#MarketSmart Quotes: Great quotes that inspire us to be better advertisers, communicators, innovators and content creators for our clients! Topics include: advertising, client relations, creativity and innovation. Difference between good and great marketing by MasonInteractive.com.
Meet The Team is where we feature one member of our team a month, so you can get to know a bit more about us, apart from what our voices sound like on the phone during our weekly updates with you.
Brian Poole, or Poole, as we all call him, heads up our Email Services division. He is our resident all-things-email expert. Brian’s ability to seamlessly integrate his team with the various moving parts required to deliver multi-tiered, efficient, and effective email campaigns is why our clients enjoy working with him so much. Since moving to Vermont (where he works remotely), we don’t get to see him in person as much as we’d like to, so he gave us a framed picture of himself just so, ya know, we wouldn’t forget what he looks like (even though we FaceTime with him daily).
If I wasn’t in digital marketing, I would… be a ski bum. If not in New York City, I would live… in Burlington, Vermont…oh wait. If I had to be outdoors all day, I would… assume it’s the weekend, because that when I’m outdoors all day. [probably to make up for the fact that he’s glued to his computer the rest of the week] If I could go back in time for one decade, it would be… The 1490s so I could discover america…come on, celebration city! [We’re not quite sure what he means but we’re going to assume that he thinks the 1490s would have ‘wicked cool paatying’…] As A Teenager, I was totally into… My initial answer is not workplace appropriate so let’s go with riding my bike. The fictional character I’d be best friends with in real life is… Curious George. [Would you wear a big yellow hat?] The last thing I purchased online was… Christmas presents. The last book I read was… BRUCE by Pete Ames Carlin (the Springsteen biography I got for Christmas). The last song I listened to was… Franky Fell in Love by Bruce Springsteen My cocktail of choice is… a Manhattan.
JC Penney Pretends To Be Totally Wasted at SuperBowl, Marc Jacobs Shop Accepts Cash, Credit and TWEETS, Facebook Helps Us Cut Out The Middleman and Launches Paper App – What You Missed On the Internet from MasonInteractive.com.
JC Penney just wanted you to think they were drunk tweeting during last night’s SuperBowl. They admitted stunt was a total success, if by total success you mean a completely inorganic “Oreo moment” that will be forgotten in a week, then yes, it was a success … [BuzzFeed]
Apparently, social media does pay off: You can go into NYFW Marc Jacobs Pop-Up and receive a free MJ gift with purchase fragrance products by sending a tweet (or facebook Tweeting, Instagraming or Facebooking. You know what brands should totally give away their products for free? Neither do we. [Fashionista]
Platform News Alert – Facebook Announced last week Website Custom Audiences for Facebook Ads. This feature will allow brands to target website visitors and mobile app users WITHOUT having to use FBX 3rd Party Partners. [AllFacebook] In related news, Adroll & Perfect Audience are like, totally, not speaking to Facebook right now. Facebook Launched it’s free gesture-driven mobile newsfeed app Paper yesterday… for more details check out our review of Facebook Paper [MasonInteractive].
After downloading, and poking around Paper, I can definitely say with confidence that once you try this app, you wont go back. Most of what you can do in the regular Facebook app, you can do in Facebook Paper (plus: it’s basically the visual equivalent of a warm glass of milk…all those soothing, animated panoramas).
Admittedly, I downloaded the app with pretty low expectations but the sleek and simplified design coupled with the high-definition, animated panning image-rich newsfeed got me hooked. Let’s go over some of the basics: What Is Paper, Really: A newsreader app on steroids.
Why Should I Want It? (1) The app interface and (2) the sections of news organized by topic. Interface Facebook’s usual design elements have been completely abandoned including the company’s trademark blue trim and emphasis on lots and lots of vertical scrolling for a sleek, minimalist-inspired aesthetic. Paper makes liberal use of white space to draw your eye towards photos or text, and images are often full-bleed, taking over your entire screen. If you swipe up on a card, a web view of the linked article folds open, Flipboard-style. When you’re finished reading, you can pull down on an article to close it like an envelope. With the addition of themed news sections combined with the absence of ads, makes us like Paper even more. Of course, we don’t expect Facebook Ads to never surface in Paper, but for now it’s quite nice to be ad free.
Sections = Multiple News Feeds Facebook organizes each ‘newsfeed’ around a particular theme. I’ve counted 19 so far. With a large content panel on the top, smaller horizontally-scrolling ones on the bottom, lots of big images and loads of fluid animation effects, everything’s been made visually cleaner. As far as I can tell, everybody who chooses to browse a section gets exactly the same feed, chosen by human editors rather than a fancy algorithm that knows I like to read about fashion trends but don’t care much about beauty tutorials etc. So the sections don’t feel especially “curated” to my ‘interests’.
Battle of the Apps: Facebook vs Paper – The inevitable decision between old and new comes down to what features you use: If you use lists, apps or events frequently (which I don’t), you’re likely to stay with your existing Facebook App. Paper retains the features/newsfeed items we’ve come to expect from Facebook (pithy news headlines, BuzzFeed links, photos, etc.) and none of the features we hate i.e. the Ads. For me, it’s not even a choice—Paper is the only Facebook app I’ll be using to “browse” Facebook on my phone. However, even my enthusiasm over this new app doesn’t fill me with enough confidence to completely abandon the regular app. I imagine most of us, myself included, will use both apps until the time comes where Facebook has proven the staying power of Paper. However, building users’ trust, especially with Facebook’s shoddy track record launching apps in the past, will only happen over time.
Pros of Facebook Paper App by Mason Interactive – Aesthetically Pleasing, Responsive News Feed, Items Are Bookmark Enabled (Pockt, Instapaper, Pinboard, and Safari’s Reading List). Multiple Newsfeeds Organized by Theme.
Cons of Facebook App Paper by Mason Interactive – Content chosen is not customized to my Likes, Favors Certain Major News Outlets (All Condé Nast Publications, National Geographic, NYT), Ambiguous News Categories (like Glow, Well Lived, All City etc.).
#MarketSmart Quotes: Great quotes that inspire us to be better advertisers, communicators, innovators and content creators for our clients! Topics include: advertising, client relations, creativity and innovation. Invest in Storytelling at MasonInteractive.com
#MarketSmart Quotes: Great quotes that inspire us to be better advertisers, communicators, innovators and content creators for our clients! Topics include: advertising, client relations, creativity and innovation.
