Creative Southis an annual 3-day conference down south in Columbus, GA catered toward creatives ranging from artists, graphic designers, developers, letterers, and more. It had been on our radar for quite some time and we decided this year we had to make it happen.
What an incredible experience! It was like being amongst our creative brethren. The conference took place at the historical Springer Theater in downtown Columbus. Each day was filled with talks from various creatives, covering different topics from realities of failures, pricing your clients, cultural influences on design, and much more. With the hoard of experiences and creative backgrounds of each speaker, there truly wasn’t one bad or unnecessary talk during this conference. The perspectives alone were enlightening.
You know what else was awesome? The SWAG! From free camping backpacks and t-shirts to all the amazing art, we left with way too much cool stuff, and much lighter wallets. Besides that, we even got to witness the creative artistry of various conference-goers who battled in the different events like the Adobe Creative Jam and Ink Wars.
The vibe at Creative South was great. Still an intimate festival, their slogan “Come as friends and leave as family” rang true. We met so many awesome creative people from all over the country, sharing the same love for the creative field.
We’re already looking forward to Creative South 2018!
Instagram, the platform used every day by users to share their stories visually with images, has become a powerful force in social media. With an average of 55 million photos uploaded each day on this vast and fast-growing social network, it’s a tool that, if used correctly, can benefit brands and grow their audience.
Why should your brand use Instagram?
While it can’t be said for all social media, Instagram is a platform for everyone. Whether you’re a small business starting up in the world or a well established brand, Instagram is a visual force to be reckoned with, allowing just about anyone the option to tell (and sell) their story. Coming up with content for your feed can be challenging, especially with seeing what works and what doesn’t on the platform. But that doesn’t mean potential users shouldn’t try and keep at it. In the last couple years, mobile media has surpassed online media consumption and will continue in that direction. So take advantage!
Don’t have thousands, or in some cases, millions of followers? Don’t sweat it. Instagram users are eager to connect with brands on a personal and inspirational level, and finding the right visual vision for your brand can make all the difference. Here are three points to get your going:
Audience: Target the right demographic, using proper hashtags for your brand.
Looking to get your brand on Instagram? Take a look at our monthly marketing package that takes your brand and provides it with a steady online presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and more.
Please feel free to contact us with any questions about successfully marketing your brand across the different social media platforms.
We had a blast this past weekend at Awesome Con 2015. The three-day convention, that featured everything from comics to TV Shows and everything in between, definitely lived up to it’s name! BLM had a booth, showcasing all the services we have to offer from art and clothing to our latest Kickstarter-funded board game, Mixtape Massacre(we even brought The Legend with us!). It was three full days of interacting with strangers and getting our name out there to gain some interest in what we do. One of our owners, Fred Carlini, even got to speak on the panel “How to Use Social Media to Promote Your Work” thanks to the success of our recent Kickstarter project.
It wasn’t all work and no play too. We got to check out different celebrity and show panels, as well as all of the ‘awesome’ cosplay that filled the entire Washington Convention Center. It was pretty sweet to see a woman dressed as He-Man, a family dressed like the cast Bob’s Burgers, as well as the Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt, all roaming around in front of your eyes. We couldn’t have asked for more from our first Awesome Con experience. It was all the awesome we could have asked for.
Check out some of our photos from the event below!
It’s been a crazy ride but we’re proud to announce that our latest creative project, Mixtape Massacre, was successfully funded via the Kickstarter platform.
Campaign Statistics
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What is Mixtape Massacre?
Mixtape Massacre is a new board game with a killer blend of all the classic 80’s horror archetypes you know and love mixed with so much 1980s pop culture, you can practically hear the gum snapping and the Cyndi Lauper playing. In the classic 80’s horror genre, far too often we are asked to sympathize and identify with the vulnerable and, let’s face it, often dimwitted victim. In Mixtape Massacre, you enter the shoes of some of your favorite horror archetypes and bring the pain all while breathing in the references to 1980s music, film, and pop-culture.
Setting Up the Kickstarter
We did a lot of research before our initial launch on Kickstarter, but quickly learned that the entire campaign would be a learning process. Prior to the launch we had to create a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. We also needed to figure out pricing from different manufacturers, shipping rates for places all over the world, advertising expenses, and then settling on a budget.
Also in the time leading up to the Kickstarter we prepared all the advertising images we would need for our Kickstarter page, as the images are really what is going to sell the product. We also produced an animated video as most, if not all projects with a video perform better than ones without.
Before launching we spent the month leading up to the launch doing social media posts to gain attention, followers, and people interested enough to spread the word during the campaign. Then we sent out our first press release to multiple outlets and began the Kickstarter.
The Kickstarter Campaign
There was plenty of feedback from the backers throughout the 30-day campaign, pointing out things like foreign shipping costs and availability as well as their own ideas for extra characters and gameplay mechanics. This lead us to do further research in order to make our game and product easily accessible to international audiences as well as more appealing for different types of players.
From the beginning to the end, we were able to lower shipping costs, become EU-friendly (allowing our product to be shipped from within the EU without any extra customs charges to our customers), add Australia to our international list, and much more. We took a lot, if not all, of the feedback into consideration, trying to make everything work for our backers and deliver the best product possible.
The cool kids united in SE DC for Broccoli City Festival 2015!
If you weren’t at the Gateway Pavilion last Saturday, you were obviously missing out. Local lifestyle group, Broccoli City’s mission is to promote environmentally stable, healthier living lifestyle in cool, more relevant ways. Each year they throw a festival that features music, arts, lifestyle activities and more. The lineup this year for the festival included acts like Erykah Badu, Joey Bada$$, Jaden & Willow Smith, Tink, Kali Uchis, Kaytranada, Tiara Thomas, and many more.
As mentioned in our blog Event Branding: Broccoli City, Broccoli City reached out to us to do the branding for their Broccoli City Festival event that took place this past Saturday, April 25th. We started with a logo that branched off onto several forms of press and marketing tools leading up to the event itself. Our branding was felt throughout the entire festival, from press badges to the entire stage backdrop and more.
