Late last year we met with Benjamin and Rebecca Gournay -  the husband and wife team behind “Graine de Vie” (”Grain of Life”) and their new 100% natural skin care product line called Seed+ (http://www.seedpowerbodycare.com).

They had recently launched their company and website, and had just started selling their new “grape seed-based” products in retailers like Whole Foods and Amazon.  As a start up, they would need to spend their marketing dollars wisely, yet they were eager to begin building awareness of their brand during the important holiday buying season.

Planting the Seeds of Success
Idea-ware suggested a program of social media promotion and outreach to women on Facebook, Twitter and blogs aimed at introducing the new brand and building grassroots awareness of their innovative products.

Janine worked with them to identify prominent bloggers, arrange for samples to be shipped for review, and then scheduled a Twitter “launch party” to give bloggers and interested parties a chance to interact with the founders in real time on Twitter and learn about the power of “seed-based” skin care products.

Awareness Blossoms…
The program yielded results almost immediately.  118 Twitter users RSVP’d to attend the Twitter Launch party and the event ultimately drew over 150 participants.  A random sampling of attendees Twitter accounts showed an average of 2368 followers per participant for a potential total audience of 355,000 Twitter users!   More importantly, the attendees themselves generated more than 3,880 mentions of the hashtag during the event, as shown below. In total the party put Seed+ at almost a quarter of a percent of all posts on Twitter that day overcoming several popular trending topics and putting it into the top 250 topics.

In addition, to the Twitter awareness that was generated, over a dozen prominent bloggers wrote about Seed+ in the days after the event establishing awareness among tens of thousands of followers and generating over 550 comments from users.  And the Seed+ Twitter following doubled adding hundreds of followers.

And A Brand Goes Global…
But we’ve saved the best part of this story for last!  Shortly after the campaign started Benjamin and Rebecca left for London where they were visiting family.  While walking down a street there they ran across a small natural skin care boutique and stuck up a conversation with the owner and according to Rebecca it went something like this:

How’s that for “marketing advocacy?”

~ JPL

We believe in business karma.  The idea that business isn’t just about making money.  It’s about making money by doing WHAT’S RIGHT for others.  It’s about believing that if you do good things for other people’s businesses, good things will happen to your business.  It’s at the core of our Marketing Advocacy philosophy.

That has never been truer than in 2009 when a tough economic climate could have derailed us, could have led us to take our eye off the ball, disregard our philosophy, and do anything to make a buck.  But we didn’t.  We stayed true to our Advocacy principles and in a year when many struggled, we flourished.

We’re incredibly thankful for our friends, family, partners - and most importantly - our customers.

To give thanks to all of you we have arranged for a special gift:  an exclusive 25% Idea-ware discount on any bag at Sondra Roberts New York.  Simply visit the new Sondra Roberts website and use the coupon code “IDEA-WARE” at checkout.  It’s good for as many orders as you want from December 1 until New Year’s Eve. Enjoy, and THANK YOU!

Best wishes for a Safe and Happy Holiday from Idea-ware!

Last month we re-launched Sondra Roberts New York - a 30 year old boutique women’s handbag designer with a passionate following of customers who felt they were in on the best kept secret in women’s fashion.   This month, we shifted into promotion phase with an aggressive Social Media outreach effort.  The results demonstrate once again how a powerful brand combined with smart grassroots promotion can really drive brand awareness.

Idea-ware’s Own Social Media Maven to the Rescue!
As we mentioned in the last post, George and I would seem an unlikely pair to re-launch a women’s handbag brand.  But we had a secret of our own - a secret weapon: Janine Nickel.  She’s the one member of Idea-ware who lacks a Y-chromosome, but she very much possesses the “hangbag gene”.  Janine is also our resident social media guru and a prominent “mommy blogger” known in that community as “Twofermom“.  This combination of genetics and personality ideally positioned her to be a powerful social media advocate for Sondra Roberts and our “ace-in-the-hole” for this project.

A Social Media Campaign with a Twist
Janine knew she wanted to do something different, something memorable, something that would tap into the powerful “mom blogger” community and build significant awareness for Sondra Roberts.

She outlined a multi-stage strategy that started with establishing the necessary Sondra Roberts Twitter feed and Facebook page.  She also mapped out an aggressive blogger outreach program that allowed prominent bloggers to review select Sondra Roberts bags.  But the finale was an incredibly unique idea that tied it all together: a live video fashion show of mom bloggers modeling Sondra Roberts bags from her home!

Lights, Camera, Handbags!
Janine invited 15 prominent bloggers from the Washington DC area to meet at her home and model a wide selection of bags on camera.  During the event, various bags would be given away, the bloggers would be promoting the Sondra Roberts line on their own Facebook and Twitter feeds, and Twitter followers would have a chance to win bags featured during the show. Click here for a slide show of the event.

With nothing more than a laptop, a webcam, a few bottles of wine and a dining room table covered with beautiful bags,  Janine turned a social gathering of like-minded bloggers into a powerful weapon of brand evangelism.  At the peak of the event some 400+ people were viewing the live video stream of the event, and Twitter updates featuring “#Sondraroberts” reached a rate of almost 2000 posts an hour!  That put Sondra Roberts traffic on Twitter just shy of the launch of the new vampire movie New Moon which was opening at midnight that evening!  Truly an incredible accomplishment for the Sondra Roberts brand!

Results That Will Payoff this Holiday Season and Beyond
In the days that have followed the show, traffic to the Sondraroberts.com website has increased some 65% and, more importantly, the percentage who are new visitors to the site jumped more than 10%!  In addition, dozens of bloggers have written favorably about the event, the bags and the Sondra Roberts brand, generating positive impressions with thousands of qualified prospects and generating powerful “backlinks” to the site that will assist in search engine optimization efforts.

In addition to all this, Idea-ware will be unveiling a number of holiday promotions to incent Twitter and Facebook followers to promote the Sondra Roberts brand and stimulate sales.  This includes a special promotion for all of you - Idea-ware’s fans - for a special discount on a Sondra Roberts bag of your own this holiday.  That is…as long as you possess the critical “handbag gene”!  Stay tuned…

~JPL

“Sometimes the best person to sell your product is the one who knows nothing about your product.”

Take Sondra Roberts New York, for instance.  This 30 year old boutique women’s handbag designer recently asked us to help them re-launch their e-commerce website and re-invigorate their brand.  For two guys who’ve never carried a handbag (well…I can’t speak for George), and who are more accustomed to working with technology brands, this might seem like a stretch.  But we confidently took on the project because we knew we could bring something different to it.  And we did…

Rebuilding a 30 Year Old Brand
In our case, knowing almost nothing about handbags actually proved an advantage. A fresh eye allowed us to see that every other handbag designer built their brand identity and messaging around product ATTRIBUTES - the quality of the leather and stitching, how trendy and stylish the bags were, the size of their collection, etc.  This made it difficult if not impossible to differentiate between them all in a crowded market.  So, we quickly decided Sondra Roberts needed to build their identity around the EXPERIENCE of holding their bags.

We spoke to a number of customers and asked them the kind of thought provoking questions that those more familiar with the industry might not have.  Such as, “What’s the best story you can tell us of something that happened to you carrying a Sondra Robert’s bag?”

What we found is that Sondra Roberts women feel like they are in on the best kept secret in women’s fashion.  They get stopped on the street and asked who makes their un-labeled bags all the time.  And because of the unique quality/value combination Sondra Roberts provides, they can buy collections of handbags - not just one or two - but one for every mood, one for every occasion, one for every woman they want to be.  This led us to a number of original brand themes and eventually the final tagline:

“For Every Me…There is Sondra Roberts”

From World-Class Showroom to World Wide Web
The next step was to bring this brand out from their beloved showrooms and onto the Web.  Sondra Roberts had recently deployed SAP as their ERP system and were using the SAP Business One as their e-commerce front end.  Our challenge was to build a shopping experience that resonated with the “For Every Me” brand and to have it ready for the holiday season just 8 weeks away.

Cognizant of both the power and limitations of the SAP system we designed a series of wireframes that would optimize the shopping experience, allowing shoppers to immerse themselves in the incredible diversity of Sondra Robert’s collection while at the same time quickly finding the right bag for their mood and style.

Wanted: Miami-area photographer who can do a photo shoot…today!
The final challenge was to get photography for the site that captured the essence of the brand and the experience of holding a Sondra Roberts bag and which would be appropriate for their Spring Collection.  We needed to shoot in Miami for weather conditions - and we needed to do it fast.  Not knowing any photographers in Miami we turned to Twitter, posting a request and getting a referral in just hours to the good folks at Red Square Photography. They did a phenomenal job shooting one of the Sondra Roberts employees as a model in settings that perfectly capture the essence of the brand.

Live in Time for the Holidays…and Oprah!!!
Days before production started we found out one of Sondra Roberts bags would be featured in Oprah’s magazine and we needed to have the site ready for that, even before the launch of the holiday shopping season.  Pressure was on.  With all products photographed and loaded into SAP, we applied our designs to the system, tested it all out, and launched days ahead of schedule, still within budget, and in time to get some some serious Oprah buzz!  The result of all this hard work you can see for yourself at http://www.sondraroberts.com.

Next up will be some serious social media promotion to drive traffic and build grass-roots awareness of the brand.  And we plan to do that with the same outside-the-box thinking and creativity that we brought to this part of the project too!

~ JPL

In this business there isn’t anything much more exciting than seeing your work on television knowing millions of others are too!

That’s what we managed to accomplish with GoS networks.  They approached us last month to assist in the launch of the company starting with a corporate identity, company name, logo, tagline and website.  The name GoS stands for “Guarantee of Service” a derivative of the phrase “Quality of Service” (QoS) well-known in the telecom and IT industries.   GoS provides a new kind of QoS that literally allows service providers to “turn on” a level of control over their traffic that was never before possible.  This inspired a stylized “o” in the shape of the universal “power” or “on” button which became the core of the logo.  It’s nice and clean and high tech.

But the most interesting part of the whole process was knowing who would be wearing this new logo.  It turns out that well-known PGA tour professional Padraig Harrington is associated with GoS Networks.  We are excited to have the chance to put our work on his sleeve.  The website is still under construction but as soon as we had the logo finalized it was on his shirt.  Padraig has been on a hot streak recently and we’d like to think the logo had something to do with it!

Here are a few shorts from last week’s tournament.  You know who we will be rooting for at next year’s Masters…

- George

Zpizza is a national restaurant chain that opened in 1986 with the goal of creating a healthier, lighter, delicious and creative pizza. Twenty-three years and over 90 stores later, customers would rave to friends and family about Zpizza’s organic sauce, wheat crust, MSG-free sausage and pepperoni, local produce, and their gluten-free and vegan options.

Now They Can Rave To Everyone Else too!

Zpizza and its local store owners had already seen that social media networks and online marketing were a fit for their business when they came to Idea-ware. Several of their locations had successful Facebook fan pages and they had used e-mail marketing for years with great success.  What wasn’t working was traditional PR. Zpizza had received lots of press but it was difficult to track how that translated into new customers. Idea-ware developed a social media plan for Zpizza that included using Twitter and Facebook to better engage with their existing fans, and generate discussions and buzz to attract new ones.

Positive Mentions That You Can Measure

In less than two months Zpizza has seen their fan base on Facebook grow 50% from 830 to 1250 members and, more importantly, the fan ‘interactions’ have increased 33%. Idea-ware started using two Twitter accounts (@zpizza_dc and @zpizza_SoCal) to increase followers (750 added) engage with new customers, field questions, and even turn a brief negative customer experience into a lasting positive one. The result has been an overall increase in positive remarks about Zpizza in blog reviews, food-related forums, on Twitter and Facebook.

Looking to develop a social media strategy for your brand?  Let us show you what we can do, one Tweet at a time…

- Janine

We’re happy to report that Smoothstone Communications has gone live with the re-branding campaign we developed with them called “Work over IP”.  Check it out at http://www.smoothstone.com or download the new brochure here.

In addition to being one of our more innovative campaigns to date it’s a great example of our unique approach to “marketing advocacy”.

Smoothstone first approached us back in March with the ultimate technology marketing challenge - to craft them a  new brand identity that would:

1. Be provocative, edgy and memorable in the crowded VoIP market;
2. Clearly differentiate them from a huge number of competitors in their space;
3. And yet, still pass the “sniff test” with enterprise IT buyers who wanted technical buying information.

After digging deep into Smoothstone’s capabilities, we quickly recognized they did so much more than just VoIP - they provide mid-size enterprises with all the communication tools they need to work effectively in the digital age.  And thus was born the idea of “Work over IP” and the tagline “Don’t Just Voice over IP.  Work over IP”.

Confident in the initial idea - we went ahead and trademarked the phrase and registered URLs.   We eventually pitched the entire concept along with possible designs, various taglines, and examples of how we could fundamentally re-message and re-position the company around the idea of helping mid-sized enterprises “Work over IP”.

Once the overall brand concept was approved we developed copy and design concepts for online and offline collateral including setting standards for graphics and diagrams.  And then we produced the overview brochure and flash movie on the website as well as their Powerpoint sales presentations.

And through it all we practiced the ideal of “marketing advocacy” collaborating closely with Smoothstone’s own designers and writers - as well as their existing agency to maintain consistency of the new brand.  James Whitemore, Smoothstone’s CMO captured it best when he remarked:

“Idea-ware’s unique marketing advocacy approach was a perfect fit for Smoothstone.  They not only provided refreshing creativity, beautiful design and powerful messaging - they coordinated seamlessly with our internal teams and other external agencies to ensure a consistent brand presentation across all mediums.  With JP and George as our marketing advocates we were able to fundamentally re-brand the company in a matter of months.”

- JPL

With this post I’m happy to announce that Idea-ware is officially launching its newest offering - Social Media Advocacy! Of course lots of agencies today are offering a social media campaigns or consulting - but in the spirit of Advocacy - our approach and reasoning are slightly different.

The Unintentional Social Media Maven

For starters, we sort of “backed into” this whole practice area.  A little over a year ago I started a blog about the journey of raising my twins.  There was never a commercial reason for it - it was purely a personal attempt to share the trials and tribulations of having a “twofer” (two kids for the price of one).  But very quickly I found myself part of a vibrant community of “mom-bloggers”.   Blessed with a strong background in marketing, I recognized that there was tremendous power in this gathering of like-minded women and that major brands and advertisers wanted access to – and endorsements from – “mom-bloggers” like me.  I saw that in order to “stand-out” my blog needed to have a content strategy, needed to be promoted in social media circles, and that there was a right and wrong way to engage with followers.

Building  a Brand

Over the first few months my single Blog evolved into a series of platforms:  multiple Blogger-based sites for different content (product reviews, stories, etc), a Twitter feed, a Facebook page, etc.  But they lacked a consistent feel and organization.  So working as a team we (Idea-ware) developed a true “brand” for the online persona I had been developing.  We created a custom logo, designed a new website, re-organized my unique content into various “channels”, and then moved it all to a single site on a new domain with a CMS platform from SquareSpace that I could administer myself quickly and easily.  TwoferMom.com is now a place where I can maintain my personal blog, my reviews/giveaways blog and promote my social media advocacy and consulting practices.

Leveraging Success For Our Clients

Fast forward to today and I am still a “mom blogger” (http://TwoferMom.com), however I have also worked with brands like Frigidaire, Subway, and ShopRite, attracted over 3,000 followers on Twitter, 400 friends on Facebook, and acquired a business (http://BuzzCooperative.com) that has a network of over 130 influential bloggers and 400 public relations/brand contacts who work together on social media campaigns.

Along the way I have amassed a tremendous amount of practical knowledge and contacts.  I knew that if I was able to put them to very effective use in promoting TwoferMom.com the same could be done for Idea-ware’s clients.  And thus was born our offering - Social Media Advocacy:

• Grounded in real-world, hands-on experience;
• Providing a structured, proven framework for social media outreach and measurement;
• Leveraging a home-grown, thousands-strong network of bloggers, consumers, reviewers, brand influencers and fans that cut across industries and provide a jumping off point to develop buzz for any business, product or service.

That’s our unique formula for social media.  It’s not just consulting. It’s more than simply execution.  It’s advocacy.  So who is your social media advocacte?

- Janine