FEATURED CONTENT

19 Dec 2012 Leave a comment

Warm Wishes!

Merry Christmas from 31 Creative Holland Michigan Ad Agency

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TOPICS: 31 Creative, Blog, Graphic Design, Holland, Marketing, Public Relations, SEO, Social Media, Website Design, West Michigan
18 Aug 2012 Leave a comment

On Demand Advertising

From the onset of social media, there has been a shift in how advertisers target consumers. The days where a family with a new puppy would sit through a kitty litter commercial or a senior citizen would listen to a radio spot on the latest acne medication are gone. Scanning the newspaper looking for articles between a variety of ads … gone. Driving down the road, passing billboards for motels 10 miles off the highway … gone. Most of these advertising opportunities are replaced by social media channels including Facebook, YouTube, Hulu, Pinterest, Twitter and LinkedIn.

One of the biggest differences between traditional and social is right there in the name: SOCIAL. For a social campaign to be successful, people have to actually choose to participate. To share brands with their peers, friends and family. Consumers are becoming fans of products, tweeting for customer support and connecting in today’s digital age. How are you and your brand becoming involved?

Which commercials do you help “go viral”?
Which products do you “like”?
Which brand do you “follow”?

Check out some of the social projects we’ve worked on – do you see something you would like to try? Give us a tweet, we’re happy to help you out!

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TOPICS: 31 Creative, Advertising, Blog, Holland, Marketing, New Media, Public Relations, Social Media, Strategy, West Michigan
04 May 2012 Leave a comment
31creative

Tulips, Threelips & Stems

With summer in February and tropical storms in May, it’s no surprise that Holland’s popular flower festival, Tulip Time, is no longer about the flowers. Instead townies and tourists are clicking their wooden shoes and celebrating Stem Fest this week.

West Michigan Web Design Agency Keep Calm Spoof

A Dutch parody on the Keep Calm and Carry On propaganda poster produced by the British government before WWII. The original was intended to raise morale. Our short series is inteded to celebrate our heritage... and humor.

Just like every other Spring, the quaint (read: Awesome) Michigan town of Holland blooms to life with parades, traditional Dutch Dance performances, concerts, Dutch attractions, children’s events, city tours and more. Locals and out-of-towners gather to celebrate Dutch heritage, culture and community, while sharing delicious oliebollens and carving wooden shoes. A few of 31 Creative’s favorite activities to indulge in during Tulip Time are binging on carnie food, holding on for dear life on the rides at the Meijer Midway Carnival, voting in the Tulip Time People’s Choice Awards and, of course, catching the fireworks at Kollen Park.

This year while the tulips may be missing, the spirit of 19th century Holland is still alive and well. Get downtown and enjoy what our wonderful city has to offer. We’ll be live-tweeting all week – follow us on Twitter for #stemfest updates at @31creative.

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TOPICS: 31 Creative, Advertising, Blog, Branding, Graphic Design, Holland, Marketing, Public Relations, SEO, Social Media, Strategy, Website Design, West Michigan
10 Jan 2012 Leave a comment

Link Building 131

1. GET INDEXED.
The “Big 3″, Google, Bing and Yahoo, which is really 2 since Yahoo now uses Bing’s database, use crawlers to find pages, index your site, rank you, share you with the world, yada yada yada… BUT, it never hurts to speed up that process. Submitting your site to the Big 3.
Google’s Webmaster Tools – Add a URL
Yahoo & Bing’s Toolbox – Submit your site

2. CROSS LINKING.
Based on the premise that the more quality inbound links you have pointing to your site the higher your page rank and traffic, two sites exchange outbound links to each other. Find sites that complement yours, similar target audience, keywords, geographic location, etc., to get the most out of your efforts.

3. INTERLINK YOUR WEBSITE.
Increasing the page rank of your inside pages is a great way to increase traffic to your site, and as a result, increasing your home page rank. Make sure that all of your pages are one click away from your home page. Use keywords in these links. Add a sitemap link to your footer to reinforce this concept.

4. DROP A FEW BREADCRUMBS.
Breadcrumbs are a secondary navigation term for links showing the user the path the the web page they are currently viewing. Not only does this help improve user experience (UX), but it is a clever way to add a few internal links.

5. USE 301 REDIRECTS.
You want to make sure that your user is directed to the correct page on your site right? Well let’s make sure that the crawlers are too. Your site can be accessed through several different URLs (http://, http://www., etc.), make sure that you are funneling everyone to the right place … and increasing that page’s rank.

6. ORGANIC TRAFFIC.
This is sort of a catch-22. More of a goal than a tip. If your already on Google’s first page, you’ve got it. And by “it” I mean unpaid listings at search engines or directories pointing directly to your page. These valuable organic links gained by putting together a site with quality content, accurate keywords, SEO, and a lot of work.

7. GET SOCIAL.
Tweet about your site. Post updates to your site on Facebook. Check in to your site with Foursquare. Build your LinkedIn profile. Hey, you can even throw links up on your old MySpace page. Links don’t get much easier than these, and if you’re lucky, your connections will pass them along.

8. BLOG.
Blogs, like this one, can link to your home page, other blog posts, previous tweet, your Facebook page, Google+ account, etc. These links increase your exposure, and direct traffic to your site. Beyond this self serving (boring) approach, keep in mind that blogs providing original, quality, up-to-date, cutting edge content, will be the ones that others value enough to share. Spreading your message, and your links.

9. ADD AN RSS FEED.
An easy way to add more metadata, keywords, links to your pages,  and an opportunity to let people subscribe to your message. A no-brainer.

10. CREATE A WIKI.
Wiki’s support hyperlinks and anyone can create one … or two.

11. LEAVE A COMMENT
… and a link. Although most links left in blog comment sections are turned into “no-follow” links, a well thought out comment could entice other readers to follow your link and comment or share your message.

12. SUBMIT TO DIRECTORIES.
There are a ton of these. Some more valuable than others like Yelp and Yahoo! Local. Most list websites by category, service or location … and are free. So take the time to enter your keywords, services, logos, promotions, phone numbers, urls, locations, descriptions, examples, and whatever else you can.

31. WEAR THE ‘WHITE’ HAT.
Black hat SEO results don’t last long, and often sites that employ their techniques may be banned or blacklisted from search engines. If your  goal is to get listed highly, try quality links, relevant links, honest links … and plenty of them!

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TOPICS: Blog, Marketing, New Media, Programimng, SEO, Social Media, Strategy
19 Oct 2011 Leave a comment

31 Creative Advertising Quotes

Everyone loves a good quote. Here are 31 interesting, funny, and/or relevant quotes to ponder. In no particular order:

“What you call love was invented by guys like me to sell nylons.”
– Don Draper

“It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.”
– Winston Churchill

“The real question is, will they buy it?”
– Noel Peebles

“The best way to predict the future is to create it.”
– Peter Drucker

“I find the harder I work, the more luck I have.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted, and the problem is I don’t know which half.”
– Lord Leverhulme

“I saw a subliminal advertising executive, but only for a second.”
– Steven Wright

“Nobody counts the number of ads you run; they just remember the impression you make.”
– Bill Bernbach

“Creative without strategy is called ‘art.’ Creative with strategy is called ‘advertising’.”
– Jef I. Richards

“If you don’t like what’s being said, change the conversation.”
– Don Draper

“Advertising may be described as the science of arresting the human intelligence long enough to get money from it.”
– S Leacoc

“A magazine is simply a device to induce people to read advertising.”
– James Collins

“The very 1st law in advertising is to avoid the concrete promise & cultivate the delightfully vague.”
– Bill Cosby

“Make it simple. Make it memorable. Make it inviting to look at. Make it fun to read.”
– Leo Burnett

“Doing business without advertising is like winking at a girl in the dark. You know what you are doing, but nobody else does.”
– SH Britt

“Advertising is the rattling of a stick inside a swill pail.”
– George Orwell

“Advertising is 85% confusion and 15% commission.”
– Fred Allen

“The creative adult is the child who has survived.”
– Ursula K le Guin

“The advertisement is the most truthful part of a newspaper.”
– Thomas Jefferson

“A hunch is creativity trying to tell you something.”
– Frank Capra

“The best way to get a good idea is to get a lot of ideas.”
– Linus Pauling

“Don’t tell me how good you make it; tell me how good it makes me when I use it.”
– Leo Burnett

“It takes courage to be creative. Just as soon as you have a new idea, you are a minority of one.”
– E. Paul Torrance

“If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.”
– David Ogilvy

“Early to bed, early to rise, work like hell and advertise.”
– Ted Turner

“I figured that if I said it enough, I would convince the world that I really was the greatest.”
– Muhammad Ali

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TOPICS: 31 Creative, Advertising, Blog, Marketing, Social Media, Strategy
23 Jul 2011 Leave a comment

Work Harder… Now.

We all work hard. Some harder than others.
We all procrastinate. Some more than others.

“Do a little more each day than you think you possibly can.” - Lowell Thomas

And when it comes down to it, that’s the difference. Work Harder, Procrastinate Less. Actually education, intelligence, and a little luck may play a small part.

“Apply yourself. Get all the education you can, but then, by God, do something. Don’t just stand there, make it happen.” - Lee Iacocca

Whatever your ‘Funk’, get out of it… be it weight loss, starting a business, getting out of debt, forgiving a friend, getting that handicap down to single digits, eating better, planning that reunion, curing cancer, or writing that blog post!

 

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TOPICS: 31 Creative, Blog, Holland, Public Relations, Strategy
06 Jul 2011 Leave a comment
31creative

Quick, what’s your KLOUT score?

If you answered “What?”, this post is for you.

Klout is a privately run web-based company that attempts to measure influence across the social web. They assign scores based on a that influence, currently pulled from Facebook and Twitter accounts, and assume that a person with a higher Klout score will have more ability to drive action.
Klout’s full description of their Influence Metric.

Marketing is all about building strong customer relationships and creating value. How does Klout help with marketing when broken into its most basic functions?

IDENTIFYING the customer
It never hurts to make additional contacts. But no, I don’t see Klout helping with lead generation. While they will estimate your reach, they do not seem to extend it.
SATISFYING the customer?
Another venue to push your clients message is always appreciated, and the more connections you have the better chance you hit your clients target audience. But again, I don’t see Klout helping with customer service.
KEEPING the customer?
It’s not your score that should interest your client, but how you can influence their Klout Score, reach, presence, message, and brand.

While Klout is an acceptable tool to gauge how connected and socially active you are in relation to your peers, it is only one tool. Energy spent gathering “Friends”, “Followers”, and “Checking In”, may be better spent in other areas of your marketing strategy. It’s not how much influence you have, but how you use the influence you have.

For all of you keeping score, we’re currently a 31.

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TOPICS: 31 Creative, Advertising, Blog, Marketing, New Media, Public Relations, SEO, Social Media, Strategy
21 Apr 2011 Leave a comment
31creative

Why Blog 31?

That first blog post is like a fresh canvas, a blank piece of paper, just waiting for a little paint to light it up. What to write, what to share… Why, What, When and Where? Ok, this is sounding a little too much like a children’s book, but these are good questions, questions that deserve our attention. In this first post we’ll aim to make a decent first impression while answering these tone-setting questions.

Why: Well, because 31 Creative is in the business of marketing and communications. We have a knowledge-base that should be shared with West Michigan and beyond. We’re active in our community and proud of our work. This blog is one of many ways to thank and promote our clients even more… and Why Not?

What: A frequent, chronological mixture of what’s happening in West Michigan, on the Web, and in Design. When news happens, things catch our eyes, or the stars align, we’ll blog about it. I’m pretty sure you can count on a little client and self promotion. Hey, have you been to our website www.thirtyonecreative.com?

When: There’s no time like the present! Whether you’re here to research a new website, learn about West Michigan, or join in an ‘arty’ conversation, we’re happy you’ve found us!

Where: Although the majority of our business comes from West Michigan, we have clients from Detroit, Chicago, Denver, D.C. and cities in-between. Long-distance relationships aren’t what they used to be, and now-a-days our ideal clients are from anywhere!

If you just can’t get enough of us– Follow 31creative on Twitter, Like us on Facebook, Connect with us on LinkedIn, Subscribe to our RSS feeds, or Share this page. And of course if there is ever anything we can do for you, please do not hesitate to call.

 

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TOPICS: 31 Creative, Advertising, Blog, Branding, Copywriting, Corporate Identity, Flash, Graphic Design, Holland, Marketing, New Media, Programimng, Public Relations, SEO, Social Media, Strategy, Website Design, West Michigan, XML