Yep. It’s true.
We’re now located at this address: www.teamworkscom.com.
Click on over and have a look around the neighborhood, explore the links, view a post or just join the conversation.
Blurb, the popular web site that developed a creative, easy-to-use service that can turn anyone into a book publisher, recently notified us that they will be attending the annual HOW Design Conference. Even better, they wanted to showcase a visual documentary on the effects of microfinance in Africa which we recently completed with award-winning photographer, Mark Tuschman.
The documentary was published in a Blurb book titled Capital of Hope. Blurb will be showcasing Capital of Hope as an example of what can be done using their new PDF to Book workflow service at Blurb.com.
The How Design Conference is attended by thousands of design and communications professionals and is a terrific venue to share our work with others. As Blurb informed us, they will be “promoting the great book we’ve created” to the legions of people who will be attending the show and inquiring about Blurb’s unique services.
I look forward to hearing from any of you who attend the conference and happen to see Capital of Hope in the Blurb booth.
As the velocity of change continues to accelerate, Google has provided us with a small glimpse into the future of communications, collaboration and connections with their recent announcement of WAVE.
When this technology deploys, it has the potential to have significant implications on the way we work and how work gets done—everywhere. It’s also going to put new pressure on the old Microsoft model of using desktop, shrink-wrapped applications to do the dispersed, collaborative work required in a smaller, flatter, interconnected world. As web strategist and seasoned product manager Michael Moir points out in his somewhat technical analysis of WAVE, the implications become apparent in his feature by feature analysis.
Bottom line: What we can expect as this new technology moves from the beta server to real world deployment? Eminent accelerating change.
Expose value where new media intersect
If you want to make meaningful connections with your customers and prospects today, you have to make it as easy as possible for them to know about what you offer and why it’s of value to them. An easy to navigate, well written and professionally produced web site along with an SEO strategy that improves the essential task of being found on the internet is the well accepted price of entry for most organizations.
Along with these fundamentals, engaging your audiences with a media-rich, interactive vehicle that provides a platform for creating a dialogue with your audiences has become more important than ever. Experts agree that the traditional practices of broadcasting your message as loudly and frequently as possible through proprietary media channels are now being questioned like never before for its effectiveness and efficiency. That’s why more and more organizations are realizing the benefits of creating their own media channels for initiating, participating in and distributing targeted messages to the audiences they want to reach. Like never before, organizations are realizing that engaging in a conversational and informative way that forgoes the conventions of media advertising can be very rewarding.
As people make more and more personal choices about the messages that they receive and how they want to receive them, it makes sense to engage your customers and prospects in an ongoing conversation about their needs, interests and passions and how your product or service affects these issues. This ongoing conversation can be very revealing in exposing how a product or service can be improved to better meet a customers needs. More importantly, the fact that you are actively showing interest in listening and creating an opportunity for people to provide their individual insights, feelings and attitudes demonstrates a meaningful commitment to continually improve your relationship with them and make it more mutually rewarding.
Implementing Best Practices
CorStone Blog
CorStone, a leading provider of emerging systems, programs, research and best practices aimed at dealing with conflict and crisis, recently engaged our services to help them develop a pair of outreach and customer interaction vehicles that exemplify these new media best practices. After successfully developing and deploying their new web site, we worked with CorStone to define a set of goals for these tools. They included broadening reach and brand awareness, fostering community and feedback, increasing search results ranking and keeping customers and prospects informed about new services offerings, special programs and recent CorStone partnerships.
The first vehicle was a blog, which provided a platform, to initiate, monitor and contribute to the conversation about how individuals and organizations are dealing with life crisis and conflict management related issues. This interactive web destination allowed CorStone and all participants to add value, share an example, add a useful link, disagree, ask a question or seek feedback in a personal and authentic way. It also helped to get CorStone noticed by other bloggers and blog readers while promoting links back to the CorStone blog and web site which helped to sustain a high search results ranking.
CorStone eNewsletter
The second vehicle we developed was a specially designed and branded eNewsletter that was distributed to the thousands of customers, prospects and partners they serve. Emailed bi-monthly, this cost efficient vehicle works very hard to keep the CorStone brand in front of their audiences and top of mind as a crisis management resource that fosters emotional resilience for life crisis and conflict. The launch of the eNewsletter was met with very positive response and continues to result in open, click-thru and readership rates that improve CorStone’s online visibility and connection with their constituents.
To learn more how we can help you create and integrate these new tools and techniques for your organization, contact us.
To say that the communications business is undergoing significant change would be no less than a gargantuan understatement. What’s even more disturbing is that the current status of our economy is adding lighter fluid to an already volatile environment that is breeding ill feelings and challenging traditional relationships like never before.
As this popular video points out, there seems to be more than a few unrealistic attitudes for those who are requesting services these days. It’s a trend that can have no winners as fair and reasonable compensation for services is not an unrealistic expectation. In fact, one could argue that honoring and supporting fair compensation practices is needed now more than ever if we expect to collectively grow our way out of the current downturn.
New Voice of Business (NVOB), a non-profit policy change advocacy group located in San Francisco, was founded on a simple and timely idea—make it easier and more profitable for business to operate sustainably. Their mission is to inform, engage, and mobilize an influential network of business people—a unified, new voice of business—to advocate for a sustainable economy and encourage best practices that align the priorities of the planet, people and profits. Their sustained efforts have helped to pass major energy initiatives in California including the largest state carbon reduction plan in US history. And they are now focused on similar advances for national policy.
To help them promote visibility for their organization and recruit new supporting members, NVOB engaged our services to develop and produce a campaign of posters for use at key events and presentations on climate change, energy sustainability and the business role in affecting positive change for future prosperity.
As David Brodwin, President of NVOB added, “The recruitment posters that Paul and his team created captured the essence of our focused message in a way that was both emotional and compelling. We especially appreciated their ability to quickly grasp the value that our organization offers to our diverse, professional members and how they were able to bring it to life to help us grow our membership and affect the change we need.”
We look forward to assisting NVOB with future outreach efforts and helping them spread their timely message to the most influential people who can help make positive change happen—American business leaders.
If it’s not obvious by now, we’re in an environment in utter turmoil and revolution.
Think victory at sea with waves and wind chop creating massive swells with peaks and troughs of ominous proportions. Think Bethlehem steel workers in the 70’s. Typesetters in the 80’s. Travel Agents in the 90’s. GM/Chrysler UAW workers today. Upheaval is the order of the day.
In an environment where business and marketing complexity is rising, expectations for measurable ROI is accelerating and compensation for services is on the exact opposite trajectory, providers of marketing communications services need to address the economic reality of the day: The more you invest in technology, and the more you learn, the less you make.
So as these interesting, pressing and unresolved trends continue to unfold, I offer these 12 guiding principles of marketing for the new world order.
1. TV has been replaced at the front end of the sales funnel (for generating brand awareness through broad reach) by the browser search box.
2. High volume yelling with maximum frequency has been dismissed by a transparent, respectful and engaging conversation.
3. It’s not about finding your target. It’s about them finding your value.
4. Adwords have been replaced by your words on Twitter.
5. Your campaign flight has been eclipsed by a 24/7 opportunity to build your brand.
6. The episodic event of market research has been replaced by all day, everyday insight on your customer.
7. If it doesn’t register on the dashboard, it didn’t register with anyone else.
8. Turns out, it really is all about you.
9. If you don’t engage your suspects, prospects and customers with meaningful or relevant content, your brand value is diminished.
10. Navigating the growing complexity with efficiency and simplicity enables success
11. Open, pervasive platforms are the starting point to add your value.
12. Every impression matters in every cross integrated media—make sure each one adds value to your brand.
micro finance recipient, Ghana, Africa
While working on connecting the dots in the new world order of marketing, we’ve had the opportunity to a apply some real world methods, applications and tactics to an incredibly interesting project.
It started as only a very fuzzy idea with a bunch of amazing images created by award winning photographer, Mark Tuschman. Over the course of 2007-08, Mark made several trips to Ghana, Africa for WomensTrust, to document the effects of microfinance in Pokuase—a small town located approximately one hour from the capitol city of Accra. Mark had previously traveled to Ghana for various photographic assignments and he wanted to see first hand if rising interest and investment in microfinance offered a pathway out of the endless cycle of hardship, hopelessness and despair for women in this part of the world.
Beyond the obvious—Adding value
Mark shared with me his idea of documenting his findings and photo work in a printed book.
After listening to Mark and looking over the amazing images he captured, I suggested that he name the book Capital of Hope. I also helped him to edit and select the most relevant images from the large volume he created.
From there, I designed and laid out the book and organized it in a way so that it had a compelling structure for telling his story. I also edited the text and wrote headlines throughout the book. I then suggested that his idea would be more successful if he could turn his photo journalistic effort into a downloadable (on demand), interactive book, eBook. This could be supplemented with a limited number of printed books which could be used sparingly as a leave behind to promote himself and his work with qualified prospects. It would be very effective in gaining additional engagements like Capital of Hope for other non profits and NGOs interested in documenting the effects and results of their valuable efforts.
We then went further and developed a web Blog/site that allowed Mark to create posts about specific aspects or stories within the book, link to other organizations that he has engaged with, and create a community of feedback from visitors to the blog/site. This vehicle could even capture leads via email with others interested in the project or Marks services. The blog/site integrated RSS feeds from related sites, image content from Flicker and related video content from YouTube.
We also developed a number of other items for this project. They include a video overview which will soon to be integrated into the blog/site and an HTML email campaign directed to a targeted list of nonprofits and NGOs.
In summary, all strategy, writing/editing, design, art direction, programming, blog posting, media integration, and content aggregation was done cost effectively with very limited resources in a limited amount of time.
Does this example demonstrate a new model of content creation for micro marketing and promotion that aligns with the micro budgets allocated to marketing today?
Send your thoughts or comments. Looking forward to hearing from you.
Enough!
The time has come to stop the nonsense.
I find it simply intolerable to continue to be an unvocal participant watching the current course of action regarding AIG.
This hedge fund, masquerading as an insurance company, is now under the majority ownership of the US government. And because our elected representatives decided to make me and everyone in America a shareholder of this unworthy company, they have the added responsibility to look out for our best shareholder interests.
With this new responsibility in their portfolio, it is now imperative that they immediately stop the payment of bonuses to quantitative analysts, derivative traders and managers who have essentially bankrupted this organization and facilitated the near demise of capitalism. It is simply senseless to reward any AIG employee for their performance in bringing America and the world to their knees with virtual economic collapse.
I further recommend that our elected representatives exercise their now significant financial leverage and cease any action that provides additional investment, bail out or capital infusion in this failed company. It is high time that we do what should have been done many months ago. Let AIG fail into bankruptcy and wipe out these toxic credit default swaps and the payouts that have now supposedly become America’s responsibility. These fraudulent instruments never had any value to begin with as they were conceived and sold with AIG’s full knowledge that they never had the financial resources to make good on these obligations should they ever be required to do so. So if they are fraudulent instruments, it is simply foolish to honor them as legitimate obligations and expect us to continue to pay for them with ever increasing amounts of borrowed money.
Systemic risk aside, I cannot see how shoveling money into this carcass can be in American taxpayers best interests. Nor do I have ANY confidence that we will ever see a reasonable return for the gargantuan investment that our elected officials have already chosen to make on our behalf.
So enough.
Put AIG in the grave, throw dirt on the coffin and let’s move on to applying our limited and diminished resources into activities that will actually deliver some real long term value for the shareholders of America.
Ninth House, a leading provider of people development solutions with decades of expertise in deploying award-winning, e-learning and leadership training solutions, was seeking an experienced resource to help them reposition their brand with an expanded service offering. They were in the process of integrating new specialized assessment tools, consulting services and custom developed programs into their existing portfolio of packaged e-learning solutions.
Organizations that need to quickly align a large workforce with their strategic goals have realized tangible business value from working with Ninth House. Their customers include over 200 global and government organizations such as Amazon.com, British Telecom, American Express, SSM Health Care, IBM and the US Dept. of Justice.
The new services they were offering marked a strategic shift from Ninth House being a packaged, elearning provider to becoming a more comprehensive, people development solution provider.
Delivering strategic value
Ninth House engaged our services to help them define and create a brand positioning and value proposition directed to decision makers responsible for evaluating, selecting, and deploying resources and initiatives for developing managers and leaders, fostering innovation, spawning culture change, and valuing diversity.
Brand Strategy Recommendation
Based on detailed management and sales interviews, analysis of existing marketing communications and a comprehensive competitive audit, TWC worked with Ninth House to develop a brand strategy and positioning that reflected the core business value that Ninth House offered their customers and prospects. The brand strategy and recommendation we developed was reviewed and refined with senior management and was then implemented into an engaging interactive brand guide micro-site. This flash-based site summarized and organized the new brand strategy for all Ninth House employees, mangers, and partners in a way that was easy to understand, memorable in delivery and which reflected the unique interactive experiences that Ninth House was know for providing to their customers.
The result of this engagement has led to a refocused management team, improved employee understanding of the company’s purpose and direction, increased interest from prospects for Ninth House services, and business growth in a challenging economy. To learn more about how we can create this kind of brand strategy foundation for your organization, just visit our web site or send us an email.
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