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Go ahead: edit some photos before the service disappears altogether: http://www.picnik.com/

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In an effort to push their DC ENTERTAINMENT brand of comics, movies, video games, and more, DC has ditched their age-old logo for a new one.

Brilliant reasoning aside, is this really what was approved in the end? You remember the Gap Debacle right? Is DC making the same mistake? Do you like what they’ve come up with? Yes, or no, comment below as we’d love to hear your thoughts!

When I think about advertising I think of the classics. You know the “Have it Your Way”’s or the “Be All that You Can Be”’s. The cause of success for these campaign slogans can be found both in the creative inspiration and the wording. Every brand needs to position itself in the mind of the target market as the solution to a need. But the challenge is establishing this quickly and memorably.

In the two previous examples you can see that the first place to start is by looking at your consumers’ needs and discontentment’s.

Burger King unleashed “Have it Your Way” during a time when Mcdonalds and almost all other fast food venues only offered standardized menu options. This gave Burger King the inspiration to tell the public that at their establishment they could hold the pickle and onions if they wanted to.

The success of this idea not only forced their competitors to change their policies, it also brought about a change in the way the consumer looked at Burger King. And thus, a burger joint with an imperial name become the people’s champion.

So now look at your consumers. What is it they feel is missing from your competitors? What happens if they don’t get your solution to a problem? Where would they be buying the product? For whom would they be buying the product? What perceived or real benefit does your product have?

Next put out a piece of paper and number it vertically 5, 3, 2, 6, 4, 1. Based on the answers to the above questions come up with a brief embodiment of the essence of your answers. The numbers represent the amount of words you can use for each phrase or slogan.

The possibilities are endless; you can create a list for each answer, or simply do one list as a collective of all of the answers. The more the better.

Try to make this part as fluid as possible with no going back and editing anything. Chances are you won’t actually use any of the ideas that come up, but they will act as a catalyst for creative thought and will lead to your own masterful slogan.

Happy marketing!

Editor’s Note: Flora Nicholas is the Chief Executive Officer of Brainwave, Inc., and the author of many great posts on the Mad Woman Blog. The following post is from her blog and is reposted with permission.

The News International Scandal – in tabloid headlines

Last week was a sensational one for Rupert Murdoch and Co. Instead of reporting on the news, Rupert, his family and News International actually made all the news, as the Hackgate scandal exploded onto the world’s front pages. Revelations came thick and fast, resignations abounded, arrests were made and pants were undoubtedly soiled. It was truly amazing to watch it all unravel.

Now, as we all know, Mr. Murdoch and his family own numerous publications, including a number of newspapers that are famous for their exaggerated, factually distorted, often sordid, very funny and nearly always punny headlines.

So in order to give you the lowdown on the hearings that were held last week, I thought it would be appropriate for me to describe the various goings on in the tabloid headline style of the masters — The Sun, The Daily Star, The Daily Mirror, The New York Post, and of course, the dearly departed News Of The World.

(Note that I have included both Murdoch and non-Murdoch owned publications in my list of “tabloid headline masters” as I do of course want to be as fair and balanced as the Fox News owners would expect me to be.)

Here then are the “facts” about the hearings as reported by various media outlets, and the imaginary tabloid “headlines” as created by this media outlet, i.e. yours truly.

Fact: On Tuesday July 19, Rupert Murdoch, one of David Cameron’s biggest supporters, was called before parliament to testify about the Hackgate scandal.

Headline: Man blamed for David Cameron’s election finally held to account.

Fact: Murdoch’s wife, Wendi Deng, attended the hearings in support of her husband and sat behind him as he spoke.

Headline: Woman stands by her man as he testifies about boobs.

Fact: Rupert Murdoch’s son, James, was also called to testify, but it remains to be seen whether his was successful in assuaging the concerns of MPs.

Headline: MPs don’t buy The Son!

Fact: As attention turned constantly back to Rupert Murdoch himself, the severity of the situation facing the News International chairman became increasingly apparent.

Headline: Phone hacking puts Murdoch’s ass on the line.

Fact: Although the various members of the committee were deferential to and respectful of Mr. Murdoch, they still pressed him repeatedly to answer important questions about the scandal.

Headline: Fox News owner hounded by animals in parliament.

Fact: In the course of the hearings, Rupert Murdoch denied any knowledge of the widespread phone hacking that has allegedly taken place at News International.

Headline: Rupert Murdoch confesses to being a know nothing!

Fact: Rupert Murdoch also stated for the record that he was let down by people he had trusted at News International and they in turn, were let down by people they trusted.

Headline: Man who made billions passes buck.

Fact: Towards the end of the proceedings, a British comedian, Jonnie Marbles walked up to Murdoch unchallenged and shoved a shaving cream pie straight in to his face.

Headline: Murdoch eats humble and shaving cream pie!

Fact: Wendi Deng immediately jumped to her feet and punched Marbles in retaliation for his assault on her husband.

Headline: Hack Wars: The Empress strikes back!

Fact: After a 10 minute recess, Rupert Murdoch bravely continued his testimony, apparently unfazed by the shaving cream pie attack.

Headline: Nudespaper baron continues to bare all in hearings.

Fact: Before the end of the proceedings, Rupert Murdoch confessed that whenever he visited Downing Street, he was asked to enter by the back door, and duly obliged.

Headline: It’s official! Murdoch confesses to back door deals with Downing Street!

Fact: News International stock’s price rose during the course of the day and ended up by 5.6%, at just under $16 a share.

Headline: Wall Street wankers put their faith in phone hacking plonkers!

The fact is headlines sell newspapers. And no one knows that better than Rupert Murdoch. But as he reflects on a week where he, his family and former employees made all the headlines themselves, I suspect he won’t be too upset. Because the News International scandal is, after all, selling millions of newspapers — including many of his own.

Is your web copy sending people away from your content?

Get a free website evaluation

If you are the owner and operator of a business who feels you know everything there is to know about writing about your business, step back and take a moment to digest what I am about to tell you, as you could be losing customers every day simply based on the copy featured on your website.

No one wants to read long-winded essays on why you think your business is great

The people who land on your page need to know how utilizing your business will benefit them. They definitely don’t want to be lectured endlessly on products and theories.

Most business owners are educated and have experience writing essays or proposals, but very few have actual experience doing persuasive writing to consumers. These are two completely different things and should be treated as such.

As I’ve stressed in so many blogs before: know your target market and write to them. Better yet, get someone who has experience writing call-to-action rich content that is short and sweet to do it for you.

If you think your website can do better, or maybe you’re not sure but would like to increase revenues, maybe we should take another look at the writing. Submit your website here for a free evaluation.

As a business owner our customers tell us on a daily basis that the restrictions we implement on our products and services are a bad thing. We get so caught up in that culture during our daily lives as consumers that as business owners and marketers we forget whose side we’re on. People have to buy our products to appreciate them and when you give them a good deal there is no crime in keeping people from taking advantage of you.

Good wording can allow you to create a sense of urgency and exclusivity for your products and services

For the sake of argument imagine you have a warehouse full of widgets that you need to liquidate to make space for next year’s supply. “$_.__ Limited availability!” is a great way to tell people to buy your product now.

Or if a certain sale price is ending soon you can go with something like “Buy today and save!” Or if you’re online “Only __ days left so order now!” can be just enough incentive to push the customer past thinking and into buying.

The main thing to remember is to push for the sale. If you give long speeches about your benefits and don’t let people know what they should do about it; they usually won’t do anything.

Sometimes your customers will even get mad at you for not letting them know about your sales. So do them a favor, and let them know when you have promotions and how soon they need to act!

It’s all about credibility, easy to read layout and targeted copy.

CLICK HERE to read a great brief article about this subject on the UP ALL DAY blog

How Klout measures the score (and what the heck the score even means):

http://klout.com/kscore

In September of 2010 Facebook disabled our access to the official Assurance Advertising facebook page due to a “content infringement” claim.

At first we thought this was a strange thing to have happen because everything on our site and any one of our social media outlets, from Flickr to Vimeo to Facebook to Youtube, all contains content we own the rights to because we have licensed or created them.

At least Youtube explains why your video is being disabled and gives you a few chances to appeal the decision. Facebook will not respond to emails, tweets or their official Facebook form designed for businesses who have lost access to their page based on content infringement.

While we see the need for such measures to be in place, all we want is an open discourse. A way to get this squared away.

And so far, mere weeks away from Christmas, our Facebook page is still disabled and Facebook is still not being responsive. This after @KristalinaS and @unmarketing tried real hard to get us contact information for higher ups at the company and after @punklawyer (one of the nation’s best lawyers by the way) scoured all of Facebook’s terms and conditions for us to see if anything there might help us out.

Be Careful!:

If a competitor does not like you they can flag your business and, without any chance to defend your side or status, Facebook will yank all of your content away from you. At that point you will be drudging along in a queue of other businesses waiting to hear something, anything, from Facebook regarding the alleged infringement and a chance to defend your content.

A look at AZ Film studios

The air at AZ film studios was thumping when I arrived on June 18th to get my interview. When I first pulled up I wasn’t sure what to think. It looked like one of a million warehouse buildings that can be found everywhere in downtown LA. But once I got inside there was no ignoring the energy coming from the staff and the artists alike.

The facility has rooms for the catering, dressing, reception, production and comfort of their artists and clients. The decor has a certain playfully professional ambience, which really adds to the charm. And when you see the giant green screen and high-tech equipment in the main room you know you’re in for some fun.

They were shooting the new video for Spirit and Big Tank featuring Butch Cassidy. The song sounds like a hit to me and even before the video hits editing I can already tell that the video will match it perfectly.

The owners, Ali and Zeus, are two dynamic and refreshingly fun loving guys. When the artists arrive they make it a point to personally meet them and make them feel right at home. No doubt, the artists then feel relaxed and ready to perform.

Ali Zamani handles the directing of all of the videos. He has his Masters in screen writing but watching him work and seeing his passion you can see why he spends most of his time directing.

When the artists listened to his direction it would improve their performance in a way that added life and elegance to the video. This, in my mind, is the sign of a truly great director; the ability to inspire emotion from your artist.

Zeus handles many of the technical aspects of production since his background and bachelor’s degree are in multimedia and design and his master’s degree is in computer sciences. He takes the videos and adds production value unmatched by any other studio of this size. He also generally handles most of the business development allowing Ali to focus on his directing. If you set up a meeting, generally the phone call will go to Zeus and the 1st meet and greet will be with him as well. He sets up the entire job and Ali handles the actual footage.

The end result with a team up like this is one incredible music video. The best part is… that’s not all they do.

They produce product and service commercials for TV and viral video ads, they develop scripts and screen plays, and they’re even in the process of producing a feature film.

AZ productions, and more specifically, AZ studios is a one stop shop for all aspects of video production and multimedia promotions. They even offer facility and equipment rentals to other directors, producers, production companies and even ad agencies.

Stay tuned happy readers and join me next time for the interview with Ali and Zeus where we’ll find out what really makes them tick, and how they are finding success in such hard economic times.

To take in a preview of what their studios are capable of check out their 2011 promo reel:

Click here to view the embedded video.