Virtue, » advertising

Virtue Launches BrainBalanceCenters.com

Tela Kayne — Mon, 26 Apr 2010 00:14:44 +0000

Announcing the launch of the new BrainBalanceCenters.com website today! We’re proud to call Brain Balance Achievement Centers a client. They are an incredible company that specializes in working with kids who suffer from neuro-behavioral and developmental disorders such as Autism, Asperger’s, ADHD and Learning Disorders. This site is a great resource for parents and educators alike! Please check it out and tell your friends or even better follow Brain Balance on Twitter or “like” them on Facebook . We’re particularly proud of “The Results” section. Not only are the case studies a great testimonial to the success of the Brain Balance Program®, but the programming and functionality of that piece of the website took the collaboration of a very talented team of individuals who are the core of Virtue!

Ikea Uses Facebook to Promote New Store on a Budget

Tela Kayne — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 00:27:50 +0000

Forsman & Bodenfors came up with another innovative digital campaign for Ikea by turning one of Facebook’s basic functions into a promotional tool, to promote the opening of the brand’s Malmo outpost, its most modern store to date. Armed with little media budget, the agency came up with an unconventional Facebook campaign that started with a profile of the store’s manager, Gordon Gustavsson. Gustavsson uploaded pictures of the store’s showrooms to his photo album and any “friends” who tagged the products with their names then won those items.

From Creativity Online

A Mad Approach to Advertising

Tela Kayne — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:43:48 +0000

I just started watching Season 3 of the show Mad Men, which offers a glimpse into the life of an ad agency on Madison Avenue during the 1960′s. While the “Mad Men” of the show are quite interesting to watch as they smoke heavily, cheat on their wives, and drink throughout the day, I find the most compelling character to be the lead woman of the show. She’s Peggy Olson, the Secretary turned Copywriter at the Agency, and she has a knack for understanding what it means to know your audience. The agency is pitching a new product for Pepsi called Patio, a diet drink for women. Their campaign involves casting a sweet and sultry woman to sing Bye Bye Birdie while sexily sipping her diet drink…appealing to a man but that’s not their target audience. Peggy Olson questions this approach in favor of something more relatable. The “Mad Men” of the show insist that it’s the right way to go…women will buy the soda because they want to be just like the sexy woman in the commercial.

Celebrity endorsements and the idol approach are effective for large companies with big marketing budgets. However small or medium sized businesses need a more cost effective approach which leads us to the grass roots movement that social media propels. When we examine social networking, you are achieving something much more valuable than advertising. You are creating referrals, testimonials and endorsements, which gives you instant credibility and a level of trust that traditional advertising simply cannot achieve. Social Media allows you to leverage your existing customer base and create real world champions of your brand. While we may be entertained by a pretty woman singing Bye Bye Birdie while sipping her diet drink, we are more likely to purchase something based upon the positive experiences of our like-minded family and friends.