Category: News

Is your brand ready for IGTV? Instagram rolled out another major update last week: meet IGTV. What is IGTV? Instagram has now incorporated its very own video content hub that supports videos up to 1 hour in length. What does this mean? Now you won’t have to link out to an external platform such as YouTube or Vimeo for your users to be able to watch the full video. This will keep your users inside the platform where they are more likely to continue engaging with your content.

Here’s a breakdown of everything you need to know about using IGTV for your brand:

How to create your IGTV:

Step 1: Go to your Instagram feed then tap the IGTV logo near the top-right corner of the screen.

Step 2: Tap the gear icon on the right side of the screen.

Step 3:  Tap “Create Channel” at the bottom of the screen.

Step 4: You’ll see a brief introduction to IGTV. Tap “Next” on the first and second screens, and then tap “Create Channel” on the third screen. Your channel will be created, and you’ll be able to start uploading videos to this section of the app.

(via Adweek)

How to access IGTV:

Users will be able to access IGTV directly from their newsfeed, located on the top right next to the messages icon (see left screenshot below), or they can also access it from your profile if you have an Instagram Stories Highlights section (see right screenshot below).

Image Source: Social Media Today

Features & benefits of using IGTV:

• You can directly link IGTV video from your Instagram Stories and also from Direct Messages. This will allow you to drive traffic to your IGTV channel.
• Users will also be able to send each other videos from IGTV via Direct Message.
• Users will be able to follow channels, leave comments and likes on videos.
• You can add a description and title to each video as well as your own thumbnail prior to uploading.
• Insights are available such as views, likes, comments, and average percentage watched.
• You can post videos from 15 seconds to 1 hour in length.
• Videos must be in a vertical format.

Image Source: Social Media Today

How to use IGTV for your brand:

• Create recurring or IGTV exclusive content: Share tips, create a series, host recurring blog content in video form to keep your users engaged and coming back weekly.
• Host educational content: If you constantly share how-to videos, tutorials, or webinars via Live or short clips that link out to a long featured video on your YouTube channel, bring this content to IGTV.
• Interviews & Q&A’s: Conduct interviews and Q&A’s without the concern over interruptions or bad connections via Live.
• Repurpose Content: Extend the life of your Instagram Stories past 24 hours.

Check out Instagram’s full announcement here.

Sources: Social Media Today, Adweek, Social Media Today

Feeling blue? Seeing red? Green with envy? So often we use colors to help describe our emotions, but what about our color choices when it comes to marketing and branding? Are you consciously applying the use of color to evoke certain emotions? Color can help define a consumer’s perception of your brand’s personality. Not only that, color can help you stand out from your competition. Now it’s important to remember when choosing colors for your brand identity that not everything is just black or white (pun intended), meaning there’s no universal law that states using red, for example, will instantly boost your sales. There are many factors that come into play such as your industry, product, audience, etc. Let’s break down some important statistics that can be helpful when choosing the best colors for your brand.

Studies About Colors By Gender

According to Joe Hallock’s Colour Assignment survey, 42% of people said that their favorite color was Blue out of a choice of 8 colors: Brown, Green, Grey, Orange, Purple, Red, White, Yellow, and Black.  This data was then filtered by male vs. female, which showed that 57% of men chose Blue as their favorite, with Purple coming in second at 23%, and 35% of females chose Blue as their favorite, with Green in second at 14%. The overall unanimous least favorite color was Orange at 30% with Brown as a close second at 23%.

Favorite Colors

Least Favorite Colors

Image Source: Helpscout.net

There is also a difference between preference of color shades, tints, and hues between men and women. Another study found that men prefer bright colors and women prefer soft colors. Men are more likely to have favorite shades of colors (colors with black added), and women prefer tints of colors (colors with white added). Keep these in mind when selecting your brand’s color palette.

Image Source: KISSmetrics

Coordinating Colors & CTA’s

Ever create a call-to-action button in a bold color that pops and stands out? Of course, right? This utilizes the principle that the majority of consumers prefer color combinations of similar hues with a high contrast accent color. Creating a color palette with a hierarchy guides the consumer and lets them know where to take action. For example, if the majority of your ad or website consists of different shades of grey, use an accent color for your buttons, headlines, and important action items. This helps guide the consumer’s eyes to where they need to find all of the most important information and where to take action. Don’t know which colors go together and work for an accent color? Refer to color charts to help guide you in selecting your palette. Start with your analogous colors. Choose a few colors that are in the same family as your base colors and then choose an accent color that will pop and contrast but still make the text legible. Alternatively, you can use triadic colors when selecting your palette. Adobe Color CC is a great tool to use that helps you select the right coordinating colors.

Here’s a great example of creating a color palette by choosing your analogous colors for your background and base colors, and then picking an accent color that complements then stands out.

Image Source: StudioPress.com

The easiest example of how choosing the best colors has such an impact when guiding your consumers to your call-to-action button. The difference between the left to right is minor but makes a huge difference.

Image Source: Hubspot.com

Next Steps

It’s most likely that your company already has an existing logo with coordinated branding guidelines, but that doesn’t mean you can’t apply these principles in your other marketing efforts. It’s important to remember not to stray completely off-brand, however, try A/B testing different CTA button colors on your landing pages or display advertisements. Keeping this information in mind when creating visuals for your company can impact your customer’s journey and the impression of your brand.

Sources: Helpscout.net, Hubspot.com, StudioPress.com, KISSmetrics.com

When we hear the word “branding” we often only think of the design side of things which would include your logo, website, packaging, etc. Although all of these things are extremely important to your branding, as marketers we know it’s about more than that and it goes much deeper. Branding represents your business and your company’s image to the world. What story are you’re telling to your existing and potential customers? Who are you as a business and what are your values? Are you trustworthy and reliable? All of these things can be told through your company’s branding.

Branding is made up of all of the visual components, your logo, website, packaging, etc., but it also consists of your voice and customer service module. How you choose to communicate and tell your story to your audience deeply reflects on your branding. For example, SoulCycle, a high-end fitness empire, targets a community of people who all take their classes to have an experience, not just a group workout session. They sell their story, not their fitness classes. “We call it a cardio party. Our riders say it’s changing their lives. With every pedal stroke, our minds clear and we connect with our true and best selves. Through this shared SOUL experience, our riders develop an unshakeable bond with one another. Friendships are made and relationships are built. In that dark room, our riders share a Soul experience. We laugh, we cry, we grow — and we do it together, as a community.”

Another important component of establishing your brand is to research your competition. What makes your company unique? Why would someone choose you over your competition? It’s key to lay these foundations out so you can stay ahead of your competitors. Staying authentic and keeping your integrity in the competitive market goes a long way with your audience.

Which brings us to knowing your target audience. In order to gain value in the impact of your brand’s story, you have to make sure it’s positively impacting the right people. For example, you wouldn’t use a playful voice with vibrant and colorful designs for an established law firm. Knowing your audience allows you to create your narrative with intent beyond just trying to make a sale. When you are marketing to potential new customers, as you grab their attention they are choosing to give you a piece of their time and you should use it as wisely as possible.

An Overview

• Research your target audience
• Examine your competition
• Decide what separates you from the rest
• Create a narrative that exemplifies your brand, your values, your product/service, and your audience
• Visually express this narrative through your logo, website, social media, packaging etc.

How to Get Your Story Out There & Ways to Connect

• About Us page or section on your website
• Add a short section to your social media profiles
• Generate social media content that speaks to your audience
• Stay ahead of your competition
• Be accessible to your customers

Sources: Forbes.com, CreativeBloq.com, MarketingInsiderGroup.com, HubSpot.com

It seems like every day there’s a new feature or update being announced by our favorite social media platforms. Instagram is one that has been constantly rolling out new features and updates. You may have heard about some of the new features to come at Facebook’s F8, but what about all of the fun stuff that’s happening right now? Have you caught them all? If you didn’t, that’s ok because we’ve got them all broken down for you right here.

What’s New

1. Polling on Instagram Stories with the Emoji Slider Sticker

Instagram had introduced its poll feature to Stories last October, but now they are taking things a step further. Instead of posting a poll that asks your followers to choose between two answers, you can now ask them to rate on a scale with an emoji. For example, you can ask “How much do you love this dress?” with a smiley face emoji and your followers can slide the emoji left or right to cast their vote to mimic a scale of 1-10 but without the numbers.

Photo source: Instagram

2. Share a Song from Spotify on Your Instagram Stories

Have a song you’re totally vibing to right now that you want to share? Or a special #ThrowbackThursday tune that’s too good to keep to yourself? Now you can share what you’re listening to on Spotify to your Instagram Stories and your followers can listen too!

Photo source: Instagram

3. Updates to DM for Business Accounts

Up until this point, messages between a user and a business account worked exactly like messages between users and other users. Meaning, if a user sent your business account a direct message but your business account did not follow that user, the business account would receive the message in a ‘pending’ folder instead of your regular direct messages folder until the communication had been approved. Now, they’ve made things much easier! Every time a user sends a message to a business account, the business account will receive an alert and the message in their direct messages folder.

Photo source: Social Media Today

4. Quick Reply Messages

Ever have frequent questions that you answer with the same type of responses? Now you can create Quick Reply messages that answer all of your commonly received messages and make it easy to respond in seconds!

Photo source: Social Media Today

5. Action Buttons

Just like Facebook, a business account can now include an Action Button to their profile such as “Reserve Now”, “Contact Us”, “Buy Tickets”, etc.

Photo source: Social Media Today

What’s to Come

• Topic Channels: The Discover tab is changing. Mark Zuckerberg is introducing Topic Channels that will allow users to browse content by topics related to their interests as opposed to the current compilation of images you may or may not be interested in.
• Video Chat: Users will soon be able to video chat with one another or with a group! The best part is, you can minimize your chat and continue to scroll through your news feed and browse Instagram.
• AR Camera Effects: Although first introduced for Facebook at F8 in 2017, these new effects are being brought to Instagram. 

Sources: Fast Company, Social Media Today, Instagram

It’s Jenn’s birthday this weekend! As a Senior Account Executive at Vision, Jenn thrives on developing strong client relationships by providing outstanding creative that is on strategy, on time and within budget. She loves her Dunkin’ and has over 20 years of experience studying dance as well as being an award-winning choreographer and dancer. Get to know Jenn and what inspires her:

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH VISION & WHAT’S YOUR ROLE?

12 years with the company and Senior Account Executive.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE TO DO OUTSIDE OF WORK?

I love being the coolest soccer mom around. Ryan is a player for Wizards Sports Club, an elite soccer club team, and even though it seems we are always headed to practice or a game, I love it! There’s no better feeling than when he scores and finds me on the sideline, and I’ve made some truly amazing soccer mom friends!

IF YOU COULD DESCRIBE YOUR EXTENSIVE SHOE COLLECTION IN ONE WORD, WHAT WOULD IT BE?

Enviable.

WHAT IS YOUR GO-TO COFFEE ORDER?

French Vanilla, Light & Sweet.

WHAT ARE YOU MOST EXCITED ABOUT FOR THE YEAR TO COME, BOTH WORK AND PERSONALLY?

I’m excited to see Vision continue to grow and expand our capabilities for our Clients. Outside of work, I’m not sure what this year will bring, but I’m excited to find out! One thing is for sure…you can bet there will be new shoes!

When you’ve had a great teacher who you truly enjoyed learning from, they leave a life-long impression on you. Through guidance, inspiration, and support, from a young age and throughout college, our teachers have had such an incredible impact on all of our lives. This week is #TeacherAppreciationWeek and we wanted to take a moment to reflect on all of the teachers who have impacted us, inspired us, and helped guide us over the years.

So many teachers meant so much to me as I struggled to become an adult. However, it was a group of college teachers whose influence I still have, a diverse group: Mac Davis (a tough-minded literary brawler from Chicago) at UC Santa Barbara who taught me the difference between thinking and having an opinion; Rhagavan Iyer (brilliant double PhD from Oxford), also at UCSB, who simply demonstrated in every lecture what it was to think and create; Kathleen Fraser at San Francisco State University, who introduced me to the greatest classroom I have ever experienced — the remarkable and unfathomable literary community that is San Francisco. These people and places informed me then and continue to today. – Larry

I appreciate every art teacher and professor that I have had for all the guidance and encouragement throughout my school years – Michael

I was most inspired by the entire graphic design faculty from college. To this day, I am grateful for the skills and sensibilities that they imparted. They unselfishly shared knowledge which has been passed down through the generations of teachers before them. – John

Although I have always admired all teachers and think every one of them deserve recognition for what they do, I particularly was inspired by my high school math teacher. Going into high school I struggled to catch up with the level students coming in from other schools were at, but this teacher wouldn’t let me give up. He had a way of making me understand and accelerate in learning. I remember feeling defeated at times and he would somehow be able to push me ahead. His style of teaching was amazing and he made learning math fun and rewarding. Math actually became my best and favorite subject in high school. I actually considered being a math teacher because of him. – Lori

I was inspired by my dance teacher of over 20 years – Miss Nancy Carole.  She taught me so much more than dance.  She inspired me to have a good work ethic and to be independent, confident and resilient. She always said that “the end of one step is the beginning of another”, and that’s a piece of life advice I have carried with me. – Jenn

There have been so many teachers over the years that have made an impact on my life. One of my college drawing professors once said ‘don’t be an artisan, be an artist’ and that’s always stuck with me. My college design professor was always extremely supportive of conceptual creativity, let my senior thesis idea flourish, and always treated our small tightknit class like equals and friends. I also had another professor who taught an art history class called Seminar in Contemporary Art that was also a poet and had the best dry sense of humor. Listening to his lectures on works of art were truly one of the most entertaining and memorable things for me.  – Brianna

I think the teacher who most inspired me was my design professor in college. His good sense of humor, disposition and dedication to teaching helped and motivated me to learn more and more about design and creativity. He was not only my professor but later became my good friend and co-worker at my first job as a graphic designer. As time went on I appreciated more his love of art and experience in graphic design. – Richie

My American Cuisine professor during senior year of college. He genuinely cared about helping students grow and expanding their thinking. He enabled creativity, instilled confidence and pushed me to go beyond my comfort zone. He was invested in making sure every student got as much out of their education as they could which continued after graduation. The way he approached teaching and enabled a positive teamwork environment has been in the back of my mind at every job I’ve ever had. – Angela

My son’s teachers at his daycare are fantastic. It was hard as a first time mom to let my child spend all day, all week with someone I really didn’t know at the time. But day after day it amazed me the things they were teaching him and how fast he was learning. The very first day I dropped him off at daycare, he was 3 months old, and they had him painting! They laid him on his tummy with his chest over a pillow and gave him a paintbrush with green paint and let him explore how the paint worked. They brought him outside and let him explore what the autumn leaves felt and looked like. He even learned to wash his hands at 3 months old which allows me to do it fuss-free at home when needed.  They were teaching him and letting him explore things that I – as a new mom – just assumed he was too young, or not ready for. His teachers have taught me that he is always ready to investigate, learn and dive into things no matter how young he is! – Ashley

I had an English teacher in high school that really cared about what he taught us. He was passionate about teaching us and really pushed us to work hard. – Mark

Sure!  Mr Ryan.  He was my 5th grade teacher.  He always had a way of getting the most out of me even when I wanted to give up.  Very nurturing and caring.  I will never forget him! – Carla

First impressions are everything. Technology has granted businesses with multiple avenues for brand exposure making the emphasis on good design more important than ever. Everything from your logo, your website, to your social media accounts, advertisements, packaging, etc.; the list goes on and on. Good design can make a difference between locking in a sale or losing a potential customer.

According to a survey by Tyton Media, 48% of people said that a company’s website design was their number one determining factor of its credibility. Let’s think about that for a moment. Almost half of your potential customers weigh your entire credibility on your company website. So why not make an impactful statement, make a good impression, and establish credibility through good design right from the very first website visit?

It’s not just about your company’s website either. During the 10 seconds it takes to form a first impression, your brand logo design is 13% more likely to grab someone’s attention and 71.6% more likely to get a positive response the more unique and memorable it is. (Source: Siegel+Gale)

Consistency is also key in maintaining successful brand design. Whether it’s across your social media accounts or package designs, it is critical to keep the look and feel of your branding consistent. Brand consistency promotes easy recognition, trustworthiness, and reliability. No one can get to know your brand when it’s visually chaotic and always telling a different story.  Good design creates a connection with your customers. When you create a visually impactful, memorable and emotional connection with your branding design, you are showing your consumers who you are as a company.

Create a style guide to determine certain rules when applying your branding to different assets. This will ensure consistency across anything and everything you apply your branding to. This also makes things easier when you have multiple designers handling different promotional materials or marketing collateral.

Good design plays such an important role in creating strong marketing strategies. It’s the difference of taking messaging that is in the form of plain text and creating an impactful message through imagery and design. Let good design bring your brand success and start getting creative!

Sources: Tyton Media, Siegel+Gale, 360 Advertising Week

We kicked off this week with Sharon’s birthday! We were excited to sit down with our fearless leader and delve deep into her psyche in honor of her birthday. As Executive Vice President and Partner at Vision, Sharon has drawn from her experience in account management and marketing to help define and broaden the agency’s direction and focus. She loves to run, watch the Mets and would love to shoot hoops with Michael Jordan someday. Get to know Sharon and what inspires her:

HOW LONG HAVE YOU BEEN WITH VISION & WHAT’S YOUR ROLE?

I have been with Vision since 1991. I do account service work. I oversee the account service team, provide account oversite and help with overall strategic planning.

HOW DOES A TYPICAL DAY FOR YOU NOW DIFFER FROM WHEN YOU FIRST CAME TO VISION?

When I started at Vision, I was doing a great deal of new business development and account service. I spent most of my days on the road going to see clients, showing layouts, getting client feedback, and pitching new business. This was all pre-internet. Today, I am still a big believer in going to see clients and learning from them first hand. I still do some account work now but also spend time on big-picture initiatives for the agency and some clients and manage most of the agency’s pro bono work.

WHAT DO YOU LOVE MOST ABOUT YOUR JOB?

I love that every day is different and I love the people I get to work with – my co-workers and my clients. They are smart and passionate people who inspire me every day.

WHAT INSPIRES YOU THE MOST ABOUT BEING A LEADER?

What inspires me most is the chance to make a difference and to work with people who care about the results as much as I do. I am very fortunate to have the opportunity to work with the clients that I had over the years. I have worked with everyone from office managers to CEOs and they all bring so much to whatever project they are working on. It’s my responsibility to make their ideas a reality and to add whatever value I can along the way. It is a job I am so grateful for.

WHERE DO YOU HOPE TO SEE THE COMPANY IN THE NEXT 5-10 YEARS?

I want us to continue to make service a priority while expanding our capabilities. I want to continue to work with clients who inspire us and I want us to continue to have a team of passionate, dedicated staff who “get it” – understanding why it matters to always do our best.

How Can Your Brand Be Authentic on Social Media:

Sometimes it’s easy for businesses to forget to put the SOCIAL in their social media. Think of it as a stage for your brand to really have its own personality. This is where you are constantly engaging with your customers by answering questions, liking comments and providing support that they crave and need. No one wants to talk to a “bot”; they want the human factor now more than ever. Even if you aren’t using a bot you don’t want to risk sounding like one. The same mentality should apply to your content as well. You still want to create content that is on-brand and consistent with your messaging, however, you can also use this as an opportunity to connect with your followers and develop a relationship with them. Ask questions and engage the users so they just don’t scroll on by. Make them stop and appreciate what you’re giving them. Give them what they didn’t know they needed. 

Remain relevant with current happenings that can relate back to your brand. Be approachable in your voice to establish trust and legitimacy with your current or potential customers. 

What Brands Are Successful at Staying Authentic on Social Media:

NETFLIX

Netflix for the win, for well, everything. What started as a new and more convenient alternative to Blockbuster video has now exploded into a media streaming phenomenon with original shows and movies and a top-notch social presence to boot. What does Netflix do on social media that makes it so successful? 

1. They never try to sell you anything. Well, at least not directly on Instagram.

• There are no gimmicky sales posts with fake scenarios that consumers know aren’t real. Their imagery does not reflect one of a traditional advertisement.
• Netflix uses Facebook as its platform to showcase movie and show trailers and then Instagram for funny memes and brand awareness.

Source: Instagram

Source: Facebook

2. Their voice is the funny best friend you wish you had. 

• Mostly on Instagram, reading their captions will make you actually laugh out loud. They’re clever and sound like they’re your friend that you can relate to. They provide their followers entertainment while simultaneously informing them about a new show coming to the service or overlap two shows in one cheeky reference.

Source: Instagram

Source: Instagram

3. They post content about relevant social events but relate them back to their shows and/or movies that are currently streaming on their platform.

• Something happens in pop culture and they immediately jump on it. They create timely posts on topics that are already trending but with a fun spin that relates back to them.

Source: Instagram

Source: Instagram

KFC

Still succeeding as a favorite fast food restaurant serving tasty fried chicken since its small start in 1930, how does KFC remain relevant on social media? First and foremost, you can’t check out their Instagram without your mouth watering. But what has KFC done to continue turning out new engaging content?

1. They have fun with their food.

• The recipe has never changed so to keep things fresh KFC gets creative with their content. No simple beauty shots of their food found here. More like funny edited situational photos, videos, and animations that are overproduced for the pure joy of it. On top of that, they planted this hidden gem on Twitter by following only 11 other accounts: 5 Spice Girls and 6 guys named Herb which was undiscovered until @edgette22 noticed on Twitter and his tweet about it went viral. This little nod to their recipe containing 11 herbs and spices was pure marketing genius. They took things a step further by sending him a painting of him and Colonel Sanders as a reward for finding their hidden marketing gem.

Source: Twitter

2. The Colonel is not just a mascot. 

• The Colonel dominates their social media but he never gets old. With the ever-changing Colonel now being represented by famous actors, comedians, and musicians, this campaign continues to evolve and take on new personalities with each new person. That doesn’t mean the original Colonel is out though. He is still the most featured Colonel with constant fun visuals that truly come to life and stay relevant.

Source: Instagram

Source: Facebook

3. They stay relevant with social events and pop culture.

• They keep serving up the fun visuals for holidays, sporting events, seasons and more. They’re always creating something unique and different.

Source: Instagram

Airbnb

A service connecting real people with amazing living quarters up for grabs for vacation rentals? Sign me up. Often cheaper than the major hotels and resorts while offering more space and privacy for its vacationers, this service has gained popularity as a better choice for travelers. We all love dreaming about vacations and Airbnb capitalizes on that.

1. They use user-generated content.

• What better way to sell a dream vacation than to show real people enjoying their own dream vacations in the places you can rent? No strategically planned professional lighting and lenses to make things bigger than they are. They show their actual customers enjoying their experiences in the most authentic way thus generating a “this could be you” mentality. 

Source: Instagram

2. They create serious FOMO (Fear Of Missing Out).

• The user-generated photos are half of the equation. The other half is all about their voice. Their honest and approachable tone assures you of the reliability of their trusted hosts and upholding standards while setting the scene. 

Source: Instagram

3. They create a sense of community.

• There’s nothing better than getting a good recommendation on a place to stay. Airbnb is like your truth worthy and reliable friend who also happens to connect you to a whole group of people with their reviews and recommendations. We trust our peers and they aren’t afraid to ask their followers questions too. They ensure that their follower’s voices are heard.

Source: Facebook