The Idea Farm's Blog

  Implementing integrated marketing strategies and delivering measurable results is the essence of comprehensive marketing solutions for businesses across all industries. Due to budgets, specializations, and trust concerns, finding a marketing agency is challenging for many companies. Agencies help businesses develop marketing strategies that capture leads and engage them through advertising. Instead of focusing on the low-hanging fruit and quick fixes, an agency provides long-term strategies and results-driven initiatives and campaigns. A marketing agency or firm can help with the following 5 bedrocks of marketing strategy 1. Uncover Solutions to your current business challenges and market environment. 2. Identify Goals of your main marketing objectives and sets specific, quantifiable goals. 3. Create Strategies that are within your budget, customizing plans to assist you with reaching goals. 4. Generate Campaigns and executes them to attain the short-term and long-term goals ...

Creator of the world's largest hospitality podcast network, Wil Slickers, recently announced the formation of Amplified Audio, a new on-demand digital audio company devoted to fueling the growth of voices in niche categories. Besides offering end-to-end production and distribution support for creators, Amplified Audio brings a new, tiered fee structure to the market, designed to equalize access to high-value sponsorship deals. "Podcasting continues to grow in popularity with all kinds of audiences, all over the globe," said Amplified Audio founder Wil Slickers. "Hosts are in the ears, homes and cars of their listeners and can cultivate trusting relationships worth their weight in gold." According to Nielsen Podcast Ad Effectiveness data, 69% of podcast audiophiles said they became aware of a new product or service from podcasts, and two-thirds report having researched or purchased a product or service after hearing about it in a podcast episode, according to Com...

August 26, 2022 - Nielsen revealed that streaming usage surpassed cable in July to claim the largest share of television viewing for the first time, according to The Gauge, Nielsen's monthly total TV and streaming snapshot. Streaming represented a record 34.8% share of total television use, while cable and broadcast came in at 34.4% and 21.6%, respectively. Streaming consumption has exceeded that of broadcast before, but this is the first time it has also topped cable viewing. Total time spent watching TV in July closely resembled that of both June 2022 and July 2021, but despite these similarities, the change in the distribution of viewing formats on a year-over-year basis further demonstrates how viewing behaviors continue to shift. As the biggest mover this month, streaming usage increased +3.2% compared to June and gained +1.1 share points. Time spent streaming in July averaged nearly 191 billion minutes per week, and each of the five measurement weeks in July 2022 now account ...

Foremost Insurance, founded in 1952, has evolved from its agents selling coverage face-to-face in lots packed with RVs and mobile homes to an independent agent network of 161,000 fueled by social media platforms. Jeff Bair, head of independent agent marketing and national accounts-independent agent distribution for Foremost Insurance, discussed this evolution during an Insurance Marketing & Communications Association webinar with AM Best TV. What are the biggest challenges for insurance marketing? “One of the challenges we face in insurance marketing is probably consistent with what a lot of marketers face. That’s breaking through the clutter of existing communications. One of the concepts we use is C cubed. (With) each element, each C is symbiotic. They add to the strength of each other one when you’re deploying all three together. It would be for your marketing to be clear, concise and creative. The second challenge of the two is tied to the first one. That’s creating content th...

Nothing is what happens when you go through the motions instead of utilizing social media to advance the goals of your product or organization. Below are the most essential actions and the most common mistakes organizations make. 1. Do Make a Social Media Plan. You need to decide first what you’ll post (both words and images), how often to schedule your posts, what “brand voice” and “brand design or look” you’ll use and who’ll keep your profiles up to date. 2. Don’t Let your accounts fall by the wayside . The fundamental sin of social media is not keeping to a routine schedule of updates. 3. Do broadcast and Do not chat . Your presence on social media is about conversation and visibility. If you’re blasting messages into either the wrong venue or target, you’re missing the benefits of engagement. 4. Do respond quickly . One recent survey showed that a third of customers who contacted businesses through social channels expected a response within half an hour, regardless of the hour. 5. ...

Boost your career with a ‘skip-level’ meeting. What are skip-level meetings? They are meetings with your boss’s boss without your boss present. This interaction should not be perceived as going over your boss’s head. Personal interaction with a higher power in the business can improve your career, especially if you’re a new hire. The goal is to increase communication so that all parties learn more about what’s happening in the organization from each perspective. Also, skip-level meetings offer opportunities to develop professional relationships and connect with top management, especially if you don’t have regular interactions with your boss’s boss. How do I schedule a skip-level? If skip-level meetings are not already part of your organization, think about reaching out to senior managers on your own (but do inform your boss and explain the purpose). Justify such a meeting to your boss by stressing it’s helpful for: • Building relationships within the organization with someone you don’t...

Employment in advertising, public relations and related services rose by 2,200 jobs in October, according to the monthly employment report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. But the report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) also showed the biggest monthly job drop on record for internet media. Ad agency employment also slumped. For the overall economy, U.S. employers in October added 531,000 jobs as the labor market gained strength. U.S. employment in the BLS classification of advertising, public relations and related services increased to 453,100 jobs in October. The ad business banked its ninth consecutive month of growth since ad jobs hit a pandemic period low of 432,100 in January. The October increase in advertising employment came in above September's gain of 1,200 ad jobs. BLS upwardly revised the September figure from the preliminary 1,000 jobs increase it reported last month.This BLS bucket includes ad agencies, PR agencies and related services such as m...