I’m a digital marketer.  One of my duties as such is to stay abreast of new technologies and innovative advertising solutions, especially when they involve getting free stuff.  Take, for example, this Foursquare thing.

For those of you who are not aware, Foursquare is a location-based social networking service.  Essentially, you set up an account and invite your friends to connect with you.  Every time you visit a new venue, you “check-in” (virtually speaking).  You can choose to show your friends where you’re at or keep it secret.  After so many check-ins, you become a mayor of that venue.  One of the most important details here is that there can only be one mayor per venue.

Every once in a while, companies offer specials or discounts for the mayor of their establishment.  This is where the free stuff comes in and, admittedly, why I started Foursquaring in the first place.

Carrabba’s Italian Grill is one of my favorite restaurants ever!  Not just because they have tasty food and a plethora of wine options but also because the atmosphere is pleasant.  You can imagine my surprise when I found out that Carrabba’s was offering a free dessert to the mayor of my most visited location. (more…)

When your brand decides to launch a media campaign, before you buy your first spot, remember there are a few things to keep in mind to help your efforts make a marketing splash instead of capsizing.

Plan: Set a single goal for the campaign and clearly define it.  This goal needs to be grounded in realistic expectations.  Once you’ve done this, you should define how you are going to measure the campaign’s performance in order to determine whether or not your goal is being met.  Your key success metric must be appropriate to the goal you are aiming for.  So if you’re going to drive sales, your metric should not be e-mail collection rates.  Part of having realistic expectations is making sure your budget fits your goal.  Try to determine where your breakeven point is and then work backward from there to determine the right budget for what you want to accomplish.  Don’t be overzealous with your campaign goals.  Keep them realistic and in tune with the amount of money you can invest in your campaign. (more…)

To help provide a better sense of the people we have working here at LeapFrog Interactive, we offer up this new recurring series. This time around, Emily Carroll, a media coordinator here at LFI, reveals her love of 80s boy bands and her beef with a particular horror movie remake, among other things.

What is it you do exactly?: I help brands find the optimal placements for their interactive campaigns to run.

What’s one thing someone needs to know about you to get an idea about who you are?: I’m overly excitable. People don’t understand that about me, and it gets very frustrating because people are very standoffish when they first meet me.

Biggest fear: I’m afraid of bed bugs. Have you seen any? They look like ticks on steroids.

Favorite word: Doppelganger

Least favorite word: Succotash

Favorite weekend activity: Concert-going

Ideal job (other than working for LFI): Coming up with the challenges they do on reality shows—being the “game-maker-upper�? for shows like Survivor and Big Brother.

What song is guaranteed to make you immediately switch the channel?: Anything by Nickelback.

Favorite breakfast cereal: Lucky Charms

What would you like served up for your last meal?: I’d want the Pollo Rosa Maria from Carrabba’s.

Last movie you saw that made you want your money back: Max Payne (more…)

Understanding who your target audience is can be the difference between an ad campaign that hits all the right notes and one that falls flat as a pancake. Knowing how your target consumers will react to your marketing efforts requires more than just traditional demographic information—that’s just the tip of the iceberg. For a brand to really know who it’s pitching to, a deeper dig into its audience’s psyche—their likes, dislikes, behaviors, and tendencies—is needed.

While performing target market analysis for LeapFrog clients, I have the opportunity to use a lot of great tools, including Mediamark Research’s Survey of the American Consumer database. Mediamark Research, Inc. (MRI) surveys American consumers in order to come up with a very specific and thorough sense of not only their demographic information (e.g., who they are, where they live, etc.) but also what interests them and drives their behavior. MRI can place over 30 years worth of this exact type of consumer information right at my fingertips.
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