Chris McMurry is the 2008 Ad Person of the Year

Chris McMurry won the Ad Person of he year award. Below is the full press release:

McMurry Wins More than Gold at ADDY Awards

Phoenix—McMurry, Arizona’s largest marketing communications firm, was honored in more ways than one at the 23^rd Annual ADDY Awards Gala in Scottsdale, Ariz., hosted by the American Advertising Federation Metro Phoenix. The company won awards for its marketing solutions, and its CEO, Chris McMurry, was named Ad Person of the Year.

“We are constantly redefining what marketing communications can and should be, and the Ad Person of Year honor—at least to our staff—reflects, in some ways, our peers recognizing that our business model and approach to business is a really good thing,” McMurry says. The J. Terry Groener Ad Person of the Year award honors an individual in the local advertising community who contributes to the betterment of the advertising industry, is an active participant in community service, and is presently active in advertising, marketing or communications.

In addition, the firm took home one gold ADDY and two silver ADDYs for work on behalf of UMOM, a Valley nonprofit organization that provides homeless and low-income families with food, shelter and tools to build a bridge to self-sufficiency. Those awards were:

ADDY Gold winner

Public Service: Collateral, Brochure/Sales Kit

ADDY Silver winner

Public Service: TV: campaign in a single medium

ADDY Silver winner
Public Service: Campaign: mixed/multiple media campaign

“McMurry has a very diversified service offering that can help clients with end-to-end marketing challenges, and the awards underscore the depth and quality of those capabilities,” says D. Stan Fields III, who recently joined McMurry as agency president after serving in leadership positions at GSK Worldwide and Leo Burnett. The campaign for UMOM is part of an $18 million capital campaign that is now nearly fully subscribed.

About McMurry
McMurry (mcmurry.com), with three offices in Arizona and New York, offers a complete line of marketing communications services to a variety of clientele, including GlaxoSmithKline, The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., Amtrak, CBS, Aon, CVS Caremark, IBM and OfficeMax, as well as professional resources to more than 10,000 corporate professionals. The company has specialized practices in healthcare, finance and insurance, is among the largest independent marketing communications companies in the U.S., and is recognized by the Great Place to Work Institute and Society for Human Resource Management as one of the top 10 “Best Small Companies to Work For” in the U.S.

Content marketing vs. custom publishing

Over at the Junta42 blog, Joe Pulizzi answers the eternal question: "Content Marketing vs. Custom Publishing: What's the Difference?

"Had a very interesting conversation with Vince Giorgi, Vice President at Hanley Wood Marketing, during the Custom Content Conference about the custom publishing industry. As readers of this blog know, I've been constantly struggling with the differentiation between 'content marketing' and 'custom publishing.' Well, thanks to Vince, we have it all figured out.

Content marketing is the business 'practice' of delivering relevant and compelling content to a person or target audience.

Custom publishing or custom media is the 'service' that produces the content marketing effort. Publishers or agencies that provide project management, design, web and content services for an organization, are providing custom publishing services on behalf of the business.

This seems to make too much sense. Thanks to Vince, I think we have a clear separation of the two.

I'd be interested to hear your thoughts on this. Are we off base? Is this dead on?"

If you mail it, will they read it?

Michael Buller, Vice President/General Manager of Custom Publishing for The Pohly Company, writes about CVS' custom magazine on the Junta42 blog (excerpt below):

"On the surface, there’s no doubting the numbers that make a compelling case for the relevance:

* Women influence 80% of healthcare decisions in their households, wielding buying power of about $1.2 trillion.
* The initial mail list will be 500,000, picked from the 75 million people who have signed up for the CVS ExtraCare card. That list will double to 1,000,000 in 2009.
* The average reader will be a mid-50s college educated woman, who owns her own home and still works to support her family.

So there’s little doubt that the women who receive this publication are predisposed to care about the subject matter. And there’s little doubt that with demographics like this, advertisers would love to talk to this target audience. But here’s the catch: there’s no truth to the saying, “if you mail it, they will read it.”

Reaching a desired demographic is one thing; getting them to engage in the publication is another.

Based on that reasoning, I’m skeptical. More than just about any other family-friendly topic, healthcare content is pervasive – online, in print, you name it. A Google search on women’s health returns 36,500,000 results. You don’t need SRDS to see how saturated the category is ‑ just visit any newsstand and look at the women’s magazine section; you’ll be inundated with cover lines selling health stories. Cutting through that clutter to get readers to not only pick up the publication, but actually spend time with it – that’s a tall order.

I hope CVS succeeds – a successful custom magazine by anyone helps all of us in the industry – but I’m worried that the content will be so generic and/or brand-centric that it will fail to capture anyone’s attention."

Junta42 blog: To Publishers: Your Customers Don't Need You Any Longer

JuntaJoe Pulizzi over Junta42 has been a busy guy lately. I don't know how he does it. He recently depressed/energized magazine publishers at the Publishing Business conference. He pointed out that businesses no longer need publishers to connect with their customers. Below is an expert:

Junta42 blog: To Publishers: Your Customers Don't Need You Any Longer: "The choice I gave them was not an easy one, but one that I truly believe has much opportunity for publishers. It is the choice between trying to grow top line revenue within a business model that used to work well, but will be challenging to grow in the future - or - giving in to the new buyer behavior and help teach traditional businesses how to become their own publishers.

Both directions have risk, but by publishers morphing into marketing services companies, they can begin to take advantage of the large shift of dollars from traditional advertising to customized content production and execution. According to Publications Management, 27% of marketing budgets now go toward the creation and execution of content. I would anticipate this number getting to 50% within the next decade.

The big reason I see this as an opportunity?: Marketers don't want to be publishers. Frankly, in my discussions with marketing professionals, the last thing they want to do is be responsible for the creation of relevant content. Almost all of them now know they have to create valuable and compelling content to stay competitive, but they really don't want to do it themselves.

This premise is one of the major reasons we launched Junta42 Match. Businesses must start creating their own media, but they lack the will and the expertise to do it right. Publishers can help them get there. Here is the link to the entire presentation from Publishing Business. "

Conversation Agent: Marketing as Context Building - 5 Ideas

Custom content creators would do well to read Valerie Maltoni's Conversation Agent: Marketing as Context Building - 5 Ideas.

Putting content marketing into a social context is where I think many custom publishers lose it. They try to shoehorn their product or service into an ongoing conversation, like that annoying relative at Thanksgiving dinner who will blurt out a new seemingly random discussion topic. No matter what the current discussion, they have a bull in the china shop approach that is disruptive as it is ineffective.

I think many custom content marketing people would do well to follow her advice and to look for ongoing conversations that can dovetail with their products and services. There are already people out there who have self-organized around the need the company serves, all the company has to do is enter the discussion in a meaningful way by having a dialog where both sides listen.

Why content marketers need to hire jorunalists

David Meerman Scott over at Web Ink Now has a great post (Web Ink Now: Understanding an audience and creating great content) which every content marketing specialist should read.

The part that attracted my attention was this:

"At every speech I give, I suggest one of the best ways to create great Web content is for companies to hire a journalist, either full or part time, to create it. Journalists (print or broadcast) are great at understanding an audience and developing information that buyers want to consume."

I couldn't agree more. One of the reasons we've been so successful at Lipper Custom Publishing is that we take a journalistic approach to custom publishing content. Journalistic pieces work for a number of reasons:

SERVICE: We always to try to make it engaging "news you can use" that people are eager to read (and that also dovetails with a specific sales effort).

ENGAGEMENT: One of the big hurdles custom publishing clients must overcome is the "this content is interesting because we say it is" school of content marketing. There is a huge difference between having something you want to say and producing something someone is eager to hear. The key is microtargeting your audience based on the benefit your company produces for that niche.

HONESTY: We write service based content with the ring of truth and without a hint of false PR puffery. We write many of our articles to such a high standard of seeming objectivity that they would be at home in a trade or consumer magazine. When the client company sings its own song, it is through the voice of a company representative, not the text itself. This allows the reader trust the text more.

FORMAT: People are used to reading articles. So when a PR or sales piece written by a PR flack with no journalism experience tries to ape the format, readers detect the false notes.

Web Ink Now: ANALYSIS: Value of quote in the Wall Street Journal with a link to your blog and product

Custom publishers can rejoice in Web Ink Now's David Meerman Scott's (right) analysis of what a Wall Street Journal mention means for your business. His results were less than spectacular. Custom content creators can use this analysis to question the value of mentions in the press and instead sell their clients on media where the client controls the message. Clients will be able to realize value by creating content marketing that is specifically designed to work hand-in-glove with ongoing sales efforts rather than the hit or miss nature of an arbitrary mention in a big name media outlet.

Here's an excerpt of Scott's analysis:
"What can we learn from this?

• A hit in the WSJ and other big business publications is great—but not as great as you might think. If you get one, think about tangential benefits (like bragging rights), not actual sales. Think how you can leverage the notoriety, not just what will happen without your help to push it along. Use it to influence other media and analysts, don't just sit back and wait.
• There really isn't a holy grail of marketing & PR. The closest I've found is to create something yourself and publish it online to drive traffic. That blog post I put out had more success than the WSJ. The best thing I've ever done to drive traffic is write an ebook. The case examples I write about prove this theory.
• Lots of little hits are much better than one mega PR hit. Passionate bloggers drive traffic to my blog and help drive sales (thank you all!).
• Mega PR hits may drive some interest with what you do, but you should really think through if it will actually drive sales.
• Maybe, just maybe, WSJ readers buy books in physical bookstores instead of Amazon. Perhaps I'll see a sales bump at Barnes & Noble and other stores in March… But I doubt it."
  

Read his full article here: Web Ink Now: ANALYSIS: Value of quote in the Wall Street Journal with a link to your blog and product.

A Tech Rx for Doctors: The iPhone

Medical custom publishers looking to get into the lab coats of doctors might want to take note of an an article over at Wired.com by Bryan Gardiner . In A Tech Rx for Doctors: The iPhone,
Gardiner points to medical reference materials which are/will soon be available for the iPhone. Below is an excerpt:

Version 2.0 of the iPhone's firmware, due this June, could turn the device into an indispensable medical tool if hospitals OK its medical use.

The arrival this June of an enterprise-friendly iPhone is exciting to more than just business users. Doctors, too, are eyeing Apple's handheld and wondering if it could kill off the old-fashioned clipboard and X-ray light box once and for all.

"If you could use the gesture-based way of manipulating images on the iPhone and actually manipulate a stack of X-rays or CT scans, that would be a huge selling point," says Adam Flanders, director of informatics at Thomas Jefferson University and an expert in medical imaging.

[SNIP]

Tech-savvy doctors have been speculating about the iPhone's medical potential long before Apple shipped its first unit. But the lack of native application support has meant that, up to now, all iPhone applications had to work through the phone's Safari web browser. That's a nonstarter for most medical applications because it demands constant connectivity (either via WiFi or an AT&T cellular data network) and prevents application developers from using the device's full processing power.

Earlier this month, however, Apple released a software development kit (SDK) for programmers to create native iPhone applications. During the announcement event, Apple gave doctors the first concrete reason to trade in their Blackberries and Treos for iPhones by announcing a new partnership with Epocrates, the developer of a massive drug-interaction database for mobile devices. While Palm users have had access to Epocrates for years, the company said it is now working directly with Apple on a new iPhone-native version. When released, it will give doctors the ability to view drug information regardless of their location or the availability of a WiFi.

"The real beauty of the iPhone is that it offers a richer 3-D experience and more memory," says Michelle Snyder, vice president of marketing and subscription services at Epocrates.

But medical databases -- be they native like Epocrates, or browser-based, like Unbound Medicine's medical research database -- are only part of the iPhone's overall allure in the medical field. Physicians, particularly radiologists, are also excited about the prospect of accessing medical images directly on their iPhones.

I swear, I'm not an Apple fanboi. Apple's not a client, I own no Apple products (or stock), but I know a deal changer when I see one. Apple is positioning the iPhone as a platform which custom publishers could use. By putting business (or in this case medical) functionality, not just reference readability, in the pocket of every professional, Apple will make it an ideal platform for custom content or digital magazines. How custom publishers will create content marketing that appeals to that market is an open question. Whether it will simply be a multimedia recreation of a magazine or something that looks like an application has huge implications for how custom content creators staff up and sell themselves.

Does the iPhone SDK mean "Game Over" for digital magazine providers?

According to Warner Crocker (right) over at GottaBeMobile.com, the new iPhone SDK means "it is game over" for all the other competing devices. For custom publishers who need to choose a mobile platform for their digital magazines an iPhone-centric universe gives the edge to companies like Texterity which already produces digital magazines for the iPhone. Companies like Nxtbook, which produce magazines in a Flash-based browser app will have to wait until Apple and Adobe fix the iPhone/Flash issue. Zinio won't work on iPhone either.

Although Amazon still selling out on its Kindle (with back orders taking four to six weeks to fill), I have yet to see one in the wild. I've been traveling through a lot of airports recently working on some I-can't-talk-about-them projects and I've been scoping for Kindles or the Sony Reader in their biggest target demographic: travelers. So far, nada. Not one. (I have about 10 friends with iPhones.) The Kindle is excellent for ordering and presenting books (one publisher estimated that the Kindle is selling between 5,000-10,000 books a day). But after talking to Amazon about how to port custom magazines over to the Kindle and the charges a reader would have to incur, I think for the custom publisher, the Kindle is a non-starter. (As a fiction reader, I still want one.)

Although Warner is looking at the iPhone from the mobile computing perspective, I think he could be spot on for the digital magazine market as well. Since content marketing, custom content, custom publishing or whatever you want to call it works best in the BtoB space, you want your custom magazine to be on the device that business people will have on them. With the new iPhone SDK, that new business device is likely to be an iPhone.

Here are some largish excerpts from Warner's post " It Is All Over But The Crying: Apple SDK":

Apple not only took the UMPC/MID market away, it will own mobile for some time to come, with everyone else playing catch up. The race to the top is over. Now everyone else can scramble to figure out who is number two.

Here’s why I think this. We’ve only seen teasers of what the Apple SDK will unlock for the future. And the teasers certainly make you want the entire show. The ability to have push email and sync with Microsoft Exchange is huge and will open the floodgates into the enterprise.

[SNIP]

For those that want the boutique coolness, it will be there. For those that want it for business, it will be there. For those who want to play games, it will be there. For those that want to develop and push the envelope of the mobile experience, it will be there.

Media, SMS, phone, applications, business apps, GPS, games, you name it, you’ll have it all on the iPhone, and a lot of it on the iPod Touch, both of which will fit into your pocket. What Microsoft, Intel, and VIA are working to accomplish with UMPCs and MIDs, Apple is about to deliver. Timing is everything and Apple is not only out of the gate first, but is about to enter the final turn.

Let’s face, it the UMPC platform is quickly receding. The MID platform is still to come and is unproven. Not only has Apple loaded up their devices with potential for all segments, they’ve come in under the magic $600 price point.

[SNIP]

Small, $600 or under, always connected, media and the web at your fingertips, and access to your communications. I seem to remember that as the promise of the UMPC a short time ago. UMPC, we hardly knew you.

Game over.

Post Script: As I said, game over. If Apple wanted to put the last nail in the coffin of all of its other competitors, it would steal a page from Amazon’s book. Ditch the old way of thinking about connectivity charges and user fees (or is that usury?) and offer up the versions yet to come with Amazon’s connectivity model.

Zinio sponsored survey says 80% of readers love digital magazines

Digital magazine software provider Zinio has sponsored a survey that says that a whopping 80% of digital magazine readers are "very or extremely satisfied" with their experience. The readers of TheScrollLibrarian and TheClayTabletReader are expected to produce similar results as soon as the carrier pigeons return with the surveys. (The clay tablets are heavy.) Below is the full press release:

Reader Survey Unveils Key Findings in Digital Publication Consumer Adoption

Digital Magazine and Ads Expand Publisher Reach and Subscriber Base

SAN FRANCISCO, March 11 /PRNewswire/ -- A recent survey conducted by The Harrison Group in conjunction with Zinio, the leading global online publishing, distribution and retail services company, has identified key benchmarks and findings for readers of digital magazines. Beginning with satisfaction, this survey found that 80 percent of digital magazine readers are very, if not extremely satisfied with their experience. More so, one-third of readers pay more attention to ads in digital magazines versus print, citing the ability to click on a link or engage with the ad as a key benefit.

"Through this research, we have unlocked key insights relating to strategies for driving online subscriptions, highest areas of interest and engagement times with content and advertisements," said Rich Maggiotto, CEO of Zinio. "The findings within this survey should have an impact on how the publishing and advertising industries approach their digital distribution channels."

Some of the key findings shared in this study include: advantages and disadvantages of the advertising form and content in digital magazines. This study also identified the four top factors influencing the purchase of digital instead of print magazines including, in order of preference: (1) immediate delivery; (2) the ability to archive; (3) the capacity to read anytime, anywhere, online and offline, and; (4) concern for the environment. In addition, key findings around the benefits of digital advertisements over the same print presentation indicate that 44 percent of the survey respondents find digital advertisements more appealing, and 37 percent said they would be more likely to engage digitally.

"About five hours a week is given to the consumption of magazines," said Jim Taylor, vice chairman of The Harrison Group. "Consumers are consistently looking for ways to improve productivity and use the downtime of travel, commuting, and so called free time to acquire content that is known to serve a personal, business or entertainment need. For many people, Zinio preserves the magazine format and conveniently delivers their magazines anytime, anywhere."

Results of this survey will be shared in a webinar conducted in partnership with the Direct Marketing Association's Email Experience Council on March 20th, 2008.

About the Survey

The survey was commissioned by Zinio and conducted by The Harrison Group, an independent research company. 1,500 subscribers responded to the study, representing a sampling error of less than 5 percent. The response rate of survey participation was 19 percent and data was collected within a two-week period. For more information on the survey, visit: http://www.zinio.com/corporate/publishers/research.jsp.

About The Harrison Group

The Harrison Group is a strategic marketing consulting and research services firm that partners with Fortune 1000 clients to build substantial, profitable growth through superior marketing consulting and research. The Group forms lasting client relationships with some of the top brands and companies in the world including American Express, Microsoft, Cartier, Four Seasons, Gucci, Honda, LVMH, Sony and Sara Lee. The Harrison Group's core strengths have been successfully employed across consumer and business-to-business research engagements in more than 60 countries around the globe. The Harrison Group was originally formed in 1996 by former directors of strategic research at Yankelovich Partners.

About Zinio

Zinio is the global leader for digital publishing products and services. Zinio provides publishers with new circulation and revenue growth opportunities through its comprehensive offerings from marketing programs that include customer acquisition, retention and cross-promotion to seamless production services, a robust e-commerce engine and extensive digital delivery, circulation and fulfillment services. Major publishing partners include, Bonnier, Hearst, IDG, Gruner + Jahr, Hachette Filipacchi, IPC Media, Mariah Media, McGraw-Hill, The National Magazine Company, Playboy Enterprises, Primedia, Rogers Publishing and Ziff Davis. Zinio has offices in San Francisco and New York with several franchisees worldwide. For more information, or to purchase any of the digital titles offered by Zinio, please visit http://www.zinio.com, http://www.textbooks.zinio.com.

Website: http://www.zinio.com/

Consumer magazines ad pages are down too.

In addition to the decline in trade press we saw yesterday, Folio has an interesting look at the ad page market for consumer magazines: Final 2007 Report: Magazine Ad Revenues Grow, Ad Pages Dip. According to Dylan Stableford 's article:

• 
• 
• 
• 
• 

Total magazine rate-card-reported advertising revenue for consumer magazines grew 6.1 percent in 2007 when compared to 2006, according to year-end Publishers Information Bureau figures released this morning. But total ad pages—considered the more telling statistic, given the unaccounted rate card discounts doled out by publishers—declined about a half a percent (-0.6) over the same period.

Nine of the 12 major advertising categories—comprising more than 85 percent of the $25.5 billion of total magazine ad spending—showed increases. Eight categories bought more ad pages in 2007 than in 2006. Drug companies spent the most on advertising in magazines, according to PIB.

The takeaway for custom publishers? See if you can get Britney Spears to have a meltdown while talking about your product.

Is Trade Publishing a Canary in a Coal Mine?

Over at the minsider Blog, Jeremy Greenfield asks: Is Trade Publishing a Canary in a Coal Mine? It points to a steady decline in ad pages for trade press. What does that mean for custom publishing? Are advertisers simply moving ad dollars to the Internet or are they not advertising at all? The breaks down the sectors that are hurting the most. This might tell your sales department where to concentrate their sales efforts to find the best prospects for custom media or content marketing Here's the full post:

I had lunch on Monday with the Steve Cohn (EIC of min), and the editor, publisher, and president of a very big, very well-known, and very old gentleman’s magazine at a restaurant in the McGraw-Hill building. Of course, we talked about their magazine, the Giants game, and consumer-side gossip. But one topic of conversation that kept on coming up was the state of trade publishing in 2008. We talked first about BusinessWeek and the plight of the weekly in general. Then we talked about M&A in the B2B space, and then, finally, the topic of whether trade advertising would be strong in 2008.

Alan Greenspan famously said while chairman of the Federal Reserve that he need only look at the price of scrap metal to determine where the economy was headed. The scrap metal business is a commodity based on several commodities: essentially, the profit that scrap outfits make is dependent on the price of various metals around the world as well as the price of oil, electricity, and various other commodities. Therefore, price of scrap can be a good indicator for the economy as a whole–scrap goes up, economy doing well, scrap goes down, who knows. (I got this from The New Yorker…see John Seabrook’s article “American Scrap” (abstract) in the 1/14 issue for more. You should also read Ken Auletta’s “The Search Party” (complete article) in the same issue–it’s about Google’s lobbying efforts in Washington.)

Like scrap, trade publishing can be a good indicator of how the economy as a whole is doing. When I look at our exclusive min’s b2b Boxscores and see that the building and construction category is down as a whole about 10%, well, that indicates something to me. Just for fun, I’ll give you a quick run down of how all of our categories are doing (change is in ad pages year-to-date through November 2007, Source: IMS/The Auditor, except Business/Horizontal, which is provided by min):

Advertising & Marketing: +1.66% (A strong year in advertising has bolstered some of the big books in this category)

Automotive: -2.32% (More on this category in this week’s min’s b2b)

Banking & Finance: -.60% (Something tells me that some books in this category will be hit hard in 2008)

Broadcast Video: -19.5% (This category has been hit hard by cable network carrier saturation. More in this week’s min’s b2b)

Building & Construction: -9.46% (This one’s obvious…and is being bolstered by commercial construction)

Business/Horizontal (Jan-Dec, Source: min): -9.13% (More on this category in this week’s min’s b2b)

Computing: -22.96% (But, in related news, most of the books here are just killing online…so I hear)

Developers Technical: -3.77% (Some books in this category are seeing a resurgence in print)

Electronic: -8.54% (Internet)

Engineering & Manufacturing: -6.88% (This year’s decline is part of a long-term trend in this industry–not as much in the way it markets: the big boys are still holding their own)

Fashion & Design: -7.22% (While the graphics/design books are doing well, the fashion trades aren’t as much)

Food: Retail: -2.22% (While life has been tough on the supermarket industry this year, the convenience store/petroleum industry has benefited from high gas prices and innovations in basic business practices and store services)

Food: Service/Restaurants: +.82 (A few books that have had several bad years in a row are coming back)

Food: Processing: +3.66 (More on this category in this week’s min’s b2b)

Government: -10.54% (Gov IT books are computing books this year)

Healthcare: -3.32 (Pharm)

Pharmaceutical: -5.16% (Pharm)

Telecommunications: -12.40% (Wireless books are hard hit in 2007)

Transportation: -9.76% (Oil prices and Pacific port overcrowding have squeezed Pacific and air marketing budgets–Gulf is up)

Travel/Lodging/Hospitality: -3.29% (Travel agent books are bringing an otherwise healthy category down)

OVERALL: The min’s b2b index of 300+ trades is down 8.17% in ad pages through November 2007. I smell gas.

Mark Logic to Host B2B Publishing Webinar on Maximizing Content

According to this press release, Mark Logic is hosting a B2B Publishing Webinar on Maximizing Content. Details below:

What:  Mark Logic® Corporation, provider of the industry's leading XML
     content server, will hold a webinar on January 22, 2008, dedicated
     to helping publishers maximize the value of online content.  This
     webinar, titled "Online Content: Three Strategies to Keep
     Advertisers and Readers Hooked in 2008," will feature insight and
     best practices from leading market watchers and publishers.

     As advertisers increasingly shift their valuable dollars from print
     to the Web, publishers must be prepared to deliver the online
     products and services advertisers want. At the same time, Web users
     are becoming more reliant upon blogs, social networks, and RSS feeds
     to supplement or replace traditional media. This webinar will
     examine emerging strategies to help you create content that is
     relevant, valuable and available where your readers already are and
     where your advertisers want to be.

Who:   Silvio Galea is development manager at Harvard Business School
     Publishing (HBSP) where he is responsible for driving the
     development of HBSP's next-generation, content-driven applications.
     Prior to HBSP, Silvio was an independent consultant working on a
     digital publishing startup and helping organizations make the
     transition to a Web 2.0 presence.

     Paul Gillen is a writer and content marketing consultant
     specializing in technology and new media. He advises business-to-
     business marketers on strategies to optimize their use of online
     channels to reach buyers cost-effectively at different stages of the
     buying cycle. Paul is a veteran technology journalist with more than
     23 years of editorial leadership experience. He was founding
     editor-in-chief of TechTarget and was editor-in-chief and executive
     editor of Computerworld.

     John Siefert is vice president and publisher of
     InformationWeek/TechWeb.

     The event will be moderated by Matthew Schwartz, reporter with BtoB
     media Business, and hosted by Mark Logic Corporation.  Mark Logic is
     uniquely positioned to help publishers unlock the value of their
     content to drive agile publishing business models that speed the
     delivery of new information products.

When:  "Online Content: Three Strategies to Keep Advertisers and Readers
     Hooked in 2008," will be held on Tuesday, January 22 at 2:00PM
     Eastern/11:00AM Pacific.

     For more information and to register, visit
     http://www.bulldogsolutions.net/MarkLogic/MLG01222008/
     frmRegistration.aspx?bdls=13436

About Mark Logic Corporation

Mark Logic Corporation is the provider of the industry's leading XML content server. Mark Logic works with providers of information products to accelerate new product creation, deliver products through multiple channels, integrate content from different sources, repurpose content into multiple products, build custom publishing systems, and mine content to find previously undiscovered information. The company holds two patents on the innovative technology in MarkLogic Server which enables companies to load, query, manipulate, and render XML content using the W3C standard XQuery language. Designed for high performance and scalability, MarkLogic Server can deliver millisecond response times against multi-terabyte contentbases. Mark Logic is privately held and backed by Sequoia Capital and Lehman Brothers. For more information, or to download a free trial copy of MarkLogic Server, go to www.marklogic.com or visit the Mark Logic CEO blog.

© 2008 Mark Logic Corporation. Mark Logic is a registered trademark and MarkLogic Server is a trademark of Mark Logic Corporation. All rights reserved. All other trademarks mentioned herein are the property of their respective owners.

TireLogic becomes a digital magazine

More and more trade publications are becoming digital-only magazines. The latest trade that's slowly merging into the digital-only lane of the info superhighway is Goodyear's TireLogic. Although the computerless (are there any tire retailers who still don't have a computer?) can still get the dead trees edition, making the decision to go digital was easy according to this article in TireReview:

Goodyear has taken its TireLogic truck industry customer magazine to the digital world.

According to Steve McClellan, Goodyear vice president of commercial tire systems, fleets, owner-operators and commercial dealers will benefit from the now interactive e-magazine.

“TireLogic’s mission remains the same: to keep truck operators up-to-date on tire issues, with ideas to lower their cost-per-mile and to manage a cost-effective tire program,” McClellan said. “A digital magazine is more accessible for fleets and truck operators, so they’ll never miss a copy.”

The e-magazine is available for free by registering at goodyearoffers.com/tirelogic. The current Winter 2007/2008 issue is already available for downloading.

Goodyear cautions that those who previously received TireLogic in the mail will be required to register online, but once registered they will automatically receive each new issue by e-mail. Those without computer access can still receive printed copies. (Tire Review/Akron)

Can custom content creators fly with the Super-users?

In a post titled Grazers V. Super-Users, Nxtbook's Marcus Grimm takes Dan Blank's post and provides additional insight specifically for digital magazine creators. For custom publishers and content marketers allowing Super-Users to create content is threatening but as Grimm points out, it is also essential.

Dan Blank has written a great post about the variety of media we’re all consuming and the differences in how we react to it:

It’s a fascinating distinction because it crosses the line of
“content-creators” and “audience.” Super-users may create as much
content as they consume. Grazers may be similar to traditional
audiences, but even less engaged as they stream through massive amounts
of media, constantly filtering.

There’s an interesting challenge for magazine publishers here - and particularly publishers of digital editions - as most traditional magazines are formatted for grazing, as Dan defines it, and aren’t naturally hard-wired for interaction. Why does this matter? There’s at least two reasons:

1. By not encouraging interaction, magazine publishers are missing out on creating a "stickier" brand and because web analytics will continue to move more in the direction of engagement, stickiness will continue to be more important.

2. When people interact with your content, they post links to it, and links are the currency of the Web. It’s the simplest way to generate more traffic to your content and also makes your digital edition content that much more yummy with Google.

Simple ways to build interact inside your digital edition:

1. Make sure you’re promoting the RSS feed of your digital edition, which is free with Nxtbook Media.

Why this works: Those who use RSS readers are much more inclined to be Super-Users.

2. Post links to your digital edition content on forums.

Why this works: Ditto #1. While there are "lurkers" and grazers on forums, that’s also where the Super-Users can be found.

3. Blog about (and obviously link to) your digital edition content.

Why this works: Ditto #2

Making Money with Digital Editions

Over at Nxtbook Media, Marcus Grimm tells how three publishers are Making Money With Digital Editions:

Three of Nxtbook’s top customers took to the webinar stage today and gave detailed accounts of how they’re making money with digital magazines. Thanks to Todd Christenson from Hearst, Graham Kilshaw from ITEM Publications and Allan Brown from Graduate Prospects for three incredibly entertaining and informative presentations.

The audience didn’t disappoint, either, as dozens of questions kept the panelists on their toes.

If you missed the action, don’t fret. Just follow this link to view the archived webinar. Aside from the fact that our sponsor logo points to the good folks at Crown Peak, we’d call the event a smashing success. And just in case the faulty link confuses you, this is how to get to our home page. :)

Pace has banner year

Pace Communications has had a banner year according to it's latest press release:

PACE COMMUNICATIONS HAS BANNER YEAR WITH RECORD NUMBER OF AWARD-WINNING PUBLICATIONS AND NEW HIGH-PROFILE CLIENTS

Greensboro, NC (January 4, 2008)—A leader in creating custom content, Pace Communications had a record-breaking 2007, with new client acquisitions, awards, and personnel growth. Over the course of the year, Pace launched several new publications and gained new contracts to produce publications for a wide variety of B2B, technology and travel clients, including Southwest Airlines, Syngenta, Wachovia Education Finance, Wachovia Securities, Bluetooth Special Interest Group, Listingbook.com and California State Automobile Association.

“These are exciting times—we brought on some fantastic new clients in 2007, and we are looking forward to taking their communications programs to the next level,” said Craig Waller, Chief Marketing and Sales Officer at Pace Communications. “We are seeing growth in custom publishing take off because it engages consumers on a deeper level and provides measurable results. It is exciting to be a part of the record-breaking growth in this market.”

In addition to winning significant new business, Pace has been investing in digital platforms—2007 saw the acquisition of a digital agency, Pixels, now Pace Interactive. As well as providing Web presence for existing clients, Pace Interactive launched new projects for Listingbook.com and took the lead on The North Face’s online magazine, www.exploreepic.com.

As a result of new client acquisitions, the Pace family has been expanding rapidly, with company growth of 20% in 2007 and an employee pool now 250 deep with some of the most significant talent in the publishing and advertising industries.

While Pace has captured new business, it has continued to win accolades for its existing publications from the industry experts. In 2007, the company was honored with over 100 awards, including ten Folio: Ozzie and Eddie Awards and eighteen Custom Publishing Council Pearl Awards, more than any other custom publisher.

Consumers and advertisers backed the praise of publishing experts by giving Pace publications their reading time and their advertising dollars, respectively. According to MRI data for Fall 2007, inflight magazines regularly get more time with the nation’s top earners, and leading the pack is Pace-published United Airlines’ Hemispheres magazine. Hemispheres now boasts an audience of 2.2 million monthly readers with the highest median household income, $123,233, of any national publication. As the nation’s most affluent print title, Hemispheres beat out business stalwarts The Wall Street Journal, Barron’s, Fortune and Forbes, as well as leading travel, epicurean, women’s and men’s magazines.

“As traditional boundaries in the media world break down, our expertise in creating media-led communities for organizations is becoming more and more sought after,” said Waller. “We have a company full of leading writers, designers and strategists who create engaging and award-winning programs for our clients. When you add our expertise in generating advertising sponsorship revenue, Pace becomes a stand-out business in a flourishing category.”

Pace’s clients also include Delta Air Lines, Four Seasons Hotels & Resorts, US Airways and Wachovia Wealth Management.

About Pace Communications
For more than thirty years, Pace Communications has been a leader in customized content. With dedication to excellence, Pace helps leading corporate clients develop successful branded editorial strategies and achieve unparalleled marketing and communication prominence. Our staff of more than 200 professionals consistently produces award-winning work in a variety of media, including magazines, Web, catalog, book, video and e-commerce. Founded and owned by Bonnie McElveen-Hunter, the current chair of the American Red Cross, Pace is based in Greensboro, N.C.

Custom content: What's always sexy and recession-proof.

Lately several people have written about the trends in custom publishing and content marketing. Regardless of the medium, print or online, custom content success is all about one SIMPLE thing:

Custom creators succeed when they convince their client's customers to buy the client's product. In a word: Sales.

That's it. Everything else is vanity. Thought-leadership? Nice, but ultimately it has to translate into ka-ching.

After working with seven movie studios, I learned the only unforgivable Hollywood sin: Not making money. Custom content is the same. If you can make your client money, you are always sexy and recession-proof. In fact, your sexiness increases in a recession because people are looking for a rainmaker.

Too often custom publishing looks pretty but doesn't seal the deal. As more custom publishing moves online and into the realm of content marketing, content creation has to work hand-in-glove with sales. In this nanosecond metric universe, custom content creators must demonstrate ROI every minute. Custom publishers who can't may soon find themselves with a slight case of extinction.

We've found the most effective way to do get the biggest bang for a client's buck is micro-targeting a variety of pains the client's product can solve. Readers are hip to the sale and study after study has shown that they don't mind it. For many custom publishers the problem with their content (and why they are losing clients) isn't too much sales copy but not enough.

Whether you are a custom publisher or an advertising agency, if you want your custom content creation to succeed, you need to have an answer when your client screams: "SHOW ME THE MONEY!!!"

Is the "Content Marketing Revolution" already here?

Junta42's Joe Pulizzi over at the Content Marketing Revolution blog has a number of posts custom content creators should read. In reverse chronological order:

In his most recent post, (eMarketer CEO: Turning Ads to Content Most Important Transformation for 2008), Joe takes a look at eMarketer's CEO Geoff Ramsey's thoughts about advertising changing from an interrupt-driven model subsidizing free content to what Joe and others are calling "content marketing":

Ramsey goes on to state:

"As a result, advertisers and their agencies who want to engage with today’s consumers will have to start turning their ads into content. Ultimately, they will need to be able to produce content that is so compelling, relevant and entertaining that consumers will seek it out and want to share it with others. The new ad model is about creating great content and finding clever ways to embed it in the fabric of communities and content platforms where consumers are hanging out and actively participating."

Amen brother! Ramsey's last paragraph is essentially what we call content marketing.

Today's buying environment, and into the future, creates a number of opportunities for businesses, as well as threats to those