With Target Canada closing around 133 of its stores, thousands of employees were found without a job, many of whom were not so sure what to do next.
One group of ex-employees created a cover of Semisonic’s “Closing Time” in honor of their situation and it’s fantastic. So take a break from your morning to-dos and Monday blues, set down that lukewarm coffee you’re sipping and start your day with some good music and a smile.
There are two kinds of people in the world: morning people, and well, the snooze crew. Let’s face it, getting up at the crack of dawn isn’t easy for all of us and a lot of the time it affects how productive we are throughout our day. Many people swear by their morning cup of coffee while others jump on the treadmill to wake up.
But the things you do (or don’t do) can affect the outlook of your day a bit more than you think So without further ado, here are 3 Don’ts for a successful morning routine:
Don’t Hit Snooze! We’ve all been there, “Just 5 more minutes and then I’m going to get up.”Twenty minutes later, you’re still in bed and you jolt up in a panic when you realize you’re still face-down in the pillow. Pushing that snooze button can set the mood for your entire day. By getting up with the first alarm, you avoid lingering in and out of sleep dragging out your early morning haze. Enjoying those extra few minutes without reaching deep REM won’t make you feel any more rested.
Don’t Skip Breakfast Do you hear that? It’s your future calling! Oh no wait, that’s your stomach growling. Mother always said breakfast is the most important meal of the day and she’s got a good point. Skipping breakfast can mess with your metabolism, affecting your blood sugar and energy levels throughout the day. According to consumerreports.org, skipping breakfast may also inhibit your mental sharpness, while sitting down and eating a balanced breakfast with fiber and protein can boost memory, energy, focus, creativity and more!
Don’t dwell on the negative Starting the morning off on a bad note can ruin your outlook on your entire day. Had a fight with someone you love the night before? Dreading the to-do list you have to complete by the end of the day? Taking a step back and focusing on what you’re thankful for can help to create a “take on the world” attitude from the time you wake up!
So there you have it, 3 things to avoid in order to kick-start a successful day!
Do you remember the scene in The Wizard of Oz where Dorothy opens the door to the wonderful world of Oz; brilliant splashes of gold, green and orange exploding from the grayscale world where she had lived. Without the bright colors bringing this paradise to life, Oz would not have had the same wonderful impact . I mean, what if the yellow brick road was just a brick road? And what if the ruby slippers weren’t ruby? Color is such an integral part of today’s visual world. It’s part of your company’s brand, its personality, its identity.
Nearly 300 million people are affected by color-blindness. Although people that are considered color blind don’t live in a black and white world like Dorothy, those affected by this condition lack the ability to see certain colors in the color spectrum (most commonly red and green pigments). Valspar and a company named Enchroma, maker of colorblindness correcting glasses, partnered up to address this condition in their #ColorForAll campaign.
The campaign comes to life in a short documentary called “Color for the Colorblind”, where Valspar and EnChroma bring the gift of color to a group of people with the help of Enchroma’s color-blindness correcting glasses. Additionally, documentary shares emotional testimonies about the condition to make you realize just how much you may take for granted when it comes to appreciating color. After all, when was the last time you admired a sunset or even a child’s crayon drawing?
The #ColorForAll campaign opens the eyes of the world to the issue of colorblindness. But you don’t have to click your heels together three times to share in the experience! Check out the the documentary below:
Learn More about how these lenses work.
Working remotely hits a whole new level with our Graphic Designer, Hector Del Valle. This past year, Hector spent several weeks in Greece and we couldn’t wait to have him back in the states to share his adventure with us. Here’s just a few thoughts on his holiday adventures!
Why did you go to Greece?
My partner, Tareq, lives in Greece. We take turns traveling back and forth to see each other.
How long were you there?
I was there for seven weeks. It was my second time visiting Greece.
What was your favorite place in Greece?
I
was in Athens this time. From the places I’ve seen in Greece, though, I’d have to say traveling to the island of Crete was my favorite. I was in an area called Chania. The mix of the rocky landscape and the beautiful seawater made for amazing scenery. The seafood was probably the freshest I’ve ever had.
How was the culture different in Greece?
The culture in Greece feels somewhat familiar to me. I’m Puerto Rican and there were many surprising similarities in the way people live. Family and friends are something of extreme value to Greeks. And, of course, the food is also important and something that people will bond over. I did experience a few Greek traditions while I was there, as it was during the holidays/New Years.
Of course the food is different so what was your favorite unconventional dish that you had?
Was it hard having to work from Greece?
Really the only tough part was being seven hours ahead of everyone here at the office. Sometimes I’d have to wait later in the day to get some things done.
When do you plan on going back?
My plan is to go back from June to August. This time around I’ll be exploring more of the islands.
What an amazing trip! Needless to say we are happy to have Hector back in the office; we really missed our personal office DJ and his contagious laugh.
Tumblr, the microblogging and sharing website created in 2007 by David Karp and owned by Yahoo! Inc., is what many Internet savvy users consider the underbelly of social media. We go there to learn something, we go there to be inspired, we go there to connect, but it is not the first place businesses go to establish or further social media presence.
In fact, Tumblr is often forgotten or opted out of completely in social media strategy. However, the current goal of many businesses is to differentiate their brand among competition and Tumblr might serve as the next place to not only extend a campaign, but also find inspiration for fresh company blog content to engage with an audience.
As of January 2015, Tumblr supports more than 216 million blogs with a growing corporate/business sphere. That is a huge reach opportunity for executed social media strategy. Rather than lamenting over Tumblr as a missed opportunity, consider why starting and maintaining a corporate Tumblr account as a component of social media strategy stands to benefit your brand.
1. It’s FREE!
Blogs, deemed tumblrogs by users, are free to create and maintain. The benefit of connecting over a free social media service outweighs cost because there is no cost to consider or compare to.
2. Backlinking
Backlinking serves as indications for SEO (search engine optimization). It lets strategists know who is viewing a page or post, as well as giving value to how much impact that post makes through exposure.
Backlinking feeds into the idea that Tumblr serves as a content testing ground, which is significant if you want to spend marketing dollars effectively on other social media. Starting on Tumblr is a way to gauge reactions to new content like articles, memes, photos, and gif sets.
3. Expand on idea of converged media
A blog allows for the generation of content as well as linking to other big traffic social media accounts. Additionally, it is also another great way to connect and feature users by sharing their posts, monitoring their tags, actually tagging them, or featuring consumers using products. Tumblr is a way to achieve a quirkier form of connection with your audience, adding another dimension to interaction. Interaction in turn furthers company-consumer relationships and brand recognition.
4. Be Inspired!
On Tumblr, nothing is too crazy to work or too strange to not make an impact. The best posts can happen at any time of day and great content gains momentum almost instantaneously. Tumblr is a resource, not an expense!
Something important to keep in mind is that Tumblr is not necessarily a platform you should look to if the goal of social media strategy is to drastically boost sales. Numbers can still be tracked by online point-of-sale metrics, but the true value of Tumblr is creating brand awareness in a potentially unaware community, as well as developing engagement with existing consumers. With the potential to increase your social currency and presence, Tumblr is the no-longer-forgotten platform to be incorporated into your next social media strategy campaign.
Here are a few of our office favorite Tumblr pages:
Photo Credit: 2nix Studio / Shutterstock.com
The American Advertising Awards, formerly known as the ADDYs, is an annual award ceremony honoring the best in local advertising. It is the nation’s largest advertising competition where over 60,000 entries are submitted. Each entry is judged by a panel of creative advertisers who move the local winners to District, whose winners move onto Nationals. It’s the ideal competition for Liquid Creative. This year we were fortunate enough to submit 5 entries and receive an award for each one of them!
The ADDYs was held at the Best Western Gateway Grand, February 20th, where we all grabbed our best Madmen themed outfit and headed to the Gala for some fun, creative competition. This year, our Sr. graphic designer Hector Del Valle hosted the event and did an absolutely amazing job.
For the submission process you can pick anything related to advertising from a campaign to a simple print ad. This year we wanted to go big and submit our GRU Power Tower for the Out of Home category, and you guessed it – we won an award for it! Each year we hope to submit more than the year before.
Almost as fun as winning the awards themselves was playing into the Madmen theme. Candy cigarettes, Old Fashions, dirty martinis and fake memorandums created ample opportunities for our team to take selfies! We had a great time and can’t wait till next year!
Gold ADDY – Public Service – Website
Lubee Bat Conservancy Website
Gold ADDY – Public Service – Poster Campaign
RTI United Way Poster Campaign
Gold ADDY – Public Service – Integrated Campaign
Lubee Bat Fest 2014
Silver ADDY – Public Service – Non-traditional
GRU Power Tower
Silver ADDY – Integrated Campaign – B-to-B Regional/National
Carbonxt Branding Campaign
It’s that time of year again. Yesterday millions gathered ‘round with friends and loved ones to eat, drink, cheer and – most importantly – to see some of the best television advertisements of the 2015 year.
One trend we saw this year was the early release of brands’ prized commercials on social media. Not only was this exceptionally effective in creating pre-game media buzz, but also it kept ad junkies on the lookout for each brands’ big debut during the game.
Something unexpected this year was that we saw a 25 percent slip in the use of social media hashtags (from a record 75 percent down to a measly 50 percent). What does this mean? Perhaps advertisers weren’t impressed with the turnout from previous years. Or perhaps it was affected by the ratio of humor to emotional messages we saw featured in 2015’s Super Bowl advertising.
The usual big players showed up with a bang; Budweiser, Dove, T-Mobile and Doritos. More impressively, over 15 first-time Super Bowl advertisers were featured during this year’s game, the most since 2000. Below are a few of our favorite campaigns. Share your favorite in the comments below or by posting the video on our Facebook page.
Loctite: “Positive Feelings”
What a creative and humorous way to sell super glue. No one will ever look at this product the same way again . . .
Nationwide: “Invisible Mindy”
While some may claim that featuring celebrities is an advertising “cheap trick,” Mindy Kaling’s TV persona Dr. Mindy Lahiri was the perfect character to portray the “invisible customer” longing for good service.
BMW: “Newfangled Idea”
It’s hard to remember a time when the internet was a new discovery. And who knows, maybe BMW i3 is the NEW internet?
Always: “#LikeAGirl”
Last but certainly not least, the cut #LikeAGirl ad. If you follow our blog and Facebook page, you may remember that we featured this campaign as a case study when Always released the video last summer. We are thrilled to have been ahead of the trends on this one in recognizing the creative talent, powerful message and exceptional execution of this inspirational campaign.
View all 2015 Super Bowl commercials here.
Photo Credit: Elvert Barnes
I’m guilty of checking my phone every, uh, 20 minutes or so, just because. Several PSA videos about the use and abuse of technology swirled around the Internet last year, including this one and this one. They are well-made and heartfelt, but how accurate are they really? Only as much as you allow them to be.
My solution? Balance. Rules. Appreciation.
Overusing any single thing will decrease your quality of life Whether that’s technology, sleep or even exercise, your life needs balance. Prioritize what is important to you and then allocate percentages of your time to those things, while nixing wasteful habits.
Establish rules for when technology (cell phone, computer, TV, etc.) use is appropriate and when it’s not. A general rule that really helps me is absolutely no cell phone use on dates with my significant other or after I tuck myself in bed at night. Consider establishing rules that make sense for your life, and then stick to them. Use that time away from a screen to appreciate other things in your life.
Appreciate technology for what it is and what it is, what it offers and what it can’t. It’s easy to acknowledge how it’s negatively affecting our lives, but there are several reasons to be incredibly grateful for technology in 2015. We can be connected to more important people in our lives. Grandma in Tennessee gets see her Floridian grandchildren grow up and not miss out on their everyday achievements. The great thinkers of the world are combining their powers to achieve what we couldn’t dream of 100 years ago. Online journals and forums help professors and students stay as up-to-date as possible on the latest information. Our creative juices are flowing like never before with inspirational videos, content and images at our fingertips.
It’s 2015, and we’re sure to see amazing leaps in technology this year. What do you hope to see? How does technology affect your life? Let us know in the comments below, or on our Facebook page!
References: Mobile Technology Fact Sheet. PewResearch Internet Project. Retrieved January 13, 2015, from http://www.pewinternet.org/fact-sheets/mobile-technology-fact-sheet/.
This time last year, we shared our staff’s New Year’s resolutions. (You can check those out here). Some of us stuck to them, some of us tried, and some of us completely and utterly failed. Chances are, many of you reading this probably fall somewhere between categories two and three. But this year is going to be different.
This is the year for change, and we’ve compiled a list of a few great phone applications that will help you fulfill your goals this year!
Calorie Counter & Diet Tracker by MyFitnessPal is one of the best apps for tracking your calorie intake and workout regimens. Spend the few minutes a day needed to keep this tracker updated, and you’ll be well on your way to a more health-conscious you!
Plus, we highly recommend subscribing to MyFitnessPal’s email newsletter. It always has healthy eating tips, recipes to try, workout suggestions and other great info. Check it out and subscribe here.
Mint helps consolidate all your finances (checking accounts, savings accounts, credit cards, loans, etc.) into one place. Set up budgets for every expense and stay within them with real-time charts and alerts.
ReadyForZero helps monitor your credit while paying off debt. Reminders and notifications will keep you from falling behind, and the charts will help you visualize and celebrate your progress.
It’s easy to resolve to quit smoking, but much harder to actually quit smoking. But the freedom you’ll experience without that burden in your life will make the struggle worth it. MyQuit Coach by Livestrong helps remind you of that with motivational tips and progress charts. The plan is customized to your needs. You can quit cold turkey or ease into it.
No matter which resolution you’ve made, just remember:
We posted a few days ago about the Apple Watch announcement. Sorry we didn’t mention the new iPhone 6 announcement as well. The main update – and most exciting for Apple loyalists – was the increased screen display. We thought that was old hat, and expected.
Don’t get us wrong. We love Apple products. They’re reliable, user-friendly, and almost everyone in our studio uses an iPhone and Mac. However, we love a little brand rivalry, and Samsung did an amazing job using Apple’s sure-fire media coverage to promote its own products through the “It Doesn’t Take a Genius” campaign.
Watch the string of YouTube hits – starting with our favorite: “A BIGGER SCREEN!!??!?!”
was in Athens this time. From the places I’ve seen in Greece, though, I’d have to say traveling to the island of Crete was my favorite. I was in an area called Chania. The mix of the rocky landscape and the beautiful seawater made for amazing scenery. The seafood was probably the freshest I’ve ever had.
This year it was fun being on both sides!” said Del Valle when asked about his experience MCing the ADDYs.
Our goal as a team is to be awarded ‘Best of Show’ for each of the available categories. These awards go to the best Gold-awarded submission in each category: public service, print and broadcast.”