Dan May Illustration

Some of you may remember a few years ago when Dan May was part of the BroadBased staff. (He was the well-dressed quiet guy with the dark hair.) We always knew Dan would make it big in illustration (he wouldn’t even participate on the Drawing Board unless we gave him $1), and we thought we would update you on his successes! Dan now lives in Atlanta and is making quite a following for himself showing nationally and internationally. We love how his style has evolved and love his monsters! Check out Dan’s web site here. We are not surprised in the least by Dan’s great success. We always could pick a winner. : )

CBS PR Flak

Scott McClellan’s book, “What Happened: Inside the Bush White House and Washington’s Culture of Deception” which prompted the commentary by Andrew Cohen (CBS’ legal analyst) that all PR people are against the truth, certainly has incited the entire profession and its most recognizable societies.

It’s been interesting to see the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) response and the email campaign by the Florida Public Relations Association (FPRA). Incite a population of communicators and media relations executives and you’ll probably get a calculated, strategic and somewhat exaggerated response to the criticism. PR people, especially those involved with crisis communications, love a good fight.

I don’t agree with Cohen’s assertion “Show me a PR person who is “accurate” and “truthful,” and I’ll show you a PR person who is unemployed.” I believe that PR people who aren’t accurate and truthful are the ones who find themselves out of a job.

But there is a HUGE difference between being a White House Press Secretary and a Jacksonville PR executive. Political PR is a machine. The ultimate in spin and politics. But local PR people who lie, cover up or otherwise bend the truth are typically outed pretty quickly. So are the clients they represent.

When I became a PR person (by way of being a journalist first) I used to talk to prospective clients about what PR is and what it’s not. And I think it’s a pretty common distinction that local and regional media relations professionals tell clients up front that we’re not in the business of lying, covering up or intentionally deceiving the public.

PR is as much about pitching and telling a story as it is about accuracy, truthfulness and an absolute trust between reporters and media relations professionals. On a local level, any little half-truth or even a stretch can erode that trust.

But spin is spin is spin. And it’s the lifeblood of politics from building a person’s image before the run, to the campaign and the actual service in the position.

Perhaps McClellan’s book will spawn a whole generation of PR people jokes in the vein of lawyer jokes. And that’s a good parallel, because PR executives and lawyers work in the same way - both represent their clients and the clients’ interests. And both have only to look to the next client and the next project to understand why lying or covering is a bad idea…especially if one would like to work in ‘this town‘ again.

New Web Site for The LBA Group

We are pleased to announce the launch of a new Web site for The LBA Group, Northeast Florida’s largest local CPA firm.

Now, you may be thinking to yourself, “that certainly doesn’t look like a typical CPA Web site” and you would be correct. But LBA is much MORE than a typical CPA firm. Yes, they offer business audit and tax services but they also offer strategic business services, personal tax and financial services and forensic, litigation and valuation services. Multifaceted indeed.

This longterm partner wanted something unique and out of the proverbial “box” to differentiate them from the volumes of “typical” CPA firms out there. After investigating several creative approaches (poo-poo’d as too conservative), we unleashed our creative monster and presented them with an illustration-based theme that drew inspiration from the LBA Advisor Magazine (which we also produce for them). The concept was met with resounding approval.

Our thanks to LBA for continuing to force allow us to do some of our best creative work! Thanks also to Illustrator Ken Dubrowski for going it to the mat for us on this one.

BroadBased and 904 Magazine

Team BroadBased was one of five agencies featured in the May/June 2008 issue of Jacksonville Magazine’s 904 Magazine, Northeast Florida’s Business and Executive Life Authority. The article, titled The Image Makers (page 72), gave agencies an opportunity to stage a photo shoot however we wished, as long as the setting said something about our company.

Our theme, thought it may sound cliche, was that “the sum of the parts really does equal the whole” at BroadBased Communications. The success of an organization of our size relies on good coaching and a dedicated team. With our concept, we were hoping to illustrate what a winning team looks like. For some reason, the team was thrilled at the prospect of dumping gallons of ice water on the coach’s well-coiffed head. Yes, it was real and there was no Photoshopping involved. Like the true pro he is, photographer Brad Stookey captured the moment in one take. : )

Pictured clockwise from the lower left: Jan Korb, Joy Jarrell, Harrison Hardaway, Carolyn Audije, Jenny Soucek and Maria Coppola.

I’m a Mac and You Have Issues With Vista

Macintosh continues to crack us up with their “I’m a Mac” commercials. If you’re in the habit of skipping through the TIVO commercials, click here to view all the latest Mac spots. The Yoga spot makes us laugh out loud.

Manson Construction Web Site Launched

After many months in development (starting way back when Sam was here last year) the Manson Construction Web site, spearheaded by Senior Designer Harrison Hardaway, has gone live! The site showcases Manson’s projects and services, including downloadable project sheets.

Manson, perhaps best known today for their part in rebuilding the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, is the quality name for heavy marine construction and dredging for more than 100 years. Headquartered in Seattle, Manson maintains regional offices in California, Louisiana and Jacksonville, Florida.

Science Diet Catches on to Social Media

While playing with Cutie Patootie, our virtual dog on FaceBook, we were somewhat surprised and impressed that when we feed him, he eats the über nutritious Science Diet. This is just one more example of how national retailers are investing in social media web sites.

According to Nielson, FaceBook grew 129% from 8.5 million users in July ‘06 to 19.5 million in July ‘07. Comparatively, My Space grew 33% during the same time period but has a whopping 66 million users. Face Book has a long way to go before they catch up to the volume of MySpace, but what they lack in audience they probably make up in quality demographics. While we notice that FaceBook is attracting advertisers like Science Diet, an expensive pet food geared toward the discriminating pet owner, MySpace is still advertising Zwinky dress up dolls.

 

As CSX evolves their Diversity Department to better service the needs of a multicultural employee community, it was decided to update and modernize the branding imagery as well. The resulting icon, created from a range of individual circles of different sizes and colors, solidifies into one unified image through the concept of pointillism. Pointillism is a technique of painting in which a lot of tiny dots are combined to form a picture – very much the way that the CSX Corporation is the result of the efforts of 35,000 employees. Terri Wilsie, Manager – Internal Communications, said “The team at BroadBased created a new look for our inclusion initiatives that has really helped to rally our participating employees.”

Variable… video?

We’re very familiar with personalized marketing – from variable printing to PURLS – but this type of customization in a video format was new to us. And funny too! Probably even funnier if we understood Spanish but, hey, we get the gist.

CANstruction Update

We won Juror’s Choice Award! On to Nationals, stay tuned…