HUNTINGTON – Barnes Agency, a Huntington-based full-service advertising, marketing and public relations firm, received 11 national Telly Awards in the 38th Annual Telly Awards competition, according to company officials.

With over 12,000 entries from all 50 states in the U.S. and five continents, the Telly Awards honor the very best of advertising film, video and commercials.

Among Barnes Agency’s awards, work produced for Cabell Huntington Hospital received six Bronze Awards in the competition for local market commercials – more than were awarded any other hospital in the nation, according to Jeffrey Barnes, president and CEO of Barnes Agency.

In addition, Barnes Agency received two Silver Awards for work produced for the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce, two Bronze Awards for South Texas Health System and one Bronze Award for West Virginia State University, according to Barnes.

« I am extremely proud of how our agency continues to produce national-quality, award- winning work year after year for the clients we serve, » Barnes said. « While we are most pleased with the growth and brand recognition that those we represent are achieving, it is without question the creative freedom that our clients provide us that allows for recognition such as this. »

Award-winning commercials produced for Cabell Huntington Hospital included three Bronze Tellys for their « Moving Neuroscience in the Right Direction » campaign, two Bronze Tellys for their « Cancer Doesn’t Have Me » campaign and one Bronze Telly for the « ER Pediatrics » commercial from their emergency services campaign.

The agency’s two Silver Telly Awards from the competition were associated with a long-format video produced for the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce’s 125th anniversary celebration. The video, which focused on the Chamber’s 125 years of service to business and industry in Huntington and surrounding communities, was awarded in the non-profit and cinematic categories of the competition.

« This video not only provides a historical marker for our Chamber’s success and longevity, but also showcases the level of talent in video production that we have here in our region, » said Bill Bissett, president and CEO of the Huntington Regional Chamber of Commerce. « It tells our story by incorporating the past, present and future of our organization and was showcased during our annual dinner. We appreciate the good work of Barnes Agency as well as their continued support as an active member of our Chamber. »

A commercial set produced for West Virginia State University was awarded a Bronze Telly in association with their « You’re Going to Love State » campaign.

« The awarding of this year’s bronze Telly during the 38th Annual Telly Awards marks the second consecutive year West Virginia State University’s television commercial has been recognized nationally, » WVSU President Anthony L. Jenkins said. « This recognition spotlights the hard work, dedication and quality Barnes Agency places in their product and their understanding of the businesses they represent. It is especially significant to West Virginia State University as Jeff Barnes . . . is an alumni of the University. »

Work performed for South Texas Health Systems’ Valley Care Physician Group received two Bronze Tellys for commercials spotlighting bariatric and spine surgery.

« We are extremely proud to be associated with Barnes Agency in achieving national recognition for the quality of our work, » said Christopher Sizemore, regional director and central system administrator for South Texas Health Systems’ Valley Care Physician Group Practice. « These awards speak to the culture of excellence in which we strive every day to care for our patients. We are pleased to partner with Barnes Agency as they share the same goal of excellence and quality in all they do. »

Telly Award entries do not compete against each other, but are judged against a high standard of merit, Barnes added.

To find out more about the Telly Awards, please visit www.tellyawards.com.

Barnes Agency is located at 949 Third Avenue in Huntington.

For more information, visit www.thebarnesagency.com online.

Follow reporter Fred Pace at Facebook.com/FredPaceHD and via Twitter at @FredPaceHD.

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A white paper on the “State of Digital Marketing in the Philippines” was presented by GetCRaft, Southeast Asia’s premier content marketing network last July 26 in Square One, Bonifacio Technological Center, BGC. The market inquiry brings together data   and insights culled from a survey conducted in 2017 of marketers across major cities in the Philippines, involving 150 respondents — managers, directors, vice presidents and C-level marketers from brands and agencies representing various industries. The report seeks to deliver impartial digital and content marketing industry snapshots and ideas on pushing these findings forward. The goal is to inform readers about the current state of digital and content marketing in the Philippines, identify pain points among  marketers, and explore  solutions. Here are the highlights of the study:

The total Philippine population is 104 million, 69 million of whom are Internet users, and 69 million are active social media users. Mobile subscriptions number 129.4 million, while active mobile social users are 59 million. On device usage: 88 percent use any type of mobile phone; 61 percent utilize smart phones; 39 percent and 25 percent avail of laptop or computer and tablet, respectively. Average daily use: 9 hours on the Internet via personal computer or tablet; 3 hours and 36 minutes on the Internet via mobile phone; 4 hours and 17 minutes on social media using any device; and 2 hours and 30 minutes on television.

• Social media continues to dominate, but content marketing, influencer marketing, and sponsored content are on the rise.  Brands view social media — both paid and organic — as the most effective digital channel for marketing, due to the high number of active users, the enormous amount of time users spend using the channel, and cost efficiency. Social media in the Philippines are used for searching and purchasing products or services by nearly a third of the population, with Facebook as the priority medium.

Shayne Garcia, managing director of iProspect, shares, “No one can underestimate the power of social media in the Philippines; this is where we interact with customers, respond to their inquiries and even get real-time feedback about product quality. As consumers are deepening more and more their footprint on social, so should marketers.”

Three channels — content marketing, influencer marketing, and sponsored content — are not far behind social media on marketers’ priority lists.  Companies and brands that want to succeed in social media marketing should understand that one of its critical pillars is content. Pao Pena, chief experience officer at Dentsu Jayme Syfu, believes, “Many brands are jumping on influencers as a source of content, primarily because we are selling them as paid media and sometimes without proper guidance on whether they truly add value to the marketing mix.”

• Marketers spend 21.5 percent of their budget on digital. The drivers behind this growth are mostly demographic: increasing consumerism, an emerging middle class, and rapid mobile youth penetration. Digital marketing will be buoyed by improved technological infrastructure, Internet penetration and broadband speed. Increase in knowledge will also positively impact growth. As marketers better understand the models that allow them to best hit their targets, digital channels will increasingly be viewed as more cost-effective, encouraging brands and agencies to spend more on digital.

• Mobile marketing is expected to reign, with content marketing and customer experience as the next promising areas. Marketers are putting priority on how customers experience their brands   throughout the customer journey. Rightly so, as customer experience is critical in either strengthening or weakening purchasing intent, engagement, brand loyalty and brand advocacy. There are many ways for marketers to improve customer experience, including using automation tools, data-powered customization, and prioritizing mobile.

The growing audience of mobile makes it an ideal platform for brands to engage customers through intensified content marketing and enhanced customer experience. But consuming content is only one of three digital behaviors active   mobile   users   engage   in. They are also content creators and curators, which presents an opportunity for brands to co-create content with their customers. Emphasis on content places the onus on marketers to ensure high-quality   material that targets the right audiences in the right spots. This highlights the need for personalization — or the ability of brands and messages to adapt to consumers. Such ability is crucial not only in creating and publishing content but also in improving customer experience.

• Budget restraint is a top digital challenge. Even as the value of digital marketing in the Philippines grows, nearly three out of five marketers say they have difficulty in getting financing for their digital campaigns. And besides funding, they lack skills and resources, proper tracking or measurements methods, and digital marketing tools.  As there is no one-size-fits-all formula for return on investment (ROI), marketers often   struggle   to justify their budget requests. This issue highlights the need to solidify key performance indicators. Without ROI tracking, no ROI can be demonstrated, and without ROI, no budget request is justified. Budget restraints prevent companies from hiring the right people and, therefore, from getting strategies right. Skills shortfall is aggravated by the fact that innovation is at a pace unmatched by learning curves and skills available in the market. Carlo Ople, vice president for digital marketing strategy of PLDT-Smart, states, “To unlock digital spend, marketers need to stop pushing campaign budgets, and instead propose new analytics-driven business.”

• Fifty-seven percent of marketers are unsure about how digital marketing drives business objectives. Lack of clarity about the role digital marketing plays in a business highlights the need to intensify education and training among brands.  These efforts must involve not only those in the boardroom but the entire marketing team and other teams they work with. Difficulties in gauging digital performance  could mean that marketers are measuring too many, too few, or incorrect metrics.   “Business   transformation is key in adapting to the changes of today. However, many are still grappling due to the lack of a seamless strategic view,” says Eduardo Mapa Jr., founder of Castle by the River.

• Videos lead the way in content marketing. As Filipinos spend more time on social media than on watching television, they are also increasingly watching videos from mobile screens. Global Webb index reports YouTube as the second most active media platform at 56 percent, topped only by Facebook. Of all Filipino netizens, 28 percent watch videos online daily, 21 percent weekly and 19 percent monthly. A clear factor driving online video consumption growth is the rise of mobile in the Philippines with 57 percent of the population watching videos online using mobile phones.

• Content marketing is mostly used for awareness. Jonass de los Reyes says, “This awareness measure on content marketing is clearly an indicator of the changing mindsets of marketers today who are slowly maturing and understanding the role of digital and content marketing in their overall strategy and marketing plans.” He believes this will eventually shift and the goal of content marketing will be more for influencing consideration and evaluation, because this is where its strengths lie.

• Skills and resources gaps are top content marketing challenges. Crafting quality content consistently requires not just the right mix of resources but also strategic planning. “What many fail to realize is that content marketing is a long-term commitment to build brand reputation, trust, loyalty, and so forth. And to build this, the costs are not cheap,” says Patrick Searle, group CEO and co-founder at GetCRAFT.

• Most brands do content marketing in-house. The benefits of running content marketing in-house are obvious: It gives brands maximum control, limits back-and-forth movement within the team, and provides employees with opportunities to continuously learn.

* * *

Email bongosorio@gmail.com  for comments, questions or suggestions. Thank you for communicating.

MUMBAI: Millennials today across the world are obsessed with their smartphones and are getting more dependent on their devices and the internet by the day. This has led to a new phenomenon called phubbing which has become rampant in our everyday lives. Phubbing is the term used to describe the habit of snubbing someone in favour of a mobile phone. Knowing or unknowingly most people today choose to look into their phones even as they sit across the table from someone.

“Relationships have moved from being warm and personal to being online and distant. While one can argue that the internet brings the world together, it also is making people grow more apart. As a brand which is a partner to one’s relationships, we wanted to take a relevant stand against Phubbing and ask the youth to indulge in real conversations with each other », shares Ogilvy India EVP Hirol Gandhi.

Research and data on India embracing feature phones and social media usage is erupting everywhere. A recent study by Kantar, IMRB and MMA on the feature phone usage in India indicated that people in India spend about three hours a day on the phone. “In our Friendship Day film, we chose to showcase the youth and their relationship with the internet and social media, and how they are today sub consciously choosing to ignore the connections that can be made offline while enhancing their connections online. It really is a representation of a lot of us,” shared Ogilvy India ECD Kiran Anthony.

From the launch of the #LookUp movement around Valentine’s Day, to building momentum on Father’s Day and now releasing the 3rd story on Friendship Day, the LookUp movement is gathering huge applause. « The LookUp campaign has struck a chord among millions of Indians – with over 50 Million Video Views, 80,000 conversations, almost 260,000 people engaged industry best Video View Completion rates, the #LookUp movement in only growing from strength to strength, and continues to inspire the Youth grow brand love for Vodafone, » concluded Vodafone India EVP – Marketing Siddharth Banerjee.

This week, it was announced that Eminem’s manager and Shady Records partner Paul Rosenberg will be Def Jam’s next CEO. Twenty years ago, the Detroit-based attorney started handling the career of Marshall Mathers when the rapper was self-marketing Infinite. One hundred million units sold later (through Shady Records), and Paul will try to work his magic with artists like Big Sean, 2 Chainz, Logic, Vince Staples, and potentially, Kanye West.

Eminem’s Manager Paul Rosenberg To Be Def Jam’s New Leader

However, as Justin “The Company Man” Hunte points out in this week’s TBD episode, Paul Rosenberg represents more than just a hot hand behind a desk. In many ways, the founder of Goliath Management defied the status quo, with a roster including—you guessed it: Stat Quo.

“At its core, that’s really what Shady is: A boutique label. In its history, there haven’t been a ton of artists signed to Shady. Past and present, there’s about 12 acts who’ve ever brandished the Shady logo, which is pretty thin for a nearly 20-year-old imprint. Granted, any situation that includes the top selling rapper of all time, and possibly the greatest rapper of all time, at its cornerstone is ensured an incredibly high base level of revenue, but from mic to plug, Shady’s done an incredible amount with incredible efficiency: something not immediately equated to record labels or the music industry as a whole.

Efficiency is key in any business endeavor. But so is risk taking. The right gamble can break big. Paul’s had a few. Eminem only had two major albums on the market before he started working on 8 Mile. In the early 2000s, it was a major risk taking one of Rap’s brightest new stars away from the bars, hand him a script, and tell him to act. Had that movie turned out crap-tastic, who knows how it would’ve affected the imprint’s trajectory? But they took a risk. Boom: Oscar. Same thing with 50 Cent. Shady took a risk on 50 after he was blackballed from the music industry after he was shot nine times.” Get Rich Or Die Tryin’ dominated Rap and changed its look, feel, and ideologies in the 2000s. Hunte alleges, “It’s the type of artists signed to Shady that resonates. They’ve never signed shiny, jiggy-type rappers. They’ve built their reputation on a roster of grimy, lyrics-first MCs and lived off of storytelling and emotional depth.”

Eminem Gives Infinite Respect To His Earliest Music With A Documentary A Remix (Video)

While Eminem, Obie Trice, 50 Cent, Bizarre, Yelawolf, Kxng Crooked, and Royce 5’9 are all different, they share these criteria. That’s what some say is true of the latest addition: Westside Gunn and Conway The Machine. Like Em, these MCs are from a rust belt place (Buffalo, New York) with lots of stories to tell.

Justin adds, “[Shady Records’] brand is built off of real Rap and you know what their brand stands for–what it means. Lyrics first is something I’ve always equated with Golden-Era Def Jam Records. DMX. Def Squad. EPMD. Jayo Felony. Early Roc-A-Fella was distributed through Def Jam at one point. Murder Inc was under Def Jam at one point. Venni Vetti Vecci [era] Ja Rule. Method Man. Redman. Public Enemy. Warren G. You knew what the Def Jam brand stood for, what it meant.”

Eminem Welcomes Westside Gunn Conway To Shady Records With A Just Blaze Track (Audio)

Joe Budden seems to agree. On Everyday Struggle this week, Joe (an artist who found both success and frustration at Def Jam in the 2000s) said, “Paul [Rosenberg] is the perfect person to man that seat if I’m going by some of the old ideologies of what Def Jam stood for, which is: bars, Rap. They’re not hit-chasing. They don’t spend 100% of the time hit-chasing. They still have some integrity and Paul has all the integrity in the world and he has the ear to listen for that… I do like that over there.”

The Company Man says now is the right time. Def Jam has two #1 albums in 2017, and they’re from MCs: Big Sean and Logic. However, Russell Simmons and Rick Rubin’s baby needs more of the same. “The landscape seems poised for major label emphasis on real Rap. The streaming era is a singles era, but artists like Vince Staples, Logic, Chance, J. Cole, Kendrick have found tremendous success with a lyrics-first approach. There’s a polarizing political landscape which historically always bleeds into art. RB is hot again. Hell, even TRL is returning. Lyrics matter and there’s market validation to justify a more focused approach. Everything is circular. And there needs to be a strong brand to present it, which he built with Shady, which is what Def Jam always stood for and arguably lacked since the 1990s and early 2000s.

Other TBD Videos.

There are a few things we’re still waiting to see. Shady’s never signed an RB artist. The majors are massive companies and the behemoths value bottom line over everything. The boutique label strategy will have to expand. Fortunately, there isn’t any indication that Paul has a history of swimming out of his depth. But sincerely, if you love real Rap, who else makes more sense right now as the CEO of Rap’s most storied record label?”

GRAND RAPIDS, MICH. – Trying to make your home stand out from all the rest on the market can sometimes prove to be difficult, but for this Grand Rapids realtor, his unique approach to selling a home has captured the attention of hundreds of people.

Dustin Anderson is currently trying to sell a home on Oaklawn Street in Grand Rapids, and yesterday he shared a music video dedicated to explaining how great of a buy the house would be.

« Established in 1925, 810 Oaklawn came alive, » the video opens. Anderson, shown throughout the video, details the marketing remarks on the $139,900 Northside bungalow — such as it’s short distance from Riverside Park, Kingma’s Market and access to I-96.

Anderson, and the homeowner — Anderson’s best friend — wrote the lyrics to the song together. The video has been shared more than 200 times on Facebook, with that number steadily rising.

810 Oaklawn is a 3-bedroom, 1-bathroom bungalow that’s move-in ready. A new furnace and hot water heater have been installed and it comes with stained, original hardwood floors, an updated kitchen with newer appliances, fenced in backyard, an attached garage and a covered front porch. 

According to the selling report, no offers will be presented until after 5 p.m. on Monday, Aug. 7.

If you’re interested in learning more about 810 Oaklawn, check out all the details here. Contact Five Star Real Estate for even more information and bids. 

To hear more from Anderson and the inspiration behind the video, tune into My West Michigan on WZZM 13 on Tuesday, August 8 at 9 a.m. 

►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the WZZM 13 app now.

April Stevens is a multi-platform producer at WZZM 13. Have a news tip? Email news@wzzm13.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter.

© 2017 WZZM-TV

Hello Video Battle Fans, Brendan from Promo Marketing here with a quick programming note. After two years of bringing you the best videos from around the promotional products industry, we’ll be taking a temporary break from the Video Battle

This doesn’t mean Video Battle is done forever. Our primary focus at Promo Marketing is to deliver the highest quality content for the industry every single day. So, this means, for the time being, you can expect another piece of original reporting that pertains to the promotional space every Friday. Lucky you!

Video producers: Fear not. Considering the digital shift in media (which they warned us about on a daily basis in journalism school), we’re still going to find a place for video content in the Headlines newsletter. So, if your company has a great new video you want to showcase, send it on over! We’ll always try find a way to work it in with our normal news format.

Also, you can still view the Video Battle Hall of Fame and General Awesomeness!

So, that’s that. But, in the meantime, don’t go watching other video battles from other sites, because that definitely counts as cheating, as Rachel explained to Ross on « Friends. » That Ross, always watching other video battles while he was on a break with Rachel.

We’re getting sidetracked now. Happy Friday, everyone. And thanks for reading.