When the Fierce team gets invited to the party, big things happen. Zefco Industrial Flooring, a South Carolina-based company with customers across the U.S., approached Fierce in need of a bold new brand and a bold new brand strategy. We met with fearless Zefco president Derrick Zearley, toured the Zefco facility, met the team, and spent time listening and learning in our Discovery Day process. And together with Derrick, Fierce began to shape a fresh new strategic direction for the brand. Our clients share their vision. At Fierce, we’re privileged to work with the best clients. During our Fierce Discovery Day experiences, clients share their heart and … Read More
As a small business, does your website need a blog?
The benefit of a blog on your website for small businesses As part of a comprehensive brand strategy, we advise small to medium size business owners on blogging and blog content on their company website. We have general recommendations that we make with tactics that vary depending on the business or product type. A blog can be a helpful component of your website as long as you are prepared to be consistent—and offer high quality, value oriented content. A few considerations before you decide 1. Don’t add a blog to your website unless you are committed to producing consistent content. 2. If you are committed to blogging, … Read More
Fierce social media tips for start-up brands
An excerpt from a recent interview with Fierce on how we advise our start-up clients when launching their social media. So tell us about Fierce: Fierce Strategy + Creative is a full service national ad firm. We handle many aspects of our clients brands from brand strategy to social media to national print and TV campaigns. We work with large established multi-million dollar brands as well as with many start-ups and entrepreneurial efforts. What do you recommend for a start-up when they are launching their social media for the first time? When a start up launches, social media is often the first public debut of their new … Read More
Fierce gets a powerful 47.3% open rate for email marketing campaign.
*Delightful illustration provided by Dan Stevenson. Check out his work here: www.disillustration.com Thanks, Dan, for sharing your magic with us. Fierce is not your average bear. Has your brand ever earned a 47.3% eyes-on-rate for an email marketing campaign? Or a 5.5% active response rate? Our team of brand strategists, writers, designers and digital partners have crafted a formula for success—and our analytics are speaking for themselves. By working with a strategic partner like Fierce, you can see the same rates of success for your company. An excerpt from our most recent email campaign: A Fierce team of people who get what’s at stake for your brand. With this highly strategic, highly targeted, visually … Read More
Fierce Excerpts: Is industry expertise losing its value?
*Image: Some of the Fierce expertise in action (BrandFiercely.com) Now Reading | The End of Expertise (HBR) Expertise is the world we’re living in every single day. At Fierce, it is one of our key value propositions and one of the key differentiators that we bring to our clients. Our expertise comes from over 25 years of experience managing brands from start-ups to multi-billion dollar companies. But is this key asset loosing its value? Here’s what HBR had to say. If genuine expertise is no longer commanding its traditional premium in the marketplace, and if the old ways of conveying expertise are also in upheaval, what then do experts have to offer? … Read More
The ever-evolving business model.
We saw this visual posted today and wanted to share. How interesting it is that these large companies run on such different business models. Be inspired today!
Your customer referral program is actually profitable.
Now Reading | Why Customer Referrals Can Drive Stunning Profits If you are wondering if your customer referral program really works, the answer is yes according to research done by Harvard Business Review. Not only do they say it can be profitable, but strikingly profitable. Let’s check out why. We studied 10,000 accounts in a large German bank over a period of three years, and found that customers obtained through referrals are both more loyal and more valuable than other customers. After controlling for such factors as age and gender, we calculated that referred customers are, on average, about 18% more likely than others to stay with … Read More
Some quick tips for using Instagram for brands.
*Image from the @brandfiercely Instagram account: Don’t poke the bear. Posting on Instagram for a brand? Here’s some good tips: What makes a good photo? One that evokes emotions including laughter, appreciation, aspiration, or inspiration. Posting less than 3 times a day is a healthy balance. A filter is usually a good idea—but not necessary. Try not to use more than four hashtags per picture. If you need more, you might want to reconsider your post. If you are not tracking more than 10-15 likes, try something new. Avoid selfies. Save video for special things. Read the entire article here: http://www.vogue.com/13299678/instagram-rules-social-media/
Fierce Excerpts: The daunting task of visualizing Don Draper’s brilliant ideas.
Now Reading | How Mad Men Co-Producer Made Don Draper’s Work Believable. In this awesome little article, Adweek talks about Josh Weltman, a co-producer of Mad Men, who created most of the ad campaigns seen on the show. As a creative director myself, I know this must have been an incredible responsibility–and a daunting one at that. Here were a few of the questions he was asked in the interview about the process of creating Don’s artwork. And above are some of his fun ad layouts that brought Don Draper’s ideas to life on the show. To look authentic, did you do the ads freehand? Usually I … Read More
Simple is always better.
The best creative executions are always the simplest. As a designer, when you can be disciplined to truly strip away everything that you don’t really need to communicate your idea, what’s left is often enough. I immediately think of the “got milk?” and Nike’s “Just do it” and “Where’s the beef?” campaigns. This out-of-home campaign from Snickers highlighted by Adweek is a great example of a simple but brilliant (and fun) execution. They found examples of amusing mistakes all over NYC and then planted their sticker that says “You make mistakes when you’re hungry” right beside it. BBDO, the agency that represents Snickers, was quick to let … Read More