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The Power of a Press Release

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Content Writing, Marketing

Press Releases In {{lpg_city}} {{lpg_state}}

You may think the press is old news and the power of a press release is very limited, but we all want our business or company name in the spotlight. It’s one of the best ways to get your name out there! However, for this to be possible, it has to be newsworthy information because what good are hundreds of people reading something when they are not interested?

What Is a Press Release? 

A press release is when a company issues a brief announcement about something they want to promote. The goal is that news organizations will want to cover it in their publications. The goal of this is to give your company as much exposure as possible, as often as possible. This can be an easy way to generate some buzz about your product and services and hopefully attract customers.

 

When Should You Issue a Press Release? 

When something is newsworthy, use press releases. This is critical because journalists want to write about topics that pique people’s interests and are truly worthy of their time. Journalists and reporters must decide whether they want to spend their time and effort conducting research, obtaining quotes, and finally writing the story. Because of this time commitment, journalists are selective, and dull announcements are often ignored.

 

What Information Should Be Included? 

The following are the fundamentals of a press release: 

  • The main announcement
  • Important dates
  • Locations
  • Contact information 

 

The tone should be professional, with proper grammar and spelling. Because this is an official statement from your company, it should be accurate.

 

Benefits and Power of A Press Release

When it comes to Press Releases, there are a wide array of benefits, such as:

  • Increasing the visibility of your company
  • increases your brand awareness
  • establishes credibility
  • saving time from calling individual reporters and pitching your story over and over again

 

Press Releases as a Marketing Tactic

Increasing brand awareness, driving website traffic, and getting to know the surrounding community are common goals of media and marketing strategies.

A well-planned public relations campaign allows businesses to position themselves as authoritative figures in their respective industries while emphasizing the company’s unique benefits and products or services.

The right message can significantly impact sales, revenues, and customer loyalty.

 

Why Press Releases Work

Press releases effectively raise awareness of a product or service because they give media outlets, journalists, and bloggers the opportunity to quickly digest and distribute the message to their readers. Press releases are usually placed directly on websites, creating more opportunities for customers to learn about products. For example, they have been used by thousands of businesses around the world as a cost-effective marketing tactic that can help generate leads and build brand recognition.

 

Stand Out From Your Competitors

By crafting your message correctly, you will increase the visibility of new campaigns or announce better ways to serve existing clients. You will also stand out from your competition by being featured on major news outlets and creating trust with your audience. Also, a press release allows you to highlight new products or services with features, pricing information, usage rates, and other pertinent facts. 

 

How AD Leaf Marketing Firm Can Help

Our professional team of expert marketers can provide high-level press releases, so your business receives the exposure it deserves. Our team has keen knowledge and awareness of cultivating the power of press releases that will drive attention to your brand. Press releases by The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm, LLC., are newsworthy pieces that are interesting enough to make readers want to continue with the article and read about the company being mentioned.

 

Get Started on Your Company’s Blog

Our approach at The AD Leaf ® Marketing Firm is to help you create brand awareness. Learn how to captivate your audience and grow your company! The AD Leaf’s ® content marketing team are experts in telling your brand’s story and understands the power of a press release. From this, we can help your business stand out from the crowd. 

With press releases, your business will be set up for success from the ground up. We’ll also integrate other essential marketing elements into your blogs and other forms of content.

Are you ready to turn a new leaf with your content marketing strategy? Give The AD Leaf Marketing Firm a call at 321-255-0900 to set up a free consultation today. We are excited to create a blog that works for you!

What is Search Engine Optimization?

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Search Engine Optimization

            Business websites can benefit from search engine optimization by receiving more organic traffic through organic search results. Business owners must pay attention to this as organic traffic is critical to ensuring they have loyal and returning customers. A wide variety of strategies can be employed in search engine optimization to reach specific audiences, increase the domain authority, and make the user experience as optimal as possible for viewers. Maintaining an updated website with fresh content is one of the most important SEO strategies. Search engines such as Google perform their site indexing by checking for relevant content to the keywords the page is targeting. As a result, the web page will not rank well because Google sees that the content is not relevant to the keyword. In addition, keywords are crucial because they allow people to find pages through search engines.

The Importance of Search Engine Optimization

            Search engine optimization is a vital part of marketing success. This is because without the use of proper SEO, your webpage will not show up on Google. Many people are unaware of SEO and what is being done behind the scenes to keep your webpages looking and performing its best. Not only does SEO help rank your website higher in search engines, but there are many other skills that go into SEO. While working on web pages, backlinking is being performed in order to give your webpage domain authority. Backlinks are important for SEO because they signal to Google that other resources find your content to be of enough value to link it to their own web page.

Meta and Title Tags

            Using title and meta tags for SEO is important because this helps search engines identify the content of the page as well as what the page is about based on its keyword phrases. As the user performs a Google search, this is the first time they will come across your website. Neither of these titles nor tags are meant to be long paragraphs. An ideal number of characters for a title tag is 60 and for a meta description is 155-160 characters. There isn’t necessarily anything wrong with having a longer meta description, but it can be seen as a lost opportunity because Google will only show a certain number of characters in the meta description.

Webpage Upkeep

            Additionally, SEO focuses on the maintenance of the website. We ensure that the website runs smoothly, the load times are under 5 seconds, and the overall user experience is seamless. An image-heavy website can be one of the factors that slow down the speed of a webpage. Our goal is to reduce the size of these images so that the webpages will load more quickly and smoothly. We also examine whether the site is mobile-friendly. Today, almost everyone has a mobile phone, so if a website is not mobile-friendly, users will click away the second they land on it. Maintaining this will make sure that traffic keeps coming to the website.

Why The AD Leaf?

            The AD Leaf’s SEO team will drive more traffic to your website. Plus, you will become part of our family. Each of us works very closely to make sure that your business is as successful as possible.  Also, we take great pride in bringing you that success! We pay attention to the little things and fix problems with your site before you even realize they exist. We recognize the importance of your business and strive to always be on top of our game. Choose The AD Leaf Marketing Firm as your SEO specialists.

Marketing Strategies To Finish Out Your 4th Quarter With a Bang

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Uncategorized

While many businesses may not realize it, the fourth quarter is the most critical quarter for a company. Ending your fiscal year on a high note is the best way to ensure that you have a strong start next year. It also helps meet goals and expectations, setting yourself up as a reputable and reliable company. What better way to achieve this than by implementing marketing strategies to finish out your 4th quarter with a bang?

While many service providers, such as Real Estate, may believe November and December are the slowest months, it is the most critical time to hit the ground running.

Let’s review a few marketing strategies that you can employ to create a solid foundation for the fourth quarter of your fiscal year.

Don’t Stop Marketing

While most businesses believe marketing is a gamble that entails throwing money away that they may never see, it creates a marketing plan that works.

For service providers who struggle with business in the fourth quarter, it’s vital to double down on marketing so that you’re ahead of your competition.

This means investing in activities that will result in business growth. Remember, your competitors are working all year long to land clients and get projects off the ground, which means you need to take action if you want to outshine them.

Ready, Set, Go!

If you are looking at the calendar, October may seem like early preparation for the fourth quarter. It is important to remember that when people get their budgets set in November and December, more potential buyers are out there trying to sell. 

This means they are looking for people who can help them reach their goals, so make sure you are prepared.

The goal of this last month is simple: get ready, so next month you can hit the ground running with an iron fist. By making sure everything is in order before the end of September, you will be able to use all of your time wisely in October.

Campaigns That Work

Don’t stop working on the campaigns that have been successful for you. Review advertising efforts from previous campaigns to see how they stand up today. This allows you to compare data from before and identify any changes in customer behavior so you can adjust accordingly.

Focus Your Efforts on the Season

Create a list of your top seasonal buyers and focus on them exclusively. Developing new campaigns explicitly designed for your customers and the season will be beneficial. 

These could be in the form of emails, direct mail pieces, or maybe even social media if you feel they are comfortable with this type of communication. By focusing exclusively on these people, you can get them to come back to purchase again before it’s too late. 

Achievement Checklist

Looking over what you’ve done is also an excellent time for reflection. Allocate the appropriate amount of time to go through each item on your “To Do” list to identify things that can wait until after October 1st, so they aren’t taking up valuable time during the crucial fourth quarter sales process.

During slower periods, it can be expected for some business owners to take a spiral of death approach to managing the business. When sales are slower, maybe you pull back your advertising spending if you have a marketing budget at all.

Hire an Experienced Marketing Firm 

When it comes to reaching your fourth-quarter goals, make sure you work with an experienced marketing firm. It’s also essential to work with a firm with a proven record of success in generating leads and making sales. This will ultimately help you with your bottom line.

Conquer With Confidence

The businesses that do not change their behaviors to meet the changing climate or seasonality of their businesses fail during these times.

By being prepared to go into the final quarter of the year, measures must be taken to conquer the fourth quarter with confidence. This means:

  • staying ahead of your competition
  • setting forth a marketing game plan
  • focusing on the season
  • focusing on your target audience
  • hiring an experienced team capable of creating marketing strategies to finish out your 4th quarter with a bang!

The fourth quarter is known for its holiday season and with that comes high turnover in the service industry. Some companies focus on this time of year, and others don’t, but those who do end up succeeding more than those who don’t. 

This is because many people choose to spend their time off shopping or with family instead of working or seeking services.

Is Your Marketing Game Plan In Place? 

Having a marketing game plan set forth before going into the fourth quarter will help you gain more profits and sales than if you did not have one at all. Without a plan, companies often go about the fourth quarter the wrong way.  

Take Action Today

When it comes down to it, not everyone can curate engaging content. It takes time, practice, and the ability to provide valuable information in a way that’s easy for customers to digest.

When your customers are looking for answers or ways to solve their problems, you want them to find your website on the first page of Google.

This is why it’s essential to hire a professional company capable of creating marketing strategies to finish out your fourth quarter with a bang!

Our experienced team of professionals at The AD Leaf is ready to take your content from bland to beautiful! We are passionate and excited about taking your brand to the next level. Contact us today to get started!

Why Killer Content Is Key for Your Business

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Uncategorized

While creating a business is excellent, it’s essential to keep a few things in mind: What is your message? Who is your audience? What do they want? Why killer content is key for your business? And finally, can your business provide that? With so many choices for consumers these days, telling a great story and focusing on excellent content will help set you apart from your competition.

What is Content Marketing?

Content marketing is the term used to describe multiple strategies that use different formats to create content – like blog posts, videos, e-books, etc.

The goal of all this content is to educate your customers and provide them with helpful information they can act on.

What Are The Benefits of Content Marketing?

The goal of creating content is to engage and connect with your audience and keep them coming back for more. The best way to do this is through consistent, high-quality content that provides valuable information.

When it comes to content marketing, there are a wide variety of benefits such as:

  • Improve your brand’s reputation
  • Improve your SEO
  • Increase engagement on your website
  • Improve customer service
  • Increase social shares
  • Bring in new leads
  • Influence conversions
  • And more!

Content is not something to skimp out on, as it can make or break your business. It’s not just about getting customers in the door – it’s also about keeping them there. 

Why Killer Content is Important

There is an old saying, “content is king”. Quality content should be the top priority for every organization. 

Quality content helps drive engagement and increase sales. It’s also highly effective as it hones in on a business’s target audience.

What are Some Content Marketing Examples?

When it comes to content marketing, there are a variety of avenues that businesses often utilize. A few key examples include:

  • Blogs
  • Newsletters
  • Social media content
  • E-Books
  • YouTube videos
  • Any free media that drive leads to your website or business
  • And more

While there is an abundance of content marketing avenues, it’s essential to keep in mind that the quality of your content will make or break the trust your audience has with your brand.

How Can I Tell if My Content Is Quality? 

There are a variety of ways to hone in on the quality of your businesses content, such as the following:

  • You are easily able to rank for your focused keyword
  • The content is easy to read and simple to follow
  • It provides the audience value through new information or through recommendations
  • It provides a proper call to actions
  • The content is accurate and grammatically correct, with few errors within it

It’s essential to utilize quality content for the benefit of you and your customers. 

How to Create Engaging Content

There are a few ways to help implement successful content marketing strategies. Some helpful tips include

  • Identify your target audience- Knowing who you are creating your content for can help determine what is successful.
  • Use authentic keywords- Using the correct keywords in your articles will often create a clear understanding of what it is about and help with SEO
  • Set business goals – You should always set goals when creating a marketing strategy, and content is no different
  • Share with others- You can increase readership by sharing through social media platforms like LinkedIn and Facebook.
  • Establish cadence – It’s essential to establish your brand’s tone or voice when writing your content
  • Provide value- Content is vital for your business because it provides valuable information about your product or service to the customer. Providing good quality content is crucial for gaining trust from potential leads and converting current leads into sales opportunities.

Take Action Today

When it comes down to it, not everyone can curate engaging content. It takes time, practice, and the ability to provide valuable information in a way that’s easy for customers to digest. 

When your customers are looking for answers or ways to solve their problems, you want them to find your website on the first page of Google.

This is why it’s essential to hire a professional marketing company 

Our experienced team of professionals at The AD Leaf is ready to take your content from bland to beautiful! We are passionate and excited about taking your brand to the next level. Contact us today to get started!

The Importance of Active Social Media

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Social Media | , , , , ,

The use of social media has become a necessity for running a successful business. Whether you are marketing, selling products or services, networking with potential clients, or need to stay in touch with friends and family- it is all there for the taking. However, if your account isn’t active enough, people won’t see what you have to offer, which will lead them not to do further research into your company. 

 

Let’s say a potential customer sees your restaurant on Yelp, and they explore your page. Then, they want to see recent posts, so they click your social media platforms. Your last post is from 2019. Now they are confused if your business is currently open. Why have you not posted any of the delicious plates? Now they scroll onto the next restaurant to hopefully see pictures of their possible food. 

 

In this example scenario, a simple fix would be to begin running your social media regularly. With that being said, here are four benefits and the importance of an active social media presence so that your business can grow!

 

Active Social Media

Having an active social media presence will help you build brand awareness, credibility, brand recall and increase your traffic. Through these benefits, you will be able to boost your brand’s exposure organically. It does not matter how big or small your business is; you are bound to see results through your efforts.

 

Brand Awareness 

Building brand awareness through your social media accounts allows you to reach new customers that might have never heard about your company. Through a consistent social media presence, you are continuously growing your audience reach daily. Keeping your social media presence active will let your potential followers see a consistent and energetic brand. Through keeping your social media platforms active, it will organically improve your reach to more users. These steps will encourage customers to shop from your company more than a company with no social media presence. 

 

Brand Credibility 

Brand credibility is the trust you build with your customers combined with how long your company has been around. Benefits of positive brand credibility include having customers that will continue to choose your brand and advocate your business to others. A few easy ways to build your brand credibility are by sharing customer reviews on your social platforms or website. For new companies that have yet to get many reviews, you can grow brand credibility by simply running active social media or keeping a running blog on your website that posts regularly. Consumers love to see consistent posting, as this gives them something to explore in their spare time. 

 

Brand Recall

Brand recall is what instantly comes to mind when a customer thinks of a product category. Of course, everyone wants to be the first company a customer thinks of, and an active social media presence will improve your chance. As customers scroll on social media, the more often they see your brand’s posting will help them remember your branding and choose your company over another. This is why you want to be sure you are posting content that is always brand-related, and adding your logo onto your postings is another easy way to ensure your customers remember your brand. 

 

Traffic Growth

Through your active social media, you will see positive traffic growth and leads. Targeting your specific target audience through your social media will bring valuable leads. So it is crucial to decide who your target audience is as this will allow you to attract the right audience. You will also be able to interact with local accounts to your business if this is what you please. Naturally, through more exposure to your brand, you will see more interaction. 

 

Now that you know the importance of having active social media channels, having them up to date is crucial. But there is another layer to consider while running your social media! When potential customers view your active social media platforms, they will see your brand as presented to them. 

  • Do your logos match across all of your social media platforms? 
  • Do you post content that will attract your target audience? 
  • Are you engaging with your social media accounts enough to bring in new followers? 
  • Are you using the correct social media to attract your target audience? 

You might find that you need to put in more effort to help grow your social media presence in the way you hope. 

 

It’s time to take action and know the importance of active social media! As you can see, there are many benefits of having an active social media presence for your business. To have a flourishing business, you must have active and brand-matching social media to attract your target audience. If this interests you and you want help getting started, we have a team of experts here at The AD Leaf ready to assist with creating the perfect plan for organic growth through social media channels. We would be more than happy to help your business grow through the world of social media. This is your sign! 

How to Market Your Business on a Budget

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Marketing

Marketing on a Budget

Did you know that the U.S. Small Business Administration recommends spending 7 to 8 percent of your gross revenue for marketing and advertising if you’re doing less than $5 million a year in sales? This statistic is also relevant if your net profit margin – after all expenses – is in the 10 percent to 12 percent range. The AD Leaf is a marketing agency that helps small businesses grow. We have helped many companies get to the next level with our expertise. One of the most important things you can do when launching your company is market it effectively to attract new customers. The problem is that many business owners don’t know how to market their company on a budget. Thankfully, we are here to help! Here is how our services can help you promote your business with the best marketing on a budget.

Consistent Social Media Posting

Making and scheduling posts for social media consistently will help your audience notice you. However, this can be time-consuming when you are running your business. That is one reason why we offer affordable content promotion services to our clients, so they have an opportunity to promote their company without spending too much time or money curating your social media channels. Our experts will be able to create the best posts that can result in leads and business.

Encourage User-Generated Content

User-generated content is a great way to save money on marketing. You can encourage your customers or clients to post reviews published on the business’ website and social media pages and shared them with their networks. This flexibility allows you to focus more of your time running the company while still getting recognition for it online via authentic positive reviews.

Host Livestreams

If you have a product or service best demonstrated live, then hosting scheduled livestreams can be great for advertising your company. Your target market will appreciate being able to watch the instructional videos from their homes, and they might even begin sharing them with their networks too. If you need help promoting or scheduling a livestream, ask one of our social media professionals for help!

Put Your Email List to Good Use

Email marketing is still one of the best ways to get customers even in this day and age. It would be best to use your email list to send newsletters that inform them about sales and new offers. Customers who have already provided you with their contact information will look forward to hearing from you. For assistance in creating these newsletters, talk to our email marketing experts today.

Call The AD Leaf Today for Marketing on a Budget

The AD Leaf offers high-quality marketing services for low prices. We offer everything, including graphic design, web development, and social media management! Contact us today via phone or our online form to learn more about our affordable packages.

How To Promote Positive Customer Reviews Online

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Social Media

Do you have a great customer who has been raving about your business? Do you want to share their positive review with the world? When you work with The AD Leaf Marketing Firm, LLC., you can! Our social media experts can help you effectively share customer reviews throughout all your channels. By following these tips, you can garner more leads from your social media channels.

General Customer Review Posts

If you see a great review online, why would you want to keep that to yourself? Your customers want to be heard, and posting their experience can be a perfect way to make sure that happens. A great way to share your customer reviews is by creating a graphic template where you can easily copy and paste your favorite reviews to be sharable. You can also repost photos that your customers took at your business or photos that your customers took of your business’s product or services to show your appreciation. Tagging your customers can show appreciation as well. Be sure to request permission before posting a photo that isn’t yours and before tagging a profile to make sure the customer is ok with it. 

Video Testimonials

A great and unique way to promote your business while also getting positive reviews is by asking for video testimonials. Video testimonials are when customers make a video letting people know how much they love a business service or product. Regular customers and long-term friends have probably established a close enough connection with you and your business to where they would feel comfortable doing this. You could even ask to record the video yourself. Make sure you let them know that you won’t post the video if they don’t like it. Videos like this often see a significant increase in business and social media engagement.

Weekly Customer Features With Reviews

Weekly customer features can show your brand’s appreciation for your customers and can create more customer engagement. Using customer content, tweeting about customers you appreciate, promoting reviews, and sharing positive customer experiences are all ways you can feature your customers on your social media platforms to promote more customer engagement and feedback. Suppose your customers are expecting their experience to be shared because you share customer experiences regularly. In that case, they may be more inclined to share their experience in hopes of getting a shoutout. The more you reach out to your customers and show your appreciation, the bigger the chance of them showing appreciation back. 

Incentivizing Customer Reviews

Sometimes simply asking for reviews isn’t enough. Customers often need an incentive to give reviews. Creating rewards for positive reviews may be the extra push that your customers need. Offer a complimentary product or service from your business that motivates your customers to leave reviews online. The most successful reviews are ones that are authentic and relatable. With this in mind, incentivizing reviews is one of the best ways to create growth online and in your business. 

Work With The AD Leaf

While all these ideas sound lovely, it might be challenging to know where to start when making these come to life. Thankfully, you do not have to worry about that when you work with us. The AD Leaf Marketing Firm, LLC. can create stunning social media content that will encourage shares and business. Call us today at 321-255-0900 or fill out our online contact form to get started!

5 Ways Social Media and SEO Work Together

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Search Engine Optimization, Social Media

The world of online marketing is changing every day. As we all know, social media and SEO strategy work together to help promote your business and drive traffic to your website. But how do they work together? The AD Leaf Marketing Firm, LLC. can explain! We are a group of digital marketers who look at your company’s whole rather than the sum of its parts. When doing so, we analyze how integrated your social media channels and SEO can be. Here are some of the ways these two seemingly different services work together to deliver results.

Social Sharing 

Social media allows you to spread the word about your content to a wider audience quickly. Through these channels, you can spread these messages faster than other marketing means. When you create high-quality content, you naturally encourage your customers to interact with it and share it with their friends and followers. As a result, this creates a wide net of enhanced visibility. With time, you’ll find that your social media channels will increase your overall reach, boosting your rankings in the search engines.

Increase Brand Awareness

By using social media to share your content, you are also sharing the message of your brand. In other words, it becomes a channel for marketing where people can learn more about who you are and what you do. Search engines, such as Google, can easily pick up on this traffic. 

Reaching a Mobile Audience

More people are using their smartphones to get in touch with businesses they express interest in. Google and other search engines recognize the importance of social media in providing the content that customers are looking for. Because of this, they’re giving users information from Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms when they search specific terms or phrases. Google has even gone to partnering with Twitter to improve index searching and increase visibility for many customers. This indexing makes your Twitter posts even more important for raising brand awareness for your company. You should expect this to become more prevalent in the future.

Online Reviews

As we know by now, online reviews are a critical part of building your search engine presence. You can encourage customers to leave those critical reviews through social media, increasing your brand presence quickly. Today’s customers are looking for social proof: the information from other customers online that you are as legitimate as your online presence says you are. High-quality reviews can bring more customers to your business, while poor reviews will turn customers away before they even have a chance to get to know you.

Building Relationships

When you build a relationship with your followers through social media, they’re more likely to turn to your website for their questions and concerns. An increase in traffic to your website will improve your search ranking. By building a relationship with your followers on social media, you can simultaneously increase brand awareness and improve your connection to your audience. As a result, you can increase your conversions. 

Create Your Social Media and SEO Strategy With Us

For more information on how a comprehensive social media and SEO strategy can help your business, contact The AD Leaf Marketing Firm, LLC. today! Call 321-255-0900 or fill out our online contact form today.

Brands Staying Relevant

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Marketing

Let’s face it – it’s hard for brands to stand out in the field of marketing.

Amidst the global talent and social channels filled with advertisements and content, it can be tricky for a business or brand to capture consumers’ attention. Yet, it is the very thing a brand hopes to achieve with millions of dollars spent brainstorming strategies to achieve a relevant and genuine perception.

How far does a simple, good sense of humor get you with the level of expertise, money, and talent allocated in these departments? 

Over the past couple of weeks, it has been fun to watch a harmless, joking TikToks unfold into gaining millions of people’s attention, including being captured and utilized by multi-million dollar corporations. 

It all started with the user “@emilyzugay” remaking recognizable company logos such as Apple and Tinder and changing them into rudimentary designs as a joke, as you can see below in the graphic. 

To much of Emily’s surprise and many others that came across these company’s TikTok pages, the companies decided to replace their logo with her’s temporarily. 

I find this to be a fun concept that captures the audiences’ attention on TikTok, who, like me, organically came across her video and then, days later, saw the update that companies were seeing the videos and making changes to their profile. Just as Emily gained millions of new followers, the brands that partook in changing their logos are seen as fun and hip: something a brand wants to be on a platform filled with the Gen-Z audience. A win-win for both parties involved.

What do you think? A little bit of humor that could potentially confuse those who didn’t see the video, I think, is worth the risk involved by gaining more brand loyalty and building up their fan base. 

Concerning this topic, a couple of weeks earlier, I saw a post on LinkedIn about a graphic designer applying for jobs with her “portfolio,” including the infamous 90s WordArt and purposefully a nightmare of a design as you can see below in the graphic…and it not only got her noticed but also hired!  

Hiring manager, Kady O Connell, states that “when we advertised for a design role recently, this was the cover page of one of the portfolios that landed across my desk and as I was about to hit delete, something caught my eye, and I scrolled down.. to find pages of epic work. Amazing design skills AND a sense of humor?! I hired her immediately. We laugh about it still, and she says, “It was risky, but I wanted to get your attention.” 

With the multitude of competition in success today, the little bit of humor utilized in these situations proves that it may be enough to cut through as a refreshing and genuine stance to act on. 

Of course, brands and companies playing into humor have had their fair share of lousy PR. As long as it is tasteful and not too harmful, I think we will continue seeing a more organic and playful trend. It also gives way to consumers having more power and feeling as though they influence because, after all, we as consumers have the buying power.

How Content Marketing Can Take Your Business From Good to Great

The DEI Pledge

Posted on | by The AD Leaf Studio West Palm Beach
Public Relations

A Repetition of Offenses

In a time where there is so much hatred and intolerance in the world, it’s important to take a stand and educate organizations on the importance of taking a DEI Pledge.

Recently, large corporations have been exposed for “blunders”. Swedish fashion brand, H&M, got 2018 off to a rough start when it found itself under heavy scrutiny by featuring a black child in a hoodie that read “coolest monkey in the jungle.” They later pulled the image and issued an apology. Soon after that, only a week into Black History Month, Gucci apologized for its $890 balaclava-styled black sweater that featured bright red lips that rung around an opening for a mouth, which covered half of a person’s face. If that imagery wasn’t enough, a store window displayed figurines that resembled black-face was featured by the Luxury Fashion House, Prada. ‘Pradamalia’, Prada’s line’s name, featured key chains, clutches, and clothing with monkey-like creatures, black faces, and oversize bright red lips.

So Many Questions

To call these instances blunders is a severe understatement. There is no need to go into detail or offer a history lesson behind the imagery. The racial epithets in these designs are resounding, which leads to so many vital questions. How do offenses as large as these keep happening? In separate companies, how could no one have seen the problem with these designs? If these high-powered fashion houses had a history lesson, would they still have made these abhorrent design decisions? Although knowing history is a great start, it is not and cannot be the only solution. An even better starting point is taking the DEI Pledge.

The Solution in the Statistics

Thanks to racial discrimination and bias, people of color continue to face difficulties finding their footing in the workforce. Recent statistics show that only 8.1% of agencies hire a diverse staff when they make up 13 percent overall population in America today. Furthermore, it is estimated that people of color occupy less than 2 percent of leadership roles. With this information in mind, it becomes clearer how major brands miss the mark in their advertising and marketing. The diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) pledge compel companies of all industries to be agents of change by putting POC voices at the forefront of conversations and company policies.

What is the DEI Pledge?

The Three’s a Crowd, a black creative collective, founded the “All In for 13” DEI pledge. What makes this pledge different from any other DEI initiative is its challenge to the advertising industry to raise POC leadership, not just employees, to 13 percent by 2023. Outside of preventing more racially charged mistakes, committing to increasing diversity in the cooperate world has been shown to improve innovation. A Boston Consulting Group study perceived companies with 19% higher revenues also have more diverse management teams.

Proactive Agents of Change

The AD Leaf is proud to announce its previous commitment to the All In For 13” DEI pledge without hesitation. At the time of the pledge, the AD Leaf exceeded the goal of 13 percent. It would be acceptable to say they have done their part and politely step away. Instead, the AD Leaf has chosen to take the pledge a step further. They are committed to increasing its DEI representation by an additional 13 percent. The AD Leaf is the largest marketing firm in Brevard County and currently has 22% of its leadership team being POC. They are fully committed to diversity and equity, as well as inclusion. They understand that it’s not just about numbers. It is ensuring a diverse set of perspectives so they can better serve their clients