What's happening
Roger Sametz presents at the annual Chorus America conference
Roger returned recently from working with representative from over fifty choruses at Chorus America's annual conference to give them the thinking and tools to help make their brand (and limited resources) work harder.Sametz Blackstone partners with Harvard Medical School on a new website and newsletter to support donor recognition and stewardship
To support resource development at Harvard Medical School, we've launched two new websites and a newsletter devised to acknowledge and steward major donors. Stay tuned to 'Round the Square for an upcoming video walk-through of the newsletter piece with Joerg, our Director of Design.Sametz Blackstone rolls out a new website for the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT
We've recently rolled out a new website and online newsletter for the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT -- an organization we helped launch almost ten years ago.Roger Sametz presents at the annual League of American Orchestras conference
Roger is just back from the annual League of American Orchestras conference. He partnered with our clients from the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra to present a session that talked to both how to build a new brand (Atlanta) and, equally importantly, how to manage and evolve a brand (Boston). We'll be featuring video from Roger's presentation at our 'Round the Square blog soon... stay tuned!Sametz Blackstone proud to announce successful collaboration with PAREXEL International
We assisted PAREXEL International, a leading global biopharmaceutical services organization, in developing a new brand strategy and in creating a strong identity that unifies previously independent business unit brands, and positions the company to promote its strengths in the market. The project ranged from global customer research, to creative development and website design, to employee brand training.Sametz Blackstone Associates team out and about at events in Boston and beyond -- will we see you there?
Kerri Augenstein and Michael Eads design and print "Managing Emotional Capital", a book of essays written by our client Michael Ervolini, CEO of Cabot Research, LLC
The selection of essays came out of Michael's larger web series written about Behavioral Finance. Each essay presents a piece of interesting behavior research and boils it down to suggestions and insights for greater self awareness. Philosophical quotes begin each essay and concluding paragraphs teetering on life's greater lessons finish each essay. To learn more about Michael and his work with Cabot, click here.
Brand Control to Major Tom: Roger outlines the new rules of brand management on MarketingProfs.com
The notion that you can manage your brand by making and distributing messages and materials that you want "out there" is becoming quaint.
Rather, now, monologues need to be replaced by dialogues; formal market research needs to be paired with attentive listening; "advice" is offered round the clock; participation in social media is now table stakes; and customers and prospects who have always trusted friends to help them make decisions often have a huge network they can carry around with them to consult.
Read the full articleGet out your lab notebook! Director of Digital and Strategic Initiatives, Tamsen McMahon, explains why on imedia Connection
A Scientific Method to Tame Social Madness
Social media has been maddeningly short on evidence. While there are plenty of social media true believers, there aren't yet a lot of truths. And, because social media is contextual—the right tools and the right use of them depend very much on the user, intended audience, and desired outcomes—it can be difficult to figure out which social media tactics best align with an organization's marketing strategies and measurably advance its operational objectives.
So, how can you figure out which tools are right for your needs? How can you separate truth from belief? By using a scientific approach to social media—read the six steps, that show you how.
Brandon Walsh (Manager, Strategy)'s article on 'Brand Judo' featured on Entrepreneur.com
One of the all-time greatest examples of a brand turning lemons into lemonade may also be one of the first. Advertising aficionados will remember the 1960s Volkswagen Beetle campaign. As competing automakers built ever bigger cars for growing, post-World War II families, Volkswagen's Beetle was seen as too small, too ugly and too German. The now-legendary campaign played up the small and ugly perceptions with headlines touting its status as a "lemon" and clever copy that then drove home the benefits of driving a small, German (rebranded as "well-made") automobile.
Read full article
Is the paperless campaign real? Find out, in our session at AFPMA, 17 Nov
17 November @ 1:30pm. Join us and our copresenter, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, at the Sheraton Boston for our session, The Paperless Campaign. The convergence of booming social media, shrinking budgets, and complex fundraising campaigns that may never go “public” requires development groups to think differently about how they communicate with prospects. The paperless campaign offers fundraisers the change to get in—or ahead of—the popular communications mainstream, and to target and scale communications without over-commiting resources…but it also means embracing constant change and planned obsolescence.
Visit the conference website and join us!
Sametz Blackstone presenting at the New England Museum Assocation Annual Conference, 11 Nov
Join us in Nashua, NH for our session, Vision=Value: Linking Mission to Marketing. Museums' success depends in large part on the strength of their missions. But what if members and visitors at your institution don't understand what you do--or don't (yet) care? We, along with our client, Fuller Craft Museum, will give you a checklist for how to put your mission into motion at your institution.
Register now and join us in Nashua
Join us at the National Arts Marketing Project, October 31st!
Join us in Providence, RI for our session: Command the Cultural Marketplace: Building a Brand for Customer Fascination. We're teaming up with our clients Kim Noltemy, Director of Sales, Marketing and Communications for the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and David Dalena, Vice President for Marketing, Development and Communications, to deliver this integrated session on how to deliver a brand that commands the market—turning theory into practice.
Sametz Blackstone article, Social Media Reality-Check, featured on MarketingProfs.com homepage
Brandon Walsh, Manager, Strategy, outlines the challenges behind social media, and presents a brand-focused approach on how to address those challenges.
Join us for our "Pixels with Purpose" webinar presented through the Arts and Business Council!
In this one-hour long webinar, the first offered by the Arts & Business Council, we will talk about what the rise of social media means for your institutional branding efforts. Using five basic rules of branding, you'll learn a systematic approach for implementing a social media strategy that focuses—not fragments—your organization's brand.
Register now!
Atlanta Symphony partners with us on a branding project for its new summer home
Sametz Blackstone is collaborating with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra on a branding project focused on raising awareness and deepening connections around the Symphony's new summer home in the Atlanta suburb of Alpharetta. We're busy doing research, crafting brand strategies, and developing messages to support campaigns next summer aimed at increasing attendance and preparing the ground for fundraising. Ahh...summer in the suburbs.Sametz Blackstone launches animated campaign for Direxion
Teaming up with Direxion once again, we've developed a set of fun animations and flash components to support their ongoing education strategy. Visit direxionfunds.com and direxionshares.com to view the redesigned home pages and the addition of company spokes-character Jexx. He's busy cooking turkey's in toasters, giving lessons on daily monitoring, and promoting the benefits of Direxion's new line of Alternative Strategy Funds. Look for Jexx in a series of print and web campaigns later this summer and fall as well. Who needs a gecko when you have Jexx?Sametz Blackstone Associates develops new "Social Media Startup Lab" to help organizations make sense of social media
The rise of social media has changed the landscape of organizational branding and communications. To help determine the best use of social media at your organization, we've developed a two-part workshop—which we're in the midst of testing with the help of the Harvard School of Public Health—designed to equip your team with a systematic approach to implementing social media in a way that focuses, not fragments, your brand.Sametz Blackstone Associates launches a new blog!
'Round Blackstone Square, we've always been a talky bunch, with diverse perspectives on branding, marketing, digital media, design, social media, print production, project management, management management, dogs, cats, and life. Please join the conversation.
Redesigned, audience-focused National Fire Protection Association website goes live
Sametz Blackstone Associates collaborated with NFPA to redesign its website in order to improve usability and further build the brand. Through research, new information architecture, usability testing, and design, the new site better connects different users to what they care about, while also increasing institutional comprehension—both vital tactics in deepening existing relationships while building important new ones. As is the case with many Sametz Blackstone clients, the relationship with NFPA is long-standing: this is the second site redesign Sametz has conducted with NFPA.
http://www.nfpa.org/index.aspTwo League of American Orchestras microsites go live
Sametz Blackstone Associates collaborated with the League to develop micro-sites for its electronic news services and its annual Conference. The electronic news site, positioned as "The Hub: news and insight for League members," was developed to house the League's many news and information items in a single online place and eliminate the need for several outbound e-newsletters. The Conference, a core service of the League, required a site that can handle all the duties of conference registration and information while also being easily refresh-able year to year. Both sites provide added benefits to key League constituents and help broaden the League brand, all the while making the most of internal resources.http://www.americanorchestras.org/the_hub/
http://www.americanorchestras.org/conference_2009/conference_2009.html
Direxion's Andy O'Rourke named Fund Action's "Fund Marketer of the Year"
Sametz Blackstone Associates' partnership with Direxion yields another award. The communications program for Direxion Shares (Direxion's line of leveraged ETFs) is centered around the tag-line "ETFs to the Power of X," and includes brand identity, messaging, marketing collateral, a Web site, print and online advertising, and much more. The program is geared towards educating investors on the proper usage of leveraged ETFs while continuing to differentiate Direxion from the pack.
Tufts University Alumni Association partners with us to present at CASE Boston, 11 March 2009
This session explores how alumni needs and engagement change, and how communication can help institutions to cultivate alumni relationships over lifetimes. The session looks at the vectors of time and space in relationship to alumni connectedness.
New Dana Hall brand communication strategy taking root in the community
The communications strategy and communication tools launched 18 months ago, including a completely redeveloped Web site, engages staff and other community members in building the Dana Hall brand. Of the redesigned Web site, Liza Cohen, Director of Communications for Dana Hall School, says, "It helps us meet our overall goal of telling more student stories, which really resonate with our target audiences. And it's as unique as we are—it’s not a cookie-cutter site."
WPI campaign communications breaking new ground in trustee and alumni engagement
The name and theme for the WPI comprehensive campaign, currently in its leadership (quiet) phase, will be launched in May, but early testing with faculty, staff, and trustees indicates it's a new approach to connecting campaign communications with the community's deeply held values—and that it will help their case rise above the din.
Sametz Blackstone receives reader praise for work on the newly designed Colgate alumni magazine
Colgate University partnered with Sametz Blackstone to redesign the Scene, Colgate's alumni magazine. Scene readers, including Colgate alumni, students, parents, and friends have responded with tremendous enthusiasm for the magazine's revolutionary editorial approach and visual design.
A collaborative effort wins the League of American Orchestras and Sametz Blackstone an award
Sametz Blackstone Associates partnered with the League of American Orchestras to collaboratively develop and ultimately design, the League's 2007 annual report. The report was the winner of a bronze award from the League of American Communication Professional (LACP).
Direxion Funds wins MFEA award for Web site
Sametz Blackstone partnered with Direxion Funds to develop, design and build a Web site based on the brand communications system Sametz initially developed for the company in 2005. The Web site was awarded first place in the Mutual Fund Education Alliance's 2008 Star Awards for best advisor Web site in the small funds category.
The Mount Sinai Medical Center in NY collaborates with Sametz Blackstone on materials to support major capital campaign
Twelve multi-disciplinary research institutes to be funded by $1billion comprehensive campaign.
Brigham and Women’s Hospital is working with us on comprehensive capital campaign
Sametz Blackstone is developing messages and materials to advance research, patient care, and training at Harvard teaching hospital.
WPI elects to work with Sametz Blackstone on brand-building capital campaign
Campaign to support capital, endowment, and programming strategies will raise Worcester Polytechnic Institute's profile and highlight its distinctive approach to education.
New marketing materials for BSO and Celebrity Series hit the streets
Marketing initiatives to bolster subscription and single-ticket sales—and build brands of organizations.
Harvard Medical School partners with us to present development communications strategies at CASE in Chicago
Presentation focuses on innovative donor-centric and mission-focused framework to advance dialogues with prospects.
Harvard Museum of Natural History and Fuller Craft Museum win NEMA awards
Sametz Blackstone has collaborated with both to plan and implement new brand system and print and digital communications to increase attendance, membership, and individual giving. The award was given by the New England Museum Association.
Brandon Walsh and Roger Sametz present at National Performing Arts Convention
Presentations and workshop to help delegates better understand branding and how it can support sales and marketing, corporate sponsorship, and development.