Has Marketing Gone Too Pink?

During the month of October, pink products dominate store shelves. The popularity of Breast Cancer Awareness month has resulted in various industries supporting the cause with their products, everything from dressed up tubs of lunchmeat to special edition eyelash curlers.

The plethora of products has activists questioning the integrity of these marketing campaigns. How many companies are really contributing to the cause? How many are just marketing an easily recognizable cause for profit?

This ongoing debate raises excellent questions for those in the marketing industry. Supporting cancer awareness is trendy and with every trend there’s a risk for consumer backlash. Although some companies may be using pink as a marketing ploy to increase profits, if the demand decreases as a result, it could negatively impact the genuine campaigns, thus losing support for the cause.

http://www.newser.com/article/d9qabtko1/some-women-question-pinkwashing-is-breast-cancer-awareness-more-marketing-than-health.html

We're Hiring!!

Meta Media, Inc. is looking for an experienced Project Manager to join its growing team. The Project Manager will be responsible for overseeing a segment of the agency's marketing, website design and website development accounts. The Project Manager will meet with the team regularly, create timelines, and ensure that projects meet a client’s goals and are delivered on time. Agency experience preferred!

The Project Manager will also work with clients on strategy as well as execution of crucial deliverables. The Project Manager should preferably have e-commerce, web, and/or online marketing experience, with the ability to efficiently manage and implement multiple, simultaneous projects for our clients – on time and on budget.

Client projects may include:

- Website redesign

- Landing pages and micro-site development for local clients

- Usability/ site updates and enhancements

- Admin tool development

- Website coding, development and other web-based IT projects

- SEO copywriting and linking, including directory and map listings

- Paid search implementation and management on Google, Yahoo/Bing and other second-tier search engines

Requirements for the Project Manager position include:

- Relationship building both internally and with new/ existing customers.

- Direct experience with an agency or e-commerce company as a Project Manager, or Marketing Manager

- Ability to review and make decisions based on Web analytics programs like Google Analytics or CoreMetrics

- Understanding of usability, information architecture, and the web user experience

- Demonstrated ability to manage both technical and non-technical details for all types of web projects

Other information:

- The position is full-time

- Competitive salary based upon experience

ABOUT OUR COMPANY

Meta Media, Inc. is a growing, fast-paced interactive marketing agency that caters to companies that want to effectively market their products and/or services on a local and/or national level. As a one-stop shop for all our clients’ needs, Meta Media, Inc. provides a comprehensive suite of strategic services, including website design/ creative/ usability, e-commerce platform development, custom IT solutions and ROI-based marketing strategies such as e-mail, paid search, social media and SEO.

Meta Media, Inc. stands out from other agencies in the space due to our customized, ROI-focused solutions and high level of personalized customer service for each client. In addition, we track all campaigns down to the last dollar, and engage in a multi-tier process that includes ongoing refinement and optimization. You can read more about Meta Media, Inc. online at www.metamediainc.com or check out our blog: http://metamediainc.blogspot.com.

If interested, please send resume and cover letter to info@metamediainc.com with "Project Manager Position" in the subject line.

Testing Website Usability

A good website design is not only visually stimulating, but it must also have functionality. Potential customers can be intimidated by overly complicated sites, and become frustrated when they are unable to find what they want, whether it be information or a product.

Testing usability is a vital part of all of Meta Media, Inc.'s website design or redesign projects. We test and retest every aspect of a site to ensure a great overall user experience for all of our client's websites.

Mashable.com recently posted an interesting read providing an in-depth exploration of this topic. The article emphasizes the importance of assessing a website from the user's perspective, not just a marketing/business angle. Check out their article: "22 Essential Tools for Testing Your Website’s Usability."

Cupcakes on a Casual Friday!

At the end of the day, we all manage to get through the conference calls, email updates and deadlines, but what's more important is we still like working with each other!

Meta Media, Inc. truly is a special place to work. Finding a reason to celebrate isn't that hard around here; birthdays, new accounts and Fridays are always great reasons.

Friday is usually everyone's favorite day because we can dress casually, but last week we had an additional surprise. Michele, our VP of Marketing & E-Commerce treated everyone to delicious cupcakes from Piece of Cake!

Cupcake break! Here's a picture of Michele and our Creative Web Designer extraordinaire, Doug.

Here we have our enthusiastic Content Writer and budding starlet, Amy.

Key members of our sales staff Dallas and Ronell take some time to discuss their favorite cupcake flavors.

Lastly, we have our Content Writer/Administrative Assistant, Cindi. She didn't want to miss out on the fun!

Keep checking for more updates. Next on the agenda is the Meta Media, Inc. Halloween Party!

Upcoming Facebook Changes

As some facebook users are still reluctantly adjusting to the recent changes made affecting their news feed, even more changes are on the way. Facebook has plans to expand the popular “Like” feature by adding additional “Read,” “Listened” and “Watched” buttons.

From a marketing and advertising perspective, these new features will allow facebook to provide more detailed data to companies.

Will these upcoming changes encourage society’s current facebook addiction by increasing activity and involvement, or will these changes create a massive negative backlash? With every change comes a risk of alienation, but the new information could help a lot of companies with more detailed targeted ads.

http://www.newser.com/story/129003/new-facebook-buttons-coming-watched-read-listened.html

Daily Deal Site Craze is Winding Down

Groupon, Living Social and other daily deal site competitors have been experiencing significant drops in popularity and revenue recently. Facebook decided to end its version of daily deals, just after four months of testing.

Daily deal sites managed to overcome the stigma of coupons, but it seems their novelty is wearing off. From a marketing perspective, which deal sites are still worth recommending to clients, and for how long?

Groupon is hoping to move in a new direction with Groupon Now, a real-time mobile application that allows users to search for deals near them. Real-time deal apps might be enough to captivate consumers, but based on recent data customers are definitely looking for the next stage.

http://mashable.com/2011/08/30/one-too-many-daily-deals/?WT.mc_id=obinsite

MySpace Takes a New Marketing Direction

Remember MySpace? The MySpace brand conjures images of sparkly graphics, goofy page designs and top ten friend lists. For years, people have been switching over to use facebook and Twitter for social media, and Google+ has recently gained popularity as well.

The old MySpace is outdated, but their new marketing executives are attempting to revive the site with a new music marketing strategy. Entertainer Justin Timberlake is serving as a creative director, and partnerships have been formed with iTunes, Spotify and Vevo.

Re-branding a well known name like MySpace can be difficult because not only does a company have to compete with its competitors, but it has to compete with its former archaic self.

Do you think music-focused marketing is enough to save MySpace?

Revamped MySpace Will Have iTunes, Spotify and Vevo in Its Crosshairs