At this point, you should know the benefits of social media marketing. There are billions of people on social media platforms. That’s billions of potential customers just waiting to be tapped into. Your brand can use data from users to target a certain customer demographic when using social media ads and track ROI directly. Here are some tips to get the best bang for your buck on social media ads.
Holiday Advertising 2022
We’ve recently been looking into current consumer trends, such as Found Content: Recession Proofing Costs. In this article we talk about how consumers are now spending more on essentials and less on luxury in the wake of economic downturns. It is important that brands are not being insensitive with their messaging in regards to their audiences’ financial positions. This is especially true for luxury item brands. Yesterday, we posted the 2023 consumer trends from a GWI Report that shows consumers are beginning to exhibit even more particularity with their budgets going into the new year. Consumers’ top three reasons to decide to buy from a brand right now are quality at 53%, cost at 36% and trust at 32%.
Increasing Creative Control Through Found Content
Creative Control: the power to exercise the final authority over the planning and execution of an artistic medium, such as a film, commercial, a song, etc. We often think of produced shoots as having complete, immense creative control from the production and directing teams from start to finish of a campaign or project. However, here at Locomotive, we believe that when using found content in marketing and advertising campaigns, it in fact gives the team more creative control than that of a produced shoot. Not to mention it saves time, money and the environment.
Friday Feature
This week our feature is an entrepreneur of Hazel Coffee Co., Hailey Polidori. Her coffee shop is an all mobile coffee bar in Austin, TX. Their mission is to bring creatives and community together. They serve locally roasted beans and offer bookings for events. You can request a quote by clicking the link on their website. Not only does she own this cutting-edge coffee shop, she is a content creator, a photographer and YouTuber. We’ve had the pleasure of working with Hailey and hope to do it again in the future.
Feel Good Friday: Types of Creativity
We work with so many creative people in our industry and each one is unique in their very own way. Content creators, creative directors. You name it, we’ve worked alongside them to help make the best UGC campaigns possible. We’ve always been under the impression that you are either creative or you’re just not but apparently, and surprising, this is not the case. There are four different types of creativity, according to neuroscienctists. Did you know this? That means we’re all creatives in one way or another. The four ways of creativity are deliberate & cognitive, deliberate & emotional, spontaneous & cognitive and spontaneous & emotional. Let’s dive in to each type.
History of User Generated Content
Did you know that the first massive user generated content composition was the Oxford English Dictionary? Yep, that’s right! It was composed solely of contributions aggregate by the public in 1857. To look back throughout the history of UGC in the media however, one would have to go all the way back to 1840 with the first U.S. patent for photography. Because if you think about it, this was when the rise of photography and film began. You can’t have user generated content without users having access to cameras and although, it won’t become publicly available until much later this was the when the birth of UGC would be.
Neuromarketing
Well, we really went down the rabbit hole on this one. This topic has so many ins and outs that we could write an infinite number of articles about on the different aspects. Let’s start by defining what neuromarketing actually is. You can probably guess, it combines neuroscience and marketing techniques. Neuromarketing studies the neurological responses, including brainwave activity, eye tracking and skin changes to certain marketing stimuli in order to better understand consumer behaviors. It’s fairly new and has only been around since the early 2000’s. Once considered controversial, it is now starting to be viewed as promising, since scientifically it has improved greatly over the past five years and it can be used to test product design, UX testing, A/B testing, CTA, images in ads, rebrand campaigns etc. let’s jump into some of the techniques used to track and what insight each offers to brands and advertisers.
Multitasking: Jack of All Trades, Master of None
Did you know that only 2.5% of people can multitask efficiently? The rest of us, however, although we may think we’re good at it, are not. A study done by the University of London found that multitasking during cognitive tasks actually decreases your IQ to someone who has stayed up an entire night with no sleep. Another study conducted by the Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance showed that it lowers your brain’s efficiency as it forces it to change gears while switching between tasks. Multitasking divides our attention and requires brain power to switch back and forth. The more complicated the task, the longer it takes our brains to make the adjustments, lowering its performance as brain cells respond slower and slower each time.
Staying Focused at Work During the Holidays
The holiday season is a time of year when we’re all enjoying parties, gift exchanges, travelling and shopping. It can be difficult to stay focused at work until your holiday vacation actually begins. It’s very easy to get overloaded in your personal & professional life. In fact, a study done by Ladders found that 50% of U.S. employees start losing focus at work in mid-December. Here are some tips on things you can do to combat that FOMO at work during the holidays so you can finish your professional year out strong.
Feel Good Friday: Sparking Creative Inspiration
It’s time to spice things up again here at Locomotive. Every Friday for the next few weeks (maybe months) we will be focusing on topics that will inspire you. Today, our first topic will be ways to spark inspiration for all our creatives out there. Let’s face it, we all suffer from lack of inspiration here and there so it’s always nice to have something you can fall back on when these creative blocks hit and the deadlines are creeping in. What in the world is inspiration anyhow? Let’s define it. It has been defined by psychologists as a motivation from external sources that cause someone to have an idea and/or creatively produce something. We’ve done some digging on ways to spark creativity when you’re in a rut.
Found Content: Recession Proofing Costs
Americans feel terribly about the state of the economy right now. We can’t say we disagree. Just this week we wrote an article on holiday consumer spending trends during times of financial distress this season. Advertising agencies and brands are not immune to the economic hardships that we are all currently facing. Everyone is navigating budget cuts for advertising spend. This is yet another reason how found content in your marketing and advertising strategies can help recession proof your brand’s budget this year. The cost effectiveness of UGC makes for a good plan to combat these budget cuts and rising cost of production.
Competitive Analysis
Benefits of Influencer Marketing
We’ve all been hearing about influencer marketing trends recently. It’s expected to grow even more in 2023. But why is this trending? What benefits does influencer marketing offer? We want to touch on why influencers are the hot new thing when it comes to marketing strategy. We’ve licensed a lot of user generated content from influencers for advertising campaigns. There’s a reason it’s successful. Let’s take a look.
Found Content in Holiday Marketing & Advertising
We recently read an interesting article from AdAge about the state of holiday marketing this year and according to them, “promotional tops emotional.” Honestly, it makes sense with the state of the economy being what it is right now. The financial uncertainty during these times makes for a more discretionary consumer. That being said, we firmly believe that you don’t have to remove one to use the other. Why not use promotional and emotional messaging? You can have your cake and eat it to.
YouTube Stats 2022
We deal quite a lot with content creators on YouTube for our projects. It’s by far one of the best places for user generated uploaded video content. It’s importance in the UGC advertising industry is quite considerable. Just in case you don’t believe us, we thought we would throw together some interesting stats that may change your mind.
Where do People Seek Product Information?
You want to buy a new jean jacket. What’s the first thing you do to get started in your process of finding that perfect jacket for you? The answer to this question is going to be different for everyone reading this because research says it depends on what generation you are part of. It also depends on which populations we look at around the world. For the sake of this article we will stick with the states.
Is Brick-and-Mortar Retail Still Relevant?
Times have changed for retail. Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, which increased ecommerce by staggering amounts with brick and mortar shops having to close their doors. Now that this unprecedented time is over, what does it mean for brick and mortar retail stores? Are they at risk or are they here to stay? Those who made the proper adjustments during the pandemic were able to keep their locations afloat and now they have areas for expansion in their business.
Best Social Media Sites for Video Content 2022
Over 58.7% of the global population is on social media and uses it as their primary source of information. That’s roughly around 4.65 billion people. When it comes to social media marketing though, a one size fits all approach does not work. It’s important to know which audience hangs out where so you can know what kind of video content to make and where to put it.
Friday Feature
This week we turn to one of our furry friends. Our feature this week is of Max the dog from Vancouver, Canada. This fun-loving pup goes on all types of adventures and is absolutely adorable. We previously worked with his owners to license a piece of content during the COVID pandemic where his owner used him for leg presses while the gyms were closed. Captioned with “Only got to do 2 reps of my 40lb leg presses before my makeshift weight gave up.” What a fun way to get creative with your workouts! Big shout out to them for helping make one of our campaigns fun and exciting!
Using Inclusive Language in the Workplace
We all know that words matter. It’s become a very big movement lately to make sure to use politically correct language as well as inclusive language at work. inclusive language means that it is free from particular words, phrases or tones that reflect prejudiced, stereotypes or discriminatory views. Building respect and maintaining it is crucial to a healthy work environment. DEI is now at the top of the priority list for brands. Here are some guidelines for your company to solidify that it is using inclusive language.
