Bozell, an integrated marketing consulting and communications company, will offer a seminar on communications and social media marketing on March 3 in Omaha at the Scott Conference Center, 6450 Pine Street. “Social media is not a fad, trend or buzzword. It’s how individuals use the Internet to collaborate, communicate and find customers,” said Kim Mickelsen, Bozell owner and principal, Integrated Marketing. “We are offering companies the opportunity to learn the knowledge and tools to effectively join the game.”

The social media seminar is the first in a series of three seminars to introduce some of the most relevant issues in marketing and branding today. In addition to social media, seminar topics will include maximizing your visibility on search engines and building marketing databases. Small business owners, marketing managers, marketing consultants, team leaders and anyone seeking to maximize their marketing efforts are encouraged to attend. The Seminar Series will visit three cities in addition to Omaha – Kansas City, Des Moines and Denver.

The social media seminar in Omaha begins at 11:30 with a general session of the practical and successful uses of social media. There will be four breakout sessions including using Twitter to promote your business, successful tactics for social media optimization (SMO), blogging for business and online reputation management.

Each session will have a Q&A period for attendees to get advice on their own challenges. During breaks, the presenters will be available for one-on-one consultation. “We will offer real, practical tips, tricks and tools you can use daily for your marketing plans,” Mickelsen said. “It’s a hands-on session and how-to and we’ll provide worksheets, guidelines, links to free tools and much more.”

Registration is available online at www.sausagefactoryseminars.com and the cost is $159 per seminar. Also, mark your calendars for the next seminar on maximizing your search engine visibility in Omaha on March 26. For the latest on the seminar series, visit the Sausage Factory’s Twitter at www.twitter.com/SausageFactory.

About Sausage Factory Seminars
Using a series of three seminars, the Sausage Factory introduces you to the new way of marketing. When it comes to strategy and messaging mix, it used to be like making a nice, simple soup. But the industry is changing and now you have to throw everything into a bowl, grind it together and make sausage. Each session of the series will teach you some of the most relevant issues in marketing and branding today.

About Bozell
Bozell is an integrated marketing communications company with offices in Omaha and Kansas City. Bozell combines qualitative and quantitative methodology to get close to its clients’ customers. Bozell then uses advertising, digital marketing, dialogue relations, technology and innovative creative to provide targeted solutions for local, regional and national clients. For more information, visit www.bozell.com.

I am not Burger King’s target market.  I don’t even eat fast food.  However, I have to admit that I got a little chuckle out of their “Flame” cologne….originally released for the holidays, apparently it was hard to get your hands on.  But it is now back in stock at http://www.firemeetsdesire.com/

The Barry White-esque voice and overly cheesy graphics are just bad enough to be kinda good.  Plus, for just $3.99 you can enjoy the flame-broiled qualities of the Whopper calorie-free.  Perhaps a thrifty valentine gift for your burger-loving friends?  I’m not sure it sells more Whoppers – unless the smell of it makes you continuously hungry.

Back in 2006, large scale, startling posters appeared on the walls and street corners of Paris. They showed faces – mostly black faces – contorted into outlandish grimaces, with teeth bared, nostrils flared, eyes crossed. The photos were the work of a Paris street artist who wanted people to confront stereotypes. His giant photos asked passers-by an in-your-face question: “When you see a kid from the housing projects, do you see a bogeyman?”

Almost exactly a year ago, when riots broke out in France’s troubled suburban housing projects, news reports broadcast countless photos of hooded youths setting fire to cars. JR thought about those images, the stereotypes they reinforced and how he could use photography to bring a different message.

“After the riots, Parisians viewed suburban kids as extraterrestrials,” JR said in an interview in his Paris studio. “On television, you always saw them wearing masks. People said, ‘Those kids are all the same. Everybody who comes from those areas took part in the riots.’ Everybody was afraid of them, and so I decided to take pictures of them looking like monsters or extraterrestrials.”

The 25-year-old photographer, who has a large following at home and abroad, is also part graffiti artist and performance artist. Usually, he has to hide from police as he plasters his work illegally on buildings at night, which is why he keeps his identity anonymous. His work is amazing, not only for the scale of the imagery but also for the context of their environments. Part installation, part photography and part graffiti of spirit.

I recently read about him in the March issue of Marie Claire magazine. His recent posting of photos in Africa, Asian and South Africa celebrate the strength and courage of women who live in places where they are often targets in wartime – and discriminated against in times of peace. As an example, he worked with local residents to post photos of women’s eyes across favela Morro da Providencia in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil  in honor of International Women’s Day, March 8th. See below images.

In addition are some more Women are Heroes images but located across the ocean in Brussels. Check out the entire show across the world online at: http://www.28millimetres.com/women/

In closing: “The photos have a lot of messages,” JR said. “But the main one is: ‘Look at me, I exist, I’m larger than life.”

Indeed.

Thank you JR for your visual brilliance.

Not only is the cocktail pre-mixed (which is a big plus in this busy world we live in), the look of the packaging is super sweet, which means I will do the designer nerd thing and have it displayed on my shelf or use it as a candle holder for the art studio after it is emptied. What a refreshing take on alcohol packaging. It reminds me more of something West Elm would design if they ever moved away from designing furniture. These boutique/high end alcohol companies are becoming more and more popular and are effecting the big name companies to step it up with regards to their own package design. It is a proven fact that consumers are drawn to the more visually pleasing items, especially if they are not initially familiar with them.

Especially when the packaging is this cool.

Loud & Lola Packaging

http://www.loudandlola.com/

Not only is the cocktail pre-mixed (which is a big plus in this busy world we live in), the look of the packaging is super sweet, which means I will do the designer nerd thing and have it displayed on my shelf or use it as a candle holder for the art studio after it is emptied. What a refreshing take on alcohol packaging. It reminds me more of something West Elm would design if they ever moved away from designing furniture. These boutique/high end alcohol companies are becoming more and more popular and are effecting the big name companies to step it up with regards to their own package design. It is a proven fact that consumers are drawn to the more visually pleasing items, especially if they are not initially familiar with them.

Wildbunch drink packaging

The boutique juice industry is also crammed with players – now you can add a new one to the list. Wild Bunch and Company http://www.wildbunchjuice.com/home.html produces a delicious range of healthy juices including vegetable juices which are packed with energy boosting vitamins. But the best thing about this Singapore based company is the packaging. Smooth and ergonomic, the bottles are like little design pieces decorating your refrigerator.

Lastly, we must finally start seriously caring about the environmental impact of unnecessary and eco-unfriendly packaging. Designers, manufacturers, retailers and consumers are the ones that can influence what happens in the packaging world. Packaging manufacturers will follow and start making whatever the market wants to buy. Ideally, of course, manufacturers of packaging should also invest more in developing eco-friendly options. The below bottles are made in the UK using 100% post consumer recycled plastics (such as old soft drink bottles).

Yesterday I had a wonderful opportunity with my son, Alexander. I have always felt that the best lessons are learned by doing, rather than by just reading it in a book. When my son’s were young, I taught them math as we baked a cake or made dinner and measured out the various ingredients. On his own accord, my oldest son decided to enter his high school’s stock market challenge. Since he knows that one of my degrees was in finance, he tapped me for stock recommendations and an overview of our present financial climate. We had great fun watching financial news programs, scouring the newspapers for stock prices and info and discussing how the presidential election would impact the stock market. In the end, he actually earned top honors in the challenge, beating out his teachers.

We were able to take this lesson one step further when we were interviewed last night by a reporter from National Public Radio (NPR) Marketplace. At Bozell, we utilize both free and paid services to get connected with writers and editors from across the country. On a whim, I responded to an inquiry for parents who are using these difficult economic times to teach their kids about finance. My son was able to experience the “pre-interview” call and the waiting game to see if we made the cut.  Even though she thought it was cool about us being in Omaha and the home of Warren Buffet, we weren’t sure if we could find a time that worked with all of our schedules and the school day. We ultimately had to schedule the interview after I came home from Des Moines yesterday. Due to technical requirements, they sent a sound technician to our house as we were interviewed by the reporter over the phone. Alexander was nervous, but ultimately settled down and it was a great interview. So, besides teaching him about the wacky world of finance, he was able to get insight into some of the challenges that I face on a daily basis in dialogue relations. We do not know when the segment will air, but it has truly been a bonding experience for the two of us. Who knows if he will be the next Warren Buffet?  It doesn’t matter. What matter is that we will talk about this adventure for many years to come.

Until later, Sylvia

Surprisingly it’s just dawning on many people that they have a digital trail that can impact their ability to land a job.  For years, we’ve routinely done a quick online search of candidates we interview. And I often shake my head at some of the things we find.  But now, YouTube’s making it easy to clean up your act as far as video comments go.

Personally I’m a little torn on this because I think it absolves people of taking responsibility, but YouTube today announced a feature that gives you the ability to delete comments you’ve made on videos — at any time. So if you made a dumb, typo-ridden, or grammatically horrific comment 2 years ago on some stupid video from your work-related email, you have a chance to clean it up.  You can now delete any and all of your idiotic YouTube comments.  Simply find your comment and click “remove” to pretend your lapse in judgment or grammar never happened.

Maybe next they can work on a way to help people be more lucid as they leave comments.

Advancements in technology are typically gradual and something you can look back on and see how we’ve made great progress over a number of years. It’s recognizing those leaps and lurches forward in technology that is a LOT harder to do.

I remember seeing a promo/demo from Microsoft a couple/few years ago that made me think, “Wow – if they get that working it will be something special.” Well – despite my foggy recollection of that moment and what it was I saw, CNN is now showcasing the very technology Microsoft was touting in that obscure memory.

It’s called “Photoynth” and I have it say – it’s extremely impressive. Here’s how it works: People take photos. People upload photos. Photosynth stiches them together after analyzing the content and determining how/where the images are visually related to each other. Now, that’s a great simplification, but the concept is that simple. It’s like when you take 8 photos of a wide landscape and then overlay the prints on your table to create one larger image. Except this works in three dimensions.

Is this a radical leap forward or just a cool way to view images? Hard to say. I just know I haven’t seen anything else like it executed this well. The amount of visual information that’s being recorded and uploaded across the planet is astounding. We’ve got Flickr and Picasa and countless photo services where we can store and geo-tag our images. Now there’s a way to stitch those disparate images back together into something resembling reality, and they’re all taken one photo at a time.

Think of what we’ll be able to look back at 20 years from now. Pretty much anything that anyone took a photo of today.

Bozell is committed to tracking the latest trends in social media. We attend webinars and conferences to keep on the bleeding edge of social media. It is our goal to be ahead of the curve with the benefits and liabilities of social media. I was able to participate in a webinar called “What is Working Now: Making Profits in Social Media.” There were two insights that I received in this presentation.

We all struggle with the measurement of success or return on investment (ROI) in social media. Most executives want to know how many conversations do you need to be a part of before you make a sale? We all intuitively know that that is difficult to measure. I would challenge the same executives to quantify the relationship and goodwill developed over a round of golf with partners, prospects, influencers and customers. You are building important relationships and participating in dialogue as you walk along a beautiful green, empathizing with that terrible shot and rejoicing that Tiger Woods moment. In social media, you are doing the same as a golf game, developing dialogue, experiencing events and building relationships but in the online world.

The second gem was the classification of audiences in social media. It puts into perspective the different social media audiences:

• Spectators – Read, watch and listen to conversations in the online world.
• Creators – Participate in the conversation by writing articles and blogs. Create content in videos, podcasts and blogs. They publish lists and directories of relevant products, services and companies.
• Critics – Provide comments, rate content and provide reviews.
• Collectors – Tag information, subscribe to feeds and vote on their favorite articles, videos, podcasts and photos.
• Joiners – Participate in social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and LinkedIn. They participate in demographic and interest specific social networking sites.

Effective social media campaigns can target one or more of the social media audiences. It is knowing how and when to communicate best with your target audience.

As I watched the inaugural festivities today, I couldn’t help but be affected by the vibe of optimism radiating from so many.  I’m no Polly Anna.  We certainly have a tough road ahead, but despite the difficult tasks to come, the last couple of days have been filled with a palatable feeling of renewal for me. A feeling that has emanated through TV sets and web pages from the millions of people excited not only by history being made, but also about the future.

It feels good to feel good. Hearing the speeches and media commentary was great, but looking at the faces of people lining Pennsylvania Ave, or standing among the 1.5 million plus in our capital and seeing the excitement was what really struck a chord in me. The reminder of what, as a country, we have accomplished in the last 45 years.

Hearing people say “he’s so cool” and knowing they mean style, not detachment, seems so strange.  When was the last time anyone referred to our President as “cool”?  When was the last time you saw thousands of people proudly wearing pop art t-shirts with the President’s face (beyond campaign staffers/supports)?

Psychologists, for months, have been talking about how our emotions affect the economy.  With all the negative media, consumer confidence has been at a low. And business in general is heavily affected by consumer mindset; some 70% of the gross domestic product (GDP) is driven by the consumer.  Negative news makes us feel fearful, and upset and angry…which can’t help but impact the economy in a negative way.

So…are we emotionally buoyed enough with hope and optimism to give the economic recovery a jump start?  The cheers as Obama walked (gutsy by the way) down Pennsylvania seems like a decent start.

Here’s to tomorrow!

In an economic downturn, employees may feel like they’re holding on for dear life – glad to have a job and empathetic for those who aren’t so lucky. 

For now, it’s an employers market.  There’s a larger supply of talent than there is demand for employees.  But, as the economy rebounds, we’re likely to see a quick shift back to an employees’ market.  Those who may have stayed in jobs where they weren’t completely satisfied, start a wave of turnover as job options become more readily available.

While there are tons of theories on the best ways to assess the emotional connection employees have with a company’s brand and culture, I have to say Zappos uses a technique that’s pretty simple – and pretty compelling.  Check it out. 

I’d say it’s a pretty good way to determine which ones might just be there for the shoes.  http://discussionleader.hbsp.com/taylor/2008/05/wy_zappos_pays_new_employees_t.html