The Alliance came to Magneto seeking a refreshed identity (logo and tagline) that would be reflective of a more updated and current representation of the organization, its membership and the important role it plays within the Portland region business community. Magneto worked with the Alliance through a discovery process in which we spoke with many key members of the organization. In the end we were able to hone in on the essence of the Alliance and create a brand that better resonates with its members and the community.  In addition to creating the new logo and tagline and animated video, Magneto developed a teaser campaign that was utilized by the Alliance to create interest in the new mark and attending the Annual Breakfast.  The event was sold out over two weeks prior. Magneto also produced a graphic standards guide and color palette that will be used by the Alliance in designing all related marketing materials and their new website.

The Portland Chamber of Commerce, the precursor to the Portland Business Alliance, was formed in 1870. In 2002, the Portland Chamber of Commerce merged with another local business organization, the Association for Portland Progress, to form the Alliance. The Alliance is the Portland region’s leading business organization. They have nearly 1,200 members representing more than 325,000 business people in Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas and Yamhill counties in Oregon and Clark County in Washington with a $7 million annual budget that is generated through membership dues, events and contract revenues through the Clean & Safe District. Membership benefits include advocacy, networking/business development, small business resources, education, leadership opportunities, and member discounts.

Check out the work here:

To learn more about the OCF Education and Arts Initiatives program, visit www.oregoncf.org.

Check out some screen grabs from the presentation:

This can be seen both in increased portion sizes with options such as “Super Size” at restaurants and chains across the nation as well as in the evolution of clothing sizes overtime to adjust to a larger population.

Studies being done by University of Michigan professor Aradhna Krishna have found that people tend to take food labeling into consideration when making meal choices. For example, in a study where individuals received either a cookie marked large or a cookie marked medium, both of which were actually identical in size, people tended to eat more of the medium cookie. It seems apparent that most people think the arbitrary sizing guidelines in the food industry hold some uniformity in terms of portion size or nutritional values. This however, isn’t the case. A large soda at McDonald’s is equivalent to a medium soda at Wendy’s, and food portions vary vastly from restaurant to restaurant. The problem lies wherein fast food chains and restaurants started increasing portion sizes and people treated them as if there was no difference. A large fry was still called a large fry, even if it had increased two-fold. And people still treated it as such.

As people increased in size with the increase in food consumption, retailers found that they were less likely to purchase as many clothes if they felt like they were a bigger size. Whereas, if an individual found out they were actually a smaller size than originally thought, they would have a heyday at the mall to celebrate. In order to create this feeling of false security, marketers landed on a clever solution. Slowly change sizes as the overall population size increases. Therefore a size 0 in today’s world was a size 4 in the 70’s, and a size 8 in the 50’s.

Is this marketing deception, or just a general transition in appropriate sizes compared to the population?  It’s hard to say.

Very few products can still claim they hold true to the brand promise of years ago. Whether that be through altering sizes to boost sales, creating “value” by offering unnecessary amounts of food, or by promoting exaggerated realities and disregarding the true nature of their offering. While not all of these issues are things we here at Magneto can single-handedly tackle, we do pride ourselves in creating work that stays true to the essence of a brand. Whether it’s a car dealership, or a well-respected financial institution or a home-grown utility, we dig deep and find something that feels right.

The recently launched website solves many issues that beset its predecessor by easily formatting and organizing information in a way that not only makes sense, but compels visitors to explore and return to.  The old website had been added onto over time much like the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, California. It was amassed with clutter and was a struggle to find information. The updated site is much more vibrant, inviting and easier to navigate. It contains a lot of great information about the racetrack and the many activities that are held there throughout the year.

Magneto also created an easy to use content management system that enables our client to update text and photos at the click of a mouse. All the more reason for race enthusiasts to check out the website on a regular basis for the latest and greatest news and information about PIR.

We hope you will check out the new PIR website for yourself soon and let us know what you think.

www.portlandraceway.com

The “Paint Your Home Green” Contest encourages people to enter to win a chance at getting a fresh coat of Miller Acro Pure Paint for their home. The grand prize is the exterior of a home painted, with the second prize being a single interior room painted and a third prize of a gallon of Miller Acro Pure Paint.

Magneto was enlisted to develop the promotion’s look and feel along with designing promotional materials including posters, window clings, entry boxes and forms, web graphics and paint stir sticks.

The contest will be running February 13 – April 30. Visit a Miller Paint store near you to enter and check out our sweet design work.

The average viewership of the game last year set a new record at 111.13 million people. As viewership is growing and turning the Super Bowl into some sort of national holiday, it makes sense that advertisers would have to pay top dollar to get in front of this captive audience. Especially when the Super Bowl has become known almost equally for its advertisements as its game play, with many people claiming they watch the game for the ads. Probably something no other televised show or event can boast. A Nielson survey done in 2010 and cited by the NY Post found that 51% of respondents claimed to enjoy the advertisements more than the action on the field.

This year ads have a price tag on average of $3.7 to $3.8 million per 30 seconds. This is up from an average $2.6 million in 2010. And while traditionally most advertisers would keep quiet about their commercials and approach game day with an element of surprise, with social media already buzzing about Super Bowl ads many advertisers are opting to share their plans or commercials ahead of time to become part of the conversation. In taking advantage of social media, advertisers gain further exposure and have a chance to interact individually with its audience.

Mercedes, being the first to release their teaser, has already seen 4.6 million YouTube views within a week. That’s 4.6 million free exposures along with a whole mass of conversation regarding the spot through media, fans, and the general public.

Ads from the 2012 Super Bowl showed that 75% of the 20 most shared videos debuted in some form online prior to the game. Online ad sharing is also increasing. As the ads are becoming some sort of a spectacle in themselves, Super Bowl ads shared went up 129 percent between 2011 and 2012.

Along with releasing insights earlier, companies also plan mobile and interactive components into their campaigns. With 75% of the audience on a second screen during the game, interweaving these additional components presents the opportunity for a deeper connection with consumers.

Companies that have already released their spots or teasers include Mercedes, Coca Cola, Audi, Volkswagen, Taco Bell, Century 21, Axe, Hyundai and Go Daddy, with more coming out every day.

With all the money and time being spent on Super Bowl XLVII, we hope advertisers took the time to prepare some good, quality messages. Because we will be watching and we will be judging.

Once upon a time, businesses small and large flocked to Facebook to use its free platform to gain followers and alert them to business happenings, offer special promotions, and share witty anecdotes or bits of company culture. Many businesses put decent amounts of effort into special social media campaigns to grow their audience each time they had something to say. Once a user “liked” a company’s Facebook page, they were signed up to receive updates in their news feed regarding the company. Historically, Facebook has been a great tool to level the playing field between small and large businesses. Whoever put forth the effort to attract new followers would prosper from having their growing audience’s attention, no matter their size.

Over the last year however, things changed. Many companies started to realize a severe decline in the number of followers reached with each post. This decline was a mystery until Facebook revealed its new policy of charging for posts. In early 2012 Facebook went from allowing unfettered reach of a company’s postings to allowing only 15% of its followers to view their posting for free. The other 85% now had to be paid for. The full impact of this new policy won’t be known for some time but consider the position of companies that have sunk vast resources into the Facebook environment and now have a fraction of the visibility they had just months ago.

Not surprisingly the “charge to promote” program coincides with a drop in viewership–a mere coincidence attests Facebook, who claims to only be limiting the amount of advertising posted on users walls (i.e. company posts) to keep the site relatively uncluttered for the users sake. They say that as brand’s Facebook postings have increased largely in the past few years, they have felt the need to prune out some of the company postings to keep a users news feeds interesting rather than relying on users to self regulate via “unliking” or “hiding posts from this user”.

Costs range from $5 to thousands of dollars depending on how large of an audience you want to reach. While this may seem reasonable for certain companies with large advertising budgets, a majority of smaller businesses are having trouble deciding what to make of the program. They are unable to afford promoting each of their posts, especially if they are a company with a large group of followers that posts relatively often, but they have invested a lot of time and money in gaining these followers in the first place. Many people feel that if fans have already “liked” your page, and thus opted in to receive updates from you, that you shouldn’t have to then further pay to be put in front of these people. Because wasn’t that the whole concept of gaining “likes” in the first place – free connections with fans?

As a fan/user, there are a few ways to ensure you still receive posts from your favorite brands regularly if you so wish. First off, visit any brand you wish to keep seeing posts from and make sure that you have checked to show their posts in your news feed.

While this should keep a company in your news feed, it hasn’t been determined yet if this actually shows you every post from that company.

You can also opt to regularly check out your Pages Feed (located on the left hand bar on your home page).

A surefire way to make sure the companies you love are easily accessible to you are to create Interest Lists and add various companies to these. Then, upon selecting the Interest Lists you can see all posts from related companies.

Here are the steps:
1. Go to any Company Page that you like. Hover over/click the Liked box and select “Add to Interest Lists”

2. In the new menu that opens, select + New List.

3. Select the company you wish to appear in the list and select Next.

4. Create a List Name, select your settings, and select Done.

5. When on your Home page, you will see an Interests category on the left hand side. Selecting the different Interest categories you have created will allow you to see all recent postings from companies in that category.

Hopefully users will become aware of these workarounds and small businesses that have put large efforts into growing their fan base won’t have to count those as wasted efforts or bow out of the Facebook community due to lack of promotional funds to expel on getting posts in front of fans.

Obviously Facebook, like all companies, needs to scratch out ways to monetize itself, but was it fair to wall off a large chunk of businesses’ established followers with its new pay model? Was it underhanded or just part of the new Internet reality and we should get used to this sort of thing? Most importantly, what will be the fallout for business moving forward? How will they find value now that they have to pay to reach an audience that was until recently, essentially free?