LaBarge+Partners

Generation C

Posted February 24th, 2012 by McCown Bridges

Generation C is the new Generation Y.

Nielsen has come up with a new name for the 18- 34-year-olds who make up 23 percent of our population. And guess what the “C” stands for?

Connected.

That’s right. It should come as no surprise that 18- 34-year-olds are the nation’s most connected people. Yes, we were the first to join the Facebook bandwagon (back when you had to have a college e-mail address to join), but that’s not even the start of our connections.

Twitter. Pinterest. FourSquare. Tumblr. Instagram. Blogging. Flickr. Diptic. Fotogramme. Google+. LinkedIn. StumbleUpon. And the list goes on…

Social media is our way of life. Not only do we not remember the days of telephone party lines, but we find it normal to see a picture of what each of our 500 closest friends eats for dinner!

Nielsen writes: “Their ownership and use of connected devices makes them incredibly unique consumers, representing both a challenge and opportunity for marketers and content providers alike. Generation C is engaging in new ways and there are more touch points for marketers to reach them.”

For real stats concerning Generation C, have a look a this infographic by Nielsen.

(click picture to enlarge)

What does this mean for marketing?

Social media, now more than ever, cannot be ignored when targeting 18-34-year-olds. There is no question that social media is an effective tool. Businesses must use cyberspace to reach the demographic on these sites.

The catch? Your brand better be ready to have a two-way conversation. This Generation C likes to have their opinions known, too!

A Note about Copy

Posted February 13th, 2012 by McCown Bridges

“The difference between the almost right word and the right word is the difference between the lightning bug and the lightning.”

-Mark Twain

A Tribute to Typography

Posted February 9th, 2012 by McCown Bridges

3-D is one of the “it” designs of the 21^st century. And here at L+P, we love design.

Designers at Ravensbourne University worked with London-based studio, Johnson Banks, on a 3-D alphabet that not only illustrated rapidly increasing technology, but also showcased the past century of typography — from an early sans serif to an interlocking puzzle of J’s.

Check out this video of each of the letters.

(Arkitypo: letter rotations from johnson banks on Vimeo.)

We dare you not to be impressed.

It’s a Wild Ride

Posted January 20th, 2012 by McCown Bridges

At L+P, our job is to create ideas. But not just any ideas. Good ideas. Great ideas. Ideas that work.

Sometimes, the road to an idea can be a wild ride.

This infographic by Virus Comix illustrates the many twists, turns and loops on the road to success in the Creative Process.

Every idea starts out in the same place.

But some ideas enter the seemingly-never-ending racetrack of desperation. Others must make a pit stop at motivation.

Zoom past laziness. Don’t get stuck in the loops of over-thinking. And…VOILA!

Jump in with us and join the fun.

It Takes Two to Travel

Posted January 11th, 2012 by McCown Bridges

Scandinavian Airlines encourages its customers to enjoy their frequent flyer miles in a very creative way:

Couple Up to Buckle Up from Tobias Carlson on Vimeo.

Using 140 Characters to Give a Better Presentation

Posted January 3rd, 2012 by McCown Bridges

No matter what type of job you have, sooner or later you’ll (perhaps begrudgingly) be asked to give a presentation – whether its to a roomful of people or just your boss.

In the marketing industry, we’re constantly speaking publicly: to clients and consumers. Communication is our specialty.

That’s why we were intrigued when a recent article published by Fast Company encouraged its readers to “speak in Twitter sound bites” to improve public speaking. They explained that today’s audience members are likely to tweet a quote from your presentation, so a funny pun or sound bite might grab their attention.

In a world driven by social media, its not surprising that Twitter has made its way to even public speaking presentations, but we’re suggesting another way to take this advice:

We’ve all heard the research that today’s Americans are much less patient and attentive than just a generation ago. Perhaps this is the best presentation advice we’ve heard since learning to imagine the audience members in their underwear.

Keep your audience, however big or small it may be, enthralled by refusing to ramble. Take advantage of its short attention span by grabbing its interest with the information you have to offer, and then stop. The audience members will be so impressed with your refreshing brevity that they won’t even have time to tweet how bored they are.

Digital Yearbook

Posted December 30th, 2011 by Erica DeGroff

Google’s 2011 Year Review – a digital yearbook of how we lived.

Until we meet again, “stay foolish”

- LaBarge+Partners

2011: What A Crazy Ride

Posted December 22nd, 2011 by Erica DeGroff

2011.

It’s been quite a year for the LaBarge+Partners team.

Like most in our industry, we’ve had ups and downs this year….

Times when business was won and times when the budgets were lean.

Times when the insight was right and the execution was brilliant.

Times when the decisions were hard and the outcomes were painful.

Times we were steadfast and times we were speechless.

And through it all, we survived.
Through it all, we flourished.

We thought, wrote, created, collaborated, invented, mapped, traveled, challenged, played, designed, researched, analyzed, planned, pitched and high fived our way through the year…

And we loved every minute of it.

So thank you 2011, we’ll miss you. Cheers to 2012, we can’t wait to see what you have in store for us.

Thank you to our wonderful teammates, partners and clients for joining us on this wild ride - It has been an honor and privilege.

Happy Holidays from our LaBarge+Partner family to yours.