The fact that people are watching their favorite shows outside their living rooms is not news, but being able to watch live local TV for free at speeds up to 100 mph might be. Television stations are working to debut a new service, mobile broadcasting, in Northern Ohio and across the country that allows users to view live broadcasts from their cell phones, laptops and other portable devices.

With DVRs and sites like Hulu.com, it will be interesting to see if people would rather watch live TV when on-the-go or continue to log-in for already broadcast programs. It will also be interesting to see how advertisers determine how to best use this new broadcasting format. As always we will continue to keep an eye on this new opportunity to determine how consumers are accepting it and how best to leverage it for our clients.

For more information on mobile TV check out this article by The Cleveland Plain Dealer on Cleveland.com.

photo credit: masochismtango 

As part of its expanded commitment to meeting the needs of clients interacting with all levels of government, Fahlgren Mortine is increasing its public affairs staff as well as continuing to broaden the scope of its full-service offering.

“The interaction between the public and private sectors is growing more and more complex, and the ability to communicate clearly and effectively has never been greater, ” said Neil Mortine, CEO of Fahlgren, Inc. and president of Fahlgren Mortine. “The additions and changes we are making position us as the leading agency in Ohio in helping public and private organizations work together.”

For more details, please click here for the complete news release. 

photo credit: Manicosity

Racing is racing, right? We’ll, it turns out that’s not necessarily so. When NAPA Auto Parts wanted to include both their NASCAR driver and their NHRA driver in the same television campaign and air them to two different racing audiences, we had to make sure those spots played well to both. The key to doing that was removing any reference to the two different types of racing. By focusing on the drivers’ uncanny knowledge of car parts, we were able to tell the story that with over 80 years in the business nobody knows parts, like NAPA.

The campaign features NASCAR driver, Micheal Waltrip and NHRA driver, Ron Capps taking on everyday couples in old-fashioned parlor games. Always featured as guests in the couples’ homes, Michael and Ron win each game with a comedic, tongue-in-cheek ease that leaves the frustrated couples wondering what just happened.

This campaign won Best of Show at the 2009 Columbus ADDYs, and Fahlgren just received news that the campaign, as well as two of it’s individual spots, won Gold ADDYs at the 5th District Regional ADDY Competition. This automatically qualifies them for a chance at a National ADDY Award in June at the American Advertising Federation ADDY show.

Congratulations to ACD/Art Director, Bill Marconi and Copywriter, Steve Chacon. Nice job, guys! Click here to check out the spots.

My daughter was growing bored sitting, once again, waiting for her brother’s baseball practice to wrap up. The usual distractions and games had grown tired, and I was running out of tricks. I checked the time on my Blackberry, noticed the icon for Pandora and had an idea. In less than 90 seconds, my daughter was happily singing along on her very own “Hannah Montana” station I created in the Pandora app. Occupied child, happy mom.

The call for app-based mobile experiences just keeps getting louder. commScore estimates that there are now more than 200,000 mobile apps available across various smartphone platforms, and the numbers keep growing.  That got me wondering, are mobile applications a good way for marketers to reach busy moms?

While it may seem that the iPhone with its svelte design and fun neon case is the hip accessory for all the trendy moms, the fact is, most iPhone users are male. According to research  from comScore and AdMob, 70 percent of iPhone users are male, and 31 percent are between the ages of 35-49.  So, are moms using mobile apps?

Mobile advertising network Greystripe would energetically say yes. A recent survey of moms with iPhones revealed that these moms primarily rely on apps to keep their kids entertained (41 percent download games specifically for their kids) and to help when shopping. Coordinating family schedules and activities was a top activity done via smartphone according to a recent BabyCenter study. Sounds like moms are looking for tools that will make their lives easier: keep them organized, save them money, make their kids happy.

I get that; those are some of the top criteria I have for most any new technology I consider adopting, mobile or otherwise. What about the “mom/kid” as a consumer dynamic?  With kids being the top users of the iTouch, perhaps there’s an opportunity to help moms connect with her kids with an app?  As marketers, we should think of mobile apps like any tool in our marketing mix and ensure what we are serving up has value to mom and to the brand.

Today, Fahlgren announces that we’re acquiring GRIP Technology, a leading Web design and technology development firm located in Columbus. Its services include Web application development, Web site design and development, e-commerce, e-mail marketing, intranets, extranets, search engine optimization and marketing, and strategic Web consulting. GRIP is co-owned by Scott Sanders, Dustin Leggans and Bill Kiefaber.

“It’s no secret that the online world is growing, and our clients are asking for more and more digital work from us every day. It’s an integrated part of virtually every campaign we create,” said Neil Mortine, Fahlgren, Inc. president and CEO. “We are thrilled to be able to double our capacity in this area. GRIP is a natural fit as they complement our team, and we already have a great working relationship. We’ve been sharing clients and projects with them for more than two years. We’re impressed with their offering and client service and delighted to welcome them to the Fahlgren family.”

“Our business model is very client-centric,” said Scott Sanders, founder and president of GRIP and the new leader of Fahlgren Digital. “When I founded GRIP in 2002, I set out to develop a digital agency that was committed to helping its clients reach their business objectives, not just build great Web sites. Technology is only a tool, one part of the equation. It’s our goal to offer more than just great online creative and coding; we provide solutions to meet business objectives. Joining forces with Fahlgren, which shares the same client-centric business model, we can now offer our clients the full support of a leading, independent full-service agency.”

 For more details, check out the news release.

This time last year the Columbus Fahlgren-McDonald’s Team was planning our trip to visit our teammates in Florida. The Miami McDonald’s Co Op (which is also a Fahlgren Co Op) was hosting the McDonald’s All American® Basketball Games. After much work, Columbus had been named as the 2010 Games host city, and we were all going down to see what we were in for.

The Games are actually three different events:

1. PowerAde JamFest® is a high energy skills and dunking contest that let the players strut-their-stuff. The section where the players get to demonstrate their best dunks is like a mini-Olympics where the audience gets to score each dunk. It will be held at Value City Arena on Monday, March 29. 
2.  The Awards Banquet is where we see how well our players clean up as the guys will put on a tux and the girls a formal dress.  It will be held on Tuesday, March 30 at the beautiful new Battelle Hall. 
3. The best way to describe the girls’ and boys’ games is “Witness The Jump From High School to Hall of Fame.”  It will also be held at Value City Arena on Wednesday, March 31.  The events on the 29^th and 31^st will be broadcast live on the ESPN Family of Networks. For more information please go to http://www.mcdonaldsallamerican.com/.

As entertaining as the games are, the most important part is that they are a fundraiser for Ronald McDonald House Charities® (RMHC). All of the proceeds from this year’s events go to The Ronald McDonald House of Central Ohio. RMHC provides a home-away-from-home for families of seriously ill children getting treatment in Central Ohio hospitals. Columbus has the world’s second largest House so the funds from these games will be put to good use.

Before I arrived in Miami last year I was mostly concerned with where the good restaurants and shops were. How my life has changed! This year I am worried about:

• Uniforms that turn out to be too small for the cheerleaders. Still worried about that one.
• Getting McDonald’s Double Cheeseburgers and Chicken McNuggets® for 225 people to Ronald McDonald House for the first ever Media Day to be held at a House. The operations experts tell me all is under control.
• Is the player who says she is a size 6 but has size 14 measurements going to fit into the gown we ordered for her? Her mom says not to worry, she is a size 6.
• How is it that two of our sponsors who cannot seem to get along are now so happy to sit next to each other as long as those are VIP seats? I stopped worrying about this, if they’re happy, I’m happy.
• What happens if the 600 people invited to the VIP function all decide to show up at the same time? We will open another bar!!
• If guys’ dress shoes really come in a size 18. We told all players to bring an appropriate pair of their own shoes.

Through all of this I have gotten to work with some amazing people. This last year has been a lot of work for our team, but it is paying off.  So far, we have:

• Exceeded our fundraising goal of $1,000,000
• Secured more sponsors than any other Games
• Sold PowerAde JamFest tickets in McDonald’s Restaurants for the first time ever
• Attracted more donated media than any other Games

We are still working on our goal of selling more tickets than any other Games. So if you would like to help us achieve this final goal, and have a great time in the process scoping out some amazing basketball talent, please go to www.ticketmaster.com.

Five tips for keeping up with mobile travel technology

As a leader in Fahlgren’s tourism practice, I read a lot of articles and blog posts about trends shaping the travel industry. Last week I came across an article in USA Today titled “Smart phones have changed the way we travel.” You can say that again.

The article gives a long list of examples of how today’s travelers are using smart phones, and provides more evidence that the travel industry is leading the way with some of the most innovative applications. As marketers, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed by new technologies.

So do you need a mobile Web site? Should you create an app? The answer is almost always “it depends,” and it would take much more than a blog post to explain how to evaluate your specific needs. In today’s world, it’s easy to get “caught up in keeping up,” meaning that there’s a huge temptation to jump into new trends because everyone else is doing it. I would contend that the most important thing you can do is relax and take a step back.

If you’re in the beginning stages of creating your mobile strategy, here’s a list of five basic things you can do to ensure your strategy is on target before you take a costly leap into mobile marketing.

1.) Get the right equipment. If you’re the one driving strategy on mobile efforts, you need to be comfortable with smart phone technology. No offense to the Jitterbug, but you simply can’t afford to resist making the switch to an app-friendly device.

2.) Register your mobile domain. Even if you have just begun thinking about mobile marketing, visit GoDaddy.com or another domain registrar to claim the .mobi version of your attraction or brand’s URL.

3.) Play. Once you have the right phone, play with apps - particularly travel apps relevant to your specific sector of the industry. If you represent a hotel, experiment with booking engine apps such as Kayak and visit the mobile sites of some large hospitality brands to learn best practices you can apply to your own strategy.

4.) Practice. Experiment with the sites and apps making headlines, such as Foursquare, Urbanspoon and Yelp. You may not care to be the mayor of the local public library or Starbucks, but learning how these tools work often inspires strategic, marketing-focused ideas. It’s also an important part of learning the mobile language.

5.)  Pretend. Forget everything you know in your daily job and pretend to be a potential visitor, armed with nothing more than a smart phone and maybe a suitcase. I truly believe this is the best way for any attraction, DMO, property or brand to improve customer service and find new marketing strategies that work. For example, pretend you’re new to the city and trying to find information or driving directions via your phone. Is your site easy to find? Are you performing well in search results? Is there anything leading traffic to your doorstep?

These are just a few of the basic things you can do, and the theme here is just to jump in and start exploring. Think of it like swimming. No matter how many how-to guides and blog posts you read about swimming, there are certain things you just can’t learn until you try them for yourself.

And remember, if at first you don’t succeed, there’s an app for that.

photo credit: gailjadehamilton

I’m a parent of two teen girls. They’re great daughters, but I often wonder how I will keep my hair from turning gray between now and 2015 when the youngest graduates from high school. Both girls are absolutely obsessed with their cell phones and maintaining their extensive network of friends through texting, MySpace and Facebook.

In fact over the weekend, I was at the Verizon store twice. The first time was to repair a phone that wasn’t working, causing my oldest to panic over the number of text messages she was missing. Her Facebook status cited that her phone was broken so all of her contacts were aware she was out of texting commission. The other Verizon visit was for a phone upgrade for the younger daughter - and not just any phone would work. It had to have certain features and benefit to be acceptable, and to give her thumbs their daily workout.

So when I read a new white paper this morning, “The Teenage Girl as Consumer and Communicator,” released by Euro RSCG Worldwide PR, I wasn’t too surprised.

The white paper confirmed something I’ve seen in my two girls - and in every teen girl I know - they go online to maintain their friendships. In fact, 71 percent are online with friends, not just surfing randomly. And their value-minded moms seem to be influencing them with 77 percent more likely to buy sale-priced items than one at full price.  This is great to hear, considering how fickle teen girls seem to be with their tastes and preferences changing all the time.

Both daughters want to redecorate their rooms, but I’m a little reluctant to start this process because they’re constantly changing their minds. One day they’re influenced by a friend’s room, another by something they saw on HGTV. In great article in MediaWeek, “Their So-Called Life,” author Marita Scarfi uncovers additional insights into this hard-to-engage demographic. Scarfi calls teen girls “… a bundle of contradictions, they’re still building their identities and moving among these different identities every day.”

I couldn’t agree more. My daughters play the role of sister, friend, student, daughter, performer, athlete and others, and how they behave changes depending on where they are and with whom. One point Scarfi makes that’s a little disconcerting for me, though, is that it is widely believed that teen girls can filter information they find online, but this isn’t always the case -especially when it comes to information regarding mental, sexual and general health issues. Teens may end up on credible sites like Yahoo Answers or WebMD, but they may also be guilty of Googling health questions, leaving them susceptible to incorrect information.

As marketing communications professionals, we must work hard to find ways to connect with these girls - not just so they buy our products and services, but so they make smart, safe and informed choices. Finally, we cannot underestimate the role the parents play.  Even though kids might work part-time jobs and/or receive an allowance, mom and dad are often key to closing the purchasing loop and providing kids with factual, credible information needed to make positive choices.

That’s the tagline we want every woman in central Ohio to remember and live by. Fahlgren recently launched our first brand campaign with The Charles Penzone Salons, and we’re excited to see our creative hit the market.

Charles Penzone Salons came to us a few months ago with a challenge — drive guests into The Charles Penzone Grand Salons and make the brand high-fashion but attainable. After working closely with the Charles Penzone team, including Mr. Charles Penzone himself, we came up with a plan to target young professionals who were going through changes in their lives: getting married, having babies, and taking their life and career to the next level. These women were focused on beauty and confidence, and we saw them as the perfect audience for the brand.

How better to represent an attainable brand and show off the talents of Charles Penzone professionals than to feature real woman getting makeovers? Charles Penzone selected three real guests and gave them a total transformation: hair, makeup, manicure and clothing. Then we took these real guests who were glowing with beauty and confidence and put them in front of a great fashion photographer to let the magic happen. These everyday women (a grad student, a marketing professional and a working mom) who walked into the salon hours earlier were transformed into models that would be used in the brand campaign materials.

When you think of fashion you think of fashion magazines. So we put together a media plan that included regional print ads in national fashion magazines including Cosmo, Elle, Harper’s Bazaar, InStyle and Marie Claire. And then we took our creative online to the top fashion and entertainment sites; Eonline, InStyle.com and MyStyle.com. We created a unique URL www.cpmakeover.com so we could track our campaign and report measurable results.

Our unique URL drove people to a custom section of www.charlespenzone.com that featured our three real guests and the transformations they received. Visitors were able to see before and after photos, descriptions of the services each real guest received during her transformation, and a behind-the-scenes video featuring their makeovers and the photo shoot. The site launched March 1, and already we have seen a great number of visitors and are excited to see the final results of this campaign.

More physician practices and hospitals are starting to embrace Facebook as an important tool in their arsenal of marketing tactics. As marketing dollars shrink, competition intensifies, and more people look to social media as a way to become informed, empowered healthcare consumers, any hospital or practice would be wise to consider how social media can enhance their existing marketing plans. We’re now in the era of Health 2.0 - using social software and its ability to promote collaboration between patients, their caregivers, medical professionals, and other stakeholders in health. It’s really pretty cool when you think about it.

Consider this: eight in 10 Internet users go online for health information. Sure, there are things to consider like staffing, HIPAA, content and more, but can you really afford to be absent from this space and let your competitors be the only voice in the discussion?

I’ve spent the last week looking at a variety of healthcare brands - both hospitals and physician practices - and how they’re using Facebook as a marketing and commnications tool. Some are early adopters and recognize that as their younger patients age, more of them will seek information online rather than schedule an appointment with their doctor. After all, it’s faster and easier than ever to get information online. One caveat here - accessing information online doesn’t replace the value of seeing your physician face-to-face but can certainly help you ask the right questions.

Here are a few examples of Facebook tactics used by healthcare providers that I think are pretty interesting:

Arkansas Children’s Hospital has a feature on their Facebook page where visitors can make an online donation. They also make it easy to access their RSS feed for current news and information. Another great feature is a link to a blog, Change of Face, that features updates about their medical team that has developed an international reputation for repairing clept lips and palates as well as vascular malformations.

Scripps Health uses a sunflower photo as an icon - not a building - which is a nice change from the facility images that many hospitals and health systems use. On their Facebook page, Scripps uses YouTube and Twitter tabs, along with a really helpful Jobs tab. Another nice feature is photos of their medical team that provided aid to victims of the Haiti earthquake.

Another way to use photos is to connect them with copy. The LaJolla Cosmetic Surgery Centre uses patient stories as a way to build credibility for the practice.

Facebook also offers a Reviews tab. Macarthur OB/GYN, based in Irving, Texas, does a great job with posting reviews on their page. What better endorsement is there than satisfied patients? They also have great photos of moms and their babies.

The City of Hope in Los Angeles uses Facebook to tell their fans about the urgent need for blood platelet donors. They also use real estate on their page to promote their ranking on the U.S. News & World Report list of America’s Best Hospitals.

Nationwide Children’s Hospital recently used their Facebook page to promote their relationship with ResearchMatch, a secure and convenient online Web portal where people can be matched with research studies.

M.D. Anderson has a news page that features a Boxes tab which is home to del.icio.us bookmarks and dozens of interesting links.

Lastly, more brands are using Facebook in interesting ways to let people know what they can expect from becoming a fan. Reese’s is a great example, as is Martha Stewart. Our agency recently developed a similar tactic for Dublin Methodist Hospital’s Facebook page. We created an engaging graphic similar to a Web tile that quickly lets the viewer know the benefits of becoming a fan.

Facebook and other tools in our Web 2.0 world enable regular people - not just the tehnologically savvy - to create online content. Social media on the Internet are empowering, engaging and educating consumers and providers in healthcare. This evolution seems to be taking health reform much farther than anyone in Washington, DC.

 ”As a leader in the central Ohio advertising community, we’re reinventing ourselves everyday while staying dedicated to developing unique and insightful campaigns that not only gain recognition from our peers, but most importantly, move the needle for our clients.”

Get more details on the campaign and the other ADDYs we won in the full news release.

Neil Mortine and Kathy Cupper Obert

Alignment Forms Independent Powerhouse:

Largest Firm in Ohio and Top 30 Nationally

The acquisition, which joins the capabilities of Fahlgren Mortine Public Relations and Edward Howard, is expected to close during the first quarter of 2010 although integration and coordinated new business and marketing efforts will begin immediately.

Check out more details of today’s exciting announcement in the news release.