Despite the Association of National Advertiser's (ANA) protests, the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) is expected to issue a new batch of domain names at the end of the month. While the initial thought of being able to have a branded top-level domain seems exciting - and a marketer's dream - the threats that could come with this expansion could (and really should) stifle a majority of that excitement.

Read Full Post

The 2013 ADDYs have come and gone but our excitement still remains. Studiobanks took home two Silver ADDYs this year; one for our work on Discovery Place Kid's mobile site and a second for our very own Holiday Microsite.

Read Full Post

The below is a guest blog post from one of our interns, Tony Maciolowski. If you’d like to inquire into an internship opportunity with Studiobanks, let us know. Enter Tony.

Chances are that while you’re camped out on your couch watching the latest episode of that must-see show (Mad Men anyone?), you’re also twiddling away on your smartphone updating your Facebook status or asking Google who the actor is that plays the character you can’t get enough of (Don Draper is, without a doubt, the man). You’re not alone.

Read Full Post

No digital marketing campaign is complete without a remarketing component. It’s that simple. If you think you’re all set with your marketing campaign, take a second look, if you don’t see some language or line items for remarketing, you are nowhere near ready.

“Why do I need to worry about remarketing?” you may ask. I’ll answer you the only way I know how: through fear and intimidation.

Read Full Post

A few months back, I read Steve Jobs' Biography by Walter Isaacson. Early in the book Steve talks about a time when his father was building a cabinet and told Steve that the back of the cabinet should look as good and be built as well as the rest. It’s a story that informed Steve’s design philosophy from that day forward:

Read Full Post

Attention iOS owners: Friend of Studiobanks and all around awesome developer Will Jardine has just released his first iOS game, A Little Turbulence, to the Apple App store! This is Will's first endeavor into the indie gaming market and it's super fun.

Read Full Post

Last week I had the opportunity to speak with local design students about life after graduation. AIGA Charlotte asked that I join other local design leaders including John Phietrafesa of MODE, Brady Bone of LKM, and Emily Walker of the Mint Museum in their popular panel event series called Design Unplugged. AIGA Charlotte student group coordinator Giulio Turturro moderated the discussion at The Art Institute in south Charlotte.

We discussed what Charlotte’s advertising and design businesses are really expecting from recent design graduates. While we did cover aspects of what it’s like to join an agency or design firm straight out of school, the conversations naturally focused on the best way to present and market yourself to get your first job.

Read Full Post

Hot damn! A new Facebook change that was met with equal parts resistance and praise! It’s not like that’s ever happened before...

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you know that Facebook rolled out Timeline for Pages a few weeks ago (it will become mandatory for all brands at the end of March). Like most changes on Facebook, it was met with immediate disdain and calls for heads to roll. I too found myself caught up in the angry mob mentality of, “It wasn’t broke, why’d you fix it!”

Read Full Post