Universal Wilde Blog

If you’re like me, you like coffee – and you like it a lot. However, you only like your coffee a specific way – for me at Starbucks, it’s a venti, sugar-free caramel soy latte (sometimes iced). Yes, I’m selective, but I keep going back to Starbucks. Why? My order’s not explicitly on the menu and it’s a little pricier, but it’s what I like – and clearly, I’ll pay the price to get a drink that I feel is the perfect cup of coffee (or three) for me. The best part of all? I’ve never had a barista tell me they can’t make that latte for me because it’s not on the menu.

Little by little, Coca-Cola machines are popping up in restaurants around the United States. Near where I live, it’s in a Kelly’s Roast Beef –you pick the soda you want and dispense it yourself. Seems pretty ordinary, right? Not exactly. This carbonated think tank, the Coca-Cola Freestyle, was made in 2009 and is revolutionizing the way we pick our soda flavors. You have options; in fact, you have over 125 different flavored Coke products – Sprite, Canada Dry, Coke Zero, etc. to choose from. Pick a Coca-Cola brand, choose from a myriad of flavors, and taste your new concoction. Oh, and expect your mind to be blown – I haven’t had a bad tasting soda yet.

We’re marketers, so we’re bound to be critical of how others are marketing (or advertising) their products and services to us. That doesn’t mean that we don’t love the way that some things are sold to us.

If you’ve been on the internet in the last ten or so days, you’ve heard of the Harlem Shake – and just how many Harlem Shake videos there are.

PINE, the New England regional affiliate of Printing Industries of America (PIA), is the region's largest management association. Comprised of printers, graphic designers, mailers, pre-press professionals, printed materials producers and vendors, PINE prides itself as being the voice of New England's graphic communications industry.

The average price of a Superbowl ad increased by 8.6% from 2012 to 2013. Although that may seem like a small price, it's an eye-popping $3.8 million dollars to air a 30-second advertisement during the most important football game of the year. With all that money being spent on half a minute, you want to convey a message that's creative; you also want your message to increase brand recognition and recall with the viewers of the Superbowl.

I have a confession: I love Pinterest. It's my online inspiration board for food, exercising, quotes, and so many more things. However, I've never used it for buying products - just gawking at things. Yes, Pinterest may be good for suggesting several thousand meals you could make, but would you use it for holiday shopping?

Five things we’ve seen (and liked) this week:

Happy (almost) New Year!  Since the world didn’t end on December 21^st, that means that we’re bidding farewell to 2012 at the same old time.  And as a new year approaches, it’s natural for people to look back on all the events that happened over the last 365 days, both in their own lives and in the world.  Luckily, since we are in the technology age, we don’t have to think too hard to remember all the things that happened throughout the year – the internet (and particularly social media) has documented it all for us! Thanks to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and the countless other platforms out there, we can easily look back on our year and reflect on just how much our lives have changed.

Many companies this holiday season have opted to include QR codes in their marketing efforts. Target decided this October that they would tag the Top 20 Toys of the holiday season with QR codes and have them be available via the Target smartphone app. The best part about this? If you ordered one of these toys using the QR code, they were offering free shipping. Talk about making your holiday season less stressful!