Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Reader’s Digest creating new revenue!

During my morning perusal of the Journal News, between my crossword and sudoku puzzles, was an article relating to Reader’s Digest that I found of particular interest. Apparently they will be entering into a collaboration with one of the nations most well know Christian ministers and writers. Rick Warren heads up the Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. Its members number close to 100,000.

Mr. Warren, along with Reader’s Digest, will be producing a quarterly magazine, DVD’s, workbooks & Internet based discussion guides that will be geared to people who are searching for their purpose in life and are looking to interact with people on a similar quest.

The quarterly magazine will be a spin-off of his largely popular book, “The Purpose Driven Life”, which has sold more than 30 million copies since 2002. The magazine will be called “The Purpose Driven Connection”, and Mr. Warren will serve as its editor in chief.

According to leadership at Reader’s Digest they are attempting to develop a new revenue stream along with diversifying their readership. Reader’s Digest has always been known as a publication appealing to an older generation, but perhaps this type of endeavor may change that stereotype somewhat. Their hope is that through this medium they will be able to help a broader group of people with issues occurring in their daily lives.

I applaud their efforts to keep Reader’s Digest relevant and worthy of being the world’s largest magazine.

Labels: publishers

Video on video

This is jaw-dropping - and possibly a little scary with what we can do with technology these days... Programmers at Stanford University have developed a software that enables you to upload your image/video onto any surface within any existing video.

Imagine, as an advertiser, paying the owner of the hottest YouTube video for ad space to insert your promo directly into their video - which will appear as natural as if it were always there. And you're done quickly and easily with just a few clicks.

You can log-in and play around with it yourself, or check out a gallery of already created inserts.

Thanks to Darryl at Brandflakes for pointing this out.

.......ejiwfg

Sorry, glitch in the matrix.

Labels: technology, video

Monday, November 24, 2008

1 year, 79 trees later

This Sunday, November 30th, marks the one year anniversary that RMI implemented an internal paper recycling program via Shred-It. Through the recycling of our disposable paper products we have saved a whopping 79 trees thus far! To break it down... all of the recycled paper we accumulate goes towards the production of new paper goods such as paper towels and plates etc - thus saving all of the living trees that would have been used to make them.

Labels: green

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Connie Awards

This past Thursday, Rich Leary and I attended the National Wildlife Federation's National Conservation Achievement Awards and Dinner - known informally as the “Connie Awards.” The night went to honoring those individuals and organizations that have made outstanding contributions to protecting wildlife through education, advocacy and on-the-ground conservation.

The evening was held at the prestigious Mayflower Hotel. The MC of the evening was the energetic and charismatic Jack Hanna. He was assisted by several of his furry and scaly friends. Personally, I prefer the furry but all were entertaining in their own non-threatening way.

It was a wonderful evening that turned this young marketer from an observer to an activist. Those attendees and honorees made compelling comments regarding the future of our planet and seeing those animals directly affected tugged at my heart strings. Isn’t it true how people have a tendency to disregard things if it doesn’t directly affect them or if they don’t see it for themselves? Well, I am here to tell you that I saw all I needed to see and heard all I needed to hear to realize that if we, or our children, don’t do something to help reverse the effects of what we have already done, then we are just sitting back letting our planet die right before our eyes. Now I am not one to wag my finger in anyone’s face but I hope that if anything, this blog makes you think. It’s a step in the right direction.

PS: The picture above is of me and the lovely Martina White from NWF.

Labels: client, NWF

Friday, November 14, 2008

The RMI family

Alright, before you go spreading rumors - no, RMI has not gone "uniform"... nor are we adamantly expressing grey as the latest fashion trend... nor is this some weird episode of the Twilight Zone. We just got some awesome new RMI embroidered LL Bean fleeces, compliments of Martin, and wanted to rock them out in a group photo!

Plus we figured it's been a while since you've seen all (well almost all) of our smiling faces together in one group shot. Take a peak at our pearly whites and scroll over each person's face here to find out who's who.

You'll notice though that some of our team members are missing from the picture...

Alison Howell
Cyndi Lee
Justine Ciocchi
Ginny Naclerio
Kate Dullard
Lisa Davis
Rich Leary
Behind the camera: Katie Geraci
Yours truly: Becky Terhaar

And those from our satellite offices...

New Hampshire: Alexa Kimberley-Bryant
North Carolina: Mark Eubanks

Doggone-it we're a good lookin' group. Thanks Martin!

Labels: employees

Any similarities here?

The USPS announced today a loss of over 2.8 billion dollars. Among the reasons mentioned was loss of mail volume. Is it any surprise that when the USPS levied not one, but two hefty increases on first class and bulk mailers over the past 18 months and imposed new regulations for mailers to comply with, that mailers would cut back and/or look for alternative means of delivery... or stop mailing entirely? Hello?

When you increase costs to businesses, they cut back. Layoffs, reduced production or pass along price increases to consumers ensue. Worst case, shuttering entirely.

Raising expenses on businesses will not increase profits anywhere. The USPS must examine its business model and begin to revamp all with an eye towards reclaiming the loss of volume from DM. Renegotiate all their programs with an eye towards bringing mailers back with more cost effective mailing processes and lower postal rates.

Lower your expenses, lower your rates, increase your volume, increase your profits.

Labels: postage

A little story off topic

I was recently reminded of something that occurred while I was "vacationing" at Danbury Hospital on the Oncology floor.

Every so often at very random times I would hear a soft piano melody played over the hospital P.A. system. It was a very short refrain only about 4 or 5 seconds but it was appealing and soothing. I kept on looking at the clock to see if it was an alert or a chime to note the hour or half hour but it was always different and at all hours of the day and night. Very random...

I know I was very hazy about things during this time so I just let it go. I had other things to think about.

It wasn't until a few days later while Nancy (my wife) and I were departing the hospital that the melody played again while we were both in my room. I pointed it out to her and she immediately resolved the question.

It's new baby music. Every time a baby is born the new mother, as she is wheeled to go back to her room, presses a button on the wall and the music announces her new born to the entire hospital. If she has twins, she presses it twice and likewise for triplets etc.

No one makes a big deal about it obviously, and the only people who know about it are the mothers the staffers and inquisitive patients and their family. Now when I go back to the hospital for treatments and I happen to hear the little melody I smile.

It's just a little good memory I can take away from those days.

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

A wonderful tribute

On December 5, 2008 the Hudson Valley DMA will award the Founders Award to Laura Smith. This is in tribute to Laura's past contributions to the organization. She was a past president and a long time board member, not to mention an avid supporter of the HVDMA.

For all of us who knew her, she was devoted to our industry, our clients and our company. All of her RMI family is so proud to accept this award in her memory.

Mark your calendar. The event is from 11:30am-3:00pm at Tamarack Country Club, Greenwich, CT. You can contact Amy Altmann at 203-973-6222 or aaltmann@boardroom.com for reservations.

See you there.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Times are tough, are you missing out?

It's been year after year of postal increases, and month after month of bear market - a down turn in the economy posing all of the hot button questions we want to ask but don't want to share: list rental volume? mail volume? response rates? or even worse - cut backs?

I think it's safe to say that all marketers are wondering what else they can do to improve their business. And now is the time to put on your best game - toss the rubber stamp, revisit some of those closed doors, and maintain an open mind about additional untapped opportunities and revenue streams you've never explored... As Martin always says, "nothing ventured, nothing gained."

So realistically, what can you do? First, identify new opportunities. Take a look at some of these insert media options, consider some programs you’ve never offered before, and embrace change...

Print Inserts:
- Package Insert Programs
- Blow Ins/Bind Ins
- Ride-a-longs
- Statement Stuffers
- One Page Ad with Bind Ins
- Free Standing Inserts

Online Inserts:
- Banner Ads
- Online Partnerships
- Lead Generation
- Co-Registration
- Co-ops
- Webserts

Direct Mail Brainstorming Ideas:

- Big fish in a little pond: while other marketers are slicing and dicing their mail quantities (especially with the major credit card mailers), just maintaining yours will make a difference. Be bold while others are in hiding.

- Revisit the vintage: brush the dust off of those old mail pieces that generated less than thrilling responses and polish them up for Round II.

- Reinvent the wheel: or at least fix it. Call me crazy. Sometimes rubber stamping tried and true methods restricts creativity and limits new, successful ventures. Today's consumers shop/donate differently than they did 3, 5, 10 years ago. If you haven't reevaluated your marketing for its relevance recently, now is the time to do it.

- Modeling: a great way to analyze your current customers while pin-pointing new ones. And typically the model will come free of charge after meeting a minimum order quantity.

- White out the black out: lifting your black out dates could allow more mailers to come in, equating more list rental revenue. And contrary to popular belief, studies have proven that in doing so you may simultaneously increase your own response rates.

Times are tough, but they may also be just what we need to get our hands dirty, improve our forward thinking, and in the end come out on top.

And, of course, we like to consider ourselves an extension of your marketing department and are here for your every beckoning call. Got questions? We're on it. Just let us know how else we can help.

Labels: economy, tips

The "Who's Mailing What" of social media

If you have the exciting task of branching your organization out into social media mainstream, here are two great tools to help get your creative juices flowing.

Peter Kim, of Being Peter Kim, has put together an on-going list of over 300 brands using social media and their examples including American Red Cross, Disney Music, Hearst and oodles more. And below is also a list of the many different SM channels to delve your brand in to:

1. Blogs (Johnson & Johnson, Delta Air Lines)
2. Bookmarking/Tagging (Adobe, Kodak)
3. Brand monitoring (Dell, MINI)
4. Content aggregation (Alltop, EMC)
5. Crowdsourcing/Voting (Oracle, Starbucks)
6. Discussion boards and forums (IBM, Mountain Dew)
7. Events and meetups (Molson, Pampers)
8. Mashups (Fidelity Investments, Nike)
9. Microblogging (method, Whole Foods)
10. Online video (Eukanuba, Home Depot)
11. Organization and staffing (Ford, Pepsi)
12. Outreach programs (Nokia, Yum Brands)
13. Photosharing (Rubbermaid, UK Government)
14. Podcasting (Ericsson, McDonalds)
15. Presentation sharing (CapGemini, Daimler AG)
16. Public Relations - social media releases (Avon, Intel)
17. Ratings and reviews (Loblaws, TurboTax)
18. Social networks: applications, fan pages, groups, and personalities (British Airways, Saturn)19. Sponsorships (Coca-Cola, Whirlpool)
20. Virtual worlds (National Geographic, Toyota)
21. Widgets (Southwest Airlines, Target)
22. Wikis (Second Life, T-Mobile Sidekick)

...Otherwise, you could always just tap the brains of one of our lovely brokers to get their insight on which social media outlet would be right for you. Until then, happy marketing!

Labels: social media

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Ditch the packaging, save some money

Here's a brilliant idea from Amazon.com, and a great way for retailers to both save some green and be green this holiday season. For online/mail order fulfillment shipments develop a secondary packaging design option, one without the die cuts, plastic, and 4 color process your store versions boast - then market it as a "Frustration-Free" or "Earth Friendly" package to encourage customers to opt-in.

Kudos Amazon; great idea.

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Review of NCDC

I recently attended the annual National Catholic Development Conference in Orlando, FL. I had been on hiatus for several years, turned off by the way the organization and the conference had been run. However, my hats off to Sr. Georgette Lehmuth, President of NCDC, who has obviously put her own personal stamp on the organization and turned it around.

The sessions were well attended because the material presented was relevant. The staff at NCDC and the presenters did a wonderful job promoting the services of the exhibitors/ corporate partners. Many of the central functions were held right in the exhibit hall. Now that is the way to make your corporate partners/sponsors of such events feel welcomed and get a bang for their buck!

Kudos to Sr. Georgette for recognizing the importance of the vendors in the overall fundraising mix.

Looking forward to next years event in Arlington, VA.

Labels: conference

Saturday, November 1, 2008

Halloween RMI Style

There isn't a single holiday that slips by where RMI doesn't have some sort of party extraordinaire (all while diligently attending to orders and client needs of coarse) - and Halloween being no different. Every year we all pitch in to make breakfast, lunch and desert dishes for an all day binge-fest, with our kids joining us in the afternoon. And if that isn't enough, almost everyone comes to work in full costume for judging.

This year's winners?

1) Kathy Duggan-Josephs as... we're not really sure, but it was definitely ugly and absolutely hysterical
2) Siobhan Caragine as a shower curtain
3) Decio as a centaur (1/2 man 1/2 horse)

Now if only we had Martin's old pumpkin air cannon. Rumor has it, it would launch a pumpkin 3500 feet... Maybe next year.

Labels: employees, Halloween