Wine Pairing - Inspired Infographic Advertising

How to Pair Wine with the Bright, Bold flavors of Southeast Asia is a new infographic from P.F. Changs’s, an upscale restaurant chain, as part of the content in their “Inspired” advertising campaign.

The flavors of Southeast Asia cuisine are exploding in popularity.  Venture below to learn about the region’s most delicious ingredients and the dishes they can create.  Find out how to pair each dish with the perfect wine to enhance those flavors.

I love seeing an infographic design being used in this fashion, as part of a larger content marketing strategy.  The larger advertising campaign also includes specifically, interactive PDFs and a dedicated page on their site to entire program.

Although wine pairing infographics are not new, P.F.Chang’s made this custom to coincide with their own menu.  So this design is meant to help diners match wine types specifically to items on the menu at P.F. Chang’s.  The color coding ties the ingredients in to the different dishes and types of wine.

Thanks to Anne for sending in the link!

What Works in Rich Media Mobile Advertising?

Celtra’s What Works in Rich Media Mobile Advertising? infographic provides marketers with a baseline for ad performance, helping them plan successful and effective mobile campaigns.

Celtra Inc, the industry leader for rich media advertising and analytics across mobile devices, has today unveiled a new infographic that highlights front-line advertising industry trends from the company’s first quarterly Mobile Rich Media Monitor Report.

The data behind the infographic indicates that a well designed rich media experience that uses a store locator, games or social media has a direct and positive impact on consumer engagement and return on investment. In fact, rich media mobile advertisements drive double-digit engagement rates (12.8 percent on average) across all devices types, platforms and ad placements.

Celtra’s infographic hones in on several key metrics including engagement rate, expand rate and click-through rate. The data also provides an in-depth look at ad feature performance for mobile rich media campaigns.

This design is the first in a quarterly series planned by Celtra to be released with their quarterly Rich Media Monitor Report.  Each one will highlight a different insight from the information that Celtra publishes in the report.

It’s a clear design that walks the reader through the data and the conclusions step-by-step.  There’s a lot of data included, but the data visualizations are easy to understand.

Thanks to Caitlin for sending in the link!

The Sage Hill Difference marketing infographic & interview

The Sage Hill School has created an infographic as a marketing piece showing many of the different stats about the school’s history and performance.  The Sage Hill Difference has been used as a printed handout, a 7-foot retractable banner, a PDF available for download and the JPG image file online.  The design is used to educate and inform prospective families, parents, students and the general public.

The Sage Difference: 7-foot retractable banner

I asked Torrey Olins, the Director of Communications and Marketing at Sage Hill, some questions about designing and using the infographic as a marketing tool:

Cool Infographics: What software applications were used to help analyze the data and create the design?

Torrey Olins: The piece was created using InDesign. The data was collected and analyzed through a combination of resources from Sage Hill School and our advertising firm, O’leary and Partners (www.adagency.com)  The piece did not require any software for analysis of data.

Cool Infographics: Who designed the infographic?

Torrey Olins: The design of the infographic was a collaboration between myself O’leary and Partners. About six months ago, I came up with the idea of creating an infographic for the school’s marketing efforts in our fall 2012 admission season, and in fact, sent my account manager and her assistant links to coolinfographics.com for inspiration. We were unable to find any other high school that had created an infographic for marketing, so we ended up using elements from a variety of different sources. For example, the school history portion of the infographic was inspired by an infographic created to celebrate the history of a small city.

Because O’leary and Partners has been creating print and digital media for Sage Hill School for several years, they were able to apply our design look and feel (color palate, fonts, etc.) to this piece so that it integrates nicely with our other school communications, while also going in an entirely new direction. I did not want this piece to look like a “one off” and I was pleased that O’leary accomplished my goal of creating an infographic that maintains continuity with our brand.

Cool Infographics: Would you describe the different formats you published the infographic?

Torrey Olins: The infographic was published as an 8.5” x 25” folded print piece that we hand out to prospective students and parents at high school fairs, our Admission Open House and other campus events. We also have a jpg and pdf copy of the infographic on our website (www.sagehillschool.org) and have published it on our Facebook (www.facebook.com/sagehillschool) and Pinterest accounts (www.pinterest.com/sagehillschool). We also reproduced the infographic on two large (7’x3’) retractable banners that we can bring to off campus events or use around campus (we currently have one in our lobby for visitors to see while they are waiting for appointments.)

Cool Infographics: How has the use of the infographic and social media impacted your marketing and recruiting process?

Torrey Olins: Sage Hill School is Orange County, California’s premier independent, coed, nonsectarian high school. The school was founded in 2000 and currently enrolls 466 students in grades 9-12.  Because Sage Hill School is located in a community that does not have as long of a history with independent schools as with the public school system, it is important for us to highlight the differentiators that make Sage Hill School the finest college preparatory option in our area. The infographic is an effective way to communicate the value of a Sage Hill education to the parent who is deciding whether to send a child to public school or pay tuition for Sage Hill School.

The infographic format met my needs for a fresh approach to demonstrate the achievements and differentiators of Sage Hill School to prospective families, as well as reinforcing the value of the school for our currently enrolled families. We are very excited that Sage Hill School is one of (or possibly the first) high schools to utilize the infographic format for marketing in the 2012-2013 admission season!

The recruiting season for independent schools typically begins in October and will last until admission decisions are announced and families sign contracts in the spring. Thus, it is quite early in the process and unfortunately,  it is too soon for us to speak to increases in inquiries/ applications as a result of the infographic or other social media efforts.

Cool Infographics: What has been the reaction and feedback to the infographic?

Torrey Olins: Let’s face it, facts and stats about schools can be extremely dry. For families who are considering a variety of different high school options, numbers and figures tend to run together. Thus far, both current and prospective families have indicated that the information in the infographic is presented in a way that is interesting, fun and memorable.

As a school in our second decade, Sage Hill has established a reputation for innovation in our educational program; this year we are pleased to educate families about Sage Hill School through the use of an innovative communication tool. We are also excited that this piece has put Sage Hill School’s name out in the broader community as an institution that is eager to embrace new media, both inside and beyond the classroom. I have been contacted by a number of other independent schools who are interested in using this format for their marketing as well.

Thanks to Torrey for taking the time to share their process and reaction to using the infographic!

Honda Accord: 30 Years of U.S. Production

Honda Accord: 30 Years of American Craftmanship is a large infographic from Honda America that was released as part of the release of the new 2013 model design of the Honda Accord in August.  Designed by Jeremy Yingling with InfoNewt (my company) this is a very brand specific, marketing-style infographic.

IN 2012, HONDA WILL MARK 30 YEARS OF ACCORD PRODUCTION IN THE UNITED STATES.

The first Japanese nameplate manufactured in the U.S., the second-generation Accord first rolled off the Marysville, Ohio assembly line in November of 1982. In the 30 years since, more than nine million U.S.-built1 Accords have helped define American manufacturing craftsmanship. The all-new 2013 Honda Accord will once again redefine space efficiency and driving joy in the midsize class, signaling the start of Honda’s next three-decade chapter of building the Accord in America. 

The 2013 model becomes the ninth major design generation of the Accord.  This gave us the opportunity to highlight differences each major model design has brought to the Accord over the last 30 years.  The design visualizes the major technical specifications, the major advancements included in the Accord and shows the multi-year periods that each design generation was available.  The eye-catching color-waterfall shows the available exterior colors available for every model year, and the milestones along the left-side of the design show the progression to reach a cumulative total over 9 million Accords produced in 2012 coming out of the manufacturing plant in Marysville, OH.

Honda has done a great job of utilizing this one infographic design in a handful of different ways.  The infographic was initially used as 9’ banners at the Honda press events, and included in the press kits provided to everyone invited to attend.  Honda has now released the infographic online on the Honda News page on Flickr, making the design available to everyone.

Update on Tuesday, October 2, 2012 at 10:00AM by Randy

You can see photos of the PR banner, read more about how the design was used in multiple ways by Honda PR and some “behind the design” information about the designing the infographic on the InfoNewt blog.

Honda Accord Infographic PR Banner, Behind the design

Anatomy of a Television Commercial

Commercials, we don’t like them but we still have to watch them. (Except for superbowl commercials, those are funny!)  However, they are expensive to make and a lot of thought goes into them. The Anatomy of a Television Commercial by Voices.com explains what it takes to be a commercial worth it’s costs to make.

Learn about how to create a compelling TV ad in this visually appealing infographic. See key developments in the television ad industry and who the key players are. Learn how to write a script, what a good script length is and how to choose the right voice talent for a TV commercial.

This design does a good job leading the reader through a story top-to-bottom.  The use of the TV illustrations as frames for the different data visualizations consistently reinforces the television-related topic without text.

Where they messed up the visualizations is in the Television Commercial Durations section.  At first, I couldn’t understand why the visuals all looked wrong, but I finally realized they made a full circle equivalent to 100 seconds, instead of the standard 60 seconds used on EVERYONE’S clocks all over the world!  The 60-second visual should be a full circle, and not the 2/3 shaded circle shown.  Big visualization mistake!  Don’t confuse your audience.

I find it interesting that ad spending and television ad portion of advertising budgets continue to rise even with some many new ways to more effectively advertise online.  If there are any advertisers reading this post, may I point your attention to the Advertise page for Cool Infographics…

Thanks to Ashley for sending in the link!

FREE Infographic Holiday Cards (LIMITED SUPPLY)

As they have for the past few years, our friends at FUNNEL have reserved 50 sets of FREE Infographic Holiday Cards just for readers of Cool Infographics!  (U.S. and Canada addresses only)  This year’s design is called “Snowplowed” (image above), and includes a 4-card pack that are blank on the inside.  You must request your free cards by Wednesday, December 21st!

Funnel’s Holiday Card Packs are ready to ship to clients, friends and fans of information design to show our appreciation. To get your free 4-card pack featuring this year’s illustration “Snowplowed” follow the link to our holiday sign up page at http://www.funnelinc.com/holiday/ (US/Canada only, while supplies last, offer good until 12/21/11). For all our wonderful fans around the world, please enjoy our free wallpapers to dress up your iPhone or monitor. Cheers!

Supplies are very limited, so when you enter your information, make sure you select “Cool Infographics Blog” under “How did you hear about us?” to get some of the cards reserved for you.

While you’re on the FUNNEL site, check out the FREE wallpaper images for iPhones and Monitors!

Thanks to Lin and Lori at FUNNEL for this special treat just for Cool Infographics readers!

Project Prediction: Demystifying Parametric Cost Estimation

Project Prediction: Demystifying Parametric Cost Estimation is a new infographic from Galorath.com, and is really an advertisement for their Seer service.

Infographics have a huge potential for use in advertisements, brochures, product packaging, etc.  This one started off nicely with minimal text, using icons and illustrations of the different product abilities, but fell apart into a whole lot of text at the end.

I’m pretty sure I still don’t understand what “Parametric Cost Estimation” does.

The Anatomy of an Agency

The Anatomy of an Agency from Grip Limited is a tongue-in-cheek cool infographic about the roles within an advertising agency.

Agencies are famously diverse.  We have examined a few of their species and have drawn some arbitrary conclusions.

Designed by Grip’s own Julia Morra and Trevor Gourley.

Carbonite Small Business Disasters

Infographics as advertisments have a lot of potential.  In this one about Small Business Disasters, Carbonite.com has shared the results of research they performed with small businesses.

What would your small business do if your computers were stolen or destroyed? Would your important data still exist? In April, Carbonite surveyed small businesses with between two and 20 employees to study their disaster recovery and data backup methods. We found that almost half of small businesses have already lost irreplaceable data.

The design does suffer a little from the large-font-syndrome that tries to make the numbers really large instead of visualizing them, but there are a number of good, simple visualizations included in the infographic.

The design also seems like something is missing at the top.  No title, company logo or anything to indicated what this infographic is about.  That’s espeically important because infographics can be heavily shared and have a life of their own on the Internet, separate from any text or explanation that the origianl company posts along with it.

I will say that I LOVE Carbonite as a customer!

The Value of Data Visualization [video]

The Value of Data Visualization is a cool motion graphic used as an advertisement for infographic design services from our friends at Column Five Media.  The short video does a really good job of showing the viewer a few good examples of why visual information can be easier to comprehend.

They say knowledge is power, but how do we make knowledge powerful? The challenge of communicating information becomes especially difficult when trying to convey a message full of complex data, which is often difficult to interpret quickly and clearly to the naked eye. This motion graphic looks at some of the many visual techniques used by Column Five to communicate information effectively to a large audience.

 The video is now also available on YouTube: