Best of Class Mixed Media Addy award was presented to the University Center for its “At the Center of it All” campaign. Workplace Technology Center also won a Best of Class Addy. Its “English to IT”  took home the Best of Class Addy for Consumer or Trade Publication.

Lawrence & Schiller congratulates all of its clients who won at the Sioux Falls event. All together the group received 24 Addy Awards.

• South Dakota Tourism
• Midcontinent Communications
• Sanford Hospital
• Dennis Daugaard for Governor
• University Center
• South Dakoa Office of Highway Safety
• Workplace Technology Center
• The Golf Course At Devil’s Tower
• Visit Spearfish
• South Dakota Symphony
• Sioux Falls Green Project
• Lawrence & Schiller

But at L&S, March 1 will be remembered for a different kind of reason. It’s the official campaign launch of “My Town, My Taco John’s,” the first joint advertising effort between Lawrence & Schiller and Taco John’s International.

Just a few short months ago, our entire office was hanging on to hope that we’d one day get the chance to work with Taco John’s. Today, we’re rolling out a new series of television commercials, point-of-purchase advertising and radio, complete with a new original jingle celebrating the bond between Taco John’s and our hometown communities.

To view the first of many new spots in the “My Town, My Taco John’s” family, click on the links below. And celebrate with us as we say, “olé!” this March 1.

Breakfast Burrito_15

StuffdGrilldTaco_30

Similar to Facebook and Twitter, Buzz is a platform where friends can connect, share thoughts, photos, videos, chat and link accounts with other social media sites. But there are a few distinct characteristics that set Buzz apart from the rest. One being that Buzz is built directly into Gmail, giving it approximately 150 million immediate users from day one. This gives users a social media component in addition to full service email in one convenient stop.

Another delineating characteristic is Buzz’s slightly more advanced and selective privacy features. Users can switch from a public conversation thread to a private chat via Google Talk in Gmail. Furthermore, lists can be created that allow users to control which friends see certain content, while blocking others from that specific buzz. Users also have the option of making their Buzz public or just for friends.

After investigating my own Buzz, I found the convenience of the instant connections and only one login for Gmail and Buzz to be a nice component. I have not witnessed much activity yet, but I am sure that will soon change as users start to learn of this new utility and its many features.

Google’s omnipotent power and presence in the search engine and email markets will only add to the growth that Buzz may potentially see. As we all know, social media is advancing and gaining momentum daily. Keep your ears open as the “Buzz” is sure to spread.

Knowing that there are multiple programming languages (I just told you so, remember?), one reasonably wonders, “Why not just one programming language?” My brother wondered the very same thing in an email to me, which inspired this post. As children often do, his question revealed to me a greater query that I hadn’t stopped to think about before: why NOT just one programming language? (The joke here is that my brother is in his mid-twenties.)

One reason why there isn’t just one computer language is that there isn’t just one type of computer; there are thousands of different types of computers. Computers all speak a language called “machine language“. This, essentially, is the 1s and 0s of binary. Jotting down 1s and 0s would be a terribly ineffective way of communicating with a computer, so programming languages were devised.

The different programming languages came to solve different problems. The C language, for instance, was created as a systems language. It’s goal, as a language, was to build servers and operating systems. Prolog, on the other hand, is a logic language, designed for use in artificial intelligence. SQL makes it easy to manage data in a database management system. None of these languages are useful for creating webpages easily. That’s why we have Ruby, Java, PHP, ASP.Net, and CFML (ColdFusion).

Sometimes, a programmer will like the concepts of one language, but they’ll want the syntax of another. So, they create a new language. Some languages only exist as proof that a concept is possible. Some languages are specific to the platform for which they are written. For instance, a mobile phone might have it’s own simple operating system with a special programming language used to write the cell phone’s applications, or a social networking site might develop a language in their API for developers to use to get data from that social networking site.

Perhaps an analogy is in order. Programming languages are like tools. When you’re trying to hang a painting, a hammer is better for driving a nail than a mallet. A mallet will do the job, but that’s not quite what it’s supposed to be used for. And, most importantly, you couldn’t do everything you needed to do with just a hammer. You could do a lot, and get close to almost all of it, but in the end it’s nice to have other tools in the box.

Another analogy is out of order, but I’m just that crazy. Programming languages are not like natural languages. People hear PHP, Ruby and ColdFusion, and they think of German, French, and English. RESIST THAT URGE. Programming languages are not at all equivalent to natural languages. The main reason for this is that natural languages sprang up from a human need to express the scope of intellectual thought and the breadth of expression capable in their speakers; computer languages just make computers do stuff and junk.

Using the programming language criteria above, are a French-speaking person and an English-speaking person so fundamentally different that they require different languages? Of course not. A French-speaking person is just as capable of learning English as an English-speaking person. Similarly, French doesn’t solve any problem that English can’t solve. You might be inclined to say that French poetry is much easier on the ears, or that English is a much better business language, but these aren’t properties of the language per se. English might be considered a better business tool because of its wide adoption, and French… well, I guess it IS easier on the ears, but that’s not the reason French was created.

At L&S, I usually find myself playing in ColdFusion (CFML), HTML, CSS, and JavaScript, but I’ve also played with PHP, Java, Python, and Classic ASP. On a recent project, I found myself using ASP.Net and C# for one half and CFML for the second half. In my personal time, I’ve played with Rubyand Google’s Go, among others. I’m not listing this all out to impress you, but let’s be honest; some of you are really impressed. I’m listing these languages to show just how varied the Internet landscape is right now. In fact, looking at this list, I think my list of languages might be light for a web programmer these days. No Perl? No Clojure? No Scala? No Processing?

As servers get better at deploying (and virtualizing) the ability to utilize these languages in an integrated environment, web developers are getting more interested in picking the right tool for the job. Better server performance means giving developers more tools to play with and utilize. That, in turn, means faster, more efficient websites and, regrettably, a whole lot of developer ego.

Those guys can get pretty insufferable. Trust me.

So what is social media and how does it relate to travel planning? Well, it’s many of the things you already do to promote your business or attraction: you talk, you relate, you share, you collaborate, you advise and you comment. Social media is simply word of mouth, gone digital. People already believe what others are saying about your business. Your job is to get people talking and build a network of brand evangelists in the online space.  Here’s how:

Social Media Travel Tip #1: In a digital sense, tell people who you are and where to find you. Maps are at the core of many online applications; therefore, sharing your basic contact information is critical.

• Customers are searching for you on Google – make sure they can find you. Visit www.Google.com/LocalBusinessCenter to add or check accuracy of your local business listing (this gets you on Google Maps as well). Be sure that your listing includes your physical address, phone number and hours of operation. Take your listing one step further by adding photos, videos or coupons. All of this is FREE.
• TripAdvisor is the most-visited digital travel advisor. Make sure you exist by searching at http://www.tripadvisor.com/UserReview. If not, add yourself by clicking on the “Tell us more about it” link. Then, encourage your customers to add reviews of your business/service.

Social Media Travel Tip #2: Monitoring should be the cornerstone of your social media plan. Track your brand and know who’s talking about you online through blogs, reviews, Facebook, Twitter, etc.

• Visit www.Google.com/Alerts and you’ll find an easy web form to create your Google Alerts. Tell Google what terms you’d like to monitor (your business name, for sure), how often you’d like to receive the alert listing and what e-mail address to deliver the information to. Again, FREE.
• www.Addictomatic.com is an awesome tool to aggregate all social media activity about your company or industry. Type in your business to see what you find!
• There are many other free social media monitoring tools available, including www.Technorati.com/search, www.Search.Twitter.com, www.Tweetdeck.com, www.Facebook.com live feeds and more.

Social Media Travel Tip #3: Get people talking. Encourage your customers to post reviews on TripAdvisor or other social media review sites.

• A great success story of how The Hotel Giraffe, The Library Hotel, The Casablanca Hotel, and The Hotel Elysee gained the highly sought-after top five ranks among all New York City hotels on TripAdvisor: http://www.ftnnews.com/content/view/8345/26/

Social Media Travel Tip #4: Join Facebook. It’s a must – There are more than 350 million active users and today, Facebook hit a new milestone of 100 million mobile users. 50% of these active users log on to Facebook every day. Some things to keep in mind:

• Create your personal account. Facebook accounts are for people, not businesses, so the first thing you need to do is set up your personal account. Next, set up a fan page for your business. Under the facebook logo in the upper left corner, click on “Ads and Pages”, then click “Create Page”.
• Invite your Facebook friends to become fans and encourage them to invite their friends. This is how something “goes viral”.
• Name your fan page something that people would search for. Do not abbreviate. For example, if you are the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Bureau, you would not want to name your page LV CVB, rather something people would actually enter into the search field – Las Vegas, Nevada. This will make it easy for people to find you.
• On your fan page, develop engaging content including posts, photos and videos.
• Be active and responsive, but not annoying. Offer special values to your fans. Remember that you are representing your business, but have fun!

Social Media Travel Tip #5: Focus on mobile. People will continue to use their mobile phones for travel planning, including flights, lodging, dining and activities; therefore, think about the mobile applications for your industry segment:

• Hotels – Lodging.mobi, Travelta.mobi – these applications are changing every day, search for lodging options in your town from a mobile device and if you don’t show up, work with these providers on your options.
• Dining – Urbanspoon or Yelp are two leading mobile restaurant finders. Also, consider restaurant reservation sites like OpenTable.
• People will search for travel options from the medium that’s most convenient for them, so if they’re searching from their mobile device and you’re not there it’s a missed opportunity.

The key to success: Don’t be pushy. Engage and interact, but don’t sell to your network and don’t market to your network. Just build relationships with your customers and the rest will take care of itself. Let people get to know your employees, share behind-the-scenes secrets, share fun pictures in an effort to let people be a part of your world.

 Check out the site at www.costelloformayor.com

 The 2010 municipal election for Sioux Falls Mayor will be held Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Mobile Phones

• U.S. mobile phone users 13+: 223M
• Number of mobile Web users: 60.7M (up 33% from 2008)
• Percentage of mobile devices that are smartphones: 18% (up from 13% in 2008)
• Percentage of mobile device owners that streamed audio: 8%
• Percentage of mobile device owners that viewed video via their mobile phone: 7%
• Percentage of mobile devices sold in Q3 2009 that were smartphones: 25% (estimated 40%-50 in 2010)

Source: The Nielsen Company, November 2009

Looking Ahead To Mid-2011

• Estimated smartphone user base: 150M
• Estimated mobile subscribers: 300M+
• Estimated users of mobile web: 120M
• Estimated users watching mobile video: 90M

Source: The Nielsen Company, November 2009

Growth of cellphone only homes in the U.S.

• 2009… 21%
• 2008… 18%
• 2007… 15%

Top 5 Smartphones (% Ownership)

• Blackberry 8300 Curve: 17%
• Apple iPhone 3G: 15%
• Apple iPhone 3G S: 12%
• Blackberry 9530 Storm: 6%
• Blackberry 8100 Pearl: 5%

Source: The Nielsen Company, November 2009

Top 5 Mobile Web Sites

• Google Search
• Yahoo! Mail
• Gmail
• Weather Channel
• Facebook

Top Social Networks on Mobile Phones

• Facebook
• MySpace
• Twitter

Top 5 Mobile Video Channels

• YouTube
• Fox Interactive Media
• Weather Channel
• Comedy Central
• CBS

Internet

• 195M Active U.S. Internet users
• 160.3M People who accessed the Internet via a broadband connection: (93.3%… up 16% from 2008)
• 138.4M Unique viewers of video (up 11.4% from 2008)
• 11.2B Total online video streams viewed monthly (up 17% from 2008)
• 200.1 minutes Average time spent viewing online video per viewer monthly (up 12.5% from 2008)

Social Networking

• Facebook reaches 56% of the active U.S. Internet universe with an average usage of 6 hrs a month per user
• Facebook is the #3 site visited by users 65 and older
• Twitter grew 500% year-over-year
• Time spent on social networking sites in the U.S. increased 277%
• The average U.S. worker spends 5 hrs a month visiting social networks at the office
• 32% of all mobile web users visited a social network

Lawrence & Schiller started our Taco John’s journey in the spring of 2007. Our team grew up in Taco John’s country, recalling countless hometown Taco John’s stories, which led us to identify the company as a client we wanted to work with. Our account service team began building relationships with Taco John’s that led to the opportunity to respond to their agency of record RFP in October, pitch the business in November and win (!) the business in December.

The RFP called for a creative shoot-out, so in true 5280 style, we developed strategic creative based on a deep understanding of the Taco John’s brand. We visited over 100 stores, interviewed franchisees, talked to customers and studied any other research we could get our hands on. As a result, we presented three diverse concepts, and like true parents were very proud of the entire trio of brainchildren. 

The creative selected will hit the airways in March, celebrating the hometown tradition that is Taco John’s. A few members of our Taco John’s team attended the Advertising Production Committee Meeting last week, where we officially kicked off our collaborative relationship.

Welcome, Taco John’s! We couldn’t be more excited to dedicate our time and creative energy to another brand that is such a big part of our lives.

To read more about this new relationship, click here.

Ads Are Content

• 55 billion dollars are projected for interactive marketing in 2015; it will be the largest media category in the world.
• Economic value of the internet: 3.1 million US jobs, and $300 billion to the economy. 
• Evolution of banners
  • Banner ads – circa 1995 – when display ads were put on banners.
  • Google changed it with small ads to small groups that it was relevant to. 
  • Now, there are infinite inventory and places to advertise.  Attention is worth more than money.
  • We have learned to tune out banner ads that do not speak directly to us – we need to make ads as content, that match that niche community’s site (no generic banner ads to all sites).
  • Get communities to talk about your product for you.  Example of unique niche community – GeekDad.com – 1 million visits per month.  Great example of a very niche, yet very popular site. So how do you engage deeply with all of these micro-communities?  You can’t reach them all – you need to find a way to get that community to do that for you.
• Embrace digital – your stuff is out there so make a community around it or make it easier for people.
  • Example: Monte Python – They faced a potential loss in DVD sales when some of their episodes starting getting put online by users.  They embraced the fact that their content was already out there, and improved it by uploaded episodes to You Tube, making the episodes HD friendly, and organizing the collection online.  The result?  A renewed interest in the products, and increased DVD sales.

A sound mix to “Oh Christmas Tree” and highlighting a breadth of products from all departments within Lewis lends a fresh, fun feel to this spot. Products from TVs and cameras to baby dolls, champagne and Doritos – it is made apparent that Lewis is your first stop for everything holiday. Whether it be for shipping and packaging, decorating your house for the holidays, gift buying or party planning, Lewis has it all.

Can you imaging spending 3/4 of your ad budget in ditial marketing?  Adobe can, and they do.  They have created proven campaigns, and alleviated concerns by sharing data and results.  The first speaker of the conference, Anne Lewis, Senior VP of Adobe, set the theme with this statement: It’s ALL Advertising.   When you think about it, it’s true.  Every piece of material we put out there for a brand can either credit or discredit that product or brand.  It’s important to make sure that what you are putting out there is relevant to your target audience. 

Factors that indicate the future boom of online video ad spending.

• Broadband now reaches ‘critical mass’ 
• People used to click on ads all the time – why? Because they were new.
• Network TV Viewers/Video Streamers likely to forward ads: 
• 2006 – 26%
• 2009 – 17%   

One interesting tidbit – as of now, nearly all video time is TV time. (This surprised me, due to the popularity of YouTube)

• As % of total US video viewing time (as of 2nd quarter 09) 98.5% TV viewing, 1% Internet Videos (i.e. YouTube)

In 2013 it is projected that 16% of online video time will be internet videos. 

Video ads have low trust levels, as of now.  Advertising Trust Levels by Medium, of North Americans. By eMarketer.  Now that’s not to say that this shouldn’t be a part of your mix – it’s just a newer medium, but if your content and brand can show that they are credible and trustworthy, and you place ad content on sites that are also credible, you should have success. 

• Opt-In Emails 67%
• Newspaper Ads 66%
• Brand Spons. 62%
• Magazine Ads 62%
• TV 61%
• Radio 61%
• Cinema 53%
• Outdoor 53%
• Paid Search 37%
• Online Video 33%
• Online Banners 24%
• Mobile Text 18%

Four Types of Video Ads (different options for different creatives).  Your team at L&S will help you to determine which works best for you.

• Pre-Roll, Mid-Roll, Post-Roll
• Overlays (at the bottom, not interrupting the video)
• Skins
• In Page Banners

Metrics (don’t gauge all success by Click Through Rate)

• Delivery (did it get delivered?)
• Impressions, or Streams
• Audience Composition (who?)
• Consumption
• Interaction
• Action
• Purchase
• Brand Metrics (awareness, intent)

Video Performance Factors (Why it worked, or why it didn’t)

•  Creative
• Delivery
• Experience
• Not all videos are created equal; most are commercials moved to the web. It is much better if it is created for the web. 

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032619/vp/34072231#34072231

The Consumer Revolution

Yahoo! did a survey and found that 77% of those surveyed wanted to find an ad again, but they couldn’t find it.  The people surveyed wanted to save it, store it, share it.  There is a large expectation gap of what online provides and what users want it to do.  Stay focused on the consumer.

• The web – massive in scale, but individual areas for all the niches, like interest groups the web brings those communities together.
• The web – not daunting but it needs simplification. 
• It is about LIFE, not online, or offline, all the time. 

It’s a mesh of:

My World               The World            

Friends                  Knowledge

Family                    Information

Values                   News

Interests                 Entertainment

Locale                    Editorial

Combine the two to give more of what they want and less of what they don’t.  Figure out what matters most.

Lawrence & Schiller had the great opportunity recently to be involved in announcing the merger of Sanford Health & MeritCare. In collaboration with the creative teams at Sanford & MeritCare, we produced the Stronger Together campaign including television, outdoor & online ads, launched Monday, November 2. This powerful new partnership will provide better patient care with over 800 physicians and expanded services, as well as advancements in medical research and education. Congratulations to Sanford Health & MeritCare on this monumental occasion!

If you’re new to Twitter lists (and pretty much everyone is), the concept is pretty simple. Lists allow Twitter users to group a bunch of twitterers together so that viewing their updates is easier. Want to view L&S twitterers and no one else? There’s a list for that.

If you’re still scratching your head, that’s okay. Mashable has a pretty good selection of Twitter List articles, how-tos, and guides.

Do you have a killer list? Share with us in the comments.

We had the privilege of receiving a letter from a Midwest Living magazine subscriber regarding the ads placed in the publication for South Dakota Tourism this year.  It read:

“May I share with you how much I have enjoyed Midwest Living’s South Dakota tourism ads?  I have framed each one and have hung them on my knotty pine walls in my northern Wisconsin cottage.  How serene! Will there be more?  Thank you!”

Marilyn P from Wisconsin 

Additionally, she attached a Polaroid shot of the six ads she had clipped and framed for her home. 

Kudos to the team for developing such powerful copy and imagery to evoke strong emotion; strong enough to move the magazine reader to cut out, frame, and hang them in her home.  More powerfully, to move her to write a letter (not send an email) to the publication asking them for more.  

Now, that is marketing that will move the needle!

The Framed South Dakota Tourism ads

The commercial truly says it all: Commitment you can see. Tradition you can feel. An experience like no other.  At a place called USD. The University of South Dakota.

What were the biggest surprises? The biggest takeaways? And how can a conference like Max help L&S clients? Eric shares his thoughts in this episode of The Extra Minute.