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Last week Koroberi discovered we had won second place in the best small agency category of the 2009 BtoB Top Agencies Report. These are the real-deal awards for the business-to-business marketing community-sponsored by BtoB Magazine and Crain Communications, publishers of Advertising Age and a bunch of other great books.

Koroberi has placed in the top 125 agencies for each of the past two annual awards, which was pretty cool at the time. But this is different. This is the big time. Not that great things don’t come from Chapel Hill, NC (think about the NCAA basketball team for a second), but generally the top marketing spots (just like top law firms, top accounting firms, top restaurants, etc) go to shops in New York, San Francisco or Chicago. Not a bad thing, just the way it is.

But second place is a funny place to be. What’s particularly great about this win is that two years ago at an agency planning retreat, we set ourselves the goal of being in the top twenty BtoB agencies in America within five years. An aggressive goal at the time, but one we thought we could reach. Now, only two years later and thanks to some great clients and great work, we find ourselves in the top part of the top 10. It’s a little funny, actually. Not that we didn’t do some great work. We knew that when we produced it. We knew that when the client approved it. And we surely knew that when awards began coming in throughout the year. In fact, it took a lot of first places to win this second place.

So here we are in 2009, with a wonderful award in hand. All the more reason to appreciate it and the work it represents. In the meantime, we know that we are going to keep doing great work, keep winning great clients, and we will see if we can get a first place next year. Until then, we try harder.

To read more about the BtoB Magazine Awards and Koroberi’s stellar 2008 year, visit http://tiny.cc/Koroberi.

To see case studies detailing our submissions, please visit http://www.koroberi.com/case-studies.

The news that the 200-foot wide asteroid dubbed DD45 2009 narrowly avoided a collision with the earth earlier this week got me thinking.

Sure, the economy sucks, the advertising and marketing job force is contracting at an alarming rate, my 401k is shrinking faster than a pair of silk undies laundered on hot, and my follicle-challenged pate now has way more salt than pepper in it. But, on the other hand, I didn’t have my molecules rearranged on Monday by a concussive force equivalent to a thousand atomic bombs. You can whine all you want about the current state of world affairs (and I’ll continue to contribute to the cacophony myself, to be sure) but you have to admit, we still have a lot to be thankful for. Sometimes it just takes a bolt out of the blue to remind us.

Advertising and PR firms are often the canaries in the coal mine when it comes to economic indicators. Because we work on the cutting edge of production and consumption, we often see, and are affected by, economic downturns and upturns earlier than more general service industries. So for all the folks who thought we were crazy talking about a downturn back in late 2007, oh well….

But now that we are all here, let’s talk about survival.

Surviving in a downturn means taking the same medicine as our clients - controlling costs, being fiscally responsible, and providing value for money.

The first responsibility is to stay solvent. If this means cutting agency travel, perks and even staff, then you just have to bite the bullet. Observing the impact of some recent agency bankruptcies provides well-managed companies a chance to capitalize on Koroberi’s history of fiscal responsibility, good credit and strong cash position - credentials and references that are of equal importance to good work. Nobody wants their trusted business partner to go under, and even less so to go under owing money already paid by the client in good faith.

But in addition to sound financial management, you’ve got to proactively provide clients with more for less. Don’t wait for the budget cuts, they are going to come. Instead, look at ways you can help your client succeed in spite of the budget pressures they face.

If you are able, offer to assist with client cash flow management through delayed or accrued billing.

Keep negotiating with publishers and other vendors for better deals and discounts, and pass these on to the client. Of course, you need to have great credit and a good paying history to get these discounts, which reinforces the need for sound fiscal management mentioned earlier.

Develop program and package bundles that allow you to pass on savings in return for longer term client commitments. We are all in the same boat, so be open about what you are doing and why. Publishers, media companies and printers intent on survival would all rather have some business at some price than no business at too high a price.

And finally, don’t be afraid to ask for help. There is nothing like sharing the bad times to build relationships.

With a little help from our friends, we can all survive to thrive another day.

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We recently interviewed George Wright, VP of Marketing, and Kels Goodman, Video Producer, of Blendtec. They are the creators of the popular YouTube videos series, Will It Blend?, which has generated over 200 million views. They spoke to us about the inspiration for the series, the goals behind the campaign, the keys to social media, and how it relates to B2B marketing and corporate culture. They even gave a shout out to Koroberi. It is our video after all.

Watch the video here and share with your friends and colleagues. We have also posted this on YouTube so you can embed the video in your own blog if you want.

Lots of companies in the B2B space offer webinars about marketing, public relations and social media, among other topics. The purpose of these is two-fold. The first is to present useful information to participants who have signed up to learn about the topic. The second is to promote the company running the webinar. If the material is well presented and offers real insight into the topic, participants leave with a good feeling about the company. That’s a positive brand experience. But if you feel like you just wasted an hour out of your busy day, that does not reflect well on the presenting, or sponsoring, company.

I recently sat in on two webinars from two companies and had two very different experiences, mainly due to their incorporation of web conversational tools into the presentations. Based on these two examples, here is a list of five things to look for at the beginning of a webinar to determine if it is worth your time. If you are planning a webinar, keep these things in mind to provide a better experience to your customers and potential customers.

1. Provide Twitter address for questions and comments
If the webinar leaders do not announce a way to interact with the presenters during the seminar, this is a broadcast not a conversation. Twitter is the most common way to take questions during a live presentation. If you can’t ask questions, this will limit your involvement in the presentation. Sometimes presenters’ points need to be clarified, and if there’s no way to do that during the webinar, you are left shaking your head.

2. Hashtag to follow conversation on Twitter
A hashtag is a keyword or abbreviation placed anywhere in a tweet, or twitter message, that tags the message as part of a larger conversation. There may be an official hashtag for a webinar or event, or sometimes participants agree on hashtags as they go. This is one of the strongest benefits of an online presentation. Participants can connect and communicate about the topics being presented. It is also a great way to share information and knowledge that expands the presented information. By following the Twitter backchannel of a webinar, you can engage with new contacts who are also interested in the subject of the webinar. From the presenters’ side, it generates Twitter buzz as lots of people tweet the company’s name (if that’s the hashtag).

3. Contact information for presenters
Whether the webinar offers a means to ask live questions during the presentation or not, you need to be able to contact the presenters after the webinar. Questions might come up after the presentation and you will want to follow up. Again, there might have been a good point in the webinar, but if you can’t clarify the details, the point is not made.

4. Way to get presentations later
Just like you might want to contact the presenters after the webinar, you might also want to get a copy of their presentation. Slide Share is a common option for posting presentations. These presentations allow you to easily share ideas and concepts with colleagues and clients who were unable to participate in the webinar.

5. Video
And finally, more companies are using video to present their ideas. It is a much more engaging medium than audio. Sometimes it is just easier to follow a talk if you can see the speaker and watch their facial expressions. This is not a dealbreaker for a successful webinar, but as people get more comfortable with video, this will become a requirement.

Really breakthrough stuff in bringing the look and feel of Flash to the iPhone, although we all know iPhones don’t (and in the near future, won’t) support Flash. Read on…

According to a recent online survey of 400 senior marketing and media executives, two-thirds of them expect 2009 to be the year they embrace online video as an important part of their marketing strategies. Nearly three-quarters of those plan to use video to expand their brand awareness. And this trend will certainly be part of B2B marketing in the upcoming year.

Video is a more engaging medium than text on a screen, and as people become more comfortable with web video in their daily lives, this will flow through to the business arena. While there are several different approaches to generating video content for the web, companies will succeed when videos are created as part of a campaign with a clear goal in mind, and are developed within the context of the brand.

1. Develop your own videos
Cisco is a well known brand and a leader in the technology industry. As part of a product launch for the ASR 9000 router, they created a campaign around a bumbling tech reporter who is assigned to break the story of the new product. Even CEO John Chambers shows he can play along. The initial video was combined with a blog, facebook group, twitter account, youtube and a preview launch site to build awareness of the product launch. Read more about the success of the campaign and the importance of cross-promoting video content on Dianna Huff’s B2B Marcom blog.

Marketing software and service provider Hubspot created this video to explain what they can do for their clients. Again they cross-promote this, and other video content, through their blog, facebook, twitter and youtube.

2. Call for user-generated content
Software company iRise has a slew of informational corporate videos, product demos and customer testimonial videos on their website, but according to this blog post by Tom Humbarger, the company CMO wanted to host a user-generated video contest to build awareness for the company’s products and give its customers the opportunity to share their passion.

By offering a $15,000 first prize, the company generated 44 entries to the contest. This was the result of posting in over 100 online forums and groups for film and video makers. While he calls the campaign a success with over 16,000 visitors to the contest website, 57,000 page views, and more than 30,000 video views on YouTube, I would point back to the goals of the campaign. No videos were created by iRise customers, including the 3000 members of their user community, but only by creative types competing for a cash prize. And the winning entry is not even included in the video section of their web site. The announcement of the winner was on the company blog, and the contest site is still live for your perusal.

Since the creator of the contest no longer works at the company, we may never know how this user-generated contest affected the brand, but this is a good example of a B2B video contest.

3. Embrace existing user-generated content
And the final example of video marketing is to seek out and embrace video content that is being created. This example may be less relevant to B2B marketers, but people are passionate about their favorite brands and talk about them online. As video continues to be more widely used for online conversations, marketers and pr professionals need to be comfortable reaching out to video bloggers and be receptive when they reach out to them. Below is a video interview I did with Lynn Williams, Community Relations Representative of Mt Olive Pickle Company. I contacted her as a blogger interested in their New Year’s Eve event (a pickle drop) for my site NewYearsDrop.com
http://www.vimeo.com/2691396

So, in summary, video will be an important part of marketing in 2009, but like all components of a marketing campaign, it must be developed with a clear goal for success, be consistent with your brand, and be part of a larger promotional strategy. If you have other examples of B2B video, or any comments to add, please leave them below.

I just returned from ProMat 2009, North America’s largest material handling show. Held every other year, in January (yuck!), in Chicago (double-yuck!!), this show has always had a “weather be damned” sense of machismo and daring.

This marked my fifth visit in ten years and this year was no different, with the added sense of “the economy be damned” thrown in for good measure. Don’t get me wrong. I love the city of Chicago. Great restaurants. Friendly cab drivers. And unlike Vegas, there’s not someone every few feet ready to prey on the drunken conventioneers. But this year was a challenge.

For starters, we had the one of the coldest, snowiest weeks on record. And then we had the economy. But a strange thing happened on the way to the show. Since they had committed to exhibit over a year ago, exhibiting companies cut back on who they sent rather than what they sent. So the exhibits were almost to a tee staffed by high level executives and sales directors rather than a bunch of juniors out for a junket. The attendees also cut back, to the figure of around 30% less booth traffic, according to the exhibitors I spoke with. But funny thing about the attendees. They too saved money by only sending employees who had a reason to be at the show. Hardly any tire kickers.

But the folks that did trade cards and leave names were genuinely interested in doing business. So here we were, in a down economy, with everyone worried about saving money and (somehow, anyhow) getting leads into their pipeline, actually talking about doing business. Even some startups.

Yes, we are probably entering a depression.

Yes, there will be continued tough times. But there will also be business. You just need to look a little harder, work a little longer, and deliver a little more. No, I didn’t see a recovery in sight. But I did see survival, and beyond.

The recent news that industry giant, Dow Chemical, is planning to lay off employees and shutter many of its plants triggered memories of my experience with the company in headier times.

While working at one of Dow’s advertising agencies in the late 80s – early 90s, I made the 5-hour roundtrip drive between Grand Rapids and Dow’s sprawling Midland campus more times than I can count. I still clearly recall the numerous bleary-eyed, coffee-fueled, deer-dodging commutes necessitated by day-long series of meetings that frequently kicked off as early as 8:00 a.m.

As an early riser by nature, I wasn’t troubled by the on-the-road-before-daybreak routine. And, having grown up in Michigan, I had fully developed the fortuitous ability to detect the glowing retinas of distant roadside deer as they stared into my approaching headlights. The worst part of the commute, by far, was straining to maintain bladder control after 12 ounces of coffee had worked its way through my system.

Fully two-thirds of the route between Grand Rapids and Midland consisted of state and county roads winding through rural areas that lacked even the crudest facilities for the bladder-challenged traveler. On more than one occasion, passing motorists witnessed the spectacle of a guy in a three-piece suit and sheepish grin desperately irrigating the graveled shoulder of US 10 from behind the cover of an open passenger-side door.

My flirtation with potential arrest for public indecency notwithstanding, what is truly most memorable about my salad days as copywriter, and later, copy/contact account manager, for Dow’s now-defunct Packaging and Industrial Foams division, are the lessons I learned about client/agency relationships.

Back then, our agency was regarded as an integral part of the product management team. We were welcomed into the inner circle of product stakeholders, meeting regularly with product managers, product marketing managers, product development specialists, research scientists, field sales personnel, and even high-level corporate executives. We were admired for our inquisitive natures and our ability to talk about features and benefits in the often arcane vernacular of their customers and prospects. Our clients appreciated the wisdom of our counsel, entrusted us with even the most proprietary information, and placed a high value on effective, well-funded marketing efforts (even during the 1990-1991 recession).

By virtue of our being fully embedded in the product sales and marketing process, and with the enthusiastic support of our marketing partners at Dow, we found it relatively easy to develop comprehensive, integrated branding and marketing programs that delivered measurable, bottom line-enhancing results.

Unless its philosophy has changed dramatically in the intervening years, I would fully expect that of the numerous companies currently feeling the pinch of a tightening economy, The Dow Chemical Company isn’t going to be one that compounds the problem by pulling the rug out from under its marketing efforts. As much as it hurts to institute layoffs and curtail underperforming operations, smart companies recognize the intrinsic value of consistent marketing and aren’t afraid to fund it adequately in good times and in bad — especially when they are confident in the agencies with whom they partner.

If more companies followed Dow’s example, they would surely emerge with an enhanced competitive position once the economy finally starts turning around.