At its most recent Sunset Keynote Event, BMA Atlanta featured Eduardo Conrado, SVP and CMO at Motorola Solutions. Conrado discussed how business-to-business marketing must evolve in the coming years to meet changing customer needs. His talk focused on how companies—having clearly defined their purpose—can implement a customer-centric marketing approach. Nebo had the opportunity to partner with BMA Atlanta and conduct a short Q&A with Conrado before the event. Customer-centric Read More...

While I was not able to make it to CES this year, I had plenty of tech-crazed friends who were in attendance. Through their frequent tweets and regular blog updates, those of us back in trenches were kept in the loop as to what products and solutions were drawing the most attention and which were hailed as duds. CES has become so widely popular. What was once a show for the true geeks, CES has morphed into more of a trend-setting event for the tech-savvy intertwined with a more cutting-edge Read More...

We recently found some spoiled milk in our Nebo fridge. We decided to hit it with a baseball bat. At some companies, this would be called “team building.” We prefer to call it what it really is. Fun. Enjoy.   Read More...

Brands used to pay hefty fees to be sponsors of major attractions, such as the Super Bowl. One reason: They benefit by borrowing brand equity from the event. Turns out, there’s a much cheaper alternative. Many brands, for nothing, are claiming “sponsorship” of free-floating concepts. Why borrow equity from the Summer Olympics when a brand can borrow instead from, say, “the American dream?” Here are a few examples: Mutual of Omaha: Proud Sponsor of Life’s Read More...

SOPA (the Stop Online Piracy Act) is an anti-piracy bill that was introduced by Congress on October 26, 2011. Since then, the act has garnered stiff opposition from some of the Internet’s biggest companies – from Google to Wikipedia. While trying to tackle the issue of copyright infringement, many companies and people fear that the act is overreaching. Based on the current language of the act, any website could commit a simple act of copyright violation (even an innocent one) and Read More...

While preparing for an all-day wireframe presentation, a client asked us to take the PACE (Personality, Attitude & Career Enhancement) test and suggested we share our “colors” prior to the meeting. Since we expected eight attendees, it was helpful to know who the Red, Blue, Green and Yellow folks were in the room so we could better analyze and understand everyone’s comments, feedback and suggestions relative to the client’s expectations around their new website features Read More...

Usually, niché players are satisfied to pull small shares away from the category leaders. And usually, category leaders overlook the incursions. Only rarely does the niché grow to challenge the entire category, but this is exactly the case with yogurt. Until recently, yogurt sales in the U.S. have been dominated by Dannon and Yoplait. Now, Greek-style yogurt, hardly a presence four years ago, dominates. And New York-based Chobani is the niché-turned-category leader, having launched only Read More...

Feel like a movie? See if you can match the following films, now playing, with the blurbs used in their advertising. (Answers below.) Movies 1. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close 2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 3. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 4. War Horse 5. A Separation 6. A Dangerous Method 7. The Iron Lady 8. Young Adult 9. J. Edgar 10. The Muppets Ad Blurbs a. “One of the Best Films of the Year” b. “One of the Best Films of the Year” c. “Easily One of the Read More...

Companies today are faced with two choices when deciding how to handle application development. You can outsource and save money, or you can keep development in-house and build competency. Our belief is simple. Companies should never outsource core competencies. Our expertise in building custom content management systems and applications for clients was a differentiator for us in the early days of Nebo and helped us achieve success. This wouldn’t have been possible with an outsourced Read More...

We are inundated with a number of sites offering the best deals on all kinds of products, services and experiences. Groupon was the prime market mover of this model and due to their success, a number of copycats have spun their own deal-offering services. But how sustainable is this model? Will these daily deal businesses last? Are they “To Be Or Not to Be?” That is the question. First, let’s examine the business model. It’s fairly simple. Leverage technology to develop a consumer Read More...

Today is day one of a very exciting project for the Thunderbird School of Global Management, a RIESTER client for the past eleven years. To tell Thunderbird’s story — the world’s #1 school for international business — RIESTER is sending a small crew around the world to film TBirds (graduates of the school) reciting the Thunderbird Oath of Honor. This oath is what guides TBirds throughout their careers; it is their promise to conduct business with respect to other Read More...

Feel like a movie? See if you can match the following films, now playing, with the blurbs used in their advertising. (Answers below.) Movies 1. Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close 2. The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo 3. Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy 4. War Horse 5. A Separation 6. A Dangerous Method 7. The Iron Lady 8. Young Adult 9. J. Edgar 10. The Muppets Ad Blurbs a. “One of the Best Films of the Year” b. “One of the Best Films of the Year” c. “Easily One of the Read More...

(Photo via PDXdj) While we always hope for the best, sometimes agency-client relationships become like angry drivers encountering each other on the road. We’ve all done it. We judge other drivers – verbally, under our breath, or even with unique hand gestures. From afar, it’s obvious what other drivers should be doing and it pisses us off when they cut us off or drive too slow. However, we become impatient jerks in the process. Maybe the other driver is late for an appointment. Read More...

Herb Peterson photographed with the iron rings made by a California blacksmith for him to cook the original Egg McMuffins. RIESTER is honored to be associated with the Egg McMuffin which celebrates its 40th anniversary this year. Herb Peterson was the owner of McDonald’s restaurants on California’s Central Coast where he created the iconic breakfast sandwich for McDonald’s. Today Herb’s son David, a RIESTER client, continues to operate McDonald’s restaurants in Santa Barbara Read More...

While Steve Jobs’s death brought out the expected outpouring of grief, reflection, and inspirational quotes, adding to the pile of effusion is not a goal of mine. Yet, as I randomly watched various YouTube clips of his speaking engagements during my holiday break, the following video struck me as unusually insightful. At first it seems like commonplace advice. Yet, Steve Jobs is probably considered one of the most efficient, action-oriented, and results-driven business personalities of Read More...

Every year since 1976, Lake Superior State University has released its annual list of “Words Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness.” From the all-time list, I found many clichés used in marketing. Below are a few examples with some comments from the nominators: All new “Of course it’s all new. Why can’t they just say ‘new’?” And more! “Everything marketed can be something else! ‘It’s a hamburger meal, but Read More...

Is the keyword meta tag important to achieve desired SEO rankings? This is not an easy question to answer as it’s not clear how search engines utilize the tag. Several years ago the tag was highly relevant and when used properly played a critical role in website page rankings. However, over time search engines have devalued the tag as black-hat tactics such as keyword stuffing made the tag less reliable. This ultimately led search engines to place much less emphasis on the tag. Does this Read More...

Pacific Life is saving the whale. Lacoste is saving the croc. Big Ass Fans is saving the donkey. Can The Coca-Cola Company save the polar bear? In 1993, Coke launched its “Always Coca-Cola” campaign, featuring warm-and-fuzzy computer-animated polar bears drinking Coke. (Below is a TV spot typical of the series.) Ironically, while becoming one of the most popular symbols of the Coke brand, the polar bear also emerged as the poster child for the negative impact of global Read More...

In 2011, Nebo experienced continued growth as a company, not only on the outside but also on the inside. We hired many new people, and we’re lucky to work with some of the best people in interactive marketing. Together, we all strive to push ourselves to greater heights. Our self-discipline, which begins with how we approach our work, minute by minute, hour by hour, eventually leads to the outward success we see in the awards we win, the growth we achieve, and the stunning results we help Read More...

The ASHLine, the smokers’ helpline managed by the Arizona Department of Health Services, has helped countless people quit tobacco over the years. In a brand new multimedia campaign developed by RIESTER, ads feature real ASHLine users recounting their personal battles with tobacco – and their ultimate victories over it. These stories are designed to inspire others to call ASHLine, so that too can live tobacco-free. For the television commercials, RIESTER partnered with Working Joe Read More...