Swanson Russell

In many cases, we are the audience for our regional brands. But we don’t take that for granted. We still put in the time it takes to research and understand what moves the needle for consumers in the Midwest. Here are a few of the insights we’ve gleaned over the years of building brands in our own backyard. For more – or for the full text of any of these articles or reports – please contact Dave Hansen at 402-437-6427.

Point-Of-Purchase Advertising, a Green Industry’s Dream...And Nightmare
This report discusses the various types of POP advertising, the situations in which each type is likely to be most effective and how retailers respond to POP materials. The report combines Swanson Russell's many years of experience creating POP materials for green industry clients with information from several POP advertising studies.

Why Spill-In and Spill-Out Are Important When Buying TV
What are spill-in and spill-out? And more importantly, why are they important to media buying habits in Nebraska? In this paper, we help you understand how to effectively purchase media in multiple nearby markets, so you can optimize every cent of your media budget.

Budget Cuts? How to Outsmart the Competition
When you outsmart, you don’t have to outspend. In this report, we illustrate how effective branding, smart media planning and sustained public relations can keep your brand moving, even if your budgets aren’t. From broad philosophies to targeted tactics, we know how to move the needle for brands, no matter the budget.

Marketing Communications for Uncertain Times
During economic hard times it can be hard just to survive, let alone grow as a company. How do you protect your bottom line and your brand at the same time? How do you battle in a faltering economy and stay intact? This white paper will address these and other questions and provide you with light at the end of the tunnel.

Paid Search Advertising
The number one activity on the Web? Searching. Which is why paid search is becoming an increasingly important part of any marketing mix. In this report we explore the benefits of paid search advertising and offer a primer on how to build a targeted, measurable, compelling campaign.

Put Your Mouth Where the Money Is
Penned by our very own Parker Stoner, Put Your Mouth Where the Money Is explains how to refocus your communications. Too often, marketers walk away disappointed from communications strategies that have too little credibility to impact their audience. In this book, we lay out a new Hierarchy of Marketing Communications Effectiveness, and explain how to strategically build and deliver messages that forge a Real Connection™ with your audience.

Harvest Online Intelligence
These days, a company’s frontline is not the salesperson; it’s the Internet. Conversations about your brand and your products are happening, on social media networks, blogs and anywhere in between. And the better you understand those conversations, the more informed your communications strategy will be. In this report, we walk through the concept of “conversation mining,” and how it can help build your brand.

Refocusing Scarce Resources During Tough Times
When Swanson Russell and employee Parker Stoner set out to write Put Your Mouth Where the Money Is in 2007, nobody knew what tough economic conditions laid in waiting. The ideas in the book, however, turned out to be a valuable resource for companies facing tough decisions necessitated by flat or reduced budgets. In this paper, we expound on some of the book’s ideas, and apply them to recession-era situations. We can’t predict the future, but we can better prepare you for it.

Our Approach to Branding
“Brand” has become a ubiquitous term in marketing. While it means a lot of things to a lot of different people, at its core, a brand is a company’s ability to authentically define itself to its core audiences. There isn’t a company on the market that couldn’t benefit from a good brand, which is why we’ve developed this roadmap to the branding process.

Strategies for Social Media Success
Anymore, social media is more than just a planning meeting agenda item. The phenomenon of social media requires constant exploration, dissection and critical thinking. Its benefits are completely unique from any other medium’s, and its capabilities are still being discovered.  In this paper, we’ll walk you through the state of social media, including recommendations on how to decide what social media program is right for you. Read through case studies, measurement techniques and budget considerations and learn how to make social media part of your brand’s messaging mix.

Blending Traditional and Digital Media
In the same way that consumers sometimes feel inundated with marketing messages, we as marketers may sometimes feel overwhelmed by the sheer volume of communication avenues we have at our disposal. With so many different forms, how does a brand achieve function? In this report, we survey the landscape of traditional and digital media. We'll show you the work we've done in each medium, and what we learned along the way. We'll also cover eight key steps for blending them all together.