Psychographic Factors: A Deep Dive

In yesterday’s blog we talked a little bit about psychographics. Today we’re going to take a deeper dive into the factors that make up psychographic profiles. They can be broken down into four major groups: beliefs, attitudes, values and needs. Beliefs are defined as something that someone holds to be true and come from our experiences. They are hard to change because the longer we hold them, the more stable and entrenched they are. We often hold beliefs at the core of “who we are.” Attitudes are defined as stable, positive or negative response to certain people, ideas, objects and/or policies. Lastly, values are goals that one strives for and they are what we consider important and desirable. They can be for reasons of nostalgia, materialism, prestige, pleasure, etc. Lastly, we all have needs. That is the motivation to fulfill any deficiency that we may have according to Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs, which we’re certain you all have heard of. These include: basic survival needs, safety/security, connection/love & belonging, esteem needs and finally, self-actualization. All of these major groups inherently affect the factors that we are now going to talk about.

1. Lifestyle: Every day activities and how people spend their time. This can give insight into what someone is lacking in their life or has too much of. This can show you how a person views themselves and how their life is influenced by their careers and relationships.

2. Interests: How do people choose to spend their spare time? This says a lot about a person. Typically, within a brand, the audience will share some common interests.

3. Personality: There are five major groups and it shows how people interact with the world around them.

   1. Introvert or Extrovert

   2. Emotional or Logical

   3. Programmatic or Idealist

   4. Spontaneous or Planner

   5. Creative or Systematic

4. Social status: This can give insight into how purchasing decisions will be affected by income.

5. Behaviors: Defined as the way in which one acts or conducts oneself. Behaviors can be shown through a person’s buying patterns, product usage, and frequency of purchases.

   1. Habits: Daily habits are not easily broken. It is defined as a routine behavior regularly and tends to occur subconsciously.

Now that we understand the psychographic factors a little deeper, the next step is to use these to segment your audience into different groups based on similarities. When using these factors to segment your audience it will help improve your marketing campaigns. Pairing this with demographics will streamline your efforts and you will see better results.  

Psychographics for Advertising/Marketing Strategy

Psychographics sounds like a pretty intense word does it not? It’s not nearly as crazy as it sounds and it is a key component of marketing and advertising strategies. Psychographics uses psychology in conjunction with demographics to create a set of traits to group consumers by what influences their purchasing behaviors. It’s psychological and cognitive traits of consumers that reveals their beliefs, values and goals. There are factors that influence their psychographics such as, personality characteristics, lifestyle, social class, habits, behaviors and interests. So, how do you find the psychographic data from your audience? Well, there are a few ways. Interview existing clients by sending out a survey or asking directly. It’s asking questions like, “what did you do over the weekend?” or “what good movies have you seen lately?” Ask them about family. Do they have children? Do they workout? This will all give you insight into their lifestyle. You can also get the data from your website analytics. What CTA’s were clicked on most. What have they purchased from you in the past? Were those items on sale? Lastly, you can use focus groups or collect data from market research companies to gain insights. Now that you have your psychographic data it’s time to tailor your audience’s experiences to their needs. It’s important to motivate them based on their needs. Show examples of what worked for previous customers. Something that is important to them. Second, make sure to market to them where they spend their time. Are they on Facebook or do they spend most of their time on YouTube? Third, your marketing must include things that are priority to them. Are they family driven? Career driven? Healthy lifestyle driven? This can help you tailor your images and messages for them specifically. Personalization is not an option for customers today, it’s a must. The more you understand your audience the more your brand can connect with them on a deeper level.

Behavioral Marketing

“Organizations that leverage consumer behavior data to generate insight outperform their competitors but 85% in sales growth,” according to Microsoft. Demographics are important for marketing efforts but it won’t be enough to fulfill your business model goals. This is where behavioral marketing can come into play, as well as psychographics. We’ll talk about the latter in tomorrow’s blog. Today, we are focused on behavioral marketing alone. So, what is behavioral marketing? Let’s define it as the method of using behaviors, interests, intentions, locations, etc. to target audiences. Although it may seem similar to psychographics, the difference lies in that this reveals consumer’s beliefs, values and goals to understand purchasing habits. Behavioral marketing is important to helping your brand tailor ads, attract more leads, increase sales and strengthen bonds with your customers. However, that being said, it’s not enough to just understand your audience because they may not all have the same behaviors within their demographics. This is where segmentation comes into play. Some common segmentations are purchasing behavior, engagement levels, consumer loyalty, benefits desired, and different journey stages to name a few. Collection of this data can be done through website analytics, browsing history, search history, social data, purchasing history, mobile apps, emails and/or chatbot histories. People want personalization and this is a great way to achieve that as a business. According to Segment’s 2022 State of Personalization Report, “49% of people say that they will likely become repeat buyers after a personalized shopping experience with a retail brand.” It’s clear that behavioral marketing is one of the most influential factors to obtaining this personalization consumers so desire and it will benefit the success of your brand.

eBooks: What, How, & Why

If you’re reading this, then you’ve probably also read an eBook at some point in your professional or personal life, but have you ever considered writing one for your business or brand? eBooks are a great way to offer information to your audience and gain more followers and to build your mailing list. eBooks give people the full spectrum of the information they are looking for on a particular topic all in one place. I mean think about it, why read your eBook when they can just surf the web for the info they’re curious about? There’s a reason for this. They are fun, easy to read, visual, as well as educational that people actually want to look at. Aside from this, there are other benefits to creating eBooks, such as inexpensive & quick to produce, easy distribution, can be more in depth than blogs, they’re easily accessible to your audience and they increase in brand credibility. Now that we’ve discussed what it is and how it can benefit your brand, let’s talk about how to create one. As with any book you must first start with a good topic and detailed outline. Think about common questions that people may have about your brand. What can you share that other brands haven’t? Second, design the eBook. Length should be somewhere between 5-10K words depending on the topic. It’s important to make sure that it is visually striking so add graphs, case studies, images, links, and graphics. It’s also important to use PDF or HTML for the eBook since it will be searchable on the internet if so. Be consistent with brand voice through text and design here as well. When designing it’s also crucial to place calls-to-action within the document. This is for lead generation, conversion and promotion. Once your eBook is complete, it’s time to start promoting. Best practices can include taking snapshots and sharing on social channels, share on LinkedIn and community groups where your audience hangs out. Happy writing!

Creativity: Different Types of Research Design

In our creativity research, we’ve learned that deliberate and cognitive are types of creativity. Creativity is not limited to the artsy types who are spontaneous and emotional. This style of creativity will require research. Think of Thomas Edison or Albert Einstein. They were creative leaders who were highly deliberate and cognitively creative with their scientific innovative efforts. This is where research design comes into play with creativity. Research design refers to the overall strategy that will be used to integrate the different parts of a study in a coherent and logical way. It’s a blueprint of how you will collect data, measure it and analyze. It allows you to test a hypothesis. It’s important that your research be conducted in a way that is neutral, reliable, validified and generalized. If you’ve ever taken a science class in college, you’ve probably written a research paper or read plenty of them. There are a lot of types of research designs but they can be broken into two main categories: quantitative and qualitative. Qualitative design is focused on the what’s and how’s whereas quantitative is focused on variables that include numbers and stats. I like to think of these as macro and micro styles of research. Quantitative is more of the testing and measuring, where numbers, graphs and tables focus in on small details. Qualitative is the broader research in the form of general ideas for theories that will be represented in words instead of numbers. Breaking research design down further, there are 4 major types: descriptive, correlational, experimental, diagnostic and explanatory. Let’s dive a little deeper into each of these.

1.     Descriptive: this style of research design refers to a process of observing and describing something that exists in a natural environment without any interference. It helps provide answers of who, what, when and how with a particular problem. It’s best for gathering unbiased data the can reveal certain behaviors or phenomena.

2.     Correlational: this examines the relationship between two or more variables without intervention. Think of this as a cause and effect situation. One thing happens that causes the second to occur. It identifies the link between two things. The correlation can be positive or negative. Positive meaning, they both change in the same direction and negative meaning they change in opposite directions.

3.     Experimental: this is where the researcher will manipulate one variable to see how it interacts with another. Typically, these studies are done with one control group and one experimental. It will tell you cause and effect relations between variables for the experimental group and the placebo effect of the control group.

4.     Diagnostic: this style of research looks to investigate an underlying cause of something in order to find the best solution.

5.     Explanatory (exploratory): this is a fun one. It’s goes into depth on topics where there hasn’t been much research previously done. More mystery here and it helps to gain insight into something unknown. This looks for the “why” of some event through establishing a cause-effect relationship.

There are many benefits to conducting research, so having a proper design and understanding of which is best to use for what type of research is important. It can make or break your research study. With proper design, you can really get a deeper understanding of the subject in question. It can assist in solving complex problems within an industry and increase understanding of topics that may not be well studied. The type of research problem will determine the type of design that you use! In business, it will help you gain success to make informed decisions with data.  

Content Creator Stats 2023

We were recently doing some content creator research and discovered some interesting statistics on content creation and the creator economy in general. Since this is what we deal with in our business, we thought it would be useful to list some of the eye opening ones that are important and relate to what we do.

1. There are over ~200M content creators in the world (Link Tree)

   1. 139M of those creators have between 1K-10K followers

2. 51% of full-time content creators earn enough to support at least one person (The Tilt)

3. Engagement and clicks are the most important metrics for brands and marketers looking to work with influencers (Influencer Marketing Hub)

4. 64% of creators are women (Convert Kit)

   1. However, women make 1.88x less money than men creators (Influencer Marketing Hub)

5. 70% of creators spend 10 hours or less per week creating content (Link Tree)

The creator economy is on the rise and if you ask an American kid nowadays what they want to be when they grow up,  chances are that they will reply with, an influencer. Actually, it’s 1 in every 4 kids to be exact. The popularity and growth of the creator economy has almost romanticized becoming an influencer. Interestingly enough though, only 11% make between 50K-100K. These numbers can easily be considered a typically “living” in the U.S. for an individual depending on where they’re located. It seems that the shine that comes along with becoming an influencer isn’t related to money and more to do with popularity. Everyone wants their 15 minutes of fame. Seems that some things never change with us humans. This is one reason we love sourcing and licensing content. Most people are more than happy to have their content featured in big brand commercials. We love finding those perfect pieces that fit within our client’s brief. Those clips that they just gotta have! Seeing clips fill our partners creative need are the moments we love the most.

AI in Advertising

A.I. is all the fuss right now in the advertising community. It’s got a lot of people up in arms who are against it  and those who are pro artificial intelligence for advertising, are shouting to the rooftops why it’s a good thing. As with most things, there are positive and negative aspects to this topic. So, in order to understand this more we took a deep dive into Artificial Intelligence in advertising. It seems there are a lot of benefits to using AI in advertising but with even more drawbacks. In this article we won’t take a stance on it just yet. We feel there is much more research to be done in order to completely understand how AI will affect the industry. However, we want to leave you with a pros and cons list so that you can start to make your own viewpoint.

PROS of AI:

1.     It can allocate advertising budgets

2.     It can execute programmatic ad strategies

3.     It can compute vast amounts of data to determine trends for writing, understand your audiences on a deeper level and create personalized messaging.

4.      Predict emotional response from campaigns in testing before they go live

CONS of AI

1.     You will need a lot of data

2.     People can end up relying on it too much

3.     It can replace some jobs and increase unemployment

4.     It has a large carbon footprint

5.     It can misappropriate use of IP

6.     It can land you into to hot water when it comes to the IP point

There are so many more pros and cons to using artificial intelligence in advertising and marketing. In short, we think it’s a bit too new to do a deep dive. This is just a starting point. It’s hard to say whether the pros will outweigh the cons and vice versa so we hope you do sufficient research to form your own opinions on the matter. We’ll be watching the space closely.

Leadership: Traits to Embody

We recently talked about the different types of a creative leaders and also their habits but what about just their traits in general aside from creativity? Having good leadership qualities is what will set you apart from the rest. Here are some traits that we believe to be of the utmost importance as a leader.  These are the traits that we try to live by here at Locomotive.

1.     Good communication skills: every successful relationship requires good communication no matter the setting. It’s important to speak clearly and concisely.

2.     Confidence: having great self-confidence is contagious. This will create trust between you and your team. If you’re sure of yourself, they will be sure of your choices.

3.     Passion: this kind of goes hand-in-hand with confidence. If you’re passionate about what you do, that kind of excitement will rub off on your team. It shows that you take your work very personally and are intent on the success of the team as well as yours.

4.     Vision: we touched on this trait in our previous creative leadership article. Being a creative leader means leading with vision and open-mindedness. They are flexible and adaptable in their paths to getting there. This also requires that they be learn-it-all with growth mindset.

These traits will most definitely lead you and your team toward the trajectory of success within your company. This is by no means a comprehensive guide to leadership traits but rather our top picks. And the good news is, that if you don’t think you have some of these characteristics as a leader, they can be learned. If you commit to growth and practice these principles in the workplace, you will become a better leader that people will want to follow.

A/B Testing

What is A/B testing? Well, if you’re in the marketing and advertising world chances are you already know. For those of you that may not it’s also known as split testing or bucket testing. Basically, it’s comparing two versions of something against one another other to determine which one performs better. They’re often used in marketing and advertising but it isn’t limited to these fields. They’re important experiments to determine higher ROI, lower the risk of failure and help strengthen your marketing and advertising efforts to name a few. So, we now know what it is and why they are done but how are they composed? First, you need to know what it is that you want to test. Do you want to test where to place a CTA or test which email newsletter format performs better? Now that you know what you want to test, it’s time to generate a hypothesis of why you think something will be better than the current version. Create the variations of the new hypothesis. You will have to ask yourself once you’re ready… How long will you run the test and which testing tool will you use to run them? Google Analytics has A/B testing on web pages. HubSpot has some for email, CTA and landing pages. MailChimp, Constant Contact and Facebook also have these. These are key components to the experiment and lastly, it’s time to run your test and measure the results. It’s simple. Okay it’s kind of simple but there a million ways that a company can go wrong here. Let’s talk about some tips to help you create the most effective A/B testing possible.

1.     Don’t do too much. Try to pick one variable to test. It will be overwhelming and ineffective if you’re trying to test too many things at once. You also won’t know which variable it was that made it perform better. This is the “independent variable.”

2.     Define your metric for successful tests. What is the goal? This will determine which metrics to focus on. Make sure it isn’t too broad and narrow it down to something specific. This is the “dependent variable.”

3.     Don’t rely on other brand case studies. Not all brands are created equal. What works for one may not work at all, for another. Follow some standard assumptions if you don’t know what you’re looking for. 1. People scan and don’t fully read 2. Big and bold gets attention 3. Colors matter (for emotional response and brand cohesiveness)

4.     It must be random and equally split. Test groups must be equal in size and completely randomized in order to get the most accurate results.

A/B testing can be a company’s closest companion if done right. It’s important to also measure the results of the tests and store them away somewhere. You might need that data information later. It’s a way to help your brand know your audience even further. If you’re not sure where to get started there of plenty articles out there with information and step-by-step guides to get you on your way.

Psychology of Creativity

Neurology is intertwined with creativity and how it works within the brain. There is research to show that those who are creative use the three brain systems of neural networks: the default/imagination network, the salience network and the executive network. The salience network is a large-scale neuro network located deep within the brain. It is in charge of complex functions, such as social behavior, communication and self-awareness. This system plays a role in motivation and readiness to act to stimuli. The default mode is one that works when we are in our resting state. For example, when we daydream or thinking about a memory we use this part of our brain. It’s what creates simulations of possible scenarios and is also used for social cognition. Lastly, the executive network is one that monitors and resolve conflicts between thoughts, feelings and responses. This is the part of the brain that is used when someone is focusing intensely on a challenging task. Forging new creative connections in the brain are tied to certain personality traits of creative people. These include, but aren’t limited to, openness to new experiences, curiosity, positivity, high energy and persistence.

It has been said in the past that people who are creative are dominant right brained. However, this is a myth. As you noticed we talk about neuro networks above and whole brain functions. Each side of the brain is not separate from the other, especially when it comes to creativity, according to Anna Abraham. She also talks about the importance of the frontal lobe with involvement in creative ideation in an interview with Scientific American. Different parts of the brain will be involved in different parts of the creative process, hence the dynamic nature between neural networks. Study of the brain during the creative process is still in earlier stages. Much more research will be done in the coming years and we look forward to seeing what they find.

FTC Proposed Ban on Noncompete Clauses: Friend or Foe?

Let’s be real, we’ve all signed one at one point or another in our professional careers whether we wanted to or not. That’s the kicker, right? If you want that bright and shiny new job that you’ve been working for, you really have no choice. Most noncompetes are not overly egregious but they will still enforce some level of restriction on employees who decide to leave a company. The FTC has proposed a ban on noncompetes in advertising that could take a few years to complete. Nonetheless, some are for it and others are up in arms about it. We thought it would be beneficial to list out some pros and cons of a noncompete so you can decide for yourself whether or not you think they should go. First, let’s fully define what a noncompete is and why they are put in place. We’re sure you already know but just in case. A noncompete is an agreement that is signed by a new employee that gives the employer control over specific actions of the employee, even after employment ends. They typically include elements such as duration of time after leaving, geographical areas they are restricted from working in, scope of work they cannot provide, competitors they cannot go for and damages that will be incurred if broken. They are used in order to protect intellectual property of a company, trade secrets, information and/or processes within the company so that they can keep their competitive advantage. We can understand this. However, limiting individuals after employment actually hurts the industry and hinders their professional growth. Let’s look at the pros and cons of noncompetes.

PROS:

1.     Protects company’s proprietary information.

2.     Reduce turnover

3.     Better match employees with employers that can be trusted in the long-term

CONS:

1.     Employer’s hurt young professionals’ growth to gain more experience

2.     Get in the way of equitable value exchange

3.     Increase risk of legal liability and lawsuits

4.     Can increase the unemployment rates

5.     Don’t benefit anyone but the company and can lead to employee dissatisfaction

We believe that noncompetes can hinder the growth of the advertising industry but can also have some benefits if enforced in an amicable way. It’s a catch 22 really. You can’t have your cake and eat it too. Some companies have offered signing bonuses to those who sign the noncompete but do not require it for employment. Some states don’t honor noncompetes with the “right to work” law. Is it possible to have noncompetes that don’t impede on someone’s right to make a living? We don’t have all the answers but it is being said that if they do ban them, there will need to be specific parameters set in order to protect companies and its employees both.

Advertising for Good

We recently read the Adage article on how advertising companies can help with promoting activism. Aka. Advertising for good. It made us think of some of the campaigns we’ve been a part of, one of which was very recent for help during Natural Disasters. Over the span of our time here at Locomotive, we’ve managed to be part of campaigns that really bring out the best in all of us. Our recent work with Home Depot for disaster relief is one we’re very proud of but it’s not just limited to this one campaign. We’ve done campaigns the spotlight human kindness. And one for Comcast called, “Lift Zones,” where they gave free internet in underprivileged schools so kids would have access. Even small acts of neighborliness were touted in a Ritz commercial we helped source user-generated content for.  We’re not trying to toot our own horn here or anything it was just eye opening to read this article and realize that we’ve been part of some really great campaigns that advertise for GOOD. Here at Locomotive we’re proud to say that we are able to contribute to causes that are for the greater good of the world. Now, more than ever, it’s important to the consumers that brands are socioeconomically aware and give back somehow. They won’t support brands that don’t and that’s the bottom line now. Most of all, brands should be doing this not to only appease their audience but to do something better for the world. Leave it better than when we came into it!

Looming Recession and Consumer Spending Trends 2023: Reducing Excess Ad Spend

There is a big public argument right now whether or not we will go into a recession. We don’t have the answers but we can say that inflation is at an extreme high and that is affecting the way that consumers are spending. HubSpot conducted a survey to see how people are responding to the spending habits and 30% are spending less than they previously were. 34% said that if a recession is officially declared then they will decrease their home budget. This survey also included things that consumers spent their money on during financially uncertain times. It’s not surprising that it included: essential groceries, rent/mortgage, house bills, medication/healthcare, and essential personal care products. These are all necessities, and no money was spent on luxury items. It will be important during these times for brands to market their affordability and value. For marketing purposes, reducing excess spending and refocusing on essential marketing is key. Here are some tips to help!

1.     Know your audience. Campaigns that fail due to lack of knowledge on your audience is, is just throwing your money away. Who is using your product the most and where do they hang out? What are their interests? Narrowing down your customer will keep you from essentially wasting your brand’s budget. Quality over quantity here.

2.     Focus on your brand. How does your brand make people feel? Do they connect with you on an emotional level? Your branding should be authentic, transparent and most of all, consistent. Use found content in your campaigns to connect with them in this way. People should be able to know it’s your brand without even seeing the name.

3.     Accurate measurements. Try to use data that is highest quality if you can. First-party you can collect yourself from your website, email subscribers and social media accounts.

4.     Right place, right time. This goes back to knowing your audience as well. What times to advertise are important. Knowing where is even more crucial. What is the age group? This may determine which social channel they spend more time on. Are you targeting those who typically work a 9-5 job? Then run your streaming service ads in the evening when they are most likely to be watching T.V.

5.     Keywords. Knowing what people are actually searching will help them find your brand more efficiently. Explore competitors’ sites to see what they are targeting if you aren’t sure.

In uncertain times the best way to handle your brand is through focusing your efforts on things that you can control. Decreasing excess marketing spend is one of those things. There will always be things out of our control in business. This is where we can choose to thrive through shifting our efforts to improving new areas of focus. Good businesses are able to adapt and shift to new circumstances within their field.

Disconnection Crisis: How to Solve with UGC

 In an ever-connected world, how is it that brands are more disconnected than ever with their audience? According to Forbes, “only 13% of consumers said that content from a brand is impactful and a mere 8% said influencer-created content would highly impact their purchasing decisions.” So, what’s going on that despite all these digital spaces to meet customers where they are at, brands still can’t connect with their audiences? Well, let’s start with the obvious. The pandemic changed everything. The way we work is no longer a 9-5 in an office and probably won't ever be again. According to HubSpot, “40% of remote workers miss spontaneous in-person connections with colleagues.” There are big internal disconnections in the workplace. Another reason for the disconnect is the gap to obtain high-quality data, which is needed to understand your audience for your marketing strategies. It seems that strategies that were once working aren’t anymore and this data is crucial to fixing that. Fortunately, there is a way to reconnect with your customers! Focusing on customer connections will improve your brands relationship with its customers, most of which, are suffering from digital fatigue. Found content campaigns can strengthen these connections with brands. What better way to reconnect than through shared emotions? And what better way to get their attention on social media than with a real person doing a natural human thing? Influencer marketing is trending to be one of the top marketing tools this year but we think that found content marketing is trend that will supersede this one for authenticity and connection purposes.

Creativity Series: Osborn Parnes Creative Problem-Solving Process

You want to stand out from everyone else in the workplace to show your value as an employee. What better way to do this than through creative problem solving!? This week in our creativity series we will be going over the Osborn Parnes creative problem-solving process. It can provide a structural approach to finding resolutions and can result in multiple solutions to your problems. His model is structured as such:

1.     Mess-finding/objective finding: this where you determine the goal of your problem solving will be.

2.     Fact-finding: this phase you gather data to fully understand your problem.

3.     Problem-finding: you dig deeper here into the problem to find the root of it. Here you also reframe the problem to compose creative and valuable solutions.

4.     Idea-finding: this is where the team come up with options for addressing the problem.

5.     Solution-finding:  this part is where you choose the best options from the ideas phase.

6.     Action-finding: this is where you develop a plan of action to implement the solution you have come up with.

This process involves convergent and divergent thinking. Convergent thinking is the process of evaluating ideas, analyzing them and then choosing the best solution. Divergent thinking is the process of coming up with multiple solutions and ideas to problems. This is the “out of the box” style of thinking that one may think of when talking about creative thinking. Convergent thinking compliments divergent to come up with more creative solutions. Using this problem-solving process can give you some extra tools to create solutions in the workplace. You will stand out as a thought leader who knows how to collaborate with others. This will do wonders for your professional reputation.

Things to Tell Younger Self for Locomotive

We’ve all heard the saying, “If I knew then what I know now.” That’s the trick to life, right? You learn as you go, so the older you get, the wiser you become. It’s easy to wish that you were wiser when you were younger, but that does take some of the fun out of the journey does it not? However, we thought this was a fun idea to use for a blog topic. What are four things that we wish we would have known when we started this business? So, we asked our founder, Dustin Pagliughi his thoughts and this is what he said.

1.     I wish I would have known just how many hats I would have to wear. When you’re a founder, you have your hand in everything from accounting to training hires. You have to be extremely organized to schedule it out for efficiencies.

2.     Most of the time, convenience does not equate to a better end product. Of course, you want to find efficiencies, but do not cut any corners. By not cutting any corners, it will ensure that you’re learning each task the right way, the first time.

3.     Do not get discouraged. There will be times when the business is slow and you might feel you’re not going to survive. Those are the times that you’ll need to dig deep and stay the course on trying to share your vision. Most of the time, everything will work out!

4.     If you’re providing a service, remember, your goal to help people should remain #1. Yes, you’re in business to create a living, but it’s not always about turning a profit. Remember, you started your business to provide a solution and help people along the way.

Well there you have straight from the man himself. It’s always eye opening to look back and appreciate how far you have come, whether it be professionally or personally. Locomotive has come very far over the past few years and we’re so appreciative for all that we have learned on this journey. If you’re thinking of starting your own business we always encourage it. Although, it will never be the easy road, we find it will be the most rewarding!

What People Are Saying About Working with Us

“The team at Locomotive has taken the daunting task of sourcing and licensing UGC content and whipped it into a seamless experience from start to finish. They're experts in their field, allowing me to rest easy in working with them as a partner. I consider them a trusted resource in helping to deliver quality work in a stress-free environment.” 

-Annie (Senior Producer, Media Monks)

“Dustin and his team eagerly helped me out when I was in a dire situation for a very important, hectic project. They immediately got to work and produced amazing search results within 24 hours. They work very hard to get you what your brief needs, and understand the creative nuances that other vendors were not able to. They also worked tirelessly to secure some VERY hard to clear footage, and ultimately saved the project.”

-Chris Flores (Producer, Wieden +Kennedy)

“Collaboration and teamwork shines through, when working with Dustin and his team at Locomotive Content. I considered them partners throughout the entire process as they were mindful of budget, schedules and potential obstacles.”

-Joel Inchaustegui (Producer, Media Monks)

"Dustin and the whole Locomotive team are always incredible to work with. They leave no stone unturned during the clip search process and provide tremendous value to our internal team and clients. More than just a vendor, they are a true partner and extension of our team."

-Sarah Morris (Brand Supervisor, Mekanism)

The Side Hustle: Creator Economy

“Side-hustle ideas” jumped 326% since September 2022, according to Momentum Worldwide Trends. I mean, honestly, who doesn’t have a side hustle in today’s economy? Especially now that hybrid work has become something we’re all very familiar with since the COVID-19 pandemic hit. It has enabled a lot of people to pursue other forms of income other than their main stream. Platforms such as TikTok and Instagram are now offering ways to make money as a brand through promotion or as a creator through reels and partnership collaborations. We are certain that this uptick in the side hustle will inevitably lead to an increased content creator economy. Good news for us and good news for those working with us! More content creators = more options for content for your projects. There’s already an infinite amount of content uploaded everyday but with this trend that will increase the amount that we will discover. Bad news is, the more content out there, the more difficult it can be to find those perfect pieces that you’re looking for in your brief. It will pose to be even more difficult for brands that try to do in house found content projects. It’s good that you have a professional like us to do all of the daunting work for you. We can’t tell you the number of times we’ve been told that an agency tried to discover and curate the content themselves only to be left with major headaches. This is sometimes what leads them to us. Sometimes things are easier said than done but this is where we come in. Skip the headache. If you haven’t reached out about your found content projects yet, what are you waiting for? Looking forward to working with you soon :)

Remembering Martin Luther King Jr.

We are the music makers,

And we are the dreamers of dreams, …..

One man with a dream, at pleasure,

Shall go forth and conquer a crown;

And three with a new song’s measure

Can trample a kingdom down.

-Arthur O’Shaughnessy

We thought this poem appropriate to honor MLK today. He was a man with a dream. One that should seem natural and normal in this world, but unfortunately is not. That all men shall be treated equal. Mr. King led the nonviolent civil rights movement in the 60’s and 70’s in America promoting that all men and women should be judged by their qualities and not by the color of their skin. He organized and led marches for Blacks’ right to vote, desegregation and labor rights. We all know his famous “I Have a Dream” speech that he delivered to 250,000 people at Lincoln Memorial that inspired millions for generations to come! He helped laws such as the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965 to pass into legislation. The Civil Rights Act states that all men receive equal protection of the laws and the Voting Rights Act which includes everyone with the right to vote. His sole purpose in life was to fight for social and economic justices. It’s impressive to note that During his movement from December 1955- April 1968 Black Americans achieved more progress than they had in the previous 350 years (The King Center).

As much as we would like to think that everyone is treated equally in the United States, there is still much work to be done. We’ve recently seen movements, such as the George Floyd and Black Lives Matter come to light due to systemic racism practices. To honor King’s memory, the best thing that we can do as a country is to start by improving equality within our own communities and workplaces. This can mean teaching, living and inspiring others to treat others equally through words and actions. It can also mean promoting DEI within your company by creating policies to support these topics. It’s also important to identify and prevent unconscious biases in the workplace. There’s a test you can take conducted by Harvard to see if you have any hidden biases. Let’s all work together to keep progressing civil rights in America!

Importance of Creative Thinking in Business

Brands that embrace creativity are more innovative and resilient. Creative thinking is important in all fields, not just those of art. As we’ve learned from our past articles, we know that creativity is key for all types of business to strive and grow. It allows employees to think outside the box and come up with new solutions. This can create something new from different perspectives. Aside from this there are some key benefits to creative thinking in the workplace. Here are our top picks.

1.     Fosters innovation. Outside the box thinking will bring your brand forward with new ideas. You can end up with unexpected opportunities and solutions.

2.     Improves collaboration. Bouncing ideas off of one another lends to open-mindedness. They will have to work together with flexibility in mind and hone in on their listening skills. This improved collaboration will inherently happen through creative thinking at the workplace.

3.     Increase productivity. Using your creative mind and critical thinking mind allows you to work smarter, not harder.

4.     Allows for adaptability. When you have a creative environment at work, it allows your brand and those within it to be more flexible in terms of shifting when unexpected changes happen or need to be made. 

5.     Growth necessity. We talked about the learn-it-all mindset for growth and have a creative mind at work is no different. Listening to new ideas and learning from others will help your brand grow.

Creativity isn’t limited to the art world. It’s required in all businesses for problem solving. One method of creative problem solving is called the SCAMPER method.

Substitute: What can I substitute to improve product/service?

Combine: How can I combine this product/service with something else to improve?

Adapt: How can I adapt this product/service?

Modify: Can I modify to make better?

Put to Another Use: How else could this be used?

Eliminate: What can I remove or how can I remove costs?

Reverse or Rearrange: Can I rearrange to improve?

There are immense amounts of topics and subjects within business that are perfect for the creative mind. New ideas in any department will make a difference. Thinking differently will open your mind to explore new realms of opportunity. Time to get creative!