MarketingHits

The Conforming Merida

If you somehow missed the entire Merida makeover uproar, here are the facts:

• Brenda Chapman, Oscar winning creator of Merida, modeled the princess after her own daughter. At the heart of Merida is a strong, brave young woman who refuses to conform to society’s plans for her.
• Brave was a blockbuster, grossing over $550 million worldwide, and winning a Best Oscar for Animated Feature.
• For reasons known only to Disney, as Merida was about to be crowned the 11th Disney Princess, they altered her image.  A thin waist, smoothed down hair, and a made up face, sent Merida admirers into an online tailspin.

What mind-blowing breakthrough will result from the advent of Google's high-tech specs? Maybe redesigned men's rooms?

Google is facing another competition investigation, according to the Financial Post. The Canadian Competition Bureau has informed Mountain View of its plans to launch a formal investigation of its Canadian operations. It has not yet requested any information or documents from Google but has informed the search giant of its intention to launch a probe.

The Bureau declined to comment on the scope of the investigation, noting that it is obliged by law to conduct investigations confidentially. Asked for comment on the probe, Leslie Church, Google Canada’s head of communications and public affairs, told the Post: “We will work co-operatively with the Competition Bureau to answer any questions they may have.”

The Canadian Competition Bureau administers and enforces Canada’s Competition Act, among other laws. Among the types of behaviour it investigates are abuse of a dominant position involving anti-competitive practices that “substantially lessen competition in the market, or are likely to do so”.

Google’s search engine is by far and away the dominant player in Canada. According to StatCounter data for April 2012 to 2013 Google’s share has declined over the past year but only very marginally, from more than 90% last year to just under 90% in April this year. The second largest search engine, Microsoft’s Bing, took less than 7% of the market in April 2013.

In light of Facebook’s new policy that allows for cover photos to include calls-to-action (CTAs), here are five ways to start converting visitors.

The cover photo of your Facebook Page is a great piece of marketing real estate. But how can you use it to drive user actions and conversions?

In light of Facebook’s new policy that allows for cover photos to include calls-to-action (CTAs), I analyzed a few dozen cover photos and came up with 5 sure-fire ways to turn them into great CTAs. These will make it fast and easy for you to create your own and start converting visitors.

An outdoor poster campaign for a children's charity is unlikely subject matter for a YouTube hit. What is the magic behind its success?

SignUpAnywhere is a FREE HTML5 app that allows you to collect email addresses even when you are offline. It automatically syncs when you are back online and can be downloaded as a simple .csv file.

https://www.signupanywhere.com

No Wi-Fi, no problem

Even if your connection is flaky or non-existent you can still keep collecting email addresses. As soon as your device has a connection the data will automatically sync.

Here's what marketers need to know about Glass.

Glass presents obstacles—from its odd look to its current $1,500 price tag. Google knows this, and it has addressed it by partnering with Warby Parker to design less geeky frames.

Google's real problem is selling people on a new technology they're not even sure they need. It's the same issue Apple faced with the first iPhone.

Many people think Glass is augmented reality, but it’s not. Instead, Glass is tethered to your smartphone, and it visually recognizes your environment.

According to a new infographic from Demand Metric, 60% of people have been inspired to seek out a product after reading about it.

Even the most social-savvy business owners can get caught up in the numbers game: counting and recounting likes, followers, fans, retweets, shares. Not to say those numbers don't correlate to how well your business connects with customers online, but 100 shares doesn't necessarily mean 100 sales — and it certainly doesn't measure the potential value of those 100 shares.

For example, were any of the 100 fans sharing that post actually influencers? Did the fans in question sign up for your list, or share and forget? Are your likes and follows actually impacting your sales? Many business owners wouldn't know how to start answering those questions.

Getty Images touches people in a new campaign created by AlmapBBDO. It gives continuity to the awarded campaign "From Love to Bingo" to divulge the videos from the image bank that is the world leader in the creation and distribution of visual content.

While many bloggers think that blogging is about lovingly crafting each post, the reality is that you need to promote your content to ensure each post reaches its widest possible audience. To this end, think outside the blog

.

Since social media feeds on a never-ending stream of content, it’s ideal for accomplishing this goal.

Here are thirty-three tips for using social media to expand your blog’s readership by driving traffic from an array of platforms.