On The Mark

May 18, 2012 - Facebook Goes Public

So if you haven’t heard, Facebook went public at 11:00 a.m. this morning. As Ron Burgandy said, this is kind of a big deal. Financial scholars have tried to predict its opening price for months now, which ended up at $42 per share. Here’s a crazy fact: 82 million shares were traded in the first 30 seconds. The company is offering 421 million shares at around $40, which could raise nearly $18.5 billion in its IPO. Mark Zuckerberg is a very rich man.

May 17, 2012 - Social media for selfless acts of kindness

We hear lots of stories in the news about the evils of social media because of its intrusive nature. How about a story showing how social media is GOOD? Take a look at this Mashable article. It’s a story about Scott Widak, a 47-year old with Down syndrome and a terminal liver disease. Scott’s nephew, Sean O’Connor, turned to the Reddit social community for a little help. It seems that Scott likes to read mail, and when Sean asked for people to send a correspondence to his uncle, man, did he get a response! Yes. Sometimes social media can seem a little over the top. I mean, do you really need to be the Mayor of your favorite lunch spot? But this story just makes us feel good to be part of the social media world.

May 14, 2012 - 2011 Savannah/Hilton Head International Annual Report

Robertson & Markowitz Advertising and Public Relations is proud to show you the new 2011 Savannah/Hilton Head International Annual Report. The Annual Report was handed out at the Savannah Airport Commission May board meeting. Our client was very pleased with the final piece! Download the full report by clicking here.

May 11, 2012 - Lost Generation

Diane passed this video along to the office and we had to share. As writers, we think this is an extremely cool and clever use of the English language...and a great message at that. Take a look for yourself.

May 9, 2012 - Happy 20th Anniversary Ted and Karen!

Recognize these folks? That's Ted and Karen who were married 20 years ago today! Happy 20th Anniversary from all of us at R&M! And as Diane said, God bless you, Karen!

May 8, 2012 - Lisbon Zoo Soundwaves

When coming up with creative concepts for a print campaign for a zoo, the first thought would be to incorporate visually stunning photos of the animals, right? Ad agency, Draftfbc, went in a different direction, however, with their print campaign for the Lisbon Zoo in Portugal, and we love it! Click on the link to enlarge and take a look! (Via CreativeCriminals.com)

May 4, 2012 - The Web is Dead

A few weeks ago we posted a powerful graphic about the rise and fall of online empires. It seems that just as AOL, Myspace and Yahoo saw unprecedented growth for a period of time, so did they see a steep decline as other online empires such as Google and Facebook rose to the top. As we mentioned, the average lifespan of a major online company before hitting rock bottom is about 11 years, which makes you wonder where the online giants of today will be when they hit that milestone. To take this idea further is a recent Forbes article titled “Here's Why Google and Facebook Might Completely Disappear in the Next 5 Years”. It seems crazy, right? However, with the extraordinary growth that mobile devices have seen in the last five years, it has been predicted that they will actually take over desktop computer usage in the next few years. Which brings us back to Google and Facebook. The author notes that both online giants have been surprisingly slow to adapt to the new mobile environment. Sure, Facebook has an app for every mobile device, but to say these apps are limited when compared to the desktop computer version is an understatement. In Google’s case, the iPhone4s complete with Siri is just the beginning of the new web search. As the author notes, “it’s a lot easier to start asking Siri for information instead of typing search terms into a box compared to thousands of enterprises ceasing to upgrade to the next version of Windows.” All this is to say that it will definitely be interesting who will adapt and how. Facebook has already attempted to flex its mobile muscles with the acquisition of mobile photo-sharing service, Instagram. But is it enough, and is it too late? Time will tell. According to the author, though, “we will never have Web 3.0, because the Web’s dead.”

May 2, 2012 - Social Media Monitoring and Reputation Management

In the age of "going viral", social media monitoring is now a vital part of a company's reputation management plan. That includes Facebook, Twitter, blogs, review sites and even Foursquare, as one European hotel learned. When guest Bindi Karia checked in to the NH Hotel in Amsterdam, she also checked in on Foursquare with a not-so-complimentary message regarding the hotel's rude staff and dated decor. You can bet that she was pleasantly shocked to receive a letter from hotel operations manager Victor van der Knaap less than 24 hours later to apologize for her poor experience. Talk about turning a negative into a positive. Companies should use this as an example of how to monitor social media for customer service purposes. Bravo!

April 30, 2012 - Chaz's Sidewalk Arts Entry

This past weekend was the SCAD Sidewalk Arts Festival in Forsyth Park where talented artists leave their mark in the park by creating their own sidewalk designs out of chalk. There were many fantastic entries, including one by our very own graphic designer and SCAD alum, Chaz Cruz. Believe us when we say this accurately reflects Chaz’s fun personality. Great job, Chaz! (Daniel Bryan is a professional wrestler in case you're wondering.)

April 26, 2012 - Where Are They Now?

Today’s blog is a bit of a departure than what we normally do. Think of it as a “where are they now” segment featuring past employee, Casey Clinch. Casey worked at R&M in 2007 where she was an Account Coordinator. She has since moved to Florida where she works in the restaurant industry with her husband and little boy, Eli. With an English degree from the University of Florida (we’ll forgive her for that), she’s an excellent writer, and is putting her talents to good use on the web with her own blog called The Baker Bee. Chaz did a little research and found the The Baker Bee, which focuses on Casey’s two favorites: food and being a mom. Check it out when you get a chance! It’s always fun to keep up with past employees, so we’re especially thankful that Casey has given us the opportunity to do so with this blog.