Leave it to GEICO, famous for its humorous approach to advertising, to find a solution that keeps its brand front and center. The insurance company has new video ads that deliberately toy with the five second window, and find an ingenious way to entice viewers to watch the whole thing, as AdWeek recently reported.

These ads present a short scene in which someone says the word “savings,” the GEICO logo appears, and a narrator informs the viewer that the ad is already over. However, while the actors freeze in place, other things around them continue to move. In a family dinner scene, a dog jumps on a table and begins eating food off of plates. Only those who stay get to see how the full ad really “ends.”

Apparently, this experiment has been working for the company so far. The one family-themed ad has more than 2 million views alone. Other ads in the series have far viewer views but are still over 100,000.

Whether your business is focused on growing video ads or some other form of online marketing, keeping engagement in mind is crucial. Capturing attention quickly in any medium adds to the likelihood that a person is going to stay interested. Decentralized marketing ensures that strong marketing strategies reach the widest range of possible customers however they like to use the internet.

The premise of the show, which will debut next month, sees former “Saturday Night Live” actor Will Forte as the titular human traveling around an unpopulated post-apocalyptic world. In keeping with this theme, thousands of flyers designed to look homemade have appeared throughout the country, according to the Hollywood Reporter.

In addition to an in-character picture of and message from Forte, the flyers also contain a phone number for viewers to call and theoretically get in touch with him. The source says that some callers will actually get the chance to speak to Forte this way, while most will be directed to voicemail. The real-world marketing efforts don’t stop there: The show will also be promoted via themed “survival” vending machines and contests.

Combined with the other tactics being used to promote this new show, Fox could easily heighten user interest than its competition by seeming to go beyond traditional boundaries of campaign marketing, while still being omnipresent enough to land viewers when it finally premieres.

By using automatic marketing solutions, a company could tie its brand to different underused platforms and make sure all of the potential targets of a campaign see the proper message within a similar timeframe. Different platforms, online and off, could also require their own pacing, which means timing needs to be taken into consideration no matter how a campaign is launched.

One of the biggest tactics is a video ad featured on YouTube that shows the company is making changes to its most famous symbol: the big pink mustaches. Cars that take part in a Lyft program tend to have one of these attached, but Lyft is now equipping them with small pink lights shaped like mustaches that fit on the inside of a driver windshield. It’s part of the “New Year, New Lyft” initiative that promises to “reconnect communities” in addition to helping users get to their destinations on time.

The video ad deliberately attempts to capture a fast-paced, upbeat feel, with energetic music and quick editing. It also introduces the pink light without dwelling on it too much.

Lyft has also taken to more unusual means to promote itself. Hoodline reported on a special marketing tactic involving chalk outlines on sidewalks around San Francisco. Cleverly designed to look like an overhead view of a car, these outlines are rendered in pink and white, with a large and recognizable version of the company’s blocky logo clearly visible at the head of the drawing. Posters have also appeared in that city with the Lyft logo in white against a pink background, with the small image of a car driving across it.

Brand coherence is critical when managing several materials in tandem for both the internet and real life. A successful marketing campaign management system helps companies manage all the details of rebranding without losing core brand values.

That means users have a special relationship with their favorite podcasts, one hammered home by the way the logo sums up the style and feel of each show. Sonia Weiser of Paste Magazine recently examined some of the most polished podcast logos out there, including those for The Moth, 99 percent Invisible and Serial. Some of these have become well-known among their audiences in the way that any popular logo gains traction among a fanbase, potentially inspiring reinterpretations and amateur versions.

Referencing the opinions of Modernpreneur’s Craig Carpenter and Daniel Lewis of The Audacity Podcast, Weiser gives examples of which visual strategies are most appropriate for which type of podcast.

“If the podcast’s host is less important than the subject itself, a photo of their face isn’t ideal,” she writes. “The ‘This American Life’ logo can’t simply be Ira Glass, he’s not the subject matter.” When it comes to families of podcasts from a particular company, Weiser argues “it’s as much about creating a cohesive collection of podcast logos as creating one very special logo.” This is because all of the different shows will likely feature variations of the same basic imagery and style.

The rules that make for a good podcast icon image could also apply to designing content for successful campaign automation. No matter which platform you are focusing on, your target demographics need to understand it as part of a coordinated effort.

Back in September, AdWeek reported on an interesting new campaign that the service launched to promote Starbucks on National Coffee Day, September 29. Instead of the distinctive period at the end of the Tumblr logo, the site sported the tiny image of a steaming cup of coffee, with a miniature version of the Starbucks logo clearly visible on the side.

It’s just one example of what the company refers to as the “sponsored dot,” a program where brands can promote themselves for a day and get exposure in a distinctive way that fits with the user experience. AdWeek was so impressed with the possibilities of this space that it included the Sponsored Dot on its list of 2014’s most innovative new digital ad products.

According to the source, the logo only sells the dot for certain days that might be attractive to advertises (previous examples include Valentine’s Day and the World Cup). It isn’t worlds away from the thought behind the Google Doodles, the interactive redesigns to Google’s logo that reflect certain important dates, holidays and anniversaries. They may not directly promote a brand in the same way, but they do try to catch user interest through appealing designs, and their changing nature gives users a reason to constantly check back.

Businesses should use a multi channel marketing strategy that makes every ad easy for customers to connect to and understand. This is especially applicable to unique spaces that aren’t fully anticipated yet. If you use marketing automation software, it will be a lot simpler to coordinate every aspect of a campaign.

However, not ever celebrity appearance moves the needle in terms of customer retention. The move is most valuable when there’s a natural connection between the person and the brand, in how both function or are perceived. Ads, even well-made ones, can be confusing when the famous guest star doesn’t have any connection with the product.

Writing for AdWeek, Tor Myhren recently said that celebrity endorsement was the defining feature of many campaigns in 2014 for both new and well-established companies and cautioned against an over-reliance on this tactic.

“As YouTube stars radically redefine programming, they will further increase the opportunity for brands to use celebrity as brand accelerators and media outlets,” he said. “But you can’t just tie a random celebrity to your brand and toss it out there like a Molotov cocktail hoping it will explode into pop culture.”

No matter what your business specializes in, the way you represent yourself across different media changes the kinds of responses you receive. Instead of simply choosing elements imply because they are popular, think about how appropriate they are to your company. Using automated marketing solutions is one way to enforce unity, even as you play your message across a wide variety of channels.

In order to advertise a contest with a $54,000 possible prize value, the famous coffee brand created a television ad that simply looped a possible online gif over and over. The animated image shows a clip from the popular sitcom “The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air” synced up to Tom Jones’ famous song “It’s Not Unusual.” It’s a reference to a scene from the show that fans will undoubtedly be familiar with and likely respond to. Helpful text explains the parameters of the contest to the viewer while the clip repeats over and over.

Writing for LifeHealthPro, Lynette Gil says this is uncharted territory for marketing, because it takes something that is already viral and uses it in a new medium.

“This just goes to prove how social media is shaping everything,” Gil writes. “And how big brands are coordinating their marketing campaigns with their social media strategy.” She later describes the ad as “a very simple form of marketing that is fairly unexplored and sure to resonate with millennials and social media junkies everywhere.”

Your business may not choose to draw from an existing meme to make its marketing materials relevant, but it can still pay attention to trends on social media for greater success. More importantly, you can use marketing campaign management to synchronize all of your different strategies together and make sure that every channel works harmoniously with each other. This can include being more conscious of the content of social ads.

A press release from the company outlines the way Whole Foods is addressing the concept of “food consciousness “ for consumers. Part of this is promoting the various acknowledgements the business has received over the years from associations like Greenpeace.

Another part has included a series of more than 20 video ads that have recently debuted on YouTube, touching on several different types of produce and suspected to have cost millions of dollars.

Jeannine D’Addario, vice president of Whole Foods Market communications, said that this is an opportunity to educate those who still aren’t familiar with Whole Foods’ core values. The rallying cry of this campaign is “value matters,” a slogan that fits in with the way that the chain wants to be seen.

“Not everyone knows what makes Whole Foods Market different from other grocers, or the fact that no other retailer has standards as demanding or as transparent as ours,” she said. “This campaign will distinguish what makes our brand special, our food different and our quality superior.”

While the company wants to expand its customer base, it is trying to do so in a way that doesn’t change what Whole Foods represents at its heart. Any campaign marketing event should try to follow these broad strokes as a business grows and expands in the current marketplace.

But arguably their most successful recent product is “Let It Go,” the Oscar-winning song from the hit animated fantasy film “Frozen,” which has proven popular not only among the target audience of children but adults and people who still haven’t even seen the movie itself.

Business Insider’s Lara O’Reilly recently noted the sly ways that Disney has purposely promoted the song across social media, specifically through YouTube, by letting fans post their own videos related to the song. Although this may have technically been copyright infringement, O’Reilly says the company has made the right choice in ignoring any possible violations, and reaped the rewards of better brand awareness.

“We don’t know whether Disney deliberately turned a blind eye to other people publishing Frozen song videos, but we can say those videos actually helped Disney’s marketing of the movie — free advertising, in other words,” she writes.

Nearly a year after Frozen’s release, the film’s soundtrack is still resoundingly successful. An Alamo Rent A Car study cited by The Guardian found that “Let It Go” was far and away the most popular song among families traveling with children. And a Broadway theatrical adaptation is said to be in the works, though still a long way in the future.

All of which is to say that your company should take a page from the Disney handbook and evaluate its campaign marketing based on how many people have taken it to heart and become mini-marketers of it themselves.

Am I doing this correctly?

When it comes to social media, sites make frequent changes and if you’re using these services you should make sure you’re up-to-speed.

Here’s one quick tip you may not know about Twitter:

Did you know that when you start a Tweet with a username, it might not be seen by all of your followers?

Tweets that begin with a username only appear in the timelines of the user sending the tweet, the username it’s directed at and the timelines of those who happen to follow both.

To make sure your Tweets show up in all your followers’ feeds, put a period in front of any Tweet that begins with a username. This way, you’ll be able to get your message out to more people.