Coca-Cola Super Bowl Ad ‘Avatar’ to feature Elvis, boy, Ogre

With Coca-Cola experiencing a 3.5% decrease in the U.S. market during the first nine months of 2008 (source: Beverage Digest), Coke will use the Super Bowl to launch their new brand slogan “Open Happiness”.
The first in three years, Coke hopes to appeal to consumers’ longing for comfort and optimism at a time when the weakening economy [...]

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Coffee for Dummies

“Four Bucks is Dumb”
Considering I’m rarely spotted without a Starbucks in my hand, I must be the village idiot..   
As part of Ronald McDonald’s plan to rule the world, they have begun their ad campaign promoting their new expresso coffees. Enemy #1: Starbucks of course. 
As consumers cut back on their spending, low fat, no whip, [...]

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Email Branding Guidelines — Where Are They?

Jamie Senior over at Razorfish wrote the following article addressing Email Branding Guidelines. Over my years running J. Livingston Marketing Group, I’ve discovered that small businesses are some of the most notorious abusers. Though developing standards is easy and painless (and the results are often met with positive feedback), the resistance I usually receive is one [...]

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Free Webinar: How Marketing Copy Can Boost Your Small Business

VistaPrint Limited (you may know them as the company that provides free business cards), is holding a Webinar titled, “Use Your Words: The Art of Crafting Compelling Copy.” The Webinar is free and will be held on Tuesday, October 21, 2008 at 4:00 p.m. EDT. This informational Webinar will show participants how effective and important good marketing copy [...]

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Ineffective Signage and Marketing Mistakes

Even small mom and pop stores should spend more emphasis on basic marketing – like the funny billboards, signage and ad mistakes below. Enjoy:
  

 
 

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Compelling Ad Copy That Sells – Promote and Grow Your Business

Over the last few weeks, during meetings with companies, I’ve been hearing the same series of questions: “How is your writing?” What they really should be asking is how compelling is your copy? I’ve worked with a number of gifted writers. Some brands look for witty commentary, others more corporate verbiage, but they all want [...]

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