The most successful sticker campaign in marketing history is up for debate, but it’s impossible to discuss this topic without mentioning an unknown art student’s experiment that launched a cutting edge clothing brand. I’m talking about Shep Fairey’s “Andre the Giant Has A Posse” sticker circa 1989, which represents the beginning of the Obey revolution.
Confuse and Question
“The sticker has no meaning but exists only to cause people to react, to contemplate and search for meaning in the sticker.”
Before Obey’s rise to international fame over an intellectual property dispute (see the iconic Obama “Hope” 2008 Presidential campaign poster), Fairey was studying Illustration at the Rhode Island Institute of Design. A committed street artist and skateboarder, Fairey used his artistic talents to bring Heidegger’s phenomenology concept to life. While teaching a friend to create stencils, Fairey came across a newsprint of professional wrestler Andre the Giant. Amused by the image, he turned the stencil into paper and vinyl stickers that dubiously declared, “Andre the Giant Has A Posse” along with the wrestler’s massive height/weight stats. The ambiguous sticker started appearing all over the city with the help of the local skate scene, and soon spread across the Northeastern United States. Within a few years, Fairey’s stickers became an international sensation. Faced with a lawsuit in 1995, Fairely abandoned the original design in favor of the current likeness seen in the Obey logo.
Sticker Art Analysis
Fairey never intended to start a global movement, at least not with the original stencil. His guerrilla marketing achievements still stun traditional art critics, and his image undoubtedly appeared at the right time in America’s cultural journey. In retrospect, it’s easy to see how he combined several elements of anti-establishment subcultures to form a definitive symbol of Gen X irony. A campy pro wrestler symbolizes the absurdity of mainstream media; the word “Posse” comes from the early days of hip hop. The sticker’s message speaks to insiders, leaving everyone else to decipher the meaning or be left out.
The takeaway: Don’t worry about specific promotions when designing your sticker. Concentrate on connecting with the people most likely to enjoy it, your brand’s core fan base.
Influence Marketing Lessons
Fairey insists that he only wanted a few laughs from friends, but this approach got a lot more than he bargained for. By targeting a select group of people close to him, Fairey managed to tap into a branding goldmine. Once he planted the seed, the skater crowd did the leg work for him.
The Takeaway: Unless you have unlimited resources, be strategic with your stickers. Reserve them for people involved with larger social circles, the people whose choices impact their peers.
*Merchants*Restaurants*Bakeries*Faith Communities*Surf and Skate Shops*Service Providers*
Get your customers stuck on your brand with FREE ROUND STICKERS from your favorite online commercial printing company. Our circular stickers feature high definition full color printing to make your graphics come to life. With Easy Crack and Peel technology, your stickers will stay intact without ripping or folding. We print on durable 70 lb. Label Paper with a super glossy UV coated finish that protects your vibrant design.
How to Enter the PrintFirm Sticker Giveaway
Grab your graphics and enter today! Here are the official contest details:
PrintFirm Round Sticker Giveaway
Giveaway Starts on Wednesday, March 27th, 2013 and Ends on Wednesday, April 10th, 2013!
1 Lucky WINNER Will be Randomly Chosen by Random.org at 12pm on 4/10/2013
Winner Must Provide Print Ready Artwork! If Artwork is not Available, PrintFirm Will Create a Custom Design for Only $35 (30% Regular Custom Design Price).
Please note: Winner Must Respond to Notification Email Within 48 Hours Or Another Winner Will Be Selected!
It’s hard to believe Easter’s almost here , and Passover’s already upon us. While your Easter printing projects should be complete by now, there always seem to be a few unfinished design jobs lying around. Most of the time, I find myself procrastinating on holiday social media images. As networking moves more towards the visual realm, you should concentrate on creating compelling graphics for Facebook, Pinterest, and Instagram. That means no more Google searches posting the least horrible image that pops up. You don’t need to come up with anything too complex, as users tend to respond to simple messages presented in unusual ways. In case you need some inspiration, these free vectors will give you ideas for a successful social campaign.
Easter colors tend towards the pastel end of the spectrum, which conservative brands may not feel comfortable with. These elegant Easter eggs are covered in classy prints without the cartoony look for corporate clients.
Easter wouldn’t be right without fluffy a fluffy bunny or two. The rabbit vector above is cute without appearing childish. Warning: the file contains a PNG, so customizations will be fairly time consuming.
Spring chickens symbolize rebirth along with the change in the seasons. The egg itself isn’t very attractive with the protruding leaves, but you can always put the cheerful chicks against a cleaner background.
If your brand steers clear of traditional corporate art, try these contemporary patterns on for size. These glossy Easter egg vectors are perfect for a tech company, design firm, or anyone interested in presenting a slick image.
Unlike bunnies and chickens, a lamb probably won’t appear on your competitor’s profiles. Lambs usually carry religious significance for Christians, but they aren’t overt enough to be offensive to people of others faiths.
Design Roundup
Designers, will you incorporate any of these images into your social campaigns on Sunday? How are you using your design skills to optimize your social presence? Tell us in the comments below!
All right networkers, today’s the day you’ve all been waiting for—our Custom Shape Business Card giveaway ended at 12pm PST! We thank everyone who participated in this free event, especially those who posted comments on the official contest blog post. Remember, we are always looking for qualified bloggers interested in cross promotions; please email marketing AT printfirm DOT com for more information.
PrintFirm Online Contest Winner
We’re pleased to announce our latest lucky winner:
Congratulations Connie Obee from the PrintFirm team! Connie is a very active member of our social circles, and we believe her consistent engagement gave her a strong competitive edge. She not only followed us on Twitter, she also tweeted about the giveaway, liked us on Facebook, and referred a friend. Remember, each one of these simple tasks increases the chances of winning. As luck would have it, Connie recently redesigned her business card:
We’re not sure what shape she’ll pick, but we know whichever one she chooses will complement this social media friendly design.
For our fans who didn’t win this business card contest, stick around because the next giveaway announcement from the best online printing company is coming on Wednesday, March 27th, 2013!
Photo credit: LinkedIn chocolates by Nan Palmero on Flickr
The first time I saw an invitation from a friend (I can’t recall who it was now) to connect with her on LinkedIn, I simply sighed deeply and ignored the note. My initial thought was, “What’s wrong with these people; wasn’t Facebook enough drama for them?” Fast forward a year later and every day my inbox is filled with interesting discussions, blog posts, and comments from various groups I am a part of on LinkedIn.
What changed my mind? If you really want to know, then read on my friends!
LinkedIn is arguably the world’s largest networking site for professionals. As a matter of fact, Craig Smith on Expandedramblings.com indicates that there are more than 200 million users on LinkedIn to date.
LinkedIn: It’s More Than Just a Resume Site
It is not enough to upload your photo and put out a laundry list of your qualifications and expertise (though that is not bad in itself). LinkedIn is about starting relationships of the professional kind and maintaining them.
So, how does that affect you as a small business owner and what should you do about it?
I love it when I get asked these questions because I just love to share helpful tips.
1. Get your business face on – It’s good that there is a personal profile for you on LinkedIn, but you should also set one up for your company. What do you do? What does your business offer uniquely that I would be hard pressed to find somewhere else? After all, you need to stand out and be different in a world of so many small businesses.
When you set up a company page, there are three headings which many companies fail to utilize: don’t be one of them! The three headings are:
Home – Under this heading, give the basic information on what your business does, when it was founded, and the number of employees, etc.
Products – Too many times this has been left empty. Let it work for you. What does your business sell? What are its featured products or services? Highlight them here, and include an image, video, and a link to your website.
Updates – Under this heading you will give information on the latest happenings in your business. Did you just acquire a new employee? Promote that here. Have you become involved with a local charity? Inform your readers here. Do you get my gist? Everything that can impact your business positively should be highlighted and shared.
Actionable tip: Check out the business pages of at least three of your favorite businesses on LinkedIn. See how they use their business pages. Adopt and tweak as you need. Have someone update the page regularly. If you blog, you may post links to your article on this page as well.
2. It’s all about connecting baby. Let’s get this straight: people can’t know who you are and what you have to offer until you connect with them. Find new customers, engage them, and connect with them in meaningful ways. Some experts advise that you ask your 1st level connections to introduce you to someone you’d like to be connected to. And that probably works (although I have not tried it as yet).
You see sometimes I can be a contrarian. For the most part, I try to personalize my requests and send them off. So far no one has queried why I would like to connect with them yet.
Actionable tip: Once you have identified your ideal customers (you’ve done that haven’t you?) search for them on LinkedIn. For example, if you sell educational supplies for teachers, who would your best target customer be? Teachers, of course! A search for teachers on LinkedIn netted more than 3 million results! This is a good base from which to choose your prospective connections.
3. Engagement is key– Now that you have reached out to these customers, just how do you intend to keep them? People like to know that you are not all about selling your products or services. They love getting tips from someone in the know. That means joining groups aligned with your small business goals (or you could start your own, which would establish you as a thought leader in your chosen field). Start discussions and answer questions to demonstrate your expertise.
Actionable tip: Give your connection a reason to come and check out your business either online (if you are) or in person. For example, whenever you connect with someone new, send a message thanking him or her for connecting with you. You may also tell the new connection that if he or she visits your business during the next 5 days, you will provide a discount of 10% on a purchase. Your prospect may not be able to pass up this opportunity.
4. Share, share, share, and share again. Remember the old adage that we learned from our mothers as children: it is better to give than to receive?
That is one of LinkedIn’s golden rules.
You have specialized knowledge that others need to know about. Don’t’ be selfish with it; help them out! But don’t see this as an opportunity to talk about yourself only. Post updates, quotes, and relevant articles that may be of interest to your connections from other parties.
Actionable tip: Determine how much time you are able to spend on LinkedIn each day. If you decide it will be fifteen minutes in the morning, then stick to it. And with sites such as Hootsuite, you can schedule future updates to various Social Media accounts without being overwhelmed.
5. Looking to expand and need capital? Have you ever wondered how some startup companies get so lucky and find investors to help them expand?
Trust me, luck has very little to do with it. They have to seek out these investors, see which ones are a good fit for them, and then bring their A games to sell their ideas to these investors.
Those same opportunities exist for you on LinkedIn.
Angel investors, venture capitalists, and investment firms that specialize in funding small businesses live on LinkedIn. Reach out or ask your 1st level connections to introduce you and get a conversation started. You never know just what may happen.
Actionable tip: Using LinkedIn search, identify angel investors, venture capitalists, and investment firms that fund small businesses. A search for information for this article on angel investors alone gave me a result of 746 companies! That is quite a number to choose from.
One last bonus tip:
6. Go Premium if you can – That is one of LinkedIn’s other features. With the Premium account there are a lot of options available, such as Inmail (where you are able to contact someone directly from LinkedIn even if you don’t know their email address). You are also able to see expanded profiles and see the full list of others who have viewed your personal profile.
Actionable tip: The basic account in LinkedIn works well for a small business. If you don’t have space in your budget for the Premium account, stick with the Basic until you feel you are in a position to explore the other options available to you.
Community Connection
As you can see, integrating LinkedIn Networking into your marketing mix can reap long term benefits for your small business. The success won’t come overnight, but the consistent work that you put in will surely help to push your business along.
Over to you: Have you been using LinkedIn at all? What has your experience been? Will you be implementing any of these tips above?
Please comment below.
About the author: Hi, I am Tasia Gonsalves-Barriero and I am a professional writer at TGB Copywriting and am also a teacher. I write for the B2B and Education sectors. To learn more about me, check me out on LinkedIn, Facebook, and follow me on Twitter.
Last week we tackled the topic of legal business cards. This time around, we’ve got our eyes set on another group of white collar professionals not known for their collective creativity—physicians. Doctor business cards leave a lot to be desire in terms of presentation. Those working in HMOs probably don’t have the freedom to create a custom design, but anyone in private practice should view business cards as important marketing tools. Most doctors probably won’t feel comfortable incorporating too many graphics, but there are plenty of other elements you can use to your advantage, such as typography. Just in case you’re unfamiliar with the term:
“Typography n: 1) The art or process of setting and arranging types and printing from them. 2)The style and appearance of printed matter.”
In a nutshell, typography involves carefully selecting fonts, letter sizes, and text placement/arrangement to enhance visual communication. Naturally, it’s easier to understand these concepts when you see them in action. Instead of simply showing examples, I dug up some free fonts that might help you channel your inner artist.
All Patched Up would be a fun choice for orthopedists anyone who practices sports medicine. Remember, the typeface doesn’t have to be central to the design; you have the freedom to use a traditional font for your contact information and reserve this for an associated graphic or tagline.
Anatomie 2 seems ideal for surgeons, especially those in the plastic surgery sector. Try picking out specific letters and mixing the shapes in with the rest of your copy in a completely legible typeface, such as Veranda.
Ok, this font may be a bit too artsy for those with conventional tastes. The Doctor font appears to be lifted straight from a TV drama. The lowercase letters in particular feel very similar to a signature, which adds a personal touch.
I can’t image a better font for a cardiologist. The only drawback I can see may stem from negative imagery associated with a heart monitor. Either way, this would work well as part of a larger logo.
If any of the above fonts make you want to crawl out of your lab coat, Lowvetica puts a modern spin on a design classic (Helvetica). It’s a safer than the rest of the fonts on our list as it’s not out of place in contemporary corporate culture.
Paging Design Doctors
Doctors, do you think typography makes a difference or possibly detracts from your professional persona? Designers, have you ever created custom graphics for a medical practitioner? Share your thoughts, tips, and experience in the comments below.
PrintFirm.com is pleased to announce our customer of the week, Andrew Conweezie! Andrew is a multi-talented graphic designer and hip-hop artist based out of Northern Missouri. He made his hip hop debut in 2004, and released his first album Settled for Lessin 2012. His artistic skills and hip hop connections landed him a steady design gig at 64 to Your Door Music, an independent label in Seattle. His lyrical style echoes the old school underground legend Esham with dark verses and horrorcore themes:
Always on the paper chase, Andrew somehow finds the time to design for an up and coming clothing line FlyShyt as a side project. He’s also in contention for the Ernie Ball Battle of the Bands. He’s definitely got our vote! He recorded the killer track , Andato exclusively for the competition. When he wins, he’ll be 1 of 4 selected artists to perform at the Kansas City Vans Warped Tour on July 23rd. The show’s timing couldn’t be better because Andrew’s second album Ego Issues drops later this year.
We hooked up with Andrew through his recent trading card order. He put his mad design skills to work on some custom cards, which are available for sale through his website:
Anybody with this much talent can’t stay in the shadows for too long, so grab a front row seat to the Conweezie show on Facebook, Twitter, and SoundCloud. We thank him for sharing his work with our community, and look forward to watching this star rise. Andrew is the first participant in our new Customer of the Week promotion! Tune in next week to see who we select—it just might be you or your business!
Creative professionals probably face the biggest challenges when it comes to business cards. Lawyers, doctors, and insurance agents can get by with an utterly unimaginative business card without battling an eyelash, but creatives face higher expectations from prospects as well as peers. Anyone involved in photography, graphic design, fine arts, or marketing needs to raise the design bar so to speak or risk ridicule. Obviously, designers are probably going to create their own artwork, but there are other ways to turn heads without opening up Illustrator.
Business Card Design Tips for Creatives
Since it’s extremely difficult to stand out in a sea of talent, we suggest that creatives concentrate on design details the conventional crowd typically overlooks. Here are the easiest things you can do to jazz up your networking tools
Material Matters: Let’s face it, regular cardstock won’t get you very far in the cut throat creative world. For this reason, we get lots of orders for plastic business cards, clear plastic cards, etc. These have obvious appeal over traditional cardboard; still, there are other alternatives for the truly daring, including metal, mesh, and rubber. Funk comes at a premium price, so be sure to select something that’s within your budget.
Shapes Galore: Nothing screams “Square” louder than a run of the mill rectangular business card. Simply switching from a rectangle to a circle adds instant pizazz. Even rectangles can be styled with rounded corners or folds, so there’s really no excuse for sticking with the status quo.*Shamless Plug* Remember, you can always win 250 custom shape cards in our giveaway! *End Shameless Plug*
Tantalize Through Texture: Along the same lines as materials, a hint of texture will give your card tons of character. Choose a texture that enhances the rest of your design or symbolizes an aspect of your industry. The texture doesn’t have to envelope the entire card; simply engraving your contact details and logo gives your card a distinct feel to the touch.
Size: Less is More: The minimalist design trend translates well in this medium. Mini business cards are about half as big as the standard, so you need to make the most of the available space. Let the mini concept guide the artistic process; consider printing an actual photo or portfolio item on one side with plain contact info on the reverse to eliminate clutter.
Interactive Elements: The interwebs are abuzz about the possibilities of augmented reality. Play around with this idea by finding a way to incorporate action into an otherwise static piece. We found a few awesome examples online, such as a paper airplane card, lottery scratcher, and roll up foam matt for a yoga studio. Another option would be to add a small sticker version of your logo for people to peel off. Again, cost dictates the limitations of imagination. There’s no harm in fantasizing about your dream card in case you win the lottery!
Creative Sound Off
For the creative among us, did you make an effort to implement an original design or did you decide to fit in with the rest of the white collar crowd? Tell us in the comments below!
By now most of you have probably seen the alert message on our site about upgrading our equipment. We want you all to know that we appreciate your patience and apologize for any inconvenience. Just in case you missed the alert status bar, please note that same day and next day orders are on hold from March 18th, 2013 until Wednesday, March 27th, 2013. We also wish to reassure you that we would never disrupt our services without good reason.
We’re pleased to announce that the current processing delay is a result of our new equipment upgrade! Please welcome the Xerox iGen4 Digital Press to the PrintFirm family! We are very excited to offer higher quality commercial printing solutions through this remarkable green technology. The iGen4 will replace our trusty Xerox Color 800; the super powered iGen4 will be up and running by the middle of next week. This model comes packed with auto color accuracy checks as well as density correction for precision graphic accuracy. Our environmentally conscious customers will be pleased to learn that the iGen4 utilizes ecofriendly inks, prints on recycled paper, and produces no hazardous waste whatsoever. Approximately 97% of its parts are recyclable, so there will be no issues with disposal.
We hope you’re all as excited as we are about this development. As soon as we’re able to print enough samples and get used to the process, we will post a detailed review of this product. Our review will be a lot better with YOUR input, so please let us know what you think of your next printing project. We value your feedback, and keep your comments in mind when we evaluate our policies along with our services. We’ll see you on the other side of the digital revolution!
Attention bloggers! PrintFirm.com is currently running a custom shape business card giveaway, and we’re looking for bloggers to help us spread the word about the contest.
Since we use the awesome RaffleCopter app, you can easily allow your readers to enter directly on your site through the widget. All you need to do is copy and paste our code snippet into the post, and you’re good to go. The latest contest ends on Monday, March 25th; if you miss this date, don’t worry. We run regular giveaways, so you will have another chance to participate. If you’re interested in teaming up with the best online printing company, please fill out the contact form below!
