Atlantic Claims has launched a new and improved website! Atlantic Claims is a third party vendor offering adjusting and claim handling services for property, liability, marine, aircraft and much more. Atlantic Claims sought Sage Island for an improved design and editable website.

Upon entering the website, viewers are presented with a twinkling map created in Flash representing Atlantic Claims’ nationwide coverage. The website offers information for both potential customers and employees as well as a direct connect login to take employees to the complex backend system.

The home page features 3 dynamic weather thumbnails that update as the weather tracking system updates. Clicking on these thumbnails takes users to the weather tracking website. Finally, this website features a built in RSS feed that collects industry news and makes this content available for website viewers.

This week, Tropicana made waves with the swift failure of a massive rebranding effort.

PepsiCo, owners the well established Tropicana brand, sought to capitalize on the economic downturn through marketing. They hired New York ad agency Arnell to implement a complete redesign of the Tropicana logo and packaging. Arnell is also responsible for the recent Pepsi logo revamp, which was criticized for its striking resemblance to Barack Obama’s campaign logo.

The$35 million rebranding effort backfired big time. Fiercely loyal customers fired off angry emails and blog rants complaining about the new packaging. PepsiCo and Tropicana quickly announced that the old, familiar packaging will return to the shelves by next month.

So what happened? According to the New York Times assessment of the debacle, social media factored into the equation in a big way:

Such attention is becoming increasingly common as interactive technologies enable consumers to rapidly convey opinions to marketers.

“You used to wait to go to the water cooler or a cocktail party to talk over something,” said Richard Laermer, chief executive at RLM Public Relations in New York.

“Now, every minute is a cocktail party,” he added. “You write an e-mail and in an hour, you’ve got a fan base agreeing with you.”

That ability to share brickbats or bouquets with other consumers is important because it facilitates the formation of ad hoc groups, more likely to be listened to than individuals.

The Tropicana debacle is reminiscent to the “Motrin Moms” disaster last November. Angry moms took to Twitter to complain about a Motrin ad campaign that offended them. Within 48 hours, Motrin executives had publicly apologized and scrapped the expensive campaign.

What could Tropicana have done differently to successfully rebrand without throwing their most loyal customers into an uproar? If they had used social media to involve their most loyal customers in the process, it would have been a powerful tool in their rebranding process. Instead social media worked against them as customers joined forces to increase the fallout.

What if they had given customers a vote on the new packaging? They would have enjoyed the benefit of months of publicity leading up to the unveiling. Most importantly, they wouldn’t have faced the bad press, the outrage of their loyal customers, or the cost of undoing the $35 million rebranding campaign.

Marketers can learn a valuable lesson from Tropicana’s mistake. Social media has forever changed the way that consumers interact with brands and marketing tactics. If you don’t converse with your customers, it could cost you.

We’re pleased to announce Lower Cape Fear Hospice and Lifecare Center site has launched! This new and improved website was redesigned with an updated look and feel within a content management system.

The new site features many neat applications including an attractive flash header, dynamic photo gallery, video display of commercials, manageable events module and numerous custom forms. Each page displays a different photo header and includes 2-3 callouts on the right panel for added visual appeal.

Join Sage Island CEO Mike Duncan on March 18 from 7:30 to 10 a.m. at the Hilton Wilmington Riverside for the Power Breakfast Series.

Mike and other industry leaders in Wilmington will discuss leveraging the power of the Internet for your business in the down economy. Learn professional strategies for web design, search engine optimization, pay-per-click advertising, social networking and more to increase your visibility on the Web and turn your Internet presence into sales.

Visit this link for more information and registration details.

How many email marketing messages do you receive every day? You probably don’t even think about it as you hit the delete button. Every day, I delete more marketing messages than I can count, and most of them don’t hold my attention for longer than it takes me to remove them from my inbox.

The messages I’m most likely delete are the canned form emails — messages that have clearly been sent to every single person on the marketer’s list with no discernible difference.

When the message is personalized, I’m more likely to take notice. I’m not just talking about adding my name to the subject line or addressing the email to me personally (though that should be the very least you do). I’m talking about personalized marketing messages that address my needs directly.

Case in point: I order heartworm prevention medication for my dog, Howie, through 1-800-PetMeds every 6 months. Their successful use of email marketing is one of the reasons I continue to refill his prescription through them.

Every 6 months, I receive an email reminding me that it’s time to order Howie’s medication. The email message isn’t just a reminder, though. It’s a refill link. The details for my completed order are listed, including my subtotal, shipping address, and last four digits of my credit card. All I have to do is click the link, and my refill order is placed. Click through to enlarge the image:

The email isn’t just a reminder that 1-800-PetMeds wants me to order from them — it’s a useful reminder that it’s time for me to reorder for my dog, Howie. Because it’s personalized and useful to me, I’m less likely to delete and more likely to take action.

They don’t stop there, though. Periodically, I receive messages that offer solutions to common health problems for pets. The most recent asked in the subject line, “Does Howie have bad breath? If so, it could mean poor health.” Thankfully, that’s not a big problem for me, but seeing my dog’s name in the subject line linked to possible health problems sure gets my attention.

Bottom line: don’t just use email marketing to remind your customers that you exist. Use it to offer your products or services to solve their problems. Be creative with personalization, and you’ll see more conversions and fewer deleted email messages.

Creating and implementing a Google AdWords account isn’t especially difficult. You choose your keywords, write your ads, determine a budget, and voila!  You’re up and running.  However, in order to achieve success with your PPC campaign, there is a certain amount of strategy that you need to consider, especially when it comes to your keywords.

Keyword matching options basics

Google offers four different keyword matching options: broad, phrase, exact and negative.

• Broad match keywords allow your ad to show on variations of the keyword (i.e. synonyms) as well as similar phrases.  For example, if you chose a broad match keyword “phone,” your ad might be triggered by “cell phone,” “home phone service,” “headphone,” etc.
• Phrase match keywords, notated by putting quotation marks around the word, allow your ad to show on variations of your keyword phrase.  For example, if you chose a phrase match keyword “cell phone,” your ad might be triggered by “cell phone providers,” “used cell phone,” etc. New words may be added before or after your phrase, but the phrase must be intact in the correct order to trigger your ads.
• Exact match keywords, notated by brackets around the keyword, allow your ad to show only when the exact phrase is used in a search query with no words ahead or behind the keyword phrase.  In our “cell phone” example, your ad would show only when a user types the exact phrase “cell phone.”
• Negative match keywords, notated by a negative sign before the keyword, are used to ensure that ads do not show for a particular search term.  For example, if you are selling only new cell phones, you might include the term “used” as a negative keyword.

Why is this important?

The main (and most important) goal of PPC advertising is to drive targeted, highly relevant traffic to your website, which in turn will drive sales and leads, as well as serve as a powerful branding tool for your business.  However, if you are running only broad match keywords, you are most likely getting traffic from users who are not looking for the exact product or service you are providing.  At the same time, you don’t want to only use phrase and exact match, because you don’t want to miss out on the additional traffic that broad match keywords can provide.

What to do?

At the start of your campaign, choose 20-25 highly relevant and closely related keywords.  Include each of these keywords as broad, phrase, and exact match.  Give your campaign some time to run and gather data for you.  Monitor your data, and after about a month, run a Search Query Report (found in the Reports tab in your AdWords account).  This report will show you the exact search queries that triggered your ads, which ones received the best CTRs, and which ones are leading to the most conversions.  Because it shows you the exact search queries used, you can also identify any words that should be included as negative keywords.

After your campaign has had enough time to run (1-3 peak business months), delete the keywords that aren’t getting you a solid CTR or conversion rate.  You can also use your top performing keywords to expand your list using words that are close variations of your best ones.

Although it may seem overwhelming at the start to have such long keyword lists, it will pay off in the end, and you will be sure to have the most relevant, targeted traffic coming to your site.

With all the hype about the 3D Super Bowl ads and in honor of the upcoming Valentine’s holiday, Crest encourages you to pucker up to enjoy a fun and flirty 3D Kiss.

With hopes you saved your 3D glasses from the Super Bowl, Crest launched the Kiss Me 3D website. Upon entering this flirty website, you are encouraged to choose a partner, Olivia or Fernando. You are then prompted to select 3 kissing styles. Once you have created your own make-out session, you can sit back and enjoy the humorous 3D animation. Just as your date is finishing the last kiss, the campaign’s purpose is revealed and you discover this is a viral marketing campaign for Crest Whitening Strips, which are new and proven to last through anything … even during the steamiest of kisses!

Honestly, I thought this advertisement was addicting and quite humorous! I couldn’t help but ‘Kiss and Tell’ my findings with some friends so they may also enjoy a good laugh, which makes for a good Viral Marketing Campaign.

From personal experience, I have attempted the Crest Whitening Strips, but they are very annoying and slip off. After viewing this ad (and laughing quite a bit), I believe I will give the new strip a chance. I encourage everyone to check this out! Who needs a Valentine’s date when you can have a virtual moment with Olivia or Fernando … a moment that is “so real your computer screen will fog up?