It seems as though the male community has dubbed this a “chick website”. Well, I’ve got news for you, men and women can coexist within this social media platform! For all the Bros out there, let me dissect this website for you and prove that “pinning” is for everyone.

Let’s start with the basics. Pinterest is basically a live, interactive feed of bookmarking things you like. When you click on a “pinned” image or video, you are taken to the website where it originates from. Users can “re-pin,” “like”, comment and “follow” your posts with ease. Here are some categories featured on the site that might spark some interest to all the guys out there:

1. Cars and Motorcycles: This section was specifically added to draw more male users to the site. Because this category is heavily male dominated, you will find it easier to connect and “follow” fellow males on the site.
2. Food: How can you hate on food? Even if you aren’t much of a chef, there are some basic recipes worth trying. Just recently, I found a delicious (and easy!) recipe for a bacon wrapped cheeseburger (YUM!). If all else fails, you can “pin” a recipe and tag it to someone that may want to cook for you!
3. Fitness: Do you work out? Do you think about working out? This section is extremely helpful and motivating with great workout tips and ways to stay healthy. Warning: Hot bodies do appear in this section!
4. Sports: The latest in sports is found here. Male users unite! Links, pictures, and products galore!
5. Technology: Stay up to date with web stats, analytics, SEO, marketing, and business news. Male users in the United Kingdom primarily “pin” items found within this category.
6. Humor: You won’t want to leave this section with the mass amounts of hilarious posts! From witty to inappropriate, there is something here for everyone!

Slowly creeping in, male brands are emerging amongst the female dominated community. Men’s Health, Playboy.com, Guyism, Travel Channel, and Dial for Men, just to name a few, have gotten a successful start targeting male pinners.

Another great feature of this site is the ability to “pin” something from an outside website onto one of your boards instantly. Pinterest has a button that you add to your navigation bar on your web browser. You click that button when you want to “pin” a video, image, or article. So let’s say you read a rad article on ESPN.com about the upcoming NFL draft that you want to save and share. You would click the Pinterest icon to post to one of your existing boards or another social media website. If you want to access that article a month down the road, it will be visually present on your account and easy to find.

So Bros, what exactly is stopping you from joining Pinterest? The female population invites you and welcomes you with open arms.

Each year in the spirit of the holiday season, Rosenberg Advertising participates in the Salvation Army’s Adopt-a-Family (AAF) program. This program matches impoverished families with sponsors to provide a warm and gift-filled Christmas for families who otherwise may not have been able to celebrate.

This year, Rosenberg Advertising was paired up with a family of four (a mother and her three children), and set off to make their holiday season bright! In addition to offering necessities such as diapers, bedding, and coats, we also wanted to add holiday cheer and provide hours of fun in the form of toys and games for the young ones!

The AAF program is designed to be a rare lifetime event for recipient families. As a sponsor, Rosenberg was matched up and received family information (ages, sex, interests) of each family member. We then set off to shop and make this Christmas a one to remember for the family. The week before Christmas, the family receives the gifts along with food to celebrate!

Many of the chosen families are referred by professional social workers who help determine which families would fit well with the program. This is done through completing an application during required home visits. At that time, an inventory of each family’s needs is taken and their Christmas wish list is put together.

We encourage you to get involved with a charity, whether it’s for the holidays or year-round, any contribution makes a difference. If you’re interested in the Salvation Army’s Adopt-a-Family program, we’ve included the link below. Also, you don’t need to be a small business to adopt, you can be an individual, family, organization, or corporation. Anyone can join in the cause!

Get Involved: The Salvation Army’s Adopt-a-Family

From all of us at Rosenberg Advertising, we wish you happy holidays and a wonderful 2012!

On a day when most businesses frown on their employers shopping online, Fox news reporter Tiffani Tucker states “Rosenberg Advertising is the exception to the rule.”

As I sit and watch this video for what is probably the hundredth time (it’s hysterical, isn’t it?) I realized it’s a good example of how one size doesn’t fit all in the advertising world.

From meetings to brainstorms to focus groups – the approach is endless when coming up with the best campaign for your client. And while one concept will work for one of your clients (Verizon’s “Can you hear me now?”) it most likely won’t work for any others (“Can you Garlic Ranch Blast me now?”). (Not to mention, recycling concepts is not the best marketing practice.)

The process can be long and tedious ensuring you’re not forcing a concept that doesn’t work or a concept that you think would be good, but in fact just isn’t a fit (“You mention it’s a BLAAAST!”). A creative marketing solution isn’t something that typically comes to mind immediately once a problem(s) is established – the thought process takes time. The concept should be a natural fit and come easily once the proper approach has been put in place.

As seen on the Saturday Night Live Taste Test skit, focus groups can be extremely helpful in coming up with ad campaigns (well, the skit’s focus group might not have been that helpful). Really understanding your market and what your customers think about a product or service can help you determine how to speak to them. Focus groups can be helpful because you can facilitate conversations around a particular topic, giving you information that you wouldn’t be able to get through other market research.

What are some approaches you’ve done for a client or for your own brand in order to come up with a stellar campaign?

HVR! HVR! HVR!

Google has noticed over the years that websites with poor quality information and massive amounts of outbound links have somehow been able to rank on the top of search results pages. In an effort to remedy this dilemma, Google has created fancy new algorithms to weed out websites that are of no use.

As Matt Cutts, Google’s head of spam, puts it:

“This update is designed to reduce rankings for low quality sites—sites which are low-value add for users, copy content from other websites or sites that are just not very useful. At the same time, it will provide better rankings for high quality sites—sites with original content and information such as research, in-depth reports, thoughtful analysis and so on.”

Who will this effect?

Sites such as “link farms” or websites with massive amounts of inbound/outbound links that have poor quality content will obviously be effected, but what about all the other sites out there?

You might be saying to yourself “Well all the website’s I work on are great, they all have fresh and unique content for sure!” While its true that your average everyday static business site is not anything like a link farm, your website most likely has a few faux pas and is getting “panda-slapped.”

Here are some Panda Faux Pas

• Large amounts of duplicated or copied site content, and low amounts of original copy
• Having unrelated ads on your site, especially if they are high on the page
• Title tags and overall page content that do not match the search queries that a page ranks well for
• Over optimizing a site/page with the same keyword
• High bounce rates/low visit times
• A low percentage of returning users
• Lack of social signals/user interaction
• Low or no quality inbound links to a page or site (by count or %).

How do we fix this?

• Avoid copying content from one page on your site to another. This is impossible to when it comes to navigation menus, but body content should be as original as possible
• There is nothing wrong with having a few outbound links as long as they are coupled with some original copy that explains where the user is about to go (blog posts)
• Limit the amount of advertisements on a website, or have them sit lower on the page
• Utilize Page Specific SEO
• Avoid overusing keywords in body copy and headings
• Keep the design of your website modern and organize its layout with proper information and call to actions that relate to the brand/product (this fights bounce rates)
• Implement a section of your site that will make users want to stay for awhile, and keep coming back (blog, Q&A, FAQ’s)
• Allow the boilerplate (information on the bottom footer of the page) to change on specific pages
• Increase the amount of inbound links on your site (blogs can also help this)
• Use “Social Signals” (Facebook, Twitter, blogs) that allow the user to interact with your site and keep them coming back
• Instead of using “learn more” or  “click here” link your pages to actual relevant text such as “increase your workflow” “speak with a representative” or “company history.”

Oh and, why is called “Panda?”

The update was named after Navneet Panda, one of Google’s software engineers that apparently created the breakthrough that made this whole update possible.

Resources
http://www.seroundtable.com/google-panda-13068.html
http://www.wordtracker.com/academy/google-panda-farmer

Article Contributed by: Dave Simon, Creative Director

Ever experienced buyer’s remorse and wonder WHY DID I BUY THAT?! We’ll we have stumbled upon a resource that we found quite interesting that we’d like to share with you. An article from Wired Magazine takes a deeper look into what makes us tick as consumers, and how some of the leading brands have tapped into that knowledge. Below, you will find the summed up version of the article.  But if you want to learn more, we encourage you to visit the link at the end of this entry for the complete article!

Amazon: One of our favorite companies! The trick that this giant uses is eliminating small frictions. Having your information pre-saved and your options pre-selected is the money maker. These presets require you as a consumer, to do as little work as possible and to just spend moolah! What about that free super saving? Spend $25 and you qualify for free shipping.  Something in our minds triggers “Hey I’m saving on shipping, so why not buy more items?!” And oh yes, the benefits of Amazon Prime, for $79/year you get unlimited free shipping. Why wouldn’t you do all your online shopping there? You’ve already paid the fee upfront so of course you’re going to shop there and with impulse.. sneaky, sneaky Amazon.. but we still love you!

Netflix: No late fees? Unlimited movie rentals? Hmmm… I’m obsessed with movies, this sounds like the PERFECT solution. Except now that I know I have it, I’m surprised I’m not watching nearly half of what I thought I would! I really am planning on watching that classic movie and not just the new releases, that’s why I got the membership, duh! I want to become more cultured… I guess maybe in a few weeks…culture can wait! I have unlimited access whenever, so what’s the rush? What do you mean I’m not saving money from the amount of movies I watch? Oh, that’s because I’m not watching them, BINGO! Netflix you little geniuses you!

Groupon: I’ve got an idea.. let’s throw together the combination that we can anonymously be cheap, yet still socially accepted.. the result? Groupon! Everyone likes a deal, and when it’s encouraged in a group and you are relying on other people to get the deal, the stigma isn’t as strong as it once was. Not to mention the pressure, ONLY ONE DAY TO DECIDE?! I’ll never have the opportunity for this 50% off manicure again ever in my life.  Not to mention, how did I ever live without it before? Skydiving for $40?! This is a once in a lifetime opportunity, and I MUST have it NOW.  Such a perfect combination of social acceptance, peer pressure and anxiety over regret. Sounds kind of like an anti-drug commercial a bit..hmm.. Oh well, Groupon sign us up!

Zynga Farmville- I’m basically a farmer,  let’s be serious it may be online but it counts. I’ve spent hours perfecting this online farm to make it the success it is. Local farmers take note! Therefore, I am invested in its well being, even if it is just a social media game. So what? It’s important and I’ve spent 98% of my time obsessing over it rather than doing something productive, like making dinner or socializing offline. That being said, of course I’m going to foster the growth of this booming business. This is my one chance at entrepreneurship!  An important note to my fellow farmers..we all know we have the opportunity to pocket “$10″ or pay it forward and give “$40″ to another fellow farmer, right? I do hope that you will take the ethical route, especially since we both know how hard it is to put in a day’s work on the farm. You know you should split the “$40″ with me, which you have the opportunity to do so, so what are you waiting for? Even though you technically can keep the money, I TRUST you. Wow, this interaction-trust-exchange thing is almost as good as substituting real money and dealing with real businesses outside my house. Nah..I’M GOING TO KEEP PLAYING ONLINE!

Facebook- Ahhh yes, the gift application. Simply spend a $1 to send a virtual gift to your friend on their birthday. Sure, I’m fine with throwing away money on a clip art icon in hopes that my friends will see me as loving and giving. And of course you can’t under appreciate the public approval when it posts to the famous news feed. Look at me everyone, I’m so nice and I have lots of friends and it only cost a $1 for 380 of my friends to see how wonderful I am. Oh, and the reach, 540 of my friend’s friends will see it on their wall too. That means 920 people know I’m a good person and I didn’t even have to leave my chair or go to the mall, BONUS!

Apple- Don’t you love how the app store doesn’t charge you right away when you purchase a new app from the iTunes store? You don’t have to worry about those pesky receipts till later on, even days later! How nice of Apple, we can enjoy our purchase without having to taint the experience that we paid for it (for now).. we’ll just face the reality of it later. By then, hopefully we have enjoyed it enough to make it worth it! AKA what economists call the pain of paying. Enjoy now, worry about it later!

Gaming Ourselves- What does this mean? Simply the following:

1. Email- A lot of the email we get is junk, but ever-so-often a golden ticket is thrown in there, as a result we feel the NEED to open nearly every piece because we don’t want to miss anything. Even worse, we are constantly available at all times because of technology on our phones!

2. Calendar- Suffering from empty calendar syndrome? I promise, you are still wonderful, charming and charismatic even if your calendar is not filled to the brim. As individuals, we tend to see an empty calendar and feel the rush to fill it in. Whoa there horsey, relax a bit, there’s no rush! That being said, people also are highly optimistic about where they will be time-wise and availability-wise in the near future, therefore agreeing to all sorts of dates and times. This can be a problem. The author of the article suggests: “When someone asks you to do something in a year, ask yourself whether you’d accept if it were happening in the next two weeks. Based on our calendar, it looks as if we will have nothing do a year from now. In reality, though, our typical week next year will look a lot like this week.”

Pretty interesting stuff, huh? You’ve got our take on the article and what we learned, but we definitely encourage you to check out the web site for the complete version of the article, including insightful statistics and details. You’ll be surprised at what you’ll learn!

View the full story: http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/06/ff_gamed/all/1

Britney is not the only pop artist taking advantage of gaining some extra cash for product placement in music videos.  Travie McCoy was paid to feature a Mini Cooper in his video, “Billionaire.”  According to the NYTimes, “The money is often used to offset the video’s cost, which is usually shared by the artist and label.”

Lady Gaga is another pop icon who features products in her music videos.  One of Lady Gaga’s more famous music videos, “Telephone,” featuring Beyonce, had a number of different brands featured.  Some trademark names in this video include: Diet Coke, Virgin Moblie, Wonderbread, Miracle Whip, Polaroid Chevrolet and HP.  Most of the placements in this video were unpaid; however, some of the brands do have a partnership with Gaga.

Below is the video of Lady Gaga’s, “Telephone.”  How many product placements can you spot?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EVBsypHzF3U&ob=av3e

 Fun fact: There is also something called product displacement.  Product displacement occurs when companies do not wish to associate their brand with someone else’s product.

Now that you have a little insight into the ad world within music videos, be on the look out! We guarantee you will notice it a lot more then you did before!

A lot has been happening around the office lately and we wanted to share some of the exciting news with you! We have recently partnered with Dan Portik who will be joining the team as our new Senior Business Development Consultant.

Dan comes to the team with over 20 years of experience, including prior ownership of the Jamestown Group. At Rosenberg Advertising, Dan will be working with our CEO Dave Rosenberg to develop and implement new strategies to grow our expanding client list!

So who exactly is Dan Portik? As you may or may not know, we always like to share some fun facts about our team members at the agency (check out our other employee bios), and Dan is no exception. We felt it was only fair that Dan undergo our initiation process and for us to share our insights with you!

Here’s what we learned…

In his free time, Dan enjoys playing pool, bible study, and of course rooting for our beloved Cleveland Brownies with his family. A die-hard Cleveland sports fan is always a bonus around the office!

Not only is he the guru at new business development, but he is also a talented musician. He writes music and jams out with his youngest son on guitar and drums whenever he gets a chance. Did we mention that one of his secret wishes is to go on tour with the original Lynyrd Skynyrd band for one year only?! (before the plane crash of course)

Maybe our absolute favorite thing we learned about Dan is that his favorite word in the English Dictionary is the word “YES”. When asked why, his explanation was perfect, “so many good things have happened after that word is said!” What can we say? That is definitely the attitude we like to see from our new Senior Business Development Consultant!

We encourage you to get to know Dan better as well. Feel free to drop him an email at Dan@rosenbergadv.com or give him a call at 216-215-5662 to say hi! If you’re lucky, maybe you can get him to play a guitar rip for you!

From our intern Maura’s perspective..

In today’s society, advertisers face a tough challenge.  Marketers not only have to capture their audience’s attention, but also have to find a way to effectively deliver their product’s message.  Advertising agencies try numerous ways to gain awareness from potential customers by using both informational and emotional appeals.  Consumers are exposed to thousands of advertisements a day, so being able to capture an audience and have them recall the message they saw can be quite difficult for marketers.

A popular technique that is used in advertising is humor.  Despite consumers being able to remember an ad, they cannot always remember the brand that was associated with the product.

Take a look at what AdWeek claims to be the 10 funniest commercials of all time.  Are you able to recall both the ad’s message and the brand associated with the product?

Ten Funniest Commercials of All Time

At Rosenberg, we are a business that is rooted deep within the community. Whether it’s from supporting local businesses, or hosting charity support events, we like to be a part of our greater community.

One our long-standing clients Silverman’s, a local discount department  store shares the same view. As part of their initiative to give back to the community, they established Uniforms for Kids. This cause serves to help under-served areas of the community and provide school uniforms for families that cannot afford them.

The Plain Dealer recently did an in-depth story on the cause and how it has helped local families. For more information check out the link: Low-income Cleveland Families Scrambling to Find Help Buying Needed School Uniforms, Supplies.

Want to get involved and help a Cleveland charity? Have a look at some of the local charities below. Happy volunteering!