navigate communications

Originally published at http://www.istudio.ca/blogs/archive/2006/07/06/137.aspx

My work at iStudio with ALTANA Pharma was profiled in The Globe & Mail today. Here’s an excerpt from the article written by Alex Dobrota.

Ron Clark, vice-president of sales at Oakville, Ont.-based Altana Pharma Inc., starts his monthly address to his team of 120 sales representatives with a prerecorded Tragically Hip tune. Then, he records himself talking to guests — including the company’s chief executive officer — about such serious topics as the company financials and new sales programs. He posts the MP3 file dubbed “Ron’s podcast” on the company’s intranet site. His employees, spread out from Prince Edward Island to British Columbia, can download the file and listen to it on their way to work, in the car, on their iPods or on their computers. “Most people tune out of e-mails and voice-mails after a while,” Mr. Clark said. Podcasting, he added, “is just a different way, a fresh way, of communicating a message.”

Paul Colligan’s podcasting blog references research from Tom Webster of Edison Media Research indicating that as of January 2006, 11% of Internet users had listened to a podcast, although they were unclear on exactly what a podcast was. The podcast audience appears to be relatively well-educated and financially secure. According to the research, they spend an average of 2 hours, 7 minutes on the Internet. I’m not sure if this is a daily or weekly statistic. It’s probably a daily stat.

Man, it’s really hard finding current and reliable podcast statistics online. Thanks to Paul for posting these online.

For the past two days, I attended the mesh conference in Toronto. Billed as “Canada’s Web 2.0 conference”, it was an opportunity for people across multiple industries and disciplines to come together and explore how new innovations in technology, marketing and communications are redefining how organizations and people connect.

The event was a real-life mashup. I was really impressed with the variety of speakers and the consistency of insights regardless of people’s expertise. Not everyone agreed though. There were some great dialogues and debates. At the end of the day though, if I had to pick three topics that emerged as the general principles (from my perspective), here’s how they’d look.

• Organizations need to find comfort in relinquishing control over their marketing. Instead, they need to focus on ensuring that the quality of their products, services and overall brand experience are relevant to what customers want from their relationship with an organization. This was reinforced by Jonathan Ehrlich of Chapters Online.
• These are early days. Conference participants are ahead of the curve and need to focus at this point on defining strong models and measures for success. The mainstream will follow, but only once the value is defined. Early adapters see the value and need to package value.
• Those engaging in social media and new communications need to embrace authenticity. This hit home on several occasions by the likes of Steve Rubel who in my opinion correctly dismissed character blogs and Tara Hunt who introduced some great principles for the new communication climate.

I also left the event wondering why people were really there. There were many traditional PR folks I’ve had the pleasure of meeting and working with over the years out in full force. Was it because people realize the need for change or simply because the event was coordinated by some of Canada’s most prominent journalists and new media/marketing minds? Regardless, it was a great turn out and an excellent event. Congratulations to Mark Evans, Stuart MacDonald, Matthew Ingram, Rob Hyndman and Mike McDerment.

Originally published at http://www.istudio.ca/blogs/archive/2006/04/14/awards.aspx

Earlier this week, the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) announced winners of its 2006 Gold Quill Awards and iStudio is the proud recipient of two awards of excellence for our work in social media. Our work with ALTANA Pharma Inc. for planning and producing their sales podcast program was the only podcast winner in the audiovisual category and our 2005 Holiday Guide won in electronic and digital communications.

While these awards make us proud, they also represent a major shift in our industry and our business. A while ago, I blogged about an article in Marketing Magazine the referred to iStudio as a PR agency. While we may not be a PR agency in the traditional sense, these awards are a wake-up call to the PR industry. Podcasts, blogs and other social media should no longer be the domain of the interactive or digital communications space. They are pure communication tools that anyone can create. I alluded to this in my recent For Immediate Release interview with Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson.

There is no real magic to social media, but there is great value. The technology trends we see in the communication industry today bring the essence of our social nature as humans to the forefront. Social media allows us to strip away superficial judgment and get to the core of our professional and personal interests. I think this is part of the reason our Holiday Guide was so well-received. If you read through the entries and listen to the podcast, you get a great sense of the personalities that make up our team. We’re not just a business. We are people with unique interests and experiences. Together we help clients navigate new communications.

These are exciting times for the industry. We wish more organizations were like ALTANA. They were recognized with an award of excellence because they took a risk that paid off (learn more about this program through Mastering the art of the podcast for internal communications). Social media has the ability to connect people and communicate messages in new ways, whether it’s written, spoken or visual.