Blues on the Boulevard

Razor has had the honour to count The New Brunswick Youth Orchestra (NBYO) as a client for quite some time. In 2008 we updated their branding - providing them an all new look -- and most recently we have been involved in developing the graphics for a very exciting project that was officially launched today.



From the press release:
The East Coast Music Award-winning NBYO, legendary New Brunswick-born blues musician Matt Andersen and Acadian vocal quartet Les Muses will perform in the orchestra's final concert of the season during an event branded Blues on the Boulevard at the Moncton Wesleyan Celebration Centre on Saturday, March 28, at 8 p.m. Les Muses will open the show prior to the NBYO and Matt Andersen taking the stage together.

"This is one of our most ambitious productions yet," said Ken MacLeod, president of the NBYO. "The blend of a full orchestra and a blues musician like Matt Andersen will be an event not to be missed. It will be an evening full of surprises and great music. Something like this doesn't happen every day."

"The one-night-only reunion of Les Muses also promises to be a very special opportunity to once again delight in their wonderful harmonies," MacLeod said. "They are coming out of retirement to give our season finale that extra bit of class!"

Tickets for the concert are on sale now and are available in person at the Moncton Coliseum box office, by telephone at (506) 857-4100 or toll-free at 1-888-720-5600, or online at https://tickets.moncton.ca. Only 1,800 tickets are available and are expected to sell out fast for this unique concert. Tickets are $25 for adults and $18.50 for seniors and students (plus service charge).

For more information, visit the concert's website at bluesboulevard.ca.

Hope to see everyone there.



Shown from left to right: Monique Poirier, Les Muses; Joey Roy, NBYO; Nadine Hébert, Les Muses; Ken MacLeod, NBYO; Matt Andersen.

10 Ways to Improve Your Corporate Blog

Came across this great post on the Communications Overtones Blog about ways to improve your corporate blog. Here's a quick overview. I encourage you to read the whole post and check out the various examples.

The Insider.
Give an insider's look at your company or one of its well-known employees, some people love to feel as if you are letting them in on a little-known secret

The Culture.
Highlight your employees and their day-to-day experiences, share your culture outside of your firewall

The Customer.
Highlight your customers experiences, link to their blog posts or let them write for the blog.

The Link.
Cross link to other blogs that write about the things that matter to your organization to build goodwill and relationships with influencers

The Comment.
Comment on other people's posts, even when they have nothing to do with you

The Crisis.
Address "hot button" issues head on. If you can't talk about something say that, and explain why

The Practical Use.
Cover the innovative and practical ways that real people are using your products

The Solution.
Find out what keeps your customers up at night and help them address these problems and/or interests

The Community.
Participate in social networks where you customers gather, add value beyond your product or service.

Great advice.

The law of declining gratitude

I've written about this before, but it happen again today so I thought it was worth repeating. It's something I call the "Law of declining gratitude" or "the more doors, the less thanks".

Here's an example. Let's say you are walking in front on someone and are entering a mall or building with multiple sets of doors. And lets assume you are a polite person and hold the door open for the person behind you, and they, in return are also polite. The theory states that: The more doors you open, the smaller the "thanks" you receive.

So -- if you hold open one door -- a person might say "thank you".

If there is a second door -- a person might only say "thanks".

And if there happens to be a third door you hold open -- they likely will say nothing.

The more doors... the less thanks you get.

Try it. And let me know.

But here's the lesson I take away from this observation. We all know it's important to be polite and say thanks -- but its easy to stop saying thanks when someone repeatedly does good. Like in my door example. So whether its at work, at home or out in public, think about who you should say thanks to whom you haven't for a long time. Who are you under appreciating? It's never too late to say "thanks".

Hershey's Bliss House Party

More winners from the GroundSwell awards. This time it's for Hersey's who created a campaign to introduce a new line of little chocolates. According to the site, here was the pitch to consumers: sign up for a party, get bags of the chocolates, share the product. Those who participated got to do a party blog or upload photos or videos. Result: They energized 10,000 parties, reached 129,000 people, and say their campaign was seen by 7 million people. Overwhelmingly positive response, most people hadn't seen the product before, but after the parties, most said they really like it.

Read more about this award winning campaign by House Party here.

Young & Free Alberta - transforming the way youth view Credit Unions

I found out about Young & Free Alberta while viewing the 2008 Forrester Groundswell Awards Winners . Since we do work with a local Credit Union, this really caught my interest. Young & Free Alberta started when a credit union in Alberta created a campaign to generate more young customers. They conducted a contest to find a young spokesperson, who then used a blog, YouTube, and Facebook to connect with other young people in Alberta. Result: 2 million impressions, 2,300 new accounts, and $4 million Canadian in new deposits. Pretty impressive. The judges at the GroundSwell Awards thought so too.

Read more about Young & Free Alberta here - or visit the actual Young & Free site.

SHOPPERS DRUG MART NAMED CANADA’S MOST VALUABLE RETAIL BRAND

What's your brand worth? If you are Shoppers Drug Mart, according to Interbrand it's valued at $3.1 billion, making it Canada's top retail brand. Who else made the top five? Canadian Tire ($1.8 billion), Rona ($485 million), Sobeys ($368 million), and LuLuLemon ($352 million).

In the U.S., the top five retail brands were Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Home Depot, Target and CVS Pharmacy. According to the report, Wal-Mart’s brand value of US$129 billion is almost double the global brand value of Coke, and is larger than the rest of the top 10 U.S. retail brands combined.

Read more in this article in Marketing Magazine.

Read the Interbrand report here.

Setting goals for 2009

We are in the process of setting goals for Razor for the year so it was quite timely when I read Seth Godin's blog post for today. Here it is :

The thing about goals

Having goals is a pain in the neck.

If you don't have a goal (a corporate goal, a market share goal, a personal career goal, an athletic goal...) then you can just do your best. You can take what comes. You can reprioritize on a regular basis. If you don't have a goal, you never have to worry about missing it. If you don't have a goal you don't need nearly as many excuses, either.

Not having a goal lets you make a ruckus, or have more fun, or spend time doing what matters right now, which is, after all, the moment in which you are living.

The thing about goals is that living without them is a lot more fun, in the short run.

It seems to me, though, that the people who get things done, who lead, who grow and who make an impact... those people have goals.

Great advice.

Now my goal for today is to finish our goals for the year. Wish me luck.

Read more of Seth's blog here.

Twitter Turkey Tally Tracks Totals

.. or how Twitter and other social media helped a local charity.

When needy families do not have a turkey for Christmas in the Greater Moncton area, Sue Stultz and her Annual Turkey Drive is there to ensure everyone who needs a turkey receives one. It's was the 11th year for the drive and this Christmas 3,384 turkeys were required -- the most ever! To top that off, the drop-off point was new (down the road at the local fire department) as was the time frame to collect --- just 10 days. So a little extra communication power was required in the form of a website.

When Razor developed SueStultzTurkeyDrive.com a key thing was ensuring an easy way for Sue and her team to keep a running tally of how many turkeys were donated. So we set up a Posterous and a Twitter account. Then all that was required was for an email to be sent with the "turkey tally" number in the subject line to the Posterous account which automatically updated on Twitter. The Twiter Turkey Tally was build into the site.

No need for fancy CMS, training, or even being at a computer to update the tally. All that was needed was the ability to send an email.

Other tools that we utilized were a group on Facebook, flickr, Google Maps, and YouTube. We also provided a link that allowed those not in the area or unable to buy and deliver a turkey the ability to donate money to the cause.

The result? The biggest year ever was enjoyed. Not only was the goal met it was blown away with 4,282 turkeys collected and donations coming from all over Canada.

Great job everyone.

(While the Turkey Drive is over -- you can still visit the site and make a donation if you wish to support the cause)

Big Companies that Blog

Blogs are a great way for companies to communicate and create dialog with consumers. And it's companies of all sizes that are seeing the benefit of blogging. Even big companies that use this tool. A good example is GM and their GM Fast Lane Blog.

Given the current state of affairs, it's a way for GM to engage current and future consumers. Here's a sample post:

"Today is an exciting day for us here as we come even closer to the production of the 2010 Chevy Camaro. I want to make sure FastLane readers are among the first to know that starting today, Chevy dealers are taking orders for the new Camaro set to be in showrooms next year. Today we announced that pricing for the Camaro will start at $22,995. I’m really excited for the return of this 21st Century sports car. You can find more specific details in the press release."

Through comments after each post reader can give their view on what they have read -- and the author of the post can comment back - instant feedback on what is going on!

The blog is not written by the marketing or sales department - it's by real executives like Tom Wallace, GM Global Vehicle Chief Engineer for Performance Vehicles and Ed Peper, North American Vice President, Chevrolet (just two examples)

GM have other blogs too, which can be found here.

GM and others obviously see the benefit of creating a dialog with the consumer and hearing the good (and often bad) about their product.

5 things I have learned about communications

This is the 5th year year of Razor Creative and Rich and I thought it would be fun to put together a book called "Five". Lists of 5 things we have learned in the first years of operation. We're still working on the book, but in the mean time I thought I would share some of the lists in progress. Feedback and suggestions are welcome

5 things I have learned about communications

1. To be heard you don’t need to yell, just say something interesting.
2. Simple is always better.
3. Your target audience is not always as smart as you think
4. Your target audience is not always as dumb as you think
5. When in doubt – go with your gut.