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Archives for 2013

8 Proven Tricks to Create Perfect Pinterest Pins

pins pinterestWhat makes the perfect Pinterest post? That’s the question Curalate wanted to answer, so they researched 500,000 images in a recent study and identified eight specific factors that affect how many views and re-pins your Pinterest pins get. This is important information for brands that want to more effectively leverage the visual marketing opportunities that Pinterest offers.

The infographic below shows all of the details from the study. The highlights include:

Faces or No Faces?

Images that show a person’s face are repinned less frequently than images that don’t include a face. The study reveals that images without faces in them receive 23% more repins than images that include faces.

How Many Colors?

As you might expect, images with multiple colors that are dominant in the image receive 3.25 times more repins than black and white images or images with any single color.

What Color is Best?

Just as colors like yellow and red catch people’s attention offline and on web pages, images that are reddish-orange get approximately twice as many repins as images that are blueish.

Does Lightness Matter?

The answer to this question is a resounding, “Yes.” Curalate found that images with medium lightness received 20 times more repins than images that are very dark.

Is a Specific Saturation Level Important?

The sweet spot appears to be 50% saturation. The study found that images that are 50% saturated get 10 times more repins than desaturated images.

What Should the Background Look Like?

You might think that a single product image with a blank background will get more repins than images with cluttered backgrounds, but the opposite is true based on the data from Curalate. Images with less than 10% background are repinned 2-4 times more than images with more than 40% background (meaning more than 40% of the image is empty background).

How Does Aspect Ratio Affect Repins?

Vertical images should have a 2.3 aspect ratio. Curalate found that vertical images with an aspect ratio between 2.3 and 4.5 get 60% more repins than images that are very tall and skinny.

What Texture Is Best?

Images with a smooth texture are repinned 17 times more than images with a rough texture.

8 Tricks for Repinnapble Pins

Here are the 8 tricks brand marketers can leverage from the study data:

  1. Avoid images with people’s faces in them.
  2. Use images with multiple colors.
  3. Pin more images that are reddish-orange than blue.
  4. Adjust your images to medium lightness.
  5. Use images with 50% saturation.
  6. Avoid blank backgrounds. Instead, keep the background of your images to less than 10%.
  7. Pin images with visual interest that are high-texture.
  8. Avoid vertical images that are very skinny.

You can see the complete infographic below and visit the Curalate website using the link above for all of the details.

The-Eyes-Have-It-Curalate-Infographic-copy

Images: Talk2Frank, Curalate

 

Forging New Networks: Facilitating Intern Interaction

intern-networkThe relationship between interns and full-time staff is well known and well documented and there’s a distinct learning relationship that both firms and interns really value during their time in any company.

For the intern, however, this certainly isn’t the whole story and feedback from interns often shows that the most valuable relationships are those which are formed between the interns themselves. It’s hardly surprising that interns in the same firm get together to share stories, thoughts and the occasional drink, but it is surprising that many firms aren’t always too facilitating to inter-intern interactions.

Developing Firm-wide Connections
Though some inter-intern relations are purely social, there’s a very good business case for encouraging quality interactions between young graduates. Normally there isn’t much demand for more than one intern in any department and, thus, when interns mix, they’re able to discuss practice, talk about working culture and share advice from different areas of your business.

This information is not only invaluable to each individual department in comparing and matching up its progress against others, it’s also great for strengthening inter-departmental relationships. It’s all too easy for new recruits to get comfortable in their own departments, but by interacting from the off with other parts of the business, interns can begin business life as well connected and well aware of the potential of the whole business.

Connecting Outside of Your Firm
Equally, not all interns will stay with your firm when graduation time comes and though this isn’t great for your retention figures, it can be a tangible advantage when it comes to actually doing business. If one of your interns graduates and then starts off with ties to other interns who moved into, say, accounts, banking and project management, it’s a connection that’s there to be exploited later.

It’s also worth remembering that most interns can talk a lot and will be more than happy to share their experiences. Providing their time at your company was positive, a good network of connections all over the country can be a great recruitment tool for your department in the future.

Harnessing Good Relationships
Interactions between interns are great, but if your business isn’t working to harness them, they might as well not be there. There’s a fine line between stifling any genuine interaction by being too rigid and organising too many compulsory after-hours events and missing the boat all together.

One very simple way to keep interactions strong is to use social media to great effect. Encourage the use of LinkedIn and highlight the importance of networking and also don’t be afraid to set up (and monitor) a Facebook group for arranging meetings and sharing ideas. It’s simple, it keeps interaction honest and businesslike and, best of all, it’s free!

If you’re taking on more than one intern this summer, make sure they’re not isolated. Ties that are formed with other interns can last for many years: be sure to use them to your advantage!

Usability: Coca-Cola Dim the Lights

coca-cola-dim-bright-sCoca-Cola’s website features a Dim/Brighten option, which allows the user to dim certain areas of the web page.  The button itself is located conveniently near the top of each article, and features a familiar icon to make it easily identifiable.

Coca-Cola recognizes that potential customers may be overwhelmed with the amount of content presented on their page.  This feature allows them to eliminate distracting material with the click of a mouse.

This feature creates a more user-friendly environment, and allows additional emphasis to be placed on core content.

Mid-2013 Global Brand Rankings Revealed

2013 mid-year BrandIndex rankingsYouGov has released its BrandIndex Mid 2013 Global Rankings. The brand ranking is developed using a daily measurement process which includes thousands of brands evaluated across 16 individual metrics. Brands are ranked based on the positive and negative “Brand Buzz” that they receive.

The mid-year 2013 list shows technology, car manufacturer, and supermarket chain brands ranking high for global brand buzz. For example, Samsung appears in the top 10 brand buzz list in 11 out of 14 countries measured. This is the second year that Samsung has ranked as the strongest international performing brand overall. Part of that brand buzz came from the company’s June release of a variety of new products. Beauty brands and chocolate brands also ranked high globally.

However, global brands weren’t the only ones to perform well in the global rankings. “Homegrown” brands, particularly domestic supermarket chains, frequently appear in national top 10 lists. You can see that in the list of top U.K. Buzz Rankings below where Marks & Spencer, Waitrose, and Sainsbury’s all appear in the top 10.

The most buzzed about brands in the U.S. and U.K. according to the Mid-2013 BrandIndex Buzz Rankings are:

Top U.S. Buzz Rankings Mid-2013

  1. Ford
  2. Amazon.com
  3. Subway
  4. History Channel
  5. Lowe’s
  6. V8
  7. Walgreen’s
  8. YouTube
  9. Kindle
  10. Cheerios

Top U.K. Buzz Rankings Mid-2013

  1. BBC iPlayer
  2. Samsung
  3. John Lewis
  4. MoneySavingExpert.com
  5. Dyson
  6. BBC.co.uk
  7. YouTube
  8. Marks & Spencer
  9. Waitrose
  10. Sainsbury’s

The most improved brands in the U.S. and U.K. according to the Mid-2013 BrandIndex Buzz Rankings are:

Top U.S. Buzz Improvers Mid-2013

  1. Goldman Sachs
  2. Bank of America
  3. J.P. Morgan
  4. American Airlines
  5. BlackBerry
  6. Galaxy
  7. Morgan Stanley
  8. Kodak
  9. Bing
  10. Starbucks DoubleShot Energy+ Coffee

Top U.K. Buzz Improvers Mid-2013

  1. London Underground
  2. Royal Mail
  3. La Senza
  4. Santander
  5. Sky
  6. Samsung
  7. Goldman Sachs
  8. Little Chef
  9. Network Rail
  10. Ryanair

If you compare the Mid-2013 Brand Buzz rankings to the Mid-2012 Brand Buzz rankings, you won’t see a big change in the U.S. or U.K. lists. Noticeably absent from both lists is Google, which had already dropped significantly in the rankings in mid-year 2012 and at the end of 2011. Overall, Google performed well, making it onto the top 10 list for five countries. However, it fell off of the list in other countries (e.g., Sweden). On the other hand, Amazon.com continues to stay consistently strong in the brand buzz ranking year after year.

What do you think of the Brand Buzz Index? Any brands noticeably absent or surprising in their appearance on the list? Leave a comment and share your thoughts below.

Be sure to follow the link at the beginning of this article to get all of the details about the Mid-2013 Global BrandIndex, including lists by country, category, and more.

Image: BrandIndex.com

Brands Absent in Most Tweeted Events List

twitter-bird-white-on-blueWhat are the most tweeted events in the history of Twitter UK? Lauren Hockenson compiled a list of the top five most-tweeted events on record for Gigaom, and brands are noticeably absent from the list. Instead, sporting events, musical events, and political and papal announcements top the list on Twitter UK.

Lauren gathered information from Twitter and news reports to identify the top five most tweeted events on record as follows:

1. Barack Obama’s re-election
2. Spain’s Euro 2012 win
3. Introduction of Pope Francis
4. Andy Murray’s Wimbledon win
5. Spice Girls reunion performance during the 2012 London Olympics

You can follow the link above to read Lauren’s full article which includes all of the tweet-per-minute statistics and details about each of the five events.

The lesson for brands to learn from the most tweeted events on record is this—events that have consumer emotional involvement and a relationship element, wherein consumers experience the event together and want to share their thoughts and feelings about those events, get tweeted.

Brands need to consider how they can more closely align themselves with these types of events. Traditional sporting events sponsorship doesn’t drive tweets. Andy Murray’s win drove tweets. Imagine a brand like Red Bull (a brand that is very good at aligning itself with high-profile, high-emotion events) had developed a campaign tightly aligned with Andy Murray prior to his Wimbledon win. There would be organic brand exposure after his win drove 120,000 tweets per minute.

I’m not suggesting that an event that is solely a branded event could get to the top of the most tweeted events list. Trying to chase one of those top spots would be a losing battle. However, tying brands to events that match the highly tweeted events in this list should drive indirect marketing organically.

How can your brand ride the event tweeting wave? Think strategically, do your event research, identify what makes a tweetworthy event, and find opportunities to integrate your brand into those events in new and creative ways. The old event sponsorship models aren’t enough anymore.

What do you think? Leave a comment below and share your thoughts about event marketing for brands in 2013 and beyond.

Image: Twitter

Starbucks Tests the Brand Extension Waters with Soft Drinks

starbucks handcrafted sodasThe success of Starbucks over the years has been driven by consumers’ emotional involvement in the brand. In 2011, Starbucks reached the epitome of logo recognition success when it dropped the “Starbucks” name from its logo entirely. However, Starbucks is still known as a one trick pony.

The company’s extreme brand focus served it very well for a long time, but in recent years, the company has struggled. Prices went up, stores changed, menus and products came and went, and loyal Starbucks customers continued to seek their caffeine fixes regardless of those ancillary offerings. The truth of the matter was simple. Loyal customers were coming for coffee. Starbucks needed to find a way to attract new customers and possibly convince existing customers to break out of their coffee habits and try something different.

For the non-coffee drinker or the Dunkin’ Donuts coffee loyalist, a trip to Starbucks isn’t going to happen. If a friend wants to stop at Starbucks, that non-coffee drinker is likely to leave empty-handed while their friend enjoys their Starbucks flavor of choice. That’s a huge missed opportunity for Starbucks.

Now, it appears that Starbucks is making an effort to turn those anti-Starbucks customers into willing-Starbucks customers by offering brand extensions like the Refreshers energy drinks launched last year (new flavors have been introduced for the 2013 summer season) and more recently, testing handcrafted sodas in a few markets.

As USA Today reports, the carbonated beverages industry is a $77 billion category, and although the category as a whole has been declining in recent years, it’s still the second biggest category in the United States. It makes sense that Starbucks would try to carve out a niche in that market by offering its own premium (i.e., “handcrafted”) sodas in its brick-and-mortar stores. If they taste good, some of those people who step into a Starbucks location with a friend who needs his coffee might just shift from saying, “I don’t like anything at Starbucks,” to “I don’t like Starbucks coffee but I definitely want one of their Spiced Root Beers.”

Sounds like a win for Starbucks if the product is good enough to motivate people to travel to a Starbucks location to get it and pay the higher price ($2.45 or $3.45 in Atlanta according to USA Today) attached to it.

What do you think? Leave a comment and share your thoughts below.

Image: Starbucks