The start of every year brims with opportunities for great marketing and results. Here are some key take-aways from 2009 as we move into 2010.

Key Marketing Take-Aways From 2009

1. Your message and brand fundamentals are as critical as ever

2. The addition of a multitude of new channels via social media only means that it is more important than ever to understand who your audience is and where they get their information

3. The press release is not dead – in fact it is more versatile and useful than ever before

4. SEO is critical, but it must be aligned with traditional marketing strategies

5. Customers and prospects still love – and react to – great creative in all its forms

6. Customers will tell you what you want to know if you ask the right questions

7. In an age of electronic communications, a phone call or hand-written note goes a long way. Along those lines, bulky direct mail gets opened

8. Despite the decline of print media, nothing makes a client more excited than seeing their name in print

9. A great customer reference is invaluable

10. Measurement in all its forms continues to be a challenge – but it can be done and with the growth of web analytic, instant metrics are becoming an industry standard.

And, as always, an integrated strategic communications plan that takes into account all facets of marketing and public relations always delivers the best results! Begin 2010 with a resolution to make your marketing count.

Post by Zer0 to 5ive CEO Michelle Pujadas

The New York City Marathon is November 1, 2009. It’s always a big day here in the City but I never know when it is until the very day is upon me and I hear the traffic report citing multiple street closures. I most certainly had no idea who pays for the whole thing. For all I know, the City foots the bill.

But that all changed a few days ago when I walked into the Dunkin Donuts on 14th and 6th undecided about the type of donut I wanted for breakfast. Should I go seasonal with a Pumpkin Donut or traditional with an Old-Fashioned? To my great surprise there was a new donut featured prominently in the center of the bakery rack. It was a traditional, glazed donut with orange icing and blue sprinkles. I knew it most certainly was not in honor of the Mets (and their very disappointing season), so I inquired further. Apparently it was the ING NYC Marathon Donut. I was intrigued and ordered it. Now I know that the marathon is coming up and that ING is a sponsor.

Nice work ING – for using a creative cross-promotion to leverage your sponsorship of the Marathon and generate awareness among a broader consumer audience.

Posted by Zer0 to 5ive’s Marybeth Sheppard. Image via Flickr/Creative Commons courtesy of Salim Virji.

What does it take to become inspired? Where do you go? What do you see? What is it that gets your wheels spinning? To me, inspiration is unique and comes to each of us in different ways. For some, it’s visiting an art gallery, paging through design books, or browsing the internet. For my college design professor, it was showering. He once told our class that his greatest ideas come to him in the shower. But for me, I don’t have one particular source for inspiration – I have many.

Often times I use the internet for inspiration because of it’s convenience. However, I love the design annuals from PRINT Magazine and GD USA. Each year these magazines release issues composed of winning designs in each different design category. Basically, it’s about 300 some pages of inspiring art, from Annual Reports, Invitations, and Collateral to Identity Design, Multimedia, and Package Design. I never leave for the office in the morning without at least one of these magazines in my bag. If my co-workers have ever seen me paging through magazines while at work and wondered what I was doing, now you know – I’m getting inspired!

Sometimes you will see me waiting in the lobby of a doctor’s office flipping through magazines to pass the time. If I see something I like, whether it’s an interesting typography treatment or a simple tiny graphic in a call out box, I will sneakily rip the page out of the magazine, tuck it into my bag and add it to my collection of inspiring art (I do this while at the gym too).

Sometimes you will see me driving with my camera phone in the air trying to snap a photo of an interesting billboard design or advertisement. Now I know this isn’t always the safest option, but I do my best not to cause any accidents.

For me, shopping can be a great source for inspiration too. Last Christmas, I walked the entire mall with my camera, flashing pictures of the different displays and window art. There were a lot of fun color combinations and type treatments that immediately caught my eye. Target and AC Moore are great stores to get inspired in. My camera is always handy and you will see me taking pictures of whatever catches my eye. Whether it’s a Hallmark card with an interesting graphic on the front, a cool pattern on a piece of clothing, or a scrap book page example pasted to the bulletin board in the paper isle, there I am, camera in hand, snapping away.

So, while some people have one particular thing they do or see to get inspired, that is not the case for me. My ideas come from so many different places ¬– magazines, books, nature, clothes, wallpaper, paint books, websites, blogs, wrapping paper, gift bags, greeting cards, stores, outdoor displays, and the list could go on. Henry David Thoreau once said, “It’s not what you look at that matters, it’s what you see.”

Posted by Nicole Maziarz, Zer0 to 5ive

Implementing rounded corners has always been somewhat of a chore. With the current CSS1 and CSS2 specifications, you’re forced to slice up rounded corner images, and add all sorts of bulky, most times un-semantic code, just to achieve a rounded corner effect. With the introduction of CSS3, rounded corners is easy work. This technique won’t work in every single web browser today, but users in older browsers will still have a pleasant experience on your site.
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