The Role of the Infographics in Marketing and How You Can Create Your Own

Infographics visual presentations of data, information or knowledge. Think of them as data visualization and visual thinking that use design elements to display content of complex messages, so that they are easily understood and comprehended by the viewer. I like to think of them as the "picture book" of data and information.

You can use infographics in presentations, annual reports, research content, blogs, and in your newsletters. It will keep people interested because it's telling them a story using visual elements that will keep their interest - providing them with information that can be absorbed at a glance. As consumers we want numbers and statistics to back the information that we read, but we want it to be visually appealing and not always text based. An infographic gives key takeaways that are friendly to readers. The majority of people are visual learners, so infographics benefit them and in the long run benefit you and your business.

Using infographics work great for content marketing for the following reasons:
Easy to use. Think about it an infograph is sometimes easier than writing a new blog post.
Attention getters. They have the ability to capture an audience where words alone would fail.
Increase search marketing. Infographics work great in search engines, if someone publishes your infographic and provides a link back to your website, you win.
Viral magnets. It's easy to share infographics because they are attractive and can easily be shared on social networks. This increases the chances of them going viral.
Brand awareness. Add your logo and your website address and you've increased your brand awareness.
Position you as an expert. An infographic will show your knowledge of a subject and reveal your expertise in a subject.

If you decide that using an infographic is right for you - keep the following infographic best practices:
Research facts and statistics
Reference facts in your infograph.
Develop and present a coherent story.
Keep it simple.
Decide on a color scheme.
Convey the message quickly.
Ensure that your argument hold and is relevant to your audience.
Draw conclusions.
Include your URL on your infograph so people know who made it

Now that you know the benefits, how to use infographics and best practices where does one start in creating their own infographic? Many of us don't have a graphic designer at our disposal so it's important to have you hands on the right resources that will help you in creating a stellar infographic. The following resources will help you in creating your own infographic:

Hohli- Hohli is a simple and easy to use graph and chart generator. It's perfect for making parts of larger infographs. It has several options so it's a great first-stop in creating your own infographic.

Visual.ly - I personally love Visual.ly it's known as a massive infographic resource. It also has an infographic search engine which can be a fantastic resource in providing ideas to use in your own infographic and a DIY infographic maker was also just announced at SXSW in March. Visual.ly is a great place to start.

Daytum - Daytum allows you to collect data over time and display in a variety of formats. The designs are nice and clean.

Wordle - Enter or upload a collection of words and then work them to fit into a range of different shapes. Love this!

GapMinder - A free Adobe Air application that will give you up-to-date data on world issues. The data is updated yearly and the visuals are very impressive.


Obviously besides research and statistics it's going to take some creative know-how to put together an infographic that you are proud. Don't take short cuts you may need to sink in a little cash to create an infographic that has the chances of going viral and driving traffic. It's true that infographics create brand awareness, so don't put something out there that doesn't reflect your brand at the highest level. If it's going to take a little cash to do that - get out that checkbook.

How to Use Augmented Reality in Advertising

Combining the digital and physical worlds, augmented reality offers brands a unique new opportunity to interact with consumers. Here's why it's worth a shot.


Augmented reality, or AR, may finally be coming of age. Particularly for Millennials, defined as those born in the 1980s and whose lives revolve around being constantly connected to technology (Blackberries, iPhones, Facebook, Twitter, video games, and more), AR offers a serious opportunity for marketers to reach these important consumers. With augmented reality, marketers can take the physical world and combine it with the digital world, giving both users and brands the ability to connect even further with a product before, during and after making a purchase.



"In its simplest form," says Vivian Rosenthal, founder of New York City-based AR start-up GoldRun, "Augmented Reality is a digital layer over the real world that you can't see with the naked eye but you can see with the camera on your smartphone or computer."

But why and how should your company use augmented reality? Aside from the simple benefit of reaching Millennials, we'll delve into a few well-done campaigns in this guide to explain further.

How to Use Augmented Reality in Advertising: The Prevalence of Augmented Reality

Augmented Reality is nothing new. It's been around officially since 1990, when Boeing researcher Tom Caudell coined the term to describe a digital display used by aircraft electricians that blended virtual graphics onto a physical reality. In other words, augmented reality combines two very different dynamics: the perception of personal exclusivity and a multi-dimensional, sensory experience.

We're all familiar with AR, even if we don't realize it. One of the most common AR uses is the yellow first down line we've all grown accustomed to on football broadcasts. Contrary to what some may think, those yellow lines are not actually painted on the field, but inserted in your television viewing experience.

In March, the German film The Witness let users become a part of the film for the first time via AR and determine the outcome of the movie based on their own actions on their smartphones. And it will only continue to grow in advertising. According to 2009 figures from ABI Research, the market for augmented reality (AR) in the US alone is expected to hit $350 million in 2014, up from about $6 million in 2008, or, around 50 times more from 2008 to 2014.



How to Use Augmented Reality in Advertising: Using AR for a Competitive Advantage

For the marketing folks associated with Visit St. Petersburg/Clearwater, they've been thinking innovatively in terms of technology all year. They're faced with an understandable problem: so many destinations in Florida can offer beaches and entertainment, but how do you appeal to that younger demographic in a creative manner?

The Florida-based organization targeted New York City residents in the doldrums of winter with quick response, or QR, codes in partnership with JetBlue Airways on city subways. In the campaign, users snapped photos of the QR code and entered a co-branded contest to win a trip to the beaches. In March, they launched the first true augmented reality campaign in their industry, allowing users to picture themselves in the many local attractions (from beaches to the brand new Dali museum and more), accessible on their computers and shareable on social networks.

"For whatever reason, the travel industry has been a bit slow to adapt to a lot of these technologies," says Nate Huff, the vice president of publishing at Miles Media, who worked on the VSPC campaign in conjunction with Digital Frontiers Media. "With travel-based marketing, it's so driven by ROI, particularly because many of those organizations are run by the government. But this was a risk-taking group, and they realized that implanting an AR campaign is really going to get far more buzz than it's probably going to get in terms of actual consumer usage, but it's something that sets the brand apart and shows innovative thinking."

But augmented reality doesn't exist just in the online and television/film world. As smartphones continue to proliferate our daily lives (passing PCs in overall sales in February), offering these experiences in a mobile setting becomes increasingly important. And in the future, it will likely be the main way to reach consumers via augmented reality.

Enter GoldRun. Founder Vivian Rosenthal received a master's from Columbia University's Graduate School of Architecture and her joint thesis, way back in 2001, dealt with the intersection of the digital and physical space, before she founded digital media studio Tronic. She saw the language of the future as very visual, and thus created an opportunity for brands to offer AR experiences on their mobile phone via the GoldRun application about 18 months ago. To this point, their best campaigns have been with Airwalk and an Esquire Magazine cover with Brooklyn Decker that allowed users to take their virtual photo with the supermodel upon checking in to certain Barnes and Noble locations.

"When it comes to measuring the success," says Rosenthal, "it's often about visibility, where it was shown, who shared them, and more. For the Airwalk project, it was about generating revenue by selling product? And they sold out 600 pairs of limited edition shoes in a weekend and had the most traffic in terms of their e-commerce site in the history of the company."

But why use AR, and how can your brand pull it off?



How to Use Augmented Reality in Advertising: Why Use Augmented Reality?

It's important to think about augmented reality as an additional form of advertising (in other words, it shouldn't be your only strategy). But based on its newness, if you're able to pull it off correctly, your company is seen as innovative.

Beyond that, the expense of pulling off an AR campaign pales in comparison to traditional print or broadcast advertising and establishes a longer-lasting, deeper connection with your consumers via an emotional connection, which in the end turns to more repeat business and sales. Here are the real reasons to think hard about utilizing an AR campaign.

Innovation: It's always good to be first to market, particularly when it comes to technology. In social networking, Classmates.com is no longer around, but their work inspired sites like Facebook, Twitter and more and their employees have moved on to impressive roles elsewhere. "This (AR offering) isn't just a one-off ad campaign," notes Huff. "This is an innovative approach by a destination marketing group (VSPC), the first of its kind, to use augmented reality to change their perception. Whenever the (travel) industry catches on, nobody else will have been first, and VSPC will be looked at as innovators."

What added value does AR offer for businesses? "It's really quite simple," says Rosenthal. "You are connecting further with customers and you're seeing your content as a brand in the real world with unbelievable visibility and scale."

Inexpensive: Print advertising in magazines tends to be significantly more expensive than online or digital ads. Many large monthly magazines charge upwards of $100,000 for a four-color, full-page print ad (one time), a cost determined by CPM (or cost per thousand readers). For example, Sports Illustrated's 2011 Swimsuit Issue (albeit a once-a-year publication) charged a base rate of $405,300 for a one-page, four-color full-page ad.

When creating an AR campaign, you often have more brand interactivity than the one-page ad at a significantly lower cost. "It honestly depends on the scope of the project, but AR campaigns can be as inexpensive as $5,000 and ax high as $100,000," according to Rosenthal. "That's nothing compared to print, and in many ways it's worth the risk in my eyes."

Emotional Connection: AR takes marketing strategies to a more immediate and sensory level with customers, allowing greater interactivity in the selling and buying process. AR can create an emotional connection between what the buyer is searching for and what the product can offer. In short, it gives the product a personal feel when consumers can picture it in their own world.

"It's not just a matter of taking photos and sharing, which is what we're building," says Rosenthal. "But what really matters to us is the ability to take photos with virtual characters, products and environments, which is where it will resonate most and develop that deep brand connection."

Repeat Engagement: For most brands, engaging customers must come before, during and after you've created a dialogue with them, and with AR, brands engage with consumers, both cognitively and through their senses. For Millennials, it is rather simple: if the messaging and the experience are not engaging, and do not create brand desire, then customers may just move on to a competitor. Companies simply cannot afford that when you consider the Customer Lifetime Value (CLV) of Millennials, who have upwards of 60 years in their buying future.

"From a very simple perspective," says Huff, "and this is a buzz word, but it's all about engagement and allowing companies to think up new ways to connect people with products. When they have a good experience, they're more likely to come back."

Geo-Targeting: With AR, not only can you determine what people's buying patterns are like via pre-existing data, but you can utilize GPS data (from smartphones, namely) to immerse users in a brand experience no matter where they are in the world. For a brand like Stella Artois, their augmented reality iPhone app Le Barinstantly locks onto your location and lets you find a local bar serving the popular Belgian beer by populating your smartphone with directional arrows pointing you to the nearest Stella taps.

Hyper-local advertising will continue to be an important strategy for marketers, as spending money to reach the right customers (or what your brand perceives as the right customer) is debatably worth more than overspending on a large-scale, national campaign that may or may not hit your intended demographic.

Mobile: With applications like GoldRun, advertising via augmented reality on mobile could very well be the future. Even Huff admits that the VSPC campaign, while innovative for the travel/destination-marketing sector, is only a step in the right direction toward mobile adoption, where he also sees the future of AR campaigns.

"If I'm a brand or ad agency, it behooves me to be marketing to the consumer in the mobile space," says Rosenthal. "Otherwise, I've lost an opportunity to connect from a brand perspective and sell a product or service. What we're noticing is that companies are literally lining up to work with us and use the technology because from a business perspective, it's a really exciting, new and fun medium to play with, and mobile is how you reach customers today."

Driving Offline Sales: At the end of the day, it comes down to ROI on any campaign. The key to developing successful AR campaigns that provide customer engagement as well as translate to sales will be ensuring that they support the local communities they're used in while creating unforgettable experiences for the customers using them. In many ways, AR brings offline experiences to online sales by enhancing the experience and driving brand visibility.

"It's going to be exciting. I see AR as where we were 10 years ago or 15 years ago with the web," says Rosenthal. "Brands at first didn't understand that they needed a presence online and a website. That's now their e-commerce platform, which is as important as almost any brick and mortar. And that's where we're going with AR. It's becoming a virtual goods economy out there, and GoldRun is positioned well in that market."

Skills required for a Wedding Planner.

1.Communication: This is a people business and you’ll spend the majority of your time communicating with just about everyone–the bride, the groom, wedding vendors, wedding guests…

Professional wedding planners spend an unbelievable amount of time with their brides–sometimes communicating every single day! The bond you form with your client should be based on honesty, trust and mutual respect. With that kind of foundation, you can help her create a day that she, her groom and her guests will remember fondly.

It’s practically impossible to plan a wedding without the help of your wedding professionals. In your communications, never forget that these guys (and gals) are the ‘dream team’ that makes this very special occasion happen.

More importantly, though, remember that your vendors are ‘people’.   Treating wedding vendors with respect and professionalism will go a very long way in your career. Because, whether you know it or not, many wedding vendors do not look forward to working with wedding planners, but that’s another story!

As you plan weddings, you’ll come across situations that will test you and push you to the limits of your diplomatic skills. Fight the urge to react unkindly. Your personality is what people will remember. Make it a positive memory.

Know who you are. If you’re unable or unwilling to be personable in your communications–whether via email, telephone or in-person–you may want to rethink this wedding planner thing altogether.

2.Remaining Calm: Weddings are such personal events. Many of my girlfriends were planning their big day since childhood. So it’s easy to see how things become so emotional.

Even with the help of a planner, brides can become overwhelmed and stressed out (and it gets worse as the wedding day approaches). As a professional wedding planner, it’s your job to remain calm and in control (without turning into a ‘planzilla!).

In the words of that deodorant TV commercial “never let them see you sweat.” On the wedding day, you’re the one person who shouldn’t appear to be flustered. Even when you know that your carefully mapped out plan seems to be falling apart (and it’ll happen!).

You are the individual that calms everyone else’s nerves. You gotta think on your feet and be ready with Plan B. How does the saying go: “Hope for the best and plan for the worst.”? That certainly applies with weddings.

As you plan more and more events this wedding planner skill gets easier and you’ll quickly learn what works and what doesn’t.

That is the experience and skill set your clients are paying for.

3.Attention to Details: Details–managing them is another skill you will need to handle at a higher level than you may have ever done before. If you don’t like getting into the thick of things and dealing with details, there really isn’t any way around it. You’ve got to learn to love it! Or being a professional wedding planner will make you crazy.

4. Creativity: Nobody wants their wedding to look like all the others they’ve been to (don’t you just hate that?!), so it’s up to you, the professional wedding planner to be the creative genius that wows your clients with one-of-a-kind ideas.

And I accept that not all of us were born with the ‘über’ creative gene. No worries. That’s why magazines, TV shows, books, wedding planning associations and the Internet exist. If you spend enough time utilizing all of these resources, inspiration will surround you.

And I’m not suggesting that you copy everything you come across, either. Instead, put your spin on the trends and ideas that see around you and then apply them to your client’s event.

When you stumble across that clever article or fabulous magazine photo, tear it out and stash it away in an ‘idea binder’ or file. (And this is not the same thing as your portfolio which represents all of the actual work that you have done.)

An idea binder is a collection of items that inspire you: photos, fabric swatches, samples…anything that makes you go “Oooh!” when you first see it. When you’re stuck and can’t seem to generate anything spectacular for a client, flipping through your idea file is sure to get the creative juices flowing.

Make it your business to stay current so that you’re an endless source of information,—a walking Rolodex–with the inside track on all the best local wedding resources, ideas and contacts. Brides want original and fresh ideas. You owe them that much.

5. Organisational Skills: Being organized and developing systems is one of the wedding planner skills that separates truly professional wedding planners from the hobbyists.

Remember, this ain’t your sister’s weddin’!

As a professional wedding consultant, you will need to create systems to guarantee that every base is covered. Just one small forgotten detail can make all the difference in the world for such an important event.

As the wedding plans progress, it’s your job to remind your couple of what needs to happen and when—that’s why they hired you.

Whether you opt to use professional wedding planning software (and there are some great ones out there) or a paper-based system you’ve got to be logical and organized. Creating checklists is the order of the day so much so that your lists will begin to have lists!

The beauty of coming up with a great system is that you only have to create the system once. Once it’s in place, you simply follow it through, step-by-step, for every event that you plan.

And top-notch organization skills are not just limited to your client’s weddings. You’ll need this wedding planner skill to operate your very own wedding planning business.

If you have ever spent more than 30 minutes searching for that piece of paper that you know ‘was right here’, you understand the importance of organization. Thankfully, being organized is an acquirable skill (for some, it’s even a profession!).

6. Resourcefulness: Great wedding planners are like pack rats (well kinda, sorta!). What I mean is that you see stuff and remember where it is when you need it. Or you have some sort of system in place to capture lots of information (for example, your idea book).

You have the ability to take the look of a designer pair of silk satin bridal shoes that cost $400-plus and find a similar less-expensive pair of sling backs that your bride will love.

7. Money Management: Think planning weddings is all fun and creativity? Not quite. One of your less glamorous, but necessary, roles is that of money manager–making sure your clients remain financially on track and that they get the most bang for their buck.

With the average U.S. wedding costing $28,000, the professional wedding planner has quite a responsibility on her hands. Budget is not a popular word for brides planning a wedding. (And surprisingly, I’ve discovered, not all wedding planners know how to create and effectively manage one.)

Once hired, one of your top priorities should be to create a workable budget. Most of the professional wedding planning software packages include budgeting to help you with this, but if not any spreadsheet application, like Microsoft Excel, will do the job.

You’ll find that many couples have tons of ideas about what they want for their wedding. But very few will have any idea of the actual costs associated with their dreams. And that’s where you come in. With your industry experience, you can equate their visions to dollars.

JUST REMEMBER

…that planning a wedding is all about your clients…not you! So, check your ego at the door.

If you’re serious–and I mean really serious–about planning weddings for a living, take some time to assess your skills and your personality. Be certain that this is a good fit for you.

Immerse yourself. Take the time to review the ins and outs of the wedding industry. Browsing this website is a great start! 

If the decision has been made and you’re certain that being a wedding planner is what you want to do, then, fantastic! Work on developing your wedding planner skills and turn all of that passion into success.

HAPPY PLANNING!

The future of innovative marketing.

Today, with the emergence of new technologies and applications such as customized ads, Internet cookies, databases, social media, neuromarketing, face recognition, and machines with eyes, these are the first exposures to the future in the world of marketing. In this article, 10 predictions about the futures of marketing are made, aiming to present leading views on marketing futures from leading marketers. Realizing that marketing has always been affected by the broader environment, this article looks at worldwide developments over the next 100 years and predicts how these will affect the marketing scheme. Findings suggest that marketing in the future is not just confined to business, advertising, promotion, customer relations, etc., and that marketing is much more important that simply being a tool, but rather an ideology or applied philosophy to the society, business, economy, and life. This paradigm includes convenience marketing, social relationship marketing, marketing as a way to create structured thinking, and marketing as an inherent part of human culture. It seems as if marketing can be anything, and it is omnipresent where people are present, like a sixth dimension. Marketing is a force that has a light and a dark side. In the future, marketing will be a necessary skill for everyone. Whether it is for learning how to build relationships, learning how to manage information, or to knowhow to create a fairer and more just society, marketing transcends all of these very meaningful subjects. As Einstein may have wanted to put it: ‘This is the true theory of everything in marketing’.

Predictions about marketing in the next 100 years.

Predicting the marketing scheme over the next 100 years is of course, an overwhelming and risky task. The difficulty is, obviously, that no one knows how the world will take shape in the future. Even science has had its fair share in making wrong predictions. But interestingly, predictions of scientific development have often been underestimated.

1.     1.                       3D advertising, augmented reality and Internet in the contact lenses With recent developments in 3D, it seems that the nearest prediction would be for marketers to focus on developing 3D advertising and holographic imaging. The technology already exists. There is a memorable scene from the movie ‘Back to the Future’ where Michael J. Fox travels to his distant future to save his son from making unfortunate mistakes with Griff (Biff’s grandson). In that opening future scene, Fox’s character is intimidated by a 3Danimation/hologram of a great shark, attempting to get its teeth into him, and which seemingly is an advertisement from the nearby cinema for a continuation of the Jaws series. This could very well be in development now as the technology is already flourishing. In the future, such 3D adverts would not just be confined to large billboards or street ads but also in our living rooms – engaging ads coming out of our 3D televisions. Similarly, Minority Report style advertising billboards, which can recognize passers-by, and target them with customized adverts are already under trial by IBM’s innovation laboratories. Such billboards would take target marketing to the next level, effectively allowing large billboard adverts or shop windows to match individual customers’ demographic profiles with targeted products

2.      2.                          Telekinetic powers and neuromarketing

It is astonishing to even imagine how computers will be able to read our thoughts, and take action on what we desire. Indeed, as unimaginably as it may seem, science should not be underestimated. It was not long ago when, Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said in 1943, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Assuming that such scientific progress, i.e., Moore’s Law keeps its pace, in a hundred years time, we may well, have telekinetic abilities. In fact, recent research has successfully made monkeys move objects with their thoughts alone by wiring their brain. For marketers, this is a new area that should be speculated on. In doing so, we may think in terms of what the logic of marketing currently is and where it is headed, which then, feeds into the predictions of how marketing will be implemented in the future. Certainly, the field of neuromarketing exists even today, where brain scans will reveal how certain customers will respond in certain ways to certain stimuli. Take this concept into the future, and what we will experience are customers skipping away from adverts on their TVs not with a remote controller, but rather with their minds! It is astonishing to even imagine how computers will be able to read our thoughts, and take action on what we desire. Indeed, as unimaginably as it may seem, science should not be underestimated. It was not long ago when, Thomas Watson, chairman of IBM, said in 1943, “I think there is a world market for maybe five computers.” Assuming that such scientific progress, i.e., Moore’s Law keeps its pace, in a hundred years time, we may well, have telekinetic abilities. In fact, recent research has successfully made monkeys move objects with their thoughts alone by wiring their brain. For marketers, this is a new area that should be speculated on. In doing so, we may think in terms of what the logic of marketing currently is and where it is headed, which then, feeds into the predictions of how marketing will be implemented in the future. Certainly, the field of neuromarketing exists even today, where brain scans will reveal how certain customers will respond in certain ways to certain stimuli. Take this concept into the future, and what we will experience are customers skipping away from adverts on their TVs not with a remote controller, but rather with their minds!

3.              Matrix-like world – the future shopping experience Even today, social networking websites have changed the way in which people communicate and the way we develop our relationships with other people. Facebook, in particular have developed many innovative ideas to bring not just the Internet into the world of social networking but also, the real world. For example, applications such as ‘Facebook pages’ gives companies a new way to build loyalty and interaction; it gives users the opportunity to link real life experiences with the virtual world in real time. ‘Facebook live’ shows live streams from different events where ‘things are happening’ and you can join in and take part with your comments. ‘Facebook deals’ gives users another incentive to be interactive and commercial by looking for discounts, deals of the day, and offers. Perhaps, ‘Facebook check-ins’ will soon be a rental space for companies to display themselves. In a way, word of mouth and viral marketing are responsible for the popularity of Facebook and many other major websites like Twitter, YouTube, and Google. In the future, it may not be word of mouth, but ‘thought-2-thought’ or‘mind-2-mind’ that brings customers together to use a particular platform.

Shorthand Tips for Journalists

Teeline is the preferred shorthand system for journalists. It can seem intimidating at first, but with the right approach it can soon feel like second nature.

Be Prepared

Use a gel ink pen. They write clearly and are unlikely to leak all over the page. They're also said to increase speeds by up to five words per minute.

Never rely on just one pen. The worst thing that can happen is to run out of ink halfway through an exam. Have at least three others close to hand with their lids removed.

Use a ring-bound reporter's notepad. They're far easier to hold steady than A4 sheets of paper and are easy to flip from page to page - saving valuable time.

Invest in a good  textbook. They will take you through the basis of the shorthand alphabet and special outlines, as well as providing useful exercises.

Learn the Alphabet

Teeline textbooks will contain the basic outlines for the 26 letters of the alphabet. Students should familiarize themselves with these by "drilling" - or writing each one over and over again.

Once the student has mastered these symbols, and the way they blend with each other, they should be able to start forming outlines based on Teeline's basic theory.

Learn the Special Outlines

Quick outlines have been devised for some of the most common words in the English alphabet. These include "and", "from", "would" and "like".

Other special outlines cover prefixes, suffixes and common combinations of letters, such as "pr", "ing", "able" and "nce".

Some word groupings tend to crop up in test passages again and again. Phrases like "for example", "as far as", "I am not sure", and "I would like to be able" can be reduced to several strokes of the pen.

There are also special outlines for less generic words and phrases (many of which will be found in Teeline exams), including "European Union", "supermarket" and "multi-storey car park"

Create Individual Outlines

As students progress, some may start to develop their own outlines for common words and phrases. As long as they feel comfortable and they save time, there should be problem with this.

However, students must ensure they are completely familiar with their outlines (and that they have some connection to basic Teeline theory) so they won't cause confusion when transcribing.

Keep Practicing

Some teachers encourage two hours of practice a day. But students should try and get as much in as they can whenever possible.

Most teachers will be able to provide taped dictations at varying speeds. Students can also obtain passages to tape themselves or get a fried or family member to dictate to them.

Having a pad handy while watching TV news reports can be another way of getting to grips with words and phrases that will crop up during exams.

Before the Exam

Be relaxed and breathe slowly. Hands and fingers sould be stretched and rotated to make sure they're as supple as possible.

Block out all distractions and try not to think of anything except the task ahead.

During the Exam

Sit up straight with the pen poised. The other hand should always be ready to turn the page over (sloppy page-turning can make all the difference to your speed).

Don't press down too hard with the pen. Make sure it glides lightly across the page and so writing becomes faster and more fluid.

Don't Stop

If a word is unfamiliar, don't stumble over it.

Either write down the first outline that comes to mind (even if it's just an unrecognizable squiggle) and quickly circle it.

Transcribing

As soon as time is up, go back to the outlines that are circled, or any gaps that have been left. The chances are the context of the sentence will act as a clue.

DJ'ing on a Laptop - Equipment and Necessities

DJ'ing has become very popular in the last few years especially since technology has allowed a non-technical person to become a Pro DJ in a few weeks when equipped with the right Digital Scratching Tools available on laptops. This article will teach a person to DJ and what equipment they will need after the purchase of a laptop to start mixing beats like a pro.

Purchase a laptop. Look for a good brand Laptop that you know will not crash during a gig. If you are looking for a PC, I would recommend closely looking at customer reviews, talk to electronic store sales people, and even ask your friends what laptops they may recommend. The great thing about a PC is that a consumer can get a phenomenal computer with all the bells and whistles for a very affordable price. The problems PC's face are viruses that infiltrate that operating systems and crash the hard drives erasure program, music, and important data.

Consider a Macbook. They are absolutely more money and don't offer all the bells and whistles the new PC's are coming out with, but they do offer stability, consistency, optimal performance, and are not nearly as susceptible to the viruses a PC can get.

Demo (trial) DJ Software before you buy it. You can get a bunch of free DJ programs to start with BUT these programs do not offer what the paid programs do. There are so many free programs that they are unnameable at this point but the ones that you should look into are Virtual DJ, Traktor, etc. These are programs that must be bought but offer things like, playlist controls, beat mixing features, sync mixing features, skins that look like real mixers, etc. The free programs will not do what you really need to do as a laptop DJ.

You can stop here if you just want to practice before getting into the equipment you'll need to start DJ'ing gigs. You can even DJ smaller partied with good laptop speakers any time you want. To become an advance DJ with good sound equipment, move on to the next section.

You have your laptop and DJ Software, now you need a mixer. You have to plug your laptop into a mixer of some sort. You will output the speakers from your mixer. Mixers are fairly inexpensive and can be bought at your local music store. A 4 channel mixer would be fine. Some DJ Software Programs offer an USB external sound card. These sound boxes allow for separation of the Left and Right Channels. If you do purchase a USB external sound box you would run a 1/4" cable out from the LEFT channel to channel 1 on the mixer. You would run a 1/4" cable out from the RIGHT channel on the box to Channel 2 on the mixer.

IF you DO NOT have an USB external sound card, then you will be using the "OUT" or "Headphone" jack and run an 1/8" out of the computer to 1/4" into Channel 1 on the mixer.

You have your laptop, DJ program, Mixer, now you need speakers.To keep you set-up simple but still powerful, invest in POWERED (Active) speakers. (Speaker that you need to plug in to get to work). If you get passive (non-powered speakers) you will need separate amplifiers connected to you mixer. Powered speakers are more expensive but will punch/kick your music better and your DJ set-up will be much simpler.

You have your laptop, DJ program, Mixer, now you need speakers. To keep you set-up simple but still powerful, invest in POWERED (Active) speakers. (Speaker that you need to plug in to get to work). If you get passive (non-powered speakers) you will need separate amplifiers connected to you mixer. Powered speakers are more expensive but will punch/kick your music better and your DJ set-up will be much simpler. You will need 2 XLR cables. The female end will get plugged out from the mixer and into the speakers (Left/Right outputs). Buy 2 Speaker stands if possible.

You have your laptop, DJ software, mixer (optional USB external sound card box), 1 1/'4 - 1/8" cable, powered speakers, 2 XLR cables, and speaker stands. You just need your favorite music and MIXES and you are ready to start practicing to become a pro DJ on a laptop.

2012- A Year of Growth in Advertising Industry?

Much hype is already heard about the New Year 2012. We cannot foretell anything that is not within our control. However, we can be still be sure that no matter what and how, advertising industry will grow further in this year and also in the following years. The norms keep changing. Way back in the 80's and 90's advertising norms were something else. Today, it is not a surprising factor to acknowledge how most of the advertising agencies have been technologically renovated and updated from time to time. Television Advertising, Outdoor Advertising, Radio Advertising or Print Advertising practices have gone through complete changes.

The introduction of online advertising media is a major turning point for advertisers. With online advertising dominating other ad media, brand owners are heavily advertising through the various means of online advertising. Outdoor Advertising practices these days are also technologically advanced especially when it comes to the tools used for launching an OOH ad campaign. Offering a rich look about the advertised brand, an OOH ad display at the airport, shopping mall or metro station easily influences customers' attention.

A year of growth is expected in Advertising industry in 2012. Many brand companies will create their presence in the market providing opportunities to advertisers to indulge in promotion campaigns. Advertisers can also expect many technological innovations lining up to be introduced in the market. Advertising industry in  has covered a long journey indeed. From the conventional tools and tactics of promotion to the latest contemporary devices and techniques', advertisers have now gamuts of choices to make. Time saving, hassle free and user friendly modern advertising tools ensure effective and quick delivery of brand message to customers with the targeted impact. All in all, more growth is expected in the ad industry this year. Perhaps, it's just the right time for brand owners to start planning their promotion campaigns.

Any non-personal promotion of a good, service or business is known as advertising. An advertising campaign of a brand or business is launched through a particular medium or through different means. Television Advertising, Outdoor Advertising, Print Advertising, Online Advertising etc. are some forms of brand promotion widely adopted by brand and business owners.

We cannot imagine a world without advertising network. All the products and services come to our notice only through an advertising campaign. The world would be a different place in the absence of advertisements around it. Brand Advertisements are usually used to give a positive outlook on products and services so that people buy and use them. The most negative things can therefore be turned into something positive through an advertising campaign. Launching an advertising campaign of a brand or business requires a step by step plan as well as implementation of the same plans. From deciding the budget of the campaign to choosing the right medium of presenting the brand message, the advertiser has to deploy various strategies.

Over the last few years, it has been observed that the use or implementation conventional ad media are slowly dimming away. Advertising mediums have gone through complete makeover. Unlike conventional means of promotion, modern ad media ensure a rich brand impression on customers' mind. The manner and presentation of brand message is also totally different from conventional means of advertising. Also more users- friendly and enhanced with interactive features, modern advertising channels have replaced conventional media thereby creating an upsurge among brand marketers.

Conventional means of advertising such as outdoor and print media have gone through a complete renovation. All thanks to technological innovations that have brought a drastic and dramatic change in the look and feel of various outdoor as well as print advertising mediums. Online advertising which is one of the latest means of brand promotion is also gaining popularization among brand owners and advertisers. It has infact been predicted that online advertising media is the future of advertising.

Fresh Ideas for Innovative Marketing

For many entrepreneurs, summertime brings slower sales and less hectic activity. What better time than right now to explore fresh marketing ideas for growing your business? Rather than slide into the busy fourth quarter with the same old marketing bag of tricks, you can get a jump on your competitors by embracing new tactics for increasing leads and sales.


Try one--or all four--of these out-of-the-ordinary tactics to produce the results you need:


1. Reach Your Best Qualified Prospects
If you're looking for an effective way to reach a highly specific and qualified audience, consider sending direct mail to the subscriber list of a well-targeted magazine. There are specialized business and consumer magazines to reach every audience imaginable. Unfortunately, the cost to run a good-size print ad with enough frequency for your message to penetrate in many of the national publications may be prohibitive. A great alternative--particularly for B2B marketers targeting specific industries or individuals based on their job titles--is to select a magazine that reaches your best prospects and rent its subscriber list for a direct-mail campaign. Some publications offer their lists as a combo buy along with advertising, and others make them available separately. Depending on how the list you choose is segmented, you may decide to mail to a portion of the list or all of it. Just be sure to mail at least two to three times to the same list for maximum results.


2. Get National Editorial Exposure
There's a fairly well-kept secret among top PR agencies and major corporations. What do they know that you don't? Most newspapers, and many other types of media outlets as well, are understaffed and often have significant editorial gaps to fill. They rely on free outside copy that arrives in the form of "mat" releases, articles that are prewritten and ready for publication.


For less than the cost of one decent-size ad in a single daily newspaper, you could create an article to be distributed with your byline that might get picked up by several hundred newspapers across the country and generate dozens of leads--or more. Since newspaper editorial is generally perceived as more credible than advertising, a mat release is an effective way to reach and influence readers. Two of the major mat release services, Metro Editorial Services and ARA , which distributes online only, have pricing that fits small-business budgets.


3. Borrow E-Mail Clout
Everyone knows that e-mail is one of the lowest-cost, highest-return marketing tactics around. But while e-mail to in-house lists is a great customer retention tool, in recent years, the glut of spam has made it difficult to use e-mail for new customer acquisition because prospects are simply deleting all but the most recognizable mailings.


The best way out of this dilemma is to place advertising in third-party e-newsletters that reach qualified subscribers. For example, say you want to reach women who are about to get married. You could research the most popular bridal websites and then choose the best and most cost-efficient e-newsletter in which to advertise. This would guarantee your message reaches a highly qualified list of brides-to-be. And since recipients had subscribed to the e-newsletter, it would have a good open rate and you'd gain instant credibility by being included in emails sent by a respected source.


4. Take It Outside
Out-of-home advertising includes everything from traditional billboards and transit advertising to naming rights for community hiking trails. Thanks to the current upsurge in place-based advertising, now your messages can be anywhere your customers go. Want to reach them at their favorite restaurants? There are posters in the restrooms. Need to market to college students? You'll find poster-size ads available on more than 300 college campuses nationwide.


The key to effectively using out-of-home advertising is to reach your prospects when you can influence a purchase (think about the way brochures promoting tooth-whitening products reach and influence patients in the dentist's office). And look for marketing venues that are compatible with the overall tone and content of your company's message. This will ensure that your prospects are in the right frame of mind to be receptive to your message, whenever they encounter it.