We have all noticed the increased advertising that appears on our Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. Did you know this is one of the fastest growing sectors in online advertising? Or how about this – traditional banner ads are now pretty much ignored and only clicked on 0.2 percent of the time! According to this linked article – “Promoted Tweets show engagement of one to three percent–up to 15 times as effective.” Anyway… read more in this excellent article from Linked In and Ryan Holmes at HootSuite. Click here.
Blog
Successful YMCA event!
SWCA has been instrumental in extending the YMCA brand into all the marketing material used locally and now nationally for YMCA – Canada. We recently completed many display and environmental graphics used during a fundraising push for their “Strong Kids” campaign. Towering 8foot high display panels, fun floor-hopscotch graphics and messaging on the mirrors of the gyms to name a few.
“Yes! The materials look AWESOME. Big, big thanks to you, Cindy, Dave, Monty, Freyja, Neil and Sue! Here are some photo highlights from the day.”
Kelly W. – Manager Marketing & Communications YMCA- Vancouver.
“Cannot thank you guys enough. You’re a dream team to work with!”
Signi S. – Vice- President Marketing & Communications YMCA – Vancouver
Customize your Twitter page
We’ve been asked recently to provide image files for client Twitter pages. Twitter provides several page background templates, but it may be worth having your page customized. In the examples shown here – we compare a simple, plain page with a recent page we did, showing a large image that expands to fill the window of your monitor. For this example, we provided a custom image for the background, then add a custom header and also an avatar.
Effective use of your Twitter page gives your business another real opportunity to get your brand and messaging online. Your page doesn’t need to remain static either… once you have built the initial image files it is easy to change your background photo and replace it with a new one. Keep it fresh and keep your visitors checking in from time to time for your “newest release”.
Infographics
Infographics have sprung to the forefront of popular business communications. Like the adage ” a picture is worth 1000 words” infographics can display complicated concepts in a simple visual way, allowing the reader to quickly grasp the idea or information. More and more people want instant gratification and don’t want to read too much copy. Give them your information with a simple and well executed image. But know this – although you may be able to write the information in 5 minutes – it may take 5 hours or more to to create the art that will effectively communicate that idea.
The lost art of felt pen rendering
Cindy is presently working on a series of daily felt pen renderings to exercise her illustration skills. This is a technique she used in the past to illustrate concepts and ideas for brochure design, annual report design, and packaging design. A rendering always left room for our imagination to “make-up” what the final photo or concept would look like. Have a look at her series Mugs & Glasses at perdiem.posterous.com
Free Lunch Fridays
Today was the third in our ongoing Free Lunch Fridays. An afternoon to bring our design team together… enjoy a glass of our favourite, some stimulating conversation and a couple of great jokes! Today our topics included: Dave’s new house, Freyja’s visit to the in-laws in Grande Prairie, Justin’s time in grade two, Len’s new TV, Cindys’ story telling ability, Deb knows Tim Atkins, and Monty’s scratch made comfort food! Buon appetito!
Public Service Poster Campaign
We have recently completed illustration and design for a series of Public Service Announcement posters that appear in the stations along the Canada Line into Vancouver. Watch for them on your next ride downtown! There are 10 posters in the series. A more complete story will soon be posted in our portfolio section.
Does your site have a Privacy Policy?
We are working on some site updates for a client who also wants to run a “pay-per-click” ad campaign with Google. He was told the following: “… because your current website doesn’t have a privacy policy page, Google may choose not to enlist your ads if you start a pay per click campaign. Reason being that this is in “violation” of their terms of service.” This was all news to our client and we worked with him to get an initial Privacy Policy up and running on his website. Today in my inbox is an excellent article from the Social Media Examiner on this very topic so I thought i would re-post that link here. It may be something to add to your website if you are asking your readers or customers for personal information! Here is a link to that article: http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/how-to-craft-a-privacy-policy-for-your-website/
Design for Whistler Blackcomb
SWCA just finished a design project for Barber Media of Whistler BC – a beautiful coffee table book and supporting brochures showcasing the fine restaurants and activities of this great resort town. If you’ve been up for some skiing or boarding this season perhaps you’ve seen it in your hotel room? Watch for the full post coming soon to our portfolio section!
Holiday eCards
We often get asked by our corporate clients to design electronic greeting cards or eCards.. We have developed a few on another website www.holidayflashcards.com . This year we have 6 designs available and have been also producing our client’s eCards to run as non-flash versions for the iPad and iPhone. Next year we will double those numbers and start the promotion of the new products in early November.
