Ah, the 4^th of July, Independence Day, the federal holiday we observe as a nation—commemorating the thirteen American colonies asserting their independence from Great Mother Britain—to stand as the unified and independent nation we know today as the great country on earth.

What better way to pay patronage to such an important occasion than reminding consumers what this independence yields them? The freedom to buy whatever they want, of course!

As marketers, and those providing these services to companies, it is our job to grab consumer or client attention, convince them in the span of a few seconds, or minute, that they need our product or service and—if we do it right— even make them smile or laugh.

These are 6 companies that used the 4^th of July holiday as an opportunity to do just that. Here’s what they did right and what we can learn from them:

Let FREE-dom Ring

What are you offering your consumers? A coupon or discount code? Information about a sale? A holiday greeting? A study done by Experian in 2013 observed 174 brands—that sent email campaigns within two weeks of the 4^th of July—noted that those mailings offering incentives to readers during the holiday—such as free shipping, a coupon or simply giving notification of a sale—saw open rates increase as much as 25%, transaction rates increase threefold and transaction-to-click rates increase as much as 51%.

What can we learn: If you are incentivizing your customer, draw attention to that initially by putting that in the subject line of the email.

 

Nail the Tagline, Subject Line or Caption

It’s a safe assumption that the majority of consumers will be receiving some sort of 4^th of July related email or advertisement—so do both parties a solid and write something memorable. Be clever, be concise and be associative.

What comes to your mind when you think of Independence Day? Fireworks? Red, white and blue? Grilling with friends and family? Include words that relate to the holiday and integrate them into the beginning of email subject lines, ad taglines or in the first sentence of a social media post.

California Avocados

What they did right: Grilling is a huge part of Independence Day festivities, California Avocados used this as an opportunity to integrate their product into an image that is quickly associated with celebrating American summers and holidays. They also had a clever play on the traditional “red, white and blue” slogan by integrating the color of their product in the tagline. Catchy and memorable.

Rover

What they did right: This dog sitting service company kept their message simple, clean and concise. With the hot dog image, Rover cleverly alluded to what their services cater to in a manner that was insightful—many dogs are afraid of fireworks during the holiday or need to be watched when families travel for long weekends—while also playing a double role as a visual commonly associated with the holiday. Rover wrapped it up with a clear CTA encourages customers to reserve their services during for the hoilday.

Lulu’s

What they did right: Lulu’s tagline integrates associative holiday words, “exercising your right,” into playful copy. Clear CTAs (Call to Actions) that tie in the holiday and highlight the seasonal relevancy of the product. Lulu’s also provided examples of their products to use for related and subset events— “Pool Party”, “Backyard BBQ”, enabling customers to visualize how they can use and wear the product in a variety of settings.

Credit.com

What they did right: Again, we see a play on “slogans” from the holiday— a smart tagline/title that integrates associative words with the holiday in a manner that also highlights the services Credit.com offers in an easily-understood, intelligent and humorous manner.

Jack Daniel’s

What they did right: Appealing to those with proud patronage, Jack Daniel’s alludes to its product actually being produced in the U.S.—something that has become increasingly rare with outsourcing and is thus an added-value aspect for customers. The ad also incorporates the standard color palette associated with the holiday and iconography with the eagle that is both on brand and holiday relevant from a design standpoint.

 

Lowe’s

Happy 4th of July! #Vine #loop https://t.co/1UllbqpjVk

— Lowe’s (@Lowes) July 3, 2013

 

What they did right: Lowe’s integrated its products in a subliminal sell format—reminding customers of their products without a hard sell. A fun and visually pleasing way to engage viewers and wish customers a happy holiday.

How are you celebrating and reaching out to your customers for Independence Day? Comment below and let us know!

Right now, before even getting into the true meat of this article— the cream de la crème— your eyes have already darted thousands of times towards the images, unconsciously running a full once-over. Why? Because the brain processes visuals faster than any other type of content—identifying images in just 13 milliseconds. In fact, 90% of the information sent to the brain, is visual; and by 2018, it is predicted that as much as 84% of marketing communication will be visual—talk about needing to nail the first impression! Perhaps, we need to reevaluate the old strategy, “content is king” and swap it to “visuals are king.”

What does this mean for your business and marketing strategy? Picture it. As the saying goes, a photo is worth a thousand words, so save yourself some verbiage and add a little visual—in your emails, on your website, even on your social media handles. Here’s why:

First Impressions are Everything.

A study done by the Stanford Persuasive Technology lab noted that 46.1% of visitors discerned a company’s credibility straight from its website design. If you’re not greeting potential clients dressed up with visuals and looking the part, you could be potentially losing half of your business and never get the chance to wine and dine them—if you know what we mean.

We are a Generation of A.D.D.-ers.

A recent study showed that human attention span has dropped down to a mere eight seconds… (yes, likely less than the time it took you to read this), that’s shorter than that of a goldfish. If that’s not bad enough, our brains are (over) stimulated— receiving five times as much information on a daily basis than we did 30 years ago. What does this mean for marketing and communication? We need to capture audience attention and do it fast. Content with visuals gets 94% more views than that without, so do yourself—and your audience— a favor and break up that encyclopedic-like block of text with some eye candy.

Increased Engagement.

Social media is another outlet that has completely changed the way that companies interact in a direct-to-consumer capacity—so don’t miss the opportunity to increase engagement by integrating visuals for the eyes to easily digest. Tweets get retweeted 150% more with photos than without and a recent study by Adobe discovered that Facebook posts with images see a whopping 650% higher interaction than those without.

Try a (Visual) Call to Action.  

Try serving up some imagery dishes to give your audience a brain boost. People are able to follow illustrated directions 323% better than direction without visuals. They also recall 80% of what they see and do, compared to a mere 20% of what they read. Trying to integrate a CTA (Call-to-Action) or inform your audience about a sale or important up-and-coming event? Mix in a photo or illustration the next time.

The Future is Visual.

As technology and social media have continued to evolve, video has emerged as a key player in the future of communications. In 2015, on a daily basis, users were averaging almost 11% more time spent with digital video than on social networks. Video will likely play the most prominent and substantial role in direct-to-consumer visual communication. Today, four times as many consumers prefer watching a product video to reading about it; but perhaps, this should come as no surprise as we can gather the sense of a visual scene in less than 1/10 of a second. Lazy or time-saving? You decide.

Where can you include visuals in your communications with consumers?

• Email marketing/email campaigns
• Websites
• Company blog posts
• Social media
• Fliers and brochures

Some examples of visual content are:

• Images
• Videos
• GIFS, memes
• Infographics

 

Still not convinced? Here’s one last tidbit for you—if this article had not included any visuals, you’d be likely to remember only 10% of the information three days later. Not to worry, since we integrated some beautiful aides, you’re likely to retain at least 65% of this. Guess it goes to combat the old saying— sometimes looks are everything!

We know— you’re welcome. Now get to work!

Sources:

BRAIN RULE RUNDOWN Rule #10: Vision trumps all other senses. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.brainrules.net/vision

Cooper, B. B. (2013, November 13). How Twitter’s Expanded Images Increase Clicks, Retweets and Favorites [New Data]. Retrieved from https://blog.bufferapp.com/the-power-of-twitters-new-expanded-images-and-how-to-make-the-most-of-it

Effects of text illustrations: A review of research. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007%2FBF02765184

M., O’Neill. (2015, May 7). The 2015 Video Marketing Cheat Sheet [Infographic]. Retrieved from https://animoto.com/blog/business/video-marketing-cheat-sheet-infographic/

N. (n.d.). 13 Reasons Why Your Brain Craves Infographics. Retrieved from http://neomam.com/interactive/13reasons/

Pinantoan, A. (2015, May 20). How To Massively Boost Your Blog Traffic With These 5 Awesome Image Stats. Retrieved from http://buzzsumo.com/blog/how-to-massively-boost-your-blog-traffic-with-these-5-awesome-image-stats/

Shrivastava, S. (n.d.). The Power Of Visual Content In Your Content Marketing Strategy. Retrieved from https://blog.rankwatch.com/the-power-of-visual-content-in-your-content-marketing-strategy/

Watson, L. (2015, May 15). Humans have shorter attention span than goldfish, thanks to smartphones. Retrieved from http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/2016/03/12/humans-have-shorter-attention-span-than-goldfish-thanks-to-smart/

Trafton, A. (2014, January 16). In the blink of an eye. Retrieved from http://news.mit.edu/2014/in-the-blink-of-an-eye-0116

Award Honors Lee’s Vision & Leadership at the Organization’s Annual Conference in San Diego

We are pleased to announce today that Ben Lee, our Chief Marketing Officer, has received the “Outstanding Marketer” award from the Academy of Marketing Science (AMS).

The award was presented last Friday, May 26^th by the non-profit organization which is dedicated to promoting excellence in marketing practices and knowledge.

“Ben and Pierry Inc. epitomize the spirit of the award in advancing the role of marketing through innovative and ethical practice,” said Adilson Borges, AMS President. “In particular, Ben’s belief that marketing must be leading strategic efforts of companies today because it is marketing’s responsibility to build and maintain an intimate relationship with customers. In this way, we can create truly valuable experiences for customers.”

More than 400 marketing professionals gathered at the Academy’s annual conference in San Diego, where Lee was recognized for shepherding Pierry’s rapid growth and innovative client solutions.

“I am extremely honored to be here this evening to accept this award on behalf of my Pierry colleagues – and our clients – who are embracing the opportunity of digital marketing in some really unique ways,” Lee noted at the conference’s closing ceremony. “Digital marketing presents a huge opportunity for companies to create deeper relationships with their customers, but the ability to fully understand and leverage it requires a whole new set of skills that many companies simply don’t have, nor can they afford to bring in house. Pierry continues to add manpower and functional expertise that enable us to partner with marquee brands across a variety of sectors, and deliver the best possible results for our clients.”

For over 40 years, AMS has annually recognized an individual who epitomizes the spirit and character of the Academy and its ideals. Previous winners have included CMOS, CEOs and entrepreneurs to the likes of Walt Disney, Jeff Campbell (Burger King), Robbie Brozin (Nando’s Peri Peri) and Mathew Berry (ESPN). (For a complete list please visit: https://ams.site-ym.com/page/OutstandingMarketer).

About Pierry

• Named the 538^th fastest growing company in the country by Inc. Magazine in their 2016 “Inc. 5000” list
• #6 Fastest Growing Company in the San Francisco Bay Area by the San Francisco Business Times
• Pierry – which began as a team of 2 people in the emerging digital marketing space in 2008 – now has employees in offices throughout the United States and in Japan, and serves a wide range of clients, from start-ups to multi-billion dollar global brands.
• Pierry coined the term MaaS (Marketing as a Service) to describe the unique way it helps its clients design, develop and execute marketing solutions that dramatically improve efficiency and impact, and increase ROI.
• Founded in 2008 by Josh Pierry, the company has grown into a global preferred digital marketing partner for companies in all sectors, with offices in Redwood City, CA, Boulder, CO, Ruston, LA, Albany, NY and Kyoto, Japan.