Google's Got Visuals

Google’s Got Visuals

Google Product Listing Ads are now being rolled out to all of Google’s advertisers in the United States. The format, which has been in testing with select advertisers for the past year, makes AdWords more visual by allowing advertisers to list specific products with accompanying images. While the ads represent a departure from Google’s traditional text…

What’s In a Name?

Your business begins with a name. It’s the cornerstone of your company identity and impacts your branding, company tone, and first impressions. Think about it. The branding of Target would be very different if the retailer still went by its original name, Dayton Dry Goods Company. Selecting the right business name for your company is…

Online Advertising

Online advertising is thriving in the U.S., according to figures released in the latest IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report. Businesses and individuals spent approximately $12.1 billion on online advertising in the first six months of 2010, up 11.3% from the first half of 2009 and 13.9% from the second quarter of 2009. In fact, this…

Another Side of Customer Loyalty

CardStar offers mobile phone users a simple way to manage physical loyalty and membership cards in a digital manner. Today the service is introducing integration with Foursquare to support check-ins for users of the iPhone application. Now, when a user scans their club or loyalty card via CardStar during checkout, they can also tap to check in on the location-based…

Loyal Customer Service

The Loyal Treatment

If you’ve been listening to Mel Gibson’s phone calls lately, you might have reason to doubt the existence of loyalty in society today. Nonetheless, in business, it’s something that your customer should strive for – customer loyalty, that is. Obviously, you’ve got everything to gain in a loyal customer: keep them happy and reap the…

Death of the Newspaper

Death of a Newspaperman

News media — including newspapers, news weeklies and TV news programs — was struggling long before the 2008 financial crisis and subsequent recession. In 2009 alone more than 100 newspapers shut down across the United States. With 24-hour TV and web news cycles, physical newspaper distribution has become somewhat of an inconvenience. That combined with the…

Creating and Consuming Media – Where’s the Balance?

An integral part of creating great media is consuming great media. However: There has to be a balance. Spend too much time looking at other people’s work, and you’ll end up neglecting your own work, and possibly even suppressing your own creativity. Then again, if you work in a bubble without seeing what else is…