MDG Blog

What The World’s Biggest Websites Looked Like At Launch


The Internet has experienced a stunning evolution since its beginnings in the early 90’s. Some of the greatest evidence of that progress can be seen in the updated layouts and looks of what have become some of today’s largest websites. How has Google grown, Amazon advanced, and Facebook moved forward? Taking a nostalgic look back at the Internet in its infancy, Mashable.com showed how the Wayback Machine captured the early days and awkward ways of these modern-day Web wonders.

To discover creative strategies for evolving your website, contact MDG Advertising today at 561-338-7797 or visit mdgadvertising.com.

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DATE: Dec.31.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

Digital Marketers: Obsessed With the New Media, But Investing In the Old


While the marketing industry may be obsessed with the newest media and technology, the most popular digital ad media are simply updated versions of old-school media. AdAge.com explained why the trendy is based on the traditional.

One example is online video, which is basically a re-packaging of TV commercials mixed into other content. Another is the iPad, whose digital screens feature visual editorial content with video in a modern-day makeover of magazines. This demonstrates that despite the supposed threat that new media poses to the old, the latest innovations have only reinforced our use of the traditional. It also shows that some companies are wary of investing in new technologies that don’t have established metrics or the proven ability to engage an audience.

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DATE: Dec.30.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

Beyond Mass Customization

Harvard Business Review regularly focuses on the most important issues facing companies today through its interactive resource, The HBR Insight Center. The following information is gleaned from a recent installment of their series on how the growing obsession with customer service excellence is driving managers to transform their companies into customer-focused organizations. This particular post is about moving past the broad concept of mass-customized markets and onto the notion of each customer as his own market filled with multiple marketing opportunities.

In the 1987 book, Future Perfect, Stan Davis coined the concept of mass customization, whereby each customer should be considered his own market whose personal needs must be met by companies. Today, marketers are elaborating on that idea by realizing that each customer is made of multiple markets based on their particular needs at various times and in different situations.

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DATE: Dec.29.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

12 Marketing Predictions For 2012


With 2012 just days away, marketers are wondering what’s awaiting their industries in this rapidly evolving digital age. LinkedIn.com predicted that the following 12 trends will gain the greatest attention in the coming year.

1. Increasing Marketing Automation – Since marketing automation has evolved into one of the fastest-growing areas of customer relationship management (CRM), expect it to become the new norm for companies seeking to connect their marketing components.

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DATE: Dec.28.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

Paid Search Drives $6 in Local Sales for Every $1 in Online Sales


According to two years of research from retail marketing firm RevTrax, paid search has a much greater impact on total retail sales in the offline environment than in the online arena. SearchEngineLand.com detailed the findings of this surprising e-commerce study.

“For every $1 of e-commerce revenue generated from paid search, marketers can expect to see approximately another $6 of in-store revenue,” revealed the research. This comes as a shock to many search marketers who had generally concentrated on e-commerce sales. The lack of precise tracking technology has made it difficult for these marketers to measure in-store sales accurately, but the rise in mobile usage has led to the development of better metrics for determining the real impact of offline and online efforts.

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DATE: Dec.27.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

Top 5 Marketing Trends for 2012

With 2012 approaching fast and the world of marketing moving even faster, MarketingProfs.com recently outlined the top trends that marketers should be watching and working on in the coming year.

1. Collect Customer Interaction Data – With information on consumer buying behavior being recorded at a rapid pace, marketers must tap into this coveted data to leverage new opportunities to engage prospective buyers and maximize revenue throughout the purchasing cycle.

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DATE: Dec.23.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

Best Gifts To Give Your Website This Christmas [Infographic]

While you’ve been wrapped up with holiday gifts for family and friends, have you thought about what your website could use this Christmas? From an improved design to nicer navigation and more spirited social media engagement, your online presence deserves a special present that will benefit your business and customers. To give your digital domain some jingle bells and whistles, check out this enlightening infographic created by Mintleaf Studio for ideas on decking your online home for the holidays.


Mintleaf Web Design Studio

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DATE: Dec.22.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

Facebook Timeline Rolls Out

After Facebook’s initial announcement in September, the social network has officially debuted its Facebook Timeline. The rollout recently began in New Zealand and is slowly making its way to users worldwide. Mashable.com outlined the main features and functionalities of this highly anticipated addition.

With Facebook Timeline, users can visually represent their life story on a single page. It allows users to chronicle their lives through photos, posts to create a virtual photo album, or biography of their life experiences. Users can get as creative as they like with their profile presentations and page layouts, using photos and digital images to create amazing visual effects.

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DATE: Dec.22.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

The Coming Point-of-Sale Revolution


Harvard Business Review regularly focuses on key issues facing companies today through its interactive resource, The HBR Insight Center. The following findings are derived from a recent installment of their series on how the emerging obsession with customer service excellence is leading managers to turn their companies into customer-focused organizations. This particular post conveys that while the friendliness of customer sales associates is increasingly important today, it is necessary for that warmth to be genuine rather than forced in order to provide any value for the store and the customer.

The good news is that businesses are realizing that a pleasurable retail experience has a strong impact on consumer buying behavior. As a result, many stores have adopted strict standards regarding customer interaction and literally instruct employees to be extremely friendly toward customers. They literally turn exuberance into a job requirement. The bad news is that too much warmth can come off as “forced friendliness” and seem extremely insincere and almost patronizing.

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DATE: Dec.21.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

Here’s How To REALLY Use LinkedIn [Infographic]

LinkedIn has secured its status as the professional social networking site, but few of us realize its extraordinary value in marketing yourself and your business to the principals and players you need to know. While Facebook focuses on friendships and Twitter limits you to 140 characters, LinkedIn is a serious career builder that merges the business of networking with the reach of social media. Together, this provides a better way to connect with the contacts who can better your career. To leverage LinkedIn’s full professional power, check out this infographic from BusinessInsider.com. It offers tactics and tips for using the site’s social, search, and special functionalities to work to your professional advantage.

INFOGRAPHIC: Here's How To REALLY Use LinkedIn

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DATE: Dec.20.2011 • POSTED BY: admin

10 New Google Analytics You Need to Start Using

Over the past eight months, Google has been steadily introducing impressive new features, most notably a brand-new form of Google Analytics. With the old version scheduled to be eliminated in early 2012, Mashable.com recently compiled what marketers need to know about the new digital standard.

1. Real-Time Data Reports – At last, the new Google Analytics allows you to view site activity in real-time. This is especially useful for testing campaign tracking before launch.

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DATE: Dec.19.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

A Metrics Miracle

by Josh Chasin

‘Twas the week before Christmas, when alone in my house
I was finishing shopping, with a click of the mouse;
Then I cleared out my browser cache, cookies deleted,
In hopes of nefarious snooping, defeated.
Yea, the whole ecosystem lay snug in their beds,
While visions of cookies alit in their heads;
But these weren’t the cookies you baked, or you ate,
That you left out to cool, on a red and green plate.
No, these cookies told advertisers about you,
About all of the things that you wanted to do.
Did you buy electronics, a guitar from Fender?
Were you that most precious, an auto intender?
In what Zip did you live, And in what DMA,
And to whom were your eyeballs worth the most, today?
The consumer press had quite a panic created
Over issues of privacy wholly invaded
And now there was talk about some “Do Not Track”
Which the whole ecosystem feared would set us back.

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DATE: Dec.19.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

Great Creative, Properly Absorbed, Can Last A Lifetime


In online advertising, repetition reinforces learning and memory, but your message needs to be delivered creatively in to be engaging and effective. AdAge.com reported on how this online advertising approach can help brands influence buying behavior.

Stories that engage attention and emotions are much more memorable than facts because the brain is able to digest them more easily. These stories are much more likely to capture consumer interest upon viewing, and then stay with them when it’s time for purchasing decisions.

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DATE: Dec.18.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

Facebook’s Expanded Premium Ad Unit Mixes Page Post Content with Social Context


Facebook recently announced plans for a new “expanded Premium ad unit” that would display larger-than-average ads on the home page. These new ads would transform an update published by a page to the news feed into an ad. It would also attach social context about friends who “like” that page to the top of the ad unit. The result would be the combination of Page Like Sponsored Stories and Sponsored Page Post ads into a single, more compelling ad unit that includes the recommendation of a friend and could be targeted to any Facebook user. InsideFacebook.com reported on how this social move could work to an advertiser’s advantage.

Now, advertisers have the best of both worlds. They gain the ability to promote their page through an ad while increasing its impact through the inclusion news stories and social context. The combination makes them a stronger driver of new “likes” than either of the previously separate pages. After all, studies show that social context makes viewers 68 percent more likely to remember an ad, twice as likely to recall its message, and four times as likely to make a purchase.

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DATE: Dec.17.2011 • POSTED BY: Joanne Del Gigante

South Florida Fair TV Spot Celebrates 100 Years And Holiday Fun

As the South Florida Fair prepares to celebrate 100 years, MDG Advertising has developed and produced an upbeat TV commercial featuring a FREE offer for festive fun. When visitors purchase discounted Fair tickets at Publix, they’ll receive the “gift” of a FREE ticket to Christmas in Yesteryear Village. This old-fashioned Christmas event is a holiday highlight being held December 9-11 and 16-18 at the South Florida Fairgrounds.

To promote the Fair’s 100 years and highlight the fact that the fair has been thrilling fairgoers in Palm Beach County for a century, MDG updated last year’s successful “Share the Fair” TV commercial to focus on the special savings on this holiday event, and offer a sneak peek at all the Fair has to offer. The 30-second spot features a montage of actual Fair photos and the Fair’s lively, catchy jingle. The special FREE admission offer through Publix is boldly placed in the middle of the ad, while the focus on the Fair’s milestone anniversary remains prominent from beginning to end, with new jingle lyrics.

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DATE: Dec.16.2011 • POSTED BY: admin
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