Greetings!
Welcome to the August issue of Key Notes - Marketing Keys' monthly newsletter! We hope everyone is finding the time to enjoy this beautiful summer while being productive! We spent last month celebrating the birth of a 15 year old company. More on that in the newsletter. Key Notes is an informative, quick-read newsletter to get you caught up on all things media and marketing. Our goal is for you to be informed and entertained with the latest media and marketing happenings quickly and efficiently.
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WHICH COMPANY JUST TURNED 15?
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Fifteen years ago last month, our Founder, Roger Keys, left his lucrative executive position with WLS Radio - a Disney/ABC owned entity at the time - to build and start Marketing Keys from the ground floor.
Beginning a company in 2007 was a bold move. The Great Recession began in 2007 and lasted until June, 2009. The collapse of the housing market - sparked by low interest rates, easy credit and insufficient regulation - led to the economic downturn.
Keys looked at it though optimistically. Marketing Keys had started in July, 2007 with zero clients. His business can only go up while established media companies were taking a major downturn. The firm's first clients were DirectBuy and The Home Shows - (2) clients that Roger had a relationship with from his radio days. Shortly after, an introduction at a Chicagoland Chamber of Commerce event led Marketing Keys to launch the initial nationwide campaign for Sittercity.com. Marketing Keys was off and running! Keys' bold move paid off. In 2008, Marketing Keys' first full year in business, the company billed over 1 million dollars in media placement!
The first media buy that Marketing Keys had placed was a Comcast cable buy for DirectBuy in September, 2007. Since that initial buy, we have planned, negotiated and placed hundreds and hundreds of media buys since.
The company had started in a spare upstairs bedroom in Keys' Northbrook home. In 2010, Keys then moved Marketing Keys to office space in Northbrook, as his family was growing. Finally in 2012, Keys took Marketing Keys to Chicago, first to Michigan Avenue and then to Wacker Drive on the Chicago River near Union Station.
Roger will never forget the employees that have started here during and right after college to begin their work at Marketing Keys in the marketing and advertising field. As Keys stated, "I have been very lucky to have had some very skilled and talented people working for me. I cannot thank them enough for their contributions to the overall success of the company."
Our current Project Coordinator that many of you may have met either virtually or in person, Carolina Macedo, is celebrating her 4th year at the company!
Marketing Keys has been involved in some groundbreaking campaigns including multiple quit smoking campaigns for the Illinois Tobacco Quitline. In the initial campaign titled 'Kids', Marketing Keys was involved in selecting the talent (in this case the children) that appeared in the statewide TV commercial. The :30 ad was very well received and helped the American Lung Association increase their call volume to the Illinois Tobacco Quitline from 10,000 calls per year to a then staggering 90,000 calls/year.
Roger would like to personally thank of all of our wonderful clients through the years who had put their trust in faith in our business model. Without all of you, we would not be here 15 years later. Finally, we would like to thank all of our vendors, media partners, media reps and past/present employees. Everyone has had a major hand in our success and we are so grateful for your contributions.
What does the future hold? One never knows. However, we know hard work and creativity combined with integrity will go a long way in building a successful future!
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THIS COOKIE HASN'T BEEN TOUCHED YET!
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Google isn't throwing out its cookies quite yet!
Google’s plan to remove third-party cookies has been delayed until the second half of 2024. This gives advertisers who rely on them more time to find a new way to reach consumers. It also postpones the inevitable demise of cookies, which have been a source of privacy concerns for years.
Cookies are files that websites and third-party ad tech companies drop on people’s browsers when they visit a website. This is a technology that dates to the foundations of online advertising in the 1990s. Apple’s Safari and other browsers have already phased out third-party cookies in the name of privacy. Google had promised to implement similar anti-tracking policies by 2023.
Publishers and advertisers still need to prep now for a cookieless world, with or without Google. Platforms such as Apple have already made consumers unreachable through cookies.
How does your brand plan to reach your target audience?
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WILL THIS NEW SOCIAL MEDIA PLAYER SURVIVE?
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BeReal a social media app dubbed the anti-Instagram, has become all the rage despite its technical difficulties.
The app requires all the people on the platform to take a photo within a two-minute window each day. Failure to upload your image within the designated timeframe leads to a “late” label of public shame. The app often glitches when everyone tries to upload their spontaneous pictures at once. Nevertheless, the app took the top spot in the US on Apple Inc.’s App Store for three days this past month.
BeReal’s success so far is a reminder of Instagram and Twitter early days. When platform glitches were frequent because of an overload of users. Those apps adapted and survived. But with multiple many social media apps competing for people’s attention, BeReal still has a long way to go.
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IS INSTA 'REELY' IN TROUBLE?
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With the rise of TikTok, advertisers have been leaning towards video. Instagram took notice and quickly integrated Instagram Reels. But everyday users want the app to go back to its photo roots.
In 2019, U.S. social media users spent 26 minutes per day on Instagram, compared to 27 minutes on TikTok, according to an April report by Insider Intelligence. In 2020, Instagram went up to 29 minutes, while TikTok jumped to 38 minutes. Since then, Instagram has hovered at 30 minutes per day, while TikTok takes up on average nearly 45 minutes of a user's time per day.
Advertising budgets have been moving from Instagram to TikTok. However, it's not because of the changes that Instagram is making. Budgets are moving from Instagram to TikTok because the audience is making that move themselves. A lot of consumers don’t want to see Reels on Instagram at all.
Regular Instagram users, creators, and even the Kardashians have spoken about their annoyance with the app’s TikTok-like changes. Last week, Instagram head Adam Mosseri responded to the backlash. Mosseri told Verge that the platform would phase out testing full-screen photos and videos and reduce the number of recommended posts in the app.
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'OUT' OF THE BOX THINKING?
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Less than a year ago, Netflix installed a permanent marquee billboard off Sunset Boulevard featuring an uplifting message: “Don’t give up on your dreams. We started with DVDs.” Since then, Netflix has used the billboard to keep audiences entertained with witty aphorisms and knowing winks to fans of its popular shows and films including “Stranger Things,” “Squid Game,” “Bridgerton” and more.
It’s modern marketing done right. The messages appear on the very traditional outdoor format, but as social media rocket fuel, perfect bite-sized, shareable pieces of content bound to encourage conversation and foster delight. The billboard has generated an estimated 850 million media impressions since launch and has since expanded to other markets, with similar permanent billboards in Rome, Stockholm and, most recently, Seoul, South Korea.
The messages aren’t flat-out promotions for the latest title to come out but rather feature clever nods to the shows or try to jump on conversations that are already happening.
Could you think of some out of the box campaigns for your brand?
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Here is a recent highlight from Marketing Keys' blog page. Please start following our blogs and let us know what you think.
Get the latest insight here!
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Get help from 'The Mouse'!
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In my previous life, I worked for many media companies including the one headed by the Mouse. During my 20 year executive run with media companies, I had noticed that if an advertiser wasn't properly represented with a media expert helping them with their media planning and buying, then that company was at a disadvantage. Thus, I created a company to provide a solution to that problem.
Marketing Keys was formed in July 2007 (we just celebrated 15 years of being in business!) to more than level the negotiation playing field between advertisers and media companies. We enabled advertisers to have a major leg up in the process.
We targeted Presidents, CEOs, Regional Managers, Marketing Directors, CMOs, etc. of small and mid-sized businesses. We then went to market with our 'key' differentiator and mission. During the last decade, the company has grown from 2 clients in 2010 to presently close to 20.
To find out if we can help build on the results that you had started and eliminate the inherent disadvantages of buying media on your own, please reach out to us HERE!
Thank you for your loyalty in reading our newsletters. If you know someone where this information may be helpful, we appreciate you sharing it. In the meantime, we will continue to keep you at the forefront of the latest marketing strategies and news.
Until next month,
ROGER KEYS
MARKETING KEYS
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On Saturday, August 20th, the World Famous Hooters Girls will be making a trip to Hard Rock Casino Hammond for the ESPN Chicago Football Fest! ESPN Radio will have all their prominent talent there including Tom Waddle, Marc Silverman, David, Kaplan, Carmen DeFalco and many others. Plus, respected national ESPN Radio/TV contributors like Adam Schefter and Field Yates will be present. ESPN Chicago Football Fest will be a forum for Chicagoland football fans to get educated and get all the latest on Fantasy Football, the Chicago Bears and sports betting. You can bet this will be a great time! For more information and for free tickets,
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SAY 'I DO' AT KLEIN CREEK!
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You may be aware that Klein Creek Golf Club is a world class golf destination. However, did you also know that Klein Creek is also the ultimate destination for special events like Chicagoland weddings? If you have the opportunity to have your wedding here, simply say 'I Do'!
Book your next event with Klein Creek Golf Club! Whether you are planning a wedding, shower, anniversary or whatever the occasion, Klein Creek will make certain your event is a success! Learn more here!
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MAKE LYCEE YOUR CHILD'S BACK TO SCHOOL DESTINATION!
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If you are a parent, it may be comforting to know that your child is going back to school at one of Chicagoland's most premiere institutions. Discover what makes Lycee Chicago unique by joining an individual tour! In an intimate setting. These in-person meetings will give you an opportunity to tour their school and ask key questions to their team. Please contact the Admissions Office at admissions@lyceechicago.org. Learn more here!
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Are you Socially Challenged?
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During my 15 years as a business owner, I have discovered there are many companies out there that are challenged with the task of managing their social media.
It may be that they are confused over the platforms that they should use, the content they should post, how to boost that content and/or the time or lack thereof that goes into managing their social media platforms.
As a Social Media partner of ours, our Social Media expert will manage and strategize daily on your sites. We will also coordinate all communication so there are no surprises while all of your initiatives are scheduled accordingly.
For more information, please contact Marketing Keys at (312) 375-5007 or you can email us HERE!
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Fill up your lead funnel!
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In the days of Mad Men, creativity was everything. The goal was for a brand to be the most creative creating a tag line to resonate with the audience. Now, creativity takes a back seat to targeting through data and reaching your target synergistically through multiple mediums with an integrated marketing campaign.
Find out how Marketing Keys can help generate (on average) an incremental 30-35% more in leads and/or conversions through our system.
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