February, 2021 - Mason Interactive

When an influencer regrams your brand on Instagram, it’s a huge recognition of your hard work, and also an opportunity to make $$. Besides celebrating with the crew, what can you do to leverage the regram to boost sales?

Here’s what you should do next: use your marketing channels to increase sales and brand awareness, adjust online marketing budgets, make relevant content, and check-in with operations.

Adjust pay-per-click budgets

First, get on Slack, Zoom, your cell, email – whichever – to contact your marketing team or marketing agency partner! Be sure to bring the regram to their attention, if they haven’t noticed it already. Your social and paid media account teams must respond accordingly.

An influencer response plan is an essential part of your digital strategy, once you build a decent following or build earned media. Your response plan should include a list of influencers to follow and influencers who currently follow your brand. Also, optimize your brand name keywords across all channels. Lastly, make sure the product or service the influencer regrams is optimized and has some budget. Your pay-per-click campaigns might have some automation in place, but shifting budget to ride the wave of being mentioned drives online sales your way.

Respond on social and expand your reach

Driving sales your way also means responding to the regram on social media. The quickest way to respond is by posting content to say, “Thanks for the regram!” Even if your followers don’t follow the personality, it will increase social proof and show you are generating some buzz.

To format the perfect “Regram Response” post, take a screenshot of the influencer’s posting and post it. Or – simply regram the regram. Be sure to tag the artist, create short links for your content to the product landing page, and sprinkle in some hashtags. You might even consider sharing a unique promo code to drive traffic and benefit from brand awareness.

If you are regrammed by someone with thousands or millions of followers, other influential people may comment or like the regram. Try to DM the celebs or find a way to contact them. Not sure how to go about asking them to try or share your brand? Ask your digital marketing and PR partners to look into the most appropriate approach to connect with potential advocates.

Build additional content for other awareness platforms such as Facebook, TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitter to let the world know you are getting noticed. Stay in the conversation and enjoy the excitement!

Check your inventory management system

Go into your online inventory management system (Shopify, TradeGecko, Brightpearl, etc.) to check on stock. How much inventory do you have? How can you maximize sales? Do you need to activate a waitlist? If you are low on the item in demand, a waitlist helps you acquire customer contact information and shows exclusivity. You don’t want to lose potential customers by not expediting your orders, so keep your manufacturer in the loop.

Equally important is to keep an eye on your website that might experience an influx of traffic. Visit the web page occasionally to make sure it’s running correctly and stay on top of system notifications. You will want everything to run nice and smooth.

It’s always exciting when someone recognizes the quality of your brand and the value it brings! Don’t waste an opportunity to increase sales when your brand is regrammed.

Working with an agency when a brand regrams your brand

Our jewelry client, Demarson, was recently posted on Instagram by Cardi B. Thanks to our flexible and nimble team, we are able to respond quickly to support our growing brand partners. Our paid media team adjusted ongoing campaigns right away to make the most of the brand exposure.

If you want to learn how we can help you increase sales using pay-per-click and social media advertising, sign up for a one-on-one discovery call with our strategy team.

Mason Interactive recently hosted a webinar in partnership with Google. The goal of the webinar was to give attendees some pointers about how to boost their marketing with YouTube. The virtual event was hosted by Stephanie Chan, Agency Development Manager at Google, and Adrian Padron, Director of Media at Mason Interactive. Stephanie and Adrian covered a lot of useful material and we don’t want you to miss out. Continue reading for webinar highlights.

Who Should Advertise on YouTube?

YouTube is an ideal landing place for performance and branding marketers alike. After all, they have the same goals: to elevate their brand and stand out. Whatever your goals, whether your budget is big or small, YouTube is the advertising platform for you.

Stages of Engagement and the Marketing Funnel

Your audience members are all at different stages of the decision-making process. Their “journey” begins even before they think they will need your product or service. To get results, you need to connect intelligently with your audience at every stage of the funnel. There are 4 ways to do it:

Show up at every stage of the buying cycle
Find your best audience
Target them to reach your goal
Measure growth at every step

As Stephanie points out, “The consumer journey is a lot more fluid than it used to be.” That’s why it’s called a funnel, and it consists of awareness, consideration, and action. Engaging your audience in the funnel can be complicated, but doable.

Selecting the Right Ad Format For Your Goals

To effectively meet your goals, you need the right ad format. The best way to tell a story and get your brand out there is with CPM formats. Of these, mastheads are the most effective. With the ability to get your brand on the homepage of YouTube, these generate the “largest awareness, largest reach, with the biggest impact,” reports Adrian. Stephanie adds that you can target specific demographics this way, too.

YouTube gives you three ways to engage your audience through mobile-friendly video ads: TrueView In-Stream, TrueView Discovery, and TrueView for Action. Stephanie adds, “they’re really great formats because they live in a lot of places across the internet.”

Using Key Performance Indicators to Manage Your Ad Campaign

To see how your YouTube ad campaign is faring, it’s essential to measure your performance at each stage of the decision-making process. Keeping track of clicks, conversions, store visits, and the like will help you gauge your performance. You can customize your metrics for more specific measurements. It’s also important to look at the bigger picture. As Stephanie reminds us, “If you focus too much on short-term growth, you will end up peaking early and petering out.”

YouTube marketing raises brand awareness, lifts purchase intent, and can drive hard conversions. Adrian tells viewers that they can use all the tools available to develop a “fully fleshed-out marketing strategy within the YouTube ecosystem.”

To learn more about harnessing the power of YouTube to get the results you want, contact us for a one-on-one consultation.

We are excited to announce our new partnership with Great Oaks Legacy Charter School, a college prep school in Newark, NJ.

Great Oaks Legacy Charter School ensures children and families in Newark, NJ, and surrounding areas, are college-ready with their excellent curriculum and staff. They provide a unique educational experience with 1:1 tutoring and enrichment activities.

Mason Interactive will manage paid media for Great Oaks Legacy Charter School to drive leads, enrollments, and recruitment goals. “Great Oaks Legacy is dedicated to their community, and we’re excited to help them expand digitally,” says Mason Interactive CEO Brook Llewellyn Shepard. “Education is a passion that our organizations share.”

Mason’s team of enrollment marketing experts is committed to providing schools support while going digital. If you are ready to enroll your school into digital advertising, contact us or schedule a free marketing analysis with our edu marketing team.

Learn more about Great Oaks Legacy Charter School here.

The advertising industry has seen a positive shift in recent years with brands, marketing teams, and advertising agencies paying more attention to support and relate to black communities.

Right now, the buzz words in every industry are diversity and inclusivity, and we believe that both will impact the advertising industry for decades to come. But, to understand our future, we must acknowledge our past. In honor of Black History Month and our love for the black community, let’s recognize ways black people have shaped the advertising industry in history .

5 Influential Black People in the History of Advertising

1 | Vince Cullers, Vince Cullers Advertising

Cullers (1924-2003), inspired by the rising civil rights movement, founded Vince Cullers Advertising in 1956 to create black advertising opportunities. After completing his degree at the Art Institute of Chicago, Cullers found a lack of options in the advertising market for qualified black artists. Cullers used his artistic talents to run the agency with his wife, who handled the administration. Together, they grew the company and worked with brands like Johnson Products and Kellogg’s. Today, the black and advertising community recognizes Vince Cullers Advertising as the first black agency in the United States.

70% of black Millenials (the generation with the most considerable buying power today) say they are more likely to buy from a brand that takes a stand on race-related issues.
Think with Google

2 | Tom Burrell, Burrell Communications

Burrell was one of the first black men advertising in Chicago in the 1960s. After receiving many awards in the Chicago area and leading multicultural campaigns for brands like McDonalds, Burrell entered the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2004. Burrell is known as being a “change agent in targeted marketing” in the advertising industry. Today, Burrell Communications leads transcultural campaigns for global brands.

3 | Carol H Williams, Carol H. Williams Advertising

Williams began her advertising company in 1986. Since then, Williams has created notable campaigns for Disney, Secret, Pillsbury, and many more. Inducted into the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2017, Williams remains an influential voice for advertising to the ever-sophisticated black audience. In 2020, Williams accepted the Ad Ages “Vanguard Award” for her lifetime achievements.

4 | Roy Eaton, Roy Eaton Music Agency

The world knows Eaton for his ad music and jingles, including one for Beefaroni from the 1960s. Eaton may have been one of the first black advertisers in New York. In 1982, the New York Times called him a “pioneer in the field of ad agency music direction” in an article announcing the opening of Roy Eaton Music. Eaton is retired today but joined the Advertising Hall of Fame in 2010.

5 | Caroline Jones, Caroline Jones Inc

Jones was one of the first prominent, black, and female advertisers in New York City. Jones obtained her bachelor’s degree in English and challenged gender and racial barriers in the advertising industry. She began as the first African-American copywriter for J. Walter Thompson. Jones worked her way into roles like Creative Director, Executive Vice President, and President of Caroline Jones, Inc. Jones died of breast cancer at 59 years old. Still, the National Museum of American History keeps her story alive.

There are so many more black people bringing their creativity and skill to marketing and advertising. As a diverse digital advertising agency, we’re committed to supporting black advertisers, brands, and people. Whether as advertisers or consumers, the black community brings a beautiful perspective to our digital and real worlds ‍ .

Stay connected with Blacks in Advertising by following @blacksinadvertising on Instagram.

Happy Black History Month!

We are thrilled to announce our new partnership with the natural beauty brand Vapour Beauty.

Vapour Beauty founders, Krysia and Kristine, bring luxury to clean beauty with plant-based formulas that nurture and enhance your skin. Their makeup and beauty products build on values like performance, purity, environmental respect, and cruelty-free testing.

Our team will manage paid media for Vapour Beauty to drive sales and brand awareness. “We’re happy to have Vapour Beauty as a client, and we’re looking forward to being their strategic partner,” says Mason Interactive CEO Brook Llewellyn Shepard. “We enjoy supporting brands with integrity and helping them grow.”

We are committed to providing brands with excellent service and support on their digital adventures. If you’re ready to take the first steps on your journey, contact us or schedule a free marketing analysis with our digital experts.

Learn more about Vapour Beauty here.

We are thrilled to announce that we recently added a leading beverage brand, Hella Cocktail Co., to our growing portfolio of CPG brands.

Founded 10 years ago in a small Brooklyn apartment, Eddie, Tobin and Jomaree started making cocktail bitters in mason jars because they couldn’t find a product on the market that fit their core preferences: Bold Flavor, Real Ingredients and Hospitality. They married the three, and Hella Cocktail Co. was born.

From nationwide distribution in Whole Foods to being offered as an in-flight beverage option on Delta Airlines, the Hella team is shifting their focus to connecting with their end consumers and supporting the expansion of their ecommerce sales channel.

“Ten years into operating Hella Cocktail Co., we are more energized and optimistic than ever. Not only because of the successful launch of our category-defining new sparkling beverage, Bitters & Soda. But also because, perhaps for the first time, technology and consumer behavior have aligned to allow direct-to-consumer beverage brands to scale while maintaining complete control of the customer relationship”, says Eddie Simeon, Co-Founder.

Mason Interactive has a sterling reputation in both customer satisfaction and digital expertise, the vanguard of an honest, engaging, and high-return D2C business.”
Eddie Simeon – Co-Founder, Hella Cocktail

The focus of this exciting direct-to-consumer partnership is to build a long-term digital marketing strategy that will drive brand awareness and increased eCommerce sales. Mason’s team will be responsible for managing all advertising for Hella Cocktail Co.’s products, with an emphasis on growing the Bitters & Soda line.

“We are proud to add Hella Cocktail Co. to our client portfolio”, says Mason Interactive CEO Brook Llewellyn Shepard. “With a distinguished reputation in the cocktail industry, their established and industry-vetted line of non-alcoholic mixers and products offer everything you need to win the direct to consumer game.

Learn more about Hella Cocktail Co., here