I Wrote This – Fortunately, Great Clients and Designers Were Involved.

In 2010, I participated in the BP wellness calendar and it came out very well – you can read about that excellent project here.

Now the 2011 Calendar is in play, titled “I Can.” It is described in the most recent post on the Prism Design blog.

Whole different year now. But same great team of people, same fine clients. Thank you very much, everyone, for the chance to be involved again.

KBR Technology Assumes a Brand of Distinction – and Distinctiveness.

The new brand [or sub-brand, to be precise] for KBR Technology was born when two concepts came together in my mind. First came how the client described her business unit:

KBR Technology is a distinctive global business whose core technologies have significant impact on the productive success of industries, people and countries.

The second was seeing a major work called “Needle Woman” by Korean artist Kimsooja at the Museum of Fine Arts-Houston. In this video installation, the videographer stands utterly still, her back always to the camera, while crowds of people flow by, around and past her.

Her crowds are different from segment to segment; they are ordinary people on the streets of Nepal and Cuba, Chad and the Yemen, Brazil.

KBR Technology’s current and potential customers are in markets in the Middle East, India, China and the rest of Asia – not in Western Europe or North America. The crowd idea allows for the clearest possible contrast for the business unit among companies with similar profiles and “products.”

[KBR Technology licenses technologies which are just as cutting-edge as laser guidance or optical interconnects; but they’re far more focused on the basics of process industries. You will not frequently notice the application of advanced techniques in the more efficient production of ammonia, for example; or in improved ethylene and propylene yields. But for the world’s developing and expanding economies, these produced materials are the building blocks of new and vital societies. These technologies measurably improve the lives of people everywhere and are real examples of a successful global knowledge economy.]

Beyond the rapid business booms and the towering new skylines in so many far reaches of the world, there are the people - always.

So Part 1 is our “world photography” that puts the new sub-brand into a distinctive context, increasing differentiation from the KBR corporate look itself. On the top level, this business unit’s communications feature vivid color, movement…and life, culture after culture.

Part 2 is the contrast (in the ads, at least) with the individuals who offer the technologies. It is not only the corporate entity or business unit which delivers the know-how – it comes via KBR’s own people. A brand has the opportunity to refer to the total experience of an organization. So each combined photo-set can help form the mental picture stakeholders will have of KBR Technology. (Brand voice here is quintessentially visual.)

The repeating headline, Part 3, begins to make the brand package more concrete. KBR Technology is the global company that literally helps put the “HOW in Your World” with specific technologies and processes. These capabilities help customers reach out beyond each plant perimeter to the peoples of their society at all levels.

Then the expanded tagline, KNOW-HOW DELIVERED, ties everything back to the KBR corporate slogan. That’s Part 4.

Well, you know it is never so simple except in hindsight. Even in a sub-branding program there are many moving parts and many people helping to make the concept come true. For the initial steps, getting the new brand up and running, let me first mention and thank my frequent collaborators at Prism Design – Terry Teutsch, Stacy Allen and Susan Reeves.

None of this would look and feel as good as it does without the Prismatics’ touches from the get-go – colorful, dramatic and specific.

And my maximum appreciation goes to the KBR Technology client who has been supportive of the creative and incredibly capable in rolling out the brand internally. She has never been shy about her feelings; at one point, she emailed:

Just a quick note to say thank you. The work is terrific.

Can’t beat that.

Copywriting for Wellness: Turning Whimsical Makes a Winner for BP.

Few marketing copywriters ever get to write a line like “Listen to your inner asparagus.” Even fewer see the line in print. But I’m the lucky one thanks to an outstanding wellness marketing program at BP.

Among other projects, I was tasked to write the 2010 BP Wellness Calendar, in support of this year’s “Becoming a healthier you” employee benefits campaign.

The campaign itself is spearheaded by Janelle Ewing, who is Manager of Benefits Communication at BP America; and seconded by Bonnie Hargett, BP Benefits Communication Consultant. It’s been supported on the graphic design side by Prism Design – the Prismatics created the look for the internal campaign that includes this terrific 13-month calendar.

I created a “voice” for the calendar that went outside the lines a little – taking the month-after-month appeals from the pretty ordinary self-health advice column to the somewhat provocative, maybe-even-laugh-out-loud category. So, March, for example, starts off with “Get around to eating smarter” and continues:

Come on, you’re smarter than that pizza. Start cutting the intake of “stupid” foods while you build up your intake of smart foods like fruits and vegetables. Fact: Most women who eat five or more servings of fruits and vegetables a day can cut their risk of developing cancer by up to 50% compared to those who only eat two or three servings a day. Fact: Men can use at least nine servings to reduce their risk of cancer, heart disease and other illnesses.

We backed up month-fulls of wellness tricks and tips with our sources for that data. We included appeals to participate in health advisory programs and earn reward points every month from the beginning of 2010 through the first month of next year. The calendar became a thorough compendium of wellness support, from the health benefits of working out to stress relief to back-to-school immunizations (“Invaders from inner space,” another great line.)

Look, wellness is a product: A proactive and preventive approach designed to provide optimum levels of health, emotional and social functioning. But selling wellness has been overlooked by common marketers. The “approved” definition of marketing itself leaves out a major group of stakeholders that’s hugely influential on each major corporation – the company’s employees.

In terms of their effect on revenue, profitability and long-term customer relationships, it has been proven that the improved physical and mental health of employees has substantial positive impact on both the cost of healthcare provided by the employer and the cost of doing business generally.

The BP benefits team fulfilled this marketing-inside function, along with the insight that a successful Employee Wellness Program has to be broad enough to meet the needs of all employees, regardless of their current level of health.

Ewing’s and Hargett’s more-than-ordinary communication effort has been crucial to getting employees to participate in greater numbers in the BP wellness program. The calendar is one component of a tight mixture of communications pieces and appeals – an internal marketing program which has been successful in generating high numbers of sign-ups.

Pretty cool that I got to participate in this, along with Prism designers Terry Teutsch and Stacy Allen. Thank you, BP, for the opportunity to deliver great work – with whimsy added.

Clue One: Snow Summons Harbingers of Signalwrite Client Gifts.

How could anyone imagine they’d be lurking in such numbers? Yet at the first sign of snow, here they come, their shining faces ready for the next critical step in the Signalwrite Marketing holiday gift program. Coming soon to a pair of welcoming client hands nearby: Hanukkah a week away and Christmas just around the corner.

What’s this year’s gift? Clue Two will be on Prism’s Use Your Bean blog on Monday. Maybe you’ll guess lucky and get a double helping of Something Special.

Avocado Power…

A letter – via blog post – to Chris Whitley at Wood Group Renewable Energy Services.

Dear Chris: Can you make out the ad at all? For Mexican avocados? I honestly don’t know why I hadn’t suggested this idea to you before now but the new ad caught me by surprise.

Fresh from the back cover of this month’s issue of Cooking Light, I honestly never envisioned using slices of The Amazing AvocadoTM as rotor blades on high-efficiency wind turbines. Nope, not even when we were creating and producing the 2009 Renewable Energy Services print ads.

I also can’t determine if this new ad is part of the campaign that started in January, or the newer, second-half campaign. According to the trade press, the Avocados-from-Mexico Fall/Winter marketing program’ll run full-bore media campaigns in “the top avocado consumption markets” of Dallas, Houston, San Antonio and Chicago. (I can’t quite figure out Chicago, but there it is.)

According to a news release from Integrated Marketing Works in Newport Beach, CA, though, the “new” campaign won’t start ‘til early November. So maybe this particular ad comes out of the avocado organization’s NYC shop, Lewis and Neale.

In case you can’t read this photo, the headline is, “with nearly 20 vitamins and minerals, it’s nature’s power plant.” I guess it suits the Cooking Light audience. Our headlines are quite a bit better, of course. Still, the Mexican avocado campaign’s slated to reach 99 million consumers and that’s a lot of people, no fooling. So here’s the NEXT BIG IDEA for RES.

Let’s contact the Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association (MHAIA) and do a joint marketing campaign. RES brings its exceptional, global knowledge of, and experience with, turbine MOR and wind farm operations. The importers bring the avocados…and we will find a vendor to supply the chips.

Everything gets promoted with “hospitality events” at the Turbo Show in Houston, as well as Power-Gen 2009 in Las Vegas. Avocados are, after all, a renewable resource. I guarantee – the renewable industry will NOT have seen anything like this!

All the best for a good week…Richard.

Print advertisement ® 2009, Mexican Hass Avocado Importers Association. All rights reserved.

Bean Blog

True confession: I am associated with the firm responsible for a new blog, Use Your Bean. It’s the new online thing from Prism Design here in Houston. Principal Susan Reeves says it’s “evidentiary.”

I take that word in several different ways, presuming that I’ve spelt it right from the starting blocks). It’s evident that the Prismatics are interested in fresh ideas. More important, in the “worth a thousand words” category, the blog posts offer photographic proof of Prism’s design thinking.

Now that Sister Mary Ignatius explains it all for you (with apologies to Christopher Durang) I’m certain you’ll just rush right over there…to the blog. It may be even more compelling that one neat idea coming out of this idea blog is the swag offer, “Want to trade?” It makes me feel a bit sad that I already have this stuff. If you don’t though – and have something you want to barter – check it out.

More RES

Adding to the various Wood Group Renewable Energy Services attractions, two new ads are currently appearing in magazines worldwide, like Renewable Energy Focus and North American Windpower.

Prism Design and I did concepts, copy and production; specific credit goes to Stacy Allen for excellent work. Each of the two ads addresses a different set of Wood Group features, advantages and benefits for the windpower industry – that “All together now” headline is particularly fun.

The strong Wood Group Gas Turbine Services brand we created two years ago is still clearly transmitted by KEEP ON TURNING.

Having way better photos to work with, as I noted below, made a lot of difference: The wind biz uses too many stock shots because fresh photography is so hard to come by. Again, thanks to client Chris Whitley and the RES team for the excellent photography, the opportunity and the support.

RES Energizing

Last year, when Texas wind farms generated 6,700 megawatts, the American Wind Energy Association’s WINDPOWER 2008 was in Houston. Hurricane Ike’s effects didn’t count.

This year Texas is topping out at 7,907 megawatts from more than 40 different projects. And WINDPOWER 2009 was held in Chicago, in McCormick Place – a big venue for a now even bigger event. Naturally, Wood Group Renewable Energy Services went to Chicago too. (BTW, no other state comes anywhere close to Texas. Y’all. And WINDPOWER 2010 comes back to Dallas.) Client Chris Whitley and his team lined up a significant package of wind power-related services and programs, major advances over 2008. These formed the foundation of new materials that we – Signalwrite Marketing and Prism Design – created for the business unit: Print advertising, cut sheets, new booth graphics. Thanks very much indeed.

I’ll show you the ads in a day to two but I wanted to get these fresh photos in front of you pretty quick. Last year (here), RES used a different exhibition property. This year, the RES team pulled out all the stops, adapting the more imposing Wood Group Gas Turbine Services booth with new copy and new photographs.

More than anything else (graphically), having fresh corporate photography to work with makes a huge difference in the presentation: Look at the wind-related images from Wood Group’s wind power projects around the world. The client supplied the new images.

Whitley says: In all honesty this was my first time leading such a project for such a large show (over 22,000 in attendance – the largest wind power show in North America) and I couldn’t have been happier with the results. We chose to use a graphic that depicted the installation of an offshore wind turbine as a backdrop to where the booth personnel would greet passers-by. You could literally see people stop in their tracks, turn to us and ask to be told more. I loved watching the effect that a single picture had on so many people – it was amazing.

The RES team also put in the extra time and effort needed to work the floor of McCormick Place last week – no wonder they needed more energy.

This year, the US can now claim the world’s largest wind energy capacity (25,170 MW), taking the lead from Germany, with 23,903 MW at the end of 2008. The nation’s fast growth has smashed all the previous records: Installed wind capacity in America grew by 50%. So have the opportunities for RES. I appreciate Chris Whitley letting us continue our involvement in wind energy…thanks to Wood Group here and abroad for the work.

Blend Mail

I’ve just been talking about INEXS (see the jerseys). Now let me crow a bit louder over the company’s precisely targeted direct mail.

Simple but strong, these 3D mailers have been arriving in oil and gas companies all over Texas as part of a four-part campaign. Each one portrays the benefits of a particular set of this Houston geophysical consulting firm’s practices. The first wave explains proven INEXS capabilities in Regional Geologic Studies, along with a specially packaged coffee we call “Haynesville Blend.”

[The Haynesville Shale is a hot oil-and-gas-producing region – INEXS does a lot of work with prospects in this area. Read more about that here...it's good for your education.]

Each mailer encompasses the coffee, selling benefits and a request to meet over a cuppa joe, under the campaign title “Fuel for Solutions.” There are other mailers (with different coffee blends) that point up Exploration Evaluation, Integrated Field Studies and A and D Assistance.

Read all about these subjects on the INEXS website. At the same time, you’ll discover how this Fuel for Solutions campaign marries up to the strong INEXS brand story.

On decision-making, campaign kudos go to the client. On creative, there’s Stacy Allen, Terry Teutsch and Susan Reeves of Prism Design. And Richard Laurence Baron (which would be me).

There’s more than brand power behind this mail series. Each coffee label features artwork by Sydney Strahan, the Houston-based painter whose subject is “art from the heart of the earth.” She uses geological core sample slabs for inspiration and her work is widely recognized in this part of the oilpatch.

Lucky recipients get packages that are impossible NOT to open; business-focused messages; and a bit of a reward in the form of most everyone’s favorite fuel.

Thanks to all the usual suspects for the chance to create and send this great series.

I ought to mention the java’s roasted and packaged by Independence Coffee Company just up the road in Washington County.

Bikers Branded

I revel in the knowledge that a brand I helped spring to life has received its most critical seal of approval: The client adopted it for cycling jerseys.

INEXS President Craig Davis, VP Hector Sepulveda and Marketing Executive Laura Kamrath are training for the 2009 BP MS 150 (180 miles, really, Houston to Austin). Adapting the corporate look for bikers’ wear is Terry Teutsch of Prism Design. IMO, it adds even more muscle to the brand.

Ride, INEXSians…Ride like the wind!

Watch the roads for the INEXS peloton: See Human-Powered Geoscience© in action.

Guns, Roses

Bless their pointy heads, lobbyists up there in the People's Democratic Republic of Austin [PDRA] are at it again. This time there’s a terrific ad opportunity for some brave company. The Houston Chronicle obtained the data under state open-record laws and has reported on our little problem several times, including today:

For the men, it’s pistols and venison. For the women, flowers and spa treatments. Around the Texas Capitol, gifts are a custom — and lobbyists are buying.

According to the paper, lobbyists delivered 124 flower bouquets; 120 sets of circus tickets (go figure); 70 cookie packets – and 66 pistols. Now let’s ignore two conflicting opinions for the moment. One, our elected officials ought not be taking gifts, lunches or junkets in any way shape or form. The other, an occasional bunch of flowers seems pretty harmless. (But there’s a slippy-slidy slope involved here.) I see…headlines!

“Ruger: The Representatives’ Choice.”

“Give the gift of firearms – Lobbyists do.”

“A dozen roses? A dozen State Senators can’t be wrong.”

I see ads, like the one above. The Texas Ethics Commission says gifting is not a good idea. But since everyone in the Lege thinks it’s okay, let’s make advertising out of it. Ta...

Ad by Prism Design, Inc., with my thanks. Suck UK ceramic gun vase from A+R.

“Texas T-Bone”

The “T-Bone” needs our help. No other state can claim this name – and if the new high-speed rail proposal gains traction, we’d really have something to brag about. In fact, prospective consumers of alternative travel in Texas learned more about the train plan yesterday from a Houston Chronicle article by Peggy Fikac:

The idea of high-speed rail is being pushed again in a big way in Texas, and backers hope to have $12 billion to $18 billion high-speed trains running by 2020. This time, they say they have taken care to ensure the idea won’t fall flat the way a bullet-train push did some 15 years ago.

Here’s a mouthful: The Texas High Speed Rail and Transportation Corporation. It’s the non-profit behind the new plan to achieve high-speed Texas rail in 10 years. “T-Bone” is the shape of the travel corridor between Dallas and San Antonio, with a Houston leg meeting the line in Temple. (That’s “256 miles shorter than running the bases on the straight line.”)

Although Houston’s Judge Robert Eckels is Chairman, some people are afraid this routing arrangement represents a highjack by “people” in Dallas. I’d like to hear more about that.

Texas could have started a new rail system in the mid-90s if Southwest Airlines hadn’t been so frightened by the competition. Now, with the new administration in Washington and an economic demand for better travel options makes rail at least conceivable again. Finally.

But the Texas-T-Bone could benefit from our savvy…the help of sharp graphic designers, art directors and copywriters to start with. Ladies and gentlemen, the THSRTX website needs substantial improvements in styling and navigation. The logo could be better, stronger and more evocative of the “romance of the rail.” Then a talented PR group ought to get involved.

Let’s take it all a step or two further. The T-Bone’s a consumer product (despite the politicians and governmental bodies, NGOs and corporations who are the start-up stakeholders in the venture). That means consumer rules apply: A sense of style is critical to promoting acceptance. I’m going to come back to this point again and again in future posts. High-speed rail is too good an opportunity to screw up this time around.

Got a T-Bone stake? If you do, let me know…get yourself on board before the thing leaves the station. Meanwhile, I’m going to drop a line to the executive director to determine the Corporation’s interest in taking on a professional creative team.

Many, many thanks to Stacy Allen, Prism Design, for revising the antique British Rail poster specially for this blog post. Just what did the people who ran the railroads a hundred years ago know about marketing that has since been forgotten?

Guarding Trademarks

For brand marketers, there's a good, quick briefing on the proper selection of trademarks: Read the “What’s in a Name?” article from BevNET Innovation, Issue 2, by lawyer Gregg R Sultan, here.

Long-form, though, it struck me that it’s relatively rare when information technology and copyright protection intersect. Today’s one of those days.

We’re at the dawn of what WIRED is now calling the “Petabyte Age.” That’s when there’s so much information available to us, the sheer mass of data demands what WIRED editor Chris Anderson says is an entirely different approach. He further pronounces: The new availability of huge amounts of data, along with the statistical tools to crunch these numbers, offers a whole new way of understanding the world.

Very cool thinking, yes? Except that one of the examples in the WIRED feature article is a DOD program called Essence – the Electronic Surveillance System for the Early Notification of Community-based Epidemics. Though “100 megabytes of data come in every day,” the government can’t nail down the source(s) of the current salmonella outbreak that’s clobbered 1,000 people.

Big data may well become miraculous. But mistakes will still happen if your project is “untouched by human thought.” So we come back to creating and protecting a trademark and Sultan’s article. Here’re some snippets:

Businesses tend to pick names which describe a product to immediately alert the consumer to the product’s nature (e.g., “Lemon Lime Soda”)…in the long run, you probably won’t be able to distinguish your beverage from others or protect the name.

Sierra Mist for lemon-lime soda…is considered a suggestive mark because it doesn’t describe the product, but conveys the idea that it’s refreshing. Marks like these are easier to protect and enforce…

As I said up top, the entire article is concise; worth your reviewing as a “best practices” reminder. Radio Corporation of America was fine in 1919. Now, 90 years later, it wouldn’t hold up as a corporate or brand name. This is what lawyers are for in our day and age, along with creative people who understand what makes one brand name more powerful, more useful and more protectable than another.

It doesn’t matter how much data you crunch (and there are software programs that’ll invent brand name options by the thousands). Creating a great brand is a human endeavor; guarding its IP value is up to human beings every time. Every time.

Appreciation to Gregg R Sultan, Esq., for his white paper, © 2008, BevNET.com, Inc. Post art by Prism Design, Inc. Many thanks to Susan Reeves and Stacy Allen. The art is the binary (data) form of a client brand name – a free bottle of wine to the first person who identifies it.