Category: Advertising & Marketing

Twitter and Rhapsody to work together

Posted on by Brian Lee

Music legality and streaming have been hot topics, especially at the annual SXSW Conference in Austin, Texas. This week it was announced that Twitter and Rhapsody have joined forces so users can now stream full-length tracks on the app even if they don’t have a subscription.

This feature can be made possible due to Twitter’s audio card, which allows users to stream audio directly from their tweets.

Any Rhapsody user–the service has more than 2 million of them–can share any song from the site’s repertoire to Twitter. However, it only works through the app. If you’re opening the audio card from the web, it will only give a 10-second preview of the song.

This is a good marketing move by Rhapsody, as they’re looking to increase its membership. Currently, the music service has fewer paid users than its competitor Spotify. Rhapsody is also promoting itself on each card with a “learn more about Rhapsody” button.

We like to call this co-marketing, or an opportunity for two brands to work together on promotional efforts with a co-branded offer. Both companies promote content/product and share the results.

How to Create a Google Map with Pinpoints

Posted on by Brian Lee

*Confirmed again on Feb. 20, 2019*

I never understand why companies continuously change their procedures. What’s worse, most don’t explain the new procedures to their customers. Google is guilty of this when it changed how to make a Google map with pinpoints. As of March 5, 2015, here are the new steps:

  1. Google My Maps 2Log into your Google account (e.g. Gmail). Note: all maps you create will be saved to your Google Drive.
  2. Go to google.com/mymaps or google.com/maps/d.
  3. Choose Create a New Map. From here, there are numerous ways to begin.
  4. For example, you can type in a location in the search bar at the top of the screen. That location will be noted with a green pin. To add it to your map, click on the green pin and choose “Add to map.”
  5. Repeat step four until you have all the pinpoints added.

Google allows you to have multiple layers, each with its own set of pinpoints, on one map. You automatically start with an “Untitled layer” (rename by clicking on the three dots and choosing “Rename this layer”). Add more by clicking on “Add layer.”

In addition, Google allows you to import a list of locations saved as a CSV, XLSX or KML file. Under your layer, before you add any pinpoints, click on “Import.”

Super Bowl ads 2015: staff opinions

Posted on by Brian Lee

BRIAN:
Instead of picking a favorite, I want to talk about how many sets of commercials used the same elements. For example:

  • Both Toyota and Microsoft followed the life of someone with prosthetic legs.
  • Both Carnival and Toyota used a recording of a famous speech to overlay over b-roll.
  • Both Sprint and Discover featured a screaming goat.

To me, it just goes to show that you have to work really hard to stand out from the crowd. You may think you have a unique idea, or you may think you’re the only one taking advantage of something trendy, but in all likelihood, someone else is doing the same thing.

TAYLOR:
In between being a disgruntled Colts fan (#DeflateGate) and planning a wedding, I managed to watch a bit of the Super Bowl. The ad that stood out to me most was McDonald’s “Pay With Lovin’.” Earlier in the week, the company teased it was going to announce a new form of payment which, we now know, includes hugs, selfies and high-fives. I think McDonald’s did a great job of incorporating its longtime slogan of “I’m Lovin’ It” to something time-related with Valentine’s Day. Also, who doesn’t like free hamburgers!

GABRIELLE:
One of the only Super Bowl ads that really stuck out to me this year was Dove Men’s Care. The majority of Dove advertisements I’ve seen in the past are typically marketed toward women through images of natural beauty and empowerment. This time I thought it was great they focused on men. I really liked how they framed the “Real Strength” of men through the videos of fathers caring for their children. They did a great job of evoking emotions and challenging gender stereotypes.