5 Tips to Jumpstart Creativity

It always seems that those great ideas come to us at the worst time...while taking a shower, right before we fall asleep, yet never when we need it most. Whether writing a press release for a client or solving a scheduling problem, creative thinking is an essential skill that will set you apart from the rest. So here are 5 tips to help get those creative juices flowing! 

1. Ditch the quiet office.

Blocking out all distractions actually inhibits creativity. Having a moderate level of ambient noise allows you to think in a more abstract and creative way. Research has found that this noise can be anything from a TV show running in the background to someone using a vacuum cleaner. It has been found that lower or higher levels of noise did not positively impact creative thinking. 

2. Silence the inner critic.

You have heard the saying, "you are your own worst critic", meaning we are the first to shoot down ideas. However, constantly worrying about something not being good enough only blocks the creative flow. 

A great exercise that will help silence this negative voice is brainstorming. Write down everything that comes to mind. Don't worry about it being perfect, some great ideas stem from the most random of thoughts! 

3. Experiment with your work environment.

In addition to accepting some distraction while working, try making changes in your workspace itself. A study has proven that experimenting with color has provided a positive impact on creative thinking. 

Just as red is associated with caution like in a stop sign, the color red can also activate a sense that makes us vigilant. Being more alert helps you perform detail-oriented tasks such as proofreading. On the other hand, hues of blue make you feel at peace and safe, allowing you to be more open to exploring abstract thoughts. 

4. Sift out the busy work.

If your days, weeks and months are packed with “getting things done,” you’re not leaving any room to experiment. Google famously lets its employees use 20% of their workweeks to pursue special projects. Following Google's advice, try taking some time out of your hectic day to let your mind relax. Doing so will cause your brain to stimulate creative thoughts and feel recharged to pick up on your previous project. 

5. Branch out beyond your comfort zone.

Sometimes the best path to creative and inventive thinking is to be intentional about experiencing new things in life. Inspiration can come from listening to a new Pandora station, to having lunch with an old friend from college. So have fun trying something out of the ordinary...you never know what it could lead to! 

Powerhouse USA Congratulates the 2013 Orlando ADDY Award Winners

The ADDY Awards have announced their 2013 winners, among them Disney’s Yellow Shoes Creative group and Hard Rock Café took home multiple awards. 

The ADDY Awards are organized yearly by the local chapter of the American Advertising Federation. This group selects and recognizes the talent and hard work that go into Orlando ads and celebrates the creative excellence and achievements in our advertising community!

The ADDY Awards are unique among advertising and creative competitions since they include three levels of judging: local, regional, and national. The local ADDYs are given based on the competition in Orlando, which makes it easy to see how well local competitors do. This also allows to local competitors to compete regionally and nationally based on their success!

To see some of Orlando’s best ad works head to http://www.theorlandoaddys.com/winners-2013/

Orlando Ad Market Finishes Strong First Quarter: Good Second Quarter Forcasted

Orlando ad spending has increased throughout the first quarter but despite previous quarters experiencing sluggish markets. Both TV and radio have seen spending gains in numerous categories this quarter.

TV spending was up 10 to 15 percent in January, and it’s expected to be up at least 10 percent year-to-year for the remainder of the quarter. Large categories including auto, financial, telecom and furniture have all increased spending by double-digit percentages versus a year ago, putting a squeeze on inventory.

Prime-time and news day-parts have the highest demand this year, but other day-parts will also pick up in coming months. With predictions for a strong second quarter the market should remain healthy.

Radio spending has also been ahead year over year throughout the first and second quarters, despite pricing being down as compared to a year ago. Financial, retail and auto advertisers have all increased radio spending this year.

From Dec. 6 to Jan. 2, WMGF averaged a 13.6 portable people meter rating in its holiday season, according to Arbitron, more than five points ahead of the No. 2 station WPOZ-FM, which averaged an 8.5. Stations owned by Clear Channel and Cox perform the best; In December those companies accounted for seven of nine top Orlando stations.

Super Bowl Ads that Confused Us All

BlackBerry and Best Buy are two struggling companies with a whole lot in common when it comes to their failing business models and slump in stock sales. Now they are also two companies who have recently given the world two terrible Super Bowl 2013 ads which don’t seem to have much hold on consumers.

BlackBerry’s recent introduction of its new Z10 smartphone, which was unveiled last week was intended to keep its current customers engaged with the brand while enticing its former customers to return. The product itself could be what BlackBerry desperately needs to get back on track, and with the right ad campaign, they could have done so. But instead of showing consumers what their product does, BlackBerry did a full 180 and gave us this monster of an ad.

Meanwhile, Best Buy featured an ad which portrays Amy Poehler as a shopper, harassing a sales associate with personal questions. The ad has hints of humor but confuses consumers with non-direct messages and endless questions on what seems to be hundreds of products. With the tagline, “Thousands of Experts Ready to Help,” One would think the commercial would showcase the expert actually answering questions, instead our expert stands dumbfounded and speechless in the wake of the inquisitive tornado that is Amy Poehler.

With Super Bowl 2013 ads being said to average $4 million dollars for each 30-second spot, big box stores like Best Buy battling online competition, and BlackBerry fending off the ever growing iPhone following, it is clear that neither company should invest in risky, unclear and confusing ads. Super Bowl ads have always stressed creativity but with BlackBerry’s flat out weird ad and Best Buy’s borderline obnoxious and aimless ad, it seems as if sense and logic are being removed from the process creating new ads.

Marketing Predictions for 2013

In 2012, there were increased developments for marketers. Social media sites, such as Facebook, created a massive mobile advertising business. Now the question is, what does 2013 have to offer? Advertising experts got together to show marketing predictions for the year to come.

The first strategy experts explored was “Mobile-First Strategy.” Facebook and Google are two sites responsible for the mobile ad spending tripling to $4 billion in 2012. According to eMarketer, “we expect mobile ads to increasingly become the top priority for advertisers on digital, rather than desktop.” This is the result of consumers spending more time and money on mobile devices.

Next experts explored the revision of “Banner Ads.” Banner ads do not work well on mobile devices, which has lead companies to reconsider using them. However, the ads will not be going away for good, instead businesses are working on a more creative way to post them and become user friendly.

Facebook to Let Advertisers Bid on Ads Using Your Browser Data

Facebook is expected to introduce real-time bidding as a feature to their advertising. This is something that Google has done for years, which legs advertisers use browsing history to target users.

Facebook Exchange, the bidding feature, is projected to be launched in a few weeks. Facebook is currently working with eight different firms, such as Turn, TellApart, MediaMath, DataXu, AdRoll, Triggit, and The Trade Desk, to create this feature. Facebook has just begun to include cookies to track users by their browsers. Third parties will match information from other sites with those cookies. If a user searches for “truck,” and then goes onto Facebook, advertisers in the auto industry will be able to show that user ads on Facebook for trucks.

Although Facebook’s traditional advertising is very successful, the new changes will allow for advertisers to achieve more impact and insight, more quickly, at a smaller cost. Facebook already leads the U.S. display ad market, with a 14% share in 2011, and is expected to rise to 16.8% in 2012.  

5 Hot Facebook Marketing Trends

Facebook has drastically changed in the past year, and marketing on it has changed as well. The image-heavy Facebook timeline has made many changes for how businesses market their products and services through the social media site.  There is an impressive amount of pressure on Facebook to be advertising friendly, and a lot of this comes from the fact that with its 133 million users, it can potentially have a bigger audience than the Super Bowl.

The first marketing trend the new Facebook has is the ability to post more and larger photos. Consumers are getting used to a more image filled web, so the new Facebook design features much bigger pictures than before. An analytics firm that measures brand performance, Simply Measured, confirmed a 65% jump for photos and videos combined that companies posted on their Facebook timelines. Sprinkles Cupcakes is a strong believer in the effectiveness of posting photos and videos to their Facebook page, especially with a call to action, seeing the number of likes and comments triple when one exists.

The second trend Facebook timeline has is tapping real-time data. Businesses now have the ability to immediately see the success of their campaign, while typically you have to measure the results at some point in order to see if the ads are working or not. This past April 17^th on Tax Day, TurboTax saw their Facebook post on “Most Common Tax Questions” doing well on Facebook’s “People Talking About This” page, so in turn they advertised on Facebook to increase the reach of the post.

The third trend is to use your Timeline cover photo for marketing. With the cover photo being a giant picture at the top of the company’s Facebook page, brans are realizing this photo can be a banner ad. The huge image provides instant exposure to all of the brands Facebook fans. Other brands are using the cover photo as an interactive photo for their fans. With different call to actions, such as posting a question on the image, fans can now interact with the cover photo.

The fourth trend the Facebook timeline creates for marketing is the gamification of posts. Coca-cola is a very well-known brand on Facebook.  Coca-cola has been posting URL riddles to its millions of fans. Along with them, JetBlue has also been posting more interesting and interactive posts such as “Fill in the Blank” status updates. JetBlue received 182% more comments per most than other typical brands with their post gamification method.

The fifth and final trend on the new Facebook timeline is creatively saying ‘Thank You’. By coming up with creative ways to thank your fans, you can single out and give your fans praise while entertaining the rest of the fans, who normally would have been uninterested in the post. Kraft Mac & Cheese did this by posting a 7-minute video thanking 4,800 fans who had “liked” a post of theirs. The video consisted of a song which included each of their individual names. The 4,800 fans were individually thanked, and the rest of the fans were still entertained in the process.

General Motors Quits Facebook Advertising

General Motors is pulling ads from Facebook, calling them “ineffective”, according to a Wall Street Journal report. It was determined that their ads on the platform “had little impact on consumers,” according to the report. However, GM will continue to market via Facebook’s free brand pages.

The article quotes GM marketing chief Joel Ewanick as saying GM “is definitely reassessing our advertising on Facebook, although the content is effective and important.” Ewanick’s use of “content” in this case refers to Facebook brand Pages.

GM spends about $40 million marketing on Facebook, but only about a quarter goes to advertising- the rest going to creating content for the site, according to the report. GM spends an estimated $1.8 billion worldwide on advertising per year.

A Forrester Research Analyst, Nate Elliott, wrote a blog post on Monday questioning the social network’s advertising. “Somehow Facebook still hasn’t stumbled upon a model that’s proven consistently successful for marketers, or that brings in the massive revenues to match the site’s massive user base,” wrote Elliott. “One global consumer goods company told us recently that Facebook was getting worse, rather than better, at helping marketers succeed. And companies in industries from consumer electronics to financial services tell us they’re no longer sure Facebook is the best place to dedicate their social marketing budget – a shocking fact given the site’s dominance among users.”

Facebook posted revenues of $3.7 billion in 2011, the vast majority of which came from advertising. However, Facebook’s first-quarter revenues fell from the previous quarter and Facebook’s amended S-1 form, filed on May 10, cited the transition to mobile as a worrisome sign for ad revenues.