9 Tips on Getting the Most out of a Conference

November 18, 2011 by Leave a comment

Attending a business conferenceIf you’re like me and work in a small department, conferences are an incredible opportunity to learn about what’s new in your field and meet people who do similar work. I went to my first two professional conferences this year, the Click Asia Summit in Mumbai and Ad-tech in New York. I was extremely excited to meet speakers I’ve read and heard of, people doing incredible things in marketing, and just meet a group of fellow marketers and chat with them about challenges we all face.

But if you have a tight budget (and who doesn’t?) conferences, including traveling to them and staying at hotels, can be extremely expensive. So how do you make the most of every single industry event you attend?

1.  Find the best events

This is obvious, but also probably the most important. With so many events in the year, which one(s) give you the most bang for your buck? Research online, read blog posts on the last year’s events, and ask people (both on Twitter and your real-life colleagues). What are your objectives? What do you want to learn about? What kind of people do you want to meet? Figure all this out and then check out which event makes the most sense for you. Read more of this post

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Designs of the Quarter: Online Ad, Coupon, Vector Art

October 28, 2011 by 2 Comments

The results of this year’s third Designs of the Quarter contest are in, and as always, I’m proud to present some of the best work within Affinity Express.

Online Ad

Designs of the Quarter: online ad

This eye-catching ad was an easy choice for Design of the Quarter because it grabs attention. Regardless of the online newspaper’s headline, you can’t ignore the ad because it surrounds the content. Even better, it earned high praise from our client: “We need to keep maintaining the high quality we’ve become accustomed to through Affinity Express. This is an AWESOME piece of creative built by your team. Keep up this great work.” Read more of this post

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Coupons, Print and Online

September 16, 2011 by 2 Comments

September is National Coupon Month. Coupons have traditionally been a common and effective sales promotion technique. At Affinity Express, we often create coupons for our clients, for print or for online use.

Coupon
Some coupons are handed out to the customer at the checkout counter, to encourage future visits

Companies often put in a coupon within another piece of communication, like an ad, a flyer, or a mass-mailed letter, to encourage you to take that final step and buy the product(s) that is the subject of the communication. Read more of this post

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Newspaper Publishers Offer Digital Services through BPO

August 26, 2011 by Leave a comment

News onlineAfter years of cost cutting, why are some newspaper publishers actually staffing up their in-house digital production operations and investing in technology and tools for new interactive services like video advertising, deals-of-the-day, social media services, etc.? As newspapers rethink and reinvent their business model, they should engage business process outsourcing to generate profitable revenues that will sustain their businesses and pay for quality journalism well into the future.

In 2010, advertising revenues for newspapers continued to fall, about 6.3% for the year. Print circulation also continued to decline (5% daily and 4.5% for Sunday), according to The State of the News Media 2011, Pew Research Center’s Project for Excellence in Journalism. On top of that, the past year saw a surge in expenses, which puts limits on funding both for experiments and for maintaining editorial quality in print and digital formats. Read more of this post

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Designs of the Quarter: Video, Print Ads, Flyers and Image Editing

August 1, 2011 by 1 Comment

For our second Designs of the Quarter contest this year, we called for entries in the categories of: flyers, print ads, video ads and image editing. Now that we’ve shared the good news with our team in our newsletter, we’re pleased to let you know about the winning designs.

Flyer

This flyer stood out because the image ties in perfectly with the headline, “Healthy Kids” and grabs attention. The boy looks ready to take on the world! Plus, the layout of the text lets readers easily grasp the point: donations are requested for this worthy cause. When you have so little time to engage, it is important that messages come through quickly.

Designs of the Quarter: flyer
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Using Color in Ad Design

July 26, 2011 by 2 Comments

We have written before about the importance of design in marketing, and color is one of the most important elements of design. Designers have always used color to convey different moods and underline the messages. Let’s take a look at some colors and what emotions or attributes they often convey.

Blue

Blue is a very commonly used in B2B messaging, because it is a calm color that indicates respectability. Because blue conveys reliability, it is commonly used by brands in financial services, healthcare and other industries where trust is paramount.

Ad illustrating use of blue color

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Online Marketing Effectiveness: Affinity Express Survey Results

June 21, 2011 by 1 Comment

In my last post, I shared some of the results of our recent survey of our SMB customers. While I found the number of respondents using online marketing surprisingly low (63%), it informed us that SMBs (or our respondents in particular) aren’t very well-informed about online advertising and marketing, which is reflected in their low use of relatively easy and affordable channels such as online ads and blogging.  

Therefore, I was less surprised at their assessment of the effectiveness of online tactics. While 56% found online advertising and marketing somewhat or very effective for their businesses, fully 44% found it ineffective. I believe this is less an indictment of online marketing and more an indication of the need to educate SMBs about these tactics.

Effectiveness of online advertising or marketing: Affinity Express survey

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It’s Spring: Ads and Designs for the Season

May 24, 2011 by 2 Comments

Somewhat like fashion, advertising sees seasonal trends. We get deluged with orders right before the holiday season, for example, and we wrote about Easter-themed advertising last month.

Now that it’s spring, our designers are working on ads and designs that reflect the change in season: so more of outdoor activities such as gardening and soccer, and lots of blue skies and flowers, and of course, no more snow.

Print ad for fishing

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Happy Mother’s Day

May 8, 2011 by 1 Comment

Have you called your mother today?

Here are some print ads that our clients are using for their Mother’s Day promotions (with a little help from us). Tell me which you like best!

Mother's Day ad with tulips

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Happy World Graphic Design Day!

April 27, 2011 by Leave a comment

Affinity Express Holiday Card: Degas' Dancers in Pink

We live and breathe graphic design at Affinity Express, so today is something to celebrate! 

We wanted to take this occasion to share some of our best designs and design expertise from the past year.

Designs Created by Our Teams

Here are some of our best designs from 2010 and from 2011 so far. And some print ads and online ads we created, and some holiday cards created in embroidery.

Tips on Design

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Celebrating Easter: Retail Advertising, Religious Advertising and Egg Hunts

April 25, 2011 by 3 Comments

Easter egg basketEaster Sunday has just come and gone; what a weekend it was!

The last month to two weeks prior to the April 24, 2011, was a very busy time at work. The four-day compressed work week was due to the Easter Holiday, and meant having either Good Friday or Monday the 25th off. The advertising peak for Easter meant brisk business, but Easter also a pleasant weekend for people engaged in social activities such as Easter egg hunts, chocolate gift exchanges and mini-vacations for spring (U.S. and Canada) or summer (Philippines). For many, the Easter weekend marked a central religious observance: the culmination of Holy Week.

As designers, around Easter we have to exercise cultural and religious sensitivity when we chose elements for advertising. Art falls mainly into two categories: retail and religious advertising. Read more of this post

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Designing a Print Ad for an Outdoor Furnishings Company

April 20, 2011 by 2 Comments

Print Ad for Outdoor Furnishings Business (Hand)Like all of us who strive to be successful today, designers have to adapt to the ever-changing way consumers process advertising. Designing print ads, collateral pieces and, of course, online advertising requires attention not only to the message but to the way the viewer processes that information.

Recently, I was asked to create a print ad for an outdoor furnishings company. The purpose of the ad was to drive consumers to a new website Affinity Express had designed previously. Here potential customers would get inspiration for creating the backyard of their dreams. I knew I wanted to use the same fonts, colors and overall look and feel of the website in my design—that was a given. Having worked closely with the client, I knew they liked simple, uncluttered layouts that focus consumers in one direction with laser-like accuracy. In this case, the objective was to highlight the website URL.

My thought process was to take the point of view of the consumer. I wanted to evoke and tap into the feeling when someone realizes they need help visualizing the full potential of their backyard. Then I wanted to do what the website does: inspire the viewer. By showing an unfinished yard with the simple addition of a few products, I believed the viewer could begin to imagine the possibilities and get excited. That’s why my first thought was to use a photograph (illustrated in the ad to the right).

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Designs of the Quarter: Q1 2011

April 4, 2011 by 2 Comments

This year’s first Designs of the Quarter are here! The categories this time around were pre-media, online ads and embroidery digitizing.

Pre-Media

I love this first design. The clean grey-on-white text, the pop of red, those luscious-looking strawberries . . . It just holds your attention and makes you want to read it.
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mediaXchange 2011: Affinity Express Helps Newspapers Transform Their Business

March 30, 2011 by 2 Comments

I was at mediaXchange last week with President of Creative Services David Grant. The event could have easily been named, “It’s the Digital, Dummy,” because that’s about all that was discussed. Virtually every exhibitor and speaker focused on the predominance of online content—both editorial and advertising. At times, there was a tone of desperation (“Why haven’t newspapers figured this out yet?”) but it was tempered with optimistic sessions delivered by those who have found a way to capture and retain new online consumers and, perhaps most importantly, how to move online toward being the primary revenue stream for newspapers. Read more of this post

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Using Design to Differentiate a Small Business

March 21, 2011 by 1 Comment

To a creative person, there is nothing like getting a new assignment: the possibilities, the potential and, of course, the deadline. While it is exciting, it is also finite. The deadline must be met and the message must be served. That’s why a creative brief is so crucial. I wanted to share with you a campaign I created and take you through the thought process.

The client is Sakura, a Japanese steak house located in Columbus, Ohio. For years they have been running ads featuring some sort of price and item special, just like everyone else in the category. When the sales rep came to me she explained she wanted to bring them something new, more of a branding campaign—a campaign that would separate Sakura from all the other Japanese steak houses, as well as other restaurants in their price point in the area. Read more of this post

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10 Tips for Newspapers Who Outsource Ad Production

February 23, 2011 by 3 Comments

OutsourcingThe outsourcing of print ad production, interactive services and editorial services is increasingly common among North American newspapers. The benefits have been proven over time and many publishers have achieved significant savings they have channeled into new product and content development.

When asked about a cost-effective way to create and deliver content, Journal Register Company CEO John Paton answered: “It’s a two-part strategy. The first is outsourcing . . . why is outsourcing a $4 billion a year industry? Because outsourcers can do their jobs better than we do. . . . in fact, 66 percent of our cost structure is devoted to things we don’t want to do. Only one-third is content creation.”

If your newspaper is considering outsourcing any of these functions, here are ten tips specific to ad production (but which apply to a variety of services) that can make your transition smoother and allow you to see results more quickly. Read more of this post

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Agencies, Call in the Surgeon

February 17, 2011 by Leave a comment

Surgeon wielding a syringe full of bloodAgencies have completely lost their way. I don’t think time needs to be spent debating that point. What I haven’t seen yet is a cohesive plan to restore the true agency business model.

Let’s take a look at history. Ad agencies were started by newspaper executives, who realized that by “priming the pump” and delivering better ad creative, publishers would ultimately sell more ad inventory.

At their peak, agencies were hired for their ability to create big ideas—business-building ideas. I’m not saying you don’t need execution, process, traffic, operations and the rest. But I am saying I’ve never met a client who wants to give an agency a substantial account because of any of these things.

Agencies win on million dollar ideas (I do realize there are specialized agencies that focus on SEO, SEM, etc., but I’m talking about the truly big agencies here). You can’t pitch a Fortune 50 account and say “I have great process, I compensate my people correctly, my production is pristine” and so on. You have to go to them and say “I won client XYZ and they were floundering. With our help, they advanced from #6 in the category to #2, and are seriously competing to be #1″ (or something similar). Everything else you might say is a rabbit hole. You can spend all the time you want in it, but you won’t significantly advance your business.

How do you get to this point? Read more of this post

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Display Ads Booming: Who is handling the creative production?

February 7, 2011 by 2 Comments

Who is doing the creative?Google predicts the display ad market is set to go through an “amazing revolution” in the coming years, estimating the market will be worth $50 billion worldwide in 2015. In addition to the growth in volumes, there is a plethora of formats with 18 different “standard” display unit sizes in the AIB guidelines. That’s before you count the multitude of options for video and rich media. In a survey of major brands, 56% have rich media, video or interactive features in their ads. 

At the same time, the use of simple static banners is not disappearing, contrary to all dire predictions. Just take a look at Facebook’s use of simple and small formats, which is helping to keep traditional display ads alive.

This tremendous growth in volume and variety of display ad formats begs the question: how is this creative production, and for that matter versioning and online ad maintenance, going to get done quickly and economically? And if it is being created by an internal team or an outside third-party agency, I have to ask at what cost to the advertiser?

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100th Blog Post

February 4, 2011 by 4 Comments

100We started this blog back in May somewhat tentatively, wondering what we would ever write about. Turns out we are much more voluble than we thought: this is the 100th post on the blog!

Thank you all who have been reading. If you are a regular reader, or if you just dropped in today, do comment and tell us why you come here. Or just say hi. We want to know you better.

And here are some of the posts I like best on this blog. Have you read them yet? Read more of this post

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Designs of the Year: 2010

December 28, 2010 by 3 Comments

We asked our designers to submit their best work this year and awarded the winning entries.  Let me tell you, the judges did not have an easy job!

Embroidery Digitizing

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