Deep Focus

May 10, 2013

Deep Focus Q&A with Twitter Advertising

Deep Focus talks with Twitter in a two part Q&A for their Agency Influencer Series.

May 1, 2013

Save the Date: Deep Focus at Creative Week NYC

Creative Week comes to New York May 6th – 10th, bringing together advertising, design, digital media and the arts.

April 30, 2013

Consumer Intel Roundup

Our weekly roundup of five consumer trends to watch.

April 15, 2013

Deep Focus Talks Storytelling at the #Rethink Series

Deep Focus ECD Ken Kraemer recently spoke at Grind in the monthly series #Rethink.

March 8, 2013

The Real Takeaway from Facebook’s Visual News Feed Redesign

Facebook has redesigned its news feed to be even more visual. Here’s what it means and what’s important.

February 21, 2013

Deep Focus Presents: An Evening of Disruption at Social Media Week New York

It’s Social Media Week here in New York and Deep Focus is hosting a panel discussion with some of the industry’s biggest disruptors.

February 19, 2013

Social Platform Security Tips: Don’t be the next Jeep or Burger King

Eight safeguards to help brands decrease the chances of a social hack.

February 12, 2013

A Glimpse Inside the Moment Studio

What does the Moment Studio do? How does it work? And is it working? All good questions. Watch our video and find out.

February 4, 2013

Super Bowl of Social Media III: The Year of the Hashtag? Or the year of Real-Time?

Did advertising’s biggest night create the social engagement we know it can? We break it down in the Super Bowl of Social Media III.

January 18, 2013

Who Will Like Facebook Graph Search?

What will Facebook Graph Search really mean for consumers, brands and the marketplace?

January 7, 2013

User Privacy – What Foursquare Learned From Instagram’s Kerfuffle

Instagram drew wide criticism when it changed its TOS. Foursquare did the same with a vastly different public reaction. What gives?

January 3, 2013

2013 Forecast: The Deep Focus Digital & Social Marketing Outlook

What will 2013 hold for marketers? And what should they do about it? Our 2013 Forecast – The Deep Focus Digital & Social Marketing Outlook is here.

December 20, 2012

Simple Lessons from the Toy Shelves

It’s the holiday season and we are being inundated by ads and news stories proclaiming the hottest toys of the season. Here’s what we’ve learned from successful stocking stuffers.

December 19, 2012

Why You Shouldn’t Freak Out Over Instagram’s New Terms Of Use

Instagram just changed their terms of use, and especially because it’s a photo-centric service, people are freaking out!

November 30, 2012

Black Friday/Cyber Monday Social Rundown

By most accounts Cyber Monday was a success for online retailers. But the headlines weren’t so rosy for social media.

November 21, 2012

Why We Launched the Moment Studio

We’ve launched a new division of our agency created specifically to produce newsfeed-ready branded content. Find out why.

November 9, 2012

Obamashare – Social Media Marketing Tips from Nov 6th’s Winner

Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign is widely credited as the first to master social media. For 2012, it’s the creative ways they activated their fans and found new ones that set the stage for a repeat victory.

November 5, 2012

Getting Out The Vote On Social – Lessons for Marketers

Social media marketing doesn’t amount to much if you can’t get the consumer off the couch so they can help you lift your bottom line. Or vote your vote tally.

October 24, 2012

We’re Going Mobile: Deep Focus at OMMA Social

Deep Focus was in LA this week to be a part of MediaPost’s first-ever one-day OMMA Social event. We talked Mobile with some of the industry’s elite.

October 22, 2012

Will Native Advertising Kill the Banner Ad?

Native advertising was one of the most talked about topics at Advertising Week 2012 this month in New York City. Here’s a look at what brand advertisers can expect for 2013 planning.

October 15, 2012

Agency Creative in a Newsfeed World: Deep Focus at Advertising Week

Are we living in a newsfeed kind of world? Ian Schafer and Ken Kraemer answer onstage at Advertising Week in NYC.

September 21, 2012

Twitter Gets a New Look (Again)

On September 18th Twitter announced a major redesign to both the native platform and iPad app. Here’s a few thoughts on the changes and what they mean for marketers.

September 10, 2012

Don’t Stop Pinching and Zooming Just Yet

What does the Apple vs. Samsung verdict mean for “pinch-to-zoom” as a user interface? Contrary to most reports, pinch-to-zoom’s cross-platform demise have been greatly exaggerated.

September 6, 2012

Consumer Advocacy and the Art of the Remix: What brands can learn from MTV’s VMAs

Proving that Klout is just as important as talent, MTV’s Video Music Awards embrace social media with a new category, Most-Share Worthy Video. We think there’s a lot to learn from the VMAs!

September 6, 2012

Pushing the Right Share Buttons: A guide for choosing the social media buttons that are right for you

We’ve all seen content surrounded by an overabundance of mismatched, staggered buttons “encouraging” the user to share on every social platform imaginable. Could this actually be encouraging the opposite?

September 4, 2012

What Does it Mean when YouTube Tags go Private?

On August 15th, YouTube announced on Twitter, “We made tags private. Please keep providing them with uploads. Viewers didn’t use them and some abused them”. While this may seem like a minor change, what does this mean for content creators?

August 31, 2012

Building a Better Mobile Facebook

Last week Facebook released a brand new native app for iOS, bringing us the best mobile Facebook experience to date.

August 30, 2012

Understanding Design & Protecting It

The business of Design needs to be protected. But maybe more importantly it needs to be understood.

August 30, 2012

Instagram 3.0 – New Social Features in Latest Update

Earlier this month, Instagram launched its 3.0 update, the first major update since their acquisition by Facebook.

August 9, 2012

The Art & Science of Balancing “Likers” and “People Talking About This”

New research shows that Facebook “likes” don’t equate engagement. So how do brands develop an engagement strategy that also builds acquisition?

August 2, 2012

A Preview of Twitter Cards

What’s the deal with Twitter Cards? And what do marketers need to do about it?

July 31, 2012

God Save the Opening Ceremonies

At Deep Focus, we’re suckers for some good pageantry. And we got that in spades watching London’s killer opening ceremonies. To get the maximum effect, we hunkered down in a bar in NYC with a fine domestic beer or six and live tweeted our reactions to London’s international party. Enjoy!

June 29, 2012

Facebook’s Want Button is Fab

Will Facebook make some huge e-commerce inroads with a “Want” button? And is Fab.com a launch partner? We sniffed around and have some thoughts.

June 28, 2012

Three User Experience Lessons Learned from Facebook

The intertwined stories of Facebook’s success and the MySpace collapse create a compelling parable on how to approach user experience.

June 27, 2012

The Impact of the Facebook Exchange

Facebook recently confirmed plans to launch Facebook Exchange, a new service that will enable real-time bidding for ad space on its platform. However, it is still unclear whether it will drive user engagement after the click.

June 20, 2012

AdAge asks, “Does Digital Sell Soap?” We’ve Got Some Thoughts

Taking the cover of Advertising Age magazine this week, the headline story, The Truth About What Works in Digital Marketing. They asked the big question, “Does Digital Sell Soap?” Here are our thoughts on the matter.

June 19, 2012

#140Conf12: Our own Ian Schafer on Social TV

Our CEO & Founder, Ian Schafer, is speaking on at the 140Conference this morning on a panel called “Social TV: Water Cooler Effect Gone Online.” We’ll be live tweeting the play-by-play at @deepfocus on twitter, so follow along.

June 15, 2012

The Campaign is Dead. Long Live the Campaign.

In an always-on marketing environment, Brands need to supplement traditional “campaign” thinking with great real-time microcontent. And that has to flow from long-term strategy. Here are six strategies for doing it.

June 11, 2012

Apple, iOS 6.0, Retina and Marketers: WWDC 2012 Wrap Up

Apple held its annual Worldwide Developer’s Conference today in California. A number of new products and features in iOS present opportunities for marketers and brands.

June 8, 2012

What foursquare 5.0 Means for Brands

Foursquare released a major redesign – version 5.0 – Thursday that transitions it more fully from a check-in gamification platform to a discovery platform. We’ve created a brief that covers the key changes, their implications and how brands and marketers can get the most out of new opportunities.

June 6, 2012

We Can’t Help but Love the Diamond Jubilee, Either

How do you capture the amazing pomp and pageantry of Her Royal Highness’s Diamond Jubilee? With a hand-embroidered social media infographic in the form of patriotic bunting, of course. Long live the Queen!

May 30, 2012

What Happens When Salesforce Acquires a Buddy (Media)

Brands have been clamoring for more than campaign results. They want to extract value from the connections that they have spent time and money building. Undoubtedly, with the help of Salesforce, Buddy Media will attempt to evolve from a marketing tool suite to a fully blown social CRM solution.

May 16, 2012

What Does the Facebook App Center Mean to You?

Facebook is making it easier for people to find great Facebook Apps that work on their mobile devices. Here’s a quick guide to making sure your branded app is part of the Facebook App Center.

May 15, 2012

The Twitter Ad Platform in 30 Minutes or Less

Learn the entire Twitter ad platform in 30 minutes, in my OMMA Social Media week presentation, “The Entire Twitter Ad Platform in 30 Minutes.”

May 8, 2012

Are Social Readers Really Collapsing?

Buzzfeed ran an interesting article earlier on the demise of social readers. Apparently user numbers for Facebook apps from the Washington Post and the Guardian are falling off a cliff. CNET even went so far as to say “the only thing that’s spreading is a viral disgust with the application”. Ouch.

March 1, 2012

What Facebook’s Timeline for Pages Means for Brands & Marketers

Your brand will never look quite the same again on facebook. Our free position paper on the matter can help you sort out the changes.

February 14, 2012

An Evening of Connectedness

Tonight, Deep Focus Presents: An Evening of “Connectedness” Livestreaming from Social Media Week NY. Tonight’s talk promises to be an insightful exploration of how connectedness is changing the worlds of advertising, content, journalism and maybe civilization itself. The event will livestream here on DeepFocus.net. UPDATE: The event is now over (but was awesome). Stay tuned for [...]

February 6, 2012

The Next Great Super Bowl Commercial

What is it about Super Bowl Commercials that make brands want to scream “look at me” vs. “talk to me”? It’s a shame. We break it down in the Second Annual Super Bowl of Social Media.

February 5, 2012

Super Bowl of Social Media II – Still not that Social

We’d like to herald a night of deeply immersive advertising programs that use the most broadly viewed and discussed TV media of the year to drive consumers to rewarding long-term brand relationships in rich social channels. But we can’t.

June 17, 2011

Father’s Day Special: Sh*t DF Dads Say

Dads. The verbal philosophers of Modern Day age. In honor of Father’s Day, we thought it only appropriate to enshrine the brilliant words that our fathers have said to us over the years.

June 10, 2011

Deep Focus Special Talents: Skate Boarding Edition

Paul lives for the Danger Zone. Watch his boarding skills blow up the Pier 62 skate park in NYC.

May 20, 2011

Brooklyn Museum is the Most Checked-Into Museum on foursquare

How do I know? I’m using the new FourScore leaderboard on the home page of DeepFocus.net. It’s right there in the right hand rail. Why should you care? Find out.

April 7, 2011

Ian & Chris Hughes talk turkey. And Groundswells.

CEO & Founder sat down with Facebook co-founder, Obama campaign social media legend, and Jumo founder Chris Hughes at the Ad Age Digital Conference yesterday in New York. Check it out.

March 22, 2011

Striking GOLD – Updated

CEO/Founder Ian Schafer chatted with Agency Spy’s Media Beat in a three-parter that takes you behind the red curtain at Deep Focus. Check it out and check back often as we update this series.

March 9, 2011

Hacking the Industry’s Brightest Minds for the Greater Good: The DonorsChoose.org Social Hackathon E-book

Deep Focus is pretty thrilled to have worked with Bing and Hotmail in a completely innovative way to help online philanthropy trailblazer DonorsChoose.org – one of our favorite things.

February 7, 2011

Watch The Social Media Week Deep Focus Panel Here.

At 3pm on Monday, 2/7, I’ll be moderating a panel called Participation, Aggregation, and Criticism in the Digital Age. My panelists will be: Jonah Peretti, Founder of BuzzFeed and Huffington Post Jay Rosen, press critic, writer, and professor of journalism at New York University Danielle Sacks, award winning senior writer, Fast Company Magazine Jamal Henderson, [...]

February 6, 2011

The Super Bowl Of Social Media? Maybe Next Year.

It’s funny. I thought that going into this year’s Super Bowl, advertisers would be so gung ho about integrating social media into their commercials that it might get awkward. Boy was I wrong.

December 22, 2010

Happy Holidays from Deep Focus

There are so many ways to say “Happy Holidays.” We wanted to send our season’s warmest to our new colleagues across the pond at Engine UK the best way we knew how. Instead, we made this video.

November 3, 2010

Mobile & Urgency: An Interview With Ian Schafer

I spent some time last week with Rob Woodbridge of Untether.TV discussing how timeliness and relevance will be playing an increasing role in not only services for consumers, but in advertising to them. I discuss Deep Focus, some recent campaigns, and the launch of our FourScore (Foursquare analytics) platform.

November 1, 2010

The Deep Focus Halloween Horror Movie Contest Killed – Literally & Figuratively

Nothing says Halloween like a low budget horror movie. That’s why in honor of the hair-raising holiday, we asked members of the Deep Focus family to create short horror films in their free time. We were disturbed by the results…in a good way. Check ‘em out.

October 19, 2010

Deep Focus Joins Forces with The Engine Group

Deep Focus has joined forces with Engine as Engine USA’s first agency in the US. We’re going to be building something amazing together, keeping digital at the head — and heart — of a marketing organization that was actually built in this decade to reach consumers in the way they are actually behaving.

October 18, 2010

The Engagement Agency Manifesto

For decades, brands have approached marketing with a goal of migrating consumers through what we know as the decision funnel: awareness, interest, desire, and action. Historically, most advertising spending has been used to affect the awareness stage, with the rationale being that unless consumers are aware of our products, how will they make it part [...]

October 11, 2010

Watching TV is So Last Thursday

ABC recently debuted a new free iPad app, which provides broadcast viewers with synchronized interactive content around their new show, My Generation. The app syncs with your TV, so that you can participate in real time, and potentially experience a deeper engagement with the show’s content. We tuned in and checked it out.

September 29, 2010

Deep Focus Announces the launch of FourScore Location-based Marketing Analytics

During his keynote address at the Location Based Marketing Summit in New York City, our CEO Ian Schafer announced the early beta launch of FourScore, a first-of-its-kind tool to help businesses understand check-ins and the data generated by users of location-aware apps. FourScore begins to answer some of the many, many questions about the potential [...]

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