Brandy's Pinterest Page
Agency,Media

Have you joined Pinterest yet?

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Lately, I’ve found myself spending more and more time on a website called Pinterest. If you haven’t heard about it, Pinterest is a site where users create virtual bulletin boards to curate inspiration they find online. They can share ideas, recipes, products, videos and photos, curate their favorite things, and make lists.

Users create theme-based collections on a Board labeled with titles such as “Inspiration,” “Things I want” and “For the Home.” Boards can also be used to organize events or projects like home renovations, weddings, parties and vacations. Boards are then populated with individual images (or “Pins”) by either using the “Pin It” bookmarklet, re-pinning content from another user on the site, or uploading original images from your computer or through the iPhone app (which still needs some serious work, by the way). Users can also decide if they want other people to be able to pin to their boards.

The site is still only about two years old, but it has seen rapid growth in the last several months. Unique visitors increased from 418,000 in May to 3.3 million in October, meaning traffic increased sevenfold in just five months. And it’s expected to explode in 2012. But that’s just one of the reasons that Arsenal now has its own Pinterest account where all of our employees can post their own inspiration for designs, ads and typography, among other things.

If you’re a brand whose target customers are women, you’ll be interested to know that 70% of users are females under 45. And users are highly engaged, with a reported 3.3 million users logging more than 421 million pageviews, so there are plenty of opportunities to get someone’s attention.

At this point, Pinterest is still purely organic, meaning there’s no paid advertising (yet). But that doesn’t mean that brands aren’t taking advantage of this fast-growing platform as one more way to connect with and influence customers.

Pinterest clearly states that it’s not a platform for self-promotion, which means you have to take a slightly different approach. Lands’ End Canvas launched one of the first contests on the site with the “Pin It to Win It” campaign prompting participants to visit their website and create virtual pin boards for a chance to win a gift card. Nordstrom is using Pinterest not only to share information and links to their products, but also to learn about what’s trending among their audiences. And it’s providing a great referral source for corporate websites. In October 2011, Real Simple noted that more people are clicking through to their website from Pinterest than Facebook.

At the moment Pinterest is still invite only, so if you haven’t joined yet let us know and we’d be happy to hook you up with an invitation.

7th & Brazos
Agency

So we meet again Papyrus.

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Was someone high and watching Avatar?

The other day I stepped out for a mid-afternoon snack in the 106-degree heat. On the way back, I admired the new construction along Brazos Street in front of our office. I almost passed out. Not from the extreme heat, but from the nauseating typeface that is now all over downtown corners – laser-etched in metal and embedded in concrete. Papyrus? Seriously? Papyrus has been often used – by people who don’t know better – for things like health spas, new-age help services and anything involving religion.

Folks, Austin is the Live Music Capital of the World. We’ve got creativity oozing out of every pore of every block in Austin. Couldn’t we have gotten one good-looking typeface to help our out-of-town guests find their way? Just because you have a computer, PowerPoint and Word doesn’t mean you can design. Since Arsenal is located on Brazos, I’m visually assaulted daily by Papyrus.

Hey, City of Austin, just because James Cameron has no taste and used it in Avatar, doesn’t make it right. Take notice City of Austin you’ve officially been submitted to http://www.papyruswatch.com/. Good day sir!

intern mug
Agency,Interns

Interns and the dreaded interview…

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So, you want to be an intern? Great! I loved being an intern. It was exciting – I was figuring out what I wanted to do for the rest of my life and learning something new about this field and myself almost every day. And then one day, I started doing the teaching (with the help of a lot of wonderful people!).

After countless applications, interviews and some great interns, I have a few tips for you about the interview process. In no order of importance, they are:

  1. Spell things correctly. Especially the interviewer’s name and the company name. You would not believe how many students make this mistake. And for me, it’s an automatic “no thank you.”
  2. Do not wear perfume. Leave it off on your interview day, and pretty much any time you come in. I have what I call “bad-smell-days,” where everything smells so intense and gross, which then causes a headache. Strong perfume never fails to trigger this. My weirdness aside, what about people with severe allergies? Believe me, neither of us wants to have the awkward conversation about what you smell like.
  3. But please do bathe.
  4. Proof your work. Before you send me that email touting your attention to detail, actually check the details.
  5. Titles are tricky. Your first name doesn’t always signify your gender. I have a ‘boy’ name; at least most people think so. Err on the safe side and don’t refer to me as a Mr. or Mrs. or Ms. Unless of course you pay attention to the details in the job posting. See #4.
  6. Dress appropriately. Austin is incredibly casual, and I love it. I can wear cute sandals to work! But you don’t know that. Better to dress up than dress down. We may be a conservative shop that hates tattoos and facial piercings. Again, err on the safe side.
  7. Have questions for your interview. I want to get to know you. Your curiosity, or lack of, is a big indicator of whether I can work with you.
  8. Thank you. Send an actual, hand-written ‘thank you’ note and bonus points abound. If you can’t manage to find a real mailbox, send an email. But a ‘thank you’ after the interview is essential. And it shows your momma raised you right.

Most importantly, realize that we want to teach you. We want you to be successful. After all you’re our future colleague. Best of luck!

Oh, and if you would like to be considered for our internships, please send your resume to ryann@goArsenal.com.

 

Arsenal Headquarters
Agency

Announcing the official launch of Arsenal.

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Russell/Shaw and Arsenal Brand have come together to form Arsenal Advertising + PR.

For the last several years we’ve enjoyed working together as two complementary teams offering our clients a range of marketing services. We worked as strategic partners delivering creative, PR and digital solutions. We liked the results. Our clients did too.

Then we started thinking… why not make it official? As the old saying goes, maybe the whole really is greater than the sum of the parts. And we didn’t just work well together. We enjoyed working together.

We think we’ve landed on the right combination of strategic thinking, breakthrough creative, effective PR, innovative digital ideas and efficient execution. With everything we do designed to connect with audiences in meaningful and relevant ways.

We’re Arsenal. And we’re here to help build your brand. For good.