2017: The Age of Hackers

  2017 has been a year full of high-profile data breaches from hackers. Consumer credit score company Equifax revealed that hackers accessed up to 143 million customer account details on July 29th. This breach means that details such as names, social security numbers, driver’s licenses, and credit card numbers from more than 200,000 people have potentially been stolen. Verizon announced that phone numbers, names, and pin codes of six million Verizon customers were left online for nine days. Voter data belonging to almost 200 million Americans have been found online. Chipotle’s payment system was hacked resulting in hundreds of people’s …

Moving Towards Virtual Reality: How Did We Get Here?

Virtual Reality is no longer just a plot for a movie about the future, nor is it just limited to video gamers. Goldman-Sachs stated, “We see qualities in VR/AR technology that can take this from nice use case to a device as ubiquitous as the smartphone.” Marketing and media experts say VR advertising could completely change the marketing game within the next two years. 71% of consumers think a brand that uses virtual reality is forward thinking. VR is predicted to impact nearly every industry, but in particular, education, travel, journalism, health care, architecture, and marketing. Just as businesses had …

Velocity Agency Recognized by New Orleans City Business

Recently, Velocity Agency was recognized by New Orleans City Business as a top private company in New Orleans and the surrounding areas.  As a full-service digital marketing agency, we’re dedicated to utilizing both the latest technology and our in-house assets to get the absolute best results for our valued clients. Below is the article from New Orleans City Business in its entirety. New technologies boost revenues for ad firms Editor’s note: This is one in a series of stories examining the Top Private Companies in the New Orleans area in 2016. By: Quincy Hodges, Reporter March 22, 2016 While having …

The Future Is Now: Avatar-Inspired Online Shopping

With Cyber Monday surpassing Black Friday in gross sales this past holiday season, it is safe to say that online shopping will continue with exponential growth. While online shopping is very popular, it still has an intrinsic downside; an estimated 30 percent of all purchases are returned, which drives up the retailer’s overall costs. With this cost increase, it’s no wonder that retailers are developing better ways to decrease returns and increase customer satisfaction – Queue the Avatars.   Multiple international clothing companies, along with Hewlett-Packard Enterprises leading the charge, have created an Avatar-based experience; multiple cameras scan your body …

WIRED TO CONNECT

Clients and potential clients continually ask me what industry is our specialty. From here, I know it is going to be an uphill battle in shifting perception. Lucky for me, shaping perception (for any industry) is my specialty. Healthcare, Consumer Packaged Goods (“CPG”), Retail, Travel, Tourism, etc. all face the same problems (opportunities). Almost all industries are becoming more consumer focused and experience-driven, which creates a consistent set of marketing needs across all industries. This means that we have to go back to a re-examination of the traditional 4-P’s of marketing – Product, Price, Place, and Promotion (one of those …

Why I Use ApplePay (And Why You Should Too)

Mobile payments are a disaster. You’re much better off using cash than attempting to use any current service. Particularly PayPal. Don’t even get me started. How embarrassing.   Why? Before October of last year, I had tried different forms of mobile payments, which left me with a bittersweet aftertaste. While the idea of paying with your mobile device seemed novel and exciting at the time, the shortcomings and frustrations of the available technology drove me nuts. Here I was, sitting in line at a Dollar General, growing more anxious as I got closer to the register. I had a new …

Free Office Online: Microsoft’s New Strategy | Velocity Agency | New Orleans, LA

A couple of years back my colleagues and I were discussing the importance of Google’s entrance into the cloud services space, and how their new service, Google Docs, would benefit small businesses and individuals. The proposition was simple: give us a bit of your personal information by signing up for a GMail account, and we’ll let you create, edit and share documents à la Microsoft Office. Initially, the sentiment was that such an underpowered, cloud-only productivity software wouldn’t meet the needs of consumers. That sentiment WAS correct. Fast forward seven years, Google Docs has grown and now integrates many of …