Welcome back to Sweetline's Shine Online series and hope you had a lovely holiday weekend! Today we have a great interview with Jeremy Knight, owner of Canned Banners. We love this digital resource - a place for companies to make their own flash-banners. Yes, your very own advertising! Many small business owners don't have a lot of extra money to spend on an advertising campaign and Canned Banners let's you be part of the ad mix as well as add reach to your company. Let's hear what Jeremy has to say about presentation (super important in 2010), ease of use and thoughts on using both advertising and social media as ways to extend your brand.
Your company, Canned Banners, is genius! You allow people to build a professional-looking Flash-based banner ad for a great price. What inspired you to create Canned Banners?
It really is genius, isn't it? The initial inspiration came from my business partner, Myles Younger, who is a client-side marketing guy. The first thing to know about Myles is that he's an expert complainer. He can craft an exquisite gripe on nearly any subject imaginable. One day he was complaining to me about running banner campaigns for his company using a traditional online ad agency. The process takes a lot of time and money and you never really know what your going to get until it's done. If you need a simple banner fast, there are relatively few options for you. He asked me if someone could make a website where people could plug their info into a template and get a banner ad fast and easily. I said yes, and soon the brilliance of Canned Banners was born unto this world.
It really is genius, isn't it? The initial inspiration came from my business partner, Myles Younger, who is a client-side marketing guy. The first thing to know about Myles is that he's an expert complainer. He can craft an exquisite gripe on nearly any subject imaginable. One day he was complaining to me about running banner campaigns for his company using a traditional online ad agency. The process takes a lot of time and money and you never really know what your going to get until it's done. If you need a simple banner fast, there are relatively few options for you. He asked me if someone could make a website where people could plug their info into a template and get a banner ad fast and easily. I said yes, and soon the brilliance of Canned Banners was born unto this world.
Many small business owners have a ton of stuff on their plates and even getting their online presence up and running is challenging. How easy (both from a creative and an efficiency standpoint) is Canned Banners to use?
Really quite easy. Creating a banner with Canned Banners takes about 5 - 10 minutes. One of the key things that we strive to do is make the process quick and easy so you can get in and get out. Being small business owner's ourselves, we know that if it takes longer than that, no one is going to do it. Some similar sites out there give you a whole bunch of customization options which most people won't use or bother to figure out. Our site gives you a small handful of options so you don't need to spend all day creating a basic banner campaign.
We love your templated banners and advertising is an important step in a brand's evolution. What are your thoughts on balancing both ad campaigns and social media as platforms to share one's brand?
Remember those cereal commercials where at the end they would say, "part of a balanced breakfast"? And they'd show a bowl of cereal surrounded by a glass of juice, some milk, toast, a grapefruit, 3 waffles and a filet mignon? I think that's a good approach to online marketing. There's such a low cost to trying new online marketing tactics that you might as well try them all, review your results, and keep doing only the things that worked. You can spend a bit on search, a bit on social networking, a bit on display ads, and see how they all work. The online arena has such detailed ways to track success that it's easy to see what's working and what isn't.
Remember those cereal commercials where at the end they would say, "part of a balanced breakfast"? And they'd show a bowl of cereal surrounded by a glass of juice, some milk, toast, a grapefruit, 3 waffles and a filet mignon? I think that's a good approach to online marketing. There's such a low cost to trying new online marketing tactics that you might as well try them all, review your results, and keep doing only the things that worked. You can spend a bit on search, a bit on social networking, a bit on display ads, and see how they all work. The online arena has such detailed ways to track success that it's easy to see what's working and what isn't.
Sweetline believes that design of a site and/or social media platform is important and should feel relevant to one's company. You guys seem to be passionate about design as well. Can you share your thoughts on design and the impact it can have?
I think design communicates straight to the viewer's subconscious. People get a "sense" of your brand by the design of your materials (banners, brochures, websites, logo etc). Take restaurant menus for instance. A one second look at a restaurant menu will immediately give you a "sense" of price, quality, type of cuisine, etc. even before you read the words. That's design doing it's work. The font, color, layout, imagery, etc, all working together to establish a tone for your brand. It works the same for menus as it does for your logo, website, banner ad, brochure or business card. All marketing materials have a tone and communicate something to the viewer's subconscious. The question is, what is that tone, and how do you control it. Design lets you control that tone. Businesses who don't put thought into design are communicating to the viewers' subconscious but they have no control over what they are saying.
I think design communicates straight to the viewer's subconscious. People get a "sense" of your brand by the design of your materials (banners, brochures, websites, logo etc). Take restaurant menus for instance. A one second look at a restaurant menu will immediately give you a "sense" of price, quality, type of cuisine, etc. even before you read the words. That's design doing it's work. The font, color, layout, imagery, etc, all working together to establish a tone for your brand. It works the same for menus as it does for your logo, website, banner ad, brochure or business card. All marketing materials have a tone and communicate something to the viewer's subconscious. The question is, what is that tone, and how do you control it. Design lets you control that tone. Businesses who don't put thought into design are communicating to the viewers' subconscious but they have no control over what they are saying.
Thanks, Jeremy! Click here to check out Canned Banners and get your ads up and running.
Check back every week for a new Shine Online interview that will inspire your online presence.
Up next |Brand new online blog presence, Bride Bound, and thoughts on being a newbie in a digital world.
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We used some Canned Banners at C&H. They are very cool.
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