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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 10, 2016 7:04 PM
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Cristiano Ronaldo signed a five-year contract extension with Nike NKE +0.31% that kicked off last year and is worth $13 million a year. It is the most expensive athlete sponsorship deal in all of soccer, and it is an absolute bargain for the $31 billion-in-sales sportswear giant.
Ronaldo generated $36 million in value for Nike on social media alone via his own accounts through 59 posts over the last 12 months, according to a study of the top-paid athletes by Hookit, which tracks sponsorship value in social and digital media. All of Ronaldo’s partners got a total of $176 million in media value from his promotional work on social platforms.
The three-time FIFA player of the year is the highest-paid athlete in the world at $88 million, including $32 million from endorsements. His partners are getting their money’s worth thanks to Ronaldo’s 215 million followers on social media across Facebook, Instagram and Twitter, 60% more than any other athlete. He became the first athlete with 200 million followers in February and has added 56 million over the past year. His 112 million Facebook fans are more than any other person on the planet....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 10, 2016 6:51 PM
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But when it comes to content marketing, there’s a component that doesn’t always seem logical: storytelling.
I’m not talking about writing a fiction novel. I am talking about having the ability to write about even the most boring topics in a fun-to-read way.
It’s something that many marketers, even good ones, struggle to do.
Do you also have trouble with this part of creating content?
I see you nodding....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 9, 2016 11:48 PM
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Many people believe that marketing and advertising has changed so much that looking toward the past is futile. Innovation, new technology and tools, and disrupting ideas are the focus of both headlines and boardroom conversations.
What can we even learn from history that would be relevant for today?
First of all, that much of what makes a brand successful today is the same as it was 10, 50, and 100 years ago. And the challenges agencies help their clients overcome are nothing novel.
By understanding the past, we can more clearly understand what's been done, what's really "new," and the models we can emulate for future success. We can also better understand why certain business practices exist, which provides context when making changes and improvements.
It's worth looking back to understand our current situation and how we can build a better industry for the future. That's why we've created a timeline that details the most memorable moments in the history of advertising and agencies. Click here to get a glimpse at the past....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 9, 2016 11:21 PM
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26% of the web is built on WordPress and with good reason. Whether you are an experienced developer or HTML illiterate, WordPress provides an amazing base from which virtually anything can be built.
As a local business owner or marketer for local businesses, there’s a good chance you fall closer to the “HTML illiterate” side of that equation, and that’s okay.
In this guide, we’ll be taking you step-by-step through the process of optimizing your local business SEO via WordPress. We’ll show you every plugin and tool you need to maximize the benefits while minimizing the time and money you’re required to invest....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 9, 2016 10:57 PM
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DIY website building service Wix.com has launched a new “artificial design intelligence” (ADI) service to automate the process of building websites.
Founded out of Tel Aviv in 2006, Wix has so far served as an easy-to-use web development platform aimed at helping novices build HTML5 sites using drag-and-drop tools rather than code, while offering complementary services such as web hosting. Now with Wix ADI, the Tel Aviv-based company is looking to make creating websites even easier by using data garnered from its existing user base to feed into its new AI offering. So, websites created by algorithms is the general gist here.
Wix ADI is touted as the “first-ever AI solution for website design and creation,” and is being gradually introduced to users over the next few months. It is free to use in itself, but it’s subject to the usual Wix.com subscription plans that vary in price depending on the required bandwidth, storage, and other personal preferences....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 8, 2016 10:58 PM
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What if I told you I had a resource for you that would allow you to create beautiful, visually stunning social media posts, web stories and animated videos quickly and easily?
If you can type text, you can use this tool!
It’s really that simple. Would you be interested in hearing more? If so, I gotcha covered! Adobe, yes, THE Adobe has rolled out a brand new web-based platform and iOS apps that incorporate the best of three of their mobile apps, Adobe Voice, Adobe Slate and Adobe Post. The new Adobe Spark suite includes Adobe Spark Video, Adobe Spark Page and Adobe Spark Post....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 8, 2016 10:35 PM
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In looking to solve this problem and figure out exactly what it is that is convincing consumers to buy online, BigCommerce commissioned a study into the modern consumer journey. We learned how, when, why and where U.S. consumers buy today –– and more so, what is stopping them from doing so.
This information is incredibly important for retailers looking to sustain and grow their revenue. In today’s omni-channel world, brands must be strategic about merchandising on their various channels and need to fully understand why or why not their customers are clicking the buy button –– no matter where it appears.
Check out the infographic below for key insights or read the full State of Omni-Channel Retail Report....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 8, 2016 10:17 PM
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The uptake of new technology is faster than ever before, which means access to your audience is quicker than ever too. All you need to do is target them with a powerful marketing strategy that will engage them in unique ways.
2016 appears to be a great year for all the online businesses out there who are in the race to stay ahead of the curve by adopting these new and effective trends in online marketing, with the goal of making campaigns more effective.
Here are six online marketing trends that your business needs to know in 2016....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 7, 2016 10:40 PM
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There are millions of reasons to love The West Wing, especially in a literally insane election year. But for design nerds, these four minutes in which White House Press Secretary C.J. Cregg takes a meeting with the Cartographers for Social Equality might be the highlight of the series. It's probably the only pop culture explanation of how well and truly borked our world maps actually are:
Across the board, the Mercator projection of the Earth—which has been our baseline for world maps since the 16th century—skews the actual size of countries so they look bigger (and therefore, more important than they are) when they fall within the middle of the Northern Hemisphere. It's not just bad design, it has real geopolitical implications. For example, in most people's minds, Greenland is a much larger country than Australia. But the reality is that Australia dwarfs Greenland. Likewise, you probably think Africa and North America are roughly the same size, but Africa can swallow all of North America and Greenland with room for all of Western Europe to spare. And so on.
Inspired by the aforementioned episode of The West Wing, James Talmage and Damon Maneice created The True Size. The web app lets you drag-and-drop different countries on a world map and see how they shrink or grow on a standard Mercator Projection map. It's a simple tool, but an eye-opening one that can be quickly used to show just how skewed our maps really are.
So what's the alternative to Mercator Projection? There are a number of alternatives, but the truth is, all 2-D maps are going to be inaccurate in one way or another, because there's no 100% accurate way to take the surface of a sphere and map it to a plane without distortion. For example, an Albers projection is superior to Mercator Projection in that it shows sizes accurately, but at the expense of distorting shapes....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 7, 2016 10:15 PM
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BRANDED CONTENT: A SHORTSIGHTED CON
But branded content isn't a long game. There are several reasons why. The first issue is intent. The essence of branded content is deliberately blurring the line between editorial content and advertising. Hiding your true colors is never a good idea. Another issue is the logic behind branded content itself. It’s misleading to use a totally different set of qualities—good stories—to sell a product that has intrinsically nothing to do with these qualities. Hiring a top filmmaker won’t improve the quality of your energy drink. Brands cannot deliver what they advertise. Shoes or coffee can never live up to their brands’ promises—they are just shoes and coffee. You could even say that the better the stories, the more dishonest the companies are being.
A camouflage strategy also complicates an already too complex world driven by hidden agendas. Even well-informed people who are able to both enjoy branded content and take it with a grain of salt will subliminally become accustomed to the new branded content standard—not to mention more vulnerable groups such as kids and adolescents. And what about the stories no one wants to hear, stories incapable of selling something? People are more likely to follow a happy, undemanding brand instead of bonding with real people and real-world problems. A brand will never ask you for help. It won’t confront you with difficulties or opposing views....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 7, 2016 9:57 PM
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The blank white screaming screen – it’s a dreadful entity for professionals belonging to any field. Because it’s always hard to start from scratch and take the first step.
As bloggers, meeting your editorial calendar deadlines is of utmost importance. But, once you’ve written blog posts in particular formats, you might find yourself in deep water. You fear that you no longer have a unique and compelling blog post idea to serve your audience.
For keeping your audience engaged, you’ll need to keep an editorial balance. But, lingering on the stressful feeling will only suck up a good amount of your time and energy.
In most cases of this kind of block, you’ll find that the inertia of motion will sail you through. You haven’t lost your ability to produce high-quality and value-adding content. You only need inspiration to come up with new engaging angles.
To help you in the writing cause, I want to share 6 tools and strategies with you....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 7, 2016 9:44 PM
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As we reach the middle of the 21st century, half the population of the world will lose their job to a machine. Yes, this is another 'robots will take our jobs ' story.
The latest comes from Moshe Vardi, professor at Rice University , Houston, who delivered a talk to the American Association for the Advancement of Science , exploring the question: "If machines are capable of doing almost any work humans can do, what will humans do?"
Future belongs to the machines
Vardi reckons that half of workers across the globe will be replaced by machines within the next 30 years, wiping out middle-class jobs and "exacerbating inequality". He noted that robots would take over in many spheres of life, including automated driving and sex robots. As the Guardian reports, he also observed that this future is likely to mean humans have much more leisure time — indeed we may only work a handful of hours per week....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 7, 2016 12:02 AM
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BuzzFeed has pulled out of an advertising agreement with the Republican National Committee over objections to Donald Trump's rhetoric.
The buy was for $1.3 million, a source close to BuzzFeed told POLITICO. The source said that the main consideration was the site’s employees – that BuzzFeed could not countenance “having employees make ads, or working at the company and having our site promoting things, that limit our freedom and make it harder for them to live their lives.”
Asked if the site would rule out any Trump advertising, the source said the specifics would matter: “In general, we have taken the position that we won’t take ads for his presidential campaign.”
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 10, 2016 6:59 PM
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In a survey spanning 100 TV series, Netflix found that, on average, subscribers spend about two hours a day binge watching the show in question. But some shows, in particular, entrance viewers and leave them wanting more—say, sci-fi thrillers like Orphan Black or horror dramas like The Walking Dead. Subtle, slow-moving dramas like Mad Men, however, are watched at a more leisurely pace, as are comedies like Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 10, 2016 4:52 PM
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Is Todd Gurley actually vegetarian? You have to wonder after watching this Carl's Jr. commercial starring the Los Angeles Rams running back. The spot shows Gurley supposedly biting into the California Classic Double Cheeseburger, but it's blatantly obvious that the burger isn't real—it's a digitally inserted photo that isn't fooling anyone.
Check out the YouTube comments—almost every one is mocking. "That CGI burger is as inflated as your prices," says one. Says another: "Feel free to send me some burgers at my email. Thank you. Also save them in photoshop so I can eat them at a higher res! Thanks!"
The ad has 92 likes and 700 dislikes on YouTube, as of this writing....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 9, 2016 11:40 PM
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But, as with any social network, the brands that are getting the most out of Instagram are the ones who are smart about what they post, when they post, how often they post, and whom they're targeting.
But how do they know what's "smart"?
That's where the data comes in. There's a whole lot of research out there about Instagram -- everything from the demographics of its users and how often brands are posting, to how caption length affects engagement and what the most popular emoji is on Instagram. (See #32.)
For example, did you know that a brand would need about 2,325 Instagram followers to get 100 Likes & comments on a post? Or that brands posted an average of 4.9 times per week on Instagram in 2015? Read on to uncover more Instagram stats that'll help you get ideas and improve your own Instagram posting strategy....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 9, 2016 11:14 PM
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In its quest to explore more interactive media formats, Facebook is today introducing a new feature called 360 Photos, which lets people share immersive photos that can be controlled and viewed from different angles by the viewer.
Available on the web, Android, and iOS, 360 Photos can be created by capturing a panoramic photo on your smartphone or by snapping a 360-degree photo through a dedicated app or 360-degree camera. You can then share the photo through Facebook, as you would any other piece of media, and the app converts the file into the relevant format for Facebook’s News Feed. The 360 Photos are marked by a little compass icon, and you can maneuver the photo around by tilting your phone, swiping with your finger, or clicking-and-dragging with a mouse (desktop)....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 9, 2016 10:46 PM
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For a while, it seemed like television was being supplanted by online video as cord-cutting increased dramatically. However, it’s becoming more clear that TV and social media are perfect partners, as tweets and other social posts spike around event television. New data from Nielsen Social demonstrates how much activity surrounds broadcast TV, streaming and cable.
Twitter users are highly engaged during popular shows and live television events, both in terms of hashtags and @mentions. #SB50, the official Super Bowl hashtag, received more than 3.7 million tweets. Other live events like the #Oscars also fared very well, with 2.9 million tweets. And scripted television events scored, with #Empire generating 702,000 tweets and @kanyewest receiving 489,000 tweets during his Saturday Night Live performance.
Whether it’s online streaming, cable TV or broadcast TV, recurring series seem to have remarkable staying power on social. Empire received an average of 387,000 tweets from 95,000 authors each episode, while cable-exclusive The Walking Dead received 435,000 tweets from 150,000 authors on average....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 8, 2016 10:41 PM
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According to Buffer, visual content is more than 40X more likely to get shared on social media than other types of content. And if you need any more evidence to convince you visuals are essential to your content marketing, just consider all these stats.
But honestly ... who's got time for all that? And I don't know about you, but I don't exactly have a degree in graphic design, or the budget to hire someone who does. So, what's a design-impaired marketer to do?
Luckily, over the past couple years, we've been on a mission at HubSpot to make visual content creation much less of an obstacle for the average marketer. How, you ask? Templates, my friends ... templates. And what's great about these templates is they're all built for software you probably already have on your computer: PowerPoint.
I'm going to walk you through all the visual content marketing templates we have available for free to download, and show you how we've used them ourselves to create awesome visuals right in PowerPoint....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 8, 2016 10:23 PM
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Enhancing the employee experience includes reassessing employees’ physical, cultural and technological environments. The experience works to validate the brand promise, reinforce understanding of and commitment to the business strategy, and add to an employee’s professional and personal growth and well-being.
Based on our experience working with clients as well as what we heard in our recent conversations with employee engagement leaders, below is a summary of considerations and suggestions for how to make your communications with employees more effective....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 8, 2016 3:05 PM
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Pat Kelly vividly remembers when he first knew he was a "thought leader":
"In 2005, I met another 'thought leader' and I asked him how he became a 'thought leader' and he said 'I don't know.' It was then that I knew I could be one too."
Pat Kelly showing that he is a true "thought leader" on the This Is That Talks stage in Whistler, BC. (Joseph Schweers/CBC)
Kelly proved his skill at leading thoughts on the This Is That Talks stage this past April in Whistler, BC. As you can see in the video of his talk, Kelly confidently made grand statements, spoke with his hands, and had slides - all hallmarks of a true "thought leader" or "influencer."
"My talk was a big success: I said things and the audience nodded their heads."
Based on the success of his talk, Kelly hopes to appear on a number of podcasts about "big ideas."...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 7, 2016 10:24 PM
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How do successful authors engage their fans on social media? And what can authors post on social media besides links to their own books?
Below you’ll find 23 ideas, along with examples from successful authors. Many of these tactics can help promote a book, but in more creative and engaging ways than simply posting a link to a book’s retailer page.
Publishers and agents, this post is written for authors. We encourage you to share it with your authors to help them build more engaging profiles.
Authors, we hope hope you find the list useful — and please share your great ideas in the comments!...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 7, 2016 10:07 PM
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When a company weathers a big change, it can be a test of leadership. Here's how what some CEOs who have been through it learned.
Sometimes it’s clear that the writing's on the wall for an organization: Things aren't going well. And during those times it’s even harder to communicate and lead.
Whether a company figures out its end vision is unattainable without the help of a deep-pocketed investor, or if it simply sees the financials and understands that the run rate is coming to a close, these are pivotal and emotional times for individuals at the top. More importantly, they're the hardest moments to strategize....
After talking with several business leaders who have steered companies during times of crisis, it’s clear that this is one of the most defining moments in an executive's career. When things are going swimmingly, a founder can gin up an image of success and determination. But when business goes south, that’s the real moment a leader needs to show his or her true colors....
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 7, 2016 9:51 PM
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It’s 2016. We are landing rockets on floating platforms in the ocean. Engineers are developing high-speed transportation systems in which pressured capsules ride on air cushions facilitated by linear induction motors. A network of high-altitude Wi-Fi balloons is being designed to float on the edge of space so that everyone on the planet can connect to the Internet.
And ebooks turn pages.
What happened to the exciting digital future of ebooks?
As the leader in the digital book space, Amazon is doing very little to innovate around ebooks. Last week, ZDNet ran a series of articles titled “Why Amazon is the king of innovation.” As it pertains to Prime, drone delivery, and Amazon Web Services, Amazon is exceptionally innovative. Arguably the best. But finding one ebook in a vast digital store and reading it on an e-ink device is archaic compared to Amazon’s other initiatives. “It reads in the sunlight” is about as innovative as “It’s called a fax machine.”
Why are our friends in Seattle so slow when it comes to the future of reading?...
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Scooped by
Jeff Domansky
June 7, 2016 11:31 AM
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People are usually surprised to hear that I don’t have a problem with Mary Meeker’s huge, yet very unattractive, annual deck of slides. People come out of the woodwork each time it’s released asking me to make them over. Last year, one Paris designer did just that. But dolling up her data took away some of the meaning. For me, the usefulness of how she collected and ordered the information trumps the need to finesse the design of her charts. (Instead of redesigning Meeker's slides, we chose instead to focus on one data visualization problem child: pie charts. Meeker's deck doesn’t have many pie charts, but all of them warranted commentary....
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Risk acknowledged, here's an example of a celebrity sponsorship that works – and provides a real ROI.