In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the question we’ve been hearing most is: “Should we still be advertising on Facebook?” The answer is yes. Lack of transparency in digital media is often caused by a knowledge gap by both users and marketers. The bottom line is that it is possible to use Facebook data in an ethical way to serve targeted ads. Facebook is free to billions of Continue reading
Have you ever clicked a link on Facebook to see which “Game of Thrones” character you are? Don’t be embarrassed: you’re not alone. In fact, you’re in the company of millions of other users in the U.S. who took that quiz and many others like it. But when you took the quiz, the app probably asked you for permission to collect data about you, your location, your friends and the Continue reading
That clever product name™ you just thought of? It’s taken. Your brand new and definitely unique™ company name? Someone’s probably using it. This can make the process of trademark registration very difficult. A new paper analyzed millions of trademark applications and found what you might have suspected: it can be extremely challenging to come up with good (read, clever and unique) names for new products and companies. Below are some Continue reading
Throughout the course of the last year or so, we’ve heard the accusations (and felt the reverberations) of “fake news.” Political chaos notwithstanding, the specter of “fake news,” however you define it, has cast its shadow beyond the realm of partisanism and into the space of branding and marketing. “Fake news” has tingled the collective spidey sense of consumers with regard to brands that proffer superficial marketing speak (AKA baloney). Continue reading
Google just released its “2017 Year In Search” review, and the message is abundantly simple and clear. The key to search success in 2018, says the internet behemoth, is “How.” Regardless of the products or services your business offers, consumers are constantly searching for possible solutions to their own problems and needs. In light of the importance of the word, “how,” business owners — and marketers — need to ask Continue reading
Thanksgiving might be stuffed with food, but the days following are stuffed with sales, special offers, and bulging inboxes that look the way you feel after too much holiday feasting. With the holiday retail season taking off like a shot after Thanksgiving, many companies make the mistake of sending what seems like a year’s worth of emails in just over one month. It’s the time of year when overmarketing is Continue reading
Halloween has barely packed up its “Stranger Things” costumes and gone home, but the retail landscape — the advertising spend and shift from Jolly Ranchers to Holly Jolly — began long before the candy sold out. The dizzyingly swift switch from cheeky Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups ads to the full-on Christmas press, however, is all by design. And it’s our fault. Well, it’s not Rebel’s fault per se: we’re just Continue reading
Remember when there was just Christmas, Easter and Mother’s Day (and maybe a few more big ones)? These days it seems as if there’s a “national holiday,” “national day” or “national month” for virtually everything. Most of the new “holidays” have made the rounds on social media, and chances are that others have passed right by you without your even knowing they existed. While some are fun (puppies!) and relevant Continue reading
Spoiler alert: Facebook is beginning to cash in on influencer and brand ambassador marketing. The social media giant recently allowed brands to boost an influencer’s post without that influencer having to share it. Not exactly, surprising, right? A cursory glance shows these ads appearing more organic, and the change also seems to streamline the process. But don’t forget: this is Facebook and Facebook is all about an uncanny ability to Continue reading
Brand ambassadors and social influencers. If you work with an agency or want to increase your business through social media you’ve likely come across these two terms, and for good reason. Companies such as Sperry, Kia, and Old Navy have all used social influencer campaigns, and they’re not alone. In a recent study by Schlesinger Associates, 84 percent of respondents said they would launch at least one influencer campaign within Continue reading
Being first to market — or the first to gain market share — has many advantages. Examples of brand names that are interchangeable with product function are iconic. Think Kleenex, Super Glue or Photoshop. They’re product names that we identify with the product itself: any brand of tissue is regularly referred to as Kleenex, just as any doctored photo on the internet is referred to as photoshopped. The reason? They Continue reading
Verizon recently completed its $4.5 billion acquisition of Yahoo and is now in the process of merging Yahoo and AOL’s operations into a company named Oath. Oath will be comprised of 50 brands, among them AOL and their subsidiaries, Yahoo and their subsidiaries; The Huffington Post, Tumblr, Autoblog, and Verizon Digital media services. Oath’s portfolio will allow them to leverage data from the 1.3 billion users across Oath properties, more Continue reading
What comes to mind when you picture manufacturing jobs? Grease, sweat, welders, tools, blisters and assembly lines? Picture this instead: robots, technology, computer programing and 3D printing. Thanks to industry rebels such as Voodoo Manufacturing in Brooklyn, NY, manufacturing has changed, and for the most part these stereotypical images are no longer accurate. Industry rebels are people or companies that disrupt in a positive way, and Voodoo Manufacturing does just Continue reading
When you think about mastodons (some people actually do think about mastodons), what’s the first thing you see? A giant, extinct elephant? Well, yes. For some people. But for others, Mastodon is a rapidly growing social media platform named after the abovementioned defunct species (as well as an Atlanta-based heavy metal band). We Rebels believe that industry disruptions create revolutionary ideas. Mastodon is on pace to do this by challenging Continue reading
If you’ve picked up a newspaper, er, a mobile device recently, you’ve probably read about virtual reality (VR) technology. If you haven’t, here’s the cheat sheet: VR refers to technologies that use virtual reality headsets to generate realistic images, sounds, and other sensations to either replicate real environments or to create imaginary settings. It also simulates a user’s physical presence in environments. But do your customers want (or need) it? Continue reading
To help understand why inline styling and all its “royal” characteristics reign, it helps to start by discussing Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Basically, CSS helps distinguish a document’s content against its ultimate presentation on the page. But there’s always more to any story, and inline styling has its own tale. Inline Styling: Among Three Paths to CSS Greatness Whether you’re a creative, full-time web or mobile app developer, or Continue reading
It’s that predictively predictive time of year, and we’re making our own search trend calls for 2017 with predictable boldness. In our 2016 prediction blog post, we anticipated growth of location-based search, video content, mobile optimization, and aggregated content. It turns out, we were right. (Don’t worry: we’re patting our own backs.) What’s the scoop for 2017, and how can you prepare your site for success in the New Year Continue reading
Regardless of the industry, social media is among the most powerful marketing tools in business. Rebel Interactive Group predicted some social media marketing trends for 2016, many of which we saw come to fruition to some extent. Now that 2017 is on the horizon, it’s a good time for us to make some gutsy predictions for another year. Live Streams Become More Important We saw the emergence of live streams Continue reading
Celebrity and brand partnerships are a venerable tradition, from Babe Ruth hawking cigarettes and Michael Jordan lifting Air Nike, to Jennifer Aniston selling skin cream. Partnering with celebrity can boost marketing, but it also comes with risk: choosing the wrong influencers can drive customers away. There are other options to consider as well. Using influencers — socially savvy individuals — in your niche to create and distribute relevant content and Continue reading
Let’s be blunt: you want as many visitors as possible to visit — and stay — on your site. But what happens if they stumble across a “page not found” or a “404” error? It’s a familiar and unsightly roadblock that makes a visitor’s eyes roll; then it sends them on a detour to a competitor’s site. But the super-secret truth (that we’ll share with you) is that you can Continue reading
Whether or not you like it, today’s business owners, sales managers, independent bloggers, and just about any other type of professional competing in the modern market, needs to maintain a highly functioning website that reflects and supports its brand. It’s crucial you understand how your website performs in terms of providing positive interactive experiences for your visitors. Web analytic tools help you gain meaningful and actionable insights into customers’ and Continue reading
As a merchant, you don’t have to be an online retail giant (think Amazon) to understand the advantages — and risks — of e-commerce. Whether you routinely sell to millions or occasionally sell to hundreds, as of the new year, Google will require sites with logins and/or payment portals to have SSL certificates — AKA https secured URLs. Who Should Get an SSL Certificate? While it’s always best to Continue reading
Facebook has raised the ante again, and this time you can definitely ride its wave of success. The venerable social media behemoth now offers a new platform — Facebook Live — for your company to host webinars. It’s a strategic way to provide customers valuable information while getting to know them better. Facebook Live allows users to provide you with feedback in real time by “liking” your live stream and Continue reading
My name is Julie. It’s neither Judy nor Judie, and it’s definitely not July or Jukie (although the “K” is perilously close to the “L” on a qwerty keyboard). If you (or your company) send me an email with my name spelled incorrectly, it will be your first — and last — mistake. (Read: junk/delete.) Does that seem remedial? You’re absolutely correct. It is. But taking time to review some Continue reading
If Google AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages) takes off, it will be a revolutionary way for brands to improve search result speeds on their sites. That can mean a lower bounce rate, which translates to higher conversions. But will Google AMP take off? And what is it, anyway? Once again, Rebel has the answers you’ve been looking for. What is Google AMP? Google AMP is an open-source project that helps website Continue reading
