The StudioBard crew started September rolling with the launch of a full-length feature film project, Magic Man. The movie, co-written and directed by long-time StudioBard client Stuart Cooper, is being produced in Los Angeles and edited by Bill Butler (Jaws, Grease).  Michael Bard will be the sound supervisor on Magic Man and will oversee the entire audio post-production - including a 5.1 surround mix at StudioBard. Party like a Rock Star! @Large Films dropped in to record and mix a set of web videos promoting Stage Kit - a new accessory for the Wii game, Rock Band. The project marked another successful venture in the collaboration between @Large Films and StudioBard for Nintendo’s Wii gaming system. August was a busy month for radio with projects from the Hallock Agency, Gard Communications and Wieden + Kennedy.  Engineer Brad Spradlin was out in the field recording interviews for ID Branding and Tri-Met’s educational program, “RideWise.”  Michael Bard was at the console composing an original score for Cappelli-Miles [spring] and Peace Health. Vocal diva Julianne Johnson (star of the recent stage production of Dream Girls) fronted a gospel group in the studio, adding her own brand of soul to the custom soundtrack on those TV spots. AudioLandscapes, the multi-media branch of StudioBard, has been named a finalist in the 2008 NAI Media Competition for their audio program, “Eastern Sierra Roadside Heritage/Hwy 395: Paiutes, Prospectors and Pioneers.” AudioLandscapes is also excited to announce the launch of their newly revamped website! With client-friendly updates and a fresh, new look - plus space to blog about new projects and ideas - the website is a powerful tool to connect clients and producers.  See for yourself at www.audiolandscapes.com!

OREGON’S LARGEST INTEGRATED MARKETING AGENCY EXPANDS  NATIONAL REACH, OPENS SECOND OFFICECMD, an integrated agency that has grown into a regional powerhouse by offering a deep bench of marketing solutions, is opening an office in the Charlotte, N.C. area. The agency has hired Joe Marion as a regional account supervisor to head up the new, second location. The agency is expanding to be able to better serve a number of its clients, including JELD-WEN, ATI and Western Star (a subsidiary of Freightliner) - companies that all have a large presence on the East Coast. CMD also handles major marketing projects for companies including Intel, HP and Cisco, and views the expansion as ultimately benefiting all of its clients. ”We live in an age of being able to operate remotely, yet the fact remains that there are key regional differences that need to be taken into account when it comes to providing strategic marketing solutions. Having offices on both coasts allows us to be responsive to that fact,” said Phil Reilly, president of CMD. In the past 30 years, CMD has continually evolved to stay ahead of marketing trends and deliver solutions that businesses require, including advertising, design, Web, PR, film and video, traditional and social media services. According to Reilly, the ability to transform based on clients’ needs has helped CMD expand while other agencies have been forced to cut back. ”There are so many ways to communicate now. The fact is that clients need agencies that can deliver in all of those different channels and generate demand,” said Reilly. “The outdated model of having separate advertising, PR and online only agencies is quickly going by the wayside. That’s been to our advantage and it’s allowing us to expand.” 

Managing your or your clients’ reputation online can be a lot of fun. It can alo be a little bit scary, as you cede control of your image to strangers who may or may not be the best judges of your business. Sites like Yelp, Citysearch and Google Maps can help you quickly build a reputation – for better or worse. They can also help bump up your search engine ranking.

If you are in business for yourself, or if (ahem!) you are in the business of helping your clients to succeed, what can you do to take advantage of these resources? Here are a few dos and don’ts:

Do: Make sure the right message is getting out. Discreetly encourage your satisfied customers to go online and say nice things about you.

Don’t: Write fake reviews about your company. Internet readers are often smarter than you may think and they can smell such dishonesty – all the way from your competitors’ front door. Ditto with offering cash or prize incentives to people who write positive reviews; most reputable sites, such as Yelp and TripAdvisor explicitly forbid such practices.

Do: If someone writes a bad review, learn your lesson (if there is one) and try to improve. But don’t worry too much. Customers will sense that you want to do right by them. After reading one customer’s negative comments on Yelp, the owner of a an Austin, Texas-based hair salon invited that person back for a free haircut. Afterward, the customer logged back in and commented positively on the owner’s efforts to win him back as a customer.

Don’t: Don’t try to coerce customers who have written negative reviews into writing new, positive reviews. Simply try harder with them next time and silently let them know that their opinion matters to you.

Do: Monitor the online community regularly. When people say nice things, don’t hesitate to use their comments in your marketing. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman, quoted in USA Today says, “Some business owners will post their reviews on their door, or on the counter, to show them off, and that’s a subtle way of asking customers to write about them.”

Don’t: Sweat your business. If you’re trying too hard to pull the online world to your side, it means you’re probably taking your eye off of the business itself – and you’ll look as pathetic as an overweight middle manager trying to score chicks at a rave party. Remember that even a negative review still helps your search engine standings.

One additional tip for public relations professionals. Getting some ink in tomorrow’s Tribune might convince your clients that you are doing a terrific job (and it may be true), but in some cases a well-rounded PR campaign could also include giving social media venues your attention as well. Such an approach would show your clients that you’ve got their back.

Keep it cool.
Social media shouldn’t drastically change the way you do business. Your company will get the reputation it deserves regardless of any “social media strategy” you implement. People have always talked, and they always will. With social media, they have found some news ways of doing it.

“I read the reviews and decided I must see you.” Those are the magic words that Tracy Menasco, owner of Trixie’s Beauty Bar on North Lombard has being hearing since she opened her business just over a year ago. Her customers aren’t talking about articles in The Oregonian or Willamette Week. They’re referring to unpaid coverage that has appeared on social media websites such as Yelp and CitySearch.

Trixie’s, which offers hair and nail care, as well as facials and waxing, does no traditional advertising. It doesn’t have to. Menasco, a Reed College graduate who earned her M.S. in Marketing from Northwestern University, told me the other day, “My business has grown tremendously as a result of just a handful of online reviews from satisfied customers.”

Not only do these online reviews help her “get the word out,” but they also do wonders for her search engine visibility. Reviews and star ratings often show up in search results and Trixie’s has booked clients from as far away as North Carolina and Japan who were planning their trip to Portland.

This body waxing specialist wants her clients to Yelp – just so long as they go online to do it. She is not alone. As a recent article in USA Today observed, more small- and medium-sized are using online reviews to boost their business than ever.

What’s Roger Ebert got that I ain’t got?
According to Nielsen/NetRatings, nearly 3 percent of all Internet users in March went to Yelp; traffic there has quadrupled over the last year. That represents a significant shift in consumer habits – those who formerly sought out the advice of professional experts are now relying on peers for advice and direction. They are also giving out such advice themselves. These ordinary consumers are influencing commerce to such an extent that traditional media increasingly seems to be just another voice. Last autumn, a survey by Deloitte’s Consumer Products group revealed these telling facts:

-Over 60 percent of consumers read consumer-written product reviews on the Internet.

- Of these, more than 80 percent say their purchase decisions have been directly influenced by the reviews.

- Such reviews reach far beyond the online world: 70 percent of these readers share the news with friends, family or colleagues, thus amplifying their impact.

Of course, newspapers aren’t sitting idly, allowing consumers to scoop all the attention. Readers of Willamette Week, for instance, can take the conversation to the paper’s Web version, rating staff writers’ articles and posting their own comments. (A quick glance at the paper shows that such measures have had lackluster success thus far.) Newspapers, of course, aren’t going away – professional experts will always have a well-deserved audience. Still, they are making room for consumer voices, and staff cuts at bureau desks are as much a reflection of this new reality as they are of the fact that newspaper ad revenues are declining.

Tomorrow, I’m going to check back in with a few dos and don’ts of social media marketing.

I spent the last week preparing for a speech (to 100 marketers) at Innotech on “Bringing Sexy Back to Email Marketing“, and I must admit that I got pretty philosophical about the email marketing industry and the real definition of what sexy means to me and to marketers.

The genesis of the idea for this speech came from attending a panel on email marketing at MediaPost’s OMMA Hollywood show last month. At that panel, the nation’s top email experts, who I have a ton of respect for, all had a similar response to the question, “what’s exciting coming up in the near future for email marketing?” After a few chuckles and shrugs that it’s the same old same old in the email world, these top email software and agency experts’ answers included “email is a workhorse” and it “is the plumbing of the internet.” To paraphrase the response, email has the highest ROI of any online marketing medium, but it’s ultimately boring in its implementation.

ARE YOU KIDDING ME? Where is the passion? Where is the sex appeal? Email has been around for a long time, but don’t tell me it’s boring. Email is dead sexy, but first let’s explore who is sexy to you? Before you look at the images below, think about who you find sexy and why are they sexy? Great looking. Hot body. Amazing voice. Atheletic. Bad girl or Bad boy personality. Something luring you in?

Ignore these pics below, and tell me WHO IS SEXY to you?

What does this have to do with Email?

Email is Dead Sexy and here’s why:
–Email is the Killer App - only true push medium
–More brand touchpoints than any other medium
–Highest ROI - Email Works
–Core of Building Online Community
–Successful Email Trigger Campaign - Fosters 2-way dialogue

Download the Full PDF presentation of “Bringing Sexy Back to Email” here>>

It’s the second downloadable document on that page. Tell me what you think.

Nothing better than hanging out w/ musicians from your own company that jam out at a casual dinner party at our house.

The big question is, will eROI retain its crown as champion of PAF Battle of the Bands in ‘08?

I’m going to try to do 4 blog entries in almost as little time as I’d Tweet 4 times. Let’s see how it goes. Alright, beginning now - here goes.

My twitter profile is www.twitter.com/ryanbuch!

I’m re-editing this blog post to let you know the answer: NO no no - Twitter is way way faster. This is proof that optimizing for a new channel like Twitter is a very good thing to do.

Cheers,
Ryan

www.LogoBama.com:

My friends over at a relatively new Portland, interactive agency, Substance, launched this site a few weeks ago. I asked founder Stephen Landau about his inspiration to do the site. He responded, “We figured if we’ve been talking about beliefs and change for the last 15 months, we should support the candidate who says the same stuff. Plus, it was a fun little project to work on. Not sure why we set the donation goal so high ($5,000) but then again, what’s the point in shooting for a small, attainable goal when you can aim for a bigger, more audacious goal.”

I especially like the way the logo you create can map into Flickr automatically and can be ported at any size into Flickr and a dozen other social networking sites. Nice work.

Here’s my quick, uncreative creation using the site:

It’s Easter morning before the kids wake up and I wanted to quickly write this blog post. On Friday afternoon, I gave the Commencement Address to the graduating class of the Art Institute of Portland and I must admit that it was a phenomenal experience. I had attended their Portfolio Show just a couple hours before and was awestruck and inspired by their design talent, creativity, and diversity of design in web, apparel, gaming, interior design, print, advertising, and more. Everyone has heard about Portland being recognized for its “Creative Class”, but the Art Institute is at the center of it all. They teach their students to not only design well but present their designs with maturity and confidence. After the ceremony, I had drinks with many of the professors and administrators and was encouraged to see their passion to continually improve and draw inspiration from their students. I’m excited to see the future of the Portland creative community as more talent comes out of a growing Art Institute of Portland and more agency owners are collaborating on client work and community projects.

So here is my 15 minute speech (which is slightly more formal than when I presented it and had all the graduates stand and the audience of 350 people give a huge round of applause, high fives, etc for their milestone accomplishment):

“• I’m honored to be here. Thank you. I’m not a traditional choice for a Commencement Speaker of this esteemed college of insanely talented designers and professors. I am not a designer and do not have a design background.

• However, I am inspired by design, creativity, and innovation. Five and a half years ago, I started an interactive agency called eROI that is now 50 people strong. In just the past couple years, I’ve hired 7 of you - graduates of the Art Institute of Portland. And, I’ve got to be honest, you are some of the smartest, most talented creatives in the country, making folks from brand-name New York design schools pale in comparison. I’m even more convinced of this after visiting your Portfolio Show earlier today - wow, some great work there.

• Management guru, Peter Drucker, said that business has 2 functions: marketing and innovation. And, if you look at the market today, you’ll notice that companies like Apple, Google, and Nike are rewarded with huge premiums in their stock prices due to a sense of creativity and innovation through every element of their products and how they conduct business. From this, we know that design isn’t just about making pretty pictures, it’s about having a profoundly positive impact on the world.

• When I thought about what I was going to say to you, I realized I needed to step into your shoes to figure out what might be helpful or entertaining or both, so I’ll do my best. You’ve MADE IT. You worked your butt off and you graduated from an incredible institution. You are PSYCHED. You should be - CONGRATULATIONS. So, now what? CHOICES, so many choices. For some of you, you’ll take the summer off and explore the world a little before you get locked into a job. For others, you’ll need to get a job ASAP.

• I want to tell you a little bit of my story, then give you a few bits of practical advice that may help out. I went to University of Virginia and loved it. I worked hard and played hard. The reality was that I played a lot harder than I worked, but managed to do alright. After my freshman year, I drove solo across country to work as the night janitor at Lake MacDonald Lodge at Glacier National Park in Montana. It was a transformative experience - I hiked nearly every day, went backpacking in the heart of grizzly country, and saw some of the most beautiful mountainous scenery and wildlife in my life. I also discovered an appreciation for cleaning out the hot oil in the deep fryers in the kitchen every week - IT SUCKED. After that summer, I realized that anything was possible and gained the confidence to do whatever it took to do what I wanted to do.

• The next summer, I worked at Black Butte Ranch near Sisters, Oregon. That place is Paradise on Earth and the reason why I’m here today - there is no better place than Portland. I feel so lucky to be here. So, let’s fast-forward a bit. I graduated with a double major in Environmental Science and Finance. There wasn’t a single company from Oregon that came to University of Virginia to recruit, so I had to make it happen. Six months before graduation, I flew out to Portland and did an informal informational interview at Intel in Hillsboro. Three months later, the hiring manager called me back and said that he can only talk to undergraduate candidates from Oregon and Washington - that was the policy. Without hesitation, I said “that’s great, I’m absolutely moving to Portland, so consider me from Oregon. When can we do the interview?” Within a couple weeks, I was offered a job as Financial Analyst at Intel.

• I lasted 3.5 years at Intel. I learned a lot of valuable lessons of some great things (results-orientation, well managed, and rewarding good behavior). I also learned what not to do in my next business - Intel, with its sea of cubicles and overall atmosphere, lacks creativity, to put it mildly. I found myself singing Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine” whenever describing the culture there.

• It was March, 2000 when I left Intel to start a construction-related dot com. The timing couldn’t have been worse - the dot com world was crashing all around me - and I was beating my head against the wall for over 2 years TRYING to sell technology to commercial contractors - PAINFUL. Now, that I think of it, our branding, design, and marketing was god awful, which led to the demise of that business. I tweaked the business model to form a web and e-commerce company called GCM Development, and at the same time, started a separate full-service email marketing company called emailROI. A year later, I combined the 2 companies to form eROI, which is part online creative agency, part software company. And over the past 5 years, we’ve been fortunate to do some amazing work for clients like Wacom, Disney, HBO, and Kettle Foods. That work has propelled us to be one of the 500 fastest growing companies in the country (recognized by Inc. magazine).

• Let’s get back to YOU. You’ve got thousands of choices, but for the sake of time, I’m going to narrow it down to 3 professional choices - you can go to work for an agency (like eROI, W+K, Leo Ketel, and others in town), for a client-side or product-based company (like Nike, Wacom, or startups like SameUnderneath), or you can Freelance.

• No matter what path you choose, you absolutely need to begin networking. Tomorrow, while you are nursing your hangover, go to the following websites and sign up for the newsletters of Portland Ad Federation, American Marketing Association, AIGA, and pdxMindShare. Put the next event for each of these organizations on your calendar and go to it. Don’t be shy, talk to people there. Ask stupid questions, but whatever you do, get involved and begin the conversation. Before that, email/call the Executive Director or President and set up a 20-30 minute informational interview meeting. Ask for introductions to other people you should talk to.

• Research the organization, agency or company before your informational interview. Have at least 3 good questions ready to ask. I meet with folks networking for jobs at least once a week and it is painful when I’m asking all the questions instead of the other way around - those type of meetings only last 10 minutes, not 30. Ask who else might be good to talk to.

• You might be an incredibly talented designer, but if you don’t make that in-person connection with others in the Portland creative community, you won’t get the job or the clients as a freelancer.

• When interviewing design candidates, there are 3 things I like for in how they present their experience and their work - thoughtfulness, maturity, and balance.

o Thoughtfulness - you need to be able to confidently present the thought that went into the design and why it fit that brand. Many of the cleanest designs seem effortless, but there is a very deliberate thought process that made it work. Clients will value design a whole lot more if they understand how it fits with their brand and why their logo, website, email, letterhead was designed a certain way.

o Maturity - hopefully, you’ve had some experience with clients. With experience, comes the maturity of not only tolerating but truly enjoying tough feedback that can make you better as a designer.

o Balance - with balance, you know when to push back on demanding clients and when to make the design revisions they ask for. Also, a balance in your design style means that you can adapt to many different styles instead of designing one way.

• Lastly, make sure you do your homework on the companies you really want to work for. This is where idealism meets practical real-world application. You want to look for 3 main things to make sure that company is a good fit for you: great work, a quirky but amazing culture, and financial stability.

o Great work - you can see it on their website, read news about the agency, and ask around town about the agency’s reputation.

o Culture - perhaps the most important part of a company that will dictate whether or not you’ll want to hang around for a few weeks or a few decades. Is it a fun place to work? Is it a collaborative environment? Do you feel like you have a voice and can make a difference? At eROI, a year ago, our processes had not kept up with our growth and it created a major problem. While everyone got along great on a personal level, there was some significant professional tension between our Design and Production departments and our Sales and Account departments - because we were not including design and production team members into the beginning of the scoping, ideation, and strategy of the project. I met with all 34 employees one-on-one, back-to-back for 3 days straight and wrote down 50 process improvements and held an all-company meeting on the fourth day and we created change and improvement immediately including a process team that meets weekly. The point is that every company gets off-course, but good companies make sure everyone has a voice, validates it, and makes change happen quickly. The more transparent, the better. You need to find out - are people at your new company all aligned with the same vision - to do amazing work for clients and utterly delight people and customers?

o Financial Stability - a company can do great work and have an amazing culture but you want to make sure that it doesn’t go bankrupt - at least not for a little while.

• You are about to start the greatest adventure of your life. Make your choice - travel around the world, start networking for a job, begin your own company - whatever you do, do it with conviction, do it with confidence. As Robert Pirsig said in Zen and The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance, “in your journey, the sides of the mountain sustain life, not the top.” In other words, enjoy the creative process of whatever choice you make. It will be full of excitement, anxiety, and stress, but enjoy it! There is no better time than now.

• Thank you.”