We’ve worked with FirstGroup for years, but this was our first international project for them. So just in time for school, we launched FirstStudentCanada.com. Continue Reading →
Q&A is our chance to get inside the head of some of our industry’s movers and shakers. In this installment, I interview Kyle Smitley, founder of environmentally-friendly childrens clothing company barley&birch. Her designs can be seen on the children of celebrity moms like Jessica Alba and Sheryl Crow.
PM: So in the interest of full disclosure…you’re a perfect interview for what you’re doing with b&b, but it doesn’t hurt that we’ve known each other for a long time. (Kyle and I are from the same small town in rural Ohio.) Do you want to sort of start out with the Reader’s Digest version of your background and what you’ve been up to in the time leading up to starting b&b?
KS: Well, I graduated from DePauw University with degrees in Philosophy and Environmental Geoscience and minors in Spanish and Chemistry. While there I was lucky enough to travel the world and work with a lot of great organizations helping others. After graduation, I took the LSAT while working in Washington D.C. and then got out to San Diego, where I surfed all day and dreamed up a business where I sold childrens clothing in order to fund the dozens of good causes with which I’d worked in Haiti and Central America.
Kyle Smitley, founder/owner of barley&birch image via Inc.Magazine
In November, I was named one of Inc. Magazines Top 30 Under 30, and by our first anniversary, we were selling in 30 retail stores, moving into larger office space, and revamping the website we’d quickly outgrown. We have funded 3 schools and a clinic in Haiti and El Salvador. We hope to see upwards of $1.5million in sales for 2010. We will be announcing a plethora of great partnerships and undertakings.
FirstGroup, the largest provider of surface transportation in North America, selected Manning to develop an online strategy for four of the firm’s major business units. The company wanted this strategy to help integrate corporate acquisitions through consistent branding across service types and website platforms. They also wanted an easy to use content management system and one provider for all their hosting needs.
As part of that strategy, Manning recently launched the site for the company’s First Vehicle Services division. The site was designed to target key decision makers by showcasing the company’s fleet maintenance services. In addition to the First Vehicle Services site, Manning has developed sites for First Student, the nation’s largest student transportation provider, and First Transit, which operates a number of mass transit systems throughout North America.
We invite you to take a ride on the new First Group sites.
A living (or dynamic) document is a document “which may be continually edited and updated”. Wikipedia is a fantastic example of a living document, especially when contrasted with a physical printed volume of a traditional encyclopedia. In essence, all websites are living documents because they can (should) change overtime, whether it be copy changes or the addition of fresh content. To be honest with you, as a former video producer and academic, the idea of a living document excites me. I challenge you to find a media textbook written in the last 15 years that does not include a clause like “the specifics of this book will be outdated by the time it goes to print” in the introduction. However, as a web project manager, I have come to fear the hidden repercussions of the living document.
I like that our agency has a variety of clients. Some are big, some small. They come from different industries. Each client contact has a different job description. That variety helps keep our work fresh. But it also allows us to see how smart our clients are, each in their own ways. They know their business, customers and business goals like the back of their hands. The reason they hire us is because they value what we do, and what we do falls outside of their areas of expertise. I would like to think that we do a good job of forming partnerships with our clients, to become the means to extend their brand, their presence and their business goals to exciting new markets. I hope that we help them articulate their frustrations and aspirations to find unique and successful solutions for them. I hope this is the case, because the alternative scares the hell out of me. Continue Reading →
Curtis asked me to write about the “big crunch/big bang” of digital content distribution. I think this is a wonderful topic, but not something I can address at the moment. I would like to do a fair bit of research and reflection before tackling the subject. In the meantime, here is something completely unrelated. A couple of weeks ago I swear I saw a post in the NASA twitter feed that contained a nasa.gov branded shortened URL. I have combed the hundreds of posts from that time period but can’t seem to find it; perhaps I imagined it. Maybe I am crazy… like a fox.
We’re pleased to announce that Manning was awarded two bronze Telly Awards for the a global branding program “Making A Difference” produced for our clients Stryker Corporation and their PR Agency, Gibbs & Soell. The video was a winner in both the Corporate Image and Employee Communications categories.
She Must Work Out
At Manning, we spend a lot of time trying to help our clients understand and navigate the rapidly changing media environment. Often times, this means encouraging them to take advantage of the explosion of ‘social media’. (I’m so sick of this term) The internet allows businesses and organizations to communicate in ways never before possible and to interact directly with their users, customers, etc. The benefits of this should be obvious. But convincing a business to throw out generations of conventional wisdom in favor of new models of customer service, marketing and PR can be an uphill battle.
ABANow.org
Recently, our friends at the American Bar Association asked us to redesign their Media Relations and Communication Services website. There were many practical reasons for this: adding features, improving site navigation and usability, and making content easier to add and update.
But the primary reason for the redesign was in the social media realm. The Media Relations Division was evolving from communicating with the news media, to take on added responsibilities for communicating with members, the legal community and the public. In addition to timely web content, these readers like to get a well-rounded perspective on the news. They still look for traditional fact-based information, but also enjoy the perspectives offered by blogs and seek the reaction of others within their social networks. Continue Reading →
People are constantly finding new ways to tune out the barrage of advertising thrown at them every day. First there was the mute button, then came the Do Not Call list, the pop-up blocker, and Tivo among a number of other ways to bypass sales pitch. As audiences become desensitized to old forms of advertising, advertisers are being pushed to find new ways to reach their target market.
KFC takes this to a new level with their “Re-freshed by KFC” campaign. The fast food restaurant is offering to patch potholes in five Major US cities, all they ask in return is to stamp their logo on each repair. Avoiding potholes now takes on a new meaning.