It’s time to stop utilizing.

You see them all the time. Predictable, cliché, meaningless words that just fill space. They’re in nine out of ten health care ads. As a writer, they drive me insane. Here’s an irritating eight we can all do without.

State of the art: What exactly does that mean? Whose state are we talking about? And what art is this that has a state?

Utilization: Whatever happened to plain, old-fashioned “use.” Perfectly good word. Three letters. Says the same thing. Think about it.

Innovation: What exactly is the innovation? Why can’t you tell me what it is? Do I have to guess? Are you afraid to let me know because I will be so amazed I will fling my clothes into the wind in wild abandon, run down the street naked, crying tears of joy and amazement?Read full post...

Photo courtesy of Joe del Tufo

This little city has its problems. But the biggest problem is that too many people have given up. Not everyone — there are plenty of people who are committed to making Wilmington vital and vibrant. They open small businesses and restaurants. They bend over backwards to nurture an arts scene. They need your support.

Maybe you go home at the end of the workday and are afraid to come back downtown after dark. “Too much crime.” “Not enough parking.”

What if you changed your mind? What if you decided to get a bunch of friends together and check out the restaurants and enjoy the artistic and cultural events that are available in Wilmington? There are plenty of magazines and websites and Facebook pages where you can find information about all the events. There are plenty of email subscriptions to make getting that information even easier. It’s easy to find a variety of things to do. But for cryin’ out loud, do something.

Explore. A good time to start is the first Friday of every month, when venues all around town participate in the art loop. You might be surprised at the cool little shops and galleries and restaurants buzzing with people.Read full post...

The fate of static outdoor displays may soon be much the same as CDs and VHS tapes.

Digital outdoor displays are quickly becoming one of the best mediums for cost-effective, high-impact advertising.

With the ability to change a client’s creative frequently and immediately, digital outdoor displays allow you to target your consumer with the most time-relevant message.

Another advantage of digital displays over traditional static displays is consumer retention. Research shows that while only 43 percent of respondents have any kind of recall of traditional static displays, more than 94 percent of respondents actually recall the message on a digital display. This is remarkable, given the fact that the message on a digital display is usually shown for only eight seconds at a time as part of a continuous rotation.Read full post...

It would be like arming your company with a state-of-the-art fish finder that not only locates fish, but will lead you to those most likely to bite.

Boosting your success up to 40% via predictive modeling

With traditional and electronic media costs constantly on the rise, casting a wide net to reach B-to-B prospects can become prohibitively expensive. Though these media do reach many people, using them to find the right people — your best prospects — is often inefficient.

But what if you could identify and target only your best prospects — those whose profiles precisely match those of your current best customers? It would be like arming your company with a state-of-the-art fish finder that not only locates fish, but will lead you to those most likely to bite.

That’s what’s behind the concept of predictive modeling. AB&C has successfully used this cutting-edge prospecting tool for clients to deliver 20% to 40% higher response than with traditional media — at a fraction of the cost.Read full post...

This Facebook page of hers will last forever, and we’ll continue to share our thoughts of her by posting on it, making it a living memorial.

Since its inception, I have seen Facebook used in many ways: for self-expression, debating, celebration and, of course, connecting with friends and family. But I never imagined it as a way to remember a lost loved one or cope with death.

I have dealt with a lot of death in my life. I have lost many loved ones — including two sisters and my mom. It’s a very tough thing, and everyone deals with it in his or her own way. A little over a year ago, my cousin lost his daughter to cystic fibrosis. This is a chronic lung disease that is passed through families. Sadly, it severely shortens the life expectancy of the people who have it. The average lifespan of someone with CF is 37 years, but this figure has increased dramatically over the last few decades. My cousin’s daughter’s name was Christina. She made it to 27.

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Wilmington, DE — Good Shepherd Penn Partners has selected AB&C, a full-service marketing communications agency, to develop a brand identity and brand strategy for its Philadelphia-area post-acute hospitals and outpatient therapy centers.

Good Shepherd Penn Partners is a joint venture of Allentown, PA-based Good Shepherd Rehabilitation Network and Penn Medicine. The strategic communications effort will identify the differentiating characteristics of the organization both internally and externally, gauge general market awareness and develop a brand platform to be used in the creation of marketing messaging and communications.Read full post...

The next time you want to see what the general public thinks about your new logo…don’t.

The list of brands that have gone through a massive rebranding effort — only to cave into online peer pressure and revert back to their old identities (Tropicana, The Gap, University of California) — continues to grow.

As someone who makes a living rebranding companies, this troubles me.

Foremost, people who comment on Internet threads usually aren’t professional marketers or branding experts. They’re the same people who take half-naked pictures of themselves making duck faces in the mirror, then film a video of their buddy eating a tablespoon of cinnamon.

They don’t understand the hundreds of nuances that go into building a brand.Read full post...

After enough pushing, prodding and hearing the “But everybody’s on Facebook” argument, you finally decided your business needed a page. About 90 percent of small businesses are on it, so welcome to the club. Whether your page is brand-spanking new or a couple of years old, you want to know how you’re doing. As with any other aspect of business, you have to check your figures, right?

Before we get started, make sure your Facebook page represents a business, not a person. If it doesn’t  the Facebook FAQs can take you through the transfer. Once you’re all squared away, you’ll find your business page equipped with free analytics (yes, free) called Facebook Insights. Not only is Insights complimentary, but it’s also fast and relatively painless. Managing your social media pages can be time-consuming, so the last thing you want is to spend more time crunching numbers. No worries. Insights spits out the important information, giving you just enough not to be overwhelming.

Carve out some time to check your figures. It doesn’t have to be every week — maybe the end of every month or quarter.

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The Independence School’s new logo and theme line

The Independence School (TIS) is an independent school located in Pike Creek, Delaware, that welcomes students from age 3 through the 8th grade. Looking to keep enrollment strong during a time of economic challenge, with a reduced population of age-appropriate candidates and competition from other independent and public schools, the TIS staff identified the need to review their brand and rediscover what differentiates them.Read full post...

Wilmington, DE – AB&C, a full-service marketing communications firm, took home gold and silver at the 2013 ADDY Awards in Philadelphia. With more than 600 of the region’s top creative professionals on hand, the agency won gold in the public service “non-traditional advertising” category for its My7Minutes unicorn t-shirt. My7Minutes is a youth tobacco prevention campaign conducted for the Delaware Department of Public Health. In the category “fractional page newspaper advertising in color,” the agency hoisted a silver ADDY for its MedStar Good Samaritan Hospital Gilligan colonoscopy print ad.Read full post...

Where are our mobile manners?

I worked in an advertising agency back in the early ‘90s when a new business win mushroomed into half of our agency business—cell phone advertising. I still remember a creative director asking me what it would take to get me to purchase a cell phone. He was looking for ad concept ideas. The big selling point at the time was “safety.” And I recall saying, “Why would I need one? I have AAA.”

It was the “in” thing then to have a cell phone. Now, 20 years later, it has become a necessity. According to a Synovate survey in 2011, “82% of Americans never leave home without their phones.”Read full post...

Hospital food is going gourmet. Yum!

I’ve recently become obsessed with where my food comes from. And I don’t think I’m alone. There are farmers’ markets and Whole Foods popping up all over the place. Whole Foods’ labels don’t just give you the “Best Before” date on your New York strip, they tell you where the cow lived, his name and what he generally liked to do on the weekends. Restaurants are at it, too. I went to my first all-raw vegan organic café the other day. It’s a trend that’s picking up speed. And people are voting at the cash register. I have a friend who likes to call Whole Foods “Whole Paycheck.” But like thousands, I’m willing to pay more for a better product, which is presumably healthier, too.Read full post...

Held annually before St. Patrick’s Day, the breakfast has raised nearly $2,000,000 for St. Patrick’s Center.

Wilmington, DE – The St. Patrick’s Day Society will host its 20^th annual communion breakfast on March 14 at the DoubleTree Hotel on King Street. With more than 1,000 people expected, the mass, parade and breakfast are now a Wilmington St. Patrick’s Day tradition. The breakfast features headliner Joe Conklin, renowned impressionist and Philadelphia radio personality.

“We are thrilled to welcome Joe Conklin to Wilmington to entertain our supporters, many of whom have been with us since day one,” says Joe Farley, Sr., event founder and emcee. “The event is truly remarkable because it both unites Delaware’s Irish-American community and ensures St. Patrick’s Center is equipped to serve those in Wilmington who need our help the most.”Read full post...

I’m all for target marketing, but this is a little invasive.

To anyone who’s faced with a cable bill in excess of $200 every month, news that Intel is planning on “blowing up the cable industry” with its own set-top box and unbundled cable service is big stuff. Instead of paying a fortune for 500 channels you rarely watch, Intel says they’ll allow you to subscribe to specific channels of your choosing. According to Intel, the set-top box will offer cable channels delivered “over the top” to televisions anywhere there is an Internet connection, regardless of provider. Consumers can subscribe to content per channel – maybe even by show. They even plan to enable consumers to use “Cloud DVR,” which would allow users to watch any past TV show at any time.Read full post...

Poorly researched concepts are one of the main causes of failed campaigns.

You’re in a concept meeting. Your client, a skin cancer organization, has asked you to come up with an advertisement that will convince young women to stop using tanning beds. Your coworker, the mother of a teenage daughter, speaks up. “My daughter Kelly had no idea that tanning beds can cause cancer until I told her recently,” she says, “so the ad should probably focus on melanoma.” Her idea is received with nods of approval, the creative team is informed, and out goes the fear-appeal ad. How easy was that?

Easy, perhaps, but at what cost is such a strategy used by adverting agencies? According to the experts, great cost. Read full post...