Happy Halloween
October 31, 2010 Leave a comment
We Go Red for Women
October 29, 2010 5 Comments
I’ve been eager to get Affinity Express more involved in worthy causes to complement the activities of employees in the U.S., India and the Philippines. When our client, the Chicago Sun-Times, told us about an opportunity we could be part of, I thought it was perfect because it is based near our headquarters and boasts of the most successful fundraising efforts in the city. Read more of this post
How to Outsource Ad and Marketing Production
October 27, 2010 1 Comment
Last week, I explored why it makes sense for promotional products businesses to outsource production of ads and marketing materials. But if you have decided that outsourcing might work for you, how do you go about it? Here are some things to keep in mind.
When considering outsourcing, a great place to start is with a review of your marketing plan for the year. It will most likely have a multitude of activities including: your website (maintenance and updates or a complete re-vamp), events you will attend, updates to your catalog or creation of new catalogs, email campaigns, ads on other websites or in print publications, new product launches, announcements, blog updates, press releases, “specials” you need to promote, and more. Some of these–particularly the ones for which you lack in-house expertise, or those that are ongoing and time-intensive–might be prime candidates for outsourcing.
According to Counselor’s State of the Industry report issued earlier this year, 41% suppliers will increase their advertising spend in 2010. With in-house staff being reduced (or at least not increasing), the uptick in marketing activities and media is not easily managed. What new channels or initiatives have you added this year? Is your internal team well-equipped to effectively use these channels for increased ROI? Read more of this post
Nominated in Digital Magazine Awards 2010
October 25, 2010 1 Comment
Two of the publications we work on have been nominated in the Digital Magazine Awards 2010. The results will be announced on Wednesday, so we have our fingers crossed!
The magazines under consideration are the 2010 Asheville Visitor Guide and the 2010 North Carolina Travel Guide, both from our client Journal Communications, a new-age media company. We produce the magazines through our Content Online solution, which allows clients to easily create content for the web or to transform existing print materials into online.
Congratulations to our team on the nomination!
Get to Know: Affinity Express Employee Charm Artiaga
October 22, 2010 2 Comments
Charm Artiaga (second from right) with the S.P.E.E.D. team
One of the most tenured employees at Affinity Express Philippines, Charm Artiaga was hired in October of 2007 and serves as manager of the S.P.E.E.D. (Services and Products Engineered for Excellence and Development) Team. She assists in the client on-boarding process to ensure smooth transitions and profitability and provides leadership and direction to the Operations Support Group (OSG) in generating reports that aim to standardize and improve our applications and procedures. In other words, Charm is an important contributor to our objective of being a process-driven company. Read more of this post
Why You Should Outsource Production of Your Marketing Materials and Ads
October 20, 2010 3 Comments
I have written earlier on reasons for outsourcing the creation of vector artwork. This time, I’m tackling a different animal: the production of ads and marketing materials.
I work closely with clients and partners in the promotional products industry, so this post is largely geared to their situation, and things might be somewhat different in other industries. But for promotional product suppliers, distributors and decorators, the reasons for outsourcing may never have been this compelling. Read more of this post
Designing Cards for Military Care Packages
October 18, 2010 3 Comments
Continuing our dedication to community service, we recently worked to design cards to go into military care packages that Operation Gratitude ships to members of the American services stationed internationally. I received a request from Lisa Cypers Kamen and was happy to volunteer our services.
I passed the request on to Melchizedek Fernandez, Senior Graphic Designer for Marketing based in the Manila office, and he created these designs that Lisa was very happy with. Thanks, Mel! Read more of this post
The Affinity Express Search Story
October 15, 2010 Leave a comment
If you are not an employee, how did you find us? Did you search for Affinity Express online and land on our website or on this blog? Did you look for us by name? If not, what were you looking for when you came across us?
Look at this video below of our search story that I made using YouTube’s handy search story tool. Let me know what you think of it. Read more of this post
Happy Boss’s Day
October 15, 2010 Leave a comment
… to all of you who are bosses.
And all who are fortunate enough (like I am–and I’m not just saying this because Kelly’s gonna read it) to have a great boss–today is when we’ll find a way to say thank you. Graciously, like this:
Focusing on Interactive Services
October 13, 2010 3 Comments
Reflecting our increased focus on providing high-quality interactive services for clients, Affinity Express hired a new director of interaction and web design.
Marisol Oberzauchner
Marisol Oberzauchner joined the Affinity Express team in September. She will oversee the delivery of interactive services and provide support for key clients.
Marisol is currently working closely with our interactive team in Manila, leading them to refine service levels, improve subject matter expertise and ensure high output quality. She is also working closely with David Kang on developing new products and services that we will offer under the interactive services umbrella.
I am very excited to announce that Marisol recently won two awards in the 2010 WebAward competition. The dDFCB website that she worked on won the award for the Best Interactive Services Website. And she was part of the team that won the award for Outstanding Website for the Brand Super Heroes Augmented Reality website. We are very proud to have someone so talented in our team!
Happy Columbus Day
October 11, 2010 Leave a comment
Are you celebrating? If so, tell us how. (Rub it in – we’re working today.)
Marketing ROI: The Least Advised (but Most Obvious) Factor
October 7, 2010 2 Comments
Here is a challenge. Search Google for articles giving advice on how to improve return on investment (ROI) for your marketing programs–use Google Instant of course! Not surprisingly, hundreds of articles can be readily found. Now list out the core recommendations of the first 20 articles you find. Or, just take my word for it. I get the following basic themes:
- Target better–quite obviously, if you get the most relevant message to the most relevant seeker, you will get better results.
- Track better–-also obvious, if you understand what does well and what does not, stop what doesn’t work in favor of what does, you will do better.
- Provide relevant messages and promote better–-self-explanatory.
- Plan better–-touted by many consultant types who love to insist your marketing is really doomed from the start by faulty planning. Read more of this post
Learning from Each New Client and Process
October 4, 2010 1 Comment
It helps to look back at the distance you have traveled and think of what you would have done differently
The client in question is a provider of online advertising and marketing services for small to mid-sized businesses. We worked with the client to develop online and interactive ads for them.
This project was especially interesting for me because it was our first real opportunity to try out our new Virtual Account Manager workflow. We have been tweaking our delivery of online services, and set up the Virtual Account Manager workflow to provide clients more support during the ordering process. We tested it out internally, of course, and our first “client” was our internal marketing team: but this was the first external client and I was a bit anxious to see how it would work out. Read more of this post
Holiday Card Designs (in Embroidery)
October 1, 2010 5 Comments
Did you see the holiday card in the last post? Did you exclaim over it and wish you could see more works of art in embroidery?
You are in luck, my friend. Today, I present: Affinity Express holiday cards from past years. I pulled these out of my files because we are currently working on this year’s card. And I tell you, it’s hard to match up to the standards set before! Take a look and you’ll see what I mean.
Let’s start with Da Vinci, and probably the most famous painting in the world. The background is printed, not embroidered, because–as K.T. told me–it was much too heavy with all embroidery. Read more of this post
