The methods and craft of unique brand storytelling
The answer to why dogs and tiny horses can be used in therapy for PTSD and why cats rule the internet lays squarely in the pulling power of cuteness. But why do we find things cute and what are the commonly shared criteria for cuteness all over the world? According to psychologist Dr. Sandra Pimentel,…
Continue reading ➞ An exploration of the aesthetics of cuteness
The Flotsam and Jetsam of Designs Past Typography can be a treasure trove of new creative ideas and a wonderful relic of the way things used to be done in branding and advertising. Nowadays with retro typography having a resurgence, it seems appropriate to profile some flotsam and jetsam of brands, some of them long…
Continue reading ➞ Hunting the flotsam, jetsam and fakes of designs past
I have done my years of freelancing. After a long stint of more than 12 years, I am back to working for an organisation here in Auckland. Last year, I researched freelancing in the UK for an ad agency who wanted me (along with a designer) to create an infographic for a recruitment agency. Here…
Continue reading ➞ Freelancing Part 1: How To Work Out If It’s Right For You
Every year, British department store John Lewis releases a Christmas ad that puts all other schmaltzy Christmas ads to shame. Although these ads are like the Marmite of advertising. One portion of the audience will fall deeply in love with them and the other half 'won't be having any of that Christmas crap, thank you…
Continue reading ➞ John Lewis Christmas Ads are the Marmite of Advertising
Geo-located map apps are fun to make and fun for the audience to engage with. These storytelling tools have huge potential when the story is map-based. StoryMap can implement multimedia, text and interactivity along with location relevance. StoryMapJS is the brainchild of Northerwestern Univeristy Knight Lab and is a digital storyteller's dream. To demonstrate it's…
Continue reading ➞ Free Storytelling Tool Demonstrates Game of Thrones Map
A key take-away at this year's Digital Cream in Sydney was about content. It's the buzzword of the past few years in digital marketing circles. The hunger for content pervades every business and it outpaces agencies' ability to create it. Key Take-away: The Challenge of Sourcing Commercial Content In order to meet demand for content, many…
Continue reading ➞ Content Is Big Business, The Challenge Is Knowing Who Can Create It
You're rapidly running out of ideas for your blog and/or clients. Here are a couple of kooky fabulous ways to inject some juice back into your writing. Although bearing in mind that you may end up writing about strange and quirky factoids like I do! There's an art to thinking up new ideas for your…
Continue reading ➞ Five Wacky Content Writing and Ideation Tools That You Should Know About
Web Design and Print Design have historically become uncomfortable bed fellows. Although they jostle and seem at odds with one another, the two are inextricably connected. Master both of them and your business has the world as its proverbial oyster. So here are some juicy tid-bits to sink your teeth into. Join us as we…
Continue reading ➞ Design Elements for Print and Web: A Newbie’s Guide Part 1
Last week I looked at how to console yourself when a pitch gets rejected by an editor. This week, I present the salve and solution. There are five components of a good pitch that will turn rejections into successes. 1. The Hook 2. The Pitch 3. The Body 4. The Credentials 5. The Close The Hook…
Continue reading ➞ Pitching Part 2: Five Components of An Irresistible Pitch
When Ferdinand Magellan discovered through exploration that the world was spherical not flat in the middle ages, it was considered laughable at the time. Although (surprise, surprise) humans regularly circumnavigate the globe without falling off the edge into a dark abyss. So here's another idea, albeit a slightly less revolutionary one – that the digital…
Continue reading ➞ Flat Digital Design: The Present and Future
Flat design has exploded in recent years, thanks to a range of prestigious early adopters that paved the way for the rest of the online stratosphere. In 2014 and beyond, there have been many big name brands that have become swept up in flat digital design. So where did this design trend come from? Is…
While the entire world may be living online now, there is still high esteem accorded to print publications. Even in the digital age, print magazines still carry some weight. However to get into the hallowed pages of a glossy magazine, (or for that matter an incredibly popular blog) you need to be prepared. If you have…
Continue reading ➞ Pitching Part 1:How to Stop Bitching About Pitching
How do you make sure that your investment in copy pays dividends in the coming years, without further time and money spent? The answer lays in how you approach the content and whether or not it's flexible enough to do gymnastics for you. Ask yourself is it malleable, flexible and reusable? Here are some ways…
Continue reading ➞ Six Ways To Sweat Your Content Marketing Assets
Technology is rapidly accelerating and changing beyond all recognition every few years. So the healthcare industry mustn't only keep up, it must be at the forefront of these changes. Doctors and medical practitioners everywhere would do well to stay on the pulse of these changes. So here's everything you need to know about technology for…
Continue reading ➞ Healthcare Marketing Tools to Revolutionise Your Healthcare Business
Content marketing is booming! It was one of the big buzz words for 2012 and this has carried forth into 2014 and beyond. Although for all of the hullabaloo, is it really worth the effort? Is it actually working for Aussie businesses? And if not, then what can you do to vamp up your content…
Continue reading ➞ Australian Versus UK Versus US Content Marketing
Email marketing has long been overlooked or written off as a primary way of communicating with one's target audience. With the advent of incredibly thorough email sorting algorithms in gmail and other email clients, it has become increasingly harder for marketers to reach their audience through email. Although all is not lost. There are ways…
Continue reading ➞ Ten Marketing Hacks for Creating Dynamite E-newsletters
Spam is a fantastical journey into LSD-laced euphoria and strangely misshapen English. Sometimes the end result is hillarious. Here are some glittering gems that deserved a second life before they are relegated into the black hole of my 'empty spam box' button. I can almost sense them melting and screeching 'Oh what a world' as…
Continue reading ➞ Eight Supremely Psychadelic Spam Comments
Emotive graphic design and copywriting are a wonderful combination that grabs your attention and grabs in your chest, where you feel something. It's authentic and should be only type of graphic design that you ever attempt. When you reach an error 404 page and there's a cute picture and anwitty and irreverent one-liner that guides…
Continue reading ➞ Eight Principles of Emotive Graphic Design To Improve Your Website
There are plenty of reasons why one website will achieve high click through rates (CTRs) and another will fail in getting much traffic at all. If you have in place an air-tight search marketing campaign and engaging copy, then the next step is to do a thorough assessment of your website and its usability, to…
Continue reading ➞ Twelve Ways That Some Websites Alienate Users
Content strategy is made up of several different stages. The most obvious and well-known part of the cycle is content creation. Although there's a lot more to successful content strategy than this. These are analysis, taxonomy and audit, workflow reviews and distribution parts too. In this article we will be considering each individually and gaining…
Continue reading ➞ 23 Essentials for a Kick Ass Content Marketing Strategy
In a global landscape, many smaller businesses get lost amongst all of the competing voices. Rather than focus on the gargantuan global picture, in many cases it's a lot more effective to focus on the local. Here's a couple of ways to target the local community in your posts. 1. Create A Geo-Location Strategy…
Continue reading ➞ Six Tips For Tailoring Your Blog To Local Search
How to put together all of the elements of content marketing in order to build something magical. This elegant visual is courtesy of Chris Lake of eConsultancy. Click on the image to make it bigger.. Image Source The Elements Strategy: Map your strategy to long term business goals, plan and focus everything from the outset. Format: It's…
Pinterest is the third largest social media network in the world. It's where quirky, unusual or weird images flirt, cavort and eventually make babies. If you have images that convey a story in a spectacular or unique way – these images will do well on Pinterest. Here are ten tips for getting the most out…
Continue reading ➞ Ten Lessons To Learn About Pinterest From Top Storytellers
Sharing stories is a ritual as old as time itself. Now immersive storytelling is set to radically change how we produce and consume stories, with the addition of images, video, audio in clever new ways. 2014 will usher in a brave new world of storytelling for those offering copywriting services or any other creative field. The technology…
Continue reading ➞ Four Great Immersive Storytelling Tools For Writers and Designers
