Looking for a fun art project to do with your kids (or by yourself honestly) this summer? The Tate Modern art museum in London has a website full of fun (and education) things to do to keep you busy this summer. All the projects have pictures and easy to follow instructions. The projects are based on famous artists and movements.

Here’s three that we are excited to try.

Friendship bracelets. Woven bracelets are super trendy this year. They are easy to make but can keep you busy for a long time. So many of us are missing our friends this summer, homemade bracelets can be a great gift to remind them you are thinking them.

Make art like Andy Warhol. This lesson explains some of the history of the pop art movement and Warhol’s contributions. It features two projects. The second project is a Marilyn inspired selfie diptych. It teaches you how to print out a black and white selfie to color in with different colors.

Make marbled paper with foam. This looks super fun if you are in the mood to get a bit messy. Inspired by German artist Gerhard Richter, this lesson teaches you how to make abstract marbled paper with shaving cream and food dye. The marbled paper can then be turned into many things like origami, bunting, or a card for a friend.

We would love to see all the amazing things you create!

In May 2020, The Design Museum in London started a Twitter thread highlighting the postal service. People from all over the world shared pictures of their favorite mailboxes, stamps, and signs.

Click the original Tweet to see the whole thread.

The world we live in can feel very big and overwhelming now. This simple twitter thread is a good reminder to find beauty and joy in little things and the mundane!

Do you have a favorite mail related design?

In a lot of ways, it’s business as usual. Except for it isn’t. The world has changed drastically in a matter of months and not adjusting your marketing strategy to reflect that can feel insensitive. So, what can you do to avoid any Corona marketing faux pas?

Think long term. Focusing on short term fixes will most likely lead to bad decisions. Where do you want your company to be after this? Thinking about that will help you to keep your customer first. Customer service may include bending the “rules” a bit. For example, some airlines are waving cancellation or change fees and extending loyalty programs.

Invest in data-driven strategies. Focusing on the data will help companies see what actually applicable right is now and will able to sense when things are picking back up again.

Remember, we are all in this together. We all live in same world and are all affected by the pandemic. Pretending that it doesn’t exist in your marketing will make you seem cut off or above the virus. Acknowledge the situation and if you can; jump in and help. Your customers will appreciate it if you think about the big picture, helping them and the world we share.

Is your temporary home office starting to feel a little more permeant? What can you do to build a home office that you actually want to work in?

Step one. Figure out what you actually need. Do you actually need a standard desk? How about filing cabinets and office supplies? Understanding what you need will help you figure the space you need and what your priorities should be.

Where should you put it? Is sharing the dining room table not really working anymore? It can be difficult to want to mess up your homes aesthetic with a desk smashed into room. Incorporating your workspace into your living space may help you be more motivated and looking forward to working. Without being a corporate setting, you have more of an opportunity to decorate your space the way you want. This truly your space. You can fill it however you want and put it where you want. You don’t have to star at a wall all day if you don’t want. Put your desk in place where you can command the room, and you’ll feel like you got a promotion.

Even if WFH is temporary for you, it shouldn’t have to feel like it. You deserve to like your space and feel productive in it.

Before you even get started, make sure your tools/programs are all set up and integrated. Integrating programs is one way to streamline your workflow. Brainstorm other ways to streamline workflow. Working efficiently will make it easier to keep track of all the pieces needed for your campaign. And it will also help you work faster.

Once you are ready to send, use data from previous campaigns to optimize future ones. Are you sending to the right people? How about at the right time? Are there any issues within your system that could be making it hard for your campaign to reach its intended target?  

How about after you’ve sent your campaign? What can you do to maximize its effectiveness? Are you collecting data from your campaign? Are you using it to retarget those in your campaign? Think about how your customers perceive your brand as a single entity can help you develop your relationship with them smoother.

Sharing information from your campaign across every channel helps you to appear more cohesive. Also sharing data gleaned from your campaign within your organization can make you more effective and efficient. Sharing is caring!

What is the difference between using data and using data effectively? Having insight or discernment is the key. Think about the old adage: knowledge is knowing that a tomato is a fruit, wisdom is knowing that it doesn’t belong in a fruit salad. Therefore if data = knowledge, then insight helps you to now where to put it effectively.  

For years, marketing strategies and programs were laid out the same way. Now due partly to social media and digital marketing capabilities, people want a personal experience. That experience based marketing is only possible if you can use the right data in the right way.

Many companies start off by trying to get as many customers a possible. Then after a certain point, they level off because they don’t know who their customers are or how to reach them.

Once you have figured out your audience, it can be hard to know whats the next step. 

Data marketing company V12 suggests making a chart with long term vs short term investments on one axis and customer quantity verses quality on the other. Then fill in the chart with all of your possible marketing strategies, programs, and solutions. Thinking about possible strategies this way makes it easier to formulate a plan that yields the biggest bang for your buck. 

In what ways do you that insight helps a marketing strategy?

Are starting to dream of your office chair, you know the one with the nice lumbar support? Working from home and in a makeshift office space can take a toll on your body. So, what can you do to not get sore?  

Are you having to work off your laptop? Laptops can be an ergonomic nightmare. Make sure that your laptop, or monitor is at eyebrow level, so you don’t have to be looking down. (Added bonus, you’ll look great in zoom meetings!) If possible, use an external keyboard and mouse. Keep the keyboard flat to give your wrists a break.

What about the awesome office chair with the lumbar support? Is there a way to mimic it with a dining room chair? A rolled-up hand towel works great as makeshift lumbar support. The lumbar support will help you sit straighter and relive some pressure from your lower back and neck. Lowering your chair or getting a footrest will help you be balanced and grounded, giving your back more of a rest as well.

Don’t forget to get up and move. Google some stretches that target whatever is sore. You may be surprised by how much a rolled-up hand towel and few stretches can improve your WFH experience.

Eight months ago, Sales Force surveyed 8,000 customers worldwide to see how customer engagement trends have changed. They found that we were in the middle of engagement revolution. Now, just a few months later, the world is a drastically different place. The “revolution” in how we engage with our customers, has been sped up. We have surged forward to get to where we were already heading.

Sales Force found that a whopping 84% of customers value the experience as much as the product or service. They also found in their research that 73% of customers expectations of quality customer support was increased by just one interaction. Meaning, if another company does something extraordinarily well, customers will begin to expect that level of service from your company.

So, what do the customers want? First, they want you to understand what they need and want, before they ask. How can you do that? Think compassionately and empathetically. For example, what do most people need right now? We know they are mostly stuck at home. They could be scared. Their regular routines are gone, and they are looking for solutions to problems that just appeared and need to be fixed immediately.

Second, customers want you to come to them, on the channel they’re are most comfortable with. It doesn’t really matter what how you prefer to interact with them. And third, customers expect there not to be in missing links in communication within your company. If they talk to a sales rep one day, and customer service the next, they don’t want to have to explain what they need both times. It redundant and feels like a waste of time.  

How can your company keep up with the revolution? It’s actually pretty simple: follow the golden rule. Treat your customers the way you would like to be treated by other companies. Think about what they may need, help them with it, and you will be successful.

When you work from home it’s easy to feel like you always need to be actually working. Working from home can blur the line between “work” time and “you” time.

Therefore, it’s especially important to take some time out of the workday for yourself. Carving out that time can actually help you work more productively. Take short breaks when you feel you need them, even if it’s just getting up and stretching your legs for a bit.

Schedule a time to have lunch, away from your computer. You could even go out and get lunch at your favorite neighborhood lunch spot. (Just make sure you communicate with your team that you are stepping out for a bit.)

Set goals for yourself. Then treat yourself to a walk, a cup of coffee, or a snack when you cross tasks off your list. If possible, give yourself a change in scenery. Go to your favorite coffee shop and make it a goal to finish a specific project while you are there. Mix it up!  

If you are not used to it, working from home can feel like a wrench in your daily life. Use your rewards as a way to make it enjoyable! It’s okay to have fun with it. If life gives you lemons… make some lemonade.

In January google announced that they are going to phase out third party cookies in the next two years. This created quite a buzz but what does it actually mean and what should you do?  

Cookies were one of this first major web advertising break throughs, invented in 1994 for Netscape. Using cookies have become integral to most companies online marketing strategies. How do cookies work? There are two types of cookies. First and third-party cookies. Cookies work by creating a bread crumb (or cookie crumb) trail of your activity through a web page. First party cookies only have access to your activity on their website. Third party cookies are not tied to one website and instead track peoples trail through the internet. Marketer use both to figure out their audience and retarget them.

Seeing accept cookie notifications are commonplace. Why? Recent legislation has changed some internet privacy laws that accept cookies. Which is one reason that google is phasing them out. Safari and Firefox already have. Google Chrome however makes up more than 56% of web traffic. Google makes most of its revenue from advertisers. Online advertising was a 57.9-billion-dollar industry in the first half of 2019 and that number is expected to grow exponentially. Google has to be careful not to disrupt that industry to much while adapting to greater privacy demands.

There is not a concrete answer to what is going to fill the cookie void yet. Check out part two of this article to see some of the possibilities for a post cookie world.