• May
  • 12

Sunday Brunch Photo Challenge

Posted in Pongr Contests

Tomorrow is Mother’s Day in the U.S. (yes, tomorrow!), so it’s a perfect time to start our next photo contest. We want to see what goes into your perfect brunch or breakfast at home or at your favorite restaurant. Take photos of everything you need to make Sunday morning (or any morning!) special— eggs, bacon, pancake mix, syrup, coffee, anything you like. Do you have any special brunch traditions in your house or family recipes you love? Show us what goes into them!

The contest will run for three weeks starting tomorrow, May 13, and ending on Sunday, June 3. Make sure you include the hashtag #brunch in the description of every photo. The winner will be chosen at random and will receive a gift card to their local supermarket. Get creative with your photos, too! Remember that all photos always have the chance of being named our Picture of the Week every Friday. Happy Mother’s Day and bon appetit!

Show us what goes into your ideal brunch!



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  • May
  • 12

The Ultimate Field Guide to the Photo Sharing Universe

Posted in Advertising, Brand Engagement, Brands, Mobile Marketing, Print Media, Shopper Technology, Social Media

We talk a lot about how popular photo sharing is, but sometimes it’s nice to have some numbers to really get an idea of what we’re talking about. When we say that social networks are engines of massive self-expression, we’re not kidding. More than 300 million photos are uploaded to Facebook every day, which makes 91.25 billion photos expected to be uploaded this year to Facebook alone.

Photo sharing isn’t limited to Facebook. There are around 2.5 billion active camera phones today, most of them the mobile customer’s only camera. Moreover, the number one mobile shopping activity—regardless of phone type—is taking pictures of products. It is absolutely imperative that brands tap into mobile photo marketing to boost sales and supercharge brand engagement.

Pongr offers more for brands than any other photo sharing tool.

In our recent white paper, The Ultimate Field Guide to the Photo Sharing Universe, we run down a list of the major photo sharing apps on the scene today. There are a few things they all have in common, like sharing capabilities and allowing you to express yourself artistically with filters and effects. But there are a few things none of them have, like the ability to enable direct-response marketing or create branded experiences around photos. It’s for these reasons and more that we don’t include Pongr on the “Photo Sharing Cheat Sheet.” We don’t see ourselves as a competitor to Instagram or Hipstamatic, and we’re not trying to replicate Facebook, Twitter or Pinterest. Pongr is a whole different ballgame because of the unique tools we offer brands to take advantage of the popularity of photo marketing. To get the whole story, visit our corporate site and download The Ultimate Field Guide to the Photo Sharing Universe, and see what Pongr has to offer.



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  • May
  • 09

Getting the Most Bang for Your Buck: Effective “nonworking” media spending

Posted in Advertising, Brand Engagement, Brands, Mobile Marketing, Social Media
Photo by 401K.

Saving money is really about getting the most value for money spent.

In the current economic climate, everyone is looking for ways to streamline and save a little money—brands included. One way brands are trying to do this is by cutting down on their “nonworking” media spending. Traditionally, brands have thought of the money they spend in two ways: either working or nonworking. Nonworking media spending is the money used to create content; brainstorming, concepting, designing, and executing. Working media spending is the money used to actually run the content, to get it in front of consumers’ eyes. This distinction is not always popular among advertising agencies. As David Beals, CEO of the Chicago-based consulting firm R3:JLB, put it, “The whole idea that the agency-fee dollars are nonworking and the media is working just doesn’t make sense. Anybody who has enough experience knows if the agency comes up with a crummy idea, not only does the media become nonworking, it can be negatively working.”

It’s understandable that brands are examining their media budgets carefully and looking for places they can save. But indiscriminately slashing creative budgets is a good way to end up with crummy ideas, as Beals says, which won’t do the brand any good at all. Many brands are focused on reducing the ratio of nonworking to working media at all costs. One so-called nonworking area that often gets the short end of the stick is digital, mobile, and social media, even though many in the industry would agree that it’s a crucial part of the future of marketing.

Brands should consider what types of content are the most effective at engaging consumers and leading to a sale, and focus their resources there in order to maximize every dollar. “If the goal is to get people to participate in the brand, you’re going to have to invest,” says Jordan Bitterman, senior VP social-media-platforms at Digitas. Smart media spending means investing in highly effective and engaging content creation.

Here at Pongr, we make a big deal about the power of photos and photo marketing, but that’s because it is a big deal. The popularity of sites like Instagram and Pinterest—not to mention the 300 million photos that are uploaded to Facebook daily—proves that we live in a visual world. People snap photos of brands they love every day, and shoppers are far more likely to actually purchase a product they’ve taken a picture of. Creating these brand moments should be a top priority, and the value of earned media cannot be underestimated. Studies have shown that earned media consistently ranks first in driving purchases, above owned and paid media.

Everyone’s keeping an eye on their spending these days, even brands. Creating really excellent, engaging content is highly effective and leads to sales, and is a much better option than simply cutting back content development entirely. Fan-generated photo content is where it’s at, and will provide huge returns on advertising dollars. Plus, it’s a lot of fun.



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  • May
  • 07

Photos: The Secret to Facebook Success

Posted in Advertising, Brand Engagement, Brand Enthusiasts, Brands, Social Media

For quite a while now, there’s been no question that Facebook is an essential aspect of every brand’s marketing strategy. But there hasn’t been much in the way of definitive stats telling us what works and what doesn’t when it comes to marketing on Facebook. Every brand has their own idea of how it should be done, usually figured out by trial and error. But as Advertising Age reported today, Facebook has recently released the results of their own study into the effectiveness of different ways brands are using their timelines.

Facebook conducted a one month study of 23 brands, plugging information about what the brands post into an algorithm to predict engagement— that is, likes, comments, and most importantly, shares. Shares are incredibly valuable to brands. Getting fans to like or comment on brand content is great, but that’s still only a one-on-one, brand-to-consumer interaction. On the other hand, if a fan shares brand content, then everyone that person is friends with will see it. Shares are what make Facebook really powerful for brands. And what type of content are people most likely to share? You guessed it— photos.

George Takei posts funny photos that get thousands of shares on Facebook.

When you think about it, this isn’t particularly surprising. While many animals rely on other senses like smell or hearing, humans are naturally visually-inclined. We are captivated by images, so it makes sense that this is the sort of content we’d want to share with our friends most. AdAge provides an example from Skittles’ fan page: a status that read “Like this post if you agree with what I’m going to say tomorrow” got more than 10,000 likes, but only 21 shares, while a photo of a football helmet made of Skittles got over 400 shares. Actor George Takei, known for his role as Lieutenant Sulu on the original Star Trek series, has practically made a second career posting funny photos to his Facebook timeline, most of which are shared by literally thousands of people.

These findings underscore the need for brands to have robust photo marketing capabilities. Pongr makes it easy for brands to collect photos taken by their fans and post them to Facebook with one click. As we’ve already pointed out, it’s amazing the kinds of exciting, visually stimulating photos brand enthusiasts take. The key for brands is to make sure as many people as possible see those pictures and get pumped about the brand.

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This post is based off this article in Advertising Age.



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  • May
  • 01

“Old” Meets “New”: How radio stations are reinventing themselves with social media

Posted in Brand Engagement, Social Media

Let’s face it: in many ways, radio is a relic of a bygone era. It’s not exactly the first thing that comes to mind when you think of innovation and new technology. It was dealt a heavy blow by television, and the Internet has proven to be a daunting challenge. Sure, there’s satellite radio and Internet radio like Pandora and Last.fm, but where does that leave traditional, terrestrial radio?

President Roosevelt famously addressed radio listeners in his "fireside chats."

Despite how dire things may seem at first, many radio stations are reinvigorating their businesses using social media. When you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Radio and social media actually have a lot in common. Radio has always been considered a medium that’s all about communication and connection, just like social media. FDR made history by reaching out to citizens via his fireside chats broadcast over the radio, while President Obama was the first president to successfully use social media to win a presidential election. One of the things that made radio so revolutionary was the ability to help people get news immediately, and everyone knows how fast word spreads via social media.

Facebook not only gives radio stations a chance to post links to their online content and recorded broadcasts, but is also an excellent way for listeners to interact and engage with each other like never before. Boston’s WBUR 90.9 FM posts links to their pieces, infographics, and photos on their Facebook page, and all of these spark engaging discussions among fans. Stations can also make their promotional contests accessible to many more people by allowing entries via social media, like Kiss 108 has done with their contest to win a year-long Zipcar membership. Social media also allows individual DJs to connect with their fans. Many hosts are regular Twitter users and use the site to communicate with fans and post promotional tie-ins as well as other content that interests them. Twitter is also an excellent tool for stations with a variety of different types of content. NPR has many different Twitter accounts, for example, allowing listeners to get info only on the topics that interest them the most.

Many radio stations appear to be embracing social media very well. It’s an excellent opportunity for something that was once a one-way medium to become a two-way medium by engaging with listeners. There’s nothing more exciting than seeing so-called “old media” working in harmony with “new media.” Even though radio is inherently not a visual medium, the incredible versatility of social media means promotions for radio stations could very well include things like photo contests— something we know a thing or two about.



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