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Oct 29 2010

PMA Fresh Summit Shines Light on Future of the Produce Industry

October 29, 2010 – 9:00 am

By Jason Stemm @NYCubsFan

clip_image003This year’s Fresh Summit, the largest U.S. industry show for produce and floral hosted by the Produce Marketing Association (PMA), highlighted the innovation that can help impact the flat trends in produce consumption. My Fresh Summit began with the launch of red celery and radish mini sticks from Duda Farm Fresh Foods. One is a new product resulting from nearly 20 years of selective breeding and the other, an innovation in convenience saving time for home cooks. Lewis & Neale, the food division of CRT/tanaka, orchestrated the media event on the show floor to the trade, as well as to mainstream outlets. Much of the national media coverage of Duda’s launch focused on the potential for exciting kids about produce by offering a twist in color to the celery sticks that were a part of my youth snacking.

Duda wasn’t the only company showing innovation in making fresh produce more accessible to children and adults. Del Monte Fresh Produce had its new vending machine on display, dispensing fresh fruits and vegetables that can be placed in schools, businesses or transportation hubs to offer healthy clip_image005alternatives to the typical vending fare. Fresh produce vending is also an integral part of Bolthouse Farms’ attempts to reposition baby carrots as the new “junk food” for mid-meal snacking.

Some companies offered other steps toward improvement with a natural, dried fruit alternative to sour jelly candy and portable packaging trying to eliminate excuses for not making healthier choices in our everyday lives. There were also new products such as the MAG*nificent melon and petite sweet potatoes in microwaveable steam bags. Despite all these strides to produce better, more consistently delicious food, the fresh produce industry continues to need consumer education and understanding how nature delivers inherent inconsistencies that processed foods eliminate. While Mother Nature cannot turn out identical widgets, we can help people enjoy more fresh fruits and vegetables at their best.

Education is a central theme in any of our marketing efforts, starting with growing and food safety, to selection and handling, and preparing and serving. Aiding the consumer to have the best experience out of your product has added challenges with fresh produce. It isn’t quite the same with a candy bar or can of soda, and without education from the farm to the fork the potential for pitfalls may be greater for produce more than any other commodity. Others have simple instructions for temperature and storage, such as meat, dairy and seafood, and while there is always the potential of being left on a loading dock in July, no other commodity provides the variation in product and handling needs like fresh produce. Temperature, humidity and light can all impact quality during transportation and holding.

One of the industry’s strongest allies is communicators that carry on this information to their readers. They let them know what’s in season, what to look for in the market and how to prepare it at home. The prevalence of online food forums, recipe sites and food blogs speaks to the interest and need for this education on food and cooking. The industry is making new efforts to reach out to these influencers, by inviting them to the trade shows and see the innovation first hand. At the upcoming New York Produce Show, food communicators are being invited to attend the show to meet industry members and learn about all the effort behind getting the best and safest fruits and vegetables on our plates at home and in restaurants. Hopefully this effort will be continued next fall at Fresh Summit in Atlanta.

Of course the show and industry is too diverse to cover in one post, so I’ll delve deeper into some of the tactics on display including social and mobile media, and other marketing innovations to reach all demographics and move the needle on fresh produce consumption in the U.S. With the increased volume of fresh fruits and vegetables available domestically and abroad, and some of the lowest prices, we seem poised for success. With continued innovation and education, I am confident we can get there.

Lewis & Neale is the food division of CRT/tanaka and works with fresh produce companies and groups including Duda Farm Fresh Foods, Del Monte Fresh Produce, North Carolina Sweet Potato Commission, Avocados from Mexico, US Highbush Blueberry Council, Chilean Fresh Fruit Association, Florida Sweet Corn Exchange and Florida Tomato Committee.

Photo Credit: Del Monte Fresh Produce N.A., Inc.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jason Stemm | Posted in PR Industry Trends, Wine, Food & Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
Oct 28 2010

Forget Big Brother, Barbie’s Watching You

October 28, 2010 – 7:00 am

By Jenn Riggle


Watch Video

Barbie dolls don’t normally scare me. But last week, I saw a commercial for the new Barbie Video GirlTM, and to be honest, it gave me the creeps.

The doll looks like a regular Barbie, but has a camera lens hidden in her necklace and a small color LCD screen with controls on her back. She even has a mini-USB port so girls can transfer video to their computer to edit it and add music and graphics – or post it to the Internet.

Is it me, but should we encourage six year olds to take videos and post them to the Internet?

We’ve all read about teens and college students posting inappropriate photos and videos on their Facebook pages. Can we expect more from first graders?

Or more importantly, TechCrunch suggests that in the wrong hands, the Barbie webcam could be used to take videos of unsuspecting children. Teddy bears have been used as “nanny cams.” So what’s to stop Barbie being used the same way – especially since her eyes don’t turn red when the camera is on?

Kids today are growing up with technology. You’ve probably seen toddlers watching cartoons and videos on their parents’ iPhones. Like their parents, kids love these magical phones, which The New York Times recently described as “the most effective tool in human history to mollify a fussy toddler.”

In fact, new research shows that 92 percent of American children under the age of 2 already have an online presence, thanks to photo-sharing on websites like Facebook. And while sharing cute baby pictures seems innocent enough, people need to be careful about disclosing a lot of personal information, such as birth dates, middle names and mothers’ maiden names – which can be carelessly inserted into photo captions – and can aid identity thieves.

Let’s hope Santa doesn’t bring your daughter a Barbie Video Girl for Christmas. Instead, maybe he’ll bring the Computer Engineer Barbie. While this doll doesn’t have an LCD screen in her back and batteries in her legs, Mattel worked with the Society of Women Engineers and the National Academy of Engineering to select her accessories – a smartphone, a Bluetooth headset and a hot pink laptop.

And besides, wouldn’t you rather your daughter embrace her inner geek than learn how to be a member of the paparazzi?

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jenn Riggle | Posted in Healthcare | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)
Oct 27 2010

A Road Less Traveled: Three Ways to Make the Trending Topic List

October 27, 2010 – 10:04 am

THE BOOZE BIN

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Justin Bieber and maple syrup

Last month, Justin Bieber’s love of pure maple syrup (and Vince Vaughn in Wedding Crashers) unexpectedly put my client atop the coveted Twitter trending list. Maple Syrup was a trending topic not only in the U.S., but around the world all day. While gaggles of teenage girls stormed their local grocery stores and Justin enjoyed his pancakes, the media scratched their heads at this young man’s influence and we celebrated with maple syrup cocktails.

Like hitting a hole in one on your first round of golf or finding a vacant parking spot on a Sunday night in Brooklyn, this was the stuff of urban legend and a chance happenstance that keeps PR folks coming back. But sheer luck and teenage heartthrobs aside, how do you get your client, product or event hashtag trending?

Well, let’s start with what doesn’t work. Simply getting a few friends together and using a hashtag won’t pass muster. Trending topics are about frequency, but it’s more important that a hashtag get tweeted by a large and geographically diverse group of people than a small group of hypertweeters using the same hashtag.

So, what does work exactly? Here are some ideas to get your concept trending:

1. Pick a Topic That Resonates: Just as you would choose interesting subject matter to draw top media to a press seminar, choose a hashtag or create an event with a better chance of striking a cord. As an example, the online wine tasting community site, TasteLive, the VA Wine Board and local wine blogger Denzel Quillen of My Vine Spot, invited 6 popular and social media savvy VA wineries and a panel of wine bloggers to participate in a live, virtual tasting and tweetchat. The tasting was fascinating and the results were impressive.

2. Timing is Everything: This is a simple rule, but if Steve Jobs is announcing the new IPhone or if Justin Bieber decides he is a Gleek, postpone your TweetUp. This is not a time for healthy competition. Choose a slow news time at an off-hour, perhaps mid- day or in the late evening. The TasteLive tasting was held on Monday from 8 to 9:30pm to allow various people and coasts to participate.

Photo Courtesy of My Vine Spot3. Invite the Popular Kids:  TasteLive and Denzel invited a panel of popular wine bloggers from around the country to participate in their tasting and discussion. It is equally important to offer an enticing incentive for influentials to attend and tweet during your event. The VA Wine Board sent the panelists wine tasting kit care packages, as most were outside of state boundaries without easy access to the selected wines. Not only did the bloggers participate in this case, but several of them have written articles following the event for their readers who could not attend the live tasting. 

The discussion not only invited a continuous flood of #vawine tweets throughout and following the event, but also garnered a local CBS TV feature and, amazingly for a lesser-known wine region, caused #Viognier to be a trending topic. Hats off to this group of smart Virginians for putting a modest budget to good use with fantastic results.

As with any activity in your marketing plan, you need tools to help you measure your success. Sites like What the Trend, CrowdEye, Trendrr and Monitter let you monitor and analyze trending topics. To read up on more useful trend tracking and analysis sites, Mashable offers a good resource with this comprehensive list.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Pia Mara Finkell | Posted in Digital Marketing, PR Industry Trends, Wine, Food & Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (4)
Oct 26 2010

Solar Goes Big

October 26, 2010 – 6:35 am

By Mike Mulvihill

I have issues with society’s uninformed and misguided belief that renewable and alternative energy sources offer us a quick fix, silver bullet to the world’s growing appetite for more energy with less global impact.

However, a recent conversation with an old client and acquaintance, John Woolard, renewed my confidence that there are pragmatic, bold efforts underway to harness abundant energy sources like solar.

Woolard is currently President and CEO of BrightSource Energy, a developer of utility-scale solar power plants.

A few weekends ago, President Obama highlighted BrightSource Energy’s Ivanpah project as a model solar project that will help drive us toward a clean energy economy. Ivanpah is a 370 megawatt solar energy plant, which recently received federal and state permits to begin construction.  When constructed, Ivanpah will be the world’s largest solar power plant.  To put this project’s size into perspective, the U.S. installed about 470 megawatts in total last year.  As a single project, Ivanpah will nearly double the entire amount of solar installed last year.  The Ivanpah project is considered a critical first step in developing environmentally sound, low carbon, high reliability renewable power plants throughout the world.  

Here’s what John had to say:

“With renewable energy, you have to stand back and envision what we need to do today to get to where we need to be in about 40 years (2050). For power alone, we need to build a total of 12,000 to 15,000 GW of carbon free generation capacity globally by 2050.  This is the equivalent of building 1 GW a day – the equivalent of the daily production of a large nuclear power plant.  But this can’t be intermittent power, which tends to be the nature of renewables today. It has to have similar reliability characteristics of traditional power generation. 

“This requires a massive capacity build out effort. In the US alone that amounts to a GW a week. Even if we put solar on every south facing roof in the country, there would still be have a massive deficit because we have this massive amount of 24X7 coal powered generation to replace.  In all, roughly 2,000 GW of renewable power plants have to be built in the US.  People often get the math wrong because renewables have lower capacity factors.  On average, traditional power sources have an average capacity factor of 60 percent (i.e., only 60 percent of the capacity is available at any given time). But wind and solar are half of that, so we really need at least 2GW. Lower capacity and greater reliability really frame the challenge when it comes to renewables.

“Those challenges are what lead me to solar thermal generation. Rather than intermittent wind and photovoltaic that can provide 10 percent to 15 percent of our power needs leaving the balance to traditional fossil fuels – which reduces the problem, but does not solve it – solar thermal can be built on a large scale which allows it to be reliable.

“Thermal solar utilizes a boiler, basically the same boiler made by commercial boiler manufacturer for fossil fuel plants, placed atop a tower to produce steam that turns a turbine which generates electricity. We’re replacing the fossil fuel with sun, but everything else utilizes the same “spinning assets” by utility language – producing steam to turn a turbine to generate. The beauty of this design is that if we need to power when the sun’s not shining, we can switch over to use natural gas as a back-up without constructing a redundant plant infrastructure.  For example, if you have a wind farm (which is intermittent power), you would have to add a gas powered peaking plant (similar to those that utilities construct today to turn on only when they need to accommodate “peak” power needs on the hottest and coldest days of the year).  That would add 50 percent cost factor to the power to deliver that reliable power.  With our concept, you build one power plant instead of two. 

“This approach also overcomes the major road block to converting intermittent power sources (wind and solar) into reliable, 24 X 7 power, which is battery technology.  The development/commercialization curve on battery technology, even with all of the R&D and dramatic research happening now and in the coming decades, still realistically leaves us decades away from reaching the levels needed for electrical storage. With thermal storage, we can get there today!

“There are other long term issues that most people are missing in the mega-picture of renewables. For instance, land use issues of renewables. Wind generation consumes three times the land that photovoltaic collectors require. (And solar thermal requires only about half the footprint of photovoltaic.)  Biofuels require 40 times the land use of anything else we grow because photosynthesis is only about one percent efficient.”

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Mulvihill | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (0)
Oct 25 2010

iPad Marketing: Is it about Perception or Real Value? How Doctors, Automakers, Restaurants Use iPads?

October 25, 2010 – 1:56 pm

By Priya Ramesh (@newpr)

It sounds very cheesy when I say, “I take my iPad to bed every night,” but if you are really listening, you get the bigger picture. Yes, the iPad is slowly replacing the books and magazines I used to carry around at home, to the airport or to the doctor’s appointment. Unlike the first 3M iPad buyers, I waited for the initial frenzy to die down to ensure I wasn’t getting an iPad just because it’s cool and sexy to carry one around. The iPad revelation moment for me was at my orthodontist’s office. 

Picture this. I am at my orthodontist’s, getting ready for an Invisalign treatment and a little nervous that this very expensive treatment better work out. In comes my orthodontist with her iPad. She walks me through photos and x-rays of my rather misaligned teeth on her iPad, then she plays a video of a patient’s before/after Invisalign treatment and now she shows me a picture of what I would look like post-treatment. In a matter of 20 min, she switched from photos, x-rays, video content, websites and medical data all seamlessly on one awesome device called the iPad. Of course being the techno geek that I am, totally fell for her use of yet another Apple innovation that creates the perception of being “forward thinking and hence cooler than the herd.”

But is the iPad just an accessory or is there real value in businesses using the tablet? I did some digging around and found some unique ways of how some industries are using it. Who knows, this might lead to you thinking differently?  

iPads Changing Mobile Healthcare: Like my orthodontist, more and more doctors are carrying their iPads in hospitals to access records, search medical information, view x-rays, illustrate medical conditions to patients. Doctors feel comfortable carrying their iPads around while making the rounds everyday due to its low weight, good battery life and easy integration with virtual health care systems like Citrix which adhere to HIPAA requirements. A Japanese surgeon recently used the iPad in the surgical room to view the inside pictures of the patient under surgery.

Car Manufacturers Leverage iPads to Help Dealerships and Engage Customers: Recently Ford introduced the Fiesta App to reach customers in a brand-new and interactive way. In the words of Thomais Zaremba, Ford car marketing communications manager, “It brings together the gratification of holding a brochure while sharing interactive content like videos that are typically found on websites.” App users will be able to check out all of Fiesta’s 15 class-exclusive features, including keyless entry and available push-button start. The screen lets viewers scroll down to each of the features, where a description and short video then shows how the technology works. I am sure Scott Monty had a lot to do with getting Ford on the iPad. He is always introducing new ways to better engage the Ford brand.

Hyundai plans to pre-load its Equus model, out in September with an iPad instead of a printed owner’s manual. “Who reads a 300-page manual anyway?” asked John Krafcik, the chief executive of Hyundai North America. “Instead, they’ll have a gorgeous color touchscreen loaded with the manual electronically, as well as photos of the whole Hyundai lineup.”

Restaurants Replacing Paper Menus with iPads: How would you like to view pictures and videos of the dinner menu while you are in a restaurant versus a boring paper menu? Yeah it is rather mouth watering, isn’t it? Customers at Global Mundo Tapas in the Rydges Hotel in North Sydney  use iPads to order meals, and even to specify how they’d like their meat cooked or get advice on food pairings and which wines to drink. Now does it make sense to invest in $500-$700 iPads for a restaurant with 50+ tables and does that boost sales is questionable but the restaurant definitely got a huge PR boost from big publications writing about their iPad usage.

I hope the examples above have got you thinking but wait, don’t jump into an iPad app just yet. Ask yourself the following question before getting your brand on the iPad:

  • You got to be truly interactive with your iPad content. Repurposing PDF data into an iPad app isn’t going to cut it. Wired magazine truly took its magazine to a whole new level with its iPad app. Do you have the budget/content that can make your iPad truly engaging?

Considering the Apple tablet has been just around for a few months, I haven’t seen any eye-opening metrics that vouch for increased sales via iPad apps. If you have any real results (leads, sales) to share, please jump in. Thanks!

Image courtesy:
Thomas Collective, http://thethomascollective.wordpress.com/page/2/
http://www.tomsguide.com/us/Medicine-iPad-Tablet-Android,news-6982.html
Joshua Hays, http://joshuahays.wordpress.com/

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Priya Ramesh | Posted in Digital Marketing, PR Industry Trends | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (9)
Oct 22 2010

Is PR Ready to Adopt a Standard Set of Measurement Principles?

October 22, 2010 – 8:31 am

By Jeff Wilson, APR (wilson0507)

I returned Tuesday evening from Washington, D.C. invigorated after attending the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) International Conference. The conference offered great learning and networking opportunities with my peers in the PR industry. However, this year, the most intriguing session I attended wasn’t actually listed in the official conference guide.

I had the privilege of participating in an invitation-only focus group, jointly hosted by PRSA and the Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC) to discuss public relations measurement. The participants in the focus group represented a diverse geographic and demographic cross-section of the PR industry and included practitioners from the corporate and agency worlds. We were told that we were among the first to see and evaluate the new metrics that are being developed for practitioners to measure the value of public relations referred to as the Barcelona Principles.

The Barcelona Principles

These seven Principles were crafted this summer at the second European Summit on Measurement by a consortium of international public relations organizations, including the Global Alliance for Public Relations, the Institute of Public Relation’s Commission on Measurement and Evaluation, PRSA, AMEC and the International Communications Consultancy Organisation (ICCO). Following is a synopsis of what the Principles recommend:

1. The importance of goal setting and measurement

2. Measuring the effect on outcomes is preferred to measuring outputs

3. The effect on business results can and should be measured where possible

4. Media measurement requires quantity and quality

5. AVEs are not the value of public relations

6. Social media can and should be measured

7. Transparency and replicability are paramount to sound measurement

Taken on face value, the Principles don’t seem contrary to what many of us are already doing in PR. However, suggesting these Principles as a global standard for how to measure success in public relations could be far reaching. Our focus group was a way for PRSA and AMEC to get feedback from PR practitioners about the Principles and how they might be used in general practice.

Outputs and Outcomes

The Principles point to the need to measure more outcomes in conjunction with outputs. Probably one of the most widely used outputs in the PR industry is the calculation of media impressions. While media impressions can serve as one good data point, alone they do not help tie PR to an organization’s key performance indicators (KPIs) or outcomes. Preferably, the outcomes that should be measured include shifts in awareness, comprehension, attitude and behavior related to purpose, donations, brand equity, corporate reputation, employee engagement, public policy, investment decisions and other shifts in a company or organization.

Social Media Measurement

The Principles also contend that social media can and should be measured. Evaluating quality and quantity for social media are just as critical as with traditional media. Media content analysis should be supplemented by web and search analytics, sales and CRM data, survey data and other methods.    

End of AVEs?

Probably what is getting the greatest “buzz” among the Barcelona Principles is the notion that advertising value equivalents (AVEs) are not the value of public relations. They only measure the cost of media space and should be rejected as a concept to value PR. The Principles state that where a comparison has to be made between the cost of space from earned verses paid media, validated metrics should be used, stated for what they are and reflect:

* Negotiated advertising rates relevant to the client, as available

* Quality of the coverage, including negative results

* Physical space of the coverage, and the portion of the coverage that is relevant

Multiplers intended to reflect a greater media cost for earned verses paid media should never be applied unless proven to exist in the specific.

Adoption

The question remains whether the PR industry is ready to universally adopt a standard set of measurement principles? Perhaps, with time.

Many of the practices used to measure success in PR – such as AVEs – have been around for a long time, so moving beyond them will probably occur gradually. Asking public relations professionals to better align PR campaign goals to an organization’s business goals (outcomes), instead of just relying on such measurements as media impressions (outputs) will not only take time, but will require more money for more comprehensive research, such as benchmark surveying.

From the agency side, it means getting more money for clients to conduct more comprehensive research at the beginning stage of campaigns and research money at the end of campaigns to truly determine if a change in opinion, behavior or attitude has occurred. From the corporate PR professionals, it means finding more budget internally to support more in-depth research.  From everyone, it will require more time to properly conduct this research and to give the campaigns enough time to truly measure change. True campaign success may not be determined in three months, six months or even a year.  

In the end, these shifts in measurement proposed by The Barcelona Principles are important to the continued well-being of the PR industry. PRSA has done a good job this year of promoting the Business Case for Public Relations, which is an initiative to drive PR industry recognition and growth by helping PR professionals educate key audiences about public relations’ roles and outcomes, demonstrate its strategic value and enhance its reputation.

As PR continues to seek a “seat at the table” with other management functions, having concrete and measurable results showing PR’s impact on an organization’s success will go a long way in making that happen.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Jeff Wilson | Posted in PR Industry Trends | Comments (2)
Oct 20 2010

Three Common Social Media Snafus and Solutions for Small Businesses

October 20, 2010 – 10:45 am

THE BOOZE BIN

By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

twitterfaq I always wondered how brand new business owners create their websites’ ‘Frequently Asked Questions’ (FAQ) sections the moment they hang out a shingle. If they’ve only been open for a short time, how frequent could these questions be? How do they know what the real sticking points will be?

Likewise, with so many small businesses just dipping their toes into social media, they don’t really know what questions are important to ask until they jump in and experience the pitfalls for themselves. Given the category itself is something like the Wild Wild West, small businesses engaging in social media often learn the most valuable lesson from Dr. Montessori: learn by doing.

For those businesses, mom and pop shops and budding entrepreneurs just starting out, in the booze industry or otherwise, they can learn from some of the earlier adopters. Here are some common questions and problems from other small businesses and ways to troubleshoot them:

Blogging, Twitter, Facebook, Flickr, YouTube…where will I possibly find the time?

This is one of the first and most common questions, especially from small operators. With a million and one things to do to keep a new wine, beer or booze brand or winery, brewery or small-batch distillery afloat, and much of it occurring away from the confines of a computer, where does one find the time to engage online?

bluemont view Kevin Rupy of Bluemont Vineyard gave the following good advice in a recent interview with Frank Morgan of @DrinkWhatULike. In a nutshell, you have to play to win and, similar to exercise, it’s all about dedicating a small amount of time every day:

In terms of finding the time, I think it is safe to say that wineries can accomplish a great deal by committing anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes a day to their efforts.  It is incredibly easy to get up and running on all of these sites, and I would encourage wineries to find one they are comfortable with and just jump right in.

How can I go Mobile when my vineyard is off the grid?

Last week I paid a visit to Keswick Vineyards, a Virginia winery that ‘gets it’ when it comes to all things social. Kat, the winemaker’s wife in charge of social media and marketing for the winery, commented on the blog post that she would try out a Foursquare promotion. I wanted to check-in, but thanks to AT&T’s crappy coverage in Central Virginia, there was no reception all the way out in Keswick, VA. It’s hard to take advantage of all the wonderful mobile tools available if you can’t get service!

Luckily, the smart folks at Keswick thought of this and set up a wireless hot spot open to visitors (no password [read: red tape] required). I checked in easily, although that Foursquare promotion isn’t up and running yet. I’ll just have to go back.

How will I know if I’m on the right path or know once I’ve gotten there?

In other words, what tools are available to measure success and the ever-important ROI with social media? How do I know if I’m just talking to myself in cyberspace? Once I have followers and fans, how do I convert their interest and online engagement into sales?

Bruce McGechan, a Kiwi consultant helping wine retailers with online sales put together this extremely helpful chart that identifies analytics and metrics behind various social media forums. If you’re trying to decide your own social marketing mix, from vlogging to Facebook to Flickr, this is a great place to start.

Analytics from MyLocalWineStore

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Pia Mara Finkell | Posted in Digital Marketing, PR Industry Trends, Wine, Food & Nutrition | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (3)
Oct 19 2010

Cold Cash for Alternative Energy

October 19, 2010 – 9:30 am

By Mike Mulvihill

Several alternative energy companies are gathering steam (aka funding) to help broaden the reach of their technologies – some based on some not so new approaches.

One such company is, Ice Energy, a Windsor, Colorado company, which raised $24 million this week.  Ice Energy’s technology is essentially an icebox on a rooftop. During off-peak hours (i.e., overnight), the system makes ice using available electricity. During the daytime, when energy demand is at its highest, the ice cools buildings in lieu of traditional air conditioning. This greatly reduces the amount of fuel utilities consume to deliver electricity for air conditioning by reducing electric demand by 30 percent to 50 percent at a time when electricity is the most scarce and most expensive. Ice Energy claims its energy storage “has the potential to permanently shift as much as 40 percent” of peak energy demand to off-peak hours.

You have to love this company for a few reasons:

  • The technology is relatively simple and commercially proven.  Ice Energy currently touts 25 utilities among its customer list, and is working on a new pilot project with Toronto Hydro, and a large-scale project with the Southern California Public Power Authority (SCPPA).
  • They are using the $24 million to deploy their technology to their current customers, including a project (their largest), a 53-MW project for Southern California Public Power Authority, as well as a solar and ice combo project with SunPower for PG&E. So this is technology that can be applied on a large scale.
  • They are focused.  Ice Energy commonly installs the systems on big box retailers like Staples, or an auto dealership, then works with the local utility to develop incentives for the building owner.  They are focused on the air conditioning market for buildings that are three stories or less which use refrigerant for air conditioning. This segment of the market represents 97 percent of all commercial buildings and 50 percent of commercial air conditioning electricity consumption.

As gigaom put it: At a time when batteries for energy storage remain too expensive for wide-scale deployment, when compressed air energy storage has too many siting and regulatory problems, and when pumped hydro can only be built in certain regions, ice-based energy storage looks very promising. Because of its relatively low cost and quick deployment, it’s like the low hanging fruit of building-based energy storage

Money is seeking these new opportunities.  Last week grid energy storage company Deeya Energy announced it had raised $30 million. For the first quarter of this year, despite an overall drop in venture capital spending, energy storage technology for vehicles and the grid had a $114 million infusion according to Ernst & Young and Dow Jones. That is more than double the $50 million venture capitalists invested in this sector in the first quarter of 2009.

While these numbers are nothing like the nearly $70 billion Brazilian big oil company Petrobras raised last month to drill for more oil, it does shows that good technology with a solid business plan can find cash. As always, in energy, you have to follow the money to know where things are headed.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Mike Mulvihill | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (1)
Oct 18 2010

Five Social Refreshers from BlogWorld: Largest Social Media Conference

October 18, 2010 – 1:44 pm

By Priya Ramesh (@newpr)

(L-R): Shashi Bellamkonda, Social Media Swami, Network Solutions, Chris Garrett, noted top blogger and Community Manager, BlogWorld, Rosalie Morton, CRT/tanaka

Last week I had the privilege of being around 4,500 social media enthusiasts who gathered in Las Vegas at BlogWorld to listen to over 350 speakers talk about what works and doesn’t work in social media. I was so proud to be representing CRT/tanaka and Network Solutions at one of the largest social media events known for bringing some of the best minds in social media marketing to share their stories.   Here’s a quick summary of some key messages that came across loud and clear consistently through BlogWorld that might serve as good reminders as you explore the social labyrinth.

1.       Blog with Passion and SEO will Follow:  Scott Stratten (@unmarketing), Canadian marketer and author of the book “Unmarketing” was the opening keynote at BlogWorld and one thing that he said during his keynote that stayed with me is, “Blog with passion…create AWESOME content…Awesome content spreads online…the SEO will follow.” If you don’t have anything different to say or have no individual perspectives on issues please don’t start a blog. Rehashing content is not going to get your blog any further than your website and it doesn’t matter if it’s a personal blog, B2C, B2B, being passionate about what you are blogging is the first step to increasing your SEO rankings for the blog.  

 2.       Email Marketing Still Exists and More Powerful than Social Media: Speaker Declan Dunn shared some great insight on, “How to turn your friends into fans and customers” and during his session he mentioned that 42% of mobile phone usage is to check emails. Whoa! What that means is that even with the growing mobile/social trend, people are mainly checking emails on their smart phones so chances are that your email marketing campaign might actually get read on a mobile device so don’t give up on email marketing, not yet. This reminder is more for the small to mid-sized companies who may not have a robust CRM or lead generation platform like Salesforce or Marketo to launch an email campaign and may not be actively engaged on social networks BUT they do have thousands of active contacts in their customer databases. You don’t want to spam your base but a cleverly thought out email campaign with specific calls-to-action: increase web traffic to your new homepage, introduce a new offering with a discount code, add friends/followers to your social properties etc. still seems to work very well especially for companies working on a tight marketing budget.  

3. Embrace the M-word, don’t let it catch you by surprise: Mobile, Mobile, Mobile. Almost every BlogWorld session that I attended reminded us of how millions of people are conducting business through their mobile devices and that marketers need to make mobile an integral part of their strategy moving forward. One consistent theme about mobile was also the fact that having a mobile website is an absolute must-have. If your site isn’t mobile-friendly, chances are you are losing customers. It was funny how during the keynote and panels when the speaker mentioned a mobile website, several of us in the room pulled out our iPhones, Droids and Blackberries to go to our favorite sites and see how mobile-friendly it is. I must say the Bellagio in Vegas has a good mobile version of its website that helps you make a quick decision on where to eat at the Bellagio.

4. Twitter is for Venting, Stop Asking for Twitter ROI: I was so thrilled to hear Scott Stratton remind us all that Twitter is a venting machine and companies should stop asking, “What’s the ROI from Twitter?” The biggest benefit of Twitter is that it’s fast, simple and easy and that’s what makes it a viral venting channel where you hear more complaints than praises. So let’s accept that and leverage 140 characters for customer service at the least if you don’t have time/resources for thought leadership positioning on Twitter. Listen to this short clip from @unmarketing on Twitter, I bet it will make you laugh a little while understanding how to micro-blog.  @Unmarketing on Twitter @BlogWorld.  

Network Solutions Blogger Lucheon at BlogWorld

5.       KISS Policy Works Best with Bloggers: On day-2, one of my favorite CRT/tanaka clients, Network Solutions hosted an exclusive blogger luncheon at the Border Grille, Mandalay Bay, venue of this year’s BlogWorld. CRT/tanaka helped with the planning of “Have a Taco on Us” luncheon for Network Solutions and from the get go our mantra was to Keep It Short Simple. This was NOT going to be a Network Solutions sale pitch, NO PowerPoints involved but just an opportunity for bloggers who exemplify the company’s commitment to small business. We were thrilled to have some well known names in social media like Liz Strauss, founder of SOBCon, Jim Kukral, Rohit Bhargava, Jay Baer joining the Network Solutions lunch.  I mean these are influentials that you would die to get some attention from and they had a 101 more important things to do at BlogWorld but they chose to spend some time with Network Solutions. Stop selling, create an opportunity to connect and collaborate and chances are your brand is now getting a lot of mentions. We stayed focus on a good lunch party with bloggers and NOT how many mentions we could get from them and you know what? The mentions just happened by themselves. Here’s a blog post mentioning the Network Solutions lunch from Anita Campbell, Editor, Small Business Trends, a very highly respected voice in small business praising our lunch. Don’t get me started on the web traffic Anita’s blog gets, leave alone her following on Twitter and Facebook.

I got on the plane to Vegas a little unsure of the ROI from BlogWorld, to quote the overrated acronym but I come back with a renewed sense of how to do social media right to generate value for my clients. I got to meet Rick Calvert, co-founder of BlogWorld who had absolutely no halo over his head after the success he has had with this event but came across very down to earth. Lots of great connections were made and yes I am definitely going back in 2011.  Special thanks to Rosalie Morton, Social Media team, CRT/tanaka, Susan Wade, Director of Corporate Communications, Network Solutions and everyone’s favorite Social Swami, Shashi Bellamkonda who made BlogWorld extra special.

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Priya Ramesh | Posted in Digital Marketing | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | Comments (7)
Oct 15 2010

A Step in the Right Direction

October 15, 2010 – 9:51 am

By Brona Cosgrave (@bronacos)

Just in time for the Produce Marketing Association Annual Fresh Summit, the largest produce industry event held in the US, Walmart announces its new Global Sustainable Agriculture Goals, which I’m sure will be one of the hot topics on the show floor. Their goal is to double sales of locally produced produce in the next five years. Walmart is the world’s largest grocery chain, has sales greater than 2 percent of US GDP so any steps it takes towards sustainability will undoubtedly have a significant impact.

clip_image001[20]Many will welcome this initiative; because Walmart is such a big player it puts the issue of sustainably grown produce center stage. WM is one of the few international corporations with the money and reach to spearhead this kind of dramatic shift in the food industry. Suppliers who wish to do business with WM will have to make positive changes in their operations which can have a domino-like effect in the industry, as seen five years ago when Walmart introduced their reduced energy and packaging sustainability index for their suppliers.

Consumers are sure to be leery of Walmart and many will this initiative as nothing more than a ruse for them to sustain maximum profitability no matter what the true impact of the program maybe. There are many documented cases of small businesses being burnt by Walmart’s stringent supply pricing policies. Will the small farmers this program aims to help suffer the same fate?

A Peek Behind Walmart's Sustainable Ag PushSustainability is a complex issue, which is why consumers have latched onto more easily understood concepts like organic, Fair-trade, hormone-free, etc. all of which are only pieces of the puzzle. True sustainable efforts must stand the test of triple-tier accounting, described by some as the “three e’s” – environment, ethnics and economics. All definitions of sustainability incorporate a social element so I think it’s safe to say that unless Walmart changes its own retail staffing policies they can never be sustainable in the true sense.

Regardless of what you think of Walmart’s business philosophy or their primary motivation behind this new initiative it cannot be denied that when Walmart makes small changes and they have a huge impact. Is it is right for a private corporation to dictate global farming policy? Is this not the responsibility of governments or international organizations like United Nations? The reality is that money talks…money talks!

By Brona Cosgrave @bronacos

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AddThis Social Bookmark Button By Brona | Posted in Digital Marketing | Comments (2)