Read all the details here:

Ultra high-speed broadband is coming to Kansas City, Kansas

From all of us at Agent X (formerly Steketee Greiner and Company) to all of you out there who put in all the time and effort and devotion at the local level around this initiative, we just want to say, in case no has or ever does, we were sincerely impressed, and you’re ALL winners in our book.

David

In case you haven’t noticed, something is different about our blog.  No, it’s not that we’ve shifted directions and are now food critics at large (because the world needs another one of those). But there is definitely something different…

We have a new name! Steketee Greiner and Company has merged with experiential marketing agency Agent X out of Chicago, and we are now calling the new collective Agent X.

We’re still offering our clients the same full-service solutions in strategic planning, creative services, and measurement and insight analysis that we always have, but we’ve added some serious experiential marketing firepower to the stable.

Let’s face it – the marketing landscape is continually changing, and this merger enables us to mash together our services to create measurable, end-to-end brand engagements focused on live experiences that extend into the digital space. We feel this new focus is necessary to compete in a time where the lines continue to blur between experiential and digital.

The other good news is that this means we now have offices in both Grand Rapids and Chicago to serve you better!

Stay tuned for more stories, insights and so on as things develop.

Experiential and event management is exciting yet there are many ‘nail biting/ nerve racking’ moments that can be averted with a proper strategy. If you’re interested in experiential marketing, in the middle of planning an event, a marketing student, etc. than then post is for you. I’m going to share the top ten tips and tricks I’ve picked up in my five years of experience with CES – hopefully you’ll stop biting those nails now! Click below to read more.

1. Determine the goals and objectives of the show.

Before you even think about the booth, show displays or message for the show ask you and your team, “Why are we going?” (What are our marketing goals?):

• To add a few names to our contact list? (lead acquisition)
• To maintain our presence in the industry and make a stance among our competition? (Positioning your clients brand within the respective industries present; also against other competitors present?)
• To launch a new product?
• To get away from the office? (Hey now…!)

2. Make sure you set MEASUREABLE goals in which management agrees on.

This is by far the most important lesson I’ve learned. What is a success to one person, usually isn’t to another; in fact, sometimes it can be perceived as a failure (be warned). For example:

• In a four day stretch you gain 3,000 leads (contact information) out of a conference with 10,000 in attendance (you’re hitting 30% return).
• That’s an average of 750 leads gained per day: a good number and rate of return, it means your booth is probably staying busy!

So how could 3,000 leads be seen as a failure? Here we go:

• It’s great that you’ve given them more contacts (heck, it could even have been an increase over last year) – but are they qualified?

In general, a measurable goal will let you calculate return on investment and create justification for your presence at a show. Specifically though, an increase in qualified leads will take you much further than a large list of ‘tire-kickers’ who stopped at a booth for a free pen (or to kick a tire or two…). This brings me to my third point:

3. Define “qualified” lead.

Similar to #2, this definition can differ from person to person. Make sure everyone has a clear understanding of what makes them qualified and put it in writing. (Are you seeing a trend here?) This is a critical definition to determine at the beginning of your event planning; it will not only set the bar for a performance indicator but also allow you to tailor your booth’s presence and messaging around your desired audience or “qualified” leads.

4. Determine your target audience(s) and make sure you speak their language and message to them.

You can generate this from your goals and objectives. (Wait you have those, right?!) If your #1 goal is to increase media exposure, then the media is your #1 target audience. Don’t forget they have goals for the show too, so make sure your message will get their attention; give them something new and exciting to talk about – make their life easier, make them want to write about your client! Don’t forget your electronic media kit – paper was so last decade.

5. Bring copies of all paperwork, blueprints and confirmations. And phone numbers.

It seems like every year, show services misplaced one of our orders. If I didn’t have my 45 lb. binder with me that safely kept every form, map, plan and confirmation for every order, we would’ve been without electricity, internet, you name it. Without phone numbers, I would’ve spent an hour or so tracking down the right person to get it fixed. And every second off your feet counts.

6. Bring art files for all the graphics, literature and anything else printed for the show.

Why not be prepared in case disaster strikes? Imagine if a graphic didn’t match up right on the spot – it could be printed poorly, it could have stitching problems, it could get rained on…the list is endless. Be prepared.

If you’re not, it’s just a wasted half day on the phone with the ‘home-base’ (aka, the office) tracking down files, sending them, getting things re-printed; imagine if your design team was sleeping – what a nightmare!

7. Communicate between your freight carrier and show logistics before and during shipment.

Oh and don’t forget cell phone numbers for both the truck driver(s) and logistic crew members. We had a second shipment arrived on-time once to the specified location however, show logistics decided to close the gates earlier than listed on the form. So when the truck arrived he had to turn around, continue on to California to deliver another load, then turn back around to deliver our freight one day late. You may think that it’s only one day, but that one day caused a wasted day for the installation crew and overtime to make up for it. Lessons learned!

8. Plan for unplanned expenses in your budget.

Even experiential events and tradeshows have rainy days – do you have your client’s rainy day fund set aside? Avoid this conversation:

“Where’s this?”

“We were supposed to get that?”

“Yes.”

“Uh-oh”

Be prepared, consider that rainy day funds an umbrella to cover any last minute crisis expenses; a good budget is crucial to every marketing strategy but planning for contingencies is crucial!

9. Show Services, are your friend.

Yes, they cost an arm and a leg to do anything from hanging your overhead banners to plugging in an electronic device (some venues are stricter than others) but they can make or break your schedule and your sanity. If you’re ungrateful or rude, you move to the last on their list. But if you’re friendly and appreciative, they will bend over backwards for you. A smile and a wink doesn’t hurt either. Any other bribe is up to you – we assume free food works as well though…

10. Bring a first aid kit for your booth staff.

Not just Band-Aids, though necessary for those evil blisters but water and lozenges for dry throats; shoe inserts for those tired feet; ibuprofen for headaches and swelling feet (and hangovers, should that happen…); and snacks for hungry bellies in case they’re too busy for a break. Anything to keep your staff smiling for 10 hours a day – in case you haven’t tried that, it’s hard. One moment of not smiling at a booth can be captured forever on YouTube….

To recap a few things:

• Plan
• Communicate
• Budget (extra)
• Think about the peons (try giving them food to increase loyalty!) that run the shows.
• People will forget to drink water; hydrate them, or miss out on precious ‘smile-time’!

I hope this helps and best wishes for a successful show from your pal at Steketee Greiner and Co. ~ Jill.

Talk to us on Twitter @steketeegreiner!

I figured “designed”, but this question really stuck with me, and I’ll admit that I changed my answer after my initial reaction once I really began to think about it.

See, in design school, we are taught about iconic designers such as Paul Rand, Milton Glaser and especially Ivan Chermayeff & Tom Geismar. Their work (in specific cases) is thought to be iconic, and it really is. IBM, I Love New York and the NBC logos are perfect examples of what it means to be “iconic”. They are easily recognizable and more importantly—identifiable.

These logos, and many more, are so well designed. They are all simple, clever and unique. These are obviously the reasons they are iconic. I thought.

So many times in design school, and my early years of professional design (it will be two years in August), I wanted to design a logo or a wordmark that could stand up against Apple, Nike, McDonald’s and FedEx to name a few, but I wasn’t hitting the mark I wanted to hit, and I never understood why. My designs shared the same qualities as the “iconic” logos, but they never had that instant “pop” or emotional connection that the big brands all had.

That’s the key – big brands. And once I got to this conclusion, that’s when I changed my answer.

A logo doesn’t sell the product. It only identifies it. The (important word to follow) BRAND sells the product. But what is a brand? A brand is nothing more than a promise. It’s that emotional connection a consumer has with a company or product. It is what they come to expect. It is how they differentiate company from company and product from product.

The logo only identifies these connections, it doesn’t create them.

The brands, and subsequently, the logos succeed only because the product has stood the test of time. It is desirable to consumers because they have had, or know somebody who has (look at the designer talking about Social Media), a positive connection with the company or product. More positive connections = more sales = more $$ = bigger advertising spend.

The more I see the logo, the more recognizable it is and finally the more identifiable it becomes with the product or company.

So, with all that said, here’s a question of my own:

Assuming that iconic logos seem to be more the result of a big wallet, can a brand succeed in evoking emotion and making a connection without an identity? Can you fall in love with a faceless person if he or she is saying all the right things? I think we have a little “chicken or egg” conundrum here, and thoughts are welcome…

Cheers!

Kyle

It’s that time of year again, the birds and bees are out and about making whoopie, and in the bustling metropolis of Chicago the Word of Mouth Marketing Association is preparing to welcome all (including a few of us from SGC) attending the 2010 School of WOM at Swissôtel Chicago, May 24-26.

The reason I say all this is to shamelessly promote the event and to encourage anyone in the industry that hasn’t signed up to attend to do so if you can. We’ve been involved with WOMMA for almost a year now, and the School of WOM is a “shouldn’t be missed” event, if you’re at all into WOM marketing. In addition to presentations by some of the leading voices from some of the world’s biggest brands on their approach to WOM, there will be a number of great discussions around creating sustainable word of mouth campaigns, how to measure the effectiveness of your efforts and more – much more than this simple post can hope to contain.

So, to all you WOMites out there, get registered, jump on your plane, train or automobile and make your way to Chicago. The weather is nice this time of year, the food is great and I’m sure we’re all going to walk away in an enlightened state of mind.

David

As we began to monitor conversations around the initiative and the participating cities in the digital landscape, several cities stood out as clear leaders. These leaders had over ten thousand Facebook fans alone, with some breaking twenty and even thirty thousand. Pictures, tweets, blog posts, videos and more all supported the digital media presence of active cities, showing how very hands on participants became – fiber became a catalyst for community growth in cyberspace and beyond. And I say beyond, and this is a key learning for everyone, because the cities that controlled the largest share of digital voice were those that not only pulled together strategies for deploying digital media but carried it through to PR and experiential activities as well.

As Google’s March 26th deadline loomed closer we monitored even more excitement online as many cities saw last minute increases to their fan bases. This was likely tied to the flood of nationally recognized events various cities used for promotion, as well as the effect of word of mouth and the variety of media coverage that backed the buzz around Google’s fiber initiative.

So here we are, just over a month since the fiber ‘storm’ passed. It’s been interesting to watch how conversation around the initiative in the digital landscape waned. The leaders in the Facebook space continued to grow, but each added just a few thousand fans since the deadline. And many of the cities vying for Google’s fiber have seen a significant drop in their online conversation since the deadline for the RFI. Basically, Google thanked everyone for applying and relegated share of online voice to its position in its decision making process, and, for the most part, most participants gradually stepped back their efforts. Really, the only major additional event since the close of the application process happened on April Fool’s Day (April 1st) when Google changed its site name to ‘Topeka’ as a tip of the cap to Topeka, Kansas which changed its name to ‘Google, Kansas’ as part of its campaign.

What is surprising is how little uproar there appears to be from all of the cities that invested a great deal of time and money in participating in this initiative. We were expecting to find a good of negative sentiment against Google for not choosing a city faster and leaving America waiting with no clear date on when the selection would be made. With the large number of content contributors in cities such as Grand Rapids, Duluth, Topeka, Greenville (South Carolina) and Pittsburgh, one could draw the logical conclusion that a high number of comments and negative content speaking out against Google would appear in the digital space, or at the very least, the conversations would intensify generating more content around their desire for Google’s fiber broadband. But that isn’t the case. Something more interesting is happening: there are new initiatives being driven by cities that submitted applications to Google focused on creating local support for broadband fiber lines, regardless of what decision Google makes. That’s an interesting twist and a really brilliant example of how powerful WOM can be. In this instance, though Google created the initial groundswell, generating a mass of interest on a large scale, the bit of subject matter seems to be of greater interest than the actual Google campaign itself. That sounds like it should naturally be the case, but think about it. This is a solid example of WOM being used to sell a simple, good idea. I like to think that even if Google never intended to pull the trigger on installing broadband fiber anywhere, the awareness for the technology that this campaign raised would justify the investments.

To illustrate what’s currently happening, on April 15th “Google Island” (Sarasota, Florida’s Facebook page) posted:

“Due to the overwhelming support and momentum from the community…our leadership at city and county are putting together a team of key people to continue to push a broadband agenda.”

It sounds like Sarasota is pretty committed to fiber broadband (whether it’s from Google or not). That begs the question: did the mayor really need to jump into a shark-tank to spark activation with consumers? The honest answer is maybe. We tracked spikes in online conversation and activity around events such as the Google, Kansas rename, Duluth’s idea of renaming all firstborns Google and many other similar events that all certainly raised awareness for the fiber initiative and educated consumers on the value of having it available throughout their respective cities. The question now shifts from “How do we get Google’s attention?” to “How do we develop a strategy that will take the online interest generated by awareness for broadband fiber and translate it into something tangible for our community?”

Two people seem to be addressing that question. Jay Ovittore and Craig Settles started an initiative to carry the momentum of Google Fiber into something tangible by supporting communities and their leaders as they try to create fiber broadband on their own, without ‘winning’ fiber from Google. You can get more information on Communities United for Broadband here.

In another initiative that has popped up after Google’s deadline for RFIs had passed, Greenville, (South Carolina) has taken the initiative to make a website where people can vote for cities which they feel are most deserving of being awarded Google’s fiber. Not surprising, Greenville’s enthusiasm, which has been constant throughout the submission period, earned their city over 300,000 votes on the site. However, Asheville, North Carolina recently took the lead with over 400,000 votes. Duluth, Minnesota came in ‘third’ with over 12,000 votes with other cities on the list having far fewer votes, but the ‘ranking’ is open until May 6th.

The initiative is a great vehicle to continue to generate awareness, but there are questions as to how this site will ultimately contribute to getting broadband fiber connectivity. However it plays out, it will need to generate an opportunity outside of the Google initiative, because according to Greenville Online, a South Carolina news outlet, Google’s Product Manager Minnie Ingersoll said, “To be clear, our decisions will be based entirely on the responses and data we’ve gathered for our Request for Information.” She added, “This web site is not authorized by Google.” But the brains behind Greenville’s efforts thus far have been diligent, and it seems likely that they’ll look to create an angle to position their cause.

So where does all this leave us? Shark tanks, babies named ‘Google’ and more brought us to here, and now all the people who put so much time and energy into their efforts on behalf of their respective cities are playing a waiting game while Google decides how they want to proceed. And yet, many of the people involved in all of this don’t seem content to wait and are now turning their efforts toward picking up the broadband fiber torch independently of any help from Google and continuing their local groundswells in pursuit of what they set out for – better connectivity.

No matter how things turn out, the most relevant insight in all of this is that a good idea is a good idea (high speed broadband fiber connectivity), and if you craft a solid strategy for communicating its value proposition (like Google did), people will take ownership of the idea and respond. And regardless of who owned or owns the share of voice online for this initiative and ultimately who Google chooses to work with to install Google Fiber, this campaign is a fantastic example of how effective (and ineffective) traditional and non-traditional communications can be used together to not only generate awareness, but to inspire whole communities and affect real change.

Before you hit up the comments section and start a debate over which one of you hates ME more, please hear me out. I am not trying to be a rogue designer that just wants to be different (and tick people off in the process). And it’s not that I didn’t pay attention during Typography 210 (or something like that), where we were told which fonts were good, which were bad and which was the greatest (Helvetica, supposedly).

I also understand that Helvetica is arguably over-used, but that doesn’t even bother me. Honestly, it is a nice typeface; it has great, safe characteristics which make it viable for a lot of applications and mediums.

But…I can’t stand the capital ‘R’. The descender is awkward to say the least. For a typeface with such little connotative character, where did this rolling leg come from? The rest of the family is so sterile, so defined, so geometric, but the ‘R’ is so, so confusing.

To me, it looks likes Max Miedinger played “Pin the Tail on the P.” Sure, he put it in the right place (impressive for having been blind-folded), but that is to be expected from such letterforms displayed in the rest of the  family.

Or maybe his hand slipped when finishing out the letter. Many long nights have been put into his work, the accidental yawn / slip could be expected.

Whatever the case may be, I can’t stand it. Now, I realize that I have been praising the rest of what Helvetica has to offer, so I guess I have to retract my previous statement a bit. I actually hate 1/26th (not counting numbers or punctuation, who needs those anyway?) of the entire family (from 27 to 93).

And I thought I was the only one that had this growing internal irritation with Helvetica. I mean, it’s so universally loved that there was a movie made because of the impact and popularity of the typeface. But I have 2 “R’s” in my last name, and seeing it set all caps in Helvetica makes my left eye twitch a little.  Luckily, in my research (to prove I am not crazy) I found this guy. It’s comforting to know I am not alone.

Unfortunately, I don’t think I will ever like the capital ‘R’ in Helvetica. I don’t change my appetite much, considering I still don’t like grapes, bananas or many other forms of fruit.

I want to hear from you though. Let me know whether your a lover or a hater (of Helvetica that is, not me).

Cheers!

Kyle

Below is the second in our series of reports ranking the online share of voice for the cities participating in the Google fiber initiative.

This report updates our initial metrics based on the insights we’ve collected from our research, which includes all of the direction submitted through blog comments on our first report and emails we’ve received directly. And on that note, thank you to everyone who took the time to contribute to this research on behalf of your city. As we hope we’ve shown in these reports, active participation is essential to any good online efforts, and yours is much appreciated.

Please note that if your city did NOT make the top 10 in our report, it is no indication that you are in any way not competitively positioned in the initiative. Again, Google has multiple factors in their decision making process, including how interested a community is in working with Google, community support, local activities, needs and resources, approved construction methods, local regulatory issues and area broadband speeds. And though most participating cities assert that online interaction in their campaigns will increase the chances of favorability in their selection, ultimately Google will decide which factors are most relevant.

The second report is available for download here. Just click on the image below.
And please reach out to us through the comments below or by email to david.greiner@sgandco.com if you have any questions or comments on the information and insights we’re presenting.

Download Media Kit (6MB ZIP)

With all of that said, our next report will cast a broader net in hopes of pulling in some of the disparate Facebook pages and other digital channels that need to be included for participating cities to be accurately analyzed and ranked. We will also be including some insights along the line of what I’ve explained above.

In the meantime, thanks to everyone taking the time to comment. Please continue to contribute any data that may be relevant to our efforts and tune in late next week for the next report.

Good luck everyone, and keep the conversations going. We’ll be monitoring.

David

One website I used to visit regularly was Mlive.com. It provides up to date information on news and sports in Michigan. As a leading online news provider, they were quick to adopt web 2.0 technologies and allow readers to engage in the conversation. In fact, the home page lists the most popular stories in terms of reader comments, updated in real-time. I’ve noticed sports articles are always the most popular, generally commanding 7 out of the top 10 stories. When you read the article and the comments, you realize a majority of the comments are nothing more than a few sports-crazed zealots looking to pick a cyber-fight on a useless topic. Michigan vs. Michigan State, etc. There are even fans of the Detroit Lions! In fact, the first post on every Detroit Lions article is “First”. Seems a few of America’s best and brightest have made a game out of Mlive’s online articles. It has basically rendered the “most popular” feature useless. MLive.com is going to have to adapt.

It seems with UGC, the early adopters are much more interesting than the early majority. Well, at least to me. Maybe there is a large contingency dying to be “first” to post about the Lions and they value the experience? I shouldn’t be so egocentric. This makes me wonder how the industry can react to bring relevance to the reader. Tagging, share and feed features help. Absolutely. But it seems they are not keeping pace with the flood of brainless UGC.

At the heart of this solution is the mythical web 3.0. Where your computer and your websites learn your needs and filter content to your point of view. While I have concerns that such a world would limit my exposure to new experiences, based upon the trend of UGC I’m seeing, I’m ready to give it a try.