Catapult Blog

Be afraid spreadsheets. Be very afraid.

Mon, 08 Mar 2010 13:21:00 -0500

Last week, spreadsheets got very nervous. Why? We helped to launch BioClinica Optimizer-the smarter way for pharma companies to simulate, forecast and optimize their clinical supply chain.

Presently, clinical trial managers-those in charge of planning and maintaining the supply of medicine at various testing sites - use manual spreadsheets to figure out how much supply of their drug is needed at various testing facilities around the world. The issue: spreadsheets are extremely imprecise. And the costs of supplying too much or too little of a drug can be enormous.

BioClinica Optimizer uses special forecasting tools to play out an unlimited number of supply chain scenarios, and test all relevant study parameters, from a global level down to an individual site. This yields tremendous cost savings-from better management of drug waste to the prevention of supply crises.

Our strategy? Be disruptive and challenge the status quo. Through print and online advertising and a cool new microsite featuring fun graphics and video, we wanted to get the idea across that you'd be foolish to plan your next clinical trial without BioClinica Optimizer.

Garfield Group Holiday 2009

Thu, 25 Feb 2010 11:02:00 -0500

Transforming a playground. Transforming lives.

Given 2009's tough economic climate, we wanted to dedicate our annual holiday "gift" to something that would help heal the world and inspire both our team and our community. Fortunately, we were able to partner with Greater Philadelphia Cares (GPC) who introduced us to the Norris Square Civic Association (NSCA). Located in the Kensington section of Philadelphia, the NSCA had an indoor playground that was in desperate need of a makeover.

On December 18th, we painted bright murals and brought in educational toys to transform a drab room into a special place where kids can laugh, dream, and learn - and inspired the National Head Start Association to make a matching donation of $29,000. Arlene Lopez, Education Coordinator for the Norris Square Civic Association was overjoyed at the new playground: "I can't thank you enough for creating a wonderful, new space for our children," she said. "I hope others will be inspired and do the same for other organizations."

Read the case study to learn more about the results of the Norris Square Project.

Holiday 2009: The Norris Square Project

Thu, 14 Jan 2010 14:59:00 -0500

We're proud to announce that the Head Start program has offered to match our combined efforts to transform the NSCA's indoor playground.
Read more »

What used to be a plain indoor playground at the NSCA was turned into a colorful "town square," filled with new toys and excited little kids.
See the transformation »

Discover the Right Keyword Search Phrases (KSPs)

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 11:06:00 -0500

10 Tips for Getting Started in B2B Social Media #3

Keyword Search Phrases (KSPs) are the queries that your audience enters into the search engine and may result in a visit to your website. Once you understand your audience, its time to think about which KSPs should be targeted for acquisition. The most desirable KSPs may not be the best ones to go after if the competition is too stiff. To discover the best KSPs there are a variety of tools and resources you can use to assess your competition.

Google Keyword Tool: This Search-based Keyword Tool generates keyword and landing page ideas highly relevant and specific to your website. In doing so, the tool helps you identify additional advertising opportunities that aren't currently being used in your AdWords ad campaigns. The tool goes one step further by tailoring the keywords and other data (such as the amount of competition for the keyword, the suggested bid, and more) based on your language or country/territory settings.
Hubspot: Hubspot is a search marketing tool used for discovering KWPs and managing their acquisition by providing detailed traffic and visitor intelligence in relationship to your campaigns. You can use the tool to select the best phrases and continue to manage the process. It provides a number of features desirable for product-based marketing programs, especially those with short sales cycles. It is also great for managing the effectiveness of forms and custom landing pages, social media tactics and content efforts.
WordStream: WordStream is a Keyword Management Solution, providing search marketers with integrated keyword tools for discovering, researching, analyzing, organizing, prioritizing and acting on keyword data for PPC and SEO campaigns.

Vertex, Bioclinica Honored at 2009 Enterprise Awards

Wed, 16 Dec 2009 10:45:00 -0500

The 2009 Enterprise Awards brought together almost 1,000 of the Philadelphia region's technology and life sciences elite. This was the 17th year the Eastern Technology Council hosted the annual awards ceremony, which celebrates the vitality of the technology and life sciences communities in Philadelphia.

The Enterprise Awards recognizes the best and brightest companies and leaders in the Philadelphia region and this year Garfield Group is proud to congratulate two clients who were honored for their excellence.

Vertex CEO Jeff Westphal was named Technology CEO of the Year.

As President and CEO of Vertex, Jeff Westphal spearheads the strategy and direction as the global leader in corporate tax performance management solutions. Under Jeff's stewardship, Vertex has established consulting and implementation service offerings, and expanded to serve global clients by establishing European Union operations. In addition, Vertex was awarded "The Best Place to Work in Pennsylvania" in 2001 and 2002.

BioClinica was named Technology Company of the Year.

BioClinica, an international life sciences industry leader for more than 19 years, was honored for their long-term vision of making the pharmaceutical and medical device development process more efficient. BioClinica has a team focused on redefining the industry, helping to deliver next-generation clinical outsourcing results through improved, integrated and accelerated clinical trial processes.

Database Marketing Loves IT

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 19:29:00 -0500

KEEPING YOUR DATA IN-HOUSE VS. OUTSOURCING

C-SUITE COMRADERIE

A few years ago at a National Center for Database Marketing conference, I heard that the decision whether or not a marketing organization should build their database management functionality in-house often rests on the relationship between two people - the marketing chief and the head of technology. If that's true, how does that play out in your organization?

Is their relationship collaborative and friendly? Then building and maintaining a marketing database in-house can work very well. But if the two executives regularly engage in silo defense and turf-grabbing, then outsourcing may be faster, less stressful on the business, and offer you more autonomy and flexibility with your data.

Naturally, politics shouldn't be a key factor in the decision. But delay-driven opportunity costs should be. You can successfully pull an internally-managed database solution into the station even if your CMO and CTO are ‘frenemies'. But it will take longer while they argue over who's driving the bus.

How much incremental revenue, cost savings, or efficiency do you lose in the meantime? You need to figure it out, then figure factor it into your decision process.

STAFFING AND SKILLS

I was once refused administrative rights to a direct mail database, due to a business rule that only the IT team members were qualified DBA's. I challenged the rule, citing my assistant's graduate degree in Computer Science and the fifteen years of database experience between us. We did get our rights - but because we had the proper credentials, not because we were entitled to autonomy. If you don't possess real qualifications within your team or have immediate plans to hire people with them, outsourcing is probably best.

STEWARDSHIP

You've got to put yourself in your tech manager's shoes. A poorly written query against a database on a shared server could grind a production system to a halt. When the field offices suddenly can't enter any new contracts, she's the one who has to stand in front of the Sales VP's desk explaining what happened, not the hapless marketing guy who set the whole thing in motion.

So give her a comfort level by talking like a DBA instead of a marketer. Which statement will be more effective in dispelling her fear?

"It's our database - we know what we're doing - you won't be sorry."
"I promise, I'll never perform a six-table outer left join without a where clause or import a two million row table without proper indexing."

If you know what (2) means, she will realize you're aware of the type of bad acting that brings down servers and she has your word that it won't happen on your watch. If you don't know what it means, you should seriously consider outsourcing.

RISK TOLERANCE

The server corrupts, the on-call junior tech loads the backup, which corrupts too, and keeps loading each previous backup until they're all damaged. Or you discover that the backup failed every night for the last three weeks, but the failure notification went to the phone of an employee laid off last June. It happens. Tight procedures and consistent oversight help mitigate it, but the risk is inherent to any in-house database solution.
Many consider outsourcing safer. But consider the October 2009 T-Mobile Sidekick debacle - a catastrophic database failure in which some vital client data was irretrievably lost. And the keeper of the data wasn't some undercapitalized DB startup - it was Microsoft. They've since recovered some of the lost data, but confidence in outsourcing and cloud computing in particular has taken a definite hit.

Outsourcing data failures are fairly rare, and you at least have the option to sue. But either outsourcing or in-house failure can cripple your operation and lose customers. You need to honestly assess how well your in-house staff can execute on database maintenance best practices, compared to the vendor's ability to do the same, and use those risk factors in your decision.

PLAN B: TRAINING WHEELS AND TRANSPARENCY

If you definitely want to take your database operations in-house, and your tech team balks, you can offer to launch with "training wheel" rights and gradually earn your way to autonomy. Offer to:

Request read-only and row append rights to start.
Email all query coding to an IT manager for quality assurance.
Schedule weekly meetings to review server load metrics, table change requirements, and new data loads you need them to support.
Call for advance clearance to append more than a 100K records into the database.

Give it six weeks and ask again. If you've been diligent, you'll likely be granted full rights to manage your database. The tech department doesn't really want to review your code, add more meetings to their schedules, or interrupt their day to approve your appends. They just want a comfort level that:

You acknowledge you are playing in their sandbox
You won't break anything
You will be a good steward of the data

About the Author

Cathy Carleton loves to find the story in the data. She is a Red Sox fan,
doesn't answer the phone when Mad Men's on, and heads up Database Marketing
at Yellowbook.

The Marketer's Toolbox: Selecting Your Marketing Mix.

Mon, 30 Nov 2009 20:27:00 -0500

The list of factors challenging today's B2B marketers is undoubtedly vast: fragmented audiences, empowered consumers, getting heard amongst the clutter of 3000 messages daily, budgetary constraints, demonstrating ROI, and accountability. But, the resources available to transform these challenges into opportunities are equally as endless. From strategies to tactics, the marketer's toolbox is overflowing with opportunity: strategic brand planning, audience profiling and mapping, PR, outbound marketing, digital marketing, SEO, and social media - these are just a sampling of the tools that today's B2B marketers have at their disposal. What makes them each effective is the careful consideration and analysis of the specific marketing problem at hand and the selection of the most relevant tool(s) to solve that problem. In some instances, this careful consideration is overlooked by the impulse to select the newest tool in the box, before considering how it will help to solve the problem and meet the objectives.

A relatively recent example is social media. It's the shiny new wrench that marketers can't wait to employ. Some would argue that it has crossed the line of becoming an obsession-most marketing blogs, webinars, and podcasts heavily focus on how to leverage it, how to navigate it, how to track it, and how to put it to use immediately. And while it's an effective tool, it's important to remember it may or may not be the solution to the problem you're tasked with solving.

Ford's "Bold Moves" and the Timid Consumer Response

Ford's recent marketing efforts illustrate this point. What started as a beautifully architected creative campaign called "Bold Moves" soon became a social media flop. Aimed at addressing Ford's turn-around from an outdated and behind-the-times business to a reinvigorated and relevant company with bold new products, the campaign failed to develop any meaningful traction with its primary consumers.

The integrated campaign utilized TV, print ads, a microsite full of documentary-like content, a series of weekly webisodes, blogs, and you guessed it, social media. It promised to get the consumer involved and engaged with the transformation taking place at Ford. But Ford's marketing team didn't carefully consider the problem that they were tasked with solving, in this case determining the brand image and repositioning of the company. The consumer involvement factor gained little traction in the social space due to Ford's one-way communication style. And what footprint it did leave behind was met with great scrutiny-Ford had alienated the audience they had hoped to attract by attempting to shield the company from consumer comments. Had Ford charted the course differently and selected more appropriate tools for collecting consumer feedback and participation, the $60 million investment may have sustained itself as corporate platform rather than have been a short-lived, expensive lesson.

How AMEX and NBC Were Illuminated

Unlike Ford's pricey mistake, the savvy marketer approaches each problem with discipline and an open mind-ready to employ a balanced strategy, selecting the best tools to meet the objectives and solve the problem. A good example of this type of insightful thinking is a the recent "Shine A Light" campaign, launched by American Express and NBC Universal. Tasked with creating a positive relationship (image) with the small business community in the wake of much financial misfortune, Amex teamed up with NBC Universal to position the company as one committed to the interests of small businesses, as well as to generate awareness about the significant role small businesses play in the global economy.

Through a careful analysis and consideration of the problem, an integrated positioning effort was launched, leveraging television, radio, business information, PR, direct mail, email, digital, and social media. Amex ultimately delivered $100,000 in grant and marketing support to an inspiring American small business.

TV and radio brought national attention, driving viewers to nominate and later vote for a small business that has demonstrated an innovative commitment to their customers and community at large. A new custom microsite acted as the campaign epicenter, providing free small business-specific content such as business plan development tips, tax resources, Shine A Light direct mail flyers, email templates for nominations and vote collections, widgets, and videos for viral sharing. And finally, community friendly social media took the campaign to the corners of the U.S. via Twitter, facebook, Digg, Stumble Upon, and Delicious, encouraging individuals and their respective communities to show support and vote for a deserving local or regional small business finalist.

So there you have it-two widely known brands, two similar marketing challenges, two very different outcomes. While the tools available were the same for both Ford and American Express, the award for execution of the most relevant mix goes to Amex. Ford had the right ideas in concept and message, but they didn't consider the consequences of how their conservative roots would play out in the social space. Amex on the other hand, with careful consideration of the marketing mix, understood the best way to achieve their objectives and chose appropriate tools to execute their campaign. Ford could have engaged their audience differently via other tools such as, focus groups, consumer surveys, and customer service outreach, which could have impacted their investment positively. Instead, they prematurely entered an unfamiliar space with impulse rather than careful consideration.

As you face the daily challenges of marketing in an increasingly diverse and dynamic business environment, remember the importance of analyzing the situation and selecting strategies and tools that are contextually relevant. Don't forget to check out the Idea Lab periodically to discuss other real life case studies, like Amex and Ford.

A day in the life of an Advertising Agency Copywriter

Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:22:00 -0500

After a colleague shared Atherton Bartelby's Brand Timeline Portrait, in which he created a graphic representation of all the brands he experienced over the course of a day. I got to thinking: although writers and art directors play on the same team, we see things in different ways. I took it as a challenge to create my own timeline from the point of view of the other side of the creative department.

So I present a day in the life of a Copywriter, as chronicled by some of the best (and worst) advertising slogans. Because it's one thing to record your day with logos, but it's quite another to narrate it with taglines.

7:00 AM It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

7:09 AM It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

7: 18 AM It takes a licking and keeps on ticking.

7:20 AM Look Ma, no cavities!

7:22 AM Clean, clear and under control.

7:25 AM Clearly, someone's been doing the Herbal.

7: 28 AM You're not fully clean until you're Zestfully clean.

7:36 AM Strong enough for a man. Ph-balanced for a woman.

7:47 AM Nothing comes between me and my Calvins.

7:48 AM Fall into the Gap.

7:49 AM That's the magic of Macy's.

7:52 AM Easy, breezy, beautiful CoverGirl.

8:02 AM Designer Shoes. Warehouse Prices.

8:03 AM Breakfast of Champions.

8:14 AM Put a tiger in your tank.

8:17 AM Drivers wanted.

8:47 AM The best part of waking up is Folgers in your cup.

9:00 AM Think Different.

9:30 AM What's on your mind? What are you doing?

9:54 AM Think Different.

11:35 AM Good to the last drop.

11:40 AM Think Different.

12:52 PM Yum, Yum Bumble Bee, Bumble Bee Tuna

2:31 PM Think Different. Write out loud. Think Different.

5:38 PM Just do it. Just do it. Just do it.

5:45 PM Run faster, jump higher.

6:33 PM That's G.

6:40 PM Drivers wanted.

7:07 PM Home is the most important place in the world.

7:28 PM Doesn't your dog deserve ALPO?

7:31 PM Don't treat your puppy like a dog.

7:36 PM It takes a tough man to make a tender chicken.

8:04 PM Tough on grease. Soft on hands.

8:29 PM America's most watched network.

9:34 PM Think Different.

10:46 PM Look Ma, no cavities!

10:48 PM Kill the germs. Feel the clean.

11:03 PM The world's best mattress.

And now I challenge you to create your own timeline. Use any kind of brand element to catalog your day - logos, taglines, colors, or even stock symbols. You'll be amazed at what you learn about yourself and your brands.

Garfield Group Interactive wins a 2009 MITX award

Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:25:00 -0500

The Nation of Why Not was the big winner in the final award of the evening; Travel, Tourism and Hospitality. In Partnership with JWT and Royal Caribbean, Garfield Group Interactive provided a customized commercial social media platform for the Flickr integrated photo sharing website. The site provides a destination for Royal Caribbean cruisers to share their photos and experiences.

Begun in 1996, the MITX awards have grown to be the largest and most prestigious Web innovation awards competition of its kind in the country. We were proud to join 1,100 of the best interactive professionals in New England for the 14th installment of the awards.

MITX is a premiere Internet business and marketing association representing over 7,500 professionals in New England, it is a dynamic and growing community of thought leaders, collaborators, and individuals in search of insight, education and opportunity. Garfield Group Interactive is a proud member and contributor to MITX.

The Garfield Group Interactive Team at the 2009 MITX Awards

Photo credit: Jenny Schuerholz at Blue Sky Factory

Live from The Lab

Thu, 19 Nov 2009 17:50:00 -0500

Did you miss the first Live from the Lab webinar? Want to see it again?

Watch the on-demand replay of this webinar as David talks about his latest book, World Wide Rave, and discusses the latest trends in social media marketing for technology, life sciences and B2B brands.

View the Video

Click here to continue the conversation

Audience Assessment: The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy

Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:08:00 -0500

In this series of articles, I will outline a social strategy that is essential for B2B brand managers to understand when getting started in social media.

The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy

Usability Guru Jacob Nielson's 90-9-1 Rule for Social Design stated that 1% of users contribute most of the content, while 9% contribute periodically and 90% are lurkers, or simply consume content. For B2B marketers, a small percentage of your audience will actually create content that promotes your brand, while many more may bookmark or mention that content on Digg, Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn, etc. Most of your audience will just take notice. You may know many people that are target buyers of cars, but there are only a few of them you may ask advice about buying a car. In social media, it's equally important to target the influencers - not just your target buyers.

Influencers (1%):

The people who create content online are influencers who promote brands they like. They have established a reputation through their accomplishments and by delivering consistent value through their insights and opinions. They have developed a following. This is a sophisticated, intelligent and Internet-savvy audience. They can make or break a brand, see through marketing propaganda and have a low tolerance for spam. Who are the influencers for your target customers? Who are the thought leaders in your industry? What are their Internet habits, what blogs do they read, what social networks do they participate in? This segment of your target audience may not represent a significant percentage of your revenue but they can potentially drive more awareness and trust than you can.

Brand Advocates (9%):

Brand advocates are target buyers and influencers likely to promote content and mentions created by people they follow and respect. When serial entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki tweets a links to a blog article and suggests its great insight for marketing professionals, I will often 'retweet' that update even before reading the article. So far I have never been disappointed. Guy's judgment is consistent and his ideas and perspectives have been a significant source of inspiration and knowledge over the years. I have become a "brand advocate" for many brands Guy has promoted, as many of the products and services he has recommended, I have used with great success and recommend them to clients as well.

Target Buyers (90%):

Of course, you need to optimize the experience to service the 90% of the consumers of your product that may not participate in the conversation, but who represent the highest portion of revenue opportunity. Make it easy for them to understand your value proposition, to see what real people are saying, and to discover that your solution has social status. There are many ways you can fine-tune the experience and make sign-up or conversion more effective buy reducing friction and increasing incentives. Your ongoing program should be able to uncover insights from real consumer interactions so that it can be come increasingly accurate in acquiring qualified lead and reducing attrition observed on lead capture forms - a topic we will discuss further.

The Ten Tips: Going from Zero to Social and Beyond

Your Website is the Hub
Audience Assessment: The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy
Discover the Right Keyword Search Phrases (KSPs)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Campaign Strategy
Social Media Operations
Customer Acquisition
ROI-based Planning
Social Media Monitoring
What's Next

Maximizing Your Social Media Benefits

Mon, 09 Nov 2009 18:07:00 -0500

Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter and all the other forums for social media are all the buzz. And rightfully so - they are changing peoples' communications habits. There are now ongoing conversations taking place online about every topic, and as a marketer you want to be included in the conversation. Social media is a great opportunity to communicate with your constituencies and prospects and stay fresh, relevant and top of mind. Better yet, you even can become the topic of conversation.

For B2B marketers, the challenge of being the topic of conversation is a bit greater. You want to be the focus of conversation in places where buyers go to look to make decisions about products like yours. Like other elements of the marketing mix, it is critical to view social media as part of an overall communications plan directed by a marketing strategy. But, as is too often the case - organizations move right to tactics that are implemented without a strategy or cohesive plan. Social Media is no different than other elements of your communications plan. "We need to get on LinkedIn, Facebook and twitter" is not a plan.

As with the entire marketing mix, start with your target customers. How are they making their decisions, what information do they need, and who influences them? You want them to have all the information they need at the time they are looking to make a decision. The ability to do this will be based on your ability to be viewed as a reliable authority. Being knowledgeable and acknowledged as such by the relevant community provides that credibility. This credibility requires not just providing valuable relevant content, but being a n active participant in the conversation.

Delivering a consistent message in the right places, at the right times, with valuable content and active participation will all add up to success. This consistency requires maintaining a supporting theme and a coordinated approach in all communications, including the company website, e-mail, blogs and social media, in such a way that they work together, complement each other, and support one another.

Note: This post was originally shared on Chuck's TMCnet blog, Now Market It.

About the Author

Chuck is an entrepreneurial marketing executive in the high tech industry with expertise in strategy, marketing and business development. He has extensive experience in the introduction of new products and services, particularly in the communications and networking markets.

Chuck is currently the Managing Director at Precise Insights, a strategy and marketing consulting company. Previously, he was the VP of Marketing and Business Development at Quintum Technologies; where he joined the company as a pre-revenue start-up and helped grow it to have the second largest market share in its market segment.

Chuck has spoken at conferences around the world and was named one of the "Top 100 Voices of IP Communications". He holds a JD, an MBA and a BS in Electronic Engineering.

BioClinica wins two Rx Club Show Awards

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:45:00 -0400

Considered the Oscars of the pharmaceutical and healthcare industry, the Rx Club honors the best creative advertising and promotions from around the globe. This year, over 2,000 entries in print, video and interactive were submitted for consideration.

The BioClinica launch branding campaign, featuring a new website, printed collateral, direct mail, newsletters and advertising was recognized in the multi-media launch campaign category. A direct mail package sent to high-value customers also received individual honors in the dimensional mailer category.

You can see the Rx Club Awards details here.
Check out our BioClinica branding work and award-winning DIA show promotion case histories.

Garfield Group Selected as MITX Awards Finalists

Mon, 19 Oct 2009 16:26:00 -0400

GARFIELD GROUP SELECTED AS 2009 MITX INTERACTIVE AWARDS FINALISTS FOR BIOCLINICA AND NATION OF WHY NOT WEBSITES

Nation of Why Not and BioClinica Recognized for Outstanding Achievement

Newton, MA (October 16, 2009) - Garfield Group Interactive today announced two websites have been selected as finalists for the 14th Annual MITX Interactive Awards. Its BioClinica website has been selected as a finalist in the Biotechnology/Pharmaceuticals category, while The Nation of Why Not has been selected as a finalist in the Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality category.

Held annually by the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange, the MITX Awards recognize excellence in the creation of web innovations designed, produced or developed in New England.

Begun in 1996, the MITX Awards has grown to the largest and most prestigious awards competition in the country for technology innovations and celebrates the best creative and technological accomplishments emerging from New England.

"The MITX Awards celebrates the union of the big idea and innovation. Every year the synergy between creative ideas and technology becomes more transparent. Our finalists are some of the world's most forward thinking marketing and creative experts who help national and local brands connect with their audiences through the use of technology" said Kiki Mills, president of MITX. "MITX is proud to be the foundation for our region's vibrant digital community, and to recognize and keep our creative minds, marketing strategists, technology developers and consumers at the forefront of evolution."

BioClinica Website

The BioClinica brand and website was launched earlier this year after the merger of Bio-Imaging Technologies; the world's foremost Imaging Core Lab and Phoenix Data Systems; a leader in electronic data capture (EDC). The challenge was to unite these two brands to establish them as the leader in the eClinical space.

"Garfield Group helped us create a single, strong global reputation around our new name and brand," said Mark Weinstein, President and CEO, BioClinica, " With a clear, unified voice in the marketplace, we can now reach out and successfully market our combined strengths."

Royal Caribbean's Nation of Why Not Website

In Partnership with JWT, the fourth largest ad agency and key WPP company, Garfield Group Interactive provided a customized commercial social media platform for the Flickr integrated photo sharing website. The site provides a destination for Royal Caribbean cruisers to share their photos and experiences.

"Travel and tourism marketing is a vertical that benefits most from social media and user generated content", says Dean Whitney, President of Garfield Group Interactive, "This is just a small step for Royal Caribbean - I'm sure we'll see much more social marketing campaigns from them in the near future".

Garfield Group Interactive will be recognized with the other finalists in the categories of Biotechnology/Pharmaceutical and Travel, Tourism, and Hospitality at a gala awards ceremony traditionally attended by over 1,100 of the region's top interactive marketing and technology professionals. Winners will be announced at the ceremony in the Boston Marriott Copley Place on Tuesday, November 17th. Tickets can be purchased at www.mitxawards.org/interactive

The 2009 MITX Awards are sponsored by: PricewaterhouseCoopers, DLA Piper, Google, Microsoft New England Research & Development Center, Sitecore, Blue Sky Factory, Fidelity, Reebok, Technology Review and The Jordan, Edmiston Group, Inc. Creative sponsors include: Atom Group, iBeam, massAV and Viewpoint Creative.

About Garfield Group

Garfield Group, Inc., a full-service, integrated marketing communications company is comprised of Garfield Group Branding, Garfield Group Public Relations and Garfield Group Interactive. Garfield Group Branding and Garfield Group Public Relations are both based in Philadelphia, PA; Interactive is based in Boston, MA. These companies were founded, and built, by senior communications executives who have experience with both large brands and emerging companies in the information technology, electronics, engineering, health care and bio-tech industries. Garfield Group Interactive is a full service inbound marketing and digital interactive firm.

About MITX

Established in 1996 The Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange (MITX) is the region's premier professional organization for the Internet business & marketing industry. Reaching more than 7,500 professionals in New England, MITX is the community for thought leadership, building business relationships and professional training and development. Members of the MITX community take advantage of events, sponsorships, speaking opportunities and networking to make business connections and exchange ideas. With more than 70 events annually, MITX provides its members with the opportunity to promote their companies to targeted audiences and provides a valuable forum for networking to source potential business leads, partnerships, ideas, funding and other likeminded peers in the industry. MITX is headquartered in Cambridge, MA. For more information please go to www.mitx.org.

# # # #

Contact:

Dustin Leer
MITX
617-871-2155 x205
dustin@mitx.org

Ally Levine
Garfield Group Interactive
617-581-6238
alevine@garfieldgroup.com

The Importance of Branding

Fri, 16 Oct 2009 17:53:00 -0400

Even though web marketing tools have become easier and more cost effective, without a solid brand foundation, your message can get lost. Alex Smith, VP of Communications and Public Affairs at Vertex, discusses the importance of establishing your brand, then strengthening it with the right communications.

Introducing The Lab.

Tue, 06 Oct 2009 17:10:00 -0400

An idea exchange for those passionate about building great technology, life sciences and B2B brands.

As you know, in the past few years, marketing has undergone a fundamental transformation. Prospects are harder to reach. Sales cycles are longer. And budgets are tighter than ever.

The challenge: Find ways to engage prospects in more compelling ways. Optimize the online-offline mix. Take first steps with social media. Make the value prop simple, clear and relevant. And drive leads and sales.

There’s a lot to learn and a lot at stake. And who has time to do their own research?

Join us in The Lab. A place where we can explore, experiment and enhance the success of our programs and our brands. We invite you to check out the Beta version — garfieldgroup.com/thelab — and become a Lab Partner.

Participate in the Idea Lab — Post a challenging question. Share your own experiences. Sound off on an issue
Download special eBooks, resources and planning tools
Get invited to events, webinars and "first looks" at survey results
Provide feedback and help The Lab continue to improve and grow

We hope The Lab will help all of us take technology, life sciences and B2B marketing to a whole new level. Give us the chance to test new theories. Find new formulas for success. And have fun while we do it.

This is something we’ll build together. Which is why we’re working hard to recruit some of the best minds in the business.

Let us know what you think of The Lab so far. Learn-Explore-Discuss-React!

Email Marketing Best Practices

Mon, 05 Oct 2009 01:39:00 -0400

Email marketing has become a critical component of all integrated direct marketing campaigns - both for customer acquisition and customer relationship management.

This eBook outlines the major elements that influence the success of email campaigns:

1.    GOVERNANCE: Establishing a central strategic infrastructure to adhere to organizational email standards

2.    PERMISSION: Strategies to help maximize your number of quality opt-ins for your email communications.

3.    DELIVERY: Best practices to set-up your email to make it through spam filters to reach your audience.

4.    ENTICEMENT: Recommended approach to improve open rates.

5.    ENGAGEMENT: Development of design and content to help promote higher click-through rates.

Through the mastery of each of these key disciplines, you should see improved email campaign performance.

Click here to download the Ebook

10 Tips for B2B Brands Getting Started in Social Media

Sun, 04 Oct 2009 00:44:00 -0400

It's becoming clear to B2B brands that social media is an important part of their marketing mix. We work with a variety of Technology and Life Sciences brands, especially Pharma and Biotech companies, that are starting from scratch to develop a social media strategy.

In this series of articles, I will outline a social strategy that is essential for B2B brand managers to understand when getting started in social media.

B2B chain of influence is complex. To influence the audience and perception in any B2B business vertical often requires establishing authority across a multi-faceted ecosystem of experts, decision makers and product users. Often business groups propose solutions to decision makers that are responsible for budgets across departments. C-level decision makers seeking a solution to a key business requirement often employ multiple managers and consultants to recommend vendors and product strategies.

B2B consumer psychology has changed. The psychology of today's business consumers has fundamentally changed. People are influenced more by other people as much, if not more than, brand messaging. The greater the reputation and authority of those people, the more influential they are. When a key leader in their field advocates an approach, method, tactic and/or brand, their audience is likely to adopt that opinion to support decision-making and guide their colleagues.

The 10 Tips - Going from Zero to Social and Beyond

By no means will this article cover every facet of social media for B2B, and I'm sure new things will be discovered as this is authored. I've found that for our clients, the thought of initiating a social strategy seems complex and daunting.

Your Website is the Hub
Audience Assessment: The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy
Discover the Right Keyword Search Phrases (KSPs)
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Campaign Strategy
Social Media Operations
Customer Acquisition
ROI-based Planning
Social Media Monitoring
What's Next

In this week's article, we will talk about the importance of a company or brand website as a component of your digital marketing strategy and the necessary features it should have:

Your Website is the Hub

Your website is critical to your marketing strategy. You must have a technology platform that supports key functionality necessary for executing a modern Web 2.0 social media campaign. You need to have agility to continually post content, events, and report on what's happening with your brand, while empowering thought leaders in your company to join in on the conversation. Features such as:

A content management system that makes it easy for markers to publish articles, blogs, update content, sidebars, custom forms and graphics.
The ability to create search engine friendly URLs (www.yoursite.com/blog/blog-title vs. www.yoursite.com/a46c6d48c22a/?vgnextoid=nVC00718=default).
Semantically correct HTML code using the latest HTML programming standards. Alternate HTML content for website messaging delivered using Flash or other rich media.
Ability for brand managers to edit and manage website metadata: keywords, descriptions, tags, alternate tags on images, publish dates and semantic markup.
RSS feeds at the category level allowing visitors to subscribe to site updates, blogs, blog categories, comments, product categories, press releases, etc.
A good feature is to have integrated social media feeds and updates from Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc.
Ability to display rich content from media sharing sites such as Flickr, YouTube and Slideshare, as well as alternate feeds to video and audio content via iTunes.
Sophisticated analytics tools to provide in-depth insight around how visitors use the website.
The ability to create and manage custom landing pages with forms that can be used for specific campaigns.

A Lead is a Lead is a Lead?

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 20:13:00 -0400

Not all leads are created equal. While marketing and sales teams understand the efficiencies and more targeted messaging that comes from customer segmentation, "web leads" are often lumped together, homogenized and acted upon as if their interests were one and the same. Call this the 'single funnel' approach.

Now think about your web site having been designed to ascertain the interests of the visitor, to sort these visitors into different categories, and then to generate a 'lead score' based on livelihood of purchase that has been determined by previous data.

For example, Lead type A1 is a heart patient who has an interest in learning more about a therapy which can help them to avoid a stroke, and has signed up to receive a newsletter. Lead type A2 is someone with a similar interest, but they've answered questions which tell us more about their specific medical conditions and suggest a far greater immediacy of need. Lead type A3 is yet another visitor, but their travel through the site has directed them to a page where they receive 'prompts' on how to discuss their needs with their doctor.

What is the value of each lead?
What are the most effective follow-on tactics required to convert each 'lead set' into paying customers?
And most importantly, what is the average customer acquisition cost of individuals within each set? (You'll be surprised at how much these costs can vary).

The days of asking people to 'fill out and send back the postcard' may be coming to an end, but many marketers have still not employed the smart lead processing capabilities of the Internet. Isn't it time you transformed your company's web site into a far more potent 'lead optimization' machine?

Your thoughts?

About the Author

Marc Braunstein is an Internet marketing consulting who describes his role as helping companies to add 'new revenue booster rockets' to their current web sites. He is also the author of Deep Branding on the Internet, a book which Tom Stemberg (former CEO of Staples) described as "cutting through the psychobabble of doing business online". Request a copy by emailing Marc at marcbraunstein@gmail.com

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Discover the Right Keyword Search Phrases (KSPs)

10 Tips for Getting Started in B2B Social Media #3

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Audience Assessment: The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy

The 90-9-1 Rule for B2B Social Strategy

Influencers (1%):

Brand Advocates (9%):

Target Buyers (90%):

The Ten Tips: Going from Zero to Social and Beyond

Maximizing Your Social Media Benefits

About the Author

BioClinica wins two Rx Club Show Awards

Garfield Group Selected as MITX Awards Finalists

BioClinica Website

Royal Caribbean's Nation of Why Not Website

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Join us in The Lab. A place where we can explore, experiment and enhance the success of our programs and our brands. We invite you to check out the Beta version — garfieldgroup.com/thelab — and become a Lab Partner.

Let us know what you think of The Lab so far. Learn-Explore-Discuss-React!

Email Marketing Best Practices

10 Tips for B2B Brands Getting Started in Social Media

The 10 Tips - Going from Zero to Social and Beyond

Your Website is the Hub

A Lead is a Lead is a Lead?

About the Author

We're proud to announce that the Head Start program has offered to match our combined efforts to transform the NSCA's indoor playground.
Read more »

What used to be a plain indoor playground at the NSCA was turned into a colorful "town square," filled with new toys and excited little kids.
See the transformation »