Wednesday, March 19, 2014 at 1:08PM 
Frank Oppenheimer was right, “The best way to learn is to teach”. In this post I hope to share what three years of teaching master's students has taught me.
Thursday, March 13, 2014 at 10:11AM ;)
So as marketers today sift through the rubble of what once was the traditional ad agency ecosystem, what should they be looking for? Extrapolating from the authors' reasoning, today's marketing service firm should look something like this:
Email Article | 1 Comment | tagged Mckinsey, advertising, agency, marketing industry | in advertising Wednesday, March 5, 2014 at 5:17PM ;)
Are your social media or content marketing efforts under performing? Before you spend any more time tweaking your content strategy and online tactics, ask yourself honestly: How engaging is my brand? Content doesn't engage an audience, brand identity does. And that is the first place you should look if you're not getting traction online.
Thursday, December 19, 2013 at 2:53PM 
How do you brand a location and what role can digital media play in that endeavor? These are some of the main topics explored by representatives of The Duffy Agency as they hosted a delegation of city officials, academics and marketers from St. Petersburg, Russia.
Wednesday, October 23, 2013 at 11:37AM 
What do you call an online campaign that is centered around a game or contest? You guessed it: “Gampaign”. Today we launched our latest game, “Search Party”, for our fashion client Napapijri. The premise is simple: While shooting their Fall/Winter collection in Iceland, they left 3 bags behind. Create a search party and find the bag using an interactive map and you could win tickets for 4 to Iceland.
Email Article | Post a Comment | tagged Gamification | in Applications, Campaign, Engagement, Gampaigns, branding, social media Monday, February 4, 2013 at 6:48AM 
No doubt you have an opinion on the best and worst Super Bowl commercials from yesterday's game. In my opinion, the best way to judge the effectiveness of an ad is by how well it fulfills the objective of the brief. An ad that doesn't appeal to me, but appeals to my Mom, may be a good ad because that is to whom the ad was supposed to appeal. So, from that perspective, I will give all the ads the benefit of the doubt that they each of them fulfilled their brief.
Having said that, here is my critique of the ads that stood out from a
brand or messaging point of view.
Email Article | Post a Comment | tagged Super Bowl XLVII, branding, commercial, tv | in Brand, Current Affairs, advertising, smart phone Friday, January 25, 2013 at 3:03PM I just saw this great Slideshare called 55 Brands Rocking Social Media with Visual Content and thought I'd share it with you. The deck is from a Hubspot PDF and was posted by Laura Lopes.
Email Article | 3 Comments | tagged content, hubspot, pinterest, social media marketing, twitter, visual content | in branding, content strategy, social media, twitter Wednesday, December 12, 2012 at 11:34AM ;)
How not to get sued by an elf this Holiday Season
Hey it's that time of year again.
Thursday, November 29, 2012 at 8:00AM 
In order to keep people from "gaming" the Google algorithm,Google has actually started placing less importance on things like keywords and meta-tags and instead is trying to use how people interact with content as a means of determining relevancy.
What this mean for companies is that content and getting people to share and engage with that content is the most significant way to rise in Google rankings. To ensure success, brands need to evaluate and optimize the content on all their online assets. The following is an outline to the 8-step process The Duffy Agency uses to help clients optimize their online assets.
Tuesday, November 6, 2012 at 4:50PM 
Sean Duffy takes a unique perspective to this year's presidential race in today's Brand Rants blog post:
OK, all the Americans at The Duffy Agency have now voted. Like many Americans, I'll be watching the results come in for the rest of the day trying to piece together the fragments and get a glimpse into the future of who will be my country's next president.
In that spirit, I've turned to online networks and Google to see how the candidates stack up there. This is a bit like peering into tea leaves to forsee the future, but go ahead and see if these rankings tell you who the next US president will be.
Tuesday, October 2, 2012 at 8:00AM ;)
As we enter the final quarter of 2012, it is time to start thinking and planning for 2013. We’ve put together a quick check list to help make the most of Q4 and get you ready for 2013.
Thursday, September 27, 2012 at 2:53AM 
The life expectancy of a CMO has reached an all time high of 3.5 years (nearly double what is was five years ago) but it seems the rift between CEOs and their CMOs has never been greater. So what needs to change to move forward?
Wednesday, September 19, 2012 at 2:43AM 
In today's Brand Rants post, Sean Duffy tries to come to terms with defining a brand and branding.
There’s little wonder why people have so much trouble defining a brand or branding. One brand "expert" tells us that branding is all about graphic guidelines while others say it’s a promise, or a covenant, or a look, or a feel, or an attitude, or an emotion, or an association, or a perception, or a bond, or an experience, or even a religion. So what exactly is it?
Wednesday, September 12, 2012 at 5:36PM In today's BrandRanter post, The Duffy Agency founder, Sean Duffy, talks about effective product launches.
Today, Apple will announce the new iPhone 5, and analysts are expecting it to become the fastest selling smart phone in history. How does Apple seem to do this with every iteration of the iPhone? Because unlike most companies, which simply "release" a new product, Apple understands how to truly "launch" a product.
Monday, September 10, 2012 at 6:00PM 
THE GREATEST ENEMY OF COMMUNICATION IS THE ILLUSION OF IT
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 8:31AM ;)
The biggest innovation in global marketing in the last twenty years is not what you may think. In fact, true innovation in marketing happens infrequentlyFor example,the focus group was invented back in 1941.
Email Article | Post a Comment | tagged Google Analytics, Radiian6, facebook, measurement, social media marketing | in Measurement, social media Wednesday, August 29, 2012 at 4:16PM 
Facebook has turned many brands into a neurotic mess. Like some smothering and needy friend, brands are constantly asking us to show our allegiance to them with a “like.”
Email Article | Post a Comment | tagged Facebook like, branding, facebook, social media marketing | in Brand, Facebook, Marketing, branding, content strategy, social media Tuesday, July 17, 2012 at 4:38PM 
If you're a golfer then you understand the importance of follow through. The same principles can be applied to developing brand equity. Today's Brand Rants post looks at defined steps to build brand equity.
The idea for brand managers is to create a brand strategy and tactical communication plans that combine all ten steps of brand equity development into one smooth swing.
Email Article | Post a Comment | tagged brand equity, branding | in brand equity, brand management, branding Thursday, July 12, 2012 at 4:24PM 
The Duffy Agency's Sean Duffy just finished publishing a four-part series on the Google brand, which we at The Duffy Agency believe has not been managed as well as it could be. It's a very quick, but very insightful read.
But I’m not saying that their business model is sinister or that they don’t deserve every dime they have earned. For the most part, I’m OK with that arrangement so long as Google can keep me convinced that it will stay true to it’s founders unofficial yet well-hyped corporate motto “Don’t be evil.” That's brand management. To date, they're not doing such a great job. In fact, they're doing a lousy job. Unchecked, I believe this will be the company’s undoing.
Thursday, June 21, 2012 at 4:48PM In Sean Duffy's latest Marketing Moxie column on Talent Zoo, he looks beyond advertising to explore the real value Facebook for brands.