GrooveLab

More Reasons to Celebrate

Groove 11 has just been awarded the redesign of the St. Clement Winery website and we're thrilled with the opportunity to bring their brand to life on the web. The truly difficult part however is all that discovery involved; the site visit, the wine tasting and eating of good food that a day in Napa demands. It's hard but we'll manage to love the work!

Introducing the 21st Century Marketplace

 

 

 

 

Groove 11 has launched the first phase of GoodThingsGreen.com, a 21st century marketplace whose mission is to change the way we transact. During phase two, set to go live in October 2009, Groove will launch a revolutionary GTG green rating tool and comparison shopping engine. The green rating tool will include the perspective of producers, retailers and consumers and promises to be the most accurate assessment of “total impact” for all product categories.

Good Things Green is working with producers like LL Bean, Gap, and Nike as well as consumer organizations like the Nature Conservancy and the Sierra Club to provide a holistic view of consumption, including the costs and benefits. The phase two launch will include a comprehensive web 2.0 social strategy and advanced media roll-out to engage hundreds of thousands of consumers as quickly and effectively as possible.

We’ll keep you updated on the progress, as we hope to recruit you as a 21st century shopper.

 

Branded Presentations: Yes, Slide 87 Must Be On-Brand Too

First of all, I’m kidding. If you have 87 slides you’re already in trouble. Groove has created executive presentations for some of the biggest names in the business: Bill Gates, Steve Ballmer, John Chambers, Jeanne Jackson, Scott McNealy, Jonathan Schwartz, Guy Kawasaki, and a host of others. Many times the deck is for a 2,000-person audience;  other times for a board of directors. In either case, or any in between, there are things to do and not to do in a good presentation. Here are a few to consider.

1. Breathe: Not just you, but the slides. Slides need white space. They need a clear, focused, and uncluttered value proposition if you hope to keep the attention of your audience. If the information seems dense to you, imagine how it will feel to the person taking it in for the first time. Well, let’s be clear. That person will simply stop taking it in. They will start counting ceiling tiles again. Simplify your story and create some space. If you do that and the slides are still dense, create chapters to your story over several slides (or several builds).
2. Tell a story: We are children of Hollywood. We like a three-act narratives:  a clear beginning, middle, and end. We’re used to character arcs and something memorable happening at the end. Your presentation should not resemble French cinema (as much as we all love French cinema). It needs an easily digestible narrative that leads to a clear call to action. Know that your audience expects this kind of storytelling, and deliver to their expectations.
3. Know the pace: It takes three to five minutes to get through a typical slide. If you have an hour, you get 15 to 20 slides. Period. You cannot simply talk faster – and never believe the “rehearsal timings” tested comfortably in your office or living room. It always takes longer on stage. It’s vital that you command the content. Rushing through slides makes it all feel staged, over-rehearsed, or worse, lacking in authenticity. Take your time. Enrich the story during each slide., and move through your presentation gracefully.
4. Time the reveal: Don’t roll out a complex slide, or text lists, all at one time. Audiences like to read and explore. Some are naturally inquisitive. Many are bored stiff. If you roll out a long story be assured no one is listening for the first minute or two. They are reading, examining, deducing, guessing, or already arguing with your point of view. They have visual stimulation and they are taking advantage of it. Meanwhile, you’re losing them. Create a build slide or consider telling your story over several slides. Nobody likes to hear the beginning of a story with the end staring them in the face.
5. Avoid the cheat sheet: Many speakers fear forgetting important points so they bullet their slides to death. And I mean to death. The deck becomes a table of contents filled with every nuance of every thought. Don’t do it. The audience has to believe that you’re passionate about your story. That you could do it in your sleep. A long bullet list just conveys that you don’t know the material, aren’t passionate, and fear the audience. (The only exception is in an educational forum where task and to-do lists are provided for the sake of the audience, not the speaker.)
6. No reading:  Remember that all bullets are not created equal. A few will serve you well. These are the bullets that stop you from writing a tomb. You should never be caught reading your slides. It’s painful. Audiences will start to read along with you – some faster and some slower. It will feel like story time in kindergarten. The only exception: a quote. But again, do not read a long quote. Paraphrase. Add a title or a value proposition from the quote. But do not read slides to your audience.
7. Don’t bury the lead, don’t give away the ending: This is a hot topic amongst the presenter elite. Do you reveal the ending and then build a case for how you got there, or do you save it like a good book? I believe it’s a balance. You frame the conversation, set expectations, and save a hook for the end. Let them know that Butch and Sundance don’t survive the film, but save the explosive Bolivian shootout for your last slide.
8. Nobody cares like you care: Details, details, details. Minutiae kill presentations – even presentations about the minutiae. In a vast majority of presentations your proof points, and all the details around them, are not necessary. Identify the proof exists, tell a quick story about how the proof was ascertained, and move on. Then hand out a whitepaper at the end of the presentation that verifies all that minutiae.
9. Make eye contact: You’re the one on stage, not your deck. It’s your show so build a relationship with your audience. The deck is your supporting cast, not the lead.
10. The last slide is always Q&A: This is the perfect way to start a dialog – and a relationship–  with someone in your audience.
11. Have fun: Even if the topic is deadly serious you should be approachable in your presentation. The audience needs to connect with you, so make your presentation look, feel, and taste inviting. If you’re worried you can’t pull it off, use the deck as an ice breaker. Turn your slides into comfort food. It really works.

We like things eleven at a time at Groove 11 but there is a lot more to keep in mind when creating a deck that’s meaningful, and delivering it effectively so that you  accomplish your objectives. We’re here to help you do just that.

Picture? Perfect!

 We’ve all been there. Trapped in our chair, eyes glazing over as a speaker slogs his way through a PowerPoint deck that’s too long, too dense, and just too boring to hold our attention. Counting ceiling tiles can be more rewarding.

Yet a slide deck doesn’t have to be so lethal. The next time you’re trying to think of the perfect words to drive home your message, or the ultimate phrase everyone will remember, do your audience a big favor: remember a Chinese proverb.

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Sure it’s a cliché, but there’s so much truth to it that it bears repeating. And it’s well worth thinking about in this context.

Everyone has heard of the power of visual communication. We’ve felt it many, many times in our lives; not always consciously. From cartoons and recognizable icons to sophisticated illustrations and elegant photography that has the power to stop us in our tracks. The effect can be instantaneous, riveting, and undeniable.

And when it comes to conveying information in clear, crisp, “ah-ha” ways, we know that retention skyrockets when visual communication is added to support the words. We won’t spew a bunch of statistics to prove our point, but the ancient Chinese would say it’s a thousand times better.

Instead, challenge yourself to “Think visually” when putting a deck together. For example, take everyone’s favorite visual: the bar graph. The next time you’re creating one, ask yourself: Does it have to be bars? Do I really need 8 of them? Must I cover each one with big, clunky numbers and long captions? Does a string of five bar-graph slides in a row really serve me?

Maybe you could create a slide featuring a big, bold visual of the actual subject at hand [a product, its environment, a business tool, a company executive] to introduce the graphs and break things up a bit. Or theme your deck around a central concept – something flexible and extendable – and let that inform the shape your bar graphs take.

Every situation is different, but the important thing to remember is there are ways to convey information that can weave a more engrossing story. Unusual, humorous, or unexpected visuals [and words can be visuals too; just take a look at this] have the power to keep your audience focused so they hear and retain your message and – imagine – actually look forward to your next slide.

In short, let your visuals simplify your concepts in ways words alone cannot. Let them do the work of conveying deeper meaning and revealing hidden truths. Pound for pound, the perfect picture on a PowerPoint slide does more work, more simply, and more elegantly than heavy, burdensome slabs of copy, no matter how deftly they might be crafted.

So the next time you say “As you can see on the next slide…” give your audience something they’re dying to, you know…see. And here’s a hint: It’s not another bullet list.

Time for a Toast

Groove is proud to announce that we've just won a sweet Web project from Chateau St.Jean, a gorgeous winery in Sonoma. We're very excited because we're all such foodies and wine lovers, so the project is near and dear to our hearts – and stomachs. Never mind that it hasn't even started yet. We'll be creating a fantastic new website for them, which will certainly feature the historic chateau and renowned gardens.Sonoma here we come!

How NOT to extend a brand

I saw an interesting retrospective online the other day, about all the wonderful ways Mattel has expanded the Barbie brand over the years. Of course, not all of these ideas were wonderful. Many of them were far from it, and these three are cases in point.

Meet Pooper Scooper Barbie. Complete with little piles of poo.

I honestly did think this one was a joke, but apparently the joke's on me. Because everyone knows little girls love to recreate animal attacks after they have a tea party. I suppose Malibu Barbie will soon be coming with a plastic Great White and break-away torso for those times when she strays into the shark-infested waters off Southern California.

I’m afraid I don’t know the name of this particular model. Moulin Whore Barbie, perhaps?


So let this be a lesson to us all. Brand extension can be a great thing. It probably means you're doing something right, enjoying success, gaining audience, all that good stuff. But for heaven's sake, please do it responsibly. Because there's nothing worse than expecting to win over 7-year-old hearts and minds with an iconic brand by having angry reptiles peck the icon's eyes out.

The Power[ade] of Brand

All this talk of branding...does it really work? Of course it does.

Case in point: New research recently published in the journal Psychology of Sport and Exercise showed something pretty cool.

People who were shown a bottle of Gatorade were able to raise one leg for 149% longer than those shown a bottle of water. Study coauthor Ron Friedman, Ph.D. says the boost probably occurs because of the inherent association between Gatorade and exercise, which cues our brains that it's time to work hard.

He goes on to say that advertising has reinforced this link, and it would probably work for other beverages that are strongly associated with endurance and hard work. [Coffee, anyone?]

So if you periodically question the principles behind the Groove brand ball and Customer Purchase Funnel, check out the data. If just looking at a well-branded product can change people's response, imagine what delivering an intelligently constructed, relevant brand experience for your audiences can accomplish. 

 

The Brand Trust

by Rick Barsotti

With the speed at which information travels in this Connected Age, comes a strong demand for What’s Hot, the Buzz of the Month, and the Flavor of the Corporate Quarter. Right now we see lots of requests for social networking and community building; a couple of years ago orders flew in for Flash modules, and tomorrow, with the dawn of fragrance-enabled cell phones, we may be asked about our olfactory capabilities.

It’s important for our agency to stay current with the latest technologies and innovative marketing vehicles so we can help our clients find available white space and express their brand in new ways…with some serious caveats. We don’t do cool creative just to do cool creative. We recognize that trends will pass, but a brand promise must sustain over the long haul. Meaningful relationships between a brand and its constituents are formed over years and decades, not a single touchpoint or business quarter.

Marketers and business executives marvel at the time and discipline it takes to create a meaningful connection with a customer. Groove chants it takes seven to ten clear, consistent, unambiguous touches to move a customer from awareness to consideration, to preference, to purchase, then to loyalty. We communicate this repeatedly so clients understand the patience and commitment it takes to build a relationship. Getting a customer to purchase a product or an employee to buy into a change management process does not happen overnight. Who was it that said “Trust was not built in a day”? And as my Mom taught me, nothing worth having comes easy.

So, as we move away from a functional and transactional mentality toward a relationship and trust model, we begin to take more care with each interaction with a customer. Each touch becomes an opportunity to create an experience that communicates a feeling or engages the senses in ways that reinforce a brand promise. These experiences must be authentic expressions of the brand, else we risk confusing the customer, or worse, creating distrust.

It is through this lens we see more clearly that relationships are not built on gimmicks or trends at all, but on fulfilled promises of well-set expectations. Don’t get me wrong, we like cool things as much as the next agency. In fact, at Groove we believe that with imagination we can make anything happen. But as we have evolved and grown ever more committed to our client relationships – and the success of their relationships with their own customers –Groove has become most passionate about making trust happen. It is the motivation for all we do for our clients. Thus, one day, when one of them inquires about our capabilities around fragrance-enabled cell phones, we will have done our research. And we’ll come out smelling great.

Give Into It 2008 a Success

We don’t mind changing Get into it to Give into it when it’s for a worthy cause. Or two. Or four. For the second year in a row, Groove’s Give Into It holiday giving e-card was a big success.

The e-card gives clients the opportunity to donate to one of four charities via an interactive Flash interface. At the end of the season, Groove tallies up the clicks, and makes a donation to each charity based on everyone’s selections. The donations are made in the givers’ names.

This year’s recipients were Doctors Without Borders, Habitat for Humanity, In Defense of Animals, and Worldwatch Institute. Total donations surpassed last year’s and in the end Groove was able to distribute several hundred dollars to people and animals in need around the world.

Thanks to all of our thoughtful clients who participated. We look forward to Giving into it again with all of you in 2009.

Asterix Group Gets Into It

by Chris Lehtonen

Six years ago I founded Asterix Group with the goal of providing clients with the very best of the strategic and creative sides of branding. Over the years clients have called on us to help them reach their goals – turning around organizations, launching products, reaching diverse markets, creating breakthrough campaigns. The foundation of this kind of work always requires an immense amount of trust on the part of our client. They trust us with their business, they trust us to be the very best at what we do and they trust us to be experts in the full spectrum of marketing delivery methods. With so much at stake, and so much confidence placed in us, it keeps me on my toes to make sure that we have the experts and the practices to deliver on our promise.  

When I met the folks at Groove11 earlier this year, I was immediately inspired. I was impressed by the emotive experiences being created by this immensely talented group. As we began to dialogue, the synergies between us were unmistakable – the similarity of approaches, the values, the culture, the color of our logo. I immediately recognized that our complimentary philosophies, combined with the leading edge practices of Groove was exactly what I needed my clients to experience. I saw the opportunity to lead clients into the future.

So after several months of discussion, today, I proudly announce that team Asterix Group has joined Groove 11. [link to press release]

At the heart of this joining of forces is the underlying premise that we are simply better together. We’ve broadened our capabilities and combined our experience to place squarely where we need to be – specializing in disciplines that will make a significant impact on our clients business.

It’s an exciting opportunity for our teams and our clients. It’s exciting to get into it.

Over the coming months we’ll introduce you to new ideas and new opportunities. We’ll be sharing new work that showcases the impact that we are making. In the meantime, we invite you to draw on us as your trusted advisor. We look forward to the opportunity.