This post comes as a blast from the past by our very own JJ Lassberg – she’s taken a new direction in her creative and tech world, but remains ever a Schipulite! Enjoy her great thoughts around branding!
In a world saturated by marketing ads and promotions, where children watch more than 40,000 ads of TV alone, it’s hard gain the competitive edge.
Here at Schipul, we believe there are 10 Top Branding Guidelines that can help you stand out in the crowd:
Focus on the #1 thing you provide
Get a short, Clear Tagline that tells me what you are going to do for me
Be consistent with your branding – don’t change it because YOU get bored, it’s all about ME the customer
Show that your are the best by choosing top quality, up to date graphics and design
Use Your Branding EVERYWHERE
Share your branding with a press kit – give people what they need to talk about you
Train everyone in your organization to say the same thing about what you do
Let Your fans rave – them where and how to do it
A bad reputation is louder and more demanding that even the best branding
Let go… just a little. Be Fun, Kind and Grateful to anyone willing to engage and share your branding online.
For the full Branding Guidelines – view the Slideshare Presentation Below:
Are you growing profitable relationships using LinkedIn?
LinkedIn is one of those social networks that has a lot of rabid fans – but also a few detractors who scratch their heads on the non-resume posting / job searching capabilities of the site.
Guilty confession: I was one of the latter, until recently re-connecting with some of the great updates and cool features LinkedIn has to offer.
Here are a few of the ways that LinkedIn has become a relevant part of my relationship building process:
Knowledge sharing tool extraordinaire – With so many places to share your insights, content of note and other great media (think articles, events, notes, thoughts on recent events, etc.) LinkedIn makes it easy for you to keep you name in connections’ minds and give you another platform to be appreciated as a valuable and relevant relationship. Be generous and interesting – it will come back to you in spades (or search engine rankings, at the very least).
Uber-awesome search engine – LinkedIn gives you some pretty remarkable Advanced search features that enable you to narrow down your searches to zip code, job title, keywords, industry and oh-so-much more. Go crazy searching through your 2nd degree connections (that is, your own connections’ connections) or search the LinkedIn database at large.
Magical time machine! – By including all of your education and previous work experience, LinkedIn can help you locate former colleagues, associates, clients and school buddies. Don’t forget to include your high school too. Your old high school flame might be an industry pioneer and your old physics teacher might be a CEO – don’t lose those valuable opportunities!
Additional membership benefit – LinkedIn groups are a great way to get more out of your professional memberships by giving you a single location to share ideas, events and needs with a select group of people that you know, trust and (hopefully) like. You can also leverage groups for special interests you share (motorcycle maintenance or hang gliding) to find like-minded folks to connect with in an out-of-the-ordinary way. Don’t forget those alumni and church groups too!
The ultimate due diligence tool – There is no place like LinkedIn to track a company, association or individual’s updates and news. Plus you get to read between the lines by seeing a firm’s attrition rate, recently updated press release and employee discussion. Take advantage of this information and use it to be helpful and awesome.
Grow your networking brain with LinkedIn Today Headlines feature
During this presentation, I make the suggestion of re-working your morning office routine to include a 5 minute review of your Linked connection / groups / companies updates with coffee. With LinkedIn’s ‘LinkedIn Today’ headline tool, you can even read up on the news that actually matters to you by subscribing to specific news sources and topics.
Schipul is incredibly excited to show off some new stamps we’ve had created with the help from our friends at Gowalla.
While we are still trying to figure out everything there is to know about location based social media, we LOVE the way Gowalla allows locations to easily customize their visitors’ experience. These three stamps are our first steps to helping our clients get more out of Gowalla, and help them find new ways to interact with their customers, visitors and patrons.
The Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park will be held Friday, March 25 through Sunday, March 27 in Memorial Park. The Bayou City Art Festival is produced by the Art Colony Association, a 501(c)3 non-profit organization dedicated to producing high quality art festivals and events, which provide financial support to local nonprofit organizations. Over the past 39 years, Bayou City Art Festival Memorial Park and Bayou City Art Festival Downtown have raised $2.6 million for local nonprofit organizations.
The 2011 Miller Outdoor Theatre season kicks off March 23 with Swing, Jive and Pop! Into Dance presented by the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company. The performance incorporates history, fashion, music and the arts into an interactive blast of excitement. The company dances through the eras of the 1930’s Lindy Hop, bops into the 1950’s, grooves into the 1970’s and ends into the Hip Hop music of today.
For more information on this and other performances, check out the Miller Outdoor Theatre web site.
I’ve been working here at Schipul for almost a year now. I came here after 4+ years of working for the Society for the Performing Arts in Houston, TX. During this time, my mind has not strayed far from trying to find better ways for performing arts organizations to harness the power of the Internet to enhance audience development and, more importantly, sell more tickets.
This post is a first step in helping performing arts institutions to better understand and use the Internet for their organizations and their artists. I welcome your feeback, and hope you forward this on to anyone you know that works for a performing arts organization if you find it useful.
A Reality: Performing Arts needs SEO
You probably think an organization like Lincoln Center wouldn’t need Search Engine Optimization. You’re wrong.
Despite being quite familiar with their site, I had to Google them first to find their site. Today’s web user is very reluctant to start slapping .com on anything you want on the web. For instance, try typing whitehouse.com into your browser. You will not find our President.
Need more proof? Take a look at this report from Google Insights about searches including the words lincoln and center. NOTE: These results are from New York state.
I don’t know about you, but I know Lincoln Center is in New York City. Yet above you can see that many people actually search for “lincoln center nyc” or “lincoln center ny”. Again, these are searched from the state of New York. The point here is that regardless of how strong your brand or position is in a patron’s mind, they will more likely be Googling you or the performer first.
Wait! Don’t go optimizing your performances just yet. You need to develop your strategy first. You’re probably thinking you’ll succeed if you start optimizing around the same time you start marketing the performances through your other outlets. That’s not going to work. You need at least three months of continuous optimization to start getting attention of the great and powerful Google. This means your online marketing should not, in any way, be tied to your other marketing plans. Why?
Newspapers are dying because they thought reprinting their paper on the web was all they needed to do. They were wrong. You must market to an online audience (i.e. Google) if you want people to find your web site. This means you need to start treating Google like your oldest subscriber and donor.
A Challenge: Performing Arts needs Video
Do you remember when we all thought how crazy it was to have a camera on a cell phone? Now we have phones offering HD video! But there’s a HUGE drawback as it’s not so easy to transmit video via today’s web. However, as the Internet continues to become more mobile, and the transmission lines get faster and more widespread, sharing video is going to become as ubiquitous as photo sharing is today.
Today, many performing artists rely on photos to tell their story. Take this image from Diavolo’sTrajectoire.
But doesn’t this video do a better job of telling their story?
Of course, it’s not just about presenting it, it’s HOW you share the video. Take this video I’ve embedded from Alvin Ailey Dance Company. NOTE: Alvin Ailey has restricted our ability to share their videos to this format.
Not very impressive, is it? If you do decide to click on it, you will bear witness to one of the greatest displays of American choreography the world has ever seen. But if you’re like most web users, you are more likely to trust the Diavolo video link (32K+ hits) over the link from Alvin Ailey (26K+ hits).
Proving a picture is worth 6,000 clicks.
Artists and presenting organizations have to work together to provide better opportunities for patron video consumption. It’s not about showing entire pieces or performances, it’s about whetting the appetite of an audience that is starved for good content. And like we’ve seen above, how you allow your patrons and fans to present is important as well.
An Adventure: Check in, Experience the Performing Arts
Do you remember your reaction when you first heard someone talk about Twitter? It was probably the same reaction you have had listening to someone talk about Foursquare, Gowalla or SCVNGR. I must admit, I long fought against the location-based check in services. However, the more I learn about them, the more I begin to see the dawning of a new level of personal interaction.
The purpose behind these services isn’t to alert people of your location, it’s to tell a story about a location. Every time you walk into a special place, like a performing arts venue, a memory is made. You are not the person you were after you’ve walked into one of your special locations.
For a performing arts organization’s patrons, this is a regular experience every time they walk into your performance hall. The hall is your sandbox, and you now have some pretty amazing toys to play with in it. Whether you create photo contests with Instagram or Hipstamatic, or offer discounts to patrons who check in via Gowalla or SCVNGR, you now have the ability, generally for FREE, to create memories and expand your patrons’ experiences beyond the stage and performance.
Performing Arts Online
I want to explore these and other ways the Internet can be used to tell the story of performing arts over the course of this year. I can tell you now, the performing arts groups are not fully utilizing the power of the web to further their mission and vision. My goal, my New Year’s resolution, is to help change that.
I hope this is a first step in the right direction.
If you are an Admin on a Facebook Page you may have noticed already the new ‘Spam†option on your pages. You may also already seen it at work hiding those pesky sales pitches for Magic Acai Berries and the like.
Facebook is now helping Page admins ensure that the most valuable content posted by users on their Page wall is more visible to anyone viewing the Page. We are now offering automatic content filtering on Page walls that will ensure that posts soliciting spam are removed from public view as well as ensure that posts containing good content remain more visible.
If you have your page setting such that posts to your page are separated by your organization’s and then all others, you will see the ‘Spam†link as the 4th option in this list. Not to worry’ only Page Admins can see this link.
Clicking the ‘Spam†link will show you all the content Facebook as deemed spam worthy and moved off your page.
Mouseing over the spam post will reveal a little ‘X†to the top right of the post. Clicking the ‘X†will reveal several options:
1. Remove the post
2. Unmark as Spam
3. Report as Abuse
If the post does really belong in the general content of your organization’s Facebook page… then by all means click that Unmark option. If however the post does fall into that dark side of the internet category called spam, then I suggest you report as abuse and then remove it. This will alert Facebook to the insidious nature of the offending poster and may hopefully save a fellow organization admin a few moments of time later on down the line.
If you have a mixed wall, meaning you show all posts from your organization mixed with other’s post, you won’t see the spam link. You will want to first click the ‘Options†link, then following the same instructions above.
Thanks to popularity of Facebook we can use it connect with like minded people and promote, support and grow our non-profit and for profit organizations alike… and… due to the popularity of Facebook the spammers will start to show up more and more. Thankfully, Facebook is putting measures into place to make the Facebook experience a good one for both admins and users.
The Bill White for Texas campaign has created a Bill White birthday card for the former Houston mayor posted Wednesday (happy belated, Bill!). The idea is that visitors can ‘give Bill hair‒ add famous hairdos to a smiling photo of Bill.
My personal favorite Bill hairdo, the Beyonce
The more people who signed the card by filling out a form (email, name, zip code, message for Bill)’ the more hairdos the community ‘unlocked.†Hairdos include Texas celebs Ross Perot, Yao Ming, Don Henley, Willie Nelson, Beyonce, and… once the card reaches the goal of 25,000 signatures, you can add the one and only coiffure of Rick Perry to Bill’s bald head. Don’t forget that Rick’s hair infamously has its own Twitter account @govperryshair.
I love this campaign because it’s a great way to encourage people to share the website with their friends, and for the White team to connect with thousands of potential voters in a fun way. Mad props to the Bill White team!
I think Bill might just have inspired me to get a haircut myself this weekend… Happy Friday to all!
I am a girl that orders her BBQ brisket with a side of BBQ ribs. I also dabble in the greens, but I feel like no meal is complete without a healthy helpin’ of protein. So it came as quite a surprise, when I’ lover of hot dogs, fried chicken, sweet honey ham, and Mongolian beef’ was completely repulsed by the new Double Down Sandwich from KFC.
“This one-of-a-kind sandwich features two thick and juicy boneless white meat chicken filets (Original Recipe ® or Grilled), two pieces of bacon, two melted slices of Monterey Jack and pepper jack cheese and Colonel’s Sauce. This product is so meaty, there’s no room for a bun” – The Colonel (I kind of want to RAWR and flex my biceps now).
Packing a ridiculous 1,380 milligrams of sodium per Double Down, it is clear that neither nutrition nor taste were involved in the tasty treat’s development. I can just picture the ‘brainstorming†of the Double Down…
[After an edifying evening at a local pub establishment, Bernard and Otis came home looking for a bite to eat.]
Otis: Hey Bernard, what’s in the fridge?â€
Bernard: There are only two fried chicken patties left over from last night, a couple strips of bacon, a piece of cheese, and some secret sauce from KFC.
Otis: That’ll work. Hold up dude…I just got the best idea…
So was it really that simple? Of course not. Have some of the KFC guys spent too much time taken’ in the Ol’ Colonel’s Secret Recipe? Probably. But I also believe they are a lot smarter than we care to admit.
The KFC Double Down Sandwich has almost become a bizarre food phenomenon…which may be a stretch, but no one can deny the fact that everyone is talking about it. Bloggers are becoming bonified Double Down taste-testers, Twitter is having a hunger personality crisis, Google’s new black is KFC red…the buzz is undeniable. I would even go as far to say that this is easily comparable to Britney Spears’ it’s dirty but you have to try it out at least once.
So my question to you is, was this all for the sake of shock value and brand hoopla?
Double Down Duhr!
But who really cares what I think…tell me what you think. Don’t be a coward.
Over the past two years, hundreds of thousands of blog posts, forums, and comments had speculated about Apple making a tablet. Last week, Apple did something they hadn’t done during that entire time span. They admitted they had designed a tablet computer. How did they create so much buzz?
While I think their new device is a real breakthrough in future computing, I find the marketing (or lack of marketing) for such an item much more fascinating. How does a company build up so much hype? Why are people so excited about something they didn’t even know existed? And why have so many critics turned negative on something that isn’t technically for sale yet? Let’s dive a little deeper to solve the iHype mystery.
Apple iHype
Apple, in its history as a company, has been known for releasing ground-breaking products that change the way we do things. It started back in the ’80s with the Apple II and the Macintosh, and continued in the 2000’s with the iPod and iPhone. The widespread obsession in the tech community over Apple rumors is fairly new, but the true Apple geeks have always been a hype-driven excitable bunch. The return of Steve Jobs near the end of the ’90s helped to rejuvenate this passionate group. The basics behind iHype are these:
Develop new things in ways that haven’t been done before.
Don’t publicly show prototypes or “proofs of concept”.
Make a polished, grand announcement of the new thing.
Ignore the negative critics.
Your business or organization may not make awesome tablet computers, but the principles of iHype can still apply to your business.
Develop New Things
Whether it is a piece of software, a book, a networking organization, or a physical item, your product or service stands out in some way. You may do lots of R&D for your new device, or you could simply offer a better way to manage alumni donors. Perhaps you offer public speaking advice or maybe you write code and build web apps. You can be a star by developing things that are new, fresh, and useful. Think like Apple and create things that people dream of using. Offer services that no one else can match and create your own category. To build iHype, you must build something to hype up.
Don’t show Prototypes
The biggest lesson here is this: Prototypes eat up all the hype. When you announce that your company is working on a new product to be released in 18 months, users will forget about it two days later. Not only are future predictions unreliable (see XKCD’s take below), you kill off all of your excitement by the time the thing launches. You effectively use your marketing window of opportunity to announce a future announcement.
What Prototype announcements really mean (from XKCD)
Imagine going to a party on July 31st that was solely to announce another party in 4-6 months (New Years Eve). You would likely kill any buzz for the real party and possibly upset your current guests. The exception to this is a short timeframe with a solid date. Announcing your new product that will come out at the end of the month is probably OK, but it’s better to announce things that ship today. (Apple occasionally announces things before their release to do patent and FCC filings which inadvertently announce things. If they could wait until the ship date, they would.)
The Grand and Polished Announcement
You won’t have the same stage as Apple, but you can deliver your message with the same gusto. If you are issuing a press release, than include graphics, numbers, and memorable quotes and taglines. If you are sending an email newsletter to current clients to announce a new service, give it a great subject line and pay attention to the details. If you are lucky enough to make your announcement in person as a presentation then practice, practice, practice. A boring and unoriginal announcement is likely to be forgotten. Tell the story of your great new thing. The time you spend on it will often mirror the amount of attention it gets from your audience, so put in the time it deserves.
Ignore the naysayers
Apple made their announcement last week and already many of the tech blogs are denouncing the new device. Apple has experienced the same thing happening with the iPod an iPhone, so they are not fazed by harsh words. You may not have the same experience so a negative review could be very painful initially. Do not let it get you down. Your new offering has taken you time and energy because you built it with intent and passion. If someone with a blog or an email account doesn’t like it, there is no reason they should kill any of your excitement. You are trying to sell your product to people who want it, not people who don’t. Do not forget this. Every product has a negative critic and unfortunately their voices can drown out the positive folks. Have confidence in your service and in your announcement, do great marketing, and the buyers will come.
You probably won’t get the same media level of hype that Apple gets, but there is no reason you can’t create stir of similar excitement with your followers and customers. Make something great, boldly announce it when it’s ready, and ignore anyone who talks down about it. These are the simple keys to creating your own storm of iHype.
Some say it’s a myth, others say they have only heard of its legendary tales…but few can actually say, ‘Dude, I was there…AND felt it’s golden buns.†If you have any inclination as to what buns I’m referring to, I can only assume your heart is racing with anticipation. As was mine when I pulled up to the Kroger… questioning…hoping…sweating profusely…and then I saw it. Just over the horizon, the glorious orange and yellow glistening in the sun…I was in the presence of the one and only Oscar Mayer Wienermobile.
This past week, the famous Oscar Mayer Wienermobile became the centerpiece for Houston Children’s Miracle Network fundraising event. Children ate hot dogs, stained their clothes with sno cones and sang ‘Oh I Wish I Were an Oscar Mayer Wiener†in harmony while I led the chorus in spelling out O-S-C-A-R-M-A-Y-E-R. Seeing as though my organized choir tale was false, I feel a sing-a-long would have been top notch, possibly increasing my chances at a record deal.
The highlight of the day you ask? Dress your own giant plastic hotdog then stand in front of the Wienermobile while the photographer yelled, ‘Say Cheesy Wienes!†And no I did not wait in line for 15 minutes amongst toddlers so I could get my chance of being spotlighted in the magnificent glow of my childhood dream car….ok, I’m lying. Hello my name is Courtney Pemberton…and it was awesome.
For the grizzly men out there, let me give you a run-down of what this wienermobile is packin’ under its lightly toasted buns. This bad boy is a Chevrolet W4 Series chassis, V-8 with a 6.0 liter 350 Vortec 5700 engine with a GPS navigational system and a state-of-the-art audio center with wireless microphone system. I know what you’re thinking…Dear Santa, instead of a Toyota Prius this year, can I have a Wienermobile with all the trimmings…and a 6 pack of 100% cotton tube socks.
Of course, we all know the Wienermobile would have never come into existence if it wasn’t for the man…Oscar Mayer himself. It was through the genius marketing of the Mayer family that for the past 73 years, ten versions of the Wienermobile have brought excitement…and sometimes confusion, but mostly excitement, to children all over the country . So here is my shout out to Oscar G. Mayer III, who passed away this week…R.I.P buddy. You made Houston’s day.
If you want to follow the Wienermobile and the Hotdogger’s travels, check out their Hotdogger blog or follow them on Twitter!
Thanks to Guadalupe for being an awesome Hotdogger…I couldn’t have dressed my plastic hot dog with out you!
A big “wow” and “congratulations” go out to the folks at Culintro, one of our newer customers who use Tendenci to manage their Web site and membership. In just a few short months they have registered 1,500 members after starting from scratch earlier in the year. Clearly, that rapid growth suggests they are satisfying a need for executives in the restaurant industry. Check out the news release for more details.
The Culintro Web site was designed by Schipul and is powered by Tendenci.
