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Keeping up with the times

Tuesday, April 26, 2011 — 

 

The other day I was working on a document and trying to save something when this box popped up:

Did you catch the word floppy? Because I laughed so hard when I saw this that I didn’t even care that Word lost data.

But it also got me thinking. Looking like you are up-to-date with technology and marketing trends means you need to have all the little things covered. I tend to think that Microsoft is keeping up with what they need to in order to stay competitive. So it was surprising to me that “floppy” was left in the mix, although I have to confess that this box did appear from 2003 Microsoft Word and not the most recent edition.

I only laughed at this blooper because, in my experience, Microsoft has been trustworthy and the mention of floppy did not seem to impact anything I was working on. There was at no point when the only option was to insert a floppy. So Microsoft will survive. But what if this was a detail that was overlooked by a company that had changed all its branding and missed a word on an important part of communication? Or if it was a company that switched to Twitter for most customer service continues to direct customers to an email that somebody doesn’t check often?

I hope this post serves as a friendly reminder to stay on top of communications and to remember the details!

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and also works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University. Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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What can you do with a hotel room?

Friday, March 25, 2011 — 

 

First of all, notice I said, “What can you do with a hotel room?” not what can you do in a hotel room. Big difference! (And not the subject of this post.)

Recently, a client approached us with an opportunity to do something really fun and challenging. They wanted to create a movie theatre-like experience to accompany a trade show at which they were launching a new product. Important customers were invited to the “theatre” for educational presentations on the new product. We’re really proud of the results, which you can see below. We transformed an ordinary hotel conference room into something that really looked like a theatre with a red carpet and a candy counter. We even popped fresh popcorn throughout the day, making it smell like a theatre too! We’re especially proud of the movie posters lining the sides of the room in which the new product took a starring role in some well-known movies from the past 50 years.

Take a look – we hope you find these photos inspirational!

Christina Steder is the President of Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve.

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It’s Tri-Adathon Time Again!

Monday, December 20, 2010 — 

 

It’s Tri-Adathon time again! A 24-hour pro bono frenzy!

Tri-Adathon is a 24-hour creative marathon which provides pro bono marketing communication services to Southeastern Wisconsin charities. It’s a joint venture between Catral Doyle creative, Clear Verve Marketing, and Welke Group.

During the inaugural Tri-Adathon, the aforementioned agencies completed a total of 37 projects for 22 Milwaukee-area not-for-profits in a 24-hour timeframe. This year, Tri-Adathon begins on the morning of February 17, 2011 and will wrap up just over 24 hours later with the presentation of finished marketing, graphic design, interactive, and public relations programs on February 18.

Tri-Adathon is seeking entries from not-for-profit organizations located in Southeastern Wisconsin that are interested in receiving pro bono marketing support (including PR or interactive services) from one of the participating agencies. Winning not-for-profits will receive solutions to their current marketing and public relations challenges. Potential support includes marketing strategy, graphic design, radio scripting, annual report design, event invitation design, TV strategy/storyboard, Web strategy/home page design, press kits, media plans, or interior design services. The participating agencies will work on individual projects and collaboratively on multi-faceted assignments.

Applications are being accepted until January 7, 2011 at www.triadathon.com.

The 2011 event is the second annual event with 88.9 Radio Milwaukee as a promotional sponsor.

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The Challenge of Staying Relevant

Thursday, September 16, 2010 — 

 

Super Mario Brothers just turned 25.

Is Mario having a quarter life crisis? One should hope not because he is popular, good-looking and has his own galaxy (okay, two galaxies).

But it did take some work. He managed to defy the odds and stay relevant in a world that would probably be okay without a Mario on Yogi-back.

It’s so easy to get lost in this very connected world. Every business can’t stand out. It’s just not possible. While social media tools give the illusion of greater connectedness, more connections just means you are one in a huge crowd of people. When you’re in a group of ten, it’s easy to be “popular”. But in a group of a million- it’s overwhelming.

In order to stay relevant, it takes consistent effort. Nintendo worked continuously to update Super Mario Brothers these past 25 years (see video below). As animation and technology transformed over the years, Mario transformed with it. Nintendo knew it needed to evolve the game so it could continue to engage and challenge loyal fans and also connect with new ones. An organization that can stay ever-evolving, as challenging as that may be to implement, will always be rewarded with the support of others. And in the case of Mario, the support of a saved Princess.

The 1985 Mario probably wouldn’t fit in today. But the 2010 Mario certainly does. He is a great example of how to evolve successfully and stay relevant.

Erica Gordon is a Marketing Associate at Clear Verve and works part-time at a Milwaukee area nonprofit. She recently received her Communication MA from Marquette University.  Follow Erica on Twitter @erica_g.

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Address, React & Recover

Wednesday, May 19, 2010 — 

 

Last week, I attended the Waukesha County Women of Distinction event at the Country Springs Hotel in Pewaukee. I am always inspired by this event and the positive things the women honored have done in our community as well as the work of the Waukesha Community Foundation.  Overall, the event was very well done including the raffle packages, information shared on the group and especially speeches by each award recipient.

This was my second time attending the event and this time around I got a little more than I bargained for – a nasty novovirus that affected about a hundred people at the event.  Its amazing how fast these flu viruses spread – within a little over 24 hours.

I have to commend the Country Springs Hotel on how they handled this situation.  It is not the type of PR a banquet facility likes to have.  They had their crisis plan in place and gave statements to the media right away when a bunch of reports came in that people who attended the event were sick.  They addressed the situation and reacted to what they were going to do to prevent future illnesses including sending home staff and thorough cleaning of the kitchen area.  Now comes the recovery part. This location is one of the best places for large events in the area.  There are still people that are a little skittish about the illness, but the Waukesha County public health department did a good job getting information out via the news media.  The one criticism I would make is that they also should have called back those that reported they were ill and attended the event – this may be something in the works though.

Susan Schoultz is Client Service Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

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One Nonprofit’s Strategy on Facebook

Monday, May 17, 2010 — 

 

This week’s post comes to us from guest blogger Caroline Anderson, Public Relations and Advocacy Coordinator at Meta House.

Meta House recently ran a successful fundraising and awareness campaign on twitter, as Clear Verve blogged about earlier. Afterwards, we were asked to participate in a seminar on ‘Social Media Strategies for Nonprofits’ at the BizTech Conference & Expo on Thursday, April 29. Our panel of four discussed various ways that nonprofits use social media like facebook, twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, etc. and the audience seemed to appreciate hearing about our different approaches.

Clear Verve invited Meta House to guest blog and share our facebook strategy. Without claiming to know it all (especially because social media is always evolving…and no one likes a self-proclaimed expert anyway) here is the general approach that Meta House uses on Facebook. We hope that this blog will help other nonprofit organizations as they navigate social media!

Background on the organization: “Meta House helps women struggling with drug and alcohol addiction reclaim their lives and rebuild their families. Its model program meets the unique needs of women and their children, ending the generational cycle of substance abuse.” This is important to know, because unlike an organization that works with cute puppies or something else with easy crowd appeal, we are working against a stigmatized conception of drug addicts. By sharing their stories of recovery and the benefits of treatment, we help fight this stigma and increase support for our mission.

Frequency: We usually update our Facebook page about 4 times per week. If stretching to find news for an update, better to post nothing. If time is an issue because of other obligations one week, that’s ok. Conversely, if lots of exciting things are happening then we might post more…but we don’t want to flood News Feeds.

Audience: We have a diverse group of “fans” (now that we “like” pages, is the noun still “fan”?) including: Meta House clients, graduates, staff, volunteers, donors, sponsors, and new supporters of the organization. Some fans know a lot about us, and some may just have a general interest in women’s issues or addiction and treatment.

Content of updates: We try to post items that will be interesting for everyone, which isn’t always easy. We share about both big and small happenings going on in the various programs at Meta House – from a healthy baby being born to a topic discussed in one of our treatment classes. Our women and their children go on outings around Milwaukee, so we like to share about the fun places they visit, especially because most of it happens for free! Sometimes we put out timely requests if we need something specific, like diapers in large sizes or volunteers to help with a project.

Sharing other media: If we are featured somewhere else online, we share a link to it. After an event, we post photos and encourage people to tag themselves and friends. We have videos on YouTube featuring some of our graduates’ stories, and we post them in the hopes that viewers will gain a greater understanding and empathy for the women we serve.

Applications: We have a Causes page and have raised some money through that application, mostly during “America’s Giving Challenge” and when a supporter makes us the focus of their Birthday Wish. We tried to win on Chase Community Giving, but there was too much competition.

The person behind the updates: Remember how we said that we don’t know it all? Meta House was unsure of how to move forward with social media, as full-time staff didn’t have enough time and interns were too temporary. When I (Caroline) began working at Meta House part-time in September 2009, it was clear that it would be me or no one. I was hesitant because I had just spent three years with the Peace Corps in Cameroon, Central Africa and felt pretty disconnected from the fast-moving online world. However, I began learning by observing other nonprofits in action, attending trainings and webinars on the subject, and talking to new contacts. Christina Steder of Clear Verve also volunteered her advice! Slowly, I began to tweet and update the Meta House fan page. I’ve learned a lot from our followers- their responses are the best indication of what to adjust in your strategy.

We’ll end with a shameless request: please “like” us and suggest us to your friends as well! Thanks for reading.

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Honesty & Integrity in Communications

Friday, April 9, 2010 — 

 

Being honest can be tough for some organizations and individuals – especially in difficult situations.  But is it okay to lie?

Some organizations choose to stretch the truth versus being honest when faced with the choice to tell the truth or lie.  This can get them into a lot of hot water.

When communicating news that is not easy to share, here are our some helpful tips for crafting messaging to retain integrity in tough circumstances.

1. Make sure your internal and external messaging is consistent and everyone involved knows how to respond. Draft a messaging plan with key messages for all levels of your organization. Be sure that everyone understands how to respond to be on the same page when answering concerns/common questions.  You should create a key message document and a backgrounder with all the facts that individuals can have on hand.

2.  Cut to the chase and don’t beat around the bush.  If something went wrong, find solutions to fix the problem, and share the solution(s).  If you do not have a solution, indicate when you expect to have a solution and a timeline as to when the solution will be ready. Do your best to correct it quickly and work to regain trust with customers.

3.  Do not lie. Stick to the facts.  If you do not know an answer, be honest and say you need to look into it.

4.  Be proactive. If your organization does not have a crisis communications plan in place, start one.  It can be general in scope but should include some basic components:

  • Possible disaster scenarios (e.g. natural disasters, being sued, how to address negative press/customer comments, etc.)
  • Outlining how individuals in your organization will respond and who will be responsible
  • Key messages
  • What information is released and how quickly
  • Crisis plans should include contact lists, information packages, and clear descriptions of how potential disasters might be handled

This is a quick list, do you have any other tips to share on integrity in communications?

Susan Schoultz is Client Service Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

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Service Marketing and the Oscars

Thursday, March 25, 2010 — 

 

In her Golden Practices blog, Michelle Golden draws an interesting parallel between a comment made at the Oscars and accounting marketing.

You should check out her blog to read the whole entry in which she makes some great points about what really matters in service marketing – content. And not jargon-filled, hyped up content either. What matters is content that assumes the audience is intelligent, but not necessarily knowledgeable about the technical stuff that seems like common sense to someone in your industry.

In a service based industry, you are selling the invisible. Whether you offer knowledge, creativity, or a thorough job performing manual labor, people need to understand what you can do for them. They need to know that you’re smart, but won’t make them feel stupid. They need to understand what types of problems you solve. They need to be able to figure out what the heck you do.

Share your knowledge, share examples, explain and explain and explain. It will only make them need you more.

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Are You Prepared for a Tweakout?

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 — 

 

It’s every company’s worst nightmare. A well-known celebrity gets upset and generates so much coverage of their online complaints that mainstream media picks up the story and gives it even more steam. If you haven’t heard, this past weekend Kevin Smith a famous actor/writer/director/producer, did not have a good experience with Southwest Airlines and he shared his frustration with his over 1.6 million followers on Twitter, on other social networking sites, his blog, and via a podcast.

Smith was asked to leave his seat on the airplane he had already boarded because of a policy the airline has regarding weight/size limitations. Southwest has been responding back to Smith’s tweets apologizing for the inconvenience it caused Smith, contacted him directly, and offered a refund for his ticket.  If you want to see the commentary between Southwest and Kevin Smith check out their blogs: Southwest blog post and Kevin Smith blog

There has been much buzz regarding the Kevin Smith/Southwest “Too Fat to Fly” story and many news reports on this situation.  This is a prime example of the importance of monitoring and responding to comments from people online.  Many businesses may not encounter a situation of this magnitude, but it definitely demonstrates the power of social media and the importance of having people in place to respond to issues that occur and making sure they respond correctly, otherwise the situation can snowball fast.

If you do not have a social media policy in place, now is the time to write one.  Even if you think your business is too small, be proactive and have a policy in place so you or a member of your staff can respond or share information appropriately.  Not sure where to start with this policy?

Here are a few helpful guides from Mashable, Social Media Explorer, Ogilvy PR and PR Squared.

Mashable – Social Media Policy Musts

Social Media Explorer – What Every Company Should Know About Social Media Policy

Ogilvy PR – Empowering Communicators Via a Social Media Policy

PR Squared – Corporate Social Media Policy Top 10 Guidelines

Susan Schoultz is Client Service Director at Clear Verve Marketing and works with clients to plan, create and execute marketing campaigns.  Follow her on Twitter as @clearverve2.

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