Thursday, December 29, 2011
Looking for some marketing articles to read before the end of the new year? Here are the top articles on Boxcar Marketing according to most viewed.
1. How to Manage Your Facebook Business Page
Tips on managing a Facebook Page efficiently.
2. Graphical User Interface (GUI) prototyping tools
For the nerds out there, we have a link to a list of GUI prototyping tools.
3. How to Run a Facebook Contest
Because 2011 was all about Facebook, here’s some tips on running a contest according to Facebook’s Promotions Guidelines.
4. 7 Must Have Apps for Your Facebook Business Page
Notes, Polls, Slideshare, YouTube and 3 more apps to make your Facebook Business Page merry and bright.
5. Measuring your Social Media Marketing: KPIs for Product and Brand Awareness
What to measure and why.
Related Posts
Articles on “Social Media Marketing”
Articles on “Measuring Success: ROI of Online Marketing
Posted by Monique Trottier.
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Friday, December 16, 2011
Photo by Elana Amsterdam
Here at Boxcar Marketing, we like eggnog—and it’s even better with rum. Here’s an easy recipe from The Kitchn for Homemade Eggnog that you can make with either rum or bourbon. Yum!
To busy yourself in between eggnogs, (if you missed it), here are our 12 marketing tips that you can do before Christmas.
Also check out Search Engine Journal’s 12 Days of Christmas Internet Marketing Roundup, which compiles twelve “12 Days of Christmas” posts that have great advice for the end of the year, including tips on social media marketing, SEO and website design.
Happy Holidays!
Boxcar Marketing will be closed from December 26 - January 2, reopening January 3, 2012.
Posted by Crissy Campbell.
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Wednesday, November 23, 2011
The Vancouver Opera is a former client of Boxcar Marketing so we like to champion them and follow their marketing initiatives.
Worth calling out is their 15-second TV spot and transit campaign for season opener West Side Story, which also got a lot of play online.
Not only was the online and office campaign really cool but the 15-second tv spot behind the campaign was created by our colleagues at Giant Ant Media, who make awesome commercial videos for local and international ad agencies and organizations.
Watch the Vancouver Opera TV ad for West Side Story.
Vancouver Opera // West Side Story from Giant Ant on Vimeo.
I managed to catch a free moment with Giant Ant Media co-founder Jay Grandin and asked him a few questions about the creative process for the West Side Story 15-second TV spot. Here’s a summary of our chat.
BX: Vancouver Opera opened the 2011-2012 season with West Side Story, which is a spectacular 21th century production. Given the popularity of the production and its iconic nature, how did you approach the project brief?
JG: One thing that we really tried to do with the Vancouver Opera’s West Side Story spot was to find a way to allow Vancouver and VO to own it. We wanted the tv spot to be about the Vancouver production of West Side Story, not just about West Side Story coming to Vancouver.
We pitched a concept where we would tell the whole story in 15 seconds, which included iconic imagery unique to Vancouver.
Science World was used as a backdrop in the kiss scene. But, the icing on the cake (which was the first frame we presented to the VO team) was West Side Story spelled out in the sky using the iconic Woodward’s W.
This was our closing shot in the TV spot which resonated with all of us so it was also used in the print campaign.
Transit busses wrapped in VO branding go by all day long outside of our Chinatown office window ... which is awesome.
BX: West Side Story is a classic musical theatre production, which has been presented by opera companies before, but how did Vancouver Opera want to address that in the ad campaign?
JG: Vancouver Opera briefed us by stressing that this was NOT an opera. The story they wanted to tell was that the FULL SCALE musical was coming to Vancouver.
BX: So, where did you start?
JG: The creative process for us involved a lot of time at the black board with the team.
We wanted to
- Pay homage to the time period
- Pay homage to Vancouver
- Tell the entire story, and
- Give the audience a taste of the audio in a way that says “musical”, not “opera” .... all within 15 seconds.
To solve 1), we settled on a Saul Bass inspired style reminiscent of his famous title sequences + poster art from the mid-century (including the original West Side Story).
For 2), we used Vancouver as the backdrop, which we just discussed.
3) was difficult in 15 seconds but, in a sense, we were telling Romeo and Juliet. So, we picked the scenes that we felt covered the basics of the story without spoiling the ending.
4) The finger snapping of the opening sequence became our rhythm for the piece, increasing in tempo to a climax.
We used music from West Side Story layered with sounds that would put the viewer into the context: the squeaking of sneakers on pavement, the sound of the sirens far below when you’re up on the fire escape…
BX: What about the dancing? Vancouver Opera replicated Jerome Robbin’s original choreography, which was awesome!
JG: The dancing in West Side Story is very tightly choreographed. The men make big sweeping movements, but ones that also have a hard edge to them.
Because there wasn’t enough time to really explore the choreography with our characters in the TV spot (aside from the one big kick), we treated the camera as though it was dancing to the beat of the snaps.
Each finger snap marked a new movement where the camera glided from one scene to another, or to another vantage point within the scene. It was important to us that the audio and visuals were in sync with one another in a way that was wild and expressive, but also had the containment of a dance.
BX: And who on the Giant Ant Media team worked on the campaign?
JG: The creative development of the spot was a great example of our collaborative process. We spent hours at the chalk board with the entire team—me [Jay Grandin], co-founder Leah Nelson, and our team of designers, editors, animators, and music composer. This includes Scott Tolan, Derek Pante, Ryland Haggis, Shawn Hight, Teresa Toews.
We chipped away at the ideas until we felt like we had a strong direction. In the actual production, I worked quite closely with Shawn, who did the majority of the design and animation, and Ryland, who created the sound scape using a snippet of licensed West Side Story audio, filling in with sound effects.
Thank you Jay Grandin of Giant Ant Media for taking time to chat about the creative process with us.
Vancouver Opera’s next production starts this Saturday, November 26, and runs for only 4 shows!
Roméo et Juliette
Nov 26 and 29, Dec 1 and 3
GET TICKETS
Giant Ant Media is currently working on the tv spot for VO’s The Barber of Seville, opening March 17, 2012. Watch for it.
For more on Giant Ant Media, check out their demo reel.
Thursday, September 23, 2010
Chapters Indigo has a really neat eReading app on their Facebook Page that we haven’t seen done yet anywhere else. If you click on the eReading tab on their Facebook Page, this is what you see:
Why We Like The eReading App
It encourages avid readers to explore ebooks in a comfortable environment. Fans of the Chapters Indigo Page are, presumably, book lovers and the eReading app provides information about ebooks where they are already hanging out online - Facebook.
It engages the community. Fans can submit the latest ebook they read and be featured on the Kobo Reader of the Week. There’s also trivia questions that fans can share with their friends.
It’s great for beginners or people just starting out with ebooks. With explanations and videos about ereading and the Kobo eReader, fans can research if ereading is right for them. And if it is, they can buy the Kobo eReader by clicking on the links to the shopping cart.
eBooks are still new territory and it’s engaging, explanatory apps like Chapters Indigos’ that may push people to explore ereading.
What do you think about the eReading app? Have you seen any other apps that do a good job of marketing digital books?
Posted by Crissy Campbell.
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Monday, August 09, 2010
Registration for BookCamp 2010 opened last week and we’re getting excited for a full day of book and technology-related discussions.
BookCamp Vancouver is a chance to bring the publishing and technology community together to discuss the future of books and book-like technologies. There are a number of blogs that do an excellent job of exploring these topics and, in preparation for BookCamp, the following are blogs that we recommend putting on your reading list:
Clay Shirky
Shirky is one of our favourites. He consistently has insightful, bang-on ideas about the publishing industry and ways to move it forward. Monique wrote a post back in December on how Shirky and his ideas should play a big part in Shaping the Future of Publishing. He doesn’t post to his blog often but when he does it’s usually pretty brilliant.
O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing
O’Reilly has always been on the forefront of books and technology. One of the first to offer ebooks in a subscription model with their Safari Books Online program (which, as of last year, represents 20% of O’Reilly media’s entire business) their blog looks at how technology is transforming publishing. Read last week’s post Consumer Attitudes Toward E-Book Reading for current stats on the ebook market.
Book Madam & Associates
Book Madam & Associates is a collection of publishing and media professionals who share their ideas on publishing, books and readers. Read this excellent post on the real worth of social media in publishing.
MobyLives
MobyLives is Melville House Publishing’s blog that covers news and commentary about books and writers (note: it’s on hiatus until September). Last month’s post on the tyranny of the new in publishing, was particularly interesting.
Book Oven
Book Oven is a project in development that helps writers, editors, proofreaders, designers and small presses turn manuscripts into books. The Book Oven blog, mostly written by Hugh McGuire, explores publishing and our relationship with text in the digital age. You can also find Hugh McGuire’s thoughts on publishing, technology and media on his personal blog.
Seth Godin
Seth Godin is a big-wig in the marketing world but he often turns his marketing eye towards the publishing industry. Listen to a recent audio recording on his ideas around the new dynamics of book publishing.
Posted by Crissy Campbell.
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Thursday, April 15, 2010
Back in January, Monique was asked to impart her social media wisdom on Monica Hamburg’s blog, Me Like the Interweb. Monique’s lesson was this:
Talking to clients about social media is always an exercise in metaphors for me: Social networking is a digital cocktail party. LinkedIn is a business conference. Twitter is your individual headline news ticker. YouTube is your private tv station. In many ways the metaphors are silly and don’t fully explain the platform, but the point is that social media is nothing new. Social media is simply a set of tools that let us do things that are harder to do in real life, such as keeping up to date on what all of our colleagues, friends and family members are doing, exchanging business contacts and making friend-of-a-friend introductions.
The skeptical comments I often hear from clients are, “why do people spend time on this?” and “how can I benefit?” Any active social media user knows that these are the wrong questions. The answer is that people spend time on this stuff because it improves their ability to network offline, to gather information quickly and to establish relationships and to stay in touch.
The basis of a good social strategy is answering the questions, “what are my clients doing online,” “what makes their chosen social networks attractive to them,” “what social failure or real life challenge does this network solve,” and “how can I participate here in a way that adds value, that establishes a closer relationship to my customers, that let’s me stay in touch with their needs, and that, ultimately, is a reciprocal relationship?”
What’s a lesson without homework? Here are some excellent articles that will help you put Monique’s advice into action and get you started on your social media strategy.
5 Reasons Social Media Marketing Comes Last
While it’s no long a question of if you should be using social media, it shouldn’t be first in your marketing plan.
5 Steps to Building a Companywide Social-Media Plan
Helpful steps to get your social media plan moving.
How to Use Google and Twitter to Find Your Customers
Enough said.
An oldie but a goodie, The Cluetrain Manifesto explains the new rules of the market and how to participate.
And, if there’s executive reluctance, 30 Top Objections to Social Media and How to Respond will prepare you to respond to any protests against your social media plans.
Deadline: Tomorrow
(Just kidding.)
Tuesday, January 05, 2010
If you’re like us, you subscribe to blogs with the full intention of reading every post but, as your email or RSS reader fills up, you never get around to reading all (if any) of them. If you’re looking to narrow down your reading list for 2010, these are the blogs we always make time to read - and recommend that you should, too.
Seth’s Blog
Marketing and business guru Seth Godin shares his thoughts on marketing, spreading ideas and standing out from the crowd.
MarketingProfs Daily Fix Blog
A great blog for online marketing resources, marketing articles, online seminars, case studies, conferences and events.
Mequoda Daily
A blog that focuses on online publishing, information marketing and make money online.
Get Elastic The Ecommerce Blog
The #1 ecommerce blog in the world, covering SEO, usability, analytics, email, shopping cart abandonment, and social media.
VKI Studios
Internet marketing and website usability blog to help you get more traffic and higher conversation rates.
Posted by Crissy Campbell.
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