While most businesses today tend to celebrate key milestones with a party, full-service marketing agency h2b creative decided to mark its 5^th anniversary by making a donation to victims of the tornadoes that devastated parts of the Southeast in April of this year.

“These violent storms hit at the heart of our community in Northwest Georgia,” noted president and founder of h2b creative, Kim Buckner. “While we are proud of reaching our 5^th anniversary, because we know so many people who experienced such loss during the storm, we wanted to find some way to give back.”

The agency donated funds that were originally slated for a celebration complete with catering,

a band and other entertainment for clients, to Cherokee Valley Baptist Church in Ringgold, Georgia. The small town located between Chattanooga and Dalton in Northwest Georgia experienced devastating losses, including the death of 15 residents, hundreds of injuries and many who still remain homeless.

Located in one of the hardest hit areas, Cherokee Valley quickly became a defacto first responder and coordinator of services. Since the tornado, the church, one of many local groups coordinating aid to the community, has gathered food, water, clothing and is helping many in the community to rebuild. A website with links to information and resources has been set up for the community at http://cherokeevalleyrelief.wordpress.com/about-us/

“We can’t think of a better way to thank our clients that have helped our agency to grow in the past few years than to give back to our community,” said Buckner.

As a commemoration of the company’s anniversary and as a thank you to clients, the agency has created a short video.

Our booth was really great too, and you can catch a glimpse of its glory below.

And many of you may be wondering who won our giveaway, a Roku, at the expo.  For the non-geeky and the uninitiated, the Roku is a streaming content player that connects to the world wide web and to your TV.   Roku can stream Netflix, huluPlus, amazon, pandora, and tons of other streaming content.   We had a huge amount of people come by and register, but only one lucky winner.  And the winner is... Dr Marc Cromie with Chattanooga Allergy Clinic

Thanks Dr. Cromie for stopping by our booth.  We hope you enjoy your new toy because if you don't want it there are plenty of people around here who would like to taste the Roku's magic.

Everyone has started seeing little 2D barcodes come up on everything from magazine ads, Papa Johns' pizza boxes and even on your toothpaste. With Starbuck’s introduction to the mobile payment, it is the first day-to-day exposure for a 2D barcode for most individuals.  This holiday season many retailers used 2D codes for the first time.

Like barcodes in the grocery store, these barcode contain a multitude of measurable data. Not only can the initial scan be track, but it can track conversion rates based on purchases and/or page views. On the consumer side, there is a lot to be gained discounts, coupons, hidden prizes, and much more. Another beneficial component to 2D codes is shoppers can shop more effectively. A consumer can scan a barcode and find out if there are any other retailers and online stores that have the product at a cheaper cost.

We are just now at the introductory stage of 2D barcodes. The future seems to hold these barcodes as a very functional tools for consumers and companies alike.

As long as the smart phone and tablets remain powerful, so will social media. Most people interact using social media through their smart phones and tablets. In cramped environments, like tech conferences, it may be impossible to tweet from a laptop, but a smart phone or tablet will perform the task with ease..

Need a flight and hotel in New York for tomorrow through Tuesday? All you need is your smart phone/tablet and an app, such as Kayak, to book your accommodations.  Literally within minutes you can be booked for your next trip. If you need a book to read on the flight you can just by it on Kindle or iBooks and read it off your smart phone or tablet. Everyone us to wait for things to come to them; however, today we can go out an purchase them almost instantly.

The functionality that smart phones/tablets provide are so close to a personal computer that the typical computer is becoming obsolete.  A recommendation, get a smart phone because your computer may just become useless.

Barcode Scanners

Beetagg: Barcode Scanner handles bar codes – including 2D QR codes. Also lets you look up the associated product or URL for instant price checks and comparison-shopping.

 Barcode Scanner: Barcode Scanner handles bar codes, including 2D QR codes. Lets you look up the associated product or URL for instant price checks and comparison-shopping.

Geolocation

Facebook: You can update your Facebook page on the fly with their mobile version. You can even update your Facebook Places profile, which lets people know where you’re eating, drinking, relaxing or just hanging out.

Foursquare: Ready to “check-in” to your favorite restaurant, bar, mall or retail store? If you do it enough, you’ll become Mayor or be eligible for discount coupons.

Gowalla: Much like Foursquare, Gowalla allows you to share your location with friends, all the while accumulating digital souvenirs that may be redeemable for real life rewards.

Yelp: This application can give you restaurant reviews on the fly. Better still, their augmented reality mobile application lets you look through your mobile screen and places tags with reviews over the restaurants on that street.

Shopping Apps

Scoutmob: This website allows you to get coupons for local stores and restaurants sent to your phone that you can redeem by simply showing the cashier the text message.

 Shopkick: This app allows you to collect Kickbucks for simply walking into stores or scanning products in the store with your phone. The Kickbucks can then be redeemed for cool prizes like gift cards, iPads, music downloads and more.

ShopSavvy: You can use your phone’s camera to scan any bar code and receive a list of prices and inventory information for the same product at local stores and online retailers, ensuring you get the lowest price every time.

*Apps Descriptions courtesy of Jamie Turner (@60SecondTweets)

Last year, social media was at the forefront of the holiday shopping helping increase sales by over 3% (Comscore, Inc.). This year, we could see an even larger increase in retail sales. The top reasons for this increase are the access to and increase usage of mobile devices. According to Arizona Business & Money, 25% of all shoppers will use a mobile device for a number of reasons while shopping during the holiday season. These statisitics dramatically increase in the Generation Y demographics, as half on the shoppers between the ages of 19-28 will use a mobile device.  The IDC, an independent research firm, has estimated that consumers using mobile technology will account for 28% of the expected $447 billion spent during the holiday season. If you don’t want to do the math, that’s over $125 billion spent using mobile device in some functionality. As mobile devices have evolved, so has the internet.  Social media and app integration on the mobile devices have become the focus of the way companies and people do business.

There’s An App For That

It’s so cliché but yet so true in the world today. For this year’s holiday shopping expect to find a number of shopping apps on all mobile devices and platforms ranging from the iPhone, Android, Blackberry & Window 7. The apps will range from deal finding Black Friday apps to barcode scanners to compare prices and unlock hidden promotions.

Social Media

Social Media is one of the biggest trends in the world today. But combination of social media and mobile devices has created a new force in the business world especially in retail. Geo-location networks, such as Foursquare and Gowalla, are allowing customers to receive hidden promotions just by checking into the store they are shopping. Companies are also rewarding loyalty to customers that check in thru a number of different ways: mayorship, raffles & coupons. Companies are also able to use them social networks to find out the demographics of their customers to find the return on investment by using social media.

QR Codes

If you have been looking through the holiday catalog this year, you may already know what I am talking about.  Companies such as Toy ‘r Us and Target are utilizing QR codes to allow consumers direct assess to promotions and the product. A simple scanner or QR scanner will scan the QR code and take you directly to the information you are looking for.  It allows consumers to access the information on the mobile device at the store or at home. The price and product are right at the consumers’ fingertips with updates on the status of the product, which eliminates fighting other consumers or long lines.

Multiculturalism

Mobile devices have helped minimize and even eliminate barriers for the multicultural community.  The Latin community has been one of the fastest market segments to respond by acquiring 8.6% of the world’s mobile devices along with a decrease of purchases in personal and desktop computers (TNS Global Market Research). At Social Media Atlanta, Kety Esquivel (@KetyE), VP of Digital Strategy at Oglivy PR, commented that the Latin community use mobile devices as an access point to the internet.  Just how big will mobile devices be in the mobile phone market a few years from now? Frost & Sullivan predict that mobile device usage in the Asian community will make up 54% of the mobile market in 2015.

New Kid on the Block

There seems to be a new player in the role of holiday shopping apps. The app, Shopkick is the first mobile app that gives you rewards simply for walking into stores, for scanning products, and for signing up friends. Shopkick was released in September, and has big names associated with the offers such as Best Buy, American Eagle and Target. These are just a few of the major companies looking to capitalize on consumers’ use of Shopkick.

Tomorrow, we will unveil our list of must have apps for holiday shopping!