Work Industries Testimonial #3: Omnicom Media

The Work Industries testimonials keep rolling in. First Alexandre Brabant of e-Marketing 101 let loose with some kind words. Then Jill Smith of Intrawest made me smile and tell people about her wonderful style.

The latest comes from Paul Jeszenszky, the Director, Search Strategies at Omnicom Group Digital (OMD).

I worked with Paul every day for about a year at Teligence Communications. We built e-marketing campaigns, websites, content and product positioning for their brands and kick started their lackluster web marketing efforts. Working with Paul was always a treat; he was very smart, capable and direct. He worked hard on the things that mattered for success. But now, this isn’t a testimonial about Paul, Dr. J.

On to the kindness! Paul says:

James has a broad understanding of online marketing and always manages to keep up with the quickly shifting marketplace trends. His insights, in my opinion, are especially strong in his understanding of the social aspects of the web and optimizing its usability for actual people.

In all instances where we have worked together, he has shown a determination for conceiving creative solutions and directing their implementation to completion.

He also knows the best fish & chips place in Vancouver.

Paul Jeszenszky
Director, Search Strategies
Omnicom Group Digital (OMD)

Contact me and we’ll talk - about the web or about fish and chips.

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Services • Web Marketing • Work • Testimonials
0 Comments | Permalink

Canadian e-Commerce Grew 80 percent in 2005

Via Traffick, Statscan has announced that year-over-year Internet sales have grown by 80 percent from 2004 to 2005.

Retailers reported online sales of $5.4 billion in 2005, up 80% from $3 billion in 2004, according to the report. Retail sales accounted for 14% of total online sales of $39.2 billion in Canada last year. That compares with 10.6% of total online sales of $28.3 billion in 2004.

The percentage of retailers with web sites rose to 42% in 2005, up 10.5% from 38% in 2004. Overall, 38% of private retailers reported having a web site last year, up from 37% in 2004, according to Statistics Canada.

Here at Work Industries, we’re tickled to hear StatsCan validate what we’ve known for years: the web works as a direct sales channel for Canadian retailers. Canadians have some of the highest adoption of the Internet anywhere in the world and they’re starting to use it in increasing numbers and increasing volume to do their shopping.

What the retail numbers don’t account for is the huge volume of purchases made where the web plays a key roles in influencing and facilitating the sale.

A friend of mine is searching for a used car right now. I’ve shown her how to use the web to notify her of cars for sale that meet her criteria, the right model, model year, geographic location, even colour. Now matches are delivered to her and she can see the tons of cars available out there for sale that meet her criteria, along with the asking price. She can check the service record of that make, model and year. What do people say about their experience owning it? Now she knows her marketplace much better. She’s more confident. She’s increased her chances of getting the right car for the right price.

I bought a pair of eco friendly shoes this week. I had been meaning to buy a new pair of shoes but hadn’t seen the right pair. I wanted to make a good, natural-world friendly purchase and would have never known about the shoes I ended up buying (on sale to boot!) without the web.

So what can your business do to capitalize on shoppers using the web in their purchase process? Here’s some starting thoughts:

• Do you have a website? Is it well-constructed, easy to use and easy to find? Does it appeal to your clients?
• Does your website have a purpose that’s clearly articulated, with specific goals and performance indicators?
• Do you track your website performance on a regular basis? Do you use the information from your performance indicators to make decisions on the tactics you use?
• Do you know your market beyond the boundaries of your own website?
• Are you engaged in the online conversation that’s going on out there on the web?
• Do you know what your clients know and don’t know about you, your products and your company?

If you answered ‘no’ to any of the questions above, we should talk. Contact us. Leave a comment and we’ll contact you. Learning is the first step to doing. If an 80 percent increase in sales is any indicator, this Internet thing isn’t going away any time soon.

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Services • News
Permalink

The Economist Discovers Peer-Produced Media

A friend and I have an ongoing discussion about technology and change. It goes like this: change opportunities in the organization she works for only really exist once The Economist writes about them. Before that, as far as her boss is concerned, nothing noteworthy has happened. From my experience, this kind of follow-the-established-follower mentality pervades many organizations. So I want to let you know that you (yes, all of you out there with tremendous frustration at not being able to sell your innovative ideas internally without some random external article) are not alone.

The best stories I get from my friend (because they provoke the most outrage in her) are when she tells me about her boss bringing copies of The Economist to her desk to show her articles. Topics like podcasting, blogs and wikipedia have recently appeared in The Economist, and dutifully, they have then appeared in her boss’ outstretched hand at the corner of her desk.

‘Look at this,’ he’ll say (as my paraphrase of her paraphrase). ‘Isn’t this interesting. Do you know about this? We should think about doing this.’ Then he’ll dawdle off to take a conference call, completely missing the fact, my friend assures me, that she had sent him an article on the exact same subject 6 to 10 months prior. A week later the boss will knock at her desk again to inquire how the new, new thing he’d pointed out was coming along.

At this point in her story my friend will make choking noise, squeals of derision and, if in dire straights, will violently shake her hands. I love it. This is the source of Dilbert resonance. I ask her to tell me more. I snort in agreement. I provoke her by calling to her attention the indifference with which her boss received the aforementioned article, 6 to 10 months prior. She indulges me and raises her rancour another level. It eats away at her like an unfilled cavity in a sensitive molar.

This story comes to mind because today I was pointed to an article in The Economist about new media entitled Among the Audience. The article introduces a broad survey that ropes in some of the bright lights of the current web vogueness. Its topic?

The era of mass media is giving way to one of personal and participatory media… that will profoundly change both the media industry and society as a whole.

Interesting and well written. I recommend it. Andreas Kluth does a nice job of laying the current cultural effects of digital technologies into a common and simple historical context, from Gutenberg’s movable type to MovableType, the blogging software. There’s also someone calling a big, brand-name media honcho an ‘ignoramus!’ which is something I don’t think I’ve ever seen before.

Unfortunately, most of the components of the survey require me to sign up as an Economist subscriber to read, so I’ll never know what it says. Audio files from some of the luminaries are also available, to anyone, though I have not listened to them.

I guess I should go warn my friend that her boss is due to come knocking.

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Services • Web Strategy • Web Content • Web Communities
0 Comments | Permalink

Advertising’s Current Growing Pains

This past week I’ve come across some very good thinking and writing on the current state of the advertising business. It’s heartening to see, since so much of the current practice of advertising is simple tricks and tactics, hamfistedly imported from existing media. I’m thinking here of people talking about email as if it were just electric version of direct mail, of Google partnering with Sony to show The DaVinci Code banners and a million other forgetable efforts to get people to buy stuff.

The first article I’ll point to comes from Ron Bloom writing on the iMedia Connection website. Bloom’s article, Advertising 2.0: One brand, many voices does a great job of describing how the rise of ‘consumer-generated content’ totally shifts the rules of the game for advertising. The article is written for those in the advertising industry, hence the mealy term, ‘consumer-generated content,’ but let’s overlook that and get to the guts of the argument.

User-generated content and social networks are the modern media phrases du jour. As an executive with business line and brand responsibility, why should you care? Is this a fad? What is really happening here? Well, let me make a few predictions:

• 1. We are in the midst of a Big Shift: within five years, over 50 percent of the media consumed will be created by other consumers
• 2. This entire movement will not be driven by technology, but rather by consumer demand
• 3. The nature of the content that people will consume will change dramatically
• 4. Advertising and marketing as we know it will have to change dramatically as well in order to succeed in this new media world

...

With the advent of pervasive broadband and inexpensive tools, users are now making their own content from bits and bytes scattered across the net. Much of this content originally came from traditional media channels, and the media has done everything that they can to limit that access and control that flow. Well, the audience has turned elsewhere, and are discovering that they can make equally appealing entertainment by mixing their own content with others’.

Today, audiences are deserting traditional media channels for the new media frontier. They are not doing it for the technology, which is barely functional at best. They are doing it for the fresh appeal of this new form of content, the new arena of entertainment and a new community of relationships. The real question you may want to ask is, what should brands do to succeed in a world where they can not control their image or their voice?

The second article comes from the eloquent and always interesting Douglas Rushkoff. Rushkoff focuses on TV advertising and makes some timely arguments about what he sees coming: TV after advertising.

Next month at an annual media and marketing bluff session known as the “upfronts,” TV executives will once again try to sell thirty-second spots of their airtime to advertisers for even more ludicrous sums than last year. Amazing, all concerned are remaining remarkably sanguine in the face of growing evidence that TV ads just don’t (and maybe never did) what they’re supposed to.

...

... as Marshall McLuhan taught us, the medium really is the message. TV sells TV, Paris Hilton sells Paris Hilton, and sneakers sell sneakers. TV’s liberation from advertisers shouldn’t have sent brands running to find a new unrelated medium on which to promote themselves; their panicked migration to the Internet, cell phones, or movie product placements only bespeaks a lack of faith in the selling power of the products, themselves.

These days, consumer goods are their own best media. Just as the Starbucks coffee cup and cafe experience sells more coffee than any TV or billboard advertising campaign, the shape of a automobile chassis or placement of its cupholders sells more cars than all that indistinguishable footage of cars taking turns on desert lakebeds. Great products are their own billboards, and satisfied customers (not to mention passionate employees) are their best spokespeople.

The “word of mouth” that today’s hippest marketers covet - whether they call it viral marketing or cult branding - only really happens when people actually like a product enough to share their experiences with other people. And we consumers don’t do this because we care so much about the brand we’re promoting. We do it because our recommendation earns us a certain kind of respect from our friends - our expertise is a form of “social currency.”

Being involved in a number of the movements online that are currently shifting the ground of advertising - web marketing, including advertising, and web community building, in particular -, the staff here at Work Industries take a keen interest in any article that cuts through the buzzword clutter of writing about advertising.

Okay, using the human voice: I, James, take a keen interest in the thinking and conversations going on out there in media and technology and advertising. I love that these changes are happening, I want to be part of them, and, to let you in on a secret, in the next few days I’ll be softly launching a Work Industries Harebrained Idea ^TM called AdHack that fits perfectly with the big shift in advertising. Stay tuned!

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Services • Web Marketing • Web Communities
0 Comments | Permalink

Work Industries Testimonial #2: Intrawest (RezRez)

Last week I asked a few folks I have worked with in the past to help me out with launching my new business, Work Industries. If they felt comfortable, I asked them to provide a testimonial about working with me. I published the first Work Industries testimonial from Alex Brabant of eMarketing 101 a few days ago.

The second Work Industries testimonial comes Jill Smith, who I worked with for almost two years at Intrawest‘s spin off, Resort Reservations Network (RezRez, whose website seems to have been purposefully taken offline and now creates a blank browser window. Here is Google’s RezRez cache). Jill was the Director, Operations at RezRez and managed the large sales and customer service teams. In my roles as Director, ePublishing and Director, eCommerce I worked directly with Jill on software and web projects that made our travel business work for our customers and our employees. Basically I led the web face of the business and Jill led the human face of the business. We also both were members of the RezRez executive team.

Jill writes:

“James Sherrett has the ability to communicate in an effective, confident and accessible manner that allows him to engage the attention of any audience.”

This was to be her Official Testimonial. But she also added this, which I think is as appropriate:

I don’t know if I am saying that right, but basically I always have admired how you could handle the biggest bastards, idiots and fools in such a way that kept them engaged and made them understand. How can I say that more eloquently? Help me out, you are the writer :)

Jill Smith |  Director, Operations
Intrawest Central Reservations

In closing, Jill also added that “James Sherrett has ruined my ability to car pool into the future as his company was so titillating that no one measures up.” We commuted together across two waterways and through downtown, so we had to be able to work together and accommodate each other in transportation as well.

Thank you for your candour and honesty, Jill. Never let the bastards grind you down.

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Work • Testimonials
Permalink

BC Book and Magazine Week: Coming Soon!

(Cross posted from my Up in Ontario blog.)

The week that runs from Saturday, April 22, 2006 to Saturday, April 29, 2006 is BC Book and Magazine Week in these here parts. I’m working with the folks at the Association of Book Publishers of BC (ABPBC) and the BC Association of Magazine Publishers (BCAMP) to promote BC Book and Magazine Week. So here’s the rundown of events and ways that you can get involved, attend an event and participate in a celebration of the cultures of BC.

The BC Book and Magazine Week website has a listing of the events that make up the BCBMW celebration. There is also the BC Book and Magazine Week blog to keep yourself current on events and to get the latest news and photos.

If you’re into Upcoming.org, all the BC Book and Magazine Week events are listed and you can mark yourself in for attending, or just watch the event to decide later if you want to attend. You can also see who else is attending, and add your own events if you want. But if you’re lazy like me and just want to check it all out, here it is.

BC Book and Magazine Week

• Saturday, April 22: BC Book Prizes Soirée (7 to 9 pm, Crush Lounge, free)
• Sunday, April 23: Book and Magazine Promenade (1 to 5 pm, Vancouver Public Library downtown central branch, free)
• Tuesday, April 25: Sell Your Story: An idea pitching forum (6 to 9 pm, Lamplighter Pub, $10 to pitch a book, $10 to pitch a magazine, $15 to pitch both a book and mag)
• Wednesday, April 26: Magazine Cabaret: Vancouver (7:30 to 11 pm, Alibi Room, $10 to get in)
• Thursday, April 27: Literary Tour of Vancouver (6 pm to late, Burcu’s Angels, 2535 Main St., $3, two options will be presented, tour will depart Burcu’s Angels at 6:15 - don’t be late! And here’s the full schedule of the tour.)
• Saturday, April 29: 22nd Annual BC Book Prizes (5:30 to 11 pm, Marriot Pinnacle Hotel, by invite only)

I’m going to try to attend as many of the events as I can. The Book and Magazine Promenade is a cool way to see the diversity of publishing that goes on in BC. The Sell Your Story forum is an unbeatable way for writers to get the ear of magazine and book editors. If I had anything to sell, you know that’s where I’d be. The Magazine Cabaret is a blast, if only because the mag folks know how to cut loose. I’ve never been to the Literary Tour of Vancouver before, but I know it’s popular because this year they’ve added a second tour to deal with overflow. And of course, the grande dame of the events, the BC Book Prizes gala presents the dishy publishing event of the year. I think gossip columnists even show up.

So if you’re interested in the book and magazine industry, or just our local culture in general here in BC, step out from behind the screen and come out and participate in BC Book and Magazine Week. I hope to see you there. If you do see me, please tap me on the shoulder, tell me to be quiet, or just say, ‘hi.’

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Work • Clients • News • Personal
Permalink

Work Industries Testimonial #1: eMarketing 101

Last week I asked a few folks I have worked with in the past to help me out with launching my new business, Work Industries. If they felt comfortable, I asked them to provide a testimonial about working with me.

The first testimonial to arrive was from Alex Brabant, someone I’ve worked with in web marketing for the past 6 years. At one time, for 2 years running, we managed the largest advertising budget in Canada with both Google and Yahoo. We created a methodology (Alex calls it ‘The Recipe’) for search engine advertising whose value creation and efficiency still eludes people. We broke new ground in online marketing for travel and tourism, social networking and telephone services.

Alex writes:

“I have worked with James Sherrett several times over the years in different industries. With his thorough understanding of Internet technologies, his outstanding talent and intelligence as well as his understanding of e-commerce, James is one of the best web project managers I have encountered. He can successfully integrate new technologies in any business and increase sales to the level you have been hoping to achieve for years. If you are thinking about launching or expanding your web presence, you can stop searching as you have found your match. I truly recommend James for any web project you want to put together. Seriously, you will be glad you did.”

Alexandre Brabant
Search Marketing Specialist
eMarketing 101

When you hire Work Industries, you hire a network of the best web professionals, specialists in all the key areas that make a website and web strategy work.

Want to know more? Talk to us and we’ll get to work for you.

Posted by James Sherrett | Email to a Friend

Filed under: • Services • Web Marketing • Work • Testimonials
0 Comments | Permalink