What’s up? My name is Anna Vehslage and I am thrilled to join the team at HMG Creative as the new Marketing & Social Media intern. I am entering my senior year at the University of Texas at Austin and will graduate in May with a B.S. in Advertising Management and a Certificate in Business Foundations. Born and raised in Dallas, Texas, I made my way to Austin in 2014 as a 3rd generation Longhorn. Although the football team has been disappointing, I still have high hopes they will pull it together for my final season as a student #TeamHerman. I will be sad to leave my 40-acre home in nine short months, but I know “What starts here, changes the world.” When I’m not studying or at work, you can find me at pilates just before I scarf down my weekly cheeseburger—I’m all about a balanced diet.

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In today’s consumer-centric world, it is imperative that businesses snatch every opportunity to build long-lasting relationships with their consumers and differentiate themselves in the overcrowded marketplace. A brand must interact and gain the trust of consumers on a personal, more intimate level. Events have become key to connecting brands with consumers on all levels. They have the power to create a connection between a brand and consumer on a very personal level, raise brand awareness, improve brand perception, and create long-lasting rapport with customers. With a variety of events gaining so much prominence in the marketing industry, it is crucial that we as professional marketers understand how to strategically plan events and utilize all aspects of marketing—including print.

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Living in a world with technology at our fingertips, mobile devices have given advertisers greater opportunity to reach further into consumers lives. However, to succeed in this ploy, they have needed to cleverly adapt. So we ask, with the average person constantly bombarded by advertisements, has it become too much?

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First things first, do you have plenty of chips and dip? What about burgers, hot dogs, and plenty of buns to go with them? And how about beer–is it stocked in the main fridge and the backup in the garage? Good. Now we can talk about the Super Bowl. Continue…

Whenever there are extra cookies in the office, we know exactly who’s desk to put them on. She may be the youngest in the office, but her dreams and aspirations are huge. We would like to introduce our summer and fall intern, Kate Gothing. Continue…

Branding is often discussed everyday by individuals in the marketing, advertising and design industries, but rarely is it defined with a simple answer. In brief, branding is one of the most important tools a company can utilize to reach their target market, build recognition and develop customer relationships. It includes a wide range of factors such as logos, colors, patterns, typefaces, imagery, packaging, taglines, wording and more, all of which combine to create your company’s image.

Why Do Consumers Need Consistency?

In order to build a strong brand, you must stay consistent throughout all of your selected mediums. This strategy creates the opportunity to gain brand recognition among your target audience when done correctly. On top of that, consistency brings clarity and purpose that consumers then buy into. In turn, consumers become loyal to a brand. However, building this kind of trust takes time and effort.

Most consumers have to be exposed to a brand many times before they are loyal to it. So a consistent brand message has to be established so that consumers will immediately distinguish it from a competing brand. This means a business potentially loses customers, and may even help its competitors, if a consistent “look” and tone is not achieved. Continue…

Hi! I’m Callie Musick, the new Social Media and Marketing Coordinator at HMG Creative. It’s Day 1, and I can’t wait to jump in to my new position here. A little about me – I’m currently a senior (enjoying my summer break) at the University of Texas at Austin and will be graduating this December with a B.S. in Advertising with an English minor. Born in North Pole, and raised in Anchorage, Alaska, texas I migrated south after high school and have been enjoying everything the beautiful city of Austin has to offer for the past 6 years. On weekends you can find me soaking up the sun and wakeboarding on Lake Travis, stand-up paddle boarding on Lake Austin, or jamming front row at a live concert downtown.

Recently, I completed an internship with local street art collective, SprATX, as their Social Media and Marketing Manager in which I immersed myself in the brand and the family of artists to build their startup’s online presence. Additionally, with my past training as a marketing manager in the retail industry, I’m excited to bring my real-world experience and variety of interests to the team here at HMG.

At this internship, I’m excited to gain experience working from the agency side of things, and build upon my creative marketing, networking, and writing skills.

I know I have big shoes to fill here, and I’m looking forward to carrying on what Emily has created!

Feel free to shoot me a tweet at @calliemusick or email me at callie[at]hmgcreative.com

Thanksgiving is over, and as we skyrocket toward Christmas, it can be difficult to make your voice heard among the clamor of holiday advertising. Online shoppers get bombarded by thousands of advertising campaigns each day, and many of those are dropped into their Facebook newsfeeds or plastered across their Pinterest walls.

A great sale might not be enough to get you noticed among the festivities this time of year, but that doesn’t mean you’re out of options. By getting your creative juices flowing and capitalizing on the holiday spirit, you can make your social media campaign stand out in the midst of all the distractions.

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Hello again!  In our last installment, we told you about thecorsetcenter.com Yelp’s business model, their online and in-person presence, their users and growth.  In this installment, we give you concrete advice on how to leverage Yelp to add value to your business.

How you can harness the power of Yelp

1. Claim you free business listing on Yelp

This is so incredibly easy and free.  It gives you the opportunity to put your business out there and not wait for a good Samaritan (or Yelper, in the case) or the dreaded D&B to list your business.  Your business will come up when people search either on the mobile app or the actual website.  You have the ability to post photos, give a detailed business description, list the business history, and your specialties.  Also, Yelp has free business tools associated with the business accounts, like how many page views you’re gotten or how your business comes up in searches.  Pretty cool.

2. Host or sponsor a Yelp event

If your business is in a city with an active Yelp community, consider hosting a special event for the Yelpers.  This is a great way to get Yelpers in your business and introduce yourself to the community at large.   Contact your local community manager for more details about this.

3. Read your Reviews

Read both the positive and negative reviews.  People are much more likely to complain about something than to praise it, so if a reviewer does praise something, take that as 10 people praising it and keep doing whatever that was.  As a business owner, you can respond to reviews publically, right on that review, or privately, by sending the reviewer a private message.

In reading negative reviews, it is important to read them thoroughly to truly understand the issue.  Do not be tempted to lash out at the reviewer, especially publically; nothing good can come of that.  My best advice for this is to respond privately to the user and apologize for their experience, tell them that is not how you do business, and invite them to give you another shot.  I have personally had this experience and was glad to have the opportunity to share my experience with the owner and give them the opportunity to correct the issue.   And after that better experience, I updated my review.  Remember, the customer that complains is your friend.

4. Buy Yelp Ads

Personally, I think if you do the first three steps well and often, you will not have to do step 4 or 5 at all, but the option is there if you want it.  In fact, there have been accusations of Yelp being overly-zealous with trying to sell ads to business owners and these ads not being as effective as other advertising purchases you could be making (see Yelp Ad Sales).  From my experience, businesses on Yelp that provide a good service, reach out to the community in general and the Yelp community, will do well without needing to advertise—word of mouth is so much more powerful.

5. Have Yelp Deals

This is another service offered by Yelp and again, is there if you want it.  These are similar to Groupon and Localiter Deals but on your Yelp page.  One benefit of these is that in the search options, users can filter on companies that currently have a deal, so depending on the type of business you have, this may be helpful in initially penetrating the market or trying to stand out among the crowd.  However, you want to be careful and avoid “Daily Deal Backlashes” which can actually alienate customers and employees and erode your prices and reputation over time.  Value and quality propositions are always better in the long run and it will pay off.

Good luck and happy Yelping!