While TV and print budgets continue to decrease year after year, out-of-home budgets continue to grow with an estimated $29 billion for global out-of-home ad revenue in 2017. It’s projected to reach $33 billion by 2021, reported by the Outdoor Advertising Association of America and MAGNA Intelligence Study. So how is it that the oldest form of advertising is still growing year after year? The answer is technology and data.

Have you ever purchased a pair of Toms shoes? Or Warby Parker glasses? Remember when the Honey Nut Cheerios bee disappeared from cereal boxes? Or that one time you were waiting in line at Walgreens and you noticed a large poster of Ben Stiller wearing a red clown nose behind the register?

Remember the adorable scene in Finding Nemo where Nemo and his dad nestle into their sea anemone homes for safety? It reveals a biological interaction between two organisms living in close physical association, referred to as symbiosis.

In February, SNL hilariously parodied the world of advertising and marketing with the “Pitch Meeting” sketch. In the skit, Alec Baldwin and Aidy Bryant are two ad execs, pitching Cheetos against a rival agency. In increasingly tone-deaf creative proposals, the duo appropriates one social issue after another, trying to prove their cultural relevancy while completely losing sight of the product.

Not to be confused with social media marketing, social marketing is marketing that’s goal is to influence (and change) the behavior of a target audience and, ideally, the social norm.

These days’ consumers are interested in how companies interact with the world around them. They wonder if brands truly deliver on the promises that they make or if, maybe, just maybe, those words are just words.

By 2020, millennials will account for 1/3rd of the adult population. Understanding the wants and needs of the millennial customer will be critical to the future of utility marketing. Compared to older generations, millennials are more socially conscious, with 83% distrusting large corporations.

Brainstorming seems like such a simple concept, just pull a few people into a room with a white board and start throwing out ideas, right? It’s not always that easy. People often come in with a lot of things on their mind and aren’t always in the zone to just start shouting out great ideas. Time of day, people’s moods, group dynamic, schedules, preparation, etc. are all factors that can either positively or negatively affect a brainstorm.

Sometimes it’s easy to view Twitter as just another way to promote an existing campaign, but don’t underestimate its power to be the driving force behind something amazing.

I’m sure you’ve either read or heard of the book, “The Purpose Driven Life” which was incredibly popular back in the early 2000s. 

Gasp… can’t breathe… air is so thin… plus I’m FREEZING! Is the climb to the Grand Peak really worth it???

Behind me I hear our fearless leader Erica Rockenstein, also known as E-Rock, yelling “Go! Go! Go! We have to show the businesses of Colorado what we are made of!”

As social media evolves, brands are finding more and more ways to engage their followers. Online marketing today is about what happens after brands and their audiences connect. It’s all about including consumers in the process.