During a recent commute on the subway, I noticed a small technology shift. I saw a businessman in his 30s reading the Wall Street Journal on his 10” Kindle DX, instead of the broadsheets (which are often a challenge to read in a cramped subway). He was doing the same as I do. Every morning commute, I read the Toronto Star on my phone, but often Internet reception is not readily available in the subway. This got me thinking that there must be a better way to read the paper. How about a personalized, wireless, device-agnostic, and location-based news service?

1) Personalized and social sharing content:
The physical paper is always designed to cater to a wide range of audiences, hence the paper is usually thick and prints everything for everyone. Half of my Saturday paper is often unread. New web content is created every hour, and the old paper becomes uninteresting by the evening.

To solve the problem of excessive printing, let’s look to the Internet for some inspirations. The beauty of Netflix and Twitter is that we are our own personal content selector. Imagine a newspaper that gives you the level of personalization like Netflix and suggests similar genres or contrasting articles. On Twitter, I can filter only the journalists whom I want to “follow” or “unfollow”. I can also pick and choose what genre of articles to read. For example, I can subscribe only to the columnist Michael Geist and the political commentator Chantal Hubert. The paper connects with my friends and they can recommend other articles and be notified within the app, instead of receiving it as an email or a Facebook status update.

This is not a proposition to substitute all the editors with computers, but rather to have the readers create their own unique experiences as compared to the current indirect relationship between editors and readers. With a more democratic approach, users can find more niche journalists or articles that the print paper cannot accommodate. Readers will see it as a service, when the news is interactive, completely personalized, and filled with relevant information.

2) Instant access, and content to be delivered to all my devices:
Convenience is the key. The newspaper should push me the latest news before I pick up the device in the morning. For example, I can set to have the content pushed to my devices every morning at 7:00am, instead of having to access the web and physically downloading the content in which I’m interested. Also, I should be able to read the news even when I am out of range, as it is synchronized on a regular basis.

Make the news device-agnostic so that I can read it on my phone, my computer at work, or on a tablet. So, the news should be available on Android, BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone, Kindle etc, and the content synced up across multiple platforms.

3) Combine existing reviews with location services:
Say I am on Queen West, a trendy Toronto street. Wouldn’t it be nice to read the Toronto Star’s extensive reviews on restaurants, boutiques, and condos based on where you are using the GPS technology? Currently with foursquare, a location sharing technology, the reviews are added by average users. What sets The Star’s version apart is their brand value and large database of trusted reviews. Imagine the news can suggest the top three restaurants in walking distance, or boutique reviews, or Christopher Hume’s condo critics. It can also partner with Groupon to push coupons or cross-reference it to the profitable classified database.

4) Break news, but make it relevant:
For any breaking news that’s relevant to me, it will be pushed with a flashing icon and linked to a short update or quick video summary. I often wish the Toronto Star was the first go-to point of breaking news, rather than Twitter.

5) “Surprise me” button:
There are times I like to flip through the physical paper randomly and find the odd article, and often those are some of the best experiences of newspaper reading. A “surprise me” button will suggest articles that are normally not my personal preference.

Charge like a drug dealer.
Make the paper so good that is addictive. Give it for free to get people hooked. The free version can only follow three journalists for instance. Premium features such as exclusive Toronto Star discounts and an unlimited number of journalists could be charged at $2.99 a month and billed through the carriers as an add-on. Follow Chris Anderson’s “Five Percent Rule” – five percent of users support all the rest.

Earlier signs of this version of news already exist in iPad apps called Flipbook (See YouTube video) and Pulse reader. However, they lack offline caching, location-based services, and push delivery. Before my fantasies materialize, I will continue reading my Toronto Star on my phone on the subway, saving interesting articles one at a time before losing 3G reception underground.

Like our previous blog about The Globe and Mail, newspapers have evolved and are getting smarter and more attractive. The question remains, will these changes renew the general public’s interest in reading newspaper? Or have people changed their reading habits completely? What would your future of newspaper be like?

An account manager is on board to build the relationship with the client to initiate a project; the creative team produces the work. A project manager acts as the core of the project; we lead the team from project initiation through to the completion of the project. It is the meaning behind our signature line: “Right brains that can be left alone”.

Project managers can get your project moving. For example, if you were to ask a creative person or team how long it would take for them to produce an idea, you would be unlikely to get a firm response, particularly without providing them with the parameters of the idea. A project manager can identify and communicate to stakeholders the project requirements, identify the various needs of stakeholders, as well as balancing competing constraints related to the project, including:

• cost,
• schedule,
• scope,
• quality,
• risks,
• resources, etc.

A project manager can work with the creative team to ensure those objectives are met during the planning and execution of each project. This allows your creative team to be creative and produce the work without worrying about developing schedules, managing budgets, finding resources – all the organizational aspects of the job.

A good project manager provides a human touch your project, encouraging team members when morale is flagging, and has the ability to explain to creative teams and the client and other non-creative types why they produced the work in question. Interfacing with the creative team, the client and other stakeholders to ensure your project success.

Great things take time. Including a project manager as a part of your creative process can allow for seamless integration in collaboration giving your right brains the freedom to be creative!

Background:

Ovarian Cancer Canada’s ninth annual Winners Walks of Hope will take place on September 12, 2010, in fifteen cities across Canada. The goal is to promote awareness of ovarian cancer. There is no early detection test, so knowing the signs and symptoms is crucial. They want to take their Facebook campaign and presence to the next level and to increase their fan base.

What follows is the ten tips I shared with them to grow their social media network.

1. Be relevant to your cause. Be relevant to fans’ wants and needs. Respond to information that benefits them. They want facts, not fluff, and they want honest opinions.

2. Stay local! Local content is the key. A picture is worth a thousand words. A picture of “2009 Vancouver Winners Walk of Hope”? Probably two thousand. A video interview of “2009 Vancouver Winners Walk of Hope”? You got the idea.

3. Keep it fresh! Imagine Winners carries the same style and never updates its collections. Update your status once a week by sharing interesting news articles, photos, or videos. It takes less than five minutes.

4. Engage the audience. Quickly respond to your audience. Thank them for their comments. Get curious about them. Start a conversation by commenting on others’ updates. Nurture the relationship. People who respond are usually like-minded people. They can help with your goals.

5. Grow your network with a team challenge! Post a Winners Walk of Hope Chair challenge. Ask your chairs and team leaders to bring a friend. Be a good neighour and befriend other fundraising causes.

6. Tell fans where you are or where you will be. Tell your audience about your upcoming events (e.g. yard sale, meet and greet, beer event, training session, or local walk).

7. Less is more. One thought per update. Facebook fans can have short attention spans.

8. Break news, but make it relevant. Fans want to hear about your challenges. Give them benefits they care about. Post updates about your fundraising goals, challenges, and achievements along the way, big or small.

9. People love tips and tricks. Quick tips about how to do things always get responses. Share your unique fundraising challenges and best practices in your city.

10. Provide links to interesting or useful information. Links can build fans. Again, be relevant to people’s wants and needs. They will like it.

Be relevant to your cause, network with others, and content are the keys to any social media campaigns. These strategies can also be adapted for Twitter.

(Also available as a PDF.)

Interested in promoting ovarian cancer awareness in your city?

Check out their walk locations and join for the walk on September 12 or be a virtual walker!

Like what you read? Subscribe to our monthly e-newsletter!

The award was in the business-to-business product category and was selected from over 504 international entries. Our RFID bookmarking experience, which was created for Research In Motion (RIM), the makers of the popular BlackBerry® smartphone, was chosen.

Partnered with The Taylor Group, the RFID bookmarking experience was developed for the BlackBerry events marketing team. It provided visitors at the BlackBerry tradeshow booths a way of tagging the products and services in which they were interested. At the end of each day, the visitor received a customized email with targeted information and offers that were tailored specifically to their tradeshow visit. RIM was able to accurately track leads and determine the effectiveness of each area of the tradeshow booth. In addition, the powerful analytics allowed RIM to compare the performance of different tradeshows from year to year and across various industry segments.

To find out more about this award or other services The St. John Group can offer, please contact Thom Rockliff at 416.504.4884.

Over the next few months we will unveil some exciting new additions to our digital home.  So don’t forget to subscribe to our RSS feed so we can keep you up to date on the latest adventures of SJG.  We’re excited to hear what you think of our new site.  Send us an email or comment on our blog. We would love to start a conversation with you.

You see, getting to a moment of clarity is not a simple task. It is a journey, and it starts before the creative flows and long before the cameras roll or the designs begin to take shape.

Clarity Starts by Getting Curious
When you get curious you’re going to be asking lots of questions. The right questions, the tough questions. You’re going to deep dive for the nuggets of truth. Get ready to swim in a sea of content. You will be immersed in the flotsam and jetsam of messages, specifications, facts, figures, reports and competitive analysis.

Content is King
After thoroughly saturating your brain in a tidal wave of information it is time to sort and organize. Okay, it sounds boring, but stick with me. It is going to pay off big time. More than just a quick creative brief by an account manager, it is an in-depth enquiry into the entire content landscape. This is going to build a foundation for your moment of clarity. Content is one of the cornerstones to achieving clarity. It is the blueprint for creative development and the document we use for reference as we come up with ideas. The better the content is, the better your ideas will be.

Creative Collaboration
Isn’t it great to sit alone in a room and come up with brilliant ideas? Well, sometimes it is, but we have found it is a whole lot better to collaborate with other people. We have a saying here at SJG: If your idea sucks it was probably created in a vacuum. Get up from your seat and start having conversations with your colleagues. Don’t worry about where the idea came from. Just care that you generate lots of ideas and make sure they are documented. On any given day here at SJG, we will have quick phone calls with our clients; have hallway idea exchanges with our colleagues; we have run an idea past a barista at our local coffee shop (White Squirrel Café is our new local); or even get input from our families. We scribble on pad boards, Skype our way to a solution, or jam in a boardroom. It really doesn’t matter – the key is to roll up you sleeves and collaborate.

Compress to Clarify
The last step on the journey to clarity is to distil your creative into the smallest possible package. Get out the red pen and ask, what is the minimum amount of information possible without losing the entire concept?  Einstein said everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. We love this idea and are constantly asking each other if there is a simpler way to get this idea across.

That’s it. The journey to clarity starts by listening big and ends with a big idea that your audience will love.