1st Strategic Marketing Beach Bash
The date is Final: Friday, July 11, 2008
Begins at High Noon and lasts until…there is no reason to stay anymore.
Salisbury Beach in Salisbury, MA (at the beach below the intersection of Ocean and Railroad Streets…Beach Path #2)

Bring all that you need to enjoy a day at the beach. You should include beach chair, blankets, food, drink, and SUN SCREEN, at the very least.

Don’t forget your “Burning” Question” or “Great” story to share with the group.

Whatever is a ‘Strategic Marketing Beach Bash” you may ask. Magicomm came up with this idea and is organizing this event for three reasons: (1) The second quarter was extremely busy for us and we got the opportunity to work in some new areas and learn new things. It was fun, but many questions were raised as we drove ahead with developing interactive components and strategies of a direct marketing campaign using viral techniques, variable data print, dynamic emails, personalized url’s and variable video’s. We would like to meet others that are working or interested in these areas and technologies that work out of the Boston/Southern New Hampshire. (2) Meeting on a beach, feeling the sand in your toes, and enjoying the warmth of the sun on your body, would not present an enormous burden on any of us, and (3) We all deserve a break from the normal, day to day chaos of work and life. Besides, it’s summer time and most of us work inside all day and only get to look at the sun through of windows, if we have windows at all (We are lucky at Magicomm because we are in an old Mill building, with HUGE windows that look over the Pow Wow River. It’s not so shabby!)

Therefore, we decided to organize such an event for the good of mankind (or should I say “person”kind?). This is a “BYOE” event (Bring Your Own Everything). We are going to set up our beach chairs, blankets, food, drinks, and umbrellas on the beach in Salisbury, MA. We will be set up near the boardwalk, just outside the reservation beach. Go into town and park near the beach, would provide you the closest parking. If you go into the beach reservation to park, you may have to walk a little way on the beach towards the town center to meet up with us.

Salisbury is on the Atlantic coast between Newburyport, MA and Seabrook, NH. We will be on the beach by noon time. Once we all set up our “best spot”, we can begin our discussions with you on YOUR (or Ours) burning question. Oops, I forgot to tell you that you had to bring a “burning” question or a great story to share with the group. All topics relating to marketing and media are on the table for discussion. I expect a lot of discussion on personalized communications, integrated marketing, viral marketing, and social media. Of course, leveraging the internet while not completely abandoning the traditional mass media and print will be looked at from all angles.

But, you may ask yourself “What day is it going to be?”. Legitimate question, but that is the tricky part. We are planning to have it sometime the week of July 7th. But, we will not finalize the date until we are SURE that the weather will be good for a superior beach experience. Therefore, we will continue to watch the weather and will make the call when the weather picture becomes clearer. At this time, it appears that the end of the week is going to best the best weather. So keep an eye on our calendar page for the final determination. We will update daily, at least, as we watch The Weather Channel. Right now, Friday, July 11th looks like the best day. Definitely not promising for the first of the week.

Looking forward to it and I hope to see you there.

The biggest issue that we ran into during installation was the compaibility with the audio chip (which we needed for the interactive video message) on the mother board and Windows Server 2003 (which is a requirement for installation of a Pageflex Server). After much discussion, research, and “googling” we determined the audio chip and the Windows Server software was not going to play nice with each other. So be it…brought in a Windows XP machine, set up as client to server (which we should have thought of sooner), and viola…Sound was happening on our interaction video messaging component.

Link for this cross media demo will be posted soon, once we complete installing and testing the server (and application) here at Magicomm. I think that you will enjoy the video component.

Final thoughts….Drupa was good, ink jet was everwhere, On demand apps were “cost of doing business”, worked with many dedicated people, and learned lots about servers and networks. Got a chance to reconnect with old friends and make new ones. Had several members of the “Wurst” family of meats during my meals. How could I be so lucky? Inquiring minds would like to know…or maybe not.

Spent most the first two days setting the cross media demo up and practicing with the team assigned to the area. There were a few bumps and bruises along the way and it is finally running like a top this morning. The biggest pain was getting the audio running on the server (which we never did). Had something to do with Windows Server 2003 and the audio chip. Eventually, we brought in a XP machine and used it as the client to run the demo and NOW we can hear the sound of the interactive video message that was included in the demo. That got everyone’s attention. And the VDP posters that we printed from the demo looked great. They all love the demo!

Coming to shows like this is always a pleasure because I get to see many of my old friends and make some new ones. The Agfa booth is across the aisle and got to reconnect with many of my international friends.

The show was slow yesterday (first day of Drupa) and in the ride back to the hotel, the taxi driver was telling me that it appeared the attendance was down, based on his lack of business and the hotels having vacancies, which is very unusual for this show. I guess it indicates the economic times and how the printing industry is coming under pressure from other media. Everyone here is trying to be optimistic, but they all realize the times are changing. Print is getting pressured by other media options and no one expects this to change long term. Print has its place, but it is smaller than it use to be. That’s the reality of the world today.

Got to go and finish morning set up, so….

Every time we get to this point with a project (putting the final parts together for release), it becomes a “frenzy”. Magicomm was hired by Canon Europe to design and program an interactive cross media demo for their booth at Drupa, which opens May 29th in Dusseldorf, Germany. We included VDP print, customized emails, Personalized URL (PURL), and an interactive video. The interesting thing about this one is that there is NO database to start with. Part of the objective for the project is to gather prospect info as they get their demo in the Canon booth.

With this many moving parts and different media that is being used, it is challenging to move fast as the revisions to the components are implemented and reviewed with the customer. We have done a pretty good job on this one so far, considering we are working with four companies, including Canon, at four different locations (three countries, and two states in the US) with approximately 15 individuals working on the project. We use a project management product called Basecamp (by 37signals) that has really helped in the communication and organization of the project. It is a web-based platform that includes project management and asset management functionality. This was critical in helping us keep up with everyone’s comments and the ongoing revisions of the various components of the project.

I leave on a plane on Monday (Memorial Day in the US, which has caused a little stress at home as you can imagine) for Germany and we are still updating the files. But, this final frenzy is the FUN PART! This is where you see it all come together and the fruits of your labor are exposed. It’s glorious when the vision becomes a reality! It’s a little scary at the same time, because you end up getting feedback and then you think of how it can be improved, but you have to control your natural impulse to keep changing things. It’s only software, how hard can it be? When you hear that phase, a cold chill should run up your spine if you are the project manager, because you are now entering the “Never Ending Valley of Change”, which can kill a project. Now is the time to wrap it up, confirm that you have a solid technical structure, and that the creative direction has fulfilled the promise of the experience. Now the true test of a campaign/project is revealed. It’s sink or swim time!

Have to leave now to finish my pre-trip routine and review the project for a final time before I get on the plane. If you at are Drupa, stop by the Canon booth at the Cross Media Station and check out what we designed. We hope that you will enjoy the experience and will let us know your thoughts. There’s always opportunity to improve it…After all, it’s only software, how hard can it be?

Well it seems as if there are multiple cross-media technologies emerging from the web to help engage, interact and even entertain the user, therefore increasing conversions. We’ve seen how XMPie can personalize images with its powerful VDP engine, but what if the user could change their name at runtime? Furthermore, what if the users name wasn’t in an image, but in a short movie? This is the future of PURLs and will be a hit in the social media world.

I received a link through Twitter for a website about a TV Show on FX and I was amazed at what they had done. Here is the PURL someone made for me. This type of PURL has both a viral marketing factor to it and a huge fun component. Everyone wants to be the star of their own movie and show it off to all of their friends. Personalized video could very well be a key component in the future of PURLs as VDP in images becomes all too familiar.

Another key component will be the “on demand” factor. General URL’s are limited in how they perform once you leave the realm of your database. So how do you appeal to the masses with personalized landing pages? Well, why not have the website change at runtime. Here’s something my own company put together. Basically I wanted the user to be able to interact with the flash movie in real time from outside of the movie via the web-form. Using JavaScript, I was able to insert the users name into the newspaper at runtime and it’s had an amazing response. Using this method there are endless possibilities to creating unique personalized experiences where everyone has their own PURL.

People need a break from their everyday activities and these fun side trackers give them this opportunity and not only will these methods produce higher responses, but they’re great for PR. So the future is about Interactivity and Engagement, have fun!

Remember form letters? How about mail merges? So what have they got to do with Variable Data Printing? Well, Variable Data Printing (VDP) is a form letter on steroids. Anyone who’s done a mail merge in Word will understand the basic concept. Variable Data Printing links a database with a message, an offer or maybe an invitation.

The most basic Variable Data Printing is just putting a different name on each piece. But it can get really exciting when you start adding images and text that change depending on the market segments and building the text right into the images. The customer becomes part of the message.

And when you use Variable Data Printing as part of a multi-touch campaign then you have a look and feel that crosses from snail mail to email to the web – all personalized. The customer sees the consistency and feels they’re being guided step-by-step through the process to getting something they need.

Lets say I get a new dog. I go to Town Hall to register the little guy. Say it’s a border collie. Some weeks later I get a postcard in the mail congratulating me on my new friend and the postcard has a great picture of a border collie. The postcard refers me to a web site to buy ID tags and when I open the site – wow – border collies all over the place. While I’m there I see they also sell dog beds, dog food dishes, even return address labels with – yup – border collies. See how it’s all specific to me, to what I’m interested in? And while they sold me the dog tags, they also sold me a dog dish (up-sell) and those cute address labels (cross-sell). So how did this start? When I registered the dog I had to indicate the breed, age, sex, and my home address. The Town Hall sells all that dog registration info in a database to someone who sells “dog stuff”. They segment the market by breed and change their graphics and text accordingly.

So, Variable Data Printing allows you to send each prospect an individualized mail piece with a unique message and offer. And it allows you to be more relevant! And maybe keep your message from hitting the recycle bin so fast.