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Channel: A. Bright Idea

A Reflection to My Younger Self

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Dear Anita,

It’s me, Anita, 25 years into the future.

It is August 2021, marking A. Bright Idea’s 25th anniversary. As I sit at home writing this letter, I can’t help but laugh thinking about our number one goal back in 1996: move the business out of the house and into an office. Spending this milestone back where the journey began certainly feels like a full circle moment and leaves me reflecting on the past 25 years with pride, gratitude and every other emotion under the sun.

Not to worry though, we did get out of the spare bedroom. In fact, we exceeded our goal by opening three locations from Maryland to California. Finding myself working back at home the majority of last year (don’t ask) truly showed me how far we’ve come. Gone are the days of individually doing all the client work during the day and all the billing, networking and proposals at night. While these temporary challenges made me uncomfortable in the moment, it’s what made me stronger and the businesswoman I am today.

Considering we thought this was just a temporary option before our next job, you may be surprised to know we reached our “silver” year. From having no one to bounce ideas off of, to achieving 10 employees to now collaborating with 35+ innovators and integrators within our full-service agency, I’m proud of the marks we’ve made and continue to make on the industry.

While enjoying the success, remember how lucky we are to reach this milestone and that it’s not just for us. Our success serves as its own little ecosystem supporting dozens of individuals and families. It really has supported our family too. That guy you met in high school and married; he’ll be joining you 10 years from now once the heavy lifting is over to share in the spotlight. It means a tremendous amount to see how your little idea now creates an opportunity for someone who is going to be a parent or an opportunity for someone to work closer to home so they can spend more time with their kids and family. These are the same things we wanted for our family. Speaking of family, it’s good you moved out of that guest bedroom because you’ll need it in a few years. Baby Madison gets a brother.

Knowing what I do today, here’s the biggest pieces of advice I can offer…

Who would have thought our little one-woman operation would go from the smallest ember of inspiration to bright ideas radiating out from sea to shining sea. Remember to take time to recognize your accomplishments and not get lost in the moment. Trust me, it all works out in the end.

Keep on shining,
Anita

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Capture your brand’s voice on social media

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Every social media post develops your voice.

Now more than ever, a brand can directly interact with its target audience. Creating a unique voice for social media helps distinguish your business and puts it in a better position to rise above the noise.

What is a brand voice?

Even if you are not familiar with the topic, you start to notice a different tone from each account by simply scrolling through social media. A youth-focused brand may use more playful language and images, while another business might communicate more directly.

Your voice is part of the brand itself in the eyes and ears of intended audiences. It interacts with the public across the digital landscape, beyond design and other types of messaging.

A voice can build connections with your audience, encouraging engagement and interaction. A study by Customer Thermometer found that 65% of customers emotionally connect with a business when engaging with their brand. You can tap into that connection to increase trust and awareness of your brand. When on social media, people want an authentic approach – after all, your content is on the same news feed as their friends. The goal of developing a unique voice is to develop a memorable brand and establish lasting connections.

Take time to brainstorm

Sit down and develop a strategy. Write down what makes your company unique and identify audiences to target.

Who are you trying to reach? That is one of the most critical questions when determining your voice. Leverage a social media management tool or use native analytics on each platform to measure demographics for every page. Facebook, in general, may skew older than other platforms such as Instagram.

From this data, you can see your current audience and compare that to your target demographics. Adjust your tone on social media to engage a different audience, if needed.

Use language audiences can understand

When creating content for a business, it is easy to fall into the trap of using language specific to your industry. To expand your audience, avoid jargon and write from the reader’s perspective.

People are less likely to interact with a brand if they feel like they are being sold something. Create content that adds to the existing conversation online. Social listening tools are a great way to measure what people are saying about a brand.

Social listening allows businesses to track, analyze and respond to conversations about their brand and the entire industry on social media.

Consistency matters

The voice is your brand’s persona, and it should stay consistent. Tone, however, can change from platform to platform.

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Just think of it as how you act in different settings. With friends, you might be a little more casual. That is your voice for Instagram. In a business setting, you are more professional, use that language for LinkedIn. Even with these tweaks, the messaging should still sound like it is coming from one “person.”

Be careful not to make your social media only about the brand – engage with the community.

Check the data

Developing your voice should not just be a one-off venture. It should be reviewed and analyzed on a regular basis.

Analytics is everything when it comes to social media. Measure your outcomes, including engagement and impressions, on a weekly and monthly basis. Make slight adjustments to your voice and tone based on these metrics.

It may take some time but developing a voice for social media will elevate your brand above the rest.

The post Capture your brand’s voice on social media appeared first on A. Bright Idea.

Shining a Light Toward the Future

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The end of the year often serves as a time for reflection and after a year celebrating our silver anniversary, I find myself looking ahead to the future and imagining what the world, industry and this company might look like during our golden anniversary in 2046.

In these first 25 years of business, I witnessed how the push to digital and the use of social media created a tectonic shift in the media landscape for advertising and public relations professionals. I remember in the early years of A. Bright Idea, a client offered to pay for a website design, and I didn’t think websites were needed by everyone. Today, potential customers/clients decide if they want to do business with you just by looking at your website.

I’m proud of our collection of client success stories from the past 25 years and feel it’s a testament to our ability to transform our methods and meet client needs.

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Reaching that 50-year milestone will represent a lifetime’s worth of work from a 26-year-old thinking she just needed something temporary until her next job came along. The majority of the past 25 years have not felt like work because of all the joy it brings, which I hope is still the case in whatever capacity I’m in down the road.

I hope to still be working with lots of my friends and even see my kids involved in the business, although hopefully I’m not working as hard then as I am now – that’s what the next generation is for. I can’t wait to see how A. Bright Idea’s history continues to blossom and define a meaningful legacy.

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One of the biggest lessons I’ve learned so far is to not get overwhelmed or panic. If you can stop looking at things so broadly and focus on what you have to do next, you’ll get through any challenging time. Whatever the future may hold, I look forward to seeing how the journey continues.

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How to Make Infographics More Impactful

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An infographic is a term for graphic visual representations of information intended to be understood quickly and clearly. These graphics enhance the reader’s ability to see patterns and trends.

Graphic depictions of concepts have been integral to human communication since our earliest days. Think about it: there are cave paintings and stone etchings dating back to 40,000 BCE. What’s more, these graphics still convey powerful messages to this day about the lives of our prehistoric ancestors.

What separates a good infographic from the rest?

To start, it might be easiest to define a “poor” infographic. A poor infographic does not effectively communicate the story behind its data, usually through a lack of intentional design.

Here is an example of an infographic intentionally made by our visual team to illustrate these points. Note the overall lack of intent when it comes to design.

What kind of information is best suited for an infographic?

According to our Senior Graphic Design Specialist, Robyn Koenig, quantitative or numerical information is best suited for infographics as it can be easily visually represented without the need for wordy explanation. Types of quantitative information include:

  • Ratios and percentages
  • Statistics and probability
  • Change over time
  • Change across groups

It’s important to note that certain specialized infographics do not include any quantitative information. Such infographics may include factual statements or instructions for a process.

Information not suited for an infographic includes narrative, opinions or complex data that requires significant explanation to be understood.

Here’s how to make the biggest impact

Firstly, and most importantly, make sure to have a hierarchy of information baked into the infographic. Make sure the most important information is prominent, with supporting information discernible but not distracting from the main message.

Don’t overdesign: maintain a consistent style while limiting the number of typefaces and leaving space for the eye to rest. Too much busyness can fatigue the reader and make the information less impactful.

However, make sure to create a brand identity through an intentional color palette and design style. When you relate the style to the subject matter, it contextualizes the information and makes it easier to understand.

Select graphs and graphics that make sense with the information you are trying to convey. Certain types of data or information call for particular graphic representations.

For example, use a pie graph to show the proportions of a whole, bar graphs to show group differences or line graphs to show change over time. Using the wrong graph to depict your information will seriously inhibit its impact and legibility.

How style shapes substance

What overall styles for infographics are the most effective? The answer is: it depends on your audience.

Think about it: children wouldn’t respond as well to a minimalist, industrial design as would a business professional in their mid-late 50s. Children, by contrast, prefer to look at highly colorful, engaging designs and understand simple, stylized graphics.

When to use infographics

The potential usage of infographics is nearly limitless, although they have their time and place. It is important to note that there are several types of infographics, each suited to communicate different messages. Therefore, the type of infographic determines its best usage.

Infographics are indispensable tools for putting information in context for a particular target audience and emphasizing trends (be careful not to misrepresent data, though.)

Here is a sample infographic put together by our design team here at A. Bright Idea.

Find out more about our graphics team here.

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Digital Marketing Trends for 2022

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If there’s anything we learned about digital marketing in 2021, it’s that short-form video content is here to stay. But what digital marketing trends can we expect to see in 2022 and which current trends are on their way out? The answers may surprise you.

1. Artificial Intelligence for marketing insights

AI can analyze patterns in consumer behavior and use data from social media platforms to identify what content performs the best. Additionally, the type of data targeted is expected to change. The current primary focus on third-party data (data collected about a user by an external organization using web cookie tracking that is then sold to an organization) is likely to decrease due to increasing consumer privacy protection efforts. First-party data (data gathered by tracking and observing user behavior on an organization’s own website) will subsequently take its place.

2. Programmatic Advertising

Another use of the power of AI, programmatic advertising, automates media buying and allows brands to target more specific audiences while eliminating the need for time-consuming manual insertions of the orders.

3. Gamification

If there’s one way to get buyers to spend more time (and money) on an app, it’s to incorporate game elements with built-in rewards. This approach is true for “edutainment” apps like Duolingo and shopping apps such as the Starbucks mobile app.

4. More and more video marketing

An emerging trend in the past decade, video marketing is now more sophisticated and advanced than ever. It is the most popular way customers want to learn about new products. With more and more brands utilizing live video and augmented reality to market their products, they find new ways to connect and engage with their target audience.

Now, what trends are we leaving behind?

1. Drip marketing

Gone are the days of sending the same steady stream of generic emails to an entire contact database. Instead, send targeted and personalized emails to contact subgroups. Even better, include dynamic and interactive email content.

2. Quantity over the quality of input

The internet is already saturated with content, so simply pushing out a steady stream of basic content is a waste of time and effort. Instead, focus on developing high-quality content that offers value to potential customers.

3. Relying heavily on organic output

Social media and search engine algorithms have been causing a steady decline in the reach of organic output. It has never been more important to focus on paid digital marketing to make the biggest impression with your content.

4. Only rating text in Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

The explosion of video we’ve seen in the past few years means that more and more people are looking for video content on search engines. Instead of rating only keywords in SEO, focus on rating video, images and audio using captions and alt-text.

Bottom Line

The evolving digital space is quickly becoming an essential part of everyday life for many people. These digital marketing trends are vital for any small business trying to compete for consumers’ attention and revenue.

Learn how our team of verbal and visual communicators can help your business here.

The post Digital Marketing Trends for 2022 appeared first on A. Bright Idea.

Bright Ideas for Service: World Ocean Day

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You know we all love goin’ Downey Oshun, Hon!

A. Bright Idea counts itself fortunate to have teams on both coasts, with offices in Sonoma and Burbank, California and Bel Air, Maryland. Why? Well, in part because we get a front-row seat to the special role our oceans play in the environmental health and economic well-being of adjacent communities on land we serve. And so we’re proud to work on projects with several clients that deal directly – and even indirectly – with Earth’s most prominent feature and one of its most vital to us.

Accounting for around three-quarters of Earth’s surface, land’s big brother demands our respect and collected, concerted conservation efforts. To recognize World Ocean Day and buoy work to safeguard this precious resource, we donated to The Ocean Foundation, a non-profit that supports, strengthens and promotes “those organizations dedicated to reversing the trend of destruction of ocean environments around the world.”

However you decide to mark and celebrate the day, we encourage you to be part of the change. Here are a few ways you can join us:

  • Host a beach clean-up
  • Talk to friends, family and neighbors about thinking before they throw waste, especially cigarette butts
  • Donate to a local, national or international organization as we did
  • Use less plastic
  • Be more mindful of your carbon footprint

It’s one of the many ways we reflect our dedication to service, one of our core values. We look forward to illuminating more ideas for you and your organization to support communities.

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Always polishing, A. Bright Idea boosts services with fresh talent and promotions

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We’re thrilled to announce the additions of fresh talent and leadership promotions! Always looking to enhance our ability to serve clients, Founder & CEO Anita Brightman finds gratification in expanding the team’s depth and capabilities. It’s the same level of beaming pride she gets from nurturing professional growth and seeing colleagues’ trajectories over years and even decades.

This most recent crop of team members has expanded our depth while promotions have crystalized our core. We’ve added to our ranks communicators who bolster our public relations, video and marketing teams. In addition, three Bright Lights have moved into leadership roles.

Meet our new hires and new leadership members enhancing A. Bright Idea’s strategic communications and client service.

Promotions & New Roles

Lisa Condon
Senior Director of Organizational Training & Talent

Lisa’s 16-year tenure at A. Bright Idea is summed up as a graphic design tour de force. Lisa’s A. Bright Idea tenure is summed up as a graphic design tour de force. For most of that time, she steered our team of design professionals, orchestrating projects from kickoff to polished final product. Her experience stretches some three decades, and clients, partners and our family of team members are quick to recognize her eye for details and the nuances of good design. She recently shifted roles, taking on the duty of training and mentoring our ever-growing bench of Bright Lights, a side of her former position she enjoyed most.

Her personalized lightbulb explained: Proudly a “true print designer,” Lisa customized her lightbulb to represent a die cut — a special technique in the world of printing. It showcases her passion for tactile elements of graphic projects, such as special folds, cutouts and dimensional substrates layered on a wall. She approaches every visual project as an opportunity to convey the client’s story in a compelling and appealing way.

Robyn Koenig
Assistant Director of Creative Strategy

Robyn joined our team straight out of college. It’s been onward and upward ever since. The staying power rests in her love for the ever-present problem-solving in our diverse clients’ design needs. The day-to-day fun comes from the variety of work, from brand refreshes and wall projects to enormous multi-page layouts and digital ads. Running the full spectrum of creative needs for clients eliminates any possibility of a dull moment. Her track record of success earned her a well-deserved bump to a leadership position.

Her personalized lightbulb explained: As a member of our graphic design team, you’d expect Robyn to sketch her own lightbulb icon. And that’s exactly what she did. For Robyn, design is a labor of love. Her icon features a robin sitting on a lightbulb-shaped branch, partly pointing to nature as a source of inspiration. (She also loves a good pun.)

Josh LaVeck
Assistant Director of Marketing Communications

It seems like yesterday that Josh joined our team. It’s been more like a couple of years, yet in that time Josh has more than proven himself an exceptional marketing professional. His elevation reflects his rare ability to juggle 50 balls while marshaling our collective talent to deliver the best product for clients. Verbal and visual messaging is always on target; the product is always on time. Never one to boast, he’ll tell you he’s just having fun.

His personalized lightbulb explained: A campfire forms the shape of a lightbulb, a nod to his childhood learning to appreciate the outdoors and hard work as a Boy Scout and eventually earning the rank of Eagle Scout. His icon’s design pulls from those formative years that helped shape his approach to work and work ethic. And if you’ve ever sat around a campfire, you probably agree that the experience provides a moment to reflect and draw inspiration for the days ahead.

New Hires

Zack Stauffer
Director of Video & Emerging Media

Fittingly based in our Burbank, Calif., office — the Media Capital of the World — Zack comes to A. Bright Idea with rich Hollywood production experience. When we strategically opened an office in SoCal, we did so knowing we’d tap into the Greater Los Angeles Area’s deep talent pool of top-notch producers like him. Having spearheaded tons of video productions and commercial content, we’re proud to have him help us reach the next frontier of filming with cutting-edge technology.

His personalized lightbulb explained: He conceptualized his lightbulb icon around a rocket ship blasting off into the unknown. First, he loves space. But more to what it says about how he approaches his role, it conveys the idea that every advancement starts with imagination. It signifies his dedication to staying curious and open to change and creativity.

Brian Stevens
Director of Public Relations

Brian relishes his role as the public relations maestro behind the curtain — the crux of our service to clients. How do we distill a unique client’s public relations needs into actions that captivate and motivate audiences? His guiding creed for the public relations team’s role is, “Make the client look good. Period.”

His personalized lightbulb explained: He thoroughly enjoys working in a team environment, and that is reflected in his icon with six colleagues seated around a table collaborating on whatever’s next. Brian knows team successes vastly outweigh individual achievement and loves working with people that bring divergent life experiences to any discussion.

Isabella Regis
Communications Associate & Office Assistant

Equipped with great early-career experience, Isabella arrived at A. Bright Idea hungry to learn and explore new approaches to marketing and public relations. To Isabella, our diverse clients are a treasure trove of angles that constantly spark new ideas. She considers it a privilege to serve our government, nonprofit and commercial clients.

Her personalized lightbulb explained: Depicting a National Parks Service patch, Isabella’s icon seeks to demonstrate her go-getter attitude. The way she sees it, we can achieve any goal with consistent, intentional steps, whether tackling a big client project or ascending a mountain towering over us. And it’s the gratification of a breakthrough or reaching the summit that keeps the fire burning within.

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Q&A with Brian Lobsinger: The Key Ingredients of Creative Strategy

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Brian Lobsinger, our senior director of creative strategy, boasts a career spanning every corner of the visual space in marketing and communication. From pre-press production in a print shop to advertising and marketing to software UX design and web development, he has experience aplenty­—more than 40 years’ worth.

Yet, no matter how technology evolves, no matter which tactics and techniques come and go, he’s quick to tell you the principles of an effective creative strategy remain the same regardless of the medium or complexity of the project.

Two that jump out right away: knowing the audience and consistency.

It’s those fundamentals Brian uses to steer the creative development at A. Bright Idea. We’re lucky that we get to talk to him daily. We want to share some of his insights you might find interesting.

Brian, thanks for taking the time to chat.
Of course, happy to take a quick break.

You’ve been around. You’ve held many roles in the creative and branding space. So, let’s start with what you think are the main elements of creative strategy and brand development.
First and foremost, always determine your audience and get to know them. It may seem rudimentary, but I can’t tell you how often that gets skipped. Misalignment of verbal and visual messaging or speaking to the wrong audience causes a campaign to fall on deaf ears. One of our main goals is to create a bond with the audience member and try to make that person a brand ambassador. If what we say isn’t clear, we’ve missed that opportunity.

You’re a big hockey fan, yeah?
Yes, I am indeed!

Okay, so, here’s a curveball question: What can the average person learn about creative strategy by watching hockey?
I thought this question was going to be a tricky one. This brings up one of the other major principles of brand development, or all design really, which is consistency. The fundamental mechanics of hockey—skating, passing, shooting, etc.—need to be consistent. They become muscle memory for players. Once your fundamentals are strong (and consistent), it frees you up to exercise your creativity. It’s the same for design, if you have a solid process in place to dissect the situation, you can focus on the fun part of exploring new and creative solutions whether along the boards or on a billboard.

That hockey analogy is also useful for another thing that has been consistent throughout my career: situational awareness. No matter how well you know the audience, your team always needs to consider special circumstances and other factors influencing decisions.

I’d say this is one of the cooler things about design. Even if the end goal of two projects is categorically the same, the results will look different because of the details such as audience, preferences, budget, etc. This is what makes what we do fun and usually challenging but never boring.

What’s one thing in all the design work you’ve done that stuck with you?
In one of my first design jobs out of college, I learned how important it is to be able to distill the essence of a company or organization into something visual that conveys meaning at a glance. And, at the same time, I also learned that you absolutely need to disassociate your ego from your design (work). Looking at it objectively will help you remove your personal bias, hopefully making it easier to explore fresh ways to approach your work in general.

What exercises do you use with the visual team to build a brand identity?
Well, for me, the visual side of branding starts with words, ironically. We brainstorm words that can represent the essence of the client, its mission, products, values, etc., to set a direction. It’s basically a word association game we play together. It gets everyone thinking about the brand and helps make that “blank” sheet of paper that we all must start with a little less intimidating.

In the context of design strategy, what does “staying on the cutting edge” mean to you?
It’s a double-edged sword. Technology and technique-wise, our team always stays at the forefront. From a design perspective, though, it’s sometimes best not to be too edgy. If your client is an investment bank, it’s probably wise to convey a slow-and-steady, trustworthy identity. Again, it all comes down to your audience and their needs.

What have you learned while working at A. Bright Idea?
Working with this fantastic team has helped me stabilize my process. Projects change, and over the years so has technology. But A. Bright Idea is a believer in process. I appreciate our methodical, strategic approach to finding alternative solutions to design needs. And although I still use everything I’ve learned in my career up to this point, one of the great things is that no two projects are ever the same. So we always have opportunities to learn and explore our creativity.

Connect with us to gain more insights from Brian and others on our team by emailing info@abrightideaonline.com.

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Spotlight Series: Brian Lobsinger’s 40 Years of Building Creative Strategy Expertise

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Everyone who works with Brian knows that moment when he puts the project challenge into precisely the right words and lays out a clear path to the solution. Captivating and, at times, awe-inspiring, Brian’s breadth and depth of knowledge in creative strategy radiates. In other words, it impacts our entire team, helping make us stronger creative and strategic communications practitioners. Click the video above to see Brian in action as we celebrate his 40-year career in the industry.

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