With the national mid-term elections fast approaching, state government election officials at every level are scrambling to assess their system’s vulnerabilities to hacking or other interference, with the goal of protecting those systems from all threats. Akamai partnered with Bluetext to develop a compelling outreach campaign to educate state decision makers on the solutions that Akamai can bring to their election systems.

Bluetext created a three-part creative approach that leveraged engaging images and headlines to drive awareness of Akamai’s solutions. These include a patriotic message of responsibility these election officials have for protecting democracy, as well as the use of the iconic “I Voted” stickers revised to read, “I thought I voted” as an emotional appeal to what’s at stake. The result was a campaign that cut through the noise and delivered the Akamai story to the target audience.

What’s the real value of a logo fight? For most emerging brands, that answer is never obvious. Logos are never static designs, and revising it, or changing it all together, is often an option. But what if that logo belongs to one of the top tennis professionals, and he loses control over it because of a contract he signed when he was still an emerging brand, long before his current fame?

That’s exactly what’s happening to Roger Federer, a twenty-time grand slam winner for whom his initials have defined an era of tennis competition around the world. Federer, who is still recognized as one of the best players of all time, is an iconic sports figure around the globe. Because of his fame and success on the courts, his brand is also one of the most valuable in the market for tennis and other apparel and merchandise, and his logo fight makes sense.

Unfortunately, as the sports world is now learning, Federer doesn’t own the rights to his logo, even though it is comprised of his initials, RF! Early in his career—before he had achieved his global notoriety as a tennis phenomenon—he signed a deal with Nike that gave it the rights to his logo. That might have seemed ok at the time—after all, the deal with Nike was worth tens of millions of dollars over his career.

But just recently, he decided to end his 24-year partnership with Nike, and has switched to the Japanese manufacturer Uniqlo. I’m sure they cut him a massive deal, but it didn’t allow him to migrate his famous logo. That belongs to Nike, and that’s where the logo fight now stands. Here’s the history:

In 2003, when Federer was just emerging as a tennis superstar, his wife and her father developed the RF logo specifically for a perfume with his name on it. Federal liked the look of the logo so much that he talked with Nike about creating a marketing strategy around the initials. It made its first appearance on his 2006 Wimbledon blazer. The rest is logo and brand history.

The problem is, Nike is claiming ownership of the logo even with his move to the Uniqlo brand. And legal observers say the claim is solid. Federer is clearly not happy with this development. Here’s what the Swiss superstar told one reporter recently:

“The RF logo is with Nike at the moment, but it will come to me at some point. I hope rather sooner than later that Nike can be nice and helpful in the process to bring it over to me. It’s also something that was very important for me, for the fans really. Look, it’s the process. But the good news is that it will come with me at one point.”

That might be wishful thinking, and he may be trying to play nice in the hope that Nike executives will have pity on him. But I wouldn’t be so sure. Nike has no incentive to help a competitor take revenue from a product line and brand that it invested time and resources to build. The answer may play out in court, just not a tennis court.

The lesson here is pretty simple: Protect your logo and brand trademark from day one. Make sure your company has complete control over its use and its future, and don’t sign that away to a partner. It’s one of any brand’s most valuable assets, and needs to be treated that way.

Want to develop your brand and logo strategy? Find out how Bluetext can help.

When Finite State, one of the hottest new start-ups in the cybersecurity market needed a strong visual identity and a website for its launch at Black Hat this year, it turned to Bluetext. Finite State has the first comprehensive and proactive cyber solution to the growth of IoT, which has quickly become a significant security challenge across enterprise networks. Bluetext developed a graphic approach that draws themes and connections across the business landscape, and a new website approach that educates the audience on the IoT threat while differentiating Finite State’s solution for the market.

The realm of online marketing is constantly changing and being forced to adapt to new trends inaugurated by industry frontrunners.

Though many of these trends come and go, few are becoming as ubiquitous across all industries as the rising use of video for business.

Web marketing videos seem to attract consumers in a way very few other mediums can.

Though static images certainly have their uses, industry experts are realizing the limits of marketing with still photos and graphics alone.

With images, what your audience sees is immediately what they get. Compare this to an online marketing video that can deliver a significant amount of information quickly and creatively, all while retaining viewers’ attention, and it’s no contest: using video for marketing is the wave of the future.

And consumers seem to agree. One study found that having video on your landing page can increase conversion by 80%. Another found that people spend 2.6x longer on webpages that videos compared to one’s that don’t.

Consumers routinely find motion-based content more attractive than static content, suggesting it should be a consistent part of any ambitious business’s marketing strategy.

HughesNet Impresses with Polished Video Demo

Our client, HughesNet took advantage of creative motion marketing to produce a video demo for their mobile app:

HughesNet Mobile App from Hughes on Vimeo.

HughesNet’s video balances the need for concision with clear, guided visuals and audio to maintain their audience’s attention while still providing an informative and comprehensive demo of their mobile app.

This video demo succeeds by a following a set of key best practices for marketing with video.

  1. Guide Audience Attention

As opposed to cluttering the screen with a mix of complicated visuals, the HughesNet mobile app demo consistently guides viewers’ attention to a single or couple important locations on the screen.

In place of blocks of text or overly complex diagrams, the video uses a mockup of a smartphone combined with a helpful narrator to walk the audience through the array of features contained in the app.

The video succeeds in never allowing for viewers’ to be confused about where they should be looking or what they should be focused on.

  1. Use Clarifying Visuals

In addition to making sure the audience is looking in the right place, the demo is designed to make sure viewers know what exactly they are looking at.

As the narrator runs through the apps’ different features, a checklist appears so viewers’ can more easily keep track of everything being said. At the same time the smartphone displays the relevant feature, so viewers understand the app UI associated with that feature.

After going over features, the demo walks viewers through each step of finding and downloading the app, all of which is said aloud by the narrator and mirrored on the smartphone mockup.

By syncing the narrator’s directions with helpful on-screen visuals, it’s always completely clear what everything being shown and said means.

Another key element of successful visual presentation is ensuring your video works with or without audio. A majority of video on social media starts on mute which means you can’t rely solely on audio for messaging, especially for a video demo.

The use of kinetic text can help you solve for this potential issue while simultaneously adding some creative flair to your video. Text that is too kinetic to the point of being distracting, however, can take away from the clarifying role it should play.

  1. Keep things concise

Despite running through a list of different features and a helpful download guide for the app, the demo is still only 45 seconds long.

As people’s attention spans get shorter, it’s important not to bog them down with loads of technical information, especially in a video demo.

With the help of dynamic visuals, it’s completely possible to run through all relevant information while still keeping your videos short and to the point. Not doing so risks viewers leaving before they’ve received all the information you’re trying to give them.

The allure of online marketing video is here to stay. In order to produce compelling creative motion video that helps convert leads, it’s important to follow these guidelines.

In the digital world, keeping up with trends is critical, but even more so is starting them by putting out the highest quality content you can. More now than ever, this will require a comprehensive approach to video marketing.

Learn how Bluetext can get results for your digital marketing campaigns.

 

 

In the world of digital business, it’s essential to stay up to date on the newest trends in branding and marketing to ensure your business remains an innovation frontrunner.

One increasingly powerful trend in the online world is the advent of motion design. Having already leveraged much of the potential of static image design and looking forwards towards new possibilities, many businesses are adding motion to their social feeds, their marketing and their branding.

While video and motion now dominate the fields of social media and marketing, most companies still rely on static logos for branding, making now the perfect time to stay ahead of the game with inventive motion branding.

The Benefits of Motion Branding

Your logo is an essential part of your brand and in many ways should attempt to distill everything your brand is about into one memorable graphic.

This in mind, moving from a still image to a creative motion graphic is a big change and will have wide-reaching reverberations that affect how your customers perceive and interface with your business.

Taking advantage of creative motion in branding is an ambitious and rewarding choice that comes with a number of attractive perks.

  1. Tell a Story

Adding creative motion to your branding creates new possibilities for dynamic storytelling.

With static image logos, what you see is all you get. This is inherently limiting when it comes to telling a story. With creative motion branding, however, you introduce the possibility for progression and change into your branding, allowing you to tell a more complex story.

Telling a better, more fluid story can help you connect with potential customers on an emotional level which is critical for attracting their business. In fact, neuroscientists have found that people generally make their decisions based more on emotions than logical thinking, meaning that more robust storytelling is a surefire way to outdo competitors.

  1. Raise Brand Awareness

Leveraging creative motion in video is an especially powerful tool for raising awareness of your brand.

Creative motion provides new opportunities to make your logo unique and engaging which reflects positively on and raises interest in your brand. When someone encounters an animated logo, they are a lot more likely to remember it and share it than they are with the static logos they are used to seeing.

Raising brand awareness is great for business. One cross-industry study, for instance, found that raising brand awareness has a significant impact on market performance.

  1. Stand out from the Crowd

No matter where potential customers are encountering your branding, it’s sure to be surrounded by a variety of different static objects or images with which it has to compete for attention. This is true on social media, while browsing the web, on mobile, or even out in the real world.

Integrating creative motion into your branding guarantees that it doesn’t fade into the background, and instead leaps out at your potential customer in stark contrast to the static environment around them.

Before your customers can raise awareness about your brand, they first need to recognize it. Creative motion branding ensures that your logo will capture people’s attention and prevent potential customers from scrolling, clicking, or walking right by without a second glance.

Using animated branding is a surefire strategy for spreading awareness of your unique brand and story. Though static images sometimes do the trick, they rarely can compare to a dynamic logo that catches your potential customers’ attention all while enriching your brand story with exciting new detail.

Learn how Bluetext can get results for your digital marketing campaigns.

 

 

Given the sheer amount of content playing across social media feeds in today’s online landscape, producing eye-catching, dynamic content is a must.

In order to stand out from the crowd, businesses across many different industries are increasingly turning towards creative motion to catch the attention of potential customers on social networks like Facebook and Twitter.

Why animated business video?

While there’s nothing wrong with relying on static images on your business’s social media, there’s a limit to the story you can tell, and what your potential customers can take away from a single picture or photo.

Images can only provide a limited amount of information, and are confined by their own borders to a relatively small amount of creative content. What audiences immediately see in an image is all they’re going to get.

By integrating creative motion video into your social media strategy, you gain an important tool for not only conveying more information to your potential customers, but also providing them with more eye-popping, creative content that tells a story.

While you could go with live action video, this choice, like sticking with photos and images comes with a lot of productive and creative limitations.

Animation, on the other hand, has near-infinite creative possibilities to tell your story, none of which are limited by the need to use live actors or film production equipment.

As a result, animated video is more likely to catch the attention of internet users, 50% of whom look for videos related to a product or service before visiting a store (Insivia).

Paya

We helped Paya revamp their social media pages on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram with brand new creative motion animations like the these two:

 

 

 

Balancing concision and content delivery was critical for making sure these posts kept the attention of users while maintaining their creative charm.

Though each animation is only about 10 seconds long, the descriptions link to a longer article promoted by the video.

These posts are meant to draw in potential clients with concise, creative flair and deliver them straight to Paya’s website, where they can find more helpful articles, and a wealth of information on all the services Paya provides.

Here are three strategies for ensuring your use of animated video on social media is as effective as Paya’s.

  1. Take advantage of creative motion
    To catch the attention of scrolling social media users, it’s critical to stand out. One way to do that is by creating highly dynamic content that creates a contrast with the still images around it. Creative motion describes content that doesn’t just use video but is full of movement set in a creative environment or background. Creative motion videos are striking and fun to watch meaning users are more likely to stop and take a look at your content.
  1. Use colors that pop
    Along with making sure you content is full of movement, you want it to pop against the dreary grey and whites of platforms like Facebook and Twitter.
    Paya uses bright colors like green, orange, and blue that catch people’s eyes and keep them watching. Experiment with different color schemes and choices to find a combination that is vibrant and pleasant to look at. Catching users’ eyes with lots of movement and bright colors is especially key for video content on social media where you’re competing with so much other content for consumers’ attention.
  1. Concision is a must
    A recent study found that the average attention span is now around 8 seconds. That you means you have very little time to get and hold your audience’s attention. We recommend following Paya’s lead and limiting your social media video and animation content on social media to around 10 seconds to ensure potential customers don’t scroll on before you’ve gotten your message across. While a video on another platform, like on your own website, can of course be longer than 10 seconds, your social media strategy should focus on drawing users in with very short investments of their time and then exposing them to more involved content once they have left social media.

Using creative motion video on your businesses’ social media pages is an excellent way to draw in consumers with rich, but easily digestible content.

Balancing concision and compelling, creative content can be a challenge, but doing so successfully can be highly rewarding in terms of site visits and lead conversion.

Learn how Bluetext can get results for your digital marketing campaigns.

 

 

On Monday, the Trump Administration released its budget plan for the 2019 Government fiscal year. In its introduction, the President writes, “the Budget reflects our commitment to the safety, prosperity, and security of the American people.” (Efficient, Effective, Accountable: An American Budget, Office of Management and Budget, US Government Publishing Office, 2018; 2)

As any Washington insider will tell you, the President’s budget is usually no more than a pipe dream. Congress controls the actual spending of the Government. However, we can discern the priorities and plans of the administration through what it releases in its budgetary approach. So, what can we learn about the priorities of the current administration? What is the impact of those priorities on the Government contracting community?

A Slight Investment in IT Modernization

The budget requests $45.6 billion in civilian federal IT spending. This is a 2% increase over the amount allocated in 2017. Included in this number is $210 million for the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF), authorized by the Modernizing Government Technology Act last year. According to the budget document, “Modern information technology will function as the backbone of how Government serves the public in ways that meet their expectations and keep sensitive data and systems secure.” (8) The Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, and the Census Bureau all see increases in their IT budgets.

For Government contractors, this means there should be ample opportunities to bring new solutions and offerings to agencies across the Government. The passing of a 2-year Federal budget allows the funding of new programs. In addition, the TMF is specifically set up to provide funding for alternative, modern solutions like cloud and shared services. Providers who can focus on these offerings, and new ways of thinking, will find themselves well-positioned for new work.

The Focus on Defense and Border Security

The President’s request dramatically increases funding for Defense and National Security.

Anyone who has followed the Trump Administration should not be surprised by the requests for the Departments of Defense (DOD) and Homeland Security (DHS). DOD sees a 13% increase in requested funding, or $80 billion, while DHS sees an 8% ($3.4 billion) increase. This request demonstrates the continued focus on “Peace through Strength” and securing America’s borders.

For hardware contractors, the Trump budget represents a massive opportunity for growth. The budget specifically calls out the need for investments in new hardware for all branches of the military, including the procurement of 10 ships and 258 Air Force F-35 fighters during FY 2019. The budget request specifically allocates $1.6 billion for the construction of the much-talked-about border wall, including high-tech solutions. However, the increased funding for DHS includes a $1 billion request for increased cybersecurity efforts across Federal agencies and increased coordination with State, local, and tribal governments. The increased funding for cybersecurity priorities provides another way for IT-focused contractors to gain new work. This could be critical to the survival of mid-sized firms who, continually, face pressures on their very survival.

Decreased Emphasis on International Relations, but Options Remain

USAID Icon
USAID will likely not face the draconian cuts included in the President’s request

As easy as it was to foresee increased funding for DOD and DHS, it was perhaps even easier to predict the hit on American diplomacy. The 26% reduction in the budget for the Department of State (DoS) and US Agency for International Development (USAID) is, rightly, concerning for firms well-connected with those agencies.

Despite the bleak prognosis of this proposed budget, it is important to note two key things. First, it is highly unlikely there is any chance of such draconian cuts to either DoS as a whole or to USAID in particular. There are too many Congressional allies of international aid and diplomacy who will protect those budgets. Secondly, even in the face of such changed priorities, there will continue to be opportunities at both agencies. Both DoS and USAID need continued IT modernization to better meet their modern missions and their reduced overall budget. The budget also continues robust funding of key global health needs. Contractors can find funding and projects if they know where to look.

Conclusion

A Presidential budget is not meant to be the end of the conversation. Instead, it serves as the starting point for negotiations and prioritization of funding. No matter what happens in Congress, it is clear that the Trump Administration continues to change what the Federal Government funds and how the Government Contractor community will react.

Top digital marketing agencies are quickly learning that mobile retargeting is now a key element in any successful campaign. But moving our clients to this strategy is not always an easy sell, as the many challenges that mobile presents can be intimidating. In spite of the roadblocks, mobile retargeting can increase reach and engagement far beyond other channels. Here are Bluetext’s six top tips for getting started with a mobile strategy:

  1. Unsure on how to reach target audiences on their mobile devices? Think social media platforms. Today’s target audiences are more likely to browse their social media apps on their mobile than search websites. Take advantage of the tools that Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter offer for their ad campaigns.
  2.  Want to increase mobile traffic to your site? Optimize your website for mobile to fully take advantage of this platform. That means a design that is responsive for all devices, and features simple and concise headlines, titles and other text. More importantly, make sure that images are sufficiently compressed, reduce the number of redirects (nobody wants to wait for a new screen to load), and minimize code to maintain a high-performing experience.
  3. Not sure how to design for mobile? Think like a visitor to your brand would, accessing your site via a mobile device. That means simplified designs and copy, but also calls-to-action that are clear about where the visitor will land if they click on that button. Viewers don’t want to leave the screen they are on unless they know there they are going.
  4. Need to improve your reach on mobile? Safari is the leading browser for mobile devices, but leveraging Apple’s tool is not so easy. One simple trick: Make sure you are enabling Safari, which typically blocks third-party cookies in its default setting. Find a provider that is skilled at accessing Safari’s massive number of users.
  5. Still not seeing the conversions you expect? It could be your landing page. Try to simplify the actions on the landing page to make sure there is no confusion or abandonment from that conversion point.
  6. Want to get hyper-specific with your targeting? Try geo-fencing for conferences, events, shows and other gatherings of target audiences. Sophisticated new geo-locating tools allow geo-fencing to specific blocks around convention centers, hotels and other venues. Serving ads at the right time and place can pay big rewards.

Any marketing campaign can be much more effective with a mobile component, as long as it’s well-executed.

If you want to learn more or need help with your campaigns, Bluetext can help.

It’s almost January again, already! With 2017 almost behind us, amidst the holiday cheer and eggnog, it’s also time to reflect on 2017. It goes without saying that today, changes in digital marketing happen within the blink of an eye. There’s simply no better strategy for your business than a continual adaptation; the years of resting your laurels with time-tested methods are long gone. What works best with digital simply changes too fast, and nothing is really stable.

With that in mind, we know how busy you are this time of year, so we’ve gotten together and brainstormed what we believed to be a list of the most important digital marketing trends for 2018. It’s a big list, but we’ve narrowed it down to just a top four. We invite you to take a look — if only to just keep up with the ever changing modern media environment.

Contact us Today!

Rapid response is a core component of Bluetext’s public relations services. We focus on having messages and media targets teed up when there is an opportunity for our clients to contribute expertise to breaking news events, whether it is a cyber attack, tech policy development, or in this case the horrific wildfires raging across Southern California. As the leading Emergency Mass Notification Services (EMNS) provider, Bluetext positioned client OnSolve’s CEO to speak about the challenge local officials face to alert citizens when wildfires, hurricanes and other natural disasters hit; ways for citizens to stay safe; and innovative new capabilities available through providers like OnSolve. Multiple interviews were arranged for OnSolve, including this live segment with The Weather Channel.

Need help with driving better PR results?  Bluetext can help!