SJG is no exception; we have in the past fallen into this trap of internal meeting hell. Our meetings would spiral down into production details of our clients work.  We would lose sight of the big picture. We would forget what the meetings purpose was.  We needed a framework for our internal meetings in order to regain focus on our what was important to our company. In short we needed to think of our team as a client.

Here is a set of tools and techniques that we came up with to apply to all of our internal meetings:

• Have a published agenda: Publishing the agenda to the team shares accountability for the meeting. An hour is not a long time, and an agenda will ensure each topic is addressed.
• Set the timer: Deadlines are your friend and meeting them provides a great sense of accomplishment once completed.
• Action items: What needs to be accomplished for the next meeting?
• Ownership: Who is responsible for each action item?
• Commit to next meeting! Another deadline that will ensure your team meetings are successful.

One of the outcomes was our bi-weekly blogs. We now apply the knowledge we have with our clients to the SJG team. What can you do to make your meetings more profitable and enjoyable?

In the midst of market confusion for both consumers and marketers, opportunities arise for those deploying a more diversified strategy. Consider it as a diversified stock portfolio to nurture the next high-growth platforms or the next cool spots. In fact, in a recent “Mobile Developer Economics Report” by VisionMobile, most developers work on 2.8 platforms on average.

Multiple platforms

Take the Amazon Kindle Reading apps, for example. It’s available on Android, BlackBerry, iOS, and as well Mac and PC, and the physical Kindle. Amazon has the advantage of being the first mover in the e-book world. It’s a numbers game to build the install base. Once Kindle hits the critical mass, it will be a home run for their book selling strategy. The upside is building an integrated experience on each platform, plus Amazon can cater specifically to people’s tastes based on their smartphone choices. The downside is multiple platforms are costly to build. Versioning and support can be cost prohibitive. In Canada, TD and CIBC have recently launched multi-platform apps.

Web apps

Alternatively, the lowest common denominator in smartphones is the browser, as most are now WebKit-based and HTML5 ready. Adobe Flash would have been a logical choice, but the Apple-and-Adobe kerfuffle makes it unattractive. Google Canada demoed their Gmail web apps with the user interface customized for the iPhone, iPad, and Android platforms. The advantage is that Google only has to deploy once on their servers, and it works on most platforms.

Diversification

In an ideal scenario, I would consider multiple platforms, which is the Amazon Kindle approach. First, pick ecosystems with high market penetration. Creative marketers can segment their target audience — the trendsetters, business users, geeks, and average Joes — based on their respective choice of OS.

Second, personalization is the key to marketing effectiveness. Make each customer feels like they are the only customer. It increases customer satisfaction and brand awareness. Apps are intimate experiences. With many users checking apps on a daily (if not hourly) basis, brands can develop a deep and interactive customer relationship, which was not available in the past. The end goal is to demonstrate brand leadership using technology, which can lead to stronger brand loyalty.

To be sustainable in the long run, this app competition will converge. Marketers who get to the converged platforms first will demonstrate marketing leadership and break through the noise. So, be the first to reach out to these smartphone users in one of the fastest growing segments of the marketing world.

So what’s your favourite smartphone? Here’s a free book sample of The 8 Traits Successful People Have In Common: 8 To Be Great. Try it out on your Android, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, or Amazon Kindle. I hope you like it.

Well, the iPad has got me thinking about what business Apple really is in. It is not computers or phones or MP3 players. Apple is in the business of seduction. It creates beauty. It creates objects you desire and want to possess.

It starts before we even see the product. Off in the distance we hear rumours of something new from Apple. There is talk of a new device, and Apple’s history of innovation feeds the rumour mill. “What will it be?” is the chat around the water cooler, or its digital equivalent, Twitter. Then there is the announcement, straight out of the P.T. Barnum playbook, complete with its own ringmaster, Steve Jobs. Steve is a master marketer because he gives the audience what it wants to hear. Hope. Hope that there is a computer out there that will lets us live happier and more productive lives. He breaks the story down to a simple clear message. You can feel his passion for the new and his frustration for what current technology does not deliver.

Next is the reveal. The iPad is elegantly simple. It is seductively sleek and seems to be missing everything you think a handheld computing device would need. Steve Jobs hates buttons – he never wears buttoned shirts and you don’t see many on his devices. It looks more like an object of fashion and less of a technology device.

The packaging is great, simple and to the point. It shows the product and little else. You do not see features and benefits, system requirements, and marketing hype. The packaging is as beautiful as the product. In short, you want to keep the box.

Opening the iPad box was like Christmas Day. Each layer of the package was simple and beautiful. The power cord and the owner’s manual were clear and self-evident.

Getting it running was simple. Three minutes was all it took for me to get it running, another two minutes and I was buying my first movie and application from the iTunes. Seamless from start to finish.

People want to hold it, as seen by my daughter who ran in from school and grabbed it out of my hand and disappeared into her bedroom. She emerged an hour later and handed it back to me with five more applications loaded onto it. She had Facebooked her friends and told the world she had a new iPad. Well, it was nice while it lasted.

All this to say that marketing is more that just telling your audience what your product or service can do for them. It is about creating an end-to-end experience that starts long before the product is launched and continues long after the product is sold.

An account manager is on board to build the relationship with the client to initiate a project; the creative team produces the work. A project manager acts as the core of the project; we lead the team from project initiation through to the completion of the project. It is the meaning behind our signature line: “Right brains that can be left alone”.

Project managers can get your project moving. For example, if you were to ask a creative person or team how long it would take for them to produce an idea, you would be unlikely to get a firm response, particularly without providing them with the parameters of the idea. A project manager can identify and communicate to stakeholders the project requirements, identify the various needs of stakeholders, as well as balancing competing constraints related to the project, including:

• cost,
• schedule,
• scope,
• quality,
• risks,
• resources, etc.

A project manager can work with the creative team to ensure those objectives are met during the planning and execution of each project. This allows your creative team to be creative and produce the work without worrying about developing schedules, managing budgets, finding resources – all the organizational aspects of the job.

A good project manager provides a human touch your project, encouraging team members when morale is flagging, and has the ability to explain to creative teams and the client and other non-creative types why they produced the work in question. Interfacing with the creative team, the client and other stakeholders to ensure your project success.

Great things take time. Including a project manager as a part of your creative process can allow for seamless integration in collaboration giving your right brains the freedom to be creative!

Background:

Ovarian Cancer Canada’s ninth annual Winners Walks of Hope will take place on September 12, 2010, in fifteen cities across Canada. The goal is to promote awareness of ovarian cancer. There is no early detection test, so knowing the signs and symptoms is crucial. They want to take their Facebook campaign and presence to the next level and to increase their fan base.

What follows is the ten tips I shared with them to grow their social media network.

1. Be relevant to your cause. Be relevant to fans’ wants and needs. Respond to information that benefits them. They want facts, not fluff, and they want honest opinions.

2. Stay local! Local content is the key. A picture is worth a thousand words. A picture of “2009 Vancouver Winners Walk of Hope”? Probably two thousand. A video interview of “2009 Vancouver Winners Walk of Hope”? You got the idea.

3. Keep it fresh! Imagine Winners carries the same style and never updates its collections. Update your status once a week by sharing interesting news articles, photos, or videos. It takes less than five minutes.

4. Engage the audience. Quickly respond to your audience. Thank them for their comments. Get curious about them. Start a conversation by commenting on others’ updates. Nurture the relationship. People who respond are usually like-minded people. They can help with your goals.

5. Grow your network with a team challenge! Post a Winners Walk of Hope Chair challenge. Ask your chairs and team leaders to bring a friend. Be a good neighour and befriend other fundraising causes.

6. Tell fans where you are or where you will be. Tell your audience about your upcoming events (e.g. yard sale, meet and greet, beer event, training session, or local walk).

7. Less is more. One thought per update. Facebook fans can have short attention spans.

8. Break news, but make it relevant. Fans want to hear about your challenges. Give them benefits they care about. Post updates about your fundraising goals, challenges, and achievements along the way, big or small.

9. People love tips and tricks. Quick tips about how to do things always get responses. Share your unique fundraising challenges and best practices in your city.

10. Provide links to interesting or useful information. Links can build fans. Again, be relevant to people’s wants and needs. They will like it.

Be relevant to your cause, network with others, and content are the keys to any social media campaigns. These strategies can also be adapted for Twitter.

(Also available as a PDF.)

Interested in promoting ovarian cancer awareness in your city?

Check out their walk locations and join for the walk on September 12 or be a virtual walker!

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The award was in the business-to-business product category and was selected from over 504 international entries. Our RFID bookmarking experience, which was created for Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of the popular BlackBerry® smartphone, was chosen.

Partnered with The Taylor Group, the RFID bookmarking experience was developed for the BlackBerry events marketing team. It provided visitors at the BlackBerry tradeshow booths a way of tagging the products and services in which they were interested. At the end of each day, the visitor received a customized email with targeted information and offers that were tailored specifically to their tradeshow visit. RIM was able to accurately track leads and determine the effectiveness of each area of the tradeshow booth. In addition, the powerful analytics allowed RIM to compare the performance of different tradeshows from year to year and across various industry segments.

For more information, please visit:
• A video demo of the RFID bookmarking experience in action
• Customer video testimonials
• Our case study

To find out more about this award or other services The St. John Group can offer, please contact Thom Rockliff at 416.504.4884.

Over the next few months we will unveil some exciting new additions to our digital home.  So don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed so we can keep you up to date on the latest adventures of SJG.  We’re excited to hear what you think of our new site.  Send us an email or comment on our blog. We would love to start a conversation with you.

You see, getting to a moment of clarity is not a simple task. It is a journey, and it starts before the creative flows and long before the cameras roll or the designs begin to take shape.

Clarity Starts by Getting Curious
When you get curious you’re going to be asking lots of questions. The right questions, the tough questions. You’re going to deep dive for the nuggets of truth. Get ready to swim in a sea of content. You will be immersed in the flotsam and jetsam of messages, specifications, facts, figures, reports and competitive analysis.

Content is King
After thoroughly saturating your brain in a tidal wave of information it is time to sort and organize. Okay, it sounds boring, but stick with me. It is going to pay off big time. More than just a quick creative brief by an account manager, it is an in-depth enquiry into the entire content landscape. This is going to build a foundation for your moment of clarity. Content is one of the cornerstones to achieving clarity. It is the blueprint for creative development and the document we use for reference as we come up with ideas. The better the content is, the better your ideas will be.

Creative Collaboration
Isn’t it great to sit alone in a room and come up with brilliant ideas? Well, sometimes it is, but we have found it is a whole lot better to collaborate with other people. We have a saying here at SJG: If your idea sucks it was probably created in a vacuum. Get up from your seat and start having conversations with your colleagues. Don’t worry about where the idea came from. Just care that you generate lots of ideas and make sure they are documented. On any given day here at SJG, we will have quick phone calls with our clients; have hallway idea exchanges with our colleagues; we have run an idea past a barista at our local coffee shop (White Squirrel Café is our new local); or even get input from our families. We scribble on pad boards, Skype our way to a solution, or jam in a boardroom. It really doesn’t matter – the key is to roll up you sleeves and collaborate.

Compress to Clarify
The last step on the journey to clarity is to distil your creative into the smallest possible package. Get out the red pen and ask, what is the minimum amount of information possible without losing the entire concept?  Einstein said everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. We love this idea and are constantly asking each other if there is a simpler way to get this idea across.

That’s it. The journey to clarity starts by listening big and ends with a big idea that your audience will love.