JUN 19, 2009
President & CEO
Like most people in the marketing and advertising business, I never underestimate the impact of creativity. The way truly creative ideas and expression take communication to another level is something I never cease to find remarkable.
This week, I experienced this phenomenon again. Not in a client’s reaction to a strategic approach we developed at Bouvier Kelly, or in an audience’s response to one of our ads—but in the response of preoccupied, distracted people to a display of art created by students at the Guilford County Schools’ Weaver Academy.
This all started with an idea hatched at Bouvier Kelly, built around the theme of a “Window Into Creativity.” The plan was to exhibit student artwork in a previously unused storefront window on the ground floor of our office building, to help people envision and experience the outcome of donating surplus supplies and materials to the Teacher Supply Warehouse operated by The Guilford Education Alliance and Guilford County Schools. We asked the students and their teacher, Lisa Woods, to conceive and craft a piece of original art to demonstrate what students can do with leftover, otherwise mundane paper products and office supplies. Click here to know more about the project.
To say Lisa and her team nailed the concept is a huge understatement. They spent countless hours creating humanesque sculptures out of standard mailroom-issue packing tape, and then installing them in the window in a suspension configuration that defines the term, ‘transcending.’ When the drop cloth came down to unveil the Window Into Creativity, it literally stopped traffic. Lawyers, businesspeople and beat cops hung around for a couple of hours chatting up the students and watching them fashion impromptu art objects from donated trade show freebies, fabric samples and outdated brochures. Now, the idea of donating to the Warehouse is not a chore, it’s something to which people have connected.
Even in a firm where our stock and trade is creativity that draws people into an experience with a brand, I never tire of seeing the process work!
MAY 18, 2009
President & CEO
Don’t let anybody tell you that Wintergreen Resort ( Rt. 29 south of Charlottesville, VA) is just for winter. When my sister, who lives in Richmond, suggested that we take my mom, who lives in Alexandria, there for Mother's Day, I thought it was a pretty silly idea. Wintergreen is a cold weather ski resort, right? Wrong.
We did take my mom to the spa there for Mother’s Day, a gift that treated all three of us. The second week of May on Wintergreen Mountain is incredibly beautiful. The spa must be one of the highest points because it feels like you can see across the whole state from there. Huge windows surround the salon, indoor pool, hot tub and lounge and give you a view second to none. So while we were waiting for our hot stone massage and manicures, we were gazing at thickets of mountain laurel just in bloom, dogwoods flowering and birds everywhere – viewed through the mist of a late spring afternoon. That is serenity and inspiration rolled into one.
It was a great discovery. Maybe they call it Wintergreen so not everyone will know how brilliant spring is and it won’t get too crowded. But since I’m now in on the secret, you can bet that our family will be meeting there again in the spring – and probably the summer and fall as well.
MAY 8, 2009
Managing Partner
Bouvier Kelly Managing Partner Pete Parsells was featured on WFMY News 2 on May 7. Pete offered his take on the "free" phenomenon that has big brands like KFC and Denny's offering up products at no cost to the consumer.
Check out the story on digtriad here: http://snipr.com/hm5mi
Check out the video here: http://snipr.com/hm5a5
What do you think? Is giving away product a risk worth taking? If so, you have to be prepared for the potential negatives -- like what happens when Oprah blogs about it and coupons spread like wildfire through Twitter and you're totally caught off guard by the onslaught of coupon wielding customers, ala KFC.
MAY 6, 2009
Client Services Manager/Public Relations
In social media, success comes from knowing your audience, understanding their values and interests, and finding mutually beneficial ways to relate to that audience. From a social media standpoint, not knowing whom your audience is, or what the best platform is to communicate with them, is only slightly worse than not knowing that a certain segment of your audience exists in the first place.
Case in point, an article in May 5’s Raleigh News and Observer, which profiles the number of Facebook communities that have been established around varying opinions on pending legislation in North Carolina. No less than 16 groups have been formed – some with as many as 8,000 members – offering support or disapproval on hot button issues like the ban on gay marriage and smoking in restaurants. According to the article, several of the state representatives who were intricately involved in shaping the proposed legislation did not even know the Facebook groups existed.
I see two problems with that assessment. First, after the hoopla given to President Obama’s campaign organizers for the success they experienced rallying support from the social media communities during the 2008 election, every politician should be monitoring the social media radar. Second, if the organizers of several of the Facebook groups really intended to make a difference, they could have taken their group efforts from the social media world into the real world and personally grabbed the attention of the politicians.
You’ve got to know your audience, know what stirs them to action, and know what kinds of actionable steps you can ask that audience to take in order to make a desired impact.
Brands use social media to engage their audience in dialogue in the hopes of forming a bond or relationship with a community of peers who are interested in a particular topic or issue. Beyond engaging the audience, it’s also about empowering that group to action, which is a step that many brands and individuals are still figuring out.
APR 16, 2009
Vice President/Public Relations
Among all the news reports of difficult choices resulting from recession-induced budget squeezes, there is this item from the city of Atlanta: The city has decided to discontinue public funding of its three-year-old marketing campaign, Brand Atlanta.
After spending $8 million on the campaign since its inception, city leaders feel they can no longer justify spending on marketing in the convention and tourism sector, when the budgets for schools, hospital services and other public needs are strapped. I suspect most Atlanta taxpayers will agree with that reasoning.
Here’s the irony. As she announced the city was shutting off public funding for Brand Atlanta, Mayor Shirley Franklin noted, “I have come to learn that branding is a long-term process. It requires years of consistent and persistent investment for the brand to take shape.” She expressed hope that private money would step in and sustain the campaign.
The mayor’s marketing insight is worth noting for businesses faced with tough decisions about continuing “consistent and persistent investment” in their brand when budgets are tight. For most of us, the strength of our brand—whether represented by a product line or our organization’s reputation, or both—is the source of the energy that will keep us going through the downturn, and put us in a position to prosper when business conditions are better. Starving a brand under the guise of survival mode budget planning carries a high cost. Ultimately, the cost could be the long-term viability of the brand itself.
MAR 11, 2009
Vice President/Public Relations
NEWS RELEASE
Top award in Triad “Addy” competition was among four garnered by Greensboro agency.
A magazine ad that entices the world’s surfer set to envision their surfboards as works of fine art captured top honors in the 2009 Addy award competition conducted by the American Advertising Federation Triad chapter. The ad promoting Aerialite, a hi-tech glass fabric material from which surfboards are made, was created by Bouvier Kelly, one of the Triad’s leading advertising and public relations agencies. Judges singled out the Aerialite ad from among 219 entries submitted by agencies across the Triad.
The Aerialite ad captured a gold Addy in its category, along with the Best of Show designation. Bouvier Kelly grabbed a second gold Addy for its “Power of the Purse” marketing packet touting the Community Foundation of Greater Greensboro’s Women’s Fund. A silver Addy for a brochure about the Moses Cone Health System Women’s Only 5K Walk and Run rounded out Bouvier Kelly’s Addy recognition.
Read More »
MAR 4, 2009
Client Services Manager/Public Relations
I’m always drawn to the news conferences held by high profile individuals who are attempting to clear their name, admit their mistakes and improve their image. I keep holding out hope that one of these days, an athlete is going to admit to doping, a politician will admit to a cover up and a banker will admit to swindling money. However, time and again I’m disappointed. The news conference held by New York Yankees third baseman Alex Rodriguez, in the wake of reports that he tested positive for performance enhancing drugs while a member of the Texas Rangers from 2001 through 2003, proved that professional athletes and their “handlers” still do not subscribe to the ethical standards that would help improve their image in the court of public opinion. Why is it that the truth is so hard to come by?
Consider the fact that Rodriguez was already guilty in the court of public opinion. He had lied, and cheated, and gotten caught. As a little kid, when you were caught telling a lie, wasn’t the best strategy to tell the truth? Telling the truth lessens the pain of punishment and sets the course for the building of trust and credibility in the future. Rodriguez obviously never learned that lesson. He only admitted only to being a young, stupid and naïve 25 year-old when he began taking the drugs.
Read More »
JAN 21, 2009
Vice President/Public Relations
A lot of observers have seen this coming, but now it's official—the internet has surpassed newspapers on the list of Americans' preferred outlets for national and international news, according to the Pew Research Center. Forty percent of people Pew surveyed in December '08 said they get most of their news about national and international issues and events online, compared to 35 percent who cited newspapers as a main source. In a similar survey in 2007, newspapers beat out the internet, 34 percent to 24 percent.
Just as significant to me is the trend for the under 30 audience. Just a year ago, according to Pew research, Americans in this age group preferred TV over the internet by a two-to-one margin, 68 percent to 34 percent. Now, the internet and TV are dead even as main news outlets, with each cited by 59 percent of respondents. Newspapers lagged badly at 28 percent (survey participants were allowed to cite more than one main outlet for news).
Read More »
JAN 14, 2009
President & CEO
I love making New Year’s resolutions like most type A’s for whom goal-setting is second nature. There’s nothing like a list that you can work against by checking off items as they are accomplished. I’m not the only one who’s guilty of putting something I’ve already finished on a list just for the fun of checking it off. The trouble with being a list person is that it’s too easy to be undisciplined in terms of how many items you put on it. I use mine like a “parking lot” of ideas. I park on my list every notion that floats through my head so that it doesn’t distract my focus from the task at hand. At the end of the day/week/month that makes for an awfully long list, which presents a challenge for someone who lives in this world of 24 hour days and wants to check off every item. So I have a very different kind of resolution for 2009. This year I’m also going to keep a list of the things I’m NOT going to do this year. I feel relaxed just thinking about reading it and dismissing further consideration of the items on it.
DEC 18, 2008
President & CEO
Clients frequently ask us to update, redesign or create a logo from scratch for their business or organization. Almost invariably, the job will involve lengthy discussion of the "meaning" of graphic elements, color combinations and even typeface.
But recently a situation came up that served as a reminder that in some cases, a logo just needs to say what's important about an organization without relying on subliminal messages or symbolic images.
President Bush came to Greensboro to visit Youth Focus, a local nonprofit that provides support services for at-risk and troubled young people. The purpose of the President's trip was to call attention to the success of a federally funded Youth Focus program that mentors kids who have a parent in prison.
Read More »
4 comments
