The scent of red roses fill the air. Heart-shaped boxes of chocolates line the shops. Delivery people are working overtime. Because it’s Valentine’s Day.

It’s the one day of the year when showing the love is mandatory. But what happens on those other days? Where is the love then?

An important marketing question for this occasion is: When do you show your customers love? Birthdays? Valentine’s Day? April Fool’s Day? Perhaps you make it a habit to show them how much they mean to you. Showing love doesn’t have to be a one-time thing. It can – and should – be a regular practice that builds a deeper relationship between you and your customers without smothering them in your branding.

Here’s another question: would your husband/wife/future spouse prefer a carload of tinted carnations that are wilted compost after 8 days OR a kiss on the lips accompanied with “Everyday I see how lucky I am that you chose me. But today I see it more than ever?”

They say it’s the little things that keep relationships going. Who cleaned out the dishwasher? Little things. Maybe you create a promotion for your most loyal customers. Or send a special message via Facebook, Twitter or email. Drop a custom note and gift in the mail. Actually pick up the phone and say “Hi there. You have been a critical part of this success, and this relationship just keeps getting better.”

While we are on this love topic, do you love your company? We sure do, here at Ignite. We can’t stand to call in sick. We go on vacation and shut off our smartphones, but we never shut off our ideas…our creativity. Our passion.

Happy Valentine’s Day, sweetheart.

This week’s postcard is derived from an ad form called the ‘tombstone.’ It’s a visually stark, copy-heavy execution used only for the highest honors. Publishing companies use tombstones when their authors receive the National Book Award, a Pulitzer, the Nobel Prize. Fortune 500 companies announce mergers and acquisitions on tombstones.

That is how we see the Super Bowl. It’s the pinnacle of commercial broadcast hutzpah. Everything is big. The directors. The cast. The budgets. And most notably the timing. Try running a 1 minute 30 second ad during, say, the 5 o’clock news. In a nutshell, the event has become so special, the Super Bowl interrupts ads with football.

For Samsung’s first appearance in this format, ‘congratulations’ is not even a big enough word.  And though Ignite is not directly related to the TV spot itself, we are proud to work for clients like Samsung who believed in such a monumental catalyst for the Samsung Galaxy Note™.

Knowing that we work with, represent, and create on behalf of a client that will make the ultimate leap in the advertising world is a measure of immense pride. It is a bold move Samsung made, perfectly suited to the Big Game, to stand against their major competitor in the biggest arena available. And say “Bring it on.”

So, from our small but loud section of the stadium, “ROAR!”

Remember all through the 2000′s, when you’d get those souvenir glasses where the zeroes formed the eyeholes? It’s been two years now since those were an option. Sigh. Sure at first, they seemed gimmicky and obvious. Yet, now they can never come back into our design vocabulary. That’s a bit sad.

Nostalgia…that longing for a time we can never return to.

As we stand on the platform of 2011, waiting for 2012 to roll into the station, let’s take a moment to observe all the great things that happened to us this year. Then, turn our focus to the future. Because, we don’t need gimmicky glasses.

Cheers. Let’s raise new glasses to 2012, and to us.

Hope you enjoy our little inspiration to what warms our hearts this holiday season, from all the hands here at Ignite Partnership.  What a year it’s been!  Best wishes to our clients, friends and marketing peers whose support continues to inspire us.  Thank you all very much.

Sometimes the story behind the ad goes further than the ad itself. Viral potential means a lot.

Text messaging limited time offers to loyal customers is becoming increasingly popular, and I found this article from the Dallas Morning News about Scotty P’s restaurant interesting for several reasons.  Here’s what they’re doing:

"By "it," she means occasional text messages sent by Scotty P’s offering a BOGO or another food deal. But "it" always comes with a catch: It has to be used at lunchtime on the day the message is sent.

Scott Pontikes put on this test for The Dallas Morning News to show what typically happens when the founder of Frisco-based Scotty P’s uses an automated, mass text messaging service offered by another Frisco company, Call-Em-All LLC.

In this case, Pontikes (pronounced Pon-tee-kez) sent out texts at 10:30 a.m. to 64 customers who have designated the Preston-Forest unit as their Scotty P’s location of choice.

The first customer arrived at 11:15 a.m. with his text message on his phone in hand.

During the four-hour promotion, 11 text-toting customers showed up, each with at least one other person in tow. They spent nearly $200 – money the restaurant probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise."

 Here’s what I like about their text message usage:

1. Local and targeted: Able to reach specific customers to drive action during a limited time usage – lunch, day-only BOGO.

2. The BOGO: Buy One Get One burger. The loyal customers receive a text and bring a friend, who might not so aware of the product experience.  Opportunity to turn a newbie into a new fan.  And the the loyal customer who got the text gets that hero feeling among the group staying "in the know."

3. Impulse product: Quick serve restaurants are a good candidate for impulse marketing like this, pushing a menu of proven high-frequency purchases with customers.  Disrupt someone around lunchtime and get some incremental activity before the choice is made.

Here’s what I’d be careful about:

1. Frequent Discounting: At least the BOGO forces incremental purchase and bringing a friend in. (Unless you’d eat two burgers!).  But generally couponing is dangerous needle in the arm for generating quick sales.  It feels good short term, but if done too often, you train your most loyal fans to wait to purchase until the deal is on.  So longterm, you’ve sacrificed the potential ring with the group that already believed in the brand value.  When’s the last time you went into Bed Bath and Beyond without a 20% off direct mailer?  When’s the last time you bought Coke or Pepsi products off special?  Just sayin’.  As long as you keep the offer a stimulating surprise that has other benefits (like trial with a potential new customer), then adding value like this (Not just discounting! There is a difference) can be a powerful ally in a balanced marketing campaign.

I always tell our smaller business clientele that you don’t have to be big or spend big to think big. This Dallas area exterminator is a good testament to that as he has mastered the art of promotion and taken his local business to the national stage on multiple occasions. 

From the Dallas Morning News:

"Bohdan, 63, is no stranger to national TV, having parlayed a sense for self-promotion, some eccentricity, and a little luck into dozens of appearances on television.

He’s even turned his 200-square-foot shop in central Plano, The Pest Shop, into a tourist attraction of sorts with his Cockroach Hall of Fame & Museum. About 6,000 people walk in every year, said Bohdan, who walks with a limp and wears a green felt fedora dotted with the carcasses of 14 cockroaches.

Some come to see his collection of dressed-up roaches; others like to hear about the time he was on The Tonight Show or when he met Joan Rivers."

Diesel stars in this video shoot.  The brand filmed a remake of a movie scene for its website and imbedded its 2010 clothing collection inside the production.  After the production loads let the video play. Then simply mouse over any frame to reveal information about a particular item or cast member.  Very cool and a great example of how marketing with interactive tools can improve a brand experience without sacrificing focus on a product/service.

ViaComIt blog also shows the original movie scene on its post.  Thanks to Design You Trust for the featuring the link.

Using pop-up brand experiences and stores are well known but rarely well done in the industry. This was an interesting article from the Dallas Morning News about their use and a good reminder that the combination of creating purchase urgency and consumer discovery can make great things happen. 

Cope says: "Our slogan is, ‘The gallery guaranteed to close.’ I like the fact that it’s temporary, that you can only come on weekends. You kind of have to be in the know."

Strick believes that’s the value of pop-ups. "It’s that currency of being ‘in the know’ and also, you can be that current," he says, citing "Modern Ruin" as a prime example. "You can decide to do something, let people know immediately, and do it right then. You don’t have to buy ads or make a poster."