In the last several years, more and more brands have begun to develop integrated traditional and digital marketing campaigns. Successful integrated campaigns reach not only a variety of target audiences for the brand, but also provide the opportunity to extend reach and provide an interactive experience for consumers. Take, for example, the campaigns from Old Spice and Budweiser below.

Old Spice: “The Man Your Man Could Smell Like”

• TV spots
• Social media marketing – repost ads; customized responses

What we can learn from this campaign:

When your TV spots are a hit, turn to social media to expand the brand story. Old Spice and its agency recognized the overwhelming response to the TV spots and created a brand story by developing an integrated social media program.

Budweiser: BudUnited Campaign during the 2010 World Cup

• Mobile SMS text message campaign to select official Man of the Match
• Social media marketing – BudUnited
  App: Paint Your Face – allowed fans to “paint” their Facebook face (photo) the color of their favorite team and then use it as their profile picture
• Traditional media: television, print, outdoor signage

What we can learn from this campaign:

Get consumers involved in all aspects of a campaign. From Budweiser’s interactive website and online reality series to traditional media driving fans to the Budweiser website, their focus was on the consumer experience tied to the 2010 World Cup. Budweiser offered fans around the world, whether they were at the game or at home, the experience to feel like part of the World Cup.

Integrated marketing campaigns provide a great brand story. It’s not only about consistent messaging through multiple channels, but engaging with your audience by providing a total brand message and delivering that message in the best way possible using the capabilities of each media platform — traditional or digital.

All industries, from marketing agencies to hospitals and retail to finance, most likely have a service aspect in their business model and find themselves in the position to strengthen their brand through their employees. Company employees are the first line of interaction with your customers; they represent the essence of your brand and many times the first marketing impression for your company. The quality of the service your customers receive is in the hands of your employees, so it makes sense to take care of the people who take care of your customers.

Taking care of your employees doesn’t just make sense — it also makes cents. Research consistently shows the same framework linking employee satisfaction and profitability. Employee satisfaction sets the foundation for employee retention and productivity, which leads to better service and a better representation of your brand.  Better service – in-person or through digital communication – means higher customer satisfaction and loyalty.  And customer loyalty equals a healthier bottom line.

So how do you take care of your employees and develop great first impression marketing and reliable digital customer service?

Here are some helpful suggestions to get you started:

Provide training. A happy employee is one who is fully trained and given the opportunity to develop his or her career.

Hire the right people. When hiring for a job that requires being in a service role, hire for service inclination characteristics.

Employee recognition! Recognizing your employees when they have exceeded expectations doesn’t have to cost anything. Make the recognition public and speak from your heart. It will inspire your employees to want to present a better representation of your brand.

Employee workplace. Pay attention to how you design the employees’ workplace. Would you enjoy spending 40 hours a week in the same atmosphere? If your answer is no, your employees’ answer is most likely the same. Take time to develop some nuances in your office, such as an employee-controlled office radio or an outside location for employee breaks.

At LeapFrog Interactive we talk a lot about branding messaging through traditional and digital marketing campaigns to make a branding impact on your audience – including developing a brand-friendly social media campaign. Those messages can be substantial and make a huge impact. So if you do have a service-oriented business or area of business, it is important to remember that your employees are your first line marketing and brand impression, especially when interacting with customers and providing customer service via digital channels. For this reason, don’t forget about those employees. Create a career-building environment where employees feel recognized and appreciated. Help your employees help you market your services and create a solid brand message.

[Contributed by Daniel Carcara, traffic coordinator]

Christy Belden, VP of Media + Marketing at LeapFrog Interactive, a digital agency, joined Louisville Ad Fed’s Dream Team this year, benefiting Best Buddies of Kentucky.

As a non-profit organization, Best Buddies has a mission of establishing a global volunteer movement that creates one-to-one friendships for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

The Kentucky chapter of Best Buddies will be hosting its first Fairways to Friendship Gold Scramble at Cardinal Club on Monday, October 24, 2011. Registration begins at 8:00AM. The scramble begins at 9:00AM. Teams of four will play eighteen holes with Best Buddies participants, their families, golf professionals, volunteers and sponsors.

The scramble will raise awareness for those issues that face people with developmental disabilities, including acquiring jobs and maintaining friendships.

To learn more, please visit the Best Buddies website.  

[Post contributed by Emily Carroll]

If you think you don’t understand the lifecycle of building a website, but you have a car, you probably have a deeper knowledge base than you realize. Website design and development requires many similar elements as purchasing and maintaining your car.

1. Cars need maintenance. Without regular oil changes, tire rotations and the occasional tune-up, you won’t get anywhere near the mileage you should out of your car. Websites also require regular maintenance. A properly maintained website will better withstand technology changes than one not maintained, which will most likely need to be replaced.

2. Know the features you want before you buy a car. Knowing the features and options you are looking for before you buy will save you money in the long run. While you can always add options and accessories after your purchase, it will cost you twice as much. In a similar fashion, if you build a site now without planning on the features you will add next year, you’ll spend twice as much in two years rather than implementing the majority of the functionality now.

3. No car is perfect for everyone. If a car dealer starts telling you which car is perfect for you the moment you walk in the door, you’d probably run from that dealership as fast as you could. In a similar manner, if an agency recommends a content management system or e-commerce system without exploring your long-term goals and strategies, you should do the same. It is important for the marketing agency developing your website to understand the website functionality you are looking for and how it relates to your long-term goals and strategies.

4. Not all cars have the same life longevity. There are cars that have a reputation for lasting for 200,000 miles or more, but if you’re shopping for a racecar that’s not a realistic expectation. In the same way, some websites may still be relevant and functioning after five years, but others may need to be rebuilt every couple of years. It is important to lay down the ground work when developing your website to determine if your site will still be functioning in two years or if it will need to be rebuilt by then. This determination, like many other aspects of your website, comes from the features, options and functionality you are looking for to meet your digital media goals.

5. Sometimes it’s cheaper to buy a new car. Most people are familiar with the phrase “nickel and dimed” when it comes to used or older cars, the point at which keeping the car running costs more than the monthly payment on a new car. Websites share this phenomenon — as the technology it’s built on gets older, the cost to keep it running increases while the site delivers less. This cost can become more than investing in a new site.

6. The gauges matter. You likely take the gauges in your car for granted, but imagine driving your car without a speedometer or fuel gauge — you would likely spend a fortune in speeding tickets and towing fees. Without the indicator lights, a significant amount of simple maintenance would turn into major repairs. If you’re not monitoring the performance of your website, you’re likely to encounter lost revenue and wasted marketing dollars. Simple tools such as Google Analytics can help you easily monitor your website performance and traffic.

There aren’t many guarantees in life, except for the normal stuff — death, taxes, aches, pains. But, I have a guarantee for you: bet the farm on mobile. If you aren’t making mobile a large part of your advertising and marketing efforts, you will lose.

Watch any primetime sports or network television show this evening and count the number of ads for mobile devices (phones and tablets). The TV ad industry would have already become a victim if it weren’t for mobile, automotive and alcohol.

As we begin to use our mobile devices as wallets, we become even closer to bridging the digital gap. Eventually, all we will need is the phone in our pocket to carry out every transaction, find every direction, interact with every brand, and find any information we have ever stored.

Cloud storage is also making the storage on a mobile device a moot point. Amazon just released the Kindle Fire with 8 gigs of storage — more than needed since most of the storage will happen in their cloud. Gone will be the days of having to load your music every time you pick up a new device.

So, if your brand has not embraced mobile marketing as the future, you better get in the game.

Digital scavenger hunts are popping up all over the place, from retail stores like Neimen Marcus to high-end brands like Jimmy Choo using mobile marketing and mobile apps like FourSquare and SCVNGR to give away products and Starbucks using QR codes to promote a mobile scavenger hunt. And then there was Dodge, whose scavenger hunt was created as an online search for a "real world" result.

At the beginning of September, Dodge created “The Search Engine for the Real World.” They left three Dodge Journeys across America and then hid clues online directing people to find them. “If you find one, you can have it.” The online clues featured scenery clips to help searchers find the crossover vehicle. Dodge used the power of online search to encourage followers and Dodge enthusiasts to get out and search for an actual experience, not just digital.

Not only did Dodge use a traditional media format — TV spots — to start the journey for a Journey, but the company also employed social media — the Dodge YouTube channel in particular. Video clues were posted on YouTube to encourage social interaction in the online search for clues and the real world search for the Journey. Each video clue was within so many miles of the “hidden” Journey.

Dodge created a digital frenzy to solve the Journey mystery. Using various forms of media, Dodge created a story about its brand and product to engage its consumers.

Consumer engagement with any digital marketing campaign is key. Engagement between brand and consumer encourages interactive sharing and participation. Digital scavenger hunts via search, mobile or social media marketing provide just that.

Have you participated in a mobile or other digital scavenger hunt? Let us in on your experience on Facebook and Twitter.

We have exciting news! Inc. 5000 ranked LeapFrog Interactive as the top company in the Advertising and Marketing industry in Kentucky! And we were ranked #258 in the nation in the industry.

To be eligible for the Inc. 5000 list, a company must be based in the United States, privately held, for profit, and not a subsidiary or division of another company. The company also has to have been in business for at least four years, and has to show the sales information.

This year’s ranking is based off of percent revenue growth from 2007 to 2010.

LeapFrog Interactive, a digital advertising agency, was ranked at 3,093 in the country.

We are often asked these questions in sales pitches and RFPs: “Can you guarantee #1 placement for my keywords?”; “How quickly will we start seeing results?”; and “How much traffic will I receive for our engagement?” The correct answers are: “There are no guarantees”; “Time varies depending upon the number of keywords and the competition for those keywords”; and “Traffic depends on the keywords we can effectively move.” However, those answers never suffice for a prospect who is desperately trying to show ROI to upper management. So how do you combat that?

1. Get to the root of the problem or their true goal. If they say they want to be #1 for a particular keyword, why do they want to be #1? Do they think it guarantees more traffic? Are they trying to brand? In some verticals, you will never beat out Wikipedia. So if your client wants to increase traffic to their site, show them how you can do that effectively.
2. Take the time to look at your past performance. If you know your level of activity and the performance of your campaigns, you can trend these numbers to find a projected growth rate. If you have tracked performance over time, you should have a good grasp of how long it is going to take to see results.
3. Many keyword tools exist that show estimated traffic; using estimated SERP positions and conversions, you are able to estimate the traffic lift to your site.

As marketing budgets get squeezed and more performance is expected out of SEO, digital marketers will be pushed to provide more and more results up front. Check back on our blog and follow us on Facebook and Twitter to see how we handle these situations. For even more information, check out a great article called Justifying the Value of SEO from Search Engine Watch.

With Google in the news every other day about their Google Plus product, the mega machine is now branching out to let users +1 display ads that they find interesting or share-worthy. Ad Age reports that we will begin to see the +1 feature available on ads served via the Google Display Ad Network, starting in October.

Much like Facebook, Google's +1 feature "[allows] consumers to 'like' an ad and share that endorsement to people they're connected to via Google's social network Google +."

Essentially, it gives Google the ability to collect data about their users: what brands users like, what imagery appeals to users, and what keywords users type to get them to specific pages. This is the closest any advertiser has gotten (or will get, in my humble opinion) to competing with Facebook's user data goldmine. Google will use it as a guise to say that "personalization" is the goal and yes, that's true, to a degree. Google wants to know as much about users as possible to increase display ad revenue. Regardless of how users feel about it, the revolution of user data is about to make another huge expansion.

[Image from Ad Age article: "Google to Add +1 Social Layer to Display Ads." Click on image to go to the article]

[Post contributed by Emily Carroll]

Several weeks ago, I wrote a blog exploring how companies integrated their social media efforts with email marketing. While most of the newsletters and branded emails I received mentioned Facebook pages or Twitter accounts, there was never really a highlighted call to action to join or view a social property. That being said, I received an email last week that I believe really showcases integrating social media with email marketing and hits home the point of the interaction, as Magdalena Georgieva at HubSpot pointed out in July.

Not only is there one focused call to action that relates to the newly unveiled fall flavors, but there is also a call to action directing consumers to join the Facebook conversation — and it is prominently displayed. As a consumer, and a marketer, sometimes it is just better when the obvious is highlighted. In this case, the focused message of the email was the new fall flavors, but I liked being so easily reminded of the company’s Facebook page.

Consumers are looking for information on a variety of platforms. Connecting those platforms produces interactive marketing efforts consumers can appreciate. And calling out social networks in emails helps increase Facebook fans, Twitter followers, and YouTube views — ending in a successful email/social marketing campaign.

Google is quickly trying to capture the $4 billion dollars in ad revenue Facebook is projected to make this year. Google announced this week they are adding Google +1’s on Google Display Network ads. Users will see pictures of their connections (if they are logged into Google+) within the display ads, indicating their connections endorsed the ads. And, the number of people who have endorsed your ad will affect the auction.

So far, Google has said +1s have not influenced the paid search ads. However, if it goes well in the GDN, my guess is they will extend it to the PPC ad auction as an indicator related to Quality Score.

Two questions immediately came to mind when I saw this announcement:

1. Do your friends share ads, either PPC or Display? I have yet to have one friend +1 any ads. Facebook ads are not shared. They appear based on profile data and the topics posted by users. I understand why Google is trying +1s as a social indicator. I just have not seen a high amount of usage.
2. How will they prevent fraud in this arena? In the PPC space, click fraud is a major issue. I think it is feasible that a company could encourage users to +1 an ad to help improve Quality Score and decrease CPC. Does Google have measures in place to help counteract fraud?

Obviously, there is more to come on this subject. If you are wondering how this impacts your business, ask others if they have +1 your ads.

In this second entry of a two-part series, I’ll look at how healthcare companies are using social media marketing to connect with patients and other medical professionals. Part one focused on mobile technology for healthcare.

Social media, from networking with healthcare companies to participating in health forums, presents a new media outlet and new challenges for healthcare providers and other health-related companies. The Internet provides a way to research information related to health conditions and share experience with hospitals and doctors.

Eleven percent of consumers use social networking sites to find or share health information.

Healthcare companies can take advantage of patients using social media sites by engaging with them where they are.

Examples of useful social media marketing for healthcare:

• Tweeting live procedures from operating rooms – doctors, medical students and others follow along as tweets feature short updates of the procedure. Provides useful and interesting information for followers and helps create buzz about that medial center or hospital.  
• Training medical providers – using twitter to create dialog and ask questions during conferences or presentations across the web and having the ability to create slideshows and video to share across social media platforms.
• Accurate information for patients – According to the HealthCare New Media Conference, 73% of patients search for medial information before or after a doctor’s visit, with this knowledge in hand healthcare providers have a unique opportunity to provide accurate medical information online through social media networks. Providing timely information related to symptoms, diseases, medications and treatments, just to name a few, allows patients to gather information in an easy way from trusted medical providers.

Digital marketing provides opportunities across the board not only for healthcare companies to engage with patients, but also to begin to develop a more positive digital footprint about their practice, hospital or company through providing interesting online conversations and accurate medical information.