Whether you work with B2B Marketing Agencies, B2C Digital Agencies, or the any of the Top North America Agencies, 2018 will drive more innovation and change. Here are my predictions of what top brands, challenger brands, and startup brands should expect.

1. Don’t Call it A Comeback, Twitter

Somehow Twitter will make a comeback…or completely die. Twitter has owned the short form text / new wave of communication, and it has dominated sports, entertainment, and politics. But can they make it relevant to marketers? To survive they need to focus on delivering a strong API backbone that makes it a utility to the world.

Prediction: Top marketing agencies will channel more of their clients’ paid media dollars to digital media other than Twitter.

2. Snap Has The Power

A great re-branding from SnapChat. Owning the brand SNAP, “just snap it”, will be the new “just google it.”  Like everything else, they must innovate or be merely a short-lived flavor of the day.

Prediction: As SNAP goes public the amount of advertising products will be innovative and robust. Top digital agencies will enjoy great success with SNAPs portfolio of targeting offerings and creative opportunities. SNAPs demise will come from an oversaturation of monetization that drives users away like Myspace, Tumblr, Twitter, Bebo, and many more social platforms before them.

3. Take It Personal, Or Else

The power of personalization will be so compelling and plug-and-play that everything digital will incorporate it. Delivering your personalized DNA via mobile to other media will work seamlessly.

Prediction: Top digital branding agencies will not be the only firms that are installing sophisticated personalization technology into their clients’ digital platforms. Personalization offerings will be robust and simple to integrate and configure. Costs will come down, everyone will implement them and a personalization optimization role will emerge with every digital agency team you hire.

4. Jump into Kris Cross-Device Marketing – and Quickly.

As technology matures in 2017, all brands will enjoy cross–device targeting – which is the practice of identifying and delivering a specific audience, across their devices. This omni-channel strategy allows marketers to reach users with consistent messaging across all their screens: desktop, laptop, mobile, tablet, wearable, and TV.

5. Search? Mobile? Social? Display? Content?
ALL OF THE ABOVE

Your personas all digest content from your brand and your influencers across many different channels.

Prediction: Media budgets will get more and more fragmented as brands try to drive omni-channel, hyper-personalized campaigns.

What’s your prediction for 2018? Let’s talk about it over coffee or lunch.  Contact me to chat.

Top branding firms focus on a variety of factors when rebranding a company.  A brand refresh is a large undertaking that involves individuals at all levels in an organization to successfully implement.  With the aid of a branding firm, the process can be smoother than expected.  Here are 5 more things top branding firms to consider when rebranding your company:

What is your company’s reputation in the market?  A company’s reputation can precede it in the market place and form impressions in the consumer’s mind even before they have exposure with your brand.  If your company has less than a positive reputation within the market place, rebranding will provide you the opportunity to start anew with a clean slate.

Are you planning to expand your business abroad?  There are many adjustments for a company to take their business into the global markets, and a rebrand may be necessary for a company to ensure they appeal to consumers in the global markets past cultural and social lines.  Top branding firms are experts in helping companies navigate this tricky terrain to achieve growth in international business ventures.

Has there been a drastic change in executive leadership?  A change in a company’s top leadership positions may cause enough organizational changes that the current brand no longer resonates with the company’s new direction.  Rebranding the company becomes necessary for the company to maintain a cohesive voice and image.

Is there the need to further develop a corporate identity? As a company grows and develops overtime, the preliminary guidelines set for the brand at the beginning may no longer be strong enough to define the brand as a whole.  Without a standardized visual style or extended color palette for example, the company’s corporate identity quickly becomes muddled.  Top branding firms set disciplined brand guidelines to ensure uniformity company wide.

Has there been a change of company ownership?  When a merger or acquisition occurs, or if a company shifts from private to pubic, there is the immediate move to rebrand the firm.  In the case of a merger or acquisition, rebranding fully integrates the new portions of business under one corporate identity to maintain uniformity in the market.  When a company shifts from private to public ownership, the company now must comply with legal requirements and top branding firms can be a key player in aiding this transition.

A brand refresh is more often than not a necessary marketing strategy as a company grows and undergoes changes.  Top branding firms aid companies of all industries in making this critical change and continuing achieving success in their respective markets.

Looking for agency help?  Contact us

There are many factors top branding agencies focus on when rebranding a company.  Typically, companies rebrand every 7-10 years but what motivates them to do so?  Rebranding often involves choosing a new standardized color palette, a new logo, a new voice, and even a new name.  Company dynamics shift to embody the new image and it can be challenging for everyone involved.  Here are the 5 things top branding agencies to consider when rebranding your company:

How does your brand stack up to the competition? When placed next to your competitors, how does your company measure up?  Do you appear modern and cutting edge?  Or do you appear outdated and in need of an upgrade?  Visuals aren’t everything, but the first impression a potential customer has of your brand may be a lasting one and ultimately sway their decision in a saturated marketplace.

Are you reaching your target audience?  Companies utilize different strategies to appeal to different consumer groups.  What appeals to millennials may not capture the attention of older generations.  If your company’s goal is to reposition itself in the marketplace to win over a new consumer base, a brand refresh from a top branding agency may just be what your organization needs to reach its goals.

How are the markets changing?  Technological advancements have caused major shifts in many industries that have required companies to adapt quickly.  The rapid pace of digitizing society has meant companies need to keep up with the times or find themselves left behind.  Top branding agencies specialize in positioning their clients for success by implementing best practices in the digital space.

How has your company grown?  As companies evolve and increase the offerings of their goods and services in different sectors of the market, the original brand may no longer resonate with its diversified consumer base.  Such disconnect between the brand and its offerings may begin affecting the company’s marketing efforts of outlier products or services.  Top branding agencies work with clients in such growth dilemmas to find cohesiveness in their organizations and create a new corporate visual identity to tie everything under one brand.

Are there inconsistencies within your company?  Are there many different versions of consumer-facing assets used within the company?  Is the company voice disconnected from one product or service to another?  Are consumers unaware two of your products or services are offered by the same company?  If so, rebranding may be a necessary strategy to help both the consumer and company connect the dots of a fragmented brand.

A company rebrand from a top branding agency is more than just aesthetics.  A fresh new look and feel is noticed by consumers and works as a strategy to bring more cohesion to the company while simultaneously drawing attention from the market.

Looking for agency help?  Contact us

Brand Strategy

The Message and Brand Story

Rarely do you get a chance to work with a client so convinced that they can change the way cancer is diagnosed and treated that it energizes an entire agency. That was the case with Inspirata. After spending five minutes with founder Satish Sanan, it became clear that he had the resources, vision, and passion to shift an entire industry. With significant backing from major investors including the founder of NetJets, Satish came to Bluetext to launch a brand in a very short time. He wanted to focus on building and executing the business and asked us to develop a name, logo, messaging, website, brand story, process and video. The Bluetext team was up to the challenge.

inspirata

The Name

Creating a name across the medical informatics industry is a challenge as every great idea seems to be taken. But after an extensive messaging process and a team that was open to exploring many possibilities, we came up with this concept of Inspirata, meaning inspiring data. By digitizing the entire pathology workflow process, Inspirata is focused on transforming cancer diagnostics and driving better patient outcomes for people across the globe. They are focused on inspiring a market and everyone fell in love with the name Inspirata.

Brand Presentation

The Logo

Clean, elegant, professional – that is the hallmark of this brand, and the logo is designed as a simple yet elegant mark that is recognizable but not overpowering.

Corporate Visual Identity

collateral
Bluetext designed a corporate visual identity system that aligns perfectly with the brand mission and story. It is simple and elegant but not overpowering.

Website

The centerpiece of the Inspirata brand is a powerful, responsive website designed to be easy to use, easy to navigate, and drive users down a path to understand the vision and mission of Satish and his entire management team. Big bold imagery, vibrant colors and lots of original content are the hallmarks of this powerful website which can be found at www.inspirata.com

inspirata_screens

Brand Delivery

In advance of the company’s launch at the USCAP 2015 Conference in Boston, Bluetext designed a powerful tradeshow booth to highlight the pathology office the future, designed an interactive infographic which demonstrates the company vision of transforming the case review of the future, and developed, in partnership with Philips, a partnership video to talk about the impact the two companies will have on the global digital pathology market.


ins1

ins3

The battle is in full force on who wins and who loses in the new world of streaming content. It’s not just about consumers who want more choices and are not happy with the bundled offerings they now pay for. The impact extends to advertising, the cable wars and the mega-digital platforms – Facebook, Google, Amazon, Netflicks, Instagram, YouTube and others. To help navigate these uncharted waters, I recently appeared on “Boom Bust: Unplugged,” on the RT Network, to discuss the evolution of TV, the rise of streaming content, and the battles within the communications sector.

The caption that accompanied the interview sums it all up: “Who wins in the world of digital media? We dig into the world of digital advertising, streaming, cable, YouTube, Facebook, Google and more. Guest Jason Siegel from Bluetext helps make sense of it all.   Are digital ads pushing out traditional cable ad-spots? Will streaming devour cable or will cable providers avoid being swallowed whole by this digital onslaught?”

Streaming vs Cable: Who Wins? BoomBust w/Jason Siegel Chief Digital Offer of Bluetext from Bluetext on Vimeo.

The interview delivers my view of the ongoing competition that is the result of streaming adoption, and why I believe that in the world of passive content, the trends are like a pendulum swinging back and forth for the business involved. How will the “Proprietary-Content-Only” platforms such as HBO GO fare against the “Hybrid-of-Proprietary-and-Licensed Content” plays like Netflix? Watch the video, then share your views with us. I would love to know what you think, and who the winners and losers will be!

Contact me to discuss this, or if you want to learn how Bluetext can help execute your brand’s digital strategy.

If your digital marketing agency team doesn’t have a SMAC roadmap, you may find your company drifting off-course in 2017 and beyond. Here’s brief refresher course on SMAC.

Social Media

Social Media continues to evolve.   Platforms rise and fall by the year vs the decades of old.   Some new trends we see emerging that we see potentially continuing to gain momentum.
1. Snap’s Evolution Will Result in Interesting New Opportunities.
2. Twitter Fatigue Will Worsen.
3. Users Will Crave More Vicarious Experiences.
4. New Areas of Communication Will Emerge.

Mobile

Mobile devices are the cornerstone of how new business is being built and legacy businesses are reinventing themselves. Mobile devices allow users to constantly update their profile, stay aware of deals and promotions, and track locations and buying habits by virtue of connecting to various wireless signals and near-field communication (NFC) devices.

Some new trends we see emerging that we see potentially continuing to gain momentum.
1. Consumers redefine purchase boundaries; mobile marketing, brand partnerships deepen
2. Department stores, mobile marketing partners tackle the ‘Amazon Effect’
3. Programmatic accelerates: brands, tech, marketing continue to invest
4. Next-generation creative, video redefine mobile engagements

Analytics

As databases have grown larger and processors and memory have become capable of chewing through hundreds of millions of records in a short time, we have begun to see how analytics can do more than just track clicks. Analytics can establish links between entities and make intelligent predictions about customer behavior based on knowledge a system has about a customer — knowledge that has been informed by social networking.

To keep up with the explosion in Big Data, companies and corporations are beginning to invest in BI projects and more and more sophisticated analytics infrastructure.  Some new trends we see emerging that we see potentially continuing to gain momentum.
1. Multi-channel Attribution
2. Focus on ‘Return on Analytics Investment
3. Monetization of Data
4. Exciting new players in the MarTech arena to complement the core analytic platforms

Cloud

The cloud element of SMAC refers to the capability a business has to spin up vast amounts of capacity that are paid for by the minute or hour. Businesses do not need to spend millions of dollars building another data warehouse – they simply rent it from a cloud provider, do their work and turn it off. When the business environment changes, they simply spin up another cluster in the cloud, pay another few hundred dollars and continue building insights.

Some new trends we see emerging that we see potentially continuing to gain momentum.

1. Artificial intelligence (AI) will make personalization a reality in 2017.
2. Self-service will be the new normal.
3. Enhancing the Buyer Journey
4. Google Tag Manager and other granular analytics modules being the norm
With buyer sophistication growing daily, marketers need to deliver increasingly smarter strategies and campaigns. Are you taking the time to measure how your efforts are working and think about how you might enhance your efforts, or do you find yourself quickly moving from one campaign to the next?

Need help with your SMAC TALK?  Contact the digital marketing gurus at Bluetext.

We provide deep drupal development best practices with unique creativity and strategy to drive success for our clients.

Through discovery, our drupal developers and product managers create the perfect project plan aligned to your goals. Our drupal plan is customized to your needs. We have created drupal websites for clients across multiple industries, including commercial, government, education, non-profit, association, consumer, and native web designed for mobile.

Our technology team implements custom Drupal modules, design themes, server support and platform upgrades to meet your unique goals. For Bluetext, drupal is a platform to help you achieve your marketing and business goals – implementing goal is a means to an end, it is not the goal. Our full service approach includes:

  • Strategy. Results from competitive analysis, focus groups and user surveys inform our decisions for Drupal features, as well as the site’s information architecture and content.
  • Design. We provide a powerful Drupal design that reflects the brand, engages users and focuses on usability
  • Content. By understanding your goals, audience and brand, we craft meaningful messaging that drive traffic and inspires action across your Drupal website.
  • Marketing. With Drupal’s powerful email, search engine optimization and social media tools, we help you create long-term relationships with your users. Plus, we continually optimize campaigns with your ROI in mind.

 

Get your mind out of the gutter.  I’m talking about persistent navigation.  But of course (wink)!

At Bluetext, we are designing and producing websites for the most exciting brands of all sizes across a multitude of industries.  We live in the cross section of trends. We see things happening cross markets, and that can be essential when looking at user behaviors and preferences when needing to grab their attention and entice them to engage with a brand. And that means when we see a trend that is becoming more prevalent across platforms, we take notice.

The biggest new user-interface trend we are seeing today is navigation on the left side of the screen. Clients are calling this:

  • Unique
  • Different
  • Fresh
  • Smart

For us, this is going full-cycle, back to first-generation sites that were left dominant. But this isn’t your father’s left nav. These left navigation paradigms lock. They personalize.  They respond to resolution and device and browser. They have many ways to expand and drill into the subpages structure of the site map with ease.

We see great brands like Qualcomm, VW, and Riverbed, all moving to left navigation systems.

Are you thinking about going left vs top for an upcoming site redesign?  Here are five things to consider in making this decision:

  1. Is desktop a heavy user-base? If yes, then investing in slick navigation can pay off handsomely. If no, then it may not be worth the effort to do an adaptive responsive navigation module.
  2. Is your sitemap narrow and deep? If you answer yes, then you’re a strong candidate for a left nav.If you answer no and you have a bloated tier one navigation, then best to leave it alone.
  3. Does your brand logo work in the narrow navigation plate system? Many brand systems don’t contemplate this web application possibility.  They also don’t have rules about stacking text about the logo mark. Or they show no name at all, just the logo icon.
  4. When you look at sites like Riverbed’s, you see the logo move over on scroll down. And when you look sites like ATT’s, you see they are throwing out the word all together.  Just like Starbucks is doing everywhere.
  5. Is your target demographic a savvy web user audience? If you answer no, then consider a small user focus group to ensure they learn and adapt to the new navigation system paradigm with ease.  If not, plan on going top navigation.

Here are some more sites that go left nav (or quasi left nav):

Thinking about redesigning your website.  Contact Bluetext

In their drive to attract, engage, recruit and ultimately retain new members, Association marketers are facing added competition not just from other trade associations, increasingly they are being squeezed by for-profit commercial businesses that have ramped up their own efforts to attract this same audience. One of the primary services that associations offer to their members is information, in the form of content.

The majority of the critical information that members used to get solely from an industry association today can be easily found and obtained elsewhere—and typically free of charge with no annual membership fees. The American Heart Association for example – once had a near exclusive lock as the sole source of premium content for all things related to the heart. That role kept membership strong and growing. They now are now facing increasing competition for share of mind from hospitals, medical groups, for-profit businesses and manufacturers of prescription drugs for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. As more competing content sources compete for mindshare, the less valuable the association becomes as a leading resource for information – let alone a ‘paid’ resource.

Associations and nonprofits should look at this as not just a challenge in terms of member acquisition but also as a major threat to their member engagement and retention strategy. And what aggravates that is the fact that many lack the resources and strategy to run robust and ongoing integrated member acquisition and retention campaigns to keep existing and prospective members engaged.

The bottom line is, Associations can no longer rely on historical or traditional tactics to acquire and retain members – they need to get into the content game and start producing fresh, relevant content to drive traffic and engagement. This is not a simple task—it takes a disciplined approach that regularly creates and distributes new insights, ideas and information, packages them in a concise and compelling way that attracts attention, and communicates the value that the content delivers to its members. And    to be truly be effective, that content must also be search engine optimized to make it easy to find, and properly coded with relevant keywords in key areas of the site that Google is looking at, including page URLs, page titles, and content across the association’s website. When this is done properly, a dashboard can be set up to track, measure and optimize engagement and conversion of the content marketing program.

With organizations of all sizes jumping into the content game – it is absolutely critical that you begin a smart content marketing strategy to re-capture and retain the membership base and reclaim your stake as the dominant voice of your industry.