Archive for September, 2007

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Reflections on the i-LIMB Hand

By Linda Forrest

Sometimes, it can be challenging to draw the connection between technological advancements and one’s personal life. Such is definitely not the case with a recent media launch that we did for a new client.

Earlier this year, inmedia had the incredible experience of being responsible for the worldwide media launch of Touch Bionics’ i-LIMB Hand, the world’s first commercially available bionic hand. I completely understand the life-changing potential of this product because of personal experience.

My wonderful mother has always been able to do anything she put her mind to and has never let the fact that she was born with an abnormal left hand slow her down. Throughout my life, if people would ask about what happened to her hand, I would wonder why they were asking as she is so adept and resourceful that I would often forget that she had anything different about her hand.

At birth, her hand was misshapen due to a birth defect. As it was the early 1940s and medical science wasn’t nearly where it is today, the doctors made the poor decision to give her hand massive doses of radiation, resulting in severe radiation burns. Her parents were left with the choice between amputation and a “hook” to act as her hand or doctors could attempt to save her hand and lower arm with groundbreaking plastic surgery techniques developed on burn victims from WW2. They opted for the latter.

The many plastic surgeries and surgeons’ best efforts resulted in a patchwork of various skin grafts and immobile fingers that by her early 60s have poor circulation and have caused her near constant pain. At the onset of these problems, one of my mother’s great fears was that she would have to have her hand amputated. In fact, her situation had worsened in the past year and she had her baby finger amputated in February.

As I started to learn about Touch Bionics and the i-LIMB Hand, I kept her informed, sent her to the company’s web site and our whole family marveled at the technology and what it means not only to the prosthetics, science and medical communities at large and to amputees, but to us personally.

Although she does not currently have a requirement for the i-LIMB Hand, this development has truly made her feel more comfortable with the idea that should she need the remainder of her hand amputated at some point, there is a viable option for a replacement.

Near the launch, she said to me, “This is all so fantastic. I no longer need to be afraid I’ll lose my left hand as FINALLY a really amazing option is available. I’ve only waited my whole life for this!!!”

Thank you to Touch Bionics for the piece of mind that you’ve given my family and others like us. Your work is truly making an important difference.

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Posted by: Linda Forrest on September 28, 2007

Posted in: Public and media relations, Technology marketing — Leave a comment

A business (2.0) titan bows out

By Francis Moran

My favourite magazine arrived this week clad in a plain-paper wrapping.

No, not that kind of magazine, or that kind of plain-paper wrapping.

Rather, it was the October 2007 issue of Business 2.0, which announced on a white, wrap-around cover that this is my last issue.

I knew this was coming – the magazine revealed its decision to stop publishing a couple of weeks ago — but it’s still sad. And it represents a triumph of accounting and business case analysis over passion and excellence.

I am a huge fan of good journalism. I am passionate about writing. And I love new technology and gadgets. And every month, Business 2.0 was required reading for me because it consistently hit the excellence mark on all three points. In fact, aside from the Globe and Mail, which I also consider required reading, Business 2.0 was the only periodical that came into this office that people were under orders not to file away but, rather, to immediately put it on my desk. By the time I finished reading an average issue, several of the pages would be dog-eared so I could do further research on the stuff I had read.

It is a rare thing that a publication can excite the kind of passion in its readers that Business 2.0 engendered; even rarer for a publication that covers boring old business. I don’t care what the accountants’ numbers said, Time Inc. is mad to kill that passion.

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Posted by: Francis Moran on September 28, 2007

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Canada ragging the puck on cleantech

By Francis Moran

While the rest of the world is moving like legendary ice-hockey great Wayne Gretzky by reading the play and positioning itself to be “where the puck is headed,” Canada is in danger of being called for delay of game, according to Ottawa-born clean technology guru Nicholas Parker, who was the keynote speaker earlier today at the Ottawa Venture and Technology Summit.

In a speech that emphasised that the shift has undeniably been made from the “save the world” social passion of environmental technology to the multi-trillion-dollar business opportunity of clean technology, Parker told the assembled entrepreneurs and venture capitalists that Canada is ragging the puck in this exciting, fast-moving and potentially immensely profitable game.

In particular, Parker, who co-founded and chairs the Cleantech Group, LLC, faulted Canada for its delay in implementing an effective carbon-trading regime. “At the Cleantech Group, we don’t really care about carbon trading,” he said, referring to a stock market-like system where companies can trade in tonnes of the carbon emissions that are the main cause of global warming and climate change. “What’s important about (carbon) trading is that it sets a price.”

That price, and the expectation that it will rapidly rise, is beginning to unlock the trillions of dollars in global investments in the development of clean technology, with Parker and his peers estimating that 2,500 jobs are created for every $100-million in new investment.

“Are those jobs going to be (created) in Shanghai or Stockholm or Silicon Valley or closer to home,” Parker asked. His answer was painful to hear. “Canada is still trying to decide if we’re going to do this,” he said, referring to the stalled efforts to launch a carbon-trading system in Canada. “Canada is lagging,” he said, and the dollars being directed into clean technology in this country “are drying up.”

The bottom line, according to Parker? “If we don’t develop the technology, we become a branch-plant economy.”

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Posted by: Francis Moran on September 27, 2007

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Congratulations ciboodle

By Danny Sullivan

More from Call Centre Expo. I just have to say a big well done to Graham Technology for winning the show’s Best Product award for its customer interaction platform, ciboodle.

I have had the fortune of working with Graham Technology since ciboodle’s launch last year, and the marketing team made achieving this award as a goal ever since. Mission accomplished – great job guys!

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Danny

Posted by: Danny on September 27, 2007

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Dialling in to Call Centre Expo

By Danny Sullivan

I spent yesterday in bitterly cold Birmingham, attending Call Centre Expo, the U.K.’s major contact centre tradeshow.

Despite the cold, the show was doing its best to warm things up inside. Contrasting sharply with the straight-faced, serious demeanour of last week’s ECOC event, Call Centre Expo was bustling with activity. Exhibitors were engaged in all kinds of activities to raise their profile above that of the competition. Jugglers, magicians, cocktail-spinning bartenders, Nintendos, musicians and actors were just some of the tactics employed by the hundreds of companies vying for attention.

With all the marketing dollars on display, the contact centre technology market is clearly one that is in a robust state of health. Competition is fierce, and, unlike the telecoms sector, there are obviously many different options available to those responsible for building contact centres… Do you go with a hosted or premise-based solution? Do you choose IP over traditional telephony? Do you buy each component product as you need it or deploy a complete solution that can handle everything you might ever want to do?

Lots of good questions and lots of companies putting forward good cases for each side. Glad I’m not making those desicions!

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Danny

Posted by: Danny on September 27, 2007

Posted in: Product marketing — Leave a comment

Marketers shouldn’t use bad marketing to sell themselves

By Linda Moran

Every day for the past week or so I have been receiving emails – via the company’s general delivery box – promising me “Leads! Leads! Leads!” and that I will “get so many leads my sales will go up!” Though faintly reminiscent of Viagra-type communications, I’ve been reading these messages from a “marketing publicity” agency. As a marketer, I pay a lot more attention to the brochures, magazines, direct mail pieces and emails that are sent my way than most people would. As a person who also buys marketing services, I get a lot of this stuff.

OK, so the emails are promising me leads and huge increases in sales if I use them for my media relations program. Do I want more leads? Yes. Oh yes. That definitely plays into what most B2B tech companies are looking for. Do I want to work with a company that sends me multiple unsolicited emails, with hyperbolic claims, no Web site link and a call to action that involves clicking to have someone other than the signatory get in touch with me? No. And if this is how you are trying to engage prospective clients, how are you approaching editors? Because, surprise surprise, I actually know something about PR. (An aside: why do so many vendors assume we marketing communications professionals are a clueless bunch and need every single thing explained to us in detail?)

Read More…

Linda Moran

Posted by: Linda Moran on September 26, 2007

Posted in: Marketing strategy, Public and media relations — Leave a comment

OCRI Life Sciences Achievement Awards

By Linda Forrest

Yesterday, I attended several biotech-focused events that are part of National Biotechnology Week across Canada. In the afternoon, I had the opportunity to attend the Know the Money Life Sciences Financing Seminar featuring speakers from Gowlings, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Royal Bank of Canada, the National Resource Council and the Export Development Bank. Because a number of our clients, both past and present, are in the biotechnology space, it was interesting to learn about the challenges and opportunities that they face when seeking funding, whether through government programs, venture capital or other forms of investment. One point that stood out among the presentations was the fact that in the esteemed panel’s view, it’s the biotech equivalent to “rocket ships and not motor cars that are currently getting investment.”

After the seminar, it was time for Ottawa’s best and brightest life sciences companies and individuals to be honoured at the OCRI Life Sciences Achievement Awards Dinner. There were some fascinating projects and people that were recognized, including Variation Biotechnologies for its work in the creation of intelligent vaccines and Dr. May Griffith, the developer of an artificial cornea for both research and transplantation purposes who has created tremendous scientific success whilst moving labs multiple times, battling cancer and adopting a baby. Bravo! Our entire table was in awe of Dr. Griffith’s achievements in the face of such challenges. Congratulations to all of the winners.

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Posted by: Linda Forrest on September 25, 2007

Posted in: Public and media relations, Technology marketing — Leave a comment

Join me at DemoCamp and Third Tuesday

By Jill Pyle

If you’re in the Ottawa area and interested in technology, I recommend you attend at least one of two great events this week, DemoCamp and Third Tuesday. The sixth DemoCamp, a small unconference-style event that gives software and hardware developers the opportunity to share their ideas with Ottawa’s high tech community, is taking place tonight at the Clocktower Restaurant on Bank Street from 7:00-9:00 PM.

Tomorrow night, Third Tuesday, the Ottawa PR meetup group, returns from summer hiatus. Mitch Jole, President of Twist Image and host of the Six Pixels of Separation podcast, will share his latest thoughts on marketing, social media and web 2.0 at Patty Bolands Irish Carvery & Pub, 101 Clarence Street, starting at 6:00 PM.

I’ll be attending both events so if you see me there, be sure to introduce yourself.

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Posted by: Jill on September 24, 2007

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Fiction: Bloggers are different from other journalists

By Francis Moran

When I started this little tech PR agency, the world of online media outlets was still very much in its infancy. And an early fiction we had to deal with was a widely held belief that online media were some kind of a different beast from their print or broadcast brethren, and that only a PR agency that specialised in online media could reach these brave new e-journalists.

Our conviction was that these outlets might well be new but that there was nothing at all novel about a time-tested best-practices approach to pitching them, one based on pegging the natural news value of a client’s story and then pitching it only to those who would see that value. And we were right; from Day 1, our clients enjoyed the same widespread coverage online as they did in other media formats.

Our conviction that online journalists responded to same imperatives as their offline brethren actually cost us a client or two early on because our proposals didn’t specifically stipulate we were addressing them. We’d write that we’d target “all appropriate media outlets,” and assumed our clients were as canny as we were. We quickly learned to expand it to read, “all appropriate media outlets, including online outlets,” and to include key online titles in our list of examples.

Time passed and the requirement to single out these new media types passed with it as everyone learned that the same fundamental principles applied to pitching online media outlets and journalists, and that our phrase, “all appropriate media outlets” included online titles as a matter of course.

Then came blogs.

And the latest entry in a growing collection of what I call, “Francis’s favourite fictions.” Or, “Everything I know that’s wrong about public relations I learned from technology company executives.”

Here’s the latest one, tossed at me a few months back by a seasoned technology marketer who really should have known better. “Bloggers are different,” she insisted. “And only a PR agency that specialises in Web 2.0 social media can pitch them properly.”

Well, that was red-meat bait, and I rose to it. “Give me an example,” I challenged her. And she gave me two names, both of them critically influential bloggers in her company’s WiFi space with whom we couldn’t possibly develop a relationship, she said, because we weren’t a Web 2.0 agency.

I recognised one of the names immediately, and a check of our media contact database confirmed that we knew this guy very well. In fact, we first started successfully pitching to him when he was a columnist at a print trade magazine, then as a columnist for the online version of the same magazine, then as publisher of his own online newsletter, and now as a blogger. And guess what? He is just as pitchable, and he responds to the same things, now that he’s breathing the rarified air of the blogosphere as he had as an ink-stained wretch.

The second name was also in our database, and also had been for years, but we generally didn’t pitch him any more because his blog was the equivalent of what we used to call a rip-and-read outfit. That is, like small radio stations that just read wire copy for their newscasts, he didn’t do any original reporting; he just wrote about things he had read about elsewhere. A useful conduit, perhaps, but not one we’d bother pitching directly; better we get a hit in one of the media he watches and let him write about that. Which he does regularly.

Point is, in my world, the bloggers who count are either bona fide, and often dyed-in-the-wool, journalists making use of this latest communications channel, or they’re newcomers to the game who think, act, and respond to newsworthy pitches, in exactly the same way as journalists.

Problem is, too many people think like my favourite-fiction spinner. So we’re careful to once again add a phrase to our proposals, which these days read, “all appropriate media outlets, including bloggers.” This, too, shall pass.

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Posted by: Francis Moran on September 24, 2007

Posted in: Francis's Favourite Fictions, Public and media relations, Social media — Leave a comment

Ottawa’s young professionals get inspired

By Linda Forrest

Last night, I attended the launch of the second season of the Young Business Network of the National Capital. This was my first time at an event put on by this organization, as it seems was the case for most of the attendees. It was a good opportunity to network with other young professionals and hear words of wisdom from Adrian Salamunovic from DNA 11, an intriguing company that we were first introduced to when its other co-founder spoke at a Junior Achievement of Eastern Ontario event last year, Kim Dixon from TalkSwitch, a celebrated businesswoman with a long history in Ottawa’s tech community and Kevin Dee, CEO of Eagle Professional Resources and the Ottawa Business Journal‘s CEO of the year in 2006. The theme was “inspiration” and each speaker had valuable insights into what they think are the keys to success. Adrian in particular talked about harnessing the power of public relations and how the coverage that his company has received in top tier publications has had a direct impact on the spectacular growth of his company from inception to 7-figure revenues in under two years. I’m looking forward to other events put on by this organization, of which I’m now a member, and am encouraged to see so many of Ottawa’s bright, talented young people looking to share ideas and network.

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Posted by: Linda Forrest on September 21, 2007

Posted in: Random thoughts, Startups, Technology marketing — Leave a comment

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