Hasta La Creative!

Consultant Cindy Gallop, former chairman of BBH, New York, is working to establish her vision for a new corporate-social-responsibility model through IfWeRanTheWorld.com, launching this fall. Here, she discusses her plans to transform CSR as it exists today.

LONDON – Despite reports to the contrary, Bing is doing pretty good. New figures show Microsoft’s search engine has increased its market share by 45 per cent since its launch in June – even more, it’s beginning to take clicks away from Google.

LONDON – Despite reports to the contrary, Bing is doing pretty well. New figures show Microsoft’s search engine has increased its market share by 45 per cent since its launch in June and that it’s even beginning to take clicks away from Google.

LONDON – Regional Media publisher Newsquest has relaunched its network of 150 websites, adding an archive of four million articles and improving commercial opportunities.

A varejista holandesa Hema, que no ano passado mostrou ao mundo uma fantástica interatividade em seu portal de e-commerce, apresenta agora um vídeozinho bem simpático e criativo, veiculado na Holanda para celebrar a chega das férias de verão. Vale lembrar que a varejista também oferece uma enorme gama de produtos escolares.

:: Dica da Renata Bokel

LONDON – The Mobile Interactive Group (MIT) and 4th Screen Advertising have combined forces to offer the UK’s first ‘premium’ ad insertion platform, or real-time SMS advertising, allowing advertisers to monetise the white space at the end of basic text messages.

LONDON – Michael Dorrian, creative director at Start Creative London, has moved to take up the same role at the company’s Hong Kong office.

MarketingAnd is an eclectic mixture of product and service — part software-developer, part consultancy, part provider, and part business partner. It is capable of working within an established agency-client relationship and can also provide its own expertise to clients.

What do they do exactly?

MarketingAnd organically augments the number of business leads a company receives and then increases the conversion rate from lead to sale. The main difference between MarketingAnd and other lead/conversion companies is that MarketingAnd doesn’t broker lists or teach sales tactics. Its strength lies in converting visitors into leads, and leads into sales. Think of cultivating the low-hanging fruit.

Why go out and buy leads when you can simply convert the ones you already have?

Most of the time, consumers are researching due to their lack of knowledge towards specific products or services. For example, if I move from a condominium to a house, I’d have a lawn to care for. My limited knowledge in lawnmowers would lead me to various home improvement websites where I would be known as a prospect, or lead.  This is where MarketingAnd comes in, providing the necessary tools to engage visitors like me one-on-one.

Sammy James will be the first to tell you that he is a huge advocate of accountability. Thus, it’s no surprise that MarketingAnd’s suite of tools measure, qualify, and quantify. As the company expanded, it partnered with larger institutions (universities, health care companies, automotive dealers) that possessed their own marketing capabilities but didn’t track leads, cost-per-call, cost-per-sale, call volume, or closing ratio. MarketingAnd has the tools to address these issues.

One of these tools is called Form to Phone. In an Internet sales cycle, leads go from extremely hot (ready to buy) to ice cold in a very short time.  Form to Phone helps establish a quicker response time. Here’s how it works:

1. As soon as a prospect fills out a form and hits the submit button, your phone rings (wherever you are) and you’re given the person’s name and the reason for his or her inquiry.
2. You press “1″ and are instantly connected to the prospect via the number he or she provided on the form.
3. You engage the prospect in dialogue – before your competitors even have a chance.

Form to Phone also alleviates what is known as call reluctance. Call reluctance is a phenomenon where a salesperson experiences a heightened level of anxiety or apprehension before calling prospective client.  It could be so overwhelming that it decreases the total number of sales calls made and can render the salesperson useless. Because the sales cycle depends on volume and repetition, every call not made is a potential loss. Form to Phone is effective because it calls the salesperson with a lead. All the salesperson has to do is hit “1.”

Is MarketingAnd successful? According to Mr. James, its client-retention rate is between 90%-95%, and some clients have seen sales increases in the 300% range. If this seems like an appropriate fit to your business, research MarketingAnd first-hand. If you are in the higher-education business, its sister company, Get Starts, specializes in educational system needs.

Jeff Louis: Strategic Media Planner, Brand Project Manager, blogger and aspiring writer. To contact Jeff, leave a comment or contact him on Twitter or LinkedIn.

Radio spots for beer, strike that, radio spots in general, suck. You can count the number of great campaigns on one hand. I’d even go as far as to say that the level of suckitude on radio is disproportionately…

Doing things differently leads to something exceptional Advertiser: Absolut Agency: TBWA