Posted on Fri, Jun 11, 2010
Yesterday, Evolve had the honor of sponsoring AMA OKC's Excellence In Marketing Awards. Since we work exclusively with the marketing community of Oklahoma City we wanted to reach out and congratulate every single winner and runner up.
Seriously, winning an EMA is a really big deal. Although the campaigns were very different, all winners had one thing in common - they all demonstrated how their campaign "hit the mark" and made a difference.
And that brings us to our second reason for sponsoring the event. Marketers of Oklahoma now have the ability to track how their campaigns are making an impact with our brand new product, vOKalize.
Since we know that excellent marketing decisions start with highly accurate data, we have spent months developing a precise and bullet-proof way of gathering reliable information.
We'll be releasing more details about this product very soon, but until we do, read more about vOKalize here and sign up to receive additional information.
Posted on Tue, May 04, 2010
The purpose of the event was to arm college students with extra information to help them get a head start in their careers.
We were honored to be part of this event. We showed students how to create a maximum impact in an interview by researching online beforehand.
Our presentation covered:
- Essential online resources.
- What specifics to look for on corporate websites.
- How to use social media (Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogs) to get extra insights and intel about an organization.
- Which online resources to use to fuel interview questions and conversations.
The event was a roaring success, and we were all impressed with the caliber of the students.
Our presentation was only a small contributing part of the event. Jacque LaMar, marketing director of Visual Image, gave the students a tour of their wonderful building, Nancy Entz (marketing director for
Tinker Federal Credit Union) provided excellent interview technique and
Dr. Burt Smith demonstrated how students can effectively network.
The event was organized by AMA OKC's hard working collegiate chair, Lauren Floyd (Tinker Federal Credit Union).
The students had a ton of intelligent questions for us - in which all of the attending AMA OKC board answered.
Posted on Wed, Mar 10, 2010
Researching the best price for airfare can be quite the chore. I should know; I just spent the last two days researching flights to visit my family in Florida this summer. During this process, I noticed some clear distinctions between Southwest Airlines and other airline and travel websites.
When evaluating prices on most airline websites, users are bombarded with choices that are often presented in a confusing format. On some websites the user is not shown the price at all until they select an itinerary. On other sites the user is shown a page with only departing flights and a "lowest possible price." Once the user selects the departing flight, they are then shown return flights with a broad range of prices. Comparing travel among different dates can be even more cumbersome, often forcing the user to go back to the home page and start all over with each alternative date.
This is not the case with
Southwest Airlines. Once the user enters their travel details, they are taken to a page that makes evaluating flights easy as pie. The departure and return flights are presented on the same page and the price for each ticket type and flight are clearly marked. Placing the cursor over one of the ticket types reveals a short checklist comparing the features of each ticket. If the user wants to see how changing one of the travel dates will affect the price, they can simply click one of the date tabs shown at the top of the departing and returning flight boxes.
Southwest also has a nifty tool that shows the lowest price each day for the month. By selecting the "low fare calendar," the user is shown a calendar with the lowest fare each day for both their departing and returning flight. Getting this information on most other airline and travel websites would require a lot of trial and error (not to mention note taking).
It appears that Southwest understands that a positive user experience yields satisfied customers. Shopping for flights can be very stressful, so anything that makes the task easier will go a long way. I have flown Southwest in the past and have always been impressed with their customer focus, so seeing these updates to their website makes me even more likely to turn to them first for future flights.
Marketing professionals in Oklahoma City have a unique and exciting opportunity tomorrow. Southwest's Online Spokesperson and Emerging Media Specialist,
Christi Day, will be the guest speaker at tomorrow's
AMAOKC meeting. Christi is the voice behind
Southwest's Twitter account and a moderator on their "
Nuts About Southwest" blog. She will be sharing how she uses social media to create positive buzz for Southwest and how to portray your brand's unique personality on different social media channels. We hope to see you there!
Posted on Mon, Feb 08, 2010
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Yesterday's Super Bowl was awesome (for the Saints), but how did you think the ads fared?
Can you believe there were a total of 32 in-game ad breaks featuring 116 commercials?
Unsurprisingly, the dominant advertiser was Anheuser Busch who ran 8 spots, followed by Doritos with 4.
As usual, advertisers used humor as a way to get Super Bowl viewers to remember their commercials - the Bud Light commercials ensured there were laughs aplenty.
While there were no wardrobe malfunctions this year, there was controversy surrounding a couple of the ads - Focus On The Family's pro-life commercial aired during the first commercial break and the video game, Dante's Inferno, (featuring the tagline "Go To Hell") both caused a stir.
This Thursday there is going to be a really interesting panel discussion about the Super Bowl commercials at AMA OKC. A hand-picked panel of advertisers will be providing their take on this year's successes and failures. Make sure you hop over to AMOKC's website and register.
In the meantime, let us know which commercials rocked your world and which ones didn't.
Posted on Thu, Dec 10, 2009
"Once a week our employees literally leap out of bed,
With thoughts of sugary goodness firm in their heads.”
Donut Thursday is a long established tradition at Evolve – and we know you know. In fact, some of you are quite jealous.
In an effort to reduce envy, we have taken Donut Thursdays to the road visiting you with glazed, chocolate and sprinkly offerings – but that’s just not cutting it.
Therefore, it is with great pride and excitement that we proclaim Donut Thursday is being brought to the masses! On January 14 (that’s a Thursday) Evolve is sponsoring breakfast at AMA OKC’s Personal Branding Seminar.
Of course, learning to represent yourself as an extremely valuable, employable and promotable person is very important – but so is a good breakfast.
Register for the seminar right now and we’ll see you all on Thursday January 14…we’ll bring the donuts.
Posted on Fri, Sep 04, 2009
I don’t know about you guys, but things at Evolve are kerazee busy. That’s why we’re totally looking forward to letting our hair down at the OKCtweetup on September 10.
More specifically, we’re looking forward to get our Rock Band on and let our inner Ringo shine.
There will be a room dedicated to wannabe rock stars at the OKCtweetup where anyone can jump in, grab a mic (or guitar) and play the awesome new Beatles: Rock Band game.
Everyone who plays Beatles: Rock Band will be entered into a drawing to win an awesome prize. AMAOKC/OKCtweetup are giving away the Beatles: Rock Band game and instruments! Now that is an excellent prize. But that’s not all.
Evolve will be giving away a brand new Xbox 360!
So, all you have to do is go to the OKCtweetup and play the game (doesn’t matter how good or bad you are) and you could win ALL of the above. That’s huge!
Fun Facts:
- Rock Band: Beatles took 2 years to make and is aimed at a much broader demographic than the other Rock Band games – kids to 60 somethings.
- The Rock Band instruments are modeled from the actual instruments used by the Beatles.
- In addition to the 42 Beatles tracks that come with the game, 3 more Beatles albums (including Abbey Road) will be available for download on the Xbox 360.
- Twitter, Facebook and Last FM are coming to the Xbox 360 in Fall – there is no escaping social media.
Posted on Tue, Aug 25, 2009
Keep the evening of September 10 free. Why? Because it’s the second official OKCtweetup of course!
You may remember the first OKCtweetup was a raging success. Over 200 tweeters gathered at Iguana Mexican Grill and a fantastic time was had by all.
This time around the OKCtweetup folk are upping the ante. To mark the release of the completely re-mastered Beatles back catalog, the OKCtweetup is going to be a celebration of the Fab Four.
The tweetup will be at the funky Purple Bar at Nonna’s in Bricktown. Joining OKC’s fantastic social media community will be our friendly Social Media Ninja, Giovanni Gallucci (who is also speaking at AMA OKC that day, by the way.)
Again, the OKCtweetup folk have gone mad on the prizes. Here are just a few of them:
Of course, Evolve is involved – and you should be too! To guarantee entry to this awesome free event, make sure you register.
For all things related to the OKCtweetup, head on over to www.okctweetup.com. We’ll see you there!
Posted on Thu, Jun 04, 2009
Next week the best marketers in OKC will be annouced at the annual Excellence In Marketing Awards.
There were a record number of entries this year which tells me that we’re in for a treat.
The event, hosted by AMAOKC, will be held at the Will Rogers Theater on Western Avenue on Thursday June 11 from 11:30 to 1:00pm.