It's been a while since I've made an "audio post" to a blog (I'm more "video" these days). However, some recent blog posts and Twitter comments by Patrick Ruffini inspired me to dust-off the Skype account and Audio Hijack software and give him a call. In 2004 Ruffini had the very Web 1.0 title "webmaster" for the Bush-Cheney re-election campaign. Despite the title, he ushered in some very Web 2.0 features and approaches to the site -- and the campaign. Over 30,000 off-line "meetup-like" volunteer gatherings were organized on the site and over 5,000 websites and weblogs hosted the badges and widgets (remember, this was in 2004) that Ruffini's team developed using RSS and XML. After the election, he ran the Inauguration website and later had a two-year stint as eCampaign Director for the GOP.

After the jump, read more and listen to the interview.

“Only” can be an adjective or an adverb. As such, it should be placed immediately in front of the word it restricts. Otherwise, the sentence changes meaning.

Let's take, for example, the title line from Gene Pitney's 1962 hit, "Only Love Can Break a Heart."

As it is written, the sentence says that nothing else except love can cause heartbreak. Fair enough, although maybe not exactly true.

Hammock partner Jim Elliott of the national advertising sales firm the James G. Elliott Company shares some tips on how to train your magazine sales force to sell digital platforms in the latest issue of their company newsletter Ads&Ideas:

Training is, of course, necessary here to sell a brand which resides in different media platforms. But that training has to be in just the fundamentals or basics of each medium—not in the technical or mechanical aspects.

For instance, a seller should understand the fundamentals of podcasting; how it is delivered, its advantages and drawbacks and what kind of advertising works with the medium, but the seller doesn’t have to be an expert in the technology. Hopefully, the brand has a podcast traffic manager to handle the technical questions.

One of our Hammock partners is the national advertising sales firm the James G. Elliott Company. In the latest issue of their company newsletter Ads&Ideas, President Jim Elliott shares his perspective on recent news coming out of the advertising industry:

Oh, what a difference a few months can make! The first quarter of 2008 has been one of the roughest in magazine ad sales history. A quick glance at the revenue numbers for monthly magazines is sobering. The decline has been caused in part by many agencies holding back on placing 2008 schedules due to their clients not releasing budgets. But it has also been due to advertising money being diffused into various new delivery platforms.

Of course, the magazine industry has been trying to hold on to some of these dollars by creating their own multiple delivery platforms for their content. However, there is no dominant selling strategy in the way they actually sell advertising around these new platforms.

What do we do? Over the years at Hammock Inc., the way we've answered that question has changed. Back in 1994, we often described ourselves as relationship marketing experts. "Custom publishing" became a popular buzzword in the mid- and late-1990s. And sometimes, we've resorted to the shorthand: "We publish magazines and build websites for corporations and associations." Simple, but for those in the know, it didn't say nearly enough.

Today, we are a custom media company in the business of creating and managing magazines, videos and online media to help organizations build stronger relationships with customers, members and employees.

Just a sample:

Customers are aware of the various [digital media] features and functionality that are out there, but are still relatively unsure how they can specifically apply them to campaigns, which puts the publisher in the fortunate position of educator. “We’re seeing a lot of questions about what they can use and what makes sense to use,” says John Lavey, president of custom publishing firm Hammock Inc. “At the same time, the pressures of the postal increases, increases in the cost of paper, and the difficulty of selling advertising without a robust package of assets to advertisers, are favoring bigger ideas and packages.”

Read the article on Folio:'s website.

Last week I caught up with our own Summer Huggins to ask her a few questions about how she uses Flickr in anticipation of the release of a podcast she’d be featured on about the subject.

But as I prepared my interview questions, I didn’t know what to ask. What's not to understand about Flickr? You post your pictures, send the link to mom and dad, and cross your fingers that their e-mail client allows them to click on the link.

Part of my personal, old-fashioned
National Geographic archive.

Copyright law is one of those issues that really makes me wish for a benevolent dictator, despite my love otherwise for our imperfect democracy. In my opinion, far too much copyright law is decided in the courtroom, admittedly for lack of any reasonable alternative.

(Fair warning: I'll still be talking about copyright law after the jump....)

"IM?!" she exclaimed. "I'm at work; my boss would kill me if I logged into my instant messenger here!"

How 1998.

Are we at Hammock in the minority because we use IM in our daily tasks? Are other companies missing out on a great communications tool if they're not? I think so, on both accounts.

Using IM in the workplace has several advantages, one of which is knowing that my colleagues are only a click away. It's fast, simple, real-time and free. Instead of getting distracted for 10 minutes in the breakroom talking about headlines, we can brainstorm together for 30 seconds over IM and achieve the same results.

We're proud of Rex for his foresight in helping to found the Custom Publishing Council (CPC) back in 1998. The CPC has always been a special partner with Hammock in promoting and creating excellence in custom media, so we were thrilled to attend CPC's first conference, the Custom Content Conference, held in New Orleans earlier this week.

Here are some of my favorite quotes and highlights from the sessions I attended:

Joe Duffy, Duffy & Partners: "Yesterday's consumer is becoming today's programmer."
Remember when Time named its 2007 Person of the Year “The Consumer”? As Joe’s session illustrated, now consumers are in control—from the color of our Nikes to the playlist on our iPod to the design for our Mini. In this atmosphere, it's vital for brands to deliver authentic experiences. One exciting way to make that happen is through custom content.

Robert Passikoff and Amy Shea, Brand Keys: "The percentage of contribution that 'customization' makes to products and services through engagement, adoption and loyalty is 18%. It was 4% in 1997."
People are bombarded with advertising messages all day, every day. To cut through the clutter, you have to speak directly to your audience with messages targeted specifically to their wants and needs and desires. With customization’s growing reach, how can you afford not to?

Joseph Plummer, Advertising Research Foundation: "Engaging storytelling campaigns prove superior in creating relevant, lasting connections with consumers that enrich brand meaning and ultimately impact brand behavior."
At Hammock, we say "Your Story Starts Here." It's not only a catchy slogan, but it represents how we feel about the work we do for our clients. To us, a client's story is the essence of their brand, so our primary goal is to communicate that story in the most engaging way possible to their members and customers.

Rex, Summer, Patrick R. and I will be in Austin for the next four days, soaking up all the latest tech/Internet/social media/geek news. Stay tuned and keep up with the developments as we share them on our SXSW blog. We'll be posting via Twitter, Flickr and del.icio.us as well.

Here's to sunny Texas!

At Hammock, we have a long tradition of adopting early any technology that improves our ability to create media and efficiently manage the production flow of highly complex publishing projects. We're constantly pushing the edge on new ways to collaborate and design everything from magazines to the newest forms of digital media.

But there's one tradition we have here that is extremely non-technical -- and very old school. It's a tradition we'll never give up -- even though we already replicate the process digitally and online.

It's the wall. That's what we call it. And that's what it is: A big wall with strips of corkboard tracking lining it from floor to ceiling. We know it should have a more clever name, but it named itself before any of us could come up with one.

The wall is where designers post proof-spreads of page layouts during the magazine production process. As people walk by the wall, the spreads just beg for comments and so there's always a handy red marker nearby. The pages grow and soon, the wall is full -- sometimes with two or more magazines being produced simultaneously.

At some point near the end of the process, a "Wall Meeting" takes place and the editorial and design team gather in front of the wall for a wide-ranging conversation about the flow and pace of soon-to-be-published magazine. Is something not working? Should something be moved? Is there a gap here? What can we do to make this stronger?

Conversations. Debates. An occasional argument. They're all a part of the wall tradition. It's is a part of who we are and how we work.

We'll never tear down this wall.