The earth is rotating around the sun at approximately 18.6 miles per second and spinning on its axis at over 1000 miles per hour. Even though you're along for the ride on this big spinning rock, the world of tech can often make you feel as if you're standing still while the rest of the earth keeps on moving. 

The pace that new browser features, application frameworks, turn-key services and new paradigms of user interactions are being developed can at times be mind-boggling. Jumping at every next best thing can be a costly endeavor, but waiting out the market too long can prove to be a much more costly mistake. It is crucial that we are never comfortable with the status quo; we must recognize trends and their associated values as early in the game as possible if we are to capitalize on them before they are old news. One can only imagine the position a company like Blockbuster would be in had they embraced video streaming much earlier in their life. Blockbuster is by no means out of the race, but they quickly lost their head start along with their bargaining power when the market made its shift to online streaming.

The success of any company lies in the hands of the individuals to make it a thriving business. How those individuals spend their idle time weighs greatly on their (and subsequently the business’s) overall impact. A valuable, driven employee is always tuned to the “channels of interest” for their respective field. Whether it’s a tech blog, a series of consumer reports, social media research, e-learning programs or any of the other online treasure troves of data and trend information that are available, it’s valuable for your employees and it’s valuable for you!

Building a culture of communication, curiosity and investigative analysis into every facet of your business is a crucial aspect of staying on top of trends in tech and business before they are on top of you. Test the "norm" through ongoing market research and experimentation, learn from the tests, and accompany that knowledge with a willingness to revisit the results as events occur; the end result is going to be a knowledgeable staff with a clear direction that can evolve with a rapidly changing market.

We run into situations almost daily at LFI where an employee’s personal motivation to learn benefits us and, in turn, our clients. An open culture of communication and professional development coupled with the inherent freedoms to challenge the status quo at this digital agency make it possible for the culture and motivation of the business to remain solid while still constantly adapting to support the evolving capabilities of our market and the evolving demands of our clients.

The idea of traveling at the speed of tech may seem out of reach when observing from the sidelines, but when every employee is part of the push, you’ll find that getting up to speed doesn’t require a monumental effort, just a consistent one.

How does Siri select her answers?

Recently, I had a client ask why their business wasn’t coming up as a mobile search result when they asked Siri where to find “the best Steak in Louisville.”  My initial thought was Siri probably determines her answers just like Google – using search algorithms to determine website position for search terms.  However, after digging around and reading more into it, it seems Siri is just as tricky, if not more so, than Google’s ever-changing search algorithms.  Ah the world of digital technology…will I ever keep up with you? 

So, in case you are wondering how to persuade Siri to respond with your business via mobile voice search, here are a few tips I found on the situation:

Make sure your Google Maps listing is complete and up-to-date

• Optimize your Google Maps listing with keywords your customers would actually are actually searching
• Optimize your Google Places page and make it as appealing as possible for Siri  and your customers by including photos, reviews, coupons, and fresh content such as weekly specials.
• Make sure your local listing is on review sites like Yelp and OpenTable and be sure your listing is optimized for search.

No one has cracked the Siri voice search code yet, but the above steps are a great place to start to try and get her on your business’ side!

[Contributed by Melanie Williams, senior account manager]

Last weekend LeapFrog Interactive attended our first ever Cincinnati ADDY Awards ceremony at the Carnegie Arts Center. At our inaugural award ceremony, we received a total of five awards for traditional and interactive marketing. All honors were awarded for the WeThrive! campaign for Hamilton County Pubic Health in 2011.

Gold

Public Service Out-of-home – WeThrive! Digital Out-of-home

Silver

Public Service Campaign – WeThrive! Campaign
Public Service – Young Lungs at Play Poster Series
Public Service – Young Lungs at Play: Bear
Public Service – Young Lungs at Play: Elephant

LFI was especially proud of the gold ADDY for the Digital Out-of-home project. This project was launched in September of 2011 and was LFI’s first opportunity to showcase our interactive display capabilities. A retail front area in downtown Cincinnati was transferred into an interactive quiz to help spread awareness about the importance of a healthy lifestyle. With the newly awarded gold Cincinnati ADDY, the project will now be automatically submitted to the regional ADDYs. Details to come!

We would like to thank everyone at LFI that helped make this night the success it was! We appreciate all the hard work and anticipate more celebrations this Friday after the 2012 Louie Awards.

Interested in having some award winning campaigns for your brand? Contact LFI today or find us on Facebook and Twitter!

On Sunday night, February 12, 2012, thirty-nine million viewers tuned into CBS to watch the 54^th Grammy Awards. This was recorded as the second largest audience to watch the awards show since 1984. Beyond the extravagant performances and the beautiful tribute to the late Whitney Houston, the massive viewer base meant something else. The show brought top names in all genres of music together ranging from country to electronica, meaning a diverse group of people watching and a marketer’s dream. So who took advantage of this opportunity and who missed out?

And the winners are….

Target for “Best Performance in Media Placement” and Chipotle for “Best New Brand Message in a Television Ad”. This is not to say that there weren’t other great ads during the show, but these two were definite showstoppers.

Let’s talk Target. First of all, I must applaud Target’s overall branding strategy just in TV ads alone. Before the ad even starts, you know it’s a Target ad. All of Target’s ads have the same general feel, look, and sound without looking identical. Second of all, Target used great social techniques and ad placement during the show. The first ad they showed was the “Color Changes Everything” ad, which showed the hash-tag #targetcolor for the campaign at the beginning of the ad. This gave customers the opportunity to give immediate feedback on the ad or products. Target also cleverly aired ads featuring fans paying tribute to their favorite artists in their “The Fans Who Know it best” campaign. Many of these fans were singing songs by artists nominated at the show…coincidence? I think not.

Ok, now let’s talk burritos. Chipotle aired their very first television ad and it caused quite the ruckus in the social spaces. Some loved it, some hated it, some didn’t get it, and others starting looking up vegetarian recipes. They did a great job illustrating their brand mission and message that Chipotle uses rage free, hormone free, all natural food in their stores, but was it is an award winning effort? They skipped the dry humor and celebrity endorsement and went straight for good ol’ emotional appeal. In the end, the branding message was on point. It was consistent, strong and very apparent. Was the overall ad effective though? Personally, that ad did not make me want to eat a burrito any time soon. The branding tactic was great, the sales technique-a little off.  Nonetheless, the point was proven and it was intriguing enough to keep viewers hanging on through the whole 2 minutes and 20 seconds of the ad to find out whom it was for.

Need to discuss your brand’s next branding strategy for an upcoming marketing campaign? Contact LFI today and we’ll help create a campaign that brings music to your ears.

We are happy to announce we are partnering again with Business First for The Power of Digital series. Each quarter we will present on a digital marketing topic designed to help Louisville business owners and decision makers improve their business through digital marketing.

The first installment will focus on Social Search Optimization on February 23 at 8:30 a.m. Social Search Optimization is optimizing social media posts and content using traditional SEO tactics to help the content be found within search results. With the advent of Google+ and Search Plus Your World, it has become more and more apparent social media signals factor in the organic search algorithms. Our presentation will address what this new landscape means for businesses and how they can start implementing Social Search Optimization strategies into their current marketing mix.

To register for the event visit our Facebook page or Business First.

Welcome to the new “Pin Up” era! No, I’m not talk about Betty Grable or Marilyn Monroe, I’m talking about the social media sharing sensation Pinterest. If you’re not on Pinterest, you need to request a membership as soon as you’re done reading my blog (Warning: this site is HIGHLY addictive). This new social media site allows users to share content via “pins” by adding links you find interesting on your various “boards”. This sharing nature is also known as referral traffic. According to a study conducted by Shareaholic, Pinterest had more referral traffic than Youtube, Reddit, Google+, LinkedIn, and MySpace last month. Pinterest took its overall referral traffic from 0.17% in July 2011 to 3.6% in January 2012, making it only .01% behind Twitter.

For you non-pinners, you probably don’t understand why Pinterest is so great. “It looks like a bunch of pictures” was my initial reaction. Once I started exploring, I realized it’s subtle powers. Its interface is designed for members to follow certain interests - food, fashion, fitness, etc - and displays pictures and links based on those specified categories. It allows you to “repin” links to your own boards, mimicking Twitter’s “retweet” action. Users can also “like” pins that keep them in a separate area for easy access when they wish to recall that link. You can link your account to your other social properties, personal website, and search engines. You can also post infographics, videos, and even conduct contests!

So what does this mean for businesses? You want to be in this space. For the retail industry, this is a huge development for how consumers shop. Users can “follow” a company’s pins and if they see a picture of a product they like, they can simply click and it was take them directly to the ecommerce site. Pinterest allows greater exposure for companies who may not be considered leaders in the industry by showing up in specific searches. It won’t be long until Pinterest will become a integrate part of a brand’s social media strategy. Now that’s Pin-teresting!

[INFOGRAPHIC via Mashable]

Market research has come in many forms over the years in the advertising industry and that research is used for many purposes from consumer behavior to what new products to roll out. As advertising and marketing has changed in recent years with the explosion of social media and mobile technology, market research firms and companies looking for insight have turned to social media to uncover brand opinion and consumer insights. The following infograpahic from telligent.com gives some great statistics and information related to the way companies are using social media conversation to tap into the voice of consumers.

Lately it seems that the mid 19^th century fantasies of the future may not have been too far off, or maybe their visions shaped our development, but the technologies of our former dreams will likely soon be at our fingertips. Last year offered the first flying car approved for roadways, while this year may very well contain some of the first computing eyewear.

In a recent report from 9to5Google, Google’s fancy new eyewear will follow the same idea from the Terminator movies and present the consumer with a heads up display in one of the lenses. With advanced technology already existing for transparent displays, I’d imagine that the capability of the display would not be limited much more than a Smartphone. On top of the sweet display, the report also suggests the possibility of an internet connection for the glasses via a Wi-Fi to the user’s cell phone along with a forward facing camera.

What could this mean for digital marketing?

Given that we don’t know how the user interface will be displayed, it’s hard to say. I foresee website, ad, and application development specifically for the tiny transparent screen, and it wouldn’t live up to the sci-fi movies if it didn’t utilize facial and location recognition software. It could absolutely change the way that users interact with the different elements of digital marketing and therefore change our approach to testing and development. That’s what I love about this industry. Every time we start to get bored, something new comes out offering new opportunities and requiring fresh thinking.

Last week, I praised Chevy and their foresight to engage customers during the Super Bowl commercials with the use of their “Game Time” app. Now that the Super Bowl is over, I stand by my praise of Chevy as they executed their game plan and captured the attention of the “second screen” audience.

Chevy’s ads fell just outside of the top 10 ads of the Super Bowl, rated by the viewers. Their Happy Grad and Mayan Apocalypse ads took 11^th and 12^th respectively. However, this certainly wasn’t due to lack of viewership. Chevy managed to reach the 111 million people that tuned in Sunday, as well as additional 8 million views on YouTube. Chances are that large portions of those viewers were looking for those winning license plates.

Chevy did a great job of capturing what is being referred to as the “second screen” audience. “Second screen” audience refers to the people that have a screen such as a Smartphone or an iPad in addition to the television. The number of “second screen” users is substantial, shown by the record amount of Tweets that occurred during the game. As of 3:00 p.m. on Tuesday, mobile app users had racked up a total of 344,385 hours playing Chevy “Game Time” and answered 7,626,578 trivia questions within the app.

The “second screen” is a great tool for advertisers to create a strong call to action, and Leapfrog Interactive can help. Whether you are looking for a mobile website or a mobile app of your own, let our team create the interactive marketing campaign that is right for your company.

 [Contributed by Sean Slattery, marketing & account coordinator]

I am very happy to announce LFI was named the #47 on Website Magazine’s Top 50 Search Marketing Agencies.

The ranking is a true testament to the hard work our search marketing teams put in every day. From site architecture to keyword research to link building, our team works tirelessly to drive results for our clients. Our SEO and PPC teams do not perform this work in silos. We rely on Technology and Creative staffs to develop websites that perform well in search, and ad copy that speaks to user intent for higher yielding conversions.  

Search marketing is a true passion of ours at LFI. We consistently write, speak, post, and present on the topic. If you have any questions, we would love to show why LFI received this ranking.

Thanks again to Website Magazine!

Super Bowl XLVI will be one for the record book for more reasons than being a rematch from 2008 between the New England Patriots and the New York Giants. From mobilelive streaming of the game via Verizon and advertisers changing their strategies to reach consumers to version 2.02 of the Super BowlGuide app and a social media command center to reach tweeters and Facebookers, the digital media aspects of this year’s Super Bowl are unprecedented.

The socialmedia command center will be set-up downtown in host city Indianapolis and staffed with strategists, analysts and techies to help monitor fans’ social conversation and give fans parking information, directions to fun attractions during their visit and answer any other questions that may come up. The command center will also be prepared in the event on an emergency or disaster. Like many brand or company socialmedia marketers, the social media staff for Super Bowl XLVI will be searching for specific keywords and phrases from fans and Indy visitors while watching for hash tags such as #superbowl2012, #Indy, #SBVillage and #NFLExperience among many others. Creating a social media experience for Super Bowl fans and game goers helps create a positive reputation for Indianapolis and Super Bowl XLVI, as well as provides communication with fans in the way fans are communicating with each other.

As 150,000+ fans are expected to flood Indianapolis, millions more will be watching the big game from home on their big screens, small screens and Verizon Smartphones. I’m excited to see what other digital media rolls out during the game on Sunday and which brands embrace an integrated marketing strategy to entice consumers with commercials and then direct them to a Facebook or Twitter pages to increase engagement. 

On Sunday, millions of people, including me, will gather together to watch the Super Bowl…commercials. Advertisers pay top dollar to get their messages out to millions of people during this monumental game. But in this world full of distractions such as Smartphones, iPads, and social media, how do advertisers ensure they capture the attention of all of those people? Well it’s like the old saying, “If ya can’t beat em, join em,” which is exactly what Chevy is doing.

Instead of fighting the distractions, Chevy decided to become one and engage the Super Bowl audience with the Chevy “Game Time” app. It creates an interactive environment for fans to answer trivia, talk about the game, and win prizes like a new Chevy Camaro. Every person that downloads the app gets a unique virtual license plate, and if it matches one in a Chevy commercial during the Super Bowl they are a winner. Chevy’s audience now has a reason to watch and (more importantly) pay attention to Chevy’s commercials during the Super Bowl. If you ask me, Chevy may very well come out of this year’s Super Bowl as the MVA (most valuable advertiser).

Engaging customers is more important than ever and Chevy has found a way to do it on the biggest stage, but you don’t have to have millions of dollars to achieve the same effect. Let Leapfrog Interactive help you create an interactive marketing plan that will work for your business.

[Contributed by Sean Slattery, marketing account coordinator]