minuteWhile Rex Hammock was in Oxford, Mississipi earlier this week (see previous post), Mr. Magazine Samir Husni interviewed Rex and posted a couple of “Mr. Magazine Minutes”–Rex’s answers to a couple of questions.

On his blog, Professor Husni wrote:

“You can call Rex Hammock, the founder and chief executive officer of the Nashville-based Hammock Inc., any name you want, except that of a Luddite. Rex bought his first Apple Mac in 1984, and has been tempted by the Apple ever since. On Twitter he is simply known as @R. He is all over the web, the digital sphere and more.

So when Rex came to speak to my magazine students at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media yesterday, I seized the opportunity to ask him two questions, after he completed his presentation to the students.

Here are Rex’s two Mr. Magazine minute videos. (If you are on the front of the Hammock Blog, click through to see the videos)

Samir-Rex

Mr. Magazine, Samir Husni (R) with Mr. Cross-platform-integrated-customer-media-and-content

When he was young, Samir Husni discovered that he loved magazines so much, he started collecting the first issue of every new magazine he could find. Today, that passion has grown into a one-of-a-kind collection of magazine first issues that takes up space the size of a warehouse.

His passion for magazine launches, and magazines in general, inspired him to pursue a PhD in magazine-ology (although, technically, it was called journalism from the University of Missouri-Columbia) and, ultimately, to become recognized as the leading expert on magazine launches. Today, he is noted for his annual Guide to Magazine Launches in the U.S. (there were 678 in 2012) and is director of the Magazine Innovation Institute at the Meek School of Journalism and New Media at the University of Mississippi, where he is professor and Hederman Lecturer.

Samir is also very funny, so we’re not surprised that somehow he and Hammock founder Rex Hammock discovered each other and have become friends over the years.

While Rex is known for embracing (or at least, experimenting with) any media platform he believes can help companies and other organizations build tight relationships with customers (or members, etc.), it’s no secret that Rex is a DNA-level magazine guy.

You know how some people can talk about sports and remember who pitched in the third game of some long-ago World Series? If you’re ever around Samir and Rex when they get together, they start having one of those kind of wonky conversations about magazines.

Once every couple of years, Samir invites Rex to come to Oxford to speak with students who are in his magazine development and magazine business courses. Earlier this week, Rex made one of those treks and we have the photos to prove it.

Call Us, Maybe
Posted in About Hammock, by Hammock Inc.
March 22, 2013

[UPDATE: 1:00 PM, CDT – “Mr. Watson, Come Here” – We are all back up and running. Thank you to all of the various companies in Florida and California and Tennessee that must coordinate their schedules weeks in advance in order to move a phone system down the street in Nashville.]

[UPDATE : 11:50, CDT –  The calling-out feature of our phone system is now working. We’re still awaiting the “inbound” phone feature that allows you to call us. According to the telephone professionals working on this project, that will happen in exactly, “soon.”]

On Friday morning, March 22, the phone system at Hammock will be offline temporarily.

We’ve been told the interruption will be from 8-10 a.m. Maybe. 

Our Contact page has several email addresses you can use if you need someone to call you. (We can call you, you can’t call us.) If you need someone immediately, call: (646) 580-7394.

We are sorry for the inconvenience because we really, really want to talk with you.

man holding target in front of hime

ThinkStock

[Post by Rex Hammock]

Even if you’ve never heard the term “behavioral retargeting,” you’ve experienced it. Online, it’s used by advertisers in a strategy called “advertising retargeting.” Here’s an example (based on a true story) you’ll recognize: You visit a few websites seeking information about a certain model of car. The next thing you know, you see banner ads for that car appear on practically every website you visit. That’s “behavioral retargeting.”

However, advertisers and online media companies are savvy branding professionals, so they’d never use a term like retargeting since that might suggest advertising is all about shooting things at potential customers over and over. They* call retargeting interest-based advertising.

In general, I’m not opposed to the use of behavioral retargeting, I mean interest-based advertising — especially since the organizations* that support interest-based advertising also provide you easy ways to opt out of it. At times, I’m even a big fan. For example, I don’t mind advertisers knowing I have a passion for bicycling — I like that I get all sorts of bike-related advertising on websites that have nothing to do with the topic. As I often say, advertising that I request and want is not advertising, it’s information.

Why Not Interest-Based Help?

Hammock partners with HealthTrust, one of the country’s leading health-care group purchasing organizations, to publish The Source, a quarterly magazine for supply chain managers, health-care executives, pharmacists and clinicians from a variety of disciplines. Q1’s cover story featured Matt Mayer of Franciscan Alliance, who, with HealthTrust’s help, was able to save $28 million in supply chain costs in 2012.

Finding members such significant savings, especially in today’s squeezed health-care environment, is one of HealthTrust’s biggest priorities. The magazine’s aim is to showcase practical strategies and best practices for duplicating those kinds of success stories in hospitals and care facilities nationwide.

HealthTrust members receive the print edition, but anyone can view archives since 2008 on The Source‘s website. Take a look at the entire Q1 issue here.

The March-April issue of Semper Fi, the Magazine of the Marine Corps League, examines some of the most pressing institutional and cultural challenges facing the United States Marine Corps. These challenges are of keen interest to our client, the Marine Corps League.

As if downsizing and belt-tightening as a result of planned budget cuts and sequestration-enforced cutbacks were not enough, the Corps is also grappling with suicide, post-traumatic stress, traumatic brain injuries, hazing, sexual assaults, how to integrate women into previously off-limits combat roles and increasing its diversity.

But Marines thrive on challenge — “Improvise, Adapt and Overcome” being almost as much of a mantra as “Semper Fidelis” — and they are exploring a wide array of approaches to find their way forward.

Speaking of budget cuts, February’s Marine West Expo sponsored by the League made it clear to defense suppliers that, like the Corps itself, they would have to watch costs while innovating ever lighter and more versatile equipment. Despite the budget issues, the Marines remain “America’s 911 force.”

The new issue also reports on Grand Rapids, Mich., the host city for the League’s 90th National Convention in August. The city boasts a variety of outdoor recreation as well as a vibrant arts scene; in fact, Men’s Journal recently declared that “Few cities anywhere do more to support creativity than Michigan’s second-largest metropolis.”

[For nearly a decade, Hammock has been honored to assist our friends at the Marine Corps League in publishing their award-winning magazine. For samples of covers and editorial features in issues since 2007, visit the Hammock Portfolio on Flickr.]

the invisible man, minimalism, the best marketing is no marketing [Post by Rex Hammock]

I recently ran across an insightful essay named, “The best interface is no interface,” written last August on the blog of the San Francisco-based product design firm, Cooper.

I recommend reading the entire essay, but here is a key quote:

It’s time for us to move beyond screen-based thinking. Because when we think in screens, we design based upon a model that is inherently unnatural, inhumane, and has diminishing returns. It requires a great deal of talent, money and time to make these systems somewhat usable, and after all that effort, the software can sadly, only truly improve with a major overhaul. There is a better path: No UI (user-interface). A design methodology that aims to produce a radically simple technological future without digital interfaces.

At Hammock, we share a similar a point-of-view. We believe that one of the signs of great customer media and content is how well it removes barriers between customers and the organizations with which they choose to have relationships. Taken to its logical conclusion, the goal is to remove everything between the two, or, at least, to make it appear that transparent.

working together to create great content marketing, hammock.com

credit: ThinkStock

(This essay was sent today as part of the Hammock Idea Email series called “Beyond Selling.” You can receive each essay via email if you subscribe here.)

The term content marketing is becoming as widely used as the term social media–and that shift comes as welcome news at Hammock. Helping clients create and manage initiatives under the content marketing umbrella is what we’ve been focused on exclusively for more than two decades.

However, during that time, we’ve discovered that content that solves business challenges can often fall outside the traditional boundaries of what many companies consider marketing

Great content strategies encompass every facet of an organization: They are visible everywhere customers turn to research products they’re considering buying, and they’re apparent everywhere customers look to learn how to get the most out of a product they’ve purchased.