At long last (and after many sleepless nights), Social Media is finally explained in this one picture.
Enjoy.
The Worst Passwords of the Year
Almost every webpage we use needs a password. Let’s face it, we either use the same one over and over or employ an incredibly simple one and hope autofill does it’s job.
I Need a Password for My Password
A recent article has outed the worst passwords of 2011. You’ve probably used one or maybe even quite a few of them. Hackers love these because it makes their job so much easier. And who are we to make their task more daunting, right?
Take a look at the list below and see if yours made the list. By the way, you might want to steer clear of your pet’s name. It looks like Shadow and Bailey are all the rage.
1. password
2. 123456
3.12345678
4. qwerty
5. abc123
6. monkey
7. 1234567
8. letmein
9. trustno1
10. dragon
11. baseball
12. 111111
13. iloveyou
14. master
15. sunshine
16. ashley
17. bailey
18. passw0rd
19. shadow
20. 123123
21. 654321
22. superman
23. qazwsx
24. michael
25. football
Send in the Clouds
I’ve loved music as long as I can remember. As a kid, I’d spend all of my weekly allowance at the record store. Since the digital age began, I’ve had problems converting from vinyl and CD’s to virtual music (aka downloads). For me, there’s something about a physical album; browsing through the pictures, reading the liners notes, and touching the disc is part of the overall experience.
This week, Apple introduced iTunes Match as part of it’s iCloud service. For around $25 a year, you can store up to 25,000 songs and play them from basically any location. It’s a great service – and I’ve already subscribed to it. Still, I find myself torn between the two worlds.
On one hand, I have “hard copies” of almost every piece of music I own. If my computer blows up or online services are down, no problem; I have it on the shelf. On the other hand, playing my albums from anywhere has its advantages. Plus, online music storage doesn’t take up nearly as much space as the albums and CD’s in my living space.
Amazon also has a Cloud service and Google is currently developing one. So, it’s getting easier and easier to find places to store your music for a nominal fee, or in some cases, for free. I know people that have never bought a CD. They download everything – music, TV shows, movies, books.
So, what’s my hold-up? I suspect nostalgia. What’s your favorite musician supposed to sign when you meet them, your iPod? What about value? The 1st album of the next generation’s Beatles will essentially be worthless since it’s just mp3 files.
I’ll most likely continue to dabble in both worlds; a few downloads here and a few CD purchases there. That’s the one great thing about all this exciting, new technology; we have more options than ever before. Well, at least for now.
- MWB
Design and Branding Worthy of a President
Graphic Designer Amber Allen takes a look at how cohesive marketing can even help in Politics.
When it comes to branding and marketing in political campaigns; you either have it or you don’t. It seems that most candidates running for office, nationally or locally, pay little to no attention to what a well thought out and well branded campaign can actually do for them.
Let’s take the Obama campaign into consideration. His campaign was the first one in history to use a coherent and comprehensive program of fonts, logos, slogans and web design. He is one of the first presidential candidates in history to be treated like a high-end consumer brand that needed to be sold to the public. His design campaign was not only carried through with cohesive colors and fonts, but his brand was also carried over to the digital revolution. This attracted a younger generation through Facebook and Twitter.
Obama’s campaign worked incredibly well, not just because of his message of change, but due to the consistency of his brand. Everything in his campaign was always the same. The font Gotham was almost always used. Even the smallest details were well thought out and executed. And that was important for Obama, because he needed to present a campaign of being well-managed and in control. His branding and marketing campaign reflected how he needed to be treated as a candidate.
It’s obvious how well Obama’s campaign did in 2008. This is largely due to his marketing stance. In actuality, political came secondary. This rarely happens, but if candidates actually paid more attention to the branding and marketing of their candidacy, the supporters that they could gain would increase dramatically. - AA
The Politics of Advertising
While most of the nation has their eyes focused on the festivities of the upcoming holidays, and rightfully so, we in the media buying world have only one event looming ever so largely on our horizon – POLITICAL SEASON. Yes, that term prompts many in our line of work to reach quickly for the aspirin and breathe a heavy sigh quicker than you can say pre-empt. However, the bright and shining star in our sky appears when our clients are aware of the importance of pre-planning during these times.
Political years differ because, in a nutshell, the media outlets (television, radio, etc) have an incredibly high demand on their commercial inventory. This, of course, drives the rates up based on the simple concept of supply and demand. Also, media vendors cannot charge considerably less for any other advertiser than they charge the politicians (also called issue advertising). This means, when the political camps start spending dollars, the rates hit a high note and when Joe’s Plumbing down the street calls to place his advertising, he’s going to note equally high rates because of this. 
This can all be avoided by planning early. As a Media Buyer/Planner, nothing gives me more joy than to hear a client say “Let’s go ahead and book this annually” and it’s still a few months away from the new year. Joy is in my heart, birds sing, rainbows appear, and well….you get the idea. But it’s never more important to pre-plan than during a political year to avoid high rates, low inventory, and therefore, bumped spots.
The issue advertising has started being placed at this point for 2012, so just a word of caution: If you have not begun booking your advertising for next year, you might want to consider doing so very soon. It will save you time, money…and a LOT of aspirin. - CS
The Best Intern Ever at G-Force
We asked our intern Cynamon to provide insight on being an intern at G-Force Marketing Solutions. Here’s what she told us.
My name is Cynamon Frierson and I was asked to write a little about what it’s like to be a Marketing Intern here and also come up with a great title for myself (which I feel like I have). It’s my last year in the full-time MBA program at UNC-G and it is required that we complete a summer internship after the first year. I was a little nervous at first as with starting any new job, but my fear was that I would be doing what most interns do, all the things that nobody else wants to do. Although I’m sure I have, I also have been able to do some truly amazing things with wonderful people and I was thrilled when I got to extend my internship for a few more months.
I’ve worked with just about everybody here in some form or fashion from Account Executives to the Digital Marketing Strategist (whose title should be Digital Marketing Guru, by the way). The best part about being here is that we’re able to have great relationships with our co-workers and it truly feels like a family. No matter what needs to get done, we work together and do whatever it takes to get the job done right.
Although I’m not sure where life will take me in my future, I can only hope that I’ll be in a work environment similar to G-Force. It would also be great if I could bring my dog in to help me (like I do here), but that’s another story.
Phoning It In
While many people love their Droids or Blackberrys, no one makes waves in the industry like the iPhone. The new iPhone 5 has been talked about for months, even before an official announcement has been made about its release (it’ll be made Tuesday – 10/04). There’s now a rumor that Apple may announce an iPhone 4S instead. All this frenzy over a product that didn’t even exist a decade ago.
It’s hard to imagine a time when smart phones weren’t a part of our daily existence. Who still remembers having a flip phone or worse yet, a bag phone? Now, we’re more concerned over apps than actually making a call. Angry Birds has become the #1 best-selling game app around the world, with over 12 million downloads. That’s a LOT of Angry Birds!
So, where do we go from here? In 10 years, will we look at the iPhone like it’s a red-headed T-Rex? Probably.
Industry experts are expecting whatever Apple unveils Tuesday to shatter sales records to smithereens upon its release. Just think, 10 years ago we were in a quandary over dial-up vs. broadband. It seems the lifespan of what’s new becomes shorter and shorter every year.
