Award - Best Poster Designer

The Riverfront Times (RFT) released their "Best Of" Awards for Arts and Entertainment and Boxing Clever is happy to learn that we were selected as Best Poster Designer of 2010. This award specifically speaks to the Rock Posters that have been designed for our client Vintage Vinyl. So far, Boxing Clever has designed more than 70 posters over the last couple of years for amazing artists that come through St. Louis and stop by the record store for a short performance, record signing or both. Vintage Vinyl, a cultural icon of St. Louis continues to be one of the brightest spots in the hippest part of town and Boxing Clever is proud to be a part of that continued heritage.

Boxing Clever has designed for artists such as Anvil, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, Dr. Dog, The Black Crowes, Local H, Peter Bjorn & John, Valient Thorr, Dead Confederates, Old 97s, Brand New, Blind Melon and George Clinton (just to name a few).

Welcome to the World of Web 3.0

The internet’s come a long way since it’s origination. To those who follow even the slightest of changes closely (like digital marketing enthusiasts), the web’s been broken into 3 different stages of evolution: Web 1.0, 2.0, and 3.0.

• Web 1.0 was an information portal - the “read-only” web. People accessed the internet simply for information, but the web at this time was lacking interaction. It needed a way to become more integrated into our daily social lives.
• Web 2.0 was more organized and finally “read-write”. Power to the people! This was the era of tagging, and social networking boomed as the internet became more community-focused and blog-centric.
• Web 3.0 is more personalized, as the web has become more savvy to the way each person is using it – from their likes, dislikes, past searches, tags, and online purchases. It is infinitely mobile and accessible, and increasingly more engaged with the individual user. Web 3.0 is portable. Pack it up, take it with you. Distribute. Store. Share. Send. Slice. Dice. Slap. Chop.

Why is this important to advertising communities worldwide? Communication with consumers has to reach a personal level that speaks to each individual’s specific behavior online. People are screening the information that’s most important to them on the web, and the only constructive way to reach them is by monitoring their online behavior, and releasing information that’s applicable to them. Otherwise, you’ll get filtered out with the rest of the irrelevant info out there.

To find out more info on Web 3.0, check out these wonderful presentations.

Facebook Isn’t the Place for Collector’s Items

There’s a great article on AdAge.com by Chris Perry called “Are You Investing In Facebook Fans or Just Collecting Them?”, that offers some invaluable tips to brands wanting to either utilize or improve upon their social media exposure. The greatest advocates that brands have in the digital world are their online supporters – those people that consume and enjoy your goods and services in real life so much that online, they click “Like” when they see your brand on Facebook. So how do you get a Facebook user to become your very own Fan, and afterwards, what’s the next step?

Perry offers not one, but ten. Right off the bat, treat Facebook the way you would treat any other advertising or PR campaign. Clearly state your communication goals, and understand your target audience. You can utilize Facebook’s targeting mechanisms to better direct your message. The capabilities are there – use them! Do research too – it’s important to know what your competition is doing on Facebook. How can you improve upon their current tactics? What are they doing that you’re not? What’s working for them, and what isn’t?

After you’ve gathered a core base of fans, understand what it meant when they clicked “Like” by your brand. Check out a few profiles, and see if you can’t make some correlations among them. Realize that there is a small group among these numbers that are your true advocates – check out who is commenting the most on your brand. These are the fans that are spreading the word, dropping your brand-name in conversations, and ultimately garnering you more support and more online and real-time fans. But don’t simply admire your numbers as they grow, recognize their full potential. Perry explains, “Put those who like you to work by giving them reasons to interact with the brand and provide a platform where their enthusiastic support is amplified to their networks.” This means, make status updates that appeal to your core fans. Make relevant comments that start a conversation. Ask questions that gain enthusiastic responses.

Perhaps most importantly, add value to your fan’s digital experiences. Give them a reason to visit your page every now and then, but stay realistic. Almost every brand has a Facebook page these days, so consumers are constantly facing opportunities to “Like” a brand with every click they make. Realize that your social media exposure is an investment on your part, and like any investment, it takes time to reach it’s full potential.

And finally, LISTEN. Your fans are saying something about themselves every day – that’s the best part about Facebook – people utilize it for the sheer purpose of sharing information about their daily lives.

For more information on this article, visit http://adage.com/digitalnext/post?article_id=144980, and keep your fan-base close!

We would like to thank...

Our clients, first and foremost! Boxing Clever just got a shipment of awards this week and the air smells of silver polisher and pride. Our agency is still just 2 years old but it's nice to see our trophy collection getting to the size where we are going to need a case.

While we feel that these awards reflect the hard work, enthusiasm and dedication of the great team we have at Boxing Clever - it also is a testament to our clients who equally share the passion for doing something that not only gets results but stirs the soul. And having some fun while doing so.

So for this latest round of shiny figurines, we'd like to thank
• Tuaca Liqueur who won a couple of Communicator awards for tuacabodyartball.com
• Vintage Vinyl, who commissioned the award winning rock posters for Anvil and Peter Bjorn and John
• Advent Conspiracy, who won a Telly for the 2009 animated video

We'll be sure to keep them dusted and on display for everyone to see.

Now we'll end our speech before the orchestra pit starts in!

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Ambush Marketing at the World Cup

Yup, it's happened again. One brand tries to gain attention at a major sporting event without spending money in any official capacity and gets in hot water for it. This time it involves a troupe of young women in bright orange mini dresses supposedly drawing attention on the behalf of Bavaria Beer - a Dutch brewing company.

The problem is, Budweiser is the official beer sponsor of the World Cup and they aren't too keen on competing brands encroaching on their ad space. FIFA is known for putting the kibosh on any unsanctioned guerrilla marketing and had police arrest at least two of the women. But to keep the situation from getting out of hand, FIFA says they have not pressed charges against the women.

The man responsible for the organized stunt, Robbie Earle, has said he's done nothing wrong.

More here at Yahoo! Sports

Adobe reponds to Apple

Adobe says "We [heart] Apple". But what they don't love is "...anybody taking away your freedom to choose what you create, how you create it, and what you experience on the web."

A succinct and to-the-point campaign. Boxing Clever applauds.

see more here on TUAW.

Jobs to Adobe Flash: You don't run the show, we do.

The smackdown continues. Months ago, many Flash developers had been looking forward to using the latest version of Flash to author iPhone applications, and those hopes were dashed when Apple said it simply wouldn't allow it. Basically saying that the code would not be clean, elegant and stable enough. It is known that Apple and Adobe have been dueling for quite some time. But now Jobs has released an open letter explaining Apple's decision to ban Flash iPhone apps and to continue to avoid Flash altogether when it comes to the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch.

Some of the rhetoric seemed steeped in angry emotion - when Jobs says that Flash was built for the mouse/PC mentality and not mobile touchpoint technology. (Basically saying that Flash is old-school. Old hat.)

But it seems the real reason is that Flash steps between the operating system and the user. Somewhat shutting out what Apple can control and therefore controlling the experience for the user. And as we all have learned over the years – Apple has ALWAYS been about control. Control over both the hardware and the software.

Flash on the other hand has heard Apple's grumblings and has moved to improve areas in which it receives a lot of criticism - power consumption, instability and lack of multitouch support. It remains to be seen if Apple will open it's arms when these issues are resolved. Mostly because Flash will still be standing between Apple and the user and Steve Jobs simply doesn't like that.

More here at CBS Tech Talk.