Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Articles

• Marketing and High School Students

  Mar 9, 2010 :: Virginia Ingram :: 0 Comments
  At Capstrat, we spend a lot of time creating marketing campaigns for high school students. On Friday at the NC DECA Career Development Program Liz Hamner and I had the tables turned on us. We spent several hours having high school students market what they have learned to us.

  NC DECA is an association of high school students enrolled in marketing programs. Through DECA, students learn marketing, management and general business skills. This year more than 2,000 students from across North Carolina came to Greensboro to compete in a series of written and verbal competitive events which were evaluated by business, education and industry professionals.

  I was pleased with the imagination of the students I met. In our role playing exercise I was an owner of a manufacturing company that was considering a four-day, 40-hour work week instead of a five-day, 40-hour work week. The student acted as a manager meeting with me about my proposal. The student was to show they understood how the proposal would impact the profitability of the company, show empathy for workers and determine the best way to roll out the plan to the employees of the plant.

  The students had 10 minutes to read the scenario and prepare for the assignment. The creativity was inspiring. I could not have made such strong arguments as a high schooler. To respect the privacy of the students, I don't want to go into detail on the responses. It was hard to make choices knowing that my decisions would impact the future of these young students.

  After meeting these quick-witted students I believe our industry will be in great shape. It also gave me a new way to look at some of our client challenges. I look forward to the competition next year.

  
  
  Tags: deca high-school marketing

• Hey Twitter, you're not the boss of me

  Feb 18, 2010 :: Virginia Ingram :: 6 Comments
  Sure the Internet has changed everything. Everything is expected to happen quickly. Everyone is on call all the time. The Web is always on and someone is always up to interact with it. We've all complained about this but there are benefits.

  There are elements in Twitter that have helped me in my daily life.

  1. Twitter helps me distill concepts
     If I read something, I have to summarize in less than 140 characters. This can be a big challenge - the longer an article, the harder it is to summarize it in 140 meaningful characters - including the link!
  2. Twitter helps me think of headlines
     You become the marketer for whatever you are talking about. You want people to be interested in what you are saying - otherwise you wouldn't have said it. If you want them to read more, you have to write something that piques the interest of your audience.
  3. Twitter makes me more open to explore new ideas
     With URL shorteners (like bit.ly), I click on URLs all the time and have no idea what I am going to see. Sure, I occasionally get Rick-rolled, but most of the time, I just land on a Web site I would not have found otherwise.
  4. Twitter makes me think about market segments
     My Twitter and Facebook accounts are connected - meaning my Twitter updates are also broadcast on FB. FB has some business contacts, but is for the most part, mostly friends that I have hung out with at some part of my life. I don't always know the people I follow on Twitter. Or if I do, I have met them only once or twice in person. If I have something I want to say, I think about whether or not it is more appropriate for my FB or Twitter crowd and then post accordingly.
  5. Twitter makes me realize I don't have to read and/or respond to everything
     If someone emails something to me, I feel like I have to read it and either take action or state a point of view. I can't do this on Twitter. I would drown. I've gotten really good at segmenting Twitter times in my day and ignoring it the rest of the day.
  6. Twitter makes me remember to walk away from the computer
     At times, I turn it off. If I am not interested in what the majority of my Twitter friends are interested in at any given moment, I walk away from the computer. A novel idea.

  How have you begun to own your interactions with technology?

  
  
  Tags: boss twitter walk-away

• Measuring the impact of the Olympics

  Feb 10, 2010 :: Virginia Ingram :: 2 Comments

   Yes, the Olympics. The Winter Olympics begin in Vancouver, Canada this weekend.

  Of course I love:

  • • Learning about the host city
  • • Learning the athlete back stories
  • • Reading Olympics trivia (for example Pigeon Racing was a sport for a year??)
  • • The celebration of national identity (In August 2008, we had a really un-PC opening ceremony at Capstrat for the Olympics.)

  I like to believe the Olympics bring a huge transformation to the host city - making international audiences aware of a city. 

  Barcelona was a wonderful city prior to the Olympics, but the international attention and resulting tourism 18 years later has helped the city flourish. Or has it? Does Atlanta, Georgia enjoy the same international recognition Barcelona enjoys? Sydney, Athens and Beijing were already quite well-known and may not experience the same measurable long-term spike. London will likely perform in a similar fashion. 

  If the Olympics do not have a lasting tourist-related economic benefit, could there be other indicators that make the event a success? The games in Vancouver this Winter are considered the greenest Olympics event to date and the London Olympics will be even greener. Could the expansion of and increased ridership on Vancouver's light rail be the success measurement? 

  What do you think Vancouver should use as a success metric?
  

  Tags: impact measure metrics olympics

• Muting conversations on Twitter and Facebook

  Jan 27, 2010 :: Virginia Ingram :: 10 Comments
  I wish I could mute certain conversations on Twitter and Facebook.

  I am not a basketball fan. I am not a football fan. I have friends that are complaining about increase in chatter related to Apple products that is bound to continue over the next three days.

  There are plenty of things I like to Tweet or write about on Facebook that I am sure no one else cares about.

  I am glad I can hide certain things on Facebook - like Farmville updates or updates from certain people BUT I wish I could be a little more specific with what I want to hide. And that my hide/mute button could happen across multiple platforms.

  I don't want to hide all activity from someone or unfollow them, I just want to hide the 30-40 tweets that happen during a game I care nothing about. For the Super Bowl, I want to hear the chatter about the commercials but don't care about the football insight.

  Is there a service that handles this that I don't know about? You cannot rely on #hashtags. Brizzly allows you to mute all tweets from a user. I believe I can also accomplish this in TweetDeck, by creating creating a "Group" but that is not exactly what I want to do, either. If they are multitasking they might Tweet about something I care about during that time.

  (For those of you reading this, I am fully aware that some people may want to mute me from time to time - or even permanently).

  Any thoughts?

  
  
  Tags: apple baseball facebook football mute twitter

• Judging the Addy's in Memphis

  Jan 26, 2010 :: Virginia Ingram :: 2 Comments

  This past weekend, I traveled to Memphis to judge the Memphis Ad Federation's Addys. For the judging, I was joined by Gianfranco Arena from BBDO in NYC and Jeff Mahar from Cannonball in St Louis.

  On the first day of judging we were handed our charge. The charge included some sobering language reminding us that the decisions we were making over two days were going to affect people's lives. Some people would be elated, some disappointed; some would decide to change their profession, some would ask for a raise. With a heavy sense of responsibility, we began our work.

  We evaluated roughly 600 entries and made decisive decisions. Though we could not discuss our thoughts during judging, we were able to speak freely at the end of day two as we decided the Best in Show awards. We were pleased to discover our votes were similar (on many things). There were no easy choices and we had healthy debates. Since the judging is anonymous, we still don't know who was responsible for each piece.

  The work was solid. I was inspired by several of the items I reviewed. I found it interesting that the city of Memphis seemed to influence the work. Overall I found everything creative and approachable with a bit of funky added in - this is a great recipe for effective advertising.

  I can not discuss the work that we evaluated, but I can tell you some of the highlights of the trip:

  • • Meeting all of the fabulous people at the Memphis Ad Club
    
  • • Eating: Ribs and barbecue at Rendevous, Fried chicken at Gus's, Burgers at Huey's
    
  • • The all inclusive trip to Graceland with Kelly
    
  • • Seeing the ducks at the Peabody hotel
    
  • • Watching Pam talk her way out of getting towed
    
  • • Hearing Dan's monkey story - it's one of the best I stories I have ever heard

  We were supported by a great group of volunteers from the Ad Club. They took our needs seriously and made sure we had what we needed to make decisions. I don't have the names of all the volunteers but we were able to spend some quality time with the current board: Sally Baker-Brenner the association manager, Susan Ewing from inferno, Marcia Anthony from ABC 24 WPTY, Pam Branham from Running Pony and Dan Barron from Entercom Radio.

  Many thanks to Pam and Sally and all of the volunteers at the Ad Club. I hope to see you in Memphis again soon. And to James, I hope you had fun interpretting my messy handwriting.

  For those of you competing: Good luck and congratulations on creating great work. I recommend sending a slam-o-gram to your competitors. 

  Tags: addys design interactive marketing memphis

• SXSW Opening Keynote – Zappos.com

  Mar 19, 2009 :: Virginia Ingram :: 0 Comments

  Tony Hsieh, CEO - Zappos.com - At Zappos.com, Tony Hsieh has fostered a culture where extraordinary customer service is the norm. Hear him talk about how good deeds can help you leverage the power of your audience to massively extend your brand.

  I attended SXSW in 2008 when Zappos.com distributed branded ponchos to every conference attendee (all 10,000 of them) on a couple of rainy days. When I returned to Raleigh last year, I ordered two pairs of shoes. I am still not sure if I want to keep one of the pairs of shoes I ordered, but I still have time to return them, their return policy is good for a year – with free shipping each way.

  This was my first exposure to Zappos.com's customer service. I'd heard of them, but never ordered anything. Since then, I have noticed the legend of Zappos.com's customer service and treatment of employees is everywhere. Many potential customers are aware that Zappos.com feels they are selling customer service more than they are selling shoes or handbags. Current customers already know this to be the case. Zappos.com believes that treating their customers well, will generate far more business in the long run than pinching pennies to achieve profitablility. In times of economic strife, it is easy to ignore the special things that make your company unique - especially if those items cost money.

  Tony Hsieh (pronounced Shay) was the keynote speaker the first full day of the 2009 SXSW conference. His keynote presentation is available online, but the notes below will help with context.

  -Culture is really important. In fact, while in the training Zappos.com will pay you $2,000 to quit - no strings attached. Their culture is important and if you don't think your personality will jive with their corporate culture, you will get $2,000 to leave, plus the pay that you have earned while in training. The incentive started out at $100 a few years ago, but keeps incrementally increasing to ensure they weed out the people that do not match their culture. http://about.zappos.com/our-unique-culture/zappos-core-values

  -Good customer service comes at a price. They offer bargains on merchandise and free shipping, but they also work hard to make sure you get what you need, when you need it. The warehouse is open 24 hours a day so that orders are grabbed and packed as soon as the order is placed. There will be no surprise 'out of stock' items as Zappos.com will only sell merchandise that is actually in their warehouse on the Web site.

  -Cross-training on all jobs makes employees work well together. Zappos.com feels that you have to know how someone elses job works before you can understand how to do your job. So, even if you are a customer service representative in Las Vegas, you will spend time in Kentucky working in the warehouse during your five weeks of training.

  -Twittering can help you engage with your co-workers. Just about everyone at Zappos.com Twitters. Tony was at SXSW when Twitter was launched in 2007. While in training, employees go through Twitter training. Employees that decide to Twitter, have their feed prominantly displayed on the Web site. And you can follow Tony, too. Just keep in mind, he will likely follow you back.

  -Don't be afraid of Virgin territory. Meaning, the Virgin Group- you know the Virgin Megastore, Virgin Airlines, Virgin Galactic, etc. This is a company that is known to be really good at every industry they enter, even if the industries do not seem to go together.

  With these sorts of principals, it is easy to see how there may be a Zappos Airlines one day. In fact, on the flight back to Raleigh, I read in my American Way magazine that Zappos.com tracks employees who 'reply to all' and jovially has the employee wear a Crown of Shame.

  Hmmm, maybe I should order some new shoes before I head out on my cruise in a couple of weeks… Next time I go on a cruise, it may be on Zappos Cruise Lines and I may be able to buy all my clothes and shoes on board.

  Tags: sxsw zappos

• Are PR Agencies a Dying Breed?

  Mar 17, 2009 :: Virginia Ingram :: 1 Comments
  • Karly Hand - Karly Hand
    
  • Erin Portman - Erin Portman PR
  • Brian Solis - PR 2.0
    
  • Peter Shankman - HARO

  In a world riddled with ADD, where TMI blogging and DIY reporting are the norm, are PR agencies still relevant? All sides will discuss the Pros & Cons of public relations in the digital age. - SXSW 2009
  

  I was particularly interested in this as Capstrat is always billed as a PR agency - though we consider ourselves a communications agency. Three other colleagues were interested in this conversation for the exact same reason.

  I cannot speak for them, but I found the conversation dissappointing. The conversation was not as challenging as I wanted it to be and focused mainly on Twitter. In fact, the audience was so fond of Twitter that the session ended up being one of the most popular terms on Twitter. There are 61 pages of results on Twitter Search for #PR2. Most popular tweet: "PR is getting people to do your job for you."

  One of the panelists suggested that every brand should be on Twitter. Does every brand need to be tweeting? Absolutely not. Does every brand need to pay attention to what people are saying about them on Twitter? Absolutely.

  To stay relevant, PR agencies need to have online specialties that expand beyond Twitter. You don't need to create Web sites, but you need to be able to engage in the social media world as necessary.

  When you are tweeting, you have to decide if your tweet is yogurt or informational yogurt. The fact that you are eating yogurt is not informational, but the fact that you got a discount on the Pinkberry yogurt is relevant.

  If you are a PR person that is trying to figure out how to navigate the social media world, consider reading Brian Solis' blog PR 2.0. If you are a client looking to navigate the social media world, contact us.

  
  
  Tags: age digital panel public-relations social-media sxsw twitter

• Is Spec Work Evil? The Online Creative Community Speaks

  Mar 17, 2009 :: Virginia Ingram :: 3 Comments
  • Mike Samson - crowdspring.com
    
  • David Carson - davidcarsondesign
  • Jeff Howe - Wired Magazine
    
  • Jeffrey Kalmikoff - skinnyCorp /Threadless
    
  • Jeremiah Owyang - Forrester
    
  • Lydia Mann - AIGA

  The 'no-spec' movement has long held sway in the design community but the web has created a new model for design that allows a freer exchange of ideas and inspiration -- and more ways to enter the design profession than ever before. What does social creativity look like? - SXSW 2009
  

  I found this conversation on of the most engaging sessions at SXSW thus far. When discussing current Web issues in the hallways, this is the session I attended that gets referred to most often.

  Jeffrey, from Threadless, is not sure if spec work is evil or not. David, a design icon, believes it absolutely devalues the work of a designer. Lydia states that the AIGA has a long standing position against spec work- though they did begin to open this up for discussion last year. Jeremiah, from Forrester, believes that spec work is here to stay and you have to figure out how to make it work.

  Mike, from crowdSPRING, believes it democracizes the industry and allows people to create on a level playing field. Users range from ‘mom and pop' businesses to people looking for designs for their blogs to agency's using it to get new ideas. Small businesses are the lion share of users.

  There are three main schools of thought in the design community: It's inevitable - but we should just wait and see how this turns out. It's inevitable - but we can shape it and turn it into what we want. It's not inevitable.

  The conversation by the panelists and audience was engaging and not something that can be easily captured in a blog post. I could list the valid points of each side, rant about how I am not fond of crowdSPRING and praise the Threadless model, but I am not a designer and I don't have a dog in the fight. I tend to think I am more against it than for it, but perhaps, like Jeffrey Kalmikoff, I am some shade of grey .

  Historically at Capstrat, we shy away from spec work. It is hard to create valid work without input from the client. Our clients are experts on their business. We are experts on how to communicate a brand or business model to audiences. We also know that we need to complete qualitative and quantitative user research to engage our users. We all need each other.

  Just this week, we created spec work for a client. We conducted research and we used our knowledge of the medium and our prior knowledge of the client. The work we did was never intended to be the final product and it was awkward to create a creative brief without the input from a client. In this case, I believe it worked. Creating the spec work allowed us to have convesations that were far more engaging than normal conversations in new business pitches.

  What are your thoughts?

  
  
  Tags: sxsw

• Can Social Media End Racism?

  Mar 17, 2009 :: Virginia Ingram :: 0 Comments
  • Kety Esquivel - NCLR
    
  • Jay Smooth - Ill Doctrine and Hip Hop Nation.com
    
  • Phil Yu - Angry Asian Man
    
  • Latoya Peterson - Racialicious.com

  The tangled issues of race and privilege in our society come to a boiling point on the internet. Exploring the complicated place of race in society, this presentation examines the ideas of race in the digital environment with a specific focus on social media. -SXSW 2009

  The panelists agreed that racism does exist online and social media would not end racism. However, they are able to expose items that would not usually get exposed. For instance the Postville Raid in Postville, Iowa . 

  NCLR has been getting bloggers together to combat the main stream media. Right now they are planning an online event to go combat some comments made by Sean Hannity of Fox News. Keep an eye out for this. 

  The panelists have often taken a humorous approach when dealing with racism online, but have also taken to combating some serious issues. Jay Smooth created a video that explains how you should deal with someone who is making racial statements. How to Tell People They Sound Racist. It's very good, note the number of comments he still gets and it was posted over a year ago. 

  Some of the panelists have decided to disallow comments so that they do not have to deal with all of the comments from people (though he still gets a lot of email responses). Jay Smooth leaves all comments on his site, no matter how racist as he feels they serve as a historical archive. You have to decide whatever you feel most comfortable with.

  Tags: sxsw

• Emerging From a Recession with Emerging Media Intact

  Mar 14, 2009 :: Virginia Ingram :: 0 Comments
  • David Polinchock - Brand Experience Lab
    
  • Patrick Moorhead - Razorfish

  Experience emerging technologies revolutionizing the digital world and glimpse what today would look like if we hadn't developed emerging technology from a few years past. This panel is sponsored by Razorfish.(notes from SXSW)
  

  Don't forget to take a step back and look at the long-term. In a recession, thinking about the long-term will help your organization more than plugging up the holes. You may not see immediate results, but you will see a better return on your investment.

  The panel begins with an ode to Bill Maher and Everything is Amazing. (Side note: What makes 'the everything is amazing' skit so popular? People talk about it, seem to be referring to it, even when they don't acknowledge it.)

  40 companies founded during recession in the 70s or the great depression. Consider innovation. This is the time that you should be taking risks.

  VB Beer - the created a character based on a cricket player. This player is known to be able to drink high volumes of beer and still play cricket professionally. The agency embedded audio controls in the character and when watching the game the character would respond back to the TV - chiding teams, etc. The character would also say, Go get me a VB Beer, etc.

  IBM - connecting social media to shopping. People post pictures of clothes they like that they see on the streets and then other people can help them by telling them where that item was purchased.

  Google - always testing items. Hulu has done a great job of creating the appropriate audience online by testing what people want.

  When you put the Beta logo on things, people want it more. They want to be a part of the group that decides how it will function.

  Games - they are not advertising, but they are creating engagement with brands. Parking wars - you can tattle on your friends when they complete parking violations. Sharkrunners - Discover channel - game that uses real GPS tagged sharks and you can ‘hunt' the sharks in real time.

  Subway - you can set up your order with all of your preferences and text it to the stores and then just pick it up when you get there.

  Things we won't be able to live with out.

  T-shirts that talk code. You can scan the shirt with your phone bar code and it will bring up a Web site.

  You can send video to first responders in an emergency situation - this would allow the first responders to be better prepared upon arrival.

  Order a Big Mac with RFID and pay for it through your phone. (in Korea)

  Like.com - Does a visual search to find things.

  When information is instantly available all the time, people get really spoiled quickly. The tough economic times make an imperative for business.

  Tips

  • Don't take technology for granted
    
  • Consumers get spoiled easily, expectations are high
    
  • Innovation happens, what are you gonna do?
    
  • Evolve or die
    
  • Suspend disbelief in order to get smart
    
  • No ‘no risk'

  High Point of the Session

  NewsBreaker Live

  MSNBC.com created a motion capture system. They started releasing a game to be played in movie theaters. The game is played by moving side to side in seats. As a collective group, we moved a ball and it bumped up and 'revealed' news items.

  
  
  Tags: razorfish sxsw