Did you know that Savannah has the fourth largest container port in the nation? Here for a photo shoot to capture the incredible infrastructure and logistics attributes of this crucial southeast hub. The view from one of the cranes is pretty spectacular.
It has been a few months since I moved to Georgia and immersed myself in the economic development landscape. One of the aspects of my new position has been to leverage the brand direction set in place by the marketing and communications team as well as our agency of record, Engauge.
To me it is a refreshing approach because it draws upon hard figures and statistics unique to the region with a foundation of “We Speak Business.”
Above is an energy ad I recently worked on for an upcoming conference. Below are two more. One is an aerospace ad for Georgia Trend (left), while the other is a logistics and infrastructure ad for Site Selection magazine (right).
What do you think?
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Click either image above to view larger.
Conveniently located next to the Blue Ridge Parkway and just 8 miles from Waynesville, North Carolina stands the quaint and majestic 100-year-old Balsam Mountain Inn. Sporting 50 bead board rooms complete with claw foot tubs and a decidedly mountain cottage-style feel, reservations include breakfast and as much rocking in the rocking chair as you desire. Dinner is also available onsite if you choose not to venture out. If you do, the Frogs Leap Public House is an excellent choice. Of course, there is plenty of access to hiking, kayaking, and exploring Smoky National Park.
I have officially started a new position as director of account management in the marketing and communications department at the Georgia Department of Economic Development.
I will primarily be serving the Global Commerce teams as they generate economic development throughout the state. They are an active group composed of 5 main teams:
In addition, ten international offices actively represent and promote the state to key decision makers in their regions.
In 2011, the International Trade Team assisted 265 trade deals in at least 37 countries; meanwhile, the Global Commerce team members supported 158 missions and trade shows.
The Georgia Department of Economic Development also operates its Tourism Division as well as Film, Music & Digital Entertainment.
Another key business team is the Georgia Centers of Innovation. Focused on six industry clusters and located throughout the state, the Centers assist and partner with Georgia companies to help them accelerate growth and provide industry-specific knowledge, connections and innovative business solutions.
For example, Bioscience:
There is a lot going on here in the state of Georgia. Stay tuned!
Case Studies are probably not the first thing you want to cozy up next to the fire with – and some can make your eyes bleed – but they are effective tools for communicating what you actually do for clients. Get beyond the marketing spin and there is some quality content there.
This year I included a rather bold but hopefully doable strategic initiative which is to produce 1 case study per month. It is now March and so far I have 3 in the bag. Hopefully I can keep it up.
One just completed this week was in conjunction with Savvis, the industry leader in cloud computing. Based in Atlanta, my company uses their infrastructure to manage thousands of media and newspaper properties in North America.
As I state in the case study,
“The media industry has undergone a tremendous revolution in how content is consumed,” said Robert Payne, director of marketing for SAXOTECH. “Our cloud solutions have helped the media leaders compete and get to where they are today.”
Here are a couple of others:
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The E. W. Scripps Company is a diverse media concern with interests in newspaper publishing, broadcast television stations and syndication. Scripps operates daily and community newspapers in 13 markets, and 19 broadcast TV stations. Scripps also operates Scripps Howard News Service and United Media, the worldwide syndication home of Dilbert, Marmaduke and 150 other features and characters. |
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The Daily Herald, a Paddock Publication, is the third largest newspaper in Illinois. With more than 1,300 square miles of coverage, including 100 communities and 21 advertising and content editioning zones, the Daily Herald is one of the most complex newspapers in the industry and sets the standard for localized and personalized print and online news and information. Honored by Editor & Publisher magazine for 10 Newspapers That Do It Right, The Daily Herald was singled out for its organizational changes… to efficiently coordinate and disseminate newsroom content in print and digitally. |
Just returned from San Antonio, Texas where I organized a special event for more than 400 publishers and media executives at the Sunset Station.
Logistics from:
…were all a part of the event marketing and management process.
After last year’s event I had some high expectations to meet, but I think everyone had a great time. What’s more, it served as a great branding and marketing vehicle.
As one individual stated to me after my follow-up email marketing message:
“I’ve never seen a more compelling followup to a convention by an exhibitor, even though I’ve been in the trade press for more than 30 years. Bravo.“
Works for me!
Produced a new video recently. I know it is a little corporate but that is how it needed to roll. When I was writing the script, the main challenge was condensing 18 years of company history in to roughly 3 minutes. Of course, I got lost in Neo Sounds trying to find the right mood. There are folks out there who can appreciate what I am saying.
Recently, my company moved office spaces to accommodate the growth we are experiencing. I’ve had the pleasure of working on improving the interior design of the new space from a somewhat stale corporate environment to one that is more inspiring. I’m still not done but progress has been made.
Here are a few shots from my mobile:
For the lobby, there was the chance to combine steel and vinyl to extend the design across several glass windows. I found an architectural sign company in Miami, Florida that was able to bring the design to reality. It is way more powerful in person.
For some of the larger walls it was important to find a solution that was both cost-effective and creative. Hiring a painter was a consideration, but in the end I went with this murals company.
This is a 20 x 8ft wall making up a total of 5 individual panels made of vinyl with a sticky back. It took 3 people approximately 2+ hours to hang it. I ordered them slightly larger to compensate for uneven ceiling heights, etc and then trimmed it to fit.
This is a 12 x 8ft space where I chose an image that harks back to the early days of publishing. There is another one in orange next to this room. My mobile doesn’t do the image justice, but it really adds depth and interest to the space as you consider how far news and media production have come. I found the images on the Library of Congress website where they were free for usage. Obviously a touch of Photoshopping was added.
This panel resides in the conference room on the other side of the lobby above and is 8 x 6ft. The hexagon treatment connects with the same vinyl exterior on the windows facing the other side. Reference to the past and focus on the future is encapsulated in the “Media Evolution” statement, which I am weaving into other aspects of my marketing initiatives in 2012.
Now to roll this same approach across both our Maryland and Denmark offices. Whew!
This past week I have been working on how to best convey the features and functionality of our digital publishing capabilities.
The above infographic is one piece of the puzzle.
In took me back to my days at an interactive marketing agency where I was often working on the same type of product marketing for content management systems.
In fact, as I was thinking about the best way to graphically construct an infographic, I Googled, "content management system" to see what kind of inspiration I could find. There in the first few search results was one I worked on more than 5 years ago. Got to love the time and relevance that search engine optimization (SEO) provides.
I think the evolution is pretty apparent.
You can click here or the above graphic to view this year’s holiday message. The Flash file does not have the supporting CSS and HTML that was originally used, but you’ll get the idea. My goal was to make it global in appeal and feature a broad range of clients that represent several different nationalities.
I can’t believe it has already been a year since I distributed the last holiday message to our database. Notable is the fact that during this time I have worked hard to increase our database by more than 75% with qualified leads, prospect and customers.
This increase has made an impact. Our bookings this year increased by more than 20%. Several of these customers represent some of the larger media brands in North America such as Digital First Media; others constitute niche publications like the American Medical News.
Another one that hits especially close to home is the Evening Post Publishing which owns the Post & Courier, a newspaper I delivered on my bike as a child and have read either in print, online or on my tablet for most of my life. It’s a small world.
My work has taken me numerous places and exposed me to many new things. There is no doubt that 2012 will be an interesting year.