The newest partnership between the tech giant Samsung and the gargantuan Jay-Z elicits just one question in my mind: Who won? Of course, both have lots to gain in this situation, but who is coming out on top? CONTINUE READING
Hogtown. TDot. The 416. The Big Smoke.
Toronto is many things to many people, and with a city that’s as culturally diverse as ours it’s no wonder that people are flocking to her in their droves from all around the world to get a big ‘ol slice of the Torontonian pie. CONTINUE READING
/ˈskjuːəmɔrf/ An element of design or structure that serves little or no purpose in the artifact fashioned from the new material but was essential to the object made from the original material. – Wikipedia CONTINUE READING
So, last week people seemed to be having fun with the hashtag #TOPolimovies and as the curtain call on the Rob Ford saga comes to a close, we must administer our Coup-de-grace to the “crackstarter saga”.
I get it.
Game of Thrones was amazing last night. As it was last week, with all that blood and all that death… CONTINUE READING
The most obvious objective for any marketing campaign is to get people to buy more of whatever it is you’re selling. CONTINUE READING
Every industry has their own set of phrases, terms and buzzwords that silver tongued professionals spout at any given opportunity. CONTINUE READING
On June 5 in Toronto, one of the most renowned marketing conferences makes a pit stop at the Metro Toronto Convention Centre. The Art of Marketing is stopping here to impart the wisdom of thought leaders like Jonah Berger, Biz Stone, and Seth Godin, among others. CONTINUE READING
Books about social media strategy and management are a dime a dozen these days, and there’s a lot of fluff written by self-
Twitter is my favourite social media platform. I enjoy it solely because I can talk about whatever I want or update as often as I want without feeling annoying. Sometimes it gets a little irritating. Like last week, when we saw an increase in my two least favourite type of people: bandwagon jumpers and slacktivists: Those that tweet just to fit in with their Go Leafs Go and #prayforOklahoma tweets. CONTINUE READING
One of the buzziest buzz words when talking about invention and innovation today is repurposing. As we know, it’s not a new phenomenon, but repurposing continues to get more and more creative. CONTINUE READING
I’m not going to lie to you, a lot of s#*t went down in Toronto last week. Thankfully, we at 88 Creative got a peek into the City of Toronto’s facebook account to get a recap of just what went down…
Churches, mosques, temples and Twitter.
What do they all have in common? It’s a place where people go to pray obviously.
That Marissa Mayer is really on a tear isn’t she. First she goes out and spends a boat load of cash on Tumblr, now she’s gone and given Flickr a facelift that would make Joan Rivers blush, if she could still blush of course.
Did you Instagram your lunch today? Did you post a snarky comment on a Toronto Life restaurant review (For a $40 dollar dish I expect actual truffles, not truffle-infused oil)? Worst of all, does the term foodie appear in your Twitter bio?
CONTINUE READING
With new social networks debuting every single day, it’s hard to always be on the cutting edge. Actually, it’s almost impossible. As marketers, we have easily become accustomed to using Twitter and Facebook as our primary social media tools, but there is a huge number of online communities waiting to be tapped into. Here are my faves:
I’m fairly active on social media – a major prerequisite to being a Social Media Coordinator, I suppose.
We’ve seen change come from the internet in many forms, from aiding the Arab Spring to helping a wannabe pop star go viral. But for many of these things, change was not the intended outcome, but rather an effect of using social media to share personal experiences. CONTINUE READING
No, I’m not going to tell you what bands to listen to if you want to be (or be as cool as) a digital strategist. That’s not my job. You’re an adult (assuming) and you can make your own musical selections. CONTINUE READING
This post is inspired by an incident that occurred earlier this week when I discovered that a post I wrote a few weeks ago entitled “Why introverts make the best social media managers“, was repurposed without any credit or mention of my work. CONTINUE READING
Who remembers back in the day when you first signed up for Facebook and started friend requesting everyone you’ve ever met at a party, classmates, or old high school buddies that you probably will never see again? I sure do. For shame.
Now fast forward a few years and ask yourself if your old Facebook habits are translating to Linkedin. CONTINUE READING
On Monday, my colleague William wrote about why your company might want to stay away from social media, at least for the time being. If your company passed William’s test or resolved to overhaul its approach to customer service and fear of change, then you may decide to work with a social media agency. Here are my tips for getting the best work out of them. CONTINUE READING
In the realm of marketing, social media is a new approach to reaching clients and customers. Erin Bury is one of the earliest adopters of social media as a marketing tactic, and for some insights into what has been working in our industry, I chose to go her. CONTINUE READING
One of the hardest things for me while explaining to friends what the job of a Digital Strategist entails is actually quantifying the amount of thinking we do in a day.
My experience working in social media and working with various clients has taught me that social media is not for everyone. If you or your company are like anything I’ve described below, then social media is definitely not the place for you. CONTINUE READING
There are a lot of buzzwords floating around our industry these days: integration, dynamic, content curation, selfies…
Then there’s a big one: paid vs earned vs owned media. CONTINUE READING
When this Toronto Star article about the Live Below the Line Challenge showed up in my Facebook news feed, my first instinct was to write about it here. Almost immediately the cringe-worthiness made me want to back out. But a little encouragement from my coworkers and here I am. CONTINUE READING
It happens to the best of us. You come in on a normal Tuesday morning, day is going as planned, everything seems peachy, and then all of a sudden it hits! The public relations shitstorm! It could be anything from a grammar mistake (there, their, or they’re?) to a scandal that outs your CEO as an international felon running from a crime committed halfway around the world (not as common, but you never know). What should you do? CONTINUE READING
I know that the latest instalment in the Marvel Avengers Universe releases this Friday, and as my coworkers can begrudgingly attest, I am a comic book nerd through and through. So naturally, you can probably deduce that I am beyond excited for Iron Man 3.
A while ago, I listed 9 things every business should know before they jump into social media. None of that will succeed though, without a social media champion. CONTINUE READING
I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve been in a pitch meeting and had a prospective client ask, “what happens when someone says something bad about us on social media?”
It’s a valid question. Managing negative sentiment online is a huge part of social media marketing and brands have the right to want to know what to do when it happens. CONTINUE READING
Part of the fun of working at an agency is the debating that happen in our open-concept office. I love a good friendly argument. One recent debate centred on the value of joining a somewhat niche social network instead of the more obvious choice that would probably get our client more measurable interaction.
Virality. What we marketers strive for. The elusive hope that we will post something that millions of people will love and they will share it, discuss it, post it on Twitter and Facebook, and create our exposure for us. The question is, how do we achieve this coveted virality? CONTINUE READING
This weekend was a big one for me. The Toronto Maple Leafs have made the playoffs for the first time since I was 17. That seems like a lifetime ago and I mean, if you look at it through the lens of digital media, it really was a lifetime ago.
Growing up, I remember watching Christiane Amanpour reporting from the frontlines of the Gulf War, the Rwandan genocide and the war in Kosovo. Back then, CNN and BBC were my sources of breaking news. CONTINUE READING
I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve tried to register a Twitter handle for a client account only to find that some guy, somewhere, for some (hopefully legitimate reason) set up an account two years ago, followed 3 people, didn’t even bother to upload a profile pic or send a tweet out, and then disappeared. CONTINUE READING
We’re pretty big fans of notable.ca at 88 Creative. Besides the most trustworthy restaurant reviews, they do a great job at picking out young people in Canada’s major cities who are doing something interesting, and doing it with heaps of style. This post is about one such profile that really grabbed my attention. CONTINUE READING
Prior to yesterday’s tragic and horrific events, I was planning on writing a runner’s diary for my weekly blog post. As the weather begins to get better and the thought of spending more and more time outside is becoming reality, I yearn to lace up my Nikes and hit the pavement. Winter is filled with treadmills and windows and stale gym air, but the thought of summer is what gets me through each and every indoor run. Which is why I am so affected by the attacks at the finish line of the Boston Marathon. CONTINUE READING
I am such a sucker for a good hook. So much so in fact, that if I see a funny sign on the street out front of a shop, odds are I’ll come in and buy something. It’s a really bad habit, I know. CONTINUE READING
A few months ago, I bungee jumped off the 128 meter Victoria Falls bridge and plummeted towards the crocodile-infested Zambezi river below. It was one of the most thrilling and exhilarating experiences in my life. CONTINUE READING
In the nine years that Facebook has been around we’ve seen a ton of updates to what we can do on it. From live chatting (adios MSN Messenger) to organising your “Gettin’ Slizzerd” birthday party, from uploading photos to tagging people in them, watching live sporting events, solving crimes etc. etc. etc. CONTINUE READING
In May of 2012, Maryland became the first US state to pass a law saying that employers could not ask prospective employees for access to their social media user names and passwords. The absence of such laws, it turns out, makes your social media information fair game because laws haven’t been keeping up with advances in technology. CONTINUE READING
If you haven’t thought about 3D printing and the impact it will have on this world, you’re already behind. But don’t worry, you have some time to catch up. CONTINUE READING
No, I’m not going to launch into the many reasons I think Mad Men is consistently one of the best shows on television right now. That’s boring, it’s been done. I want to talk about why the show captivates me: the work.
New years goals and resolutions? Remember those? Yeah. Me neither. In the past, I used to establish these really big one year goals for myself and then as the year progressed, I quickly forgot or abandoned them. CONTINUE READING
Anyone looking to set up a twitter presence out there, look no further than the last action hero for some inspiration. Yep, the Governator himself, Arnold Schwarzenegger, has one of the most awesome Twitter profiles I’ve ever seen. No joke. CONTINUE READING
Yesterday, revelers from all around the interwebs were celebrating the 40th anniversary of the the first cell phone call. Naturally, the Mashable report also included an infographic by Column Five which outlines the technological progress and falling prices that led to the cell phone’s ubiquity. CONTINUE READING
The measure of a great social media manager is directly related to how visible the manager is. Let me explain. When the social media manager himself is hardly visible, this is how you know they are effective at their work. CONTINUE READING
After a series of offseason trades and free agent acquisitions, how could someone not get fired up and talk about their favourite baseball team on Twitter? CONTINUE READING
I can be a pretty outgoing person so most people are surprised to learn that I’m an introvert. But I am. My gregariousness is a coping mechanism that I’ve developed to help me survive in a world that highly values extroverts.
I was a pretty early Facebook user. I was in school in Boston when Zuck and co. had the bright idea of opening the platform to US universities not named Harvard, so I got in pretty early on in all this Facebooking malarkey. CONTINUE READING
Most of us have a love/hate relationship with the snooze button. I recently came across this great little video that explains the science behind it and why you might want to resist the temptation. CONTINUE READING
I have a pet peeve. No I shouldn’t say pet peeve because it’s not even mildly irritating. I have the blackest hate for blatant link-bait trolling efforts.
In a recent post, Ian compiled a list of patterns he observed while conducting interviews for our Social Media Coordinator position. He described a general consensus among social media mavens-to-be. We all loved the Oreo campaign that ran during the Superbowl, we are avid Twitter lovers and users, and overall, the Toronto social media scene is full of up-and-coming thought leaders. CONTINUE READING
Social media or SEO? Which of the two is best for your business? The answer is both. To get the most out of your online marketing efforts, you need a social media and SEO strategy that go hand in hand. It’s a match made in heaven.
Last week I conducted a round of interviews for a new position we advertised – Social Media Coordinator.
I always enjoy the interview process as it gives me a chance to gauge what’s going on outside of our own little bubble and chat with like minded people about all things digital. Here are a few musings I took from this go-round:
I recently finished a book called The Authenticity Hoax by Andrew Potter. It’s essentially a critique of a critique of contemporary consumer culture. In their rejection of capitalist materialism and status-seeking, the argument goes, post-modern, enlightened individuals have only created a new level of status-seeking. CONTINUE READING
I love video games. When I was three when my uncle put a lovely square plastic controller in my hand and that night, I had the short cut to beating the second level in Super Mario Bros locked down. CONTINUE READING
Social media is here to stay and isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. CONTINUE READING
The 88 Creative crew recently attended a panel discussion on the changing nature of influencers held by Cision (thanks for a very entertaining evening by the way). CONTINUE READING
I’m a Google fanboy and I’m not ashamed to admit it. What I particularly love about Google, is their willingness to take risks with new products and services and their ability to innovate and adapt quickly to change. CONTINUE READING
It’s pretty obvious that there’s a condo boom in the GTA and some of our clients are at the centre of it. CONTINUE READING
My grandmother, in the tradition of Jewish grandmothers from Queens, New York, was a strong-willed woman who spoke her mind. CONTINUE READING
I love coming across social media campaigns that make me wish I had the idea first. It makes me excited to do what I do and I promise myself that I will have that illusive big idea next time. Kellogg’s All-Bran Tweet Shop is not one of those ideas. CONTINUE READING
There are many things that I love about working in a creative industry. Aside from the lack of cubicles and sharing off-colour memes with my coworkers, one of them is the liberty we can take with what we wear to the office. But what happens once we’re freed from the shackles of black pumps and pantsuits.
There’s a plague on twitter. It’s not one that’s going to wipe out scores of people, nor is it one that will cause chills or fevers. But man oh man is it annoying. CONTINUE READING
Over the past few years the UFC has gone from an up-and-coming “other sport” to mainstream media juggernaut thanks largely in part to their early adoption of social media as a core marketing focus. CONTINUE READING
