Earlier this year, American Business Media launched a custom media microsite. We are members of ABM and Barbara Logan serves on the Custom Media Committee. The new microsite promotes the value of business-to-business custom media. Research, white papers and case studies are available to marketers interested in learning more about custom media and how it can benefit their organizations.
Check out the site today to see Hammock’s Custom Media Craft blog and our work with the Marines Corps League featured.
Although it’s only July, media planners in advertising agencies across the country are gearing up for their 2009 planning efforts. That means that we are in full media kit mode here at Hammock—creating, editing, designing and distributing the 2009 kits for our clients to have the kits in front of buyers when they begin their planning phases. If your magazines are supported by advertising, here are 6 of our media kits tips to keep in mind during your media kit development:
My sweet mother rarely sends me an e-mail without a semicolon in it. She loves that little piece of punctuation. I’ll give her credit though; 99 percent of the time she uses it correctly.
For writers and editors, the semicolon is a must for adding variety to our words. But not everyone is a fan of the “supercomma” as it’s called by some. Is it stronger than a comma? Weaker than a period? Kinda.
Here are four common (and correct) ways to use a semicolon:
For the sixth consecutive year, American Spirit, the magazine we publish for the Daughters of the American Revolution, has been honored with a Grand Award of Excellence from the APEX Awards organization. The Award was made for the May/June 2007 issue. The same issue also collected two Awards of Excellence:
Two other Hammock-published magazines also earned Awards of Excellence.
American Spirit’s Grand Award was one of only six made in the “For Profit” magazine sub-category. This year the Apex Awards judges evaluated 4,479 entries including 837 in the Magazines & Journals category. A total of 120 APEX Grand Awards were presented in 11 major categories and 1,393 APEX Awards of Excellence were presented in 110 individual categories.
I’m back in the office. Rested and relaxed from a week at the wonderful John Campbell Folk School in Brasstown, N.C. It may not sound “restful” to spend about ten hours a day for seven days making a loopback Windsor chair, but to me, it was enjoyable and, at times, inspiring. And, as usual when I have time to experience something completely new, I see the connections I never imagined before. While the trip was completely personal and off-duty (I even joked that my going offline was an experiment in being NeoAmish), Jamie Roberts assigned me a writing assignment related to it for an upcoming American Spirit. I also took plenty of photos and video. In fact, here is a set of photos on Flickr that follow the progress of the chair I made.
First, the obvious: Magazines set out to tell a story.
Then: But the words you see printed on the page are only part of the tale. Those of us trained as writers and editors (and many in the general population) usually think that a “story” is told with written or spoken words.
But just think how a verbally told story is enhanced by these factors:
Similarly, your sense of a magazine article is also enhanced by its setting — the page layout.
I talked to our design team recently about the importance of white space in magazine design. I’ve marked up a spread with their comments on Flickr.
Hammock’s work with the Marine Corps League is featured in the latest issue of the Custom Publishing Council’s magazine Content. The article “Across a Crowded Room, ” focuses on how marketers and custom publishers are finding new ways to target specific audiences with custom content. In the case of our client the Marine Corps League, the association wanted to reposition its magazine for a number of reasons—one of which was to recruit younger Marines.
Read the article from Content here to learn how we redesigned, refocused and repositioned Marine Corps League magazine (newly named Semper Fi) to accomplish the goals of the League. “In the two and a half years since the redesign,” says MCL executive director Mike Blum, “membership in the Marine Corps league has increased 25 percent. Between 15 and 20 percent of that increase can be attributed to the magazine.”
Every year at its Continental Congress, the Daughters of the American Revolution awards its Americanism Medal to a naturalized U.S. citizen who has shown extraordinary qualities of leadership, trustworthiness, service and patriotism. And for the five years that I have been invited to the event, this is the award presentation that chokes me up—without fail.
Last evening, during opening ceremonies of the 117th annual Congress, DAR awarded the 2008 medal to Rev. Luis León, a Cuban immigrant who is now pastor of St. John’s Episcopal in Washington, D.C., one of the country’s most prominent and historic churches. In 1961, the 12-year-old León came to the United States with his sister on one of the “Operation Peter Pan” flights. He arrived in Miami with $3 in cash and the promise of a foster home until his parents could join him. It has proved more than enough to propel him to a successful career and compassion-filled life.
Baptized into the Episcopal Church in Guantanamo, Cuba, he went on to serve as rector of Trinity Church in Delaware and St. Paul’s Church in New Jersey, specializing in building inner city parishes. León has been rector of St. John’s and the “President’s Priest” since 1994, offering the invocation at the second inauguration of President Bush.
In his remarks at last night’s event, León joked that this wasn’t his first encounter with the DAR. When at Berry Academy in Rome, Ga., he won the DAR Good Citizen award—well before he had become a citizen. The lump in the throat moment started when he talked about his affection for his adopted country—once an unknown place, but now a known and loved world.
Did you know? DAR members have long been noted for their devotion to new immigrants. In 1921, the National Society published the DAR Manual for Citizenship, which was distributed to American immigrants at Ellis Island and other ports of entry. To date, more than 10 million manuals have been distributed.
Hammock salutes its client, the DAR, for all its important and ongoing service to the country. Best wishes for a successful Congress.
| Custom media products used by business marketers* |
% |
|---|---|
| Email newsletters | 68.7 |
| White papers | 50.0 |
| Case studies | 47.3 |
| Custom events or roadshows | 38.7 |
| Blogs | 28 |
| Custom video | 22 |
| Custom magazines | 18 |
| Online community/social networks | 14 |
| *From the Junta 42 and BtoB study | |
A report recently released by Junta42 and BtoB magazine reveals that business marketers spend on average 29.42 percent of their budgets on custom content. This is slightly higher than that the 2007 studies by the Custom Publishing Council and Publications Management, which found marketers spending 27 percent on average for B2B and B2C. Spending on custom products is on the rise, too. In 2008, 42 percent of business marketers increased their spending on customized content marketing.
Find the full list of custom products used by marketers responding to the study here.
Most of us at Hammock Inc. read voraciously. Recently some of us talked about our favorite books.
Editor Megan Pacella is spending the summer with the classics:
…. I’m working on books that most people had to read in high school or college, but I never did. Right now I’m working my way through 1984. After that it’s Catch-22, and then Walden.
IT Guy Patrick Ragsdale is undecided about summer reading, but he knows his favorite of all time, Isaac Asimov:
I haven’t decided what to read during my summer vacation this year. Since I won’t be vacation until September I still have some time to decide. I may choose something based on what people say here.
My favorite all time books go way, way back to The Foundation Series by Isaac Asimov. Not exactly Pulitzer Prize stock, but at age 12 this stuff really got me going. I’ve read the series several times since then. Actually led me to name my son Isaac. More recently I’d say that I’m prone to more technical reading. Books on system administration are pretty exciting. They’re just like Guy Noir Private Eye pulp fiction.