AWC Des Moines

Inspiration for Creative Types

Writers and designers depend on inspiration to spark creativity. But all communicators -- all of us who create messages -- rely on external stimulus during the creative process. According to a recent article by Ben Cook, a guest writer at Zen Habits, "the most common problem faced by anyone trying to create something ... no matter what their subject or level of experience, is lack of inspiration."

Ben's article caught my interest because this week I have been blogging on the subject of inspiration as it relates to our personal lives. On Enroute 365, I've observed that inspiration may be nothing more than a reminder that we "are living within a miracle (see post). I've noted that inspiration is always around us, if we are just mindful of our environments (see post).

Cook, however, goes the next mile, giving specifics on where communicators (and all creative types) can look to trigger our imaginations:

• Art
• Books
• Magazines
• Movies
• More

Where do you find inspiration? How does it impact your work?

-- By Brenda Friedrich

In addition to her role as a web editor for the Des Moines Alliance, Brenda Friedrich is also an independent communications consultant and blog author of Enroute 365.

Walgreen World: Designed to be Read

Sarah McAdams, writing for Ragan Communications, says that Walgreen World may be the internal publication to emulate ... says that it's more popular than People magazine.

"Many corporate editors talk about competing with the likes of People and Sports Illustrated for employees’ attention," McAdams notes, "but at Walgreens, most workers pass by the competition dozens of times a day, on the retailer’s own sales racks."

In her article, McAdams discusses the factors that are important to corporate communicators: readership levels, the magazine's growth (from 1933 to present), its design and more. Read the full article, "Walgreen World: An internal magazine more popular than People."

PR Week Awards Finalists Named

PR Week Awards fInalists have been named. Here are the top nominations in three of the eight categories and nine sub-categories:

General Consumer Awards
Arts, Entertainment & Media Campaign of the Year

• Brodeur and The History Channel, Reinventing a Modern Marvel
• Edelman and Microsoft Game Studios, Halo 3 PR Program
• Ketchum and Fireman's Fund Insurance Company, "Into the Fire:" Igniting Support for America's Firefighters
• New Line Cinema, Hairspray
• Waggener Edstrom Worldwide and Amazon.com, Harry Potter-mania at amazon.com

Product Brand Development Campaign of the Year

• Edelman and Church & Dwight, Trojan Evolve Campaign
• GolinHarris and Nintendo of America, Gray Gamers Go Wild for Wii
• Ketchum and Kimberly-Clark SCOTT, Flushability
• Manning Selvage & Lee and Procter & Gamble, Charmin Restrooms
• Weber Shandwick and KFC, KFC Face from Space

Consumer Launch Campaign of the Year

• Cohn & Wolfe and Colgate-Palmolive, Get Irish Campaign
• Edelman and Microsoft Game Studios, Halo 3 PR Program
• GolinHarris and Nintendo of America, Wii Launch: How Wii Helped Nintendo Get Its Game Back
• HealthSTAR PR and GlaxoSmithKline Consumer Healthcare, Sparking a Weight-Loss Revolution: the Launch of alli
• Ketchum and Eastman Kodak Co., ThINK...Before you Ink! Kodak Revolutionizes the Inkjet Industry

Industry Market Awards
Technology Campaign of the Year

• Cohn & Wolfe and Joost, Introducing the Future of Television
• Edelman and Microsoft Game Studios, Halo 3 PR Program
• Ketchum and Eastman Kodak Co., ThINK...Before you Ink! Kodak Revolutionizes the Inkjet Industry
• Tesla Motors Tesla Motors, brand launch campaign
• Weber Shandwick and American Airlines, AA.com Clicks with Travelers: American Airlines Launches New First-Class Web Site

Business-to-Business Campaign of the Year

• Capstrat and Raleigh Convention Center,Raleigh Convention Center: From 'Deadville' to Meeting Destination
• Fleishman-Hillard and Bayer Animal Health, Advantage Multi (Imidicloprid + Moxidectin) Topical Solution Product Launch
• Fleishman-Hillard and Rawlings ,"The Summer of Glove: Rawlings Gold Glove Award Golden Anniversary"
• MWW Group and Deloitte & Touche USA, Leadership Counts! Building Reputation and Driving Business with Executive Thought Leadership
• Text 100 and Websense, Porn Blockers to Security Breach Detectors - Websense Does It All

Healthcare Campaign of the Year

• Edelman and Consumer Healthcare Product Association, Five Moms: Stopping Cough Medicine Abuse Before it Starts
• HealthSTAR PR and GlaxoSmith-Kline, Consumer Healthcare Sparking a Weight-Loss Revolution: the Launch of alli
• Lippe Taylor and Digene, HPV Testing: Cutting through the Clutter to Prevent Cervical Cancer
• Porter Novelli and Almond Board of California, The Little Idea that Made a Huge Difference
• Weber Shandwick and National Marrow Donor Program, 2007 Thanks Mom National Marrow Donor Drive

Targeted Audience Awards
Employee Communications Campaign of the Year

• Fleishman-Hillard and AT&T, Communicating Convergence: The AT&T-BellSouth Merger
• Fleishman-Hillard and Ernst & Young, Above and bEYond: Making Inclusiveness Real for Lesbian,
• Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Employees
• Insidedge and The Dow Chemical Company, Bringing the Human Element to Life
• Insidedge and The Dow Chemical Company, Engaging Employees with the Blue Planet Run
• Weber Shandwick and American Airlines, Fuel for Thought: American Airlines Gets Fuel Smar

Multicultural Marketing Campaign of the Year

• Bratskeir & Company and PepsiCo PepsiCo, Smart Spot Dance! Moves Moms
• Cone LLC and the American Heart Association, American Heart Association's Power To End Stroke
• Edelman Multicultural and Unilever, Pasa La Belleza
• Fleishman-Hillard and Abbott & the Magic Johnson Foundation, I Stand With Magic: The Campaign to End Black AIDS
• M Booth & Associates and Unilever, Vaseline's Skinvoice Campaign

Global Campaign of the Year

• Kaplow and the Blue Planet Run Foundation, Blue Planet Run
• Ketchum and Eastman Kodak Co., ThINK...Before You Ink! Kodak Revolutionizes the Inkjet Industry
• Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide and Bayer Schering Pharma, The Image of MS (Multiple Sclerosis) Campaign
• Text 100 and NXP Semiconductors, New Kid on the Block: Presenting NXP Semiconductors to the World
• Weber Shandwick and MasterCard Worldwide, MasterCard Worldwide Centers of Commerce

Find additional results and information on the 2008 Awards fnalists here.

Cell Phone Reading in Japan

Perhaps I shouldn't be surprised. After all, the novel originated in Japan. Still, the next phase in the evolution of that genre took me by surprise: the latest Japanese novels have gone mobile.

According to The New York Times writer,  Norimitsu Onishi, "of last year’s 10 best-selling novels, five were originally cellphone novels." Moreover, "the top three spots were occupied by first-time cellphone novelists."

While I was sleeping, somewhere along 2000, the cellphone novel emerged. The reality that I am just now awakening to -- that many blogs are actually written as novels -- wasn't lost on Maho no i-rando, a Web page creation site, as early as seven years ago. Adapting to the trend, Maho no i-rando tweaked it's coding to simplify content uploads and allow readers to comment on works in progress. As a result, the "serialized cellphone novel" was born.

Onishi, notes that "the number of users uploading novels began booming only two to three years ago, and the number of novels listed on the site reached one million last month." It's a boom that seems to have been driven by economics; by the decision of Japan's cell phone conglomerates to "offer unlimited transmission of packet data, like text-messaging, as part of flat monthly rates."

Read Onishi's full article "Thumbs Race as Japan's Best Sellers Go Cellular."

-- By Brenda Friedrich

In addition to her role as a web editor for the Des Moines Alliance, Brenda Friedrich is also an independent communications consultant and blog author of Enroute 365.

What kind of communication technology user are you?

Answer a few questions to see where you fit in the new typology of information and communication technology users developed by the Pew Internet Project.

Do you cringe when your cell phone rings? Or do you suffer from withdrawal when you can't check your Blackberry? The Pew Internet Project wants to know.

See where you fit by answering a short questionaire. Or read a Pew report available here which breaks users down by type.

Call for Clarion Awards

The 2008 Clarion Award Competition Is Underway!

Call for Entries - Early Bird Deadline, Feb. 29, 2008

Des Moines Alliance Members,
You are invited to submit an entry in the prestigious Clarion Award Competition! This 36th Call for Entries is sure to attract the best communicators across the globe!

* Enter Online *
Beat the rush and submit your entry prior to Feb. 29, 2008 to take advantage of the Early Bird rate!

The Clarions offer more than 130 categories in communications areas such as Advertising/Marketing, Books, Education, Fund Raising, Graphic Design, Magazines, Newspapers, Radio, Special Events, and many more!

>> Check out a full listing of categories

For additional information about the Clarions, deadlines and rates, please go here. For any other questions, contact Susan Pinta at clarion@womcom.org or 703-370-7436.

Enter the 2008 Clarion Award Competition and Receive the Recognition You Deserve!

PR: Rebuilding Credibility

Following public relations blunders by Wal-mart and FEMA in 2007, many PR departments are re-evaluating their practices. Not that 2007 was an isolated year.

“The need to restore trust in the minds and hearts of the public, employees and other stakeholders is one of the great challenges faced today by American corporations.” So begins a how-to guide released by the Public Relations Coalition ... in 2003.

The document, “Restoring Trust in Business: Models for Action” discusses how trust can be restored by:

• Articulating the principles that are connected to an organization's values
• Creating a process for transparency and disclosure, and
• Establishing an organization-wide system of governance and measurement

View the pdf document at no charge, at the Institute for Public Relations web site.

2007 Review of Communications Trends

Brenda Friedrich's picks for the top three top communications trends, evidenced by news events from 2007.

With 2008 just hours away, I've paused to review a year of communications news. Three major trends emerged that I believe will follow us into the new year and beyond; trends that we see unfold across the globe, our nation and here among our individual practices in Des Moines:

#1 The Global Power of User-generated Content Emerges

#2 PR Needs Credibility Check

#3 Print Magazines Are Growing Online or Going Away

>>> Read about each trend and the news stories behind them here.

 

Holiday Communications, Part 3

Ballantine Releases Preliminary Report  on Holiday Direct Marketing

“Are your holiday direct mail campaigns working?” That's the top question the Ballantine Corporation posed to marketers from a cross-section of industries. While many of the campaigns are still underway, preliminary results look promising.

Ballantine, a full-service direct mail production company, has already begun compiling the responses from its 2007 survey.  According to initial feedback, holiday greeting cards may be a “great way to keep in touch with clients and to nurture strategic relationships.” Ballantine representatives add that “other effective direct mail tactics included updating packages with cross-sell opportunities and refining list selection for more focused targeting. E-mail also complemented many direct mail campaigns.”

Some businesses, however, have realized a decline in their direct mail marketing responses. A representative for one, a consulting company, speculates that “the power of the Internet usurps direct mail response” for clients.

“Overall, the results were positive for companies who send out holiday direct mail marketing campaigns and the use of e-mail seems to be working well when combined with these direct mail efforts,"  concluded Ryan Cote, Director of Marketing for Ballantine Corporation.

What are your experiences with direct marketing during the holidays? Do you think holiday cards are an effective means of communicating with customers?

Additional Reading:

• Holiday Communications, Part 1 
• Holiday Communications, Part 2  
• Ballantine's direct marketing report press release
• The preliminary report (pdf format) 
• The Ballantine blog post 

-- By Brenda Friedrich
In addition to her role as a web editor for the Des Moines Alliance, Brenda Friedrich is also an independent communications consultant and blog author of Enroute 365.

Holiday Communications, Part 2

In Part 1 of Holiday Communications, we considered the holiday greeting card as part of an organization's overall communication package and customer relationship strategy. But, as numerous season's greetings came pouring in to my home-office, I recently began to question, “do any of these messages stand out?”

Indeed, some firms send cards on less traditional occasions. My accountant sent one around Thanksgiving. Not only did that seem appropriate (what better time to thank me for my patronage?) it also came before the onslaught of Christmas missives (whose verses sometimes read like worn cliches).

New Years also seems like a great time to make contact, although I've already received my quota of calendars from financial planners and not-for-profits, thank-you-very-much!

There are literally dozens of non-traditional holidays you could acknowledge with cards. Which now begs the question, are greeting cards -- for any holiday -- an efficient communications option?

With proper planning, I think they can be. Your organization should already have some sort of customer relationship management tool in place. If not, hold the cards for now and make this a priority. But assuming you've got a functional client database in place and can begin planning approximately two months out, a card campaign should be on par with any other mass mailing.

But can we make it easier? I suspect so, but here's where I will defer to two experts within the Des Moines Alliance. The first is Sandy Renshaw. Among her entrepreneurial efforts, Sandy works to make sending business and personal greetings easy through her SendOutCards Web site. With this novel system you can pick and personalize cards on-line ... and leave the mailing to these pros.

Want to increase your communications effectiveness? Ask our e-mail expert Kathy Towner how a targeted, permission-based email campaign goes hand-in-hand with holiday mailings.

Which brings me to my final thought. Holiday cards can be an effective part of client communications, but other forms of contact may be more critical.  As I say this my mind is wandering to a start-up tech support company I did business with last year. Their follow-up was non-existent, so I was surprised to get a Christmas card from them. The card was nice but follow-up support would have been nicer and, as you probably guessed, I'd already switched providers.

The moral of the story? Before you prepare for a seasonal mass-mailing, assess your entire customer relationship program. Maybe a well-organized greeting card program is the right move for your organization. But, then again, what you need might be a good client feedback mechanism. After all, communication goes both ways.

-- by Brenda Friedrich, Communications Consultant / Freelance Writer