Viewing posts categorised under: Maui Advertising Features

January 20, 2024

How to Select The Best Hawaii Advertising Agency for Your Business

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials.

How Do I Select the Best Hawaii Advertising Agency?

Updated: January 20, 2024

Team Vision Marketing is a full-service advertising and marketing agency that has been serving Hawaii clients for over 25 years. We thought it might be helpful to provide Hawaii businesses with an insider’s perspective on the key things you should look for when searching for a new Hawaii advertising agency. Here are our 9 key recommendations.

1. First, decide which specific marketing services you need.

Find an ad agency that specializes in those specific marketing services. If you only need a logo, there may be one graphic design agency that really shines in logo design and you might want to go with them. If you’re in need of a full-service advertising agency to handle all of your advertising and marketing needs, then search Google for Hawaii Full-Service Advertising Agencies and start there. Every agency has their core strengths from branding and web design to social media management, graphic design and digital marketing, and you’ll want to find the one that best meets your specific needs.

2. Get client referrals.

Direct Referrals: When you’re looking for a new agency, try to get referrals from their existing clients, and ideally from someone you know within their client’s company directly. Cold calling an agency’s client might yield similar results to a typical employee reference (most HR managers are going to give you the safe answer and not ruin the employee’s chances of getting the job). You’ll want to talk to someone in the client’s organization that you know and who will give you the straight story on how well their advertising agency performs for them.

Video Testimonials: Good agencies with a solid track record will normally offer client video testimonials on their web site. Video testimonials are much better than simple text testimonials because you don’t really know who is behind the text only testimonials, who actually wrote them, and how sincere they really are. Video testimonials take time out of the client’s day and it really puts their reputation on the line. In our experience, if clients are willing to make the effort to do a video testimonial for an advertising agency, they sincerely have a strong relationship with that agency and believe in their referral.

 3. Make sure the advertising agency handles accounts similar to yours.

Let’s face it, if you run a Hawaii luxury hotel brand, it will be really helpful if you hire an agency that has previous experience in managing the full-service marketing for a Hawaii luxury hotel. This is not to say a good agency can’t learn a new industry or business, but guess who is going to be the one to have to teach them… and pay for their learning curve? If you are looking for a new advertising and marketing agency and need them to get up to speed and running quickly, it makes the most sense to hire an agency that has handled an account similar to yours.

4. Whatever services an ad agency is selling to you, make sure they are executing them well for their own business.

We call it putting your money where your mouth is. If an agency claims to be great at web design, check out their own web site and make sure it is top-notch. If they claim to be great at social media, check out their Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and other social accounts to make sure they are active, innovative, and check on their user engagement levels. If an agency claims to be great at search engine optimization, make sure to search for some key industry phrases (i.e. Hawaii advertising agencies, Hawaii Marketing Agencies, Hawaii Branding firms, Hawaii social media agencies, etc.) on Google Search and see where they show up in the results. A good advertising and marketing agency will utilize all the key marketing tools and services they are selling to you (after all, an agency is a business and needs to market itself) and they make sure their marketing programs are high quality– since it is a representation of what they can do for you. Sometimes agencies will use the excuse that they are “too busy with client work to maintain their own marketing,” but this is another good indication that the agency may not have enough resources to handle your business needs.

5. Make sure there is a personality and cultural fit between the advertising agency and your company.

In our over 20 years of doing business in Hawaii, we can tell you that each client has a very unique personality. Without mentioning names :), some clients are extremely easy to work with, some are difficult, some are very complimentary, some are micro-managers, and then there are others that trust in your expertise and let you run with everything. These same characteristics mentioned above apply to agencies  as well. Here are our recommendations on how to address the agency culture issue.

Meet the key team members. You will want to meet your main contacts for each of the major departments: Account Service Executive, Creative Director, Media Manager, Social Media Manager, Web Manager, Production Manager. In addition to the formal pitch meeting, set up a casual get to know you lunch. Ask questions to each team member and let their personalities unfold. When agencies and clients work together intensely on major ongoing projects, flexibility, multi-tasking, the ability to handle stress and problem-solving skills will all come into play. Make sure your prospective agency team members possess most of these traits.

Ask their clients about the agency’s personality. It will be hard to gauge an advertising agency’s personality in one or two meetings, so the best thing you can do is get client referrals. Call and ask their existing client’s things like: Are they easy to work with? Are they flexible? Are they reasonable with their billing and do they charge rush charges? Do you trust them? Are they fair? Can they react quickly when it’s needed?

 6. Review an agency’s portfolio of work.

An established full-service advertising agency will have an extensive portfolio of advertising, graphic design, web design, social media, digital marketing and search engine optimization portfolio examples. They will also have examples of each of these core services for different clients in different industries which will give you a good feel for their quality and consistency across a range of clients. Most agencies will offer these portfolios on their web site, but others may require you to go into their office to view them. This alone could be another sign of whether or not the ad agency is a good fit for you. If your company is a technology forward company, you might not be a good fit for an agency who doesn’t practice that same type of thinking in the day to day operation of their business.

7. Make sure your ad agency understands the Hawaii market.

A growing trend we’ve seen over the past ten to fifteen years is Hawaii clients using mainland-based advertising, web design and social media firms. In some cases, this works out just fine. In other cases, we have received many client complaints about the “lack of understanding of our culture, our market, our language nuances (i.e. use of okina and kahako).” If your business is a Hawaii business that caters to locals and visitors, we recommend you hire a local Hawaii advertising agency. The reason, you likely want your business to be branded as local and authentic, and not the typical “palm trees and hula skirts” representation often developed by non-local agencies. In addition to just understanding the overall Hawaii market, an experienced advertising agency that has worked with clients on the different islands of Oahu, Maui, The Big Island of Hawaii, Kauai and Lanai, will understand that there are also different cultural nuances for each island. This becomes very important when executing campaigns in local island markets.

8. Don’t hire an agency solely based on their past, look toward their future.

Yes, ideally you want to choose an advertising agency that has longevity and a proven track record in the Hawaii market, but you don’t want to choose an agency that has outlived its success and one that is resting on its laurels. Find out how well the agency understands and utilizes technology. Have they consistently demonstrated a leadership position in the marketplace for adapting to, and implementing, the latest technologies in web design, social media, digital displays, etc.? Technology is advancing more rapidly than ever before, so you want to hire an agency that has proven it has the ability to guide you through future changes.

9. Don’t choose by price alone.

Look, we’ve seen it all and can only offer you advice based on our experiences. Don’t always go after the lowest bid. Many times, less reputable agencies will lowball the initial bid to get the business and then try to increase fees later on. Other agencies may truly offer a low price, but are you getting the same level of service you would have received from the agency charging a little more? Going for the low-cost agency could result in downgrading the quality of talent on your business (the B Team) and provide you with a lower quality product. Instead, pay the agency fairly and increase savings by improving operational efficiencies. You are hiring an agency for the quality of its creative products and services, so don’t undermine that by tightening the reigns too tight on compensation.

We hope you found these tips helpful on “how to select the best Hawaii advertising agency for your company.” If you are in the process of looking for a new Hawaii advertising agency, we kindly ask that you consider Team Vision Marketing as an option. We’re more than happy to be tested on the nine initial criteria we provided above. And in the meantime, you can check out our client video testimonials and our extensive web site portfolio.

Hear from Harry A. Saunders, President of Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his 20 years of experience working with Team Vision.

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July 26, 2023

How AI Will Transform Marketing

2023 is here, which means that as a Hawaii business owner, you’re seeking to learn about the planned marketing trends for the new year and beyond.

In this blog post, we will dive into a high-level overview of how Artificial Intelligence will transform the way in which we execute marketing programs from now forward.

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio, or client video testimonials.

How AI Will Transform Marketing

At Team Vision Marketing, we believe that artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way businesses market their products and services, and it’s only going to become more integral in the years ahead. From personalizing advertisements to optimizing ad spend, AI is revolutionizing the world of marketing and smart marketing agencies will begin learning about, and incorporating, AI strategies into their marketing programs.

So, what does the future of AI in marketing look like? Here are a few predictions:

  1. Personalization will become even more sophisticated: AI can analyze customer data to create personalized experiences for each individual user. This includes personalized ads, emails, and even product recommendations.
  2. Chatbots will become more prevalent: Chatbots powered by AI can handle customer inquiries and provide personalized responses in real time, freeing up time for human customer service representatives to handle more complex issues.
  3. AI-powered content creation will become more common: AI can analyze data to create personalized content that resonates with specific audiences. This includes blog posts, social media posts, and even video content.
  4. AI will be able to optimize ad spend: AI can analyze data to determine which marketing channels are most effective, allowing businesses to allocate their ad budgets more efficiently.

At Team Vision Marketing, we are excited to leverage the power of AI in our marketing efforts. Here are a few examples of how we are planning to incorporate AI into our Hawaii advertising client’s marketing programs.

  1. Personalize advertisements: We will use AI to analyze customer data and create personalized ads that are more likely to resonate with specific individuals.
  2. Optimize ad spend: AI helps us determine which marketing channels are most effective, allowing us to allocate our ad budgets more efficiently.
  3. Use chatbots to improve customer service: Chatbots, powered by AI, can handle customer inquiries and provide personalized responses in real-time, freeing up time for our human customer service representatives to handle more complex issues. We are already using AI-powered chatbots through third-party click-to-chat applications and we plan on exploring a deeper integration of this technology in the coming year.
  4. Create personalized content: We use AI to analyze data and create personalized content that resonates with a specific audience- such as this blog post, for example.

In conclusion, the future of AI in marketing is bright, and we at Team Vision Marketing are excited to be at the forefront of this exciting new technology. We are confident that our use of AI will allow us to improve our marketing efforts and provide better experiences for our Hawaii advertising and marketing clients. To learn more about our full-service Hawaii advertising and marketing agency, please visit www.www.teamvision.com. View our extensive creative portfolio at www.www.teamvision.com/porfolio.  View our client video testimonials at www.www.teamvision.com/clients

Here at Team Vision Marketing, we stay on top of the latest news and trends in advertising, marketing and social media to ensure that our services will help our clients achieve their annual business goals.  For more information on our marketing services, please check out our portfolio.

If you’re looking to step up your digital marketing and advertising efforts, reach out to Team Vision, Hawaii’s leading digital marketing and advertising firm serving clients on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, The Big Island of Hawaii, and Lanai.  We’re more than happy to help!

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Hear from Bruce Barrett, VP of Sales & Marketing at Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

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Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

June 14, 2020

Social Media Marketing Trends

2020 is here, which means that as a Hawaii business owner, you need to learn about the planned social media marketing trends for this new year.

In this blog post, we will dive into six predictions and  social media marketing tips for 2020 that your brand should consider trying out in the new year.

If you’ve landed on our Hawaii Marketing Tips blog by accident while searching for Team Vision Marketing, please visit our homepage, creative portfolio or client video testimonials.

1. likes are out and posting authentic content is in

If you haven’t heard already, Likes are “disappearing” from Facebook and Instagram posts, a solution that Facebook hopes will decrease bullying and the pressure of getting the most likes. Of course, Likes won’t totally disappear, instead, organic and sponsored social media posts will show Likes from people who you follow, which Facebook is calling “Likes with content.”The date when this major update will roll out in the US is undetermined, but seven countries have recently undergone testing.

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Not only will this update help decrease the negative psychological consequences of being on social media (and Facebook’s bad PR), but it will also change the way social media influencers and brands post and evaluate their engagements. Team Vision Marketing sees that the update will inspire users to post more authentic and relaxed content.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: We recommend posting content that your audience can connect with and  that will evoke deeper interactions, like customer testimonies. Get inspired with our blog post on the different types of social media content that can help boost your engagements. This is how your brand will generate stronger leads and cultivate a community on social media.

2. Video Marketing will be shorter and more entertaining

As we head towards video oversaturation on social media feeds, brands have to become savvier with what kind of video content to produce in order to engage their audiences. For 2020, we predict that more brands will engage in posting quick, entertaining clips to promote their products and services. This might come in the form of a Story video ad, a quick step-by-step tutorial, short live streams, short “shows” and “skits”, and more.

We feel that social media video marketing is heading in this direction because we know that younger markets, like Gen Z, prefer using short audio and video snippets to communicate on the web and mobile. In fact, WhatsApp reported that 100 million of their users use the in-app video chat. Not to mention, TikTok, a 15 to 60 second short video based social media platform, is a mega hit with younger age groups with 500 million monthly active users globally.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: We recommend that your brand run tests on what type of video content will perform best on your feeds and Stories. Maybe post a word-of -the-day video, where you share helpful industry terms, team introduction videos, or clips from a recent company event. Read more about the growth of video marketing and vertical video tips on our recent marketing tips blog posts.

3. ADA Compliance will become a must on social media

ADA compliance standards are making progressive legal steps on the web. According to the LA Times, the Supreme Court will allow visually impaired consumers to sue retailers if their websites are not accessible.  Although ADA compliance regulations are not strongly managed by the government, companies are now ensuring that their web sites are optimized to provide “full and equal enjoyment of the goods and services… of any place of public accommodations” to visually impaired customers.

Although this important mandate is currently being enforced with online retailers, it will eventually be enforced on social media platforms, as well. We already see evidence of social media platforms taking the ADA compliance trend seriously on Facebook and Instagram, where users are now able to add Alt text to their visual content.

Not sure what an Alt text is? An alternative text or Alt text is an HTML attribute in the form of a word or phrase that describes the visual content it’s assigned to. Screen readers will read this text, making the content accessible for the visually impaired. For the non-visually impaired, the alt text will become visible if the content cannot be rendered.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: Start adding Alt Text to all of your visual content, keep your eyes out for developing ADA features for social media, and stay informed on the ADA compliance standards.

4. 2020 will be the year of e-social media commerce.

With Instagram’s newly launched shopping product tags, shopping posts, and the addition of the “buy now” button on sponsored ads, we predict that e-social media commerce will become more mainstream in 2020. Despite being in its infancy, the adaptation of direct transactions through the app feature has already proven to be promising. According to Instagram, the product tag attracted 130 million people to tap on it every month, which is an increase of 90 million over last year.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: Combine engaging content with the Instagram product tags. For example, instead of posting just a photo of a product, post a shot from a recent photoshoot, an aesthetic flat lay, or repost a photo of a customer using your product.

5. Product searches will become more visual on social media

Pinterest’s CEO Ben Silbermann claimed that “the future of search will be about pictures rather than keywords.” We also see the awareness and use of visual search becoming more mainstream on social media in 2020 as the e-social media commerce trend kicks off. This will make conversions through social media even more convenient and favorable.

If you find yourself asking what a visual search is, Team Vision Marketing is here to break it down for you. Instead of typing “drone camera and accessories” into the search bar, you can snap a photo of the desired product or highlight a part of an image to conduct a search. You will then be directed to an image based search results page showing similar products.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: With this developing social media feature, we recommend that, if possible, you make the image file name, Alt text, and image title as descriptive as possible and include popular image search keywords. You will also want to look into running ads on Pinterest, where there are reportedly 600 million Pinterest Lens searches every month.

6. Niche social media advertising is on the rise

In 2020, we predict that brands will invest in more of their advertising budget into niche social media advertising networks, like Pinterest, Snapchat, Amazon, and Twitter. These smaller advertising platforms have already seen big movements in their advertising revenue.

  • Pinterest reported a 62% year over year revenue growth in its second quarter earnings release.
  • SnapChat reported a 48% increase in total revenue from the prior year, coming in at $388 million.
  • Amazon reported a 37% year over year growth in its “other” (AKA advertising) revenue category, which earned $3 billion in revenue in Q2 of 2019.
  • Twitter reported a 21% year over year growth, with earnings of $727 million for Q2.

This means that advertising network titans, Facebook and Google, will face a decline in growth in 2020.

  • Facebook’s ad revenue grew 28% compared to the previous year’s quarter.
  • Google grew 16% in the second quarter of 2019.

However, Google and Facebook’s market share still dwarf their growing competition with Facebook coming in at $16.62 billion and Google at $32.6 billion in the second quarter of 2019.

2020 Social Media Recommendation: Look into advertising on Pinterest, Twitter, Amazon, and SnapChat. Advertising on multiple platforms is a great way to extend your brand awareness to different audiences. Learn more about advertising on Amazon here.

Here at Team Vision Marketing, we stay on top of the latest news and trends in advertising, marketing and social media to ensure that our services will help our clients achieve their annual business goals.  For more information on our social media services, please check out our portfolio for our recent social media marketing projects.

If you’re looking to step up your digital marketing and advertising efforts, reach out to Team Vision, Hawaii’s leading digital marketing and advertising firm serving clients on Oahu, Maui, Kauai, The Big Island of Hawaii and Lanai.  We’re more than happy to help!

 

Contact Us:

Phone: (808) 536-0416

Email: info@www.teamvision.com

Web: www.www.teamvision.com

Hear from Bruce Barrett, VP of Sales & Marketing at Castle & Cooke Hawaii, on his experience working with Team Vision Marketing.

Recent Blog Posts
Contact Us for Help with All Your Marketing Needs

Call Us Today at (808) 536-0416.

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