More Good Media Ideas

Time to get back on the wagon and write about developing a quality digital media strategy. This time in our series on digital media strategy, we will focus on best practices for landing page and form designs. You've developed your KPIs and CTAs. Now you need to create within your CMS a landing page for your website that effectively converts your prospects that land there into leads. (can we have more acronyms in marketing, please?) There are certain things you should do and not do in designing these pages and the forms found there to make them most effective with high conversion rates. In this post, I will share just a few high-level best practices on this topic - all that we have learned from Hubspot, the CMS we use.

One of my New Year’s resolutions for 2015 was to find a rewarding job. Checking my messages while landing in Atlanta after an unplanned two week vacation in Argentina, I received a voicemail from Jeff Jones, Media Director at McCulloch, asking me to come by the office for an interview. Three days later, I was being offered the position as Digital Coordinator. Why did I choose to accept the job offer? Because of this:

You likely heard the news yesterday that Verizon is seeking to acquire AOL for $4.4 billion dollars. And like me, you may have asked "AOL is still a thing and it's worth that much?" or "AOL owns The Huffington Post?" But it quickly became clear what this deal was about - that's right, advertising - and programmatic buying at that.

ATLANTA (April 5, 2015) – Cox Automotive, the leading provider of products and services that span the automotive ecosystem worldwide, has expanded its media agency partnership with Atlanta media services company, McCulloch+Company. In addition to managing dealer-facing advertising media planning and buying for Autotrader, Kelley Blue Book, vAuto and Trade-In Marketplace, McCulloch+Company will now also manage dealer-facing advertising media activity for Manheim and NextGear Capital.  Additionally, McCulloch+Company will provide consulting services for other Cox Automotive brands.

Last month I started this series on Best Practices for Digital Strategy. Read the first post here. Before I get into today's best practice, I want to share an article I recently read in the Harvard Business Review. It contains spot-on advice to make sure you are asking the right questions when developing your digital marketing strategy - to be more than just attention-grabbing online. From the article:

I'm prepared to make a bold prediction for 2015. It will be the year that online video streaming for TV will finally go main stream. Bold - isn't it? How can I be this confident (only 6 weeks into the year... but Chinese New Year was just yesterday). Well, on this blog I have written about this possibility, the last domino being the announcements late last year from HBO and CBS that they would offer paid subscriptions to their content "Over the Top" (OTT) on channels that can be accessed on devices like Roku, Amazon Fire and Apple TV. I chronicled the Aereo case, right from the beginning. And as I shared in my post a couple of months ago, those recent announcements revealed a lot about why this fight went all the way to the Supreme Court. Yes - the industry had read the tea leaves, and knew that the future would be in internet TV. They were all developing these options behind the scenes and Aereo had beaten them to the punch (saying nothing of making money off their content without paying them). 

This month's good media idea comes from outdoor footwear brand, Merrell and features a very cool integration involving virtual reality! Last month in partnership with Rolling Stone magazine, the brand brought "the Italian Alps to Park City, UT" at the Sundance Film Festival. The immersive first-of-its-kind marketing experience called Trailscape had festival-goers walking across rickety bridges, dodging falling rocks, and gazing at amazing views.  This was all to launch a new boot - Capra (a very film-y name). 

When it comes to promoting a business online, all marketers know they have to do it - that's where their prospects are. But what's the best way to go about it? In this series, I will share some principles we have uncovered in advising clients in their media planning - for both tradition and digital media (yes- there is some crossover between these channels, believe it or not) over the years.

ATLANTA (Jan 22, 2015) – Husqvarna Group, the world’s largest producer of outdoor power products, has selected Atlanta-based media services agency McCulloch+Company to manage all dealer co-op media programs. McCulloch+Company will provide strategic media planning, campaign implementation, program management and research services to support Husqvarna local market sales initiatives. McCulloch+Company was chosen based on their creative media thinking, proven procedures and extensive spot-market expertise in digital, broadcast, print, out-of-home and direct marketing. 

This month's good media idea features something we should've written about a long time ago: online video. This is an area that is growing by leaps and bounds every month, with new publishers popping up daily, many of them creating original content, and in-banner video options becoming more prevalent. Plus, this short-form video content is very "snackable" with high view-through rates and optimal to reach potential customers where they are - on their mobile devices.