Have you picked out a gift for your valentine yet? If you need ideas, we’ve got you covered! Here’s how you can support local businesses while finding the perfect gift for your sweetheart. 

For the Art Admirers

• Does your significant other love art? Find the perfect addition to their collection at J.Leon Gallery + Studio where you can see a variety of original pieces from regional and local artists.
• If you’re looking for something to do together, grab tickets to Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation’s Blue Dog + Bourbon at Bijoux on February 17th. You’ll get the chance to see George Rodrigue’s Blue Dog paintings like never before while enjoying bourbon tastings and culinary masterpieces.

For the Food Enthusiasts

• Are you and your sweetheart total foodies? We’ve got the perfect gift for you! The 3rd Annual Shrimp & Grits Festival on February 19th will be filled with great drinks, live music, and the classic southern dish of shrimp and grits! Have a day date or bring the whole family to this wonderful event that benefits the Boys and Girls Club of the Emerald Coast.
• If you’re looking for something a little more cheesy, the 4th Annual Mac & Cheese Festival is right for you! Restaurants far and wide will bring their best macaroni masterpieces to compete on March 6th (and you won’t want to miss all of that deliciousness).

For the Quality Time Lovers

• Is your love language quality time? Take your sweetheart on an adventure at Rock Out Climbing Gym! You’ll have a unique and memorable experience after rock climbing indoors together, trust us.
• Are you interested in something that will give you an adrenaline rush? Have a date night at Emerald Coast Indoor Shooting and Sports! If you can’t make it on Valentine’s Day, visit any Friday or Saturday for a great date night package.
• Want a vacation without the stress of travel? Plan a staycation at Newman Dailey Resort Properties or 30A Luxury RV Resort where you can relax and appreciate the time spent with your significant other.

For the Avid Shoppers

• Looking for a grand experience full of shopping? Grand Boulevard has your favorite national brands, local boutiques, and upscale specialty shops all in one place. Bring your significant other for a fun-filled day of shopping or find a special gift on your own at Grand Boulevard! 
• Does your sweetheart deserve to be pampered? Avantgarde offers hair care, nail care, and more that would give your sweetheart a glow like never before. Plus, they have hair care items available for purchase that would make your significant other feel like they just came out of the salon every day.

For the Philanthropist

• Does your sweetheart always find a way to donate their time or money for a cause dear to their heart? Making a donation in their name may be the best gift you can give them. A few local charities dear to our hearts include Mattie Kelly Arts Foundation, Florida Audubon, Boys and Girls Club of the Emerald Coast, Emerald Coast Autism Center, Choctawhatchee Basin Alliance, Girl Power for Good Foundation, and Hope Medical Clinic.

Father and daughter duo Steve Barber and Mary Aho join us on this episode of the Hello Frances Podcast to discuss their shared creative venture, Scarlett Magazine. With a bold stance and a goal to empower women, Scarlett Magazine shares the latest in women's fashion, beauty, home decor, lifestyle, and health. The magazine recently launched the Woman of the Year Awards, celebrating 100 females in our community at a ceremony on February 23rd at The Island Resort at Fort Walton Beach. For the latest issue, subscribe today at scarlettmag.com. 

As we begin 2022, we prepare to take on the new year and new digital media trends! Our team creates strategies and tactics for each of our clients to help navigate new trends. The result? We uncovered these top three digital trends your brand should consider when crafting a digital strategy.

Third-Party Cookies

Say goodbye to third-party cookies. Major browsers are phasing out third-party cookies because of consumers’ growing demand for privacy. Third-party cookies are for cross-site tracking, retargeting, and ad-serving. About 80% of advertisers rely on third-party cookies, so removing them will likely influence your brand’s digital marketing initiatives. Advertising reach, personalization, campaign management, and performance management will be impacted most by removing third-party cookies.

Personalization

Prioritize personalization in your digital marketing messages. Taking a deeper look at your consumer’s previous actions, purchase history, demographics, and browsing behavior allows you to tailor messages directly to the individual. These personalized messages can come in different forms, including ads, emails, and social media direct messages. Customer relationships will thrive when you incorporate personalization in your digital marketing campaigns.

Interactive Content

Brands should prioritize creating content that requires or encourages users to actively engage. You can do this by creating videos, infographics, polls, surveys, contests, emails, and more that include an element that allows your audience to feel confident to interact. For example, in your brand’s upcoming email newsletters, add embedded videos, polls, or charts to help drive engagement.

What are you implementing into your digital strategy in 2022?

Our Frances Roy Agency Design and Content Coordinator, Kayla Koger, takes the microphone this week to talk about the online design platform, Canva. She teaches the basics of using this as a tool and how it can be a great addition to your design strategy. The program is ideal for design beginners or quick and easy design elements needing a specific aesthetic, such as Instagram Stories or a social media video. Kayla shares the pros and cons of Canva and her favorite features on the platform. Do you use Canva? Let us know in the comments! 

Inspired by an Adam Grant tweet, Shantelle discusses learning the difference between the right opportunity to challenge and the right opportunity to contribute. A natural challenger, Shantelle actively works on challenging with a solution in mind while remaining open-minded. She shares her insight on how to practice a balance of challenging and contributing. Listen to the episode, and let us know your thoughts. Do you consider yourself a challenger or a contributor? Or both? How do you respond to challenges? What’s your greatest contribution? Send us an email at he***@********oy.com. We'd love to hear from you! 

As we begin 2022, we prepare to take on the new year and new small business trends! Each year, the team creates strategies and tactics for every client to help navigate the year ahead. The result? We uncovered these top three small business trends your brand needs to consider implementing in your workplace.

Hybrid Workplace

What is a hybrid workplace? It is when businesses give their employees the flexibility to work on-site, remotely or a mix of both. A recent survey conducted by Envoy and Wakefield Research found that almost half of employees (47%) would likely look for a new job if their employer doesn’t adopt a flexible working model. Employees see value in hybrid work as it allows them to make the decisions as to when and where they work. This work environment creates a better work-life balance and more productive employees. Plus, your business can hire talent from all around the world after adopting the hybrid work model!

Building Relationships

Authenticity is key to building and maintaining your relationships. To be authentic includes growing relationships with the right intent, being mindful of labels, listening with full attention, and being vulnerable. When thinking about your relationships with your team or your customers, are you authentic? Implementing authenticity with your business relationships will improve your team’s well-being and increase your customer satisfaction.

Gig Workers

Gig workers, or freelancers, will make up a large portion of the workforce. According to Statista, 59 million people did freelance work in the United States last year. That number is only going to continue to grow in 2022! Now, what do gig workers have to do with your business? Depending on your needs, you can hire a freelance worker to do a one-time job or receive expertise in an area. This cuts costs as you are not hiring a new employee, but you’re still getting high-quality work. In addition, if you find a gig worker you enjoy collaborating with, you can always hire them on your team!

Have you seen any new small business trends yet this year? What are you implementing in your business in 2022?

Here at Frances Roy, we seek motivation and inspiration through books, movies, podcasts, music, magazines, blogs, and so forth. Creativity presents itself in many forms and we harness that creativity through these exposures. By sharing our team RWL’s with you, we hope to extend this inspiration and offer it as a platform for contagious creativity. As we present our individual RWL’s, we ask you to share your own RWL’s with us. Where do you find creative inspiration?  

Shantelle P. Dedicke, CMP 
President/Chief Creative Officer

Janae Erickson, Art Director

Kelsey Doar, Marketing Manager 

Jodie Warner, Research Coordinator 

In today’s fast-paced world, we overconsume all the things we think we “should'' be doing. We fill up our calendars and create unnecessary stress when we put too much on our plate. In this episode of the Hello Frances Podcast, Shantelle shares her list of what she wants to stop, including multitasking, constant social media scrolling, and more. Listen to the full episode for the rest of the items on her list, and let us know what you would include if you had a list of habits you wanted to stop. Email us your thoughts at he***@********oy.com. 

Frances Warner, Shantelle’s grandma and our agency’s namesake, joins us on this week’s episode of the Hello Frances Podcast. Frances shares her advice on how we can spend our time, use our resources wisely, and stay positive throughout these uncertain times. Shantelle and Frances discuss so many tips and tricks that have been passed down within their family throughout the years. Listen to the episode for an unfiltered chat between a grandmother and granddaughter. Frances is sure to put a smile on your face! 

It’s 2022 🎉 As we say goodbye to our fifth year in business and begin our sixth, we consider what is next for the Frances Roy Agency. After the death of a close friend, Shantelle reconsiders what’s important and how she wants to live her life and lead her business moving forward. As she enters a new stage of her life, she’s prioritizing creating balance, slowing down, being more deliberate, and focusing on what’s important. Listen to the full episode, and let us know your thoughts by emailing us at he***@********oy.com. Talk to you again next week!