Today we are happy to announce the unveiling of our logo design for New2Lou. We’ve been working with the organization for awhile now on their Brand Strategy, Identity, and Web Design. The first labor of love is finally released! We’ve had to sit on unveiling this one, because New2Lou unveiled the logo last night at their 2 year anniversary celebration. Congrats to them!

We’re working hard on the New2Lou site design, but their Facebook page describes their mission:

New2Lou is a social organization designed as a resource for transplants to Louisville, who are looking to meet people, try new places and get involved in Louisville. The second Wednesday of each month, New2Lou hosts a social at a local restaurant or bar, where people mingle and meet other newcomers, as well as meet locals who provide insiders’ information to make the transition to Louisville a smooth one.

Where can I hear free music? Best drink specials on Wednesdays? What about my haircut? Where do I get breakfast at 4 in the morning? While the group is primarily young professionals, newcomers of all ages are welcome. Come find out why people are moving to Louisville and why they can leave but almost always come back.

As fans of the city, we’re always excited to lend a hand on a project that injects energy into our social scene, so we wish New2Lou the best on it’s journey to be the welcome wagon for the city. Even if you’re Old2Lou, get involved and help welcome fresh blood!

Oh yeah, and buy a tshirt while you’re at it!

Garrison and VIA developed a relationship in 2006 when Floyd Memorial Hospital contracted VIA Studio as its web development and marketing partner. That partnership produced multiple highly effective web based tools and marketing campaigns for the hospital, resulting in an ongoing relationship.

During her tenure at Floyd Memorial Hospital, Garrison was responsible for the development, management and implementation of integrated marketing and public relations strategy for the hospital, off-site services and employed physician practices, all advertising, special events, media relations, and social media, and the implementation of a brand strategy that resulted in increased volume, greater market share and enhanced community perception.

“Julie’s skill set and knowledge of marketing will prove invaluable as VIA continues to grow our client base and broaden our service offerings,” says Jason Clark, President of VIA Studio. “It’s an honor to have a client believe in our company so much that she would choose to become an employee.”

“I am thrilled to join such a creative and talented team. In working with VIA as a client I experienced first-hand the depth of knowledge they have in the interactive arena. They always worked as a partner in helping us achieve business goals and were a pleasure to work with. I’m looking forward to the growth I feel confident we can achieve,” says Garrison

“Marketing is the life blood of the internet and Julie brings a wealth of knowledge to VIA,” said Kelly McKnight, CEO and Founder of VIA Studio. “She is well versed in all facets of advertising, public relations and promotion in both old and new media with an accent on health care.”

VIA Studio specializes in websites and web/mobile applications, marketing, graphic design & branding, e-commerce solutions, and advertising programs to drive online traffic. This includes combining traditional marketing tactics with new media like SEO, social media & mobile media. In business since 1996, VIA Studio has been recognized internationally for its creative web-based design & marketing.

As an internet marketing professional with a background in psychology and public health, I have found that the two skill sets have merged into a new and (to me) exciting hybrid that blends marketing savvy, contemporary web technologies, and an intrinsic understanding of health initiative planning: the need for solid evaluative processes, testing and planning incorporated into programmatic implementations from the beginning, not after the fact. Gone are the days when agencies were able to throw money at a campaign,waiting to see what stuck and what fell off the proverbial marketing bandwagon.

Clients are frugal with their marketing dollars and audiences are fickle with their affiliations and their attention spans.

Solid ideas for health related information sharing abound. Non-profit agencies with great ideas, wonderful causes and grand funding to back them up are everywhere. Team members with a solid background in communication planning strategy are much fewer and farther between. In both marketing strategy meetings and health communication project design meetings identifying the evaluative process is what I consider to be the single most important strategic elemental building block and it is often the last factor to be considered.

By identifying actionable goals- what is it you want the consumer to do?- ambiguity is replaced with measurement and the steps that move users towards those tasks can be designed. In marketing,we call this ‘return on investment’, and its the benchmark by which we judge the success of a campaign. In today’s socially charged environment, sharing is believing and the nature of the social web can integrate nicely with a well crafted multi-media educational campaign. Once you have a solid campaign, optimizing it for maximum consumption and assimilation into the social web world becomes much easier.

For both web and land based programs, evaluations of progress define the usefulness of the program.

A solid marketing approach in the Web 2.0 world includes an integrated experience. Designs for print need to work on the web to further the brand identity, TV and radio spots need to improve on and re-iterate a message that exists both in print and on the web. Audiences- consumers- no longer take marketing messages at face value. Today’s audience is an active consumer of information as well as product. A good marketing campaign provides all the information a consumer needs to make their own decision, and gives them ample opportunity to find it through their informational outlets of choice: websites, facebook and twitter being the most popular. Today’s consumer audience speaks for itself. If your product does what you say it will do, consumers will market it for you. (This is the ‘Social’ part of Social Marketing.)

Facebook and Twitter have shifted the marketing paradigm.

Audiences dont want ‘you’ the seller to tell them about your product. Instead, audiences are looking to resources they trust, their social circle, to refer them to products, services and information that has been previously vetted. The ‘recommend’ or ‘like’ is a canonization that cannot be bought or sold, but must be earned.  To capitalize on this social media trend, you only need one thing: something worth talking about. The story does the work here; the charge of the company, project or marketing agency is to create and market a story worth sharing. The New York times recently published an article discussing this very topic. For more information, read the New York Times article on SEO and social media optimization.

Measurable progress is a benchmark of success.

Integrating well defined, action oriented campaigns across media drives traffic (both on foot and virtual ‘visits’) to your program by reaching your target audience in the places they are most receptive to being found. For personality types that prefer social recommendations or the support of their social group, facebook does wonders for increasing socially favorable responses to change campaigns or fundraising projects. Twitter has been a boon for suggesting new services or drawing attention to breaking news, and websites are becoming the staple for researching the nuts and bolts on products and program specifics before committing to purchasing or participating. Having your program’s information available in whatever format consumers need to ‘convert’ – whether that conversion is ‘sharing’, ‘liking’, or signing up to participate, is essential to a success that can be measured and shown to be successful.

Louisville, KY – Actors Theatre of Louisville today announced that they have engaged the expertise of local online communication and branding experts, VIA Studio. VIA secured the bid following a search, initiated by Actors Theatre, for a company to drive the re-imaging of their existing sites aligning it with current visual branding and address consumer demand for interactivity, including increased integration of social and rich media content.

On VIA’s appointment, Marketing & Communications Director Kory Kelly said: “We are thrilled to have awarded VIA Studio this contract. We were looking for imaginative proposals that incorporated both a user-friendly interface with high functionality and that also took into account the versatility of Actors Theatre and the diversity of our programming and audiences. We were impressed with the creativity, innovation and capabilities, VIA presented to us. They demonstrated a true understanding of Actors Theatre’s unique on line and web requirements. VIA have the caliber, expertise and track record to breathe new energy into our website. We are excited and grateful of their commitment to support our on-going marketing efforts in their new role as Interactive Marketing Partners. ”

“We consider it an honor to work with a group as esteemed as Actors Theatre,” said Jason Clark, President of VIA. “We can’t wait to get to work. I have been a big fan for a long long time.”

In business since 1996, VIA is an interactive marketing and design agency led by Creative Director and President, Jason Clark and CEO, Sales & Marketing Director, Kelly McKnight. They’ve received numerous awards in local, regional and international competitions, including the prestigious AXIEM and Horizon Awards. VIA specializes in building, maintaining, and hosting websites and creating marketing and advertising programs to drive traffic to the sites they build. This includes combining traditional with new media like search engine optimization (SEO), social media, and mobile apps media.

Their client portfolio includes Stock Yards Bank, Purnell’s Sausage, Jefferson and Boone County PVAs, WhipMix, and Floyd Memorial Hospital.

Development on the website will begin shortly, with a new site tentatively due to launch in the Fall 2010. For more information about Actors Theatre, go to http://www. ActorsTheatre.org.

About Actors Theatre of Louisville

Marc Masterson, Artistic Director
Jennifer Bielstein, Managing Director

Now approaching its 47th season, Actors Theatre of Louisville, the State Theatre of Kentucky, has emerged as one of America’s most consistently innovative professional theatre companies. For over 30 years, it has been a major force in revitalizing American playwriting. Its annual Humana Festival of New American Plays is recognized as the premier event of its kind and draws producers, journalists, critics, playwrights and theatre lovers from around the world for a marathon of new works. Over 350 plays from Actors Theatre have been published, making them available to producers and readers, and creating a significant addition to the nation’s dramatic literature. Actors Theatre’s programming includes a broad range of classical and contemporary work, presenting over 500 performances each season. The company performs annually to nearly 200,000 people and is the recipient of the most prestigious awards bestowed on a regional theatre: a special Tony Award for Distinguished Achievement, the James N. Vaughan Memorial Award for Exceptional Achievement and Contribution to the Development of Professional Theatre, and the Margo Jones Award for the Encouragement of New Plays. Actors Theatre’s international appearances include performances in over 29 cities in 15 foreign countries. Currently, there are 40 books of plays and criticism from Actors Theatre in publication and circulation.

Pepsi picks social media over Super Bowl

Pepsi has always been a big advertiser for the Super Bowl, using big celebrities to gain awareness and attention, from Britney Spears to Cindy Crawford and Ozzy Osborne. This year they stayed out of the big game, choosing to spend those millions of dollars on social media strategies. I would agree that this was the right decision. Everyone knows Pepsi. There’s not a celebrity they could pick that would help or hinder their brand. We all either drink Coke or Pepsi now right? (For the record, I prefer the generic Whole Foods cola). Pepsi’s online campaign involves donating to social causes and community projects, which I feel is definitely the right move. After the horror of their 2008 rebranding, this can only help.

CBS rejects gay dating ad

I’ll try to keep my opinion out of the equation here, instead saying that these two decisions really speak to the political climate of the day.

CBS denied an ad placed by gay dating website mancrunch.com, saying that the ad “is not within the Network’s Broadcast Standards for Super Bowl Sunday”.  The company decided to place the ad on YouTube (for free, of course). The PR backlash from the CBS decision has resulted in unbelievable awareness for the company. I would say this situation is a complete win for mancrunch.com. After viewing the ad, it’s definitely provocative, but I’ve seen much worse on network television. CBS claims that the site was just trying to generate free publicity from an ad they knew wouldn’t be accepted. Posting the ad on YouTube instead of the originally intended Super Bowl television slot reportedly saved mancrunch.com about $2 million.

Interestingly, CBS did choose to air an advertisement from Focus on the Family, which is an conservative evangelical group that is opposed to gay marriage.

Watch the mancrunch.com ad:

View some other banned Super Bowl commercials.

Google airs 30 second spot

Google aired a charming spot this year. If I’m not mistaken, this is their first venture into the television advertising world, and they managed to drive a point across perfectly. It’s a very simple spot which probably didn’t take much to produce. In fact, it’s actually been around online for a few months now. Says Google exec Eric Schmidt: “We didn’t set out to do a Super Bowl ad, or even a TV ad for search. Our goal was simply to create a series of short online videos about our products and our users, and how they interact. But we liked this video so much, and it’s had such a positive reaction on YouTube, that we decided to share it with a wider audience.”

Watch the Google ad here:

The only final observation, GoDaddy aired an ad as well. They could have used the money better by redesigning their horrible, horrible site.

So why does it matter Jason, you didn’t even watch the Super Bowl?

Glad you asked. I think the move by Pepsi is the biggest indicator that the days of the 30 second TV spot as the most important form of advertising are officially over. It is still important for companies who can afford it (hello Google), but focusing your efforts online gives infinite more bang for the buck. A solid marketing strategy is going to be different for every company, but these most important aspects are changing:

1. Branding. Always.
2. A solid online presence.
3. Awareness and Reputation
4. Interaction/Social Strategies
5. Rinse and Repeat