Adding Automotive Experience

We've added Copywrite, Ink.'s first pdf portfolio page on our main site. As mentioned in our previous post, Sneaking A Promo Peek, each pdf portfolio page includes an industry-specific sampling of work, mini-history or experience overview, and select case study highlights.

Visit Copywrite, Ink. for a glimpse of our work in the automotive industry or download our select account experience lists. Our next pdf portfolio page, featuring B2B experience, will be released on or before Sept. 4.

Consulting Across The Aisle

Two days ago, John Weaver, chief political strategist for 2008 presidential hopeful Sen. John McCain (R-AZ), surprised some political insiders and bloggers by confirming that Nicco Mele, former webmaster for Howard Dean, best known as the early favorite to win the 2004 Democratic presidential nomination after serving as governor in Vermont (1999-2003), is now courting a Republican.

Mele was largely responsible for the Dean campaign's extensive use of the Internet to reach out to its supporters. They frequently "blogged" on the campaign trail and even delegated important campaign-related decisions to polls conducted on the Website, creating a populist-like movement that shattered fundraising records.

Since, Mele's Internet strategy group EchoDitto has had more than twenty major Democratic and liberal firms and candidates as clients (some of which are considered far left), which sets the stage for controversy inside the Republican party. Generally speaking, political consultants are shunned when they cross the aisle.

On his blog, Mele had made a case that he has ''long admired Sen. McCain's work on campaign finance reform and his independent streak. This is a personal decision for me ... I like Sen. McCain--I think he should be president!''

Not surprising, McCain's decision to hire Mele has led to some political fallout on both sides. Questions regarding McCain's more liberal political ties have resurfaced and Mele, despite being named the "best and brightest" by Esquire, is alienating some of his Democratic clientele.

What's the big deal?

Perhaps the first campaign manager I ever worked with, my friend and retired political consultant Benay Stout, who worked closely with late Nevada governor and senator Chic Hecht, and is responsible for the political start of Sen. John Ensign (R-NV), said it best when she said ''never cross the aisle and never work with kooks.''

Kooks aside, the reason is clear enough. When you start working on political campaigns for opposing parties, people will naturally begin to question your convictions much like they might question a candidate who switches parties. And that is precisely why Mele and McCain are coming under fire.

In some ways, Mele's decision will play out like Steorn. If McCain wins the Republican nomination, Mele will earn certain political inoculation. If McCain doesn't win, then Mele will be caught in the middle without much of a safety net. In sum, if you sacrifice political convictions for a paycheck opportunity, it becomes a question of credibility.

While I suppose there is nothing wrong with being a true ''hired gun'' in politics, every consultant sets their own threshold. For us, we've always been proud of the people we've supported, most notably former state Assemblyman David Brown and state Sen. Bob Beers. While it is virtually impossible to agree on every issue with every candidate, we only work with those who stand to do the best for our state.

We apply the same principles to other accounts as well. We only work with those that we can believe in, and pass on those more questionable offers along the way. We turned down high paying jobs from ethically challenged Bum Fights and questionable Yucca Mountain supporters.

And therein lies the Mele dilemma. Too many people are scratching their heads, wondering why someone who seems to stand by the far left convictions of someone like Dean can suddenly embrace (not far right, but significantly further right than Dean) McCain. For many, Mele's decision appears to make him disingenuous. But even more ironically, it won't be if McCain wins.

Somehow, everyone has an easier time sticking behind a winner.

Tuning Into YouTube

YouTube is the hottest net entertainment out there, growing from a few hundred video views a day (Aug 2005) to more than 500 million per day. BusinessWeek online is now asking whether or not this advent internet company is worth a cool $2 billion.

You can read the BusinessWeek write up at BusinessWeek on YouTube

What does this mean, if anything, for traditional media? We'll add our two cents to the commentary next week.

Marketing Buzz In The Making

Approximately six days ago, Ireland-based Steorn invited the world's scientists to test what they call a revolutionary new technology with an advertisement in The Economist.

According to the company's news release, the technology is based on the interaction of magnetic fields and allows the production of clean, free and constant energy. It can be applied to virtually all devices requiring energy, from cellular phones to cars.

It is an intriguing concept, one that has been kicked around for some time, and especially interesting for quantum physics buffs who sometimes enjoy looking up the latest redesign of Tesla's Coil (that would be me), which is another intriguing concept that leads to the creation and production of free energy.

Perhaps even more striking than the concept of free energy is the risky game of generating a marketing buzz for a technology that will apparently not be released to the public until after all (or at least some) of the scientists can validate the results. In fact, according to the company's Web site, more than 3,000 scientists have already accepted the challenge.

The reason I call this a risky game is because Steorn is riding a very thin line. On one hand, if they truly are far enough along in the free energy game that their claim will eventually revolutionize the world as we know it, their advertisement is marketing genius. On the other hand, considering they ran the advertisement in a weekly newspaper focusing on international politics and business news (and not known for its scientific readership), the marketing buzz they are creating, possibly to attract investors, could backfire, if it hasn't already.

Buzz marketing, as effective as it can be, is a dangerous game of gambling corporate credibility and the stakes are directly proportionate to your ability to deliver. For Steorn, given that 68 percent of the people who responded to their online poll that asks "should that scientific community accept our challenge" said NO, their wager seems to be equivalent to going "all in" without having the right cards to pull it off. Simply put, skepticism is high and if Steorn does not deliver, their next venture, even if it seems somewhat credible, will suffer, assuming the company survives.

At the moment, it's hard to say whether Steorn is simply looking to inflate company valuation on a promise as adventurous as The Wonga Coup (just without mercenaries), or whether they really have something that could potentially change the world. They claim they did attempt to go the traditional scientific route by quietly asking academic institutions to validate their results. But the company can hardly provide a case study for corporate transparency nor has it produced similar technologies (their first venture was related to technologies that help prevent counterfeiting and fraud in the plastic card and optical disc industries). So, time will tell, assuming they haven't lost already by damaging their credibility beyond repair.

All of this is not to imply ''buzz marketing'' is bad. We've frequently assisted in the development of such communication strategies that have paid off, a by-product of living in Las Vegas.

Just a few case studies include opening the Alexander Dawson School at Rainbow Mountain that made a compelling case that it would be the best private K-8 school in the West, with kindergarten tuition starting around $15,000 per year. We made the case before the motor was dry. We also assisted in generating ''marketing buzz'' for Konami Gaming with its infamous 'Project X,' a coin-in gaming machine that would serve as their introduction into the United States. We described a device that was barely on the drawing board. There are dozens of more cases we could share.

The difference between these and Steorn, although slight, was that both parties, Konami and Dawson, had proven track records in their respective industries. As mentioned, buzz marketing is effective, but the stakes are directly proportionate to the ability to deliver. Comparatively speaking, the stakes in their strategic plans can be likened to a reasonable wager. (Both did deliver, by the way).

Contrary, Steorn may have over exceeded the definition of 'reasonable' by a mile. It's a shame too, infinitely so if they really do have a technology that could change the world. The point: bet too much on buzz marketing and you can theoretically kill your company even if you do have a holy grail answer for all physics questions.

At least that's what one of my marketing professors would have said almost 20 years ago. You see, he shifted his field of study to marketing after discovering that, sometimes, engineering is not enough. His team's invention: mass produced hover crafts.

It really worked, but there were too few buyers to keep the assembly line moving forward. By the time they had generated some marketing buzz, it was too late — the company went bankrupt.

Protecting Intellectual Property

With the recent spike in Website and blog visitors looking for information on 'copyrights' and other intellectual property rights such as patents and trademarks, I thought I would take a moment to point out one of several resources: Patents, Copyrights & Trademarks

Patents, Copyrights & Trademarks For Dummies explains, in layman’s terms, the basic nature, function, and application of intellectual property (IP) rights, including how you can acquire those rights, wield them effectively, or exploit them through licensing agreements and other rewarding adventures. This book covers all of these critical concepts, including working with IP professionals, presenting a patent explanation, determining what is copyrighted and what isn’t, protecting your commercial identity, and where to go for the appropriate government forms.

To clarify, our company is sometimes misidentified when people misspell 'copyright,' as in to obtain a copyright, as opposed to copywriting, which is trade term for writing commercial 'copy' or words for advertising, marketing, and communication. We've also included a link to this informative book on a variety of intellectual property issues (under the Biz Book Shelf).

Sneaking A Promo Peek

Beginning next week, Copywrite, Ink. will be releasing mini-histories and case studies celebrating 15 years of communication excellence.

The downloadable pdf portfolio pages will be accessible on Copywrite, Ink.'s main website: copywriteink.com (where we've been). Each week, we'll release a new portfolio page, featuring a specific industry. The image (right) is a preliminary design draft featuring automotive experience before the history was written.

Since 1991, Copywrite, Ink. has worked on agency accounts that include The Auto Collection (at The Imperial Palace Hotel & Casino), BMW Performance, and Black Hawk Expositions. In addition, we've developed campaigns for a variety of dealerships, including Cadillac, Lincoln, Mercury, Saab, Subaru, and Volkswagen. Recently, we developed the strategic communication and creative direction for Concours d'Elegance Las Vegas.

The pdf portfolio also provides a glimpse of our what our future site will look like in the months ahead. The new site design will be rolled out in three phases: the addition of these pdf portfolio pages, back lot merchandise featuring our Hun Productions brand, and then an image overhaul for the site to bring everything together.

Currently, you can download a pdf list of select account experience as well as a list of our award winning work. In total, we have experience on more than 1,000 agency accounts.