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If you are an online marketer and want to know how to increase your visibility online, you should take a listen. don’t go away. Our guest on this episode is from the world's leading competitive research service for online marketing. Fernando Angulo, head of communications at SEMrush talks about its tools and strategies for getting its clients noticed online.

About SEMRush

SEMrush was a startup in 2008 with about 12 software and a great idea. Headquartered in the Czech Republic, its first product was a called SEOquake, a free toolbar to use in a browser that measures metrics like website traffic, domain authority, website owner, number of external links and other KPIs for SEO. Today, SEMrush is global with 1,000 employees in four countries and three offices in the U.S., one in Russia and one in Cypress.

According to Fernando, anyone who has a website and wants to earn an exposure online needs tools like SEOquake and the services at SEMrush. The company can help marketing agencies, corporations, brands, small businesses, even freelancers, in developing four strategies: SEO, Social Media Channels, Content Marketing, and knowledge about competitors using the business intelligence that SEMrush offers. Its tools provide added value with more information, easier reporting tools and the ability to implement more campaigns and strategies at the same time daily. Its newest platform, Traffic Analytics, can provide intelligence about a competitor’s every move on every search engine, including traffic sources, social media, paid traffic and more.

While keyword research is still important, it has gotten much more complex. As a leader in competitive research services, SEMrush has a large database of more than 60 billion keywords in 150 countries.

Understanding How People Search Online

If you are just getting started online, Fernando recommends that you look at what topics are more popular in your industry. SEMrush can help by giving you insights into how people are searching for your products or services. For instance, today people are conducting more longtail searches. They are using longer phrases and sentences to find what they want. So, once you’ve picked your topic, choose those longtail keywords and create content for it.

Fernando says Google changed its search features and the way it is working with results two years ago. If you are looking for nearby gas stations, for example, you will usually get a Google map and a list of gas stations.

Google’s search results sometimes show listings where the snippet describing a page comes before a link to a page, not after. Results displayed this way are called "featured snippets."

Featured snippets are triggered by keywords used with a question, or comparisons like “what is a betters, this or that?” This is, again, because of the popularity of voice search and longtail searches. The third way to trigger a featured snippet is by using prepositions, such as, “like,” “for,” “with” and “without.”

About 80% of the featured snippets typically use Google products, so brands are seeing a dramatic reduction in the number of clicks coming to their websites. Fernando says you can change this by creating original content that follows guidelines. Google is looking for descriptions that are either 42 words or 262 characters in length. There can be an image or video with it or not. Also, adding lists to content can help you in Google search. Booker.com has been successful using lists with content that includes “the top 10 vacations in Spain” or “the most beautiful beaches in Greece.

SEMrush has recently added Content Marketplace, where brands can order content with all the structures required for a featured snippet.

SEMrush Pricing

Semrush offers three pricing tiers:

• Pro Package for $99.95/mo. It includes full access to the database and SEMRush tools with the exception of the Traffic Analytics tool.
• Guru Package for $199.95/mo. It includes everything in the Pro Package, plus seven years of historical data of your competitors’ PPC, prices, types of ads, positioning and more.
• Business Package for $399/mo. Full access to the above and the Traffic Analytics tool.

Connect with SEMrush

A very transparent company, SEMRush connects with people on almost every platform. It has Groups for Support, open discussions every week in Chats and offers certification programs with its SEMrush Academy

Email: f.angulo@semrush.com

Website: www.semrush.com

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It’s a new decade and a new year, but some things remain constant. Content is still king, and its followers are growing. What’s changing is the way we consume content. In the past, content creation has been primarily text-based. Thanks to smartphones, however, more and more people prefer different ways to learn about brands. We’ve seen an explosion in podcasting and video is likely to be the next boom as it becomes more affordable and easier to do.

Companies like Vidyard have seen the trends. They’ve developed a platform to help your videos do much more. On this episode, Vidyard’s Customer Outcomes Manager, Jacob Fernandes, talks about its capabilities and features.

About Vidyard

Vidyard is a video hosting platform that identifies, scores and tracks engagement with viewers. It specializes in identifying who is watching your video. Vidyard can track engagements manually with custom forms that have to be filled out before you can watch a video. Or, the platform can integrate your data with Hubspot, a CRM or any other marketing automation.

Using the platform to upload and distribute videos is free. Hosting your video requires a monthly subscription. It can be as low as $20 per month or cost literally thousands of dollars depending on your brand’s needs.

With a paid subscription, brands can also empower its video content using several features, including:

• Call-to-Actions
• Annotations
• Thumbnails that transcribe videos for accessibility and to aid in SEO
• Choose your own adventure guides that enable viewers to watch a video on a website’s homepage, and then pinpoint where they want to go on a website for more insight about a topic they saw in the video.

Brands can also create video content using Vidyard’s free Chrome extension. The Vidyard Pro feature lets you record a selfie-style video and or take a screenshot from a web page and then email it to prospects or customers.

Getting Started

Jacob says there is very little to invest to get started with video. Most cell phones can shoot in 4k. All you need to buy is a wireless microphone and a basic lighting kit.

Lots of videos can be done in-house. These videos can be used for education purposes, as tutorials, invitations or even as a marketing tool for a brand’s sales team and any other customer-facing employee. In fact, Jacob says there are 6 must-have videos that brands should consider.

• Explainer video content with information about the brand, the products or services offered and the benefits of those products or services.
• How-to video assets to educate clients or customers on how to use your products or services.
• Thought Leadership video using executives who have expertise in a certain area and empowering them to create video content that can promoted online and on social media.
• Webinars for prospecting.
• Case studies on how your others are winning using your products or services.
• Demo Content

Jacob says brands that use video extraordinarily well include Hubspot and Marketo. And if you are a Hubspot listener, you can get an entire video suite right now for free.

Connect with Jacob

Email: Jacob.fernandes@vidyard.com

Website: https://www.vidyard.com

Twitter: @jacobsaidthings

LinkedIn: @jacobfernandes93

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What is influencer marketing? It’s basically a type of social media marketing that uses endorsements and product mentions from people with influence – they have a large social media following or they are viewed as experts in their industry. Our guest today is an expert on this very topic. Kerry Perse is the founder of Influence & Inspire Consulting. She’s here to tell us how to get started in Influencer Marketing.

About Kerry Perse

Kerry has a diverse background in advertising and marketing. She started her career in advertising here at Platypus, before moving to New York to work with other ad agencies in web design, creative, media buying, social media and technology. Her interest in influencer marketing came about while working in social media. In her newest venture as the founder of Influence & Inspire Consulting, Kerry helps brands identify what role influencers can play in their marketing mix, how to find influencers and set up a partnership, develop KPIs, create content and execute programs.

Getting Started

The first step in planning an influencer marketing program is determining a brand’s key messages. What does the brand want to communicate? Can the company communicate the messages alone? Could an influencer help enhance what the brand is communicating, or can the influencer handle the brand’s communications?

Next, who does the brand need to communicate to? How are they influenced? What are their interests and how do they consume their content? And who are the influencers in this niche that the brand would like to work with?

Kerry says there are tools available that can help brands find these influencers. There are influencer networks that provide managed services with technology dashboards that help brands streamline their communications with influencers. With these dashboards, companies can negotiate specific terms and help streamline the review and approval of content. Kerry has worked with Influential, a company that partners with IBM Watson to provide AI and machine learning, Captivate and FameBit, a company owned by Google which includes YouTube influencers.

Another way to find influencers is through Search Engine-only providers like Tagger. With Tagger, you can input the criteria for what kind of influencer you are looking for or you can also search using hashtags.

Connecting with influencers can be done using the managed service providers, going through the agents of celebrities or by direct messaging the influencers on their platforms.

Risky Business

Kerry says influencer marketing can be risky, but that you can mitigate those risks with careful planning on the front end and by using technology to help you on the back end.

It’s important to have a solid vetting process during the planning process to determine if there is a good brand fit, to get to know the influencer’s personality, visual style, tonality, language, subject matter and expertise. Some of the managed service providers also have historical performance data in their dashboards so you can tell if the influencer has a high engagement rate, what brands the influencer has worked with, and acquisition patterns with followers to make sure there are no artificial spikes that show the influencer is paying for robots.

And once your influencer is live, Kerry says you can use companies like Sylo, a third-party verification company to make sure your reporting data is accurate. The managed service providers can also help brands by having the influencers submit content in advance for approval.

Influencer Expectations

Most influencers do expect to be paid and the amount is typically mentioned in their profiles. They also are required to disclose they are being paid. Some influencers also accept product seeding. They will talk about your product, but you must also be prepared for the fact that if they don’t like your product, they will talk about that as well.

From the brand’s side, it is important to do your homework, pick the influencers you know you want to work with first. Communicate with your top choices and then let your budget determine how many influencers you can work with.

ROI

Your return-on-investment is always a big challenge when it comes to influencer marketing. If you don’t have a big budget, your can measure reach, engagement and even the number of visits to your website.

Brands with larger budgets also use paid media to measure ROI. You can either boost posts on platforms like Facebook or Instagram or use managed service providers to put real money behind an influencer’s post and serve the content to your target audiences.

Want to be an Influencer?

Knowing that you can make good doing what you like to do is attractive to individuals who want to be successful in this space. Kerry says influencers need to know what their personal brand is and their unique point-of-view. What kind of content do they want to create and on which platform? Instagram and YouTube are currently the favorites, but Tik Tok is gaining in popularity. Also, you need to take pride in your content. Some influencers will spend an entire week creating one piece of content. And lastly, you are going to need to gain a lot of followers by discovering, following and engaging with others.

Connect with Kerry

E-mail: kerry@influenceandinspire.com

Website: www.influenceandinspire.com

LinkedIn: @kerryperse

Twitter: @KerryPerse

Phone: 917.282.3365

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With so many ways to watch video content these days, it’s a great time for the consumer, but it has also become an increasingly difficult time for the local media buyer. On this episode of Brandstorm, Michael Beach, CEO at Cross Screen Media, talks about his video advertising platform, which helps media buyers take some of the challenges out of buying broadcast, cable, connected TV, desktop mobile and social video content.

About Cross Screen Media

Cross Screen Media is a spinoff of a political agency called Target to Victory that Michael worked at in Washington, D.C. Frustrated by their own efforts to do audience targeting with video content, Michael and his team began investing in set top boxes from cable and satellite TV providers and other data sources, including media consumption habits from MRI and Scarborough, and even more recently, Automatic Content Recognition (ACR) from the data that is captured from Smart TVs. It was now possible to buy video content based on audience attributions and impressions, which is the same way advertisers currently buy digital advertising. By putting television and digital in the same audience-based currency, it was easier to compare and buy video content. Focusing only on video content, they launched their first television advertising platform in 2013. By 2016, they knew they had a platform that catered to media buyers’ needs and could be sold in local television markets. They closed the agency’s doors and created Cross Screen Media in 2017.

The Challenges for Local Advertisers Buying TV

Most TV stations sell their inventory based on ratings points. In smaller markets, however, about 70 percent of the video content doesn’t have a big enough audience sample to get a rating point. The ratings are so low for some programs, the ratings look like no one is watching.

Buying on impressions, however, allows advertisers to buy against digital and do some audience targeting. Michael believes the future for the ad seller will be to make impressions more valuable by tailoring them to the audience. Advertisers who know their target audience will be more willing buy programming that can deliver the audience they want. That’s good news for TV providers. They will be able to, at least in the short term, sell more inventory. Television will be more affordable for the advertiser who wants to by those programs with lower viewership because they deliver the right audience target.

Another challenge is that the way things are trending, there will be fewer impressions on average to sell. Video content has grown by more than 300 percent over the last 10 years. Back then, there were about 200 scripted shows on television. This past year, there were more than 600 shows and this trend isn’t expected to change. There will be more programming in 2020 than 2019. In fact, while social media and digital has seen substantial growth the past 10 years, Michael says video content is about to explode.

Right now, TV has low targeting, but high attention. Digital is the opposite, high targeting, low attention. Connected TV is really exciting to Michael because it has the potential to be both.

All this will change over the next 5 years, according to Michael, and it will happen in three phases. In Phase 1, which is where we are now, about 50 percent of the video content is bought using age and gender demos. along with some audience targeting. In about three years, in Phase 2, there will be more audience targeting and audience attributions will grow in importance. By Phase 3, in 5 years, audience attribution will be the key component of the video spend and will be driven by how much foot traffic is generated or how many transactions are made.

How Cross Screen Media Makes Media Buying Easier

Michael says pricing for the Cross Screen platform varies and is primarily based on the number of markets bought. Onboarding is pretty quick for ad agencies, and usually takes less than two weeks. Cross Screen takes an advertiser’s customer data or information from a CRM and uses its national consumer file with more than 1500 attributes. The attributes can be used to build out a strategic audience. The platform provides different buying options and allows for cross-screen comparisons in broadcast, cable, connected TV, desktop mobile and social video content.

Buyers can then target consumer content and figure how to balance it across the various screens. With one place to bring everything together buyers can figure out who the target is, how that target consumes video content, what it will cost and then tweak the buy from there.

It will take some time for buyers to become screen-agnostic, where they won’t care about what content they are watching and only buy content that delivers their audience.

Mike believes eventually impression-based selling will make it easier for TV media buyers to buy more digital and vice versa, but it will also come in phases. Right now, the ad agency may still have a TV media buying team and a digital buying team planning and buying separately. Eventually, those two teams will work together, and ultimately the same team will understand both video and digital content.

Connect with Michael

Website: https:///www.crossscreen.media

Newsletter: https://www.stateofthescreens.com

Email: mbeach@crossscreen.media

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Could your brand benefit from getting some spectacular aerial footage? If the answer is yes, what exactly do you need to know about drone photography? On this episode, Frank Datzer, director of photography and licensed drone pilot for DCP Video, shares his expertise.

About Frank Datzer

Frank has been involved in videography and video production for 35 years. He spent most of his career at U.S. Bank and later G.E. Medical. He owned a DVD Duplication Service before getting back into video shooting and production with his own company, DCP Video. He’s also done two, feature-length, independent films on Amazon called “Mister Scrooge to See You” and “The Return.”

Commercial Drone Photography Requirements

A drone license is required for anyone interested in making any money shooting drone footage. According to Frank, the test is not as easy as you would think. It is not about your skill as a drone pilot, but rather your knowledge of weather, how to read a Tack Chart and how airport traffic is handled. In the U.S, the test is a standardized FAA test, which is basically a junior pilot’s license consisting of 600 questions. You only need to answer 60 of the 600 questions, but you never know what those 60 questions will be. You must have knowledge of everything on the test, if you hope to pass. Frank says there are some background pieces available online that can help you prepare for the test. Internationally, licensing varies greatly, so you need to do your homework before doing anything outside the U.S.

Drone hobbyists do not need a license, but there are still some rules to follow. There can be no monetization of any kind without a license and if caught, fines can be as high as $10,000.

Things to Consider Before Scheduling Drone Photography

• Ask for credentials from drone pilots
• Every location is different so do your homework before setting anything up
• Get permission wherever you are shooting
• Allow two weeks’ notice for permissions
• Make allowances for inclement weather conditions
• Drones are typically not allowed to fly near airports
• Drones can’t fly above 400 ft. (Frank says low-level drone shots at 20-to-25-ft. can be very dramatic and beautiful, especially in a warehouse)
• Drones must be kept in your line of sight
• Night flying can be done one hour before sunrise and one hour after sunset
• Flying over people, sporting events, emergency response teams and stadiums are prohibited
• No drugs or alcohol are allowed while flying

Why Hire Pros?

Four reasons: safety, quality, experience at getting the best shots and ultimately, the end product.

If you are concerned about price, drone photography is less than hiring a helicopter. And, you may want to consider hiring someone like Frank who uses drone photography as a value-add. His drone camera is just another tool he uses like lighting or a second camera.

If you are considering getting into drone photography, Frank recommends purchasing a DJI Mavic Mini at around $300. Cheaper models typically don’t handle as well. Then, go to a park with no trees, start by flying low and keep practicing.

Connect with Frank

Email: frank@dcpvideo.com

LinkedIn: @frankdatzer

Instagram: DCP_Video

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It was a long campaign with intense competition, but in the end, Milwaukee beat out Miami and Houston to be the host city of the Democratic National Convention (DNC), July 13 – 16, 2020. Megan Suardini, vice president of Marketing & Communications for Visit Milwaukee talks about how the festival city did it and how we are preparing for a deluge of Democratic delegates and national media coming to Milwaukee.

About Visit Milwaukee

Visit Milwaukee is an accredited destination marketing organization (DMO) that has been promoting the city for more than 50 years. Its role is to attract business and leisure visitors to the city and its marketing communications efforts are all done outside the city.

Landing the DNC

Even though Wisconsin is considered an important battleground state for the 2020 Presidential election, it was still considered an underdog when it received an RFP from the DNC in March 2018. There were eight cities in the running, including New York, Atlanta, Denver, Houston, Miami, and San Francisco. By June, the DNC had narrowed the competition down to Milwaukee, Miami and Houston. The DNC conducted a site survey that summer as the city rolled out the “blue” carpet for the organizers. There were several additional visits to work on logistics before Milwaukee was chosen as the host city on March 11, 2019. With an economic impact of at least $200 million for the city, the event is expected to put Milwaukee on the world stage with its welcoming, warm, Midwest charm. Megan says we made it clear to the DNC selection committee that they were a big deal and we wanted them. The city sees this not as a red or blue win, but as a green one. It is estimated about $114 million will come from direct spending, such as restaurants, hotels and rental cars, and another $85 million-plus coming from indirect (wages paid to workers) and induced (money spent in other cities by travelers to Milwaukee) spending.

For Visit Milwaukee’s part in all this, the DMO has been focused on hotel rooms and all the logistics of housing. In July 2020, the city will host 6000 delegates and another 15,000 to 20,000 media personnel. There will also be about 1500 events during those four days. Visit Milwaukee has found lots of support from communities within a 45-minute to one-hour commute from the city, even in northern Illinois.

Megan says the exposure for Milwaukee will be tremendous. Her staff is already looking for and pitching stories to the media related to technology, innovation, neighborhoods, education, manufacturing, urban development, green initiatives, unique individuals and community groups and they are open to hearing more ideas from the public.

The Milwaukee Brand

In addition to the DNC, the Ryder Cup, the Society of American Travel Writers, the USA Triathlon and U.S. Gymnastics Championships are among the organizations that have chosen to hold their event in Milwaukee in 2020. They are attracted by the Milwaukee brand which is considered to be warm, friendly, inviting and accessible with big city amenities. The city is also quirky, extraverted, unexpected, lively and clean. In Megan’s words, “Milwaukee is hot, and we are ready. We really want to host your event.”

Connect with Visit Milwaukee

Website: www.visitmilwaukee.org/DNC

Phone: +1 (800)-231-0903, +1 (414)-273-3950

PR Team: https://www.visitmilwaukee.org/media/public-relations-staff/

Corporate Venues, Sponsors & Volunteers: https://www.milwaukee2020.com/

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A report by the Wisconsin Policy Forum indicates that more retirees and fewer young people could create a workforce dilemma for the state in the coming years. The Milwaukee Metropolitan Association of Commerce, or MMAC, has partnered with the Milwaukee 7 to help companies in the region attract, retain and train workers in jobs that offer growth potential. In this episode of Brandstorm, Susan Koehn, vice president of the Talent & Industry Partnership and point person for this initiative, tells us more about the workforce issues facing southeastern Wisconsin and what is being done to help businesses now and in the future.

Background

According to Susan, Wisconsin’s economic development and workforce development organizations have historically operated as two, independent silos. Economic development focused on corporate attraction projects, brick and mortar projects and building infrastructure. Workforce development was involved in talent and training. Neither side was talking to each other, while the skills gap was growing larger in southeastern Wisconsin. Industry was blaming education for not producing the right kinds of worker’s skills to fill the jobs that were needed, and education blamed industry for not saying what skills were needed.

The recognition that talent was a key driver of economic growth sparked the first attempt to break down the walls between economic and workforce development around 2007/08. The goal was to get the two sides talking to change the narrative.

MMAC/Milwaukee 7 Partnership

The MMAC is a membership-based Chamber of Commerce. The Milwaukee 7 is a regional economic development organization for the seven counties in southeastern Wisconsin: Kenosha, Milwaukee, Ozaukee, Racine, Walworth, Washington and Waukesha.

When the Milwaukee 7 was formed in 2005, there was a realization that industry was involved in a zero-sum gain by poaching talent from each other. Collaboration was needed to bring in new businesses, expand existing companies and create new investments. The MMAC played a critical role in bringing the two organizations together and forming the Talent & Industry Partnership. Today, they share office space and staff and are working together to address the shortage of talent in the region.

Wisconsin Policy Forum Report Takeaways

Susan says the demographics are undeniable. The now-retiring Baby Boomers were followed by two million fewer Gen Xers and this trend has continued in birth rates. There are just fewer young people coming into the workforce. The recession may have also masked the talent shortage because there were fewer job openings. When the recession ended, companies that used to post jobs and receive hundreds of qualified applicants were now seeing three or four applications from people who did not qualify for the jobs.

So, while the report wasn’t surprising to people like Susan, it did confirm what businesses were seeing on the ground.

Analyzing Southeastern Wisconsin’s Labor Supply

Working with Manpower Group, research was conduction that indicates the workforce gap in the region’s seven counties will hit 38,000 in job openings by 2021. Where are we going to find the people to fill them?

According to the Manpower research, there are pockets in the region where there are lots of potential workers who are on the sidelines and not working because they are no longer looking for jobs, are underemployed or ineligible. In fact, there are about 300,000 workers with a high school diploma, but no post-secondary degrees or credentials. Susan believes we could leverage of larger talent pool by taking a closer look at the job openings and determining if a college degree is really needed, or if an individual can come on board and be trained while on the job. She says, according to one of the tenets of sales, it costs far less to retain customers than acquire new ones. The same holds true for employees. Businesses can upskill the employees while on the job for far less and backfill some of the other jobs with higher education requirements with fresh talent.

Filling the Future Skills Gap

Southeastern Wisconsin is in a great position to improve the workforce dilemma through education and training. We have many excellent higher education institutions and a good K12 education system. And, there is an openness now for industry and education to collaborate.

The industry can assist by providing real-world, learning opportunities, such as sponsoring classroom projects, job shadowing, internships, and guest business speakers. About 68-75 percent of college internships convert to direct hires.

Susan says legacy companies and industries in the region, like manufacturing, need to show innovation potential through more experiential learning opportunities. In fact, 67 percent of Americans believe more internships for young people would increase interest in manufacturing.

In Wisconsin, schools are mandated to provide academic as well as career planning, starting at the 6th-grade level through high school. MMAC has a program called “Be the Spark” that takes 7th graders from Milwaukee Public Schools on business tours. There is a push to increase the number of schools offering computer science classes and technical education for trades like plumbing, electrical and construction is making a comeback.

And finally, Susan says the Wisconsin Economic Development Committee (WEDC) has a program called “Think-Make-Happen that is targeting the likeliest candidates to attract and relocate to Wisconsin. For instance, Wisconsin provides one of the most generous packages to provide support, incentives and free education to service members in the country. The organization is also targeting alumni of Wisconsin institutions to come back and Midwest millennials who already live in colder climates to relocate to our state’s booming economy and great quality of life.

Opportunities for Growth

Industries with the greatest potential for growth in southeastern Wisconsin are financial services, healthcare systems and manufacturing companies that are intersecting with smart technology. There is also an effort to build technology ecosystems like Milwaukee’s Water District.

Susan says while the challenge to fill the skills gap in our region is urgent, it is giving way to new ideas and ways to innovate and collaborate. The Industry & Talent Partnership can help businesses, individuals and schools by connecting them with the right organizations and resources they need.

Connect with Susan:

Email: skoehn@mke7.com

Website: https://www.mmac.org

Twitter: @mke7talent

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The holidays are just about here, so all of us at #Brandstorm thought it would be fun to talk about a sweet, corporate gift idea. This office gift could also be a clever way of saying, “I’m sorry,” when you really mess up. The name of the franchise is Woops! Its bakeshops and kiosks serve artisanal, French macarons, pastries and coffee all around the country. Milwaukee owner Shahnoza Saadati talks about this relatively new franchise and its delicate creations.

What is a French Macaron?

Shahnoza likes to say there are three macarons: the flourless American cookie that is typically made with coconut (macaroon), the French pastry (macaron) and the French President Macron. While they may all sound alike, there is only one macaron. The delicate, French pastry is very difficult to make. The first step is making the crust, which is made with almond, four and fresh, whipped egg whites. The second step is the filling, a chocolate ganache with white chocolate from Belgium. The macaron is then infused with flavors like pistachio, blueberry cheesecake and lemon tart.

There are 20 flavors in all. Some are seasonal like the strawberry milkshake and orange cream sickle in the summer, apple cinnamon in the fall, red velvet dressed up in confetti at Christmas. Valentine’s Day is always a surprise, but last year was a strawberry passion fruit. Some are American flavors that include cookies and cream, Nutella, red velvet and cotton candy. But the classics are always available – pistachio, dark chocolate, vanilla, raspberry, lemon tart and salted caramel.

The last step to making the macaron is freezing them in a special container so that no humidity gets in to spoil the colors and meringue crust.

A Corporate Gift to Remember

Shahnoza says she was attracted to the Woops! franchise because of its B2B approach to gifting. The French macarons are memorable because they are handmade, handprinted and hand-delivered. They come in a variety of beautiful packaging as small as a flavor pack with two macarons for $6, gift boxes from $13 to $26, combinations of boxes at $50, $100 and $200, and even large pyramids that are typically made for weddings. Both the macarons and packaging sleeves can be imprinted with corporate logos.

The macarons are made in New York, frozen and shipped in protective boxes to Shahnoza, who keeps the macarons in her storefront kiosk at Brookfield Square. While she has a retail presence, most orders are taken online and hand-delivered using Grub Hub and Door Dash. Orders can be fulfilled and delivered in less than 30 minutes, if needed.

Building Corporate Relationships

Shahnoza says doing in business in Wisconsin is all about relationships and referrals. She networks with the local Chamber of Commerce and Visit Milwaukee. She takes a pop-up kiosk to shows like Marketplace Wisconsin and uses LinkedIn to connect with businesses and deliver samples to interested parties.

About Woops!

Woops! started in New York with four friends and previous franchise owners who wanted to create something of their own. Their startups with the French Macarons grossed a quarter-million dollars in just 5 weeks. In no time, they realized “woops” we have a business, and just one year later, “woops” we have a franchise…or so the story goes.

There are about 50 Woops! locations and 30 franchisees in the U.S. Started in 2012, the company supplies franchisees with all the resources to connect with local businesses in addition to making the delicate and delicious macarons, custom printing and packaging. They have materials to say thanks, appreciate clients, even real estate closings, and support franchisees with weekly phone calls. While the cost of a business is always more than you anticipate, Shahnoza says the investment in a Woops! franchise is about $80,000 to $100,000.

Connect with Shahnoza

Email: brookfieldsquare@bywoops.com

Website: https://www.bywoops.com/

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By bike or by boat, it is the best pub crawl in town. The Milwaukee Pedal & Paddle Tavern has become the #1 tour in town in just a few, short years. Our guest, Derek Collins shares the ups and downs of a start-up business and how he and his partner, Ryan Lloyd have expanded their bike and boat bars.

Pedal Tavern Origins

When Derek’s partner, Ryan, called him to tell him about a bike bar up in Minneapolis they needed to have in Milwaukee, Derek thought his friend had gone nuts. Ryan replied, “it’s super fun and people will pay to do it.” So, in 2010, Derek and Ryan invested in their first bike bar and began operating the Pedal Tavern.

The Pedal Tavern is a 16-seat, BYOB bike bar that is powered by riders who must pedal. The two-hour tours take riders to three to four pubs and restaurants of their choice in the Third Ward and Walker’s Point. Derek says they have partnerships with about 20 places that offer drink and food discounts to Pedal Tavern visitors.

In the beginning, Derek operated every tour and business boomed, so the partners put all that money into a second bike tavern and kept reinvesting until they had five.

Controversy Threatens Business

When the Pedal Tavern applied for their fifth liquor license in 2012, the City of Milwaukee took notice and pulled the company’s liquor license. According to Derek, they were in a gray area that allowed the company to fall under the category of a “green limo.” The city argued since the bikes were not motor operated, they could not be considered a limo.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel printed this news on the front page with the headline, “Tapped Out.”

The news was devastating to the company. People wanted to be able to drink on the Pedal Tavern tours. In 2013, business dropped by 50 percent. At the same time, Derek and Ryan were buying drink tokens from the bars to attract ridership. With minimal profit margins, they were not going to able to operate much longer.

A compromise with the City of Milwaukee saved the fate of the Pedal Tavern. It was agreed to limit the number of drinks to three per person and no hard liquor. With their liquor license reinstate, the Journal Sentinel ran another front-page story and by 2014, ridership was back up and the company was back doing business better than before.

Reinvestment Ignites Growth

Last year, the company expanded to have boat tours as well. They added Paddle Taverns that, like the bikes, were BYOB and took riders on tours down the Milwaukee River, originating at a local bar, called the Harp. Each boat is manned with a captain and first mate. Riders are encouraged to pedal the boats; however, the boats also have a motor. Fifteen to 20 minutes into the tour, the riders typically stop pedaling, turn up the music and enjoy the tour and each other.

Derek says they continue to invest back into the company. They’ve started an electric, Duffy boat company that individuals can rent and take out on the water. They also offer kayak rentals and have entered into another partnership with John Revord, owner of the Boone & Crockett bar and Mitch Ciohon, owner of Taco Moto, to purchase the Cooperage at 820 S. Water St. The building has three floors. The first floor has 11,000 sq. ft., and includes the Boone & Crockett Bar, a commercial kitchen and event space for weddings and concerts. The second and third floors are both 5,000 sq. ft. The second floor has an Air BnB, personal office space an art studio. The third floor is currently vacant, but Derek says they plan on creating a co-working share space.

Marketing Strategy

One of the beauties of having such a unique business is the buzz it creates. The controversy over the loss of the liquor license may have hurt at first; however once reinstated, it also created a lot of awareness for the company. Derek says they started their company with on Groupon offer in 2010, when Groupon was new and very popular. These days, word-of-mouth, visibility on the street and water and user-generated content on Facebook and Instagram. The company does advertise on Google AdWords and Yelp, and more recently radio ads within radio auctions.

Entrepreneurial Opportunities

Derek says investing in the bike and boat tour business isn’t cheap. The pedal taverns are about $45,000 each and the boats are roughly $120,000, plus an additional $20,000 in operating expenses for each business. If you are interested in doing this in other markets, he says there are some requirements you need to consider. The first is city approval for a liquor license. This concept doesn’t work without alcohol on board, even when the tours take you to neighboring pubs. The second is street access. In Chicago, the pedal tavern would not be allowed because the streets are too busy. And third, you must have the participation by the neighboring bars, restaurants and residents.

Connect with Derek:

Twitter: @mkederek

Website: https://www.pedaltavern.com

https://www.Paddletavern.com

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Online newsrooms are becoming very popular, thanks to companies like TEKGroup International Inc., an internet software and services firm that helps PR and corporate communications professionals save time and money, while providing a platform to help increase coverage in the mainstream and social media. Companies like Starbucks, Toyota, Dunkin Donuts and Walgreen’s and many others are using these newsrooms to centralize all their communications content. On this episode of #Brandstorm, Steve Momorella, owner and founder of TEKGroup talks about the online newsroom and why companies should be considering them.

What is an Online Newsroom?

TekGroup has been creating newsroom for brands since 1998. Back then, they were called Press Rooms. They were a placeholder on your website for press release, news coverage, logos and imagery. The focus of the Press Room was for journalists. With the advent of social media, in the last 5 years or so, these Press Rooms have changed to Online Newsrooms or Brand Journalism Newsrooms where the focus is on the brand’s audiences. It is now a hub for all communications content – media assets, stories, imagery, video, audio, pdfs, social media, etc. While press releases are still used, companies have switched their focus to stories about the brand -- how the brand was created and how it is being used by customers, as an example. The articles are often written by people in different departments within the company, and not just PR professionals. Companies like Sprint are using the online newsroom as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) site or as Investor Relations sites.

Steve says the other big difference is that online newsrooms now make it possible to upload content and distribute all your communications to journalists, employees, customers and any other target audiences with a few clicks and its delivered.

The Online Newsroom Advantage

With social media and distribution integrated into one platform, PR and Communications professionals save time and money. They don’t have to spend thousands of dollars on wire releases because more than 4000 journalists are already in the dashboard and can be targeted by industry. TekGroup even offers a Twitter feed for journalists that can also be targeted by industry. You also can save money by not having to pay contact database companies to send out emails.

In the past, PR professionals had to write the content, pay a wire service so they could upload the photos and press release for distribution. Now PR professionals can save valuable time because the platform integrates distribution and all your social assets. You can choose which social media account to use, who you want to send the content to, while sending out consistent messaging, all from one dashboard.

TekGroup Technical Support

The online newsroom is technically a standalone site from the company’s website, however from a visual and SEO perspective, it is integrated with the website. Visitors never know they are going to another site when they click on the newsroom icon. TekGroup build the site based on the client’s needs, and then become the IT department, hosting and managing the site. The platform also has an embedded analytics system that can integrate with a company’s Google Analytics for tracking and SEO purposes.

The Way of the Future

Steve says research has been conducted the last 15 years to measure the trends and expectations of both journalists and consumers when it comes to an online newsroom. In the past, it was used 100 percent of the time by journalists. Now, the numbers are 70 percent consumers; 30 percent journalists.

Pricing

According to Steve, there are two pricing tiers – professional and enterprise tiers. For large companies with lots of personnel, locations, products and services, it can be expensive. For small companies, the cost $10,000 annually. Steve likes to say, for less than $1000 per month, you get a fully-hosted website management system with unlimited use. Plus, no more costs for wire services or email contact companies. The savings can be huge depending on how much content a company sends out.

Connect with Steve

Email: steve@tekgroup.com

Phone: 734-945-7790

Website: tekgroup.com

Twitter: @tekgroup

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On this episode, our guest has a few ideas to help you use video marketing to increase sales. Rick Cesari has been a pioneer in the Direct Response advertising industry since the early ‘90s and has used Brand Response strategies to help build many iconic brands from scratch, including Juiceman, Sonicare, The George Foreman Grill, OxiClean, Clarisonic, Rug Doctor, Momentus Golf and many others. Rick has helped take companies like GoPro from a start-up to over a billion dollars in sales in just a few short years.

About Rick Cesari

Rick studied biology and was going to be a dentist, but he got tired of school. He moved to Florida, read lots of books about real estate, and went to a seminar to learn how to invest in distressed properties and make a profit. He made $12,000 in a few days. He was so excited about his investment, he went to the editors of Florida Trend, a business magazine, and told them about the seminar. The article about the speaker was instrumental in growing his seminar business, so Rick was asked to help with his marketing. It was the beginning of his highly successful marketing career.

Brand Response Strategies

Rick says the key to being good at direct response marketing is understanding what makes the consumer respond. He uses a formula from Dale Carnegie’s book, “How to Win Friends and Influence People.” Tell the audience what you are going to say, say it and then tell them what you said. Rick adds that making videos is a lot like making speeches. You must capture the audience’s attention at the start, or they will continue clicking through the channels.

Another formula that Rick uses is called AIDA. The acronym stands for

• A - capture the person’s Attention
• I - build Interest
• D - arouse Desire
• A - motivate the person to take Action

Infomercials often seem repetitive and they are. Using Dale Carnegie’s formula, you say what you are going to say, say it and tell the audience again what you said. They must also solve a problem. Rick says if you cast a wide net with video that visually demonstrates different ways to solve the problem with your product, you will hook the consumer who has that problem in. Your product should have a unique selling proposition and a history of past product sales before considering direct response marketing. You also need a call-to-action at the end so the consumer can respond.

Video Persuasion

All of these tips and much more are included in Rick’s new book, Video Persuasion,” which is being released on Amazon on Oct. 15, 2019. At the end of each chapter, Rick includes interviews with industry experts that include great insights about video and video marketing. Here are just a few:

• The messaging is more important than the technical look or quality of a video.
• Apps like Rev.com allow you to inexpensively transcribe interviews, which is very helpful in the editing process.
• Make video tutorials for every product or service you sell.
• Add infographics with pictures listing all the benefits of your product.
• Have good audio. You can buy a good mic for less than $100.
• Lighting is also important. It will take your video to the next step.
• Authenticity is more critical than slickly-produced videos on social platforms.

Rick also includes about 10 apps in his book that will save you money and help you with video production. Apps like Lumen 5 and Content Samurai are just a couple examples of Apps that can help you create video.

As a bonus, if you visit Rick’s website, you can download information about the three most engaging types of video content.

Speaking Engagements

Rick also makes appearances and has a range o topics from how to build a $100 million business using direct marketing to brand building. He should know. Four of his clients made billions in sales, including Sonicare, the George Foreman Grill, OxyClean and GoPro. During this podcast, he shared two great stories about George Foreman and GoPro.

Connect with Rick:

Website: www.rickcesari.com

YouTube: RickCesari.tv

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Our guest says if you aren’t using testimonials, you’re missing out on a simple, but great tool for new business. Michael Gass is the founder of Fuel Lines Business Development, a firm which provides business development resources, training and consulting services to businesses like Platypus Advertising + Design. His blog, “Fuel Lines” has been rated among the top 100 marketing blogs in the world, according to Ad Age’s Power 150, and he is considered one of our country’s foremost authorities on social media.

Testimonials Should be a Priority

We may procrastinate or feel awkward about asking clients for testimonials, but according to Michael, a testimonial is as good as a referral for most prospects, and small-to-mid-sized companies depend on referrals. Michael is a business development consultant to advertising, digital and PR agencies. He says most agencies are missing the boat when they do not use testimonials, especially on their websites.

A website is an online brochure for your capabilities and services. Testimonials add credibility to what you do and validates your expertise. Testimonials are what clients are going to research and look for in advance of engaging with you.

You can also use testimonials as an endorsement on LinkedIn and on social media. Pictures and video work very well, as well as links back to your client. Michael says links are not only good for SEO, they make it that much easier for prospects to get references about you before they ask you for them.

If you are using celebrity endorsements, make sure the use of the celebrity is relevant to your brand and not just name-dropping.

Asking for Testimonials

Michael says timing is important when asking clients for testimonials. The best time is after you have completed a project and have seen positive results. You should also make the process easy for your client. If you are uncomfortable with writing a testimonial for the client to approve, ask them for a couple of sentences about you to make the reference more personal. You can edit those sentences, add a few thoughts and go back to the client for final approval.

The Battleground for New Business is Online

Michael got into social media before it was even called that. Web.O was a term that was batted around, and the geeks involved in social media were resistant to helping outsiders like Michael, who had an intuition about its future success. He tested everything, identified his target audience and started building a community around his audience. He created content of value to them and eventually became a thought leader in the marketing industry. Today, Michael has more than 100,000 Twitter followers, 40,000 subscribers to his newsletter and a tremendous amount of traffic that follows his niche blog, Fuel Lines.

As a consultant, Michael is using his experience to help agencies re-learn business development. The old way of prospecting was chasing new business. Today it is about being found. He advises agencies to identify a target audience, build a community and create a niche blog that will provide valuable content for their audience. In Michael’s 11 years as a consultant, he has never had to make a cold call. People come to him because prospects feel they know him from his blog, newsletter, website and social media posts. And, using testimonials has helped sell his services before prospects have even met him.

Connect with Michael

Phone: (205) 370-7750

Email: michael@michaelgass.com

Blog: https://www.fuelingnewbusiness.com/

Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook: @michaelgass

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Candy Adams, aka the Booth Mom, was on our show earlier this year to talk about best practices for putting on a profitable trade show. On this episode, she is back to talk about exhibit houses and what they need from you, the exhibitor, to create and build your display the way you want it and within budget.

About Candy Adams

Candy is an award-winning, freelance exhibit project manager and journalist. Earlier this year, she won an international Gold Tabbie for “Regular Column” from the Trade Association Business Publications International (TABPI) for her Exhibitor’s 101 column for Exhibitors Magazine. This brings her total number of awards to 19 various bronze, silver and gold writing awards in her 22 years of penning the column.

Candy was affectionately nicknamed the Booth Mom by a booth staffer in the early ‘90s for her nurturing personality and knowledge of the trade show industry. First and foremost, she thinks of herself as a mama bear, protecting her clients against unscrupulous individuals at trade shows who prey on rookies. Always looking for value for her clients, Candy never spends a penny where she doesn’t have to. When she began freelancing in 1996, she realized her nickname was actually her brand, so she officially registered her nickname as the Booth Mom.

Types of Exhibit Displays

There are varying types of displays from the simple Tier 4, which is basically table tops with table drapes and a monitor, to Tier 3, which include table tops and banner stand pullups and the larger Tier 1 and 2 displays, which feature Linears and Islands.

Pitching the Exhibit House

The very first thing an Exhibitor should decide is whether they will want to handle the program management themselves or outsource it to someone like Candy. From there, the Exhibitor should write out what it needs in a Request-for-Information, or RFI. The RFI is sent to a variety of exhibit houses to determine their capabilities and ability to fulfill the needs of the exhibitor. It will include questions about the Exhibitor’s show services, storage needs, technological knowledge, financial management, corporate philosophy, goals and values, creativity and experiential experiences, its network of support services, who they work with, etc. The responses help the Exhibitor to narrow the list down to three to four Exhibit Houses that they would like to have pitch the business.

It is an industry standard for exhibit houses to be asked to design on spec. This can cost them up to tens of thousands in design time, so it is important for the Exhibitor to have a clear vision of what it needs in a Request-for-Proposal. It should start with a marketing brief of how the trade show will fit into the company’s marketing mix and include the Exhibitor’s expectations when it comes to design, ROI (what they are spending to make a sale), what will be considered a success, marketing objectives, client relationships, experiences and memorability. Exhibitors should have a realistic budget as to what is needed to accomplish the project. Candy says most displays cost about $165/sq.-ft. Candy also recommends giving the Exhibit House 90% of what’s expected, and then hold back 10% for things they might want to add. Complex displays are often a mish-mash of what needs to be built, rented from the Exhibit House and rented by the show house. The information will allow the Exhibit House to determine if it wants to pitch the account.

Communication is Key

The people within Exhibit Houses have various core competencies. If you want to build a solid relationship with the Exhibit House, meet with the executive team to talk strategy, responsibilities and execution. Candy says no show goes perfectly, so always have a backup plan. If there is a fail on the part of any vendor, that vendor should get the bill, not the Exhibitor.

Final Thoughts

Candy’s big takeaway is do your homework when selecting an Exhibit House. Do the RFI to as many Exhibit Houses as you like, but don’t send the RFP to many. Keep it down to three or four. An Exhibit House is much more likely to pitch your business if it knows it has a 25 or 33% chance of winning it.

Connect with Candy

Email: candyadams@boothmom.com

Website: https://www.boothmom.com

Social Media: @TheBoothMom

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You may already know that Chick-fil-A is the third largest fast-food restaurant chain in the U. S. and that it ranks #1 in customer satisfaction. But did you know this year, the fast-food restaurant chain entered the ranks of the country’s most respected and revered companies at #51, ahead of Amazon at #54? This according to the Reputation Institute, a reputation measurement and management services firm. Kyle Bartz is one of the newest owners of a local Chick fil-A in Pewaukee, Wis. He joins #Brandstorm to talk about this great brand story.

About Kyle Bartz

Kyle didn’t even know what a Chick-fil-A was when he walked into one of the restaurants on the East Coast 11 years ago. But, when the local owner told him to come work for her and he might have the opportunity to own his own restaurant in a few years, he was intrigued with the possibilities.

Kyle worked for two local owners before going to work for Corporate helping owners to open new restaurants. He spent nearly three years learning everything he could about the business and what you needed to know to be an owner and leader. He then became part of an extensive selection process to determine which restaurant location would be a good fit. That took another year and a half. In April 2019, Kyle opened a Chick-fil-A in Pewaukee, Wis.

About Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A’s founder was S. Truett Cathy. Cathy started the business in 1946, when he and his brother, Ben, opened an Atlanta diner known as The Dwarf Grill (later renamed The Dwarf House®). Through the years, that restaurant prospered and led Cathy to further the success of his business. In 1967, Cathy founded and opened the first Chick-fil-A restaurant in Atlanta's Greenbriar Shopping Center. Today, Chick-fil-A has the highest same-store sales and is the largest quick-service chicken restaurant chain in the United States based on annual system-wide sales.

A quick fun fact about Chick-fil-A is how it got its name. Cathy called the first part Chick, because chicken was the primary food on the menu. The second part, “fil,” is about the cut of meat used, the filet, and the “A” stands for Grade A quality meats and produce that always come from the very best sources.

Opening the Chick-fil-A Way

Kyle said every Chick-fil-A opening is different for every new restaurant. Openings are tailored to the local community and what resonates with them, but Corporate always provides a lot of support for the owner. In Kyle’s case, his “opening” started on a Monday night with a Premiere Night. More than 100 residents were selected from a Facebook promotion and invited to sample the food and get a preview of what’s to come. On Tuesday night, Kyle had a Dedication Dinner, which was a private, catered event for his team in Pewaukee. Wednesday was the “First 100 Camp Out.” The first 100 to camp out that night were given a year’s worth of Chick-fil-A, or one meal a week. On Thursday, Kyle officially opened the doors to his new restaurant.

Finding & Training Talent

When you have a great brand story like Chick-fil-A finding talent is a little easier than it is for other fast-food restaurants. Kyle says he received about 1200 applications in the first, four months. Retail is a people business, so Kyle was looking for friendly people who weren’t just looking for a job. He was interested in finding people looking for a pathway to success, maybe even future ownership, like him.

Originating in the southeast in the 1940s, Chick-fil-A is somewhat new to the Midwest, and Wisconsin, in particular. Most of Kyle’s employees didn’t know much about Chick-fil-A and for many, this was their first job.

Kyle believes with his team, it is more about setting an example than it is training. The company has a what is called “Two Mile Service.” The first mile is the guest’s expectation. The second mile is what Kyle and his team do to go above and beyond a guest’s expectations. If the guest’s expectation is faster service, how do they make it faster? If politeness is the expectation, Kyle’s team makes sure they are doing everything possible to please their guests, carrying meal orders to their cars, keeping tables clean and refreshing drinks, as examples.

Kyle also says he has two buckets of “care.” The first bucket is for his guests and the second is for his employees. He gives stuffed plush cows and coupons to his employees and asks them to hand them to people who look like they are having a bad day or to make a child smile. He leads by example with his team, because if Kyle doesn’t care for his employees, how can he expect them to care about the guests.

Long Drive-thru Lines

Anyone who has driven by a Chick-fil-A knows that there are often long lines in the drive-thru lanes. While you might say this is a good problem to have, Kyle is trying to combat this issue by taking orders while the customer is in line, so their food will be ready when they get to the window. Chick-fil-A now has a mobile app people can use to order food before they get to the restaurant. And coming soon, the app will include tableside ordering inside the restaurant.

Closed on Sundays

Chick-fil-A has received a lot of bad press recently over being closed on Sunday. Some believe it is because its management is part of the religious right and are trying to politicize the company’s policy. The truth is when Cathy opened their grill in the 1940s, he and his brother kept it open 24/7. Out of exhaustion, they decided to close the grill on Sundays, and that tradition has been a part of the company ever since.

Kyle likes to think it’s good for a person’s mental health to have one day of the week where not one employee must think about the restaurant. And for some reason, the chicken always tastes better after being closed on Sunday.

Connect with Chick-fil-A and Kyle

Facebook: @CFAPewaukee

Hiring: nowhiring.com/cfapewaukee

Stop by the restaurant anytime and ask for Kyle.

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Today’s guests today have been podcasting with Platypus for nearly two years. Mary Motiff is the Director of Tourism for Bayfield County, which is located in Northern Wisconsin along the southern shore of Lake Superior, and Pam King is the executive director of the Grafton Area Chamber of Commerce, located just 20 miles north of Milwaukee. Both destination marketers have been using podcasting to share digital content about the goings-on in their communities.

About the Grafton Community

Grafton is the smallest county in Wisconsin, but Pam King says its location on the I-43 eastern corridor of the state makes it a convenient destination for people visiting Milwaukee or looking to stop somewhere while traveling to other parts of the state. It is located about halfway between Chicago and Green Bay, Wis.

Grafton is considered a retail hub for many. The first Costco and the first Meijer in Wisconsin are here, attracting residents and visitors on the weekends. The Inner Urban Trail, which is used for hiking, biking, and cross country skiing, traverses through the entire county and connects with Milwaukee and Sheboygan County trails.

Grafton is home to Blues Recording, where many Blues greats would come from Chicago to record their music in the 1920s. A lot of the architecture in the Village of Grafton reflects this history, including the Paramount Plaza, which is shaped like a grand piano and keys that are a walking “hall of fame” for Blues artists. The community is also part of the Mississippi Blues Trail. For these reasons and many more, Grafton’s podcast is called “Getaway to Grafton.”

About Bayfield County

Just the opposite of Grafton, Bayfield County is one of the largest counties in Wisconsin with about half of its land in public ownership. Its bounty of amazing natural resources include seven destinations listed as national designations. In fact, the Apostle Islands National Lakeshore, which consists of 21 islands and the southern shore of Lake Superior, attracts visitor from around to world to see its sea caves that turn to ice in the winter. Located at the top of Wisconsin, Bayfield County has some difficulty getting large populations of visitors to come to the area, but once visitors are here, they come back repeatedly for tranquility and rejuvenation from the hectic pace of big city life. It is a great area to connect with nature Its podcast is appropriately named “Bayfield County Wild.”

The Benefits of Destination Podcasting

Both Pam and Mary agree that their foray into podcasting has been well-received and the envy of their industry peers. In both communities, educating people about podcasting is important, because unless you are a millennial, most people don’t understand what it is. Pam likes to describe podcasting as a talk or radio show when people ask about it. Mary says it also helps to have her guests share the content on their websites and social media outlets once it has been uploaded to platforms like Stitcher and Google Play. She really likes the fact that she can dive deep into topics with podcasting. You can never get the same amount of information in a print, radio or TV ad and the cost is far less.

The people who listen to each podcast are invested in the content. Not everyone is interested in every topic, but they are interested in knowing more about the areas. Both women are building libraries of information that can be used and re-used as long as it remains relevant. Mary has had her marketing intern go through all of the podcast’s show notes to find and list all of the various topics so visitors can just scan the website for the topic they want to learn more about.

Another point that Mary makes is that destination marketing helps economic development. Communicating quality of life in the detail that podcasting can do is huge.

Using Professional Services for Podcasting

Wi-Fi can be spotty in Bayfield County, so with the help of Platypus, Mary has invested in equipment that allows her to record her interviews separately yet at the same time with her co-host Nancy Christopher at Platypus. The equipment lets her record tracks without using Wi-Fi, go on remote interviews off-site, and send the files to Platypus to be edited.

Pam uses the Platypus Studio for her guests. The facilities are comfortable and state-of-the-art, which makes a great impression on the guests. The staff is friendly and helps put the guests at ease. Retakes are allowed if someone makes a mistake and editing takes care of all the “ums” and “you knows.”

Quality, time and technology are the primary reasons both Pam and Mary use Platypus. Neither of these women have time to record, edit, upload and distribute the podcast. They also don’t have time to learn the technology nor the skill to produce quality podcasts. Platypus also provides clients with analytic reports to track and measure how each podcast is doing.

Challenges with Podcasting

While the benefits of podcasting outweigh the challenges, both women have struggled with some issues.

Pam says she needs to think big about topics. As the smallest county in the state, there are a finite number of topics she can do that are podcast-worthy. She and Platypus are solving this problem by going to neighbors outside the county and owning what’s going around Grafton. Summerfest may be 20 miles away on Milwaukee’s lakefront, but Grafton fills up every hotel room during the 11-day festival. Harley-Davidson events always draw scores of visitors from everywhere. And the Milwaukee Bucks and Brewers are close enough attractions to talk about in Grafton.

Mary says coordinating and scheduling her guests is always a challenge and sometimes technology issues can be frustrating. Mary keeps a spreadsheet or content calendar for all of her shows to help keep her organized.

Connect with Mary and Pam

Mary Motiff

Go to the Bayfield County website at www.travelbayfieldcounty.com. Her contact information is available in the right-hand corner.

LinkedIn: @mary-d-motiff

Pam King

Email: pam@grafton-wi.org

Website: Grafton-wi.org

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How can you get noticed when your brand is in a crowded space and you are just a small fish in a really big pond? Our guest today says you can play that to your advantage. Prentice Howe is the owner and CEO of Door Number 3, an Austin ad agency and author of the Empowered Challenger Playbook, a book that looks at how brands can change the game, steal market share and topple giants.

5 Brand Personality Traits

Most people are drawn to products that bring good things into the world through innovation or better business practices. Prentice says there are five personality traits that inspire the voice and tone of a brand.

• The Lightning Rod. These brands are super authentic and even polarizing to some consumers. Like a lightning rod, they are in tune with what’s going on in our culture.
• These are the brands that have the ability to look out over the horizon and bring to market what people need ahead of others.
• Fostering Rejection. Brands in this category aren’t out to please everyone. They have a specific, cult-like following around a singular passion that make the consumers ardent fans.
• Compulsive Servitude. These brands overdeliver. In fact, over-delivery is the very essence of the brand. Prentice says FedEx and Ritz Carlton are great examples of compulsive servitude. FedEx changed shipping overnight and Ritz Carlton knew what we wanted to have in our hotel rooms before we even asked for it.
• Constant Evolution. These brands are able to transcend product categories because they are trusted and respected by consumers. Prentice says Shinola is a great example of a brand in constant evolution. The company started in 2011 making beautiful watches. Today, they are a luxury goods company, making leather goods and bicycles.

Operating with a Challenger Spirit

Of course, not every brand can be an empowered challenger. You have to be honest about who you are. What do you offer that others don’t and can you deliver that experience? You also need a solid strategy with a road map of how to get there and how to zig when the competition zags.

The Empowered Challenger Playbook

Prentice believes anyone who is a founder or CEO, a chief marketing officer or just someone involved in marketing a brand would enjoy his book, The Empowered Challenger Playbook. He calls it a positioning book and includes interviews and case studies of companies that mirror the five personality traits discussed. The book is available on Amazon and at the Book People store in Austin, Texas.

Connect with Prentice How

Website: DN3Austin.com

LinkedIn: @PrenticeHowe

Instagram: @Prenticehowe

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Being this first, the only, the most unique is obviously a great advantage for brands trying to get the attention of its customers. It’s also easier said than done. Michael Greenberg, is the CEO of Call For Content and author of the Authority Marketing Playbook. He says he uses strategies to develop unique, niche-specific, quality content that is engaging and delivers new customers.

Call for Content

Call for Content is a podcasting agency primarily focused on creating B2B content market for use in lead generation. Over the years, Michael says podcasting has proven to be the most effective tactic for lead gen, resulting in his company moving to podcast-based strategies for the company’s clients.

Developing Content

Michael believes it’s critical to develop a strategy that connects with the client’s customers from the start. He uses direct customer research that is both qualitative and quantitative and combines both to develop ideal customer personas. Call for Content will audit the client’s current materials and conduct one-on-one interviews with up to five of the client’s customers to find out what they want to know. The interviews are typically followed by a survey and additional talks with people who fit the client’s ideal customer personas but are not customers. This research typically costs $2,500 and takes about six weeks. For clients interested in making an investment in lead generation using content, keeping the price low initially is good because it gives the client time to get to know Call for Content before the content creation begins.

Too many companies make content for use in SEO or sharing it in newsletters, but what they should really be looking at is who they should be creating content with to bring in new customers. The content should help open the door to new relationships and partnerships that will attract new customers. As an example, Michael says you might consider positioning your podcast by interviewing ideal clients for your business or creating a series with tech leaders who serve the same industry.

Podcasting is an effective way to generate content even if it isn’t part of a podcast show. And if the client’s target demo includes millennials, Gen Zs, tech-savvy or highly educated individuals, there is a good chance there are not enough listeners for a podcast series to make sense. The audio content created from the podcast, however, can be used to create written content and be re-purposed for use in blogs, videos, newsletters, social media and other vehicles...all in the voice of the client’s authority figure – the person who speaks to your target audiences as an authority.

Authority Marketing

The size of a company plays a big role in determining who will be its authority figure. If the company is small, say 20 to 30 employees, the authority must be the owner or founder. Companies with 150 or more employers might be able to use division heads or a VP of sales and marketing. If the company has 1,000-plus employees, there may be an entire team working full-time on the podcast.

Michael has three labels for authority figures. Best-in-Class includes the person who has a proven track record in his or her field of interest. The Simplifier is the person who uses a podcast to make things simpler for everyone and the Innovator does things by going against the grain. This person has become successful using unconventional tactics.

Michael talks about authority marketing in two ways: specialization and relativity. The more you can niche-down or specialize in an industry, the easier it is to build authority. Michael points out that it is difficult to build authority if you are trying to be an expert in digital marketing. However, if you are trying to be an authority in lead generation using Facebook ads for dental practices in middle market cities, you can become an expert in just a few months.

Authority is also relative. The only people you need to be an authority for are the people who will actually buy your product or service.

Useful Tools in Creating Content

There are many, but Michael likes using Google Docs because it lets you collaborate with others in real time and get instant feedback. He also likes using Otter.ai for transcriptions. For about $70 - $80 per year, you can record phone calls and have conversations transcribed.

Connect with Michael

The best way to connect is to go the website, callforcontent.com, and look for the chat widget in the righthand corner. Select “office hours” and schedule a time to talk with Michael.

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In a time when trade or business news publications are struggling to survive, one company is killing it. Industry Dive publishes business news and analysis for executives through dedicated sites and email newsletters. What Industry Dive does may not sound sexy, but its revenue stream is turning heads. On this episode of Brandstorm, Industry Dive’s Robin Re, VP of Marketing, talks about Industry Dive’s successful business model.

Industry Dive’s Story

After years of working together in digital media, Industry Dive’s founders Sean Griffey, Ryan Willumson and Eli Dickinson began to notice a consistent trend. They saw that, while mobile devices were changing the way people worked and consumed information, traditional business media content models, user interfaces and marketing programs were slow to adapt.

In 2012, they launched Industry Dive to meet the needs of busy industry executives: providing insights and analysis to help them do their jobs. Its first five publications included Construction Dive, Education Dive, Marketing Dive, Utility Dive and Waste Dive.

Five years ago, today’s guest, Robin Re, joined the company to contribute to its growth. Today, there are 16 publications with another two planned to launch this year, its reach has expanded to eight million professionals and its revenues have grown to more than $20 million.

Competitive Differentiators

As Industry Dive’s name implies, the journalists dive deep into the business news headlines to not only report the story, but to provide insight and analysis of what the information means to its readers. Its editorial is 100 percent independent with a staff of 66 full-time journalists.

Robin cites competition, change and capital as its formula for deciding which vertical markets to enter. The industry must already be covered by a niche media group, be subject to continual change because of technology and regulations, and have a large, capital spend.

Revenue Generation

Industry Dive’s newsletters are free to its readers and 100 percent ad-supported. Banner ads are less than 10 percent of its revenues. They don’t use programmatic ads, but sell directly to its advertisers using lead generation campaigns and direct response vehicles that include email platforms and high-end content like playbooks and webinars. Its sales force are more like consultants who sell “sponsorships” based on the goals of its advertising partners and craft campaigns that speak to its valuable niche audiences. Results are also evaluated primarily on the number of leads or downloads generated and not impressions.

The company expects to reach $29 million in revenues in 2019 and will employ about 150 by the end of the year.

Connect with Industry Dive:

The best way to communicate with Robin is to subscribe to one of its publications at: https://www.industrydive.com/industries/ She responds to everyone who writes to the publication.

Robin's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robinselvy/

IndustryDive's LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/company/industry-dive

IndustryDive's Twitter: https://twitter.com/industrydive

Robin's Twitter: https://twitter.com/robinselvy

IndustryDive's Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/IndustryDive/

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Our guest today is a healthcare evangelist and international healthcare industry expert. Tanya Abreu pioneered the planning of the first network of freestanding breast health centers in the greater Pittsburgh area and the establishment of more than 75 model women’s health education and primary care clinics around the world. As a healthcare marketing innovator, Tanya is also a successful speaker, author and workshop leader.

Tanya’s Background

Tanya began her career in education as a business communications professor in the Graduate School of Industrial Management at Carnegie Mellon University. She went to Russia to teach American English at Moscow State University. While there, Tanya got excited about being able to change a healthcare system with terrifying technology into something more humane. She came back to the U.S. to partner with Magee-Womens Hospital in Pittsburgh, where she took part in the transformation of women’s health through branding and outreach.

The CEO at Magee, Irma Goertzen, believed women feared coming to the hospital in the inner city for a breast image knowing there was a possibility that she might have cancer. Goertzen believed the hospital’s responsibility was to care for women. She spent millions setting up freestanding breast care clinics within the communities where the women lived. The clinics eventually expanded to provide pelvic health and heart disease prevention.

When Tanya left Magee, she started her own company called Spirit of Women. In this role, Tanya worked with C-suite executives to help them reevaluate how they presented healthcare to women. She is now involved in the Lipstick Alliance movement and is the national director of the Women’s Choice Award.

Creating Successful Healthcare Brands for Women

According to Tanya, there are distinct differences between men and women when it comes to healthcare. Men are more action-driven. They want to know what they have and what to do. Women often shun wellness care because it takes them away from their families’ needs. It’s not that women fear the disease, they just don’t want to have it now because they must stop what they are doing.

Women make more than 85 percent of all healthcare decisions for their family. Tanya says for hospitals and health groups to grow its brand with women, they need to capture the “heart” share of women before the money.

The biggest mistakes that healthcare providers make is trying to fix women. Women don’t want to be fixed. They want to be listened to and encouraged. They want to know about the experiences and quality of life other women have had. Taking a grassroots approach to healthcare marketing is paramount. Patient testimonials, community events and social media are more important to women than advertisements and billboards. It’s all about patient and community experience communications.

With 30 years in this industry, Tanya has always believed hospitals that support and encourage women are the ones that will have their loyalty and generate revenue. After her own experience with cancer, she realized there was more. She realized that much of what she had been doing was lip service to women wanted to hear. She didn’t want to be controlled, she wanted to be encouraged. She wanted hope, not more medication.

The Lipstick Alliance

These days, Tanya is working with hospitals to form the Lipstick Alliance. Statistics show that 83 percent of women put on lipstick daily to make them feel good. The Lipstick Alliance is about wellness every day for women.

Tanya wants it to be a movement that gets women thinking about doing something healthy every time they put on lipstick, lip gloss or chapstick. She hopes that one day the lipstick icon will be as recognizable as the red dress is for heart health and the pink ribbon is for breast cancer awareness. The Lipstick Alliance is about wellness every day for women. The national program is market exclusive, so there can only be one hospital per market in the U.S. Hospitals don’t have to apply, but they must be focused on wellness. They must also agree to use the organization’s 1-4-12 strategy which includes templates, education materials, content and a national awards program for organizations that build relationships with women that result in increased revenues.

Tanya says they are reducing the fee for the first 20 hospitals and that the program is typically less than $3,000/month.

The Patient Experience

Two things are pivotal in healthcare branding for women. She must feel she is being listened to and heard, and not just filling out a bunch of paperwork. She also needs to feel more encouraged when she leaves the hospital or clinic than when she came in. And the experience must be positive.

As an example, Tanya says heart disease is the number one killer of women, yet one in five women in their 50s have had a baseline heart evaluation. Why? She says it is because women fear the results. Healthcare groups and hospitals need to find ways to educate and motivate women in a fun way. Among her many ideas, Tanya says to invite women to a heart day event at a hospital where women can get a free echo-cardiogram. If the hospital is part of the Lipstick Alliance, they can hand out free lipstick when they are done.

Wellness Care is in Vogue

Hospitals can’t continue to be acute-care facilities. Tanya says they need to start focusing on wellness, incentivizing doctors and providing telemedicine, but only if it is part of a total wellness experience. People have a tendency not to tell everything to a healthcare provider online. Without complete records of the patient, diagnosis can be risky and often incorrect.

Women’s Choice Awards

Tanya’s newest role is as the national director of the Women’s Choice Awards. The award is third-party verified and 100 percent objective about a company or hospital’s quality measures in patient care and service lines. The seal says the organization has been approved by women and has the objective standards of quality and healthcare capabilities for patient satisfaction.

Connect with Tanya

Phone: 561-358-5230

Email: tanya@optimisticmedicinegroup.com

LinkendIn: @tanyaabreu

Facebook: Lipstick Alliance

Website: www.womenschoiceaward.com

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Work is supposed to be fun and games at Punch Bowl Social. The company calls its experiential food and beverage brand a “delectable collection of unequaled music, food, games, and beverages.” While in Milwaukee for the grand opening of Punch Bowl’s 16th location in the U.S., the V.P. of Marketing, Scott Sibley, chatted with #Brandstorm about its unique concept.

What is Punch Bunch Social?

Punch Bowl Social is an unusual name, but it harkens back to the Victorian era when people gathered around the punch bowl to socialize. It has everything fun…food, arcades, karaoke, beverages, old school gaming and a 360-degree bar. There’s really nothing out there with the scale, size and diversity of Punch Bowl Social. Its 20,000+ sq. ft. facilities are eclectic in design – kind of a combo of holiday lodge, Victorian mid-century, modern and industrial design. However, each location is also different with references and connections to its community. In Milwaukee, for example, its love of lakes, beer and German heritage can be felt throughout the space. The private Karaoke rooms have Liberace, Cheese and Space Cowboy (Steve Miller Band) themes that are all definitely hometown Milwaukee. Each location has old school gaming, but some of the games can be unique to the town. While most people call the game “Yard Yahtzee,” in Milwaukee, it’s called “Farkle.”

Punch Bowl is also about positivity and good luck. The number 9 is a positive number, so its founder, Robert Thompson, wanted a name with nine letters. All of his kids have names with nine letters, too.

Marketing Punch Bowl Social

Punch Bowl Social is corporately-owned and its primary targets are millennials and Gen Z. It's signature event when it enters a new market is to organize a big kick-off party. The company typically engages the help of a local PR in each market to help them connect with the community several months in advance of the opening and to handle publicity for the opening. Its unique concept, scale and size make it newsworthy in every market it enters, but the company also uses paid media to generate awareness.

Punch Bowl Social also begins hiring and training staff at least six weeks to two months out from the opening. It has a corporate training team that works with new hires to learn its zone service concept.

In addition to Milwaukee, Punch Bowl Social has openings in Dallas, Ft. Worth, Washington, D.C., Salt Lake City, Phoenix, Miami and Austin this year. In 2020, it is planning to open in Pittsburgh and St. Louis.

Connect with Scott:

LinkedIn:https://www.linkedin.com/in/scott-sibley-5915284

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/punchbowlsocial

Website: punchbowlsocial.com

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How do you go about getting your products in shopping feeds? On this episode of #Brandstorm, meet the co-founder and chief architect of Feedonomics, an advanced shopping feed management system that easily lets you import, optimize, and feed products to multiple channels like Google Shopping, Amazon, eBay and just about anywhere else.

What is Feedonomics?

Brian Roizen and his brother never set out to create a shopping feed management system. They were both working at an ad agency and were responsible for getting their clients’ products on online shopping channels. Out of frustration with having to work with clunky, legacy feed platforms that needed far more scale, had bad customer service and lengthy contracts, the brothers wondered what would happen if they changed the product data around?

Almost immediately, their clients’ products started showing up in feeds. By using rich keywords that people search for in the product titles, descriptions and other attributes of products data, they were able to get the products to perform better.

It was a Eureka moment and the start of a new company. Feedonomics is now a full-service feed platform that works with 30 percent of the top 1,000 retailers. Its 110 employees provide 24/7 support with offices in the U.S., Australia, Canada, India, Philippines, South Africa and the United Kingdom.

Getting Started

Large or small, if you are a retailer with prices and inventory that change frequently, Brian says it makes sense to be working with a feed management system. Feedonomics charges a flat, monthly rate that usually runs about $200 - $300 and there are no contracts to comply with. Ad spending is over and above the monthly fee and is handled by the client or ad agency. Feedonomics simply manages shopping feeds.

To get started, Feedonomics needs a way to get your product data into the system. The company has created dozens of application-programming interfaces, or APIs, with the most common e-commerce platforms like Shopify, Magento and Square Space. If you are still working with a legacy feed platform, Feedonomics can crawl your website to create the feed as well. It typically takes about three weeks to go live.

Feedonomics works with just about every advertising channel and marketplace in existence, including search channels like Bing and Google Shopping, remarketing channels Facebook and AdRoll, affiliate channels like Pepperjam and Commission Junction and even the shopping behemoths like Amazon.

Connect with Brian

Email: Brian@feedonomics.com

Website: https://feedonomics.com/

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“Know Your Customer.” It’s the mantra of GlobalWebIndex (GWI), a company that creates and administers the world’s largest survey on the digital consumer, representing 2.5 billion consumers in 45 countries. On this episode of #Brandstorm, we talk to Chris Hopkins, a sales development representative at GWI, about how to use its massive database to build out consumer profiles.

Humble Beginnings

Founder Tom Smith started GWI in a room in his house. Today, GWI has locations in New York, London, and Greece. He previously worked for MRM/McCann in the strategy, analytics and insights department. About the time social media emerged with MySpace and Facebook in 2006/07, clients began asking how they could get research about what consumers were doing and how they were interacting online. As an entrepreneur and visionary, Tom Smith left the agency to develop his own business model and dashboard. He reached out to thousands of potential clients about his company, but only needed one to take off. In 2009, Microsoft came on board as his first client and has been with GWI ever since.

The GWI Model

GWI creates its own surveys on a quarterly basis using panel providers around the world to administer them to consumers. Fresh, new respondents are used every quarter. The company’s goal is to gather the full digital life of a consumer. In additions to demographics, it also focuses on psychographics to understand the attitudes and behaviors of consumers, including purchasing habits, online activities, media consumption, interactions with brands and how much time people spend on Facebook versus Twitter.

Chris says the company offers its services primarily to advertising agencies, publishers and brands. The GWI platform, which is subscription-based, brings the data together and gives clients the tools to run their own research with the help of its team. The client provides the who and what and GWI gives the how and why.

With 35,000 data points, the dashboard can validate and segment audiences, and be used to collect data for new business pitches, avoid stagnation and find new growth opportunities. Chris tells us about Welch’s Grape, a company that had typically targeted women because it believes moms or females were the primary food shoppers. Using GWI, Welch’s discovered the primary shoppers were males and dads and were able to build a new campaign targeting them.

Connect with Chris

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/christopherjhopkins

 Email: chris.hopkins@globalwebindex.com    Phone: 646-565-7116

Website: globalwebindex.com

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What do you do when you work in tourism and realize your state is dead last in places people want to visit? You come up with a new campaign! Nebraska revealed their state’s new slogan back in October. It immediately went viral for its honesty and self-deprecating humor. In this episode of #Brandstorm, we talk to the Nebraska Tourism Commission’s Executive Director, John Ricks, and the campaign’s Creative Director, Kirk Ruhnke, about its origins.

Nebraska…honestly, it’s not for everyone

From the moment this campaign hit the newsstands, it was a viral sensation. John says the campaign was built from the outside-in based on extensive research that was done with visitors outside the state of Nebraska. Folks from Denver, Kansas City Minneapolis, Wichita, and Des Moines gave their honest opinions about the state and it wasn’t good. For one, many people did not recognize Nebraska as being in the leisure travel category, and even worse, there was brand apathy. No one even cared.

They needed a slap in the face to change the negative perceptions of Nebraska. As creative director, Kirk was able to do this so eloquently by acknowledging those negative perceptions and then giving them a unique hook to talk about very positive things in a humorous, self-deprecating manner.

John says they also used values-based marketing, and the value they landed on for Nebraska was honesty...a humble culture with a unique sense of humor. They found those quirky things about Nebraska and transcended them into things to see and do.

No campaign can convince everyone, and according to Kirk, they aren’t even trying to. If you are one of Nebraska’s out-of–state neighbors and you like to explore and find quirky things to do, the state welcomes you.

Campaign Reaction

When the campaign was first revealed, the state’s major newspaper, Omaha World Herald, did a poll to see how Nebraskans felt about the campaign. John says 75 percent were for it. There was some pushback, but it was mainly people who felt the campaign made fun of the state when in fact it did just the opposite. The media gave a lot of print space and air time to explain the campaign thoroughly. Stories appeared in the Washington Post, on CNN, the Stephen Colbert Show and NPR’s “All Things Considered,” to name just a few. While the Tourism Commission has a $6.6 million budget, the state has earned $7.2 million in free publicity, and it hasn’t spent a dime yet on advertising.

Is it Working?

In addition to the millions garnered in earned media, John says there is hard evidence that the campaign is working well. Nebraska has a 1% lodging tax and so far, this year, revenues are up by 5%. Its biggest seasons, spring and summer, have only just begun.

Back in the Wisconsin Days

John, Kirk and Nancy worked together on Wisconsin tourism in the late 1980s. Although the two state campaigns are quite different, they remember working on another successful tourism campaign targeting Chicagoans. The border between the two states was once called the “tension line.” Chicagoans crossed the border into Wisconsin for leisure time and relaxation. Billboards strategically placed along the states’ borders simply read, “Wisconsin. Chicago’s State Park.”

The Nebraska tourism campaign officially launched on April 1. You can see the print and TV ads in Denver, Wichita, Kansas City, Minneapolis, Des Moines and Sioux Falls.

Connect with Nebraska Tourism Commission:

Website: VisitNebraska.com

Email John Ricks: john.ricks@nebraska.gov

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What’s the secret to a great radio campaign? If anyone knows it is today’s guest. Having written, directed and produced more than 1,000 award-winning national and international radio spots, Dan Price is the president, owner and partner at Oink Ink Radio, the oldest and largest radio ad agency in the U.S.

Oink Ink Radio

What’s the story behind the name Oink Ink Radio. Honestly, Dan wishes it was funnier. When Dan left a New York-based production company to join another in Los Angeles, both companies got into a heated legal battle over him. Dan decided to go on his own with the name “Ham Radio.” The Internet was barely invented at the time, so he was initially unaware that there was another company, also based in New York, doing the same thing with the same name. Having already created the artwork, logo and rubber pig noses to promote his new company, Dan realized their company name had to be at least pig-related. Hence, Oink Ink Radio.

Impact of Technology on Radio

Dan says the newest technology impacting what they do is short form and dynamic radio. The short form forces the writer to create an ad so simple, it can easily be understood in 5- to 15-seconds.

Dynamic radio is a little more complicated. It’s the real-time compilation of an audio spot on the fly using data points like weather, time of day, or day of the week. It can be highly targeted depending on who is listening, on what device, the activities they are participating in or the music they enjoy. New, highly customized spots are created by selecting pieces of audio with these various recorded data points and assembling them together instantly. Dan says it’s an incredible way to be more relevant and is something that traditional radio is not yet able to do.

Other new audio platforms include streaming, podcasting, sonic branding and soon-to-be voice command and in-car. In Dan’s opinion, traditional radio will never die, but it will be consumed differently.

Four Elements to Great Radio Copy

No radio spot should ever be produced without achieving the following:

1. It needs to immediately gain the attention of the listener.
2. It must tell a relatable story to engage the listener.
3. It should solve a problem using the product or service.
4. Must reward the listener for the time they gave the ad in a creative or clever way.

Dan provides three radio spots that demonstrate the effective use of these elements.

Talent is also critical. Oink has a rule that all scripts are written to the half-second before they go into a studio to record. Most scripts come in much shorter than standard spot times, so that more time is spent with the talent and less on trying to cut precious seconds to make the copy fit.

Ad Budgets

While Dan works with larger brands that do not have as many concerns over budget, Dan believes clients should invest more on the front end creating the radio spots, perhaps spending 15 percent of the media budget instead of 5 percent. This is particularly true when the client is spending a lot of money on the backend to advertise.

The State of Radio

Dan says radio is here to stay and is arguably the hottest medium at the moment. Radio is intimate, personal and very powerful. If he was to predict the next advances in audio advertising, Dan thinks it will involve interactive voice command and connected home.

Connect with Oink Ink Radio

Oink Ink Radio Twitter: twitter.com/OinkInk

Oink Ink Radio Facebook: facebook.com/OinkInkRadio/

Oink Ink Radio LinkedIn: linkedin.com/company/oink-ink-radio/

Dan Price Facebook: facebook.com/dan.price.940

Dan Price LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/danpriceoinkink/

Dan Price Email: daniellem@oinkradio.com

Dan Price Phone: 212-334-5800

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When the craft brew industry took off, it wasn’t surprising to see a new industry emerge…the craft brew pub. One of the more interesting franchise concepts is Growler USA Kitchen & Taphouse. Its president, John Kutac, talks about its success in this episode.

The Growler USA Concept

“True to the Brew” is the Growler USA® Kitchen & Taphouse trademark. The concept combines America’s interest in craft beer with the power of franchising. Its visually stunning display of up to 100 taps, featuring regional and local microbrews, is delivered to its customers the same way it is at the brewery. Growler USA uses the same specs, including the equipment, pressure and delivery system, that is used at the brewery.

These beverages are complemented by a chef-driven menu in a comfortable, neighborhood atmosphere.

Currently, there are 31 locations in 19 states, including Hawaii. Started in Eugene, OR, the Growler concept has gone through several iterations. The original concept was literally a Growler Filling Station for customers to get beer to go. One of the founders, Steve Hurt, visited the location, was intrigued by the concept and bought it. Growler USA then morphed into a tap house with a limited kitchen to what it is today. Just recently launched, it is now officially named the Growler USA Kitchen & Taphouse and is a full-scale restaurant with 100 regional and local taps.

The Franchisee Profile

Most of the early adopters of Growler USA were beer makers who had been home-brewing for decades. Today’s franchise owners are more typically entrepreneurs who are investing in partnerships and treating it more as a business operation. John

says most of the franchise owners are driven and have excelled in the professional arena in some way. Despite their accomplishments, John believes the best franchise owners are the individuals who can check their egos at the door. He encourages owners to be honest, know their limitations, and hire and train people to fill in the necessary gaps.

Training & Certifications

Once the franchise agreement has been signed, John says the owners go through a university set up for about a week to learn about the software system and real estate and construction process. Then, they through three weeks of hands-on training running the back of the house, or kitchen, for two weeks and spending the last week training at the front of the house.

Just prior to opening, the franchisor sends in its own team…one who works in the kitchen with the employees and another who works with the servers and beer-tenders in the front of the house. Leading up to the opening, there are bi-weekly phone calls and lots of testing along the way.

Every employee is also required to get a Cicerone Certification, a program to educate beer professionals in a way that elevates the customer experience.

The Local Flavor

Johns says finding local microbrews to fill 100 taps is almost never a problem. Most cities and towns have three to six distributors that handle all the craft beers in the area. Distributors and microbrews are very supportive of the Growler USA concept because of its “true to the brew” attention to detail and focus on USA craft beer breweries. Like the microbrews, Growler USA pubs are ensconced in their communities. Events, fund-raisers, clubs and tastings take place almost every night.

Franchise Investment

Investments will vary depending on the real estate footprint but is typically between $600,000 to $900,000.

Connect with John

Email: john.kutac@growlerusa.com

Phone: 303-210-1419

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-kutac-56a0621/

Company Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/growlerusafranchise/

Company Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/growler_usa/

Company LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/growler-usa/

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Exhibiting at trade shows is a great way to build your brand, meet new customers and strengthen the relationships you’ve already made. Unfortunately, small businesses often avoid trade shows because they cost too much. Maybe you’re a startup business that has never exhibited before, or maybe you’ve managed a show before, but it didn’t produce the results you expected. In the first of two parts, on this episode, we talk to Candy Adams about best practices for putting on a profitable show. Candy is so experienced at producing trade shows, she affectionately known as the Booth Mom.

Candy Adams

Candy was affectionately nicknamed the Booth Mom by a booth staffer in the early ‘90s for her nurturing personality and knowledge of the trade show industry. First and foremost, she thinks of herself as a mama bear, protecting her clients against unscrupulous individuals at trade shows who prey on rookies. Always looking for value for her clients, Candy never spends a penny where she doesn’t have to. When she began freelancing in 1996, she realized her nickname was actually her brand, so she officially registered her nickname as the Booth Mom.

Duties of the Booth Mom

Candy says her primary duty is leading clients through the trade show maze. Do they understand their target market? What is the brand they want to project? What trade shows are where their customers are? What kind of exhibit will be the client’s face and how will they display the brand? What is the key message to people who come to the show? What will the staff to say, and what will be the company’s return when the show is over?

Candy believes the biggest mistake companies make at shows is in the pre-planning. It starts with what is the return-on-investment (ROI), the return-on-objectives (ROO) and the return-on-relationships (ROR)?

ROI is the company’s goal at a trade show. Is the goal to sell product and if so, how much and is it worth it? Most companies go to shows to build relationships.

ROO refers to a company’s marketing objectives. Are you at the show to educate, do you have a new product or are you trying to get to the press because you have a great story to tell?

ROR is what you need to do to get to the people with whom you already have a relationship with or want to create a relationship with.

According to Candy, if you haven’t solidified the ROI, ROO and ROR in your mind, and prioritized them, you shouldn’t spend a dime on a trade show.

Another duty of Candy’s is acting as the exhibit manager on behalf of a client at the show and auditing the bills after the show. Most people don’t know what goes on at a trade show. Candy is there to not only get the exhibit up, but to work with and understand union rules so she can coordinate with all of them and make sure the laborers are at your booth at the right time. It’s pricey to have labor hanging around your booth at $130 to $250/hour. She also watches the labor force, keeps track of the paperwork on site and signs off on tasks. Candy says 75 percent of the bills given to her at a show are erroneous.

Booth Mom’s Secret Weapon

Candy learned early on that having candy bars to hand out at a trade show isn’t enough to get people to do what you want. Homemade cookies are her “friend-maker.” Candy makes 40-dozen cookies before a show, including oatmeal, peanut blossoms and chocolate chip cookies, with or without chips. She also makes turtle brownies, peanut butter brownies and soft, buttermilk sugar cookies and then packages them in small plastic snack bags to bring to the show. It is not surprising her exhibits are up and running smoothly before other exhibitors.

Trade Show Training

Candy orchestrates two types of training at a trade show. The orientation involves getting the staff ready for a show and making sure they know where everything is and how they work.

The other training is boothmanship. To Candy, every show is a play with a script. The company has built a stage, the staff are the actors and the props are the videos, graphics and other tools onsite.

Training involves knowing:

• What to say when people come to the booth

• Why the company is there

• Icebreakers

• The company elevator speech

• The what’s new elevator speech

• The qualifying questions

• The 3-minute presentation

• The recap

• The close, which involves saying just enough to get people to schedule a follow-up meeting.

• Entering and prioritizing leads

Training is necessary because the booth staff’s biggest competition is time.

Available Resources

Candy is someone who will tell you everything she knows. Her website has an exhibitor’s resources page with everything from surveys and checklists to templates and show plans.

Fees

Candy charges $140/hour, with a 4-hour minimum of $280/hour. Most of her clients save more than her fee when outsourcing her services.

Final Advice

Candy has two words: Strategize and Prioritize. Why are you going to the trade show? Keep focused on the ROI, ROO and ROR and then prioritize spending. Know what is going to happen at the trade show before you go to see an exhibitor company. If you don’t, the exhibitor is likely to sell you something that is aesthetically pleasing, but functionally awful.

Connect with Candy

Phone: 760.271.0366

Email: candyadams@boothmom.com

LinkedIn: @candyadamstheboothmom

Twitter: @theboothmom

Website: www.boothmom.com

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Milwaukee ranks #30 in population among U.S. cities, yet is home to four professional sports teams – the Milwaukee Bucks, Milwaukee Brewers, Green Bay Packers (Green Bay is not a TV-metered market) and Milwaukee Wave arena soccer. That’s a lot of pro sports in a city with a population of almost 1.6 million. But there’s also a fifth team, the Milwaukee Admirals, a professional hockey team for the American Hockey League and an NHL farm team for the Nashville Predators. On this episode, Milwaukee Admirals President tells us how the team competes in a medium-sized market with so many pro teams.

Jon Greenberg

Jon Greenberg has been president of the Milwaukee Admirals for 14 years. He previously worked for the Milwaukee Brewers for 22 years, starting as a bat boy and working his way up to media relations director. Milwaukee Admirals Owner Harris Turer offered Greenberg the role of president and a blank canvas to build the organization and lead the marketing, PR and business efforts.

Milwaukee Admirals

As a member of the American Hockey League (AHL), the Admirals are the equivalent of Triple-A baseball team. They are the farm team for the NHL’s Nashville Predators. When the Predators need a player for any reason, a player from the Admirals is moved up to the NHL. All 31 NHL teams have an AHL farm team, and very soon, Seattle will be added to the roster.

Greenberg believes the reason the Admirals can survive in a city full of professional teams is because Wisconsin loves sports, and every sports team has found a place and fan base within the Milwaukee community. The Admirals also keep their ticket prices low and family affordable and make the experience at a game undeniably entertaining.

Three years ago, the Admirals decided to make the Panther Arena it's new home. The 9500-seat house is a great size for Admirals hockey. Greenberg says they had their first sold out game last season, and this year, the Admirals introduced the Admirals 365 promotion, a membership for season ticket holders that allows fans to pay for their tickets over 12 months.

Creating the Admirals Experience

When Greenberg first began building his business team, he gave each employee a copy of Mike Veeck’s book, “Fun is Good.” Greenberg says he may not have any control over the hockey game itself, but when fans come to the Panther Arena, his staff provides entertainment from the beginning of the game to the end. Customer service is key, so this year, Greenberg and his staff have initiated the Admirals Awards, a wooden coin with the inscription, “Thank you for creating a great experience” that is handed out when management finds out about or sees an employee doing something good.

The Admirals have a great sponsorship base that allows them to do lots of promotions. Sponsorship is an opportunity for smaller companies to get involved in sports marketing without paying the high price tag of professional sports. Sponsors have lots of opportunities to engage with fans as all 38 games in a season are treated as 38 different shows.

The Admirals begin each season with a brainstorming session, where everyone comes up with crazy ideas. Sometimes they get the inspiration for their ideas from other AHL teams, like the Admirals Dog Days, which is also done in San Antonio, or from visiting other Triple-A baseball teams. Greenberg says they also have also a Blue-Ribbon committee of 4 to 5 members, that does not include Greenberg or the Admiral’s owner. The committee’s sole responsibility is coming up with new ideas that might include a “Salute to Candy Corn” or a “Salute to Hot Sauce” just for the fun of it. Its Human Hockey Puck” promotion has been a fan favorite since the Admirals first began and has been tried by many other teams as well.

According to Greenberg, the Admiral’s are the gold standard of entertainment in the league. The league’s AHL Fan Appreciation Award, which began in 2008, has been awarded to Greenberg’s team three times.

Next year is the Admirals 50th anniversary, and we can only imagine they will be pulling out all stops for this celebration.

Connect with the Milwaukee Admirals

Phone: 414-227-0550

Email: milwaukeeadmirals.com

Facebook: @mkeadmirals

Twitter: @mkeadmirals

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On this episode of Brandstorm, Co-hosts Dan Trzinski and Nancy Christopher are joined by Rob Brennan and Tyler Schmidt, two digital marketing specialists at Platypus Advertising + Design, to talk about geofencing and OTT. We’ll find out the benefits to marketers and how it is used in advertising.

What is Geofencing and OTT?

Geofencing uses location-based technology, like GPS or WiFi, with mobile devices like your smart phone to serve messages to consumers within a targeted geography or area of high relevance. A geofence is a virtual perimeter around a real-world geography. It could be one or more physical locations like a store, a zip code or even the addresses of those on an email list. When someone with a mobile device enters that targeted location, the geofence acts as a trigger to serve an ad. Its uses in advertising are endless...from promoting a product or service with special discounts or offers and encouraging visitors to go to a special attraction to inviting people to your booth at a trade show or pampering your fans with loyalty rewards, for example.

OTT stands for “over-the-top,” the term used for the delivery of film and TV content via the internet, without requiring users to subscribe to a traditional cable or satellite pay-TV service like a Comcast or Time Warner Cable. OTT and Geofencing work well together. You can set up fences within homes with streaming devices like Roku, Apple TV or Amazon Fire. Advertisers can follow consumers based on specific demographics and criteria no matter what they are watching.

Benefits of Geofencing

Relevancy and value are the biggest benefits of geofencing, according to Rob. If you have done your homework and know your target audience, it is possible to serve the right message to the right person at the right time. The more defined your target audience is, the more relevant your message will be to them.

Value is also significant. Geofencing allows marketers to deliver massive amounts of impressions to targeted audiences at a fraction of cost of traditional media. In the Milwaukee area, the cost is typically between $7 to $10 per thousand, but it will vary in other markets.

Targeting Audiences

While advertisers can target customers using demographics like age, gender and household incomes, Tyler says geofencing enables you to dive deeper using contextual search, interests and purchasing, browsing and behavioral history. With this criterion, advertisers can get specific. For instance, if you are in a car wreck, you might receive messages from a rental car company, a car dealer, an auto shop, or a personal injury attorney.

Privacy Issues

Your phone is a GPS unit. While you can limit the number of in-phone apps you are using, you can never be completely off the radar. Smart phones can still be tracked even if all location services and GPS have been turned off. If you want complete privacy, Rob suggests that you buy a burner phone.

Questions to Ask Your Geofencing Vendors

There are a lot of media outlets, including television stations, radio stations, billboard companies and newspapers, getting into geofencing as an extra revenue stream. There is nothing wrong with this, however you may be spending more for your services going through second, third and fourth parties who are reselling the service. Ad agencies, like Platypus, have direct access to data providers.

Secondly, digital marketing in general is not the primary service these media outlets provide. Ad agencies, like Platypus, have digital marketing specialists like Rob and Tyler, whose sole responsibilities are working with you to develop campaign strategies and manage your ad accounts every day.

So, here are two important questions to ask your potential vendor:

1. What is your company’s core business?
2. What is your access to the data provider’s inventory? Are there any limits or competitive disadvantages when bidding on the inventory?

ROI

Geofencing can be easily tracked based on what you need to measure success, be it the number of impressions, click-thru-rates or number of conversions. The real exciting point is that it answers an advertiser’s question of whether a consumer has seen an ad and responded. It can actually track a potential customer going into your business and making a transaction. And geofencing works no matter what size your company is. For as little as $2,000/month, you can achieve amazing results.

Connect with Rob and Tyler

Rob Brennan:

Email: rob@platypus-ad.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/robertpbrennan/

Tyler Schmidt:

Email: tyler@platypus-ad.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tyler-schmidt-18306a28/

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About Gary Lancina

Gary Lancina is no stranger to marketing. Prior to joining Mercury Marine in 2016, Gary worked for SC Johnson’s marketing department. Gary promoted personal care brands using a strategy known as influencer marketing. Influencer marketing involves a forming a relationship with an influential person to strengthen a brand’s identity on social media or in-person. Gary has established a wealth of these relationships, from connections in the automotive field to minor league hockey teams and the NFL. Gary currently serves as senior director of Global Brand and Influencer Marketing Strategy at Mercury Marine.

Authentic Agendas

Gary says that influencer marketing is all about creating productive, mutually beneficial relationships with potential customers. Utilizing well-vetted influencers within an industry has proven to be an ethical and successful way to increase awareness and product sales. Finding appropriate influencers are both an art and a science. Gary explains that when scouring social media for new relationships, individuals with a big following aren’t always the most sought-after trait. While finding someone who emits a trustworthy, authentic perspective is crucial, you also have to carefully look at their audience’s characteristics. Having an overly bloated or broad follower base can lead to weaker engagements or an inappropriate demographic altogether.

Connecting with Influencers

When Gary first began utilizing influencer marketing, he created relationships through the use of agencies who helped broker introductions. The influencers many of these agencies brought in weren’t always in tune with the demographics Mercury Marine was looking for. Gary says in marine sporting, history or legacy in an activity or industry is the key to reaching the audience you are catering to.

The smaller population of advocates and enthusiasts with marine interests isn’t as cutthroat as other fields, making it feasible to introduce relationships and opportunities to specific people without the use of an agency. Gary says that once a strong relationship is formed with an influencer, other leads follow in the form of referrals.

Local Influencers

Mercury Marine’s reputation and legacy helps reach everyday people who fit the profile of the company’s influencers. Whether it be fishing guide services or pro fisherman, most enthusiasts are familiar with the Mercury brand. Creating relationships with these earnest, local aficionados can be tremendously successful in stimulating awareness, loyalty and purchases in many regions. The person-to-person contact initiated by on-the-ground advocacy is just as important as positioning a brand alongside a popular online influencer.

Maintaining Relationships

The nature of influencer marketing requires establishing and maintaining relationships. Gary says keeping open and clear channels of communication is crucial. Hearing the perspective of an influencer and keeping an open dialogue about the relationship also helps prolong and strengthen a relationship. Gary says the longevity of relationships is extremely important, and at Mercury Marine some of these connections have lasted for decades.

Success Metrics

Social platforms allow for content-creators to access a bounty of valuable statistics and data. Analytics like click-throughs, views, screen-time, sources of traffic, activation methods and location data help determine the effectiveness of the relationship. Tools like Crimson Hexagon also give detailed insights into demographics and audiences. Location analytics allow a detailed look into how word-of-mouth and social posting alone can generate buzz in a region. In all cases, building trust and evoking feelings for your brand without diluting the integrity of your brand is certainly considered a measurement for success.

Connect With Gary

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/glancina/

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How do you keep a business going, when your service or product is seasonal? David Lepak owns a pest control service called Mosquito Joe of Waukesha County. He shares his journey to buying a franchise and building a customer base of 600 in the first year.

About Dave and Lynn Lepak

Lynn is a registered nurse and Dave is a recovering politician. After downsizing their home, the couple wanted to get into a business where they could help people. The idea for getting into the Mosquito business came after throwing a party on their new outdoor deck. As the sun started to go down, the mosquitos came out, forcing everyone to go inside their smaller home. After that experience, the Lepak’s learned the mosquito was a dangerous predator, causing the most deaths in the world. They also discovered mosquito control was a “thing.” They originally worked with a pest control franchisor that proved to be non-responsive to their needs. Then, they discovered Mosquito Joe and became the first Mosquito Joe franchise in Wisconsin in 2018.

Mosquito Joe

Mosquito Joe has just under 300 franchisees in the U.S. and they all treat only mosquitos. The company has a Barrier Spray Program that uses three products. The first product is sprayed around the property’s problem areas to deter flying pests. A second product is sprayed on foliage to kill mosquitos, followed by a third spray that inhibits reproduction. The first treatment eliminates 75 to 80 percent of all mosquitos, and more than 90 percent by the third treatment. Treatments typically last three weeks, so having a regular treatment program is best. All Mosquito Joe products are low toxicity, but there are also all-natural products available made from garlic extract or rosemary and peppermint that have no toxicity but are not as effective.

The Mosquito Joe Difference

David says the real difference in his pest control service from competitors is customer service. The company spends lots of time with its customers finding out how they use their backyard so that they can be effective. Mosquitos are the only thing Dave’s company treats, so they strive to be the best at mosquito control.

Running a Seasonal Service

Mosquito season in Wisconsin may only be 5 months max, but according to Dave, it’s a year-round business. During the off-season, David spends the time evaluating the last season and making improvements, maintaining vans and equipment, restocking products and marketing materials, and updating customer lists. While profit margins take a hit in the off-season, Dave keeps revenues coming by offering attractive deals for customers who renew and new customers who sign up for the next season in advance. Staffing is also a challenge in a seasonal business, although David typically targets college students and places a heavy emphasis on training.

Advice for Franchise Seekers

If you’re looking into purchasing a franchise business of your own, David has this advice:

• Call as many franchisees as you can and make sure you get answers to all of your questions
• Do some vetting of your own regarding the leadership team, finding out how long the organization has been in business, how much turnover there has been within the company and what kind of operations and marketing support it provides the franchisee
• Get to know the franchisor and support staff by visiting the headquarters
• Understand the franchise contract in totality because you can’t change it
• Be passionate about your business. Don’t just dial it in.

Connect with David Lepak

Phone: 262-232-7570

Email: waukeshacounty@mosquitojoe.com

Facebook: @MosquitoJoeofWaukeshaCounty

Website: https://waukeshacounty.mosquitojoe.com/

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Out of Home (OOH) advertising continues to get creative, finding more ways to be where people are conducting everyday activities. On this episode of Brandstorm, Dan and Nancy talk Jake Johnson, VP & national sales director at All Over Media in Minneapolis to find out what’s new in OOH ads.

OOH Advertising

OOH, or outdoor media, is advertising that reaches consumers while they are outside their homes. It focuses on connecting with people while they are on the go in public places…on mobile vehicles that include trains, trucks and buses, wallscapes, gas stations, and in waiting rooms, bars and, bathrooms. Highly visual and strategic, OOH has the advantage of being where people are at, while traditional media is more passive. People aren’t always able to read the newspaper, watch TV or listen to the radio. In addition, OOH is beneficial to advertisers in cities and communities that are heavily zoned, as in Washington, D.C., or have changing landscapes, as in L.A. or Malibu.

All Over Media

Headquartered in Minneapolis, All Over Media offers a variety of OOH assets that target people during their daily lifestyle activities. The company has offices in Los Angeles, New York, Chicago, Miami, Dallas and Seattle, and has recently expanded in Canada and France.

Creative OOH Uses

The use of OOH is typically creative-driven. While some clients come in with an idea using OOH, Jake says All Over Media often serves as a consultant, offering recommendations based on the markets and target audiences. OOH continues to evolve and is beginning to be more interactive with consumers. During NBC’s Billboard Music Awards, for example, an ad for Ariana Grande’s latest release involved the use of a hand-painted mural at the street level featuring a live, social influencer in the music industry, named Alicia. Jake believes the more consumers can touch, feel and experience an ad, the better, so we will be seeing more ads using 3-D printing and more interaction with ad itself. The use of ads that interact with social influencers and social media will be more prevalent in the future.

Pricing OOH

Jake says pricing varies depending on the market and OOH format. The company will typically use cost-per-thousands or CPMs or use comparison pricing with similar OOH formats. Other OOH pricing, like gas station ads, are simplified using a collection of averages for numerous locations. Multiple gas stations, for example, would be priced the same per unit despite its location.

Connect with Jake

Email: jake.johnson@allovermedia.com

Phone: 612-327-5225

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/jake.johnson2

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jake-johnson-3a44322/

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To be relevant in business, it’s all about the customer experience. On this episode of Brandstorm, Dan and Nancy talk to a man who makes a living keeping people happy. Joe Bravo is the Bars and Entertainment Director at the Hard Rock Hotel in San Diego and is responsible for creating memorable experiences for guests.

About Joe Bravo

Prior to coming to San Diego a few months ago, Joe worked at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas, where he oversaw the iconic Rehab Beach Club. Joe started his career working at Studio 54 in Vegas at the height of the nightclub boom. He went on to work for Pure Management Group in Vegas and the MGM Grand in Detroit, before joining Hard Rock.

Creating a Memorable Experience

Every Hark Rock Hotel has its own personality. Las Vegas is a gunfight because of the extreme competition. There is literally gigantic entertainment on every corner. San Diego is more laid back; however, Joe is hoping to bring some of that high-octane entertainment to the city with beach parties, pool concerts and parties that encompass the entire hotel. According to Joe, creating a memorable experience starts with boots on the ground and hiring a great line level staff. It’s Hard Rock’s best recruitment tool, best advertising and best road to success. Second, that line level staff must be trained and given the knowledge to let guests know what’s going on at the property. There’s nothing more frustrating to Joe than creating these great experiences and not having the information channel down to the line level. If you don’t have a good line level staff, you will never be successful.

Hard Rock Hotel Customer Personas

Joe says Hard Rock is the fourth strongest brand in the world, especially in Europe. The organization has five types of customers: people who come to buy Hard Rock pins, t-shirts and other memorabilia; people who are loyal to the brand; people who remember the Hard Rock of their youth; people who recognize Hard Rock as a trendy brand that always has something going on; and more recently, people who enjoy the nightlife, pool concerts and parties. Joe is currently focusing on San Diego’s beach club, called Sunburn. Sunburn attracts 1,500 to 2,000 people every Saturday with a pool party featuring world-class DJs.

Ideation

Those great experiences and parties at Hard Rock are typically initiated by internal staff, however sometimes they do get help from two companies in San Diego, called RMD and Party Naked. Joe says most events are planned four months in advance and start with determining what kind of guests they want to attract, then circling in on the talent and figuring out how to get people there.

Capturing Great Images

To capture the energy and excitement at Hard Rock events, Joe always has a great photographer onsite. When staged events are needed, they go for the best lighting, atmosphere and weather available. Nothing is ever contrived or overproduced. Images must look organic. Lastly, you have to have talent. You need the best people onboard planning and taking the images.

Customer Feedback

Customer feedback is Joe’s life’s blood. After all, people only remember the very special and bad experiences. Joe focuses on the bad experiences because it is his opportunity to turn a customer into a longtime fan. While the customer is not always right, you can never tell the customer he or she is wrong. The key is to pivot and turn a bad experience into a positive one. Ninety percent of all complaints are fixable and controllable, so this is the cornerstone of Joe’s management style. What frustrates him the most is not knowing about a problem until it’s too late to do anything. His mantra for room managers is too never let any complaint get off the deck. Deal with complaints in the rooms, because if they get to the front desk, it’s over. At Hard Rock, the mission is to have every guest leave with a great story to tell back home.

It has been said that 80 percent of CEOs believe they deliver a superior customer experience, but only 8 percent of customers agree. To combat this problem, Joe says upper management needs to spend more time on the floor engaging with guests and employees. Inspect what you expect is another Joe Bravo mantra.

Secret shopping, sometimes using outside services or planting friends on the property, is another way to find out if employees are following policies. However, employees can often sniff out a secret shopper, so it is still recommended for management to spend more time on the floor.

Taking the Good with the Bad

As you can imagine, Joe loves his job. Who wouldn’t enjoy making people happy, right? The hardest part of his job, though, is time management. Sometimes there is just not enough time in a day to plan, create and execute great experiences, while carrying on the day-to-day responsibilities. And when any event is over, Joe says its critical to be a “Monday morning quarterback” to determine what went well, what didn’t and how things can be improved. His staff typically meets four days after an event, so they have time to rest, digest what happened and come up with fresh ideas.

People want to be entertained and that can happen anywhere. Joe says people will flock to the out of the way and unexpected places if once they get there, they enjoy their experience. You just need to know and then deliver what people are looking for in any market. To quote the movie Field of Dreams, “if you build it, they will come.

Connect with Joe

Email: joe.bravo@hardrock@hardrockhotelsd.com

Phone: 702-810-8996

Facebook

LinkedIn

Twitter

Hard Rock San Diego

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An educated and knowledgeable employee is a happier employee, according to our guest on this edition of Brandstorm. Kyle Lacy is the VP of marketing at Lessonly, a modern team-building software company based in Indianapolis. The company provides online training software for those in sales, customer service, and any other customer-facing role. Its biggest customers include the retail, telecom and software industries.

The Six Pillars of Training

The mission at Lessonly is to help people do better work so they can live better lives. In most cases, companies supply Lessonly with training information and materials, while Lessonly provides the platform for learning.

The customer experience is what makes any company relevant. Kyle says the three most important steps to training success is for employees to be able to learn, practice and perform. The software not only offers training lessons, but it also enables employees to repeatedly practice what they’ve learned right within the app. Management can then review and provide immediate feedback about the employee’s performance.

Conversely, leaders within an organization must be able to plan, build and assess an effective training program. Companies provide Lessonly with what they want to accomplish and Lessonly makes it happen through numerous training tools, including video, email pitches, ZenDesk tickets, audio for phone calls and open practicing. According to Kyle, the biggest measurement of how well Lessonly’s software works is in the onboarding process, where the time it takes to train new employees can be cut in half.

Do Better Work Book to be Released in February

At Lessonly, employees live the brand every day, marketing the company from the inside out. The company’s CEO and President are both only 30 years old and according to Kyle, wise beyond their years in how they care about employees. In February, Lessonly will release a book based largely on the soft skills that they practice and their approach to leadership, including vulnerability, appreciative inquiry and comradery. To sign up to receive a copy, go to the company’s website, lessonly.com, and click on the “Do Better Work” page.

Connect with Kyle

Email: kyle.lacy@lessonly.com

LinkedIn: @kylelacy

Twitter: @kyleplacy

Company Website: www.lessonly.com

Company LinkedIn: @lessonly

Company Twitter: @lessonly

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Bike Share programs have been popping up all over the U.S. In some cases, bike sharing has become necessary because motor traffic is too dense in the city, or there is a parking space shortage, like in Milwaukee. On this episode of Brandstorm, Executive Director Sally Sheperdson talks about the bike share program in Milwaukee, called Bublr. Started in 2014, Bublr’s affinity and awareness in the community is through the roof.

Bublr Beginnings

The concept of bike sharing is simple enough. Anyone can pick up a bike at a bike station, ride it to anywhere in the city, then return it to a bike station, where someone else can use the bike again.

According to Sally, Bublr was the brainchild of three locals. Two are avid bikers and the other is a community organizer. Bike share programs have a variety of funding models, but they wanted Milwaukee’s to be a nonprofit...a program of and for the community.

The original name was Midwest Bike Share, which was incorporated legally with the IRS, but everyone wanted something different…a name that was short, catchy and memorable. With the help of local ad agencies and marketing professionals, the second name they came up with was Mke Bikes. It still wasn’t good enough. The group eventually agreed on Bublr, which is an insider reference to something only Milwaukeeans would know (water fountains are affectionately called bubblers in this town). It also links the program to water, something Milwaukee has in abundance. Even the color, which is a signature Robin egg blue (Wisconsin’s official state bird), connotes water.

Cost Structure

The Milwaukee area currently has 87 bike stations and 700 bikes, however, with additional grants, Sally says they should have more than 1,000 bikes by 2020. Ninety percent of the funding for Bublr comes from the four municipalities it serves, including Milwaukee, the Village of Shorewood, Wauwatosa, and West Allis. Each community has received federal dollars from grants that stem from clean air and alternative transportation initiatives. The remaining 10 percent comes from corporate donations and promotion. Since Bublr is a non-profit, it is not able to charge the true cost of the program, so prices range from $4 for 30 minutes to $15 for a monthly pass with unlimited 60-minute rides to $80 for the year. An $8 access pass is available to participants in Milwaukee’s food share and housing authority programs and a 24-hour, $24 pass has recently been launched. Bublr has also come up with an integrated transit pass for the bus and bikes call Buslr.

Responsible Citizenry

While there have been a few thefts and some vandalism to the bikes, Sally says it is rare. People recognize the blue bikes as Bublr and will report where they are when they see them. The kiosks also have computers that let the Bublr shop know when bikes should come in for maintenance, and if anyone runs into any trouble, like a flat tire, all they need to do is text Bublr and someone will come and get them.

Looking to the Future

Sally says her main goal is sustainability and growth. A national statistic claims the best distance between bike stations is 1500-ft. because most people don’t want to walk any farther. That leaves a lot of room for growth in Milwaukee. And unfortunately, federal funding only goes to communities that apply for the grants, so there are a lot of gaps between cities.

Connect with Sally Sheperdson

Phone: 414-530-3785

Email: sally@bublrbikes.org

LinkedIn: @sallysheperdson

Twitter: @sallybublr

Website: www.bublrbikes.org

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Are you confident enough to know what to say in a crucial moment? On this episode of Brandstorm, our guest will help you speak and be heard. Julie Loeding is a certified corporate trainer of “Crucial Conversations” and a management and marketing instructor at Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC), as well as a former Miss Wisconsin.

What’s a Crucial Conversation?

A crucial conversation can happen at the workplace or in your personal life and evokes strong emotions, has high stakes and involves opposing opinions. It is also the name of a book, training program, and certification created by Vital Smarts, a global leadership training provider out of Utah. Its researchers spent 35 years studying and identifying the best performers within organizations and how they effectively handled different situations. That wisdom has been parlayed into a bestselling book and 16-hour training program.

The Anatomy of a Crucial Conversation

In most organizations, Crucial Conversations start with senior leadership and then filter down through the entire company. Every organization has problems, but Julie says the most successful ones talk about them. According to Julie, you must separate emotions from the facts and start with heart. What do want for yourself, the other person, your relationship or company? It forces you to take the focus off yourself. Time, place and safety are also important for conversations. Julie admits her favorite place is in the car where there is no opportunity to escape, but if you are in a meeting and see someone is shutting down, smiling or getting angry, stop and address that emotion. Ask them what they are feeling. Be tentative in your actions and ask for feedback. For example, “I’ve told you some of my concerns. Now I’d like to hear from you.” At that point, be quiet and listen. You can also try priming, which involves asking a question in different ways. You can solve problems faster when the conversations are open and end with an action plan.

Lastly, Julie says there are conversations that can end up in a downward spiral, where emotions derail the conversation. In these cases, stop and step out of that conversation. Take a timeout. Acknowledge that things are not going well and perhaps start over or apologize or try contrasting by pointing out your original intent versus what just happened.

Why Crucial Conversations?

Julie endorses Crucial Conversations because of its real-life scenarios, online components, videos and tools to help organizations and individuals work through difficult situations. The 16 hours can be done intensely over a couple of days or over several weeks depending on the organization’s schedule. Costs are typically determined by the number of attendees and the trainers’ fees.

Connect with Julie Loeding

LinkedIn: @juliealoeding

Phone: 262-691-5317

Email: jloeding@wctc.edu

Vital Smarts: https://www.vitalsmarts.com/

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John Kuehl’s biggest argument with his wife was deciding where to eat. According to John, you can search the Internet to find just about any product, but when it comes to food, you get a list of places. That got him thinking, what if you could search what kind of food you wanted? Better yet, what if you could articulate what you were in the mood for - something that’s comforting, gluten-free or savory? John’s answer was a new website called Hankr.com. He joins us on #Brandstorm to talk about how he hopes someday hungry people will say, “let’s Hankr that.”

The Hankr Way

Different than a review-based platform like Yelp, Hankr puts food first. It’s an aggregator that helps you in the early stages of the decision process. Hankering for tacos? Search the internet and you’ll get dozens of pictures of tacos. Click on the picture and you’ll discover where you can go to get that taco. Hankr offers true-to-life, quality and consistent visual representations of the food that you will see at that restaurant every day.

Helping the Restaurateur

John is on a mission to help destination marketers, restaurant owners, hoteliers, sports venues and resorts be more successful. He formerly worked at TravelWisconsin.com and says that while food venues are valuable content for Destination Marketers, getting restaurants to provide content and assets for a community’s website is challenging. Restaurants must be on Yelp, but John adds they are losing attention and search traffic to Google. Hankr is countering by providing unique, relevant content that is a better experience for visitors. Depending on a food venue or restaurant’s needs and capabilities, John’s company can provide the photographers, shoot photography and do all the content and tagging on the website. Hankr also partners with Eat Street (a Madison-based food delivery service) to provide food delivery in the markets it serves, including Milwaukee, Madison, Minocqua and Cedarburg in Wisconsin, plus Richmond, Va., New Brunswick, Conn., and others.

Connect with John Kuehl

Email: john@hankr.com

Website: https://www.hankr.com

LinkedIn: @johnkuehl

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In the heyday of bowling, Milwaukee was known as America’s “Ten Pin Capitol”. When enthusiasts weren’t out playing for fun or in leagues, they were at home, tuned in to the Professional Bowler Association (PBA) tour on ABC. When the popularity of the sport began to wane near in 1980s, bowling alleys closed shop and took once-thriving leagues with them. Although the golden age of bowling has long passed, the Commissioner of the PBA, Tom Clark, believes it is making a comeback.

State of the PBA

Tom Clark is celebrating his tenth year as commissioner of the PBA and still has the same enthusiasm for the sport as the first day he played. Every Wednesday, Tom plays in his own league, playing alongside his peers. Early on, his peers may have been intimidated by who he is, but Tom believes his peers just view him as a fellow bowling enthusiast.

It is no secret that league attendance is down. In today’s world, our lifestyles aren’t conducive to the commitments needed to participate in a 36-week bowling league. In 1997, the decline of the sport’s popularity affected its once gargantuan media presence when ABC ended its relationship with the PBA Tour.

Upgrading PBA’s Image

The PBA recognized the need to modernize bowling’s image to appeal to a variety of lifestyles and began to curate its image to make both the watching and playing experience more desirable. Upgrades to bowling centers, improved accessibility to the sport on television and streaming platforms, as well as the promotion of entertaining events have all helped bring the sport back into the limelight. Tom says over 70 million Americans bowl at least once a year and more than 25 million bowl more than once a year.

In 2000, the PBA Tour franchise was purchased by some prominent members of the tech industry. Chris Peters, of Microsoft, was such a fan of the PBA, he partnered with two other members of the tech industry to give the dwindling sport a second wind. Tom says if it wasn’t for them, bowling wouldn’t exist as it does today. Relationships with media outlets such as ESPN flourished while aggressive investments to the league's infrastructure and venues were made.

But, it wasn’t just the money that helped modernize the league. The advantage of having tech-oriented owners allowed the league to implement a variety of high-tech upgrades in the early 2000s. One of the paid services, Extra Frame, reached over 10,000 subscribers at its peak.

A New Look

Tom says his job changes every day. This year, his primary directive was to elevate PBA’s media rights and find partners in the digital and TV world. Moving from ESPN to FOX was one of the largest transitions resulting from his goals.

Not only has the sport’s media presence evolved, but the way of playing the sport has as well. Players like Jason Belmonte are leading the charge with new playing styles, using two hands to throw their ball. New, upgraded bowling centers are also evolving, offering appealing amenities like craft cocktails and awesome lighting setups, encouraging curious bowlers to join a league. Tom tells us part of the inspiration for the PBA’s aesthetic overhaul comes from the lively Bayside Bowl in Portland, Maine. The PBA is committed to bringing pro bowlers to non-traditional bowling venues like Bayside Bowl to keep the events fresh and exciting around the country.

What’s Next for the PBA?

Like most sports, player sponsorships are a large aspect of the bowling business. Tom tells us why he thinks PBA players are an untapped market for corporate sponsorships. One goal Tom has set for the PBA is for every player to eventually have an agent.

Tom also discusses the frustrations of bowling being barred from the Olympics. Despite having a strong chance to participate in the 2020 Tokyo games, primarily because of the sport’s popularity in Japan, the Olympic committee opted to include sports like surfing and roller-sports instead of bowling. Despite not being in the Olympics, Tom is proud of the PBA’s partnership with World Bowling, an international organization recognized by the Olympic Committee as the official governing body for bowling sports. Tom says the PBA World Series of Bowling remains a popular broadcast and the best evidence that bowling should be included in the Olympics.

Connect with Tom Clark

PBA Website: https://www.pba.com/

PBA Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pbaofficial/

Tom Clark Email: tom.clark@pba.com

Tom Clark Twitter: https://twitter.com/ClarkPBA

Tom Clark LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tom-clark-9486824/

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This week’s Brandstorm guest is a globally-recognized speaker on leadership, culture and marketing, the author of “The Content Book” and the CEO of Marketing Insider Group. His marketing prowess has captured the attention of The Guardian, Entrepreneur Magazine, and The Economist. Michael Brenner joins #Brandstorm to talk about content marketing strategies and how marketers can be more engaging with consumers.

The Content Pool

Contrary to what we may think, Michael says no company suffers from a lack of content. They just need a strategy behind it. Marketers tend to want to promote what they think is awesome about the brand, but not what consumers want. He calls it “marketing myopia,” or useless propaganda. Every product has a need to fulfill and a problem to solve. Brands simply don’t spend enough time talking and gaining trust about the problem, but they do like to talk about the solution they are selling. As brand marketers, we need to spend 98 percent of our time talking about the problem and owning it. The bottom line, be helpful, educate and inform.

Content Marketing Tools

Michael’s predicted trend for 2019 is to have the ability to personalize content at the right time to the right person. His recommended tools for making content marketing easier are Buzzsumo, which allows you to type in any website or keyword and it will show the most shared content for that site or keyword. He also recommends answerthepublic.com. Click on “content marketing,” type in a keyword and the site will tell you all the who, what, when, where and how questions people are asking about that keyword. Michael also says AI-driven or Power Content Marketing tools are getting a lot of buzz these days.

Connect with Michael Brenner

Linked In: @michaelbrenner

Website: www.marketinginsidergroup.com

Facebook: @michael.b.brenner

Email: michael_b_brenner@msn.com

Twitter: @BrennerMichael

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This week’s Brandstorm guest has been in radio for more than 50 years and during much of that time, @John Sebastian was programming radio stations. He’s programmed almost every format, including Top 40, Smooth Jazz, Kick Ass Rock, Country and Classic Rock, and targeted just about every demographic -- 12 to 24, 18-34, 25 to 54 and 35 to 64. John Sebastian joins Brandstorm to talk about his new format for 55+ listeners, a demo he believes is the most undervalued, most underappreciated and in his words, most unexploited demographic in America.

The Radio Programming Mastermind

John’s peers have called him the radio programming mastermind, but John says the “mastermind” is in his mix of music. He thinks of himself as more of a “radio programming contrarian.” He’s always been a rebel in radio programming, taking the road less traveled when formatting music. When he programmed Top 40 music in the late 60s, he’d pepper the mix with edgier music like “Cashmere” by Led Zeppelin, added New Age and European Electric music to the Smooth Jazz format or played Jackson Browne, Bob Seger and The Eagles on Country stations.

Formatting for the 55+ Demo

John says his age, experience and success in programming makes him the perfect person to come up with a format for the 55+ demo, which is primarily those who are age 55 to 72. A Baby Boomer himself, John says historians call 1968 and 1969, when he started in radio as a deejay, the best years in music history. During the 70s, John programmed Top 40 music for the 12-24 demo, who were also boomers. In the 80s, he programmed Kick Ass Rock, for 18 to 34-year-olds. By the 80s and 90s, John was formatting for the 25-54 demo on a New Age and Classic Rock station. As the Boomers continued to age, John found himself programming for a Country station targeting 35-64-year-olds. He literally grew up working for the Baby Boomer generation.

Marketing to Radio Stations

Having just started to sell his format to radio stations, John can’t divulge much about his 55+ mix, although you certainly get the picture. And while he faces many challenges, the biggest being talking to young executives in their 30s who don’t yet see the potential and finding many radio stations unable to invest in new formats due to heavy debt loads, John is optimistic. He believes the 55+ format will help radio execs and ad agencies return to the days when they made money. The Baby Boomers are the largest age population, next to the Millennials, but the Boomers have the most wealth and they grew up listening to radio. On the surface, this all makes perfect sense, right? Listen in to hear more.

Connect with John Sebastian

Phone: 480-305-3962
Website: johnsebastianvoice.com
Email: johnsebvoice@gmail.com
LinkedIn: @john-sebastian

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What would you do if your business suddenly lost its largest distribution platform? Brandon Bruce, COO and co-founder of Cirrus Insight, was thrown a curve when his company’s application was removed from the SalesForce App Exchange, its largest distribution outlet. While this blow might signal the end of most application’s lifecycle, Cirrus Insight’s branding and unique lead generation capabilities kept the app alive and well.

What is CRM?

Salesforce’s Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platform allows salespeople to track their correspondence with clients, providing them with valuable data about leads, trends and relationship advancement. CRM systems typically require a significant amount of manual data entry, especially in regard to email correspondence. Brandon explains how this additional work required by most CRMs hurts user adoption, ultimately leading to a CRM’s failure. Software Architect and Co-founder Ryan Huff saw an opportunity to develop a Salesforce plugin that automatically maintains record of these communications, while connecting with email and mobile devices without leaving Salesforce.

Cirrus Insight

Prior to starting Cirrus Path, the parent company of Cirrus Insight, with Ryan Huff, Brandon worked in the advancement department at Maryville College in Tennessee. When Ryan approached Brandon with the idea of Cirrus Insight, Brandon’s background in both sales and CRM systems immediately told him they were onto something. Cirrus Insight lives inside of a browser plugin that automatically transmits data from Google Suite and Office 365’s calendar to the Salesforce ecosystem. Cirrus Insight launched on the Salesforce App Exchange in 2011 with great success, becoming the #1 application ranking on the app exchange for five months in 2012. The massive growth and success of the application even caught the attention of Inc. Magazine, placing them on the Inc. 5000 List three years running, peaking at #41 in 2016.

Leaving the App Exchange

Despite their high rankings, large userbase and stellar reviews, Cirrus Insight was removed from the Salesforce App Exchange without warning. Brandon shares his thoughts on how companies launching within somebody else’s sandbox should anticipate and prepare for critical situations like this, and how despite losing Cirrus Insights’ biggest distribution platform, it also opened the door to exciting, new opportunities with customers

Supporters of Hope

One of the greatest satisfactions for Brandon is finding good people with great ideas. Cirrus Path is always looking for the next opportunity, nurturing entrepreneurs primarily in the tech industry, showing them the company’s playbook for success and helping them launch their own businesses. In the tech world where there always seems to be “an app for that” to make life easier, Brandon cautions that this is not always true. Sometimes there’s no replacement for hard work, so you just have to hunker down and do the work, even if it’s manually. To those interested in seeing for themselves what Cirrus Path has to offer, Brandon invites you to be a guest at his weekly company lunch on Fridays if you are in Knoxville, Tenn.

Connect with Brandon Bruce

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandonbruce
Email: brandon@cirrusinsight.com
Website: https://www.cirrusinsight.com/

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On this episode of Brandstorm, Dan Trzinski and Nancy Christopher talk to the owners of Containers Up. Lyle Stoflet and Tom Daugherty had an ingenious idea. What if they could make a bar that could be shipped anywhere they wanted, and people could rent or buy them for private parties or corporate events? With these thoughts in mind, Lyle talked Tom into buying a 20- by 8-ft., upcycled shipping container for themselves and placing it on the street in front of Lyle’s house for a neighborhood block party. Everyone loved it. No one came inside Lyle’s house, and when it was over, the container was taken away. A new company was born.

Containers Up

Less than two years old, Containers Up is a premier designer and renter of customized, upcycled shipping containers. Earlier this year, the Milwaukee BizTimes awarded Containers Up the IQ Award for Innovation.

Containers Up has 10 rental units in Milwaukee and a few more units in Nashville. The containers are an alternative to renting tents or other structures for company events, trade shows, parties and wedding receptions, especially when it comes to mobility. Containers Up provides the vessels for your party or event, and you create the theme. The back wall of the container is a blank canvas for you to decorate, label or brand.

The containers can be set up in as little as 15 minutes and plug into any outlet like a toaster. Each unit holds about 35 people under the roof with sides that flip up like awnings. Some of the customized features include built-in taps, LED and accent lighting, a complete audio system, TVs, places for food, a full bar, ice tubs, seating and more. Guests receive an unforgettable experience and when the party’s over, the container is picked up and taken away.

Selling the Business

According to Lyle and Tom, the containers sell themselves. When people see the mobile party bars at events, clients can typically come up with their own ideas for how they want to use them. Their biggest challenge is finding good employees and navigating through the permit process, so they can educate their customers. The units can be leased for as little as one day or up to a year, if needed. They can even be customized and purchased. Peak times for Containers Up are usually during the summer months from Memorial Day Weekend through Labor Day weekend, but with all the corporate events and trade shows, they are quickly becoming a year-round company with the ability to do up to 10 events a day.

Connecting with Containers Up

Email Lyle or Tom through the website at https://www.containersup.com/

Lyle Stoflet Email: Lyle@containersup.com

Tom Daugherty Email: info@containersup.com

LinkedIn:

@lyle-stoflet

@tomdaugherty

Facebook: @containersup

Twitter: @containersup

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Finding a captive audience to deliver your advertising message is always challenging. On Episode 51 of Brandstorm, Becky Colman of Fuel Montana Media tells us why Gas Pump TV is an effective way to reach consumers with relevant, local content.

Getting Started

Business ownership has always interested Becky Colman. She tells us how she became a part of Fuel Montana Media and why it seemed like an exciting and innovative way to get into business ownership. We learn how Gas Pump TV works and why Becky believes maintaining a strong relationship with your clients is so important in this industry. Becky also discusses how she is planning to expand her business without compromising the personal service that makes her company successful.

Contracting Content

Creating relevant and engaging programming at the pump is critical. Becky says Fuel MT Media contracts with their local CBS affiliate to provide news, weather and sports. Ads are typically provided by the advertiser; however, Becky does have a partnership with a production company to create ads when needed. Ad lengths can vary, but Becky prefers 15-second ads at the pump. The ads are interspersed with news, weather, sports and comedy to provide a five-minute loop of content, which is the average time consumers spend at the pump.

Effectiveness of Ads

Becky says she’s biased, but she gets consistent, positive feedback from her clients about the effectiveness of gas pump advertising. Advertisers can be strategic in determining the location of where the ads run and in which daypart. Some advertisers can tie in with products that they sell at the gas station, offering discounts at the pump and there is technology being developed to deliver coupons to your mobile device, although it is currently not recommended to use mobile phones by the gas pump.

For advertisers looking to buy time at the gas pump, Becky says Fuel MT media also advertises their contact information at the pump or you can contact Becky personally with the information below.

Connect with Becky

Website: www.fuelmtmedia.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/becky-colman-81a3317/

Fuel MT Media LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/fuel-mt-media/

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On Episode 50 of Brandstorm, Hosts Dan Trzinski and Nancy Christopher discuss the role of marketing in higher education with Dave Murphy, vice president of marketing and communication at a prominent Jesuit School, Marquette University, in Milwaukee.

Getting to Marquette University

Dave Murphy discusses how his initial interest in a media career led him to the world of marketing and advertising. After completing a degree in Mass Communication, Dave worked at a local radio and TV station. When the opportunity arose to join a small, boutique ad agency, Dave hopped onboard. During his 25 years at the agency, Dave held many positions, eventually attaining the role of Creative Director and later, Partner.

Dave’s extensive agency experience led him to an opportunity to work in education as the Senior Brand Marketing Director at Marquette. Five years later, Dave was promoted to Vice President of Marketing and Communications, where he currently oversees the university’s branding, marketing, and communication initiatives that impact academic reputation, enrollment, fundraising and alumni relations.

Finding Marquette’s Audience

Dave tells us the intricacies of marketing to students. We learn how both digital and traditional marketing materials need to be used to reach prospective students, as well as the importance of providing a positive experience to prospective students while touring the Marquette campus. Dave says his department must adapt to the changing landscape of higher-education, while understanding and using technology as a delivery mechanism.

Competition in Higher Education

How does Marquette’s status as a premiere Jesuit School attract students? Dave describes how Marquette's brand identity is carefully curated to appeal to students in the region as well as across the nation. Dave also says Marquette’s athletic reputation creates a unique advantage when marketing to prospective students.

Client Side vs. Agency Side Differences

Dave describes how professional life inside Marquette University differs from that of the advertising agency side. We learn how Marquette’s news presence is managed and promoted and how to make the best use of marketing university events. Dave also "grades" advertising agencies a “grade,” describing what they do well and what needs improvement.

Connect with Dave Murphy

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dave-murphy-521a535/

Email: david.murphy@marquette.edu

Phone: (414) 288-4810

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Sometimes called premiums or swag, promotional merchandise is used to promote companies, brands or events with logos or slogans on products. On this edition of Brandstorm, Josh Kozinski, founder and chief business development officer at Sky High Marketing, talks about the promotional products industry, what’s trending and how his company is meeting the growing demand for his services.

Sky High Marketing

Founded in 1997, Sky High Marketing is an $8 million company with 22 employees and locations in Waukesha, Wis., and Las Vegas. The company works with mid- to large-sized companies to help promote them through branded merchandise. According to Josh, Sky High Marketing can source any product you can brand or put a logo on.

State of the Premium Product Industry

The promotional product industry has never been healthier. Sales increased by nine percent from 2016 to 2017 and is a $23 billion industry. Companies are constantly looking for ways for companies, like Sky High Marketing, to get their brand in front of their customers. The healthcare, financial, manufacturing and insurance companies are the largest consumers of promotional products.

What’s Trending?

Companies are constantly looking for ways for companies like Sky High Marketing to get their brand in front of their customers. Josh says that while companies are always looking for outside-the-box ideas, staple items like pens, polo shirts and coffee mugs are still popular because of their long-term usability in the home or office. And while the product may be the same, the delivery of that product is definitely changing. Josh recalls recently taking a t-shirt for a casino client, compressing it so it looks like slot machine and then shrink wrapping it for delivery to the casino’s customers. Sky High Marketing’s ability to be a one-stop resource for products, packaging and delivery fulfilment is a point-of-difference in this competitive industry.

Tech-related products, like power banks, Bluetooth speakers or charging stations, are increasingly popular as promotional products, as well as lifestyle items such as imprinted blankets, refrigerator magnets and pizza cutters.

Co-branding with quality name brands is also trending. Companies like Under Armour, Patagonia and Yeti are responding to the number of businesses interested in having their brands on quality products as long as they meet brand standards.

Game Changers

The internet has definitely been a game changer for companies like Sky High Marketing, not only in how quickly companies must respond to requests, but also the speed in which the products can be delivered. Josh says its preferred provider network is also a competitive point-of-difference. Each of Sky High Marketing’s vendors have been carefully vetted, as well as the vendor’s providers.

Sky High Marketing also creates virtual stores for its clients and offers in-house warehousing fulfilment services, where products are stored and shipped when purchased online. The company has an in-house design team and recently brought back embroidery services.

Contact:

Email: josh@skyhighmarketing.com

Website: http://www.skyhighmarketing.com/

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joshkozinski/

Twitter: @skyhighmktg

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This past May, the U.S. Supreme overturned the key federal anti-sports betting law. Today’s guest on Brandstorm, Dan Kustelski, is a leading authority on sports wagering and the CEO of Chalkline Sports. He’s talking about what this decision will mean to sports betting in the U.S.

Chalkline Sports

Dan’s company is a data company focused on customer acquisition and retention for casinos, race tracks, media companies and anyone else who wants to engage with sports betters. Chalkline Sports offers free-to-play games to capture names, as well as to educate and engage individuals in sports betting.

Supreme Court Ruling

Last year, about $150 billion was spent on sports wagering in the U.S., and most of it was illegal. The ruling helps states create a framework for managing it just like other legal forms of gambling. It also protects players by legalizing gambling and creates a new source of revenue for states. This decision will likely make the U.S. the largest, legal gambling jurisdiction in the world within three to five years.

Generating Tax Revenue

Although states will have varying tax requirements, the taxes collected will typically be on the net revenue earned by the sports books. For sports betters, it will be no different than players at a casino. Individuals will have to include their earnings on their tax return.

Sports Wagering in the U.S. vs. Other Countries

Dan says the difference is two-part. First, the sports events are different in the U.S. In a controlled environment, like Nevada where sports gambling has been legal, about 38 percent of all bets placed are on American football, 30 percent on basketball and 25 percent on baseball. In Europe and Africa, soccer is about 50 percent of the sports book. The second difference is education. Most Americans do not know enough about sports wagering to place bets. Casinos and tracks will need to educate its customers as a free service and that’s where Chalkline Sports’ free-to-play games come into play. The company is also helping the casinos acquire names through its database, so that when sports gambling becomes legal in their state, they will already have customers.

Demographics

Casino gamers skew older with an average age of 45, 46 and 47. Dan says sports gamblers are younger, typically 25 to 45 years. This is exciting for casinos and tracks that want to attract a younger audience. Much like fantasy football, sports wagering is more a form of entertainment than it is gambling.

Online and Inline Betting

Dan believes online and inline betting will be where the growth happens in the next three to five years. Some states are already including online, mobile sports books, while others are more cautious and starting with retail sports gambling at least initially.

Inline betting is a more advanced way of betting. It would allow betters to bet on who will win a football game at halftime or put a wager on the points spread. Dan says this is where the future will be as inline and mobile betting are already trending in Europe.

Changing the Media Landscape

The current media landscape is going to change quickly. ESPN “Game Day” already has someone on the show talking about the odds and is planning to roll out a very specific type of gambling show. So is Fox. While odds-making used to be taboo, people will need them to help with wagering. There is also data to suggest that people will become more engaged with a sports program knowing they have placed a bet on something in the show. This is also going to attract new brands that will want to advertise on sports programming.

Contact:

Email: daniel@chalklinesports.com

Website: www.chalklinesports.com

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielkustelski/

Twitter: @djkustelski

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People who enjoy board sports like skateboarding, snowboarding or wakeboarding are always looking for ways to up their game. Bored with the limitations of most balance boards, our guest on this episode of Brandstorm, Erik Olsen, invented the Whirly Board out of his garage.

Giving the Whirly Board a Spin

Using PVC pipe, a piece of wood, a bowling ball and two pool balls was able to create a versatile balance training board with three balance points that make it possible to spin and walk it around. Erik’s invention opened the door to markets beyond board sports. Whirly Board is a new way to get fit, using the board for push-ups, squats, agility training, cardio and even yoga. It’s a new accessory for the office. Employees with standing desks can use the Whirly Board in conjunction with a standing desk to stay active, stretching the legs and improving overall balance. The balance boards can even be customized with company logos to give out employees with standing desks or as a corporate gift.

The Power of Word-of-Mouth Referrals

The Whirly Board is distributed through Erik’s website, Amazon and The Grommet, an online marketplace and product discovery platform for small businesses. It was the Grommet that discovered the Whirly Board and reached out Erik last Christmas. While not expecting much, the site sold more than 150 boards in the first hour.

Sales are currently up 400 percent year over year, primarily through word-of-mouth referrals and 5 Star reviews from satisfied customers. Erik is hoping that brand satisfaction will generate more customer reviews and YouTube videos of customers using the Whirly Board in creative ways.

Contact:

Email: erik@whirlyboard.com

Website: www.whirlyboard.com

LinkedIn: @erik-olsen

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Where’s the beef? On the last Saturday in September, it’s in Minocqua, Wis. On this episode of Brandstorm, Co-hosts Dan Trzinski and Nancy Christopher talk to Krystal Westfahl, executive director of the Minocqua Area Chamber of Commerce, about Beef-a-Rama and the event’s impact on the local economy. The signature Northwoods event attracts four times the town’s normal population.

Krystal Westfahl

As the executive director of the Minocqua Area Chamber of Commerce, Krystal has long history working in the leisure, travel and tourism industry. Earlier this year, she was nominated for the Governor’s “Rising Star” award at the Wisconsin Governor’s Conference on Tourism.

Beef-A-Rama

What started out as a Fish-A-Rama about 54 years ago as a way to thank tourists, the festival had to change its name to Beef-A-Rama, when the fishing industry realized a seafood event would not be sustainable. So, each year on Sept. 29, the smell of beef fills the air, attracting thousands to the streets of downtown Minocqua for this quirky Northwoods festival. For over 50 years, Beef-a-Rama™ has been a premiere event with roasters cooking their signature beefs before dawn and herds of creative festival goers dressed in cow-themed costumes packing the streets to consume 1200 pounds of beef and enjoy live music, a Beef Eating Contest, Cow Pie Plop, and of course the famous Roaster Parade.

A Population Explosion

Minoqua is a town of about 7,000 residents. During the summer months, there’s about 20,000 people, including the tourists. At Beef-A-Rama, more than 40,000 people attend this one-day event. Lodging reservations need to be made months, sometimes even a year, out for those who like to repeatedly come back. Minocqua is basically an island with two bridges that lead people in and out of the town. The organizers have about 15 buses running all day to transport festival goers as far away as 15 to 20 miles. The very scope of this event is a big challenge, so there is a Beef-A-Rama app that has been developed to help people navigate through the town and let them know everything that is going on that day.

Organizing a Signature Event

Krystal says if you’re looking to create a signature event, it has to be well-defined and the quirkier, the better. You have to capture the imagination of the people with your events. More than a gathering of meat lovers, Beef-A-Rama has different activities that make this festival a grand celebration of beef.

Minocqua’s Attraction

Voted by Midwest Living as one of the top 25 coolest Midwest lake vacation spots, Minocqua attracts visitors for lots of reasons. People have been coming because it’s a family tradition. Others come for mountain biking, trail riding and to enjoy the area’s 2300 lakes, rivers and streams in any vehicle of choice. The locals call the waters “gin clear” because it’s almost like looking into a giant fishbowl to see the fish. Every community around Minocqua has its own personality and that includes Lake Tomahawk, Woodruff, Arbor Vitae – all within 10 minutes of the festival.

Getting There

Beef-A-Rama is always the last Saturday in September, and this year it is Sept. 29. The fastest route to Minocqua for out-of-state travelers is from Chicago, up I-94 to Hwy. 39 to Hwy. 51. There’s only one stoplight on this route once you are in Wisconsin, and that is in Minocqua. Hwy. 51 takes you right into town, and when the road no longer goes any further (it shuts down for the festival), you are there.

Contact

Email: Krystal@minocqua.org

Website: www.minocqua.org

General Information: 1-800-44-NORTH

LinkedIn: @krystalwestfahl

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Placekicker Chris Jacke shares what he's been up to since he left the Green Bay Packers and the NFL on this episode of Brandstorm. Jacke talks about his company, Packers Alumni Resources, his new team of players and how to sign up a Packers legend for your next event.

Chris Jacke

Chris Jacke is a former football placekicker best known for playing for the Green Bay Packers in the National Football League. Jacke was drafted by the Green Bay Packers in the sixth round of the 1989 NFL Draft. He went on to play eight seasons with the Packers from 1989 to 1996. In his last year with the Packers, he assisted the Packers to a 13-3 record and a win in Super Bowl XXXI, defeating the New England Patriots. When he left the NFL, Jacke took a few years off to be with his family. He became a licensed financial planner, and in 2013, was inducted into the Packers Hall of Fame, the same year he founded his company, Packer Alumni Resources.

Packer Alumni Resources

Jacke’s induction into the Packers Hall of Fame inspired numerous offers for him to speak at corporate events, play in golf outings, and assist in fund-raisers. His wife, Terry, who is also a business consultant, felt Jacke would have a lot more fun doing these types of engagements than financial planning and he agreed. While Jacke intended to promote himself in the beginning, after talking to other football players who were making appearances, like Gilbert Brown, Frank Winters and William Henderson, he realized most of them did not have an Internet presence or website. With their permission, Jacke put their photos on his website and offered to help set up any events that came in.

Today, Packer Alumni Resources has any impressive roster of former Packers players in addition to the previous players mentioned, including Jerry Kramer, Lynn Dickey, George Koonce, Ahman Green and Kabeer Gbala-Biamila (KGB).

Currently, Jacke only works with former Packers players, but is considering expanding and working with other football franchises.

Greatest Packers Memories

Jacke’s greatest memories of his time in the NFL are his first field goal, the year the Packers were called the “Cardiac Pack” in 1989, and the Monday Night Football game when the Packers went into overtime against the San Francisco 49ers and Jacke kicked a long field goal to win the game.

Jacke was also with the Packers during their transformation from the Lindy Infante era to the Mike Holmgren era. In 1989, after a terrific 10-6 season, Jacke was sure the team would be contenders the following year with players like Don Majkowski, Sterling Sharpe and Brian Noble returning to play. The Packers would go on to 4-12 season the next two years. Through it all, Jacke loved the game, had fun and was proud to be a part of it all.

Promotional Opportunities

Jacke’s team is available for almost any type of event, including church fund-raisers, corporate meetings, employee training, golf outings, and hunting and fishing expeditions. Jacke and his wife do their best to match the stories of former football players with the needs of the organizations inquiring. George Koonce, for instance, likes to talk about perseverance, growing up in tiny shack on a dirt road and rising to become a Super Bowl Champion and later earning his PhD. Jacke often talks about transformation, citing the moves of Bob Harlan bringing in Ron Wolfe, and the domino effect of having a new coaching staff and players. The team was so different, Jacke says when the Packers won the Super Bowl in 1997, he and LeRoy Butler were the only players remaining from the Infante team. The Packers changed everything behind-the-scenes, too…the training rooms and weight rooms and recruiting Reggie White, who would become an ambassador for bringing in other players who wanted to play for the Packers.

Jacke ties this story in with leadership and corporate America. You have to put the right people in place to successfully lead.

Marketing His Company

Jacke uses social media and the personal contacts he and his wife know to market his company. In the early days, he would invite Packers sponsors and others for coffee to get their feedback about what he wanted to do with his company. It has helped shaped the company he has now, five years later.

Benefits of Celebrity Appearances

Jacke and his team get a lot of great feedback from their speeches. When companies conduct day-long meetings, it is helpful to break up the day with an appearance by a former Green Bay Packer who can share a story that is relevant to the goals the company is trying to achieve. Jacke also likes to help causes raise money by posting on his social media sites and helping to raise funds for charities at golf outings. Costs vary for celebrity appearances, depending on the player and the budget of the company.

Contacting Chris Jacke

The best way to reach Jacke is through his website, which also has his email and phone number. He is also available through social media. Jacke says he makes a point to respond to inquiries within 24 to 48 hours, depending on if it’s a weekend or a sunny day in Wisconsin. 😊

Website: www.packerresources.com

Email: chris@playeralumni.com

LinkedIn:

• Chris Jacke: https://www.linkedin.com/in/chris-jacke-25613787/
• Player Alumni Resources: https://www.linkedin.com/company/player-alumni-resources-llc/

Facebook:

• Chris Jacke: @chris.jacke.13
• Player Alumni Resources: @playeralumniresources13

Twitter:

• Chris Jacke: @jacke_chris
• Player Alumni Resources: @PlayerAlumni13

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Ready for a reality check? This week’s episode of Brandstorm features XR Futurist Alan Smithson. Alan talks about the differences between Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR) and Extended (XR), what they can do, what you will need to participate, and how it is changing how companies market brands.

Alan Smithson

Alan is an XR futurist, inventor, author of DJ Prophets, mentor for Techstars, and CEO of MetaVRse, North America’s largest VR and AR consultancy. More than 20 years ago, Alan started his interest in technology while working as a DJ. The convergence of his love for music and technology led him to invent the Emulator, the world’s first, multi-touch application for Windows that let musicians create music using a giant, see-through touch screen. Alan began working with huge brands and musicians like Lincoln Park, Infected Mushroom and Armin Van Buuren.

In 2014, Alan saw VR for the first time and realized this was the start of everything, in his mind. He learned everything he could about 360 videos, AR apps and VR training. He invented the first VR Photo Booth and is currently working with the Museum of the Future, in Dubai, and the Ontario Science Center to develop the XR Learning Center.

MetaVRse

North America’s largest Virtual and Augmented Reality consultancy, the mission of Alan’s company is to inspire and educate the next generation of young entrepreneurs to think and act in a way that is socially, economically and environmentally sustainable. With that in mind, MetaVRse is working on two initiatives, XR for Education and the XR Learning Center.

Reality 101

What is the difference between VR, AR, MR and XR? Alan says virtual reality is when you put on headsets and it transports you to a whole other destination or world. The technology takes over your hearing and vision senses and immerses you into where you are. Augmented Reality is when you can take your phone and hold it over something and you can see data overlaid on it. Google Maps is a good example of AR. Mixed Reality takes elements from both VR and AR. Extended Reality covers all of the immersive technologies and puts them under one umbrella.

Is Immersive Technology for Real?

Alan believes we are in the third phase of adopting these technologies. The first was making sure the technology works. The second was when marketers started using the technology to create gimmickry the drew attention to their brands. Now in the third, or utilitarian phase, we are just scratching the surface of what immersive technology can do. For example, IKEA has an application called “Place” that lets you place their furniture in your home in real sizes, so you can see how everything fits. Cases like this will allow consumers to make better purchasing decisions and help brands to better connect with consumers.

Alan says we are currently seeing a shift to 3-D everything. Facebook recently announced 3-D assets that let you turn your shoes, sunglasses or other products into 3-D. Snap Chat has millions of viewers under the age of 30, and is pushing the limits of what you can do with mobile phones.

AR/VR Uses

In the next three to five years, Alan believes there will be a significant uptick in using VR in marketing and sales, as well as training. He also sees great potential in mobile-based AR. By the end of 2018, more than 1.6 billion mobile devices will by AR-enabled. Alan thinks this is an untapped market. While the U.S. has been slow to adopt, China has invested trillions of dollars in mobile e-commerce. Amazon and Wal-Mart are also making great strides in mobile e-commerce. Alan has coined the term “v-commerce,” intersecting VR with AR in e-commerce for retailers.

AR and VR Costs

Creating an AR or VR experience doesn’t have to be expensive. 360 videos are relatively cheap. Car companies are using what is called “3 Degrees of Freedom” to allow the customer to look left, right, up and down and see what it’s like to be in their car. Not enough of an immersive experience, there is now “6 Degrees of Freedom,” where customers can move left, right, up and down to feel more of what it is like to drive the car. From something as simple as placing a camera in the car while you are driving, the cost can be as little as $10,000 to $100,000. Creating a full-on motion-simulated experience can be anywhere from $500,000 to several million dollars.

In AR, companies are spending anywhere from $10,000 to $20,000 to do things like bringing a label to life. A company in Australia, makes a wine called 19 Criminals. Each of the 19 people on the bottle have committed a crime and if you hold your phone over the label, their stories are told.

AR/VR Devices

A VR experience can be as simple as having a computer or phone to pan around 360 videos. The next step up is Google Cardboard, which costs about $10 - $20. It is a cardboard box with a pair of lenses that you put your phone in and use the phone’s onboard technology. For mobile phone-based VR, there a what is called a Google Daydream. Alan says it’s just a nicer cardboard box made of material. The next step up in investment are VR headsets like the Focus, Pico Neo and Oculus Go. With the Vibe, Oculus Rift and PlayStation headsets, you can actually move around in a VR space. The various headsets run anywhere from $100 to several thousand dollars.

When will XR become Commonplace?

Apple is very quietly working on XR technology with its Apple Glasses, but Alan feels it will be some time before the company can create glasses that are small and comfortable enough to wear for extended periods of time, possibly five to seven years. In the meantime, both Apple and Google have released its developer’s kits, putting all of the technology in an AR-enabled mobile phone to help developers begin to think in 3-D and eventually create this technology.

AI or Artificial Intelligence

AI is a broad term for computer vision and machine learning, which is vital to Mixed Reality, or MR. Headsets with 3-D scanners collect point cloud data and convert the data into 3-D objects. It maps the world around you in real time. AI needs to be able to distinguish a cat from a dog, or a car, or a person. Once AI can do that, there will be no delineation between AR, VR, 5G, MR, IOT, or Quantum Computing. Everything will just be computing.

L’oreal recently purchased technology from Modiface that uses AR-enabled phones to map a customer’s face in real time and allow an individual try on makeup. The company has seen a 60 percent increase in mobile shopping, just another example of the potential in v-commerce, according to Alan.

AR/VR Education and Expertise

Unfortunately, schools lag way behind in teaching XR technology to marketing students. Alan knows of no other university that does so. It’s one of the main reasons Alan and his company are working on XR for Education and developing the XR Learning Center. As a consultancy, MetaVRse is always looking for the best and brightest in this field. If you have an idea and don’t know how to execute it, Alan's team can help you find someone who can. Or, Alan recommends that you reach out to a local chapter of the AR/VR Association, to help find experts in your market.

Contact:

Email: alan@metavrse.com (Y) to make public

Website: http://metavrse.com/

Social Media:

@MetaVRse

#MetaVRse

LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/alansmithson/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/metavrse

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/metavrse

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Katie Felten and Bridgette Palm are working to change perceptions about modern-day manufacturing. They are also providing support to support to women in marketing who work at manufacturing companies. On this episode of Brandstorm, the two women talk about the new association they have founded called Women in Marketing in Manufacturing, or WiMiM, and how they are helping the industry become agents of change.

Katie Felten and Bridgette Palm, Co-Founders of Strategy House

Katie and Bridgette began working collaboratively about 5 years ago. Katie needed writing support and Bridgette was interested in social media strategies. Together, they developed a social media playbook and soon found themselves presenting digital media strategies to manufacturing executives. Realizing it was time to trade in their gmail accounts and create a company, Bridgette and Katie co-founded Strategy House about two years ago. The two marketing strategists are helping manufacturers market in the digital age.

Manufacturing: Perceptions vs. Reality

Strategy House is based in Milwaukee, the second largest city in the nation for manufacturing with more than 4,000 companies in the seven-county metro area. According to Bridgette, that gap is quickly closing behind Indiana. While many people perceive manufacturing as “dumb, dirty and dangerous,” in their words, the reality is manufacturing has changed. Companies are making huge investments in robotics and automation.

For the last 60 and more years, manufacturing companies have typically relied on their sales teams to take care of business. As these manufacturing companies shift in to the digital age, its leadership is not only seeing a changing of the guards, but these new leaders recognize that the buyer’s journey is now done online. And with more than 50 percent of the manufacturing workforce expected to turnover in the next five years, recruiting and retaining top talent is essential. Manufacturers are turning to marketers to tell their story and spread the word.

WiMiM

While working to change these perceptions at Strategy House, Katie and Bridgette made another discovery. Manufacturers were often hiring young women with an understanding of how digital marketing works to run the marketing departments…typically as a one-woman band. Coming into a department that never existed before with zero processes, documentation or direction was very isolating. There was age, generational and departmental gaps that were causing frustrations on both sides of the aisle between management and marketers. While hired for their digital expertise, many of these women came on-board not knowing much about what the companies actually made or were delegated as the "t-shirt girl" or "name badge lady."

Katie and Bridgette formed WiMiM to provide support for and connect these women with their peers. Exclusive to women in marketing, who also work in manufacturing, the association is a platform for women to brainstorm with each other and share ideas. Once a month, Katie and Bridgette lead a discussion about a specific topic and then turn it into an issue-solving project. While still in the start-up phase, the association currently has about 35 members and is free to those who meet the criteria and want to join. An application is available on the Strategy House website.

Career Growth and Opportunities in Marketing the Manufacturing Industry

One of the things Katie and Bridgette like to do is visit local universities and schools to talk about career opportunities in marketing at manufacturing companies. They’ve found that these marketing jobs just aren’t on the radar for marketing students. Bridgette and Katie say this is largely because no one has heard about these companies, even though there are thousands of manufacturing companies in the Milwaukee area alone.

In terms of career paths, women who survive in this industry will likely find themselves in C-suite jobs in the next five years. There is an enormous opportunity for career growth and success in manufacturing among young women.

Contact:

Katie Felten

Email: K@strategyhouse.com

LinkedIn: @katiefelten

Facebook: @katiefelten

Website: https://www.strategyhouse.com

Bridgette Palm

Email: B@strategyhouse.com

LinkedIn: @bridgettepalm

Facebook: @bridgettepalm

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We’ve all heard about corporate wellness programs, and while we are intrigued by them, only 24 percent of employees who have been offered one actually participate in them. On this episode of Brandstorm, we talk to Kristin Markey, founder of Nest Health Connections. Based in Colorado, Kristin and her staff provide a wholistic approach to creating healthy cultures within the workplace.

About Kristin Markey

Kristin spent more than 12 years working at some of the largest brands in fitness – Nautilus, Schwinn, Bowflex, Stairmaster and Universal. While she had a good understanding of the fitness space and what’s trending, she felt corporate wellness programs needed more than fitness options. She believed the wholistic approach was the best way to motivate and inspire employees to live a healthier lifestyle. With a mind, body, spirit approach, Kristin created Nest Health Connections, which offers a variety of wellness programs that are tailored specifically to the needs of the employees and the companies she works with.

Benefits of Corporate Wellness Programs

Kristin says successful wellness programs begin with 100 percent buy-in by the company’s leadership. A variety of program options that appeal to the majority of employees is also important. Incentives like time off from work, discounts on gym memberships or gift cardw can help get a wellness program started but are not necessary long-term. The benefits of wellness programs are well documented. They can lead to improved productivity, decreases in health insurance costs and absenteeism, and a reduction in sick leave and disability claims.

Kristin says the average performance boost for a company with a wellness program is about 15 percent. In fact, 60 percent of employees see improvement in time management skills, mental performance, the ability to meet deadlines and moods. Wellness programs are also important in retaining and recruiting employees. Nearly 90 percent of prospective employees look for wellness programs when choosing an employer.

Qualifications for a Corporate Wellness Program

Any size company can benefit from a wellness program. Kristin’s smallest client has 10 employees and her largest client has more than 7,000. All kinds of industries have programs, not just tech companies, although places like Google, Netflix and Apple have some pretty interesting wellness programs. Google, for example, has window boxes that grow herbs right outside its employees’ window and offer sleep pods.

Most of Kristin’s clients come by word-of-mouth, great testimonials and effective statistics.

Getting Started

According to Kristin, every company has its pain points and it is up to her to find them. There is so much variety in her program options, including yoga, meditation, education, corporate gardens, treadmill desks and smoothie bars, Vitamin D challenges that include 15 minutes outside every day, meal planning and walking meetings. In addition to leadership commitment, Kristin starts with an employee survey so that she can determine what programs might benefit the company most.

Wellness Program Costs

Large or small, budgets help determine what a corporate wellness program looks like. It doesn’t have to be expensive. Some of the wellness programs that Kristin creates are small and include adding a water program, getting rid of the candy bowls and offering “lunch and learn” sessions. In some cases, insurance providers will cover costs and Kristin often works with the insurers to create benchmarks that can measure program results.

Nest Health Connections is very hands on and revisits its programs every three months to make sure they are working. Programs are adjusted when necessary. While based in Colorado, the company hopes to open a regional office in Milwaukee by the end of 2018.

Contact:

Website: nesthealthconnections.com

Email: kristin@nesthealthconnections.com

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On today’s episode of Brandstorm, we welcome David Konkol, president of Konkol Custom Homes & Remodeling, LLC. As the author of the book Building Your Dream Home: What You Need To Know, David provides tips on how becoming a published author can enhance your brand.

About David Konkol

David is a licensed building contractor and has been crafting luxury custom homes, starting at $1 million, for over three decades in Central Florida. He became an author about 10 years ago, when a friend in the publishing world (and owner of a home David’s company built) asked David if he had ever considered writing a book. While David originally dismissed the idea, he was reminded that many people who write books aren’t writers themselves, such as presidents, CEO’s and athletes. His friend encouraged David to share his wealth of knowledge with the home building and home buying public, and even created a book outline from the list of his original questions he had when David built his home. David was then convinced that the book would save both his time in answering questions from customers and prospects, as well as his clients’ time, giving them added value. What David didn’t know was just how much business would be generated from the process, and how far apart his book would set him from his competition.

He points to two things his book does well: building trust and alleviating fears. He takes time within the pages to introduce himself and his background (including how long he has been married and how many children he has) as a way to present himself as an average person trying to do an exceptional job. As no other builder in his market has written a book, Building Your Dream Home showcases David as an expert in his field, spotlights his competence and strengthens his brand.

How Long Does It Take to Write a Book?

David explains that from start to finish, the process took approximately 14 months (working 10 hours per week) and that the only downside to writing the book was the family time he had to give up temporarily.

His process included carrying a three-ring binder wherever he went, with chapter titles listed on each page. This way, he could write down ideas as bullet points on the spot, whether he was on a job or working in his office. Those bullet points would then be dictated into a tape recorder, and the physical writing of the book would come from that content. He recommends this method because he found that the more he wrote, the more ideas he came up with and the more value and knowledge he could include within the book.

Working with a publisher would’ve added about six months to the entire process, David states. He equates about 35% of his time, from beginning to end, was spent writing the first draft, and that the key to self-publishing is to make the final product look as if it was produced by a publisher. Otherwise, a poor product can hurt your reputation and sales.

Book Distribution

David says he was never interested in selling books, but instead, securing more homes to build for those he wouldn’t normally get in front of. He feels that the book provided him a reason to reach out to potential, current and former clients, and that it also gave people a reason to start or revisit their relationship with David. After printing the first edition of the book, David’s company couriered a copy to their top prospects. Within a matter of weeks, he had already gotten calls back from a few of these prospects to start the home building process.

He had also mailed copies to each home owner he had built for, asking them to forward the book on to anyone they know who could benefit from it. This spawned multiple unsolicited personal endorsements for David and his company. Though David does not make it a prerequisite for someone to read his book before working with him, he does mention to potential clients that the best homes and best processes of his career have come from projects requested by those who took the time to read the book.

He also sent copies of Building Your Dream Home to the top 35 competitors in his area. David mentions that he wasn’t worried about potential theft of ideas or methods. Instead, he feels the book sets up for people how the home building process should go, and if customers hear something different from another builder, they know to be skeptical.

Targeted book drops have also helped David’s company. Any homes marked for a major renovation or teardown near some of Orlando's nicest lakes were provided a book. This process alone turned into a $4.3 million build eventually.

On top of these methods of distribution, David credits his well-trained staff with always asking callers or those taking home tours whether they’ve read David's book. Over the phone, his staff arranges for a book to be dropped off the same day of their initial call, and in person, David is usually available on site to sign copies and meet new potential clients.

How Much Does It Cost to Self-Publish a Book?

David says his investment was about $8,000 — including jacket design, editing and proofing — on the first copy. Every copy afterwards was at a cost of about $7, which David says is still less than a nice brochure. With every new edition, David changes out the cover art, updates home photos and modifies the content. This allows him to circle back with the owners he’s built for, as well as others that can help leverage him in his market.

With all of his success, David has already published a second book, In House: Designing Your Dream Home Room By Room, and he is on his way to writing his third soon.

Contact David

Email: david@konkolcustom.com

Facebook: facebook.com/konkolcustom

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On today’s episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Lisa Buyer, the founder of social PR agency The Buyer Group and the author of Social PR Secrets: How to Optimize, Socialize, and Publicize Your Brand. Lisa discusses how brands can best align their digital presence and how being an early adapter to the internet and social media has made her an industry thought leader in her space.

About Lisa Buyer

Lisa comes from a traditional PR background, having specialized in corporate communications and branding before the birth of Google. She explains that she had an "A-ha!" moment when several of her fast-moving technology clients, as well as those she had connected with at conferences, expressed their need to go from a six-month PR campaign down to mere weeks. She soon realized that it would benefit her career to begin using the internet and search engine optimization to distribute news items quicker than it would normally take to go through journalists individually. Since the public relations landscape had not changed in about a hundred years prior to the digital age, Lisa sees social PR as a huge opportunity for brands and PR professionals to leverage Google, the internet and search marketing to get their stories publicity.

Lisa mentions that early on, she found herself explaining the whole idea of social PR over and over to prospects, clients and even her own employees so that they could catch up. It was through this continual process of education that she came up with the idea for her book, now in its fourth edition. Lisa currently spends much of her time continuing to teach, speak and write for various search and social marketing platforms. She has also shared panels with the likes of Google, Microsoft and Digg.

How Has the Role of PR Changed?

The advent of social media has allowed small brands to compete with large corporations. This is due to the fact that smaller companies have less red-tape and a quicker approval process than bigger ones, plus smaller companies have more flexibility within social and can change their strategy quicker than large businesses.

Lisa explains that while most PR agencies realize they have to say they’re including social in search (aka “digital PR”), most agencies are not actually using it to their full potential. While there is nothing wrong with traditional PR methods, there is room for improvement across the board. While many young PR agents are in their 20’s, Lisa mentions that older generations of workers in the PR realm don’t believe that today’s digital methods are important, so perhaps in a decade, the playing field will be more level.

What Does "Optimization" Mean?

In a broad sense, optimization can refer to augmenting your playbook and staying on top of trends. This includes having multimedia as a consistent portion of your storytelling, press releases or blog posts. Exactly how you optimize can be different depending on format and audiences. In the example of including multimedia with your stories, doing things like saving files with branded keywords, including meta-descriptions and other methods bringing traffic back to your website are all other ways to optimize. Comparing these methods to standard ad buys, Lisa tells us that optimizing PR content, web content and blog content can keep your original investment paying dividends and building momentum, whereas when the money for ad buys dries up, that’s the end of the road for that campaign.

Ensuring People Empathize with Your Story

With commercial uses and sales for virtual reality and augmented reality on the rise, Lisa says that brands are using these methods within their marketing in rapid numbers. For instance, a non-profit fundraiser can allow donors to feel or experience an environment or a condition, instead of simply showing them a short video about their mission. Although not every household has the necessary gear for VR or AR just yet, users are becoming more expectant of it, so Lisa thinks marketing professionals need to up their game and dip their toes into this arena before it’s too late.

What Channels Are Best for Brands?

This answer depends on the brand and where their audience is, explains Lisa. Each social media channel has their own demographics and reasons their users are there. While Snapchat is popular amongst Generation Z, many brands and marketers are finding more results on Instagram (where many brands are debuting their content first these days) and Facebook (where, with a little bit of paid advertising, brands can micro-target exactly who they want to reach, including media). Lisa also mentions that most journalists have a Twitter account, so interacting with them there is key if you’re looking for press.

Lisa’s Advice for Brands

Lisa recommends that brands jump on any new features that the web or social media launch. Recent examples include IGTV (Instagram’s latest update where you can upload up to one full hour of video per post) and Facebook Live (which offers streaming video directly to your Facebook page in real time). She states that when the least amount of brands and users are engaging, companies like Instagram or Facebook will reward those that participate early. Once everyone else is using a specific method, it becomes harder to gain attention there.

Contact Lisa:

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/lisabuyer

Twitter: twitter.com/lisabuyer

Instagram: instagram.com/lisabuyer

Website: thebuyergroup.com

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So, you’re on LinkedIn. Now what? On today’s episode of Brandstorm, Consultant, Trainer, Speaker and Job Search Mentor Sue Gresham discusses how business owners, entrepreneurs and those seeking employment can use LinkedIn to build their personal brand, expand their reach, increase sales and find new opportunities.

About “The LinkedIn Lady,” Sue Gresham

Sue began Innovative Client Solutions in 2009 to assist others with social media, strategy and design. Despite being a social media consultant, she admits that she dislikes the impersonal nature of most social media, where selling products reigns. About four to five years ago, she phased out her work with other social media platforms and began to focus solely on LinkedIn, working one-on-one with individuals to create strategies and assist in building proper profiles.

Sue got her branding idea from the marketing events she attended. Those networking or seeking her help referred to her as "The LinkedIn Lady." She says it took about a year for her to feel fully comfortable with that moniker, but now it’s as much a part of her as her middle name. Her favorite thing about her career is getting to know her clients, as she greatly enjoys learning about their expertise, work history and the experiences they offer. She also helps businesses grow their brand on LinkedIn, runs group trainings and does corporate speaking engagements.

About LinkedIn

With over 467 million members worldwide, LinkedIn is one of the most popular social networks in terms of active users. Started in 2003 as a job board and way for people to put their résumé online, current users can connect with other businesses, employees, industry contacts, thought leaders and more. In 2016, LinkedIn was acquired by Microsoft for approximately $26 billion.

Investing Time in Your LinkedIn Presence

One of the biggest complaints Sue hears from people about LinkedIn is that there are not enough hours in the day to update their profile or to make meaningful, professional connections. In response, Sue says that the results you want from LinkedIn can be achieved by setting goals and giving yourself a set time limit to stick to — whether that’s 10, 20 or 30 minutes per day — and by examining why you want or need to be on LinkedIn in the first place. Thinking about what you hope to accomplish and what those results mean to you will play into what strategy works for you best.

Tips on Updating Your LinkedIn Profile

Businesses and job recruiters are less likely to communicate with someone who does not have a photograph, so Sue says a professional headshot is critical to any LinkedIn profile that’s to be taken seriously. The headline of your LinkedIn profile — which allows for 120 characters — should describe you and not your job description. Sue says that this is a great area to indicate the problems you solve or a tagline that best summarizes what you offer. Within the summary area, Sue also recommends including some aspects of yourself outside of work, like charities you may support or hobbies you have. The point is for your page to tell a story, as if you were speaking to someone, and not to mirror your résumé verbatim.

How LinkedIn Pages Show Up on Google Searches

Since the purchase of LinkedIn by Microsoft, the company has beefed up how its search algorithms work. Sue indicates that keywords are king, and that there are 10 categories that make a complete profile by LinkedIn’s standards. Before the Microsoft acquisition, an agreement between LinkedIn and Google solidified that a person’s LinkedIn profile would show up if their name was Googled. Sue mentions that it’s extremely important to fill out everything that you can, as recruiters will not seek you out with an incomplete profile. She says being lax on filling out your LinkedIn profile can also affect the way employers view you and lessens your chances of being hired.

Seeking Employment?

One of LinkedIn’s most popular features for job seekers is Open Candidates. When activated, you let recruiters or businesses know that you’re openly looking for a new employment opportunity. Sue says that there are some safeguards against your current employer being able to see this, but it’s not foolproof. She recommends that you do not update your LinkedIn profile all at once, if you’re connected to your boss or fellow employees.

For the best results, Sue recommends keeping your profile as current as possible, making sure that your paper résumé and job experience on LinkedIn match, and using the key words that employers are looking for. There is also a recent movement on LinkedIn to use the #ONO hashtag — meaning "Open for New Opportunities." Sue says while this still indicates you’re looking for a job, it doesn’t advertise or make you look desperate either.

Good LinkedIn Content

Sue explains that good content for LinkedIn depends on why you’re ultimately using the site. If your reason is to build your own brand or to become a thought leader, then posting content that highlights your knowledge and expertise is best. When sharing someone else’s work, Sue says it is more impactful to add your own comment before sharing. Posts that are written thoughtfully and personally, have purpose and are directed to your audience will always be good content. She reminds us that attention spans are quick, so we should also be concise.

Growing your network means having conversations and meeting people, whether on or offline. Just like in sales, Sue mentions that it can take several hits before establishing a relationship. Taking little steps at a time, such as wishing a connection a happy birthday, can create the groundwork for a productive and positive business partnership.

Latest LinkedIn Updates

Sue says short videos are becoming increasingly popular on LinkedIn, whether they feature products or you. She notes however that people are not engaged with LinkedIn to be sold to, so go easy on the pitch.

Sue also says that LinkedIn is changing the way advertisements look on the site. Every day users may not notice these changes, but on the back end, she says that companies that advertise are seeing many benefits.

There have also been updates to the look of profiles, such as copy adjustments and larger photos, and Sue points out that the LinkedIn mobile app allows users to pin or save articles for future reading.

Contact Sue:

Web: www.sue-gresham.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/suegresham

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On this week’s episode of Brandstorm, we discuss taking business professionals to the next level. Nathan Bares describes the Executive Programs offered at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) and its goal of making high potential managers within the business community better at what they do.

About Nathan Bares

Nathan is manager of Executive Programs at the UWM Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business. Prior to joining the University, he served as the workforce development manager at Easter Seals Southeast Wisconsin.

About UWM Sheldon B. Lubar School of Business

The Lubar School of Business has been continuously accredited by AACSB International for close to 45 years. Only 5% of business schools worldwide have earned AACSB Accreditation, which serves as the “gold standard” of business program accreditation.

UWM Executive Programs

The Lubar School of Business Executive Program is neither continuing education nor an executive MBA. It is a partnership with the business community to help business professionals become better at what they do in their current occupation, so that they can transition from a manager to a director to a vice president.

Currently, UWM has two executive programs. Started 17 years ago by the current UWM Chancellor, Mark Mone, the Strategic Leadership Series (SLS) is a leadership development partnership between Lubar Executive Education and some of the region’s most respected companies. The eight-day program spans six months, focusing on developing the leadership skills of these rising managers and exposing them to a rich learning environment with leaders from other businesses and industries.

UWM also has a customized executive program that works directly with an organization to develop a curriculum that identifies the core competencies needed to help the company grow, retain more employees, become more productive, or put a succession plan in place. According to Nathan, within family-run companies that have been in business for decades and have extensive industrial experience, about 24 percent of Milwaukee’s workforce population will retire in the next five to 10 years. Hiring to replace and retain that knowledge will be difficult without a succession plan in place.

The Cost of Customized Executive Programs

UWM invests a lot time and money upfront to develop a customized program for an organization. A partnership is required for UWM to become intimately involved with the business and understand its expectations. The curriculum is not as much about teaching skills in sales, marketing, production, supply chain management, etc., but in improving soft skills like understanding leadership versus management, negotiating, networking and conducting successful presentations. While UWM creates a contract with a company, it does not charge for the program until its completion. Contracts are signed only after both parties agree on the curriculum, how many courses, the length of the program, etc. Prices are not determined on a per-head basis, and having more employees in the program actually brings the cost down. A curriculum with 30 to 35 people, for example, would cost less than participating in the SLS.

Measuring Outcomes

While measuring those soft skills referred to previously is more difficult, UWM has developed simulations that make it possible for individuals to practice what they are taught. Expectations are set as to how employees will get better, how they can implement what they learn and how behavior can be changed to make the program worthwhile.

The SLS is easier to measure. Executives work with cohorts, but set personal goals that they strive to meet.

Jobs Training for the Future

With unemployment so low and the economy booming, there is a skills gap in many communities, including Milwaukee. Corporations like Foxconn, Uline, Amazon and Generac are bringing in thousands of new jobs. UWM wants to be a partner in developing talent and is working with companies now to determine what skills are needed and at what level. Is more training needed at the university, technical school, high school and even junior high levels to meet the demands of businesses? For Foxconn, UWM is already working on an internship program that will send five individuals over to its headquarters in China for a year to learn and understand Foxconn’s business and culture.

Parting Advice

Borrowing the words from an executive who attended UWM’s SLS program, Nathan says business professionals who take part in the UWM Executive Programs need to be selfish with their time. Only 50 percent of their education comes from the facilitator standing in front of the room. The other 50 percent comes from interactions the individual has with their co-workers.

Contact:

Email: njbares@uwm.edu

LinkedIn: linkedin.com/in/nathan-bares/

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The terms "marketing" and "advertising" have become somewhat synonymous over the years, often referred to as one and the same. On this week’s Brandstorm, we clear up any ambiguity with Nisha Gupta, an outsourced executive with more than 20 years of experience in B2B marketing.

About Nisha Gupta

Nisha is the president of NGenuity, an organization that helps companies with growth, innovation and marketing development opportunities. She typically works as an outsourced executive who goes out into the market to ask questions and listen to various shareholders about new innovations or products. Nisha is also a professional life coach who helps executives and employees with self-discovery and attaining greater satisfaction in life. Prior to forming her company, Nisha worked as a VP of sales and marketing for a global B2B corporation.

Marketing vs. Advertising

Nisha says in the B2B space the 4 Ps of marketing -- Product, Price, Place and Promotion -- no longer apply. Currently, the preferred acronym is SAVE: Solution, Access, Value and Education. Today, marketing is about developing a product that provides a "solution" or benefit to the market. Access refers to getting the product to your customers through distribution channels. Value is about bringing a value proposition with the product that resonates with the market, and Education is the manner and/or tools used to communicate with the market. Advertising is one subset of marketing that may also include public relations, trade shows, video, branding, packaging, messaging, etc.

Bringing a Product to Market

The first step in bringing a new product to market is doing everything possible to understand the market. Listen, learn, then create. Meet with the visionaries, decision and issues makers to find out how you can help them make the market more efficient. Can the product solve a problem? That solution then heads to the development or innovations team. Me-too products can work, too, but there must be a point-of-difference in the market. The next step is determining the distribution channels for the product, followed by developing the right communications tools to reach your audiences. According to Nisha, a product is new for three years. In most cases, a relaunch is necessary because of marketing. There is time to figure out what is and what is not working, and relaunching the product several times before you get it right. Bringing communications partners, like an advertising agency, in to the mix should come before any launch when a product is in its final prototype stage.

Contact Nisha:

Email: nisha@ngenuityllc.com

Phone: (414) 719-1811

Website: ngenuityllc.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/nisha-gupta-8767b0/

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On this edition of Brandstorm, Dan Trzinski and Nancy Christopher talk about how to set up the charitable arm of a corporation with Neil Willenson, VP of Community Relations and co-founder of Hometown Heroes and Camp Reunite for Kapco Metal Stamping.

About Neil WillensonWhile Neil studied Film and did some acting at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, it was his work as a camp counselor at Camp Minikani and in the Poconos, where he would find his calling. Tucking kids into bed that summer after graduating, he would read the biography of Ryan White, a teenage hemophiliac infected with AIDS through blood transfusions. White would become the poster child for AIDS education and advocacy. Neil wanted the young campers to know that you can't catch AIDS from touching, hugging or kissing others with the disease. When he returned home, however, he read an article about an AIDS scare in his community. He called the mother featured in the article and found out that Dawn Wolfe had been infected by her husband. One of her kids was HIV positive; the other HIV negative. Neil knew he needed to do something about the AIDS scare, so he created Camp Heartland, a safe haven for kids with AIDS and HIV. That one week of camp turned into a 20-year career as executive director .

When Neil met Jim Kacmarcik, the CEO of Kapco Metal Stamping, Jim was a generous contributor to Camp Heartland. Jim asked Neil to be the keynote speaker at the Kapco Charitable Challenge, an event that tested college students to pay it forward. Each group of students were given $1,000 to leverage and help people they did not know. Two of the groups picked the same family to help build an accessible home. Eleven years prior, the single mom had given birth to quadruplets. One child died at birth; two of the kids had cerebral palsy (CP). By age 11, the kids with CP had developed spiral muscular atrophy and just weeks later, the mother was diagnosed with stage 3 breast cancer. Neil called the casting director from ABC’s "Extreme Home Makeover" to get the cast and crew to build a wheelchair-accessible home for the family. Having done a similar story already, the reality show turned down Neil's request, so he went Jim Kacmarcik for help. Kacmarcik not only agreed, but rallied 1,000 volunteers to help build the home, which was documented in a one-hour special on NBC's "Dateline."

Willenson and Kacmarcik became collaborators and friends. When Jim called Neil next, he wanted Neil to hook him up with a celebrity because he wanted to start a record label. During the meeting, Jim said he also want to buy a baseball team, do more philanthropy, and needed someone to help him. After 20 years of asking for money and seeing more than 100 children who came through Camp Heartland die, Neil was ready for a change. Four months later, Neil started at Kapco as the vice president of community relations.

About Kapco Metal StampingFounded in 1972, Kapco is based in Grafton, Wis., and manufactures metal components for customers needing stamping, fabrication and welding. The company also owns the Lakeshore Chinooks, part of a collegiate summer baseball league, K-Nation Entertainment, Given Music Publishing in Nashville, and SpeedKore, an automotive company that outfits muscle cars with carbon fiber (as seen in the "Fast and Furious" series and "Jay Leno's Garage"). Most recently, the company has launched its Inspire America Speakers Bureau.

Kapco's Philanthropic InitiativesThe focus of Kapco's philanthropic efforts is kids and families in need. Philanthropy is not a business strategy at Kapco, so the company does not require corporate logos to be included in any organization’s collateral. However, Kapco also has hybrid initiatives with its marketing department that do require corporate identity. Some examples include its annual Toy Drive and the Milwaukee Bucks Home Court Heroes program, which honors an individual or individuals who, through their unique commitment and humanitarian spirit, have made exceptional and lasting contributions to our community.

Kapco has vetted more than 200 charities, meeting with board members and going through each organizations’ financials. While the company does write checks to charities, Neil and Jim prefer to partner with organizations, like Operation Dream, a group of African American males who mentor kids who don’t have fathers. Jim and Neil alternate making decisions about charitable giving, but employees can also have a say, and Neil has never turned down an employee who is dedicated to a cause. Also, every year, Kapco holds an employee raffle and the winner can choose from 30 to 40 vetted charities to give a donation.

Jim and Neil are also co-founders of two charitable organizations: Camp Hometown Heroes for kids who have lost a parent serving our country; and Camp Reunite, which reunites imprisoned mothers at Taycheedah with their children for five hours at a time to learn about coping skills and violence prevention.

Neil says a side benefit of Kapco's philanthropy is that, in some cases, attracts employees, who view Kapco as having a great culture. This is especially true for senior-level executives. Some of Kapco’s customers are also deeply involved in Kapco's charitable giving programs.

Advice for Other CompaniesWith so many great charities at the local and national levels, Neil says companies need to hone in on what they want to support. Corporate leadership should set priorities and include volunteerism wherever possible. Companies should also consider anything that can mean a win for the business and involve employees.

Neil cites two organizations that have excellent charitable giving programs. "Kohl's for Kids" not only allows groups of five or more of its employees to provide community service, but also pays the charitable organization $100 for each Kohl’s employee who serves. Direct Supply gives its employees 8 hours each year with pay to help a charity in need.

Contact Neil:
Website: www.kapcoinc.com
Email: willenson@kapcoinc.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/company/kapco-metal-stamping/

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On today’s episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Elmer Moore, executive director of Scale Up Milwaukee. Elmer discusses his organization’s powerful platform for business growth and how they plan to meet their goal of adding $1 billion in revenue to the community by the year 2020.

Elmer MooreElmer grew up in Baltimore, and also lived in Maine for nearly a decade. In 2013, when he moved to our area as Director of Business Development for men’s apparel line Allen Edmonds, Elmer says he found both Milwaukee and Wisconsin respectively like Baltimore and Maine. Elmer has a diverse résumé: He has been the Associate Dean of Admissions for a small liberal arts college, in charge of retail stores, worked in video post-production and audio recording, and is also currently an Entrepreneurship Instructor at Marquette University.

A 2018 winner of a Milwaukee Business Journal “Diversity in Business” Award, Elmer says that he has used all of his experiences from these varied positions in his role at Scale Up Milwaukee. He says he spends his days with people who own businesses or have the resources to help businesses grow, and he assists in making connections and being a cheerleader for growth throughout our area.

Scale Up MilwaukeeAn initiative of the Greater Milwaukee Committee and supported by the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC), Scale Up Milwaukee began in 2013. It convenes a small group of stakeholders (ranging from investors and private sector leaders to public officials and entrepreneurs) to develop actionable strategies for high-growth, high-impact entrepreneurship within the region. Through catalyzing inclusive economic development, Scale Up wants to see Milwaukee return to its rightful place at the forefront of the nation’s economy, due to the city’s rich history of growth and manufacturing.

Through a wide range of events and workshops where businesses encourage growth in each other and share ideas that have worked for them, Elmer sees Scale Up Milwaukee’s goal of injecting $1 billion of revenue into the area by 2020 as completely within reach, due to the numbers they’re currently seeing. To date, approximately $270 million has been brought into the local economy by the 60 companies that participated in the Growth Accelerator, Scale Up’s flagship program. Elmer mentions that these numbers do not include revenue from their other various programs, and that there is a lagging indicator for incomes, as well as real estate and community development, that will change the region in material ways for years to come.

Fostering EntrepreneurshipScale Up Milwaukee’s model for fostering entrepreneurship is based on that of Daniel Isenberg, a former venture capitalist, and current angel investor and Professor of Entrepreneurship Practice at Babson College Executive Education. As Elmer explains, Daniel’s model is about the interaction between different categories of business (hiring entities, financial institutions and more) and how a process-driven approach to interacting with these companies as people in order to encourage aspiration and growth ultimately leads to shared success. Daniel has found that growth is achievable once it becomes a cultural concern for all parties.

As Elmer explains, the challenge is two-fold: Scale Up Milwaukee wants to get lawyers, bankers, accountants and consultants to think of themselves as being chiefly responsible for the growth of their clients, and in turn, they want clients to feel that it’s necessary to find these same people, who are willing to be agents for their growth. Instead of introducing a business owner to a bank, Elmer says Scale Up would introduce that business owner to a specific banker that they know would be a great fit.

Scale Up Milwaukee Programs and MembershipScale Up Milwaukee offers the following programs to its members:

• Meet the Masters Series — Highlighting the strategies and tactics used by seasoned entrepreneurs to scale their companies. These events are conducted as a one-hour interview with a small audience and have included Craig Culver of Culver’s Restaurants, Giacomo Fallucca from Palermo Villa Inc., and Sue Marks of Cielo Talent.
• Growth Accelerator — Teaching business owners the practical skills to inject growth into their ventures, focusing on sales and marketing, organizational development and entrepreneurial finance.
• Sparc — Launched in 2017, Sparc provides access to resources that the smallest of businesses and minority or female-owned businesses normally do not have. These businesses usually range from $100,000 to $1 million in annual revenue.
• CEO Forum — Engages large company CEOs to discuss their growth concerns with others. Growth Accelerator companies are sometimes invited to witness these forums, so that they can know that their growth concerns are often the same as those who own some of the largest companies in Wisconsin.
• Membership Meetings — Quarterly events connecting entrepreneurs, business owners and C-Suite executives to help formulate working plans to solve growth challenges.

Scale Up Milwaukee’s membership fees not only keep their business model afloat but also create a select community of growth-ambitious people who are either entrepreneurs or providing generous resources. Businesses with an annual revenue of under $10 million pay a yearly membership fee of $1,000 while those with an annual revenue of over $10 million pay $3,000. Membership provides access to all of Scale Up Milwaukee’s programming (including round table discussions and consulting services), and twice a month, Scale Up provides open office hours for companies to book time and get help in managing their growth challenges. Elmer and his team call this type of networking between people and companies "resource connecting."

Success Stories and Ideal Types of BusinessesWhen asked if there is a particular type of business that is ideal for enrolling in Scale Up Milwaukee, Elmer says that "ambition" is truly the key. The organization is both industry- and segment-agnostic, and although their various programs are based around some general criteria, someone who is excited to let their ambition be contagious within the group is always a great addition.

Discussing Scale Up Milwaukee case studies, Elmer points to both Central Standard Craft Distillery and Fyxation Bikes. During the several tours of Central Standard’s liquor distillery that Elmer took, he had engaged in conversation with Co-owner Pat McQuillan about Scale Up’s programs and mission. A former banker who knows business, Pat was challenged by other businesses during the process, as each owner would often share new contracts, orders or distribution details they had received from Fortune 100 and 500 companies. Elmer says that the goals of Pat and his team have shifted because of that encouragement and now Central Standard has both a tasting room and an expansive plant. Their liquor is also now available at Miller Park.

With Riverwest’s Fyxation Bikes, Elmer describes how their corporate program — where large companies receive Fyxation bicycles for giveaways, perks or contest prizes — jumped from providing 3-5 bikes at a time to growing by 200%. Elmer says that this leap can be attributed to the camaraderie Fyxation felt having other businesses cheering them on at Scale Up Milwaukee.

Scale Up Milwaukee’s Role in FoxconnThe campaign for the state of Wisconsin to secure a new production plant for Foxconn, a multinational electronics contract manufacturing company, has been the largest economic development initiative in American history. Elmer recognizes that the accepted deal — brokered by the WEDC, one of Scale Up Milwaukee’s biggest supporters — is huge and will have repercussions for years. Elmer says that Scale Up Milwaukee’s role within this deal will be to help companies sell to the area better.

He indicates that the value chain and economic impact go far beyond Foxconn’s supply chain, so that when a few thousand jobs are created anywhere, questions have to be asked such as, "Where will those employees eat lunch?," and in turn, "Who will supply the bread for those restaurants?" or "Who will provide the bags for that bread?" Elmer says not all companies are prepared or even know that they should be going after this eventual business, but these same companies need to get ready immediately in order to do so. Other large development projects, like the new Wisconsin sports arena and the Milwaukee streetcar, are great opportunities that can be captured and leveraged to have enormous community impact.

Roadblocks to GrowthWhen asked about roadblocks that companies have with potential growth, Elmer provided two answers: one from his role within Scale Up Milwaukee and another from his personal view. On the Scale Up Milwaukee side, he sees a lack of ambition being a roadblock. He admits he is "an obnoxious east-coaster," and that the idea of being Midwestern nice can stunt the growth of not only a company but also a community. He says that when companies say that they’ll be the best manufacturer or provider or facilitator, that terminology changes the way they operate.

Outside of his Scale Up Milwaukee role, Elmer says that human capital is often a barrier to growth. Though he meets a lot of company owners who state that they need money, the true challenge is accessing talent. Elmer says that organizations need to learn how to find, assess and utilize those in the workforce who can best benefit them.

Upcoming Events

Growth Accelerator Launch Party

@ Central Standard Craft Distillery

2330 W. Clybourn Street

Thursday, June 7th; 5pm - 7pm

Attendees will be able to meet the newest Growth Accelerator cohort, catch up with Scale Up alum and mingle with other business leaders.

Celebration of Growth

@ University Club of Milwaukee

924 E. Wells Street

Wednesday, July 25th; 7:30am - 9am

Awards will be presented, coupled with multiple growth stories honoring and illustrating the impactful growth that each individual organization has on the region and beyond.

Contact Elmer:
Web: www.scaleupmilwaukee.org
Email: elmer@sumke.com

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On today's episode of Brandstorm, we welcome JP Burkwald, co-founder and vice president of business development at Element6 Talent. JP discusses how their team finds great employment candidates in a currently shallow talent pool, and what companies can do to create an attractive culture for its future hires.

Element6 TalentJP states that Element6's proactive approach to recruitment services is quite different than other headhunting agencies. Element6 has the capabilities to round out all the areas that a Human Resources leader needs to build an effective recruitment strategy, onboarding process or succession plan. Instead of charging companies based on a percentage of the new employee’s first-year salary, Element6 works on a monthly retainer.

With the U.S. unemployment rate currently under 3.9% during a robust economy, businesses are struggling to find good people. Element6 educates their clients on how to get everyone on their team involved in the recruitment process. Much like how the Element6 team interacts with clients and potential job seekers, JP encourages employees and employers to reach out to others in the industry that they see as successful, and promote their culture and growth as a way to attract potential hires.

Element6's ProcessJP says his team begins any partnership with a road map or "architectural drawing," of their client's year. While things may change or move around, having a blueprint of that organization's needs assists in recruiting talent for multiple positions. Element6's retainer fees are also based on these numbers and the year-long outlook, then annualized and fixed so there are no surprises for the client. It can also result in recruitment costs that are considerably less than Element6's competitors.

Recruitment StrategyThough specifics vary based on the organization, Element6's recruitment strategy is industry-agnostic and involves everyone from customer service all the way up to an organization's CEO. Element6 employees are all subject matter experts in a variety of industries.

JP says that specific strategies are determined by the level of technical expertise and requirements of certain roles, and while they always create a job posting for a position, this isn't how they typically get most of their candidates. Element6 also works with outsourced partners in India who, based on search criteria, aggregate data on potential candidate options. Another method they implement is LinkedIn, which JP says Element6 lives on. He feels it’s a great tool and environment to get a look at someone's professional experience and abilities. Other social media channels like Twitter, Facebook and Instagram aren’t necessarily swimming with employment opportunities.

Instead of pitching job requirements to a potential hire, Element6 asks questions about a person's career goals and what they're looking to do beyond today. JP defines an active candidate as someone who is seeking employment elsewhere for a good reason, such as a salary bump or to climb the ladder, and a passive candidate as someone with a wealth of experience who has possibly has indicated on LinkedIn that they aren't looking for a job change. But these are the people Element6 wants most, as they likely excel in their current positions. JP and his team are interested in why they’re doing so well, and how they can recruit that candidate.

How to Improve Company CultureCreating a culture may be easy when hiring new employees, but what about improving or overhauling your company culture for those who have been serving you for many years? JP believes it boils down to what the company is striving for and examining your current state versus your future goals.

Significant and truly impactful cultural change comes from the top, and those leaders need to define and distill down what makes their business so special. Asking employees why they have stayed for 15 to 20 years is key. When asking questions such as "What defines you?" or "What are your core values?", Element6 always compares whether a CEO's answers differ from that of an employee. It’s extremely important to know whether a company is living their cultural message or not.

Best Times to Recruit?When asked if there are preferred seasons for better recruitment, JP points to the holidays and summer breaks as being two good opportunities. During family gatherings around Thanksgiving or Christmas, JP says conversations between family members about job satisfaction or looking for a different job often sparks a change. And when school lets out, Element6 notices an uptick in availability, and usually gains traction in placements.

Record Numbers of RetireesJP explains that over 10,000 Baby Boomers are retiring every day in America, and a vast amount of knowledge and experience is walking right out the door of today’s corporations. But retirement does not prohibit Element6 from reaching out. Retirees may still be seeking ways to stay busy, and Element6 engages with these successful individuals for potential short-term assignments or work that requires 1-2 days per week in the office. JP says it's incredible to see someone with great world knowledge filling a gap or providing a different perspective within an organization.

Advice for Getting the Best TalentJP's recommendation for companies who want to be more attractive to the best potential talent is for organizations to empower their employees to speak openly about their culture. He says it's important to have their culture defined and for everyone to be on the same page, using the same lingo, on social media, at a networking event or during a friend's BBQ.

He also says that although what you do may be clear, the "why" may be lost. It's important to speak to that as well. For example, a manufacturing company that works on components for medical equipment should be focused on the fact that they're changing and saving lives every day, not just making widgets. He encourages companies to get outside of the four walls of what they do, take ownership, and be the best recruiters they can be, because they are. Even creating a strategy for senior management to use LinkedIn to reach out to talented people for a cup of coffee is a great step. It’s a simple act, but also time consuming, and that’s why a company like Element6 exists.

Contact JP:
Web: www.element6talent.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/joseph-jp-burkwald-13366617/

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On today’s episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Jason McDevitt and Kirk Havens from GreenOps Ammo. Jason and Kirk discuss the journey of bringing their biodegradable shotgun wads to market, and how both hunters and environmentalists are in favor of their mission.

GreenOps AmmoJason McDevitt is the CEO of GreenOps Ammo, a Virginia-based start-up intent on moderating or eliminating the environmental footprint left behind by plastic shotgun refuse through their patented, biodegradable wads. Kirk Havens is a co-founder of GreenOps Ammo, and is also director of the Coastal Watershed Program at the Virginia Institute of Marine Science. Kirk explains that he and Jason have been working to decrease marine pollution, particularly involving plastics, for about 10 years.

What Is a Shotgun Wad?Historically, the job of a shotgun wad has been to separate the shot from the powder of a shotgun shell. Once fired, wads exit the gun along with the shot, and travel downfield approximately 20-50 yards. Though these wads were once biodegradable and made from cardboard, cork and felt, the 1960s saw the advent of plastic shells and wads. These plastic versions had enhanced functionality, such as barrel protection and converting the energy created with the barrel into shot velocity. By the 1980s, plastic shells and wads were universal. As Jason explains, nothing to date matches their performance, but GreenOps Ammo is working to change that.

Pollution Issues from Plastic WadsWith most hunters shooting over water or into dense brush, plastic wads are impossible or impractical to find and retrieve. In addition to polluting our planet, these wads create a separate set of issues in water, where plastic floats and tends to pick up other organic pollutants. Marine animals can be subject to injury or death by ingesting even small fragments of plastic.

Kirk says GreenOps was approached by hunters and sportsmen with growing concerns over the effect plastic wads have on wildlife. There have also been concerns from property owners who hunters lease land from, cranberry bog farmers who fear crop contamination and cattle farmers, whose herd could potentially ingest plastic wads.

How GreenOps Ammo is DifferentJason and Kirk see "bioplastics" (or biodegradable plastics) as a solution for this problem. GreenOps shotgun wads break apart after leaving the barrel, providing a cleaner release of the shot. Because the biodegradable wad breaks into smaller fragments, it becomes harder to find, creating less visual pollution and less chance for wildlife to devour it. GreenOps wads, unlike their plastic counterparts, will not exist on land or in water for decades or centuries, and will sink in a pond or lake versus floating or washing up to the surface. Instead, they break down to small organic compounds that are then assimilated into nature's carbon cycle.

Barriers, Competition and FundingJason explains that while nearly everyone in the hunting ammunition industry has tried and failed to create a biodegradable wad that performs as well as its conventional plastic models, it isn't for lack of trying. The need is great as single-use plastics are likely to see regulation or an outright ban from legislators in the coming years.

GreenOps Ammo has yet to approach national retailers, but as instead talked to smaller independent distributors and is planning to attend hunting trade shows, talk to hunting clubs and outfitters, and look for potential brand ambassadors. Though Jason and Kirk are currently seeking investors, non-dilutive grant funding (funds received without giving away any ownership of the company) has made it possible for GreenOps to develop its biodegradable shotgun wads. They are currently concluding a round of funding and are focused on raising additional capital.

As federal ammunition regulations are daunting for a company of any size, Jason and Kirk are hoping their start-up can make a deal with a strategic partner overseas. They are confident in the great response they've received from beta testers of their wads. GreenOps Ammo is distributing a limited supply of biodegradable shotgun wads this year and are shooting for wider distribution in 2019.

Contact GreenOps Ammo:
Web: www.greenopsammo.com
Instagram: @GreenOpsAmmo

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On today’s episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Terry Sweet, an award-winning music composer and jingle writer. Terry discusses the process in putting a brand’s message to music and why certain commercial jingles stick with us forever.

Terry SweetHaving performed and written original music since he was a teenager, Terry Sweet spent his early days playing in rock bands. He was especially infatuated with acts like The Bee Gees, The Beatles and others who performed catchy pop songs that the industry dubbed "bubble gum," or upbeat tunes that are specially marketed to a teenage demographic.

He entered the world of jingles by way of his friends' recording studio in downtown Milwaukee, where he worked as a session musician during the day and recorded his own material at night. Eventually, the studio lost their main client, and the potential of the studio closing was eminent, until one day, an ad agency called the studio seeking a jingle for Mayfair Mall in Wauwatosa, WI. The studio owners pondered the idea of becoming a jingle company, and offered Terry the chance at writing, recording and presenting the jingle to the agency, with the promise of a full-time job if all went according to plan.

The agency loved the song, and since then, Terry has composed, arranged and produced hundreds of radio and television jingles for clients such as Allstate Insurance, Kellogg's Raisin Bran, John Deere, Kraft Foods and more. Locally, he has composed jingles for David Hobbs Honda, Colder's Furniture, 7 Mile Fair, Stein's Gardens & Gifts, and many others. He has also won several national advertising and broadcast awards.

What Makes a Memorable JingleTerry believes there is a science behind why great jingles resonate with consumers. A clever melody and message, partnered with an interesting sound or talented singer, can have a big effect. He explains that music is the one form of expression that reaches an intersection within the brain of emotion, intellect and psychology. He points to the feeling we all get when we hear a familiar song and are seemingly transported to another time and place, being able to recall where we heard it, who we were with and how it made us feel. Touching on a positive memory, and then leading the customer to associate that memory with a brand, is the goal of most jingles. Repetition on television, radio or digital also plays a part, as the greatest jingle ever can't sell anything without an audience to hear it.

Terry also mentions that from an early age, we can memorize a lot of information when tied to a simple melody. Nursery rhymes like "the Alphabet Song" or "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" are some of the most universally known songs to this day, and are evidence of our ability to recall specific information when coupled with an easy-to-remember earworm.

What Comes First: Music or Lyrics?Though every project is different, Terry says most ad agencies have a theme or a specific tagline in mind that they would like a song built around. In the case of Colder's, it was important to have the phrase "Step Up" be the umbrella that all other information would fall under. Terry cites the Colder's campaign as the best he has ever worked on, due to the many variations the original message and tune have taken to promote different holiday sales, like Christmas or the Fourth of July.

While some of the information Terry requires before beginning his process seem obvious -- who is the company, what is their product, etc. -- there are other key takeaways that he seeks. These include how the brand wants their name sung (as often there is a technical corporate name that could also be referenced) and what the target demographic is. As Terry tells us, selling sneakers to teenagers is different than selling luxury cars to Baby Boomers, so often the knowledge he has of the required demographic helps shape the musical direction of the jingle.

Terry also asks what differentiates a company from their competitors. Is it their friendly staff? Their added convenience? Their affordability? For Terry, the process is more about business than it is about music. His job is to create a vehicle that will attract the attention of a specific target audience, accompanied by music that the audience likes and can relate to, along with a message that is compelling to them.

Finding TalentThe community of musicians who consistently work in the studio isn't very large, Terry explains. While there are talented performers all over the world, those that know the advertising business and can sing with a smile or sell an idea through music are the artists that Terry needs. While some stars have recorded commercials after they've had their big break, others did so long before their worldwide success. For instance, Country Superstar Garth Brooks sent Terry his demo tape early in his career filled with songs that would eventually become gigantic hits. They ended up recording a jingle together for John Deere.

What's NextTerry enjoys stepping out of the studio and playing for audiences at a few resorts in the area, staying as eclectic as he can and performing everything from classic rock to classical music. He also has three potential projects in the works: a travel documentary series; a cartoon program; and a feature film.

Whether conducting orchestras for jingles or recording his own songs with likeminded musicians, Terry loves working with talented people who help bring additional life to his material.

Contact Terry:Website: www.TerrySweet.com

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On today’s episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Katrina Cravy, author of the book ON AIR: Insider Secrets to Attract the Media and Get Free Publicity. Katrina discusses how business owners and entrepreneurs can best connect with local television outlets for features and interviews, and how to perform well on-air when given the opportunity.

Katrina CravyFormerly with WITI-FOX 6 in Milwaukee, Emmy-winner Katrina Cravy spent more than 20 years as a television news anchor, investigative reporter, talk-show host and radio personality. Now as a professional speaker and communications coach, Katrina is hired by C-Suite executives and large organizations such as Aflac, GE Healthcare and the Salvation Army to boost their teams' communication skills.

Shifting GearsKatrina has interviewed thousands of people throughout her career, and her wealth of experience in front of the camera gives her credibility in the communications arena, as well as an understanding of what makes for a good interview and how guests are selected. She enjoys taking people through the process of ensuring they're a great public speaker, whether on camera, in front of a microphone or speaking directly with media.

As to why she shifted gears from the anchor desk to more behind-the-scenes work, Katrina explains that she always had a love for entrepreneurs and their stories of how they came up with their product. Prior to one speaking engagement, Katrina decided to abandon her typical presentation about how she started in journalism. Instead, she addressed the prime questions she usually receives: how does someone get on your show and how can they become an expert in one of your stories? That speech was well-received by her audience and a colleague from the Better Business Bureau told Katrina that she was sitting on a mountain of great information for people seeking publicity, or earned media. He insisted that she begin writing her thoughts on the subject. This eventually became content for her book and a new career in communications coaching.

The Anatomy of a Perfect PitchKatrina uses the acronym H.A.V.E. when instructing people on how to perfect their pitch:

• Hook -- Determine why news outlets would want to do a story on you currently.
• Audience Benefit -- Whether it's for print, radio or television, what is in it for the media's audience?
• Visual -- You should have something that television can use right away, whether that's a demonstration, artwork, YouTube clips or "B-roll," which is supplemental or alternate footage footage to intercut with the interview.
• Engaging -- Have fun and be energetic, even if the topic is serious. Show the audience, as well as the producers, that you're engaged.

Other Great TipsWhen crafting your email, Katrina recommends starting your pitch with a compliment, referencing a previous article or program from the show, and the reporter or host's name. Let the station know what you can do for them, as opposed to what the station can do for you. It communicates that you're in touch with what they normally broadcast, and that you have content that will fit with their format.

If seeking publicity for a specific event, three weeks prior is a safe lead time for you to pitch it to media, Katrina indicates. Phone calls should be made around 10:30 a.m., after the morning news meetings in radio and TV, which typically occur between 8 and 9 a.m.

It's very important to not just have a local angle, but to also feature the word "local" itself prominently in your communications. Katrina says that news is dying for local content and it will stand out amongst the hundreds of emails that reporters and producers go through every day.

Katrina encourages publicity professionals to get to know on-air talent on a personal level. Take them for coffee, hand-deliver your pitch (or even a complimentary box of donuts for their staff) and take the time to learn what they need. This can often make the difference in being featured or not when coverage involving a national news story may benefit from having a local contact who can speak to the issue.

Once going on the air, Katrina encourages guests to think of themselves as the host. While anchors may know a lot about many topics, this is your chance to show you're the expert in one particular area.

Biggest Pitch MistakesKatrina says that public relations professionals and companies that do a mass-mailing pitch that isn't personalized, or is too long, often won't be responded to. She says that a quick, individualized pitch that specifies the who, what, when and where of the story is key.

She also tells people to avoid repeated emails that ask if the original message was received. Follow-ups are definitely recommended, as guests sometimes fall through and a replacement could be needed at any moment. Follow-ups should never ask, "Did you get my email?" Use the follow-up phone call to re-pitch your story idea.

Is Everyone Coachable?Katrina mentions that while many of her clients are life-long learners who are open to critique, some need more assistance than others. She says the right coach tries to find what's going to make that person learn better, as not everyone can go through the same process. Katrina says people often associate fear with public speaking and that it's not inherently natural for people to appear on camera. She urges her clients to recognize the tension that public speaking creates and to address their own fears first. Speakers should know that the audience is already in their corner, as they want to be entertained and educated. What's important is to recognize that the speaker also needs to be in the audience's corner, providing them with needed content in an engaging way.

Contact Katrina:Website: www.KatrinaCravy.com

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Kipper McGee, author of the book Brandwidth: How Big Broadcasting is Missing the Mediamorphosis. Kipper discusses how terrestrial radio is grappling with its relevancy, and what stations need to embrace for the future.

Kipper McGeeA radio fan from the start, Kipper grew up listening to stations like Chicago's 890 WLS AM, as well as Milwaukee's 920 WOKY AM and 620 WTMJ AM. In the early 1980's, Kipper and a talented staff that included Brandstorm co-host Dan Trzinski helped put Milwaukee's 94.5 WKTI FM on the map. They took an automated music station with low ratings and no personalities and built it into the #1 station in the market during pop music's renaissance. Back then, it was unheard of to have a discussion-fueled morning show with little-to-no music, but this revolutionary idea worked. The morning team of Reitman & Mueller was a ratings sensation at WKTI for over 25 years, and the morning talk show format is still being used on stations all over the country.

Kipper started as on-air talent, but has worked in virtually every radio position available in different cities across the United States, including Des Moines, Orlando, St. Louis and New Orleans. Eventually, Kipper joined WLS and ran that station in the mid-to-late 2000's.

Currently, Kipper is a digital marketing consultant, whose clients include Internet start-ups, broadcast networks and Fortune 500 companies such as Delta Airlines and Nokia. He is a frequent speaker, panelist and presenter at national broadcasting conventions, and is chief strategist at Kipper McGee, LLC.

Brandwidth: How Big Broadcasting is Missing the MediamorphosisKipper's book recently had a second press run, as his message remains as applicable today as it was when the book was published in 2015. He feels that broadcast media, specifically radio, is not evolving enough to stay relevant in today's digital age. He goes as far to say in his book that if the broadcast industry dies, it will be ruled a suicide. Whether it's due to fear of change, too much downsizing, inertia or comfort in the status quo, many in the radio industry have avoided using social media, podcasting, video and other potential extensions of their brand to promote and interact with audiences.

With podcasting specifically, Kipper says the radio mentality thus far has been to treat this marketing tool as a glorified DVR, relying on rerunning previously-aired content. He believes that the smart way to go with a radio station's podcasting arm is to create unique and preferably shorter content. Kipper also recommends that stations create a second stream online, where listeners can get the same music that is aired on terrestrial radio, with less interruptions.

The Current State of RadioWhile recent studies show that 95% of people still listen to the radio at least once a week, it's clear that those same listeners are not spending the same amount of time with it as they once did. About 35% of homes no longer have a radio, and Kipper believes more stations should be taking advantage of the uptick in homes that have invested in home-listening devices like the Amazon Echo, Google Home or Apple's HomePod. It may disrupt an advertiser's standard way of thinking, but it's important to realize the potential difference between 30,000 people who simply hear your ad and the 6,000 legitimate prospects you can create with this new approach that targets individual listening habits. Kipper explains that radio is one of the few mediums left that still airs 60-second, linear, one-dimensional audio ad messages. Television now offers 30-, 15-, 10-, and even 5-second ads. Why couldn't radio explore ads that simply refer listeners to an icon on their touchscreen? While the technology does not yet exist for such segmented advertising on in-home devices, it will soon. In the meantime, advertisers can still create a database or track listeners if they use an app or have an account with a radio station that requires a log-in or email address.

Why Radio Hasn't Mastered Social MediaTo Kipper, the fact that the radio industry has yet to fully embrace social media is mainly due to budgets and the bandwidth of each station's shrinking staff. These days, each person on the team usually does multiple jobs, including on-air talent. When an intern must juggle social media posts for an entire radio group, or a D.J. is expected to record his or her own show and write multiple blogs, in addition to creating social media posts before clocking out for the day, it's no wonder that true interactivity through social media isn't being explored.

Why Facts Have Become Less ImportantThe facts of who, what, when, where, why and how have become less important to consumers than how quickly we get that information. In the past, we would go to the morning or evening paper for facts, but today, we are barraged with facts 24/7 via our mobile phones and television's news cycle. The question is no longer "what has happened," but more so, "what is happening now, what's in it for me and what's next?" Using Kipper's example, the results of an election do not matter to people as much as how the winner's platform will affect their day-to-day lives. Kipper says that broadcast news needs to be forward-thinking, and not prone to regurgitating news that has already been broadcast several times during the day or night.

How Radio Advertising Needs to ChangeAs programming becomes more segmented, in response to streaming services like Spotify or satellite radio, there will soon be no need for people to hear the same advertisements. More and more, ads will be targeted to listeners based on individual interests and habits, much like how Amazon and Google can recommend different products or websites to different users, based on their individual search histories.

Survival Tips for Radio StationsRadio stations need to think bigger, better and brighter, according to Kipper. They need to take time to step back and be innovative. Terrestial radio needs to be technologically in sync with the current culture. Apps like iHeartRadio are great for people who like to listen to music, but they are too generalized and could stand to be more local. Ad agencies, like Platypus, need to take a leadership role in helping radio stations embrace new media to not only bring added value to radio clients, but also to create new revenue streams.

Contact Kipper:Website: www.KipperMcGee.com
Podcast: Brandwidth
Twitter: @KipperMcGee
Facebook: www.facebook.com/kippermcgee
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/kippermcgee

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Jill Geisler, a Wisconsin Broadcasters Association Hall of Famer and author of the book, Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know. Jill discusses her involvement in the Newseum’s Power Shift Project, what it takes to be a great leader in any industry, and why her mantra is, “Life’s too short to work with jerks.”

Jill GeislerIn 1978, Jill became one of the first female news directors in the United States, working at WITI-TV in Milwaukee. She served in that capacity for more than 20 years and was inducted into the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences' prestigious Silver Circle.

In 1998, she joined the faculty at the Poynter Institute, building and teaching leadership and management programs, and writing columns and producing podcasts that would eventually become content for her book, which was published in 2014.

For the last three years, Jill has been a Bill Plante Chair in Leadership and Media Integrity at Loyola University Chicago. She consults with newsrooms and organizations around the globe and is an in-demand speaker on the issues of leadership, ethics and diversity in the digital age.

Power Shift ProjectLast year, stories of sexual misconduct by powerful men in entertainment and media, like Harvey Weinstein, Matt Lauer and Charlie Rose, shook the industry to its core.

Jan Neuharth, a trustee at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. (a popular museum dedicated to the history of journalism), and daughter of USA Today and Newseum founder Al Neuharth, asked for Jill's expertise and assistance in bringing together people who are on the forefront of this issue, including individuals from news organizations dealing with these bombshells and covering their own stories, victims of the reported abuse, academies who have studied these issues, the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), the National Women's Law Center (NWLC) and many more.

In January, over 130 media leaders attended the first Power Shift Summit at the Newseum. At this summit, Jill moderated panels where representatives from news organizations spoke about attempts to put the pieces of their own companies back together after these accusations came to light. Discussions were also held on what can be done to change things industry-wide, and to shift the power away from the higher-ups who perpetuated such misconduct.

Realizing more education on this topic was needed, Jill was asked to sign on with the Newseum to help design curriculum and activities for the Power Shift Project. With the full support of Loyola University, Jill sees her new venture as a wonderful service to humanity, and points out that misconduct in the industry is not limited to that of a sexual nature. Other issues include incivility, discrimination and how those who previously felt they were voiceless can now come forward.

Work Happy: What Great Bosses KnowThe impetus for Jill's book came from feedback she received as a consultant and coach. She was frequently asked about books she might recommend on leadership. Instead of suggesting different books that dealt with singular topics like conflict resolution, time management or emotional intelligence, Jill felt there was a need for a book for people like her, who originally received no formal training in management or leadership. Her journalism background provided her with the unique talent to take in a lot of information, synthesize and translate it for others to easily understand.

Jill says Work Happy: What Great Bosses Know is a reference tool that acts much like a workshop with self-diagnostic activities and quizzes to help any manager or team of managers improve their leadership skills and create a better work culture.

What Makes a Great BossNo boss is perfect, but according to Jill, the great ones are leaders who work to overcome their flaws and surround themselves with people who will keep them honest and fill in their gaps. She also says people appreciate inspiration. True visionaries can see an end goal and let their team figure out the best route to get there. Great bosses will not likely hesitate to apologize. In fact, most employees have more respect for a boss who genuinely admits to a mistake and responds with the wisdom to figure out why it happened, and why it won't happen again.

A great boss also remembers that their employees are people. What you do during both joyous and somber times as a leader will never be forgotten. Going out of your way to offer employees sincere condolences and support over a death in the family or being congratulatory about personal or family successes are good examples of this.

Other Ways to Succeed at LeadershipJill believes the most important thing a leader can do is to help others succeed. Establishing early on that your goal is for your team to be able to do their best work builds social capital. Jill recommends tracking this in measurable ways, such as how you speak to your employees, how much you make yourself available to them and how much you know about them personally.

However, this does not mean that treating everyone the same will work. Many leaders confuse office equality with forcing everyone to work the same way. A manager who tries to turn their staff into a version of him or her will likely fail. While standards can be universal, achieving those standards can differ for each person, and no two people should be required to achieve something the same way.

Management Styles of a Bad BossJill says the worst management style she's seen in her career is the "Absentee Landlord." This is the person whose credo is, "I hire good people and I get out of their way." Jill explains that no good boss ever gets completely out of the way of their employees, because even top performers require feedback. Without it, employees have little idea where they stand, or how they are performing.

Another avoidable management style is that of a controlling boss. While Jill admits that taking on an underperforming team requires control at first (such as being specific about your expectations and managing the team closely), maintaining that control will inevitably be damaging. Once the team begins to shine, a great boss steps back and becomes more of a participatory manager. Democracy is not always possible in the workplace. Bosses sometimes need to make tough calls. Jill recommends that if you cannot give your team a vote, then at least give them a voice. This helps people not only get things done, but to do so with an idea of their own creation. If a team doesn't need to rely on the boss for every single move, it will inevitably lead to great things.

Jill also believes that poor leaders can often be too focused on product, believing that their staff is just a means to an end. These leaders should be more focused on helping their team reach current goals and set new ones. In other words, how can they make the process to complete a task more successful?

Mistakes Employees Never Forget or ForgiveJill says dishonesty or a lack of transparency from a boss, especially when it comes to potential layoffs or a possible pay increase, is something employees never forget or forgive. Another breach of trust is a boss taking credit for someone else's work or idea, or on the flip side, refusing to take the appropriate blame when necessary. Lastly, a boss who acts differently around his or her employees than with a superior will likely lose the respect of the team. Seeing two distinctly opposing sides of a leader is never a good look.

Jill says that if you are known around the office as being generous with information when you have it, you are more likely to be believed and understood by your staff when you can't comment on a situation, or have no say in the matter.

Managing Age DifferencesWhen working with a group that includes both Baby Boomers and Millennials, Jill states that there is a clear difference between how each group obtains and processes information. While Baby Boomers grew up getting bank statements once a month, seeing their grades at the end of a semester and were oftentimes unable to talk to their parents until the weekend because of lower phone rates, the newest generation in the workforce often talks to their parents several times a day via text and can check their school grades or get a reaction from a thought on social media instantaneously. Where they don't get instant feedback is in the workplace. Jill recommends that leaders add feedback in their conversations with Millennials, discussing challenges, while giving them a path to grow.

Reflecting on her own Management StyleAs news director at WITI-TV, Jill developed what she refers to as a "coaching newsroom," where people came to learn and discover their own opportunities to hone their craft. She put an emphasis on rewarding unique and original stories, as well as creating a family-friendly workplace. She says that if you allow your employees to bring their whole selves to their position without ignoring family and challenges at home, they will do a much better job at the office. However, after years of experience to reflect on, Jill also believes her team at WITI-TV would have benefitted from knowing what they could be doing better, and not just what they were already doing well.

Recommendations on Getting AheadEmployees are often good at identifying problems or what's not working, and are more than happy to complain about it to fellow team members or their employer. Unfortunately, that's where the motivation stops. How can anything be fixed without change or an attempt to try something different?

Jill recalls that it was her practice of volunteerism that worked best for her. By giving extensive thought to a challenge, and how it would fit into the greater context of what her team was trying to accomplish, Jill would not only take her recommendations to her superiors, but also offer to help or head up efforts to solve the problem.

Jill says this is how the seeds of great leadership can be planted. Look at problems from the view of the organization and not just your own goals. If you are known as someone who is a good collaborator, people are more inclined to follow you knowing there is a promise of reciprocity. You don't have to be the best at your craft, but having the ability to take a more global approach, while rolling up your sleeves and being a part of the solution, will get you noticed!

Contact Jill:Facebook: facebook.com/WhatGreatBossesKnow

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Andy Silverman, one of the co-founders of Milwaukee Day. Andy discusses how a joke amongst friends has exploded into a mammoth annual celebration of hometown pride through fun and service.

Milwaukee DayThe date of April 14th (or 4/14), is perfect for recognizing Milwaukee, home to the 414- area code. Andy’s brother Toby originally voiced the correlation between the date and the area code about 8 or 9 years ago on social media, leading Andy and some of his friends to purchase an official Milwaukee Day URL that very day and begin dreaming up the idea. A year later, commemorating the next April 14th, Andy starred in a short video, unofficially declaring the holiday. It went viral soon after, thanks to Milwaukee television anchor Ted Perry, who broadcasted the video on the FOX 6 evening news. Since then, the annual event has snowballed into a large goodwill effort to explore and experience Milwaukee’s vast history, raise funds or awareness for local charities, take in live, local music, and to do whatever one deems appropriate in celebration of the city. Andy says the Milwaukee Day movement comes from a sincere love for his hometown and embracing everything that makes Milwaukee unique.

Assistance From Local BusinessesFor several years, the Milwaukee Day organizers have received sponsorships from local businesses to keep ticket prices low for those attending. Andy says his team is lucky to not only be working with these companies, but that the same organizations are often the first to reach out to them. As more companies have come on board and created their own events, it has lessened the load for the Milwaukee Day team, making the day more about inspiration and less about execution.

Fun Events and Discounts on Milwaukee DayHere are just a few of the gatherings or special deals you can take advantage of on Milwaukee Day. More are listed on their website, found below.

• The Official Milwaukee Day Party at Company Brewing, sponsored by Gruber Law Offices and WMSE, features live music from Tigernite, Midwest Death Rattle and Zed Kenso. Company Brewing is also releasing a limited Milwaukee Day Ale.
• The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee Peck School of the Arts Open House will showcase art exhibitions, film screenings and live performances from over 100 award-winning graduate students and faculty.
• The Harley-Davidson Museum is offering free admission to anyone wearing clothes emblazoned with the word "Milwaukee."

Celebrating Milwaukee Through ServiceWhile Andy and the Milwaukee Day team love driving traffic to their sanctioned events, part of their mission is also to bring awareness to positive causes. This ranges from park clean-ups to non-partisan voter registration to raising funds for area public charter school Escuela Verde. Andy says that Milwaukee Day is a great reason to give people guidance on how they can help out their community.

Getting Noticed Both Locally and NationallyOn top of receiving annual recognition from Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett and the City Common Council, Milwaukee Day recently garnered national attention when it was spotlighted as an answer on the television gameshow Jeopardy!. Andy is proud that this mention came seemingly out of nowhere with no one on the Milwaukee Day team having any connection to the show. Clearly, the passion for Milwaukee Day is no longer limited to just Wisconsin!

Contact Milwaukee Day:Website: www.milwaukeeday.com
Email: milwaukeeday@gmail.com
Twitter: @MilwaukeeDay

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Jayson Pearl, president of ServiceScore. Jayson discusses how ServiceScore helps businesses in the service industry convert more phone inquiries into appointments by using technology and best practices.

Jayson PearlJayson's career in the franchise industry spans over 30 years, with companies such as San Jamar, Rocky Rococo and BrightStar, all of which he helped turn-around or grow. While working on a customer service project for BrightStar, Jayson caught the entrepreneurial bug and launched his own company, called ServiceScore, in February of this year.

ServiceScoreServiceScore helps businesses that receive a minimum of about 100 phone calls per month maximize their sales opportunities and drive conversion rates. Jayson sees the biggest way to assist franchisees with profitability is to help them make the most of where they're already spending money, including advertising, developing sales staff and integrated phone systems. ServiceScore does this with proprietary technology that analyzes phone inquiries and helps train sales staff.

Addressing Customer Service GapsJayson describes the anatomy of a positive phone interaction in three steps: making a positive first impression; uncovering a need that shows the value of a company's service; and being comfortable in asking the caller for the next step, be it a sale, an appointment or another tangible action. He finds that employees, and even business owners, often simply answer questions, instead of moving towards that crucial third step. By using ServiceScore's acronym of a G.R.E.A.T. call -- Greeting, Rapport, Expertise, Asking for Appointment, and Overall Tone -- Jayson has seen significant improvements in conversions by addressing customer service gaps with quantitative, objective methods.

More Than Just SalesJayson has also noticed that about one-third of all calls are regarding employment opportunities. In today's modern age, perspective hires would prefer to not fill out a form, but instead call a business directly to learn about benefits, potential hours of work and other deciding factors. In an economy that can be tough for plumbers, nurses or handymen, recruiting those team members can be the biggest barrier to a company's growth. ServiceScore's methods have increased the number of interviews and new hires for companies, by making a good first impression with potential hires and giving them a reason to want to take the next step.

Technology and DataServiceScore offers two products: a live specialist who reviews calls and scores them accordingly; and call intelligence reporting, which is a proprietary platform using natural-learning technology. Calls are converted to text and scanned for keywords, sentiment analysis and more. Jayson explains that through good tracking methods, you can learn how to truly improve on metrics. General best practices make everyone better, but examining calls can also let business owners hear things that may be incorrect or against brand standards, so their staff can be better prepared and more knowledgeable.

Contact Jayson:Website: www.servicescore.net
Email: jayson@servicescore.net
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/jaysonpearl

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Kathy Kuderer, owner and manager of Down A Country Road Gift Shops and Tour Service. Kathy talks about how her relationship with Amish families in her community led to a successful retail and tour service business.

Kathy KudererKathy was only six years old when her family moved to rural Cashton, WI. The town is located 30 miles east of LaCrosse, and is home to the largest population of Amish in the state. Kathy made many connections with Amish families in her community, establishing bonds and learning cultural significances that would later help her in business as a seller of Amish goods. Now in its 25th season and serving over 20,000 visitors each May through October, Down A Country Road offers an endless array of handmade Amish products, ranging from jams, jellies and their buttery homemade cashew crunch to furniture and home decor, such as rugs, quilts and candles.

Gift ShopKathy and her husband Chuck moved to the farm site of Down A Country Road when they married 40 years ago. One of the current gift shops on the property dates back to 1905, while four of the six buildings were built by the Amish. Kathy works with about 45 Amish families, as well as local crafters who sell their work through Kathy's stores.

Tour ServiceAs the Amish are known for not interacting with the public, Kathy visited with many Amish families to gauge their interest in having visitors tour the Amish community before opening her tour service. In the six months leading up to the opening, she heard their concerns, understood that each family has a different level of comfort with visitors in their homes, and based her tours on being as non-invasive as possible. She rides along with customers in their own vehicles instead of taking a large, branded van. The tours also allow for potential sales of Amish goods right there in their homes, so the interactions are mutually beneficial. Kathy has now given over 2,500 Amish tours to people from all over the world. Tours are usually at 10am and 2pm daily, and are booked through reservation only.

Marketing Before the Digital AgeKathy talks about getting the word out about her business before social media or websites, working with local media and making connections with area tourism spots like hotels, motels and bed & breakfasts. She says that many of those businesses were looking for something to market to their own visitors, and the curiosity of the Amish community helped in that regard.

Competition with a New Generation of AmishKathy says that as a new generation of Amish are potentially more akin to interacting with the public to sell their products, however she is confident in her relationship with the many Amish families she continues to work with. For one thing, they don't have phones and many Amish crafters still want someone to make their contacts for them, so they can focus on their work. Kathy is more than happy to be that liaison.

Contact Kathy:Website: www.downacountryroad.com
Phone: (608) 654-5318

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome the CEO of Exposure Magazine, Tam Lawrence. Already in Chicago and Atlanta, Exposure launches in Milwaukee in April. Tam talks about the mission of her publication, the inspiring stories it showcases and why advertisers and corporations should work with minority-owned networks and publications.

Tam LawrenceAs a former public relations director, Tam has more than 20 years of experience in marketing and PR, representing clients from the NFL and working for the DNC as well as Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Atlanta" television series. Originally from Milwaukee, Tam received her Bachelor's degree at Marquette University and her Master's at Kent State University. She also had a career in stand-up comedy, sharing the stage with Jamie Foxx and Wayne Brady.

Exposure MagazineAvailable in print and online, Exposure reaches 2.5 million readers daily. Exposure publishes stories that inspire readers to do something good for themselves and others. While working with NFL players, she witnessed the cognitive issues the men experienced after repeated concussions and tried to get mainstream media to cover the story. When they didn't, she created her own bully pulpit through her publication to advocate for others. When Exposure launches in Milwaukee this April, the focus will be on lead concerns in the City's water system and the adverse effect it is having on children in the inner city.

Lack of Diversity In AdvertisingWith minorities contributing $1.5 trillion to the American economy each year, Tam explains why corporations need to be more diverse and inclusive to minority advertising. Millennials make purchases with companies that are representative of their age, gender and ethnicity. Consumers, in general, are more conscientious about the brands they support and buy, and are attracted to corporations that are socially active and taking on causes.

Minority Media Matters MovementTam launched the Minority Media Matters Movement to give voice to minority issues in the media. Members in the movement include: Art Norman with NBC; Quincy Newell, exec. VP and GM of Codeblack Films; and Cathy Hughes, the founder of TV One and Radio One, and the first African-American woman to head a publicly-traded corporation. The movement's first summit will be held in May 2019 in Tulsa, OK.

Contact Tam:Website: www.exposure-magazine.com
Phone: (414) 533-7239

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Joe Sweeney, a New York Times best-selling author, national speaker and trainer. Joe has been a business owner, investment banker and sports agent. Today, he discusses how these different roles have played a part in inspiring others to help themselves and those around them.

Joe SweeneyOriginally from Madison, Wis., and one of 10 children, Joe was raised in a close knit, entrepreneurial family. The lessons he shares in his three books about networking and reflection are rooted in his experiences growing up. Joe says living in the Midwest, people are often defined by what they do for a living, making it difficult for people to change careers. Joe likes to describe himself as an enterprising person with an entrepreneurial spirit, and not as someone who has changed careers several times.

After Further Review The title of Joe's most recent book refers to what a football referee says to the crowd after looking at a play more closely. Joe asks readers to pause, examine their life and define what excites them or drives their passion. This is especially key when people are in their 40s, 50s and 60s and are looking for more purpose and meaning.

Networking the Right Way Joe tells us that most people use networking the wrong way, and that even the term "networking" has a bad connotation. We imagine someone aggressively attempting to get what they want out of someone, without any true connection. The purpose of Joe's first book, Networking Is a Contact Sport, is to train people to reframe the way they look at networking. One way is to pretend that you are the host of the networking event. This way, you are more likely to introduce people to each other and less likely to be focused on what the networking event can do for you and your bottom line. Joe says that when you can help people get what they want, you can get everything you want in life and more.

The 5-10-15 PrincipleJoe's principle encourages people to hold five meetings, write 10 handwritten notes and make 15 phone calls every day that move your goals forward. The number of meetings, calls and letters isn't as important as keeping yourself focused on your goals. In a digital age, where we may think we are all better connected, Joe believes we are more isolated than ever. Touch, he says, trumps technology and when we meet people face-to-face, we are more likely to see eye-to-eye.

Secrets to Building Your Personal BrandThe "secret sauce" for Joe has been authenticity. A brand is your promise to those you serve, and being who you really are is the only way to live up to that promise. This past year, Joe's personal journey led him to board a Greyhound bus with $30 in his pocket and live as a homeless person in Detroit for a week. This experience taught him true gratitude, which he says leads to a feeling of abundance with all that we have here in the U.S. Joe says we live in an entitled culture. We measure our worth by our possessions and status. When you are unemployed, poor or older, you are often viewed by society as a nobody. Joe's mission is to break that stereotype and to teach others that opportunities in business and life come from our relationships and connections with people.

Contact Joe:Website: www.joesweeney.com

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Greg Giersch, vice president of client experience at The Center for Sales Strategy (CSS). As a company’s sales force is integral to their success, Greg and his organization help businesses increase sales revenue by improving the performance of their sales teams, and encouraging them to fully understand their own brand.

Greg Giersch Currently residing in Portland, OR, Greg is originally from Milwaukee and worked as a broadcast engineer for the Journal Broadcast Group (WTMJ-TV, WTMJ-AM and WKTI). After completing a business degree in college with a marketing major, he made the leap into sales. He was a client of CSS before becoming an employee and discovering his personal brand. He embraced his engineering roots as a problem solver and uses these skills to his advantage as a salesperson.

The Center for Sales Strategy Founded in 1983 and based in Tampa, FL, The Center for Sales Strategy has home offices throughout the country and approximately 40 employees, a good majority of which are consultants that travel to clients. The organization was founded on customer-focused selling. CSS' business model is: talent, training and tactics equal performance. By bringing in the right talent, CSS can help companies train their sales staff with correct tactics to use out in the field. Success means finding the right clients for the product you're selling, thus making the entire transaction a win-win.

What Makes a Salesperson Unique Greg says that 20 years ago, sales thrived on phone calls and face-to-face meetings to discuss a client's wants and needs. With the internet, it is now key for sales people to come to the table knowing about their client's business first through research. Likewise, clients can also research you as the salesperson, making it important to have a personal brand. If a salesperson has trouble defining what makes them unique, ask for feedback from people who know you in the workplace. The right branding can help salespeople connect and bring value to a potential client.

Why Salespeople Fail Greg states that good salespeople are often good listeners and good researchers. If a salesperson can find and cater to the client's needs, they can generate repeat sales. Don't be product-focused. Be a problem solver.

Contact Greg:Website: www.thecenterforsalesstrategy.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/greggiersch

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Gerardo Guzman, senior vice president of product leadership and Kristen Millsap, account director of client solutions at Nielsen. With so many viewing options for television these days, they join us to discuss what’s new in TV measurement and the company’s efforts to provide accurate measurement of modern TV viewing habits.

Nielsen A leading global information and measurement company, Nielsen has provided market research, insights and data about what people watch, listen to and buy for over 90 years. They accomplish this through a myriad of methods, including what’s known as panels, or small segments of homes in cities that represent the marketplace. By using these panels, Nielsen can gauge over 120 different characteristics per household, such as how many cars are owned and how many people live there. With technology on the rise and viewing habits changing rapidly, Gerardo explains Nielsen’s three current focuses: measuring viewership on different devices (such as iPads, phones and laptops), different services (including Netflix, over-the-air stations and mobile applications) and how to improve the core video measurement of what’s being watched on television.

What’s New in 2018 Gerardo tells us there are big changes ahead this year for Nielsen, not just in the volume of change but how quickly it will occur. One of the biggest changes in 2018 is that the paper diaries, where Nielsen households log their viewing habits, will be retired by the end of the year. Gerardo says diaries – which were introduced when there were only three or four networks, and are still used in 140 smaller TV markets – are no long efficient with hundreds of channels and a multitude of ways to watch video content, a term Nielsen is using to refer to all the ways people are getting their TV programming. Nielsen will now be electronically metering and measuring homes in all 210 U.S. television markets. There are 70 large markets are already equipped with electronic monitoring.

The More Data, The Better If someone leaves a television on when they leave the room for an extended period, would that still count as the program being watched? To an extent, it can with Nielsen’s 2013 acquisition of radio market research firm Arbitron. The Portable People Meter (PPM), originally used to pick up AM/FM signals, is worn like a pager and can note broadcasts if a person leaves the room.

With all the ad-supported mobile apps from networks like CBS and Discovery Channel, Gerardo explains that Nielsen’s technology is embedded for tracking, yet there are different potential advertising situations there. A show may have a different ad schedule than how it originally aired on live television or the ads may be the same as how the show originally aired. The marketplace may have to sort out how to measure viewing before a true solution emerges.

How Specific the Data Can Be Gerardo informs us that with all the technological improvements that benefit Nielsen, the information they gather can be incredibly granular. An example is a local news broadcast, where it can be known when people are changing the channel, down to the minute. Even if a weatherperson makes a joke on air, Nielsen can track who is tuning out when that occurs, which could lead to the station making a change in the way that anchor delivers the forecast.

The Future of TV and Advertising The pace of change is going to continue and increase. Nielsen is currently making investments in technology that we’ll likely see one to three years from now, because no matter what or how content is consumed, it still needs to be measured. And while technology makes it easier for us to watch TV programming on mobile devices – with the potential of apps taking over cable subscriptions down the line – Gerardo notes that 20% of the United States is still without broadband internet service, so the audience for over-the-air television will not be going away soon.

Contact Gerardo:Website: www.nielsen.com
Email: gerardo.guzman@nielsen.com

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Ihsan Atta, president of OPUS Corporation. Ihsan joins us to discuss why doing business overseas can be difficult without connections or cultural understanding.

Ihsan Atta Ihsan helps businesses both within the United States and elsewhere (mostly in China, India, Pakistan and other Middle Eastern countries) to connect with overseas suppliers. Ihsan asks that any U.S. businessperson working with him to first present the research that they have done. Ihsan works with individuals who have skin in the game and have done their homework. He urges listeners to use trade publications and the power of the internet, as much can be learned from basic web searches.

OPUS Corporation Described on today’s episode as a serial entrepreneur from an early age, Ihsan founded OPUS Corporation back in 1996. Though still in college at the time, Ihsan knew he wanted to work in business after graduation, so OPUS Corporation was founded as an umbrella company to work within a wide range of industries. These include window wholesaling, property investment, manufacturing products and the importing/exporting of natural stone.

Cultural Differences Ihsan indicates that the biggest mistake a business owner can make with another overseas company is not understanding the nuances of culture, and that what may seem completely obtuse to Americans may be customary in another country. For example, Ihsan says that in Middle Eastern culture, you may have a three-hour meeting where the crux of the business itself is only discussed in the final 30 minutes. It is important to understand cultural differences in everything from the tone of emails or the consistency of follow-up calls to gift giving or handshakes. Ihsan says listeners should not take offense or be bothered by these different approaches, as attempting to adapt can only help you become more successful in working with foreign companies.

What Makes a Good International Relationship? Like most American business transactions, Ihsan mentions that comfort and trust are key to any worthwhile partnership. He urges those seeking international business to be clear on any communications, as cultural differences and language barriers can turn something we take for granted in small talk and give it a completely different meaning. Ihsan also states that gauging how interested any foreign business is in working with you is important. Your desires should be equal, otherwise it may not end up being a fair or productive relationship.

Resources for Business Owners Ihsan explains that the U.S. Commercial Service – run by the US Department of Commerce and International Trade Commission – is a great resource for those seeking international business. Their goals are to help increase overseas sales and to assist businesses interested in exporting. Bankers and attorneys are not always necessary as they are here in the U.S., however they can be helpful with methods of payment, including wire transfers or letters-of-credit. With physical goods, Ihsan recommends being prepared as well as protected, as shipments from overseas are more prone to damage, customs hold-ups or other shipping delays.

Contact Ihsan: Email: info@opuscorporation.com

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/ihsan-atta-8915052/

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Dan Jessup, executive vice president of Jones Lang LaSalle’s Wisconsin office. Dan joins us to discuss why the location you choose for your business is so important, and what to look for when starting up or moving.

Dan Jessup A commercial real estate broker for over 27 years, Dan explains that one of the main differences between residential and business real estate is that the former is fueled by emotion, while the latter is based on facts. Examples can include demographics, average income per household or the population within a 5-mile radius. A business owner may not have a handle on those aforementioned statistics, which is where a broker can truly assist. Brokers have a wealth of market knowledge, experience in your business’ field and understand current market conditions.

Jones Lang LaSalle For over 250 years, Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) has been a trusted partner to organizations who want more value from the commercial real estate they own, use or invest in. An international Fortune 500 company, JLL’s 70,000 employees deal with every facet of commercial real estate – from transaction management to construction and design management – in 80 countries.

Current Commercial Real Estate Trends Though trends come and go, Dan states that millennials are contributing to offices being more collaborative in nature. Gone are the days of corner, private offices and in their place are more communal workspaces. The current average occupancy per 1,000 square feet is about 6-8 employees, up from 4-5 within the last five years. These staff members spend less time at their desks, more time working from home (or from a separate, third location) and more time collaborating with others on premises. Technology has also made a lot of space initially needed for computer towers, server rooms or paper files obsolete.

Is It Better to Buy or Lease? This is an important question with no good answer, Dan tells us. If you’re in the market to purchase, it’s key to know the ROI of your own company first. If that number is above 10%, Dan recommends investing back in your own company versus in real estate. If your business is experiencing fast growth, you may want to look into leasing, especially from a landlord with multiple properties, in the event that you need to relocate or your company outgrows your original space.

What Questions Should You Ask a Broker? Dan suggests that since the industry has become so specialized, business owners should work directly with brokers within their city who deal directly in their field, whether that’s retail, office, or warehouse space. He also mentions that a great broker should know more about your own location than you do! By working with someone who is well-versed in your arena, you’ll easily be able to vet a broker by inquiring about the tenants they’ve served or currently work with, what lease terms they’re under and how recent those agreements are.

Contact Dan: Website: www.jll.com
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/danjessupjoneslanglasalle

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Elzie Flenard, general manager of internet radio station WQYL-DB. Elzie is here to talk about why he founded WQYL-DB, its benefits to both listeners and brands, and why companies should be paying attention to digital broadcast possibilities.

Elzie Flenard An entrepreneur and host of his own internet radio show/podcast on WQYL-DB, titled Enterprise NOW!, Elzie says he began his station with the goal of what he calls “The Three C’s: Connecting, Communicating and Cultivating.” In an age where heavily-segmented audiences are both a blessing and a curse and it has become increasingly hard to reach your preferred demographic, Elzie tells us “why” what he’s accomplishing keeps him going, and how he is constantly thinking about the “why” to help fellow entrepreneurs or companies withstand hardships or slow times.

WQYL-DB Available via your web browser – or on streaming platforms such as iTunes Radio, Pandora, iHeartRadio or TuneIn – WQYL-DB broadcasts a wide range of talk-radio programming. Depending on when you listen, you can catch shows focusing on business, sports, pop culture, mental health, music and more.

Enterprise NOW! Elzie refers to himself as an “entrepreneur junkie” who loves to talk business, meet new people in different industries and learn the stories and backgrounds of business owners and fellow entrepreneurs who share his passion. On Enterprise NOW!, Elzie welcomes a healthy mix of entrepreneurs, whether they’re just starting up or own a multi-million dollar business. He feels the diversity of his guests contributes to the passion he’s trying to capture on his program.

Internet Radio Costs Launching an Internet radio station or program can be done on a shoestring budget, but those looking to dive in, need to balance their expectations of what they can get out of it with what they put in. Those entering the field need a strategy, commitment, marketing, branding, and the investment to make the brand successful.

Why Brands Should Explore Internet Radio Although the physical act of listening may be similar, internet radio listeners are different from those who tune in to terrestrial radio and even those who enjoy podcasts. To communicate with your “tribe” – Elzie’s synonym for your audience – exploring the potential of internet broadcasting may be a great way to enhance your brand.

Contact Elzie: Website: www.wqyl-db.com
Email: elzief@wqyl-db.com

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This episode of Brandstorm features Michael Stodola, brand manager at Milwaukee’s largest craft brewery, Lakefront Brewery. Michael talks about the brand’s history, how Lakefront distinguishes itself from other craft breweries and its grassroots marketing efforts.

Michael Stodola
Michael has a wealth of experience in brand strategy and development, having served as a motivational brand speaker adept at explaining the benefits, value and relevant moving parts of a successful brands. He was previously director of brand strategy at Boelter + Lincoln Marketing Communications in Milwaukee, where he was also the creative director for many years.

Lakefront Brewery
Originating in 1987 by its owners Russ and Jim Klisch, Lakefront Brewery is an industrious and inventive microbrewery located along the Milwaukee River. Its rich history includes partnerships with local taverns, preservation of local historical pieces, unique tours, family-style dining and great beer. Lakefront Brewery created the first gluten-free beer, New Grist, and the first certified organic beers, Organika and Fuel, in the nation.

Carving a Niche in a Crowded Space
The craft brew industry is a crowded space with more than 5300 craft breweries in the U.S. alone. Lakefront Brewery went through a branding process six years ago, rediscovering its positioning as a regular guy brand that is honest, true and hardworking and creating a persona of its core user to measure its design and marketing efforts against. The brewery makes 30 different beers each year and is present in 39 states and in several international companies.

Defending the Homefront Through Grassroots Marketing Efforts
Lakefront Brewery aggressively markets its beer locally through attention-grabbing internal and external special events, beer tastings and taps, sponsorships. It also leverages its brand with unique and hilarious beer tours, a gift shop, beer hall and original recipes that create an authentic Milwaukee experience.

Contact Michael:
Website: http://www.lakefrontbrewery.com
Brew Tour Reservations: http://www.lakefrontbrewery.com/tour
BeerFinder: http://www.lakefrontbrewery.com/beerfinder
Email: stodola@lakefrontbrewery.com

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Doug Fox to the show. Doug is here to talk about investor relations communications, and share his thoughts on ESGs, cryptocurrency, and more.

Doug Fox
Doug is accomplished in investor relations and communications, and is a finance executive with broad and deep experience. He is a trusted management adviser, with the highest level of credibility and record of leadership. Doug has extensive and enduring relationships across Wall Street, and has spent half of his career on the agency side of things, and the other half focusing on public companies.

Clermont Partners
Clermont Partners helps companies navigate change. They work with clients to execute effective, customized strategies that drive positive investor engagement, value and reputation. Clermont helps companies ensure that their investment communications resonate the right way with the investment community. This may be through press releases, conference calls, presentations, investor messaging, annual reports, or websites.

Evolution of Wall Street
The evolution of Wall Street over the years are both good and bad. Many of the changes have been driven by technology. There has been an evolution of investing in the terms of retail investing versus institutional investing. Additionally, there has been a rise in passive investing, as well as growth in electronic trading.

Rapid Decline of IPOs
There has been a rapid decline of IPOs, which is evident by the shrinking number of public companies. Several aspects factor in this, including:
The rise of private equity
Venture capital
Merger and acquisition activity
Different public markets

Communication Tactics
Communicating in a way that resonates with investors is a top priority for investment companies. Press releases play a vital role in communication when executed with value. Websites and social media are becoming increasingly important components of communication for investment companies. Websites offer the opportunity to share real-time information with investors. Websites and social media both provide a place to communicate ESGs and other corporate responsibilities, which are gaining momentum in the eyes of investors.

Contact Doug:
Website: http://www.clermontpartners.com/
Email: dfox@clermontpartners.com

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Lou Adler to the show. Lou is here to talk about the opportunity of performance-based hiring. If your business struggles to find top talent, then this podcast is for you!

Lou Adler Lou is the CEO and founder of The Adler Group, a consulting a training firm that helps companies implement the Performance-based Hiring℠ system for finding and hiring exceptional talent. Lou is also the author of two books, “Hire With Your Head” and “The Essential Guide for Hiring & Getting Hired”. He’s been featured on Fox News and his articles and posts can be found on Inc. Magazine, Business Insider, Bloomberg and The Wall Street Journal.

Performance-based HiringPerformance-based hiring is the only validated methodology that integrates sourcing, screening, interviewing, and recruiting into a seamless approach based on how top people look for, compare, and accept one position over another.

StrategyIf you wish to hire top-tier talent, then it’s time to rethink your strategy. In order to hire a great person, you have to start by offering a great job. Most HR departments consider the application process to be a strategy of weeding out the bad. Instead, they should be changing the messaging to attract great people.

High Touch, High Tech ProcessThis methodology will have you talking with fewer candidates, but spending more time with them, which will raise the talent bar as a resort. Start by defining a job by describing a series of five or six performance objectives. There are three criteria in finding great people through performance objectives:

1. Performance qualified
2. Achiever pattern
3. Career move

Solution Selling vs. Transactional SellingStart by engaging in a career conversation; sell the discussion, not the job. Learn the person’s needs, and speak to those needs by offering a solution when it comes time to propose a job.

Job BrandingJob branding is more important than company branding when it comes to hiring. Company branding alone is sufficient when there is a surplus of suitable applicants. When you are offered a select few suitable candidates, however, job branding plays a more significant role. Give people a sense of purpose through the work needed, rather than relying solely on the company brand to attract them.

Contact Lou:Website: https://performancebasedhiring.com/
Email: lou@adlerconcepts.com

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Dean Maytag to the show. Dean is here to talk about a regional television show where local entrepreneurs and their ideas are put to the ultimate test. “Project Pitch It” is returning for its second season next month, and we are getting a behind-the-scenes look of how the show works and what it takes to earn an opportunity to pitch a project to the moguls.

Dean Maytag Dean has a strong background in broadcasting with over 26 years as the Director of Broadcast Ops at WISN-TV. He’s also a Board Member of the Wisconsin Broadcasters Association, and is currently the co-producer of “Project Pitch It”.

"Project Pitch It"Recorded at Big Chair Studio, “Project Pitch It” features three aspiring — and often inspiring — Wisconsin entrepreneurs each week. The entrepreneurs get the chance to pitch their innovative new ideas to a panel of local business moguls. These successful self-made millionaires then pepper the entrepreneurs with questions, assess the potential of each idea and finally present awards with a total value of nearly $30,000 designed to help each entrepreneur move their business to the next step.

AwardsThe awards range from free tuition, mentoring and office space at Cardinal Stritch University, a business dinner with potential advisors and investors from the Lubar Entrepreneurship Center or $10,000 cash.

Meet the Moguls“Project Pitch It” moguls are the show judges. This season the show welcomes both new and returning moguls. To learn more about the expert panelists, please visit www.projectpitchit.com.

• Deb Allen

• Tina Chang

• Peter Feigin

• David Gruber

• Nancy Hernandez

• Jerry Jendusa

• Jim Lindberg

Best AdviceThe best advice that Dean has to offer to entrepreneurs in the start-up phase is to:

• Know your product

• Be targeted

• Be able to explain your product quickly and concisely

• Have a passion for the product

• Demonstrate personality

Season 2 of "Project Pitch It" will air early February. Please check your local listings for precise dates and times.

Websitehttp://www.projectpitchit.com/

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Anthony Arbucias to the show. Anthony is here to talk about the evolution of cord cutting and how to advertise in a world with many different mediums and content consumption choices.

Anthony Arbucias Anthony is the General Sales Manager at WISN-TV 12 in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He leads a team of marketing and advertising professionals who provide solutions that deliver measurable return on investment across television, web, and mobile media platforms.

What is Cord Cutting?Cord cutting is related to the unsubscribing of cable and satellite television services. It refers to getting access to television through an antenna only, or through streaming television services.

OTT OTT, or Over-the-Top, streaming refers to the delivery of film and television content outside of the traditional means of television. People viewing and advertising in the OTT sector are viewing/advertising through services like Apple TV, Roku, Hulu, etc. OTT streaming reaches an audience in a manner similar to traditional television.

How Digital Impacts Cable/Satellite TV

Television is far from dead but rather evolving. Cable and satellite companies are simply adapting to the ever-changing industry and are putting a focus on the importance of generating great content.

Best AdviceThe best advice that Anthony can offer when advertising amidst the variety of mediums offered today include:

• Have a good sense of what you’re trying to accomplish with your advertising

• Be disciplined

• Work within your budget

Contact Anthony Arbucias:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anthonyarbucias/

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we welcome Greg Chapman to the show. Greg talks about how important is if for companies with products or services to know and understand its customers in order to provide the best customer experience possible.

Greg Chapman Greg Chapman is a merchandising, marketing and business operations veteran. He’s a C-Suite level executive with a track record of over 35 years of accomplishments and operating experiences. His career spans leadership roles at companies such as Provide Commerce, Sears, The Sharper Image, SkyMall, Shop NBC, and Best Products, before owning a full-service digital marketing agency. He created The Pocket CMO to help brands identify and develop customer-centric growth strategies that drive business.

Fueling GrowthGreg expresses the importance of customer experience and insists that the only way to fuel growth is by intimately knowing your customer.

Igor Ansoff MatrixIn 1957, Igor Ansoff created a matrix for a strategic guidance of growth. Greg discusses how this matrix is still very applicable today, and emphasizes that with each component of the matrix, CMOs for brands need to know the customers’ wants, needs, desires, and expectations to develop strategies for future growth.

• Market penetration

• Market development

• Product development

• Diversification

Creating Customer Personas There are many approaches to getting to know your customers and one is not necessarily better than the other. Greg goes into detail about market segmentation, quantitative segmentation, ethnographic qualitative research, and value propositioning to gather the intelligence to create buyer personas that mirror your brand’s customers.

Customer Journey MappingA customer journey map illustrates every touch point a customer goes through in engaging with a company’s product or service. This process helps to identify if a company is fulfilling its brand promise to the customer. Understanding the customer journey with your brand is critical to brand growth.

10 QuestionsGreg offers a 10-question assessment on his website that he uses as part of the discovery process when working with clients. While these questions are not necessarily in any order and not many, if any companies can answer all of them, the questions help business leaders dive deeper look into the customer experience their brand offers, identifying areas to further develop and nurture the experience.

Contact Greg Chapman: Website: http://www.thepocketcmo.com/
Email: gchapman@thepocketcmo.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/gregchap/

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In this episode of Brandstorm, we would like to welcome Joe Simon to the show. Joe is here to talk about risk management and the importance of having a crisis and continuity plan in place.

Joe Simon Joe is a corporate insurance consultant at Aon Risk Management. Aon provides a wide variety of corporate insurance solutions, of which Joe’s focus is on risk management. Based out of Aon's Green Bay and Milwaukee, Wis., offices, Joe serves Wisconsin and Midwest corporations.

Protecting your BrandU.S. corporate decision makers say the #1 risk they face is protecting their brand. Did you know you can be insured to implement a marketing awareness and issues management plan in the event of a disaster or product recall? Find out what kinds of coverage you need and how to avoid being put out of business.

How to Prepare for a CrisisSurveys have found that the majority of businesses, big and small, understand the importance of having a crisis plan. That said, very few actually have a plan in place. Joe covers the necessary risks to be prepared for, and how to take steps in creating plans against those threats.

What is Insurable, and What is Not Joe goes into detail about the various liabilities where companies can find themselves at risk, including what is and what isn’t insurable.

Broker vs. AgentThere is a difference between an insurance broker and an insurance agent. Joe explains who benefits from the two types of insurance representatives.

Future RisksAs technology advances, risks can change and new risks can arise. Joe says some of the more immediate threats to companies may include continued cyber breaches and corporate espionage risks, as well as an emerging risk related to artificial intelligence.

Aon Aon is a leading global professional services firm providing a broad range of risk, retirement and health solutions. Our 50,000 colleagues in 120 countries empower results for clients by using proprietary data and analytics to deliver insights that reduce volatility and improve performance.

Contact Joe Simon: Email: joe.simon@aon.com

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Brandstorm would like to welcome David King to the show. David is the founder of Ethical Wiki, a Wikipedia consultancy that was started in 2011. In this episode, David talks about the online encyclopedia, what subject matter qualifies for a great page and Wikipedia’s best practices.

David King David is the founder and lead consultant at Ethical Wiki. Before starting the Wikipedia consultancy, David spent five years doing public relations and marketing for Silicon Valley technology companies and becoming an expert on Wikipedia.

Wikipedia David discusses the concerns Wikipedia editors have with what companies write about themselves, what is generally seen as a “red flag” to editors, how pages are ranked, how he works with companies and agencies to create pages, how Wiki polices itself and what to do in the event erroneous or inflammatory information is published to a page.

Ethical Best Practices The primary ethical best practices of Wikipedia can be summarized in three categories. David discusses each of these points in detail.

1. Legal
2. Disclosure
3. Ethos

Consultant vs. DIYSince anyone can edit a Wikipedia page, it is possible for brands to contribute and manage the page themselves. David reviews the process of doing it yourself versus hiring a consultant and offers insight on how to choose the right option. He also shares contact information for Wikipedia, should a brand come across defamatory information posted to their page.

Contact David King: Email: dking@ethicalwiki.com
Website: http://www.ethicalwiki.com/

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Brandstorm would like to welcome John Morrissett to the show. John is the Competitions and Marketing Director at Erin Hills Golf Course. He is here to talk about his experience with the 2017 US Open, which was hosted at Erin Hills this past June.

John Morrissett For more than 7 years John has been the Competitions and Marketing Director at Erin Hills Golf Course. His role entails overseeing printed and digital marketing materials, social media, the website, and media relations. John has a strong background in the area of golf, as he was the Rules of Golf Director with the United States Golf Association (USGA) for 17 years.

2017 US Open John shares his experience with being a part of the 2017 US Open; the first US Open to be held in the state of Wisconsin. He discusses some of the planning details for the event, which actually started prior to the opening of Erin Hills.

Brand Exposure Erin Hills received a tremendous amount of exposure from hosting the US Open which boosted their brand. However, John notes the importance of being mindful to not take anything for granted, or opportunities could be missed.

Tips When Considering Hosting Large Events

• • Give yourself and your venue a brutally honest self-assessment
• • Determine your strengths and what you/your venue have to offer
• • Attend and evaluate the specific events you’d like to host
• • Start conversations with pertinent people

Contact John Morrisett: John on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/john-morrissett-3b279a64/
Erin Hills on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/erin-hills-golf-course/
Website: https://erinhills.com/
Erin Hills Gift Cards: https://shoperinhills.com/collections/gift-cards

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Brandstorm would like to welcome Fred Driver to the show. Fred is one of the founding partners at d.trio, a marketing group in Minneapolis. He is here today to talk about the resurgence of print and how direct mail is still both relevant and effective.

Fred Driver Fred is a founding partner and owner at d.trio, a marketing group in Minneapolis. While the firm offers a wide spectrum of marketing services, it has done extensive work with direct mail and digital marketing. In fact, Fred has been recognized nationally for his expertise in direct marketing and helped a client win Direct Marketer of the Year from the Atlanta DMA.

Direct Mail (DM) Direct marketing is making a big comeback and is a very viable and effective method to strengthening a marketing campaign. Fred discusses why DM is so effective, the best ways to integrate DM with digital, and how email marketing is fueling the revival of DM.

Marketing to Millennials Fred also shares surprising stats about marketing to Millennials. He debunks some common myths on the topic and emphasizes the importance of delivering clear, relevant messages to the demographic.

Key TakeawayIntegrating digital with direct mail will help you get the most from your marketing efforts.

Contact Fred Driver: Website: http://www.dtrio.com
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/fred-driver-28401a4/?locale=en_US

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Brandstorm would like to welcome Craig Kuper to the show. Craig is the owner/mortgage broker, of ShoreCrest Mortgage Company, and is here today to talk about marketing brands in a crowded space.

Craig Kuper Craig has been a David against Goliath for most of his career, having created standout marketing campaigns with companies like Concept Coach Builders, National Telecom, Red Carpet Leisure, Silverbird Lanes, and the Grand Milwaukee Hotel. He founded ShoreCrest Mortgage Company just over 14 years ago, and has used his marketing prowess to leave a lasting impression clients and secure strong bonds with his clients.

Marketing in a Crowded Space Craig shares some of his fun and wildly successful marketing campaigns from past careers. He also talks about standing out in the mortgage world. He emphasizes the importance of the customer experience, being able to walk clients through every step of the mortgage process, and leaving a lasting impression that brings repeat business from his clients.

Keeping Happy Employees Craig also talks about the importance of having employees that thrive in the company culture. He describes a couple of the employee incentive programs he used in the past to build a fun, positive culture that kept employees excited to be at their jobs.

Key Takeaways

• • Never be afraid to fail
• • Be willing to try off-the-wall techniques
• • Customer experience is key

Contact Craig Kuper:Website: http://www.shorecrestmortgage.com
Phone: (262) 241-4300

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Brandstorm would like to welcome Bob Menefee to the show. Bob is the Development Director at Variety - the Children’s Charity of Wisconsin and is here today to talk about brand confusion.

Bob Menefee Bob has a background in entertainment, having spent over 12 years as the Vice President of Marcus Theatres Corporation. He is currently the Development Director at Variety - the Children’s Charity of Wisconsin, an organization with roots in show business that originated after an infant was left in a Pittsburgh movie theatre in 1928.

Brand Confusion The organization was originally known as the Variety Club. Over the years, this title began to feel too inclusive and needed to be revised to include everyone. To this day, the transition to Variety – the Children’s Charity of Wisconsin is still a challenge, causing a bit of brand confusion for the admirable organization.

Wisconsin Variety Focus Each Variety charter throughout the nation has their own unique focus for the organization. The Wisconsin charter’s focus is on mobility, which includes lifts, doorways, ramps, and more. The “sexiest” form of mobility help the organization oversees is custom bicycles built for children with special needs. To do this, Variety teams up with Emerys Cycle Shop.

Advertising a Nonprofit Advertising on a very limited budget, as most nonprofits encounter, is a challenge that requires creativity. Variety takes advantage of social media by sharing heartfelt stories. Additionally, Variety has successfully used crowdfunding and hosts fundraising events.

Events Chatter Matters! Camp: http://www.varietywi.org/how-we-help/chatter-matters
Variety Sportsmens Classic | The Highlands Sportsmens Club
Spring Golf Outing | Western Lakes Golf Club
Golf Classic | Grand Geneva

Contact Bob Menefee:LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/bob-menefee-04130345/
Website: http://www.varietywi.org/
Email: bob@varietywi.org
Phone: (262) 777-2090

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In this episode, we speak with leaders in healthcare at the 2017 Wisconsin Healthcare Public Relations & Marketing Society Conference (WHPRMS) in Sheboygan, Wis. about why they attend WHPRMS, what they’ve learned at the event and what they plan on incorporating into their marketing efforts in 2018.

While each attendee has their own, individual takeaways from the conference, there were some collective thoughts from each healthcare professional we spoke with. All of the conference reviews were extremely positive. The attendees raved about this year’s keynote speaker, Dr. Jerry Teplitz, and value the networking opportunities and educational breakout sessions.

Kathleen SchultzKathy is the WHPRMS President
Senior Marketing Consultant | UW Health, Madison, Wis.

Jackson SohnWHPRMS Board member and Southeast District Representative
Director of Business Development | UW Health Rehab Hospital, Madison, Wis.

Tami BarberMarketing & Communications Specialist | Aspirus Riverview Hospital & Clinics, Wisconsin Rapids, Wis.

Kathy BehnkeDirector of Public Relations | Mile Bluff Medical Center, Mauston, Wis.

Liz KoplingDirector of Marketing & Communications | Agrace Hospice & Palliative Care, Madison, Wis.

Cara WaltersDirector of Public Relations | Spooner Health, Spooner, Wis.

Kate DeeringMarketing & Communications Specialist | Memorial Medical Center, Ashland, Wis.

WHPMRS Membership

• Affordable
• Continuing education
• Learning, networking, and collaborating with like-minded colleagues
• Annual Conference
• Online Application

Podcasting Contact for Platypus Advertising + Design:Dan Trzinski on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dantrzinski/
Email:dan@platypus-ad.com
Phone: (262) 522-8181
Website: http://www.platypus-ad.com/brandstorm/

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In this episode, we welcome the Energy Doctor, Jerry Teplitz. Dr. Teplitz is the keynote speaker at the 2017 Wisconsin Healthcare Public Relations & Marketing Society Conference (WHPRMS) in Sheboygan, Wis. He is presenting on Behavioral Kinesiology and how it can be applied to creating better websites and marketing materials.

Dr. Jerry Teplitz Dr. Teplitz has an MS and PhD. in Wholistic Health Sciences and is a brain performance expert and author of nine books. He is also an accomplished public speaker and is a certified Brain Gym Instructor.

Behavioral Kinesiology Everything around us has energy attached to it. Dr. Teplitz talks about how to harness that energy to improve sports performance, improve leadership skills, and more.

Muscle Checking In marketing, Dr. Teplitz can check the energy level of everything from a book cover and its contents, to a logo, brochure, catalog, and website. He does this through muscle checking, which reads what the body says as it reacts to marketing pieces and graphic design.

Brain Gym As a certified Brain Gym Instructor, Dr. Teplitz is committed to the principle that moving with intention leads to optimal learning and performance.

Recommended Video Creating High Energy Web Sites & PR Materials: http://www.teplitz.com/dvdlearning.htm#high_energy

Contact Dr. Jerry Teplitz:Website: http://teplitz.com/index.html
Email: jerry@teplitz.com
Phone: (757) 496-8008

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In this episode, we welcome Aimee Matchette of Elements Massage. Aimee is an Elements Massage franchise owner and Area Director. She is here to talk with us about how to choose a franchise.

Aimee MatchetteAimee has an extensive background in financials, being a former Financial Planner and CPA for small businesses. She invested in Elements Massage nine years ago and serves as a member of the franchisee leadership team for WellBiz Brands, the franchisor for Elements.

Choosing a Franchise Choosing a franchise is an individualized process. Aimee discusses the process she followed before deciding to work with the Elements Massage franchise. She also talks about key components that should be assessed during the decision making phase of choosing a franchise.

Research and Practicality Aimee emphasizes the importance of research to ensure that you choose a franchise that not only suits what is important to you but also systems are compatible with your goals and personality. She also suggests that grit is a necessary component to owning a franchise, because, in the end, you are still a business owner. There will be ups and downs along the way. It is important, as a business owner, to persevere through even the toughest times to be successful.

Realities Hone in on your strengths and weaknesses. Do what you do well and hire support staff to handle the rest. Key advisors Aimee feels are necessary when considering a franchise include an attorney, a real estate broker, and a banker. Be prepared with an exit strategy from the very beginning. Know the business you are buying into.

Recommended Reading The E-Myth Revisited by Michael E. Gerber: https://www.amazon.com/Myth-Revisited-Small-Businesses-About/dp/0887307280/ref=sr_1_1/140-1640446-7750113?ie=UTF8&qid=1507565116&sr=8-1&keywords=the+e+myth+revisited

Strengths Finder 2.0 by Tom Rath: https://www.amazon.com/StrengthsFinder-2-0-Tom-Rath/dp/159562015X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507565185&sr=1-1&keywords=strength+finder+2.0

Grit: The Power of Passion & Perseverance by Angela Duckworth: https://www.amazon.com/Grit-Passion-Perseverance-Angela-Duckworth/dp/1501111108/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1507565927&sr=1-1&keywords=grit+the+power+of+passion+and+perseverance

Contact Aimee Matchette:

Website: https://elementsmassage.com/whitefish-bay/

Aimee on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/aimee-matchette-65a44aa/

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Hello and welcome to the Brandstorm podcast, a show that talks to people behind some of America’s great brands with hosts Dan Trzinski and Nancy Christopher.

In this episode, we welcome Jenna Hauca, from Generator Media + Analytics. Jenna is the Vice President of Innovation & Technology at Generator and is here to talk with us about transparency, accountability, and data automation.

Jenna Hauca

Jenna is a five-year veteran at Generator and an award-winning advertising and media professional specializing in Digital and Analytics.

Generator Media + Analytics

Founded in 2002, Generator is a full-service media company that originated on the principle of providing transparency and accountability to their clients’ media investments. Generator works with 25-30 major brands, including the American Red Cross, NBC Universal, Jenny Craig, NYU, and Carmex to name a few.

Transparency & Accountability

Generator helps advertisers make smarter media buying decisions with complete visibility into campaign performance. They use hard data to demonstrate the actual contribution of advertising investments, in real time.

Data Automation

Generator recently launched SYNAPSE, a proprietary platform that aggregates a wide array of real-time data, including media campaign metrics, client sales figures, even outside feeds such as weather APIs, into a live and dynamic dashboard.

Contact Jenna Hauca:

Website: www.generatormedia.com
Contact Page: http://www.generatormedia.com/contact

Jenna on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jenna-hauca-2a040131/

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Hello and welcome to the Brandstorm podcast, a show that talks to the people behind America’s brands with hosts Dan Trzinski and Nancy Christopher.

In this episode, we are talking with Eric Loferski, director of marketing at Zurn Industries, about marketing a sustainable business.

Eric Loferski

Eric has an impressive background in the field of marketing, having worked with Kohler, Milwaukee Tools, Briggs & Stratton, Wigwam, and most recently with his current position at Zurn Industries, LLC, which is the first company to relocate its headquarters to Reed Street Yards in Milwaukee, the global hub of water innovation.

Products

Zurn Industries specializes in water efficiency and sustainability. They offer products such as faucets, toilets, and water management systems for restaurants, hospitals, and commercial buildings. Zurn’s newest system, the Sundara Handwashing Systems Specifier, offers a modern, superior handwashing experience.

Marketing a Sustainable Brand

Marketing a sustainable brand requires authenticity and consistent messaging through the entire brand platform. Companies must walk the walk to be successful.

Marketing Sustainable Products

The biggest challenge when introducing new sustainable products is bringing awareness to your target market. It starts by identifying the right target market, impressing them with the product, and then introducing the brand promise.

www.zurn.com

Eric Loferski on LinkedIn

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Hello and welcome to the inaugural Brandstorm podcast, a show that talks to people behind some of America’s great brands with hosts Dan Trzinski and Nancy Christopher.

In today’s episode, we start with Brad Schlossmann of Ground Floor Funding, who provides funding and support for startup companies.

Brad Schlossmann

Brad is a veteran of the auto industry, currently celebrating the 50-year anniversary of Schlossmann Auto Group. He’s been involved with the auto group, himself, since 1977 and has been a big player of the company’s continuing growth. His most recent entrepreneurial endeavor, Ground Floor Funding, is his own startup that he developed to help accelerate new business development.

Ground Floor Funding

Crediting a family history of entrepreneurs, Brad has an appreciation for startup businesses. He saw a need to help entrepreneurs get their business ideas off the ground and thus, Ground Floor Funding was born.

Ground Floor Funding is open to ideas for any type of startup venture, and can’t emphasize enough the importance of a solid business plan to go along with the idea.

Don’t Stop at Failure

All businesses face struggles and even failures. Instead of quitting, turn it into a learning experience and try again.

All Companies should be in the People Business

Brad discusses why every organization should be in the “people business.” Regardless of the product or service being promoted, personal relationships are key. The relationships developed through employees, customers and other constituents will help a business thrive from the inside out.

Contact Brad Schlossmann:

Website: www.groundfloorfunding.net

Email: brad@groundfloorfunding.net

Phone: 414.331.1194

Mr. Delivery: www.mrdelivery.com

Miss Mandel Bread: www.missmandelbread.com