Chicago Go Red for Women Event is a Big Success

That's me with Amie Schumacher

Friday was a great day. After quite a bit of last-minute work to help the Chicago Go Red team design signage, a slide template and some printed material for their annual event, as well as a push to improve our fundraising efforts* on their behalf, the big day finally arrived.

Vice President of Global Human Resources Tinna Hall joined me on the long ride to downtown Chicago from our company headquarters in Elgin and, when we walked into the Palmer House Hilton Hotel, we were surrounded by Affinity Express designs.

As we got closer to the designated rooms, red dresses were everywhere! Women of all ages, races and sizes were decked out and looking absolutely gorgeous. To add to the festive mood, those who donated their personal funds to the cause sported white and gold boas.

How can you not smile when you’re dressed all in red topped off with feathers?

Tips on Business Emails: Drafting the Email

(The first post of this series is here.)

Every means of communication has its own strengths, and sometimes the medium is part of the message. Email is particularly tricky to get right, because unlike a face-to-face meeting or a phone call, you don’t have the aid of gestures or tone of voice. Unlike online chat, it’s more formal and often referenced later. Yet, if you work closely with colleagues or clients in remote offices, email often is the default mode of communication.

So here are 20 tips on how to craft your message.

1. Words are powerful, so use them well.

Use the right word (hint: use a dictionary or a thesaurus when you aren’t sure) and not merely an approximate one. Use simple and direct language, and get straight to the point.

2. Include a clear subject line.

For busy recipients, your subject line will decide whether the email is read immediately or shelved to be looked at later (or forgotten). Make sure your subject line accurately represents what’s in the message (e.g., “Newsletter Draft: Please Review” instead of “Urgent” or worse, “Hello”).

If you’re sending a document or picture from within the application, remember to edit the automatically-inserted subject.

Never put the entire email content in the subject line.

10 Tips for Newspapers Who Outsource Ad Production

The outsourcing of print ad production, interactive services and editorial services is increasingly common among North American newspapers. The benefits have been proven over time and many publishers have achieved significant savings they have channeled into new product and content development.

When asked about a cost-effective way to create and deliver content, Journal Register Company CEO John Paton answered: “It’s a two-part strategy. The first is outsourcing . . . why is outsourcing a $4 billion a year industry? Because outsourcers can do their jobs better than we do. . . . in fact, 66 percent of our cost structure is devoted to things we don’t want to do. Only one-third is content creation.”

If your newspaper is considering outsourcing any of these functions, here are ten tips specific to ad production (but which apply to a variety of services) that can make your transition smoother and allow you to see results more quickly.

Happy Presidents’ Day

Today, George Washington’s birthday, is a federal holiday in the U.S. It is celebrated in honor of not just Washington but other American Presidents as well.

(Which gives rise to the question: do you spell it “Presidents’ Day” or “Presidents Day” or “President’s Day”? Even Wikipedia isn’t sure. “Presidents’ Day makes most sense to me, so I’m going with that: but if you prefer an alternate spelling, do comment below and tell me why.)

Agencies, Call in the Surgeon

Agencies have completely lost their way. I don’t think time needs to be spent debating that point. What I haven’t seen yet is a cohesive plan to restore the true agency business model.

Let’s take a look at history. Ad agencies were started by newspaper executives, who realized that by “priming the pump” and delivering better ad creative, publishers would ultimately sell more ad inventory.

At their peak, agencies were hired for their ability to create big ideas—business-building ideas. I’m not saying you don’t need execution, process, traffic, operations and the rest. But I am saying I’ve never met a client who wants to give an agency a substantial account because of any of these things.

Agencies win on million dollar ideas (I do realize there are specialized agencies that focus on SEO, SEM, etc., but I’m talking about the truly big agencies here). You can’t pitch a Fortune 50 account and say “I have great process, I compensate my people correctly, my production is pristine” and so on. You have to go to them and say “I won client XYZ and they were floundering. With our help, they advanced from #6 in the category to #2, and are seriously competing to be #1” (or something similar). Everything else you might say is a rabbit hole. You can spend all the time you want in it, but you won’t significantly advance your business.

How do you get to this point?

Happy Valentine’s Day

What are you doing today? Making your partner an elaborate dinner, going out on a blind date, going to the pub with your friends, or sitting at home reading a book? Whatever it is, make sure you have fun!

I’m on vacation with my husband and my mom. Not exactly romantic, but we’ll be at a wildlife park tonight and will go out to ogle rhinos in the morning. (Also, elephant ride!)

Here are a couple of more designs from the artwork and digitizing team in honor of this holiday.

Tips on Business Email: Addressing the Email

My last post on business communication was well-received, so I thought I’d expand upon a crucial aspect of communication. There are tons of articles on the subject, but here is what I have learned personally. Some of these were suggestions from bosses or co-workers, and some I’ve picked up through observation or the hard way – by making mistakes.

This is long, so I’m breaking this up into three parts: the “who” (addressing the email), the “what” (drafting the message) and the “how” (sending the email). First, I’ll cover the “who”, or what to keep in mind about your recipients.

Address people correctly.

How do you know what’s correct? How do you know whether to write to Kelly Glass starting with a formal “Dear Ms. Glass” or with a breezy “Hey, Kelly!” Here are the tips I follow:

Management by Mathematics

Ever wish you had a magic wand that would solve work dynamics? You might actually have one already without realizing it. Mathematics may not be the first thing that comes to mind when trying to solve a problem, but it is actually the basis of life and work. We just need to consciously acknowledge and leverage it.

While the world of mathematics is vast (ranging from factors abstraction, counting, calculation, measurement, shapes, motion and so on), the mathematical aspect of logical reasoning comes pretty close to management dynamics. The mathematician, Benjamin Peirce, called mathematics: “the science that draws necessary conclusions”.

To communicate and reinforce some basic ideas to motivate ourselves and build teamwork, we sometimes apply mock-mathematics.

Display Ads Booming: Who is handling the creative production?

Google predicts the display ad market is set to go through an “amazing revolution” in the coming years, estimating the market will be worth $50 billion worldwide in 2015. In addition to the growth in volumes, there is a plethora of formats with 18 different “standard” display unit sizes in the AIB guidelines. That’s before you count the multitude of options for video and rich media. In a survey of major brands, 56% have rich media, video or interactive features in their ads. 

At the same time, the use of simple static banners is not disappearing, contrary to all dire predictions. Just take a look at Facebook’s use of simple and small formats, which is helping to keep traditional display ads alive.

This tremendous growth in volume and variety of display ad formats begs the question: how is this creative production, and for that matter versioning and online ad maintenance, going to get done quickly and economically? And if it is being created by an internal team or an outside third-party agency, I have to ask at what cost to the advertiser?

100th Blog Post

We started this blog back in May somewhat tentatively, wondering what we would ever write about. Turns out we are much more voluble than we thought: this is the 100th post on the blog!

Thank you all who have been reading. If you are a regular reader, or if you just dropped in today, do comment and tell us why you come here. Or just say hi. We want to know you better.

And here are some of the posts I like best on this blog. Have you read them yet?

Marketing in a Snowstorm: How Dealing with Snow and Managing Marketing are Analogous

I was listening to the news while getting dressed for work yesterday and heard predictions for more snow storms. My second thought (after “More snow! Just great!”) was that the weather is behaving a lot like my work right now, throwing me a little more to deal with when I thought I had quite enough.

We have an annual calendar for the Marketing Department at Affinity Express because there are standard things we have to do each week, month, quarter and year. For example, we always try to update and refresh all our collateral in January and early February to properly equip our Sales Team. We also outline major objectives and initiatives to conquer during our annual strategy planning, such as building and going live with our new corporate website (any minute now!) and developing materials to show off our new state-of-the-art production facility in India.

But like the weather, we know there will also be surprises and projects we can’t control—it is just a matter of how much warning we will get. This first quarter of 2011 is turning out a little like that for us in Marketing. We have several “freak storms” to contend with on top of our regular responsibilities and proactive plans. A couple of important RFP opportunities came up this week. Plus, I was notified of an extra trade show we’ll attend later this month, where we will promote a new service (a double whammy of trade show planning and new product development). That means moving up deadlines, developing messaging and materials, researching the market and competition and coordinating logistics, in addition to everything else that already was on the to-do list.

I have a simple and straightforward approach to surviving—and succeeding—that applies to marketing as well as it does an impending blizzard.