There will be a party. With people. We promise. Maybe.
Happy Birthday to our kicka*s team members!
Marketing Coordinator- Catherine Acedillo (January 3)
COO/Co-Founder – Chris Thigpen (January 24)
Pssst… We added an adorable photo of them
so you can see how amazing they were even as kids.
Here’s what you guys were waiting for!
Chris & Catherine, Circus Circus, Reno, NV
By Catherine Acedillo, Marketing Coordinator
A day of change. A day of hope. A day of realization that a world of equity and peace is not as far out of reach as we once thought. On the 20th of January, 1986, Martin Luther King, Jr. Day was celebrated as a national holiday in memory of a man who changed the course of history.
His dedication to advocating the nonviolent resistance against racial segregation is what gives people the chance to see that one voice can ripple waves of inspiration for generations to come. During his time in the Civil Rights Movement, he showed the world how much the power of words can change the hearts of people across the nation.
He is what the definition of a great leader should be. A person who has integrity and takes responsibility for his own actions. He knew that violence was not going to solve the inequality in education, nor the daily verbal and physical attacks, and threats to POCs. King became the voice we desperately needed.
He led the case for affordable education for all Americans in 1965, the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955, the Birmingham Campaign of 1963, the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom in 1963, and many other acts. He organized these peaceful protests, marches, and events to show the world that the color of our skin does not make us any less human.
Here at Ace Studios, one of the biggest things we pride ourselves in is our uniquely diverse team. With different backgrounds and experiences, we all give a sense of importance to our role. The pigment of our complexion does not define who we are, but it is the skills and knowledge we bring to the table that matters most.
Our COO, Chris Thigpen, who was born in Olongapo, Philippines has spent the majority of his life traveling the world to understand different cultural dynamics and how people interact to better empathize with clients and form deeper connections. Our CEO, Kurt Thigpen, who grew up in the South and first handedly witnessed racial inequality, now fights for POC business owners, clients, and people in our community to rise and become the best version of themselves.
It is people like Martin Luther King, Jr. that allowed us to dream more and reach higher. It allowed an idea to spark and come to fruition. We will continue the fight for social impact and ensure that we work with people that understand our practice for diversity, equity, and inclusivity. We hope to continue inspiring and helping the people in our community. Together, we can be the change.
By Bennett Queen, Digital Media Specialist
If you’ve been looking for a way to promote your business, then look no further than Google Ads. Google, the largest search engine in the world, can be as targeted as you like but can also reach a wide audience.
Traditional marketing methods like TV, Radio, Direct Mail, and billboards can be a wonderful way to get your message out to a broad audience but digital marketing and Google Ads, in particular, is a great way to find your customer in different stages of the buying process and can help them choose your brand over your competitors.
It can seem daunting to jump into a platform as robust as the Google Ads platform with no formal training and can be a misguided way to spend your money if you don’t have a proper strategy. In order to help push you along the right path, we’ve put together the to 3 questions to ask yourself before diving into the platform yourself.
Before you spend your entire marketing budget casting a wide net on Google Ads, it is imperative that you ask yourself who it is that you’re trying to connect with. For example, if you’re a new product or line of products, it might be a good idea to set a broad audience to make people aware of your brand and product. Depending on your budget, you may have to break up your audience into smaller chunks by geography, age, interests, or other demographics to make your budget last longer. Launching a new product is all about creating brand awareness & recognition to try and create buzz. If you’re a more niche product like a dandruff shampoo or a service like Landscaping you’ll need to narrow down your message to only those who are interested in what you’re selling. People without lawns will never buy your product because they have no need. Google Ads has targeting features that let you choose groups of people based on interests. If you’re selling something that appeals to a specific type of person, be sure to know who that person is before you start spending money.
Getting into online advertising might seem like the first task that you need to cross off your list, which may not always be the case. Deciding whether or not you should begin spending money on Google Ads may depend on the amount that you’re willing to spend. Let’s think of it this way, if you’re a toy seller who has 30 different toys to choose from and you’re trying to sell them online, then you’d better have enough money to sustain a campaign for at least a few months. Seeing results isn’t always immediate and can take some time to blast off because the algorithm and your digital strategist to learn about the behaviors of your buyers. If you don’t have enough money to advertise all 30 products then that shouldn’t be a reason to pass up advertising online, it just means that you need to be more concise about the products that you do feature. We’d recommend focusing on your top-performing products first. If these products/services are already selling well, reaching new audiences may just add gas to the fire and increase overall revenue. Once you’ve got more revenue to play with, it’s time to start testing out some of your mid-tier offerings to see if you can find the audience that is best served by your product.
There are plenty of resources out there to help you learn about the intricacies of Google Ads. If you have the time, Google offers FREE online classes that will help you learn to create and maintain ads for your business. In these classes, you will learn everything from what the platform looks like to how to assess the data that you’re receiving. It can take a bit of time to listen to the lessons and to put what you learn into practice but once you do, you’ll have a basic understanding of the platform. We believe that even if you aren’t running your own ads, it can be a good idea to take this class in order to better understand where your budget is going and where your audience is living. If you ask yourself this question and ultimately decide that this is one of the hats that you’d rather not wear then give us a call.
There are a lot more intricacies that go into running ads for a business and the granularities are what truly make a business successful when it comes to Google Ads. If you’re ever looking for support in the realm of Google, Facebook, SEO, Website Management or really anything involving Digital Marketing, then give Ace Studios a call.
By Catherine Acedillo, Marketing Assistant
By Robert Nuñez, Social Media Assistant
Identity, in its essence, is a complicated subject. Even on the individual level (as in human identity), it’s often the subject of art pieces, movie plots, literature – you name it – due to its natural ambiguity and people’s desire to make sense of it. These ambiguous qualities seep into the world of brands and companies as well, but in a much more quantifiable way. Undeniably, there is more freedom when creating an identity for your brand than there is when creating an identity for your individual self. However, not many small business owners use that fact to their advantage. There are sooooo many areas that can be used to sculpt the identity of one’s brand that often have immediate impact. Whether it’s visually, in the way a brand advertises their services, lays their website out, packages their goods, etc. Or if it’s socially, in the way a brand voices opinions (or doesn’t), interacts with their customers, structures their copywrite, etc. All of these characteristics – and more – are pieces of the same puzzle.
A brand’s look and voice on social media, I believe, is the ultimate culmination of this puzzle. This is a place where all the brand’s morals, visuals, and personality melt in the same pot. Speaking from personal experience, the first place I “legit-check” a local restaurant, for example, (other than the reviews of course) is the restaurant’s social media channels. If their feed is riddled with pixelated graphics, outdated memes, empty comment sections, no consistency in the posts or all of the above – I tend to be more hesitant on eating there, even though the food might be great. I’m pretty confident that I’m not the only crazy person that feels this way either! As a matter of a fact, the same goes for any service-providing business. A social media account without intention and purpose, might as well should not exist.
Funny Wendy’s Tweets
On the corporate or larger company level, it’s interesting to examine the variety of directions that brands choose to take. For example, as strange as it may sound, the Wendy’s social channels have fully committed to the way of the meme, but in a very efficient way. They’ve found a way to incorporate their brand into funny and shareable posts. Whether it’s through using the Wendy’s color palette to create the memes themselves or making memes about their baconator burger – their intention is always clear and concise, and it sure makes me want to go get a frosty.
Unilever branding example of environmental activism
To completely take a U-turn, another interesting case study is Unilever. One of the world’s largest consumer goods companies, yet no selling whatsoever on their accounts. Instead, their social media is packed with environmental activism, as Unilever’s global mission is to create a better world through climate action. On top of that, Unilever’s brand marks and colors are present throughout every post. Both of these case studies cover all the checkpoints for what brand identity should look like on social media: visual consistency that is in line with the brand, voice with intent – whether it’s to make people laugh and then buy burgers or to make people aware of social issues and then call them to action, and most important of all – no pixelated photos!
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: 10/21/2021
Ace Studios today announced that Bennett Queen has recently joined Ace Studios as a Digital Media Strategist for the company.
Bennett has an easy-going personality and loves seeing new movies, playing with his two dogs (Carly & Coco), and traveling with his girlfriend.
He has a passion for fitness and is a certified Crossfit Level 1 coach here in the Reno area. When he’s not working or traveling you can find him partaking in everything from snowboarding to pickleball.
Bennett has lived in Reno for most of his life and loves working with businesses in the community, and has extensive experience working in the marketing industry.
Bennett will be assisting with the website design and digital marketing strategy needs on behalf of Ace Studios’ clients to help them grow exponentially.
“We’re very lucky to have such a talented and knowledgable person like Bennett join the team,” says Ace Studios CEO, Kurt Thigpen “His role is going to be crucial in allowing the agency leadership to focus on client growth, satisfaction, as well as the growth of Ace Studios over the next year or so as we look to keep growing and attracting new clients to serve.
About Ace Studios:
Ace Studios is an award-winning full-service multimedia digital marketing and design agency. We are creative, strategic, thoughtful, dedicated champions of our clients and their businesses. From image boosting to problem-solving, from stellar design to kickass in-house photography and video, from social media to social responsibility, we stand firmly behind the companies we lead to be their best selves.