Global leader Tavistock, a privately held investment company with over 200 holdings, recently tasked Appleton Creative to design and develop a new website for their web headquarters and for their Albany, Bahamas property owned by Tiger Woods, Ernie Els and Joe Lewis.

The Challenge: Highlight the investment group’s growth and diversity while making the sites information resources for current and potential investors through intuitive design and functionality.

The new sites are a success. Albany’s new website saw over 10,000 visitors during the two-day Tavistock Cup event shortly after launching. The 2011 Tavistock Cup Journal and event collateral, also produced by Appleton Creative, drove additional web traffic to the family of Tavistock sites.

Appleton Creative has additionally partnered with Tavistock to create sites for Stockworth Realty and Isleworth Realty. This initiative will debut later this quarter with an MLS feed for Stockworth Realty properties and interactive features showcasing Isleworth as the premiere luxury community in Central Florida.

Appleton Creative is honored to partner with Tavistock and appreciates the trust they put in us to represent their valued brand, now and in the future.

Is 2012 the year of extreme couponing? The phenomenon continues to gain popularity; with coupon junkies getting fast coupon fixes on Facebook and Twitter. But if you are a coupon extremist, don’t bother with Google+; the site is coupon-less by design.

Although company accounts are welcome on Google+, the site has strict policies against businesses leveraging the social network for promotions. In fact, according to Google+ policies: brands and businesses “may not run contests, sweepstakes, offers, coupons or other such promotions” directly on their Google+ page.

A bit of a risky move for the social scene newcomer as top consumer brands such as McDonald’s, Starbucks and Disney utilize social sites Facebook and Twitter to provide discounts and coupons to fans. A study recently found that 77% of US media respondents liked when companies and brands offered incentives such as free products, services, coupons or discounts.

Is Google+ a social bomb for businesses? Not quite. Let’s use Android’s Google+ site as an example. The popular mobile company has a Google+ page with over 360,000 followers. Instead of using the space as a discount page, Android’s focuses on providing content to their followers such as video and announcements.

If you’re a promotion fiend, Google+ is not your social friend – Facebook and Twitter are the best bets for your discounted fixes. But if it’s content you are looking for, Google+ may just be your perfect match.

• The design is too simple and makes our company look sub-par
• The site doesn’t function
• He has disappeared
• Our business has outgrown its paint-by-numbers website

With 148 million US consumers aged 14 and older making one or more on-line purchases (eMarketer) and 78% of the US population using the Internet as a tool, it becomes clear that simply having a website is no longer enough. If you are going to compete in the cyber marketplace, you need to treat your website as if it’s a corporate headquarters.

So what does a good website do for you?

1. Leaves an impression: If someone with no prior knowledge of your company was to visit your site would they have a positive experience?

2. Clearly explains what the company does: Prospective customers have a limited attention span and don’t want to work to figure out what your group actually does.

3. Keeps it clean and simple: In the web world, it’s easy to lose focus on what truly matters by adding clutter and over information.

4. Functions: It’s amazing how many non-functioning websites exist – it’s like owning a taxi service with only half of the fleet working.

5. Responds: Your website is a face for your business – and it’s also a customer service rep. It’s through a website that a business can get leads, engage customers and interact.

6. Adds some flare: Don’t misconstrue the need for simplicity with the inability to be creative – adding truly usable, functioning and purposeful flare items such as a quiz, game or avatar can add to your customer experience. But beware, it can also clog your site and take away from your mission.

7. Keep you at the top of the Search: The term SEO has warped into an all-encompassing term, but don’t lose site on what it stands for: Search Engine Optimization. With 92% of computer users using search engines (Pew Internet Reports), a good site works to keep you near the top of the list through keywords, updated information and some back-end elbow grease.

8. Utilizes video: A report from University of Mass/Dartmouth reports that although only 33% of INC 500 companies use video, it is 93% successful (the highest of all medias). If you don’t have video on your site, you’re missing out on the #1 influencing source.

Want more information about the benefits of an effective website? Let Appleton Creative show you how it’s done!

During the month of December, Appleton ran a Facebook campaign to raise funds for the group and are proud to announce a total donation of $250 to help our four-legged companions. Just because the holiday season has come to an end and 2012 is here doesn’t mean that man’s best friend should be forgotten – do your part and check out Pet Rescue by Judy at http://www.petrescuebyjudy.com.

Here are a few of our 2011 Faves

Golf Channel – Environmental Branding

Anyone up for a round of golf? When Golf Channel chose Appleton Creative as their agency for environmental branding, we were thrilled. The opportunity allowed us to thread the Golf Channel brand throughout the new space at their Orlando headquarters.

TBS Factoring Service – Unique Client

What does Appleton know about trucking? Quite a bit, actually! TBS proved to be our most unique new client, and we loved testing our blue-collar design grit. They liked our original illustrations so much that it inspired the company to rebrand!

Hilton Grand Vacations – Getaways

Did someone say vacation? Our relationship with Hilton has been very dear to us here at Appleton. The best part? Our web team gets the chance to design functional sites with clean design and great interactive features, such as vacation personality profiles for club members.

Dean Mead – Orlando-based professional service

Order in the court! Appleton is known for being a fun place, but we enjoy putting on our big-kid clothes too. A redesign for Orlando-headquartered Dean Mead had us in a well-polished mindset.

Tavistock – Long-term Partnership

Tiger Woods returned! It’s always a thrill to be involved in the world-famous Tavistock Cup as well as any of our other Tavistock projects – from Isleworth Living Magazine to website designs for Albany Bahamas, Stockworth Realty, Tavistock Group and Isleworth Realty, we welcome any Tavistock challenge.

What’s the difference?

Swag is a quality freebie. Swag can be useful; swag has value. A T-shirt can be swag because it can be worn and witty. A pen that has a pullout banner? Swag, because it’s multi-purpose. A refrigerator magnet featuring your favorite professional sporting team? Swag, because it features the home team. Add the ability for that team magnet to open a beer bottle, and you’ve hit the swag mother load.

But tchotchkes? That’s the crap that breaks and that you own in excess. Most tchotchke giveaways hit the trashcan. It is the 10^th pad of paper you receive at an expo. It is the chip clip handed to you in a plastic wrap that you never open. Chotskies happen – let them happen to the your competitors, not to you.

Avoid the traps

The best way to avoid ordering bad promotional items is to work with the right agency. A good agency like Appleton Creative knows your brand, can provide the wit and the hook, do the research and get the best product for your budget. Promotional items are forms of marketing. So market yourself! Here are some easy guidelines:

Be Clever
You want funny, happy people using your products – be witty.

Have permission to use a team’s logo? Do it!
People are superstitious when it comes to their team and are considerably less likely throw their team’s logo in the trash.

Pay attention to color
Seriously. Did you know that neon was huge last year for the 18-25 year old demographic? If these are your prospective clients and you’d handed out plastic neon yellow sunglasses with your name on one arm, your brand would have gotten some massive play.

Use your logo wisely
Your prospective clients can become brand ambassadors for you, but unless you are a name brand, it’s unlikely that they will willingly wear a t-shirt featuring only your logo. You need another reason to hand out that shirt. Slogan. Graphic. And you need to be selective on where you put your logo. Keep it discreet, but visible. Classy is the best rule of thumb.

Know your audience
What is the demographic? Where is the giveaway? If you are hosting a booth at a renaissance festival and want to appeal to families, don’t be fooled into thinking your company pens are going to drive traffic to your booth. But a paper king’s crown for the kiddos to wear? Victory!

Be Original
Why buy a normal pen when you can buy one with a pullout banner, multiple ink colors or the ability to write upside down?

Self-Review
Before buying any promotional item you need to know ask yourself the following questions: What do I want this item to achieve for my company? How will I measure the success of this item? If your plan was to get 100 people to sign up for your e-newsletter and 130 people did, well, you do the math. If your goal was 300 people, regroup and self-evaluate.

Don’t Get Trashed

You purchase promotional giveaways with the hope that they will last longer than the five steps it takes to get to the trashcan, because let’s face it, that’s just a big fat waste of your money. So take heart, put in the extra effort, make sure you’ve got the right agency and the best marketing staff on your side, and review the guidelines above before you make any financial commitment.

Together, we can turn tchotchkes into swag.

Photo by Christopher T. Palmer

Think of your company as a person – an entity in itself. Your logo is your signature style, your slogan is your attitude, your company motto is your ethics, and your personality is your customer service. All parts are equally important to your company brand and your authenticity.

Here are five topics to discuss with your executive group and creative team when developing a brand and marketing plan.

1. Company Culture
2. Customer Service
3. Employee Ambassadors
4. Future Goals
5. Who is your customer?

Once you’ve brainstormed the topics, you can begin to work with your creative team to produce a logo, slogan, and brand manual. A brand manual takes the essence of your brand (the logos, colors, fonts, themes and usage rules) and develops them into a company brand constitution.

Top five most important things a brand manual does for your company:

1. Consistency
2. Employee Awareness
3. Reference
4. Accountability
5. Legitimacy

There’s an old saying that you can put a suit on a dog but that doesn’t mean he’s now a businessman. The same can be said with regards to your logo. Customers know when you haven’t fully represented the spirit of your company in your brand.

Iceberg photo by Natalie Lucier

Brent Trotter, President/CEO spoke about the great rise in homelessness in Orlando. There are some elementary schools that report 20% of their students are homeless. Out of the homeless male population, 25% have served in our military and another 25% are recently unemployed and are homeless for the first time in their lives.

Please go to their website and see where you can donate time or goods:
http://www.centralfloridahomeless.org/

Send this link to your friends, and for more information on how to help visit:
http://www.petrescuebyjudy.com/

The work displayed in our gallery was created through Pasadena Villa’s art therapy program. Residents created the art as an expression of their thoughts and feelings. We had a great time at the exhibit and are proud to show their work in our Giving Circle Gallery through the end of the year!

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