How effective are your Call to Actions?
With any advertising materials, getting prospective customers to act now is a must. Call-to-actions are essential and should never be neglected. As the name entails, a call-to-action is a button or a...
View ArticleWhy Typography Matters
It’s everywhere: on buses, in subways, stores, apartments, and––more often than not––stalls at your local pub. If you’re as paranoid as I am, you’re probably thinking I’m referring to a new flu virus...
View ArticleAdforum’s Top 5 Commercials for This Week
Check out Adforum’s top five commercials for this week. While many of them have been played to death, we still enjoy seeing some of those foreign ads, which are often filled with uncomfortable...
View ArticleMarketing Through Our Economic Fears
The recession has lasted much longer than many of us anticipated. For many, it has had the most far-reaching financial effects since the Great Depression. So it’s no surprise that while many...
View ArticleWhat Would the Holidays Be Without Advertising?
Nary a day goes by when we don’t see an ad reminding us of an up-and-coming holiday. With Christmas just barely in our rearview mirror, our drugstore shopping lanes are already filled with Valentine...
View ArticleWhen Is It OK to Say No to a Client?
Are you insane? This goes against everything anyone in sales or customer service has ever been taught! The customer is always right, right? No! Is it right to promise what you can’t deliver? Is it...
View ArticleAdForum’s Top 5 Commercials for This Week
Check out AdForum’s top five commercials for this week. Judging from these picks, it seems agencies are feeling the funny in all their special areas. All five ads have a dollop or more of humor to...
View ArticleCreating a Public Persona of My Personality for Personal Branding Purposes
I started my second personal blog the other day. I won’t shamelessly promote it here, but my friends have been inundated with requests for support. I received an interesting response from my good buddy...
View ArticleSassy Says: Get Your Bargains on Consumables, NOT Marketing Materials
People in my company think of me as the bargain queen. I know where to get a deal on just about everything. But when you are searching for bargains, you need to know what to splurge on and where to...
View ArticleThe Solar Annual Report: Innovative Design
Working in marketing has its highs and lows. For years I used to revel in the experiences I had at different agencies: Beer Fridays, jeans to work five days a week, Thirsty Thursdays, themed parties,...
View ArticleCompetition in Design: Wise or Waste?
There are many professions that promote competition. Design, in particular, lends itself to one-upping that coworker, the competition, and sometimes the jurors of an awards competition. Unlike art,...
View ArticleAdForum’s Top 5 Commercials for This Week
Check out AdForum’s top five commercials for this week. We at Utterly Orange were really torn between a few of these. The fantastical, surreal nature of ACW Grey’s “Speed” campaign for Pelephone is...
View ArticleOnly Read This If You’re Really Creative
I’ve casually commented to close friends how the best ideas I’ve ever had have come when I’m in the bathroom. They’ve come in the form of creative solutions, conflict resolutions, or sometimes just...
View ArticleCommunication Arts’ 17th Annual Interactive Annual Awards
Communication Arts’ interactive annual winners were selected in this month’s 17th edition of the competition. This year’s panel of jurors spent 10 weeks sifting through and discerning the best 35...
View ArticlePhoto-whoops! The Joys of Photoshop Mishaps
Being a creative is tough. Art directors and designers alike have so much to contend with: copy, logos, budget constraints, time constraints, creative director input, account management input, CLIENT...
View Article91st Season for the Art Directors Club Awards
On May 8, the Art Directors Club (ADC) will celebrate this year’s winners during Creative Week in New York. The ADC has already released some of the award winners’ names and campaigns. I’ve highlighted...
View ArticleIdeas Worth Sharing – How TED Can Help You
This past Thursday I had the opportunity to attend a Direct Marketing Club of New York luncheon held at the Yale Club. It was really an honor to hear a few industry leaders discuss the knowledge and...
View ArticleMemorial Day Marketing Ideas
Memorial Day is Monday, May 28. What’s the first thing that comes to your mind when you think Memorial Day weekend? The beach, barbecues, suntanning, relaxing … and shopping! Memorial Day weekend is...
View ArticleAdForum’s Top 5 Commercials for This Week
Check out AdForum’s top five commercials for this week. It was apples and oranges this week—all of the ads had something really interesting to say, from the funny (Bloemen’s “Screwed” ad) to the clever...
View Article“The Sales Game” – Communication Between You and Your Clients
Vanguard Direct, Utterly Orange’s parent company, if you will, continues to encourage engaging conversation among its employees while still keeping things lighthearted. At this year’s company kickoff...
View ArticleGraphic Design Show on Governor’s Island: May 26–September 3
Minneapolis continues to play the under-the-radar-but-we’re-cool-with-that design game. It might be my personal biases, but the creativity that comes out of this city is top-notch. From architecture...
View ArticleShould You Rely on Design to Boost Your Direct Mail Response Rates?
I love a good challenge. A client of mine came to me the other day with a good one. He, an employee of a NY-based university, said that the school was about to begin soliciting alumni for donations....
View ArticleHow Do You Make a Onetime Donor a Longtime Donor?
In my June 20th post, Should You Rely on Design to Boost Your Direct Mail Response Rates?, I wrote about the factors contributing to the success of a direct marketing piece and how getting the ratio...
View ArticleAdForum’s Top 5 Commercials for This Week
Take a look below at AdForum’s top five commercials for this week. There was a nice range of spots that had various appeals to the psyche. In general, we found them to be both artistic and funny. The...
View ArticleAngels, Safe Hands, and the Potential of Interactive Advertising
These days it’s hard to get your message across. With the amount of advertisements and information a person is exposed to on any given day, it all starts to become white noise. Sure, you can bombard me...
View ArticleOlympic Sponsors – Worth Their Weight in Golden Arches?
There’s been a lot of talk this year about the sponsors of the London Summer Olympics. As is always the case with gossip, that conversation has been primarily negative. From Ralph Lauren’s...
View ArticleA Governors Island Graphic Design Exhibit Worth Seeing
In early June I wrote a post about the graphic design show on Governors Island called Graphic Design—Now in Production. As I mentioned, the show set out to demonstrate the power and influence graphic...
View ArticleAdForum’s Top 5 Commercials for This Week
Take a look below at AdForum’s top five commercials for this week. In a nutshell, we were underwhelmed with most of the spots. Coke Zero’s “Unlock the 007 in You” was fun, but I’d hardly call the...
View ArticleArt and Technology: The Balance of Innovation and Harmony Throughout the Ages
The relationship between art and technology—wide-ranging, polarizing, and constantly fluctuating—is among the most influential factors throughout the course of human history. Certain periods of time...
View ArticleCutting Through the Marketing Noise
How many of you have signed up for a credit card or a discount site just to save that extra dollar on a purchase, only to regret it the next morning when the spam––sorry––marketing campaign begins?...
View ArticleWendy’s Wendy Gets a Makeover – The Strategy Behind the Execution
If I asked you to name a brand of cranberry juice, is there any other brand you’d mention that wasn’t Ocean Spray? If I told you to think of a vacuum cleaner, would you most likely think of Hoover? And...
View ArticleCartoon Yourself – Easy Steps to Transform Your Photos into Cartoons
In all my life, I’ve never found the value in getting a caricature or sketch of myself drawn. And at certain points in my life, it certainly wasn’t a lack of vanity holding me back. Maybe it just...
View ArticleMore Targeting, Please
Forgive me if I seem a little jittery and distracted, but . . . I’m being cyber-stalked by a pair of shoes. It’s like an updated Twilight Zone episode. The eerie part is, I don’t really want it to...
View ArticleWhy Does Google Doodle?
I recently discovered the free GDoodle app, which documents every single Google Doodle ever created. Serving the same function as google.com/doodles, it is an archive of every doodle conceived to...
View ArticleHow to Encourage and Harness Creativity
In my March post entitled “Only Read This If You’re Really Creative,” I attempted to push aside some of society’s preconceived notions about creativity and suggest better ways to think creatively. I...
View ArticleFacebook View Tags Enter Marketing Metrics
Last week, Facebook announced its “View Tag” function for advertisers. As with any normal Facebook announcement, users got upset, crying out that Big Brother just climbed up another rung on the...
View ArticleAdForum’s Top 5 Commercials for This Week
Take a look below at AdForum’s top five commercials for this week. It was a refreshing group of spots that, for the most part, made me smile. It’s clear that “Summer Hater” really doesn’t apply to the...
View ArticleColor in the Ad
A lot can be said about a good brand. A brand is instantly recognized, assures customers of product quality, and solidifies customer loyalty. Some brands are founded on logos, others on catchphrases,...
View ArticleBuzzFeed’s Picks for Best Print Ads of 2012
BuzzFeed recently published its picks for the top 12 print ads of 2012. While we hardly think these selections cover the full range of print ads published worldwide, there were certainly a few that...
View ArticleWays To Make Graphic Designers Cringe
BuzzFeed released 17 hilarious, cringe-worthy designs that are sure to make you feel uncomfortable. Here’s a taste, but be sure to check out the entire list on BuzzFeed. 1. Kerning 7. The “I just...
View ArticleHow Smelly Is Your Design?
In the world of design we’re brought up to understand there are certain rules to follow when laying out a piece. Guidelines exist to help designs resonate with our intended audiences. For example, in...
View ArticleAdForum’s Top 5 Commercials for This Week
Take a look below at AdForum’s top five commercials for this week. There’s a nice, dynamic range of spots that I’m sure will intrigue you. Each spot sort of pulls at a different pathos string. The...
View ArticleThe Last Dinosaur in the Forest Drinks Yoo-hoo
Growing up in the Bronx meant that being a Yankees fan was a birthright (especially if you were Italian). Also, at the age of eight, my favorite drink was Yoo-hoo. Why are these two things related?...
View ArticleProper Etiquette in the Modern Workplace
Whether you’re a master of office best practices or an email novice who just can’t seem to comprehend email taboos, Jason Franzen is here to provide valuable insight or a fresh reminder. His posters,...
View ArticleMarketing on the Move
The average commuter in the United States spends about 25 minutes getting to work. But that’s just the average… The new census reports that this average might downplay the brutal commutes that many...
View ArticleTrue Life: The Interns!
You read our blog posts, contemplate our words, and wait anxiously for our next post, but do you have any idea who we are? Today we thought it would be a good idea to introduce the people behind the...
View ArticleBehavior-Changing Apps: A Vanguard Direct Survey
Steve Jobs and Apple revolutionized how we understand communication and information. He completely shifted our society. It was his products that transformed, in a way, how we think and behave. And...
View ArticleAdForum’s Top 5 Commercials for This Week
This week’s top five should be titled A Series of Unfortunate Crap. My general feeling from the spots this week is that they were phoned in. Literally. I genuinely think that someone pitched a general...
View ArticlePrivacy Invasion or Personalization: Has Digital Marketing Gone Too Far?
Privacy Invasion or Personalization: Has Digital Marketing Gone Too Far? Mark Zuckerberg’s social network just put the face in the Facebook: the company’s new facial-recognition software uses...
View ArticleHow Complementary Marketing Can Empower Your Brand
How Old Spice Harnessed the Power of Complementary Marketing (And What It Means for Your Brand) It’s easy to feel lost in the complex, brave new world of online marketing, where tweets or search...
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