We’re big fans of the folks at Wired magazine. Indeed, in the Hammock Inc. Library, you’ll find a complete collection of every issue of Wired ever published. Flipping through the February issue we were reminded once more how creative they can be when we saw this spread in a feature story on “33 Things That Make Us Crazy” that includes some inside-magazine humor. It’s the first time we recall seeing the lowly blow-in card serve as the central visual element of an editorial feature.
While in the background (and on the website version of the story), you can see a photo illustrating the piece, the full impact of the design is experienced when flipping through a newsstand version of the magazine that is carry 3-4 blow-ins. If you catch it perfectly, the cards fall out into your lap, animating the story even more. We’re so impressed, we’d think the Folio: folks should give them an Ozzie award for best use of a blow-in card in an editorial feature.
It’s a bit fuzzy in the photo, so here’s what the copy says:
“You know all those subscription cards cluttering up this issue of Wired? Well, um … sorry. We understand you detest the deforesting paper rectangles — “bind-in” or “blow-in” cards, to use industry parlance. Honestly, we do, too. But they’re part of our business model. It’s not just about money, really — it’s about your eyeballs. See, advertisers pay based on audience size. And blow-in cards are a cheap way to snag subscribers and boost numbers: It costs a glossy monthly about $10 to acquire a new reader through one of those cards. But using direct mail? $25 — or more. We’d be happy to get your business through the Internet, which we hear is the wave of the future. But for now, just 10 percent of new subs come via the Net. And 12 percent come from those damn blow-in cards. The worst part about ’em? They cover up some really good stories.”
We’ll admit we’re also not the biggest fans of blow-in cards, but we now realize we’re huge fans of clever editorial concepts and graphic treatments about blow-in cards.
[Photo: Shot by Rex with his iPhone at Davis-Kidd Booksellers.]
Thanks to the many business news-related projects we work on at Hammock Inc., we have some fairly big Internet pipes delivering to us a constant river of flowing business information. In our case, this flow tends to be more “macro” news — we’re not tracking markets or individual companies — but I’m still amazed with the ying and yang of business and economic news: and how reporters and analysts even feel the need to pair positive with negative. Perhaps this isn’t surprising: business is a marketplace of buyers and sellers. Perhaps there is no such thing as good or bad when every transaction needs a buyer and seller. And while I don’t always view business as a zero-sum-game, perhaps there is something necessary about always seeing the world as collisions of bears and bulls, optimism and pessimism, greed and fear.
As I write this post, for example, I can see news flowing by that consumer confidence fell sharply in January, but the next item reports that just-released numbers related to factory orders in December indicate they soared.
Data points. A river of data points. You can short it, long it. Believe it, deny it. Bottomline: Everyday brings opportunities. Everyday brings set-backs. It’s up to you to choose how to use that information.
How do I choose to handle the data? I do all I can to stay informed. I lean into news both good and bad. I look for opportunities. I prepare for the worse. In the long run, I believe in — or, at least hope for — the best. In the longer run, my goal is to leave more than I’ve used.
I got a chuckle this morning when I read my latest Barron’s at breakfast (Thanks, Dow Jones, for the unsolicited comp issue that has been showing up in my driveway every Monday for the past two years and Mr. Rupert Murdoch, sir, I hope I’m not dragging down your reader demographic.)
On the cover of the January 28 issue is the headline: “Whack That Bear! The trouble may not be over, but we found 10 stocks that look irresistibly cheap.” Just ten pages later is an advertisement for State Street Global Advisors that reads: The naked eye sees ten good investments. The trained eye sees one.”
State Street and their trained eye: 1
Barron’s and their naked eye: 0
It had me thinking about how bewildering ten choices can be. It also had me thinking about how much of a value it is to help guide clients to the right choice, or, set of choices. If you are making decisions about media for your organization, are you buying the “hot stocks” of the day, or do you have a portfolio” of your marketing media that was planned and managed?
We help clients develop a portfolio of media tools, and assist in the front end planning followed up with back-end implementation.
On to the “hot stocks” of the day: social media. There are a bewildering number of social media products being spawned, all with goals of connecting people for different reasons. Starting a blog, like buying a hot stock, might work out for your organization or it might not. As I stated when I started writing this blog, I’m interested in social media that can be employed in the service of organizations, associations and media companies for strategic and financial gain.
One area of research I look to (2007 E-Publishing Trends & Metrics from the Angerosa Foundation) shows how member associations, for example, experience great anxiety about “keeping up with new e-publishing technology and figuring out how to implement the new technologies effectively for their membership.” Not surprising, perhaps, but with associations the stakes are high.
As associations struggle to attract and maintain members without raising dues, they look to do two things simultaneously. Trim costs and create more value for members at the same price. The temptation to migrate to electronic publishing and social media is great as a short-term cost-cutting move. Especially when there are a lot of shiny new communications opportunities that didn’t exist a few years ago that seem poised to solve a lot of problems.
Without a plan that is matched to the goals of the organization, it’s like investing in the latest hot stock. Some of those investments might run counter to one another. Getting out of print (a risky strategy that many associations consider all the time) may lower costs, but destroy the value that’s been created for members.
Wise organizations plan well, and utilize a portfolio of media, integrated by each asset’s own particular purpose and strength, within the context of a plan. Social media provides great opportunity. Just don’t use a naked eye to evaluate it.
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.
Those of us on the awesome editorial team at Hammock love words. We also enjoy the little rules that make words work. We’re always being called names like “grammar police” and “grammar queen.”
It hurts coming from your own mother sometimes…
We’re always reading and listening to the ways people use words. Listen carefully and you’ll notice it too. For some reason lately, and more often it seems, people are using reflexive pronouns incorrectly.
“If you need more information, please call myself or Megan.”
Well, you can’t call myself, only I can call myself. It’s just that simple.
Even presidential candidates are using the words incorrectly as the Wall Street Journal pointed out just last week in an article titled Me, Myself and I.
So, here’s a quick reminder list of reflexive pronouns: myself, yourself (singular), yourselves (plural), himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves.
A reflexive pronoun is used for three primary reasons:
(1) Example: Laura cut herself while slicing onions for dinner. (Laura is the subject and the what/who that was cut.)
(2) Example: I took this picture by myself.
(3) Example: The boss himself set our deadline. (A reflexive pronoun used this way is also called an “intensive pronoun.”)
Simply put in my Basic English Revisited handbook: A personal pronoun is called a “reflexive pronoun” when it reflects back on the subject or refers to it.
I, myself, already knew that.
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.
During the recent Marine West Expo aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton, Calif., I joined several members of the Marine Corps League including Lt. Gen. Olmstead, former commanding general of the base, on a visit to the Wounded Warrior Battalion West. Around 29 Marines now comprise the WWBW; they have room for 36 and hope to build a facility for more than 100. The formation of the regiment last year gave formal structure, recognition and place among the Marine Corps’ various units, all of which are important not only to the individual Marines who deeply miss their previous units, but also for the Corps and veterans services to be able to focus on helping these brave men and women. All want to remain in the Corps; not all will make it, and for those, the Corps is working hard to help them transition successfully back to civilian life. (Note: If you want someone who will work hard, take any task and get it done better than you could imagine, these are the people to hire.)
Before I left for the Expo, we pulled together 30 or so books from review copies sent to Hammock Inc. for our various magazines. Most were on military or Marine history, a few were novels and one, “The Sandbox,” was a collection from U.S. military bloggers. Most of the Wounded Warriors were touring the Expo when we arrived, so we talked to the major in charge of the battalion, one of his sergeants, and a Corporal Ricco, whom Lt. Gen. Olmstead had been asked to look up for a mutual friend.
When we go to Camp Lejeune in April for Marine South, we’ll take some books there, as well. The Marines also love video games, in part because they grew up playing them but also because they help re-establish manual and in some cases, mental, dexterity.
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!
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.
Very few people will ever go to a trade show where the major selling points for most of the products offered are either how lethal they are or how good they are at preventing the user from becoming a casualty. The Marine Military Expos are just that kind of show, and I am at the 2008 Marine West Expo, sponsored in part by our client the Marine Corps League, aboard the US Marine Corps Base at Camp Pendleton, CA.
With palm trees dotting the dry landscape and many of the housing units built in the classic Southern California Spanish style, large parts of Camp Pendleton, CA, look like most other small California coast towns. There are shopping centers, McDonalds restaurants, Starbucks, a paintball range, fire stations, signs for dances and other events at the Staff Non-Commissioned Officer Club, little kids with moms in tow walking on the sidewalks to playgrounds.
But there is a sense of purpose and intensity here you don’t find in most small towns. Most of the Marines here have either done at least one tour of a Middle Eastern combat zone, or are training for their first deployment, or getting ready for their next. All of them want to take the best gear they can into the fight, to do unto the enemy and keep the enemy from doing unto them.
That’s the purpose of these expos, to bring the people who make military gear – from socks to rockets – face to face with the Marines who use the products – more than use them, whose lives depend on them. The Marines are not shy about expressing their approval or complaints, nor about offering suggestions to improve the item. And the vendors are eager to hear – many of the representatives here are retired Marines or veterans of other services. Their knowledge helps their companies, and meeting their fellow warriors keeps that knowledge fresh.
What, you may wonder, do socks bring to a military operation? Ask any ground-pounding infantryman – feet are subject to a world of woes. A seamless-toed sock that wicks moisture away from the feet, cushions sensitive areas and even fights foot odor can make a difference in how effective a grunt is, how fast he or she can move, and thus, in whether they come home ok. Don’t even get me started on boots …
And Pendleton’s Marines know about pounding ground. Now in its 66th year as a Marine Corps Base, Camp Pendleton, CA, sprawls over hundreds of thousands of acres of what would otherwise be prime, overly developed California coastline. Originally part of a gigantic ranch when Spain controlled California, Camp Pendleton became US Marine turf in the early days of WWII. After training in its sere, rugged hills and surf-whitened beaches, tens of thousands of Marines embarked for battles that are part of Corps legend – Guadalcanal, Peleliu, Tarawa, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Today it trains Marines for battles in the Middle East, and for missions around the world, including humanitarian efforts such as the aid to Bangladesh after Cyclone Sidr tore through that nation.
The two-day show will be attended by an estimated 3,000 Marines, from privates to generals. The local newspaper, the North County Times, covers Camp Pendleton closely and has an interesting article about the show. As one general said today, his peers don’t buy much – they wait to hear from their corporals, sergeants, master sergeants and gunny sergeants about what’s worthwhile and what’s not. If the Marines want it, I want one, too.