As visual creatures, color plays a huge role in influencing our behavior. I’m sure, many of you can remember grabbing the sprinkles, sugar strands, jimmies, or hundreds and thousands at birthday parties. Color is often the first thing that hits our senses and often leaves the most lasting and memorable impression.
 
Research into the impact of color in marketing and color psychology, appropriately titled Impact of Color on Marketing and Color psychology: a critical review found that colors really do influence the moods and feelings (positively or negatively) of consumers. Research papers indicate that between 60-90 percent of product evaluation and product purchase is based on color alone. Additional research has also shown in The Interactive Effects of Colors and Products on Perceptions of Brand Logo Appropriateness a correctly chosen color mix for your business logo can bring immediate value to your brand.
 
Basically, what do specific colors positively say to us?

• Black – authority, elegance, powerful
• White – cleanliness, purity, simplistic
• Red – energetic, excitement, passion
• Blue – loyalty, security, trust
• Orange – confidence, friendliness, warmth
• Yellow – happiness, intellect, optimism
• Green – freshness, growth, health
• Purple – wealth, wisdom, sophistication
• Magenta – creativity, imaginative, innovative

 
Effective brands use color to great success to engage and connect with their audience. Before choosing the color mix for your logo, marketing materials, website or product range it is important to firstly consider some basic points:

Color is Memorable
Color is a central element of your visual identity. Carefully consider your visual identity color mix, as it acts like the personality of your business with your audience. While it is not the only element in your visual identity, it is definitely one of the first things seen and possibly the most memorable of your visual identity. 

Color is Innate
Find out the demographic breakdown of your audience and what color mix may persuade them to act. Defining who you are speaking to will greatly influence your color selection. Now you know your audience, you will be able to choose a color mix that positively influences your audience’s moods and feelings.

Consider the Competition
Check out your competition and consider how you can differentiate your brand and products from your competitors with color. This can be tough, as you will still need to connect with your audience and satisfy marketplace perceptions. A/B testing (split-run testing) of color options with your target audience will help you make an informed decision.

Consider the Platform
Be sure that whatever color mix you choose for your brand and products it can work online as well as in traditional print marketing. What looks great on a computer screen in RGB may not look so great on paper in CMYK. Also, carefully consider the color mix for your online messaging, active text and purchasing buttons, so to complement and at the same time stand out from the other content on the webpage.

Be Color Consistent
Your branding and visual identity needs to be consistent, clear and uncomplicated. When you try to do too much color, your messaging gets lost. By keeping things consistent and clear, you are keeping your visual communications strong and memorable. Color consistency will ensure your audience develops a visual connection and relationship with your brand's personality and products.
 
As mentioned, color is one of the most effective ways to communicate your brand and products to your audience. Color contributes not only to distinguishing your products from your competitors, but also influences consumer mood and feeling.

​Scopic works with businesses to build consumer engagement, connect with us to find out more.

Two years after Pikotaro (Kazuhito Kosaka) grooved to the front of Japan’s pop music scene with "PPAP (Pen-Pineapple-Apple-Pen) he has now been born-again to join with Hungry Jack's to launch the new 'Summer BBQ Whopper'.

Hungry Jack’s brand marketing manager Claudia Cullen says: "We wanted to create something that made our audience laugh and ultimately appreciate the fun yet delicious food we offer at Hungry Jack's."

The 60-second social media video 'Summer BBQ Pineapple Whopper' created by PR agency Eleven and Content agency BOLT will play over Hungry Jack's social media platforms in 15- and 6-second spots from December 2018 to January 2019.

Scopic works with global businesses to build online exposure, contact us to find out more.

In 2018, audiences are actively spending more time consuming content produced by social media influencers than just passively sitting in front of the TV. Influencer marketing continues to strip revenue away from traditional television-based “celebrity endorsement” and Instagram with 900 million active users is a leading platform among marketers.
 
Marketing on Instagram with the right type of influencer can boost product exposure and drive sales far more effectively and efficiently than traditional marketing.
 
Here are three important benefits of influencer marketing:

Relevance
Influencers communicate in a voice and style that is relevant to a targeted audience.
Authenticity
Influencers have credibility with a targeted audience through the creation of authentic content.
Exposure
Influencer content is more likely to be liked, shared, tweeted, followed and this then leads to increased exposure.
 
If you are interested in Instagram influencer marketing, but need help identifying the right type of influencer for your business, and more importantly how much you should pay, then let us know.

Scopic works with businesses to identify more effective and efficient ways to increase exposure, contact us to find out more.

Now we are in the last month of the year, it’s still not too late to start shaping your 2018 content marketing strategy. For B2C and B2B social media marketing to really engage in 2018, businesses must publish relevant, authentic and targeted content across selected platforms. To make this happen—you need to know and understand future audience trends.
 
But before we look at 2018, it’s probably a good idea to take a minute to review your social media content marketing wins and losses of 2017—where, when, what and how your target audience consumed your content—what were the results?
 
Okay, now you know what worked, and what didn’t work, let’s focus on the trends for the year ahead.
 
1. Be Visual
Research shows that video will play a greater role in the content marketing mix in 2018.  It may take time to plan, capture and edit video content, but your audience is more likely to engage with video than just text or images. In 2017 90% of all content shared on social media was video, but remember, to make this happen, you need to catch your audience's attention in the first 3 seconds.
 
More Ideas: 7 Ways to Create a Killer Marketing Video
 
2. Be Influential
People will want more authentic and credible sources of information prior to making purchasing decisions in 2018. For this reason, building audience relationships and partnering with a quality social media influencer could really boost your sales. In 2017 74% of people turned to their social media network for advice on purchasing decisions, and 40% of Instagram and Twitter users made a purchase based on the endorsement of a social media influencer.
 
More Ideas: The State of Influencer Marketing
 
Final Thoughts
Using video and influencers may seem like a solution to the lack of social media traction your business made in 2017, but it’s important that you don’t forget key marketing fundamentals.
 
1. Be Targeted
With an explosive amount of content being published across multiple platforms, you will need to be more targeted with the content you create, and where you publish it in 2018. This requires you to even better understand your target audience's social media habits. Take the time to identify, what content and which platforms have your target audience’s attention. Once you understand where the attention is, you can then better create targeted content that snatches your audience's attention from the competition.
 
2. Be Ready
In 2018 businesses with the highest and most effective consumption rate of social media content will be those businesses that conduct A/B testing (split-run testing) of the content they create, and the platforms they publish it on. Through A/B testing you will start to better identify/understand your audience's habits and this knowledge will then shape the content created and the distribution platforms used.

Finally, social media content marketing winners in 2018 will be those that grab and hold the audience’s attention in the first 3 seconds—it's that simple.
 
Scopic works with businesses to create content that grabs attention and builds engagement, contact us to find out more.

The key purpose of your communications and marketing activities should be to entice your client, visitor and/or potential customer to act. This is why you need to use strong and clear call-to-actions (CTA).
 
A CTA is the text and/or graphics you use to persuade your target audience to take positive action. An effective CTA grabs your audience and tells them exactly what to do next.
 
Choose specific objectives
Carefully consider how you want people to act and be specific. Create your CTA based directly on your marketing objectives. Use concise language and keep the actions required hassle-free.
Download your product overview? "Download Now"
Click on a specific webpage? "Click Here"
Sign up to your newsletter? "Sign Up Now"
Pick up the phone? "Call Today"
Visit your store? "Come In"
Send an email? "Email Us"

Use space and color
Carefully consider the negative/white space you have around a CTA as this space will draw audience attention to your key message.  Also, using contrasting colors will draw greater attention to the CTA. Use a different color for your key messages, active text and buttons, so they stand out from the other content on the page.

 Interested in finding out how we could help your business persuasively communicate? Let's connect.

A recent Nielsen report assessed the importance of optimizing your business marketing mix.

The report notes that every brand has unique dynamics, however, there are some controlling fundamentals that apply to them all:

• Brands need to take digital seriously, as digital’s return on investment (ROI) is twice as efficient as TV
• Brands need to better balance the media spend across all branded products, as a balanced media spend benefits sales across the entire brand portfolio
• Brands need to better understand consumer flighting patterns, as maximizing flighting patterns is an essential way to optimize a media spend
• Brands need to support new products for up to two years following launch, as extended product support will build positive consumer behavior
• Brands need to better understand the importance of interconnected media, as a well planned and connected media flow will drive sales.

 
​Access report here: Five Steps To Optimizing Marketing Mix Strategies
 
Scopic helps businesses better understand and engage with their target audience, contact us to find out more.

As the end of this year quickly moves closer, it is not too late to start proactively planning your 2017 marketing strategy and related marketing spend. Ensuring marketing success in the year ahead, requires you to reflect, focus and plan now.
 
Use these simple five steps below to create a plan to drive business growth in 2017.
 
1. Create a marketing schedule
Get a 2017 calendar and mark each day/week you want to launch a marketing campaign for your business. Mark days/weeks that are key sales periods on your “Marketing Schedule” – of course this will vary depending on your products/services and key markets. Remember, to make sure you firstly take the time to review your current 2016 marketing periods/activities and identify what worked for your business.
 
2. Identify marketing deadlines
Now you have created your “Marketing Schedule” for 2017 – for every day/week you marked, count back four weeks and mark it as “Marketing Deadline”. This is when you should have your marketing strategy finalized and ready to go. Too often marketing campaigns are rushed and this impacts on the creative aspect being compromised.
 
3. Consider strategy time
For every day/week marked “Marketing Deadline” schedule at least two weeks before as “Strategy Time” – this is when you need to take a few hours to review the overall marketing strategy to make sure it is inline with current objectives and market trends.  Marketing KPIs you need to be measuring to better understand your ROI may include: website traffic and level of engagement, social media reach and engagement, marketing qualified leads (MQL), sales qualified leads (SQL), and of course sales growth relevant to a particular marketing campaign or promotion.
 
4. Allow for production time
Effective marketing campaigns take time to create, test and revise. Booking quality advertising space or media spots also takes time and by leaving it too late you may be limiting your options. This is why it is extremely important to plan ahead.
 
5. Build professional connections
Finally, now is a great time to start to build new relationships with marketers, designers and media outlets in preparation of launching your 2017 marketing activities. By reaching out now you will be able to start to grow strategic relationships with key partners. Like effective marketing, creative business relationships take time to grow.

Scopic helps you better engage and connect with creative communications, contact us to find out more.

​Nielsen a global leader in consumer understanding shares the keys to unlocking the millennial mindset. With millennials making up nearly 25% of the globe's population at 1.7 billion people they are about to make a substantial impact on the global consumer landscape in the immediate future.
 
" Millennials are also a demanding generation that wants a more balanced, healthy lifestyle, and they want to be more informed about companies, their products and their business practices. They also expect products to do more for them and for their community."
 
According to Nielsen, “core values and characteristics will remain the key influencers and drivers for how Millennials think, spend and act throughout their lifetimes.”
 
Read more here: The keys to unlocking the millennial mindset
 
Scopic helps you better understand and engage with your target audience, contact us to find out more.

Now we are officially at the halfway point of 2016 – 1st July 2016 – it is a good time to evaluate your social media objectives and plans for 2017.
 
What we continue to find interesting about 2016 is the preferred communication platforms and behaviors of Japanese users on social media. With much of the world dominated by Facebook 1090M+, Japan users continue their love affair with LINE 50M+ and Twitter 26M+. Even the way Japanese users post and interact on third-placed Facebook 25M+ is different compared to United States users; with a slower shift to video posts and a greater preference to link content in Japan. It will be interesting to see whether Facebook uses their rapidly growing Instagram 8M+ user base (55% Females) in Japan to generate growth and synergies across the two platforms in 2017.

See the statistics here: www.socialbakers.com/statistics/facebook 

In 2017, we see Facebook move to become an even more valuable tool for professionals and businesses as it continues to strip away at Linkedin's 340K+ user base and gains the respect of major Japanese brands. 

Scopic works with your business to identify the best social media platforms to increase your customer engagement, contact us to find out more.

Nielsen a global leader in consumer measurement and information offers a snap shot on how a creative strategy can resonate with different consumer groups in different ways. 

"For years, Carl’s Jr./Hardee’s creative strategy has included incorporating sex appeal into a number of their ad campaigns. While their sexual advertising, presumably targeting male audiences, catches viewers’ attention in high-profile events such as the Super Bowl, analysis via TV Brand Effect identified the polarizing effects that these ads have on women that could impact the brand’s overall equity in the long run."

FINDING #1
Carl’s Jr. ads featuring sex appeal creative are no more memorable than their ads without sex appeal for both men and women. 

FINDING #2
Both men and women were more likely to connect the sexual ads to the Carl’s Jr. brand than their non-sexual ads. 

Download the full report here: Nielsen Case Study - Using Sex to Sell

Watch Carl's Jr. | Tex Mex Bacon Thickburger commercial here: Tex meets Mex - Borderball

Scopic helps you connect with your target audience via creative communications, contact us to find out more.