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Wrath of the Titans

The film opens, a decade after the prequel left off, with Perseus (Sam Worthington) attempting to live out a quiet life as a fisherman and sole parent to his 10-year-old son, Helius. Unbeknownst to him, a struggle rages between the gods and the titans that threatens his quiet, idyllic life as well as peace on earth.

When the gods created the mortals, it was the mortals’ faith that fueled the gods’ immortality. But as time passed, they began to question their gods. Weakened by mankind’s lack of devotion, the gods struggle to maintain control of the imprisoned titans and their ferocious leader, Kronos, father to the long-ruling brothers Zeus (Liam Neeson), Hades (Ralph Fiennes) and Poseidon (Danny Huston). It was those three that had originally overthrew and banished him to rot in the abyss of Tartarus, a dungeon deep within the cavernous Underworld.

It’s during that very struggle to maintain control that Hades along with Zeus’ own son, Ares (Édgar Ramírez), switch loyalties and make a deal with Kronos to capture Zeus that pulls Perseus off the bench. As Zeus’ remaining powers dwindle, and the titans’ strength grows, hell is unleashed on earth. Enlisting the help of Andromeda (Rosamund Pike), Argenor (Toby Kebbell) and Hephaestus (Bill Nighy), Perseus bravely embarks on a quest into the Underworld to rescue his father, overthrow the titans and save the world.

TimeOut London’s Guy Lodge says, “In a turn of events more surprising than the script, the results are rather good. Replacing Leterrier  [the 2010 Clash of the Titans’ director] with South African journeyman Jonathan Liebesman has righted a world of wrongs: crisper effects, tighter pacing and more inspired casting add up to a sword-and-sandals romp that betters not only its predecessor but even the 1981 original.”

Wrath of the Titans (Bravo Design, Inc.)

Wrath of the Titans will be released today, March 30, 2012, in 3D and IMAX 3D.

Wrath of the Titans
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Runtime: 1 hr. 39 min.
Starring: Sam Worthington, Liam Neeson and Rosamund Pike
Directed By: Jonathan Liebesman
Written By: Greg Berlanti, David Leslie Johnson and Dan Mazeau
Distributed By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Produced By: Legendary Pictures, Thunder Road Picture and Warner Bros. Pictures

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Providing Versus Promoting

It’s difficult to say when and where marketing has its definitive roots, as people have been trading for thousands of years, but it took the shape we’re most familiar with some time during the Industrial Revolution. It was then that firms were able to ramp up production on a significantly larger scale for national and international markets due to the innovation and adoption of machines. As a result, consumption became dispersed over greater geographical distances, and producers no longer had immediate contact with their consumers.

To overcome this problem, forward thinking entrepreneurs started to plan their business operations in a marketing orientated manner. Their very survival was at stake. This demanded they be innovative and creative to stand apart. In order for producers to manufacture goods and services that would appeal and sell in widely disparate markets, it became necessary for them to carefully analyze and interpret the wants and needs of customers.

Fast forward to 2012, and we can see that firms are still being challenged to address those very same issues in segments that may be nearly impossible to breakthrough due to the sheer amount of competition or lack thereof. As marketing, as a whole, continues to evolve and be refined, companies are recognizing the increased strategic value of leveraging emerging technology, maintaining an optimized online presence, deploying content marketing, engaging with consumers before and after sales via social media and so on and so forth. Sadly enough, that recognition doesn’t necessarily translate into measureable success. The truth is, one of the primary reasons, new products fail is because companies fall short when it comes to providing a high-quality product or service or when it comes to effectively promoting it in the marketplace.

Today, expressing and delivering on your value proposition is one of the most important activities you and your business can engage in. It’s your promise of performance and value aimed at creating and occupying space in your prospective consumers’ minds as the best solution available.

When it comes to evaluating initiatives to launch and pursue, the simple fact of the matter is that most businesses aren’t aware they’re pursuing a bad idea. Let’s say that, hypothetically, you’ve come up with what you believe is a great idea, or product, as well as a business strategy to roll out alongside it. Maybe you already have. Because you’ve worked so close to it, and may have a teeny tiny amount of bias, it’s easy to get hunkered down in your own perspective and not see the bigger picture. In order to evaluate new ideas, you need to be dispassionate and fact-based. Not all bad products are total losses. Some just need tinkering. If you can change direction, or pull the plug early enough in the process, the downside risk can be mitigated. Of course, some ideas are destined to fail, so you have to ask yourself if you honestly believe it can succeed. If the answer is yes, can you find the due diligence to support that?

As a sidebar, failure isn’t a “bad” thing. It’s a learning experience, and it’s something we all inevitably come across. When Thomas Edison, one of the most prolific inventors in history, failed time and time again at improving the incandescent light bulb, he pressed forward only saying, “We now know a thousand ways not to build a light bulb.” He later prevailed.

From there, having a strong product or service doesn’t remove the need for promotion. It just increases the likelihood that your consumers and affiliates will do some of that for you. If your business doesn’t include marketing in determining which products to develop and pursue then, at best, it’s missing a big opportunity and, at worst, it’s setting itself up for failure. As a public relations major in school, my classmates and I analyzed case studies by using SWOT. That stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. By doing so, you can figure out how to leverage and capitalize while not overextending yourself in areas where you might not have depth. In a nutshell, the risk in making a bet is defined by its potential downside. That can be anything from time and money to the opportunity cost(s) associated with not following initiatives A, B and C. You’ll just have to discern which gambles will be best for you.

The most compelling value propositions address high priority concerns and reduce the risk and opportunity cost, for the consumer, associated with the purchase.  They’re clear and concise, distinguish the value and provide evidence that substantiates those claims. Even more important is the fact that you deliberately act on it. That’s the difference between providing versus promoting. Promoting is saying that you’re better and unique for X, Y and Z reasons. Providing is proving it. Warren Buffett, the Oracle from Omaha, says, “Price is what you pay. Value is what you get.” What are your end consumers getting?

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Sustainable SEO

If there’s one thing that’s certain when it comes to search engine optimization (SEO), it’s probably the fact that search engines are in a constant state of flux, continually evolving to keep up with users’ needs. PageRank, used by Google, determines a page’s prominence by tallying inbound hyperlinks that act as votes of confidence. High-quality inbound links provide context about the subject matter of a page and serve as an indicator of its quality and popularity. The more votes cast for a page, the higher it rises on a search engine report page (SERP). While it isn’t the only factor used, PageRank continues to provide the basis for all of Google’s web search tools.

As long as this remains so, there will exist a market for purchasing inbound links that artificially inflate page ranking. There has been, and will likely always be, networks geared towards spinning out content and building hundreds, if not thousands, of links for this exact purpose. BuildMyRank.com (BMR), one of the more well known networks that offered thousand of low-quality links at a reasonable price, announced its closure this week after the “overwhelming majority of its networks” were removed from Google’s search index.

If you’re wondering whether using a network like this is in violation of Google’s terms of service, the answer is yes.

Companies seem to not mind or know about the risk/consequence associated with getting caught (e.g., devalued rankings, possible deindexing, etc.) or even acknowledge the fact that the originating site might have nothing to do with their own or, worse, be obscene. In the coming weeks and months, we’re likely to see additional closures as well as the collateral damage for sites that employed companies who peddle similar services. While it may have seemed like a viable strategy to optimize your search engine ranking, beforehand, companies that generate countless numbers of links for this singular purpose really aren’t providing a service of value to anyone. They create artificial online relationships for the sole purpose of optimizing said ranking. So while it may not explicitly be black hat in terms of the quality of the content, it’s definitely not creating value for search engine users. And while that may have worked well in the past, Google is quickly learning to find and remove these networks, their clients and their affiliates from its listings.

A more sustainable SEO strategy centers on using techniques that will survive the test of time regardless as to what criteria search engines change. Afterall, who wants to get delisted from any given SERP?

Develop Quality Content, Build Links and Promote
One of the best ways to improve your ranking, as well as shape your branding and how your audience your audience perceives your company, is to invest in unique and relevant content development. The more useful it is, the greater the chances are that a reader will share it. The easier it is to share, the better. As search engines work to more effectively incorporate an individual’s social graph into SERPs, the more heavily your social back links will weigh in. If you’re creating content in-house, whoever is developing content for the site should have a clear understanding of the business, its target audience and its goals and objectives. Before publishing content, ask, “Is this going to be beneficial for my page’s visitors?

After publishing, promote it aggressively. Link building through traditional efforts like outreach, guest contributions, social media and leveraging partnerships is a great way to obtain SERP prominence. Focus on a few important social networks, rather than spreading yourself thin over too many, and engage and interact. Share your articles to your community by posting links of your important posts or content but try and avoid overwhelming your followers.

If you prioritize your users before your page ranking, the latter will follow in suit.

Markup Pages for Search Engines
Many sites are generated from structured data, which is often stored in databases. When this data is rendered into HTML, it becomes difficult to recover the original structured data. Search engines can benefit greatly on-page markups that enable them to more readily decipher information on web pages and provide richer search results in order to make it easier for users to find relevant information on the web.

Schema.org provides a collection of tags that webmasters can use to mark up content elements in ways recognized by major search engines, like Bing, Google and Yahoo!, that rely on markups to improve search results making it easier for people to find the right web pages. Additionally, there are geo-specific schema tags that can be leveraged to further send signals as to which audience the content is intended for including organization names, addresses, contact information, geo-coordinates, etc. Not only does this improve the user experience, but it also helps attract a searcher’s attention to your content and will likely increase click-through rates.

Stay Current and Competitive
This should be the most intuitive point but to be a serious contender, you have to stay current. Current is the minimum. Two steps ahead is better. Know what’s going on in your industry, on your own website and in the SEO community. Because the competitive landscape is constantly shifting, you’ll need to continually monitor and adapt your SEO strategy as problems arise so pay attention to your website metrics. If you’re using Google Analytics, you’ll know how many unique visitors are scoping out your site, how much time they’re spending on it, what content is most frequently being read, what keywords are being used to organically find your page and much, much more. If you’re not, you need to. Agility will help you turn on a dime but only if you can see where you’re going.

Yes, that requires a lot of time and energy or one intern. Just kidding. But there are a countless number of forums, articles and other free resources for SEO professionals to learn about more about the trade. If you’re managing your business’ SEO and marketing campaign(s), there’s no reason to not leverage this.

Lastly, focus on the long haul and decide where you’ll be one, five or ten years from now. Inevitably, there will be goals that can be further broken down into milestones that must be completed along the way to make progress. The purpose isn’t to create a concrete plan that will ensure your company’s passage into the coming century. It’s to address your strengths and weaknesses, so you can leverage and mitigate them respectively. As was the case with BMR, the problem is that short-term decisions have a habit of contaminating long-term success. One of the best ways to not only succeed, but to flourish, is to not shoot yourself in the foot.

Photo Credit: www.searchcowboys.com

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Breaking All the Rules

Creating web design that’s intuitive and easy to navigate through are qualities that web developers continually strive towards in order to maximize traffic and increase usability as best as possible. Those qualities make overall use more enjoyable which, ultimately, plays a critical role in a website’s success. While there are generally accepted conventions, best practices and design trends. For every rule, there is always an exception. Let’s keep in mind that guidelines are not definitive answers. Listed below are rules to break (or at least consider breaking):

Usability should be directed at the “lowest common denominator.”
Web design is, and always will be, about problem solving. The constituency that comprises your user base will be widely disparate, and that’s a good thing. What that doesn’t mean is that the quality of the site and/or its content should be sacrificed in favor of tailoring to the “lowest common denominator.” Give your users some credit and treat them how you’d want to be treated. If it’s worth your users’ while, they’ll figure it out.

Information needs to go above the fold.
“Content is king.” I know. You know. You hear this 94 times a day. It’s the quality and usefulness of your site’s content that will determine the success of your site. While the layout plays a significant part in the effectiveness of your delivery, it doesn’t mean that information needs to be scaled back or, worse, crammed indiscernibly into a single frame. Books have pages that must be turned in order to move backwards and/or forwards, and websites have content that must be scrolled to on and off the screen.

Instructions have to be ultra specific.
I’m not really a Mac kind of guy. Outside of now, I’ve only had to use one once. Despite the lack of incredibly specific directions in the form of a manual, replaced with my sense of pride that renders me unable to ask my more tech savvy coworkers for help, it’s pretty easy to figure out. This same principle applies to the text deployed on a page. At the end of a short teaser for a blog article, there’s no need to have anchor text that reads: “Click here to read this full article.” Something as simple as “Read more” will suffice. There are going to be times where giving users some extra instruction is necessary, but you’ll be able to figure that out on a case by case basis.

Make Your Site’s Goal Obvious.
Something that really gets drilled into the minds of young designers is that a design should instantly tell viewers what they are looking at before they read any text. Brand recognition is important for large corporations, but the smaller guys sometimes need to approach the game differently to attract a viewer’s attention. Be mysterious every now and again. Holding back can intrigue the viewer into wanting to learn more. Applying this technique to web design can greatly increase the time that users stay on your site.

The point of this post is to think outside of the box. It’s not encouraging you to break rules just for the sake of breaking rules. If you do so for the wrong reasons, you’ll probably see mixed results at best. While unconventional design can be dangerous and even damaging to your reputation as a designer, standard convention should be used if there are no better alternatives. If, and when, you do come up with a better way to present something, the choice becomes obvious. So approach every new design with a question in mind, what is the best way to execute this element? Keep the user and their tasks in mind and if you think of a great and innovative way that will improve their user experience, go for it.  Maybe your idea will become the next great design convention. If it fails, you can always fall back on what works for others. When it comes to breaking all the rules, as Robert Francis Kennedy famously said, “Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly.”

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Team Building

Outside of our regular posts that aim to help our readers and affiliates improve various aspects of their businesses, part of my job is to report the happenings at Bravo’s headquarters.

This week, the staff put its brackets together for March Madness. Some were meticulously pored over using stats from the regular season, and some were put together through criteria like which mascots were more fearsome and/or which team has cooler uniforms. Without throwing anyone under a bus, Bodie, our managerial consultant, leveraged his background in econometrics to pick the most statistically advantageous teams. Robert, web and print designer, raced to make his picks over a bowl of Lucky Charms in just under 23 seconds, and Matthew, esteemed web developer, used his Two Face coin [see: The Dark Knight] to decide his. I’m not sure if Robert actually knows who’s playing or why Matthew has that coin, but they both seem pretty confident that they’ll win.

I picked my bracket purely based on seed number without regard to the possibility of potential upsets. I then used my second bracket to pick the exact same teams because I was so pleased with my original selections. It wasn’t until five minutes later, when I realized my sure thing wasn’t a sure thing, that I immediately regretted my decision. The tournament and the quasi-friendly sense of competition have brought the team together. And any way the cards fall, we’ll all have fun… everyone except for last place that is. Bragging rights aside, fun is what we’re aiming for.

Not to get too serious but at the end of 2011, I posted an entry on making New Year’s resolutions for your business and committing to them. One of the points I made was to be exceptional in each and everything you do. Part of that entails how you respond to adversity and external variables, but the other part consists of how you prepare yourself during the interim. The NCAA tournament lasts one month, and each game consists of two 20-minute halves. In the grand scheme of things, that’s the smallest amount of time.

What dictates success are the days, months and years spent in preparation leading up to an opportunity. At Bravo Design, Inc., we prepare. We get to know our clients, so we’ll come to anticipate what they’ll expect without them actually having to ask. We prepare, so we can avoid the snags that bring projects to grinding halts. We prepare so that when opportunity presents itself, we can capitalize. We realize that our strengths are dependent on the individuals that represent our organization. So if kicking back while making fun of each other and ourselves will contribute to our overall success, yeah, we’ll do that.

We’re not in the business of trying to build just any team.

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21 Jump Street

In the action-comedy, 21 Jump Street, Schmidt (Jonah Hill) and Jenko (Channing Tatum), a pair of underachieving cops under the command of Captain Dickson (Ice Cube), are sent back to a local high school to infiltrate and bring down a drug ring. Older and wiser, the mismatched partners’ plans to apply the lessons learned from the first time around are derailed when the two find that high school has dramatically changed since their days. Jenko, the jock, is now an outsider. While Schmidt, once the geek, is now cool. Confronted by the terror and anxiety of being a teenager again, further compounded by issues that have long gone unresolved, hilarity ensues.

Michael Rechtshaffen of the Hollywood Reporter writes, “Not since Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg teamed up in The Other Guys has an onscreen pairing proved as comically rewarding as the inspired partnership of Jonah Hill and Channing Tatum as baby-faced cops who go undercover at a high school to bust a drug ring.”

21 Jump Street will be released on March 16, 2012.

21 Jump Street
Rating: R
Genre: Action, Comedy
Runtime: 1 hr. 50 min.
Starring: Jonah Hill, Channing Tatum, Brie Larson and Ice Cube
Directed By: Phil Lord, Chris Miller
Written By: Michael Bacall, Jonah Hill, Patrick Hasburgh and Stephen J. Cannell
Distributed By: Columbia Pictures
Produced By: Columbia Pictures, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer, Relativity Media, Original Film and Cannell Studios

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Logo & Corporate Identity Design

Logos and corporate identity design are integral to a company’s branding. What does that mean exactly? Think of branding as shaping how a company will be perceived. It differentiates products and services in a positive way and may ultimately be a business’ most valuable asset. So why are logos so important? Well, think about it. As an individual, you want people to remember your face. Taking that line of reasoning one step further, what qualities would you want people to associate your face with? Kindness? Fairness? Trustworthiness?

Choosing the right logo can convey these qualities while cultivating a positive association in the mind of your consumer. Some logos hint at what the company does or sells. Others are teasers that pique a viewer’s interest. What’s certain is that a logo that’s well designed effectively represents your business, is timeless and looks good showing off on its own. Listed are points to consider when designing your next logo.

A simpler design is conducive for flexibility.

Envision every possible place your logo may appear and then think about how it will look in each format. Will it be on billboards? Online ads? Car wraps? Stationary? Each of these has technical requirements different than the next, but a strong logo will translate well across different mediums while maintaining its integrity. More importantly, it will need to effectively convey a message in a variety of contexts, possibly without copy, and reproduce well in black and white.  For now, omit the tagline and company name in your master. You can integrate it as often as you’d like in collateral after.

Your logo is your brand so make it distinctive.

Nobody likes a copycat. It’s one thing to look at what your competitors are doing. It’s another to emulate or steal those ideas. When it comes to the actual execution, use this knowledge to make your design stand apart instead of mimicking what you see. You also don’t want your customers to confuse your logo with that of another company. Additionally, another error to avoid is using stock images in your logo. You run the risk of copyright infringement.

You want people to remember your logo.

You want your logo to be memorable, and the best way to achieve this is to avoid having to change it every couple of years. Avoid the temptation to latch on to the latest trend. Trends are fickle, and your logo can become very dated very quickly. Your logo is your business calling card. A bad one will cause people to ignore you, but a good one will not only get them to notice you. It will command attention. Treat your logo like you treat your own appearance and make it look good.

As a warning, a common error that often occurs is when a company underestimates the importance of defining its identity in its infancy. Some time down the line, that company may eventually outgrow and/or realize that the logo does little or nothing to enhance its image. From there, the company can either continue on with the subpar design or abandon it altogether, losing some or all of the recognition it had previously built. As a rule of thumb to live by: think twice, design once. Steve Jobs once called Paul Rand, “the greatest living graphic designer.” In his book, Design, Form, and Chaos, Rand says:

A logo is a flag, a signature, an escutcheon, a street sign.
A logo does not sell (directly), it identifies.
A logo is rarely a description of a business.
A logo derives meaning from the quality of the thing it symbolizes,
not the other way around. A logo is less important than the product it signifies;
what it represents is more important than what it looks like.

If you have questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the fields below. To learn more about how Bravo Design, Inc. can contribute to your growing business, fill out a contact form by clicking here.

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Content Marketing

People want solutions to their problems, plain and simple, and they’re willing to seek them out. What’s actually happening is that they’re becoming increasingly inundated by thousands of irrelevant marketing messages that attempt to pull them in different directions, which they typically ignore. As someone seeking to grow their business, you’ll have to do more than just create content. You’ll need to become both authoritative and engaging. It’s a necessity that you and your brand strongly communicate your story, instill confidence and trust, all while building awareness and encouraging engagement among prospects and customers. The potential exists not only to solidify your position but also to increase your market share.

Sound easy? It’s not.

The majority of organizations are set up to develop, produce and sell products and services not to create and deliver weekly editorials and/or seek out potential customers to interact with in cyberspace.  That’s why content development seems so unnatural to most businesses. What this all comes down to is an opportunity to educate potential buyers about your product offerings, the industry at large as well as your company culture. Ultimately, the information you distribute should make it easier for your consumer to purchase your goods and/or services. For tips and considerations on improving your copy, click here.

As a sidebar, creating unique content might not be the appropriate goal for each and every business. Some companies should focus on engaging customers via social media sites and answering their questions as quickly as possible to spur them into action to quicken conversion and, ultimately, speed up the sales cycle. Remember, not every hit on your website is a potential customer. Think of it in the context of a department store. Of all the visitors who stop in, only some are in the market for actually making a purchase. Likewise, only some of you website traffic is considering purchasing goods/services offered. To leverage your online marketing efforts, you’ll have to discern where your business stands and which group of visitors you’re trying to reach out to (in this example, casual shoppers vs. the purpose driven).

Once you do have content, another hurdle that will inevitably present itself is placement. If you create content but aren’t effectively advertising it, you’re wasting your time. Successful content marketing requires a combination of interesting content combined with social networking, link building and public relations working together synergistically. Push your content through your social media pipeline and through your website. That doesn’t mean spam. You’re more likely to lose some, or all, of your following if you become too overbearing. At Bravo Design, Inc. networking with other professionals online has helped us nearly triple our Facebook following over the course of the last two or three months. Building genuine relationships with your end consumers along with professionals within your industry will help you gain the most out of your marketing efforts. It also helps improve the pipeline for expanded delivery options in the future.

Your ability to concisely define your brand and establish credibility, while standing apart from the crowd, will have a huge impact on your future success(es). If content is improperly targeted, your message is wasted on an audience that doesn’t care about you, your business or your news. Even worse is the possibility that if you use an affiliate website to host miscellaneous content, potential readers will be redirected there rather than to your own site. Not only do you lose that traffic, it devalues your news and your brand.

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Project X

Project X follows three anonymous high school seniors, Thomas (Thomas Mann), Costa (Oliver Cooper) and JB (Jonathan Daniel Brown), as they attempt to throw a birthday party for Thomas. Unknown to the others, Costa has no plans to have yet another sedated get together. He’s aiming just past epic. As the guests keep arriving, the party descends into total chaos. Word spreads quickly as the night degenerates into the best kind of catastrophe. Project X is a cautionary tale to parents and police everywhere. Both groundbreaking and hilarious, this film has been rated R for crude and sexual content throughout, drugs, drinking, pervasive language, reckless behavior and mayhem.

Project X
Rating: R
Genre: Comedy
Runtime: 1 hr. 28 min.
Starring: Thomas Mann, Oliver Cooper and Jonathan Daniel Brown
Directed By: Nima Nourizadeh
Written By: Matt Drake and Michael Bacall
Distributed By: Warner Bros. Pictures
Produced By: Green Hat Films and Silver Pictures