshirt that has fast become a symbol of youth and innocence in the Martin case, the candy and iced tea has also been elevated to a cultural symbol indicating social injustice.

As news of the profits spread, people are taking it to the realm of social media to get their point across.

This begs the question, what would you do if your brand inadvertently gets placed in the spotlight due to a horrific tragedy?

Other brands in the past have had the misfortune of being caught in the midst of public turmoil such as the “Twinkie Defense” from the Harvey Milk murder and the infamous “Drink the Kool-Aid” reference that was linked to the Jonestown mass suicide in 1978. Flavor-Aid was identified as the actual drink used for the latter incident though Kool-Aid was impacted negatively due to the error. Kool-Aid especially seems to have weathered through the hard times but it’s hard to say how Skittles and Arizona Iced Tea will hold out given the fast-as-lightning spread of communication that is social media.

Both brands have issued sympathetic yet impartial public responses but inevitably, it becomes a “damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation” where sitting on the sidelines is viewed as unsympathetic but becoming involved actively can also be viewed as opportunistic.  So what do you do?

1. Hire a good PR firm.  Cases like this go way beyond the brand; crisis management is critical.

2. Tread lightly.  Be aware and sympathetic. Everything can get taken out of context in some way.

3. Be patient. Hopefully with time people will forget about the negative press. Until then, act professional and genuine.

Apr 6

SXSW – The Denver Download

Posted by Chris Clemens / April 6th, 2012

SXSW 2012

After experiencing my first SXSW Interactive Conference this year, I participated in a fun and informative event back in Denver:  the SXSW Denver Download, hosted by our good friends at Ground Floor Media. The event was held last night at the cool Gallery 1261.  Presentations were made by myself, GFM’s Jim Licko and Alexis Anderson, and Lauren Preston of Qdoba Mexican Grill.  So, what were some of the key take-aways from this year’s SXSW Interactive, according to my fellow panelists?

Content needs to get more personal.  Content was the buzzword of choice at this year’s conference. Each panelist mentioned it in their presentation in different ways, but it was clearly an important topic, as brands begin to realize they need to be publishers as much as they are marketers.  Successful brands are finding ways to provide storytelling instead of selling.  They’re delivering content that is relevant, authentic, human, and above all, honest.  They’re not trying to broadcast every key message in their arsenal.  They know how to be selective, sharing moments instead of messages.

Engagement is still important.  But many marketers are struggling with a similar problem:  what to do with their follower base once it’s been assembled?  They’re realizing the importance of cross-platform storytelling, of engaging their followers across different media and in different ways.  They’re looking for ways to encourage activity and participation out of their viewers, readers or fans.  Some brands are realizing that their most engaged advocates are their own employees and team members.

Mobile keeps accelerating.  A lot of this year’s SXSW Interactive was dedicated to mobile, and the seemingly unlimited opportunities it continues to bring to brands and marketers alike.  SoLoMo refers to the convergence of Social, Local and Mobile, which are coming together to revolutionize both the consumption of content, and the targeting of specific audiences.  Thankfully, QR Codes will most likely be giving way to new marketing concepts like Social Serendipity, mobile payments, and augmented reality.

Staying nimble.  Another common point was the need for brands and marketers to remain nimble.  In the always-on digital marketing environment, companies shouldn’t expect their brands to look the same over time.  They’ll need to find ways to embrace flexibility, variety and nimbleness in telling – and evolving – their brand stories.  This will be true in terms of crafting new content, where those who wait too long will quickly be surpassed by those who jump in, even if their message ins’t 100% crafted to perfection.
Interested in more?  Slides from the evening’s presenters can be found on Slideshare.

Mar 16

Homeless Hotspots – The ethics of new media and creating a buzz

Posted by erin / March 16th, 2012

This week marks the second weekend of SXSW down in Austin.  For those of you who don’t know this is a mecca of all things Music, Film and Interactive.  We’re talking Al Gore, Jay Z, Sean Parker and Springsteen.  But even with 2 weeks of the industries biggest and brightest one thing generated more buzz than all the rest – the Homeless Hotspots.

What are Homeless Hotspots? Well, “Homeless Hotspots is a charitable innovation by ad agency BBH New York.  It attempts to modernize the Street Newspaper model employed to support homeless populations.”   In other words, Ad agency BBH took 13 homeless people, armed them with a MiFi and a t-shirt and turned them into mobile hotspots.  Attendees at SXSW were encouraged to donate money to the actual person or at a distance using PayPal.  Each person was tracked on a virtual map allowing you to see where your closest “hotspot” was to you.

Needless to say there were a lot of mixed feelings about this.  Even here at CCT we had a lively debate about the ethics around this.  And the press went from the good: they are giving the homeless a job, they are bringing to light a situation where we can help, homeless and homeless advocates praising the innovative new look on an age old problem, to the bad: blatant publicity ploy, exploiting the homeless, confusion.

So what do we take from this “experiment”?  I think you have to think about a few things when launching a campaign that can trigger very strong emotions.  One, Just because you can, doesn’t mean you always should.  Two, is all press good press?  Three, are there other social problems that we can look at with fresh eyes and think of different ways to approach them?

No matter which side you sit on, one thing is sure, these guys know how to generate a buzz.

 

Mar 9

10 tips on how to deal with angry customers through social media.

Posted by chase / March 9th, 2012

#1 You can’t respond to conversations you can’t see. So start by setting up Google Alerts for your brand and industry keywords. You’ll get any dirt through your email and stay on top of what people are talking about in the social arena. Next, keep a close eye on your Facebook page and listen on Twitter. And depending on your brand, you can also read reviews on sites such as Yelp, TripAdvisor and Zagat, for example. Last, make a list of forums where your customers congregate and check them regularly.

#2  Decide if a negative comment is really worth responding to. If it’s only on a small blog, your response may bring attention to an issue no one saw on the first place. Also,  if the attack is blatantly rude or outrageous, it could be a sign that the writer has personal problems.

#3 Act Quickly. The longer you take to respond, the angrier a person will get. Then others will pick up on the issue and create negative buzz. At the very least say you are sorry and/or looking into the situation, the give the person your real name and contact info. That way you’ve given the writer a more private place to vent rather than an open channel online.

#4 Speak like a human. Avoid corporate or canned responses. Respond with empathy and, again, give your real name and possibly a photo. It’s harder to yell at Emily than a faceless company.

#5 Offer to make it right. Apologizing is only one way of turning around negative word of mouth. If somebody didn’t like your breakfast burrito, replace it with a fresh one.

#6 Offer a sincere apology or don’t apologize at all. Take FedEx, who put out an online video to the public of the CEO apologizing for one of his drivers tossing a package over somebody’s fence.

#7 Don’t get into a fight. Even if you win, you lose… because all audience members that see the public conversation will remember is you’re combative. Acknowledge that your critic is actually doing you a favor by helping you make yours a better company.

#8 Sometimes it’s actually good to keep the discussion open. Take Graco baby cribs. They very quickly recalled 2 million defective strollers and probably saved lives in doing so. Their Twitter feed was soon all abuzz with what a responsible, customer service-minded company they were.

#9 Use fans and third party sources to help tell the story. UPS actually had George Will come to their rescue in the Huffington Post online when they were falsely accused by FedEx of taking a government bailout.

#10 And, finally, involve the complainers in the fix. See them as frustrated customers that may have worthwhile ideas. Invite fans to participate in any advisory capacity you may have through your online platform. Or ask them to take part in beta testing of a new product or brainstorming sessions.

There you go. And here’s to hoping you don’t have to use any of these ideas in the anywhere near future.

 

Mar 9

Now hiring: ACD/Art Director

Posted by tom / March 9th, 2012

We’re looking for a highly conceptual art director with 5+ years of experience who eats, sleeps and breathes great ideas. You will partner with our ACD/Copywriter as lead art director on major accounts, and help develop and manage our art directors and creative product. Must have exceptional design skills, broadcast experience and an interest in integrating your ideas across traditional and digital media. Send your resume, a link to your online portfolio and salary requirements to resumes@cctadvertising.com.

Feb 23

CCT adds new Director of Digital

Posted by christine / February 23rd, 2012

As clients diversify their media mix, digital has become an ever more important part of our business. In response to the changes, CCT is pleased to announce a new senior-level position within the agency. Lynda Calhoun has officially joined the agency as Director of Digital.

Lynda, who has contributed to CCT projects previously, brings more than 12 years of digital marketing experience to the agency. She has worked both on the Agency and Client sides, for leading brands like Dell, Adobe, Cisco, Qwest, Coors, Hewlett-Packard, MasterCard, and Rainbow Rewards. Her expertise includes digital strategy, social media, e-CRM, digital production, and emerging digital media.

At CCT, Lynda will focus on identifying the most effective digital marketing strategies for our clients, and will oversee the production and execution of these digital tactics. She’ll work closely with the rest of the agency and our clients to ensure that digital strategies are closely integrated with traditional marketing elements.

Feb 17

Blogging and The Voice of Women

Posted by pattie / February 17th, 2012

Two months ago my adorable, sweet, loving, perfect, first-born baby boy turned 3. It was a sad day and a happy day.  I was happy to celebrate his special day, happy that he was a kind, sensitive little boy and an amazing big brother.  But then I was sad in the same moment. Side note: this whole parenting thing is a bit of an emotional roller coaster.

Anyway, I digress. I was sad because I was in total disbelief that he was ALREADY  three – where did the time go and how do I get it back? I want to package up and freeze forever everything that he is.

But then I realized … holy heck. 3 is Hard – with a capital H. Terrible 2’s? Really – they have nothing on 3 so far. He’s becoming his own self – a little bit opinionated and a lot bit independent. Throw in a touch of sassiness and you have yourself some fun, interesting and challenging times as a parent.

So, you are probably wandering what any of this has to do with Social Media right?

Well, late one night after a particularly rough bedtime battle that wore me out and left me in tears I went to the Internet and started searching. How to get your 3 year old to stay in his bed? How to be a better, more patient parent to a 3 year old? You get my drift.

What I got was not just answers to my questions but an overwhelming online community of Mommy bloggers who were experiencing, or have experienced, the same things I was. Really – you mean I’m not alone in this? I felt connected. I got advise in a real world, I’ve-been-there-too, you’re-still-an-awesome-Mom, kind of way.

So, it got me thinking … blogging has totally changed and expanded the voice of women.  There are thousands of blogs out there written by woman, for woman.

The Social Media Examiner interviewed Lisa Stone, CEO and co-founder of BlogHer about how blogging has done this. I think she hits the nail on the head when she says: “Finally, there is the perfect toll for woman, who are defacto by nature, social, to communicate their likes, dislikes, their loves, their hates all over the internet when they choose to.”

We have control to share, connect and inspire when we WANT to. And I have the control to be inspired and connected when I NEED to. It’s a win, win for everyone.

I never thought I’d be the type of person who would follow a blog (or several), but I’m totally hooked. I’ve found inspiring stories from every corner of the blogosphere. Parenting, cooking, fashion, friendship, advertising, marketing, etc. It’s amazing and I’m officially addicted. Are you addicted to blogs too?

Feb 13

Gamification: The latest and greatest, or total BS?

Posted by Chris Clemens / February 13th, 2012

Badges are a popular concept in gamification.

Gamification (the use of game design mechanics applied to marketing) has gotten a lot of attention lately.  How popular is the concept?  The term has popped up quite a bit in the last 3-4 years, and it was actually added to the Oxford English Dictionary in 2011.  Some people might think of it as just the latest fad in digital marketing.  But the concept has been around for a long time.  It’s a powerful strategy for influencing and motivating people.  It’s a multi-billion dollar industry.  And it’s here to stay.

Gamification is rooted in the concept of game mechanics.  These are the specific techniques (typically employed by game designers) that engage and motivate participants.  They include basic human motivators like achievement, avoidance, reward, recognition, discovery, incentive, time limits, pride, fun and status.  Starting to sound familiar?  Once you start paying attention, it’s amazing where you’ll see these tools used.

Savvy marketers know that these techniques can motivate and engage consumers.  And not just gamers, but all of us.  Most obvious are the hot social media apps like FourSquare that rely on game mechanics like leader boards, rewards, recognition, badges, and achievements to push engagement and participation.

But you’ll also see game mechanics used with loyalty programs like Hilton Honors, JetBlue TrueBlue and Subway Sandwich Cards.  Websites like The Huffington Post, SEOmoz, and Mashable use gamification techniques to encourage users of their sites to read more articles, comment more often and share more frequently.  You’ll see simple game mechanics used on websites to encourage users to complete their profiles (think about LinkedIn’s ubiquitous progress bar, for example.)  The same thinking has even moved into areas such as fitness, shopping, education, training and even filling out government forms.

Are there uses for advertising agencies like ours?  Absolutely.  We could all be using some of these ideas to make our campaigns more engaging, and to help our clients motivate their customers to spend more time with their brands.

So, look around you.  Where’s the potential gamification opportunity in your marketing program?

 

Feb 2

The Online Privacy Debate

Posted by leann / February 2nd, 2012

Companies that track and collect online consumer data give marketers the chance to serve up ads that are customized to an individual user’s wants, likes and needs.  In theory this kind of marketing, called Behavioral Targeting (or BT) offers a win-win for consumers and marketers alike.  Marketers get to save money by serving ads only to the best potential prospects  and consumers are served ads that are highly relevant to them.

What allows this to happen is data collection.  Cookies are stored on a user’s computer, or  something called a PIE (persistent identification element) that cannot be easily deleted or detected.  Tracking companies then assemble and analyze data in order to gain insight into patterns that marketers may want.  And this is big business.  According to Forrester Research, companies in the U.S. spend more than $2 billion on third-party consumer data each year. Add in dollars spent on market research and other kinds of derived information, and that number balloons even higher.

All of this has contributed to an ongoing and heated debate. Often people don’t like the idea of being followed and don’t want their information shared.  And as the demand for mobile marketing and location data grows, concerns about data trackers that can follow digital footprints in real time are growing.

Proponents of industry regulation want to make sure “personally identifiable” data remains private. Opponents worry that implementation of such a law will be costly and inhibit Internet innovation.  The debate ranges from “Privacy is dead . .. Get over it!”  and “the appeal of online services is to broadcast personal information on purpose” to “Privacy protects us from abuses from people in power” and fears that data tracking will have a “chilling effect on our First and Fourth Amendment rights”.

In response to these concerns, some companies are trying to build a marketplace to help people decide how much data they want to share, and with who.  Companies like Personal and Experian are attempting to give consumers deals and even cash in exchange for sharing their data.  However, the prevailing perspective among online advertisers is that the current system can continue to support targeted advertising as long as the industry provides more transparency and tools for turning off tracking.

And the conversation continues.  In the news this week is Google’s just announced new privacy policy. “Some have expressed concern about whether consumers can opt out of our updated privacy policy… We believe that the relevant issue is whether users have choices about how their data is collected and used,” wrote Pablo Chavez, Google’s director of public policy.

Representative Ed Markey, a senior member of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and co-chairman of the Congressional Privacy Caucus shot back in a statement,” Sharing users’ personal information across its products may make good business sense for Google, but it undermines privacy safeguards for consumers.

Where do you stand?

Jan 27

New blog for AAA Colorado draws lots of laughs and visitors

Posted by tom / January 27th, 2012

Last week CCT launched a new blog for AAA. Within days of its introduction, the blog had attracted hundreds of visitors, thanks in part to the popularity of Chad Lumberg, the author of the site, and star of AAA Colorado’s 2012 television campaign.

AAA Colorado and CCT created Chad to remind folks that while lots of  businesses offer towing as an add-on service, few have the expertise or experience that AAA Colorado brings to every call. And to start a conversation about the need for roadside assistance with Millennials.

Chad’s Big Tow features hilarious blog and video posts by Chad on a variety of towing-related subjects.

In one post he explains how to jump start a car, and refers to a recent service call he made  where his carelessness with jumper cables burned off his eyebrows. To save himself from embarrassment, he used a magic marker to draw them back on.

In another post, Chad makes the case for why his scooter, which runs on a powerful 2-stroke engine (“the same engine,”  he tells us,” that today’s most powerful leaf blowers use”) is better than a AAA tow truck.

Every week, Chad also uploads a new video featuring another scene from his life as a pizza delivery and towing guy living out of the basement of his parent’s house.

In one recent video, he siphons gas from his parent’s car to take with him on a service call, and ends up getting a mouthful from…well we’ll let you watch and see.

In another video, he creates a video resume to AAA, and follows up with several rejection letters and, finally, a cease and desist letter from AAA’s lawyers.

While Chad’s advice is the stuff of comedy clubs rather than motor clubs, he does often link to content from AAA and AAA Colorado visitors who are searching for information on roadside assistance tips will find valuable.

For instance, Chad ended a recent post on driver safety with a link to a AAA guide to teen driver safety.

You can check out Chad’s Big Tow here. He answers questions from his fans on a daily basis, so during your visit try to stump him with your towing-related question.

You can learn more about the benefits of a AAA Colorado membership at their website.

 

 

 

 

 

Jan 20

Pinterest. Why we should be paying attention.

Posted by erin / January 20th, 2012

I have a new addiction and it is called Pinterest.  I can spend hours on Pinterest just exploring and discovering new and exciting things and pinning them to my virtual pinboard.

You may be asking what is Pinterest?  Pinterest is an invitation-only online pinboard that lets users find, save, organize and share the things they love on the web all in one place.  So lets say I just bought a house and am looking for decorating ideas, instead of going to hardware stores and looking at paint chips, furniture catalogs for couch ideas or accent stores for the finishing touches, I can look at all of the stores online and pin photos and ideas all to one centralized board.  I can even look through the community pins to see what others have found.

Pinterest touches on a couple of interesting trends.  First, the switch from search to discovery.  As Tech Crunch puts it , sites such as Pinterest “allow for self-expression, and in doing so, re-sort and re-shape the web we see, and that is a very big shift away from traditional search toward social discovery.”  Second, the niching of social media.  Since the audience on Pinterest is nearly 70% female and mostly under the age of 45, according to Search Engine Watch, if you fit in those demographics you will likely find a lot of information that is appealing to you.  I think we will see a lot of new social sites popping up in the near future that appeal to niche audiences.

Pinterest is on the rise in terms of users, money being spent and time on site and is definitely something you should be watching.

Now if you’ll excuse me, I need to go discover new ideas for my guest bedroom.

Sample Pinterest Boards

Jan 9

5 CCT campaigns featured at this month’s Denver 50 award show

Posted by tom / January 9th, 2012

As its name applies, the Denver 50 honors the 50 best advertising and marketing ideas that were created in the Rocky Mountain West this year. The low number of winning entries makes it one of the toughest regional award shows in the country. So all of the folks here at CCT Advertising were excited  to learn that for the the second straight year the judges selected 5 CCT campaign ideas to feature in this year’s show, ranking CCT among the top award winners in the region. Here are those entries:

AAA Colorado wanted to communicate that lots of companies are trying to get into the towing game, but AAA stands alone as the foremost specialist in roadside assistance.

 

How do you get travelers to drive past six world-class resorts and visit Grand Junction, CO instead? CCT recommended the city start emphasizing its proximity to Colorado Wine Country.

 

print ad for Wind River Country

Wyoming’s Wind River Country is a hidden gem of a destination a couple hours south of Yellowstone. Our charge was to create a stronger sense of place and a clearer identity for the brand. Work included a new logo, print ads and website design.

 

Miller Coors participates in a joint marketing effort with the City of Golden to advertise the Coors Brewery Tour. Each year, the tour drives 250,000 visitors to the brewery, and thanks to this campaign of dioramas and electronic billboards at DIA, thousands stop in Coors hometown of Golden after the tour. When we found out that the #1 reason they take the tour is for the free beer, this airport signage almost wrote itself.

In addition to the work shown, the Denver 50 also honored a recent campaign for the Togwotee Trail to Yellowstone designed to keep travelers driving one of Wyoming’s busiest highways to Yellowstone during an 8-year road construction project. We are featuring this work in an upcoming email, so we’ll keep you in suspense until then.

Do you have a favorite CCT campaign of the past year? Tell us what you think.

 

 

 

Dec 21

Google Analytics. A Great Web App Gets Even Better.

Posted by Chris Clemens / December 21st, 2011

Google Analytics - Flow Visualization

Web apps have become a ubiquitous part of our daily online routine.  We spend much of our day in web apps like Gmail, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, WordPress, even Pandora or Workamajig.  They’re great tools.  But they can also drive you crazy when an update gets pushed out, and all-of-a-sudden you’re faced with a new interface, unfamiliar layouts and strange features.

When Google Analytics announced a major update to its web app earlier this year, we’ll admit we didn’t jump on the bandwagon right away.  It’s such a deep application to start with, the prospect of new tools and reports seemed a little overwhelming.

But now that we’ve made the jump, we couldn’t be more enthusiastic about the changes.  After reading about the new features in this article from Mashable, we had to agree that Google Analytics has made some great updates, and added some very useful new stuff.  According to Mashable, here are a few of the best:

Dashboards.  These seemed like a pain in the old version of Google Analytics.  With the overhaul, they’re much more user friendly.  You can create up to 20 personalized dashboards, each one including multiple widgets, with the formats and data that are most important to you, with just a few clicks.

Term (keyword) clouds.  If you’re a visual person, a keyword cloud can be a much easier way to spot trends and visualize the relative importance of different words instead of looking at long listings of terms.

Real-time data.  The old GA would only give you data that had been collected through the previous day.  True data freaks will like the new real-time reports, where you can view activity on your site as it happens, showing visitors and interactions in, uh, real time.

Site speed.  GA now gives you information about average page load times on your site.  This can help you troubleshoot slow load times, which can affect your Google quality score, search rankings, and conversions.

Social engagement.  GA can now provide some basic information about how visitors interact socially with your site.  The reports show you how many of your visitors shared content from your site, and which pages prompted their interactions.

Flow visualizations.  Probably one of the coolest new features (or we’re just suckers for diagrams and charts.)  These reports visually display the ‘flow’ of visitors through different pages on the site, or through conversion goals.  Now that’s an analytic an agency person can appreciate!

There are more new features, in addition to these.  So, have you switched over yet, or are you holding off?  Whatever you do, be aware that the new version becomes mandatory for all users in January, 2012.

Dec 19

A special holiday message from CCT.

Posted by stuart / December 19th, 2011

Season’s greetings. Check out this holiday treat put together for you by the CCT creative department and get into the spirit of things. We sure did.

 

Dec 9

Social Gaming Not To Be Ignored

Posted by mary / December 9th, 2011

FarmVille, Angry Birds, Words with Friends, Mafia Wars, World of Warcraft. Chances are no matter your age or gender, you have heard someone talking about at least one of these games. I am not a “gamer” myself but I do have to say I am curious to know what all the hype is about and who is playing these games. And thank you, Alec Baldwin, for being the perfect example of how addicted one can get to these games.

Considering social stereotypes about people who play games, it might be surprising to some that a survey reported the average social gamer to be a 43 year old woman and that 55% of social gamers are female. Other interesting statistics according to Mashable are that 35% of social gamers have no previous gaming experience and 1 in 5 Americans over the age of 6 has played an online social game…that’s nearly 60 million Americans! What amazes me is that these gamers are spending real money on virtual things. Experts predict that 6 billion dollars will be spent by internet users on virtual goods in 2013. Amazing.

Adweek reports that in-game advertising reached $1 billion in spending last year in North America and industry analysts expect it to top $7.2 billion by 2016. Adweek also references a study that found gamers spend an average of 13 hours a week on social networks and an average of 9.5 hours a week on social games. The study also noted that social gamers are open to advertising and they’re okay with viewing in-game ads to earn virtual currency.

We at CCT Advertising, a Denver based ad agency focusing on 5 to 9 brands, will continue to monitor the progression of the social gaming industry and the advertising opportunities that are available. I guess that also means we will probably need to spend several hours experimenting with these games to fully understand the product. Angry Birds here I come.

 

Dec 1

Social Shopping

Posted by leann / December 1st, 2011

With the start of the holiday shopping season, there’s been a lot of buzz about Social Shopping lately.  But what exactly is Social Shopping and how will it impact us?  By definition, Social Shopping is a method of e-commerce where shoppers’ friends become involved in the experience and add a level of interaction that makes it feel like a shared and social experience.

By some estimates e-commerce is expected to reach $200 billion this year but it still hasn’t become fully entrenched with consumers in the social networking space.  Several sites like Facebook’s Beacon have tried and failed.

The popularity of Facebook-commerce (F-commerce) is growing but remains difficult for retailers.  A few large brands like Pampers have opened online storefronts within Facebook but back-end integration remains too expensive for most retailers.  It’s also not clear how willing shoppers are to open their wallets on a social network, and needless to say, it could be a tough sell if there is no discernable advantage to consumers for buying through Facebook versus more traditional e-commerce sites.

But, the online space is still changing.  A recent partnership between Facebook and E-Bay hopes to move a step closer to integrate the shopping experience. Facebook users will be able to “want” items they find during online shopping and will also be able to “love”, “own”, or “review” products.  At the same time a myriad of other start ups trying to marry shopping with social continue to appear.

In the meantime Facebook, Twitter and even Four-Square continue to play an important role as a communication medium driving consumers to a retailers own e-commerce site.  Big retailers including Macy’s, Wal-Mart and Best Buy publicized their Black Friday deals early to their Facebook fans while J.C. Penney used Foursquare in its Black Friday push, pledging to donate $25 to the Salvation Army each time someone “checked in” to its stores Friday.  And, both Target and AT&T used Twitter to promote their holiday sales.  All indicators show this is a long-term trend that’s here to stay.

Nov 18

CU Denver chooses CCT Advertising

Posted by tom / November 18th, 2011

The University of Colorado Denver has hired CCT Advertising as agency of record for its 13 schools and colleges. CU Denver is one of the nation’s top urban public research institutions, offering  more than 130 programs to 17,000 undergraduate, graduate, doctoral and professional health students at its downtown Denver and Anschutz Medical campuses.

The university selected CCT over several other area firms because of the agency’s track record in developing online and guerrilla advertising campaigns as well as its traditional and online media buying capabilities.

“CU Denver holds a unique position in this marketplace, and a special place in the hearts and minds of CU graduates like myself,” according to CCT president Chris Clemens. “We’re excited to help raise awareness for an institution which has trained so many of the region’s top leaders in medicine, business, politics, and the arts.”

The agency has already begun placing media for the university, and is in the planning stages on several communications initiatives for 2012.

 

 

Nov 17

CCT launches new campaign for Wind River Country

Posted by tom / November 17th, 2011

Wyoming’s Wind River Country asked CCT Advertising to better position the region against Wyoming’s other great destinations on the way to Yellowstone National Park. So CCT creative and account team Chase Claussen, Stuart Confer and Darcy Ervick created this new campaign which reminds travelers that Wind River Country is not only on the way to Yellowstone, it’s also a great way to rediscover the parts of Wyoming, and yourself, that you love. The campaign includes print, outdoor, a new logo and a website redesign. You can view all the work at the  new work section of the CCT website.