We at Hammock Inc. have a profound respect for great creative work, and especially for work that relates to our clients—in this case, The Marine Corps League. On Jan. 16, the U.S. Marine Corps began airing a stunning new TV recruitment commercial featuring the Corps' legendary Silent Drill Platoon.
The Marines traveled to 15 locations in 10 states to shoot footage, from the Golden Gate Bridge in San Francisco to Times Square in New York, even to Columbia, TN. The video folks shot loads of scenes, probably enough to make a dozen commercials – in fact, they made an exciting teaser preview. Meanwhile, a still photographer and writer documented each location, including moving stories from veteran Marines, from parents and siblings and friends of Marines who came out to watch the taping.
The results are posted at the website, ourmarines.com, along with an extended version of the TV spot (click the video sidebar to view).
One incident is worth noting because it has another Hammock tie-in. Rex Hammock happened to be in New York City at the same time as the Drill Platoon. After filming from about 2 a.m. to sunrise, the Marines went live on Fox and Friends, then boarded a bus to CBS' Early Show, 11 blocks away. When the bus became mired in mid-Manhattan gridlock, the Marines debarked and marched to the CBS studios. As Rex was leaving his hotel to head out for JFK Airport and an early-morning flight, the Marines were heading back to their bus. "I've seen lots of unique things in New York City over the years," recalls Rex, "But nothing can compare with how impressive -- and surreal -- it is to chance upon the Marine Drill Team at six a.m. in Times Square."
From all accounts the platoon took Manhattan without firing a shot.
Our CEO, Rex Hammock, has been blogging regularly since 2001. And he's made a bit of a name for himself out there in the blogosphere. [He kills us for saying stuff like this. No, not "blogosphere." Well, he doesn't like that either. But he doesn't like us bragging on him.]
Back to the bragging: Well recognized for his magazine and digital media savvy, Rex runs in some heady circles, at least via the Rexblog. So we weren't surprised to see that Junta42's Top Content Marketing Blogs list ranks the Rexblog as #13. Lucky 13, I say.
Rex wrote an interesting post today on the term content marketing. He takes a little issue with the semantics, but don't be alarmed. If Hammock Inc. can help you tell your story, the rest of us don't care what you call it.
Hammock is excited to be a sponsor of Podcamp Nashville, a free community "unconference" about new media, to be held on Saturday, February 9th at The Cannery Ballroom. The event will bring together industry experts including bloggers, podcasters and marketers along with newbies to collaborate and learn about how to embrace new media.
Don't miss this opportunity to network with other technology enthusiasts and learn about how you can implement new media within your organization. Mark your calendar and meet us a Podcamp!
Last Friday, we held our annual T-shirt breakfast at Hammmock. That's when we load up on sugared breakfast treats and pack and mail T-shirts to friends around the world. (Launch slideshow from the breakfast.)
Now comes the part where those who received a T-shirt get to participate. This year, we're asking everyone who receives a shirt to upload a photo of themselves wearing it to a special map we've created -- and we're giving them a special incentive to do so (even beyond the fame they'll receive, of course). For every five photos added to the map, we're donating a laptop to the One Laptop Per Child Foundation, an effort to provide educational tools to children in developing countries.
On this day the U.S. has set aside to recall and celebrate Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for his vision and leadership of the civil rights movement, our weekly staff meeting included watching Dr. King's "I Have a Dream Speech" from August 28, 1963. No matter how many times I've seen this speech, it never fails to inspire me. It never fails to remind me how far we've come as a nation -- yet how long the journey is before us.
"When we let (freedom) ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"
Here's a glimpse of the latest issue of Pharmaceutical Commerce, a magazine Hammock designed from the ground up in 2005.
The magazine, which covers the business side of the pharma industry, including marketing, finance, supply chain and packaging, delivers helpful and timely information to more than 16,000 readers.
The next issue should be out in a few weeks. In fact, as I type, Ben Stewart is probably designing some awesome illustration for it.
First, a word about our lingo. For as long as I've worked here, it seems we've had at least two people with the same name, even though we're not a Fortune 500 company. Currently on the Hammock Inc. staff, we have Barbara M. [Mathieson] and Barbara L. [Logan], Megan G. [Goodchild] and Megan P. [Pacella], Patrick B. [Burns] and Patrick R. [Ragsdale], and honorable mentions Kerri [Davis] and Carrie [Wakeford]. So we throw those last initials around from time to time. [Contrary to popular belief, it's not necessary for you to be named after one of the rest of us to be the next member of the Hammock team.]
But today we're talking about Barbara M. We have always been proud of her ongoing environmental efforts -- animals and our earth have no greater friend than Barbara. Now comes the news that Nashville Mayor Karl Dean has appointed Barbara to a two-year term on the Metropolitan Beautification and Environment Commission. Barbara's councilman Bo Mitchell nominated her for the position, because of her concern about the illegal dumping of trash in the southwestern part of Davidson County.
The mayor even threw in some mad props for Barbara in his appointment notice:
"Nashville is indeed fortunate to have citizens like you who are willing to volunteer their unique talents and sacrifice their time for our community," said Dean.
It's no secret that Hammock founder/CEO Rex Hammock is quick to volunteer as a lab rat when it comes to experimenting with any shiny new digital media.
Our new People pages are quickly becoming a very popular part of Hammock.com -- and certainly the most history-making. Today, for example, editorial director Jamie Roberts posted a fascinating item about how she interviewed her father recently at the award-winning family-history recording project StoryCorps, which now has a booth at the Nashville Public Library. Hammock editor Bill Hudgins wrote about his speech today regarding American Spirit magazine at a Franklin, Tenn., chapter of the National Society, Daughters of the American Revolution. And speaking of historic events, Hammock president/coo John Lavey posted his first post ever -- as in anywhere. Will wonders never cease?
Today, we launched a new blog on Hammock.com called Custom Media Craft. We'll soon be merging into the new blog lots of the items we used to post as "case studies." Our focus on the new blog will be to provide ongoing insight and observations on the crafts -- including lots of how-tos -- that are related to creating and managing successful custom media -- print and digital.
To kick off the new blog, we've posted a piece on a concept we're calling (although, we're sure many others have used it before, so we're not "coining" anything here) Mediacasting. The idea we're looking at is this: For most associations and non-traditional media companies, the reason to embrace digital media is to get your message to those who can act on it: your members and customers -- and to enable them to respond. For some reason, however, most associations and corporate digital marketers still use an advertising business model metrics -- page views or web traffic -- to drive their web strategy. Our post -- along with an accompanying post with some specific ideas for "webcasting" in 2008 -- takes a look at what your goals with digital media should be.
We don’t like to think of ourselves as terribly traditional around Hammock, but we have to admit to a few standbys. One of the constants is our Monday morning meeting. The very idea of a meeting can lull most people right to sleep, but we Hammockites actually look forward to this 30-minute ritual (yes, really). Like our other Monday tradition of Star bagels and cream cheese, the meeting is not a habit we want to break.
So, curious about what we do to kick off our week on the right foot? Most meetings entail (pick one):
A. Discussions of hot projects and status updates
B. Demonstrations of the latest technology and/or Rex’s toys
C. Celebrations and rants
D. Movie reviews and weekend sports’ results
E. All of the above
Answer: E. Although the meeting’s focus is to make sure that everyone is up-to-date on all publications and digital projects, we do take a few minutes to catch up on fun stuff, too. How else would we know which scary movies to avoid, which new restaurants to book and which coffee shops have the most Nashville celebrity sightings?
The new issue of American Spirit, the member magazine of the Daughters of the American Revolution, celebrates Baker's Chocolate and its revolutionary history. The article even includes a couple of recipes for hot chocolate, perfect this time of year.
Other historical features in the January/February issue include David Bushnell, who created the first submersible warship -- in 1776! -- and Colonial businesswoman and indigo farmer Eliza Lucas Pinckney of South Carolina.
Described by the school as the first such list (at least in modern times), the list is compiled from suggestions submitted to LSSU, which is located in Sault Ste. Marie in far Northern Mich.
One in particular gigs me - wordsmith/wordsmithing - since my lovely wife often calls me that. However, she also often intones "it is what it is," which is another outta-here phrase in this year's list (and one of my personal choices for the scrapyard).
Our designers will be chagrined that the list includes "pop" - as in, "the color choice for the print really makes it pop." Maybe we can teach ourselves to "decimate" the use of "pop" - decimate in the true sense of reducing by a tenth, not obliteration as it has come to be used.
Anyway, enjoy this year's list. You'll have to use the search function for lists from "back in the day" - the best keyword to use is "banishment."
Our new 
