Category Archives: Agency

8 Best Practices for B2B Landing Pages

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Manager   What is a landing page? The term is thrown out a lot, but do all marketers know the meaning and purpose behind it? A landing page is a standalone webpage — separate from an organization’s main site. A landing page has a focused objective that leads the visitor to…
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Classic Creative: Amoco

By Jeff Goss, President/Creative Director Who thinks about what’s under the pavement, or those orange woven plastic fences alongside the highway, or those black plastic fences about knee-high attached to metal poles on construction sites. The answer is: not too many people. These are the products behind the scenes that make a difference in the…
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Industry Insights

[row] [span1] [/span1] [span7]Using Facebook for B2B Lead Generations [button text="See Full Article" link="http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/facebook-b2b-lead-generation/309368/" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7]37% of Consumers say Ads Placed Next to Offensive Content Impact Brand Perception [button text="See Full Article" link="http://marketingland.com/37-consumers-say-ads-placed-next-offensive-content-impact-brand-perception-217504" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Twitter Gives…
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Industry Insights

[row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Facebook’s lead ads just received a major improvement: offline conversion data. [button text="See Full Article" link="http://marketingland.com/facebook-offline-conversion-solution-lead-ads-214133" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Pinterest’s object-recognizing Lens feature now also scans QR codes. [button text="See Full Article" link="http://marketingland.com/pinterests-object-recognizing-lens-feature-now-scans-qr-codes-214164" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1]…
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Industry Insights

[row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] YouTube unveils new rules to vet channels who advertise in order to protect brands from appearing next to questionable content [button text="See Full Article" link="http://adage.com/article/digital/pewdiepie-declares-adpocalypse-youtube-makes-rules/308591/" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Facebook gives agencies more transparency following metrics blunders [button text="See Full Article" link="http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-moves-offer-agencies-transparency/308578/" style="default" size="normal"…
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Classic Creative: Special Edition

By Jeff Goss, President/Creative Director Have we gone full circle? In the 1940s and ’50s brands rushed to place their ads in the latest of thousands of magazines and ever-growing TV and radio broadcast stations, which soon became crowded with ads vying for the same attention. The answer came in the form of conceptual advertising…
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4 Best Practices for B2B Direct Marketing

By Claire Wilcox, Account Support Intern "Whether it's B2C or B2B, you're still talking about stories," said John Osborne, president/CEO of BBDO New York, Ad Age’s 2017 B2B Agency of the Year. BBDO revealed how compelling marketing for businesses is just as important (if not more) as connecting to consumers with creative and resonating storytelling.…
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Admirable Series: Killing Two Brands with One Ad

By: Claire Wilcox, Account Support Intern In a rising digital age, millennials don’t want more stuff, they want more experience. And brands will pay the price if they don’t adapt. Not only does Gen Y favor a trip (including lots of selfies) over a new car or wardrobe, it favors existential ads that connect with…
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7 Steps to Take When Executing a Paid Social Campaign

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Manager and Social Media Manager In 2016, 40% of marketers reported social media has become more challenging — with changes in search algorithms, emerging trends, and a decline in organic traffic. Organic traffic has especially become difficult for marketers. A Facebook page with over a million likes averages a 2.27% engagement…
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Industry Insights

[row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Pinterest Launches “Propel”, a Hands-On Support Program for New Advertisers [button text="See Full Article" link="http://marketingland.com/pinterest-launches-propel-hands-support-program-new-advertisers-210598" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Mobile Now Accounts for Nearly 70% of Digital Media Time [button text="See Full Article" link="http://marketingland.com/mobile-now-accounts-nearly-70-digital-media-time-comscore-210094" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1]…
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ADmirable Series: Vans “Off The Wall”

By Luke Suggs, Account Intern Image Source For nearly 60 years, the Vans slogan “Off The Wall” was thought to be a skateboarding term because Vans has historically been a skateboarding brand. However, in recent years, Vans has transitioned from an exclusive skateboarding brand to a broader lifestyle brand. And after all these years, Vans…
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7 Best Practices for B2B Social Media Marketing

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator & Social Media Manager Generally people consider B2C companies when thinking about brands on social media. But social media also provides a huge opportunity for B2B brands that should not be overlooked. According to Salesforce, “Social media accounts for a third of all time spent online.” And while B2B brands…
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16 Ads That Take Creativity To The Max

By Mel Sala, Graphic Designer The main purpose of branding is to increase sales and make the brand visible to the users. Not only do you want to make the brand visible to users, you want to make the brand alluring. One of the most important factors that plays a role in today’s branding game…
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Classic Creative: Georgia Power

By Jeff Goss, President/Creative Director The utility industry was going through a government deregulation to prevent monopolies. In a nutshell, this meant sudden and new competition for our client Georgia Power. The challenge was to prevent client defection for cheaper alternatives now available. We came up with a solution directly derived from the question “Why…
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DigiKnow?

[row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Much to the Delight of Brands, Facebook Videos Will Now Play With the Sound on by Default [button text="See Full Article" link="http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-videos-play-sound-default/307983/" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Report: Facebook Engagement Down Across the Board, but Influencer Marketing Continues to Perform Strongly for Brands [button text="See…
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DigiKnow?

[row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Competitors Leave Twitter in the Dust [button text="See Full Article" link="https://www.statista.com/chart/5358/twitters-user-growth-in-perspective/" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Facebook Opens Itself to Ad Measurement Audit, Giving Brands More Control Over Video Ad Buys [button text="See Full Article" link="http://marketingland.com/facebook-opens-measurement-audit-gives-brands-control-video-ad-buys-206387" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1]…
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DigiKnow?

[row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Pinterest Begins Testing Search Ads on the Social Media Platform [button text="See Full Article" link="http://adage.com/article/digital/pinterest-doubles-search-advertising-biz/307771/?utm_source=digital_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage&ttl=1486581732?utm_visit=1984901" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Facebook is Refining its Ad Measurement Offerings to Give Markets More Information About Their Campaigns [button text="See Full Article" link="http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-marketers-data-tools-compare-tv/307767/?utm_source=digital_email&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=adage&ttl=1486489455?utm_visit=1984901" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"]…
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DigiKnow?

[row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Facebook updates News Feed algorithm to focus on video completion rates [button text="See Full Article" link="http://marketingland.com/facebook-video-completion-rates-204788" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Inmoji allows brands to create sendable, emoji-like stickers that they refer to as “Interactive Emojis” [button text="See Full Article" link="http://marketingland.com/inmoji-launches-first-self-service-platform-interactive-emoji-like-icons-stickers-204638" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline"…
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Award Series: Virgin Islands Telephone Company

By Jeff Goss, President/Creative Director The Virgin Islands Telephone Company had been our client for about 3 years. Our focus was a print, TV and PR campaign focused on stemming complaints about the quality of service in the U.S. Virgin Islands, as the weather, humidity and annual storms, wreaked havoc on above-ground lines. The biggest…
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ADmirable Series: “The Force” by Volkswagen

By: Luke Suggs, Account Support It’s Super Bowl time! A time when friends and family come together for wings, beer, football, a halftime show, and, most importantly, commercials. The Super Bowl is an exciting opportunity for brands and agencies to showcase their best creative work to millions of viewers. Volkswagen nailed it with this 2011…
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The Do’s and Don’ts of Branding in 2017

By Chloe Ayres, Senior Designer Just as our personality is a mixture of inherent traits and characteristics that develop over time, your brand is a mix of existing factors and developed characteristics. Branding is how you shape and communicate that personality to your customers. While some truths of branding will always stand the test of…
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Brand Engagement Grows as Fans Use Social Media During The Super Bowl

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator & Social Media Manager It’s hard to believe that the Super Bowl is this week. And like most advertising aficionados, we are getting pumped and excited the way anyone in the entertainment industry would the week of the Oscars. And now, as a majority of Americans are on social media,…
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The Importance of Music in Advertising and Branding

By Luke Suggs, Account Support For most people, music is an essential part of everyday life. Although people may have stylistic differences, music has the ability to connect people and has power to make us feel. Similar to smell, music can trigger memory. Just the other day my friend said whenever he heard the song…
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DigiKnow?

[row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Google appears to be introducing a simple website creation tool for small businesses. [button text="See Full Article" link="http://marketingland.com/google-taking-another-run-simple-website-creation-small-businesses-203468" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"] [/span7] [/row] [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] Facebook’s extended Ad Network now serves ads to over one billion people. [button text="See Full Article" link="http://adage.com/article/digital/facebook-serving-ads-washington-post-rolling-stone/307486/" style="default" size="normal" target="_blank" display="inline" icon="no"]…
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Classic Creative – Austin Quality Foods

By Jeff Goss, President/Creative Director We conducted our Brand Exercise “Benefits Testing” to arrive at the primary benefit “End the hungries.” It sounds pretty obvious now, but it wasn’t so obvious before. Product benefits led to options like after-school snack, perfect travel food, most fulfilling and convenient snack, sports energy (this was before all the…
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Chuck Archerd Digital Case History

Recently, The Goss Agency had the pleasure of working with Chuck Archerd on his race to become Chairman of the Buncombe County Commission. Over the course of the campaign, we leveraged Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and LinkedIn, targeting users based on geography and political affiliation to achieve a whopping 642,000 impressions in only 8 weeks with…
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Google now showing product schema rich snippets in image search results

Google Image Search now supports product schema markup in the mobile image search results. Barry Schwartz on December 14, 2016 at 8:45 am Google is now displaying rich snippets via product schema markup in the Google Image Search results. If you do a Google image search on a smartphone and click on a result that…
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Facebook’s latest measurement error undercounted Instant Articles traffic

For those keeping count, this is the fourth time Facebook has disclosed measurement errors in as many months. Tim Peterson on December 16, 2016 at 11:00 am It’s happened again. For the fourth time since September and the second time this month, Facebook has disclosed a measurement error. Facebook had been undercounting iPhone traffic for…
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Salesforce moves beyond first-party data with Krux integration

The CRM/marketing giant unveils several new features for its Marketing Cloud that incorporate its recently purchased data management platform. Barry Levine on December 16, 2016 at 10:46 am In October, Salesforce announced it was buying data management platform (DMP) Krux. This week, the CRM/marketing giant unveiled the addition of three new features to its Marketing…
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Reserve with Google: Deeper booking integration through search and Maps

Online booking is becoming mainstream, with the principal points of entry being Google, Facebook and Yelp. Greg Sterling on December 15, 2016 at 11:32 am Local search is becoming much more transactional. Google previously worked with a range of third-party providers to bring online reservations to the Knowledge Graph. Now the company has gone much…
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Advertisers are cooling on Snapchat Live Stories

With viewership for Snapchat’s Live Stories stagnating, the feature is not a priority for media buyers. In addition to Discover, Live Stories is one of two media-driven features inside the Snapchat app. Available alongside Discover on the Stories and Discover pages, Live Stories provides content curated around different events and topics — everything from a…
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New wave of referrer spam wrecking Google Analytics data

If you're seeing a lot of referral traffic in your Google Analytics data, you're not alone. Contributor Jonathan Hochman explains how referral spam happens, lays out methods to combat it and suggests potential solutions for Google's consideration. Jonathan Hochman on December 8, 2016 at 11:13 am A new surge of referrer spam is damaging Google…
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Instagram Story links get 15–25% swipe-through rates for brands, publishers

Vox Media’s Curbed, MeUndies, Outside and Whisper discuss their early strategies and success with linking to their sites from Instagram Stories. Tim Peterson on December 8, 2016 at 9:00 am Instagram may have arrived late as a traffic source for brands and publishers, but it’s already showing early signs of success, driving new visitors to…
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What Businesses Should Know About Local SEO

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator/Social Media Coordinator Of course businesses want to draw visitors from across the state, country, and even the other side of the world. But what about the local visitor? Businesses should optimize their local search ranking and provide content to encourage traffic from their local geographic region as well. According to…
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5 Marketing Predictions for 2017

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator Ready or not, 2017 will be here before we know it! Here is a compiled list of predicted trends that will help you adjust, prep and optimize your advertising and marketing plan for the new year: [row] [span1] [/span1] [span7] An increased focus on analytics — including the use of…
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ADmirable Series: H&M “Come Together”

By Luke Suggs, Account Intern Nobody likes delays, especially on Christmas! In H&M’s new holiday ad, “Come Together,” passengers on a train are informed there is a delay and will be missing Christmas with their families. The train operator sets his efforts to ensure that a young boy gets a Christmas even if it’s with…
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Award Series: Sky Dive North Georgia

By Jeff Goss, President/Creative Director Small client, small budget: How do you get the word out? It was the perfect fit: Creation of powerful headlines to go in, well, “Headlines,” Atlanta’s premier facilitator of restroom advertising. You might say our ads were in the toilet — strategically placed above the urinals. The look was simple:…
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Advertising is Crucial for Mobile App Developers

Report: Most users will need multiple exposures to an app before they download TUNE study based on a mix of consumer survey and app download data. Greg Sterling on November 11, 2016 at 2:14 pm How does brand impact app installs? That’s a question TUNE sought to answer with a number of related consumer and…
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Brands Will Soon Have an Analytics Tool for Their Facebook Messenger Bots

Facebook has created its own analytics tool for Messenger bots Facebook's free Messenger bot analytics tool will cross-reference Messenger interactions with Facebook user data and can tie into mobile app, web analytics. Tim Peterson on November 15, 2016 at 2:12 pm With more than 34,000 Messenger bots on the market since their April 2016 debut,…
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The Power of Online Reviews (and How You Can Improve Yours)

70% of consumers will leave a review for a business when asked Want to get inside the minds of potential customers for your local business? Columnist Sherry Bonelli shares insights from BrightLocal's annual Local Consumer Review Survey. Sherry Bonelli on November 14, 2016 at 10:03 am A business’s online reputation is more important than ever.…
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Pinterest Testing the Waters With Autoplay Ads

Pinterest queues up autoplay video ads for new Explore tab American Express, The Home Depot, Macy’s and Sony Pictures are among the first brands to test Pinterest’s autoplay video ads. Tim Peterson on November 15, 2016 at 2:12 pm A few months after introducing click-to-play video ads, Pinterest is catching up with the times —…
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Facebook Attempts to Restore Trust With Advertisers

In major measurement update, Facebook overhauls metrics, makes corrections, adds viewability Facebook is also adding more third-party verification and forming a Measurement Council to stay in step with evolving products and metrics. Ginny Marvin on November 16, 2016 at 9:00 am In a sort of course correction, Facebook made several announcements Wednesday pertaining to audience…
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New Creative: Alliance AutoGas

By Ryan Laffler, Account Manager Our client, Alliance AutoGas, proudly offers fleet managers across America the ability to convert their fleets to propane autogas, one of the cleanest burning fossil fuels known to man. In creating this digital direct piece, we aimed to create an emotionally compelling advertisement that highlighted this product benefit, contrasted it…
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7 Ways to Improve Your Search Rank Using Social Media

By Ryan Laffler, Account Manager & Digital Director Social media is like a multi-tool; use it to engage with customers, sell products, market new products, for PR. But did you know that social media can also help your SEO? That’s right! And while its effect on your search results is indirect, it goes a long…
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Award Series: Farnam Custom Products

By Jeff Goss, President One of the biggest mistakes business-to-business clients make is getting too technical. They forget that, although their customers are buying a product for business and there are a lot of technical features, they have to add up to a benefit at the end of the day. But, most importantly, that benefit…
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Adobe Marketing Cloud’s Secret Agent: How’s your Customer Experience?

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator/Social Media Manager Everyone needs a laugh, and everyone loves a story. Brands that use storytelling and humor can connect with their target audience in a personable and impactful way. A brand that has successfully used humor this fall is Adobe Marketing Cloud. Adobe speaks to the problem many brands face…
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Branding Process Kicks Off For Elizabeth City, NC

By Ryan Laffler, Account Manager Two weeks ago, The Goss Agency had the pleasure of visiting one of its clients, Elizabeth City, to present the results from our branding process. Located on the Pasquotank River in Eastern North Carolina, Elizabeth City truly is a gem of Southern charm and culture. The branding process uncovered Elizabeth…
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5 SEO Mistakes You’re Making

In the early days of SEO, the mindset for most specialists was, "How do we trick Google into giving us better search results?" Well, if Google has ever been accused of something, it wasn't stupidity, which is why they've since begun penalizing SEO specialists who try to game the system. Nowadays, good SEO isn't achieved…
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Classic Creative – Haywood County

Haywood County, after our branding workshop filtering and prioritizing all the features and visitor experiences, determined that the authentic Appalachian culture and clean natural environment were the assets that rose to the top. Thus, “Haywood County, Authentic Appalachian, pure and simple” was born. A new logo was created by illustrating the landscape in a turn-of-the-century…
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4 Reasons Why Your Brand Should Use Instagram Stories

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator/Social Media Manager Was Instagram being a copycat of Snapchat when it rolled out its new feature, Instagram Stories? Of course. Should brands still use and be aware of this new feature? Most definitely. Just like Snapchat Stories, Instagram Stories are available to be seen by all followers of a user…
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ARE YOU FOR REAL?

By Rachel Hornay, Copywriter Intern Technology is always developing but the recent craze of virtual reality invites brands to explore a whole new platform. Virtual reality (VR) is defined as a computer-generated simulation of a three-dimensional image or environment that can be interacted with in a seemingly real way by a person using special electronic…
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ADmirable Series: Dove’s #MyBeautyMySay Campaign

By: Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator & Social Media Manager It is admirable when a brand takes hold of a deeper message and a cause that goes beyond their product and penetrates the emotion and feelings of their target. Rather than just advertising soap and shampoo, Dove has been able to successfully take a stand for…
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4 Ways To Attract Millennials To Your Destination

By: Courtney Jacobs, Account Intern Millennials are armed to be the driving force behind the travel industry. They use travel to go on adventures, learn other languages and study. Why are they so eager to travel? This generation was jaded by the recession and now places less importance on saving for retirement and instead values…
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Q+A: HOW TO OPTIMIZE PINTEREST FOR YOUR DESTINATION

By Gabrielle Diepenbrock, Account Coordinator and Social Media Manager 1. Why is Pinterest important for travel destinations? You may ask: Isn’t Pinterest just a website where stay-at-home moms find cool recipes and quirky DIY crafts? While there may be some truth in that, there is so much more to Pinterest that your destination can benefit…
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Why You Need to be Focusing on Native Advertising

By: Ryan Laffler, Account Manager & Digital Director Display ads, the advertisements that you see on the top and sidebars of almost every webpage nowadays, are in decline. One part of the problem is that they are rarely relevant to the user. While this has changed somewhat with Google Adsense’s targeting algorithm, it started to…
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Pin It! – The 3 Most Important Tips to Optimize Your Pinterest

By Travis LeJune, Account Intern Do you have a Pinterest yet? If you are a shopper, you should definitely get one. If you are a seller, you MUST have one! Sure, it is still a fairly young social media platform, but it has been churning up some extremely surprising statistics we think you should know…
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ADmirable: Chipotle’s New Campaign

Fast food giant Chipotle recently came out with an animated short about two kids who grow up locked in competition with each other. The heartwarming video works because it captures Chipotle’s brand distinction in an entertaining way that resonates with others. Memorable brands don’t just offer great products or services, they connect with their audience…
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Award Series: The Thoms Estate

By Jeff Goss, CEO/Creative Director The heir to a 100-acre estate in the heart of Asheville partnered with GDR (Global Development Resources), our client, for an environmentally responsible development design that paid respect to the property and her father, who established the estate in 1937. Her mother was an artist, as were many in her…
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Top 5 Mobile Advertising Trends in 2016

By Ryan Laffler, Digital Director, and Rachel Hornay, Art Direction/Copywriting Intern 1. FORGET YOUR WALLET Mobile wallets have become the new way to pay. Once companies proved that mobile wallet transactions were properly encrypted and secure, mobile wallets began to take off. Many top brands such as Apple, MasterCard and Android now offer mobile payment.…
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Q&A – What is the core of Award Winning Creative?

By Jeff Goss, CEO/Creative Director Q: What is the core of Award Winning Creative? A: Award, which award? Many awards are meaningless because the standards are so low (everybody gets a trophy). Others are an ego-stroking fest among “creative elites” congratulating one another for work they created more for themselves than the client and client’s…
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Digital Advertising Statistics You Need to Know (Infographic)

Ever since the turn of the century, Digital Advertising has been changing the ways brands communicate with their audience. The number of tools and techniques that have surfaced over this time can be a little overwhelming, but with the right strategy and agency behind you, digital advertising can produce tremendous returns for you and your…
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YOUR EMOJI SAYS IT ALL

By Rachel Hornay, Art/Copy Intern They say that a picture is worth a thousands words, especially with today’s language evolving with the usage of emoji characters. Emojis are intended to illustrate, or in some cases replace altogether, the words we send each other digitally, whether in a text message, email, or tweet. Instagram calls emoji…
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Sustain Your Brand using Instagram and Food

By Courtney Jacobs, Account Intern Brands are constantly looking for ways to engage with consumers on social media. However, one challenge is noticing the trends occurring on various platforms and capitalizing on them successfully before the competition. One such trend that is growing in popularity centers around food. It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t…
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Award Series – Speidel ID Bracelets

By Jeff Goss, CEO/Creative Director Clunky ID bracelets of the ‘50s and ‘60s by Speidel were engraved with teens’ names and exchanged and worn when dating--a brand and product withering of the vine in the ‘90s. What to do? With a little research we identified the top 3 social issues for teens: drunk driving, environment…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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Logo Design Series Continued: Mountain Child Advocacy Center

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…
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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…
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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…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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.…
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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.
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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,…
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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,…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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…
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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
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Design Trends 2016

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

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
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Creative History – Disney’s Vero Beach

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…
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New Cultural Tourism Division

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…
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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.
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CAPS Rebranding Campaign

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…
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Seeking Opportunities for Brand Connections

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…
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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…
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New Website Sneak Peek

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…
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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…
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Cyber Monday Versus Black Friday

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...
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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…
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Staying Positive in a Negative World

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…
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New Creative Released!

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…
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Best Email Marketing Results Yet

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…
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Blossman Fall/Winter Print Catalog

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…
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Holiday Ads 2015

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…
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Ideation Workshop Brainstorms Brand

  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…
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4 Examples of Interactive Ads

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…
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New Creative: 3D Mailers

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...
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Positioning is Everything for your Messaging

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…
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2016 Marketing Plan

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…
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Why Twitter Still Matters

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...
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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.
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More Awesome Email Marketing Results

  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…
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Creative Discipline

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.    
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Holiday Shopping Insights

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.…
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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…
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Pinterest Tips for Business Success

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...
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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…
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Pinterest Promoted Pins

  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…
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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…
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Visit Natchez Convention & Visitors Bureau Retains The Goss Agency for Branding Services

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…
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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…
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5 Tools to Get More Out of Instagram

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…
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9+ Ways to Improve Your Video Marketing

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…
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Branding with Periscope

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...
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New Digital Marketing Statistics 2015

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...
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Leveraging Your Distinction with Smart Branding

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…
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Promoting Your Social Media Channels

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...
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5 Quick Fixes for Your Facebook Page

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…
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New Website for Haywood County

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.…
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