Koroberi Blog

It’s the most wonderful time of the year…for the media to publish a million holiday tech gift guides.  There are no surprises when it comes to the big tech gifts this year, which consist mostly of smart phones, tablets and digital cameras.  However, you’re probably not planning on buying those gadgets for most of the people on your checklist.  Below is a list of our favorite tech accessories that would make great gifts for your friends, family and coworkers, ranging in price from $0 to $100:

1. DIY Charging Station

Steal:  Free

Strapped for cash this holiday season?  Instead of buying a holiday gadget as a gift, you can make one!  Follow this tutorial to convert pre-made boxes into a giftable padded charging station.

2.  Belkin Conserve Socket Energy-Saving Outlet

Steal:  $10

This earth-friendly gift is perfect for your “green” friends, concerned with conversing energy consumption.  The socket has an easy on-off switch and a programmable timer so you can run your coffee maker, TV, or curling iron for a specified amount of time.

3.  Joby GorillaPod Micro

Steal:  $20

The Joby GorillaPod Micro is for the photographer on the go.  Small and portable, the tripod helps you steady your digital camera at the perfect angle, no matter what the environment.  It screws into a point-and-shoot camera’s tripod mount and props the camera on a flat surface for shake-free shooting.

4.  J5 Create Wormhole KM Switch

Spend:  $30

Featured on the “Inc. 2011 Holiday Gift Guide: Editor’s Picks”, this gadget allows you to share files and interact between two devices, including computers, tablets and smartphones.  The USB cable even allows you to control the two devices with the same keyboard and mouse.

5.  Marmot Connect Gloves

Spend:  $30

Have tech-obsessed friends who hate the cold?  Marmot Connect gloves protects your hands from the cold while interacting with touch screen devices.  The gloves are designed specifically to work with smartphones and tablets without taking them off.

6.  Roku Internet TV Players

Splurge:  $50

According to Time Techland’s “Tech Buyers’ Guide 2011”, Roku’s Internet streaming-video players are among the best boxes you can hook up to your HDTV.  They are easy to set up and provide a wide selection of content, from Netflix, to Hulu, Amazon and HBO GO.

7.  Griffin Beacon Universal Remote

Splurge:  $70

Home entertainment systems have evolved immensely over the past few years, while TV remotes have remained annoying pieces of plastic.  Griffin’s Beacon, the remote of the 21^st century, lets you use your smartphone as a net-connected touch screen universal remote, making it easier to find the programs you want to watch.

8.  Fitbit Ultra

Splurge:  $100

There are a variety of tech gadgets available for a fitness fanatic, but the Fitbit Ultra provides the most useful features.  Not only can the device track hours slept, meals eaten, activities completed and calories burned throughout the day, it can also wirelessly transmit that data to a computer, making it much more convenient to use.  After clipping the flash drive-sized device to your waistband or sleeve, you can log into the Fitbit website to see a breakdown of your activity.

“A picture is worth a thousand words” is absolutely true, especially in marketing. Visuals provide impact much more quickly than text, and smart Photoshop editing can go a long way to increase effect.

In our example, we have a photograph of a man in a captain’s uniform. The picture is taken on an overcast day on land, which doesn’t lend much in the way of meaning. By adding a blue sky, a view of the ocean and a small glimpse of boat railings, the image is given a new life. Not only are colors more vibrant, but context is provided that didn’t previously exist.

Whether it’s something as complex as changing a background, or something as simple as color enhancement and detail cleanup, using Photoshop to enhance your images can add both new meaning and professionalism to your campaign.

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After

We’ve all seen it. The dead Facebook page. An inactive Twitter account. An attempt at B2B social media marketing gone wrong.

With 81 percent of B2B companies maintaining company-related profiles on social networks (source: Business.com’s 2009 Business Social Media Benchmarking Study), it’s clear that social media is no longer uncharted territory for B2B marketers. So why is it that so many make the leap into new media without the strategy to back it up?

It’s critical to have a larger strategy to guide social media tactics or you may quickly find that you never see a return on the time you invest (unless you just need an excuse to learn how to tweet).

For a company with a miniscule marketing budget and not enough staff to carry out a full-fledged new media campaign, developing a strategy before creating your Twitter or Facebook may seem daunting. John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing developed a social media hierarchy for businesses to follow as they deploy social media tactics. Here are some of the highlights:

• Blogs: Blogging should be the foundation of your social media strategy. Keep up with relevant blogs, stay in-the-know about hot issues and develop content that inspires real engagement.
• Social Search: A social search provides a more personal experience for consumers than traditional advertising. Make use of social search engines such as Yelp to increase and manage your reputation online.
• Facebook: Once you have the content and digital reputation nailed down, take advantage of the potential business prospects on Facebook. Create a dialogue with the surrounding community and keep them coming back to your page with fresh content and ideas. After all, nothing is more disappointing to consumers than a dead Facebook page.
• Twitter: The ultimate tool in the social media marketing mix, Twitter allows for quick tracking and engagement. However, Twitter is at the top of the hierarchy because without the groundwork laid by blogging, social search techniques and Facebook, you may quickly run out of new and appealing tweets.

If social media strategic plans are thoughtfully developed, B2B companies have the potential to build the kind of lasting relationships they want with their clients, jump-starting word-of-mouth and increasing brand loyalty. If you jump on the social media bandwagon without a sound strategy to back it up, you’ll end up with a Twitter account but nothing to tweet, or a Facebook page that no one “likes.” Nobody likes that.

It’s trade show season in the world of material handling and logistics. With PACK EXPO Las Vegas 2011 behind us and MODEX 2012 coming up in February, it’s time to take a look at one of the major trends we’ve noticed stealing the stage (or should we say signage?) at this year’s trade shows: QR codes.

From giant codes on floor length banners to miniature codes in the corner of booth graphics, exhibitors at PACK EXPO incorporated QR codes into their graphics and marketing materials in innovative ways. Several lucky scanners left Las Vegas with new iPads compliments of QR technology and thousands left with resources such as videos, brochures and company websites directly on their smart phones. In the age of the user-generated experience, what could be better than using QR codes to engage with prospective clients even after they’ve left your trade show booth?

Though QR codes dominated the show floor at PACK EXPO 2011, QR technology is still relatively new in the business-to-business industry. Codes at the show were accompanied by explicit directions for attendees such as “Scan me with your smart phone for more information” or “Scan the QR code to win.” With the endless opportunities and creative ways to incorporate QR codes into a trade show exhibit, we can’t wait to see what role QR codes play in MODEX 2012!

Intelligrated incorporated QR codes into their booth graphics, allowing users to instantly download a brochure supplementing the information presented at the booth.

QR codes that entered users into contests for great prizes were popular at PACK EXPO (after all, you do come to Vegas to win!).

This larger-than-life QR code was hard to miss, even on the busy PACK EXPO show floor.

At first glance you may have missed DuPont's use of a QR code, as it blends in perfectly with their square-patterned signage.

Amanda Knox is on a plane headed home to the U.S. after four long years in a central Italian prison. This morning, on the news, Knox’s mother said her daughter was looking forward to coming home quietly, and would be overwhelmed by any media frenzy upon her arrival. But at the end of the day, it was the media that probably saved her from a life behind bars.

As anyone who reads or watches the news is aware, the Seattle student and her former Italian boyfriend were just acquitted in the murder of her roommate, Meredith Kercher, in 2007. Their arrest launched an OJ-Simpson-style trial by public opinion, unprecedented in Italy, and fueled primarily by media manipulation and leverage.

The case was irresistible to the media. A young, attractive and affluent American girl studies abroad. She discovers the bar and drug scene there, gets a cute boyfriend. Her roommate is suddenly and violently killed in what appeared to be an erotic game turned violent. Whatever the facts were, and we may never really know, the intersection of the good girl/bad girl story, sex, and murder sells papers, translates into ratings, and breeds online buzz. No one but the defendants and the victim’s family had any stake in the outcome, but from Florentine cafes to Starbucks in Seattle, everyone seemed to have an opinion, and it was usually about Amanda Knox’s character.

From the beginning, both sides knew that the nature of this story demanded strategic public and media relations. Unlike most high-profile cases that draw this level of attention, the players were not celebrities, politicians, or executives. However, they had to fight with high-caliber weapons in order to leverage coverage and opinion in their favor. Early in the case, the prosecution and police leaked information to the media to paint a titillating and very unfavorable picture of Knox and her personal behavior. This would help them build a public case against a very charismatic foreign woman who could slip through the cracks and walk free. On the other side, the Knox family, fighting a foreign justice system and media, used their resources to retain a well-known Seattle PR agency, Gogerty-Marriott. The tactics worked. In fact, the Italian media became so polarized that that reporters covering the case were dubbed the “innocentisti” or “colpevolisti” based on whether they believed Knox was innocent or guilty.

After they brought the PR agency on board, the Knox family and their prominent supporters became highly visible on morning talk shows and news programs, regaling the media with tales of the gentle, innocent Amanda they know, a frightened girl fighting a hostile legal system. Websites like Friends of Amanda and Amanda Knox Defense were also created and publicized to support Knox. Just before the verdict was issued, Knox’s father told reporters that the jury should ignore the media and focus on the facts, but also argued prosecutors had used the media to their advantage early in the trial. Meanwhile, the victim’s brother said the family had not wanted to speak publicly, but felt compelled to do so because of Knox’s “PR machine.” The Kercher’s lawyer also proclaimed, “They have done a huge public relations campaign to free her that has created a fog around the trial.”

The four year trial process and PR war between the Italian prosecution and the “friends of Amanda,” culminated on Monday in a courtroom scene where lawyers accused Knox of being a “she-devil” served by a $1  million dollar publicity campaign, jurors openly wept, and protestors hissed outside among throngs of international reporters. Bolstered by a capable defense team and perhaps an even stronger army of publicists, Knox walked free. The verdict will be challenged and the coming week will bring even more media analysis. How well did this PR strategy work in a legal battle? Watch the news, the tabloids, entertainment news, exclusive interviews, and read Amanda’s multimillion-dollar memoir to find out.

Part 3 of 3 in “Koroberi’s Guide to B2B Marketing,” providing tips on how to improve your marketing activities to increase brand awareness, strategically position your brand and define value propositions.

When calculating the ROI of marketing expenditures, most marketers are tempted to abandon qualitative success measures in favor of quantifiable lead generation.

To track overall marketing effectiveness, you need to measure trending movements in both softer and harder metrics, from brand awareness and market positioning to business leads and sales volume increases.

However, tracking marketing metrics requires tracking, accountability and support at the highest level between marketing and sales personnel.

Before starting a credible measurement program, you should determine the following baseline indicators:

1. What are the historical purchasing patterns of the company’s existing customer base?
2. Which customers drive the greatest revenue, and why?
3. What messaging/programming have customers responded to most?
4. What programs drive the greatest revenue?
5. Which products or services generate the greatest revenues for the company?
6. What is the general level of awareness of the brand, and its perceived value in the marketplace?
7. What is the total value of the market, and its current and forecasted drivers?
8. Who are the major competitors, what is their market share, and how do you position your products against theirs?

These questions and answers are typically part of a formal marketing plan, but keep in mind that they may need to be modified as the marketing landscape changes.

Part 2 of 3 in “Koroberi’s Guide to B2B Marketing,” providing tips on how to improve your marketing activities to increase brand awareness, strategically position your brand, and define value propositions.

“Who should we focus on?” is an important question you need to answer to build a successful marketing campaign.  A brand’s position is determined by the audience who perceives it a certain way, so getting your message out through the right channels is essential for shaping that perception.

When deciding on placements, evaluate trade publishers by measuring the value they can add as an integrated marketing partner.

Examine:

• The quality of the publishers’ marketing “portfolio” (print, online, event and direct-marketing);
• The quality and currency of its database based on audited circulations;
• The cost per reach, open rates and lead quality the publisher provides; and
• The publisher’s willingness to partner in terms of coverage and business intelligence support.

You should also make sure that your integrated marketing partners can provide current, targeted prospect lists that you can utilize to support your prospective strategies.

Digital event space may be the hot trend this season, but that doesn’t mean you should throw out your classic black dress.  Face-to -face marketing still has value in your marketing wardrobe because it provides a unique way to reach customers, business partners and clients.  In-person events create novelty and positive emotional experiences, making participants more open to new thinking and new ways of doing things.

Across all size firms and industry sectors, B2B advertisers agree that the value of integrated marketing programs has grown over the past year.  B2B media companies need to focus now more than ever on producing high-quality programs for marketers that incorporate a diverse marketing mix.

After almost a year of planning, architecting, tweaking, testing and improving, our sister company, Ashe Avenue, finally launched the brand new VICE.com. VICE.com consolidates content from Viceland and VBS.TV to provide a centralized location for everything VICE-related. With everything from pygmy ponies to Pakistan after Bin Laden there’s bound to be something that catches your eye (if all else fails just visit the new Dos and Don’ts page, the easiest way to burn through 20 minutes on the Internet).

Ashe Avenue developed the site’s architecture and schema, assisted in finalizing the user interface, created the CMS from scratch to meet the diverse needs of VICE site editors around the world, and handled all front-end development along the way. If that’s not enough, the site is extending to 24 more languages in the coming weeks.

Now, if anyone needs us we’ll be reintroducing the developers into normal society and fluffing their pillows so they can catch up on sleep…