Weblog

I am over the moon to finally release the news that Laurie Fink has joined the Keymer team to provide creative branding, marketing and interactive design services. She is a respected graphic designer and brand strategist with whom we have worked often in the past as our designer-of-choice. The list of brands she has served is long and distinguished and includes American Express, Xerox, Air France, Parke-Davis, Merck and Arthur Anderson. She gained solid agency experience at Young & Rubicam in New York and was creative director at QRS Corporation.

Bringing Laurie on board means we can fully integrate brand marketing and design into our programs where previously we engaged third parties. This will benefit our clients and gel better with our long-held philosophy of holistic communication strategies. Laurie will be based in New York, but we expect to see her at client meetings and new business pitches in Jacksonville and Washington DC on a regular basis.

Welcome aboard Laurie! You are an old friend of ours and an outstanding addition to our team. (SK)

Good news. Let joy be unconfined. On April 27, 2010, mere hours after her due date, Kristen (our media relations goddess) safely delivered a baby girl of 7lbs 10 ozs. Peyton Potter is Kristen and Ryan’s first child and is doing extremely well.

The real news, however, according to my various (female) sources, is that Kristen looks like she was never pregnant. A couple of people have told me through gritted teeth that she already “looks like a super model….”!

Well, the MS Mud Run was a great success! The Keymud team made it through without any major injuries and managed to raise some money for the North Florida chapter of the MS Society. Simon said it was miserable, but by the looks of the photos, it seems like he enjoyed swimming through the mud. Click on the following link to view a whole album of photos from the race: http://bit.ly/c45l9a !

Keymer, Inc. is excited to be sponsoring a team in Jacksonville’s MS Mud Run to benefit the North Florida Chapter of the National MS Society. The Mud Run is a 10K race with boot camp style obstacles that have been surrounded by or consist entirely of mud! The race will be held on Saturday March 20, 2010 at Cecil Field.

Our entry into the race is none other than “Team Keymud.” Team members include: owner of Keymer, Inc. Simon Keymer and his wife Tannahill Keymer as well as friends Todd Johnson, Gina Bradley and Joe Smith. All the members of Keymud will be raising funds to benefit the MS Society. You can donate on Simon’s personal giving page: http://bit.ly/abmF1d.

Todd and Simon were a part of Keymer, Inc.’s charitable work last year as well when they drove across the country in a $500 clunker car for the Big Apple to Big Easy Rally (BABE Rally). During the Babe Rally, Simon and Todd raised money for Jacksonville’s daniel kids charity. Last year the BABE Rally, and this year the Mud Run- what will they think of next?

To support the team please visit the link above and join our Facebook group (http://bit.ly/a9M8GU) for all updates on the team.

We are in the process of branding a tech firm that provides integrated payment processing services for merchants through channels sales distribution within software vendors and web developers. In English, the company innovates, markets and services software solutions that allow businesses of all kinds to manage electronic payments – in stores and offices or through web-based e-commerce.

We need an awesome new name and want creative types in the Twitterverse to feed in! Some of the concepts we have been exploring, include:

• The comprehensive, ‘soup to nuts’ nature of the firm’s offer
• The outstanding security the firm gives to its merchants
• The idea of movement – the movement of funds or the enabling of commerce

These are concepts only. We strongly advise you to think outside the box. This is a tech firm, but it serves traditional businesses.

To enter:

• follow @keymerpr
• tweet your suggested name along with a justification for it
• add the hashtag #namingnewco.

You can enter as many times as you like. Deadline is Wednesday, January 20 at 5pm PST.

If you come up with the name that is chosen, we’ll be in touch to arrange the delivery of a seriously sweet Kindle http://bit.ly/8Hh2t1!

At Thanksgiving we cannot help but think about all that we have to be thankful for here at Keymer. First of all, we are grateful 2009 was a good year for our business. At a time when agencies have been under a lot of economic pressure, we have continued to successfully serve a growing list of valued clients.

We have also taken the opportunity to invest in our business, reviewing and enhancing the services we can offer to our clients. A new website, a new corporate identity and the development of new strategic partnerships and deeper relationships within our own communities, have been central to that. We were happy with where we were as we entered 2009, but we will leave it in much better shape, able to bring enhanced services to our clients in our core areas of public affairs, corporate communications and crisis handling. That is something to be thankful for.

On a personal level Simon and I both have much to be grateful for. During the last year, Simon and his wife welcomed into the world a daughter named Daire, and I too will be joining the ranks in 2010, as I am expecting my first child on April 26th.

It seems the list could go on and on for us. How about for you? What are you thankful for this year? (KP)

At Keymer, the nature of our business means that our professional focus is often on clients and events far from our Jacksonville base. This year, to balance this, we made the decision to actively engage with our local community. The Jacksonville public relations industry seemed a good place to begin.

We are members of both the North Florida Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the First Coast Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Over the last year we have made a real effort to support both these groups and our membership has given us countless new opportunities and many new friends.

In June we sponsored keynote speaker Peter Shankman at the PRVille PRSA conference in Jacksonville. For those who don’t know Peter, he is the visionary behind the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) email service which, to use the vernacular, connects hacks with flacks. We wanted to sponsor Peter because we see his services as a tangible expression of something we have come to believe very strongly – that new and emerging technology has fundamentally changed the way in which we share information. In public relations this means that the tools we use to wield influence, build reputations and support brands have been transformed forever. It’s pretty obvious that Peter caught on to this way earlier than most.

On top of this, I have had the honor of speaking at both IABC and PRSA over the last few months. With the recession front-of-mind, I chose to speak to IABC on Allocating Marketing Spend in a Down Economy, stressing the need to maintain flexibility, pay closer attention to measures of effect and look to new and emerging media to take up some of the slack. At PRSA I dusted off and updated a presentation on Winning New Business, originally for junior and mid-level agency staff but redrafted to apply to freelancers too. I was grateful for smart and vocal audiences at both which made for truly interactive sessions.

In addition to our Jacksonville public relations groups, we regularly attend the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce (mainly the Government Affairs Committee) and the Professional & Businessmen’s Association of Jacksonville, where a brief presentation on our entry in the 2009 BABE Rally met with barely disguised astonishment….

We’ve got a lot out of these new interactions, extending beyond new contacts and the promise of new business. For me, personally, Jacksonville has a special significance. There is no place on earth where I have lived longer, I bought a house here, started a business here and had a child here. Keymer itself has been headquartered in Jacksonville for four years, but has always had a foot in Washington and one eye on places as far apart as Alaska and London. Our efforts this year have wrought a subtle change – Keymer has always been based in Jacksonville, but increasingly Jacksonville feels like Keymer’s home. (SK)

At Keymer, the nature of our business means that our professional focus is often on clients and events far from our Jacksonville base. This year, to balance this, we made the decision to actively engage with our local community. The Jacksonville public relations industry seemed a good place to begin.

We are members of both the North Florida Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) and the First Coast Chapter of the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC). Over the last year we have made a real effort to support both these groups and our membership has given us countless new opportunities and many new friends.

In June we sponsored keynote speaker Peter Shankman at the PRVille PRSA conference in Jacksonville. For those who don’t know Peter, he is the visionary behind the Help a Reporter Out (HARO) email service which, to use the vernacular, connects hacks with flacks. We wanted to sponsor Peter because we see his services as a tangible expression of something we have come to believe very strongly – that new and emerging technology has fundamentally changed the way in which we share information. In public relations this means that the tools we use to wield influence, build reputations and support brands have been transformed forever. It’s pretty obvious that Peter caught on to this way earlier than most.

On top of this, I have had the honor of speaking at both IABC and PRSA over the last few months. With the recession front-of-mind, I chose to speak to IABC on Allocating Marketing Spend in a Down Economy, stressing the need to maintain flexibility, pay closer attention to measures of effect and look to new and emerging media to take up some of the slack. At PRSA I dusted off and updated a presentation on Winning New Business, originally for junior and mid-level agency staff but redrafted to apply to freelancers too. I was grateful for smart and vocal audiences at both which made for truly interactive sessions.

In addition to our Jacksonville public relations groups, we regularly attend the Jacksonville Regional Chamber of Commerce (mainly the Government Affairs Committee) and the Professional & Businessmen’s Association of Jacksonville, where a brief presentation on our entry in the 2009 BABE Rally met with barely disguised astonishment….

We’ve got a lot out of these new interactions, extending beyond new contacts and the promise of new business. For me, personally, Jacksonville has a special significance. There is no place on earth where I have lived longer, I bought a house here, started a business here and had a child here. Keymer itself has been headquartered in Jacksonville for four years, but has always had a foot in Washington and one eye on places as far apart as Alaska and London. Our efforts this year have wrought a subtle change – Keymer has always been based in Jacksonville, but increasingly Jacksonville feels like Keymer’s home. (SK)

Last week I was honored to address the Communications Committee of the American Financial Services Association (AFSA) on the challenges and opportunities associated with new and emerging technologies. The committee is made up of senior communications practitioners from firms such as Wells Fargo, Ford Motor Credit, HSBC etc. all of whom have faced significant challenges in the last couple of years and are now grappling with the prospect of widespread regulatory reform.

I used two case studies to illustrate my points on issues management and wider communications. I thought readers might like to see them:

#1 was from Ford itself:

“…Ford has got a lot to be proud of in this area. It has a head of social media in Scott Monty who has proved time and time again the value of the medium. Incidentally, he has 27,000 followers on Twitter. Compared with Ford itself – 13,000 or so.

In this example, Monty was alerted to online criticism of Ford’s legal efforts to shut down a fan website “therangerstation.com” The criticism began as a blog post, spread to twitter and eventually resulted in over 1000 direct customer complaints.

Monty didn’t wait to ascertain the facts, posting to his blog and his Ford and personal Twitter feeds that he was investigating it and frequent updating his followers – some of whom he could be pretty sure would forward or retweet the information to their followers.

Within hours, he reported that Ford’s lawyers believed the site was selling counterfeit goods with Ford’s logo. He persuaded Ford’s lawyer’s to withdraw the shut-down request if the site halted the sales. By the end of the day, Monty was able to Tweet that the situation had been resolved.

This action actually resulted in plaudits from the rangerstation.com. They even posted a very positive blog post, which must have gone some way to rehabilitating the brand with the complainants.

This result came about because Ford, through Scott Monty, was monitoring the conversation. Using social media in this way, routinely, or in a crisis can sometimes yield surprising results.”

#2, from Southwest Airlines, illustrated this point:

“Last month, a Southwest airlines flight from Nashville to Baltimore made an emergency landing in Charleston W.Va..

Southwest’s dedicated emerging media team immediately took to the information superhighway to gauge customer reactions.
To their surprise and delight, they found that comments were mostly positive and focused on the professional way in which aircrew handled the situation. This immediately shifted the company’s communications strategy from crisis mode to a celebration of the way in which staff and customers had worked together in an exemplary fashion. A net win for Southwest.”

We also spoke some about CEO weblogs. I’ll post separately on this subject. No doubt much, much more on new and emerging technology in the months to come……

This year, the National Conference of State Legislatures’ Legislative Summit was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. I had the privilege of going with a client to the event. It turns out there’s much more to Philadelphia than just Philly cheese steaks and the Liberty Bell.

During the three days we had there we went to sessions, walked the trade show floor and rubbed elbows with state legislators from all over the US.

The most interesting session had to be one on Consumer Credit and Getting Out of Debt. Credit and debit card use has exploded in recent years, creating a $960 billion industry. The panelists discussed new legislation designed to regulate the industry more tightly and the pitfalls of over-reaching regulation.

On the trade show floor you see booths for almost any group you can imagine, from the American Institute of CPAs (AICPA) to the American Association for Nude Recreation. Who knew? (I did make sure I got a few brochures and some swag from that booth!)

Seriously though, the booths are always impressive, and it is fascinating to see what businesses and associations are doing to get their messages across to state legislators, many of whom will be voting on pieces of legislation that will affect their causes in some way during the upcoming legislative session.

At a time when the economy is the number one stressor for most businesses, it was exciting to be at an event where the mood was positive. I look forward to next year when NCSL will be holding their Legislative Summit in good ole’ Louisville, KY…

Everyone has an opinion on when rebranding a company is a good idea, and when it is not. The smart ones recognize that, done properly, a corporate rebranding exercise can provide a catch-all solution to multiple business challenges.

I am going to lay aside the tired examples of a thousand marketing seminars – BP, Firestone, New Coke etc. Instead I want to concentrate on our less sensational reasons for a rebrand. Our business challenges stemmed from the way I had started the agency.

Back in 2005, as soon as we were up and running I immediately immersed myself in client service. In my spare time, I put in place the rudiments of a corporate identity, deliberately avoiding huge expenditures of treasure (which was limited) and time (which I preferred to spend with my clients). I knew that I would want to change things, further down the line.

After three busy years, I was able to look around and take stock. Though a global recession had not allowed us to grow at the rate my most optimistic daydreams had envisioned, we had built an agency and a reputation, serving clients that we cherished in the US and abroad.

I realized, however, that to maximize our competitiveness in the down economy, now was the time to take decisive action. Now was the time to kick things up a notch, to refresh our brand and more accurately express the post start-up nature of our agency. A number of specific factors added to the urgency:

• While maintaining a strong public affairs practice, we had expanded the number of clients in marketing support and corporate communications, drawing on existing strengths with analysts and business media while developing new areas of expertise. Over time we had become more than simply “the issues management people”. We needed to express this better.

• In common with our more savvy industry colleagues, we have had a steep learning curve as web communications have become ever more crucial in all our campaigns. We have developed significant expertise and a solid track record in this area. We needed our identity to reflect this.

• The look and feel of our website and marketing materials (our corporate identity) though good enough for a start-up, needed more polish – a more mature look. Likewise, I wanted to get away from our start-up name The Keymer Group. I wanted to simplify things. Keymer seemed the right thing to call us. An unusual name with…. ahem…. personal significance*.

There were other factors, but these were the main ones. Of course many out there (the disciples of Malcolm Gladwell…yawn…) will point out that we have not really ‘rebranded’, we have simply tweaked the name of the firm, created a new corporate identity and rewritten our marketing materials. To a significant degree, they are right. The point to take away, however, is that all of these changes allow us to express better our unchanged brand promise – the one thing I did spend significant time on when I founded the business:

“Keymer will provide smart, innovative communications consulting and execution to clients in the US, in Europe and elsewhere, while maintaining a true focus on clients, personal service and attention to detail.”

So there you have it. I’d love to get your feedback. Email me or leave comments – tell me what you like and don’t like. We can take it – we’re grown up, now….

*(Aside: You should know that while many in England boast that their families are so old that they came over from Normandy with William the Conqueror in 1066 AD, the Keymers were there to meet them when they arrived. I trust there will be no “brand ramifications” from the fact that the name itself is popularly meant to mean “dweller by the cow pasture” in a form of Anglo-Saxon…..)

I have long admired nGen Works- a digital design and internet services company operating, like us, out of North Florida. When I finally got to meet Carl Smith and the team, I realized that our firms had even more in common than our home base, particularly in terms of national and international experience. Even before I had a chance to study their work, I thought they would be a good fit for our new website.

And so it proved. These guys have been producing some of the best online work I have ever seen. As for our site, I am over the moon with the look and feel, as well as its amazing functionality.

Now, I am delighted to announce that we are to have the opportunity to do something for them. We will be working for nGen Works in the area of corporate communications, helping them raise their profile and prestige among their target audiences, shore up their brand, and burnish further their already gleaming reputation. We’re looking forward to doing some good work on their behalf.

Follow nGen Works on Twitter

Jim Bantham, formerly of the State Government Relations team at Citi came to town on a flying visit. Kristen and I took him to lunch at The Brick: