Last week, the Mirren New Business Conference had 35 Speakers, 30 Sessions, 3 Days, 400 Agencies. It was like being left inside Santa’s workshop for 3 full days. Brent Hodgins, Managing Partner of Mirren, was our gracious tour guide as we played with numerous next generation technologies.

Brent Hodgins, Managing Partner, Mirren Business Development

We were completely wowed by how Aurasma makes print literrally jump off the page with augmented reality technology. Our jaws dropped when we saw the incredible power of Stipple.  Truly a game-changer in broadening ecommerce opportunities for brand-owned images. Day 1 was filled with invention, innovation and inspiration.  Our heads hurt after a long day of playing in the Digital Sandbox on 55 Broad Street.

The rest of the conference we shared the space with power brands like ESPN, Kayak and Time Warner Cable. We were priviledged to see three energetic and uplifting keynotes from the likes of David Shing, AOL’s Digital Prophet, Matt Jarvis, CSO for 72 and Sunny and Bill Borrell & Jennifer Zimmerman of McGarryBowen. GIANTS in the agency world. All of which agreed that the keys to new business development are “producing great work and the talent, passion and conviction behind great work.”

Pièce de résistance

Absolutely the treat of the conference was getting a behind the camera glimpse of the new AMC show THE PITCH. Produced by Studio Lambert (“Undercover Boss”), The Pitch is a docu-style series that captures the competitive, anxiety filled, high stakes world of agency life.  A panel representing the agencies from the 1st episode along with Executive Producer Aaron Saidman brought the audience to complete silence as they shared a riveting description of their experience.  Funny stories of wearing a microphone into the bathroom and hand wrenching moments when one of the agencies hits a creative wall.  I am quite sure several of us in the audience programmed our DVR’s to record the remainder of the series before we applauded the panel for their participation.

Exhausted but exhilarated, we’ve returned to our Atlanta office with renewed focus on new business development. Thanks Mirren!

The Atlanta High Museum of Art is known as our beloved city’s cultural epicenter. For the past 20 years they have played host to Atlanta’s greatest food and wine party. This wonderful event is a fundraiser supporting after-school programs and special exhibition-inspired teacher and student workshops.  It also drives the very mission of the High Museum. Legendary winemakers and chefs pitch-in to make this event a truly unforgettable celebration of wine, art, food and friends.

The Jones Group is honored to have the incredible opportunity to work with The Atlanta High Museum of Art and create artwork, theme and event branding. Through the gallery of event posters below, you can experience nearly a decade of the most recent celebrations. While you enjoy this look into the past, keep in mind that this event has raised a tremendous amount of money for hard-working charities like the Taylor Stuckey Paddle Raise for Youth Education. All the while providing Atlanta an intimate connection to world renowned collections and exhibitions that enrich the cultural lives of generations past, present, and future.

Your customers tell you all the time that they love how wonderfully user-friendly your site is for their working needs. You’ve even collected a few awards that support a job well done. Go ahead, pat yourself on the back. The investment was well worth it.

While having lunch with a close, tech-savvy friend you’re feeling pretty good about yourself so, you ask her what she thinks of your website.  You fully expect another pat on the back but instead she takes the wind from your sails when she looks up from her smart phone and says it’s horribly unresponsive. What!? She precedes to tell you that your site is not mobile friendly. Your jaw drops as you give your friend a blank stare.

Your tech-savvy friend to the rescue

To calm your nerves your friend assures you that a solution is within reach and it’s called responsive web design. She explains that modern website design must consider all the ways visitors experience your site. Obviously yours is set to a static desktop breakpoint which is 960px. It’s important to note that web users are gradually moving away from the desktop and becoming more comfortable using mobile devices like tablets and smart phones which can range between 1024/768px and 320 x 480px (depending on orientation). Responsive web design creates fluidity between all viewports.

Even with your friend’s insightful explanation you tell her it would be nice to see a website that does it well.  She does one better by showing you a responsive web design demo created by a Senior UX Consultant and Interface Designer, James Mellers. Looking at your friends smartphone you see for yourself how a site responds when the user decides to change orientation from landscape to vertical. You still have that “deer in the headlights” look so your friend pulls a tablet from her case. She shows you the same Mellers demo and you see the image has adjusted for the tablet screen and it performs the same response when there’s a change in orientation.

Hey! Where are you going?

You haven’t eaten your lunch! Running away from the table with phone in your ear you shout, “I’m scheduling a responsive web design meeting with my agency.” She curtly yells back, “Don’t worry, I’ll pay the tab.”

Do not fear, we’re not going to go all Al Gore on you. You’ve done enough homework to find your own truth about climate change and all things green. You will be thrilled that we’re not going to flood you with client case studies about sustainability messaging or bore you to tears with fun facts about Earth Day.

To celebrate Earth Day 2012, we thought we would use a carbon-neutral method most marketeers forget about and it’s called listening. We want to hear how your company is making a positive impact on the environment. Simply complete this sentence …

We are proudest of the following green initiative; ____________________ .

Here’s an ehow.com article to kick-start your thought process, How to Celebrate Earth Day at Work.  Thanks for sharing and have a Happy Earth Day.

My Bacon Cup is Always Half-FULL

There I was minding my own business on my drive home from work. A gruff, masculine radio voice taunted me saying in order to be manly I need to blog about bacon. Bacon, huh? Well, I took this as a challenge to my manhood and decided to “one-up” the manly-man voice on the radio by attending BACONFEST.  To preserve proof of my attendance I snapped the picture to the right.  You should know that this glorious picture of my cup o’ bacon captures the intrinsic nature of the event.  An unholy festival for vegetarians and those with high cholesterol beware.

As I snacked upon my cup o’ bacon my eyes were also feasting upon all that BACONFEST had to offer.  I saw people with bacon mustaches painted above their smile and socks with the word bacon stitched along the side.  I was overcome with jealousy because my socks were plain white.  The grin returned to my face when I saw that a skilled gentleman had fashioned a full-body bacon suite.  I walked directly up to bacon man, shook his hand firmly and told him I was impressed with how realistic his suit appeared. Well-done Bacon Man, well-done indeed.

But the highlight of the day required a double take.  Yes, my farsighted eyes did not deceive me when I noticed Kevin Bacon himself was in attendance.  You would think I would have been stricken with star shock.  Oh no.  Instead of asking Mr. Bacon for his autograph I felt the moment called for a simple tip of my cup o’ bacon. He returned with a nod and my quest for a higher state of manliness was complete.

Why do marketing teams struggle with developing a Strategy?

With the fast-paced, social nature of marketing today, there is an overwhelming amount of information for a marketing team to digest and without a foundation for communication, well; it just makes their job harder.

I find myself swelling with sympathy when I begin my standard Q&A at a client briefing…

Describe your Target Audience. – that’s a no-brainer

Who are your competitors? – another no brainer

This seems easy, until I ask …

What is your brand positioning?  Hmmm, we don’t really have one.

Ok, how about your Value Proposition?  Hmmm, we don’t really have that either….we have a Mission Statement that was written 10 years ago when we opened our company doors … will that work?

Ok, let’s talk about your Customers – What is the number 1 reason they do business with you?  We THINK we know, but it is hard to be sure …we have 6,000 likes on Facebook, is that good?

Ok, what do you WANT them to think about your brand? – ok we are onto something here, but, how can we validate what we “think they want?”

If you find yourself or your team in this predicament, The Jones Group suggests …

5 Easy Steps to Defining Your Brand Value in the Marketplace…

1. Hold Brand Vision Workshop with key stakeholders and articulate your Value Proposition.
2. Perform Qualitative Research to understand what your customers are seeking from your brand and develop your Brand Positioning.
3. Use the Brand Positioning to write your Key Messaging.
4. Make it easy to understand with a Tagline.
5. Put all this into a Creative Brief and let the Creative Team tell your story.

Quick, zipper check!

Think back to the very 1st time you met the parents. I remember nervously wiping sweat from my forehead as I rang the doorbell.  Now, I know this is a bit abstract but think about your website meeting the parents and the parents are your target audience. Are you prepared to take their first born (their $) on a date? You think to yourself, “How do I look? Do my clothes match? How’s my breath? I hope I don’t embarrass myself by saying something stupid.  Is my zipper up?”  You must cover these bases otherwise the parents will never give permission for a 2nd date.

What helps a website get that important 2nd date?

First, Ask yourself this question, “How did I get the 1st date?”  Were you easy to find?  Well, that’s your website’s Search Engine Optimization (SEO).  The better you utilize these tools you will be seen as a people person and a crowd pleaser. Meanwhile, your talents and opinions will be exposed to a greater number of available suitors and influencers.

Next, Would you be considered a leader amongst your peers?  Score big points with the parents and put your Content Management System (CMS) to work.  It gives you a viable platform to be a voice of influence. Be a team player and invite others to participate in your coolness.  Content built on collaboration will be resourceful to others and leading the effort will definitely help you stand out in a heavily populated crowd.

Then, take a good look at yourself.  Would your customers say your website is well groomed and dressed to impress?  Put your best foot forward and do yourself a favor and don’t over do it with hand-me-downs (stock photos) and please, for all that is holy and happy, don’t let your cousin’s girlfriend’s brother-in-law that lives in his grandma’s basement pick out your wardrobe.  Your website will fall to pieces before you can ring the doorbell.  Don’t give the parents a reason to lock the door (their wallet) and never let the 1st date happen.

This could be “the one” …

Thanks for playing along.  The reality is your website is making 1st impressions everyday, all day.  You don’t want “the one” (potentially your biggest customer) to get turned-off and become the one that got away.  Make sure your website is engaging visually, resourceful, and a social facilitator.  If so, you can be assured a long-lasting relationship and you’ll be in the parents “circle of trust.”

So, your sustainability statement has been published for a while now. You beam with pride because you went to great lengths to source FSC Certified paper for all your printed channels and on all your digital communications you’ve cleverly designed a “leafy” icon to saddle up next to every link leading to a carefully written sustainability statement.  Your dedicated marketing team has been praised for their diligent work to back every word with the proper research and qualitative support to protect the company from legal reprisal.  A job well done.  Then …

Every Marketing Manager’s Fear

Your Sales Manager reports that strong push back is coming from your sales team in the form of client skepticism.  They just aren’t buying-in that your company is truly committed to sustainability.  So you ask yourself, why does all our BIG work carry such a little stick?

Quick question?

As a business, do you feel like the most powerful force on the planet?  You should. According to B Lab, a non-profit organization, businesses are holistically better equipped to bring positive social and environmental change to the world than Governments and Non-Profits.  To support this claim and to empower businesses, B LAb has created a certification process whereby a company’s sustainability statement becomes far greater than mere lip service.

Here, take a look at this video to see what I mean … PBS NewsHour: Benefit Corporations Aim To Make Profit, Positive Impact

Inspiring right?  Well, what are you waiting for?  Go here and start walking-the-talk. Take pride in your “do-good” company and redefine what it means to make a profit. Once you do, let’s work on strapping rocket boosters on your sustainability statement and watch your ROI take off.

Who Sees Your Personal Brand Gallery?

Recently, Personal Branding has been something that I’ve become keenly aware of while conducting a career search. Now in my new role as a Marketing & Sales Director I see the term used everywhere. Before, I only noticed it used when describing a celebrity, politician or star athlete and typically not in the best light. “Their personal brand has been negatively effected,”the news reporter would say. It makes me wonder if Kobe Bryant, John Edwards and Lindsay Lohan have strong opinions of the importance of personal branding. Now, that would be a great round table discussion. How fun would it be if it was moderated by former Presidential hopeful Herman Cain?

Learning more about personal branding I’ve realized that I have been fiercely protecting my own personal brand for many years now. Every time I start a new cellphone contract I never hesitate by answering “YES” when I’m asked if I want to keep my same number. I enjoy hearing my friends laugh every time they hear my # ends in 2337 or “beer.” Another image from my personal brand gallery is my love for low-cut Chuck Taylor basketball shoes.  I wear them until they literally throw themselves away.  My wife and I are always mystified how they get into the trashcan.

Low-Cut Chuck Taylors - Part of My Personal Brand Gallery

Peter Montoya wrote in his 2002 book, The Personal Branding Phenomenon, that your personal brand is the ultimate currency in the information age. So much has changed since this book was published and still the question must be asked, “Have you invested in your own personal branding?” Wait, don’t answer that just yet. Allow me to suggest that you first conduct your own personal brand audit. It’s a fun exercise and one that will help you gain hold of your own personal brand.

Conduct Your Personal Brand Audit

First, Start a Pinterest account . You say you’re already on Pinterest. Well then, take a look at the interest boards you’ve created and realize that you’re looking at a snapshot of your personal brand. Keep pinning, you’ll see it.

The Jones Group just started our own Pinterest account. Let us know if you need an invite to get started.

Next, And this is extremely important, visit all your social media profiles as an outsider. More specifically, look at these as your long-standing client, a prospective client, your employer, a co-worker or a trusted vendor. Who is the person they are seeing in your galleries, posts, likes, tweets and and pins?

Then, Determine if you see common, relevant elements. Collectively these must all be a gallery of your self-impression. If so, you are doing what many great brands strive for everyday. You are creating brand equity. Basically, you are placing value on how others perceive you in your personal and professional lives.

Best Personal Brand Investment – Time

Ah, now that you’ve completed your personal brand audit you are now free to invest. As a favor to yourself prioritize time into your personal brand investment. Time you will need to spend keeping a watchful eye on your personal brand. Strive for continuity, professionalism, and whatever makes you, you. Be careful not to fall into the Halliburton or Charlie Sheen realm of personal branding. You’ll thank yourself for it.

Final Note: We constantly get hit with examples of terrible personal branding so, I thought I would leave you with an example of great personal branding.

Evan Mullins, Interactive Director here at The Jones Group, gave a presentation at the WordPress Conference last month. Now, you may ask, what is WordPress, or what is WordCamp…

What is WordPress?

I’ve been using WordPress since 2007, but it’s been around since 2003! Originally is was built as a blogging and content publishing tool, but in the past couple years it’s evolved into a full fledged CMS. WordPress is the largest CMS on the internet today. It is even available to use for free as open source software at wordpress.org or people can let wordpress host their site at wordpress.com. At The Jones Group, it is becoming our go to CMS for website development. It allows us to create custom post types and helps us organize website content and is so easy for our clients to use it would be ridiculous to not use it.

What is WordCamp?

WordCamp is a conference that focuses on everything WordPress. WordCamps are informal, community-organized events that are put together by WordPress users like you. Everyone from casual users to core developers participate, share ideas, and get to know each other. WordCamp Atlanta is a two-day exploration and sharing of WordPress goodness. There was quite the excitement and has been growing since last year was cancelled. This conference didn’t disappoint! It was an exciting sold-out event hosted by SCAD Atlanta.

My Presentation

I applied to speak about one of two topics (I don’t remember what I proposed now, but I think they were custom post types and child themes). The organizers later called me back saying that they had a lot of requests for something more along the lines of wordpress themes and photoshop designs. I was able to incorporate some of the ideas I wanted to speak about originally into this talk and wanted to give a good foundation for people to understand the type of things that I wish I’d understood as I started building themes. I’ve been pleased to hear from multiple people that it was their favorite part of the day! “That’s when light-bulbs really starting going off in my head”

I’ve done a more techincal write-up of this presentation which covers how to get from a photoshop design to a theme in WordPress. Here are the slides for the presentation though:

I discussed topics such as what is a theme, what makes up a theme, looking at various different ways to make a theme and going through my process of making a theme. I shared expertise that we’ve been using at The Jones Group in this presentation about building themes for WordPress.

Do you have a site you’d like us to build or any questions about how to build a site using WordPress? Get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help with your web design project!