Meet Emily!

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emily

Hey there!

I’m Emily Law and I’m the new Project Manager/Copywriter here at MOS Creative. I was born and raised in Franklin County, VA – also known as moonshine capitol of the world. I left that small town for another small town when I went off to college at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, VA. While at JMU, I studied in the School of Media Arts and Design and earned my B.A. in Corporate Communications with a minor in General Studies in Communications. Shortly after graduating, I accepted a job working as the Customer Relations Supervisor, where I stayed for about a year before deciding to make the leap from VA to MD.

After moving to Maryland, I was able to get my job at MOS with some help from a friend. Although I’ve only been at MOS for a short month, I already feel so comfortable here and I’m excited to be in such a great environment. As someone who loves organization and values relationships, I am very excited to work with all of the MOS clients and learn even more about project management!

How To Manage Website Tags

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Having been in the digital marketing business for a while now, there are some lessons that come quickly, and some that come slowly.

Tag management was one of the slow ones.

For any readers who don’t know what I mean by tags, they are basically snippets of code which allow third party functionality on your site. Probably the most widely used one is for Google Analytics, which lets you review in depth data on your website users and performance.

I don’t know how many times I’ve had to go to my developer and bug him to change a single code in a field of a site. By itself, not really a big task, but it adds up.

Once we started working with some bigger clients who are maybe using between 3 and 5 different tags for different purposes on the site, this started to get more complicated.

That’s where Google’s own tag manager comes in. Get it here.

This simple tool lets a marketer update all of their tags, Google or otherwise from one simple portal without needing to dig into your FTP or any back end systems other than getting the tag manager code in there the first time.

I won’t belabor the point because Google’s own support resources are excellent!

Just wanted to help out any other marketers out there who spend more time managing tags than analyzing data!

The Super Bowl Ad Newcastle Would Have Made (If They Had the Money)

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The Super Bowl is a time for advertisers to shine with creativity – whether they’re paying for a $4.1 million spot or utilizing more original avenues. One brand that really stood out with creativity this year was Newcastle beer. They created a series of videos about what their Super Bowl ad would be…if they had the budget to make it.

Here is a video of their “underwhelming” storyboard for the  ”overwhelmingly mega huge” Super Bowl ad they could have made if they had the money:

Newcastle took it even further by interviewing real focus groups to garner feedback about the ad, which largely resulted in polite negativity (besides some fans of the shark conga line). They also produced satirical videos featuring Keyshawn Johnson and Anna Kendrick as actors who believed they would be starring in Newcastle’s Super Bowl ad before finding out that Newcastle didn’t actually have the funds to buy a Super Bowl spot.

The campaign, led by advertising firm Droga5, has certainly captured attention for the brand. The video with Anna Kendrick already has over 4 million views on YouTube, and they’re steadily climbing. It seems like Newcastle had the right idea for advertising on a smaller budget – save $4 million by opting out of the Super Bowl, and put up a video on YouTube to get 4 million views.

- Katy Leuschner (MOS Creative Project Manager)

 

 

Is Facebook Becoming Obsolete?

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Over the past year, there has been a lot of debate about whether Facebook is dying out. Is it losing its fan base to other rising apps and networks, such as Instagram and Google+? Or is it becoming unpopular with teens because it’s just not the “cool” thing to use anymore?

While bloggers and analysts are treating the issues as some new scandal, we have seen this topic arise before when Twitter came on the scene in 2006. Everyone thought Facebook would lose out to Twitter, because Twitter was the new trend and more versatile than Facebook. However, Facebook responded by making itself more adaptable to the changing trends and incorporating Twitter into its very structure, thereby ensuring its survival. Now Facebook and Twitter coexist, and it is clear neither one is about to eliminate the other.

Facebook is really not in any danger of becoming obsolete. It is still considered a great networking tool that lets you connect with people that you may not get to see every day. Facebook has been around since 2004 and has only steadily increased users every year since its appearance on the market. Facebook is currently the #1 (most popular) social network worldwide, surpassing YouTube, Google+, Twitter, and Instagram by at least 20% account ownership and active usage (see graph below). In most consumers’ opinion, Instagram is the current biggest threat to Facebook. However, what most users might not realize is that Facebook now owns Instagram, therefore making the threat obsolete.

Global Penetration OF Social Platforms

Image from TechCrunch article.

Basically, analysts and other opinionated bloggers can try to predict what they want about Facebook, but the facts seem to speak for themselves. Facebook has been around this long and is not going anywhere anytime soon.

- Colleen Stanley (MOS Office Manager)

 

Thanksgiving at MOS Creative

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There’s much to be thankful for this year. But what we’re thankful for the most is having a nice dinner with the whole team.

We picked up some awesome food from the grocery store!

This is gonna be delicious!

And to top it all off, it began to snow! What a beautiful day!

We hope everyone has a wonderful Thanksgiving. Do us a favor and grab some of our free Thanksgiving wallpapers for you phone, tablet and computer! 

-The MOS Creative Team

Behind The Scenes Wednesday: Joe Ehrmann!

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Joe Ehrmann is a former NFL defensive lineman for the 1973 Baltimore Colts! Local legend? I think so! Get ready to smile ear-to-ear.

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While at an Accelerent networking event, our president Max was able to strike up a conversation and snap a photo with Joe Ehrmann. Super cool guy, and nothing but nice!

Besides a Colts football helmet, Joe’s worn many hats. He’s been an educator, author, activist, pastor and coach spanning longer than than 25 years.

Joe played football at Syracuse University, lettered in lacrosse and was selected to the Syracuse All-Century Football Team. After being drafted, he played pro football for 13 years, and was named the Colts “Man of the Year”. He was also named NFL’s first Ed Block Courage Award winner. Parade Magazine even featured Joe on its cover, with the title, “The Most Important Coach in America”. Additionally, he’s been named one of the “Most Influential Sport Educators in America” by the Institute for International Sport.

Ehrmann is co-founder of Baltimore’s Ronald McDonald House and was chosen by the Baltimore Business Journal as the “Renaissance Person of the Decade” for his work in bettering our city. He co-founded The Door, a community-based organization that deals with issues pertaining to poverty, systemic racism and social justice. But his awesomeness doesn’t end there.

He’s been named National Fatherhood Initiative’s “Man of the Year” and awarded the Frederick Douglas National Man of the Year award for empowering youth to prevent forms of male violence.

His newly released book: InSideOut Coaching: How Sports Can Transform Lives highlights much of his life’s work. Joe is the subject of the New York Times Best Seller, Season of Life A Football Star, a Boy, a Journey to Manhood.

With all those amazing accomplishments mentioned, he believes his greatest has been his 30 plus years marriage to Paula and his four children Ali, Esther, Barney and Joey.

Pick up those books! This is a great coach, and a great man. 

-The MOS Creative Team

 

Meet Kate!

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Hey there,

I’m Katy Leuschner, the new Project and Marketing Manager/Copywriter at MOS Creative. Originally from Severna Park, MD, I went off to James Madison University and graduated with a double major in Media Arts & Design (concentration in Corporate Communications) and Spanish. After graduating, I spent almost a year and a half working as the assistant to a self-made multimillionaire in Virginia. Working there was a phenomenal learning experience and also enhanced my adaptability (I would assist with writing investor summaries one day, then help lead horses on a trail ride the next).

Besides loving all the outdoorsiness of the Shenandoah Valley (hiking, caving, camping, kayaking), I felt the urge to move back to Maryland and continue exploring my interest in marketing. I had read about MOS Creative in the Baltimore Business Journal and decided to email them on a whim to see if they had any open positions that would fit my interests and experience . . . the rest is history! And luckily there’s still an abundance of outdoorsy activities around here, plus wakeboarding and crabbing.

Now instead of watching out for deer and cows as I drive home, I just need to find ways to pass the time in rush hour traffic. Currently using language CDs to brush up on my Spanish, but open to new ideas.

All in all, I’m very excited to be back in Maryland and have the opportunity to be a part of the MOS Creative team!

 

-Katy

 

MOS Creative’s Monthly Meetup 2!: Logos!

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Hey there! It’s that time again. Time for MOS Creative’s Montly Meetup! We just wanted to check in with you, teach you something, offer our services, and hold a contest! Check out the video below for how to win!

 

 

That’s right, just comment on Tumblr, Facebook, Youtube, Twitter, or LinkedIn to win! Be our favorite by not only getting the answer right, but also making us laugh, cry, or simply scratch our heads in confusion. But now, onto LOGOS!

If you’re a reader of this blog, as you should be, we spoke about logos previously. Here, we go more in-depth—trying to find out what makes a good, effective, memorable logo. Consider this post "Logos 2: The Rebranding" :D

 

Logos date back to ancient Roman and Greek coins. What were inscribed onto them were images of leaders, gods, and memorable symbols. Each design was done simply and recognizably—just as successful logos are today.

 I wanna collect them all!

But what makes a good recognizable, and distinguishable logo? Well, you need to ask yourself, “What’s my company stand for?” mixed with a dash of, “What do I want to convey about myself/company/product?” You don’t want a jeweler with a logo looking like a metal band’s album cover. Well, that might actually be kind of cool… maybe not.

 Oh, this little thing? I got it down at Awakened Demon Jewelery!

 

A logo should fit your company. A logo should convey the attitude you want to convey. If you’re a lightbulb manufacturer, you’d probably want a logo that focuses on brightness, sleekness, and life of your product.

 

There’s got to be another reason why a good logo is a good logo. Is it maybe… mathematic? Well, yes it is! There’s a mathematical ratio proposed by Dr. Gustav Theodore Fechner that lays out a blueprint that focuses on balance and visual harmony.

 

It’s called the Golden Ratio.

 

Many logos follow it. Here’s just a few:

 

 

 

 

 

Thank you Banskt for the helpful info!

Get a hold of us at MOS Creative and we'll make a logo for you!

-The MOS Creative Team

Hashtags: The Searchterm Menace!

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#I #am #writing #this #blog… #yolo. Hashtags are popping up all over the place. As more and more sites begin to adopt them, they seem to be everywhere. What words come to mind when you think of your business or website? Those words can be utilized as Hashtags and help categorize your site. You can get on tons of lists very quickly this way. Think of them as more specific tags.

Hashtags were first used by IRC chat networks, and popularized by Twitter, and the list of sites using them grow from there. Hashtags have become so popular that they have made it into our real life vernacular. Everyone’s seen the Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake sketch, right?

Hashtags turn topics and phrases into clickable links, allowing people to easily find posts about topics they’re interested in. They are a powerful tool. A powerful tool that is often misused. It’s very easy to over-hashtag useless information. So it’s important to keep your hashtags concise and pertinent to your company.

Luckily, we here at MOS Creative know exactly how and what to hashtag for you!

Here’s 3 quick hashtagging tips for you:

1. Find out what people are looking for.

Find out what the popular tags are. Not just ones that go with what you’re doing but any that might help bring in the right people for your business or website. These will put you in categories with anything else that has been tagged the same so try not to put yourself in

2. Create custom hashtags

Create custom hashtags of your name and/or slogans. Then have people use them. Contests where you have to use a certain hashtag are always good. Or make one that almost anyone can use in a post. This is also a good way to track posts about you.

3. Consider the length of your hashtag

When people retweet your hashtagged tweet, they may want to write a little something about it on their own. If you’ve got a super long hashtag, it’ll definitely push twitter’s 140 character limit.

Keep these in mind when you make your #hashtags. Maybe you can hit us up, we’ll be able to help you with any of your advertising and marketing needs. Visit our website at http://moscreative.com/ and check back here for more fun, tips, contests, and general cool stuff!

-MOS Creative Team

Check out our Tumblr!

 

PS:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57dzaMaouXA

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