Swirlingmedia

Bledcom Conference debates the IMC Mix

2008-07-09T08:42:00.003-05:00

Here is a great post by B.G. Smith, a panelist at the Bledcom Conference in Slovenia. It seems the debate centered on who's more truthful, advertising or PR. I think each has their faults, but advertising doesn't have much of a chance of changing becuase it lacks a two way dialogue.

http://theorynpractice.com/2008/07/09/guerrilla-pr-bledcom-2008/

Swirl on B. G.

Pitching Integrated Marketing

2008-07-08T22:09:00.002-05:00

I have gone through a Masters program in Integrated Marketing Communications (IMC) at Emerson College and I still have a hard time wrapping my arms around IMC. I think my main problem has been that IMC falls under the "all things to all people" rule. When companies use IMC to promote themselves it always looks like they are saying that they can provide expertise in all areas of communication. I have held jobs in advertising, PR, branding, graphic design and social media and I would say that while I have experience in all these disciplines, my talent lies in strategy and branding. However, I am challenged as how I should position myself to new clients. I think this something that I will be exploring as I start up IMC Society, a new network for communication professionals that are interested in Integrated Marketing Communications. (www.imcsociety.wordpress.com)

What problems do you face when pitching IMC to your potential clients?

Twitter is a New Part of the Integrated Marketing Mix

2008-07-07T22:54:00.003-05:00

This is a great article about the power Twitter is having on the integrated marketing mix. Twitter is a medium where marketing becomes all about customer support and helpful conversations. http://tinyurl.com/6l9ych

Keep Swirling

2008-07-07T22:06:00.009-05:00

Over the 4th of July I have had some time to think. Well maybe not that much, but enough to be struck by a comment from my very own dad. He said "the thing I most admired about my son when he was young was that nothing ever stuck to him. He just did his thing and rolled with it and made it work. Well now it's a little different."

"Well now its a little different." What did that mean? However, I know exactly what it meant. It meant I have lost that spring in my step. The glisten in my eye. The attack in my soul.

So its been awhile and I don't really believe in new years resolutions or diets, but I challenge my self to get this blog back up and running. I challenge myself to lead the charge for Integrated Marketing. I challenge myself to let lose and speak my mind. I challenge myself to be all those things I thought I was going to be. In this Doogie Howser MD moment that I am having right now. I need to let lose. Fire this blog post across the internet and open up to the world of possibilty that I had forgotten existed until this last year. The new age of media has opened up the game to anyone and it is time I stepped on the court and played a few games.

So as of July 7th, swirlingmedia.blogspot.com and my new blog www.imcsociety.wordpress.com are up and running. Please RSS these sites for latest in intgrated marketing news.

Keep swirling.

Patrick Richardson
swirlingmedia

Degrees of IMC

2007-08-01T20:20:00.000-05:00

I few people have asked me if there are any other integrated marketing communication degrees other than at Emerson College. So I did a Google search and here are the results. Let me know if you know of any other programs I might have missed.

West Virginia University
Florida State University
Northwestern University
Roosevelt University
University of Utah
Ithaca College
San Diego State

Integrated Marketing Forum

2007-07-29T20:11:00.000-05:00

On June 19th, I took part in an "Thought Leaders Round Table Forum" put on by PRNews and VMS. The event brought together some of the leaders in the industry to talk about the future of integrated communications. This was one of many forums that PRNews has held around the country talking about the subject of integrated communication.

Below are a few points that I took home:

• People were very concerned about social media as a new silo in the integrated marketing mix

• People use the word silo a lot when talking about integrated marketing communication

• Many people, myself included are still having a hard time defining integrated marketing communications
- Pam Hamlin, President of Arnold Worldwide had the best description. While I don't have, word for word of what she said. Below is a bit that I like from Arnold's website.
True brand integration is what we do best. It’s easy when you start with the brand truth. Integration, per se, is not even a stated goal here at Arnold, because it is always an outcome of our work. It’s understood that everything we do for the brand will be integrated because every discipline is working against the same objectives, budgets and brand truth articulation. And with one bottom line across all disciplines, no one discipline is “fighting” for your dollars. The communications plan is built only to solve a client’s problem.

• Companies are having a hard time coming out of their defined "silos" of advertising, pr, marketing and interactive for fear that they will lose a piece of the pie. However, most of these agencies are actually practicing integrated marketing communication every day.

• Many people in the forum did not know that their was a masters offered in integrated marketing communication

It was a great event and I was proud to be a part. Below are a list of round table attendees.

Round top attendees:
Pam Hamlin, Arnold Worldwide
Stephanie Anderson, Osram Sylvania
Michelle Davis, Boston Children’s Hospital
Todd Defren, Shift Communications
Andrew Eberle, Weber Shandwick Worldwide
Mike Farber, Schwartz Communications
Mike Lawrence, Cone
Craig Martin, Feinstein Kean Healthcare
Kathy O’Reilly, Lycos
Patrick Richardson, Schneider & Associates
Christine Simeone, Lois Paul & Partners
Steven Singer, Dana-Farber Cancer Institute
David Thomson, Thomson Communications

Project Update - Part 2 Waltham Community Farm

2007-05-22T21:50:00.000-05:00

This next project was for Waltham Fields Community Farm, a pro-bono job that I started back in November. I was asked in by a good friend to help the farm with their branding for a silent auction that raises funds for the farm and their local hunger relief efforts. Working with Meg Coward (Managing Director) and other members of the silent auction volunteer team Swirlingmedia came up with the idea to call the event "Sprout". The name seemed to bring together spring, the possibility for the farm and hunger relief/nourishment all in that one word. After the naming was complete, we put together a logo, poster, invitations and signage for the event.

The Sprout silent auction took place on May 4th, and it sold out a week before the event. The attendance nearly tripled from the year before. The design was a hit and I received many compliments on my work. This project was an amazing case study on how creativity, vision, great design and a lot of dedicated individuals can help a non-profit organization's annual fund drive really pay off.

Stay tuned as I will be continuing my work with Waltham Fields by designing a new logo for the organization and collateral materials.

Project Update - Part 1 WaterDog Partners

2007-05-22T21:42:00.000-05:00

I have finally finished a few projects here at Swirlingmedia. So I thought that I would give you a recap. The first project was a quick design job for WaterDog Partners. I worked on this website with my great friends Patrick Mahoney and Craig Zingerline at Upthought. You can view the website at www.waterdogpartners.com.

Google Launches Web 2.0 Tool of the Future

2007-04-18T22:14:00.000-05:00

As Web 2.0 tools start creeping into the mainstream, online giant Google is moving quickly to wake everyone up to the new world order. Microsoft is no longer the only software on the block.

On April 17th, Google announced it is launching an online suite of Google docs, spreadsheets and presentation software to compete directly with Microsoft Office Suite.

Google’s new suite of Web based presentation tools are being hyped as the fully integrated work flow software of the future. Some features are the ability to share, store, collaborate and present a document from anywhere in the world. And best of all… it’s free! According to the Official Google Blog, the software will be up and running by summer 2007:

“Now students, writers, teachers, organizers, and, well, just about everyone who uses a computer can look forward to having real-time, web-based collaboration across even more common business document formats.”

It’s my belief that software that enables multiple user collaboration will surely be the wave of the future as old software is reborn for the new Web 2.0 savvy internet user.

For consumers this means free collaborative software, beyond wiki’s and blogs, that can be integrated right into their email homepage (if you are a gmail user). It could also be the beginning of a trend toward all software becoming Internet enabled, on-demand and open source friendly.

As more collaborative software pushes itself into the marketplace, Microsoft is surely thinking of how it can fend off these challenges to its dominant position in the business document industry.

Adweek Press

2007-04-14T19:25:00.000-05:00

My new position at Schneider Associates received a little press from Adweek.

Check it out.

IMC Definition

2007-04-04T16:20:00.000-05:00

Here is a definition of Integrated Marketing Communication from About.com

Definition: A management concept that is designed to make all aspects of marketing communication such as advertising, sales promotion, public relations, and direct marketing work together as a unified force, rather than permitting each to work in isolation.

Word of Mouth or Twitter

2007-03-26T22:18:00.000-05:00

I was at a publicity club event tonight on Word of Mouth marketing. One of the panelist was talking about how buzz was spread in both traditional and online. He was making a case that the lines between online and traditional buzz were being blurred and it has become harder to define any campaign as one or the other. The example he used to illustrate his point was about an article that he had read in the paper. After reading the article, he got online and talked about the article on his blog. The blog created a buzz and someone who read his blog went home and told their partner about the article. At the end of this story the woman in front of me who had a British accent turned to me and said...

"That's really integrated".
That's why I wrote it down and posted it tonight.

Other highlights from the night:
My first Twitter from my cell phone!
The lines are blurring.

Integrated or Mashup

2007-03-22T09:22:00.000-05:00

Definition: Mashup

The mainstream media doesn't understand what a Mashup is. You should. It's not a 'lift' or a 'copy' or even a parody. A mashup is a distinct way of spreading ideas.

When a DJ takes two records and melds and mixes them into something new, that's a mashup. When an Obama supporter takes a twenty year old commercial and splices it with some campaign footage, that's a mashup too. Online services can be mashups as well, like the Google search box on the bottom of this page.

Expect to see tens of thousands more, on every conceivable topic.

Posted by Seth Godin on March 21, 2007

Integrated Timing

2007-03-21T23:04:00.001-05:00

I was thinking during my jaunt on the treadmill at my local Bally's about how my life had changed. I have just started a new job and I decided to get back in shape. These two tasks seem to take up most of all of my day. I think the only other thing that I have managed to pack in is writing one post to my blog. That has even been tough, as it is 12:07am and I am just getting started.

So back to my thought.

A day, just like an integrated marketing plan can't have to much packed into it. It's easy to try and over stuff an integrated marketing plan with lots of advertising, full pr and media tours, top of the line design collateral and lots of social media. There are so many options and so many communications tools. Sometimes doing everything is not realistic and it will probably never happen. Just like my day, time and resources are always scarce. When I look around my apartment at all the things that I have avoided by being so busy, like my sink full of dishes. I realize that we all have a lot of options and we just need to pick the perfect blend. Some days we are better at it than others.

Good night blog.

Good night dishes.

Tomorrow is another day of planning.

I'm a Survey Monkey

2007-03-20T20:22:00.000-05:00

With the success of cheap web survey tools like Survey Monkey (surveymonkey.com) and Zoomerang (zoomerang.com) research is starting to seem like an obtainable goal for even the cheapest budget. A few years ago it seemed like wanting to conduct research for any marketing or advertising project was completely out of the question. I remember pleading with clients that if we just did some upfront research our integrated marketing campaigns would be one hundred times better. So now I have the tools and its time to see if I was right. I'm two Zoomerang surveys in and I'm excited to finish my integrated plans to see if it really paid off. I'll keep you posted! But in the meantime if you're going to start a survey, check out this small article from MarketingProf.

Twelve Tips for Conducting Effective Surveys
by Brian Henderson
March 20, 2007

We've all been on the receiving end of far too many poorly constructed surveys that required too much time and energy simply to share our thoughts.

Recently, my favorite local brewery failed to retain my interest during its 20-page saga of a survey. Even though the subject was interesting (beer), I lost my interest when I realized my time was not being taken into consideration.

Here's a top twelve list of how to conduct surveys without losing contact with your customer.

1. Define the survey's purpose

Figure out exactly what you want your customers to tell you. For instance, you may want to find out whether they are satisfied with your service. So ask them. Do not gather any extra data if you aren't sure exactly what you are going to do with the results.

2. Keep it short and sweet

It shouldn't take a respondent more than 10 minutes to complete a questionnaire. Make it five or even two minutes or less, if you can manage. Also, keep survey respondents in the loop along the way by telling them up front how long the survey might take, including a progress bar and, maybe, even naming the survey something relative to how long it will take.

For the rest of the Top Ten click here:
http://www.marketingprofs.com/print.asp?source=%2F7%2Ftips%2Dfor%2Dusing%2Dsurvey%2Dsoftware%2Dhenderson%2Easp

Community Design

2007-03-19T21:36:00.000-05:00

I have been working with a company in the last four or five months to rebuild their business, integrated marketing and branding plan. They are trying to re-build an online community and I think we have finally landed on a very solid plan. The only problem is now they all want to work on the design of the site. One wants the site to look one way and the others want it to look another. After a lot of in fighting, I finally told them that they were missing the point. The people/community should be the ones who decide what the site looks like and acts like. I almost couldn't believe it when I said it. This coming from the lips of a Graphic Designer? But, things have changed and this article talks a little about that swirling changes happening on the web.

Enjoy!

That Craigslist has succeeded with a minimalist design is no secret to anyone who’s been around the net for a while. But could Craigslist have done as well if it had a slick, flashy design? Even if you discount practical issues such as load time and usability, the answer is an emphatic no.

The entire concept of “design” runs counter to the idea of community. Well, that’s not entirely true. Literally, design takes many forms - such as usability, universality, and affordance. All of these are important in any creative endeavor. What I’m talking about is — you know, Design — the kind of stuff that evokes such adjectives as “bold”, “edgy”, and “daring”.

Design tells users “this is who we are”, “this is what we believe in”, “this is how we want you to feel about being here” — all valuable messages for web sites looking to sell a product or an idea. But a true community should be deciding these things for themselves.

Read the Rest of the article at http://www.hhcc.com/?p=361

Our New Half Life

2006-12-20T11:31:00.000-05:00

I was reading a USA Today newspaper last Friday and came upon this article. Does anyone want to change their New Year resolution!

Americans will devote half their lives to forms of media next year
By Janet Kornblum, USA TODAY
Posted 12/14/2006 8:27 PM ET

Americans love their media — so much that next year they'll spend nearly half their lives watching TV, going online, listening to the radio (or music) and reading. That's what the U.S. Census Bureau is predicting in its "Statistical Abstract of the United States: 2007," out Friday.
The annual report uses data from several sources, including private industry and non-profits. It has statistics on everything from elections to transportation to finances.

In 2000, Americans spent 3,333 hours consuming media — and most of that time (1,467 hours) was spent in front of the TV, according to Veronis Suhler Stevenson, a media-oriented money management company that supplied much of the media data used in the report.

Next year, Americans will spend 3,518 hours with their beloved media, including 1,555 in front of the TV, says Veronis Suhler Stevenson. That means the average American will spend roughly 146 days, or five months, consuming media.

"It's the activity we do more than anything else," said Leo Kivijarv, vice president of research at PQ Media, which collaborated with Veronis Suhler Stevenson.

However, the numbers don't mean we're just sitting in front of our machines; we're multitasking.

"I know people who use television as wallpaper," said Paul Saffo, a technology forecaster based in Silicon Valley. But, he added, "The news means that America is making a smooth transition from a couch potato to a mouse potato. Put another way, I suspect the only exercise Americans are getting is walking between their TVs and their computers."

The numbers mean that "people want to have — and almost need to have — information and entertainment at their fingertips now, 24 hours a day," Kivijarv says.

They also mean that technology tools are continuing to shift our "social, political and economic lives," said Lee Rainie, director of the Pew Internet & American Life Project, which also supplied data for the report. "In the past decade, the Internet and cellphones have changed the way people interact with each other, the way they work, the way they spend their leisure time," Rainie said. Also changed: "The way they maintain and grow their social networks, and the way they share their stories with others through blogs (and) social networking sites."

The Census report, available in book form (bookstore.gpo.gov), also contains other nuggets of data:

•Nearly half (47%) of college freshmen enrolled in 2005 had an A average in high school, compared with 20% in 1970.

•The majority (79%) of freshmen in 1970 had a personal objective of "developing a meaningful philosophy of life." By 2005, 75% said their primary objective was "being very well off financially."

•In 2005, there were nearly 1.4 million men and women serving in the U.S. armed forces; in 1970 there were more than 3 million.

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/census/2006-12-14-americans-media_x.htm

Swirlingmedia is Live

2006-10-06T11:46:00.000-05:00