TGA Insight | Advertising Agency Blog

Classic Creative – Gold Toe Socks

by Jeff Goss, CEO/Creative Director Gold Toe socks, depending on direct sales to department stores for decades, became a household name brand in America from the 1930s-70s. Back then, men didn’t really care much about socks. They were an afterthought, “black, brown, grey, or did I say black?” That all started to change with competition…

Can You Switch Me Now? Good.

by Ryan Laffler, Account Manager What happens when your company burns bridges with the spokesperson of your advertising campaign? What happens when that same, iconic spokesperson joins forces with your competitor? Well that’s what just happened to Verizon Wireless, and we’re not sure if Aloe Vera is going to be enough to soothe the burn.…

By Eddie Maiale, Graphic Design Intern And we are back for round two! For those of us who have not read the previous post, following this link will bring you to part one in this three-part series covering Google’s material design. Previously, we covered what material design actually is, what Google means by the word…

By: Chloe Ayres, Senior Designer I have, at this point in my life, spoken “designer” for over ten years, so I often forget that it is absolutely a foreign language to some people. Terms like hex code, dot pattern, and bleed (not in the way you would think) are not in everyone’s vocabulary. This is…

Corporate Identity Development – Biltmore Lake

Corporate Identity development, or logo design as it is also called, is truly an exciting part of the job for an advertising firm. It is a chance to create one mark that expresses an entire brand. What would Nike be without the swoosh? Would Citibank be as distinctive without the red umbrella? Our message is…

The Boldest Marketing Move Budweiser, or America, Can Make

By Travis LeJune, Account Intern Budweiser-The Great American Lager: The country’s third most popular beer has always been known for some largely patriotic, expensive, and radical advertising campaigns. With roughly a 1.3 billion dollar marketing budget, and being one of the top 25 biggest advertising company spenders in the country, there just may be too…

By Eddie Maiale, Graphic Design Intern Since its debut in 2014 at the 2014 Google I/O conference, you may be wondering, what is Material Design? Well, there are many ways to describe what it is, but let us start from the beginning. Material Design is a visual language created by Google that attempts to synchronize…

Space tourism. Not in my lifetime, right? Not according to Jeff Bezos, CEO of Amazon, who believes his space exploration company Blue Origin will have thrill-seeking tourists in space as soon as 2018. Read more about this exciting development here. Learn more about this exciting project here.

By: Ryan Laffler, Account Manager Vine has had a rough year. The popular social media app that allows users to string together a series of videos up to six seconds long in all is quickly losing market share in the digital advertising industry. Competitors like Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat are all moving to capitalize…

7 Digital Marketing Takeaways from the Digital Summit 2016

By: Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator/Social Media Earlier this month, I was privileged to represent The Goss Agency while attending The 2016 Digital Summit Conference in Charlotte. I was able to gain knowledge from industry leaders during those two days. I almost felt a tad nostalgic of college lectures as I quickly scribbled down note after…

Cultural Tourism Opportunities in Our Backyard

Senior Account Manager for The Goss Agency, Dari Mullins, was recently asked to write an article for WNC Woman about tourism opportunities in the Asheville area. A native of Western North Carolina, Dari has seen Asheville change from a boarded-up downtown area to a thriving center of tourism. How has our city done this? Dari’s…

Award Series – Franklin Graham Crusade

By Jeff Goss, CEO/Creative Director Faced with the communications objective to create an invitation for the Franklin Graham Crusade, we did not go the traditional route and do a classic card and envelope with script type. We thought about what would happen upon receiving the invitation. One would be moved to go but then rationalize…

Classic Creative – Asheville Regional Airport

By Jeff Goss, CEO/Creative Director Down 40% over a 3-year period, Asheville Regional Airport was “leaking” travelers to Charlotte and Greenville by the thousands monthly. Some said, “It’s the dated facility”; others said, “Not a powerful and long-enough stay destination”; and some said, “Hey, it’s business travelers driving to Greenville and Charlotte to save a…

6 Tips To Succeed In Real-Time Marketing

By Dari Mullins, Senior Account Manager As the capacity of digital devices continues to increase and the craving for new, current, engaging content from consumers rises – Brands have to act quickly to stay ahead of the emerging trends. Real-time adverting has been around for several years, but it’s popularity continues to grow on Social…

Instagram, Twitter to Expand Video Advertising Opportunities

Ryan Laffler, Account Manager Instagram and Twitter are finally beginning to embrace video advertising. What’s the big deal? Video ads cost more on average to make than banner ads, and they also take more time for a viewer to digest. Are they even worth it? Absolutely. A 2014 study by Millennial Media showed that engagement…

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Creative History: Qualla Arts Basket Ad

[mp_row] [mp_span col="12"] Here is how we, “Turn Facts Into Visitation” in an actual campaign. In researching the history of the Cherokee and their culture in preparation of an ad campaign to be designed to transcend all media, we came across a simple fact that might be overlooked by many. After all, the fact was…

YouTube Introduces a New Ad Package

By Brady Rothschild, Intern YouTube is introducing a new ad package for companies looking to advertise through them. Last Tuesday (on April, 26, 2016) they announced the start of bumper ads. Bumper ads are 6-second ads that you can’t skip, rather than the traditional 30-second YouTube ad that you can skip after five…

The Blue Dot Back-up Plan

By Dari Mullins, Senior Account Manager Recently I was reminded the importance of always having a back-up plan. So often we rush through life from planning trips to attending events and numerous work functions. Usually we rarely plan for these things and hardly ever do we have a back-up plan. I found out that…

Are Logo Systems the Future of Corporate Identity?

By Chloë Ayres, Head Designer Nike. McDonalds. MasterCard. The marks of these brands are instantly recognizable, virtually worldwide, without even attaching a written brand name to them. Conventional design wisdom would dictate that a brand should pick one mark and stick with it, but is that still the case? In this article on Creative Bloq, Ian…

Logo Design Series Continued: Mountain Child Advocacy Center

How Facebook’s Big Conference will Impact Businesses

By Brady Rothschild, Account Support Facebook Developer Conference The Facebook Development Conference (F8) took place in California this week. Facebook laid out their strategy for the next ten years and many of the announcements will make a direct impact on businesses. This shows how they are going to keep people as well as businesses connected…

Logo Design Series Continued: The Thoms Estate

By Chloë Ayres, Head Designer Corporate Identity development, or logo design as it is also called, is truly an exciting part of the job for an advertising firm. It is a chance to create one mark that expresses an entire brand. What would Nike be without the swoosh? Would Citibank be as distinctive without the red…

Creative History – White Horse Scotch

The USP (unique selling point) for White Horse Scotch is its peatiness. What is peat? Well, have we got a story for you. It is the earth. On the moist moors of Scotland and Ireland, the source of heat and fire for centuries has been peat. It is sliced out of the ground into bricks,…

How Instagram’s New Algorithm Affects Your Business

by Ryan Laffler, Account Manager Photo from Bufferapp.com Algorithms are everywhere. On your smartphone, at the ATM machine, while waiting at a stoplight, I literally mean everywhere. And that’s a good thing! At their core, an algorithm is a formula or a set of processes to solve a problem. They’re especially useful when dealing with…

Behind the Scenes at Recent Client TV Spot and Catalog Shoot

Over the past couple of weeks, we've been working on a TV spot for our client, Blossman Gas, as well as being on set for the photo shoot for their upcoming fall catalog we're producing. Here are some behind the scenes photos of these events, which are such fun, interesting days for us here at…

Why It’s Important to Build a Brand Consumers Can Relate To

By Brady Rothschild, Account Support I recently read an article in HuffPost Business called “The Future is in the Hands of Brands”about building a brand customers can relate to. In this article, they spoke about how certain Youtube channels are viewed millions of times, even though the content of these channels is not exactly great.…

5 Takeaways from Social Media is a Behavioral Shift

Today on Social Media Today, Andrew Hutchinson discussed how we have to stop talking about the individual social platforms so much and start talking about what audience trends the usage of these social networks reveals about these audiences. Here are 5 key takeaways from his analysis.

Conclusions about Cultural Tourism by World Tourism Organization

Excerpt from our Cultural Tourism whitepaper. If you're interested in receiving this white paper, sign up for our newsletter from our homepage or our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/thegossagency/app/100265896690345/. A set of conclusions has been offered by the World Tourism Organization with respect to planning for cultural tourism. DEFINE TOURISM PRODUCTS The process above is one way to take the sometimes historic,…

How to Leverage Hashtags for Business on Different Social Media Platforms

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock Hashtags have become a common way for millennials and individuals to express themselves on social media and reach out to the world around them. They can join in on conversations revolving around a certain topic and spurt their opinions to everyone interested in that topic. But while hashtags are popular for individuals,…

The Six Components of Mobile SEO in 2016

By: Ryan Laffler, Account Manager Photo by Marketingland.com Most businesses understand the importance of SEO, but what about mobile SEO? How is it different? How is the landscape changing moving forward? We tracked down six fundamental components to a successful mobile SEO strategy in 2016. Bryson Meunier, the SEO Director at Vivid Seats, broke down…

Anchor: The Next Big Social Media Platform?

By Brady Rothschild, Account Services From iTunes What is Anchor? Anchor is an app that allows one to create content in real time and share it with one’s friends, followers and others who are just browsing the Internet. It works very similarly to Twitter, or Instagram, but instead of text or pictures, talk is used to engage…

4 Ways to Use Facebook Advertising

Social advertising is here to stay, and you can take advantage of these low-cost, low barriers to entry social ads on Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter, and Linkedin. Here are 4 easy ways to dip your toes into Facebook advertising for your business page. All your advertising options on Facebook Boost Your Posts This is one of…

The Cultural Tourism Discovery Process

Excerpt from our Cultural Tourism Whitepaper, available via newsletter sign-up: http://eepurl.com/bM3KBX Our Cultural Tourism Discover Process is called Culture Context™ and it depends on a thorough understanding of the local culture and the context in which a particular destination competes. That context is defined by three domains: 1) the place 2) the people 3) the peer group. We sometimes…

World Trade Organization’s 6 Categories of Cultural Tourism

The most comprehensive view of cultural tourism comes from the World Trade Organization. Based on 2012 global survey, they identified six cultural heritage categories: Handicrafts and visual arts Gastronomy and culinary Social practices, rituals, and festive events Music and performing arts Oral traditions and expressions Knowledge and practices concerning nature

Design Trends 2016

The new design trends for 2016 can be summed up in a few words: bright, geometric, clean, and historically-conscious.

3 Ways Social Media Revolutionized Marketing in the Music Industry

Social media and music. With the invention of MySpace in 2003, musicians suddenly could develop their brand and interact with their fans in a whole new way.

The Trend Toward Post Modernism

Excerpt from our Cultural Tourism Whitepaper, available via newsletter sign-up: http://eepurl.com/bM3KBX Of equal significance is the trend driving the trend. The fact is, today’s interest in cultural tourism is really a manifestation of a larger and even more fundamental trend: post-modernism. Culturally, we crave that which is more personally relevant and less packaged or mass produced. For…

The Real Impact of a Cultural Tourism Strategy

By John Heenan, Cultural Tourism Relations To receive our Cultural Tourism Whitepaper, sign up here: http://eepurl.com/bM3KBX Destination marketing is thriving in the US and around the world. One significant trend is emerging and is proving to be a real economic driver that DMOs and tourism offices can easily embrace and deploy today by embracing a cultural tourism…

Are You Providing Enough Value with Your Content Marketing?

Content marketing basically encompasses anything that you distribute with the intention of your audience consuming it. Blogs, tweets, Facebook posts, whitepapers, emails, newsletters...most of these pieces of content are all what social media expert Gary Vaynerchuk would call "jabs." Vaynerchuk recently said, "I’ve done 185 episodes of a show answering questions people ask me on…

Insights from our Cultural Tourism whitepaper. Read the full report by signing up for our newsletter. From our experience with destination marketing, we’ve developed a sophisticated and nuanced understanding of the cultural traveler that we use to develop cultural tourism strategies. Below are a few generalizations which transcend specific places and population groups. The market…

By Dari Mullins, Account Manager While in Savannah at the Coastal Nature, Coastal Culture: Environmental Histories of the Georgia Coast symposium last week I encountered a new tourism term–-Dark Tourism. Ironically, I had participated in this form of tourism without even knowing it by visiting two cemeteries while on a work trip. I walked through the…

Cultural Tourism DC, "a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization, develops, delivers and celebrates real experiences for Washington area residents and visitors." When you think about it, that definition (besides the nonprofit part) could and should be part of the mission statement for any tourism organization.

By Chloe Ayres, Head Designer AirBnb, Tinder, Yelp! – all of these apps provide location-specific information content on a global scale. All of these companies have also adopted the “McDonald's model” of “a burger should taste the exact same in every McDonald's.” While consistency is certainly key in establishing a strong brand identity, it also leaves…

Treat Each Social Media Channel Differently

We constantly hear about how overwhelmed people are by social media and it usually stems from people failing to treat each social media channel differently. Typically, this anxiety happens when organizations don't do one or all of the following...

Cultural Tourism Whitepaper Introduction

Introduction to our recently released Cultural Tourism Whitepaper: Cultural tourism. It sounds like a niche. In reality it is something different. Cultural tourism is a huge opportunity and a growing trend. According to the Travel Industry Association of America, roughly eighty percent of the 150,000,000+ adults who travel more than fifty miles from their homes can…

Cultural Tourism Insights from Our Cultural Tourism Whitepaper

by Brady Rothschild, Account Coordinator and Mars Hill University student Here we break down five important takeaways from our Cultural Tourism whitepaper to help benefit your destination. If you're interested in receiving this white paper, sign up for our newsletter from our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/thegossagency/app/100265896690345/ or on our homepage. What is cultural tourism? The World Tourism Organization…

Coca-Cola’s New Campaign, Taste the Feeling

by Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator Mixed ‘feelings’ arise as Coke launches a new ad campaign from “Open Happiness” to “Taste the Feeling.” “Taste the Feeling,” is going back to the basics with their product (displayed in the iconic glass bottle) at the centerpiece. They hope the campaign will drive home the point that Coke is refreshing and…

Millennials are the rising generation, entering the workforce and demanding control of their travel experiences. Many have very specific needs and wants and love to travel. The Millennial generation wants to explore, but they do not want to be told what to do.

There are many exciting new trends in travel and tourism marketing to look forward to in 2016. Mobile, virtual reality, personalization, content, and so many more. Of all the predictions, the one that is most exciting and holds the greatest potential impact for destination marketing executives is the rise of Cultural Tourism.

Virgin Islands Telephone Company Super Bowl Spot

By Jeff Goss, CEO The Virgin Islands Telephone Company had been our client for about three years before our greatest opportunity presented itself: a chance to do a Super Bowl spot. Our focus had been on print, television, and a public relations campaign, with a concentration on stemming complaints about the quality of service in…

By Dari Mullins, Account Manager As I watched my beloved (and often underrated) Carolina Panthers devour the Arizona Cardinals in the NFC Championship game on Sunday, I was struck by the increased frequency that our quarterback, Cam Newton, appeared in as a spokesperson for several different brands. Cam has always been involved in several advertising campaigns,…

Cultural tourism isn’t a brand new term, but the concept isn’t quite as simple to grasp as promoting, for example, a striking mountain range in your area or a Michelin rated restaurant

The Super Bowl (and the Super Bowl Ads). The one night of the year that you, your significant other, their parents, and that incredible three-cheese chip dip your coworker makes share the same room without anyone cursing. That is, until the clearly-biased referee calls facemask on a shoulder tackle. There is something inherently American about…

We've started a new Cultural Tourism Facts series on Instagram and Twitter to help raise awareness of how "We Turn Facts into Visitation" for our cultural tourism clients. Be sure to follow along at https://www.instagram.com/thegossagency/, handle @thegossagency, or on Twitter at https://twitter.com/thegossagency, handle again @thegossagency. People love these factoids that are perfect for sharing at a cocktail…

While the term “cultural tourism” has been in use for several years, we still have a ways to go until it becomes a household term. Just do a Google search for “Cultural Tourism” and you’ll see that only two destinations make the first page of results--Cherokee Preservation Foundation and Europe. These results show that savvy…

Already iconic, The Allstate Mayhem commercials bumped them up a level for 2016. The successful multi-year Mayhem campaign needed some new life, and Allstate delivered in a myriad of ways. The Mayhem campaign kicked off during the Allstate Sugar Bowl with a call for real life DIY mishaps. The company posted a number of them…

Gone are the days that sex sells everything. A sexy, twenty-something model advertising a car will not sit well with most female consumers. The 75 year old trend of only using women IN advertising has drastically shifted to advertising TO women

Vero Beach was chosen due to the stretch of available land on the Southeast coast and its proximity to The Magic Kingdom. With a construction trailer and grading still taking place on the property, we began the marketing for the first Disney Resorts outside of the Walt Disney World Resort with “Disney Magic In a…

Driving travel and tourism success is getting increasingly hard as more destination marketers search for ways to increase awareness and differentiate their offerings. At the same time, more travelers, from boomers to millennials are searching for new adventures, forgoing the traditional list of destinations to find unique, authentic, and culturally enriching experiences. I know you have many challenges that keep you…

Understanding Content Marketing for 2016

2015 marked some big developments in content marketing. Periscope launched in March 2015. Other livestreaming apps Meerkat and Blab also joined the fray. Snapchat became more mainstream, hitting over 100 million active users.

Child Abuse Prevention Services, or CAPS, began in 1990 as WNC Regional Child Abuse Center, a multi-agency effort dedicated to protecting children and providing them a place where they can feel safe. Today, CAPS continues to counsel and protect children around the Asheville-Buncombe community, and helps over 8,500 individuals each year. CAPS recently started working…

When everyone on your team is tuned into the mission, goals, and differentiators that help define your brand, opportunities will continuously arise to make brand connections and highlight your brand identity. For example, we live by the following philosophy: "Although the stripes on the zebra are unique, when the zebras are grouped together it's difficult…

5 Emerging Trends in Online Marketing You Need to Know

As 2015 comes to a close, it's time to look ahead and brush up on the emerging trends that will affect your online marketing. Mobile Will Trounce Desktop It was only a matter of time: in 2015, mobile traffic on Google finally surpassed desktop traffic. In response, Google released an algorithm designed to crush a…

By now, you probably realize how important it is to refresh (or completely overhaul) your website so that it incorporates all the current features users expect as well as compiling with SEO, mobile, and other trends. As we shared in a previous blog post, "Iterative Website Design," your website is a living representation of your…

Why It’s Important to Have Ethics in Advertising…Especially to Reach Millennials

By Brady Rothschild, Mars Hil University Intern Ethics in advertising is important, because by acting ethically with their advertising, a company is being responsible towards the needs of the customer. Ethical advertising evens the playing field for the consumer by giving them the information they need to make an informed decision on what products to…

by Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator Earlier in November, I applauded the outdoor brand REI as they took a stand against Black Friday with their #OptOutside campaign. REI stayed true to their values by encouraging consumers to spend the weekend outdoors rather than cramped up in lines at their local mall. Well, it seems like Kit…

2016 Marketing and Advertising Trends Roundup

2016 is right around the corner, so we’ve rounded up 10 pieces of the top advice about marketing and advertising trends to help your business reach new heights next year. Share this with everyone you work with, then schedule a brainstorming session so January 1, 2016 can’t sneak up on you. Forbes “Video ads will start…

You’ve probably seen the holiday shopping reports. “Holiday Sales ‘Perfectly Average So Far” via CNBC, and “Black Friday Sales Down More Than $1 Billion” via Time. On the opposite end of the spectrum, Adweek reported...

Snapchat Explores Audience-Targeted Advertising

By Ryan Laffler, Account Manager Four years ago, Snapchat burst onto the social media scene with a novel idea: an app that lets users share photos and videos that are only viewable for a limited amount of time (as of today, the range is from 1 to 10 seconds). The idea started out as a…

A New Year Is on Its Way, Along with Some New SEO Guidelines

Search engines - whether it be Google, Yahoo, or even Bing (yes, some people do use Bing) - are getting smarter. And companies need to update their SEO guidelines in order to keep up...

By Dari Mullins, Account Manager We are bombarded by negative images, news and comments on a daily, sometimes hourly basis. From terrorist attacks on the news to negative criticism on social media, we stay surrounded by depressing words and images. Negativity sucks the life out of you and you have to fight to keep from falling victim to…

As a visual person, one of the things that I get most excited about when shopping is the holiday window display. Window displays are a wonderful way to entice a shopper on foot to come into your store, and show off the goods that you are currently really trying to sell. However, as with any…

Adweek recently released a list of the 20 most viral ads released in 2015, so we analyzed the winners and created a list of five patterns for why these ads went viral. Even if you don’t have a huge advertising budget, you can always be inspired by the content, messaging and tactics behind ads by…

One of our core responsibilities as an advertising agency is to mine for the most compelling gems from a company's story and share those messages across various platforms including print, web, digital ads, and email marketing with new creative. For our long-time client Alliance Autogas, we started with the idea of "Making a Big Impact on…

As an agency, we win when our clients win. We get just as much or more of a thrill when our efforts on behalf of our clients net great results, like with this best ever email marketing campaign sent last week. As Entrepreneur recently shared: The average person gets 121 [emails] a day. The human race…

As The New York Times reported earlier this year, "After years of decline, the number of [print] catalogs mailed in the United States increased in 2013, to 11.9 billion, according to the Direct Marketing Association, a trade group." Other stats to keep in mind about print catalogs from the article: About 90 million Americans make…

Being a Native to Asheville makes me an anomaly in most circles. I was born and raised in South Asheville when US- 25 was a two lane road and it only took 10 minutes to make it into downtown Asheville...

Travel brands showcase the power of pictures, real-time content, and useful information on social media, and these are lessons that all businesses can learn from and incorporate into your social media efforts. We take a look at posts from 5 travel brands and show how they ‘get’ social media. We utilize the recent eValue Analytics…

It’s early November, but we all know that holiday advertising heats up after Halloween, and many times even earlier. The iconic Lexus ads with the big red bow have been running since 1998 as part of their December to Remember campaign, which it will continue this year. Other iconic holiday advertising campaigns include the Coca-Cola…

Print media is still an incredibly important part of how our clients reach their customers, especially when it comes to the biannual Blossman Gas catalog. Being a part of the process of putting together the catalog, from the color of the pans in the photography, to the placement of the spot varnish on the flames…

Today's marketing landscape is more fractured than ever. People are hit with TV and radio commercials, digital ads, email marketing, social media...it's a lot to take in, and a lot for businesses to keep up with. Thankfully, we know that email marketing is not dead and can still deliver solid results. Entrepreneur recently released, "7…

I have always found it ironic that the biggest shopping event of the year, Black Friday, occurs right after a holiday where we are supposed to gather around a table with loved ones to celebrate what we are thankful for...

Coming up with a new product, service, or idea can be very exciting, but it also poses some difficult questions. One of the first questions you should ask yourself is, “Who is this product/service for? Or similarly...

by Ryan Laffler, Account Manager San Francisco is currently experiencing one of the worst housing crises in the nation, with skyrocketing rent and home prices in part caused by short-term renting services like Airbnb and HomeAway. Here is how it works: a landlord offers short-term renting through Airbnb which in turn removes the property from…

Berger’s Six ‘STEPPS’ for Creating Viral Marketing Content

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Support While it seems like a successful viral marketing campaign relies mainly on luck and timing, creative content plays a critical role in what makes things go viral. In the book Contagious, Professor Jonah Berger explored this idea and discovered six characteristics of viral marketing content. The acronym for these six…

Or watch full video at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=964-8YFfXNk Mary Kay Cosmetics has run into trouble with their brand reputation. What started as an empowering business opportunity for women in an age where “being your own boss” was unheard of, has become “your mother’s makeup company,” the opposite of the fresh-faced cosmetics company that it once was. If you…

These are photos from our recent branding workshop for our new client, Natchez, Mississippi that brought together around 40 stakeholders that have a vested interest in helping Natchez reach new levels of success as a premier tourism destination. Our branding workshops aren't just "get everyone into a room and throw ideas around" sessions. Instead,…

Arby’s Beefs Up Its Branding, Drills Down to Core Messaging

Adweek recently broke down the resurgence of Arby's as a successful brand thanks to a renewed focus on branding and their core messaging. Writer Katie Richards writes, "The brand's turning point arrived about two years ago. It was either going to crash and burn or rise to the challenge of its teetering brand. The difficulty was…

Who doesn't love a home-cooked meal? This creative encourages healthy eating, prioritizing quality family time, and the ease of using propane cooktops and ranges. The bright colors of the ingredients in the skillet are eye-catching and look delicious, too! The logo at the bottom completes this display ad.

Big thanks to the Natchez Democrat for their latest story about our recent ideation workshop for the city of Natchez. Full story below and on their website at http://www.natchezdemocrat.com/2015/10/16/ideation-workshop-brainstorms-brand/. Before the branding comes the brainstorming. That's the mindset The Goss Agency--an Asheville, NC based cultural tourism branding firm--is taking in its quest to identify a…

Advertising has changed rapidly thanks to the onslaught of the digital age. So, companies that do invest in traditional advertising methods such as print and billboards are pushed to think of a way to create interactive ads, getting more bang for their buck by bringing their offline advertising efforts online, too. How? By getting viewers to…

3D mailers can be an effective way to get noticed by your target audience and cut through the 5,000+ messages they are hit with each day. It can be easy for a prospect to ignore a piece of paper...

A penny–one cent: These days it takes 25 of them to buy a piece of bubble gum. A penny–one cent: Made with copper (Cu). Its name comes from the Latin word cuprum (island of Cyprus). Vital to human health, an excellent conductor of electricity and heat: it is strong, ductile, easy to alloy and resists…

In our many, many hours spent on the Internet, we came across this image recently, and it struck a chord with us. Although this image was created to motivate changes needed in complex systems like education, we thought it was also applicable to thinking about your 2016 Marketing Plan for your business. Each element is…

Some businesses have ignored being consistent on Twitter because they don't understand it or think there is no way to stand out with millions of tweets streaming every hour...

Marketing to Millennials from a Millennial

The Millennial generation is coming into the workforce now, in a world with a tough economy. The Millennials are used to having things their way, and we can get very upset when life does not go as planned.

The old saying, "Success breeds success" is certainly true when it comes to email marketing. For our client Blossman Gas, we capitalized on the success of last week's E-Direct Ad and tweaked the targeting to get even more people to open and click through the content. The result? The open rate increase 3% from…

By CEO and Creative Director Jeff Goss The Goss Agency focuses on the idea first, then design. We arrive at creative ideas that communicate the brand experience in a manner that touches emotions, making one laugh, think, feel. This level of communications over time results in a brand and brand loyalists.

There are 59 days until Black Friday, 62 days until Cyber Monday, and 87 days until Christmas, and those numbers mean people are absolutely thinking about holiday shopping. How can your company cut through the clutter with your marketing and advertising? We've rounded up some insights about 2015 holiday shopping to help your business shine this holiday season.…

Email Blast Nets Big Jump in Website Traffic

We sent this Direct Email out for Blossman Gas: And generated this excellent website traffic for our client: The graph above shows how one direct email campaign with a 2% clickthrough and 11% open rate to over 430,00 targeted single family homes spiked website traffic from 1500 views per day to 4500 per day within 24…

Pinterest recently hit a huge milestone--100 million users! This news means even more when put into the context of predictions that it would only reach 47 million users by 2015, and 59 million users by 2019...

Asheville Marketing Firm brings National/International Tourism Destination home to Asheville

We're proud to represent Asheville on a global stage for our new destination client, Natchez, Mississippi! Read the full press release below and read this piece by Natchez Democrat about the news: Asheville Marketing Firm brings National/International Tourism Destination home to Asheville NATCHEZ, MS, September 17, 2015 – The Natchez Convention & Visitors Bureau has contracted The…

Branding, Donald Trump, and the Power of Repetition

You see it everywhere - on the news, attached to the sides of giant skyscrapers, on the cover of books, magazines in giant, bold letters: T-R-U-M-P. Made prominent by none other than Donald himself, the Trump name has the power to fill luxury mega-hotels, close multi-million dollar deals, and grab headlines like it…

5 Design Quotes that Provide Inspiration Beyond Design

We had to share these very cool GIF versions of someone of our favorite inspirational quotes that apply to much more than design. We've shared the quotes below, but you'll have to visit...

For our client, Brandzaffair, we decided to experiment with the new Pinterest promoted pins opportunity. Before we share our results, we thought we’d round up a few expert opinions and information about the advertising tool. According to Quick Marketing, “These advertising options give businesses the opportunity to pay and feature selected [Pinterest promoted] Pins…

Facebook Overtakes Google as Top Website Traffic Driver to News Sites: What It Means For Your Business

Google has long been the king of driving traffic to websites. For years, businesses have worked to make Google happy by being conscientious of certain key website factors: search engine optimization, keywords, meta-tagging, including images, posting new content frequently...the list goes on. Yet, Parse.ly has revealed that Facebook has now overtaken the web search giant…

1 Message, 7 Digital Advertising and Print Advertising Uses

The idea behind this message for our client Alliance Autogas was to highlight the safety and ease of use of the Stäubli Nozzle (which is the technology that you use to fill up your tank with propane), and the result is a consistent digital advertising message optimized for 7 different uses. 1. Display Ad 2. E-Direct…

In this piece for design blog identitydesigned.com, Greg Jewett of Ho Chi Minh-based Rice Creative chronicles the process of visually branding a new business through his work for...

PRESS RELEASE Branding Agency to Work in Conjunction with New Public Relations Agency NATCHEZ, MS, September 1, 2015 – The Visit Natchez Convention & Visitor’s Bureau has contracted The Goss Agency, one of America’s leading cultural tourism branding services firms, to direct a comprehensive brand audit of the 300-year-old historic destination. The Goss Agency will work in…

5 Things You’ll Learn From a Digital Audit

The rapid pace of social media means that sometimes, businesses fail to take the time to assess if what they're doing aligns with best practices and you're hitting your goals. Hopefully, you're already doing monthly reports to see growth and impressions for each of the channels you are utilizing, but this report is only showing you a piece…

Instagram can net some powerful results for businesses thanks to its quick and easy ways for your customers to engage with just a tap on the screen, and its scroll-ability keeps people glued to their feeds. An image posted to Instagram can easily gain tens or hundreds of likes or comments, whereas a Facebook or Twitter…

Video is fast becoming an essential part of any businesses’ marketing mix. Here are some video marketing tips for creating better content and how to get more eyeballs on the videos you create. 2 Minutes or less Data shows that “more than 80% of viewers watched one that was 30 seconds or shorter, while less…

Social media is one of the most powerful tools a business has in its arsenal. Need to respond to hundreds of customer inquiries from multiple countries before lunchtime tomorrow? No problem...

This article from Adweek, "7 Digital Marketing Stats That Caught Our Eye in the Last Week," rounds up some of the interesting digital marketing statistics that have come out in the past week...

Did you know bulls can run faster uphill than down? I was having a conversation yesterday with a client prospect. She mentioned the need within their tourism attraction to radiate their brand and engage visitors with its message. Kudos and camel rides to her! (“Camel rides” is a good thing here - meaning exotic and adventurous…

All too often, we see clients and potential clients fail to promote their social media presence. It’s important to use your website, newsletters, blogs, and other visible places to promote the fact your company is on social media...

We spend a lot of time on Facebook for clients, for our agency and for ourselves, and we see some mistakes over and over that can be quickly fixed to up your Facebook game immediately. These updates will make your brand look more professional online and could help generate new leads or new stories to be…

We were tasked with creating a new website for Haywood County that highlighted specific elements of the North Carolina Smokies experience into a visually stunning, user-friendly website that shows off all the great assets the county has for both locals and visitors to enjoy during their time in Haywood County.View the Haywood County website at visitncsmokies.com.…

Asheville Wordcamp Review: A WordPress Conference

Over the weekend of July 25-26, I was fortunate enough to attend Asheville’s Wordcamp 2015. Wordcamp is a nationwide series of conferences detailing the finer points of Wordpress...

In the one minute it takes you to read this text, 100 hours of video will be uploaded to YouTube. That’s 250 days of video every hour, 16.4 years of video every day, and six millennia of video every year! As the world’s largest repository of moving images, YouTube is the 3rd most visited website…

For August, we’re talking about digital marketing on the blog, and we’re kicking off this series with a roundup of some of the latest digital marketing trends. Here are 5 articles and their best nuggets that caught our eye recently: Digital Marketing Trends: A Mid-Year Review via Sellpoints “We’ve seen the news about Google introducing…

10 Inspirational Days in France: Historical Highlights

--CEO Jeff Goss I just completed an inspirational 10 day trip to France. The experience impacted me in a couple of ways. I now have a renewed realization of how critical it is to get out of your routine and take in new life experiences. I was inspired by walking in the footsteps of…

--Backstory behind St. Lucia creative and advertising by CEO Jeff Goss One of the most amazing, unspoiled destinations, and islands in the Atlantic, yet the branding “Simply Beautiful” with a hibiscus flower, a flower that existed on my own street in Atlanta, could be for any place, many places. After the airline lost our luggage, and…

We're excited to announce we're expanding in downtown Asheville! The office across the hall will now become an extension of the agency as we continue to grow and work on exciting projects. Here's a sneak peek of the space and a glimpse from our new balcony of downtown.

This month, our blogs will focus on tourism marketing insights and trends. To kick things off, we've rounded up 5 tourism marketing campaigns/announcements that have caused a stir in recent months. 1. New Orleans Summer Campaign "We are showing that New Orleans can be special for families, for those who enjoy the high life, or enjoying…

The Goss Agency just completed the corporate identity for Cherokee National, a new subsidiary of Tribe Transportation, headquartered in Gainesville, GA...

Event Marketing: Festival of Native American Arts

Within the full-service marketing of Travel and Tourism The Goss Agency provides positioning, strategy promotion and PR for destination events and event marketing...

Some people are natural born leaders, others have to study to become one. If this is your aspiration as well, take a look at the following 6 basic principles which successful leaders share...

By Scott Zeller, SEO & SEM Specialist, The Goss Agency Sudoku, a popular numbers game, is a logic-based puzzle that requires you plug in numbers from 1-9 in the right combination to solve it and win the game. It starts with a few numbers and a partially completed 9x9 grid, and relies on you, the…

[caption id="attachment_3434" align="aligncenter" width="649"] Photo from Adweek featuring campaign for Aizone[/caption] One of our mottos at The Goss Agency is "It's All About the Work." So, Adweek's post from June 22 titled, "How Jessica Walsh and Gerry Graf Turn Data Into Art in Their Advertising" caught our eye, especially Graf's closing statements: "Now it's the work, because…

After months of attempting to arrive at a logo for the new residential community Biltmore Lake by Biltmore Farms the marketing director, formerly with Disney, contacted his Disney advertising agency to do the job. After several more months and an impending launch breathing down their neck, The Goss Agency was contacted and contracted to execute…

7 Leadership Strategies to Inspire Your Team

By Christine Gire, Senior Vice President, Account Management Account management means different things to different agencies. But the one thing they all need to have in common to succeed is a strong, efficient team. So how do you build one? Greg Bell, pop star of the keynote speaker world, offers 7 amazing leadership strategies to…

Photo of loupe and blog by our Head Graphic Designer, Fran Stoll The press check has always been an important role for a graphic designer. It is one of the last checks before a job is completed. With the digital age and how advanced presses have gotten, press checks have become less frequent. Recently, I was…

4 Tips/Tricks to Rock Your New Internship

You landed the internship... now what? Do I start reading The Wall Street Journal? Are TPS reports a real thing? Will I be expected to write everything in cursive… or worse - what if...

It is very surreal to have finally finished school. Graduating is something that as a student you look forward to so much from your very first semester. You build up so much excitement and anticipation for that day...

Agency Perspective from Designer Chloë Ayres

I have spent the last few years fighting to make Graphic Design a part of my life. I relished in the few hours a week that I could spend making postcards and newsletters, in between other tasks...

Our May blog series is all about design, so we thought we’d kick things off with a roundup of some of the latest and greatest design news to inspire both us and our readers...

The Goss Agency Launches New Cozumel, Mexico Paradise Beach Resort Brand Image and Website Asheville, North Carolina - The Goss Agency recently launched a new website and brand image for Cozumel’s stunning Paradise Beach Resort, one of the most pristine, idyllic destinations in all of Mexico. The branding work began with an evaluation of the property…

To finish our social media blog series, we've rounded up a few resources we trust to give us up-to-the-minute, useful ideas for our clients and our own social media. Find which expert or website appeals to you the most, then sign up for their newsletter or follow them on Facebook to stay informed. 1. Convince and Convert At…

3 Possible Agency Roles for Your Social Media: Management, Guidance, or Training

Social media changes on a monthly--sometimes daily--basis, so it’s important that you evaluate your company’s digital presence frequently as well as taking the time to keep your social media knowledge up-to-date...

Social Media: One Is (Always) Greater Than Zero

This month, we’re talking about social media on the blog. To start, we’ll look to Gary Vaynerchuk, one of the leading experts and authors in the field whose company, VaynerMedia, just won the...

The Goss Agency, in conjunction with Biltmore Property Group, recently launched a branding campaign for Historic Biltmore Village located in Asheville, North Carolina in the heart of the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains...

The Goss Agency is executing a portfolio of TGA proprietary quantitative and qualitative research and branding tools to ascertain Mitchell County’s most compelling features, benefits...

Branding is sometimes misunderstood, which isn’t surprising considering that the word “brand” has wildly different definitions, many with negative connotations. Here are a few...

We focus on the idea first, the idea that communicates your key benefit in a manner that identifies with your target emotionally. Only then do we do the design...

To conduct the most effective messaging, we believe it is crucial to have the intelligence and consumer insights to identify with your prospect personally and understand what it is about your product or experience that hits your prospect’s “hot buttons.” We have the research, brand measurement and positioning tools to prepare exceptional creative messaging…

The “Two-Schools” by Bob Davies, Brand Strategist What I’m noticing is that there are two distinct “schools of thought” with respect to marketing these days. One is being advanced by the content people. It is about spontaneity, real-time marketing and responsiveness. The marketing of presence. These days we develop--no crank-out--the content and push it through…

Apple Set to Shake Things Up in the Search Engine Market

David Bowie wrote those words in 1971. Almost 45 years later, this song is stuck in my head as I read that Apple may be partnering with Microsoft later this year, attempting to take on Google in the world of search engine marketing...

Iterative Website Development: Build Your House on a Solid Foundation

We often get inquiries from clients about building them a new website. Many of them have websites already - websites that they hate for one reason or another. The content management system is too hard to use. The design is outdated. The site doesn't work on mobile. Regardless of the reason, the client's answer to…