Blog Archives

The pop-up diner The Picture House opened in Soho, London, as the world’s very first pay-by-picture restaurant. Diners were given tips on food photography by seasoned professionals and will then be invited to get their meal for free if they upload photos of their food with a customised promotional hashtag to Instagram.

Although the pop-up restaurant and its creative use of Instagram photos as currency is all part of a marketing scheme to promote Birds Eye’s latest range of frozen dinners, it is very telling in terms of the emphasis social networks and online users place on food—from Pinterest recipe boards to daily Instagram and Twitter photos of decadent or hyper-healthy meals, there’s no denying that social media users are very much fixated on food.

Targeting the ‘foodies’
This opens food retailers and restaurateurs up to a vast world of opportunities when it comes to merging social media and food. With research showing that more than 50 per cent of people regularly take photos of their meals, it’s high time to start harnessing all of that marketing potential.

An uncomplicated marketing boost
An effective means of capitalising on consumers’ love of ‘food porn’ is to devise fun and interactive promotions that will generate awareness of your food products or dining experience, targeting the widest possible online audience via the social media profiles of your existing customers.

For example, a bakery could feature Point and Stare’s live moderated Instagram feed on an on-site screen where customers could upload photos of the special treat they’ve purchased; or promotional prizes could be given to customers who upload the best photos of themselves enjoying their baked goods. By using customised hashtags, customers in your bakery will be able to see all of these posts in real time, as will all the followers of the people sharing their posts—it might even spur someone to buy a cake that looks extra delicious on-screen! Similar effective and easy promotional solutions can be created each and every day for food retailers right across the board, both with Point and Stare’s Instagram feed and its moderated Twitter Wall.

As with all marketing strategies, the key to success is identifying prime opportunities to capitalise on social trends, and seizing them. Foodie mania is running wild on the Internet, so now is the moment to take your food enterprise and make it dynamic, avant-garde and interactive.

Contact us at Point and Stare today to see how we can help you make this goal a reality.

If you’re planning a corporate event, whether it’s a small-scale hospitality event or an all-out glamorous promotional shindig, there are a few key factors that should always be taken into consideration in order to leave a lasting impression on your guests.

Our event planning tips below will offer useful advice on how to set the right tone and feel for your event, while showing you how to get the most out of your event from a marketing standpoint.

From the outset, the very first thing you should do when planning a corporate event is to identify the purpose of the event. What do you hope to achieve? Who do you want to attend? This will allow you to develop a clear focus when making decisions about catering, entertainment, venue and promotion.

Once you’ve defined the objectives of your event, you can then turn your attention to deciding on the most appropriate catering, venue and entertainment. Not only should these decisions be based on your goals, but they should also reflect your brand identity and the message you want to convey about your business. Be careful not to get complacent or to rely on traditional ‘tried and tested’ options—make bold decisions, no matter the theme of your event, and try to incorporate tasteful branded details wherever possible.

Don’t hold back on your marketing spend for the promotion of any event. No matter how wonderful the venue or the entertainment, none of it will matter if no one turns up. The important thing is to market your event in a way that will continue to generate brand awareness long after the big night is over. Point and Stare offers imaginative ways of using social media so that you can create genuine hype before your event through customised URLs and hashtags; then, that hype is carried forward into your event itself through live interactive Twitter and Instagram feeds displayed on screens during your event. This will automatically and organically build interest in your brand and encourage the growth of your online audience.

No matter your budget, make the effort to give your guests a VIP experience. This doesn’t necessarily mean providing an endless stream of champagne and caviar; simply ensuring the catering staff keep your guests’s glasses topped up, and making the effort to greet each guest warmly upon arrival will go a long way towards leaving a lasting positive impression of your brand.

Offer creative and personalised mementos so your guests will remember your event and your brand. Photo booths are an excellent way of keeping the buzz going after your event, because guests will be eager to see their photos posted on your company’s social media profile. For an even more personal and inventive approach, why not hire a caricature artist for a few hours to do portraits of your guests (with your company’s hand-drawn logo prominently featured, of course)?

Above all, when taking on the mammoth task of planning a corporate event, remember that imagination is key. Thinking outside the box, even for the smallest details, is what will make your event memorable and effective as a marketing opportunity.

To find out more on how we can help you integrate social media into your event, contact us at Point and Stare.

Instagram, the Internet-based free platform for photo sharing, is quickly rising in the social media ranks. With a fast-growing base of over 150 million active users, Instagram presents the ideal opportunity for highly creative marketing campaigns.

The benefits of Instagram marketing
Instagram’s key unique selling point lies in its simplicity: it features nothing but photos. Its photo editing features also allow you to apply various filters that can create a distinctly professional look and feel for any amateur photo.

Instagram can be used from a marketing perspective to:

• Make your brand more personable and engaging through behind-the-scenes photos, team selfies and by sharing images of inspirational or funny quotes in line with your brand identity.
• Promote your products and services directly and organically to your followers for free – something which is fast becoming a thing of the past on sites like Facebook.
• Develop creative promotional strategies, like sharing images with exclusive promotional coupon codes and customised hashtags, or hosting photo and caption contests.
• Enhance networking opportunities with your target demographic and keep your brand top-
  of-mind for potential and existing customers.
• Diversify and solidify your online presence beyond the ‘traditional’ social networks Twitter and Facebook.

Is it right for you?
There’s no denying the advantages of Instagram as an opportunity for inventive, engaging marketing campaigns, but is it the appropriate medium for your business? Figuring out whether or not your company could benefit from investing its time in Instagram largely comes down to common sense.

If you’re an investment brokerage or a law firm, for example, then Instagram would not be right for you and it certainly wouldn’t do much to effectively target your desired market. Alternatively, retailers, photographers, artists, and creative businesses like design or architectural companies, could reap significant benefits from having an Instagram account to showcase their products, skills and talent.

Before starting an Instagram account, businesses should also ask themselves whether this marketing approach would be in keeping with their brand identity and marketing goals. Would your target demographic use Instagram? Would purely visual marketing be relevant to your products or services?
These are important questions to ask, because if you’re going to start an Instagram profile for your business, it needs to be done well – haphazard social media marketing is guaranteed to backfire by making your brand appear less credible to your followers.

An innovative approach
Although having a ‘full-time’ Instagram account may not be necessary for some businesses, using Instagram to promote corporate events or activities could prove hugely beneficial. For example, AmazeWall’s live interactive Instagram feed can be featured on screens at your company events, generating awareness of your business amongst Instagram users without the need for a corporate account.

As with all online marketing, there are countless opportunities and approaches available to businesses of all sizes. To find out more on how Point and Stare can help you use Instagram to achieve your marketing objectives, contact us today.

Twitter has taken its reputation as the pulse of the planet a step further with the announcement of the impending launch of its real-time music charts. The second largest social network in the world will now be partnering with Billboard to track the popularity and longevity of songs and artists based on Twitter conversations and tweets. According to Twitter’s head of music Bob Moczydlowsky, this new chart aims to “create the new industry standard for tracking and surfacing the conversation around music as it happens”.

An evolving music industry
This partnership and the launch of Twitter’s new chart is no surprise, as so many aspects of the music industry have evolved along with the explosion of social media; it was thus inevitable that the ways of measuring the success of artists and songs would also change to suit. The real-time music chart, which will be published on billboard.com and shared on the @Billboard and @TwitterMusic profiles, is a brilliant idea for the social network – particularly given that more than a billion music-related tweets were sent out in 2013 alone.

A relevant and timely decision
Considering the music-centric nature of so much of Twitter’s user-generated content, this new chart also represents a means of getting recognition for the musicians and other members of the music industry who are actively promoting their music via Twitter. It’s also an ingenious way of encouraging artists to employ Twitter as a marketing tool and to increase their level of activity and fan engagement.

Following its similar partnership with Nielsen to rank TV programmes, there’s no doubt that this move by Twitter is evidence that it will continue to maintain its competitive edge through strategic partnerships and ongoing innovation.

What does this mean for businesses?
So does Twitter’s new chart have any implications for businesses outside of the music industry?
Absolutely.

As it’s expected that the real-time music rankings will increase the activity and engagement of high-profile users, Twitter has further strengthened and consolidated its position in the social media hierarchy. This means businesses need to find new and creative ways of developing a strong, active Twitter presence.

Just as Twitter is staying ahead of the curve, businesses need to keep up with the hottest social media trends. If you’d like to learn more on how Twitter’s in-the-moment appeal could benefit your business, contact us at Point and Stare today.