Posts tagged with "branding"

Gambling illustrations by Heather Skovlund for 360 Magazine

White Label Platform

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Do you ever dream of getting into the gambling industry? You may be headed on the right entrepreneurship path. The UK gambling industry generated £3.2 billion in 2018/2019. The UK alone accounts for 15% of Europe’s gambling revenues. Even a small percentage of this money is a serious amount. Setting up an online casino may be easier than you think. With a white label platform and clever marketing like bier haus slot machine online free, you can crack the market. 

What is a White Label Platform?

If you had to set up an online casino from scratch, you would need to hire an army of programmers to write code for different games. You would also require top-notch user experience designers and website designers to set up the online casino website and mobile app. Such a venture can run into millions of pounds. 

A white label platform comes with all this work done, so you only need to add your brand. You get a premade casino that is already licensed and ready to launch. White label platforms are developed by well-established iGaming software companies. Many online casinos are on white label arrangements, which explains the explosive growth of the industry. 

What Do You Get With a White Label?

The iGaming developer usually asks for an initial setup fee. You will also provide your preferred branding logos and colors. The iGaming developer delivers a package with:

  • License from the UK Gambling Commission
  • Web-Hosting
  • A platform on the website and mobile app
  • Casino games you choose, including slots, card table games, and live casino games
  • Financial infrastructure with a payment processing system, fraud detection and prevention, and KYC verifications
  • Branding
  • 24/7 support

The iGaming developer takes care of the backend, including the technical operations and maintenance. You come up with the branding and marketing material. You are also responsible for acquiring customers, which means you bear marketing costs. 

How Much Does it Cost?

The costs for a white label depend on what you need in the package. A package with all the above components can cost up to £35,000. The price will go down if you need only the gaming platform and take care of the financial infrastructure, web hosting, and customer support. Some iGaming developers ask for around £10,000 for basic packages. 

How Do You Make Money?

A white label arrangement thrives on profit sharing. The more costs you bear, the higher your cut for the profits will be. Spending more gives you more clout in the arrangement. 

Why Choose a White Label?

Going for a white label arrangement comes with several advantages:

  • Lower capital requirements – You need less than developing from scratch
  • Faster setup – A white label online casino can be set up in a time as short as one week
  • Licensing – You do not have to deal with the hassle of meeting licensing requirements
  • Top-notch financial infrastructure – You get the benefits of professional set up in various payment methods while not compromising on security

But you must also know several downsides of going for the easy way. You will face stiff competition from other online casinos with the same white label arrangement with your iGaming provider. You will offer the same games, so you must work hard to make your brand stand out. 

The iGaming provider retains a certain element of control. You cannot change the games as you wish. You will also have to implement any changes the iGaming developer makes, even if they are not suitable for your business model.

A white label online casino remains the easiest route to claiming your share in this multi-billion industry. If you are new to the industry, it would be wise to start small and grow as you learn the industry ins and outs. 

Bar Mitzvah Magazine

CBD Health illustration for 360 Magazine

How to Become a New CBD Oil Distributor in the UK

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Ever taken a look at the burgeoning CBD market in the UK and wanted to see if it was possible to become a distributor? It’s now possible to sell the best CBD oils in the UK.

CBD oils in the UK have blossomed in the last decade, with more and more people making and selling them. But how difficult is it to get started in the industry? How does someone become a new distributor?

First Steps to Becoming a CBD Oil Distributor: Legality

The first–and frankly the most important–thing a new CBD oil distributor needs to know is the local laws regarding the sale and possession of CBD oil. While most people are familiar with the legally permissible quantity of THC in CBD oil products, those planning to become a distributor need to know a whole lot more.

For instance, CBD oil distributors are likely going to want to advertise their services somehow, mostly through internet ads. Unlike many other industries, the sale of CBD oil is heavily restricted when it comes to advertisements.

Prospective distributors can’t ever claim specific medical benefits surrounding CBD oil, nor can they hope to get away with making statements that cannot be substantiated with scholarly evidence.

In advertising and selling, CBD products are held to a much stricter standard than most products. Ensure that you have a complete understanding of the laws surrounding advertisements and storage of CBD products.

Building a Brand: How to Become Recognized & Known in the CBD Community

While CBD oil products used to be a pretty rare sight in the UK, there are now more brands than one could have imagined.

This is great for the consumer but is actually a big issue for new distributors, as it means that there is a tremendous amount of competition. Not only is there plenty of competition, but many of the most successful brands have existed for years now. This means that they are recognized and expected to be of consistently high quality.

As a new CBD oil distributor, the way to overcome this is with diverse, innovative packaging and strong brand awareness.

This is the kind of thing that requires a considerable amount of research and effort to get right. Any new entrant into this industry requires super strong branding and in-depth knowledge of social media.

Consider launching a variety of social media platforms, as well as hiring someone to manage them for the company.

It can be especially difficult to run a distribution company while also managing a social media presence, so hiring someone to take care of that for the company could be a big help.

Furthermore, try and build up the brand’s image any way possible; if customers don’t recognize the brand, then they won’t be likely to buy from it, no matter what it is selling.

Perhaps the Most Important: Only Sell Great Products

The most crucial part of becoming a new CBD oil distributor, and indeed starting any business in any industry, is to sell only high-quality products.

There are all sorts of lower quality, cheaper alternatives out there for CBD products, but they won’t help you build an exciting and successful brand.

After all, studies have shown that stronger and better quality CBD oil products tend to offer a much better effect. This is well-known to consumers, and so people won’t be inclined to come back to a CBD oil brand if they don’t feel like they can trust what’s being sold.

There is a lot to learn and understand about building a brand, the legal issues of cannabinoids, and the logistics of CBD in the UK. However, it all comes secondary to the quality of the products being offered.

If a new CBD oil distribution brand doesn’t offer great stuff, then people won’t be inclined to try it, nor will they come back after giving it a chance.

It can be really difficult. In fact, it seems almost impossible, but becoming a CBD oil distributor in the UK is certainly possible if the brand focuses on selling only the best stuff they can find.

 

Dr. Seuss illustration by Heather Skovlund for 360 Magazine

The Controversial Career of Dr. Seuss

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By: Carly Cohen

The American children’s author, political cartoonist, illustrator, poet, animator, and filmmaker, the brilliant Theodor Seuss Geisel. Dr. Seuss has been extremely well known ever since he started his books and films. The books and films are classics and bring joy and childhood memories.

Dr. Seuss was born on March 2, 1904, and released his first book in 1937 called And To Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street. In total, he has written over 60 books and sold over 600 million copies throughout his career. In his early career, he attended Lincoln College at the University of Oxford for English literature, but left without receiving a degree and came back to the U.S. After moving back to the United States, Dr. Seuss began to send his work to different advertising agencies, magazines and publishers. In 1927, his first cartoon was published in The Saturday Evening Post.  His career was long, successful, and brilliant.

In the latest news, Dr. Seuss will stop being published due to “hurtful and wrong racist images.” In his books and cartoons, there has been ‘insensitive’ imagery that is causing this news. Dr. Seuss’s enterprise assured consumers that the books which are no longer being published are a part of the plan to “ensure Dr. Seuss Enterprise’s catalog represents and supports all communities and families.”  The decision of this issue most definitely was not easy for the Dr. Seuss organization. Since this is such a serious and sensitive issue, it required for the organization to think it through, bring in experts, and spend long hours deciding on what is best way to maintain Dr. Seuss’ name and be sensitive to all of his readers.

Not all of his books will stop being published, but they still will all be carefully inspected. The confirmed books that will no longer be available for purchase are McElligot’s Pool, On Beyond Zebra!, Scrambled Eggs Super!, The Cat’s Quizzer, And to Think That I Saw It on Mulberry Street, and If I Ran the Zoo. The Cat In The Hat has also been under discussion concerning discontinuation, but will be fully examined before any decisions are made.

In The Cats Quizzer, the Japanese character has a bright yellow face and is standing on Mt. Fuji. If I Ran A Zoo shows examples of orientalism and white supremacy. Another issue with the Dr. Seuss books has been that a majority of the human characters are white, which makes it appear that Dr. Seuss focuses on white men and women.

A school in Virginia has already banned the copies of these Dr. Seuss books, and others are having similar discussions.

Even in death, Dr. Seuss receives backlash from his work along with many other brands such as Aunt Jemima pancake mix and Uncle Ben’s Eskimo Pies, which also had to change their branding due to racial issues. Brands from this point on need to pay close attention to their advertising to ensure that they’re being inclusive of all audiences.

football, NFL, sports, laces, pigskin, leather, game

Football Is Back And So Is Branding

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With major league sports back in action –  along with college football –  sports fans have found themselves with a welcome commodity – choice. Social media is tracking what are proving to be the most effective and strategic ways to compete.

According to international social media analytics firm Talkwalker, Anheuser Busch (AB InBev) has made the most noise with sports partnerships this summer, as their beverage brands are trying to make the sports comeback resonate with fans stuck at home through experiential marketing. 

#ultracourtside

AB InBev tested virtual experiences with Michelob Ultra’s partnership with the NBA – the beer brand sponsored a digital experience that live streamed fans onto screens at the game so that they could “attend” while watching the action at home. The ad experience, and with it the announcement that Michelob Ultra is the new official beer of the NBA, garnered the brand 24,300 mentions in July with campaign hashtag #ultracourtside, generating 70,000 mentions since the season kicked off, Talkwalker reported.

$18 Nachos….and a brand boost of 550%

Another brand, Babe Wine, is producing football-themed candle scents so that fans can feel like they’re at the game – “Jockstrap,” “$18 Nachos,” and “Hashtag Field Goals” (aka Turf scent) – are among some of the varieties available. The move caused their online mentions to increase 1,200 percent in the last week, and engagement with the wine brand online has increased 550 percent, according to Talkwalker. This is the largest spike that Babe has seen since October 2019, following the announcement of the partnership that made them the “official wine of the NFL.”

#showtimecam brings Bud Light engagement to 266M

Bud Light is also getting in on the action with the launch of its “Showtime Cam” at last Thursday night’s opening game. The stunt enables fans who can’t be at the game to interact with players through live-streaming video in stadiums, creating a way for viewers at home to celebrate exciting moments along with their favorite teams. NFL fans can enter the #showtimecam contest by tagging Bud Light in posts for the chance to have their Tweets and videos featured during the regular season. The Showtime Cam premiered on Sept 10 during the game between the Kansas City Chiefs and Houston Texans, and by the following day it had 3,000 engagements and a potential reach of more than 266 million. Now, with a few more games under its belt, Bud Light’s marketing stunt has racked up 4,200 engagements since then.

About Talkwalker

Talkwalker is a social listening and analytics company that empowers over 2,000 brands and agencies to optimize the impact of their communication efforts. We provide companies with an easy-to-use platform to protect, measure, and promote their brands worldwide, across all communication channels. Talkwalker’s state-of-the-art social media analytics platform uses AI-powered technology to monitor and analyze online conversations in real-time across social networks, news websites, blogs and forums in 187 languages. Talkwalker has offices in New York, Luxembourg, San Francisco, Frankfurt, and Singapore. It is also the home of Talkwalker Alerts, a free alerting service used by over 500,000 communications and marketing professionals worldwide.

4 Ways to Grow Your Beauty Website

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By Katie Lundin

Whether you sell make-up, haircare, or skincare products, run a beauty salon, nail bar, barbershop, or spa… as a beauty industry insider, you know that looks are important.

This is especially true when it comes to the way people judge websites.

How a website looks is important. In fact, seventy-five percent of people judge the credibility of a business based on its website.

If your beauty website looks bad, it’s turning potential clients away.

Here are 4 proven techniques to help your beauty website win more customers.

1. Showcase your unique brand

Just as you help your clients to look the best version of themselves, your website design must showcase your brand’s unique identity.

This is especially important for new beauty businesses. If you’re putting together your business plan while preparing to start a new beauty business, don’t overlook the importance of creating a strong visual identity for your business.

After all, clients don’t want to look like everyone else. They want to showcase their own unique self. And, they look to see if your beauty business stands out in unique ways and offers something special and different.

For example, if your website uses a generic template and looks like thousands of other salons, nail care, or makeup sites, people won’t be able to differentiate you from your many competitors.

In fact, this is true for every aspect of your company’s brand identity, including your business name and your company logo. Both must be unique if you want to build a brand that stands out and attracts great clients.

The differentiating factors that make your business unique must be visible so that your clients and prospective clients (the people who are naturally attracted to your brand’s mission, aesthetic, and personality) can identify you.

A well-designed website will show what makes your beauty business unique and attract those clients.

And don’t be deterred by the price of custom website design. Some beauty business owners worry that the cost of website design can be prohibitively high.

It’s true that many design companies and agencies charge thousands of dollars for their services. But this isn’t universally true (crowdspring’s custom website designprojects start at just $899, including all fees).

Action items:

● Work with a strong design team to develop a brand-informed logo. Then use that logo as the guide for your website’s visual design and all subsequent visual branding.

● Prioritize customization – avoid generic web design templates that don’t allow you to customize.

● Choose fonts (no more than 2-3), colors, graphics, and photos, that evoke your brand’s personality.

● Include content on your website that speaks with your brand’s voice. Be sure to let your personality shine through.

2. Design your website for fast load speeds

As we emphasized in our guide on how to start a business,

Your website is one of your new business’s most important ambassadors and a crucial component of your marketing and branding strategy.

Between seconds 4 and 5 of your website’s load time, 20% of viewers have already left your site.

Not only that, the faster your website loads, the higher it ranks with search engines. So, the easier it is for people to find.

3. Make it easy for guests to book appointments

Are you a make-up artist, stylist, barber, or cosmetologist?

Then you need an integrated booking system for your website.

Service-oriented beauty businesses rely on bookings. But, managing your schedule takes time away from the tasks that actually get you paid – like cutting hair, applying makeup, or performing facials.

And guests have come to expect to be able to book online. The cat’s already out of the bag.

So, if your website doesn’t support online booking, it’ll look inferior to your competitors who do offer that convenient feature.

On the other hand, if you’re the first salon, nail bar, or barbershop in your market to enable people to schedule appointments online, you’ll have a natural advantage over your competition.

And, there are free salon-booking software apps! So, the cost isn’t a barrier. There’s no excuse not to impress potential customers with the convenience of online scheduling.

Action items:

● Check out these tried and true online booking options:

○ Fresha – This free online scheduling tool (formerly known as “Shedul”) is packed with features designed specifically for businesses in the beauty and wellness industry. There is also a paid version, but Fresha’s free service can definitely stand on its own.

○ Schedulicity – Schedulicity is another powerful online booking software. This service offers a la carte pricing that allows you to customize your service so you’re only paying for the features you need.

○ Timely – Timely claims to be the world’s smartest online booking software. You can test their claim yourself with their free trial. Once your trial is over, you can continue with Timely for low monthly rates tiered to grow with the size of your team.

● Choose an online booking service and integrate it with your website for easy, automated bookings.

● If you don’t currently sell custom-branded beauty products, consider adding your own unique line. Many manufacturers will let you private label their productsand you’ll just need to create custom packaging design to showcase your own unique brand.

4. Show your style and skill with photos

Concrete examples are more powerful than vague promises.

Every beauty business claims to make people look good. But, including pictures of your work (or people wearing your products) on your website shows that you can really deliver.

And, beauty is subjective. Your products or services aren’t for everyone. They’re for the people who share your aesthetic.

Posting pictures that showcase your brand’s unique style will attract customers who share it. So, you’ll gain, and retain, more customers.

So, incorporate photos into your website that demonstrate your skill and your style. Show potential clients that you can be trusted to make them look and feel beautiful.

Action items:

● If you’re a freelancer, create a gallery showcasing your best manicures, hair color clients, or make-up applications. (And always ask permission before sharing any photos of your clients.)

● Do you run a salon or spa? Then dedicate a page to each team member and include a gallery of their best work.

● If you manufacture beauty products, encourage your clients to share pictures of themselves wearing your products on Instagram with a custom hashtag. Then embed a widget into your website that automatically displays those photos.

● Allow customers to upload pictures with their product reviews.

If you want to be the next Sephora or Glossier, you must have stellar branding. And, that includes a professional, custom website that shows the world what your beauty brand is all about.

About Author:

Katie Lundin is a Marketing and Branding Specialist at crowdspring, one of the world’s leading marketplaces for crowdsourced logo design, web design, graphic design, product design, and company naming services. She regularly writes about entrepreneurship, small business, and design on crowdspring’s award-winning small business blog.

Sara Sandman 360 Magazine illustrator and graphic designer

Sara Sandman

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Sara Sandman is a 21 year old illustrator and graphic design student at The Cleveland Institute of Art. She specializes in creating illustrations using traditional mediums such as colored pencil and graphite. Sara also creates graphic illustrations with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. As she continues to further explore art and design, Sara finds her inspiration through nature and various artists such as Anna Tromop, Hayley Rudy, Chris Hong, and Fernando Martinez. During her time at The Cleveland Institute of Art, she has worked for various clients including Disney, American Greetings, Winking Lizard, and 360 Magazine. She is expected to graduate with a Bachelor’s Degree in May of 2021.

This past spring, Sara began working with 360 Magazine as an illustration intern. During her internship, she created various graphic illustrations and even redesigned the magazine’s logo.

Her career interests focus on surface design, editorial, and graphic design. Working in various mediums, Sara has experience working with various digital programs and many traditional art skills such as drawing, painting, and printmaking. She also has experience at the Cleveland Institute of Art doing photography and photo editing. Sara hopes to create meaningful artwork for company’s making an impact on the world.

You can find Sara Sandman on: Instagram | Behance | LinkedIn

Rita Azar is a summer intern at 360 magazine.

Rita Azar

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Rita Azar is a Senior at the Lebanese American University taking up a Bachelors degree in Graphic Design. She finished her primary education at The American School of Kuwait, where she was born and raised. Her passion for graphic design started when she took her first graphic design class at school.

She is currently an intern at 360 magazine, where she enjoys illustrating for published articles, and writing a few articles herself to raise awareness about the current situation in her home country, Lebanon.

Rita mainly takes interest in branding, publication design, and UX/UI design. Her work has been selected and published in the 60th edition of Creative Quarterly journal and is soon to be published in international exhibitions by Ecuador Bienal, in the upcoming months.

In the future, Rita would like to continue her studies and earn a masters degree in branding.

The Best Valentine’s Day Drink Recipes

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With one of the most basic days of the year right around the corner – here are some festive cocktails to sip on no matter how you’re celebrating February 14th. Just because Valentine’s Day may be basic, doesn’t mean your drinks have to be!

See below for recipes from the recently released Beefeater Pink, created by Global Brand Ambassador Sumaiyah Connolly, that are not only easy to create at home but easy to fall in love with.

Love at First Sip Mimosa

BE_PINK_Pink_Mimosa_pink_background[1].jpg

RECIPE:

  • 2 Parts Beefeater Pink
  • 1 Part mixed berry puree
  • 3 Parts sparkling wine
  • Garnish with Orange Twist

 

Berry Good Date

Pink_&_Soda[1].png

RECIPE:

  • 2 Parts Beefeater Pink
  • 3 Parts Soda Water
  • Garnish with sliced strawberries

Lil Yachty’s Nuthin’ 2 Prove

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Lil Yachty announced that his forthcoming album Nuthin 2 Prove will be released on October 19. This will be his follow up project since Birthday Mix 3, and his Lil Boat 2 mixtape, which featured a slew of artists from Ugly God, 2 Chainz, Quavo, PnB Rock, Offset, Lil Pump, Trippie Redd, to Lil Baby and more. Additionally, this comes after Lil Yachty’s single “Who Want The Smoke?” which features Offset and Cardi B.

Recently Lil Yachty has been filming his role for How High 2. Lil Yachty plays Roger, an entrepreneur and the younger brother of one of the protagonists from the original film. Per the official description by MTV, Roger and his friend go on a magical hash-fueled journey to fund their on-demand munchies delivery start-up. This past summer he made his big screen debut as the voice of Green Lantern in Teen Titans Go! To The Movies. Lil Yachty also recently collaborated with Donny Osmond for Chef Boyardee’s Start The Par-dee jingle.

Lil Yachty, aka Lil Boat, aka “King of the Youth” is a 21-year old Atlanta native, a Grammy-nominated singer, rapper, producer, creative designer, branding genius and fashion icon who smashed onto the scene two years ago. Since then he accumulated nearly 3 billion streams, found himself on the covers of Paper and FADER magazines, as well as landing the cover of The New York Times Men’s Style section and a XXL Freshman cover.

“It’s commonplace for young rap stars to claim that they’ve transcended hip-hop; it’s rarer for them to actually do it. Yachty does.” – THE NEW YORKER

“Besides the actual sun, there is no source of joy in the world right now brighter and more sustaining than Lil Yachty. So basically, the moral of the story is: cancel all your plans and stay at home, and instead just understand that the Goodest Night has now been had, by one Lil Boat, Esq. You will never have as good a night as Lil Yachty. Apologies.” – NOISEY

“Lil Yachty has created an alternate universe in which traditional narratives of rap excess are reframed as fantastical stories. He has mainlined Gucci Mane’s vocal quirk a penchant for odd rhyme structures cloaked in unlikely melodies.” -THE NEW YORK TIMES

“Lil Yachty is probably going to change the world.” – ROLLING STONE

“Yachty is the master of our joy.” -PITCHFORK