Posts Tagged ‘custom publishing’
Custom Publishing @ Imagination: Not Your Average Internship
16 Dec 2009
by Imagination Team Member
Maybe internships at Imagination Publishing shouldn’t be called internships at all. When I applied for my position as a print design intern, I was encouraged by a sentence in the company’s job posting on Craigslist: “You won’t be getting anyone’s coffee but your own.” And now being here, it’s definitely true (even though I prefer hot chocolate).
Custom Publishing: The Internship Difference
Some internships mean getting coffee for the big dogs, sending faxes, and taking notes, but they aren’t solid first steps into the real world. However, here at Imagination, interns actually get valuable work and experience in custom publishing and content marketing.
Imagination offers internships in many areas including editorial, digital media, web design and development, video/broadcast, business development and marketing.
To give an example of work here at Imagination, my first project was a newsletter that went out as a supplement to one of our client’s magazines. I learned a new design program, worked with an editor, and completed a project that was valuable to our company and to our client.
At Imagination
Even though I’ve only spent a month here, Imagination’s strong, cohesive culture is obvious to me. This collaborative, positive, and creative atmosphere is amazing.
Learning more about the company’s work and culture helped me realize this isn’t an ordinary opportunity. To see for yourself, check out the video my fellow interns created to learn more. Oh, and don’t forget to apply.
written by Anne McElherne, Print Design Intern
Video: Inside Imagination Publishing
30 Jun 2009
by Michelle O'Hagan
Recently, Erin Dorr gave a tour of our offices to Tim Jahn, editor of the blog, Beyond the Pedway. Watch and learn more about Imagination Publishing and our custom publishing professionals. .
The Changing Role of Editors
9 Dec 2008
by James Meyers
I had dinner last week with President of leading global trade association for business professionals. For nearly two hours, we debated the changing role of editors in today’s digital world and whether in the future, editors will be replaced by user-generated content?
Let me start by saying that years ago, before I started my custom media company, I was a senior executive for a major daily newspaper. Many things troubled me about the newspaper business at that time. One was the dismissive attitude of editors toward this new newspaper start-up called USA Today. Who would ever read this “Mac-lite” newspaper filled with short stories, colorful graphics and reader commentary, and never ending surveys and polls? Surely, it would never last! Yet today, twenty years later, nearly every daily and business newspaper has copied their tactics.
However the most disturbing comment I ever heard at the newspaper was the editor-in-chief ranting on in a meeting that readers didn’t know what they wanted or needed to read, that was the job of the editor, to tell them what they needed to read. It seemed arrogant at the time and today it seems like an absolute indictment of what’s wrong with many newspapers and magazines today. Too much of that attitude is still ingrained in editors today even as a digital tidal wave of user-generated content, opinions and community is sweeping over the world.
The role of editors is changing rapidly and forever, but I’m convinced that editors can still be the heart and soul of any print or digital publication. The difference in the future is that editors must be aggregators of information balancing reader-generated content with expert editorial and providing context and space for both. Reaching out to readers, and more importantly to potential readers, through all available media channels will be a critical skill that every editor will need to master. Listening to readers and participating in online communities will provide insight and content ideas that yesterday’s editors never could have imagined.
I applaud journalism schools like Northwestern and Missouri who have taken bold steps to integrate print, digital and business courses as a mandatory requirement for their degrees in the face of angry traditionalists. The world is changing at incomprehensible speed and the lines of journalism, communication and business are blurring, but editors can and will remain as essential navigators of content in this increasingly digital world.
Recession Brings Opportunities for Marketers
10 Nov 2008
by James Meyers
Well, the elections are over, but little else has changed. The economy continues to bottom out, the stock market continues to drop on trader paranoia and companies continue to run scared. It’s a tough time for CMOs and marketers as they fight internal pressures to cut advertising costs, reduce staff and continue to produce results.
I’ve spent the last week poring over everything I can find about what marketers should do in the midst of an economic recession and the overwhelming sentiment and evidence is that the best marketers are looking at today’s economy as a real opportunity to expand market share versus weak competitors.
Since the end of World War II there have been eleven economic recessions or slowdowns in the United States that have provided plenty of opportunity to study how marketers have reacted and which companies have benefited and which have failed. Most recently, a 2005 study by the Smeal College of Business at Penn State University found that companies who have an ongoing strategic emphasis on the importance of marketing, who have nimble, entrepreneurial-type cultures and who have the resources to take advantage of marketing opportunities during a recession not only fair better during the recession but also come out of the recession quicker and significantly accelerate their growth much faster than their competitors when the economy begins to recover.
It’s not surprising that marketers who are positioned to see opportunities while those around them are cutting back marketing, costs, staffing and quality receive the double benefit of being aggressive at a time when their competition is pulling back. It’s truly an opportunity for the strongest to survive and flourish. World class athletes know that under times of great stress, their ability to focus, summon up resources and perform at a high level will nearly always results in victory against weaker opponents. They sense the weakness in their opponents, their fear, their inability to rise to the occasion and they take advantage of it. Think of Tiger Woods. Does he slack off or lose focus when he’s ahead or in dangerous waters? No, that’s the time when he goes in for the kill.
Advertising Age recently said that “recessions offer unprecedented opportunities to market in an environment of relatively less noise as others around you are cutting back”.
The November 10th issue of Business Week reported that Wal-Mart is enjoying double-digit profit growth while retailers all around them are reporting declines. Some retailers, such as Linens ‘N Things and Circuit City are filing for bankruptcy or closing stores. Clearly, Wal-Mart’s longtime emphasis on low pricing plays well in today’s economic environment. But did you know that Wal-Mart’s Every Day Low Prices slogan started during the last economic slowdown? And it’s not just about low prices, otherwise K-Mart and Sears would be reporting similar results. It’s about value, brand and staying focused in your communications.
After much reading and research, it seems the key to economic success during an economic downturn is maintaining a clear and constant focus on five critical areas: Competition, Brand, Customers, Communications and Staff.
Competition: Audit everything about your competitors. Their products, their website, their pricing, their sales force, everything! It’s critical that you know their every move not only to anticipate their tactics against you but to find their weaknesses that you might be able to exploit during a time when they are already looking over their shoulder. Take advantage of the economic uncertainty and risk to leave your competition far behind just as that world class athlete would.
Build Your Brand: Focus on those things that got you where you are today. Support and build your brand proposition. Reinforce the core values of your brand to make sure that your existing customers don’t see any deterioration in the products or services that they expect. If you have multiple products or services, make sure that you protect and nourish your core brands first particularly during poor economic times. They are your bread and butter. Never reduce quality to cut costs.
Customers: It’s common to avoid your customers during tough times in an attempt to “fly under the radar” of their economic troubles. But that’s exactly the opposite of what you should be doing. Now is the time to be listening to your customers, understanding their needs and fears, offering solutions to help. Be visible, be a partner, be a resource to them. Exceeding their expectations during tough times will pay off now and even more so when the economy improves.
Communications: Cutting back on communications and marketing during tough economic times moves you back into the pack of other companies who are running scared. It’s likely that just not reducing spending will put you ahead of your competitors. But, don’t be foolish, be smart. Adjust your spending to be more targeted, more frequent and more measurable. Economic recessions call for a focus on marketing that minimizes waste, engages customers and results in a return on investment that can be measured. Marketers move away from mass media during tough economic times in favor of more targeted, measurable media such as websites, custom publishing and community-building. Custom media continues to be proven way for companies to solidify their customer relationships, drive engagement and increase revenues.
Staff: Probably one of the most overlooked and neglected areas of focus during tough economic times is your staff. Don’t forget that they have a lot less information than you do, that they are being bombarded by bad news from the media and that they’re concerned or scared for their own jobs and their financial well-being. Now’s the time for increased communication with them that will keep them informed, engaged and with a feeling of purpose and value.
Recessions offer a time for opportunity. When everyone else around you is running for cover because the sky is falling, you have the opportunity to move your brand forward. But it takes focus, courage and commitment to be successful. That’s why small businesses generally do better than big companies during tough times because these are the type that first drove entrepreneurs to be successful. After all, entrepreneurs are used to flying in the face of advertisity, finding success when others predict failure and staying focused every day on achieving their dreams. We all need to exhibit a little more entrepreneurial spirit in these tough times, take risks and stay focused on success rather than failure.
Custom Publishing Success Story
7 Nov 2008
by James Meyers
It was fourteen years ago today that I set up an eight foot gate leg folding table in a four room office above a pizza kitchen in downtown Chicago and opened the doors of Imagination Publishing. As I sat alone in that first office, excited about my first custom publishing project, I was also overwhelmed by all the emotions that every small business owner knows all too well. I’d invested all of my savings in an idea that companies would be interested in using custom publishing to add value to their existing customer relationships in a medium that they could control.
I had approached traditional publishers, business associates and friends about investing in my new company but each of them chose not to after expressing varying degrees of skepticism and doubt. But as a successful marketer for nearly 20 years, I rarely listened to what others around me had to say because marketing is about having a vision and a focus on doing whatever is necessary to make that vision a reality. If you listen to the naysayers, you’ll never accomplish anything.
For years I had plaque on my wall with the Albert Einstein quote, “Imagination is more Important than Knowledge”. I always believed passionately that Einstein was right and that belief that served me well for so many years in the corporate world is still right on target today. You see it’s not about what you know, or what you’ve done. Success comes from having the imagination, the passion, the curiosity and the focus to make your dreams real. So it seemed only natural to name my company Imagination Publishing.
But now the stakes were different. I was playing with my own money, my home, my family’s livelihood! And often during those early years I’d lie awake at night with the “monster over my bed”. I’m sure that every small business owner knows that same monster.
Small Business Monster
After working six and seven days a week with 12-14 hour days that monster would always being there reminding me of everything that could go wrong. Learning to live with that monster by beating it down with an even stronger sense of confidence and purpose is part of the secret to building a successful small business.
Luckily, I had two other things going for me. A great wife and family who supported my crazy dream through all the tough times, never once questioning my resolution to succeed. And my first two hires who set up their folding tables a week after me. Rebecca Rolfes and Doug Kelly shared my dream and passion and have been huge part of the success of Imagination Publishing. Without Rebecca’s endless sense of optimism and Doug’s rock-solid work ethic and stability, we would never have reached the success that we now enjoy.
Today, fourteen years later, Imagination Publishing has more than 50 full time Imagineers and more than 20 fantastic clients. Many of our clients are Fortune 100 companies and leading trade associations who all have found custom publishing to be an effective means of communicating and engaging with their customers. Print custom publishing is still more than 60% of our business but the explosion of digital continues to grow at a breakneck pace even in the current economic recession. Today, we’ve become experts in rich media, community management, SEO and analytics, and strategic integration as well as custom magazines in order to meet all of the custom media needs of our clients. Custom content continues to grow while traditional media continues to decline because it works.
It’s been a fabulous ride but I have a vision that the next fourteen years will be even better. While some only see risk and peril in today’s economy, I see nothing but opportunity. I have to, it’s all I know.
What is News? (and why isn’t it what I think it should be?)
7 Nov 2008
by Michelle O'Hagan
I think this is something that everyone thinks from time to time. Especially with the proliferation of media outlets: it seems any flunky can get his own talk show and any soap box is good enough to televise.
This morning, I was having a discussion about what constitutes news with someone who thinks it strange that the Chicago papers gave front page treatment to the deteriorating economy pre-election; now that the election is over, the Chicago papers are running front page stories about President-elect Obama’s family members and his choice of advisors.
When I was in journalism school, more than 20 years ago, one of the first things we learned were the five things that constituted “news.”
Timliness, significance, proximity, prominence and human interest were the five. And the stories that meet those five criteria will vary depending upon the media outlet, the location, the readership, etc. Proximity is a big one: meaning a story that is either geographically “close” to the readers or a story that has special significance for most of the readers of a publication.
So, for the Chicago papers and Chicago readers, the Obama girls and the Obama cabinet positions meet all the criteria for a local audience, most of whom are not c-level execs. Many of them probably fall into the 250,000 people who showed up downtown on Tuesday. Hence, the front page treatment of Malia and Sasha Obama and Rahm Emanuel.
However, today’s Wall Street Journal’s above-the-fold headlines are these:
“Global Push to Beat Economic Downturn”
“Hedge Fund Selling Puts New Stress on Market”
“A Snowblower Maker Braces For Slump’s Blizzard of Woe”
Those articles meet the five criteria for the WSJ readers, many of whom are c-level execs or business-owners, people who are definitely interested in the economy before anything else.
None of this implies that coverage is impartial in any media outlet. The days of any media outlet being impartial are over. Every publication writes for its own readers; and we, as readers, seek out the publications that please us, interest us or meet our own standards, and we read them. It’s called custom publishing, baby.
Stronger Customer Relationships in Tougher Economic Times
6 Oct 2008
by James Meyers
The economic slowdown or “mild recession” is taking it’s toll on businesses, particularly small businesses. It’s frightening to hear about small businesses that can’t get credit from the same bank who just six months ago were sending unsolicited credit card offerings to every mailbox they could find.
I heard a story on the radio last week about a small business in Chicago with more than ten years of profitable financial operations who now can’t get a $30,000 line of credit to fulfill in-hand orders for the holiday season. According to the Wall Street Journal, it’s not that the banks don’t have money, it’s just that they’re afraid to lend it. The old adage that banks only want to lend you money when you really don’t need it is once again proving true. Thankfully, my bank, Harris, is not one of those banks who has stuck their head in the sand! They understand that small business is the backbone of business and that killing small business will only lead to much greater economic problems. This is a time for stronger customer relationships. Forging stronger customer relationships now, will insure that customers stay loyal for years to come.
Story after story, case study after case study, and research upon research has shown that companies who invest more on marketing during tough economic times not only do better during tough times than companies who don’t but also that these companies come out of times quicker and accelerate faster as growth returns. That’s because forging and reinforcing customer relationships is the best insurance any business has against economic downturns.
At Imagination Publishing, we have been successful in showing our clients how to use content to connect, engage and strengthen their customer relationships. In tough economic times, your customers need information, help and reassurance more than ever before. Content delivered through custom media marketing will help you strengthen your customer relationships now and into the future because it shows your customers that you care about them, that you understand their needs and that you’re there to help.
To learn more about Imagination, visit www.imaginepub.com
How You Know You Need It
2 Oct 2008
by Andy Schultz
How You Know You Need Custom Media?
Answer these five questions to determine if it’s time for your company to tap the resources of a custom media firm to help measurably improve customer relationship marketing.
How good is your marketing communications content? Think about it. Do you truly find your marketing materials compelling reading?
Consider mail-order catalogues or commerce websites. These are purely tactical marketing devices that, while conveying brand identity, carry little if anything about the context of use for the products offered.
Think about member magazines or e-newsletters. Aren’t they mostly just dressed-up promotion or advertising gambits wrapped in a bit of self-serving and time-worn material?
Even if you have a strategy to provide a flow of truly useful information to your customers just how good is the quality of that content?
Brands seeking deep relationships with their customers know that content is king. If your content needs refreshment, depth, and views and expertise outside the immediate scope of your firm, then it’s time to bring in a custom media firm.
How integrated are your media? It’s nothing to be ashamed of but the fact is for many firms the growth of the web and new technologies has resulted in a piecemeal presentation of the brand through all your media contexts. In addition, the silos that exist within firms contribute to this lack of coordination.
Simple question—is your website linked to optimal effect with your print communications? Do your brochures, emails, e-newsletters, web videos, and interactive tools work in perfect concert to convey the branding, messaging and promotional information that are key to your marketing strategies?
Guess who can help?
How good is your design? This is a question that flows from a combination of the content quality and integrated media questions. It represents one of the easiest fixes to the “hardening of the arteries” in design and content from which many firms suffer.
Good design is critical to success. Anymore you have just a few seconds to capture a customer’s interest and only design can carry the day. Right now you may not be getting access to the leading-edge talent in the marketplace that custom media firms offer as a core competency, talent to help make your brand look better than you thought it could.
Are you measuring what you do? A shocking percentage of firms spend a lot of money on customer relationship marketing and have no idea of its ROI. Because of the experience they have across industries, custom media firms have developed tools and measurement methodologies that can apply to evaluating media investment. This is a clear instance where your firm may lack the tools or expertise to evaluate communications efforts, their qualitative impact and their cost-benefit effect.
Are you executing tasks that are really outside the core competencies of your firm? It’s the old “own vs. rent” economic decision. Many firms not only value the power of content but also have in-house staff to execute it. But if being a publisher, a website developer, an SEO expert, and other marcom tasks are not central to your firm’s capabilities, it’s time to consider the benefits of outsourcing.
Of course, ultimately, there is only one way to find out, and it’s risk-free—send out an RFP or invite custom media firms to audit your efforts and come back with recommendations on how they’d do it and at what cost.
In a competitive marketplace, taking advantage of the efficiency of specialization that custom media agencies offer, you should be able to get better content, better design and more integration for less than you spend now. And do better for your firm, your brands and your customers in the process.
A ‘Real’ Journalism Opportunity
9 Jul 2008
by Imagination Team Member
A former co-worker of mine recently lamented that by working for a custom publisher, I, and others who have left traditional publishing, lost the opportunity to do “real” journalism.
His argument is that because I work for an agency with clients, every article I write or edit must meet our client’s approval. And as such, anything the client deems unfavorable to its overall marketing message, branding, positioning, etc., could be edited out, or worse, rewritten. “Real” journalism, on the other hand, allows writers and editors to publish freely, without the constraints of corporate approval or legal review.
In theory, I can see how his judgment has merit—if it were accurate.
For starters, this assessment of real journalism is rapidly fading. Just ask any of the veteran reporters at the Wall Street Journal about their new life under Murdoch I doubt many would argue that their freedom to publish “serious journalism” hasn’t changed.
But aside from the changing landscape (or perhaps, decline) of American journalism, my experience with custom publishing at Imagination hasn’t been the “client censors all” situation my former colleague assumed. Granted, some of our publications are heavily influenced and edited by the client to fit a particular marketing message. But we also produce a number of thought-leadership publications, where the clients are interested in covering industry innovations, highlighting best practices, and creating conversations and debate about relevant topics in the field. With these publications, the clients aren’t concerned with promoting their latest widget, but rather, with informing and engaging their customers about the industry trends that matter to them.
For example, earlier this year I edited Leadership, a publication we produced for the Healthcare Financial Management Association (HFMA) that reached C-level executives within hospitals and health care systems. At no point did the magazine highlight all of HFMA’s membership offerings or events. Instead, Leadership explored industry trends and insights into providing high-quality, cost-effective care. With profiles on industry insiders such as Donna Shalala, former secretary of health and human services, and Paul O’Neill, former treasury secretary, Leadership started a balanced dialogue about politics and health care, and how the upcoming elections might affect the industry.
Our “real” journalism work also extends to Envisage magazine, a drug development and policy publication we produce for Quintiles. Through Envisage, Quintiles wanted to create a magazine that provides an unbranded, thoughtful vision of the future of biopharmaceutical research. (For a more in-depth overview of Envisage, go to our case study here.)
The magazine reaches an international audience of pharmaceutical and biotech executives, researchers, investigators, academics and regulators. Having this kind of access isn’t something Adam Istas, Envisage’s editor, takes lightly. As a result, he’s put together editorial calendars that delve into the social responsibility aspect of the biopharmaceutical market, as well as the commercialization, development and regulatory issues important in the industry.
Through both Envisage magazine and its Web site, I’ve had the opportunity to cover infectious diseases, such as malaria, tuberculosis and HIV, and non-communicable diseases such as diabetes and asthma, that affect millions of people in both third-world and industrialized countries.
For example, this month I wrote a Web article on tuberculosis and recorded an accompanying podcast with Dr. Mario Raviglione, director of the Stop TB Department at the World Health Organization. In the podcast, Dr. Mario spoke about the ways the pharma industry has both addressed and ignored tuberculosis, a disease that affects one-third of the world’s population.
Back in my “real” journalism days as a hard news reporter, I wrote about shootings, school board meetings and city hall votes that affected thousands of people in a metropolitan area. Now, I have the opportunity to reach the pharma execs who can develop therapies for millions, possibly even billions, of patients worldwide. If that’s not “real” journalism, I don’t know what is.
