59% of active social networkers say LinkedIn is their platform of choice over Facebook or Twitter. This number has grown since last year when 41% called LinkedIn their most important social account.  In spring of 2011, LinkedIn reported over 100 million members in more than 200 countries-with unique visitors up 63% from the previous year, making it the second most popular social network behind Facebook.  Experienced professionals are using LinkedIn to promote their company and win new business through the use of LinkedIn’s target searches, company pages and group features.

MTV Hype Music artist, Marc Robillard and the Articulation Agency continued their music branding and marketing partnership throughout 2011.  Robillard continues to experience popularity through his song placements on programing across both VH1 and MTV. The musician’s branding, marketing and online promotional efforts were supplemented and supported by our design and marketing team. Employing best practices on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, the team at Articulation continues to mobilize Robillard’s existing fans and expand his reach.

One of Southern California’s leading healthcare law firms was in need of a brand reposition, logo update and website redesign. Articulation completed a competitive analysis of the marketplace to develop the appropriate core message and position the firm apart from other industry leaders as a valuable partner for healthcare professionals in the changing landscape. The new law firm website and branding project included a new design, updated imagery, site structure, content and implementation of organic search engine friendly content and strategy. The team at Articulation performed extensive research to find fresh imagery, setting Miller Health Law Group apart from their competitors.

In the 4^th quarter, Articulation continued its successful partnership as branding agency of record with couture jewelry company K. Brunini Jewels.  As part of the brand management, marketing and design relationship, the team at Articulation worked on several marketing initiatives during the period. One example was in the development of an interactive digital flipbook to display all press features for the year.  In addition, Articulation worked on email marketing best practices and research, achieving growing email response rates for campaigns across client outreach initiatives.

Early in the 3^rd quarter, Google released their newest social marketing effort, Google Plus. The search engine giant’s answer to the Facebook phenomenon is an amalgamation of several services that are already in use on other social networking sites. Google Plus features “+Circles” to allow users to organize their connections into social groups, sharing only selected information with each group. Through their “+Sparks” application, users can enter their interests and receive a constant feed of websites and stories that match these interests. The site also boasts their “+Hangouts” offering where users can chat face-to-face in virtual rooms, unlike other social networking sites. Google is currently in the initial testing phase of the new site with a limited number of users and time will tell if the search engine giant will gain its foothold into the marketing engine that is social networking.

Marketing and branding is a multi-touch process. It is important for companies big and small to maintain a consistent brand identity throughout each client touch point of their marketing efforts. This is especially true with trade show booth and banner design. Trade shows are an important opportunity to make a lasting impression on clients with a face-to-face interaction. Having appropriately branded materials will leave clients with a positive brand association, giving your company a distinct edge. Articulation recently designed and implemented a series of trade magazine advertisements and pop-up banners for a client attending a large trade show. The reusable banners and materials offered a professional and sophisticated trade show presentation and increased brand awareness directly with the desired target market.

It was another successful quarter for Articulation Agency and K. Brunini Jewels. We are honored to announce that K. Brunini Jewels was named the Women’s Jewelry Association’s (WJA) Fine Jewelry Designer of the Year. Katey Brunini and her team accepted the honor in July at the WJA’s 28th Annual Awards of Excellence Gala in New York City. Katey began her acceptance speech by thanking “the entire industry for this accolade” and warning them, “this is just the beginning and there are many exciting things to come.” Articulation supplemented the jewelry design company’s success through the development of an interactive flipbook—compiling all press features into a visually stimulating electronic book and distributing it to important industry contacts. Both KBJ and Articulation look forward to another quarter of much success and creativity.

MTV Hype Music artist, Marc Robillard and the Articulation Agency continued their partnership with a very successful 3rd quarter. Through the promotion and popularity of his sophomore album, “Left London,” Robillard’s music is now available on Pandora Internet Radio. Also, as an MTV Hype musician, Robillard’s songs Blown Away, Contagious, OK and Come by Now were featured on the hit reality show, Jersey Shore, as well as placements on ABC’s Rookie Blue and USA’s Necessary Roughness. The musician’s branding, marketing and online promotional efforts were supplemented and supported by our design and marketing team. Employing new tactics on Facebook, Twitter and MySpace, the team at Articulation continues to mobilize Robillard’s existing fans and expand his reach.

According to Facebook, the company’s ad revenue in 2010 totaled 1.86 billion—and that is just the beginning.  Busy developing new techniques, Facebook is working to make ads more viable for companies through their “Sponsored Stories program.” Launched in January, this method of advertising integrates the user experience with the paid advertisements, such as a friend “liking” a particular brand or company showing up on a friend’s news feed while an ad for the same brand or company is displayed elsewhere on the page.  Only a few months after its launch, usability studies are already reflecting its success—users are twice as likely to remember the brand and four times more likely to take action.  According to Facebook, these brands get “liked” by 50 million people per day.

It was another successful quarter for the team at Articulation and K. Brunini Jewels.  In preparation for the prestigious Couture Jewelry show in Las Vegas, KBJ called on Articulation Agency to design and implement the Couture booth display and produce the trade show materials. The booth featured large logo images and sweeping high-fashion photographs affixed directly to the walls.  The trade show materials brought together the unique booth design and KB.J’s signature branding for optimal marketing to clients at the show.  With the bold, eye-catching booth visuals and their beautiful couture pieces, KBJ enjoyed another rousing success.