Being a Millennial isn’t as easy as it looks. For those of us born after 1981, we have to live with crushing student loan debt, being labeled as lazy or entitled and people waiting in line to tell us just what’s wrong with our generation. Not to mention, our childhood heroes are constantly being unceremoniously…
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Food for Your Brain.
Latest Trends and Best Practices from our Thought Leaders and Industry Experts.
Slowing Down The Internet.
Earlier this week, Apple unveiled the new iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus and Apple Watch in a live-streamed event marred by a bevy of technical issues. And, the Internet promptly erupted with people taking to Twitter to voice their frustration. Just one day later, the Internet slowed to a halt. No, it wasn’t your router…
Read MoreWhat Makes A Successful Brand Tagline?
Working with brands to establish or reinvent their identities, we’ve heard a lot of talk about brand taglines lately. What brands have the most memorable taglines? Which ones have the worst? Are brand taglines even necessary today? Even if it never sees the light of day, going through the exercise of creating a concise slogan…
Read More[INFOGRAPHIC] Post, Pin, & Tweet: The Best Time to Outreach
As a person slightly addicted to social media and a professional social media consultant, I tend to be browsing through my networks every other waking hour (I wish this were an exaggeration). My supervisor kindly refers to me as a “power user.” However, I’m not the general population of social media users. Most tend to…
Read More4 Better Ways to Spend Your Marketing Budget Than at Comic-Con
There’s no doubt. Brands LOVE Comic-Con and so do we. But, as the main exhibit hall gets more crowded each year, it’s becoming obvious that grabbing the attention of attendees is extremely difficult unless you’re spending a ton to promote the next summer blockbuster. Don’t have millions to spend? Here’s a couple ways that brands…
Read MoreTNT’s Integrated Marketing Campaign for Comic-Con
Author’s note: Warning! This article contains some Game of Thrones spoilers. Brace yourselves, San Diego. Comic-Con is coming. Whether you’re a visitor to our beautiful city or a local dreading the imminent Gaslamp traffic, you probably noticed that San Diego’s Gaslamp district is slowly transforming into a media planner’s dream. Storefronts will begin transforming into…
Read MoreWho Are Brands Overlooking at Comic-Con?
What comes to mind when you picture a San Diego Comic-Con attendee? Is it a comic book “geek” with a poster tube slung across his shoulder? A film buff in a movie t-shirt and cargo shorts? Or is it an avid gamer with a Mountain Dew in hand? Every year, Comic-Con grows exponentially with 130,000…
Read MoreObserving a (fantastic) Twitter trend: #TrueDetectiveSeason2
If you subscribe to HBO (or are lucky enough to have a friend or family member who is more than willing to lend you their HBO Go login information), you may be a fan of the crime drama, True Detective, created and written by Nic Pizzolatto and directed by Cary Joji Fukunaga. Though its first…
Read MoreBack to Basics: Focusing on Metrics that Matter
While I fell into marketing on accident, I’ve thoroughly enjoyed applying a scientific approach to improve marketing KPIs, from email open rates to paid search cost-per-click or e-commerce conversion rates and everything in between. In today’s ever-changing world of new tactics and emerging channels, marketers are expected to track and report on dozens of metrics…
Read MoreThe Evolving Brand Tagline
“Melts in your mouth, not in your hand.” “The ultimate driving machine.” “Just do it.” “I’m lovin’ it.” The common denominator of all these taglines is that they are all trying to sell their products to hungry consumers. And arguably, a great brand tagline is a memorable one. As you were reading the list above,…
Read MoreLessons From IDSD 2014: Attention Economy, Brands & Creative Storytelling
David Shing (@Shingy), AOL’s “Digital Prophet” gave one of the most inspiring keynote speeches at Interactive Day San Diego (IDSD 2014) on May 16th of this year. As he walked onto the main stage with his zebra pants and blown up hair, we all knew we were in for something great. Why? His talk about…
Read MoreSocial Media Marketing World 2014: “Let’s Get Social”
I had the opportunity to attend Social Media Marketing World 2014 from March 27th to March 28th to learn from some of the world’s most influential thought leaders in the social media and digital marketing world. During my time there, I’ve acquired a vast amount of invaluable information and education about social media and the…
Read More[INFOGRAPHIC] 2014 State of Digital Marketing
We understand the importance of keeping our finger on the pulse of emerging trends in digital marketing. For instance, though investment in digital is growing, only 25% of a marketing budget is used for online efforts. Of course, we anticipate these investments to grow even bigger as consumers turn to technology and thus are changing…
Read MoreMINDGRUVE WINS VISIT CALIFORNIA POPPY AWARD FOR BEST DIGITAL/SOCIAL MEDIA INITIATIVE
SAN DIEGO, CA – February 13, 2013 – Digital marketing and technology firm Mindgruve, won a 2014 Poppy Award for Visit Carlsbad’s “Carlsbad is where…” integrated digital marketing campaign. The biennial Visit California Poppy Awards honors the best of California tourism, celebrating innovation in travel marketing. A record number of entries for the Visit California…
Read MoreHappy 10th Birthday, Facebook
On February 4th of this year, Facebook celebrated its 10th birthday. Yes, that’s how long the platform that allows you to document your life has been around. To celebrate, a team at Facebook built videos for each user, putting together a “Look Back” compilation of shared moments (mainly of photos and status updates) in a…
Read MoreTracking Engagement Goals with Google Analytics Custom Segments
When collaborating on a website redesign, I was faced with the challenge of measuring success without hard KPIs or conversion goals. Yet our project needed concrete goals we could point to and say, “Yes, this redesign worked!” Stepping back, it dawned on me that, frequently, the (re)design of a website may be disconnected from the…
Read More[INFOGRAPHIC] The Eyes Have It
There is a growing trend in visual content, and it doesn’t look like it’s fading any time soon. Instagram has over 150 million active users sharing #selfies with no fear. SnapChat had the nerve to turn down Facebook’s offer of $3 billion without a blink. Clearly, those so digitally-inclined are moving towards a more visual…
Read MoreSuper Bowl XLVIII Commercials, Commence!
It’s that time of year again, where brands are able to show off their multi-million dollar ads to those who enjoy some competitive American football. As exciting as the Super Bowl XLVIII can be (you’ll get it next year, Chargers!), some of us are more eager to check out what brands have up their sleeves…
Read More2014 Marketing Trends: Get Your Search, Social & Mobile On
There has been a lot of discussions about the future of search and search marketing over the past 3 years. The industry has been moving toward quality-focused solutions that aim at improving user experience. In laymen terms, content is still king, social media is queen, big data is prince and SEO is the grand vizier….
Read MoreSEO in 2014: 5 New Year’s Resolutions You Should Make
Resolution#1: Focus on Quality Content 2013 was a busy year for Google: several additional Panda and Penguin updates targeting low quality content and spam link schemes, as well as the release of the new Hummingbird algorithm which focuses on relevancy and understanding users’ search intents. Topped with the continued rise of not provided keyword data…
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