Uncategorized

Keeping Pace with Social Media in 2024

New Networks. New AI Tools. Facebook turned 20 last month. Twitter/X turns 18 this month. Teens who quickly adapted to TikTok are now graduating college. Yeah, time flies. And as Einstein taught us, time is relative. A year in social media marketing must be the equivalent to at least 50 years in non-digital media. We could easily miss the dawn of the next big thing while figuring out Meta’s latest targeting options (updated this month). On that note, we’ve compiled some novel social media trends that deserve our attention.   New Networks: At the very least, keep these on your radar.   Threads: Built by the Instagram team, Threads is sold as a safer alternative to the free-for-all that is Twitter/X. The big difference is that Threads gives users more control. You can control who replies to or mentions you and limit replies to select groups. You can also post longer messages (550 characters along...

Continue Reading

UNCOVERING THE MARKETING POWER OF SWEEPSTAKES

Door Dash “All the Ads” Super Bowl Giveaway   If you caught the post-Super Bowl Late Show, you heard Stephen Colbert joke that, “For the second time in Super Bowl history, we went to extra innings, so I think we all know the real winners were CBS ad sales.” This is in no doubt true with advertisers paying up to $7 million to air a spot. But as curious marketers, we would argue that the real winners were Door Dash’s in-house studio and their agency Wieden+Kennedy Portland who pulled off the biggest Super Bowl giveaway ever.   Announced on January 30th, Door Dash promoted an “All the Ads” sweepstakes that would DoorDash all of the items advertised during the Super Bowl to one lucky winner. You can find the full list of items here. Ahead of the game, the outrageous giveaway gained huge momentum online. This boost in awareness coupled with message of Door...

Continue Reading

Does direct mail have a powerful role in your 2024 marketing mix?

Here are 5 reasons it should. In a world of ad blockers and spam folders, direct mail feels like a safe haven for marketers and consumers alike. Even new brands are turning to direct mail to make a larger impact on key audiences. In a USPS survey, 72% of Gen Z respondents said they're "excited to discover what the mail brings every day."   Let’s hit the pause button on the AI and social media hype and rediscover the power of direct mail. You may want to reshuffle the marketing mix for your 2024 campaigns.   Reason #1: High Open Rates. According to Earthweb, the average person receives 100 to 120 emails per day with an open rate of between 20 and 40%. On the other hand, people in the U.S. receive an average of just 2 pieces of marketing mail per day. The Association of National Advertisers reports that up to 90% of direct mail gets...

Continue Reading

Why Holiday Giving Is Good Business #GivingTuesday #HolidayGiving

Amid the holiday madness and crass consumerism, a message of charitable giving is a welcome break. Whether it’s a simple round-up for charity or company-wide philanthropic campaign, small businesses and large corporations alike are finding value in having a larger purpose.   Even if it’s driven by greed or narcissism, the act of giving is good!   Benefiting society is important to business because it meshes with what consumers want. Based on a recent survey by global consultancy Bain & Company, environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) has become a top-three key purchasing criterion for more than half of consumers! As a result, companies who score highest in ESG are enjoying 5X revenue growth compared to those who score badly.   How are consumer businesses sharing the wealth this holiday season?   With the Black Friday, Cyber Monday and Giving Tuesday season here, keep an eye out for campaigns with a philanthropic spin. Here’s a sampling of...

Continue Reading

5 TOP TRENDS THAT RESHAPED MARKETING IN 10 YEARS

Our undying love of digital media over the past decade has driven a historic revolution in marketing. Such massive transformations are rare but not unprecedented. The shift from outdoor signage to print (16th century) and then print to radio and TV (20th century), were also driven by new technology.   Welcome to the New Age, to the new age…   That refrain from Imagine Dragon’s Radioactive in 2012 couldn’t have been more on point. The digital media revolution was in full swing and by 2019 it had surpassed print and television as the dominant advertising medium.   The fact that we witnessed the shift to a new age of advertising is amazing and challenging. The digital age is unlike any other in its worldwide scale, diversity of channels and mind-bending rate of change. To help us all stay ahead of the curve, here are the top 5 trends that have re-shaped marketing over the past 10...

Continue Reading

Who do you follow for inspiration?

Ideas and advice can come from anywhere outside of your own brain. The challenging part in our age of information overload is separating the wheat from the chaff as the old expression goes (and as expressions go, that’s one of the oldest with roots in the Bible).   We’ve filtered out a lot of noise and distilled our list of experts down to a comfortable number of sources to follow. Whether you’re in a creative rut and need some inspiration, looking for latest marketing trends, or simply want to spend your screen time reading something that will enrich your career/business, this is for you.   Mostly Creative:   Design Taxi: Since 2003, we’ve been gaining inspiration from brilliant ad campaigns and new product designs featured on their website. It’s no surprise that they have over 400,000 followers. If you crave new ideas or fear missing out on the innovative campaign everyone is talking about, tune in. Twitter   Creative...

Continue Reading

Top Fictional Movies and Series with an Advertising Spin

Among the many professions that are overly used among TV and movie characters, advertising professional is right up there with architect, lawyer, and doctor. Maybe it has to with so many copywriters making their way to Hollywood as screenwriters or perhaps it’s just a sexy occupation (on the surface and among those NOT in the biz).   Check out our top picks for movies and series with a marketing and advertising focus. We’ve excluded documentaries from this list for the simple reason that we wanted to provide you with some light-hearted summer fun. Here’s our countdown to #1 (which we hope you’ve already predicted).   8. What Women Want (film 2000) stars Mel Gibson as a chauvinistic advertising executive who gains the ability to hear women's thoughts and uses this newfound power to his advantage. At its heart, the film is a timeless and star-studded (Gibson, Helen Hunt, Marisa Tomei, Alan Alda) romantic fantasy...

Continue Reading

DCI Digital Campaigns Bring Home Two Awards

Last Thursday, May 18th, President and CEO Nick Lanzi had the pleasure of attending our region’s premier direct marketing awards show. Held at Manayunk’s unique Platform Thirty, The Philly DMA’s Benny Awards treated local direct marketers to another delightful evening of comradery and celebration of success. Speaking of celebrating, DCI was the proud recipient of two awards for our digital work over the past year.   Our “Playbook”educational e-Book for ArmadaCare was a winner in the Digital Sales Enablement category. Developed to help ArmadaCare elevate the value of supplemental benefits to HR professionals, the Recruiting & Retention Playbook beat the control in terms of open rate, clickthrough rate and response rate. We attribute its success to the value of the content, including compelling statistics from our client, which was wrapped in a theme that clearly resonated with the needs of HR departments.   In the Digital Social Media category, our “YES Plan” campaign took...

Continue Reading

As Gen Z’s income rises, will your marketing ride the wave?

The latest generation to enter the workforce has long been pursued by youth-oriented brands. And now that Gen Z is growing up, it’s time that everyone from insurance marketers to carmakers pay more attention to this demographic’s preferences.   First, a quick refresh on Gen Z:   Currently 11 to 26 years old   68.6 million live in the U.S. (20% of population)   Grew up with multiple screens, always connected   Experienced a global pandemic during their most formative years   Represent about 20% of the U.S. workforce       Being the first generation to grow up with multiple screens connected with web, Gen Z very much prefers the feeling of being in control – even when it’s the plot of something they’re streaming. What does this mean for marketers?  We need to create more interactive content where the user is in the driver’s seat. Even if you already think you know them based on gobs of data, ask...

Continue Reading

5 reasons why Super Bowl LVII marketing was like no other

With most of the Super Bowl ads hype in the rear-view mirror, we decided to take a dive into what made this year’s marketing push different. Even if you didn’t find the ads themselves to be creatively unique or powerful, there are trends and tactics in here that have something to say about how our culture and our marketing landscape is changing.   #1 The appearance of Jesus: This year, the sea of alcohol and crass consumerism parted to make way for a brand re-fresh of Christianity. What does is say about our culture? The post-game banter says that we are as curious and skeptical as ever because we immediately wanted to know WHO was behind it. According to Christianity Today, the ads are partly funded by the family that owns Hobby Lobby, plus other evangelical groups.   #2 The end of Anheuser-Bush InBev’s 33-year+ alcohol exclusive: While we may miss the Clydesdales and the likes...

Continue Reading

Direct Choice was honored to present this check to Alex Archawski from the Greater Philadelphia Veterans Network (GPVN). GPVN’s mission is making Greater Philadelphia the Best Place For Veterans. #phillyvets #gpvn #communitymatters #givingback ...

13 2

To celebrate the sentiments of peace, love and understanding, this year we are contributing to the Greater Philadelphia Veterans Network, who work to make our city the best place for Veterans. Happy Holidays from Direct Choice Inc!
#Phillyvets #GPVN #HappyHolidays
...

4 0

A fun time and great food at our annual holiday luncheon and gift exchange held @autographwayne! Many alcohol-related gifts beginning with the letter “I”! Thanks Nick! (We missed you Beth!) #happyholidays #whiteelephant #funholidaytimes ...

11 1

Had a fun and informative time at the @BCAPhilly Hospitality Breakfast last Friday. Speaker @TarynSouthern gave a thought-provoking presentation focused on how AI is changing our world. #ai #aimarketing #bcaphilly ...

8 1

Proud to report that Direct Choice picked up 2 Benny Awards last night in the digital/social media marketing categories - Congrats to All!! #pdma #bennyawards #socialmediamarketing #digitalmarketing ...

7 3

This holiday season, we’re continuing to support @philabundance to help them end hunger in our local communities. Happy Holidays from Direct Choice Inc! #philabundance #happyholidays ...

2 0

Kudos for Direct Choice at the PDMA Benny Awards last night. DCI won the top award in 3 categories PLUS WON BEST IN SHOW! Congrats to ALL #PDMA #bennyawards ...

10 2

Here`s something many of us can relate to in the era of virtual meetings - enjoy a good laugh and Happy Holidays from the DCI team! #virtualbloopers #Happyholidays #happyholidays2021 ...

0 0