With 120 million people listening to Internet radio, the playing field is highly competitive.

On June 10, Apple confirmed rumors that they will be entering into the world of Internet radio. iTunes Radio is expected to launch in fall of 2013 when Apple releases its iOS7 upgrade to its mobile devices. With 120 million people listening to Internet radio, the playing field is highly competitive, occupied by several providers including Pandora, Spotify, I Heart Radio and Slacker Radio.

Pandora dominates the market with 77%* of online radio listening. Pandora is a streaming music service, based on the Music Genome Project, with access to 800,000 tracks. Trained analysts use up to 450 distinct musical characteristics to identify qualities of each song that are relevant to listeners’ musical preferences. Pandora offers two types of listening: free, which is supplemented by display and audio ads, and subscription listening, which allows for advertising free listening and a higher-quality music stream.Read full post...

WILMINGTON, DE — On the heels of major wins at the Aster Awards and the Healthcare Marketing Report Health Advertising Awards, AB&C scored well again at the Winter/Spring 2013 Web Health Awards. The marketing communications agency won silver and bronze for two physician recruitment portals — the silver with Baystate Health of Springfield, MA, and the bronze with Tufts Medical Center Physicians Organization of Boston, MA.

“To attract the best physician candidates, it’s critical to stay ahead of the pack,” says Shawn Kessler, senior strategist at AB&C. “Great physicians want to work where they have a voice, where they can use the most advanced technologies, and where they can collaborate. For health systems that possess these intangibles, these physician recruitment portals help them to stand apart.”Read full post...

Image courtesy of You Only Blog Once

Starting with the 2014 NBA season, teams will be allowed to sell advertising space on their home courts and backboards. No values have been set yet, but, according to Business Insider, the NBA believes this could be a $100+ million income-generator.

Just think, the next time Kobe’s sitting on the bench with a towel over his head, reminiscing about the good ol’ days when Shaq was around, he could be tapping his personalized size 14s on a Kia ad. Or when LeBron dunks on someone, he can reach for the stars — or the Starbucks ad at the top of the backboard. Why not, right?Read full post...

Mike, Paula, Jackie and Jason LaPenta of Rehoboth Beach, DE enjoy Sunday’s Festa Patronale.

Wilmington, DE – The St. Anthony’s Italian Festival wrapped up a damp, but extremely successful week on Sunday. Despite losing two nights to inclement weather, the festival drew more than 70,000 attendees, including near record-setting nights on Wednesday and Friday. This year marked the 39th annual “modern” festival and 90th traditional summer celebration at the Wilmington parish. In honor of Father Roberto Balducelli, the Festival Committee chose Emilia-Romagna, the home region of St. Anthony’s legendary priest, as the 2013 theme.

“This year had extra meaning as our beloved Father Robert celebrates his 100th birthday,” says Anthony Albence, member of the Festival Committee. “Despite all the rain, our volunteers, our sponsors and the Wilmington Police Department were all tremendous. They are the reason the Festival continues to grow in popularity. This week represented the chief fundraising effort for our grade school, so hats off to our patrons.”Read full post...

In a world where advertisements hawking everything from cars to cleaning products bombard our oversaturated brains at every waking hour, a little shock can go a long way towards driving a company’s message home. Witness Kmart’s most recent YouTube ads entitled “Big Gas Savings” and “Ship My Pants.” If you say the names of the commercials out loud (try it in a crowded office), you’ll quickly figure out the hooks. Both videos rely on “potty” words and a mischievous sense of humor to relate a message of convenience and savings.

Blurring the line between propriety and indecency has proven effective. More than 22,000,000 people have seen and heard Kmart’s message in the past month. Combined, the videos received 103,732 likes and only 4,411 dislikes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hL4lSavSepc

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Bring your appetite!

WILMINGTON, DE — St. Anthony of Padua will host its 39^th annual Italian Festival, beginning Sunday, June 9. The 2013 theme is Emilia-Romagna, the home region of St. Anthony’s legendary Fr. Roberto Balducelli, who celebrates his 100^th birthday this year. According to Father Robert, the region is home to the most delicious food in all of Europe, so bring your appetite.

Wilmington’s favorite festival runs from June 9 to 16 at St. Anthony of Padua, located at 901 N. DuPont Street. Weekly passes are available on-site and online for $15. Daily admission is $5 for ages 14 to 61 and free for seniors (over 61). Children (under 14) also receive free admission with a parent or guardian (age 18 or older). All proceeds benefit St. Anthony of Padua Grade School.Read full post...

Using science to get into the customer’s brain

One of the most interesting new business pitches I was ever involved in was when a prospective B2B client, a large and well-known electronics company, was trying to introduce a new product line. The problem was, these new products were very different from those that the company was well known for.

The client had spent considerable sums introducing the new line, yet had made little headway in the market. So they opened this assignment to other agencies.

We were briefed, we developed creative, and we took it to a focus group. The creative bombed, badly. But why it bombed was the same reason the product line was getting so little traction — in the mind of the customer, these new products just didn’t fit with the way they perceived the company.

Well, we quickly regrouped and developed new creative. But this time, rather than just introduce the new products, we built a connection between them and the products the company was known for. The new creative worked well, helping to create an “aha” moment with people in the second focus group.

In our final presentation to the client, we took them through our experience, even showing the creative that bombed. Not only did we win the work for the new product line, we became agency-of-record for the entire account. We also learned a valuable lesson in the art of persuasion.

We called it, “meeting the audience at its mindset.” Read full post...

Warmer weather means sharing the roadways with more motorcycles. Last year in Delaware, there were 17 fatalities involving motorcycles, with both motorists and motorcycle riders at fault. The Delaware Office of Highway Safety is determined to bring that number down by raising motorists’ awareness of motorcycles on the roads and educating motorcycle riders on ways to protect themselves. To drive home the message, the Delaware Office of Highway Safety asked AB&C to create a two-pronged campaign.Read full post...

It’s not easy staying cool — just ask the Fonz, the Rolling Stones and the CB radio. Since dethroning MySpace five years ago, Facebook has reigned supreme in the social media world. But don’t look back, Facebook — something might be gaining on you. Many teens, twenty-somethings and even thirty-somethings are turning to Twitter. If that age group factors heavily into your customer base, please read on.

It’s not easy staying cool — just ask the Fonz.

When you were young, did you (willingly) spend a lot of time at your parents’ haunts? Probably not. So when mom, dad and Aunt Edna joined Facebook, Millennials (and a lot of Gen Xers) started looking to other platforms for some breathing room. They turned to Tumblr, Pinterest and Instagram among other social sites. But before you chase them all around the Internet, start with Twitter.

For everything from national broadcasts to local activities, Twitter has become the go-to site for younger social media users. Sure, Facebook still has a larger user base. But just as with your business, the goal isn’t to rack up followers, it’s to add engaged followers — people who love your brand. Facebook has double the users, but it doesn’t translate to double the fun for Millennials.

Maybe your business already has a Twitter profile. Maybe you’re late to the party. Or maybe you couldn’t care less. Whatever camp you find yourself in, here is a quick rundown on Twitter use and why it’s here to stay, as well as some tips for tweets.Read full post...

From a branding perspective, the HRC’s social media initiative linked to its logo speaks volumes about the importance of brand awareness — for any company.

On Tuesday, March 26, social media experienced a huge surge from Facebook page owners across the globe. In reaction to the Supreme Court’s discussion of DOMA (The Defense of Marriage Act) and California’s Proposition 8, which recognizes only opposite-sex marriages, The Human Rights Campaign (HRC) asked its followers to change their Facebook profile pictures to a red equal sign, to signify love.

This simple request caused a massive spike in user profile picture changes, as an estimated 2.7 million Facebook users responded to the HRC’s appeal. (Did you, or any of your friends?) It amounted to a 120% increase in Facebook profile picture changes from the week before, with many people even developing their own creative version of the symbol. Read full post...

“If journalists are gloomy about the outlook of their industry, printers are despondent.”

That was a 2013 keynote speaker’s headline for his topic, “The Future of Printers.” Subtitle? “Printers Sink.”

Offset press

In the U.S. in 2001 there were 50,000 traditional commercial printing companies (not including phone book and newspaper and magazine publishers). Today there are fewer than 20,000, and those that are still in business find their 1Q13 revenues down 25–50% from a year ago. The environment is brutal. Half the printers I used to work with are no longer in business — and I’m paying a lot less for the same kind of job to those that still are.

Printer-from-birth Chuck Paski at McClafferty Printing says printing “is a tough racket to be in. It’s a commodity now instead of a craft. The buyers know they can beat you up on price, and they’ll take their business down the street to save .” Paski has a state-of-the-art six-color press, but only four-color jobs are selling — whatever buyers can get for the cheapest price in the fastest time. McClafferty just added mailhouse services to its portfolio, so it can be a one-stop shop.Read full post...

WILMINGTON, DE – AB&C, a full-service marketing communications agency, won a total of 28 awards between two prominent healthcare competitions. At the 30^th annual Healthcare Marketing Report Health Advertising Awards, the agency received 19 awards. Also, the agency hoisted nine awards at the 2013 Aster Awards, judged by Marketing Healthcare Today.

“The healthcare marketing industry is just as competitive as healthcare itself,” says AB&C president and CEO John Hawkins. “Our team is tremendous. We start with top healthcare clients and add laser-focused strategy and engaging creative. It’s a recipe for sustained success.”

The Healthcare Advertising Awards are evaluated by a national panel of judges. More than 4,000 entries from 268 agencies were judged on creativity, quality, message effectiveness, consumer appeal, graphic design and overall impact. The agency won awards with 14 different clients. Along with 11 gold, two silver, one bronze and four merit awards, AB&C received a Best in Show for its physicians video mailer for MedStar Union Memorial Hospital, one of only 17 to earn this high designation.Read full post...

Over my nearly (ahem) four decades in the ad business, I’ve written tons of jingles. Presided over original music sessions from Nashville to New York. And spent hundreds of hours listening to and selecting stock music and sound effects — all to create that elusive emotional connection between our clients’ brands and their consumers.

Boy, have times and budgets changed. Weeks of lead time and wads of cash to create one-of-a-kind audio tracks that stuck in your brain are now virtually unheard of (unless you’re selling cars, beer, airlines or cosmetics). Today, Garage Band, Pro Tools and a plethora of music libraries fill the void cheaply, quickly and — I must admit — conveniently.Read full post...

Ecstatic, thrilled and maybe even a little overwhelmed — that pretty much sums up how people are feeling here at AB&C after learning that we won Best in Show, 11 gold, two silvers, one bronze and four merit award at the 30^th Annual Healthcare Advertising Awards. Those numbers alone are pretty impressive, but what’s even more meaningful is that we won more gold awards than any of the other 268 agencies that submitted and that we had 14 different clients win with us.

These numbers validate what we already know: The healthcare marketing industry is just as competitive as healthcare these days. More agencies are entering into this specialty area, but this year’s success shows that we are ahead of the curve. Our healthcare team is steeped in expertise and our partners benefit from the years (even decades — yikes!) that we have been working in the industry.Read full post...

Point the finger at poor implementation of the technology and too many companies scrambling to get a piece of the niche pie.

Have you ever said, “Wow! I just had an amazing experience with this here QR code!”

It’s safe to say you’ve come across many “Quick Response” codes over the past few years, whether you knew what they were at the time or not. And if you’re in the marketing business, you’ve been asked, “Do you think we should add a QR code?” on more than one occasion.

In 1994, Denso Wave, a subsidiary of a Japanese automotive manufacturer, invented the QR code to track the company’s production process. The idea behind altering the technology for smartphones came soon thereafter — and presto!  People could connect the offline world to the online world by simply scanning a code with their handheld device. Since more than half the country owns a smartphone, you might assume that QR codes are all the rage.

Well, they’re not.

They’re everywhere — some placements are better than others: T-shirts, license plates, metro boards, billboards, websites, gas pumps, buses, TV commercials, etc. Sure, consumers are scanning QR codes here and there, but not regularly.Read full post...