Bluefish Current

Slam-Dunk Project: Boston Scholar Athletes

bf_blog — Thu, 26 Apr 2012 17:33:37 +0000

When Suffolk Construction CEO John Fish tapped us to promote the Boston Scholar Athletes, we knew the perfect project had fallen into our laps. Just two years old, the BSA is a fantastic nonprofit organization that offers professionally staffed, onsite Zones in all 19 Boston public schools. Facilitators and volunteers work together to provide struggling students with tutoring, computer access, SAT prep and the motivational support it takes to succeed — in class, on the field and in life.

The result has been transformative: student athletes are improving their grades to remain eligible to play, they’re 25% more likely to graduate high school, and on average they’ve boosted SAT scores by 150 points. A program like this relies on donations, which is where Bluefish comes in. By increasing awareness, the BSA can better reach out to the community to support its cause. This is how we helped…

An important project like this deserves intelligent research and analysis. We started with four Zone visits and interviews with facilitators, tutors and students. An online study revealed what the BSA means to students. Similar local and national nonprofits were also reviewed. Our findings show that the BSA offers support, a positive nurturing experience, and a way to set and achieve goals – things not available to these kids elsewhere. This became the basis for our BSA positioning strategy and tagline, “Play to Achieve.”

Once the direction was set, our creative team fine-tuned campaign ideas for billboard and print. Hard-to-ignore visuals, bold messaging and emotional appeal came across in all approaches, but “I Got Game” resonated the most and was declared the winner.

Having the right photographer is essential to a campaign reliant on visuals. We selected Christian Kozowyk for his strong sports portolio. Featuring student athletes selected by the BSA, photography was shot at two Boston public schools during a quiet weekend. Christian captured both the vulnerability and the confidence we were striving for.

With billboards pointing to the BSA website, that meant a quick revamp of bostonscholarathletes.org to tie into the spirit of the campaign. Along with campaign photography, short quotes allow the students themselves to tell how the BSA is making a difference in their lives.

With the BSA’s first annual gala scheduled just as the billboards were going up around Boston, the client asked us to help bring some flavor of the campaign to two videos that would be shown at the event. We thought this was the perfect opportunity to let the students speak up — nobody can explain better than they can how the BSA is helping them to achieve.

Director Paul Canney and crew spent a Saturday with us at Jeremiah E. Burke High School capturing interviews with BSA students. The videos were masterfully edited at Accomplice and audio mixed at Soundtrack.

Voiceover: BSA founder and Suffolk CEO and Chairman, John Fish.

The energy was high. Why wouldn’t it be, this was the Garden! BSA students greeted event-goers as they entered through a mock Zone. On the Jumbotron: visuals from the campaign. During dinner on the floor of the arena, the lights came down and the presentation began. Mayor Thomas Menino spoke, as did John Fish, who collaborated with Menino to found the program. BSA Executive Director Rebekah Splaine Salwasser spoke to the organization’s stellar results, followed by the videos we created. Exciting. Inspiring. Moving. Perfect way to close out a perfect project.

One last thing to add: if you want to feel your adrenaline run, watch your work on a Jumbotron. It’s pretty great.

IPAD POTENTIAL: More Ways to Work It

bf_blog — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 20:19:27 +0000

We’ve already talked about how the iPad has quickly gained traction as the new go-to gear for business and what goes into creating a great iPad sales presentation. But what else can today’s organization do with the iPad — beyond simply browing the interwebs and playing Angry Birds? We have a few ideas.

Let’s use this demo we created at Bluefish as an example… Why not, right?

Before you can take it to the world, your own associates need to know your product or service inside and out. That includes your own employees, retail sales associates or possibly resellers. What better to get them fired up about a spring launch, for instance, than a gorgeously irresistible, interactive learning experience on the iPad? Once it’s created, you can get the whole team onboard by projecting a presentation like the one above, presenting one-on-one or letting associates explore on their own.

If you’re going the iPad route for your sales team, there’s no reason not to tailor a presentation to consumers, as well. Why not create something they can interact with at a tradeshow or on the retail floor? Showcase a campaign video or product demo, highlight different styles and product details, or introduce brand ambassadors. You might even link to your Facebook page or Twitter stream and let consumers enter a sweepstakes or broadcast their review to the world right from the store.

Rather than making them lug around a pile of catalogs, brochures, glossy sales sheets and whitepapers, think how much easier it would be for sales associates to pull up a brilliant and easy to navigate presentation of your currently existing sales materials right on the iPad. Of course, you could just let them dig through your website until they can pull up the latest pdf, but you know how that goes. “Hang on, it’s here somewhere, I swear…”

Maybe you have some iPad ideas of your own? Talk to us about them.

IPAD POTENTIAL: POWERFUL PRESENTATIONS

bf_blog — Thu, 26 Jan 2012 14:19:50 +0000

The hottest new tool in today’s marketing arsenal is the iPad. Considerably lighter than a laptop, just slip it in your bag and go — without busting a shoulder lugging it around. Turn it on and people are instantly drawn to it. Why? Because it stands out. So will your company and what you have to offer — with the right sales presentation.

Now we can’t tell you in a blog post exactly what “right” means for your business — obviously every brand has its own specific needs. But we can offer three suggestions based on our experience in creating iPad presentations like this one…

Suffolk Construction, one of our clients, is bold, progressive, technically savvy. The iPad embodies those things, so the technology itself is reflective of the brand. But from the look to the tone, every last pixel of design and content has to be in synch with the brand, too — on every screen. It has to justify the prospect’s attention. This may sound simplistic, but if you’re going to be on the iPad you really want to aim for perfection. Anything less than impeccable will look even worse in a gloriously streamlined and glossy iPad environment.

Whether your presentation will be guided by your sales team or clients and prospects will explore on their own, user interaction has to be intuitive. This requires the input of someone with UX experience during the design stage, not just an art director. Nav cues have to be consistent and immediately clear. Everything on the screen has to make sense. One “hold on a sec while I figure this out” will grind that presentation to a halt. That’s a lost opportunity.

When you’re investing in a new presentation — your own iPad app, if you will — you want it to be irresistible. On the iPad, that means crisp, brief and unforgettable, not encyclopedic. Keep screens focused. Let graphics, photography, music and sfx reign. Use navigation to break up content into digestible chunks. Whether you’re at a tradeshow, talking one-on-one on a flight or at a restaurant, or projecting to a group, the iPad allows you to tailor the presentation to the moment so that you don’t need to overload every screen with information. This creates clarity of message for the prospect and smooth, seamless navigation for the presenter.

Got questions? Ask away. We’re happy to answer.

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This is the second in a series of posts on the marketing potential of iPads. Did you catch the first one, What’s Your iPad Potential? Next week: Even More You Can Do With It.

NEW YEAR, NEW OPPORTUNITIES: What’s Your iPad Potential?

bf_blog — Tue, 17 Jan 2012 20:58:24 +0000

With more than 40M units sold so far, it seems everybody has an iPad. I surf the web on one. My kid plays games on one. Even my retired mother reads books on one. But the iPad is going places Apple never intended — like to work. It’s not just for consumers.

from iPad in the Enterprise via iPhone Life Magazine, July-Aug 2011 read it

Turns out, businesses are arming sales forces with affordable iPads to sell better in this tough economy. It makes sense. It’s highly portable. A thin, streamlined, almost weightless iPad travels well to tradeshows and meetings. And once you’re there, you can do just about anything with it: pull up a website, access customer data, make transactions, check inventory, demo new products — all on the fly.

There’s no denying the visual impact of an iPad presentation. Just take a glance at this screen shot from a demo we created here at Bluefish…

Pretty compelling, isn’t it? The backlit screen makes colorful imagery all the more dramatic. Add in the whiz-bang stuff — the sliders, toggles, music and video — and it makes for an experience that captures the imagination and keeps potential clients thinking long after you snap the case shut.

from Corporate iPad Users Have No Idea Why They Have Them via
maximumpc.com, May 17, 2011 read it

Does your company have a plan for iPads? Bluefish can help.
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This is the first in a series of posts on the marketing potential of iPads.
Next week: An iPad sales presentation that wows.

2011 Holiday Office Cheer: Staff Favorites

bf_blog — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 18:46:14 +0000

A big thanks to our friends and partners for sending all the holiday cheer our way. Although our insulin levels are extremely high, so far we continue to be productive. A few staff favorites…

The amazing cupcakes:

We’d show you the actual cupcakes, but they were gone in a day. Nom nom nom.

The surprise-filled awesomeness:

At least 10 are gone every morning. Preferably washed down with coffee.

That mystery box of chocolates:

Didn’t stand a chance.

The chocolate and caramel popcorn:

Good gawd make it stop. (But not really.)

Finally, something healthy:

Alas, only one taker so far. But don’t worry, nothing lasts for long around here.

We’d like to thank the Academy…

bf_blog — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 21:59:12 +0000

We blush. You see, we just brought that baby home with us:

Last night, Bluefish garnered a much-coveted 2011 MITX Award in the eCommerce category for the site we created for Maui Jim Sunglasses.

Is getting a MITX Interactive Award a big deal? Hell yeah. This is the largest, most prestigious competition in the country for interactive and web innovation, celebrating the best creative and technology work to come out of New England. A win by Bluefish was an unexpected turn of events in a tough category that included venerable players like Digitas, SapientNitro, Pod Digital Design and Rue La La.

A shout-out to our whole team for their fantastic work!

We also thank the superstar development team at Lyons Consulting Group for helping to bring Maui Jim’s ecomm engine to life.

And finally, everyone’s thankful to Casey for keeping his acceptance speech short and getting us to the celebratory toasts more quickly.