Super Bowl 2012 Commercials is an online organization giving us all the sneak peak. Check it out!

Chevy Sonic – 2012 – Stunt Anthem

Chevy offers a look at their new Sonic performing a series of “firsts”: skydiving, bungee jumping, kick flipping, and performing with OK GO in a music video. It’s a fun commercial for what looks like a fun car, and the giant skateboard is amazing. Balls-of-steel award goes to the driver in the kick-flip stunt.

CareerBuilder – 2012 – Business Trip

They’re back folks, and we welcome them with open arms. While we’re all for treating animals kindly and with dignity, we can’t help but disagree with PETA on this one: these chimps look like they’re have a ball, and given the choice we’re sure they’d opt to be in the ad rather than sitting in.

Volkswagen – 2012 – The Dog Strikes Back

Volkswagen’s excellent new Beetle commercial manages to tell its own story while paying tribute to their smash hit from last year’s game. This extended version adds an extra 15 seconds to the 60-second spot that will be shown February 5, but you’ve all been really good this year so we thought you deserved it.

Kraft belVita – 2012 – Breakfast Police

Kraft is set to launch a strangely-named yet intriguing new breakfast food, and this hilarious spot about two small-town cops is exactly the way to do it. The script and style are funny, intelligent, and hip without looking like they were trying to be “edgy”. This is a pre-game spot but we won’t hold that

Researchers show the top lists of businesses’ marketing priories in 2012 are:

• Improve our social media presence and customer engagement
• Improve our search engine optimization to drive new business
• Increase brand awareness in new markets using an online presence
• Engage our customers in new, unique ways that set us apart from our competitors
• Be less distracted by watching what our competitors are doing and focus more on who we are and what we want to do

In 2011, our team of search engine optimization experts at NADA advertising focused on a few of these areas with Google’s introduction of Panda. Our clients, rightfully so, we concerned that without implementing changes to their site, they would soon be left in 2011 along with their impressive site traffic versus being on the forefront of 2012 – leading the keyword phrases and words in their industry.

Our SEO team worked hard tailoring search engine optimization strategies for our SEO clients throughout Minneapolis, St. Paul, Laguna Beach, Hawaii, and Palm Springs to not only sustain web traffic, but improve it. A few of the tactics we took on to improve their search engine rankings included:

• Developing micro sites with cross linking with corporate sites based around keywords and phrases
• Integrating more key phrases into their social media strategy to drive more specific traffic back to their site
• Increasing content on their site by writing more informative blogs, adding articles and services – all based around their keywords and phrases
• Partner with other websites in similar fields to share links and stories with
• Analyze user trends on the site and revise page structures and content to give users what they want, faster
• and more

If you search engine optimization is a priority of yours in 2012, contact one of our offices in Minnesota or California for a consultation.

Nathan was pleased to attend the opening on December 7, 2011. The raised funds supported:

• New Classrooms
• 8 door VIP latrines (Sponsored by Brent & Nancy Nerland, Moxie Java & Brian Dernbach)
• 125 new desks
• 39 cartons of sanitary pads for girls
• 3 cupboards
• 3 tables
• 5 chairs
• 20 text books
• 15 soccer and footballs
• Volley ball net
• Science kit
• Bench marking tour for pupils, teachers and parents
• 2 School Management Committee training
• 2 Teacher refresher training
• 2 peer educator workshops for teachers and pupils
• HIV/AIDS peer education mentorship program (sponsored by NADA advertising)

Thank you very much for everyone who helped make this a reality!

In 2008 Pepsi Co aimed to reconnect with consumers by offering a new look to their already iconic logo.  The new logo uses a series of white stripes that are uninspiring.  Pepsi Co should have saved their $1.2 billion and stuck with what they had; an icon.

Imitation can be the sincerest form of flattery or can be plain confusing.  Capital One forgot to respect the past and rebranded their logo in an unoriginal manner that is oddly similar to another familiar brand.  Let’s just say they shouldn’t have “Just done it”.

The Olympics offer moments of inspiration and stories of great human endeavors.  Then why is that human spirit absent from the London 2012?  Instead we get a choppy and dare we say it 80’s retro looking design.  The Olympics logo should appear timeless, classy and harkens back to the human achievement.

So keep those logos and designs consistent to what is successful, appreciated and expected by the public.

For a small business social media can be an immeasurable tool.  So how do you keep that tool clean and sharp?

Have a plan Stan.  Decide on the amount and frequency of information you want to share with the public and your followers.  You don’t want to drown the public with information, but you want to keep them interested and show that you’re business is relevant.  Conserve your information, stories and tidbits.  Intentionally place them and share them at the correct moment.

Social media can be like a bad first date with someone who talks about nothing but themselves.  Engage with your followers and viewers.  Talk to them, ask questions and get their opinions on enjoyable topics.  You don’t have to converse about deep issues such as politics, but a simple question about color, favorite vegetable, or Coke or Diet Coke can open an amusing door to conversation and interaction.

Show a softer side.  We all remember what happened to Jack when it was all work.  Share with the public different aspects of your business life beyond the cold information and statistics.  This is an opportunity to promote your business without really trying, but rather sharing.  Stories of volunteering, awards received or interaction with the public humanizes your business and confirms with the public that their time is important.

Not every business has to be social, but if you’re going to mingle within the party remember to put your best foot forward, be yourself and have fun.

We are being bombarded by the advancements of new technology and trends on a regular basis and if we are not able to adapt and acknowledge these waves we might as well throw our hands in the air (don’t wave them like you just don’t care) and surrender.  So how do you make your website relevant within 2012’s onslaught of the new?  Adopt a few of these recent and necessary trends and you’ll be able to hold your own.

Simplicity.  Forget trying to impress and sway viewers with loud colors and explosive graphics, but blow them away with simple designs and a limited color palette.  It’s softer on the eyes, calming for the brain and easier to navigate.

Function friendly.  As a society we want everything instant and right away, so keep your viewer’s needs in mind.  Make it easy and enjoyable to navigate with simple menus and keep the number of pages of your site to a lean amount.  Since we’re talking about function, don’t forget a mobile ready site.  Smartphones, iPads and netbooks provide an easy function for the user and a mobile ready site will appease that demand.

Flash this!  Flash, although is very enticing and mesmerizing, is also very annoying and a hindrance.  The program can take time to load and not be compatible with mobile devices.  Once again, functionality and simplicity are in.  Keep your site minimal and free from FLASHy gimmicks.  A clean site with well-place designs and textures will be even more eye-catching and promises repeat viewings.

Contact us today to reorder your business cards and receive:

• 25% OFF: 500 or 1,000 quantity
• 30% OFF: 1,000 quantity of 2 or more with 1 delivery location

Learn about NADA advertising’s many other printing services

The Silent Auction: RSVP & Event Details

When:     Mon., Oct. 3 from 6-9pm (Auction closes at 8:15pm)
Where:    Salut, 917 Grand Avenue, St. Paul, MN 55105
What:       65+ items from $25-$3,500

Items include: Trip for 2 to Sweden, W hotel, Tickets to Hennepin Theater shows, Vikings, Gophers and theaters, $1,000′s in spa treatments and fitness, gift baskets, $1,000′s in art and more.

Learn more or donate online at: thecarsonschool.com

What the silent auction will support

Funds raised will help fund:

• desks
• textbooks
• sanitary towels
• supply of teachers’ furniture
• Latrine construction costs
• HIV and AIDS related activities
• and other important items for the school

NADA advertising is excited to help in the funding of HIV & AIDS training for a peer mentorship at the Carson Glore Classrooms being built at a Kenya school in Africa.

By Tiffany Black |  @minnie6998 | From the September 2011 issue of Inc. magazine

In 2007, Rick Calvert (above, left) and Dave Cynkin(above, right) created the BlogWorld & New Media Expo to help attendees capitalize on a novel new technology—blogs. Now, of course, blogs are just a small part of a burgeoning social-media universe-and BlogWorld has become a twice-annual must-attend event for people seeking to navigate that world. Calvert recently spoke withInc.com‘s Tiffany Black about why businesses can no longer ignore social media.

What has changed since the first BlogWorld conference?
The first year, Twitter didn’t exist. The second year, people said we should change the name to TwitterWorld. Then, social media became the business buzzword, so we created a track called the Social Media Business Summit. This year will be the first time the conference has a track about mobile media. We are all going to be consuming more and more content on our mobile devices. That is definitely the future.

Given that, do businesses even need blogs anymore?
The blog is the hub and all these other things—Facebook,LinkedIn, Twitter, Flickr, YouTube—are spokes that lead back to the center. The blog is the center of the social-media universe. Do you want your company to be at the center of the conversation, or do you want to be out in the rest of the galaxy? If you want to be a leader, you still need a blog.

How can mastering social media help small companies compete?
Social media is this equalizer. Big companies have the problem of being out of touch with their customers. Small companies have the problem of not being able to reach all their potential customers. Social media helps small companies become bigger and big companies act smaller. I always tell people that social media is just a new way for people to do business the old-fashioned way. If your product sucks or your company is bad, social media is your worst enemy. If your product is great, social media is your best friend.

In July, Google announced the launch of its latest update named Panda, and many in the online world are still trying to figure out what it means to their Search Engine Optimization (SEO) practices.

NADA advertising has become Panda experts and have already begun implementing these new strategies into our website as well as our SEO monthly clients’ websites. After you’ve read this article, please contact us with any questions and we will be happy to discuss these changes with you.

While it is a complex thing to understand, we found the following article we felt best explains the changes being rolled out.

First, for those who are not familiar with Panda (and unless you’re an SEO enthusiast, you probably aren’t), it basically involves some major changes to the algorithm Google uses to return search results. Now there are a lot of technical bits to this, which I won’t get into here. If you’re interested, there’s been plenty written on those changes since the 1.0 version of Google Panda rolled out in February (SEOmoz has some great info on all-things Panda, for example).

Looking beyond the tech specs, however, the really important thing to understand is the purpose of Google Panda, which is – as with all Google updates – to return higher-quality content in search.

Traditional SEO practices focuse on areas like on-page techniques (keyword research, density and title optimization) and backlinking. Basically, if you created unique, quality content and did all this other stuff right, you had a great chance of being found in search and increasing your site’s visibility.Now with Panda? As SEOmoz CEO Rand Fishkin said recently, it’s just not enough.

What Google wants is to improve search results so that the top pages returned offer the highest quality of value and engagement for readers. In other words, they want to weed out the folks who are simply playing the SEO game – creating lots and lots of unique and super-optimized content to drive traffic – and reward sites that people truly like the most.

And by “like the most”, I mean just that. Google has a fleet of people who literally rate web pages and sites for quality, and those ratings are added to Google’s search metrics. This essentially takes SEO outside the world of keywords and links, and puts a bigger premium on things like “user experience” and “value of overall information” and “how likely people are to want to share this page with others because it’s so (bleep)-ing amazing.”

This is a major change, and a good one by Google, as it moves us closer to a world where the information people find is ruled less by strategically placed keywords and more on what’s truly valuable and engaging. (You know, kind of like how it was before the Internet.)