We are so fortunate to be living in the 21st century. Sure, we’re still waiting on the flying cars that “The Jetsons” promised us, but we’re blessed to have technology that makes our lives and jobs easier in so many different ways.
With that in mind, we’d like to share our top 10 favorite web apps and tools. We COULD live without them…but why would we want to? We hope you find something new and useful on this list: Continue reading
New Orleans, LA (PRWEB) July 21, 2011
As social media integration continues to become important for great marketing, local television stations are looking to give their advertisers the ability to reach and engage a more targeted audience and leverage those customers to become brand evangelizers. Many stations have recognized that offering their advertisers new ways to generate qualified leads through social sharing, in addition to traditional digital and broadcast advertising, is helping elevate their game in providing true returns for local businesses.
One television station is at the forefront of this evolutionary movement. WJW – FOX 8 in Cleveland, Ohio has recently begun using Dukky marketing technology which provides the ability to target and share clients’ promotional advertisements virally through customized microsites. These microsites, developed on the Dukky SaaS Platform, send customers through an interactive sales “funnel” capturing quantifiable data on their customers through contest registrations. With the integration of social sharing and incentives, each campaign can reach new customers, potentially ones that have never been exposed to the station or the client’s brand before. The Dukky Analytics Dashboard visually manages those incoming leads in real-time, showing engagement at each level of the funnel.
Using Dukky campaigns, FOX 8’s advertisers have enjoyed an astounding increase in response rates and ROI, in some cases nearly doubling the returns from previous, more traditional digital ad campaigns. Equipping their campaigns with incentives for sharing through Dukky’s Viral Peer Sharing, local clients have seen 70% to 85% increases in their response rates to their campaigns.
A major national furniture client of FOX 8’s recently launched a multi-platform campaign using Dukky and had great success. Over 18,000 people visit their Dukky-powered microsite; forty-two percent of those visitors shared their information and were added to the local furniture store’s customer database. Of those who gave their information nearly 60% shared the company’s offer on their social networks and through email, bringing in over 6,300 new customers to their microsite. Other FOX 8 clients enjoyed similar results to their campaigns, gaining new customer lists with 1,000 to 7,000 new customers each. All enjoyed share rates of 15% or higher as well.
By integrating Dukky technology onto its existing marketing strategies FOX 8 has been able to take its marketing reach and revenues to new heights.
Jennifer Guerrieri, Vice President of Interactive for Local TV LLC, FOX 8’s parent company, says, “Dukky has been a great addition to our marketing platform for local clients. With the wide net that we cast — television promotion, focused interactive marketing on our websites, and a mechanism for data collection and social sharing– Dukky has rounded out an offering for us that has driven tens of thousands of dollars in direct marketing revenue.”
One of Team Dukky’s own was quoted in a recent article on Talent Zoo’s PR Professionals blog, Flack Me. Read on for some insightful (and retweetable) tips for better public relations in Brian Wagner’s final installment of the Idiot’s Guide to Public Relations series. Wagner is the PR Managing Director of Brown Lloyd James Public Relation’s DC office. You can follow him on Twitter @BrianBWagner
In a perfect world, tomorrow’s headlines would read, “Idiocy in public relations extinguished,” followed by an account of how the nation’s PR pros had woken up that morning equipped with all the knowledge, experience, and common sense necessary to excel in their jobs. But such flights of fancy are not meant to be, and PR pros will continue to have to learn their jobs in a piecemeal manner.
For the last six articles, this series has helpfully and whimsically provided common sense dos and don’ts for PR pros looking to learn the ropes or improve their performance. Today’s article has been turned over to a handful of well-respected public relations pros who will share their expert insights in order to wrap this series up with a bang.
A round of applause for the judges …
* Gini Dietrich, Founder and CEO, Arment Dietrich, Inc. (@Ginidietrich)
* Dominique Ellis, VP of Product Development, Dukky (@Dominiqueellis)
* Lauren Fernandez, Account Executive, Fleishman Hillard (@cubanalaf)
* Len Kendall, Account Group Supervisor – Digital, Golin Harris (@Lenkendall)
* Heather Whaling, Founder, Geben Communications (@PRtini)
Doing Your Job: Once you start working in public relations, you are always on the go. There often is not the luxury to stop, take a deep breath, and think. So refer to these insights in advance to help you understand how to do your job, each and every day, a little bit better.
Growing as a PR Pro: Doing your job better is a good start, but its also important to think about how you can improve how you do your job in the aggregate, not just on a day-to-day basis. Continue reading
As a music junkie, a few weeks ago I attended the Hangout Fest in Gulf Shores Alabama (which every music lover should go to) and it really got me thinking about crowd surfing. Since I always have marketing on the brain, watching the surfers got me to thinking about crowdsourcing. Here at Team Dukky we’re encouraged to look for innovative ideas everywhere. As I watched the surfers get passed up and down the masses I was reminded of the power of “the crowd”. How can we harness that power to help in spreading our message? Crowdsourcing is the answer. But while jumping into a sweaty crowd of screaming fans is (as you may know) a righteous experience, crowdsourcing is actually more suited for the musician’s agent than it is for, say, the Black Keys themselves.
Crowdsourcing is a hot topic these days, especially in the marketing industry. It allows companies to harnesses the intellect and creativity of the masses, and it is this focus on the “crowd” instead of the individual that gives the term its name. True, it is a form of outsourcing, but not in the way we’ve come to define that term. Through crowdsourcing businesses present a problem to a large group of their engaged followers and/or customers and ask them to solve it. The benefits are two fold – the company gets the valuable insight of what their target audience wants (or in some cases, don’t want) and the customers get to feel like their voice is being heard. If their ideas and concerns are taken to heart, and they see their ideas implemented, they are then encouraged in their relationship and remain devoted fans. It’s a win-win situation.
The rise of the Internet has seen this tactic take a stage dive the likes of which has never been seen. People are gathering at the request of businesses or creating websites of their own and offering their services at prices most could never dream of. Wired Magazine ran an excellent article on the practice right about the time that crowdsourcing started getting noticed in 2006. Among the groups mentioned were amateur photographers offering professional grade photos for fractions of what the pros charge, and the rise of TV shows that featured fan created videos. However, the crowdsourcing practice that really caught my eye was the group InnoCentive, which provides a platform for major corporations to offer rewards to those who can solve their most complicated R & D problems. The starting amount for reward money is $10,000 and some eclipse the $100,000 mark. Bear in mind however, that these problems are incredibly complex. One of the people interviewed in the Wired article explained how it is often the people with no experience in the respective field, who have the best chance of solving the problem.
You might ask yourself what any of this has to do with social media or marketing, and the answer is much more than you might realize. Crowdsourcing, at its core, is the practice of utilizing the untapped resource of the crowd. Facebook is the largest crowd on the Internet these days (though Google+ is hoping to bring an end to that). At 600 million strong, it is still growing daily. Like Facebook, Dukky realizes that the ability of the everyday person to be a brand evangelist is exponentially greater than most businesses give them credit for. If the crowd can help solve the most complicated experiments in the fields of science, than surely they can also help with advertising.
The trick to making the world a better place is allowing the world to help. This holds true in the marketing world as well. Dukky’s unique marketing platform allows you to leverage your customers to reach new ones across a multitude of crowds – through email, Facebook, Twitter and 0ver 340 other social media networks – and track the outreach and its response in real time on the Analytics Dashboard. Harnessing the power of the crowd has never been easier.
So, we ask you, whose up for some crowdsourcing? Take the plunge today!
This blog post was written by Brice Sanderford who has been helping the sales team at Dukky. He also got to go to Hangout Fest, which we are all still highly jealous of him for. You can find him on LinkedIn here.
Recently, Dukky campaigns have been generating a lot of buzz and we couldn’t be happier! From our slam-dunk live presentation at the Sir Speedy, PIP and Signal Graphics Annual International Convention last week in Las Vegas where we built-out and launched a campaign for Designer Social (click here to enter yourself) to our microsites being featured in clients’ broadcast commercials, we’re popping up all over the place.
Our most recent coverage, and perhaps greatest of late, was a feature in the current edition of the USPS Deliver Magazine which covered the successful direct mail campaign of a local fast food franchise in the Greater New Orleans Area. Click the image below to read the full article.
Team Dukky has a new member and we couldn’t be happier to have her join our team. Super Dukks, meet Sabrina, our new Account Manager. In addition to providing excellent customer service and guidance to our clients she’ll also be contributing to the Dukky blog – covering marketing as well as new and exciting developments here at Dukky with a fresh and edgy take. Be sure to look for her weekly blog posts (out on Wednesdays) covering the marketing news that gets Team Dukky’s creative juices going too. Take it away Sabrina!
Being the newbie at Dukky, there is something I need to confess and explain to my coworkers before they get the wrong impression: I’m a doodler. It happens almost anywhere that a pen and paper are placed in front of me…in class, at work, even while I’m on the phone with my mom.
The word “doodle” first appeared in the early 17th century to mean a fool or simpleton. According to dictionary.com, the current definition for the word is, “a design, figure, or the like, made by idle scribbling.” But you know who else is guilty of doodling? Bill Gates (who was caught doodling in 2005 at Davos, the famous world economic forum), Ralph Waldo Emerson, and even former United States Presidents Ronald Reagan and Lyndon Johnson. And most recently, Google has jumped on the doodle train, generating a bit of praise for this idle habit.
For more than a decade now, doodles have occasionally appeared on Google’s homepage in place of its everyday logo. Google creatively redesigns its logo for numerous events and holidays such as birth and death anniversaries, civic milestones, and important dates in history. Google estimates it has created more than 900 doodles since 1998, with 270 of those running in 2010. Over the past few years, these decorative changes have become extremely popular.
Google says that while the doodle is primarily a fun way for the company to recognize events and notable people, it also illustrates the creative and innovation personality of the company itself. In May 2010, Google doodle went interactive for the first time to celebrate the 30th birthday of the Pac-Man game.
So before my habit warrants me any side eye glances during that really long Thursday afternoon meeting, let’s remember some of the creativity behind the doodle. A doodle doesn’t always mean someone isn’t paying attention, maybe those scribbles are, in fact, brilliant design ideas for the company website.
Fast changes in technology and social media demand that small businesses and companies come up with creative ways to showcase their inventiveness and talent. How is your company showing its creativity and innovation?
A gallery of past Google doodles can be found here: http://www.google.com/logos/
Over my past few years here at Dukky, our inner-office mojo has evolved into one of pure honesty, collaborative thinking, fast paced execution and an office tone of complete sarcasm that leaves us in tears multiple times a day from laughter. I sure hope your office is as witty and quick as Dukky. It really makes work a lot more fun.
As a start-up marketing tech company our team has grown quite dependent on each other to meet deadlines, stay ahead of the curve and up to date on new trends & research, as well as keep simplicity & innovation at the forefront of how we communicate to build our platform for our clients. Needless to say, we need each other. This inherent “need” makes it vital that we know what is going on at all times. Things can change quickly and priority and projects may need to shift on the fly. You have to learn to embrace flexibility and quickly adjust and refocus to run with the big dogs. Continue reading
When it comes to marketing for small businesses there is no mold for success. With the quick google of “marketing for small businesses or small business marketing strategies”, you’ll easily pull up a plethora of options. As Dukky is quickly moving forward with our beta version of the Small Business platform we have spent many hours profiling small business owners and their marketing strategies during the research and development phase.
We have put together a few slides displaying some of our recent findings about our most successful small businesses that are a part of our beta launch. These clients have had similarities that differentiate their campaigns and push them towards success from the ordinary.
Finally, someone explained it. Listen up world, as we tell the sad, sad story of the last advertising agency on earth – courtesy of FITC, which is, oddly, an advertising agency.
Why this video? Well, currently we are hard at work putting our new SMB platform to the test and each member of Team Dukky has a part to play. My main duties have been in assisting new small business clients to draft out their campaigns and put them into action. Small business owners on a whole are a pleasure to work with. Most are eager to dive into the social media integration and live analytics feed our product provides. However, from time to time I’ve been hit with one particular question – why should I have my campaign set up as a share-to-win promotion? Will social media help me at all?
While the answer seemed obvious to me, I have come to realize that many small business owners are operating under the rules of the old guard of advertising. This, my friends, is a mistake. Television and print ads alone are quickly becoming a thing of the past. Consumers are tired of having marketing messages dictated to them. They’re tired of having no control over what sort of messages they’re bombarded with. With the growth of internet capabilities, smart phones and the ever expanding reach of social media into every aspect of our lives it’s no wonder that traditional marketing tactics are failing to work. Think about it. How many people do you know that sit and watch cable television anymore? They don’t. They have Tivo and DVR. They record their shows, watch them on their schedules and, if you’re like me, relish in the fact that they can fast forward through the commercials. That’s right, I work in marketing technology and I hate television commercials. In fact, I don’t even have cable. Why pay $60 a month when I can snuggle in bed with my beloved Hulu? Sure, there are commercials (count em, 3 per episode) on Hulu shows. BUT they allow me to tell them if the commercials are relevant to me or not and then customizes what ads pop up during my shows. Most are even interactive. Hulu listens. Hulu learns. Hulu, is my new best friend.
Consumers do not want to be pandered to. Our lives are too busy these days. We need smarter marketing. This is where digital and social media, with their ability to take traditional marketing further, have taken hold. When I log onto Facebook I don’t see ads for arthritis pills, Dora the Explorer or hockey gear. Why? Because those things aren’t relevant to me or my life. It would be a waste of money for a company to pay to put those ads in front of me. I’m never going to buy Scott Turf Builder. I let the landlord worry about the lawn. Facebook and other social media sites allow advertisers to filter the people their ads are visible to based off their searches, likes, posts, tweets and comments. So when I login to Facebook I see ads for local New Orleans music performances, my beloved Saints (Who Dat!), sales at Anthropologie and discounts at Starbucks (yep, I’m that girl).
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