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Do’s and Don’ts of celebrating the holidays on social media — inspired by Chanel’s *luxury* advent calendar

By now you’ve probably heard about the Chanel Advent Calendar viral reveals on TikTok that seemingly resulted in Chanel deleting their account. What started as a well-intentioned unboxing video turned into disappointment and confusion for TikToker @eliseharmon as she opened door after door on the $825 Chanel Advent Calendar. The calendar contained stickers, temporary tattoos, some mini beauty products, and only a few full size items. Viewers were shocked and immediately began commenting and tagging Chanel. After allegedly initially blocking @eliseharmon, the situation spiraled to the point where Chanel removed its account from TikTok entirely. 

So, what went wrong? And how did it go so wrong so fast? Was it because customers associate Advent Calendars with value and expect to receive higher value items than the price they paid? Or was it Chanel’s hefty price tag that led to lofty expectations? Regardless, Chanel released a very non-statement statement: “We are sorry that this calendar may have disappointed some people.” 

The legacy luxury brand didn’t just disappoint instead of delight, they lost the opportunity to connect with the next generation of consumers, an audience that seeks transparency and authenticity. An opportunity that was quickly scooped up by Jo Malone, who quickly gifted Elise Harmon a £325 Jo Malone Advent Calendar featuring travel-sized products, accompanied by a handwritten note from the brand. Which was seen by the TikTokers 250,000 new followers.

Advent Calendar photo

Jo Malone is a brilliant example of how, despite the failed expectations and unexpected surprises of 2021, some creative campaigns have managed to pleasantly surprise and delight—and resonate with consumers. Whether capturing the collective moment we are now living in, or focusing on what’s to come, some brands have managed to create holiday campaigns that truly brought joy to their audiences instead of adding to holiday noise.

Be inspired by these winning 2021 holiday campaigns to add some emotion and connection to your own marketing creations—or use it as a guide to continue reshaping your business approach for 2022.

Coca-Cola: Chimney | Real Magic

Like every year, the arrival of Santa was a feature of the 2021 Coca-Cola Christmas campaign. However, instead of centering on the iconic man in a red suit that we all expect, the advert is a short film built around a small boy and addresses a world that needs community.

It tells the story of a boy who, upon moving into an apartment with his mother, realizes that Santa Claus cannot visit his fireplace-less new home. He constructs a fireplace out of boxes, string lights, and tape, bringing all the neighbors together as the winding cardboard chimney climbs up the building until it is topped with a Coca-Cola box (of course). The tenants use the chimney to invite a lonely neighbor to join them for the holiday. The words “Christmas is magic when we share it” appear on the screen as the neighbors all gather for a holiday feast and close out the ad.

The “Real Magic” campaign also includes a partnership with the Cameo app to offer consumers the opportunity to request a personalized video greeting from Santa. By ordering a personalized video from Santa, fans of the brands can “spread the magic” among family and friends.

Why do we like it?

Santa Claus is iconic in Coca-Cola Christmas campaigns. But in this ad, we never see him. Instead the brand celebrates togetherness, prioritizing the emotional appeal of a boy whose imagination and holiday spirit inspire a community’s goodwill and create a moment of shared magic. However, with the Cameo partnership, it’s clear the brand did not forget what has characterized their Christmas for years: Santa.

Boots: Bags of Joy

The UK-based health and beauty retailer launched its 2021 “Bags of Joy” campaign, featuring “Doctor Who” star Jenna Coleman as Joy. Boots sees Christmas as all about Joy: The joy of being with friends, the joy of connecting with each other, the joy of giving the perfect gift.

At the beginning of the advert, Joy picks up a bag by her Nan with the note “This is what Christmas feels like.” Joy soon realizes that the bag is full of endless presents, thousands of products, all available at Boots. The magic bag helps Joy to make Christmas special for all of her friends and family, as she surprises them by pulling out the perfect gift, right when it’s needed most—warm winter hats for a snowy ride, an instant camera for capturing memories, and endless bubbles, because, well, kids love bubbles. The ad concludes with Joy giving Nan a bottle of her signature perfume, tagged with “This is what love smells like.”

Why do we like it?

After not launching a Christmas-themed campaign in 2020, the brand returned to Christmas advertising by focusing on the happiness of spending time together after a long year+ of not being able to do that. Capturing the joy of togetherness is one part of the campaign, but the bag  at the center serves a metaphor for Boots itself. It aims to inspire people to fill their shopping bags with some of the thousands of gift options available at Boots.

With a reach of over 18 million adults, the unified end-to-end “Bags of Joy” campaign featured activations across TV, online, radio, digital out of home, print, PR, social and in-store. Boots also used intelligent geo-location to target its digital out of home and drive people in-store, as well as personalization elements in its creative. Boots may have skipped a year, but they are back in a big way.

Sports Direct: Go All Out 

In a campaign that inspires people to “go all out” this Christmas, the UK brand Sports Direct positions themselves as the perfect destination for sports and fitness gifts this holiday season.

This high-energy, star-studded ad stars iconic soccer player Jack Grealish, US Open winner Emma Raducanu, grime artist Big Narstie, and more. The ad opens with the campaign’s stars slumped in front of their TVs. But the falling snow reminds them that ‘tis the season to Go All Out. One-by-one, they lace up, zip up, and head outside, gladly trading their lazy TV viewing for an epic all-star snowball fight.

Sports Direct also partnered with TikTok to create the #SportsDirectNaughtyList challenge, where users can test whether they are “naughty, narstie, or nice” and enter for a chance to win £2000.

Why do we like it?

Sports Direct is only in their second year of launching a Christmas campaign, and this epic entry captures and celebrates their brand purpose: championing the legend in everyone. While the ad hopes to inspire Brits to get up off the sofa, go outside, and play—even when the weather seems to be working against them, the real magic of this entry is how they themselves are doing what they are encouraging Brits to do: be ambitious, step out of your comfort zone and make it your best season yet.

The £6 million campaign debuted on TV, OOH, social media, and in-store. With its TikTok partnership, the campaign has a timely and integrated communication plan to encourage its fans from their television screens to their smartphones to go all out.

MAKE IT A DECEMBER TO REMEMBER 

Whether you’re a classic like Coca-Cola, back in the game after some time off like Boots, or an upstart like Sports Direct, knowing how to engage with consumers, especially the Gen Z market, will get you far. Otherwise, be ready to be savaged on social media. 

And aside from the smartness of marketing approach, it’s just plain fun to again see brands focusing on the magic and joy of this hustley, bustley holiday season.

Get carried away with the fun of the holidays, spread your special brand of magic far and wide, sprinkle on heavy doses of kindness, and have a holly, jolly happy holidays!

The Top 10 lightbulb moments from Hubspot’s 2021 INBOUND Marketing Conference

For the second straight year, Hubspot’s annual conference was virtual and…

Of course. We couldn’t miss it. 

INBOUND is a three day, in-person conference that brings together inbound marketing professionals from across the world. The conference includes informative sessions, activities, debates and HubSpot product updates. 

This year, sessions covered the full range of industry touchpoints, from content marketing, social media and email marketing to sales enablement and customer service topics designed to provide marketers with the latest, best-practices to bring back into the office and translate into even greater client success. 

And, as always, there were inspiration, provocative luminaries owning the stage and captivating our imaginations – like Afiya Addison, Spike Lee and Oprah Winfrey (Do we stan them all? Oh yeah we do!)  

As we all get set for the deep dive into 2022 planning, we want to share 10 of our most WOW takeaways from INBOUND 2021, along with some suggestions for how to turn that knowledge into action.

SEO Is now user centered

Presenter: Tony Verre, VP eCommerce, The Integer Group

Session: Killer SEO Strategies Through Product Design Methodology 

In his presentation, Killer SEO Strategies Through Product Design Methodology, Tony Verre, VP eCommerce, The Integer Group, highlighted the importance of focusing our content on the needs and pain points of our users – first and foremost – and not a particular word or phrase we think we need to ‘rank for’.

Today, more than ever, it’s important to provide a fast and intuitive experience to help users to accomplish their goals. Google’s latest round of algorithmic updates has further evolved the focus of SEO work from packing our content with keywords (and key-phrases) to a more holistic view of search intent, emphasizing context to provide more relevant answers to more complex queries. Therefore, the content we share must answer real questions and solve the needs and pain points of our audiences with clarity, providing expert and trustworthy information.

Google’s SEO practices and algorithms are constantly evolving. Therefore, it is extremely important to stay up-to-date with these changes and assume them strategically. Learn more about SEO practices here.

TIP: Consider your searcher’s needs. What kinds of information are your target personas searching on Google? Reveal their needs for inspiration, problem-solving information, and their ultimate goals – and you’ll have better insights to inform your SEO language. 

SEO is about holistic content

Video is the present of content marketing

Presenter: Tyler Lessard, Chief Video Strategist, Vidyard

Session: How to Maximize Video in Sales

As the world goes all in on digital experiences, video content marketing is becoming increasingly popular for B2C and B2B companies.

By 2022, an estimated 82% of all online traffic will be video content.

However, there are still some barriers that limit a company’s ability to produce video content. One of the most pervasive speed bumps is the assumption that video production is expensive. Tyler Lessard, Chief Video Strategist at Vidyard, pushed back against this limiting assumption (and demystified several other, limiting ideas) in his presentation, How to Maximize Video In Sales. Filled with practical, applicable tips and resources for budding video content creators, he also made us more aware of the importance of being intentional when it comes to creating videos.

This session encouraged marketers to experiment with videos as a new way to continue evolving and connecting with customers. Here are few tactics he shared with the HubSpot audience:

  • Write a storyboard that helps you organize your ideas.
  • Draw attention to the most important takeaway within the first 3 seconds. 
  • Address the problem and the need in the first 5 seconds.
  • Design under the assumption that your video will be viewed on a mobile device.
  • Use text to highlight key messages.

TIP:  Start where you are. Use what you have & never forget to close with a clear call to action.

Think of connections not channels

Presenter: Chris Savage, Founder, CEO, Wistia & Colin Dinnie, Customer Happiness, Wistia

Session: Content Marketing Clash – Video v. Podcasting for Engagement

I am pretty sure we’ve all heard this, but like all great things, it bears repeating…

THINK ABOUT YOUR AUDIENCE AND HOW YOU WANT TO CONNECT WITH THEM BEFORE YOU BEGIN WRITING/DESIGNING YOUR CONTENT.

With so many communication channels and the growing number of tools that each one offers, the process of choosing which platform and/or tool is the best choice for communicating your message has become more complex. There’s nothing more frustrating than spending hours creating content to “stay active” on our different platforms we use, without clear insight into whether our audience is even getting the message.

The most important goal of our online, social media experiences is creating an authentic, helpful and welcoming connection with our audiences, and to do that, we MUST be intentional about what we’re communicating and how on which channels 

TIP: Include your customer voice into your channels. You could begin creating videos that share customer experiences, and offering Frequently Asked Questions, with answers by existing clients.

Upgrade your old content

Presenter: Courtney Sembler, Sr. Manager, HubSpot Academy & Steve Cornwell, Founder, CEO, Northpass

Session: Customer Education: A Must Have For Growth

Yes, you could keep writing and producing more content, but let’s be honest … it’s hard work. 

Don’t get me wrong … we need to create new content. It is the way to keep our audience informed of what is happening in the moment and create new ways of communicating your message. It’s also necessary that search engines continue to recognize your brand as authoritative and trustworthy, essential to the algorithms to serve up your content at the top of search. 

However, revisiting old content and updating it with new images, pull quotes from key partners and influencers, and updated stats, is a good way to take advantage of the value of your content. Refreshing, or evergreening, current content with updates with links to newer resources, improves the accuracy of your content, and therefore increases your SEO. You can also ask newly quoted or linked sources to share your content with their audiences – increasing your online authority and reach.

TIP: Make sure you have share buttons on the page. It’s a fact that posts with share buttons make content 7 times more shareable than content without them.

Email marketing is not death

Presenter: Jay Schwedelson, Founder & CEO, SubjectLine.com, Worldata

Session: Email Myths Busted. What’s Really Working.

The global email marketing market share (say that 10x fast!) was valued at $7.5 billion in 2020 and is projected to increase to $17.9 billion by 2027.

A survey done by Statista in 2020 showed that for every U.S. dollar spent on email marketing, there was a return of $36 U.S. dollars. In industries like retail, ecommerce, and consumer goods sector, ROI was higher, with a $45 U.S. dollars return per dollar spent. 

While it might be considered old fashioned, email marketing is not dead. In fact, with so much changing about the social media landscape, email is enjoying a resurgence in popularity as a top tactic for digital marketers trying to make sure they’re reaching and engaging audiences. 

However, the email marketing landscape is evolving and Jay Schwedelson, Founder & CEO, SubjectLine.com, Worldata, explained it very clearly in his presentation Email Myths Busted. What’s really working. 

For instance, Jay Schwedelson believes that people are less impressed (and moved to take action) based on the word-smithing creativity in writing subject lines, and in many cases, this is not the reason why your emails are opened. Instead, the use of  characters () {} *, emojis, fake mistakes (oops, look what I did …), comparisons (podcast vs. video) and dots (I need …, I have a big question for you …) are the subject line tactics that can really increase your open rate.

Of course getting someone to open the email is the first, most important step in success with email marketing, but Schwedelson reminded the audience that the content of your email, the address from where it is sent, and the time it is sent, also matters. 

TIP: Add a theme and graphic design to your email subject line and test the change in open rates. 

Customer education is a must have for growth

Presenter: Courtney Sembler, Sr. Manager, HubSpot Academy & Steve Cornwell, Founder, CEO, Northpass

Session: Customer Education: A Must Have For Growth

While inbound marketing attracts potential customers, customer education helps to engage those who find you and are looking for good reasons to become customers.

In today’s hyper-competitive market, information is an extremely important asset. Sharing practical knowledge with current and future customers is one way to encourage better engagement with your brand and convert the curious into users of your product or service.

TIP: Think big about opportunities to educate your community – newbies and advocates alike. These can include: certifications as a way to increase product adoption, virtual webinars, live product launch training, brochures, and FAQs. Make the focus of your customer education strategy finding the best ways to make life easier and more productive.  

Become a trusted voice

Presenter: Marcus Sheridan, Author, Professional Speaker, IMPACT

Session: Trusted Content: 7 Steps to Becoming the Most Trusted Voice in Your Space

Building trust. It doesn’t sound like an easy thing to do – and it shouldn’t be. 

Building trust with potential customers – and proving that trust was well earned with current customers – is a daily task, measured in both small actions and big decisions. When we ask customers or potential customers to invest with us, we should have earned their trust and they should be excited to engage with us and our products or services.

When it comes to customer trust, both the quantity and quality of our actions and interactions are important. Every action counts. Each action should feel personal  and reassure the prospect or customer that they can expect consistency and responsiveness from us at every touchpoint.

To make your audience feel comfortable is it important to:

–       Show yourself as you are

–       Show them that you are not biased in your content 

–       Be unafraid to address any negatives, if necessary

At the end of the day, there is a human looking for real connection behind every buying decision.  

Success depends on trust in the marketplace

TIP:  Show your audience you care about them.

The CRM is heart of your business

Presenter: Adriano Brito, Sr. Business System Analyst, Rock Content & João Dobbin, Sr. Manager, Business Operations, Rock

Session: How Using a Full CRM Enables Teams and Drives Revenue Growth 

Many of us think ‘software program’ when we hear this acronym, which stands for Customer Relationship Management. And it’s true. CRMs are indeed software tools, but they’re so much more.  

An effective CRM depends on not just fancy coding, it’s tied to a set of strategies and processes that manage your company’s interactions with customers and prospects.

When we have a good customer relationship management strategy, we have access to information about customers, potential customers and suppliers. Therefore, we can identify weak points to improve processes, sell more and build customer loyalty with a long-lasting lifecycle.

TIP: Review your CRM strategy from time to time. Review your goals and define which methods best suit them.

The effectiveness of a strategy will depend on your creativity and creative

Presenter: Carly Potock, Co-Founder, CEO, Canvas+Co & Charlene Tassinari, Co-Founder, CEO, Canvas+Co

Session: Creativity Thrives in Constraint: How Successful Brands Create Video Content 

Just as you read it. No tricks or magic acts. The effectiveness of any strategy depends on how we leverage creative components, including visual and audio assets. 

It is a fact that nearly 50% of any campaign’s effectiveness is driven by creative. However, spectacular creative that attracts attention in a big way won’t deliver success all by itself. Rather, leveraging this ‘wow-factor’ creative while presenting a solution to a real pain point – as part of a deeply satisfying user experience – that’s what drives real campaign success.

TIP: Look for an experience that can be improved in your product/service. Solve it creatively, and don’t forget to address your audience’s pain points.

Community led companies are the future

Presenter: Shana Sumers, Head of DI&B, Community Programs, HubSpot

Session: Community Building With Customers

Modern customers want you to build a relationship. They want to feel that you are investing in their personal success and that your goals are aligned with their goals.

The task of establishing traction and growing a brand community can seem exhausting – especially on today’s crowded social media stage. However, customers are better informed than ever -and have higher expectations. Chief among these higher expectations is the idea that companies should care about more than just generating profits. 

The reality that customers see themselves reflected in a brand, and are invited into a brand-hosted space to learn and grow together –  is no longer something considered as ‘added value’ in a brand’s offer, but a must.

Chief community office will be important

TIP: Provide valuable experiences. 

The bottom line: the future of digital marketing success belongs to those who strive to improve their relationship with their audiences and adapt to changes.

Companies that see change as an opportunity for innovation are the ones that will chart the way for the future of marketing. INBOUND 2021 left us with a lot of valuable information and takeaways that we are already putting into action.

Meanwhile, the ultraviolet team is here to provide you the most up-to-date marketing techniques to maximize your investment. Contact us and let’s start working on your 2022 marketing plan for growth. 

Connecting With the Future of Design

Choosing a major is hard. Heck, school itself can just be a challenge. But finding your passion and thinking of how you are going to apply it in real-life, aka life after graduation, is another challenge altogether.

For lucky design students, University Hall of Innovation connects them with leaders in the Furniture and Home Furnishings industries to build their design community and supporters. University Hall of Innovation is a nonprofit that doesn’t just connect design students with industry partners through design challenges and the A Student’s Perspective webcast, at its heart exists to help students better understand all the different opportunities and possibilities that their degree may offer. It’s all about expanding horizons, says Stephen Garrison, President, University Hall of Innovation and Associate Professor of Interior Architecture at Marywood University.

Group of students at High Point Market
L to R: Vanessa Coluccio, Erin Bankert,, Kathryn Shea, Jennifer Brown, Designer/HGTV Star Sabrina Soto, Maia Clasby, Enzo Cicco, Bianca Bancheri

“Our story is one of wanting to not pigeonhole yourself into something and being open to the kinds of possibilities and potentials of what kind of design field can do for you,” said Garrison. “The students that are coming through the program, they’re coming from all different backgrounds and locations. We’ve had interior architecture, interior design, product design, furniture designers, students from all over the place.”

Garrison became involved in University Hall of innovation back in 2015 and assumed the role of President in 2018.

Between 2010 and 2019 nearly 700 design students from 15 different colleges and universities around the world took part in the original University Hall of Innovation by Design Challenge. As part of the evolution of the Challenge program, the first Design Plywood Challenge took place that same year.

“The program had legs to it already when I became president and I decided to take it into a little more general kind of place,” said Garrison. “And so, we started doing a single sheet plywood challenge.”

In that first challenge, students from Auburn University, Shu-Te University, the University of Minnesota, and Marywood University developed innovative home furnishings using at least 80% of a single 4’x8′ sheet of 3/4″ plywood.  

University hall photo
University Hall High Point Market exhibition booth, Suites At Market Square

The Challenge format remains the same today and consists of two parts, each leading up to a prototype exhibition at High Point Market.  The selected schools are partnered with industry professionals —think manufacturers, designers, style influencers, and design celebrities—who provide invaluable industry insight from the first sketches through to the final scale model.  The Fall High Point Market concludes with a vote where the winners from each school are invited back to exhibit their full-size product prototypes during Spring High Point Market at the Suites at Market Square

“This is the only place at Market, consistently, where students have the ability to exhibit their work,” said Garrison.

The tagline for University Hall of Innovation, ‘Take Chances, Take Opportunities, Take Charge of Your Future’, isn’t just a slogan, it’s a way of life for Garrison, and one he encourages for his students.

“If you think you can do something, reach out, try it and see what happens. When something comes in front of you, you have that decision of ‘Okay, do I take the chance and see what happens or do I let it pass by me and the next person gets it.’ In crafting these things, whether it’s the challenges or the webcast or whatnot, I’m challenging the students to say ‘Okay what am I going to do different than the 20 people that I’m with in my studio and the 20 people that are in every other studio out there,’ it’s going to help them craft what their lives are going to be.“

Podcast being recorded at High Point Market
L to R: Designer Allison Eden is interviewed by Maia Clasby and Kathryn Shea for A Student’s Perspective season 6 (January 2022)

That same year the program started the A Student’s Perspective web series where through a partnership with the Marywood University Interior Architecture Department, University Hall of Innovation students are able to speak with designers, manufacturers, and influencers. 

Now in its fifth season, the show features conversations with a variety of members of the design community, from Shayne Fox, founder of Shayne Fox Hardware and Set Decorator and Production Designer for vampire comedy “What We Do in The Shadows” to Bryan Orthel, Phd., president of the Interior Design Educators Council Foundation, one of our favs Jaime Derringer, artist and founder of Design Milk and Clever Podcast to our own Jen Smiga, ultraviolet’s founder and CEO. The pandemic put a pause on their plans—and initially trapped their recording equipment in the school—but Garrison and crew naturally rose to the challenge.

Jennifer Smiga, ceo of ultraviolet, with Brenna Heller @designsbybrenna

“Now we’re in season five and we’re still continuing that virtual reaching out across the world, and we went back to Market in October,” said Garrison. “We’re hoping to be able to continue that 50/50 split for season six, where we do some live interviews at Market and do some of the virtual interviews as well. Because even though virtual wasn’t where we wanted it to be in the beginning, I think it’s allowed us to do some different things. And connect with people in a different way.”

Connection is the beating heart of University Hall of Innovation, and they are always looking for new mentors and sponsors, as the by Design Challenge program and A Student’s Perspective webcast are both fully supported by industry volunteers. 

Contact Stephen Garrison at universityhallofinnovation@gmail.com to connect with the students of University Hall of Innovation.artist  

3 Lessons An Interior Designer Can Learn from Failed Tech Startups

The tech world is full of exciting companies that seem to burst onto the scene and command everyone’s attention. You’re likely to read more than one story chronicling how tenacious tech creatives became “overnight” billionaires thanks to their talent and hard work. 

You might think this is common, but actually it’s a rarity in the tech world: 90% of tech startups fail according to a Forbes article. 

What’s interesting is how tech startup failures can help an interior designer.  There are most definitely lessons to be learned from these digital creatives. If you want to build your business and not fall into the same traps, let’s take a look at some brilliant beginnings that ended in the dustbin of obscurity. 

So what are the lessons you can learn as an interior designer from failed tech startups? 

Lesson #1: You need the right business model

Let’s start with Pets.com. Founded in 1998, Pets.com aimed to own the online marketplace for pet owners of all breeds, selling pet supplies for your furry friends with the unique selling point of offering consumers the convenience of not having to visit a brick and mortar store. 

A great idea, right? It was! It was revolutionary; a breakthrough in services and shopping options for that market. They failed anyway. Today, another company, Chewy, has claimed that win. 

What Went Wrong: Their most critical error was that they simply had a poor business model. Back when Pets.com launched, online shopping was brand new. People were curious then, but it was so novel of a concept that demand was low. Of course today, we can’t imagine any company who expects to do well not having a competent online business presence. 

If Pets.com had developed a comprehensive, well-researched business model in 1998, they would have known that while they had a great idea and that online shopping certainly had potential for exponential growth over time, and that growth depended on maturity of the market. They could have then dedicated some of their multi-million dollar budget for bringing awareness to diversified revenue streams, while building demand through active storytelling.

Why do I need this service, anyway? What’s the positive impact on my life? Pets.com needed a business plan that prioritized building demand and demonstrating impact, critical components of every success story for business. 

The Lesson: Invest in developing your business model. Conduct a frank and thorough evaluation of your ideal clients, including what they value about your services, and how your services help them solve problems and realize their dreams. Don’t be afraid to acknowledge challenges (like the hurdle Pets.com faced in creating market demand). There is a strategy and tools to surmount almost every obstacle. 

The Takeaway: Successful businesses are deeply honest about their strengths, and stay true to their founding vision. 

Lesson #2: Honor your history. Be true to you.

Now let’s take a look at Quirky. 

Quirky was started in 2009 by Ben Kauffman. Its beginnings were so auspicious that it received $185 million in funding at its inception. The company’s business model was simple: put creative product ideas on their site, invite users to vote for their favorite ideas, and then greenlight production and ultimately the sale of the winning products—like an early, online version of Shark Tank. Awesome idea, right?

And at first, it worked!

Two of their most popular products that reached production stage included the Wink home system (similar to an Alexa or Google Assistant) and a flexible outlet called Pivot Power that was essentially a surge protector that was bendable and adjustable. These two core products became the base of their revenue stream. There was high demand, and the money rolled in.

What Went Wrong: Simply put, Quirky abandoned its core competencies and the products that it built its foundation for success. Quirky attempted to create too many products too quickly, and failed to focus on what it could rightly claim were their core successes—the Wink and Pivot Power. 

Over time, the quality of these core products degraded as Quirky diluted its value to consumers with unfocused, off-brand experiments.  

Wink went bankrupt in 2015. 

Think about that. The company that delivered Alexa-like power first, failed. 

The Lesson: It’s pretty simple: you know what you do best. While it is important to remain creative and take on new challenges, you know your core competencies and what makes you special. 

Don’t abandon what is currently working because there might be a new shiny idea winking at you. Stay true to what works and improve upon that. 

The Takeaway: Experimentation is fine, as long as it doesn’t sabotage your ability to deliver the value and services that helped you grow in the first place.

Lesson #3: Marketing matters. Not sometimes. All. The. Time.

And here’s one last example: 99dresses, founded by 18-year-old Nikki Durkan, owed its promising start to a brilliant idea—offering women the option to trade, buy or sell dresses or other designer clothing at a steep discount. Yes, this sounds just like the very successful Rent the Runway—except Durkan did it first. 

Durkan tapped into a real need, giving women options for acquiring designer clothing at deep discounts. It solved the real problem of outfitting stylish people for special occasions (or, let’s be honest…sometimes just for the fun of it!) with less waste; emptying closets full of expensive clothes typically worn only once or twice, giving these designer pieces sustained life and additional exposure. 

What Went Wrong:  Marketing came in last in the list of company priorities. Durkan focused most of her energy and investment developing and troubleshooting new tech and adding new products before building the customer base (including a robust customer pipeline). Combined with VISA issues in expanding to the US, Durkan neglected her marketing efforts in Australia, where she had begun her business.

99dresses thought they could sell more and grow more by relying on building better tech and offering more stuff. Now Rent the Runway dominates online search and 99dresses is a cautionary tale for business students. Without growing a dependable customer base, 99dresses couldn’t accelerate revenue growth to support tech and product upgrades. 

The Lesson: Don’t disregard marketing when scaling your business. Once you’ve established your core value and services, growth depends  on how you focus your efforts to expand your customer base and get fresh eyes on your product or service. 

Marketing is not a “good thing” or a “good option” for businesses. It’s an essential part of your business plan if you want your business to survive and grow. 

The Takeaway:  Losing sight of how good marketing fuels growth can lead to failure, no matter how smart and ahead of the curve you are with everything else.

But we know that finding time for marketing, especially if you’re also the CEO, CFO and the principal designer and product developer can be difficult. (That’s an understatement. If you’re truly committed to growth, it’s impossible to do it all yourself.)

Moving marketing to the backburner while churning away 12-18 hours a day with all of your other tasks is understandable, but it’s a risk. All of this can be overwhelming, but ultraviolet has the tools and expertise to help you launch and sustain a robust marketing program.

Ask yourself this: Where does marketing fall in your business priorities? If it’s not near the top of the list, do you truly expect to see results in customer growth and new business if your marketing plan is always being put on hold. 

Marketing, done well, delivers measurable results. It isn’t a cool theory. It works. 

Successful inbound marketing tactics and tools are essential for getting found by your ideal clients and customers. Creating the right content for the right audience on the right digital channels – including paid ads campaigns and public relations work – is a proven, business-building strategy. 

CTA leading to the competitor analysis landing page photo

How To Approach Social Media When Crisis Shakes the Community

Something happens. A natural disaster. A violent crime. An event that triggers intense feelings, possibly fear, anger, dread, sadness, despair. This event and the subsequent firestorm of news coverage forces us out of our comfort zone and demands that we re-examine our understanding of ‘how the world works’. 

This ‘something’ shakes us, our community – or our country – to its core. 

In the United States, we have been living through these ‘somethings’ consistently, for nearly a year. Beginning with the quarantine orders thanks to COVID19, into the summer where millions took to the streets to protest systemic racism, even into 2021 when on January 6, we sat in front of our televisions and phones, battered by images of people violently storming our nation’s capitol building – these are times of crisis when many of us feel compelled to say something – do something.

Many go right to social media and share their thoughts, feelings and recommendations to everyone and anyone in their audience. 

Should we? Should you?

Just as it was during the summer when coast-to-coast protests were commanding our attention, those of us who are active on social media – both personally and for our businesses and brands – are responsible for making decisions about if and how to respond. ultraviolet works with clients and colleagues from around the world at times like this to help figure out the right response – even if that response is to quietly wait and give others the space to speak and be recognized, first.

ultraviolet digital media strategist, Taylor Hori, has developed some consideration points for those of us who do not identify as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) to consider if we decide to engage on social media when diversity, equality and inclusion issues are the flashpoint for conflict.

Do this:

  • Craft your messages around unity.
  • More than words – share your actions. What are you/is your company doing to change or how you value diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
    • Example: DEI education for staff, plans to work with more BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) non-profits offering direct support to these communities, etc.
    • If your company has photos of your staff/board on your website, double check that they reflect these values so your statements reflect your reality and aren’t seen as simply performative.
  • Share the resources you’re providing to staff to learn more, process what’s going on, etc. 
  • Stick to the facts over emotion.
    • Example: “This is an interruption to the democratic process and the smooth transition of power,” v.s. “These people are terrorists threatening to destroy our democracy.” 

Do NOT:

  • Pronounce judgement – “This is wrong.” “This is the right way to handle this.” 
    • Example: “Violence is wrong” may elicit disagreement  from some who believe violence is a response to violence that has been served. Over the summer, much of the rhetoric framing conversations about the protests-turned-riots at BLM events was that we cannot condemn the response (in this case riots, looting, arson) of an unheard population. An argument could be made that condemning the violence at the Capitol while not condemning the violence from the summer could be hypocritical. 
  • Express surprise/shock. While the event can be shocking, our message should not be one of being “shocked” because the Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities have known that violence has always been possible and lived it first-hand. Expressing shock at this time ignores what these communities have been communicating (though often ignored) for decades. 
  • Do not make sweeping statements like, “This is not America”.  For the same reasoning as we shouldn’t hang our message on our “surprise/shock”. Though civil unrest is uncomfortable, including marches and rallies pushing back against systemic racism, this is America for BIPOC and to say “this is not America” just means it’s not your America.  

If you want to make a stronger statement:

  • Avoid centering yourself unless you are making tangible changes to your business model to be more inclusive or understand our implicit biases (i.e. Taking a DEI course, committing to a strategy to develop content and partner with more BIPOC, making donations to non-profits that center Black lives and are led by Black leaders, etc.)
    • For example: “I’m outraged” or “I’m saddened” can be seen as centering yourself in the narrative, ie: being merely performative. 
  • If you do decide to pass judgement, make sure you can defend your points and – succinctly – explain the nuance of what makes the context and impact of one crisis different from another; for instance, the BLM riots v.s. the Capitol riots. 
    • Be explicit about differences in reasons/motives, police/military response, who instigated the violence, etc, and why these differences matter to you/your company. This may require some research to prepare and make well-informed, authentic statements.

Ultimately, the decision to respond (or not) to a crisis using your social media platforms is a serious one, and no one should feel pressure to engage without thoughtful consideration. 

If you want to talk more about this or anything else related to  your messaging, feel free to reach out: julia@ultravioletagency.com

Feature photo by Tom Mossholder, courtesy of Unsplash

Millennials Are The Worst. Right?

I hate to admit it but I’ve been really down on millennials. Like, REALLY down. I totally bought into all the reports I read complaining about them being whiny babies at the office. You need a participation award for showing up? Pa-lease.

That is until I met my friend Jenna down the hall at Vydia.

Vydia help artists monetize and distribute their visual content in one easy to use platform. They’re also our neighbor here in the coworking space at vi collaboration hub, which is located down a sunny hallway at Bell Works in Holmdel. (If you haven’t been here yet, you need to stop by. The design and light of this building amaze me every day.)

But back to Jenna, who is the director of marketing at Vydia, and it seems like, their Chief Millennial Whisperer. A major component of her job is building teams of young workers and she has figured out the secret formula for tapping into the  greatness within this generation.

Later this month she’s leading a meet up at Bell entitled How to Attract, Motivate & Retain Millennials. Click here to learn more.

This week on the Bell Works blog she offers tips for those hiring millennials and the advice is refreshingly simple and practical.

Here’s a nugget I especially like….

“If someone ever tries to say, ‘That’s not my job’ to a task they’ve been handed, you better believe we’re going to have a sidebar. If you were asked to do something, you’re the right person. Make sure to always lead by example too. When I set up team building events and the workshop is underway, I don’t make the intern’s pick up lunch and miss out on activities.

There’s plenty of tedious tasks for them to do, but don’t do it at the expense of their growth with the company. Set your expectations up front and reward the ones that work to exceed your standards. You’re only as strong as your weakest Millennial so make sure they’ve got a good attitude and good intentions on elevating your brand.”

But perhaps the best story Jenna has to tell is of her former intern as her previous company Yashi. She hired Lauren as an intern just a few years ago. Lauren quickly rose through the ranks and is now head of marketing at video production company Postcreatives in Asbury Park. Jenna saw what motivated Lauren and encouraged, challenged and rewarded her. And now she and Lauren are industry colleagues.

Is that any different than motivating gen xers? Nah, that’s just good people management.

Jenna’s piece popped my eyes open to all the millennials I already work with. I didn’t even realize they were millennials because they’re always busy getting shit done. They’re digital natives buzzing with new ideas and a great work ethic who can out multi task me. No whining in sight.

I think the key to dealing with millennials is to stop “dealing with them” as a lump generation and start treating them like individuals. Why do I even need to write this? It’s straight up common sense. Maybe because there is always a low level disdain between the older generation and the younger. One feeling marginalized, one feeling disregarded, both feeling just a little smug at knowing everything.

Still there is something to be said about learning the nuances of what motivates the up and coming generation of workers. Is it wrong that they need to be “inspired” to work. Maybe if that means they’re not willing to do the tedious tasks that go with the job requirement. But if you’re dealing with someone who’s got big ideas and passion and you’re regularly giving out low level soul killing tasks, it’s your company that’s going to lose out. Isn’t that the storyline of a million movies? Boy wonder has big ideas, boss won’t give him a chance. I know I don’t want to be that cliche.

“I make sure that they have a well-balanced plate of responsibilities and that they understand the importance and impact of each project they work on,” Jenna said. “If you’re not giving them enough interesting responsibilities at work, you can guarantee they spend their days dreaming of their next job.”

I’m taking Jenna’s advice to heart as I search for new talent for my own agency. I’m thinking less, Who can build a spreadsheet for me?, and more, Who can help build the company?

To learn more about how to attract, manage and keep a dream team of millennials, join us at Bell Works on Nov. 30, 8 a.m. – 10 a.m. for a breakfast workshop featuring Jenna Gaudio. Cost is $9. Click here to register.