BACKGROUND

GotVMail Communications was founded in 2003 as a virtual business phone (PBX / VOIP) telecommunications product/service company to help smaller businesses give the appearance of being much larger than they really were. They were a strong, smaller company looking to grow.

CHALLENGE

In May 2009, the executive team decided to go through a re-branding initiative to help explain to the world their new mix of advanced services and position themselves as a universal resource committed to the advancement of entrepreneurs.

OPPORTUNITY

The company founders realized that they could leverage the re-branding process and use it as an opportunity to create large scale awareness through a national, viral plan.

CAMPAIGN

The integrated print+online marketing campaign consisted of the following elements:

1. Branding, Design & Programming

Naming, design, print, programming and social media elements were all universally aligned around the company’s new core values of inspiring and empowering entrepreneurs. The name “Grasshopper” was chosen to exemplify the forward motion and leap ahead advantage that the company aims to provide for its emerging entrepreneur target audience.

2. Video & YouTube

Creating a public service-like animated motion graphic video rather than a traditional corporate promotion ensured that the commitment to entrepreneurial excellence was clearly demonstrated and felt prior to revealing the source of the video. The final screen read: “See how Grasshopper empowers entrepreneurs to succeed.” The video was launched May 4, 2009 and timed to match the official re-branding announcement (PR) with placement on YouTube and the company’s new website.

3. Direct Mail Design, Printing & Fulfillment

Knowing that most standard direct mail pieces get stuck at the gatekeeper, Grasshopper took several precautionary tactics to ensure the right person got the right promotion at the right time. First, they carefully identified a list of the right reporters, journalists, TV anchors, bloggers, celebrities, politicians, entrepreneurs and CEOs. After three months of very careful list scrubbing, they culled their list down to the perfect group of 5,000 key influentials. Second, they created a compelling piece consisting of: a box, minimal branding consisting of their logo and url, chocolate-covered grasshoppers and a message of: “You’re a risk-taker, a dream-realizer. What’s left to do that you haven’t already done? Eat a grasshopper.” The bag of grasshoppers had a tag with a final call to action, “ Entrepreneurs Can Change the World. Join the Movement Now!” with the URL for the video posted on the company’s website. Finally, the target audience received the piece via FedEx (not USPS) to ensure the true recipient actually received it in time…not the gatekeeper.

4. Sales Follow Up & Social Media Interaction

Employees from the company followed up with every blogger and key influential to make sure they received the package safely and that it had indeed been opened. Next, they began responding to online questions posted on blogs, Twitter, Facebook and other social media networks. Conversations were not aimed at promoting the company brand, but rather encouraging recipients to create and submit their own photos or videos for placement on the Grasshopper.com website.

RESULTS

Video

In the first month after the campaign launched, the video on their website received over 47,000 unique page views with their video on YouTube generating around 130,000 views with 400+ 5-star ratings and over 160 comments.

Twitter

The most successful channel of all the social media tools, the campaign was mentioned in 1,461 tweets by key influentials including: Guy Kawasaki, Alltop Founder; Kevin Rose, Digg Founder, and Jason Calacanis, Mahalo, CEO – influencers with a reach of more than one million followers.

Blog/PR

The campaign was also mentioned within 119 blog posts and news articles, with features appearing on seven major tv network broadcasts.

Website

Traffic to their website increased significantly in the first month, with a 93% conversion of viewers clicking on the “How it works” section to learn more about their services. In addition, the company has seen a 4,911% increase in visitors from Twitter and a 3,286% increase in visitors from Facebook plus 30,000 referrals from StumbleUpon alone.

REVERSE ENGINEER THE CAMPAIGN

Crafting a buzz-worthy campaign is no small feat and several key components were integral to ensuring a viral campaign that generated more buzz than the company had received in the previous 6 years of business combined.

Curiosity

Grasshopper.com’s well-designed direct mail piece was unexpected, non-traditional and unique. Minimal branding combined with a unique leave behind and a well-scrubbed list ensured that 95% of recipients went to the URL and almost unheard-of response compared to the traditional 2-5% standard direct mail response rate of a basic postcard.

Inspiration

The animated motion graphic video was focused squarely on celebrating the potential of entrepreneurs to change the world and celebrating them as an important, exciting part of our lives. By de-emphasizing their branding relationship to the video, the founders ensured the viral-ability of the video and it has now been seen at many entrepreneurial-focused conferences ensuring it continues to have longevity long after the initial campaign is over.

Integration

By integrating multiple print+online marketing components in a careful and well-thought out manner ensured that each tool performed at its highest potential and leveraged one another for optimal success. Careful list scrubbing, direct mail design, website/video + social media integration guaranteed a viral, unparalleled result that to date has been unmatched.

By,
Angela Hill
President

Incitrio
http://www.incitrio.com
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• Onsite SEO
• Onsite Blog
• Pay Per Click Campaign
• Email Marketing
• Social Media Marketing
• YouTube Videos
• Offsite SEO

Instructions:

Part 1: Onsite SEO

Step 1: Website Analysis

To begin any onsite SEO, you must first start with a website analysis. An analysis will provide a snapshot of where your website is at and what needs to change to reach your goals. I recommend using www.websitegrader.com. Website Grader is a great tool because it not only provides a snapshot of your website, but also allows you to compare your website to competitors. The report will provide you with a score from 1-100 of your current onsite SEO strength. From there, you can create a plan to allocate your time and effort in the areas that need the most work. The report will also provide you with the amount of indexed pages and inbound links of your website vs. your competitors. This information will be invaluable when creating your online marketing strategy.

Step 2: Keyword Research

After performing a website analysis, the next step for most will be to start keyword research. This is a process where you select a cluster of keywords to optimize each page of your website around. You can use Google Keyword Tool to research keywords and their monthly search results. From here you can decide which keywords to use as the foundation of your onsite SEO.

Step 3: Keyword Execution

Once your keywords are selected, execution can begin. This is where things can become a little bit more complicated. There are many different ways to leverage your keywords throughout your website content and coding, and many of these steps will require a programmer to complete. Here is a list of the different places to leverage your keywords:

• Website url
• Title tags
• Meta tags
• H1 tags
• Alt tags
• Website content

And Voila!  Your onsite SEO is in place and its time to move on to Part 2: Onsite Blog. (This topic will be covered in the next post. Each bullet in Ingredients will become its own post.)

By,
Blake Gantney
Online Marketing Specialist

Incitrio
http://www.incitrio.com
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The Napkin PC

Passion
The Napkin PC aims to bring out the creative passion of the user both individually and in group sessions. It encourages spreading out and allows for multiple creative workflows that can interact or just as easily stay independent. It encourages group interaction and collaboration by allowing any number of interfaces that can be passed around or pinned up, but which all communicate with a central network.

Users’ Culture & Lifestyle
The primary users are creative professionals including those in any field of design, but also expanding to include business and marketing professionals who use creative thinking to come up with business plans or marketing campaigns.

Their primary need is to have a simple system to help keep their creativity moving and maintain good collaborative communication. They want to drink a cup of coffee, pick up a pen and let their creativity flow, without having to sit down later to actually document and organize the information later.

The Napkin PC is a continuously additive system, where each new idea is already documented and organized with references and connections to related ideas. In addition each Napkin interface is an instant portal to the entire network giving quick and easy access and sharing of ideas and reference material.

Market Viability
The design appeals to business professionals. It is ideal for work groups of around 6 people (a typical brainstorming meeting) although the system is easily expandable for larger business.

The viable markets are any business that works with creative professionals. Any company that relies on brainstorming and group collaboration would benefit from using a Napkin PC. A secondary market is creative professionals who work alone or in smaller groups, but who want the same ability to spread out and use multiple workflows.

Size
Napkin interface: 180mm x 180mm x 2mm
Pen stylus: 140mm x 9mm x 10mm
Base station: 160mm x 150mm x 150mm
Mobile station: 45mm x 36mm x 15 mm

Overview of Design
The Napkin PC is innovative because of its multi-flexibility. It can have multiple users, multiple interfaces, and multiple configurations. It breaks the PC down to only the interface— a pen and a space— and then gives you a multitude of both so you can let your creativity run wild.

User & Context
The users are creative professionals who work in collaborative groups. The PC is designed to be used for brainstorming, ideation, meetings, think tanks, etc. — anywhere where creativity is the driving force.

Scenarios of Use
There are two new usage scenarios delivered by the PC. First is the brainstorming workflow. Creativity that normally starts on paper and whiteboards goes instead directly into the PC without the user changing their behavior. This creativity is richer because of the innumerable software tools and resources available on every Napkin interface. It can also be shared, compiled, and compared instantly for a smooth, speedy workflow.

The second scenario is a replacement for printing. Instead of ever putting ink on paper, the interfaces themselves instantly become “prints” when power is removed. They would then be used just like a print, pinned up, handed around, reviewed, etc. When the print is no longer needed the interface is simply returned to the base station as a fresh Napkin.

User Interface
The interface consists of any number of Napkins and one of the Pens. When powered by the Pen, the Napkin is a multi-touch input display which responds to human touch as well as the Pen. The intuitive use of a pen and paper is exploited by the design, making it very easy to use. Also the ability to work on multiple interfaces in parallel, instead of shuffling through windows on a single interface, makes multitasking much easier.

Aesthetics
The Base station is designed to interact like a napkin holder. The user can grab an interface from the stack in the middle of the table. The computer itself is somewhat hidden in the Napkin holder, its only reminder being the OLED status display on the front. The user only really interacts with the Napkins and the Pens. This helps them maintain hands-on, creative freedom. The square Napkin form is used because it is modular, but also because it conveys the idea of being one of many. This helps the user stay relaxed and open minded because less importance is put on a single interface.

Technical Aspects
The key technologies are full color e-Paper, multi-touch input, Inductive power circuits, and high speed RF wireless connections. The e-Paper is key because of its low power consumption, thinness and flexibility, and ability to retain an image without power. Multi-touch is simply the future of intuitive input that makes the PC fun, fast, and easy to use. The inductive power circuits are crucial because they allow wireless power transfer and make the interface Napkin simple and inexpensive enough to be used in large numbers. High speed RF continues to keep everything wireless and intuitively seamless.

Ecology
The environmental sustainability of the PC is most innovative with the Napkin interface. It is the most numerous component and the one most likely to need replacing due to wear over a few years. Therefore it is beneficial to make it easy to recycle which is accomplished by powering it with an inductive circuit. This eliminates a hard-to-recycle internal battery.

The second, and likely more impactful, innovation is the use of the interface as an instant “print.” This eliminates the need for printers, paper, and ink, which are used in large amounts during the creative process.

Manufacturability
The focus of the design is really in the interface – the Napkin and the Pen. Both have very limited actual function because they only relay information between the user and the base station. The Napkins are manufactured by adhering the layers of touch input, display, and power/communication circuit, between a protective plastic cover. The pens have a similar induction circuit and communication antenna set up along with a rechargeable battery to send power to the interface. The Base Station holds the actual PC, which is compact but powerful enough to handle multiple users.

Angela Hill is the President/Creative Director of Incitrio, a branding agency that provides analysis, strategy and tactics for sustainable and clean tech brands around the world.