Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

As we gear up for another bustling gift-giving season, I’m mindful more than ever of the presentation of my gifts. I don’t mean how to make my gold bows more Martha-like. I’m thinking of how my beautifully wrapped presents are killing our environment. According to the National Retail Federation, trash from gift wrap and shopping bags totals about 4 million tons annually. And each year between Thanksgiving and New Year's, Americans increase their trash by approximately 25 percent, or an extra million tons per week. And paper accounts for more than 40 percent of what's in a typical landfill .

As the current green movement rolls on, people are looking for what they can do to stop pollution, clear out the landfills and save the planet. But there is no magical answer or one single button that can be pushed. When it comes to sustainability, what will truly make a difference are the little things individuals and companies do.

I’ve begun to notice changes around the Capstrat office. Our internal group, the Capstrat Green Committee, drives these changes. Developing innovative ideas for our environmental practices, they’ve turned Capstrat employees into green ambassadors. For example, we now use stainless silverware instead of disposable utensils and coffee stirrers and don’t supply paper cups at the water cooler. While employees gulp down the 25 cent sodas from the drink machine, Capstrat has provided us two extra recycling bins for cans. We have hosted events using sustainable caterers. We strongly encourage others not to print emails. We have switched over to paper-less meetings and defaulted all computers to double-sided printing. We’ve given everyone cardboard boxes to recycle paper at their desks. We take this paper and make notebooks for staff.

We push each other to be as green and eco-friendly as possible. Capstrat has a chance to make a difference with 80 people, and we’re not wasting that opportunity. Think of ways you and your office can be more sustainable this holiday season. For example, instead of traditional holiday cards, send out e-greetings.

One obvious personal solution is to not wrap any presents at all. Even my grandmother has caught the green bug. In recent years, I’ve gotten my ever-reliable pairs of socks wrapped in re-used gift bags, covered in recycled tissue. This could mean she’s finally run out of the wrapping paper I sold her in grade school. But, I hope it’s because she’s more aware of helping the environment.

This holiday season, keep an eye out for the little ways you can alter your routine, and wrap your presents in meaning. Try wrapping Granny’s new set of towels in your old Victoria’s Secret catalogues, and tell her you made a donation to the planet in her name. She’ll understand.

‘Tis that time of year. Every holiday season, companies send out messages of peace and goodwill to their clients and customers. As a newbie at Capstrat, I was pleased to discover that we don’t just spout warm fuzzy wishes about holiday cheer. We back our warm fuzzies with cold hard cash.

This year Capstrat clients will receive a “give certificate” worth a monetary donation to a charity of their choice. We selected our six nonprofit groups from local, national and international organizations as well as different categories (i.e., children, poverty, disaster relief, animals, etc.). In this way, people can personalize their giving. Capstrat is donating the cash but our clients and friends decide who will receive it.  

When I joined Capstrat six months ago, I found out very quickly that mine was a generous company. Welcoming me on my first day of work was a 1lb. bag of peanut butter M&Ms (my favorite) sitting in the middle of my desk. A small thoughtful gesture that was only an introduction to the spirit of giving that lives here.

Employees aren’t the only beneficiaries of Capstrat’s generous nature.  From clients to causes to our community, Capstrat heeds the old proverb, “It’s more blessed to give than to receive.”  

But there is another wise saying that applies to the Capstrat principle of giving: “You reap what you sow.” It just makes good business sense to invest time and resources into our employees, our community and our society at large. Being a responsible corporate citizen means fostering growth, advancement and prosperity. And generosity is a proven way to achieve those goals. Plus, it just feels good.

How many usability practitioners are out there are testing the same things only to find the same results? Many common usability issues have been documented, but what if they were documented online in a searching and interactive catalog. Practitioners could add new test results to an existing topic area and allow others to comment or provide support for their findings based on their own testing or results. 

Over time as Web behavior and adoption change and new technologies emerge, this catalog could be come ah historic  adventure through the evolution of Web use and behavior. 

What a better place the Web could be. 

 

 

Kindle launched big, but will it keep flying? I first read about Amazon's new digital book gizmo on a Wall Street Journal section front heading into the Thanksgiving holiday. Then, on my first venture out into the holiday retail whirl, the device slammed me upside the head courtesy of its Newsweek cover story. Talk about a Christmas coup! At every book store and big box I visited there was a mob of spend happy consumers, there was Newsweek and there was Kindle on its cover. Jeff Bezos, reward your marketing team by waiving their Amazon shipping fees ... forever!

At the health club, I got around to actually reading the Newsweek piece. Maybe it was just the gym-generated adrenaline, but I was jazzed. All those thousands of book titles at my fingertips. A more environmentally-friendly way of distributing the written word. A design that recalls the shape and feel of a paperback, giving the gizmo an instant retro twinkle before it even catches on. Talk about preemptive strike!

But then, when I was back on the shopping trail, I got to thinking about the appeal of good old fashioned books. My holiday gift list includes at least a dozen books for mom, dad, brother Ramone and the like. I bet only a quarter of those books will actually be read. The others will just stand handsomely on a shelf. And that doesn't bother me, because displaying a book is part of the pleasure of owning a book. The trophy book. We all have'em. An ad buddy has a whole army of terribly hip and just plain terrible marketing books lined up in his office, supposedly read and digested but frankly not looking very dog-eared.

After a laudable launch, can Kindle overcome the decidedly non-digital joys of buying a real book?

I am not writing this as a marketeer, but rather as a literature nerd.

I definitely applaud Amazon's ability to secure the front page of Newsweek magazine. Amazon must have caught Newsweek in a compromising position at some point and ransomed their way onto the front page. Regardless, a very nice media hit.

The Kindle is not new, it won't be groundbreaking, and it will most likely fail like all of the digital readers before it. Ask Sony, a company that actually makes electronics.

As a nerd, bibliophile or just a lover of books (I prefer the latter), I take great offense to Kindle and what it aims to accomplish: the dilution of literature.

Everything about this product underscores all of the efforts of the past 500 years to bring the printed word to the masses.

But you ask, "Won't this make reading more accessible to individuals?"

Absolutely not.

This product is $400. A price tag equivalent to the current cost of the iPhone, which offers far more capabilities (even many books online through the Gutenberg Project) in a much smaller and attractive package. The Kindle is ugly. I'm sorry, but I said it.

The argument against the cost is that books available through Kindle are far cheaper than those available in print. One big problem with this intended selling point. Can I go to a library, grab a Kindle and download a book for free?

Not yet.

There is a reason why Johannes Gutenberg's press with movable type is considered one of the greatest inventions in history. It provided information to those who couldn't previously obtain it. Kindle is a high-priced gadget.

More importantly, reading is Romantic (notice the capital "R"). There is a tangible aesthetic to picking up a book, thumbing through the pages and feeling the progress being made as characters and stories become life changing.

The Kindle cannot hold a candle to this feeling and I, personally, have no desire to even give it the chance to sway me.

Amazon's marketing team are taking a page from the Book of Jobs (Steve that is) and trying to influence holiday consumers into believing that the Kindle is the absolute future for reading. Unfortunately, they may have picked the wrong time to launch a high-priced toy that seems slightly half baked. 

The most I envision for Kindle is the role of conversation starter in an Omaha airport between two wealthy business travelers.